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tt0117765 | Striptease | Former FBI secretary Erin Grant (Demi Moore), loses custody of her young daughter Angela (Rumer Willis) to her ex-husband Darrell (Robert Patrick), who is a criminal and cost Erin her job. To afford an appeal to get her daughter back, Erin becomes a stripper at the Eager Beaver, a Miami strip club. A Congressman named David Dilbeck (Burt Reynolds) visits the club and immediately begins to adore Erin. Aware of Dilbeck's embarrassing indulgences, another Eager Beaver patron approaches Erin with a plan to manipulate the congressman to settle the custody battle and help her get Angela back. However, Dilbeck has powerful business connections who want to ensure he remains in office. Consequently, those who can embarrass him in an election are murdered. Meanwhile, Erin retrieves her daughter from Darrell's negligent care.
Dilbeck's personal interest in Erin persists, and she is invited to perform privately for him. He asks her to become his lover and later his wife, despite his staff's concerns that she knows too much. A debate occurs as to whether to kill Erin or simply keep her quiet by threatening to take away her daughter. However, Erin and a police officer Al Garcia (Armand Assante) begin to suspect the congressman's guilt in the murders, and Erin concocts a plan to bring the congressman to justice. She tricks him into confessing on tape, and he is soon after arrested. Thus, Erin regains full custody of Angela, gets her job in the FBI back, and retires from stripping, and Darrell returns to prison after he is convicted of his crimes. | comedy, neo noir, murder, stupid, cult, flashback, satire | train | wikipedia | Brilliant characters, an intriguing storyline, hilarious incidents, sex, violence, the works...I gave the movie a 5 because Robert Patrick and Burt Reynolds were absolutely hysterical and on-point (I'm sure THEY actually READ the book), but aside from those two gems this movie was a disgrace.What happened to the plot?!?
The story was enthralling and thoroughly enjoyable when I read the book, the movie (breasts considered) not so much..There's a gratuitous 3 minute topless dancing scene, followed by 3 minutes of Demi and the little girl crying and being superdramatic.
...the flop that deserves six of its Razzies and the nomination for Worst Picture of the Decade?I think, "Striptease" (1996) directed by Andrew Bergman based on the book by Carl Hiaasen, is all of the above - a curious mixture of laughs, satire, absurdism, darkness, silliness, and over-seriousness.
The latter comes from Demi Moore who plays Erin Grant, the FBI secretary - losing her job and the custody over her daughter to no good small time crook wheelchairs stealing husband (Robert Patrick looking and acting like a stoned, redneck version of Gary Oldman) and who takes a job as an exotic dancer in the local club "Eager Beaver" to earn money for her court appeal.
Erin also makes friends with a club bouncer, Shad (Ving Rhames) who is perhaps the best thing in the movie - clever, sharp, sarcastic, with the great sense of humor.
The summary line above came from my wife after seeing Andrew Bergman take a really funny book by Carl Hiaasen and turn it into a "Sincere Sally Field Gutsy Mom Works As A Stripper Even Though It Means Shame And Disgust Because It's For Her *Daughter*!!!" movie.Ving Rhames and Burt Reynolds deliver deft, wonderful performances that are completely sunk by Demi Moore's Jawline Of Grim Determination.
The movie has to add a scene where the daughter sees the mother dancing (oh horrors!) and the mother has to explain her Sordid Living to the Innocent Babe.Also, in the book, Erin is a top dancer who doesn't have the biggest boobs in the room, but who gets the best tips because she actually knows how to dance.
All tits and no dancing talent.Demi Moore was apparently determined to keep this movie from being seen as a comedy.
Burt Reynolds gives the performance of his career, Ving Rhames as good as ever, and there's Robert Patrick playing a loser so with out morals he steals wheelchairs for a living.
Demi Moore, Burt Reynolds and especially Ving Rhames bring the characters to life, and then some!
I haven't read the book, so maybe that's why I can judge the movie on its own merits.Ving Rhames is terrific-- honestly, has he ever had a clunker of a performance?
If you're anything like me, you probably came across this movie with no one in mind other than Demi Moore, but ended up also being entertained by the likes of Burt Reynolds, Robert Patrick and Ving Rhames.
Demi Moore plays a single mother who is an exotic dancer and at the beginning of the film she loses custody of her daughter to her sleazy husband, who seems to make things really difficult for her.
Burt Reynolds plays the congressman David Dilbeck who becomes infatuated with Moore's character, Erin Grant and he does so seeming quite clownish and somewhat cartoonish at times but never stops being light-hearted in every scene he's in.
Demi Moore delivers, in the sense that you feel her character is divided between earning money by dancing and feeling guilty for having been seen dancing by her daughter which she conveys the discomfort in one particular scene.
And if you came to watch a movie called Striptease starring Demi Moore and hoped to catch a glimpse of her stripping and her other-wordly half-naked body, you will most definitely not be disappointed!
(Robert Patrick is the drug-stealing ex-husband who gains custody of the child.) Ving Rhames is a bodyguard and Burt Reynolds has a nice co-star role as a sleazy political candidate.
Shabby comedy-drama from Carl Hiaasen's novel has ex-FBI clerk Demi Moore turning to stripping in order to pay off her legal debts; seems she's in a fight to retrieve her child from her disreputable ex, yet the film doesn't see stripping as disreputable and therefore Moore is the good guy in the plot.
Director Andrew Bergman may have helmed this project blindfolded, how else to explain the sketchily-drawn characters, the ridiculous strip-club sequences or a dire sub-plot involving Congressman Burt Reynolds?
Many critical reviews are totally off the mark as they judge this movie as something it is not: it is not an erotic movie, a comedy, or a beauty contest, it is a political thriller - and an excellent one!In this genre, there are few films that can compare in suspense and memorable scenes and characters.
Demi Moore plays a mother who works in a striptease bar to raise money for a trial to get her daughter back from her criminal ex-husband.
Also, Demi Moore's acting performance, while not bad, is not on on a par with, for instance, Burt Reynold's.Speaking of Burt Reynolds: he is what makes this movie special.
I thought Demi was a decent choice and also applauded the casting of Robert Patrick as her good-for-nothing ex, and Ving Rhames as a bodyguard at the club.However the entire thing ended up being a mess, and I can only hope I can erase the image of Burt Reynolds in his boxers, smothered with petroleum jelly from head to toe, from my mind.Read the book!!.
Of course, the acting, direction and script are all bad, but with Striptease they are so consistently awful throughout the film that it really defies belief.And don't even mention Demi making her character such a mindnumbingly clichéd "doing it for the kids" mom!
I'm a huge Annie Lennox fan and Demi Moore was great dancing to her songs, she's a great actress and brought a touch of class to the stripper scene!
Demi Moore is outstanding as a newcomer to the "Eager Beaver", a raunchy strip club where she does a more than adequate job of raising pulses whileVing Rhames watches over her as self-appointed guardian(he's great as usual), and Burt Reynolds has never been funnier as a U.S.Congressman that would make Bill Clinton proud!
But Hiaasen's book is eminently filmable: lots of plot, eccentric characters, blacker than black humor and very imaginative violence.Instead of filming *that,* this was a vehicle for the sexy-as-day-old-bread Demi Moore.
There are occasional good lines from the novel(like when Ving Rhames(the only good actor here, along with Demi Moore's daughter Rumer Willis) telling two security guards that Meryl Streep used to strip under the name Chesty LeFrance), and even a couple of original ones(like Moore refusing to dance with cream corn because she doesn't want it to go up her "hoo-ha"), but the motivations, the characters, and the story are all hacked away; (2) that Andrew Bergman is responsible for this mess.
Typical is the scene where Burt Reynolds character, who we know is a lech, delivers a sermon on "family values." Did Bergman think he was actually breaking new ground here?
What's in the movie isn't; (3) That Demi Moore keeps appearing in novel adaptations when she apparently doesn't understand what made the source work.
Demi Moore looked awesome at times; too tough-looking at other times.Robert Patrick and Burt Reynolds played over-the-top characters who got a bit annoying after awhile.
They are unrelenting.The only likable character in the movie is played by Armand Assante, although the film makes you root for Moore in her custody case.I understand the book is much.
Not only did EVERYBODY in this movie turn in a spectacularly lame performance, but I think somebody forgot to tell Demi that it was supposed to be funny.
I remember watching this and thinking, "Wow, if Demi Moore was the father in this, she wouldn't have had to go through all this crap," which I think and hope the movie was pointing out.
With all the skills she had and all that she could offer any company or agency, but has no feasible choice but to work in a strip joint to earn the money for attorney's fees to get her daughter back and yet be a good mom and keep her self respect, dignity and deal with the stigma that goes with being one of "them" meaning the label that society has marked on women who do this for a variety of reasons, mostly because of their kids.
No one can ever say that Demi Moore is bad at anything; Ving Rhames always puts on a great performance; Robert Patrick, a excellent and gifted actor, Frances Fisher is a great talent.
Burt Reynolds is the only one I don't care for both professionally and personally, but that is not to say that he was not good in her heyday.I believe that what people had a problem with is the subject matter because strippers are not suppose to have their kids, but addicts, drunks and convicts should, especially if the woman is a stripper.The character of "Erin" even said that she would have to find another job, a "respectable" job.
Andrew Bergman directed this film that stars Demi Moore as a recently divorced young mother who has lost custody of her daughter Angela(played by Rumer Willis) to her thief ex-husband Darrel(played by Robert Patrick) so she takes a job as a stripper in a nightclub, and is a big hit, though must dodge the unwanted attentions of a lecherous Senator(played by Burt Reynolds) who is involved with the murder of one of her admirers that was blackmailing him, and that a police Lt.(played by Armand Assante) is investigating.
Despite Demi's undeniable beauty and skill in her dance/strip routine, this film is dreadful, both poorly directed and written, with (mostly) unappealing and obnoxious characters, and utterly unfunny comedy.
I really enjoyed Striptease, it was such a good comedy, mixed with drama and thriller, but mostly comedy.And look at the cast involved, I mean Burt Reynolds was just classic in this film, I think it is one of his best roles ever, he was a crack up!!
I don't care what any body else say's, This film was fantastic, anybody who says otherwiz doesent know good movies when they see one.
Reynolds is in the "hilarious satire" that I'm told the book is and, in his scenes he is actually pretty good and if the whole film had been this movie then he would have been perfect.
Playing it down the middle without being as cr*p as Moore, support is actually OK from Rhames, Assante, Patrick, Guilfoyle and a few others but it is a matter of them making the best of a bad situation rather than doing well.Overall this is a poor film that missing the potential it had by failing to bring off the sharp satire that aspects of it suggest it should have been.
This film begins with a woman named "Erin Grant" (Demi Moore) arguing for custody of her young daughter before a judge.
On the other side of the equation, I liked the performances of Ving Rhames (as the bouncer named "Shad") and the aforementioned Demi Moore who I thought was absolutely sensational.
Fighting for custody of her daughter, against her white trash alcoholic ex, (Patrick in one of his best performances) our hot Demi, such eye candy in black lingerie, goes back to what she does best, stripping, so she can earn enough to get herself a good lawyer and have permanent custody of her angel.
Ving Rhames is especially good in this movie but so are Armand Assante, Robert Patrick and Demi Moore.
Demi learned to dance like an exotic dancer for this film and after just having a baby at the time, she looks great.And even with an indifferent script, Moore holds it all together so as not to allow these annoyances to ruin this otherwise enjoyable comedy/drama.The story was hugely predictable, and the acting was pretty bad, but this movie was really funny.
Overall, a pretty good movie with Moore's "chair dance" being one of the most sensual acts I have seen in a long time!
Striptease falls into that category; it's not that eventful, but provides an enjoyable diversion with the help of a cast that's clearly having fun, and a reliably solid lead performance from the always fantastic Demi Moore.
I'm one of the latter and since I've read the book I can't help but see this as an attack on political corruption and environmental folly.After losing her job as an office clerk for the FBI due to her ex-husbands recent criminal proclivities, Erin Grant (Demi Moore) resorts to stripping to support herself and her daughter as well as the high legal fees of a custody battle with said ex.
Maybe it was just the TV Movie version I saw, but the film seems to concentrate unnecessarily much on the sexy dancing, and then cut off before seeing anything, which seemed a bit strange.Ving Rhames manages to shine whatever material he's given to work on, and here he comes off as a near-comic genius.
Demi Moore's performance is notable only for the dancing scenes, but what is particularly surprising about the movie is the comedy.
I know a lot of people especially critics didn't like this movie,personally i loved this movie and the only reason is demi and she just killed it i mean she looks amazing from the poster itself and yeah it is really good time pass for me whenever i get bored i watch this few scenes of this movie and yes those 10 stars are only for demi,i wish i was born in that era.
Yeah, Demi Moore's performance as a stripper is a fascinating part in this movie for which she worked hard, but the movie is more deep than erotic scenes.
The movie takes the books plot and makes it a bit more realistic and thoughtful by saying: stripper is not always equal with hooker, many times those girls are in desperate need of money, but keep their morals with them, being just dancers ; politicians sometimes are not what they appear to be, even if they are representing religious groups and as a overall lesson, don't label someone before you understand their story.
It's hard to put this movie in a genre, it has satire (dark comedy) , dramatic story (drama), some great action scenes with suspense (action and thriller), but I think that the idea was to tackle hard topics to reveal the reality and that's what I like about it.
The ravishing Demi Moore plays a young mother that turns to stripping to earn enough money to go to court and get back the custody of her daughter.
Burt Reynolds plays a repugnant Congressman with his libido set on HYPER and has his heart and other parts of his anatomy set on capturing the lovely Ms. Moore.The Stripping scenes were at best mediocre, and they were, by far, the best part of the film.
This is probably one of the worst written scripts of the 90s, however the terrible thing about this film is that some really good actors are wasted in it (Ving Rhames, Robert Patrick, Armand Assante).The storyline is absurd, too...a mother strips to get money.
I mean, she's not horrible, but she's no Meryl Streep either.You'd think the nudity would at least be an entertaining aspect of the film, but it's really not...the only good thing about this movie is Burt Reynolds, who is absolutely hilarious in his role as a perverted Congressman.
Yes, Demi Moore looks good when shes stripping but like I said she is not good when she has to act in a dramatic scene.
Based on Carl Hiaasen's satirical novel, Striptease tells the story of Erin (Demi Moore), who has just gotten a divorce from Darrell (Robert Patrick), the sleazy ex-con she foolishly married.
After I watched the movie, I thought like "Where is the sense in it?" Ving Rhames is my favorite character, some kind of funny, but Reynolds?
Anyway, visually really "touching", but the dialogues and the story just kills any serious possibility to watch this movie...5 points, because of demi moore's "dancing" skills....
And without that incredible humor, the movie didn't have a chance.I did enjoy the perfectly cast Ving Rhames as Shad and Burt Reynolds breathed life into the bumbling congressman.
Burt Reynolds look 100 years old in the movie, but he is still a great actor..
I am a big fan of Demi Moore movies.
This is certainly not the best movie in the world, but if I looked like Demi Moore, my life would be set.
I think you can't blame Demi Moore for making this film and taking the 10.000.000 dollars she was paid; in fact I'm sure she was the first one to know she was entering a terrible piece of cinema."Striptease" is a really poor product whatever its genre is (thriller, crime, action, comedy).
Otherwise I liked Aramand Assante, Demi Moore and Ving Rhames.
Burt Reynolds and Ving Rhames are great, both roles are so shallow, simple and stereotypical but still quite funny.Demi Moore is just such a horrible actress, she just sucks in every meaning of the word.
The movie is a bland comedy about a mother (Moore) fighting for custody rights of her daughter.
Demi makes a good stripper and Ving Rhames is amusing as her body guard.
This may not be any good, but it isn't incompetent either, and that makes things even worse.At the end of the day, unless you have a Demi Moore fetish, you will remember nothing about this movie.
There are a lot of good actors in this movie such as Demi Moore, Burt Reynolds, Armand Assante, Robert Patrick and Ving Rhames.
Demi Moore may be OK, but STRIPTEASE is a complete misfire and wastes some good people (Reynolds, Armand Assante, Ving Rhames). |
tt0318292 | Amar te duele | The story begins in a suburb of Mexico City with Ulises, whose father sells clothes in the market. He is accustomed to living humbly as he belongs to a low socioeconomic class, and could be considered a "naco". Ulises' environment is one of drugs, crime and graffiti, his great passion. One day, Ulises and his friends decide to go play Qzar, a laser-gun game. In the game, Ulises encounters Francisco, an upper-class boy, who is Renata's boyfriend. The "nacos" and the upper-class kids begin to fight after Francisco insults them. The fight ends in shoves and blows that only hurt Francisco's pride.
Ulises' life takes an unexpected turn when he meets Renata, an upper-class girl, in the Santa Fe Mall. Renata is buying clothes with her friend and confidante "La Güera" and younger, alcoholic sister, Mariana; when she suddenly crosses seductive glances with Ulises through a shop window. Ulises feels strangely and deeply attracted to this girl and does not know why. Despite knowing the socioeconomic differences between them, he stalks Renata and her companions. Renata’s friend dares Renata to kiss Ulises. Ulises and Renata share a passionate kiss. After that, Ulises continues to stalk the girls in order to find out more about Renata.
Ulises encounters Francisco again while following Renata. Francisco realizes that Ulises has been following Renata and orders his bodyguards to catch him. They both recall their first encounter in Qzar, causing Francisco to assault Ulises. Renata tries to stop the fight but before she can, Ulises manages to get away and escape from the mall.
Ulises cannot stop thinking about Renata and seeks her out, knowing she always visits the mall. Ulises regains hope when he does, in fact, sees Renata again. This time, she is with her mother, so meeting her is more difficult. Ulises takes advantage of Renata’s mother’s carelessness to approach and talk to her. Renata gives her phone number to Ulises to arrange a future meeting.
A few days later, Ulises calls Renata at her house, a very large and elegant residence, telling her to turn on her radio. It is revealed that he had called a radio program and dedicated a song to her. He goes on to invite Renata on a date. Renata accepts, and "La Güera" becomes her accomplice, keeping the relationship a secret and providing an excuse for Renata's outings. The date takes place in the same place they met, Santa Fe. Multiple clandestine dates follow until they become an item. The uncomfortable unbalance between the social classes of Ulises and Renata unleashes disagreements between Mariana and her upper-class friends against Ulises' "naco" friends. Ulises and Renata are troubled by these events but decide to disregard them for the sake of continuing their relationship.
For a while, Ulises and Renata became inseparable, that they even skip school in order to spend more time together. Ulises gifts to Renata range from cute portraits of her face, handmade by Ulises by himself, to huge painted graffiti on walls made especially for her. Francisco finds out and takes revenge on Ulises out of jealousy; he sends his bodyguards to beat him up at Renata’s school, where Ulises had been leaving her after their dates. Renata cannot do anything to prevent the beating.
When Ulises shows his wounds to his mother, she advises to him to stop seeing Renata. The reaction of Ulises’ friends is more radical. They decide to go to Renata’s school to get revenge. They start beating up the rich kids in a massive and bloody confrontation. Many of the rich kids were injured, including "La Güera"'s boyfriend, who ends up in the hospital. This reaches the ears of Renata’s parents, who had forbidden her to see Ulises again. She tries to defend their relationship, but their parents do not understand her. Renata is completely isolated from the outside world, so when she finally manages to send a message to Ulises, just to say goodbye, because she has decided that is the best for both of them. Ulises thinks that she does not love him anymore, but what Renata really wants is to protect him. Ulises does not take Renata’s decision well and begins to mourn and lament. He is on the brink of madness. His friends try to comfort him, but their efforts are futile as the only thing that could bring calm to him is to be next to Renata again.
Ulises is determined to see Renata again, despite the opposition from her parents, he climbs over the roof of Renata’s house and goes to her room where their encounter culminates physically. After their meeting, they decide to get away together to Acapulco, where nothing and no one can prevent their love. Mariana overhears their plans and she calls Francisco to tell him.
Before leaving, Ulises goes home and leaves his parents most of the money he earned since he began working. The couple goes to the bus station and just when Ulises and Renata are about to leave, Francisco and Mariana appear to prevent them from escaping. Desperate to keep Renata, Francisco pulls a gun and threatens to kill Ulises if they do not stop. Ulises is not scared, so he challenges Francisco to do so, but unexpectedly Francisco, who is inexperienced in the use of arms, accidentally shoots Renata. A few moments later, Renata dies in the arms of Ulises, but not before telling him she loves him. Ulises goes into shock and refuses to accept her death, and the loss of the love of his life. The last scene shows Ulises mourning by the grave of Renata. | romantic | train | wikipedia | "Amar te Duele", as well as some recent films from Mexico, introduces international audiences into an inside look of the society south of the border.
In a way, the screen play, by Carolina Rivera, capitalizes in a variation of the Romeo and Juliet story, as it presents us with a couple of teen agers in love, each one coming from different worlds.Ulises, the graffiti artist and comic book writer, is a young man with a lot of talent.
His only problem is being poor and coming from the type of family the upper classes of Mexico look down upon because of being 'brown' instead as pure white.
On a dare, she goes to Ulises, who is following her and kisses him, thus setting things in motion for the tragedy that will follow.Mr. Sarinana is an innovative director.
For that matter, Renata will not be able to find happiness because in her world, certain things can't be tolerated.The director gets good performances of his young cast.
Luis Fernando Pena and Martha Higareda, as Ulises and Renata, are appealing as the young lovers.
Mr. Sarinana also gets great performances of the large ensemble cast."Amar te Duele" is worth a look to acquaint yourself with a fine film maker to be reckoned with..
"Amar Te Duele" is one of my favorite films because it happens in the exact zone where I live.
Upper middle class and rich class living meters away from the poor class my example is you see an enormous building and you look to the other side of the street and there are thousands of poor houses and of course they don't mix but they are all breathing the same air and the story is based in what would happen if a girl from the upper class had a boyfriend from the lower class and of course they wouldn't have a problem but everyone surrounding them including family and friends would and what happen in the movie would be really happen so what I like about it is that it could be me, my sister, my friend, anyone because its really amazing that we live in the exact same zone with the exact same places but to difference any other place in the world where it happens including cities like New York, Madrid, London or anywhere else we don't mix and this is the least fiction story that involves my life, my friends, and my family.
One day he makes eye contact with Renata, a girl from an upper class family, while at a trendy mall.
The differing social worlds of the two lovers clash in a memorable fight scene outside Renata's private high school.
Renata's sister is a closet alcoholic, her ex-boyfriend is bitter and jealous about losing her to Ulises, and is decisive in the film's ending.
A great film, as soon as I saw it it made my top 10, I see almost every mexican film that comes out, and this is close to a masterpiece, the story is a little cliche, but it has a good screenplay, and the photography is just wonderful, and includes camera effects that are new in the mexican film industry; The soundtrack also integrates perfectly to the story, and is reduced to mostly mexican artists.
What makes this story so beautiful is the puppy love between the protagonists Renata and Ulises.
While watching the movie, you want to scream at the parents and Renata's sister for being so ignorant and stuck up.
I do recommend this movie for Romeo and Juliet movie lovers- you know, the whole "we belong with each other no matter what the world says" movie.
I think Martha Higadera and Luis Fernando Pena do a realistic job making us believe that they are head over heels in love.
this movie was great i was very touched by how the boy loved this girl so much and he was not willing to give her up and she excepted him for who he was and she did not look at him by how rich he was.
this movie showed true feeling when she started to look at him she did not take him seriously he thought that she was a young beautiful girl he would draw pictures of her and spray paint he name on walls to show her how much he loved her near the end it got very intament she showed her love to him a lot and was very comfortable.
Great criticism, poor love story.
This is the latest movie of the new Mexican film generation.
While the girl is rich and lives in a bubble, the guy is poor and has a harsh life.
However, what makes this movie worthwile is the way it presents you with clasism in Mexico.
So it's a Romeo and Juliet type movie only it has to do with class differences and color In Mexico, there is much racism and hate against dark and poor people but these two young lovers do not care.
I recommend this movie as well as others like Sexo Pudor y Lagrimas, Amores Perros and Ladies Night although this last one is more like a "chick flick" because there are male strippers, a bachelorette party, many guys and lots of fun!
This movie is like the Mexican, updated, upgraded version of Romeo and Juliet; but it is developed in today's world, with normal and very life-like situations The movie does not fall in the extremely, novelistic kind of love, but discribes true, normal-life life; it's just like THIS happens in today's Mexico, there is a HUGE gap between the rich people and the poor people in Mexico; this movie excels in showing this GAP, shows the current rascism that exists and unmasks the really dangerous people.I would like to appoint that the name of the movie is "Amar te duele" (love hurts you) and not "Amor que duele "Love that hurts you", please check this one out.
"Amar te duele" is a word game, which is in my humble opinion, an extremelynice addition; besides the normal translation of "Love hurts you", it also means "Loving you hurts" and "To mars it hurts", the last phrase refers to a song (which is in the movie's soundtrack) that begins saying "I will love you from here to Mars".
This second was well-known and loved by many people in Mexico, although it wasn't that good...
It's a tricky film about a rich girl that falls in love with a poor guy.
Not the best Mexican film of the year, but it is certainly better than flaws like "El crimen del Padre Amaro".
It is a good idea, however the execution fails.Sariñana copies a lot of scenes from several movies, however he doesn't seem to have a style of his own.
One scene is a shameful Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet rip-off, but without Luhrmann's artistry.So many different styles crammed into one film doesn't make any good...Also, acting of most secondary actors is very, very flat.Dialogues aren't that good...
teenagers don't talk that way.And there are two completely unnecessary nude scenes (not full, only from the waist up).I consider "Amar Te Duele" as the child of a dull MTV video clip and a standard Televisa telenovela (soap opera)..
Amar te duele is a Mexican romeo and juliet, except that every character is over the top and cartoonish.
We are quickly told who are the bad guys we are supposed to hate, and who are good guys we are supposed to like.This movie which is already bad is made worse by cheap tricks.
Some times tricks like this can be really good, but for this you have to have a very good and different movie as a backbone so the people don't reject these effects as gimmicks.You have better things to do with your life then spend it watching this clunker..
I watched meanwhile returning from a night out - a bit drunk to be honest-, and found at the beginning amusing it's use of pyrotechnic camera tricks at first, but in a few minutes becomes just plain annoying replacing ideas and emotions with cheap gimmicks, besides the script reeks stupidity and Mexican high-class prejudices ( especially in the central characters.The seduction process it's just plain nonexistent and boring at best, the actor portraying Ulises has really nothing special in him, he's neither minimally good-looking, buoyant, charismatic or edgy he's just plain "cute" and to be honest that sucks in & out the screen, the same goes for the leading lady., she's pretty, but any person who has been in the mall, depicted in the movie knows that more dashing girls can be found there.The "romantic" parts have as much emotion as an infomercial, besides the girl would end death, they could have easily break up, and Ulises end up lamenting her abandoning, just by being boring.The "villains" are all flat images, saying and doing supposedly threatening things, but end up just padding the film.And as for the director's daughter, who told her she has screen presence?, the only thing she does in the film, in her film career is being an insipidly annoying spoiled girl, the scene in which she vomits summarizes his presence in Mexican cinema very well....
Compared to "Ciudades Oscuras" (wich came out the same year) the movie is very bad, yes, it's a new story in Mexican Cinema of the New Millenium, still it's a very used issue, the social difference between lovers.
The actress is the only good thing in the movie.
Bad movie, good actress.
The changing in the photography gets you kind of dizzy and the end is so dumb, how you can miss a shot when the other guy is like two feet away from you.
But this movie has something that touches you and robs your hearth that is Martha Higareda, she is such a pretty girl but also a fine actress.
Does anyone actually WATCH this thing?, wells, Fernando Sariñana did something that was thought to be utterly impossible, he released two movies the same year in a motion picture industry that has been in crisis for most of its lifespan, but, once you see either one of them (the other release being "Ciudades Oscuras") you can easily get to the conclusion that Sariñana should have saved the problem........
Regarding "Amar te duele", it´s suposed to be a "urban" take on "Romeo and Juliet" on Mexico in the shopping mall arena.
Think of it as the worst parts of "Mallrats" crossed with any mexican soap opera, it has the regular pack of stereotyped characters, lousy class-z acting, the directing work is practically non-existent, it shifts (inexplicable) from color to black and white (maybe in some sort of private homage to euro-cinema or God Knows why) there are some nude breast scenes which add absolutely nothing to the "story", character development (also something absent from the film) a retarded brother (which tries in a lame fashion to show us what a good brother the lead character is) some incredibly cheesy dialogue and a predictable death scene.
Watching this kind of movies really makes you wonder why the hell they are saying that!.
In my humble opinion this movie tries to be different from the rest of Mexican films, but falls in too many clichés.
AMAR·TE·DUELE is a little too "urban" for me, is the typical teenage mexican movie where popular music comes up and "mexican" language rules.
I'm from Mexico, i speak exactly like that, but for me it's a formula that has been overused in mexican cinematography in recent years.I'm really tired of watching this kind of "urban" Mexican movies, everyone is the same.
I'm from Mexico and would really love to watch a mexican film that shows a different world.
i think there's people who like watching movies where the reality is shown and some other people (like me) wanna see a different movie, a movie that carries you out of the regular world for at least 2 hours...
The soundtrack is amazing, one of the best I've heard on a film so far, the script leaves a lot of room for improvement for my taste, but its somewhat compensated by the artistic risks taken by the director to highlight racial differences, conflict and equality.
My only criticism is Ximena's Sariñana's acting (Renata's sister), who is a fabulous singer (proven by the soundtrack), but unfortunately a poor actress.
Hats off to the character Ulises and the actor who plays him, since I think his performance was absolutely real, believable, sincere and just superb..
OK, so a lot of people have been claiming that this film is either trash or a great movie.
It could have been much better except it fell in a copy of a soap opera theme that has been done over 100,000 times in Mexico and a rip off of Baz Lurhmanns vision of Romeo and Juliet.Two teens, one poor and the other rich, fall in love and must fight against their social classes in order to be together.
They meet at a mall and after a bet that Renata (girl) makes with her friends, that she wont kiss a poor guy (Ulises), she does and thanks to that kiss, they fall in love.
Here, they tried to pull off what Lurhmann did in the fish tank scene, even having both Ulises and Renata look at each other through a glass window.
There's two nude scenes, one is acceptable, the other really isn't, which one could easily tell they were inserted to the film for the sole reason of keeping the male audience entertained, because the love story is actually pretty lame.One of the things that really helps this film is the acting of the main characters.
If you really like the cheesy love films, then this is for you.
Even the cover art really gives it away, with that sacred heart look a like heart that completely rips off Lurhmanns movie art..
Never.Renata is a high class girl with a "cool" and fresh attitude towards everything.
She has everything necessary to succeed in Mexican discriminatory society: money, a perfect body, a beautiful face, goes to a private school, etc.
Although having a lot of money and friends just like her she supposedly falls in love with a lower class boy with a horrible attitude, criminal background, horrible clothes, and some awful friends.
Not to mention that Renata is kind of a slut because she has a boyfriend when she starts going out with Ulises.Suddenly Renata kisses him as part of a bet she had with her friend and sister.
Renata and Ulises live a series only seen in movies!
that scene was OBVIOUSLY intended to go for a male audience who would buy or watch the movie in theaters.
Too bad that they pick horrible roles like "Amar Te Duele".
Certainly not a terrible movie, but obviously an attempt to storm the box office and spawn a new generation of Mexican romantic comedies that every time look more and more like in the USA.
Note: I sent a protest to the board of Col Needham, owner of IMDb, because this program presents original words in Spanish like spellings mistakes.Compared with the other films of director Sariñana, very successful in commercial terms but nothing more than annoying trash, like "Todo el Poder" and "El Segundo Aire" this one it's a masterpiece ("Ciudades Oscuras" don't count because it's an attempt to do an "art film" to be taken by the critic like a "serious artist", doing a personal work after doing good box office, just like Spielberg did "Schindler's List" after "Jurassic Park").A poor boy and a rich girl fall in love and must fight against the world for their love.
The plot itself is anything but original and the end it's very predictable and even unbelievable, because the rich first boyfriend (some kind of Billy Zane in "Titanic") shoots her by mistake trying to kill or hurt the poor boy, after showing in another scene he have good aim.The important thing with this film it's the recognition in a Mexican commercial film of the great racism and social and economical gap in Mexico.
The Mexican television presents as the model of beauty almost only white people (9% of population) in a country of half-breeds (60%) and indigenous (30%) to sustain this situation.
Even white Mexican like director Sariñana understand this situation it's unjust and only make Mexico a weak country with the division between first and second class Mexican based in the lighter or darker color of their skin.
Some Mexican poster even writes the better could be Renata in Canada and never see again Ulises, that's the size of racism and class division in Mexico.As the trivia informs, the line of the cameo of the director is "Pinches beep".
Some white high class people in Mexico are corrupt but they pretend their corruption is the corruption of "decent people".The place of the story it's Santa Fe. A place full of poor houses.
Nothing to do with healthy light food rich people eats (well, some really like street tacos but not gonna accept it in public).So the film makes an important statement but falls with a poor end.
The rich girl must die to give the "tragic" tone to the love story.
But in the context of real Mexican society it's the conformist end.The work of Luis Fernando Peña are remarkable giving Ulises the dignity many poor people have in Mexico, not accepting to be a kept man of the rich girl or accepting the stolen things from his friends.
She's very pretty but very expressive unlike many pretty young actresses in Mexico.Fernando Sariñana does an honest commercial film, and in some moments even have inspiration like when Renata and Ulises appear like the characters of a comic, the way of expression for Ulises.
She's really annoying like the racist, alcoholic and stupid sister of Renata and does some musical work here. |
tt0034277 | They Died with Their Boots On | George Armstrong Custer (Flynn) enters West Point and quickly establishes himself as a troublemaker by showing up in an outlandish uniform he had designed himself, which makes him appear to be a visiting foreign general. After the misunderstanding, he signs up as a cadet and begins to stack up demerits for pranks and a general disregard for rules while at the Point. When the Civil War breaks out, Custer is at the bottom of his class.
Custer's relationship with Libbie Bacon (from Monroe, Michigan) begins at the Point; walking a punishment tour, he is not allowed to speak, but he is approached by Libbie who asks him for directions. As soon as his punishment ends, he runs after her, explaining his rude silence, and asking if he may come by her front porch that evening. After speaking with Libbie, Custer and other members of his class are graduated early and ordered to report to Washington, D.C. for assignment. As a result, Custer misses his evening appointment.
Once in the capital, Custer makes the acquaintance of Gen. Winfield Scott (Sydney Greenstreet) while dining, who then aids him in getting placed with the 2nd U.S. Cavalry. He becomes a war hero after disregarding a superior's orders during a crucial battle, successfully defending a bridge for the Union infantry. He is awarded a medal while recovering in a hospital after being shot in the shoulder; he then gets leave to return to his home in Monroe, Michigan. He meets Libbie at her home but her father, who has been the butt of Custer's joke earlier that day, orders him to leave. Custer returns to his regiment.
Due to a miscommunication from the Department of War, he is promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and takes command of the Michigan Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg. He wins the day, and many victories follow him thereafter on his path to the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, which ends the Civil War.
Upon returning home to Monroe as a war hero, Custer marries Libbie in a big ceremony, which includes a regimental honor guard, but he soon grows bored with civilian life and begins drinking too much. Libbie visits Custer's old friend Gen. Scott and begs him to assign Custer to a regiment again. He agrees, and Custer is given a Lt. Colonel's commission in the Dakota Territory.
When Custer and Libbie arrive at Fort Lincoln, Custer finds the soldiers a drunken, rowdy and undisciplined lot in need of firm leadership. His old West Point enemy, Ned Sharp (Arthur Kennedy), who has a government license to run the fort's trading post and saloon, is providing Winchester repeating rifles to the local Native Americans. Furious, Custer stops the rifle sales and permanently closes the saloon. He then instills proper military discipline in his men and introduces a regimental song, "Garryowen", both of which quickly brings fame to the U.S. 7th Cavalry under Custer's command. The 7th has many engagements with Lakota tribal chief Crazy Horse (Anthony Quinn), who eventually offers peace, wanting a treaty that will protect the sacred Black Hills; Custer and Washington sign the treaty, but soon it is bankrupting Sharp's trading posts. Sharp spreads a rumor that large gold deposits have been discovered in the Black Hills. American settlers stream into the area in violation of the treaty, but Custer and his troops permit no infractions. To embarrass Custer, Sharp passes out free bottles of liquor to Custer's men hours before they drunkenly pass in revue, in complete disarray, before Commissioner Taipe, a politician in league with Sharp. Custer punches both Sharp and the commissioner in anger, and he is quickly relieved of his command.
Custer hears from Libbie about Sharp's attempts to start a gold rush in the Black Hills, a plan that would bring him much business and large profits. Outraged, Custer takes the information to the U.S. Congress, but they only ridicule him. When news arrives that the presence of gold miners has led to open conflict between the Indians and U.S. troops, Custer appeals in person to President Ulysses S. Grant, one soldier to another, who restores him to command.
Custer comes to realize that his men are marching into a valley where thousands of Indians are waiting. Knowing they will have no chance, he has a final, emotion-filled goodbye with Libbie and leads his men into battle. Arrows and bullets fly and horses trample into the valley, where all of Custer's forces are killed. Earlier, Sharp has been forced by Custer to ride with the 7th "to Hell or glory. It depends on one's point of view", Custer tells him, "At least you can take glory with you". Sharp admits with his dying breath that Custer may have been right about "glory". Custer is killed by a rifle shot fired by Crazy Horse.
A few corrupt politicians have goaded the western tribes into war for personal profit, threatening the survival of all white settlers in the Dakota Territories. Custer and his men have given their lives at the Battle of the Little Bighorn to delay the Indians' advance and prevent this slaughter. A letter left behind by Custer, now considered his dying declaration, names the culprits and absolves the Indians of all responsibility; Custer has won his final campaign. | cult, violence | train | wikipedia | (This one may actually be more honest about it, though, as it essentially admits along the way that it's not to be taken as particularly fact-based, but more of a stylishly semi-heroic portrayal.) It's worth noting that audiences of the time were no more naive about the story than we are today; the NY Times review conceded that audiences would "dismiss factual inaccuracies sprinkled throughout the film," described the biographical account of Custer's life as "fanciful," and pointed out that the presentation of Custer's motivations regarding the final events were at odds with various historical accounts.
Of course this wasn't the first time he had appeared as a Native American in a movie, but this role was a definite step up because this time Quinn got to play a Native American as a character, and actually deliver some lines.Of course, action is what any Errol Flynn movie is all about and, in that respect, "They Died With Their Boots On" delivers in spades.
You've heard the mantra against THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON...That the only facts they got right were that there WAS a George Armstrong Custer, he DID serve in the Civil War, and he DID die at the Little Big Horn.
The fact that the stars knew this during the shooting gave their scenes, particularly the final one, a poignancy that is unmatched in any of their other films.Flynn's Custer was a larger-than-life cavalier, prone to getting in trouble with his superiors, but so charismatic that one enlisted man remarks, "We'd follow him to hell." Barely allowed to leave West Point to serve in the Civil War (his academic record is the worst in West Point's history, "even worse than Ulysses S.
Unable to prevent the impending slaughter (Congress will only accept his charges if presented as a 'dying declaration'), and facing court martial, Custer bullies President Grant into allowing him to return to his command...and leads the Seventh to the Little Big Horn...The final charge at the Little Big Horn, concluding with 'Custer's Last Stand' is truly spectacular (Iron Eyes Cody, one of the Indians participating in the sequence, told a great story of an inebriated Flynn, surrounded by his dwindling forces, enthusiastically cussing and firing away, even after director Walsh yelled "Cut!"), and, aided by Max Steiner's decisive music, is one of the most rousing scenes in film history.Accurate?
Dashing Errol Flynn brings his usual flair for drama in this historically flawed but entertaining film of the life of George Armstrong Custer.
The dashing, jovial Flynn essays Custer from his days at West Point as a reckless, headstrong cadet, through the Civil War years in an extraordinarily generous and partisan interpretation of history, and finally as the nonpareil Indian fighter whose blunder at the Little Big Horn is excused as a sacrifice by Custer of his command as a way of exposing the corruption of government officials and post traders as well as a protest of the unfair treatment of the Plains Indians.
Although this film changes reality to make it more heroic and entertaining, sometimes fantasy is more enjoyable than real life, and also nothing could be more real than Errol Flynn playing Custer.
And for the most part my expectations were fulfilled (in an admittedly rousing and entertaining way).Yet even in this obviously biased (and much criticized) retelling of the Custer story, I was struck by some of the points made in this movie that, sometimes subtly but nevertheless solidly, seemed to counter the typical clichés of manifest destiny and unvarnished heroism usually found in Westerns of the early 20th century.For instance, even while this film attempted to whitewash it's hero, certain scenes still suggested the more flawed and foolish character of the real-life Custer: 1) His initial entrance at the West Point front gate, in which his arrogance and pompousness is a clear aspect of his character.2) His miserable record at West Point, which seems to be attributed as much to Custer's cluelessness about the demands of military service as any other factor; there are moments in the way Flynn plays Custer at West Point where he seems downright stupid.3) Custer's promotion to General is not only presented as a ridiculous mistake, but it plays out as slapstick comedy.
I half-expected to see the Marx Brothers or Abbott and Costello wander into the scene.4) Custer's stand against Jeb Stuart at Gettysburg is not whitewashed as brilliant military tactical leadership, but is presented as reckless and wildly lucky.5) Custer's drinking problem is certainly not ignored.And although the music and some of the ways the Indians were shown in this film were certainly reinforcements of the racist stereotype of the ignorant savage, it still came as a surprise to me that the movie actually went into some detail as to why the Indians were justified in attacking the whites who were moving into their land, and fairly explicitly laid the blame for the battles in the Black Hills squarely at the foot of the white man.
A nice Mexican War story should have been what they gave Greenstreet instead for his very accurate portrayal of old Fuss and Feathers.The film though is carried by one of the great romantic teams of cinema, Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHavilland.
All his best action pictures made use of his talent for mischief and comic timing, and this one was no exception.It also benefits from the return of former co-star Olivia de Havilland, despite an earlier agreement to break the partnership; the part of strong-minded Libby Custer is a better role than the sweet love-interest types she had grown tired of playing for the studio in Flynn's later films, and after seeing the script he had specifically requested de Havilland be cast so that she could do justice to the part.
In this final collaboration, she piles all her considerable acting skill into what is, at heart, basically a romping adventure movie, and the screen chemistry is rekindled -- for once, she and Flynn get the chance to develop their characters beyond the initial romance into an old married couple, to equally winning effect.The Flynn/de Havilland pairing and the streak of comedy are what have provided this film's durability, when most of Flynn's other Westerns -- held in such affection by the contemporary American public, although allegedly not by their star -- have long since been forgotten.
The film centers about general Custer (Errol Flynn) and wife (Olivia De Havilland), though takes liberties with historical facts .
Officers will help him to face off Indians with the warring chiefs Dull Knife ,Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse (Anthony Quinn) and their tribes Sioux , Cheyenne, the Awpahla and the Munikhanja until the final battle of Little Big Horn (1876) recreated Hollywood style where was exterminated with his entire command .
But, if you would like to watch a movie for the enjoyment of an older western film, with a little bit of romance and just for a good story, this is a fun movie to watch.The story starts out with Custer's (Errol Flynn) first day at West Point.
In between the battle scenes, he finds love and marriage with Libby (Olivia De Havilland).Errol Flynn portrays the arrogant, but suave George Armstrong Custer well.
In this movie he is portrayed as a Flamboyant soldier whose mistakes, and misdeeds are mostly ue to his love for adventure.Errol Flynn plays George Armstrong Custer who we first meet as an over confident recruit at West Point.
The whole point of the movie was to portray Custer, played by Errol Flynn, as an unskilled General leading his regiment in the battle at Little Big horn also known as Custer's last stand because he ultimately ended up dying.
If there was one reason that this movie should be viewed more than once it would be to watch the comical romance blossom between Custer and his wife Libby, played by Olivia De Havilland.The movie starts off with Custer at West point and ends at the battle of little Bighorn when Custer's regiment tries to take on thousands of Native Americans with the just the few hundred men his regiment contained.
I thought that it was a lot of work for a two-hour movie to not have a good ending.Even though the script was corny and the romance was rushed between Custer and Libby, Olivia De Havilland made the best out of it.
And, as every schoolboy knows, he died in 1876 fighting a coalition of Native American tribes at the battle of the Little Big Horn, an action which has gone down in history as "Custer's Last Stand".
Originally shot in black and white, `They Died With Their Boots On' is a Historic epic about a young Brigadier General, George Armstrong Custer portrayed by Errol Flynn.
He was mean even to his own men and he had little, maybe even no respect for the Indians.Overall, the film was not so horrible that the viewer would not want to watch it again, but not good enough to buy for your home video library."They Died With Their Boots on" is about the life of General George Armstrong Custer (Errol Flynn) from his years at West Point to his death.
And this leads me onto what is the very best thing about They Died with their Boots On. In the end the real and inescapable fact of Custer's death in battle forces the angle that makes this a very different Flynn flick.
The film starts off with Custer's experiences as a new cadet in West Point and moves on through the Civil War until he has his "Last Stand" at Little Big Horn with of course some cheesy kissing scenes in between.
I first viewed "They Died With There Boots On",about 1970 and though it has been many years since,this film and its impression remain.the cast was good to excellent and the lead man was truly heroic.When I first saw this film I knew the wisest as well as the only real position to have was to enjoy this film as a rousing bit of entertainment and then some.I felt then as I even feel now that the Silver Screen does not as such provide for a true depiction of much of anything let alone The Life of George Armstrong Custer,however the Director Raoul Walsh was to contribute to the real value represented in this film when I watched a semi-documentary with other great directors like Vincent Mennelli wherein these central figures talked about there accomplishments with valuable comments providing a glimpse into the Hollywood mind set.This is what I considered something of interest and where all of this became terribly interesting and very enjoyable.Yet, there have been so much made of all the problems with the silver screen and its story telling ability that some of the enjoyment has been lost and perhaps you would find that to be true here as well.Custer ranked 34 in a graduating class of...34.Much has been made of Custer's final class ranking,but of the 68 cadets who entered the Military Academy with him in 1857,half of them had already flunked out or quit by graduation day,June 24,1861.It is suggested in the movie as the various instructors are determining if a soldier is fit for command and then they come upon the name of George Armstrong Custer and there is to be certain an exchange between the two sides and here is where the Sargeant on Duty says in almost a low tone even to suggest as if that came out by accident"His squadron would follow him to hell,"Your at attention Sargeant,reprimands Tape.If Iam not mistaken when Flynn shows up at a initial battlefield it acknowledged that Custer did not see action right away and indeed he was doing work as a reliable attaché to not only Sheridan,but Hancocks forces as well only to end up for a time with the Army of The Potomac under General George McClellan.There is some truth to the audacity attributed to Custers battlefield heroics as was illustrated when in a counterattack ,"young Custer spurred his horse to the lead and boldly plunged in among the stunned Confederates.As a lone Union Soldier surrounded by rebels,Custers audacity shone through.He accepted the surrender of several enemy soldiers,including a rebel captain.Yet most outstanding was that in this action he personally captured the very first Confederate battle flag taken by the Army of the Potomac.This notable act of courage marked him as an officer of great battlefield promise."Robert L.Bateman-Armchair General.There is a problem here and that is the telling of the story and the truth as to George Armstrong Custer,the story is good Hollywood entertainment perhaps even great entertainment but for whatever reasons all that could be told was changed for entertainment purposes.Though this maybe jumping the gun it might be well to know that Tom Custer was to lose his life at the "Little Big Horn" only a few feet from where George Custer was to die as well.They were brothers and Tom Custer to this very day holds a honorable distinction of being amongst a very small group perhaps only 3 others to have been awarded the Medal of Honor twice in his military career.The list of engagements that the motion picture shows indicate that Custers indeed was an active young officer.He was not with Union forces at either Chancellorsville or for that matter Fredericksburg however he was with them at the Battle of Antietam and at that point in time he was actually promoted to Captain by General McClellan but that was not to last as McClellan was soon to be replaced due to the historical fact that The Army of The Potomac had the means,and the information(discovered wrapped around some cigars was General Lee's plans to split his forces)and yet he failed to act for some 17 hours.It can be speculated that the war could of been over then and there had that occurred but when McClellan failed to act President Lincoln replaced him permanently and the promotion was lost as a result.
Raoul Walsh portrays the General George Armstrong Custer (Errol Flynn) from his debuts at West Point, to the Civil War and finally at the battle of Little Big Horn.
I'm not entirely sure, but I don't think all of the soldiers died with their boots on.The story follows George Armstrong Custer (Flynn, but of course) from his arrival at West Point to his inevitable fall at Little Big Horn.
Errol Flynn's roguish charm really shines through in this entertaining and exciting, but historically bankrupt biopic of the famous (and some would say infamous) General Custer, that follows his career from his first day at West Point, through the Civil War and out west to the battle at The Little Big Horn, all the while butting heads with rival Arthur Kennedy and romancing pretty Olivia de Havilland.Some might say that Flynn, who delivers a great, flamboyant performance as the general, is basically playing himself playing Custer!A lavish production (that should have been in Technicolor) well directed by Raoul Walsh, They Died With Their Boots On features some truly well-staged battle sequences.
The film tells the story of General George Armstrong Custer, since his entry on West Point military academy till his heroic death in Little Big Horn Battle, by the hands of the Indian chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.
Custers word is broken when he is forced to attack the Indians at Little Big Horn and there he makes his heroic stand to the last man.The actors did a good job at playing the parts they were assigned.
Custers word is broken when he is forced to attack the Indians at Little Big Horn and there he makes his heroic stand to the last man.The actors did a good job at playing the parts they were assigned.
Errol Flynn gives one of his finest performances as General Custer and Olivia de Havilland is irresistible in the part of Libby Custer.The history portrayed in "They Died With Their Boots On" might be pure Hollywood hokum but it is still the best film ever made on this subject.In reality General Armstrong Custer was not a liked man.
Anthony Quinn in the beginning of his way as an actor played a role of Crazy Horse an Indian who beaten George Custer Armstrong in a civil war between north and south USA in the time of President Abraham Lincolin the president number 16 in the history of America.
In the film, "They Died With Their Boots On," we follow the young Gen. George Armstrong Custer, through his wild youth beginning school at West Point to his tragic death at the battle of the Little Big Horn; as well as his personal life with his young Bride, Elizabeth "Libbie" Bacon.
Despite the movie's title, it is not particularly focused on that final battle - it simply skims over Custer's life in general, picking and choosing (or changing altogether) particular events - namely his time at West Point, his courtship of Elizabeth "Libby" Bacon (Olivia de Havilland), his military career during the Civil War, and of course his climactic demise.Custer is played with an odd air of bumbling innocence by Errol Flynn, notable mostly for his portrayal of Robin Hood and similar swashbuckling heroes.
They died with their boots on, is fictional tale about the life of General George Armstrong Custer who is played by Errol Flynn.
If a person is looking for a factual movie, this is not a great movie to rent.This movie is supposed to provide an overview of George Armstrong Custer's life, ending with the battle of Little Big Horn.The opening scene shows Custer, played by Errol Flynn, entering West Point, a military school.
It's true that "They Died With Their Boots On" gives a highly fictionalized account of George Armstrong Custer's (Errol Flynn) life and career, but a remarkable one, especially with regard to the Battle of the Little Big Horn. |
tt4761916 | Unfriended 2 | In Fresno, California, high school student Laura Barns is relentlessly bullied after a video of her passing out and defecating herself at a party is uploaded to YouTube without her consent, causing her to fatally shoot herself in public, with a video of her suicide appearing on LiveLeak. A year later, her former best friend Blaire Lily is in a Skype chat with her boyfriend Mitch Roussel and their classmates Jess Felton, Ken Smith, and Adam Sewell. The group notices a user named "billie227" in their chat, who was not invited by any of the participants. After unsuccessful attempts to disconnect the user, the group suspects their classmate Val Rommel is pranking them. After they invite Val to their chat, Jess's Facebook page is updated with racy photos of Val at a party. Jess states she did not upload the photos and deletes them, but the pictures reappear on Adam's account. "billie227" then posts a video Laura Barns recording a video similar to that of Amanda Todd's, which took place in real life. Val calls the police to report online abuse, and signs off Skype. Blaire is sent a link to a screenshot of a past message in which Val told Laura to kill herself. Val is suddenly brought back into the chat, but then is shown falling to the floor. The five classmates soon learn that Val is dead, and that the police have ruled it as a suicide. Ken manages to remove "billie227" from the chat, but "billie227" resurfaces with a camera view from across his room and disconnects his webcam. Shortly after, it reconnects to show Ken being attacked by an unseen force and he is shown shredding his hand in an active blender, then Ken's Skype goes black. It then turns back on, showing Ken smashing the blender and shoving his throat onto the blades, killing himself.
"billie227" forces the remaining four classmates to play a game of Never Have I Ever, stating that the loser of the game will die. All four classmates are forced to reveal largely personal secrets which put their relationships with each other on the rocks: Jess spread a rumor that Blaire had an eating disorder; Blaire crashed Jess' mother's car while drunk; Mitch reported Adam to the police for selling marijuana, which almost got Adam disowned by his father; Mitch also reveals that he kissed Laura behind Blaire's back shortly before her suicide; Jess stole $800 from Adam and Adam himself offered to trade Jess' life for his own. Adam finally loses his temper and uses the game to force Blaire to reveal that she is no longer a virgin, having had sex with him twice behind Mitch's back, with "billie227" uploading a YouTube video which proves the claim. Mitch retaliates by forcing Adam to admit that he gave a fellow classmate named Ashley Dane roofies at a party, date-raped her when she was unconscious and forced her to get an abortion when he discovered that she was pregnant.
Shortly after, Blaire and Adam receive messages sent remotely to their printers. Mitch demands that Blaire reveal her note and threatens to leave the call if she does not. "billie227" messages Blaire and tells her that Mitch will die if he leaves. In a moment of panic, Blaire shows her message on the paper: "If you reveal this note, Adam will die." Adam is forced to shoot himself in the face, and the camera reveals his note: "If you reveal this note, Blaire will die." "billie227" then cuts the power to all the lights in Jess's house and disconnects her video feed. Soon after, Blaire receives a video of Jess with a curling iron forced down her throat. "billie227", who is Laura's ghost, messages Blaire and Mitch, wanting them to confess who uploaded the video in the first place. Blaire tries to deny any involvement from Mitch but eventually reveals that he was to blame. Mitch immediately grabs a knife and stabs himself in the eye. As Laura begins to count down, Blaire desperately tries to remind Laura of their friendship while she was alive. Laura then uploads a different version of the video which caused her to commit suicide, revealing that Blaire is the one who recorded it. The video is then uploaded onto Facebook through Blaire's profile feed showing everyone what Blaire had done, resulting in people leaving angry and disgusted comments of Blaire's actions. Laura signs off and leaves her alone for a moment. Then Blaire's bedroom door creaks open and a pair of hands slam her laptop shut. Laura lunges at Blaire, killing her. | paranormal, murder | train | wikipedia | I'll tell you one of the best things about it is the fact it doesnt rely on ridiculous jump scares every 10 seconds like most horror movies these days.
Considering that the original movie was a huge commercial success and made back 65 times it's budget I wasn't shocked to hear a sequel was being made, I didn't expect it to be so much better though.Don't get me wrong I think the first film had some great ideas and I like the cpu screen method of filming but it was lacking in a lot of areas and my final score for it was a very disappointing 4/10.This sequel goes in a new direction altogether.
It maintains the same appearance but the supernatural element is out the window for a more modern stylish smart approach and it works wonders.Yet another group of 20 somethings are sat in front of their cpu's skyping away not realising their night is about to take a very dark turn.A sleek clever little film I walked away from this considerably happier than I expected to.
It's unpredictible, looks great and the cast do a solid job at stressing just how much the situation is spiralling out of their control.Absolutely well worth a watch even if you didn't like the first movie, this is a very different creature and makes me now want this franchise to really blossom.The Good:Looks greatReally quite cleverThe Bad:All the video and audio distortions get annoyingI think it could have used a bit of additional timeThings I Learnt From This Movie:Han shot first!Someone shrunk Gal Gadot.
If it leaves you with one thought, it's this, if ever you find somebody's laptop hand it back to them.A good set of characters, with some interesting traits, somehow what happens to them seems to matter.
Well acted, well produced, the concepts of this film with live with you for a few days.People who thought the first was a bit silly, may be put off, but if you're a horror fan, I'd say this is worth seeing.
Of course there will be people who won't watch it because of how bad the first one is, but take it from this horror movie veteran, it was passable.
Unfortunately it fell into a lot of issues that start and end with the characters/actors, and the teeny-bopper horror elements that leave you laughing and eye-rolling almost as if they intentionally wrote and directed it that way made it extremely mediocre, forgettable, and worst of all passable.
What seemed like it was serving its style as nothing more than a cheap gimmick, I easily would only rate it a 4/10, but I was on board as I watched it and it did not turn me away from seeing a sequel.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - PRESENT DAY: I didn't know anything about this sequel going into it, never mind the fact that I didn't even know it was a film until yesterday evening.
Before I go on, I'm also going to strongly advise that you avoid the trailer at all costs for four reasons:1) It spoils a lot of events (though leaves out the main overall plot of the film, which was nice).
I would have passed up this pre-screening if I saw that horrible trailer, and I would've felt like I've seen the entire film if so as well (yes, it does reveal several plot points).I totally understand why this film has the 'Unfriended' tag: it's a found footage screencasting film where an anonymous user intrudes a Skype group chat, and torments them as a result of their mishaps bestowed onto said user.
Granted, I understand the name can take on multiple meanings in which case I can easily find one for it through this film, and if it just had the title The Dark Web, people would hark on it for being "too similar to Unfriended," so they were stuck.
Can't say I didn't like how things went down, but what's interesting to me is that halfway through watching it you could have predicted a million ways they should have done the back-end, and even if you ultimately feel they didn't go the route you may want it's still ahead of the other film on potential and wonder alone.Unfriended: Dark Web grabbed me pretty fast with the relationship between two of the central characters.
One was a little annoying but you grew into the personality, two were kind of bland (but one outshined the other both with acting and backstory), one was wasted entirely to the point that I wanted more from that one than any of the others, and one was compelling but served the plot exposition and advancement so well you could nearly call out "Deus ex machina!" at times, as that character also has no development.
Everything in the Skype chat kind of worked out though because the "main" character (the screen we're watching all the time) mutes them or goes to different windows for long times on end when the others didn't need to serve a larger purpose for said moment.
The first film had laughable characters that were unlikable to the point that I couldn't wait to watch them be killed.Those who read my reviews know that I like to be vague so you can enjoy the film for yourself without still really knowing anything about this film, so that is where I'll leave you regarding content.
That being said, I liked Searching more as a film but I can't say that I would have liked it as much as I do if I saw it AFTER seeing Dark Web. I think the novelty of the filming style meshed so well with the story and really grabbed me, and this was entertaining enough overall that I didn't care I was seeing this style again.
I found this pretty clever the more I thought about it, especially since there aren't a lot of movies that explore the complexities of a relationship like this.Despite liking the relationship, I feel like it's not necessarily deserved because I found the main character extremely stupid and unlikable.
Sometimes, they just don't listen, other times they are too manipulative, and in the worst case scenarios, they charge into situations blindly without giving a thought.While watching this movie, I was at least going to give the villain's motivation some credit for being plausible.
At times, it seems to come off as a genre similar to a horror like a thriller or slasher movie with some of the deaths.
Considering the fact that this is not supernatural unlike the first, it barely gives off the impression that it's a horror by offering nothing supernatural.If you're a hardcore fan of the first movie, then you may end up liking this.
There were some questionable decisions presented in the movie that happened "in real life" that would actually be very hard or impossible to pull off but if you put that aside the overall movie experience was not that bad at all.I don't consider this a horror film because it was not scary and it basically lacked any jump-scares but it was actually a decent thriller in my opinion..
The whole movie leaves an eerie feeling as the whole theme is based on a real thing known as the dark web (although it's greatly exaggerated in the film) it still leaves a mark after you leave the theater.
Compared to other horror movies I've seen like Lights Out, Ouija 2:Origin of Evil, or Get Out, it doesn't fare well with those movies, but in all, it isn't a horrible movie and I believe you would be pleased to watch it if you don't mind it being on a Mac the entire time..
The plot is based in reality this time- Matias took a laptop that belonged to an elite hacker who seemingly makes snuff films to sell on the dark web and now the hacker wants it back at any cost.
The movie is good after the twist and I like where they end up taking it, but I really would have liked to see how everything would have played out if the original story kept going without the twist.
Anyway, Dark Web surprised me with how good it was overall and I definitely recommend it for people into found footage (and similar) horror.
Unfriended: Dark Web is a new enough horror film and stand alone sequel to Unfriended.
The film is not supernatural like the first film which makes wonder if this film is actually a sequel at all and if it takes place in a completely different universe, anyway, the film follows a group of 30 something kids playing games on Skype when they then get invested as bids to a Dark Web cult, called "Charlot".
Only an extremely creative mind can put the idea of everything happening on a static monitor screen into practice and create a level of tension that most ordinary horror movies fail to achieve.
They would not have been able to do many of the things they did if the victims had made different choices, so their grand plan (which is explained at the end of the movie) would have failed, because it pretty much depended on who found the laptop and what he did with it and whether he had a nerd help him uncover its secrets.
There are unimaginably evil things on the Dark Web. Even becoming aware of the existence of such things makes one realize what a horrifying world we all live in and what kinds of psychos we are dealing with everyday that act like normal people off-line and turn into evil monsters on the internet just to inflict unimaginable pain on others.
Finally a good horror movie,the film is very creative and has a good plot with good actors..
I like it and it's a good movie , they show you litle bit about what going on in dark web and crazy sick people how they live between us and they walk close to us everyday and maybe your neighbour one of them , i don't know why there's some people give this movie 1/10 are you crazy !.
Nothing new about they story of this film eveyeveryt is predictable from the start to the end if you have seen movies like this one I wouldn't recommend it for u at all if it was ur first time with this kind of films u will probably like it ( but don't watch it with high expectations).
Watching the film after having seen the trailer was kind of like, "Tell me somethign I dont know already." I was left disappointed, wanting something more.
First movie was good interesting plot and story (unfriended) this one was really boring and predictable.
If your going to watch this do it on a laptop,as it lends a kind of authenticity to the movie that i think you would miss out on with a big screen.
All of this being said, Unfriended: Dark web was a surprisingly fun, well acted movie where if you like the genre, you should definitely check it out..
This movie started off a bit slower for me, but I understood the reasonings as there needed to be some character development and this film did well with it.
The creators and actors really gave that authentic feel with the point of view and it being just a typical game night with friends.The entire film was tense throughout, but didn't throw in too many jump scares like a lot of horror movies these days.
I was actually really impressed by the idea of this movie and the actors in it - was overall a great modern horror film..
For starters, if you are looking for a total different core concept, then I'm telling you right now you will be disappointed; uh-huh, of course it's not exactly similar to the first version since the original and the sequel have dissimilar writers as well as the directors however you should expect to see usage of the same online platforms, and that might give you a feeling that propels you to surmise that it's some kind of advertainment movie for big corporations, apple!
As prime example apparently their products are used alot but truth be told it gets scary and does the purpose of a horror film; my remark here is the way the writer execute the film by exploiting the idea of dark web as people seem to magnify it he took advantage of people's ignorance of the topic and mixed it with the theory of Illuminati (the obscure congressions) he basically made this film based on these two notions, so there's sense of absurdness in it; not to mention the uncalled for glitches eventually I classify this as a fanciful horror film because it's the best description you can grant this movie with..
This film is way better than the first and has realism presenting the dark web as what it is a horrible place where bad things happen.
If there is a sequel which there most likely will be as these movies make a good profit I hope they stay grounded to the real world and not the supernatural Skype killer of the first.
This should been called something else like different movie not based on franchise and it has nothing to do with first film.
The story follows nothing to first film witch it should haveMatias O'Brien (Colin Woodell) is working on a new laptop he has acquired, the thing is he found laptop from a lost and found bin at a cyber cafe, some internet café I am like what kinda killer throws the laptop in bin which has a lot of dark files a lot of brutal sick killing people videos there is in files what kinda stupid killer or how smart to throw away laptop in bin witch killer could have done a lot things with laptop then to throw it in bin, psycho killer could of burned it or destroy it or smash it or go to highest building go up there and throw all the way in air then breaks psycho killer could of done a lot things with laptop then to throw it in bin yeah how smart is that ?
Damon (Andrew Lees) guy from UK, Lexx another Asian girl (Savira Windyani) that's all characters you have in movie they were talking somehow some random message pops up that Matias stole laptop someone wants it back, he is saying he will give it back somehow he saw all dark files with all murdering people family human traffic women everything dark web staff, group of bad guys somehow stupid reason the pixelated moves around when they appears to computer it does that oh is it ghost does killers have supernatural powers to do that to pixelated computer ?
I thought this has nothing exciting as first movie because first movie is much scarier more of supernatural I thought unfriended franchise needs to be more of supernatural to all franchise's director and writers wanted to make something different if they wanted to not a unfriended sequel where it's unrelated not a dark thrilling movie witch I don't call it a horror movie this movie never shown in theaters I got movie from my friend of mine he got it from EBay copy I watched it, until end of movie ripped off Belko experiment 1.10 this is just worst of worst movie the worst sequel I have seen watched people just stick with first Unfriended that was real unfriended film, even when I watched first unfriended film in theaters 3 years ago I remember I said to my friend are they going to make sequel ?
Unfriended: Dark Web is the sequel to the 2014 horror movie Unfriended and the latest addition to the ongoing wave of cyber horror that not many people can stand but still being made because some guys think this is what the new generation of moviegoers want based on they nowadays daily habit that is Web Surfing.I can't deny the reason why they think that cause I'm also part of the problem but what I do know is the first Unfriended is actually not that bad and somewhat interesting in a way that I can't put into words.With the sequel Dark Web they decide to go for a more grounded and realistic story based on lot of rumors about how deep the internet goes and it win me over once again.On the technical side all the things the hackers done in the movie still unbelievable just like any Hollywood and Hacking movies before but it for some good chuckle so I ain't complaining.
This movie is just a masterpiece...But you really should know and read about the dark web before watching it..
Which is kind of the way I felt about the original film as well, and all really good horror movies in general.
Some performances can take you out of the movie altogether cause they are bad.Overall, however this movie did have me on the edge of my seat with suspense, with a concept that seem to be better done, and also the scary music had a lot to do with it.Worth watching..
Just wanted to say that I don't watch horror movies, because they are all unreal, but this one...
This movie is very dark and had a very creative way of filming.
I never saw the first Unfriended movie, and although it looked really good, I did not know what to expect out of this sequel.
But if your looking for a crazy and intense movie that is pretty good and has an interesting plot, then you will thoroughly enjoy this like my gf and I did.
This is just good i want to sit dark theater and enjoy a scary movie and not have everything spelled out for you. |
tt0102116 | The Indian Runner | The story, set in 1960s Nebraska, involves two very different brothers: small-town deputy sheriff Joe and criminal Frank Roberts.
Before the events of the film, Joe had tried to farm for a living, but was unable to make ends meet, and the bank eventually foreclosed on his property. He became a deputy sheriff as a way to support his young wife, Maria, and child. Joe is a good, conscientious man, but has his own demons to fight with. The opening shot of the film shows a car chase which ends with Joe using his gun to kill a man in self-defense. This results in Joe's conflicted feelings about killing the criminal, as well as the praise and scorn from members of his community from this shooting. Frank, who had been involved with run-ins with the law before going to Vietnam, is described by his father as plagued by "restlessness". Upon his return to town, he breaks into his brother's home and is nearly shot by Joe's wife. The next day, Frank leaves town without ever stopping by his parents' home. As Joe states in the narration, Frank was correct in his assessment that his parents would understand, as they always seem to when he hurts those who love him.
Joe does not hear from his brother for some time, but eventually discovers from their father that he is in jail in another state. He had kept the information quiet to avoid upsetting their mother. Frank is then released from prison and returns to his hometown with his pregnant girlfriend, Dorothy. Joe's and Frank's mother dies and their father commits suicide soon after. Frank tries to settle down and works in construction, but keeps getting into trouble with the law, which puts him in conflict with Joe. When the time comes for Frank's wife to give birth, Frank is in a bar "drinking it down," which sparks a confrontation with Joe. After Joe leaves, Frank beats the bartender to death with a chair and drives out of town with Joe on his tail. The film concludes with Joe allowing Frank to escape across the state line. | violence, murder | train | wikipedia | But it's the magic of the mix of all these and so many more subtleties about the experience of this film that makes it not just a terrific, achingly beautiful thing, moving, illuminating, but, I believe, having revisited it so many times over the last thirteen years (like so very few others among the hundreds seen once), one that is important and bound for a belated re- positioning as a cinematic gem in the history books of the future.Cassavetes is clearly a major force behind this in the best possible way; he'd have stood up and applauded the way Penn took his spirit, his openness and gave it a more cinematic scope, color, pace, size, without compromising his own direct gaze on the human condition.
The moment at the start of the film when Joe's dead victim's father begins singing a work song at the police station still stands out as the revelation that this movie had its own palette.
Brilliant directorial debut from Sean Penn featuring superb performances from Morse and Mortensen..
The rest of the movie features a first rate supporting cast which includes Valeria Golina ('Rain Man') and Patricia Arquette ('True Romance') as the brother's respective love interests, and veterans Dennis Hopper ('Blue Velvet') and Charles Bronson ('Death Wish'), testament to the respect Penn has in the acting community, I'd say.
Valeria Golino didn't have a part this good until `Frida,' Charles Bronson is given room to stretch, Patricia Arquette gives her best performance ever by far (doesn't she look a bit like Robin Wright in this film?), and David Morse is always excellent, I see that he directs TV from his bio, hopefully he'll try a feature soon.
I wasn't the biggest fan of `The Pledge' and actually didn't know that A) Sean Penn had a film like this in him, though I suspected, or that B) he made that film more than 10 years ago.One false step was using someone giving birth for that scene.
David Morse is utterly convincing as a man trying to salvage the last remains of his disintergrating family and the actress who plays his wife is equally good.All I can say is WATCH IT!.
(And like him, there may be times where you don't know what to think of what you're seeing; I think that's true of anything original, or anything that eschews typical film conventions.) But despite that similarity, the film isn't quite real -- the Indian mythos, the narration of David Morse, Viggo Mortenson hopping on a moving train.
The whole picture is imbued with a quiet feeling -- you wish you could show it to those on the right who hate Penn for his outspoken politics, just to prove that he cares deeply about exactly the type of people they think he and his Hollywood friends are against.At first the Indian stuff is a little cheesy, but it leads up to a climax where it really works and feels organic.
More than being an actor who can direct, Penn is at times a real master -- he's got a rare gift of ending films with a real punch, without it being cheap.
You have to have a certain willingness to go along with the story that Penn's telling (many times characters do things that don't make any logical sense, but emotionally it fits), and the semi-metaphysical closing really worked for me.Part of the value is in the chance to see good actors work; it's strange that actors known for their histrionics so often direct films that are completely devoid of showiness in terms of acting.
A great melodrama in a small town during the seventies about two grown-up brothers; Joe (David Morse), is married and a deputy sheriff who seems to be highly devoted to his job.
Frank (Viggo Mortensen), who is the younger one of the pair, comes back from Vietnam even though he has the habit of being a troublemaker.Morse and Mortensen are nothing short of excellent in their performances and are backed up by a solid supporting cast (Valerina Gorlino, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Sandy Dennis, and Charles Bronson).
In one scene, he tells Joe while they're sitting out on the porch that he was wrong about Joe marrying Maria (Gorlino), who is Mexican.There another surprise that makes the film more compelling to watch is that it's the directing and writing debut of actor Sean Penn.
The movie was inspired by the Bruce Springsteen song that's called "Highway Patrolman".Anthony Richmond's cinematography is extroadinary and the musical score by the late Jack Nitzsche is very solid."The Indian Runner" presented a rare and very interesting question to me: "Why doesn't any movie director make a film that shows the two sides (bright and dark) of the director themself?"In conclusion, this movie is intelligent and seriously moving.
David Morse is the responsible, straight-laced cop and 'good' brother; Viggo Mortensen, the 'bad' boy, is a former soldier and ex-convict.
Three Libras in this film, all three in the leading roles: David Morse, Viggo Mortensen and Valeria Golino.
I don't like Sean Penn's directing very much, and this early work, The Indian Runner, is no exception.
Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez, Clint Eastwood, Sean Penn, the whole lot seem to produce such fundamentally banal product, ostensibly in some allegiance to honesty, but ending up being, for the most part, glorified pro wrestling matches, and moralistic, almost as if Hallmark cards had developed a line of Hell's Angels greetings, and make me long for the days of Deliverance, which is a fine movie.
One would think that for a first movie, director Sean Penn would avoid the standard story of two brothers, one decent and the other not.
Amazing how some folks think this is some form of Auteur created masterpeice.Great acting and thats the only reason I gave it an extra star.The movie is pointless, turgid and boring; so boring for the first time in years I switched it off 20 minutes before the end and went to bed!Apparently Penn wrote this when he was drugged up and having "problems" so instantly this means its some sort of insiteful classic that has deep and meaningful content - Don't make me laugh!
Perhaps it's no accident that Sean Penn would later go on to star in She's So Lovely, a film written by John Cassavetes and directed years after his death by his son, Nick.
With great characters comes everything else that's needed, and here Penn scores as good as he ever has had in his short but rewarding career as director (this goes up there with the underrated The Pledge).
We see this story unfold of Frankie and Joe, played by Viggo Mortensen and David Morse, one is a Vietnam vet with nothing to win or lose (until he meets a girlfriend, Patricia Arquette plays her), and the other is a cop happily married with a kid.
But one thing is for certain, which is that walking a fine line between peace and anger is a tough one for Frankie, and Joe has little to do but sit back and watch it unfold.Penn takes care writing all of these characters, not just the two principles but also supporting players like those played by Valeria Golino and, in his last serious part, Charles Bronson (sans beard) as the father, who is shook to the core after the death of his wife.
This fine debut from Penn introduces us to the range of underrated actors David Morse and Viggo Mortensen.
Greatly enjoyed this film directed by Sean Penn with a great cast of veteran actors and a very interesting story which starred David Morse, (Joe Roberts) who plays the role as a small town chief of police.
This film starts off with Charles Bronson, (Mr. Roberts) and Sandy Dennis, (Mrs. Roberts) who raised two boys Joe Roberts and Frank Roberts, (Viggo Mortensen).
Frank went to the Viet Nam War and when he returned he met his brother Joe and told him he was not going to live with his father and mother and was going to leave and do just what he wants to do.
Frank has some very serious mental problems and gets into all kinds of problems which cause great problems to his mother and father and it makes his brother Joe worry about him all the time.
Joe and Frank Roberts, are played by David Morse, and Viggo Mortensen respectively.
(David Morse plays Joe with the right amount of understatement and poise.) Joe tries to break through this shell and Frank in turn would like to have the happiness in life that Joe does.
The final gut-wrenching sequence is perfectly laced with Frank finding importance of family-blood in living a happy life as he twitches with his wedding ring.The evidence of Frank's Indian Runner ghost influence is symbolically woven into the plot from beginning to end with the deer hunt, sound of warlike drums, cigarette smoke signals to the blood-painted warface and the car-running chase scene.It is incredibly unfortunate the Domestic film-going public ignored this classic, due to its European-style frankness toward sexuality and life's realities.
I've often argued with myself whether Sean Penn is a better actor or director, but the truth is he's just as captivating a storyteller whether on camera or behind it, and The Indian Runner is a bold testament to the latter, a somber, tragic family drama that leaves the viewer reeling with it's hard luck characters and sorrowful resolutions.
Most "general" movie watchers would not like this film for the same reasons.Then I watched an interview w/Sean Penn and he said his big influence was John Cassavetes, who had recently passed away.
Time warps aside, Sean Penn should be respected for writing and directing one of the better American films made in the last 38 years..
As I watched this film, for the first time recently, I wondered whether Sean Penn, the writer/director, had been humming that tune as he wrote the script.
That's not meant to be a disparaging question, simply because all ideas have to have a genesis somewhere, and a song actually did inspire this story...Highway Patrol Man from Bruce Springsteen, so I'm told.Thinking about the theme however redolent of the biblical clash between Cain and Abel, perhaps I can't but feel that while Penn might have set out to make a fundamental statement about why some people do bad things, he ended up showing, instead, that a failure to come to terms with the world is merely an indication of immaturity, a failure to leave childhood behind.
To that extent, the film succeeds, but it may have been unintentional.The story, as implied, is well recognized: a good brother (Joe, played by David Morse) who is a cop tries to help his younger and wild brother (Frank, played by Viggo Mortensen) overcome his inner demons upon his return from the Vietnam war, in 1963 or thereabouts.
Eventually, there is a parting of the ways.What makes the film distinctive is, first, the very competent acting by Morse, Mortensen, Valeria Golino as Joe's wife, Maria, and Patricia Arquette as Dorothy, Frank's girlfriend.
In the context of Frank's psychology however, I think Penn stretched the metaphor way out of proportion to the reality of the action.Unless, of course, Penn's own philosophy is fundamentally nihilistic and hence much like Frank's...Technically, though, the film is well done, with excellent editing and special effects; add to that, a host of old country and western oldies on the sound track, perfectly in keeping with small town America.I very much admire Morse and Mortensen as actors, the latter reminding me of a young Jack Nicholson, while Morse has the size and demeanour of a young Martin Milner.
But, then, the author of said, yawn, fable has NEVER established credits beyond weirdness, per se, including Jack Nicholson as the mad "writer."On second viewing, I see that I cannot add another "star," but fact of the matter is that Sean Penn's work here is absolutely masterfu, the subtleties, the ironies, the absolutely bang-on details of observation and "truth." And Morse is as fine as Mortensen, whose "Franky" is scarier than today's Russian mafioso in "Eastern Promises," and he was sporting tattoos way back when.
Lighting, soundtrack, locations and sets are superbly chosen leaving one to ponder that this appears to be a film from a well-seasoned director and not just a first attempt.As a last comment I found it very interesting how as the film progresses past the first hour Viggo Mortensen is almost transformed into a Sean Penn character in both looks and actions.
Sean Penn's debut as director/writer is a rather uneven affair that in the end does seem to have more good points than bad.
Mortensen has had a varied career, alternating from the aforementioned slimy roles to the aforementioned hero role to Satan in "The Prophecy" and even a dull, businessman-like deputy in "Young Guns II," and "The Indian Runner" is certainly part of that, as he gives a charismatic and interesting performance of a man who wants to be good and we can see it, but he just can't do it.
The only other actor whose performance needs special mention is Charles Bronson, as the one-time tough guy uses very little screen time to create a perfect sad, lonely old man who feels like he has no purpose on earth--he was surprisingly excellent.
David Morse meanwhile does what he can with a generally dull role that is never allowed to develop the complexities that seem possible, Patricia Arquette manages to be as child-like and annoying as possible, Dennis Hopper stands out as a somewhat bizarre presence but doesn't steal too much attention, and Valeria Golino is cute in a role that requires nothing else.One other point that I have to make is that much of the music in the film was terribly distracting.
Like a few moments in David Lynch's "Lost Highway" and most of Cameron Crowe's "Vanilla Sky," some bad music and out of place music really reduced the enjoyment of the film as a whole.All told, "The Indian Runner" is a character drama, so don't look for excitement, but a very well-acted one.
While at times Penn doesn't seem to know where he wants to focus, he doesn't completely lose the film and Viggo Mortensen's fantastic performance keeps us interested and entertained despite the repetitious and formulaic storyline.
Don't watch it if you're tired, but if you want to see antisocial personality disorder in action or fine acting from Charles Bronson and Viggo Mortensen--two men now better known for their heroic, rather unemotional work--this film won't disappoint..
Like many others, I saw this because I'm a huge fan of Viggo Mortensen, but it's worth seeing not only for his performance.This is a sad yet beautiful story showing how some people just can't overcome the violence inside them.I agree that the childbirth scene is unnecessarily graphic, but other than that, this is an amazing film for a first-time director..
Sean Penn directed this film with a light-handedness that would hide the fact that it was his first time as a director...the characters and story pull each other along naturally, with no phony, inserted twists that lead to a quick climax (which many Hollywood films use to "speed it along").
As Sean Penn's first film in the director's chair, I thought this movie was absolutely fantastic.
A moving story about two brothers who are as different as night and day, this film is well-acted, well-written, and boasts some excellent songs from David Lindley as well.
Sean Penn's THE INDIAN RUNNER is a very carefully drawn character study about two brothers.
Penn was 30 when he made this movie,and it seems to be a mature director's work.Although it takes place in America,it has an European sensitivity;in a nutshell,it recalls John Cassavetes (to whom the film is dedicated) and Kenneth Loach.
Frank was a Vietnam veteran,but never Penn uses it as an excuse or an explanation as far his behavior is concerned:no flashbacks,no bad dreams,no hints at the war he had to fight,no clichés.Joe is a good man,he's an Abel who wants his brother to find his "delicate balance" although he does know it's impossible.It seems that this impossibility has its roots in childhood,as Penn insists on the picture of the little boy dressed as a cowboy with a pair of revolvers.Some are born to endless night,some are born to sweet delight.
So Viggo - Frank whigs out for no particular reason and beats his pal Ceasar to death after good Joe the Cop leaves.So Joe has chase his bad brother down and I was so hoping that he would do the right thing and blow that menace to society away.
One of the most vivid images from the album is the closing verse of the song Highway Patrol Man, from which Sean Penn's directorial debut, The Indian Runner, was inspired.''It was out at the crossroads, down round Willow bank Seen a Buick with Ohio plates behind the wheel was Frank Well I chased him through them county roads till a sign said Canadian border five miles from here I pulled over the side of the highway and watched his taillights disappear.''Penn's film, which he also scripted, begins with the narrator of the Springsteen song, Joe Roberts (David Morse) preparing for the return of his wayward brother, Frank (Viggo Mortenson) from Vietnam.
The cast of supporting characters make up the rest of Joe's family, his wife (Valeria Golino) and his Mother (Sandy Dennis) and Father (Charles Bronson).
Dear Sean Penn, this is your best film in the role of a writer-director.
A few over-the-top sad songs are not to my personal liking, apart from that the music score works very well.A police officer, Joe (played by David Morse) tries to do the right thing.
Sadly, his little brother Frank (Viggo Mortensen) is too far gone.I find this movie to be an important reminder that there are people like Frank out there, and just staying away from them is for the best. |
tt2652092 | The Good Lie | During the Second Sudanese Civil War, siblings Mamere, Paul, Jeremiah, Theo, Daniel and Abital escape after their families and village are massacred. After numerous days of walking in the wilderness, they join a group of refugees but leave after they are caught by enemy soldiers and many people are killed. After sleeping in the grassland, Mamere wakes up and spots two enemy soldiers approaching them. Theo hides the rest of the siblings in the grass and lies to the soldiers that he is alone. He is taken in custody with the soldiers. The group eventually arrives at a Sudanese refugee camp in Nairobi, Kenya, where Daniel succumbs to disease and dies. Thirteen years later, among the thousands in the camp, the siblings win for relocation to the United States.
On arrival in New York City, Abital is unexpectedly told that she is to leave for Boston, where a family awaits. As their sister tearfully leaves, Jeremiah, Mamere and Paul board the flight to Kansas City, where they meet Carrie Davis, a brash employment counselor, who helps them find jobs, and Pamela, who provides them their house and support. Jeremiah works at a grocery store and teaches Sunday school at a local church, but later quits the job because he was caught giving old food to a homeless person rather than throwing it away. Paul works at a factory and makes friends with his co-workers, where he is exposed to drugs. Mamere takes two jobs as a store clerk and a security guard to pay for schooling, as he aspires to become a medical doctor. Mamere eventually convinces Carrie to help them bring back Abital; on Christmas Eve, Carrie arrives at their home with Abital and the Lost Boys of Sudan celebrate their birthday on January 1, as they had never known the date when they were born.
Abital receives an anonymous letter stating that someone entered the refugee camp in Kenya searching for the group. Thinking it is Theo, Mamere travels to Nairobi and searches the refugee camp after they tell him that Theo is not registered. After meeting James, an old friend, he is reunited with Theo the next day. Mamere tries to get immigration papers to multiple embassies and fails, but tells Theo that the "task" was done. At the airport, Mamere reveals to Theo that he could not get him a passport and instead gives Theo his own passport - a deception that is the 'good lie'. After a tearful farewell, Theo leaves and is embraced by his family upon arrival in the United States; Mamere remains in Kenya and works at the camp hospital. | cute | train | wikipedia | Acting wise, Whiterspoon's work is great in this movie, realistic and never overwhelming and so Corey Stoll does a great job.But I was greatly pleased with the excellent performance of Arnold Oceng, all the Sudanese actors in the movie, all former refugees, and the stunning newbie Kuoth Wiel.Overall, I'd suggest to bring your preteens to watch this movie: it would set an example on how family and value should never be forgotten no matter how hard life gets.Thank you..
Also, just when you're thinking you're watching a movie starring Reese Witherspoon, the accompanying cast of Sudanese refugees steal the show.
Great story, great directing, great cast, and great acting all around.'A Good Lie" was possibly the best movie at TIFF this year..
It centers around a group of young Sudanese refugees living in the Kakuma Refugee Camp, in Kenya, who are selected after 13 years at the camp to participate in a relocation program to America, which became known at the time as the "Lost Boys of Sudan".
Actually, they will be sponsored and under the auspices of the Faith Based Charities organization once they arrive in the U.S.A..The first part of the movie can be difficult to watch, as it depicts the horrors of the Sudanese Civil War, and how these surviving children saw their families killed by invading troops.
The remainder of the film depicts the culture shock awaiting them in Kansas City as they relocate to America.Reese Witherspoon is superb, as usual, as Carrie Davis, an employment counselor assigned to help the new arrivals find local jobs as soon as possible, but who will also become more involved in their well being.
The group includes Arnold Oceng, as Mamere, Ger Duany, as Jeremiah, Emmanuel Jal, as Paul, and Kuoth Weil, as Abital.The film was directed by Canadian filmmaker Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar), and written by Margaret Nagle.By the way, there is a well presented documentary on this exact subject called "Lost Boys of Sudan", which I viewed in the last year or so, that you may want to check out.In summary, I thought this movie had heart and was able to illustrate the ravages of war, but then show what can happen when people are given a second chance in life..
The only thing I had heard was a bit of Oscar buzz concerning Reese Witherspoon.I found the movie very interesting and moving, comical at times, yet sad as well.
Actress turned Emmy Award winning writer, Margaret Nagle spent years honing her above-average script for this interesting fact-based film.More remarkable are the performances of some of the Sudanese cast members (including the juniors), whose own life experiences reflect the difficulty of survival, against deadly odds in this war-torn nation.
Some maybe too cynical to accept certain situations within this productions artificial interpretation of reality, but the writers have clearly attempted to uphold enough integrity to allow most viewers a genuine understanding of what those less fortunate have to endure.British born Ugandan actor Arnold Oceng shows how essential good casting is for bringing life and commitment to a production of this stature.
In fact, there's just such a lie embedded in the marketing campaign for Philippe Falardeau's earnest if occasionally overwrought film: that Reese Witherspoon is the star and central character of the movie.
Instead, her top billing for the film will bring attention to the far worthier and more riveting story of the Lost Boys of Sudan, refugees to America from a land brutally torn apart by civil war.The lives of the children of Sudan are fraught with dangers and horrors - before the age of twelve, they endure war, famine, death and deprivation, with only the faint prospect of leaving their country to start afresh somewhere new.
Mamere is helpless to prevent the bureaucracy of the system from taking his sister to another state in America, and culture shock lingers in every corner and around every turn.It's easy to see why Falardeau was asked to make his English- language debut with The Good Lie. His previous effort, the bittersweet Monsieur Lazhar, dealt impressively with issues of displacement, loss and identity, and won him an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in the process.
He understands the irony facing these young men: the notion that they've lived through guns and hunger, only to be flummoxed by bureaucrats and capitalism.The film could easily have tipped over into a self-congratulatory farce, painting Carrie Davis (Witherspoon) - the boys' employment agent - as the pretty white-girl saviour of these savages from the third world.
He finds these tragic contradictions in the wide-eyed manner in which they respond to their new homeland: the way Jeremiah revolts at the casual, easy wastage of produce in the supermarket where he stocks the shelves, and the manner in which these boys simply cannot believe that Carrie is genuinely taking care of herself with neither father, husband, brother nor son on hand.Coupled with the very good work done by Falardeau's young cast (especially Oceng and Wiel), it becomes almost easy to overlook The Good Lie's relatively predictable script by Margaret Nagle.
There's nothing wrong with that, per se, but it does mean that the fairly optimistic fiction of the film winds up being all too easily separated from the far gloomier facts of the matter.That being said, if what you'd prefer is a grittier, less starry- eyed version of events, there are documentaries - such as Lost Boys Of Sudan - which touch on the same issues and history with less of the Hollywood gloss and sparkle.
The first part follows the Sudanese children who have lost everything and are seeking safety.The second part is a gentle but well-observed satire, marking the absolutely typical inhumanity and su-bnormality of many Americans who have never even left the state they were born in, their utter lack of any understanding of another culture, much less how strange everything is for these refugees from a very different world.
It talks about something that has gone unspoken of for far too long and, I believe that telling a real story through fictitious characters is a very intelligent way to inform the western world of the crisis that has been going on for decades without making the audience feel like they are watching a documentary.
Hollywood is so desensitized, it just doesn't know a good thing when it sees it.An incredibly touching movie based on the real life stories of many Sudanese children who fled their war-torn country in the early 80s.
Anyway, this story is so inspiring, beautiful, uplifting and heart-felt, that there's no way you can be human and not cry at least a few times during the movie.Hollywood overlooks the good ones time and time again.
I had tears of joy, tears of deep sympathy for the pain of cultural shock, tears for the unimaginable hardships of the real situation that the Sudanese refugees experienced, and tears for the misguided and unappreciative ways of the current first-world societies, especially America.Every citizen of the planet should see this film, because it is humbling, it allows us to take a glimpse of a life unimaginable to us, and it makes us appreciate.
"The Good Lie" is a drama movie in which we watch the fight of Sudanese to survive in the start and after how they resettle in America.
Especially this movie focuses on a group of Sudanese refugees who arrive in Kansas City, Missouri for a new start.I liked this movie because it is based on true facts and because it shows us what difficulties and obstacles had to pass all these people in order to just feel safe.
Equally good was also the interpretation of Arnold Oceng who played a Sudanese refuge called Mamere.Finally I believe that "The Good Lie" is a very good movie and worth watching because it is a lesson of life.
If more people could experience the beauty in the spirit of the Lost Boys of Sudan there would likely be a stronger push toward putting an end to racially motivated killings that spread across the media daily.The film takes place in Africa first, during the Sudanese civil wars of the 1980s.
The staggeringly beautiful manner n which these young people honor every one they meet with manners that many of us are beginning to see as a lost art along with their faith and perseverance in the face of physical odds in Africa and political nonsense in America makes each of the actors radiant – Arnold Oceng as Mamere, Ger Duany as Jeremiah, Kuoth Wiel as Abital, Emmauel Jal as Paul, and Femi Oguns as Theo – each of whom is either a refugee or the child of a refugee from Sudan.
In the end I found the film to be a deeply moving and fascinating glimpse in to the lives of three Lost Boys of the Sudan as they try and create a sustain a new life while still haunted by their traumatic and impossible to fathom childhood..
The actors who played Abital (a radiant Kuoth Wiel), Jeremiah (Ger Duany) and Paul (Emmanuel Jal) all suffered through the Sudanese Civil War in real life, thus accounting for the affecting authenticity in their performances.
Over the course of a few months, we watch the siblings slowly adjust to life in the U.S., complete with job misunderstandings and fish-out-of-water gags.Reese Witherspoon is superb as the free-spirited social worker that becomes a sort of saint for the brothers, but The Good Lie is not just a star vehicle for the actress (who is having a career Renaissance thanks to her Oscar-nominated performance in Wild).
"I have courage but all you have is strength."Director Philippe Falardeau's follow up to his Oscar nominated film, Monsieur Lazhar, centers on a group of Sudanese children who have managed to escape the massacre of their village during the Civil War and walked nearly a thousand miles to a refugee camp in Ethiopia.
After nearly thirteen years of living in poor conditions the kids were relocated to the United States along with other thousands of "lost boys." Mamere (Arnold Oceng), Jeremiah (Ger Duany), and Paul (Emmanuel Jal) are sent to Kansas where they meet Carrie (Reese Witherspoon), an employment counselor who helps them adjust to their new lives.
Both were even forced to be child soldiers and I'm sure their testimony is even more powerful than this film itself, but knowing where they have come from gives this movie an even more inspiring and uplifting feeling to it.
This movie is without a doubt a great piece to watch, narrates in a very good way, a difficult story to tell, which are the African civil wars.The fact of hiring people related to the conflict, helps to connect you -from your comfortable seat- to a little part of these people's reality.
About the acting, Reese Witherspoon plays well, I think she upgraded her kind of films, she should do more like these, I liked her active "make it happen" character and the rest of the cast is really good as well.
The starts of this movie are 4 refugees, not top billed Reese Witherspoon which is on the poster - she is more like a side character, but it is as usually good performance.
But these scenes don't look cheeze or fake as it was in "Million Dollar Arm" - by the time when these inevitable scenes arrive, you are know these characters well enough.Overall, "The Good Lie" isn't anything sensational nor great, but it's a very well made movie, that will definitely move you a bit..
Even the IMDb web page says "their encounter with an employment agency counsellor forever changes all of their lives." Reese Witherspoon is the star attraction so people will notice the film, but she is not the main character of the story, her's is a supporting role, which she does well.
She and I were touched by this inspirational tale of a family of refugees from the African country of Sudan coming to America, post-9/11, to start a new life.
They walk hundreds of miles to a refugee camp in Kenya, where they wait over ten years to start a new life in USA.The television often says there's a humanitarian crisis due to the civil war in Sudan, but I have never really understood what it meant until watching this film.
A beautiful film based on the true stories of 'the lost boys of Sudan', excellently played by actors with which this story is highly personal given there backgrounds.The film delves into the backgrounds of a group of Sudanese children cut off from there village and families, due to the atrocities of the civil war that ran through the country and follows there journey to Kenya and on towards America.The film sparks emotion from the audience from the very beginning and continues to tie knots with them until the very end, as the 'family' try with everything they have to forget what they have gone through and blend with the society of America, and all of the issues America and societies alike have.
Overall Rating: 3.5 stars Cinematic Value: 3 Stars Family Value: 4 starsYou might think that The Good Lie is a Reese Witherspoon film, but she is merely a supporting player in the story of 'The Lost Boys of Sudan'.
J.K. Rowling stated, "There is always room for a story that can transport people to another place." This can be said of The Good Lie, which does manage to transport the audience to another country and help explain the national perspective of the war and gives a glimpse at the culture of Sudan.
The film shows the realities of life in this world, the need to persevere in times of suffering, the importance of human camaraderie and the hope that comes through faith in God. Falardeau is merely telling the story, but does not seem to commentate on the faith of the characters.
While its very much cut from the same cloth as films like The Blind Side and its story reeks of Hollywood sap, you'd be hard pressed to not find enjoyment in this based around real life stories The Good Lie, a film that more than likely bypassed cinemas near you upon release last year and failed to find an audience in any capacity.Produced by the Academy Award winning team of Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, The Good Lie certainly has pedigree behind it and with the true story of The Lost Boys Of Sudan as its base, it's hard to know exactly why the film failed so dismally when it was rolled out towards the later end of last year.Reviewed well and rated highly by audiences, one suspects that The Good Lie has the potential to be a slowly building sleeper hit in the years to come and with a tale so easy to like as this, it will be a film that brings both smiles and tears to many different people the world over even though its somewhat twee handling can hamper the films emotional engagement and some scripting scenario/acting turns dampen the films overall quality.The biggest success found within the Good Lie lays entirely on how central group of uprooted refugees led by Arnold Oceng's determined Mamere and Ger Duany's God fearing Jerimiah adapt to life in the land of opportunity in America.
The top billing of Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon is a little bit of marketing ploy here as a warning as she is largely a bit part player to the Sudanese squad and her role is a little too much "Sandra Bullock" to really work.An enjoyable, often funny and occasionally moving tale with call backs to real life trials over adversity, The Good Lie never becomes anything akin to other classic such tales but it's certainly a film worth tracking down.
Its not very often that a film brings a tear to my eye so I have to give this movie the thumbs up.Budget: $20million Worldwide Gross: $3.2millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their emotional dramas about a family who have gone through hell during the Sudanese Civil War and leave there refugee camp to seek for opportunities in America.
In "The Good Lie," Philippe Falardeau, brings the story of the young victims of the civil war of Sudan and their walk for survival (literally) to life.
This film — thankfully — is more about Sudanese refugees, the so- called "Lost Boys" (there were plenty of girls, too) and the difficult assimilation four of them face in the United States rather than about Witherspoon and it also stripped of the Hollywood action and drama elements.
She will probably be nominated for an Oscar for her work in 'Wild', but earlier this year, she starred in yet another film based on a true story called 'The Good Lie', which focused on the orphaned Sudanese children from South Africa, known as the Lost Boys, who came to America to start over and have a chance at a good life.
Reese Witherspoon gets involved with these lost boys from Sudan when they arrive to the United States fresh from 13 years in a refugee camp.
The Good Lie is an especially unique Hollywood movie because it is told from the perspective of the refugees instead of the lead actor or actress destined to be their savior, giving the audience an authentic viewpoint of their lives and ultimately making the movie more emotionally impactful.In the case of The Good Lie, the character who helps the refugees is Carrie Davis, played by leading actress Reese Witherspoon, who comments, "I had heard of the Lost Boys of Sudan, but other than a few news stories I didn't know much.
In the Aisle Seat's review of The Good Lie, the boys were awestruck with commonplace, everyday occurrences: "The movie is a really fascinating look at what happened to many Sudanese refugees, but also at how people who come from underprivileged parts of the world experience the United States. |
tt1489167 | Down Terrace | Upon release from prison, Bill (Robert Hill) and his son Karl (Robin Hill) arrive home at Down Terrace in Brighton. With the help of his wife Maggie (Julia Deakin), Bill decides to find the rat in his criminal operation and a tale of recrimination, betrayal and murder ensues. Meanwhile, Karl grows increasingly edgy and uncomfortable with his dysfunctional family. When Karl's girlfriend Valda shows up pregnant, Karl announces that they plan to get married, but his parents disapprove and demand that he get a paternity test. Bill's employee Garvey tells Karl that Valda dated Garvey's brother for a while recently, which enrages Karl; Karl murders Garvey and enlists his uncle Eric's help in secretly burying the body. Worried about Garvey's unexplained disappearance and that a hitman, Pringle, might talk about a previous attempt on Garvey's life, Bill orders Eric to murder Pringle and his mother, leaving his three-year-old son fatherless. Eric himself is poisoned by his sister Maggie because she doubts his loyalty. The carnage attracts Jony, a London gangster, who tells Bill that the lack of subtlety and stability has put Karl and his family at risk; Maggie promises to rein in Bill. Karl, who suspects that his parents have murdered Eric, accuses them of making deals with the police after he hears a death-bed confession from Berman, their lawyer. Eventually, Valda talks Karl into murdering his parents: Karl shoots his father to death, and Valda stabs his mother. | comedy | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0109791 | Felidae | Francis, an intelligent and cynical cat, is moved to a gloomy, dilapidated house with his owner Gustav Löbel, an architect and erotic novelist. During Francis's exploratory tour of the house, he discovers a cat's corpse. At the crime scene, he meets and befriends Bluebeard, a foul-mouthed, one-eyed Maine Coon.
Soon, Francis discovers another body and the fact that his house's top floor is the meeting site of a sect of cats led by Joker; the members of the sect worship an entity named Claudandus and perform ritualistic suicide by throwing themselves in an electric current. When Francis's cover is blown, he is chased through the city's rooftops. He escapes through a skylight and meets a blind cat named Felicity, who supplies Francis with information on the Claudandus sect. The next day, Bluebeard takes Francis to Pascal, an elderly and tech-savvy cat who has taken to meticulously maintaining a list of feline deaths in the area, though which Francis learns that Felicity is the latest victim. That night, Francis is haunted by a nightmare in which Gregor Mendel leaves him with riddles.
During a rodent hunt, Francis discovers a video recording that documents the top floor's previous use as an experimental laboratory that was devoted to the research and development of a tissue adhesive that would close wounds in an instant. The test subjects largely consisted of stray cats. However, the serums usually failed, causing the animals to suffer painful deaths. The one cat who survived the experiments was christened by the lab's technicians as "Claudandus", Latin for "He who should or must be sealed". However, Claudandus eventually murdered the project's lead technician, leading to the escape of the other strays and the closure of the lab. Claudandus subsequently became a martyr figure.
Francis gradually traces the neighborhood cats who descended from the strays involved in the experiments and is confronted by Pascal, who reveals himself to be Claudandus. In his pursuits, he saw an opportunity to create a breed of cat that would correspond to the primal ancestor of all domestic cats and be capable of wiping out humanity. The murdered cats, now including Joker, were deemed unworthy of breeding with the pure females that Claudandus had engineered. An additional obstacle in Claudandus's plot is the fact that he is terminally ill with stomach cancer. Although Claudandus deems Francis an ideal successor, Francis defies Claudandus's ambition and attempts to delete the data that Claudandus had gathered. The ensuing fight between the two results in a fire. Francis kills Claudandus in the struggle and flees the scene with an injured Bluebeard. | horror, psychedelic, cult, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0026123 | The Black Room | In a Tyrolean castle in the late 18th century, twin sons, Gregor and Anton, are born to the de Berghmann baronial family. The baron is concerned: an old prophecy in the family states that the younger brother shall kill the elder in the Black Room of the castle.
Some years later in 1834, it is revealed that the Baron Gregor (Boris Karloff) has become a depraved ruler who murders the wives of local peasants. His brother, Anton (also played by Karloff), who cannot use his right arm and has spent much of his life traveling Europe, returns to the castle for a visit, but refuses to believe the rumors he hears about Gregor. The kindly Anton becomes popular with the villagers and the castle staff, being the exact opposite of his brother. At the same time, Gregor's attempts to woo Thea (Marian Marsh), daughter of family advisor Colonel Hassell, fail noticeably before both her admiration for Anton and her true love for young Lieutenant Albert Lussan (Robert Allen).
When the castle servant Mashka (Katherine DeMille) disappears after being seen with Gregor, the locals form a mob and enter the castle, confronting the baron. Gregor agrees to abdicate, and give power to his brother, who has become popular. After the papers are signed to relinquish his baronetcy to Anton, he lures his unsuspecting brother to the Black Room, kills him, and throws him into the pit where the dead bodies of Mashka and his other victims are kept. Gregor now assumes Anton's identity, and prepares to wed Thea, whose father supports their union. Lt. Lussan angrily and threateningly objects to the Colonel; Gregor kills the Colonel and easily frames the Lieutenant, who is found guilty and sentenced to death.
Only Anton's mastiff recognizes that the baron is not his master, and the dog pursues Gregor when he travels to town for his wedding. Meanwhile, Lussan escapes his cell and meets secretly with Thea, who urges him to flee. He refuses, however, and the wedding ceremony begins in the town cathedral. As the stately ceremony draws to a close, the priest asks for any who object to the union to "speak now or forever hold their peace", and the dog attacks "Anton", who defends himself with his supposedly paralyzed right arm. Standing thus revealed, Gregor flees. The townspeople gathered for the wedding form a mob in a matter of seconds. The dog, followed by the mob, which includes Lussan, pursues Gregor to the castle, where he attempts to hide in the Black Room. The mob discovers where he is and begins to batter open the secret door. Before they can gain passage, however, the dog squeezes through and throws himself on Gregor, who falls backward into the pit and onto the knife still held in his murdered brother's crippled hand. Thus, the prophecy is fulfilled. | murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0120321 | Smoke Signals | Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) and Thomas Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams) live on the Coeur D'Alene Indian Reservation in Plummer, Idaho. Thomas is an eccentric storyteller and Victor is an angry young man who enjoys playing basketball.
Victor and Thomas are brought together through Victor's father, Arnold (Gary Farmer). Arnold rescued Thomas as an infant from a house fire that killed his parents. Because of this, Thomas considers him a hero. On the other hand, Victor, who endures Arnold's alcoholism, domestic violence, and eventual child abandonment, regards his father with both deep love and bitter resentment. Thomas and Victor grow up together as neighbors and acquaintances, fighting with each other and simultaneously forming a close, albeit uneasy, alliance.
When Arnold dies in Phoenix, Arizona, where he has stayed after leaving Victor and his mother Arlene (Tantoo Cardinal), Victor and Thomas go on an adventure to retrieve his ashes. The trip is the means for Victor and Thomas to explore their identities. Neither of them loses sight of his identity as an "Indian," but their perspectives differ. Victor is more stoic and Thomas is more traditional (and romantic to the point of watching the feature film Dances with Wolves countless times). Their dichotomy is portrayed all through the film; it results in Victor being irritated with Thomas, and Thomas being fascinated with Victor.
Once they reach Phoenix, Victor has to confront his conflicted feelings about his father, as well as his own identity. He has to grapple with a new account of Thomas's parents' death, as told by his father's friend, Suzy Song (Irene Bedard). She says that a drunken Arnold set off fireworks, accidentally starting the fire that cost Thomas his parents. The road trip by the young men leads to Thomas reconciling with the memory of his adoptive father Arnold, as he understand more of his path to alcoholism and related abuse and abandonment. Victor also gains a better understanding of Thomas and his reverence for Arnold. | storytelling, flashback | train | wikipedia | The first scene, narrated lyrically by Evan Adams as Thomas Builds-the-fire, sets the tone for a story handed down, as with Native American culture, in true oral tradition.The French title, Le secret des cendres (The secret of the ashes) more accurately describes the book and the movie, both of which must be experienced to fully appreciate Alexie's genius.
With multiple allusions to fire and ash, each having different meanings, as well as a well integrated use of Native American lore, Smoke Signals requires more than a little thought for the average American viewer.The story revolves around two young Coeur d' Alene Indian men dealing with loss and the end of childhood innocence.
When Victor Joseph, brilliantly played by Adam Beach, learns that his estranged father has died, he and Thomas embark on a journey to claim the ashes, another allusion of the french title, and on the way get in touch with their identities as adults apart from their parents.Evan Adams is stupendous as Thomas Builds-the-fire.
The final scenes, driven by Adams' narration and haunting Native American chant and music, are nothing short of miraculous.Adam Beach, strapping and stalwart as Victor Joseph, managed to parlay his appearance in Smoke Signals into a respectable film career.
Finally, after 100 years of movies, we get a film that honestly portrays the Native American culture.
A small infant named Thomas Builds-the-Fire is thrown out of the window of a burning house and is caught by Arnold Joseph (Gary Farmer), a neighbor with a drinking problem, who is later kicked out of the house by his wife, leaving behind his son, Victor (Adam Beach).
The events that follow drastically alter Victor's perceptions of his father forever.Smoke Signals is a great film and one that can teach you a lot about a culture so often misrepresented on the screen.
The acting is this movie is superb and the filmmaker's shots and different ways of filming scenes and how each one flowed into another was amazing.
Smoke Signals (the efforts of Sherman Alexie, Chris Eyre and the cast of fabulous actors) shows in rich, humorous detail what life is like for young Indians today.
The acting, particularly Gary Farmer as Arnold Joseph (Victor's father) and Evan Adams (Thomas Builds-the-Fire) are outstanding.
Non-Indian people tend to look at this film as a "coming of age" story about finding Victor finding not only his father, but himself as well.
As a mixed blood, this was a major draw.What I found in this film was culture, religion and what it means to be human regardless of our racial heritage.Watching this movie as a seminary student I was drawn to the concepts of sin, alienation and reconciliation as seen through Native American eyes.
This movie is all about human emotions and Adam Beach and Evan Adams did an unforgettable acting duty as Thomas and Victor.It's a film for the ages.
The audience was predominately Native American.On exit, Sherman stood on the sidewalk in the late afternoon Seattle light and waited nervously like a child, to see the reaction to the film (which had ended with unanimous applauds from the half house audience).
The young men who play Victor and Tommy are inventive actors with good professional prospects, if only Hollywood would cast more Native Americans in major films.
Despite Leonard Maltin's comment that Smoke Signals is "basically unexciting film-making," I found this movie deeply spiritual without being heavy-handed.
The movie concerns two Couer d'Alene Indian guys who have to travel to Phoenix to collect the ashes of the father of one of them, and the ambivalent relationship between the two friends and Victor's struggle to come to terms with his father having moved away when Victor was still a child.
Since the Native Americans are the most neglected group in America today and considering the way things were forced on them in the previous centuries, it's good to see movies in which things are seen from their perspective.
You can't stand somewhere in this place where incredible things have not happened in the past.A story of young men clinging to each other in a nervous way during their fight to grow up and straighten out their attitudes with people, done in a serious way.This movie accomplished some nice things in in the beautiful region that it was shot in.I recommend you spend some of your valuable time looking at this movie, and then visit Spokane someday bringing your mountain bike with you..
The main trouble with Smoke Signals is that after you see it you will be disappointed with not only the rest of the movies or television you are likely to see but also with most of the films you have seen before it.Since too many people haven't seen it you will have to listen to people talk about "what dreams may come",or some such.
It's highly original, and emotionally moving without becoming melodramatic.It is a film about the Native American Indian culture in modern times.
It was fast-paced enough to engage me, despite being a drama, and there is plenty of comedy, which is a refreshing change for a guy like me who's always wanted to see past the one-dimensional Indian stereotype of suffering and learn more of their culture.But there's plenty of pain and suffering in the film, too, and I got to learn something about the plight of the Indians without sensing a hot-headed we-good-you-bad attitude.
When I started watching this film, and from what I had read from the back of the movie box, it seemed like it was going to mostly be a film about the unlikely friendship between two people, about how two very different individuals can share many things in common.
As I continued watching the film, more themes creeped in, such as the nature of oral tradition and exaggeration/lying within it, what it means to be a Native American in the middle of the nation that oppressed your people, and the nature of fatherhood and forgiveness.The film ends up addressing or at least giving us something interesting to think about for all of these issues, but it just seemed like too many themes to address in 90 minutes.
It seems as though the last issue I mentioned (fatherhood/forgiveness) ends up being the most prevalent one, but it seemed like it was touched on so mildly that I didn't quite understand its resolution beyond a very basic, generic level.By far the most valuable thing about the film, for me, was its depiction and perspective of modern Native American life and culture.
It adds a great deal of insight, humor, and uniqueness to the film, particularly considering the fact that this was the first major film entirely written, directed, co-produced and starring Native Americans.
In fact, I really think the film would've been a lot more interesting if it were just about the two characters going out into America to perform some inconsequential errand, and building a friendship along the way, learning from one another's perspectives on Native American life and culture.
Regardless of its perceived flaws, although it's not an entirely coherent film to me, it still offered a very insightful perspective to Native American life and culture, and it was very enjoyable to watch..
Other than Ulali (I thought was Walela, but I was corrected) and Dar when I tried to read the credits as they quickly went by I didn't recognize any of the names.I almost immediately caught "Powwow Highway" on cable and was surprised to see how much it must have influenced "Smoke Signals" as a Native American road movie.(originally written 7/2/1998).
Sure, the script stumbles from time to time, and the synthesized score grates a bit, but it's the kind of film you can embrace with your whole heart despite its flaws.The largely Canadian (yay!) cast does a beautiful job -- Adam Beach, Gary Farmer, Tantoo Cardinal, and ESPECIALLY Evan Adams.
As a Native American this film is very close to me, and is very realistic, I knew people that had cars like that, and the great shots of the NW made me homesick.
In fact, "Smoke Signals" written, directed, acted, and co-produced by Native Americans.
Comedy and Drama are the main genres of this movie.The story of "Smoke Signals" is about two young Indians men grew up together on an Indian reservation in Idaho which is Coeur d'Alene.
After Victor accepted Thomas' offer, they started their trip to Phoenix that was full of surprising events.There is no doubt that Chris Eyre was very successful in directing this movie.
Beside Thomas' stories, the flashbacks were very useful in showing the life of Victor's father in Phoenix, and how he felt about his son Victor.In general, "Smoke Signals" is a unique movie that produced by Native Americans.
On the other hand, Adam Beach as Victor is one of the film stars who play the opposing character of Thomas, a serious and formal man.
Smoke Signals is the first Native American film production, including actors, writer, and director.
The film mainly focuses on Thomas and Victor, who are the key characters of the movie, and their life in a Native American reservation in Idaho.
Smoke Signals is a great film since it has carries a message, something which current movies lack.
Not only them, but also including two protagonists Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) and Thomas (Evan Adams), all actors who acted as Native Americans is real one of them.
Describing their real life, the film shows us two guys' journey to recognize father's love.Arnold Joseph (Gray Farmer) had family and little son – Victor.
If you want to understand Native American, feel impression about father's love and enjoy light humor, Smoke Signal might be pretty good choice..
The movie portrays young Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) traveling to Phoenix to retrieve the ashes of his deadbeat father (Gary Farmer).
He has to travel with Thomas-Builds-The-Fire (Evan Adams), with whom he has never been particularly friendly, but they realize their friendship along the way.Overall, this movie is like a kick in the groin to the John Wayne mold (the Duke even becomes the butt of jokes in one scene).
I have no axe to grind for American Indians, oops Native Americans, sorry, I'm an old geezer from the old school, I just enjoy quality work on film and this movie has it.
There are few, if any, stereotypes depicted in this film; one of this film's many strengths is that every nuance of reservation life, how it truly is, is perfectly captured.I've received feedback from those who know it from first-hand experience (and immersion), and, seeing the film, themselves, they were both impressed and amazed by the intricacies conveyed (for example, the image of a vehicle being driven backwards because it can no longer be driven forwards, is illogical to many cultures, but not here; getting maximum use out of something is deep-rooted in cultures like the Blackfoot and the Sioux, carried on for centuries, if not millenia; here, it seems to be continued, at least at a subconscious level; it's something those of the disposable urban world have lost touch with, or have simply never had).To many, a bus trip is nothing, a routine, but for two young men, brilliantly portrayed by Adam Beach and Evan Adams, with fixed (or limited) income, it is more, and they make it more Every event in their lives are maximized (usually by Thomas); the basketball game, the trip to Denny's, the stories of frybread, stories trivial and mundane to many, but to them (mainly Thomas), are sources of wisdom and reflection and inspiration (Thomas).This journey they make together has echoes of 'Midnight Cowboy' within, in that it is the story of two lost (or misguided) men that learn from one another, that teach and care for one another, but the plot is presented in a different context, not to mention a pleasant, more relatable one (no gigolos here, folks; sorry).Eyre's directing was remarkably impressive.
In fact, at one point during the film, a friend of mine turned to me and remarked; "Man, this just feels like an Alexie story, doesn't it?" Some of the aerial shots were breathtaking in their simplicity, and the transitions between time periods were simple but remarkably effective.A very touching and human movie, the proof that a great story is what makes the film.
The Cheyenne, director, Chris Eyre, perhaps because he, too, is Indian was able to bring out the remarkable abilities and talent of the cast by permitting them to show a full range of emotions; something often missing from "Indian movies".The plot is a universal one; a road buddy tale dealing with the estrangement of a father and son and a young man coming to terms with the loss when his father dies.It is a superb film for use in a high school classroom, especially in those communities where the Indian population is not very evident..
When I remember scenes from "Smoke Signals" I have the feeling that I actually travelled with Victor and Thomas to Arizona, that I learned about their daily lives, and like Thomas, that I learned to forgive and heal the wounds of the past.Wonderful script, outstanding acting, and careful direction.Now, can someone tell me where can I find fried bread in Boston?
This is a truly good and moving film about the life and culture of the Native American indians rarely seen from the perception of the other "superior" races.
Smoke Signals is an enjoyable and uplifting movie with spicy humor and poignant story concept about the fatherless Indian son who left the Idaho reservation with the goofy sidekick to travel to Arizona to retreive his father's ashes.
One can describe Smoke Signals as the story of two young Native American men, Victor and Thomas, setting out on a road trip from Idaho to Arizona to bring the ashes of Victor's father home.
The direction is equally as assured and aids the film by giving the whole thing an accessible and down to earth story.The cast are a strange mix of people I've never seen and Indian actors who are in everything.
Smoke Signals is a film about two Native Americans becoming men.
They really cover everything in this - life on the reservation, father/son relationships, and a great deal of culture of the Native American way of life.
For an independent film, this is pretty entertaining, a story about two Native Americans in a reservation.
It is fun to see how Thomas would drive Victor crazy with his stories and his nerd-like characteristics.A drama mixed in with comedy and adventure, this is not a bad movie to pass the time on a slow day.Grade B.
Smoke Signals was released in 2008 and is a great taste of modern Native American culture.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching the movie and being able to experience all that occurs on today's Indian Reservations.The acting was by far the weakest point of this movie, but frankly there is some excuse for that considering the entire cast was made up of Native Americans.
Victor Joseph is the first lead of the movie, played by Adam Beach, and is a very stoic person who has lived a hard life with his father leaving while he was a child.
Nevertheless, it was a great film.If you decide to watch Smoke Signals, don't watch it for the movie.
Through humor it challenges the way people view Native Americans, in real life and on screen.
The ride director Chris Eyre takes us on is enjoyable and does not overstay its welcome.The entire cast and crew of Smoke Signals is Native American, giving it an interesting perspective, similar to movies like Thunderheart and Dances with Wolves.
Unlike most movies in the past, in Smoke Signals Native Americans are not seen as savage or as one with nature.
The movie, Smoke Signals, shows Natives Americans relationship with nature as well as each other.
If so, Smoke Signals is exactly what you are looking for.This film portraits two very different young Native American boys living on the Coeur d'Alene reservation in present day.
On this trip, both Victor and Thomas realize that they need each other and they get to learn a lot about themselves on the way.What makes this movie so different from other movies with Native Americans?
First of all, this film, unlike a lot of others made in the past, is written, directed, and acted out by all Native Americans.
Although this film is entertaining, it also is very realistic and gives its viewers a better insight into life on a reservation.Well, if you answered yes to the questions at the beginning, consider watching Smoke Signals.
The movie is not just about the Native American culture and how it is different from the stereotypical "Dances With Wolves" Indians.
Smoke Signals is the first film I watched about Native American.
It is a story full of love, family relationship, friendship, and forgiveness and culture differences.The fault made by Victor's father caused the death of Thomas's parents.
Smoke Signals is a great film to watch and to think of
...
I think they know the importance of laughing and living through their tragic history, so they keep laughing although they do not have many things they need.It was the first time to watch original Native American film.
Smoke Signals is a film about two young Native Americans who live on a reservation.
If you like movies that are about a lot of real things, I recommend Smoke Signals.
This is a unique movie in its giving us the story of present-day Native Americans without stereotypes or bitterness.Victor has spent a decade trying to resolve feelings about being abandoned by his father when he was a young boy.
I don't want to give too much away but it is a story of two young men, Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, who leave the reservation for the first time on their way to Arizona. |
tt0019788 | Coquette | The story is about Eliza Wharton, the daughter of a clergyman. At the beginning of the novel she has just been released from an unwanted marriage by the death of her betrothed, the Rev. Haly, also a clergyman, whom Eliza nursed during his final days in her own home. After this experience, she decides she wants friendship and independence. After a short period of time living with friends, she is courted by two men. One, Boyer, is a respected but rather boring clergyman, whom all of her friends and her mother recommend she accept in marriage. The other, Sanford, is an aristocratic libertine, who has no intention to marry but determines not to let another man have Eliza. Because of her indecision and her apparent preference for the libertine Sanford, Boyer eventually gives up on her, deciding that she will not make a suitable wife. Sanford also disappears from her life and marries another woman, Nancy, for her fortune. Eliza eventually decides that she really loved Boyer and wants him back. Unfortunately for Eliza, Boyer has already decided to marry Maria Selby, a relation of Boyer's friend. Sanford later reappears married, but is able to seduce the depressed Eliza. They have a hidden affair for some time until, overcome by guilt and unwilling to face her family and friends, Eliza arranges to escape from her home. Like the real-life Elizabeth Whitman, she dies due to childbirth complications and is buried by strangers. Mrs. Wharton (Eliza's mother) and all of Eliza's friends are deeply saddened by her death. Sanford, too, is devastated by her death. In a letter to his friend, Charles Deighton, he expresses his regret at his wretched behavior. | romantic, murder | train | wikipedia | It's rather unfortunate that this is the only film for which many current movie fans remember Mary Pickford, because of the neglect of silent films and because of the undue weight given to well-known but arbitrary motion picture awards.
Nor is it one of the worst movies ever - it does contain some stretches of genuinely good acting, and the story is at least a little better than the warmed-over scenarios of so many recent movies.Pickford deserves to be remembered for her many fine performances during the silent era.
Mary Pickford won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in this film - and this fact has dominated the way people have treated it over the years.
Of course she's too old for the role - but she was too old for nearly every part she ever played, and just a few years later Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer played Romeo and Juliet to great acclaim - so such age issues were probably not issues in 1929.It is true that she talks a little like an adult Shirley Temple (did Shirley model herself on Mary - they certainly played many of the same roles?)- but her silent acting is excellent - her looks can really kill.The supporting cast is not very good, except for the wonderful Louise Beavers, - but Johnny Mack Brown is devastatingly handsome as Mary's love interest.
The script betrays its stage origins, and the film suffers the same problems most early talkies suffer - inadequate use of music, poorly synchronised sound effects, completely absent sound effects (eg doors opening and closing silently), and limited movement of both actors and camera.But all things considered this is a worthwhile little film - certainly not great but not as bad as myth would have it.
Watching the great silent stars struggling in early talkies, I always feel that they were learning a new craft, just as the cameramen, directors and writers were.
But within ten years of this film being made Gilbert and Fairbanks were dead, Gish was carving out a new career on the stage, Pickford, Swanson, Bow, Talmadge, Brooks and Moore had retired, Joy was doing the occasional character role and even Ramon Novarro was out of work.
Mary Pickford hoped that this vehicle would be a solid entrance into the new sound medium as well as scuttle her "little Mary" image that had plagued her for the last decade.At age 37, Pickford is too old to play Norma Besant, BUT she looks great so the age factor is not really a problem.
But these 2 good performers can't save the film from the rotten acting of St. Polis (he plays a despicable character) and William Janney who plays brother Jimmy.
Matt Moore plays a sad-sack suitor to no great effect, and Henry Kolker is over the top as the prosecuting lawyer.The screenplay is probably too close to the stage play, and director Sam Taylor seems to have absolutely NO ear for dialog or eye for composition.Despite the antiquated story about southern pride and the value of truth, Pickford and Brown are well worth watching.
Her final scene, walking from the court house and down the street is quite memorable in its beauty and simplicity.Yes, Mary Pickford won an Oscar for this performance, but the award is likely for the 20 years of films and superstardom she brought to this talkie debut.
Okay, sound equipment may have been awful then - "talkies" were brand new in 1929 - but that fact does nothing to make it less pretentious when the characters stretch their mouths to yawn proportions to utter dated lines like, "darling, I love you more than life itself."Then there's the plot, another feature of this film that is as quaint as the acting and the dialogue.
"Norma," played legendary silent screen actress Mary Pickford at the end of her prolific career, becomes "compromised" by a night with a boyfriend, Michael.
At least it did until it dawned on me that this was only because OTHERS came along LATER and followed (intentionally or not) Croquette's lead.Overall, I found Croquette a solid film and Pickford's performance quite good, although it took me a while to accept the accent.
I'll split the difference and call it a "7." While I will probably continue to envision Mary Pickford as the pre-teen or early-teen ragamuffin of silent film days, I am very glad to have a copy of her best "talkie." Don't dismiss her Oscar, either.
Mary Pickford's great concern--that future generations would laugh openly at the outdated style of her old movies--is borne out in full fruition in this absolutely miserable film..
The irony is that the most obvious problem facing director Sam Taylor, that of convincing the audience that our heroine is not middle-aged society matron Mary Pickford, but the youthful and titular Norma Besant, is sufficiently disguised so that the camera and film technology available in 1929 do not betray that much of Mary's true appearance.
Older actresses have pulled off such deceptions, to great success, in stage performances; unfortunately this, essentially "filmed play," never does raise itself cinematically above the credibility level of the rotten, arthritic showboat melodrama it is.
Helen Hayes had a big success on Broadway in this drama of a Southern flapper juggling her beaux, so it must have seemed a good vehicle for Mary Pickford's talkie debut.
Apart from a greater understanding of the history of the cinema, one answer is a much better appreciation of the traumas associated with the transition from the silent film era to that of the talkies, and another is greater respect for the achievements of early stars who are recognised today more by their names than by their performances.
By today's standards Coquette would barely justify a five star rating, but recognising that everyone involved, cast, director, cameraman and the new and vital 'recording artist' (who I could not even find credited) were learning a new trade together, the original film was certainly worth an eight.
Mary Pickford is a favorite of mine from the silent era, which makes her early talkie 'Coquette' so much the sadder.
The Academy Awards made no more sense in these early days than they have later on, and Pickford won an Oscar as an appreciation for more than a quarter of a century on the silver screen.She didn't deserve the Oscar, and the film, with all the failings of an undistinguished early talkie, is hard to watch today, and I am saying that as a lover of pictures of the time.
The Southern accents are grating to the ears, the voices shrill, partly, I believe, because of the way they were recorded, and the acting hammy.Mary Pickford is the Southern Jezebel Norma who flirts with all the boys, but takes a special fancy to hunky working-class Michael (Johnny Mack Brown looks excruciatingly young in this part).
It's flawed and not going to be your favorite film of all time or anything, but it's worth spending the 75 minutes to watch Pickford and the rest of this cast..
before you watch this film you must know it is not a grate movie such as GWTW (gone with the wind ) cause it was released in 1929, which mean it was The first talkie film for Mary Pickford so the sound isn't that much but it isn't that bad.
It was a lovely thing to watch a film in 1929 to know how much they were brave to start a new line , Miss Pickford was The first Major actress to speak in a movie she was a very brave lady and the only reason I put 7 out of 10 is because of her acting, her voice was very good at that time (which is because she acted in the theater at the beginning of her career), although her acting was such like an acting on the stage, but she has her moments especially at her final scene she brought it to the screen perfectly.
"Coquette" is worth watching if you are a fan of Ms.Pickford but, not her best performance....
There has been a great deal of debate over the years as to whether Mary Pickford deserved her Oscar for this movie.
Personally I feel the best performance in the movie was by the actor playing Mary's father.
I don't know who these people are who have written reviews for Coquette, but it's my first Mary Pickford film and there is no reason she should ever be laughed at for her old fashioned style.
Anyone who couldn't sit through the beginning and watch Pickford's over-the-top 20s coquette (can't you see there was a purpose here?) doesn't deserve the honor of seeing what she became...a truly convincing, fully engaged actress who I would prefer to watch any time over most 21st century movies that are carried purely on special effects.
These folks (especially the actors, many of whom spoke, for the very first time)were indeed pioneers!We also have to acknowledge the fact that Mary Pickford won an academy award for her work here.
I was born 30 years after this film came out, so it was a task to put myself into the head of a man who had been raised on a steady diet of Silent Movies.It was so exciting, watching Mary speak, knowing that she had been a HUGE STAR, for YEARS, in Silents, and finally the world was confronted with the total package of Mary Pickford-----her movements, her persona and her voice.
It must have been truly fascinating to hear what their heroine's voice sounded like, after all those years.A few general comments about the cast:John St. Polis (who played her father):What a terrific actor!
He died 63 years later, at the age of 84.Mary Pickford:Though she began her performance, weak, and could be accused of overacting, she got better and better, as the film wore on.
And this looks odd in a movie.Coquette is probably best remembered now as the movie for which (mostly) silent star Mary Pickford won her only Oscar for acting.
He also makes some attempt to bring a bit of cinematic dynamism to what is essentially a filmed play, making sharp changes of angle at key moments such as St. Polis's walking in on Pickford and Brown, but by-and-large the fact that nearly everything takes place in one room – or rather a frontless set – is inescapable.Perhaps we shouldn't be too hard on Coquette, as its flaws are really only the flaws of its era.
Best acting honors, such as they are, go to John St. Polis, who plays her father.It is a story of honor and customs in the Old South in the early 20th century, and some elements of the plot are tough to swallow, especially in 2011.
This was actress Mary Pickford's first 'talkie.' At times, the acting is rather wordy and staged, but then it was a stage play before the film.
A doctor's daughter (Mary Pickford) outrages her tradition- bound father (John St. Polis) by falling in love with an uncultivated fellow from "the hills" (John Mack Brown).
For her sound film debut, Mary Pickford chose what she figured would have a built in box office appeal besides her own good name, a long running Broadway play.
Still there's a trace of the juvenile in her performance as a young and flirty southern belle who her father, John St. Polis, should not be out slumming with white trash like Johnny Mack Brown.
It probably helped that Mary was involved with Johnny Mack Brown at the time of the filming of Coquette.
Though it wouldn't get a look today, I'm sure Mary's performance in that transition year, probably was one of the best and she no doubt deserved her Best Actress Oscar.Coquette is a play I'm sure you won't see get revived to often.
This was 1929, the year that proved that few in the movie business had a clue what to do with sound, and "Coquette" recreates the experience of watching a badly-directed high school play.The story is some Southern claptrap about a ditzy rich girl who wants to marry someone below her and the father who won't let her.
COQUETTE (United Artists, 1929), subtitled "a drama of the American south," produced and directed by Sam Taylor, goes on record as the movie where movie audiences got to hear Mary Pickford's voice for the first time.
Like many other silent screen performers of that time, she attempted the new medium of what was classified as "the talkies." While Pickford could have selected any one of her previous silent screen efforts to remake as her talking debut such as SPARROWS (1926), a Pickford favorite of many, the selection for her talking introduction was taken from a 1927-28 play, "Coquette," that starred Helen Hayes.
At least her attempt in the new medium proved that she was as good as she ever was, even for only a brief span.Set in the south where location is not disclosed, the story opens the evening of June 6, 1928, where Norma Besant (Mary Pickford) is to be escorted to an upcoming dance at the Sunnydale Country Club.
Later, it is Norma who is asked to do an impossible task by Robert Wentworth (George Irving), Besant's attorney, to testify on her father's behalf at the trial to prevent his being executed for murder.Overlooking the fact that COQUETTE is an early talkie, handicapped by echoing sound recording and voices coming in and out from audio, the "drama of the American South," or better yet, "the drama of a Southern family," does have its advantages in acting range and story.
John Mack Brown, a Southerner by birth, is naturally cast, making his character believable and acceptable.Had COQUETTE been filmed in silent film tradition, or even a few years later into the mid 1930s where sound technology was greatly improved, COQUETTE would have succeeded, especially the near decade end of Southern themes as JEZEBEL (1938) and GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) where these productions won its lead actresses (Bette Davis and Vivien Leigh respectively) Academy Awards for playing Southern belles.
The first few Oscar ceremonies were, perhaps inevitably, characterized by films whose appeal has faded with the passage of time; this one – which gave "America's Sweetheart", Mary Pickford, her Best Actress nod – is certainly among the biggest culprits in this regard!
The doctor, understanding the nature of his daughter's sacrifice and mortified of his own actions, then takes the matter in hand and shoots himself on the spot with the very same gun that instigated the tragedy.Despite having such luminaries as cinematographer Karl Struss and art director William Cameron Menzies among the credits, as I said, there is nothing remarkable about the film's style: actually, the whole Southern atmosphere drowns the interest all the more with the embarrassing repetition of such corny phrases as "honey precious" (the way in which Pickford addresses her father!), her pet phrase "adowable {sic}" and that of her younger brother, "jiminy"!
Ms. Pickford was one of the greatest early film performers; and, this, her first sound offering, is an artistic failure.
** Coquette (3/30/29) Sam Taylor ~ Mary Pickford, Johnny Mack Brown, John St. Polis.
The movie should be watched once because of its' history - Pickford's Oscar performance.
Even though it was filmed on a sound stage it seems as if great designer William Cameron Menzies has just cleverly redressed one set to look like the living room of the mansion, the country club and most disturbing of all, the courtroom.And then we're done.Savagely bad, it made a million bucks when that meant something and won Mary Pickford a best actress Oscar, the dubiousness of which is on view for all to see.
In this film, the sound varies according to who is speaking--some of the actors come across loud and clear and others (such as Miss Pickford and the man who played her brother) were a major chore to understand.
It was Mary Pickford's first sound film and she did win the Best Actress Oscar for it.
So often, lines were delivered as if this were an old-time morality play being performed in front of a lot of hicks who loved and expected over-acting.
The worst of these was at the end of the film when Pickford's father grabbed the gun which had been submitted into evidence for this courtroom scene.
This film won Mary Pickford the second Oscar for Best Actress ever awarded, and was one of the more controversial decisions ever made by the Academy for that particular award.
Pickford plays Norma Besant, daughter of Dr. John Besant, a southern belle of the flapper era known as a "coquette" - in modern terms, a flirt.
Thus when the young man performs the bold act of coming to his house to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage and mentions that they have been alone together the night before - though they were only talking about their future plans - Norma's father follows after Mike and shoots him down in cold blood.What follows is Pickford's best scene.
He has no trouble taking the law into his own hands whether it is his life or someone else's life on the line.Pickford's performance viewed today appears merely mediocre compared those of other early talkie actresses.
77½ minutes.SYNOPSIS: Southern belle falls for a man hated by her father.NOTES: Academy Awards, Best Actress, Mary Pickford (defeating Ruth Chatterton in Madame X, Betty Compson in The Barker, Jeanne Eagels in The Letter and Bessie Love in The Broadway Melody).The stage play opened on Broadway at Maxine Elliott's on 8 November 1927 and ran a smash 366 performances.
Coquette (1929) has not weathered the years well and even in its own time, I doubt it provided the audience much outside of the chance to hear Mary Pickford's voice.
Even the fluttering likes of Blanche Dubois would be sick of her.Combined with the dull staging characteristic of a good number of early sound films and much unintentional humor, Coquette is best saved for film buffs and Pickford fans. |
tt0098672 | The Woman in Black | The story begins with Arthur Kipps, a retired solicitor who formerly worked for Mr. Bentley. One night he is at home with his wife Esme and four stepchildren, who are telling ghost stories. When he is asked to tell a story, he becomes irritated and leaves the room, and begins to write of his horrific experiences several years in the past.
Many years earlier, whilst still a junior solicitor for Bentley, Kipps was summoned to Crythin Gifford, a small market town on the north east coast of England, to attend the funeral of Mrs. Alice Drablow. Kipps is reluctant to leave his fiancée, Stella, but he is eager to leave the London smog. The late Drablow was an elderly and reclusive widow who lived alone in the desolate and secluded Eel Marsh House.
The house is situated on Nine Lives Causeway. At high tide, it is completely cut off from the mainland, surrounded only by marshes and sea frets. Kipps soon realises there is more to Alice Drablow than he originally thought. At the funeral, he sees a woman dressed in black and with a pale face and dark eyes, whom a group of children are silently watching. While sorting through Mrs Drablow's papers at Eel Marsh House over the course of several days, he endures an increasingly terrifying sequence of unexplained noises, chilling events and appearances by the Woman in Black. In one of these instances, he hears the sound of a horse and carriage in distress, closely followed by the screams of a young child and his maid, coming from the direction of the marshes.
Most of the people in Crythin Gifford are reluctant to reveal information about Mrs Drablow and the mysterious woman in black. Any attempts by Kipps to find out the truth causes pained and fearful reactions. From various sources, Kipps learns that Mrs Drablow's sister, Jennet Humfrye, gave birth to a child, Nathaniel. Because she was unmarried, she was forced to give the child to her sister. Mrs Drablow and her husband adopted the boy, and insisted that he should never know that Jennet was his mother. The child's screams that Kipps heard were those of Nathaniel's ghost. Jennet went away for a year. When realising she could not be parted for long from her son, she made an agreement to stay at Eel Marsh House with him as long as she never revealed her true identity to him. She secretly planned to abscond from the house with her son. One day, a horse and carriage carrying the boy across the causeway became lost and sank into the marshes, killing all aboard, while Jennet looked on helplessly from the window.
After Jennet died, she returned to haunt Eel Marsh House and the town of Crythin Gifford, as the malevolent Woman in Black. According to local tales, a sighting of the Woman in Black presaged the death of a child.
After some time (but still years before the beginning of the story), Kipps returns to London, marries Stella, has a child of his own, and tries to put the events at Crythin Gifford behind him. At a fair, while his wife and child are enjoying a horse and carriage ride, Kipps sees the Woman in Black. She steps out in front of the horse and startles it, causing it to bolt and wreck the carriage against a tree, killing the child instantly and fatally injuring Stella.
Kipps finishes his reminiscence with the words, "They have asked for my story. I have told it. Enough." | gothic, haunting | train | wikipedia | It is a story of a young middle class man who, at ease with life and the developing new technology around him is suddenly taken out of this familiar environment and made to face the world where the curse of an evil woman still holds sway and kept watch for like sea frets and the danger of the marshes if traveling to the house that lays beyond them.
Then, like the eldritch façade of Eel Marsh House, like the devil standing upright in the day,an apparition of a woman dressed in black makes her claim and there is nothing to stand between him and the spectre that has haunted and terrified a generation.
We are treated here to a story being told like a tale by the campfire where, at the end of its telling, we perhaps hear something else amid the cry of the gulls and we are dared to peer through the windows of an old house in the marshes and maybe glimpse The Woman in Black.
The Woman in Black, which is about a solicitor who was sent to a supposedly haunted house to settle a woman's estate after she died, is a good example of a classic bone-chilling ghost story.
The Woman in Black centres its atmospheric horror factor on subtlety and feelings of suspense and dread, rather than CGI or gore.Shot in England, the setting couldn't have been more perfect.
Although this could have been just another low budget made-for-TV movie, The Woman in Black is a new, refreshing take on the old "things going bump in the night" idea..
I remember watching this when i was around 15 and it really did scare me, obviously if you watch it in broad daylight with other people talking it will not scare you much, but watch it in the right way and it will.If your a fan of horror films that don't contain lots of blood and guts (which I like, but they don't scare me in the slightest) then this is for you.It is the scariest film I've ever seen, the only thing that has come close to it is the stage adaptation of the book which is great.Now its not perfect, but with th money they had and when it was made its as good as it could have been.Actually looking forward to the 2012 adaptation, don't think it will be as well done but still looking forward to it..
"The Woman in Black" is easily one of the creepiest British ghost stories ever made.A young solicitor,after arriving in a small town to handle a dead client's estate,is haunted by a mysterious woman dressed all in black.The film is loaded with extremely eerie atmosphere and the frights are calculated for and deliver the maximum effect possible.The action keeps the viewer deeply involved and the finale is quite disturbing.The acting is excellent and the tension is almost unbearable at times.So if you want to see a truly creepy horror film give this one a look.I dare anyone to watch "The Woman in Black" alone at night with the lights off.Highly recommended.10 out of 10..
There he encounters the woman in black again in cemetery out back of the house, and things begin to get creepy as terrifying noises start coming from the marshes.
Now can Mrs Drablow's belongings and listening to her recorded dairy entries help Kidd figure out this gloomy mystery that the locals fear to talk about.Often highly regarded amongst horror fans as being one of the most chilling ghost stories ever and I can see their point.
When you hear so many good things, it's sometimes hard not get caught up with it.Anyhow what the British TV presentation of "The Woman in Black" effectively does is bring out a truly old-fashion, slow burn spine-tingling premise driven by its moody locations, disquieting atmosphere and first-rate performances.
In the vein of other Gothic chillers such as "The Innocents" or "The Haunting", the film is indebted to a classical style— heavy on plot and mood, though punctuated by a series of legitimately scary moments that are strung along a sombre and downbeat narrative.A very handsome (if I may so so myself) Adrian Rawlins leads the film as our protagonist and does a fine job here, while Pauline Moran plays counterpoint as the mysterious and perhaps malevolent Woman in Black.
Overall, "The Woman in Black" is essentially the made-for-TV equivalent of classic Gothic chillers such as Jack Clayton's aforementioned "The Innocents"— that's not to say it's a bad film by any means, but rather that it runs in a similar vein, albeit with the budget quirks of a television production.
As a television production, "The Woman in Black" is a sophisticated and nicely crafted ghost story that holds its ground against its more innovated, big-budget peers.
The Woman in Black (1989) is a TV adaptation of Susan Hill's modern classic ghost story, published only a few years earlier than the film was made.
I taped "Woman in Black" in 1989 from PBS, and it's a good thing because I would like to watch it again since I know a little more what to expect, but haven't gotten the courage to.
Slasher movies, gore-fest and the like don't do it for me and although some films made me jump a few times, nothing had truly scared me until I saw The Woman in Black.
"Video Nasties" are just that: nasty, and I've seen the supposed Daddy of them all, Cannibal Holocaust but it's just gross, not frightening.I'm talking about real fear; the fear you feel when you have a nightmare and The Woman in Black delivers that.The Woman in Black is not a big-budget film, in fact it was made for UK TV but Hollywood could learn a lot from this film if they want to frighten people.The Woman in Black is simply an excellent ghost story, set in 1920s England.
It has atmosphere, suspense and a genuine feeling of creepiness about it.When I first saw it, I had my doubts about it scaring me but I can honestly say that this is the only film that has chilled me to the bone.
I found myself out of my bed and by the door!It has echoes of "The Haunting" (1960), and full marks to the sound designer and the composer for creating the right mood.On occasion, I play this film to unsuspecting jaded horror flick fans who, like me, fail to sleep comfortably after the first watching.....
Although the "Woman in Black" only appears 4 or 5 times, the film scares a lot.
It frightened me senseless and it has never really left me.It is a really wonderful film and a delight to know that there are some really good ghost stories out there.
The whole atmosphere is made tense by the fact that you never know when something truly awful is either going to appear or going to happen and your are treated to the same amount of terror that the main character, Arthur Kidd, is experiencing which is very rare for any film to get the audience involved in that way.You must see this film, track it down and view something that is so terrifying that you won't sleep for nights on end.It is a shame that the film is no longer available on video in Britain and is hardly ever shown on television now so come on somebody get this out on video or even better on DVD as it is a classic and defines how all ghost stories should be made..
It has been a while since I saw it, but when I discuss SCARY movies like this, and the lack of them in today's film production, I always mention this film as the *one* I saw on TV late one night, home alone in my parent's big house, with the one scene which made my body react like no other film or situation ever had before; my shocked body froze; something cold shot through my spine through to my fingertips and stayed there a LONG time after.Even when I saw it again the day after I got the same shock.
The picture quality isn't as good as PAL due to the slower fresh rate of NTSC.So I was wondering, with the new big-screen version due out soon, whether the current owners of the film might release this version on Region 2 DVD in PAL for it's original viewing audience who have such fond memories of watching it that Christmas?
Although an old fashioned horror film, The Woman in Black is still considered to be one of the scariest movies of all time.
He journeys along to the widow's remote house despite the talk of the town, and to his discovery, he learns about its frightening history through strange encounters of the woman in black.Without explicit use of violence and blood like modern horror movies, this film is cleverly composed to give the audience a frightening experience.
The film's simplicity and subtle effects adds to its unique storyline, thus redefining the genre of horror films.Particularly, the woman in black, played by Pauline Moran, leaves such a strong impression that's haunting, even after the movie's conclusion.
The woman in black brings a hint of mystery as the movie makes us question her true motives.This is not a typical ghost story, but yet even better.
Though the woman in black does not have much screen time, she makes the necessary appearances to chill the audience in some brilliant scenes.
If you have the chance, watch this on theater it's a totally different experience but as scary as this movie.This is one of the best Ghost movies ever and it's directed for people that want to get scared..
Whilst I have loved haunted house movies such as Amityville and Poltergeist, this made for TV adaption of Susan Hills book packs a huge punch on the horrors of Hollywood.With a brilliant cast (many of which star in Heartbeat and other TV dramas), great acting, and fantastic setting (which portrays 1920's life convincingly), it has all the right ingredients to entice the viewer into what is a powerful ghost story.Herbert Wise did not need blood, violence, or gore to send chills down the spines of an audience.
Using your own imagination, the Woman In Black is a figure of fear and dread, and whose presence is never absent once she first appears.The main character Arthur Kidd, a solicitor, learns about his unseen spectre on his mission to settle the estate.
I have often woken up at night thinking she was behind me in my sleep.The Woman In Black is a great TV movie and a lost gem.
I was quite young at the time but i'm not sure who was more terrified walking through the church yard to the entrance of the church that night me or my father!.There are many factors about this film that make it so creepy but i think 0ne of them is the fact that there's not much in the way of a sound track that plays in the background of nearly every Hollywood movie, so every creak, thump and bang is more amplified in your head as there's no distraction.
IF you like chilling horror, well written, well acted and with a genuinely scary atmosphere, this is the movie for you.
Freddie Vs Jason, the Scream movies, Cabin Trash, and especially Stephen King's infantile attempts - he's recycled every story from The Monkey's Paw to whatever, often in the same story - at horror in both writing and on film (except for Kubrick's version of The Shining which actually was scary, unlike King's books which are as frightening as my big toe - the left one, which still has the nail.But The Woman In Black is that rare modern film that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.
He's learned his lessons from the masters who knew how to make horror - Val Lewton (original Cat People) and Robert Wise (a Val Lewton disciple and director of the Haunting and The Body Snatcher), Jacques Tournier (another Val Lewton disciple who directed a truly horrifying zombie film, not the gross rubbish Raimi did (gross isn't scary, folks, it's just gross), and Lewis Allen (The Uninvited), and of course Jack Clayton's turn on Henry James The Innocents, and the way the master of suspense, Hitchcock, can still bring you to the edge of your seat even with a slow-building and burning period piece like Under Capricorn.TEN STARS....
I first watched this film when I was a kid and is the only time in my life that I can remember putting my hands over my face and eyes in utter horror at one particular scene.
The made-for-TV film of Susan Hill's classic ghost story, The Woman In Black is brilliant!From the moment you meet Arthur Kidd, London solicitor, you like him.
Her essence hangs, like the sea frets that come up suddenly, in the air.The Woman in Black is not just another ghost story.
Who sent the trunk to London and why?Old Keckwich was Mrs. Drablow's only friend, and the only trust-worthy character in the film.So, if you have the nerve, invite a friend to hold your hand when the tension is beyond your ability to continue to watch, and visit Crythin Gifford, that sleepy little coastal town, where the "frets" come up "sudden like" and where Mrs. Drablow's husband died "out foreign.".
The Woman In Black is an excellent ghost story or haunting movie.
This movie proves that you don't need a big budget and lots of special effects to end up with a great film.
If you enjoy a good straight haunting type horror movie that really does scare you, be sure to look this little gem up and give it a watch.
A great scary movie of the true ghost story variety.
Those who criticise it are, I feel, missing out on an extremely well made ghost story which is genuinely creepy with a few chilling scares.I guess it's not a film for those who like something that's full of visual action, but for those with imagination and who have the patience and ability to immerse themselves, this is a must.This easily ranks up there with the excellent film The Changeling..
after reading reviews from other people on here claiming this film was the scariest movie ever made i thought id track down a copy eventually i did and jeez what can i say its truly terrifying when you see the woman in black she is so scary one reviewer said of a certain scene (it will scare u til your grave) its true takes an hour for it to happen but beware the scene when the main character awakes in the inn and finds the tin soldier in his hand the scene seconds from the moment is scary as hell.
And that one appearance which will haunt me for the next few nights, grabbed my spine with an icy hand and would not let go.If you are a fan of great ghost stories be sure to find this film.
What is not shown but merely left to our imagination is infinitely more terrifying than anything the special effects man can dream up.Throughout this exemplary exercise in terror, we are continually in a state of fear as we anticipate the next appearance of the eponymous "woman in black", and it is a measure of the film's success that we find ourselves anxiously checking the edges of frame, dreading her presence as much as does the young hero of the film.
Though at times it shows its TV movie origins in terms of scale and production values, the literate script, solid performances and inspired low-key direction give this film a quality that will haunt and disturb long after viewing.
The Woman in Black ranks as perhaps the most scary genre film of all time, outclassing by some way Robert Wise's The Haunting for real supernatural shudders.
I was expecting to see the woman in black a few times and for her to do a few more jumpy scenes, like appear at the window or walk across the hall or something.Nearly all the reviews here say what a scary, gripping, atmospheric movie this is.
She haunted me as a kid and, after watching it recently, I can honestly say this is a top-notch horror film.There's something about ghost stories set in Victorian or early-20th century England.
Think of the scariest film you've seen; The Woman in Black is scarier.One question remains: WHEN WILL BE BRITS BE ABLE TO OWN A COPY????.
...On stage, TV or in a book, 'The Woman in Black' is an outstanding ghost story.
What the film doesn't feature, however, is graphic violence or gory make-up effects, but like only the case in the very best horror movies, you're not missing these.
That said, let's take a look at this film, which is touted as being a `spine-chilling ghost story.' Warning!
Also woman in black has just come out on CD audio, i think this will be better than the film also as you have to concentrate and listen instead of just watching on television.
whistling scene) that could have added so much more to the story something was missing.The Woman in Black(1989) creeped me out at 14, and it still does, except that not only did I find it a masterpiece of chilling atmosphere but I was also able to appreciate other things about it.
I don't care how scary the Blair Witch is, the Woman in Black would kick her a$$ in an instant.When I first saw this movie I was about nine years old.
At that time movies made a big impression on me - and I'll never get this movie out of my mind again...The film is about a young lawyer named Arthur Kidd, who's sent to an old house, where the owner - an old woman, has just past away. |
tt0091790 | Pretty in Pink | High school senior Andie Walsh lives modestly with her underemployed working class father, Jack. Andie's best friend, Phil "Duckie" Dale, is in love with her, but is afraid to tell her how he truly feels. In school, Duckie and Andie, along with their friends, are harassed and bullied by the arrogant "richie" kids, specifically Benny Hanson and her boyfriend Steff McKee, who is secretly interested in Andie.
While working after school at TRAX, a new wave record store, Andie starts talking about her school's senior prom to her manager Iona, who advises Andie to go despite not having a date. Blane McDonough, one of the preppy boys and Steff's best friend, starts talking to Andie at school and at TRAX, and eventually asks her out. Steff tells Blane to stop talking to her.
On the night of the date, Andie waits for Blane at TRAX, but he is late. Duckie comes in and asks Andie to go out with him, but she ignores him. Iona gives her a pep talk, while Duckie, still oblivious, asks what's wrong. When Blane arrives, Duckie is upset and starts an argument with Andie, with Duckie trying to convince her that Blane will only hurt her. Duckie storms off and Andie goes on with her date. Blane suggests going to a house party Steff is throwing, but Andie is treated poorly by everyone, including a drunk Steff and Benny. Andie, in turn, suggests going to the local club, where they discover Iona sitting with Duckie, who is hostile toward Blane. After another argument with Duckie, Andie and Blane walk out of the club. Andie, feeling that their night didn't go so well, tells Blane that she wants to go home, but when Blane offers to take her home, she refuses, admitting that she doesn't want him to see where she lives. She eventually allows him to drop her off and he asks her to the prom, which she accepts and they share their first kiss. Andie visits Iona at her apartment the next day to talk about Andie's date. Meanwhile, Blane, pressured by Steff, begins distancing himself from Andie.
Jack comes home one night and surprises Andie with a pink dress he bought for her at a thrift shop. Questioning how he was able to afford it, Andie tells him that she knows he has been lying about going to a full-time job. The two fight until Jack breaks down, revealing that he is still bitter and depressed about his wife having left him. At school, Andie confronts Blane for avoiding her and not returning her calls. When asked about prom, he claims that he had already asked somebody else but had forgotten. Andie starts calling Blane a liar and accuses him of being ashamed of being seen with her because his friends don't approve. Andie runs away as a teary-eyed Blane leaves, with Steff criticizing Andie again. Duckie overhears Steff and attacks him in the hallway. The two fight before teachers intervene. Andie goes to Iona, crying about what happened. She asks for Iona's old prom dress.
Using the fabric from Iona's dress and the thrift shop dress, Andie creates a new pink prom dress. When she arrives at the prom, Andie has second thoughts about braving the crowd on her own until she sees Duckie walk out. They reconcile and walk into the ballroom hand in hand. When a drunk Steff begins mocking the couple, Blane confronts him and finally realizes that Steff resents Andie because she had turned down Steff's advances. Blane then approaches the two, shaking Duckie's hand and then apologizing to Andie, telling her that he always believed in her and that he will always love her, kissing her cheek before walking out. Duckie concedes that Blane is not like the other rich kids at school and advises Andie to go after him, joking that he'll never take her to another prom if she doesn't. Duckie then sees a girl smiling at him, telling him to come over and dance with her. Andie catches up with Blane in the parking lot and they kiss passionately. | cult, comedy, romantic | train | wikipedia | I have watched this over a dozen times and I don't care if some people refer to this as a "chick flick".A young girl falls in love with a boy from the other side of the tracks.
When I watched Pretty In Pink it made me laugh, but more importantly it brought me back to a time that was fun, had less pressure ( in some ways ), and there were a plethora of films that were made aimed at us teens.
PRETTY IN PINK is the tale of an original, but slightly outcast, girl named Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald) who is from the poorer part of her town.
All of Blane's rich preppy friends immediately disapprove, and Andie gets caught in the middle when her own best friend Duckie (Jon Cryer) disapproves as well.
In the end, Andie has to decide whether pursuing potential love is worth the humiliation she receives from everyone else for doing so.PRETTY IN PINK is the last of the three famous Molly Ringwald-John Hughes collaborations, and is also the least favorable, in my opinion.
The acting is terrific, namely from the always-great Molly Ringwald and the spectacularly wacky Jon Cryer as the film's most memorable character by far, Duckie.
John Hughes was a great director, even though his area of expertise was '80s teen movies--but, let's face it, no one could have done them better.To wrap it up, PRETTY IN PINK is a cute love story with fantastic acting and characters that manages to capture a bit of the true essence of love, even if it is a bit disappointing in the end.
The clever talent from John Hughes doesn't just mean it's a far-out comedy, but he expresses the problems of young love from central character Ringwald that sound dramatic and satirizing.
1. He's fearless: Duckie's afraid to tell Andie he loves her, Blane's afraid of his friends, but Steff walks up and hits on her right in front of his friends without caring what they'll think.
not even in the 80s, not even in a teen movie in the 80s.This is a cult favorite starring Molly Ringwald as Andie, a high school senior of limited means.
Molly also has to deal with Duckie (Jon Cryer), an amiable goofball who is madly in love with her.Andie is surprised when wealthy Blaine (Andrew McCarthy) casts an eye in her direction.
Kudos to Mr. Spader for such a great early performance.The excellent supporting cast includes Harry Dean Stanton as Molly's dad, James Spader perfecting his rich jerk persona, Annie Potts as Andie's kooky co-worker at a record store who thinks she is a relic because she is mid 30s, Kate Vernon, Gina Gershon, Kristy Swanson, Margaret Colin, Dweezil Zappa, and Andrew "Dice" Clay.
I'm not exactly the target audience for teen romance films, even thirty years ago when it was released, but even I enjoyed it, so if it's your kind of thing, you should love it.Just one more thing...Jon Cryer grew up and filled out nicely.
Molly Ringwald is Andie a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who has romantic interests from both sides of the spectrum; Duckie (Jon Cryer) who's puppy dog love for her is both sweet and endearing to watch, and Blane (Andrew McCarthy) the rich guy who has everything going for him.
What follows is Andie having to deal with this, the bitchy cheerleader type girls at school, her loving but dishonest father (An excellent Harry Dean Stanton) and through all this will she get an invitation to the prom?
Annie Potts as Iona, Andie's quirky older best friend is excellent and her weird and orginal costume changes throughout the movie are a high-point.
Jon Cryer's character was particularly annoying.Good performance by Molly Ringwald, a regular in John Hughes movies, in the lead role.
I have seen all John Hughes movies from the 80s starring Molly Ringwald and you can't really watch them without comparing them.
"Sixteen candles" is more of a "pure" teen-comedy with a big house party followed by a "hangover"-morning, and "Breakfast Club" is the most serious one and, as far as I'm concerned, the most distinctive of the "Brat-pack" movies.Breakfast Club is the one I like the most, but "Pretty in pink" is also a very good movie.
The story is very cliché with a rich guy and a poor girl from two opposite sides of society who falls in love, causing disappointments among their old friends.
Although John Hughes didn't direct this film, his steady hand is evident all throughout in this much more serious story about a poor girl and a rich guy who want to be together despite all odds against them.
Despite the more serious tone of this movie, it still has some funny and touching scenes, most of them featuring Duckie, the best friend of Andie and perhaps the man that truly loves her.
However, she has her heart set on Blane, the rich preppie who claims he doesn't act like his snobbish friends do but it is hard to tell at times.What makes this movie so great is how it is willing to treat all these kids as adults in real situations and real emotions.
The acting accentuates these overtones with Molly Ringwald in perhaps her most sophisticated role, Jon Cryer as the lovable Duckie, Andrew McCarthy as Blane, and James Spader in a perfectly devilish role as Steff, the worst of the bunch by so smooth and relentless, it is hard not to be impressed by him.
*WARNING SPOLIERS AHEAD*This film is the best movie to feature they actors now referred to as the "Brat Pack" (James Spader, Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy).
This high school drama/comedy is about Andie (Molly Ringwald), a beautiful and smart girl from a poor family (her father doesnt have a job).
I absolutely adore John Hughes' insight into teen angst, love, relationships, and overall experiences, I feel that Pretty In Pink was his weakest.
The characters, all except Duckie, were incredibly weak, and just when you thought Andie was going to rise above it all and make a grand entrance with her pink dress, she wussed out and it took the encouragement and support of Duckie to get her in the dance.Furthermore, it lacked the element of hope present in the other movies.
First off, the cast: Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Jon Cryer, James Spader, Annie Potts, etc all bring their own special something to the movie.
Jon Cryer in particular is perfect for the character of Duckie, an angst-ridden teen who yearns for Andie (Molly Ringwald).
Yes, her fashion is very outdated, but you have to realize that this was the 80's and Molly was trying to show her own uniqueness.I love the fact that Andie works at a record store, Trax, with punked-out Iona (Annie Potts)who is her confidant and funny to boot.
Released in 1986, "Pretty in Pink" stars Molly Ringwald as a working class eccentric at a Los Angeles high school.
Pretty in Pink is a classic Brat Pack film that does a good job expressing some of the emotional drama that teenagers go through.
I have always loved the music choices in this movie, including New Order, the title song "Pretty in Pink", and Otis Redding's tune Try a Little Tenderness, lip-synched to perfection by Duckie.I have to agree though with most reviewers here, that I have always felt robbed by the movie's ending.
Each time I watch the movie I get that familiar pang at the end...it's just not right, and I'm sorry to say, but I don't see what Andie could have ever seen in Blane.
I, like many viewers, was never convinced that he was right for her.6/10...great teen classic and the score would be much higher if Hughes hadn't shortchanged us with an ending that belied the film's intended direction..
Although the movie's plot has the typical tale of two lovers being kept part because of some social reason, the movie greatly captures what it is like to be a misfit in high school and being ashamed of your roots.Since the plot of Pretty in Pink is such an overused concept, it is very easy to disregard it as just another one of those typical 80's teenage love stories.
Paul Attanasio from The Washington Post further explains this point when he says that "without even listening to the movie, you know, 'He's poor, he's rich, and that's what's going on here.'" It is easy to see the clear divide between the two and the background characters of the high school seem to incorporate this type of theme as well, with the more popular kids displayed as wealthy, and the less popular kids depicted as more punk and edgier.Although the roles in the film are distinctly labeled, being classified by your peers is a reality that almost all teenagers in high school know to be true.
This film takes a deep look into each character, giving you a glimpse of their personal life when away from school, and also the emotions they feel when conflict pursuits.I believe Pretty in Pink is a top-tier film when it comes to so-called cliché 80's love stories because unlike other movies in its category, you do not feel the dullness of the typical love story plot.
Directed by John Hughes, Pretty In Pink (1985) is a movie about an awkward intelligent female teenager (Molly Ringwald) who is colorful and on the outside of the fringe.
Pretty in Pink is the last and worst of John Hughes three most popular 80's teen flicks (Sixteen Candles is, in my opinion, the best).
They struggle with disapproval of their friends (James Spader as Blane's best bud Steff is especially odious and Jon Cryer as Andie's guy pal Duckie is unforgettable) and their own lingering doubts.
Okay, I understand that John Hughes apparently changed the ending to this film at the last minute because he didn't want to send the message that rich people and poor people don't belong together or something.
The problem here was simply that the whole film up to the very end was designed with Duckie in mind as Andie's final choice, and that influenced the plot and characters greatly.For the current ending to work, the director would have needed to alter both the male leads a bit, adding a stronger character to Blane and making Duckie a little less endearing and a little more annoying (and perhaps putting a little more effort into finding him a substitute love interest...that thing with the blonde at the prom just came off as kind of annoying).
Instead the intangible style and attitude possessed by the characters ages the movie.On a more personal level, what makes me want to throttle this film is the is the creation of high school as the summit of life.
The late John Hughes made a successful series of teen movies in the 80's, and "Pretty in Pink" was one of them.
Having seen a bunch of other Hughes teen films and been overall impressed with each of them, and knowing that this one was fairly well-liked even if it's not the most popular of the bunch, I figured this would be a pretty good piece of its type.
Duckie has a crush on Andie, which means he wants to be more than friends with her, but his way of trying to show it annoys her, and she finds herself falling in love with another guy named Blane McDonough.
Watching Andie's troubles, including the rich snobs she faces, did not usually grab me, and the ending of the movie is a little abrupt.I've seen "Sixteen Candles", "The Breakfast Club", "Weird Science", and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", all of which I've found to be good high school movies from the renowned John Hughes.
This is one of the best movies ever I love Molly Ringwald she does a fantastic job being Andie in the movie and I just love John Cryer as ducky he is so funny even when he is singing or lip singing LOL that song I don't know it off hand but I know it was funny.
John Cryer replaces Anthony Michael Hall as "The Geek", Annie Potts plays a very similar best friend, Andrew McCarthy plays a similar love interest, Harry Dean Stanton (in an undeniably terrfifc performance) plays a more downtrodden Dad.The only element that's a little new is the addition of the James Spader character, who is constantly trying to get Ringwald in the sack, all the while telling McCarthy he's too good for her.
Sure, it was a good movie for what it was, but it was mediocre for what I was anticipating.The soundtrack wasn't amazing and the script was a bit ho-hum for a John Hughes film.Jon Cryer and James Spader were really enthusiastic and entertaining in their roles, but they couldn't redeem this movie.
Jon Cryer as Duckie plays her sweet, devoted friend who has a secret crush on her, and Andrew McCarthy plays Andie's love interest, Blane.
Like any film production associated with the late great "Brat Pack" filmmaker John Hughes, "Pretty in Pink" is extremely well-acted and insightful into the minds of teenagers.
She happens to have a crush on a wealthy fellow classmate named Blane McDonnagh (Andrew McCarthy), who happens to come from the right side of the tracks.Their blossoming romantic relationship angers people in their respective circles of friends - Duckie (Jon Cryer) on Andie's side, and Steff (James Spader) and all the rest of their rich, spoiled associates.
He does have a funny supportive cast and well-written characters, like Jack, the fashion-impaired and lovelorn Duckie (Cryer's most well-known performance prior to his time on "Two and a Half Men"), and Annie Potts as Andie's record store friend Iona.Despite some painful personal memories, "Pretty in Pink" is yet another timely, timeless piece of John Hughes fanfare.8/10.
So that explains the weird hair and gaunt face.If you like this film then you must watch Weird Science, 16 Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Breakfast Club and top it off with the more current Not Another Teen Movie..
Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club and of course Pretty in Pink.This film has everything you look for in an 80's teen movie.
Not as good as the other John Hughes/Molly Ringwald films, but it still holds up..
Meanwhile, Andie's best friend Duckie is declaring even more is undying love for her."Pretty in Pink" is one of those great teen movies that only comes along once.
Meanwhile, Andie's best friend Duckie is declaring even more is undying love for her."Pretty in Pink" is one of those great teen movies that only comes along once.
Pretty in Pink, starring Molly Ringwald and Andrew McCarthy, is about social stigma, letting go, and being there for someone.In the film, Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald; Sixteen Candles, "The Stand") and her unemployed father Jack (Harry Dean Stanton; Twister, Cool Hand Luke) live in one of the more run-down parts of town.
And, of course, Andie's best friend Duckie (Jon Cryer; Holy Man), who you can always count on for a laugh.Working in a music store with co-worker Iona (Annie Potts; Ghostbusters, Toy Story, "Designing Women"), Andie meets Blane McDonough (Andrew McCarthy; Mannequin, St. Elmo's Fire), a kid from the rich area of town.
Until I read the trivia for this movie, I had always assumed that Andie (Molly Ringwald) was meant to end up with Blane (Andrew McCarthy).
Rather than sending the message that "rich people and poor people don't belong together" (which was Hughes' fear), I think that it would have shown that strong friendships can provide a good foundation for love.My only other complaint, and I've seen this mentioned before, was how hideous Molly Ringwald looked in the prom dress that she supposedly created.
But when you watch the new bunch of teen movies that ape Hughes' best - like She's All That, or even Ten Things I Hate - they seem a little toothless and artificial compared to Pretty in Pink.
Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald) is a high school senior from a poor family same as her unrelenting admirer Duckie (Jon Cryer).
Iona keeps pushing for Andie to go to the prom and Blane just might want to be her date despite pressure from his friends.This is a Howard Deutch-John Hughes 80's teen classic.
As someone who went through her teenage years in the new millennium, Pretty in Pink provided a glimpse of what it was like being a teen in the '80s and yet was a movie I could identify with.
I like John Hughes's movies, but Pretty in Pink is not a favourite.
Doesn't mean you can't try."Pretty in Pink is one of several John Hughes movies that I'm just getting around to seeing for the first time, and it's a good one.
This movie is about a normal non-rich teen girl played by Molly Ringwald who seeks love from a rich boy, played by Andrew McCarthy while at the same time having an infatuated friend played wonderfully by a young Jon Cryer who can't seem to give her up.
PRETTY IN PINK was the hip and stylish teen angst comedy-drama where director John Hughes continued his cinematic love affair with Molly Ringwald which blends the expected teen angst with a sharp look the class system in the high school level.
Molly Ringwald and Andrew McCarthy were both good, but I didn't really like Ducky.
Of course, it's by John Hughes (master of teen angst comedies and dramas.) Again, he picks a great cast like Jon Cryer to play Duckie, James Spader to play the creep, Molly Ringwald to play Annie, Annie Potts to play her strange older friend, Harry Dean Stanton who plays Annie's father, etc.
As always, John provides a believable love triangle among Jon Cryer's Duckie, Molly Ringwald's character, and that guy who I forget his name.
Is Pretty in Pink a movie like that? |
tt0346136 | Webs | Four electricians, Dean, Junior, Ray and Shelly, are sent to cut off the power in a condemned building before it's torn down. They notice there's a difference between the floor plans and the actual size of the building. Upon breaking down a door they discover an old laboratory, which encloses an atomic pile (vintage nuclear reactor) powering a weird machine in the floor. They unwillingly set off an alarm and then boot up the device. Dean falls through a dimensional portal that's created and Junior goes after him, while Ray and Shelly read a journal left behind by the scientists. Dean and Junior appear outside in a deserted and web covered Chicago. Dean goes off to have a look around, while Junior waits for the others. Shelly, by reading the journal, realizes that the researchers were attempting to make a gateway to a parallel universe and he and Ray decide to step through the portal.
Finding no one on the other side of the dimensional portal, Ray and Shelly set off and get a fright when Junior leaps out. Junior leads them to a broken-down security van, with much money in the back. Junior, Ray and Shelly start celebrating, while Dean comes running back armed with a block of wood. Junior suddenly says "Guys" and steps forward with a claw in his stomach. Junior dies, and more creatures (spider people) attack the others. A group of humans save the electricians and kill the creatures. They fight more of the creatures, and head back to the portal, Dean stops to help a survivor and the portal closes leaving him trapped. On Shelly's and Ray's side, the atomic pile shorts the portal. Shelly starts trying to fix it, while Ray goes off to call for help.
The survivors bring Dean into their hideout where they meet Crane. A female survivor, Elayna, insists that Dean come with them to see "The Old Man". She blindfolds him and they set out for the base. Meanwhile, Ray comes back saying that everyone thinks he's insane and refused to send anyone. He did however come back with a small arsenal of guns. Dean meets the Old Man, who is revealed to be Dr. Richard Moreli, the inventor of the portal who got stranded here 30 years ago. Dean tells him his friends are on the other side and trying to fix it. Dr. Moreli tells him when he opened the portal 30 years ago, it let in the giant Spider Queen, who set out to enslave or eat most of humankind.
Elayna says the "soldiers" (the spider people) used to be normal people, but the Spider Queen's venom makes them completely under her control. Any survivors are made to show the soldiers where their base camp is, when the others go out and find the camps they are empty and bloodstained. They leave the base, to find the Spider Queen has been watching, they hear gunshots and find Shelly and Ray. The survivors bring them back to the base, and Shelly and Moreli begin to build a new portal.
The lookouts spot "soldiers" in the building and chase them. Dean and Ray stay behind to defend Shelly and Moreli. Dean gets impatient and goes off to help, leaving Ray alone. Dean, Crane and Elayna, meet up and go back for Moreli, but find Ray with a broken leg and alone. The three set out for the Queen's lair, while Ray stays behind to build traps. They find Moreli in the food chamber, but Shelly has been bitten. Shelly grabs Dean's gun and holds it to his head, telling them to go. The four race back to the base, while Shelly comes face to face with the Queen. Shelly tries to shoot her, but she is too far gone. She leads the Queen and her army to the base, and the "soldiers" kill everyone but Crane, who kills all of the army but Shelly and the Queen. Crane collapses, and Moreli leaves the makeshift lab to go out to him. Crane dies in his arms, and the Queen leaps down and kills Moreli.
Shelly enters the lab, turning off the power. Dean tries to get through to him, but fails and ends up killing him. Dean and Elayna work hurriedly on the portal, and they are just about to power it up when the Queen shows up. Dean grabs the last two wires to connect, and he connects them to the Queen. The current starts moving between the two, and the Queen gets electrocuted. The portal opens and Dean and Elayna jump through. The strain on the power system causes it to explode, taking the Queen with it.
Dean and Elayna wake up on a beach, and they share a kiss, just before a large flying animal attacks and presumably eats them, the two having apparently only made it to another alternate world and not home. | violence, alternate reality | train | wikipedia | One person commented Webs, raises the issue of, "If you could do it, should you?" And that might be just a little beyond its creator's true intentions but it does speak to a lot of the negative comments.
Is Webs a bad movie?
You bet and I hope they never stop making movies like this.
Webs wasn't made to take your attention away from big blockbuster movies.
Is Webs like Sliders?
Well, yes in TV land, like Sliders, Webs is a sort of a Sci Fi film and it does involve dimensional travel but I'm smart enough to know I'm not watching a lost episode of sliders.
I thought Webs dealt with the idea of despair and made the alternate Chicago seem like a place of lost hope.
In looking for faults, Webs has too many cookie cutter characters where you can remember their traits far easier than their names.
There isn't much excuse for flat characters with fewer dimensions than the setting but, like the plot holes pointed out by others, it just comes down to bad writing.
My eight-year-old boy asks questions about our world that would take more time than you, me and Richard Grieco have left in our lives.
It Looks Like an Episode of "Sliders", Only Worse and With Imbecile Dialogs.
In Chicago, four electricians leaded by Dean (Richard Grieco) come to an old building to disconnect power.
They accidentally activate a portal and arrive in another dimension, where Chicago was destroyed by a Spider Queen and inhabited by mutants.
The group meets survivors leaded by Crane (David Nerman) and Elena (Kate Greenhouse), and finds the inventor of the portal, Dr. Richard Morelli (Colin Fox), who has been living in this dimension for thirty years.
"Webs" is a watchable plagiarizing of "Sliders", only worse.
The face of Richard Grieco looks like a white version of Michael Jackson and is horrible.
If the viewer shuts-down his or her brain, he or she may like this forgettable TV movie.
An electrician(Richard Grieco) stumbles onto a "key" that can open a gateway to a parallel Earth that has been taken over by mutant spiders.
The finale confrontation is probably the best part of the whole movie.
The cast also features: Richard Yearwood, Colin Fox, Kate Greenhouse, Jason Jones and David Newman.
It was amazing to see what the aging Richard Grieco has been doing since his last foray into 'acting', except when I checked to see what movies he's been in recently there were quite a few.
The other people involved looked as if they were going through the motions, dutifully hoping the shooting schedule would end so they could go cash their checks before the rent on their trailer house(s) was due.
It did have the look of an old 'Sliders' episode, except with half the budget and half the combined acting pool.
Spiders in a parallel universe doesn't necessarily make for a good movie....
For a movie titled "Webs", I had initially expected more spiders and much more webbing, so imagine my surprise when there was surprisingly little on both accounts.
Apparently Chicago in an alternate dimension is overrun by strange mutated humans that have been exposed to spider venom; a venom that turns people into spider-soldiers.
And more impressively is that this venom causes the people's hands to turn into claws and their teeth to become crooked, protruding and just ridiculous to look at."Webs" is a low budget movie, yes, but there is something mildly entertaining about the setting of the movie, despite the lack of spiders and a proper horror element.
There was a single spider in the movie, the queen, which was actually nicely enough made, although not with the best of CGI effects.
But still, it worked out well enough.However, the movie is weighed down by a rather unemotional and unenthusiastic actor with a bad talent and even worse hair.
Why they opted to cast Richard Grieco for the lead role in this movie is definitely beyond my comprehension.
However, I strongly believe that the movie would have been much, much better with someone else in the role; someone who at least had enthusiasm for the job and role he is hired to portray.Aside from Richard Grieco, then people in the movie generally did good enough jobs with their given roles, despite their characters being very one-dimensional and not really having proper characteristics and personalities as to the extend where we as the audience actually get into the movie and form some sort of bond or attachment to certain characters.
And as for low budget movies go, then there are far better choices out there to pick amongst for an evening of movie watching.The movie was predictable to the core, as most of the movies in this particular genre is.
But in overall, then "Webs" is rather below average for a horror movie of this particular type..
A group of characters are transported to a parallel dimension in which spiders rule the earth.
Honestly, this has the look and feel of Sliders and about the same budget.
If you like Sliders then watch this clone on SciFi channel when nothing else is on..
'Webs' was another TV movie in a string of them made by the Sci-Fi network.
It stars the hunky Richard Grieco as Dean, one of a quartet of Chicago electricians who were sent to an abandoned building to check out an unusual power source.
And in this dimension, the Earth of the future is decrepit and over run by the spider-people minions of a queen spider working towards total dominance.This one is routine and uninspired, with unremarkable characters for the most part.
David Nerman, as Crane, has an actual character arc where he comes off as argumentative and suspicious of Grieco for a while, but turns into a hero of sorts.'Webs' is not great storytelling or TV movie making, but it's certainly not trying to be.
Movies like them do have their place in the great scheme of things, and this viewer, for one, would sometimes rather watch junk like this than overproduced Hollywood feature film product.Five out of 10..
...and it's not something I'm proud of.During my early high school years, I used to rent movies every Friday at my local video store, mostly horror films.
He described it as ''Alien with spiders instead of xenomorphs'' and since the DVD art looked sort of creepy, I believed him.Oh boy, I had absolutely no idea of what I was about to see...It took me less than 10 minutes to realize the truth; I had been fooled.
I'd like to write a good review but I'll just sum this movie up with a single word; CRINGE.It seemed like they didn't even tried hard, they just took ideas from lots of sci-fi/monster movies and executed them in the worst way possible; just compare the ending to the one of ''Deep Rising''.
the movie webs is a very good movie in my view.
a spider movie, 3.
and what is better than having an alien zombie spider human attacking and running wild on the streets of an alternate Chicago?
let me tell you NOTHING IS BETTER THEN alien spider zombie humans.......yeah.
yeah the movie is like sliders but did you think it was that bad.....if you did at least consider watching Webs it is One Of The best Grade B movies i have seen in along time!.
The lead actor, spoke is a near whisper, husky style voice, damn, it seemed that he was gonna seduce someone, and he didn't care who.The movie can't make money if it's boring, I hope this one dies a swift, never to be seen again, death..
WEBS is a pretty odd movie, albeit slightly watchable.
Richard Grieco plays an electrician who gets suck into a parallel Earth overrun by mutant spiders, or something like that.
The film itself was made with a modest budget, which explains the limited locales, and the somewhat tedious screenplay that manages to do very little with quite an interesting premise.
I know I gave Point Doom a bad rating.I really liked this flick.I liked it so much I recorded it.I knew Richard was a decent actor.To me he in this movie did an excellant job.The cast was good even the guy from the Fast and the Furious.I give Richard props for this.The effects were good for a low budget movie..
This film raises the question: If you could do it, should you?The premise of alternate universes was done wonderfully here.
This is one made for TV movie that I would cancel a night to the theatre to watch with no regrets.
Seriously only a movie only suitable for late night TV...you know, after Conan but before the infomercials sorta deal.Although this movie has very little to do with webs, it does have a lot to do with spiders, refer to my heading if you need a refresher.I found the idea behind the story absolutely fascinating.
A hidden nuclear generator, a scientist and a believable portal...Would have been a good start to a cool fantasy but then it goes downhill after 15-20 minutes.The cast is poor with no memorable performances, poor quality queen who has had her breasts amplified...considering spiders don't carry breasts.
An obvious low budget movie though the cast has tried.SPOILER:4 electricians stumble upon a hidden nuclear generator while on a job.
2 workers fall into the portal and it closes...scrambling to figure out what is going on, the party still in our world seeks help while the other party observers their surroundings.Help does not arrive so they open the portal and follow through meeting up in a parallel dimension.
After a death and chase they are saved by survivors.Now it gets boring...they hide, talk a bit, try to build another portal then attack the hive.
After losing 2 more electricians they open the portal and escape returning to our world...some 200 million years ago.Sounds interesting huh?.
Webs offered me as a viewer several enjoyable movies, one with an alternate world and a believably bizarre and deadly enemy, another with human protagonists at odds with each other while at the same time confronting a common threat, and still another with the drama of people sacrificing themselves for the common good.
There was drama and even some effective acting, although it was obvious that this was a low budget picture, and the actors weren't exactly first rate.
The spoilers :The special effects I felt were quite acceptable and unexpectedly good, especially the Spider Queen, but even her zombie soldiers and their black blood spraying every which way when they were killed was pretty creepy.
The tense final scene in which the leader and the professor sacrifice themselves in order to allow the last two humans to return to an apparently prehistoric era was satisfying as an ending, and along with the science fiction and human drama, I feel made this movie well above average..
They unwittingly activate power to a portal that leads to a parallel world where everything looks identical to their world.
The unwitting heroes join up with the last survivors in an attempt to return to their universe before the queen and her soldiers kill them all.
In the end only the primary character and a girl from the parallel universe make it back..
A lot of fun with plenty of great points about it.
"Webs" is a lot of fun and definitely worthwhile creature feature.**SPOILERS**Investigating an abandoned building, electrical workers Dean, (Richard Grieco) Ray, (Richard Yearwood) Sheldon, (Jeffrey Jones) and Jones, (Anthony Ashbee) are sent in to find a reason why power charges still occur.
Finding the area overrun by gigantic, ravenous spider-people and are leading a war against the sole survivors of the dimension, lead by Elena, (Kate Greenhouse) Crane, (David Nerman) and Dr. Richard Morelli, (Colin Fox) who also entered the dimension years ago.
Desperate to get back to their dimension, they become aware of a plot by the spider-people to take control of the transporter for their own use, leading to an all-out war with them for the dimension-transporter.The Good News: This wasn't an all that bad entry, and was actually pretty good at times.
The fact that there's a lot of action is something to enjoy, as this one's a rather fun action movie disguised as a creature feature.
The first sequence where they come into contact with them, outside the bank near the tunnel that the trap is laid, is a great one, as is the several confrontations that occur throughout to show the war going on, which is nicely done.
The fact that there's a lot more confrontations spread throughout here, because of the way the film presents the struggle as being a war, we get some great scenes, including other fights as well as two raids which determine the finale being really great.
These also work to give the film a fantastic pace as well, which is a good bonus.
That these provide such a high count is great, as it offers up plenty of opportunity for something to happen, and that makes the size of it impressive and help the war out a little more.
The spider design is impressive, looking really nice and quite scary at times, especially during the opening battles and a couple of moments where the queen is on-screen.
She looks really nice as well, even better than the drones and the fact that this one decides to give them a little bit in terms of social structure complete with rules about what happens and all.
These here are the film's good points.The Bad News: There wasn't much wrong to this one.
The way it's presented here has little to no way of being coherent at all, and is only given a cursory glance at late into the film that actually comes close to explaining it, yet that's all not very much.
Give this one a shot if you're into the genre, like the Sci-Fi Channel creature features or find it interesting, while those who aren't big fans of the style should heed caution.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.
Low budget sci-fi crap..
Webs starts in 'Chicago: Present Day' as four electricians, Dean (Richard Grieco), Ray (Richard Yearwood), Sheldon (Jeffrey Douglas) & Junior (Jason Jones) are about to disconnect the electric to an unused building scheduled for demolition.
As they mess around with some buttons a portal to a parallel universe opens, Dean & Junior accidentally 'fall' in with Ray & Sheldon following soon after in search of their friends.
Unfortunately they've all ended up in an exact parallel Earth that has been taken over by a mutant spider thing that either eats people or turns them into mutant soldiers with which she uses to protect herself & do whatever she wants them to really.
In a desperate bid for survival they team up with a few of the last remaining humans including the original inventor of the portal Dr. Richard Morelli (Colin Fox) who says that with the help of our electrician boys he might (yeah might) be able to build another portal to take them back home...Edited & directed by David Wu I thought Webs was pretty crap, it's as simple & straight forward as that really.
The script by Grenville Case & Robinson Young is preposterous to say the least & has plot holes in it you could drive a tank through, for instance is this film really trying to suggest that a few mutant spider things no bigger than a couple of people in size took over an entire world?
A few fragile looking spider things against literally billions of humans?!
Lets not forget that there is a inter-dimensional portal to a parallel Earth in the basement of most buildings that have sat there undisturbed for decades & remain in perfect working order, right?
The only half decent thing I can say about Webs is that it's short & it moves along at a fair pace but when all said & done it's still crap.Director Wu has to take a large chunck of the blame here, for a start the film looks cheap & the editing that he is credited with is terrible.
There's lots of annoying inappropriate slow motion shots that come from nowhere, the action scenes are almost identical & become incredibly boring very quickly.
In fact I don't know a single person who does like this sort of thing & I'm puzzled as to why filmmakers think people do.
Forget about any gore, just a few shotgun wounds to the spider zombie soldier guys & they don't have red blood anyway so it doesn't relate to reality in my mind.Webs was made-for-TV, the American Sci-Fi Channel I think & it looks every bit as cheap, low budget & rushed as you would expect.
The special effects are far from special & the spider thing lacks imagination when finally revealed.
The acting was OK considering everything else was so poor & I still can't believe the sweater Grieco was wearing in this.Webs is crap, I can't really say anything good about it other than I've sat through worse films & that's the sole reason I'm not giving it 1 star & a quick glance at the IMDb user ratings for Webs confirms what I already knew in that it has more '1' votes than any other & there is very good reason why....
OK we have 4 city electricians who find a mini nuke reactor, turn it in and fall into a parallel universe inhabited by a Giant spider queen also from a parallel universe, who managed to slip through with a few of her kin to take over the earth, but alas she is the only one left?
Also not a dig on city workers, but how is it they knew what a mini nuke reactor looked like and how if they did not have one in the parallel universe, could they reopen the rift? |
tt0119592 | Mad City | After being sacked from his job at a museum, former security guard Sam Baily returns to the place with a shotgun and dynamite and takes his former boss Mrs. Banks and a number of children (at the museum on a school field trip) as hostages. Local television journalist Max Brackett is in the museum using the restroom after an interview with the curator about financial difficulties. He becomes directly involved in the hostage situation, acting as Baily's intermediary to the outside world and the police.
Baily accidentally shoots a friend of his, Cliff, who's still working there as a security guard, sending him to the hospital. He later fires the weapon again, frightening the children and becoming increasingly unstable as he takes caffeine pills to stay awake. Along with the young intern coworker Laurie among the growing media circus outside, Brackett reports the inside story exclusively on television, reviving his career. By being free to come and go, he negotiates with a national network and its star news anchorman, Kevin Hollander, with whom Brackett has an unhappy history.
Baily wants the police to let him return home to his wife and kids, refusing to accept that he's going to jail. Brackett, on the other hand, makes a deal rather than let Hollander have the story, prompting Hollander to publicly accuse Brackett of prolonging the crisis and endangering the children. Laurie then betrays Brackett, proving that, like him, she's willing to do whatever it takes to further her own career.
When his friend Cliff dies, Baily starts to realize he's lost everything. Baily and Brackett allow the situation to worsen until the police finally have had enough, issuing a five-minute ultimatum to Baily for release of the hostages. Baily lets the children and Mrs. Banks go. He also sends out Brackett to try to convince the police to put down their guns so he could personally usher out Baily. But rather than face prison and his wife Baily locks the museum doors on Brackett, who's outside trying to get the police to listen.
Brackett tries to get him to come out, but Baily ignores him. Brackett is unaware that Baily has decided to set off his explosives, committing suicide. The blast knocks Brackett off his feet and into the parking lot, sending debris everywhere. As reporters surround Brackett to ask about Baily, all he can say is, "We killed him," referring to how the media handled the situation. | tragedy | train | wikipedia | That kind of "reporting" should be exposed and ridiculed.Whatever, you can enjoy this film for the acting alone with Dustin Hoffman, John Travolta, Alan Alda, Robert Prosky, Mia Kirschner and Ted Levine.
Here, it's a museum, and a man is in a predicament something like Al Pacino was in that film except Travolta's character here is totally innocent.The screenwriters added bit of humor to this involving story and that made it even better.
Instead of going for overkill like the pathetic "Natural Born Killers," this movie uses dark comedy, brilliant performances, and genuine thrills to create one of the most clever and powerful social commentaries to be seen in film in years.
If you're expecting a typical Hollywood thriller with a formula plot and a nice, neat ending then you'll be disappointed, but if you're looking for a smart, powerful film with brilliant performances by Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta, then I would recommend this movie.
MAD CITY is exciting and thrilling from the first scene.A talented success-hunting reporter is sent by his boss to a totally not interesting job: to do a story about a museum with financiary problems.
Upset and defeated, DUSTIN HOFFMAN's character goes there and has the chance of running into what will prove to be the story of his life: a guy enters the museum and takes everyone inside hostage.
Probably the best thing about MAD CITY are the actors: Travolta and Hoffman are great in their roles and they add an extra-value to the movie by the way they act.What if you really need money to support your family and you just got fired?
And the ending is the only one possible.Costa-Gavras does a great job with this movie and manages to mantain balance between the characters and the action.
We come to feel really bad for the Travolta character; the screenwriters' making him such a simpleton is, I'll admit, a bit manipulative, but as manipulations go it's a good one and a smart one - it lets us see the toll in human terms of the media frenzy.
For me, that rings as hollow satire; "Mad City" by truly trying to examine and get us to think about (not just laugh at) the media's power is miles away the better film..
In `Missing' he succeeded in getting Jack Lemmon to play a convincing role, and in `Mad City' he managed to get John Travolta to carry out the best role I have seen him in: his playing of a deranged simple worker real mad at having lost his job is truly memorable.
Dustin Hoffman ably supports but without exceeding himself overly.However, rather than the actors in themselves, it is the story itself which is more important and its message: getting the story on your TV news programme before your competitors is much more important than any other considerations such as in this case, a group of schoolchildren held hostage with a shotgun aimed at them.
The forces battle inside him through out the film.John Travolta was on the money but not stellar as Sam Bailey, a recently unemployed security guard on the cusp of losing everything that he owns.
Costa-Gavras is known as a political director and the most part of his movies are intriguing and makes us thinking about our way of see/accept the political facts in world.
In this movies, two different lives had being linked by a casual meeting in a museum: A reporter (Dustin Hoffman) whose career was marked by a mistake made in a network, is trying to "resurrect" his work making a report about a financial scandal when he's sent to make a report in a museum.
At the same time, a guard of the museum (John Travolta), fired some days before because of cut of budget, goes there trying to have a conversation with the manager and convince her to give his job back.
Besides the excellent performances of Hoffman and Travolta, Costa-Gavras makes once more, a very smart movie that can't be missed..
And Travolta's performance as the wretched ex-guard - a far from simple simpleton - is a revelation: The man is magnificent - Oscar-worthy - the great Hoffman is forced to accept a supporting role!
After all, it features a great direction by Costa-Gavras, good performances (especially from the lead actors), and an interesting plot.
It occurs to me that a possible reason for a restrained vote might be that many people are perhaps not ready to admit that what is shown in the film is the naked reality: In other words, it is difficult for some to swallow that today the events are not simply portrayed, but are actually shaped by the media, and especially the TV; the news people can make someone a hero, and at the next moment make him a hated man; they can produce a big story out of nothing, and they can sweep a significant event under the carpet without anyone noticing.Costa-Gavras illustrates this vividly in "Mad City".
Both Hoffman and Travolta are very convincing in their roles, the first as the ruthless journalist who starts to see the light, and the second as the confused, victim-cum-criminal.I believe "Mad City" is a movie that one has to view with an open mind.
Mad City has an almost identical storyline to Billy Wilder's 1951 classic Ace in the Hole, still the best movie about media ethics..
That kind of seals his fate.As good as Dustin Hoffman is the film really belongs to John Travolta as the desperate security guard, a slow witted kind of man who really hasn't thought through what he's doing.
He and Hoffman hate each other and Alda's attempts to spin the story his way and Hoffman's countermoves are what really set up the inevitable climax.Mad City is not very nice look at the news business and what people will do to get a story.
This movie creates a good example of that happening, and really goes in-depth to show the audience how the media salivates over a story that has been sensationalized.
I think John Travolta gives one of his best performances and Dustin Hoffman is amazing as always and also a great supporting cast.
I find it interesting that most movie critic reviews of this film are not very good, it makes me wonder if that has something to do with it's content.
The film focuses on the media and the harm it is capable of causing by at times stirring the pot or reporting then news the way they want it be seen.
Costa-Gravas' film 'Mad City' tells the story of an idiot who decides to turn around his life by taking hostages; needless to say, it doesn't end well.
Dustin Hoffman is borderline terrible as he lazily mutters his way through the entire movie acting almost as bored as the poor unfortunate audience, as if I had paid money to see this then I'd feel more than a little cheated.
He may be likable, but he's still a criminal.Dustin Hoffman plays the one-time superstar reporter who stumbles upon this story and proceeds to gain Travolta's confidence---even managing to leave the secured museum whenever he pleases.
An unoriginal, uninspiring film that fails to showcase the talents of both John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman.
By the end of the film, the viewer is painfully aware of what one writer has described as the irrationality of rationality.Mad City is directed by Costa Gavras who is known for political thrillers such as Z and Missing.
Dustin Hoffman plays a TV news reporter who has fallen from grace with the networks, and is sent to the museum to cover what he thinks will be a rather mundane story.
Hard-hitting ratings-obsessed investigative TV reporter Max Brackett (Dustin Hoffman) is sent to the Museum of Natural History to do a story about its financial difficulties.
Recently fired security guard Sam Baily (John Travolta) locks down the museum and takes everybody including a group of school kids hostage.
Costa-Gavras's Mad City has too many familiar elements ranging from Dog Day Afternoon to Falling Down to Ace in the Hole but something has gone awry in the screenplay as its neither sharp nor with grim humour.John Travolta is Sam Baily a museum security guard that has been laid off sue to budget cuts.
Seething with anger he goes to the museum and holds his boss (Blythe Danner) and a class of visiting school children hostage at gunpoint which recklessly goes off and wounds his form workmate.Also trapped in the museum is Max Brackett (Dustin Hoffman) who sees and opportunity to take advantage by broadcasting on the sly live on the local news.
Before long the FBI takeover from the local police, the major networks come down hard on both Brackett and Bailey and no one is quiet in control as they thought they were.The film is proficiently directed by Costa-Gavras but I expected more rather than a reminder of previous films dealing with a similar subject matter that did it better.Mad City has star power but low wattage..
This film really shows you, much more than others what media people can do, and what they really can be like, like enthusiastic newbie (Kirshner) assigned with journalist, Hoffman on a job, her first, to interview a museum director.
I hope, she likes to wait it out, cause it will be a long one coming, as disgruntled nutter/employee Travolta, takes over the museum, holding a school class hostage, as well as Hoffman, who I guess made a mistake, of going to the bathroom.
Yes, we've seen movies like this before, like Dog Day Afternoon, relying on Hoffman and Travolta to steer the story.
I never felt bored with this, and found this film deliciously entertaining, where the story and plot is kept in check, never veering away, or losing sight of it's objective, with one dynamite finale, tragic, sad, but disturbing too, as for the heartlessness, or some media, especially Kirshner, where at the end, I truly found her attitude sickening.
This is a story of an everyday man, once an air force pilot, quite hard to believe with Travolta's mummy like character (throwing tantrums, e.g. palm slapping the head repeatedly) that this pro does it well, trying to beat the odds and providing for his family, ejected from his job, as to cut down costs.
All of the other actors can't be criticized as badly as Travolta; they probably thought that working with Costa-Gavras was an honor and they are only as good (bad) as the script.
An out of favour reporter (Hoffman) is sent to a Museum to cover a "bit of fluff" story and finds himself in the middle of a great story when a sacked security guard (Travolta) takes some visiting children hostage.
It's a social satire about the media's role in the death of a museum security guard (John Travolta).
The film has striking parallels with Ace in the Hole (1951), and also with The Truman Show (1998) in that both deal with society's manipulation by the media.Hoffmann plays the TV reporter to perfection, and Travolta's performance is distinguished by the fact that this is one of the few roles where he is playing one of the lowly of society.
Once again, Dustin Hoffman gives a great performance as the TV news anchorman who goes to great lengths to make one man's struggle (John Travolta, who plays an idiot convincingly) into a hyped up news event in order to help his own career.
I also thought that both Dustin Hoffman, and John Travolta acted brilliantly, in the deliverance of their characters, and think overall it was an enjoyable, and thought provoking movie, which is worth your while..
It's a well done screen shot of current media coverage, always seeking greater audience no matter how much they're distorting the facts.There are quite a few interesting subtle things to see in this movie, like how easily Max Brackett's (Dustin Hoffman) assistant personality is spoiled as she enters the media system.Definitely a "must see"..
Why watch a movie and stop at scene after scene and say, "That wouldn't REALLY happen!", "The kids wouldn't really play games with THAT guy."The reason we see the wife's anger about the flower bed being trampled on and the media rushing the museum doors every time someone comes out or whatever, we're supposed to be getting the idea that these news reporters are the bad guys here.That aside, I really liked John Travolta in this, though the character was eerily similar to his character in White Man's Burden (another make-you-thinker).
Mad City is indeed a very thought-provoking film with some very brilliant acting from Travolta, Hoffman and even the supporting actors/actresses.
A down with luck TV reporter (Dustin Hoffman) has the gold chance of his life when he finds the story of a lifetime while covering a hostage situation in a museum.
John Travolta plays a fired security who held several kids and a museum director (Blythe Danner) as hostages simply because he wanted his job back.
Here stars the story of "Mad City" and some ponderations on the media role and the ones who watch it, which means, us!Wisely translated in Portuguese as "The Fourth Power" the film directed by Costa Gavras ("Missing", "Z") is satirical without being extremely funny or ridiculous; dramatical without becoming melodramatic; and controversial without being too shocking; criticizes but not that much, pointing its fingers on the media blaming it for being irresponsible and unethical, but where's the criticism towards audiences of this fourth power?
But when you have masterpieces like "Network" or "Ace in the Hole" this film pales a little in comparison.It might not have the same ferocity and originality as his works but it is a great work directed by Costa Gavras, with a great screenplay, nice music and fine acting by Hoffman (who now disowned the film in interviews calling of something I can post here referring to the word "City", yes, he does that with what he calls his bad films, go figure!), Travolta, Blythe Danner, Alan Alda, Ted Levine, Raymond J.
Robert Proskey was born into such roles...The first 2 two kids released were terrified of the assaulting media but loved the man with the gun...When all the kids are released>>>one walks back and says "Thank you SAM"...the stupid ass roof shooters shooting up "Big Indian Bob" in the middle of a great story being told by the man with the gun...Arguably, the best actor of the last 50 years, Dustin Hoffman is pure gold dust but Travolta shines magnificently and...a happy ending was impossible...The ultimate hostage taker is the media!.
And yet even as Mad City isn't something I'd say to a friend "watch this right away, it'll change your life" (that, of course, from Costa-Gravas, would be Z), it's definitely a good view for something on a lazy day or night, or for a minor Dustin Hoffman or (yes) John Travolta craving.
It does happen from time to time.The two stars are in very fine shape here- as far as the script can let them be- as a clear-headed but desperate reporter and a security guard with a heap of bad trouble respectively, who are put into an unintentional hostage situation after Travolta's recently fired museum security guard accidentally shoots a fellow guard and has to hold up a bunch of kids who are in the museum (plus Hoffman, in the bathroom after a boring interview while this happens), and then it turns into a media blitz.
Perhaps there would have been more possibilities if the movie had been made today, when cable news is even more saturated with BS filler, one analysis to the next taking up time from actual other news that could be reported.But, for complaints that can be had with Mad City, and there are more than a few, it's surely watchable Hollywood stuff, and this is thanks to the direction (I really liked the tension when Travolta is telling the kids the Indian ghost story in front of the display in the museum), and a nice roster of supporting/character actors.
If you've never seen a Dustin Hoffman or John Travolta movie before, by all means look elsewhere.
The folk hero is quickly turned into a hate figure , all because the main story was passed on to the main competition.The ending is dramatic , Dustin Hoffman's performance was nothing less than excellent.John Travolta was great in this role , but when I think of this film , the words " Is there anyone out there" takes on a complete new meaning.
Director Costa-Gavras creates a "Mad City", whose protagonist inhabitants, Max Brackett (Dustin Hoffman) and Sam Baily (John Travolta) unexpectedly meet in a twist of events..
Final point the movie was originally cast as Hoffman as the hostage taker and Travolta as the journalist.
This film features nicely crafted performances from its leads John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman.
A very uninteresting story of security guard Sam Bailey (John Travolta)who loses his job and unintentionally takes hostage a museum curator and a group of school children.
Then at the end of the film all the media and the other stuff fell into the right place creating a good movie.
John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman both did a good job, but the whole movie could have been over with in 30 minutes.
When i was reading about it i didn't think it would be my type of movie (even though John Travolta is my favorite actor!) but when i did watch it i thought it was great!
Mad City (1997): Dir: Constantin Costa Gavras / Cast: John Travolta, Dustin Hoffman, Mia Kershner, Alan Alda, Ted Levine: Miserable little item that deserves to be tossed in a fireplace.
Dustin Hoffman plays a news anchorman who is inside a museum when John Travolta holds several children and a few adults hostage.
Costa Gavras' "Mad City" sees actor Dustin Hoffman playing Max Brackett, a television reporter who uses a recent news story to boost his own career. |
tt0037885 | Love Letters | Alan Quinton (Joseph Cotten), an American soldier in Italy during World War II, has been writing letters for his friend, Roger Morland (Robert Sully), a man who admits he "never had any standards, manners or taste." Alan has never met Victoria Remington, but regards her as a "pin-up girl of the spirit," to whom he can express feelings he has never expressed in person. He realizes that Victoria has fallen in love with the letters and is concerned that she will be disappointed by the real Roger. However, Roger abruptly leaves for paratrooper training in England.
Alan is subsequently injured on the Italian front and finds out that Roger is dead. He is having trouble readjusting to civilian life and spending time with his fiancée, Helen Wentworth (Anita Louise). He decides to live for a while at his aunt's farm in Essex. In London, his brother takes him to a party at which he meets Dilly Carson (Ann Richards) and Singleton (Jennifer Jones). He drunkenly tells them the story about falling in love with a woman he's never met, and Dilly realizes he is referring to Roger and Victoria. She tells Alan that a murder was committed and the letters were somehow involved.
Alan and his fiancée realize they aren't in love and part amicably before he moves to the farm. While in Essex, Alan visits Longreach — the road to which he addressed all the letters — and finds out that Victoria died over a year ago. He also learns that Roger was murdered by his wife, and Alan feels guilty for ever writing those letters. Back in London, Dilly informs him that Singleton is suffering from amnesia and is actually the real Victoria. She begs him not to tell Singleton that he was the one who wrote the letters because Victoria fell in love with Roger through the letters and married him solely based on them.
Dilly recounts that one day, she found Roger stabbed to death in the country house on Longreach, but Victoria was completely unable to remember what happened, even though she was holding the murder weapon right beside him. After a trial during which she cannot remember anything, she is sent to a prison psychiatric hospital for a year and then released into the care of Dilly. Victoria never regained her memory, and continues to now live as Singleton. Singleton realizes that Alan is in love with Victoria, but does not realize Victoria is actually herself. Regardless, Alan and Singleton marry after he gets permission from her adopted mother, Beatrice Remington (Gladys Cooper). However, their marriage is constantly scarred by Alan's love of the "other woman."
Beatrice returns to the farm and while conversing with Singleton, Singleton begins to remember the events of that fateful night: As Roger begins to drink, Victoria rereads the letters to remind herself of the man she loves and not the bitter man she sees in front of her. Roger confesses that he is not the one who wrote the letters, and he becomes abusive. Beatrice takes a knife and is the one to stab him to death as Victoria attempts to save the letters he had thrown into the fireplace.
As Alan arrives at the house, Victoria recalls her true identity and they fall into each other's arms. | romantic, murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1351784 | Psychosis | In 1992, a group of young Anarchists seeking to preserve the local wildlife are brutally murdered. The killer is later found collapsed by a river due to wounds he'd sustained while attempting to kill the lone surviving anarchist.
The movie flashes forward 15 years as successful crime novelist Susan moves into a nearby house with her husband David, who have purchased the house in hopes of it helping her with her writing. Susan is quickly made uneasy as she witnesses the house's gamekeeper Peck having enthusiastic sex in the woods and then later exposing himself to her. She also begins to witness strange visions in the house, all surrounding bloody bodies, the killer from earlier in the film, and people who appear one moment and disappear the next. It is later revealed that Susan had previously suffered a mental breakdown due to seeing and hearing things that were never there, which was part of the reason for the house's purchase.
After David leaves for a "business trip" (quickly revealed to be an excuse to indulge in incredibly raunchy affairs), Susan is drugged and taken advantage of sexually by Peck. The next day Susan confides in the local priest about her past mental illnesses and her fears of her new home. The priest has a psychic examine the house, only for the psychic to declare that there are no presences currently in the house.
Immediately after the psychic and the priest are escorted outside by her husband, Susan witnesses a series of brutal murders involving all of the people she had earlier seen in her visions throughout the film. These visions end up destroying what little sanity Susan has left, resulting in her accidentally killing Peck as he was checking up on her. Upon discovering what she has done, Susan is sent to a mental institution to spend the rest of her days.
The movie then shows that Susan had been channeling her visions into her latest book, which has become an instant bestseller. David is shown receiving the money from her book and it is implied that he had married Susan only for her money and that Peck's actions were done in an attempt to get blackmail material for the divorce. David then goes back to the house one last time to finalize the sale to its new owner, where we are then shown all of the people Susan had witnessed during her stay in the house. He is then gruesomely murdered by the killer Susan had been seeing all along (who had been incarcerated but escaped), revealing that her visions had never been due to insanity, rather because she'd been having visions of the future murders that would happen in the house. | paranormal, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0037563 | The Bullfighters | Private detectives Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy travel to Mexico City in pursuit of an infamous female larcenist named Hattie Blake (Carol Andrews), who is publicly known as ”Larceny Nell”. Meanwhile, an American sports promoter, Richard K. Muldoon (Ralph Sanford) meets with publicity man ”Hot Shot” Coleman (Richard Lane), and his assistant (Irving Gump) to discuss an upcoming bullfight featuring famed Spanish matador Don Sebastian. But when Muldoon sees pictures of the bullfighter he is enraged; Don Sebastian looks exactly like Laurel. Hot Shot is confused until Muldoon tells him the story: Eight years earlier, Laurel and Hardy both testified against Muldoon in a criminal case, and Muldoon was wrongfully convicted of the crime (the details of which were never specified) and granted a twenty-year jail sentence; However, after five years the true criminal confessed to the crime and Muldoon was subsequently released. But while in prison he had lost his wife and business and had to start all over in Mexico. He still holds a grudge against Stan and Ollie and vows revenge showing a large knife: "Someday our paths will cross! And when they do, I'll skin them alive! First the little one, then the big one! I'll skin them both alive!!"
Meanwhile, Ollie and Stan confront Blake in an attempt to arrest her only for her to snatch the papers that permit them to arrest her outside the States followed by an egg-breaking tit for tat sequence before she escapes. They run into Coleman who sees Stan's uncanny resemblance to the bullfighter. Since the real Don Sebastian's arrival is delayed because of passport trouble, Coleman, after telling the confused Ollie and Stan about Stan's resemblance to Don Sebastian and the vengeful Muldoon's wrongful conviction, forces Stan to impersonate the bullfighter in the meantime, threatening to reveal his and Ollie's presence to Muldoon if he doesn’t cooperate, but promising them a very handsome payment for their trouble if he does. Stan reluctantly agrees only because Hot Shot promises he won't have to fight bulls. But eventually, the real Don Sebastian's passport trouble turns out to be worse than originally thought and so Stan will have to take his place in the ring and fight bulls after all.
On the day of the fight Stan, nervous about fighting bulls, gets drunk. But then, unbeknownst to anyone, the real Don Sebastian has somehow miraculously contrived to making it to Mexico City just in time for the big bullfight. Ollie mistakes him for Stan and forces him into the arena. Stan staggers up, and Hardy sends him into battle. With two Laurels in the ring, the outraged spectators cry foul and every bull in the arena is turned loose. Stan and Ollie try to escape the vengeful Muldoon, but not fast enough. The film ends with Muldoon catching up with them at their hotel as they are about to pack before attempting to escape to the airport. Just like he promised, he skins them alive, leaving them, except their heads, in bare bones. Then Ollie says his "another nice mess…" catchphrase to Stan. Stan whimpers before they decides to go home. | flashback | train | wikipedia | Laurel and Hardy, in their last American made movie, have made a silly little film with enough story and gags to entertain the little ones and make the adults smile.
A great moment occurs when the boys are sitting in a hotel lobby near a fountain and Stan decides to "investigate" what a particular faucet is for.
THE BULLFIGHTERS (1945)This was the last movie the aging Laurel and Hardy made for Twentieth Century-Fox, and it's another fun and underrated one at that, even if it doesn't quite measure up to the classic shorts they made a decade earlier.
They really manage to inject a lot of old tried and true gags into the proceedings, thanks in part to the fact that Stan Laurel is reported to have co-directed, and so the team had more input with regard to their jokes and material.
Here, the "boys" are in Mexico where Stan is mistaken for a famous bullfighter.
Laurel & Hardy's last American film is also probably the best(or more accurately,least worst)of their post-Hal Roach movies.One positive aspect,unlike their previous Fox/MGM wartime efforts,is that there are scenes in the film which are reasonably in character,as likeable innocents,and not complete idiots.
A reworking of the egg-breaking sequence from HOLLYWOOD PARTY(1934)works quite well,as does a water-throwing routine.Arguably the best moments in the film are with cult character actor Hank Worden,who while registering at the hotel says he can't write("He's forging my name!",Stan protests!).
Where the film falters is with supposed villain Ralph Sanford.Walter Long,Rychard Cramer,Charlie Hall and James Finlayson were both menacing and funny in the Roach films,but in this film,Sanford is neither despite his bulky frame.Former Radio announcer Richard Lane is good though,but the film falters in it's second half with a hackneyed 'double' story;namely Stan being a lookalike for the great bullfighter Don Sebastian.And for the first time since their earliest silent days,Fox's make-up department do away with their comic hairstyles.Still,the film brightens up with an amusing 'freak' ending,which Stan liked to employ occasionally with the Hal Roach studios.Not a good film,but certainly a tolerable one compared to A-HAUNTING WE WILL GO(1942) and THE DANCING MASTERS(1943)..
Of course, this Laurel & Hardy feature is not another "Way Out West" (1937), but it's still worth watching.
Their final Hollywood picture is far better than the other Fox and MGM products that the Boys did in the forties.
Even Stan's make-up, which he was forced to change in the former Fox movies and that made him look much older, resembles his appearance in the old Roach days.
It's always sad to think of the fact, that there was only one more Laurel & Hardy film to be done after "The Bullfighters"..
Entertaining enough but no more than that- last Laurel & Hardy movie for Twentieth Century-Fox..
It's no big surprise to say that Laurel's & Hardy's movies for the Twentieth Century-Fox aren't their best.
"The Bullfighters" is a decent entertaining movie but it's lacking in anything refreshing or magical, like in all of the other earlier movies always was the case.It's probably true that Laurel & Hardy should had stopped before the '40's.
It was like Laurel & Hardy were playing a parody of their old selves in that time period.
It sounds perhaps a bit too harsh, also considering that their movie from that period were all still pretty entertaining to watch.As a standalone movie, "The Bullfighters" is a pretty decent movie to watch but as a Laurel & Hardy movie, it's a pretty bad one by their standards.
The same goes for some needless plot lines, like the boys being two private detectives.The movie does have its good moments and its amusing ending also makes up a lot, although it comes a bit too late to completely make- or save the movie entirely.Too simple and not refreshing enough to really leave a lasting impression but entertaining enough to watch, nevertheless.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
Way back in the day before Laurel teamed with Hardy, Stanley was quite the comic silent screen star and many of his short subjects were satires of current big screen productions.
20th Century Fox also now owned the rights to Blood And Sand because of the great Tyrone Power sound version that had come out a few years earlier.So in their farewell film before the disastrous comeback with Utopia, Stan and Ollie did The Bullfighters where Laurel got to be a bullfighter again.
And he plays a dual role the great Don Sebastian of Spain and just plain Mr. Laurel who with Mr. Hardy are a pair of private eyes from Peoria.Now if you can wrap your minds around the concept of ANYBODY hiring these two as detectives, The Bullfighters is an amusing enough film though not up to the standards of their Hal Roach work.
They're in Mexico on an extradition job to bring back Carol Andrews and of course in their usual fashion make a holy hash of that.But promoter Richard Lane notices Stan's resemblance to Don Sebastian and since this guy whom he has brought over and promoted is being held up at the border.
They've got a problem however in Ralph Sanford who got sent up the river on the mistaken testimony of these two lugnuts and threatens to skin them alive.The Bullfighters is amusing, especially in that last sequence when both of Laurels personas show up in the bullring with the PI from Peoria getting well fortified for the occasion.
I can't blame Stan it's the only way I would go in a bull ring.You'll have to see The Bullfighters to see if Sanford makes good on his threat..
A decent and watchable final American film for Laurel and Hardy.
Of all the six films Laurel and Hardy made for Fox Studios, THE BULLFIGHTERS is probably the second best of the lot and as such wasn't a bad way for the team to finish their last American film.
Too bad they later decided to star in the rather dismal ATOLL K for a French studio.For years, I assumed that all the films the team made post-Hal Roach Studios were bad.
But at least they were pleasant little films (aside from the dreadful THE BIG NOISE and perhaps THE DANCING MASTERS).I think the reason why THE BULLFIGHTERS was such a watchable film is because the team had more say-so in the film and it was a bit more fun than the rather dull previous films (excepting JITTERBUGS).
While a couple of the routines were unfortunately copies of fights from earlier films (such as BIG BUSINESS, TIT FOR TAT and Hollywood PARTY), the rest of the film was rather amusing.
Plus, unlike so many of these 40s films, there is no stupid sub-plot to get in the way--just lots of Laurel and Hardy.
As it happens, not only is Stan a dead ringer for a noted bullfighter, but a man whom the guys helped imprison is seeking revenge.There are some funny scenes, but the movie isn't quite like their 1930s movies.
yes, their final for the USA, and too bad it is far from their "average" feature for the great Hal Roach (1927-1940).on the other hand, along with THE DANCING MASTERS, this hangs together as a *comedy* and the Director thankfully does not bog them down as the naïve but lovable dummies who spend all their time helping the young lovers.some genuine laughs are delivered...and this cannot be said of most of their post-Roach stuff in the '40s.
some great opportunities are lost, as usual in this Fox effort, but the picture has the right look and the comedy flows, like the '43 flick mentioned above..
This film is merely a stitched together series of some of the old gags used in their earlier shorts and features but without any direction or cause and effect.
The Bullfighters was as good a farewell as could be for Laurel & Hardy's last American movie.
Ironic this became the last film Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy made in Hollywood-and for 20th Century-Fox-as it was a definite improvement to those other post-Hal Roach movies from the previous five years.
It's only because of a fast-talking go-between man named Hotshot Coleman (Richard Lane who has great chemistry with Stan & Ollie) that the boys mostly manage to avoid Richard K.
Also appearing were Carol Andrews-the woman L & H are looking for-who participates in perhaps one of the funniest sequences in the movie, a reprise of the boys' "egg battle" sequence they previously did with Lupe Velez in Hollywood Party, and Hispanic bombshell Diosa Costello who performs her sexy song-and-dance act here.
I initially saw this movie 25 years ago on VHS and I enjoyed it then and still do now especially since the DVD version I just watched also had a fine commentary track by Scott MacGillivray, author of the book-"Laurel & Hardy: From the Forties Forward"..
Down Mexico Way. It is very easy to understand Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's appeal, with their such great comic timing and memorable contrasting and distinct personalities, and why they are so fondly remembered.
Their best material, both verbal and particularly physically, was amusing to hilarious and their best films, short and feature, are perfect examples of how to do comedy.Which is why it is sad that their filmography declined as drastically as it did in the post-Hal Roach period post-1940 (know that a few of the late 30s films were less than great but not to this extent).
For me though, while not a great film and far from prime Laurel and Hardy, 'The Bullfighters', most significant for being their final American film, is still one of their better post-Hal Roach efforts alongside 'Jitterbugs'.Some of the second half is a bit hackneyed with a double subplot that feels forced at times, while the private detectives business doesn't serve as much point as ought, feeling like padding and making the story feel unfocused.
The supporting cast are a bit hit and miss, with Ralph Sanford coming over as on the anaemic side as the villain, was expecting someone more formidable and with sharper comic timing.The humour is also mixed, some of it is derivative of past material and not all of it feels very fresh.However, Laurel and Hardy actually feel like leads here (not always the case with their later films).
Both have more energy than in other films from this period and they are good fun and look like they're enjoying themselves more than most of their post-Hal Roach films.
The fountain sequence is one of the best and funniest sequences of the duo's later films and the final gag is surprisingly creative.Richard Lane is good fun in his role and the first half has zest and energy.
Visually, 'The Bullfighters' is generally nicely made and looks professional in how it's shot, the editing not crude, while the direction is competent if not always the most inspired.In summary, decent post-Hal Roach outing and, although far from classic Laurel and Hardy, one of the best from this declining period.
Bullfighters, The (1945) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Laurel and Hardy's final American film finds them playing detectives in Mexico looking for a woman.
Going through L&H's final films at Fox, I think one could agree that they're not the best work from the boys but at the same time they're not nearly as horrible as their reputations would have you believe.
This film here certainly isn't the greatest but there are enough laughs to make it worth viewing and the 61-minute running time goes by rather quickly.
The best gag in the film happens early on when the boys are sitting next to a fountain and Laurel accidentally shoots Hardy with some water.
Hardy, thinking it was a man sitting next to them, starts a water fight and this rather long sequence just keeps getting funnier and funnier as it goes along.
It's time for another Laurel and Hardy adventure.This time Stan and Ollie find themselves in New Mexico, where the boys from Peoria, Illinois go as private detectives.Their job is to find Larceny Nell.There is also a certain Richard K.
Muldoon, who the boys sent in prison a few years back.He was later found not guilty, but he seeks for revenge on those two saps.He wants to skin them alive, first the little one, then the big one.There's another fine mess Stan's gotten Ollie into.There also happens to be a huge resemblance between Stan and a famous matador from Barcelona.He doesn't get there on time because of some passport problems, so Stanley has to pretend to be him.And the poor little guy is allergic to bulls.The Bullfighters (1945) is directed by Malcolm St. Clair, but also Stan Laurel wrote and directed portions of this feature.This is Laurel's and Hardy's last movie to be made in America for 20th Century Fox and their second last movie in general.Stan Laurel (1890-1965) and Oliver Hardy (1892-1957) show us that they are the greatest comedy team ever lived.It's their childlikeness that makes them so likable.A good comedian never lets his inner child die, and they knew that.There's also a great supporting cast in this movie.Margo Woode portrays Senorita Tangerine.Richard Lane is 'Hot Shot' Coleman, the man who makes Stan a bullfighter.Diosa Costello (b.1917) plays Conchita, who sings Bim Bam Bum and shows her fantastic dance moves in the film.Carol Andrews plays Hattie Blake, also known as Larceny Nell.Ralph Sanford is Richard K.
Muldoon.Hank Worden plays the part of Mr. McCoy.This movie contains many funny gags that will make the L&H fans laugh.When Stanley is kissed by a beautiful woman, and he faints, is one of those moments that I loved.And I liked the water fight at the fountain.The egg gag is pretty hilarious, where Larceny Nell and the boys start messing each other with eggs.Or Oliver disguising him with a mask when Muldoon comes in, and when he's in the telephone booth and falls on the poor guy.And when Stanley pretends to be Don Sebastian and he takes a big bow and hits his head on the table.You can't help but laugh at the little man's mishaps.And when the boys find themselves in a sticky situation hanging over the hay bales after the bull gets wild.In the end we see the boys with their bones rattling all over the place, after Muldoon has skinned them alive.To me this is a better movie than what has been said of it.I and my family really enjoyed this comedy by Laurel and Hardy.L&H have never left me with a disappointment.These boys brought us their comedy, which we still find amusing.There's a little less laughter and a little less joy when Stan and Ollie aren't there with their new movies..
While this is nowhere near the quality of any of their Hal Roach films, "The Bullfighters" is one of the best if not the best of the films Laurel and Hardy did for Fox. For one thing, they are not playing second fiddle to an boring love story.
Stan, stripped of his white face makeup by Fox degree, always looks a bit tired as his dark age lines show, but he also puts in a better performance than in the other Fox vehicles.One of the films biggest problems may be the villain.
Ralph Sanford plays Richard Muldoon, a man who was sent to jail for 20 years based mostly on Stan and Ollie's testimony.
However, if he's so anxious for revenge, one wonders why he just didn't go back to Peoria and track Stan and Ollie down, rather than move to Mexico and just "happen" to run into them.
The part screams for someone like Walter Long ("The Live Ghost", "Going Bye Bye", "Any Old Port", "Pardon Us") or Tiny Sanford ("Busy Bodies") both of which would have been much more intimidating.Edward Gargan does okay in a tit for tat scene with Stan and Ollie at a fountain (though one longs for James Finlayson) and the lovely Carol Andrews does fairly well in reprising the egg scene Lupe Velez did so well in "Hollywood Party".All in all, I found this film better than expected after seeing the dreadful "Atoll K", "Great Guns" and "A Haunting We Will Go".
If you have to see Laurel and Hardy in a Fox film, this is the one to see..
In this last of the Fox-sponsored Laurel and Hardy comedies, the boys are private detectives, who have come to Mexico to find and arrest one Hattie Blake(Carol Andrews), also known as Larceny Nell.
Initially, Maldoon is persuaded that Stan is the look-alike of famous Spanish bullfighter Don Sebastian, while Ollie succeeds in hiding from him.
However, Stan continues to get it wrong, addressing him as Potshot, or Hotfoot.........In addition to the eggs fight, the boys have an old fashioned water fight with a man.........Ollie is in a phone booth, trying to talk to Stan, who is in another part of the night club.
Although he gets in the ring, he doesn't have to fight the bull, as Sebastian shows up to do so.........See the film in B&W at YouTube.
Although nearly all the Hal Roach-produced talkies have been colorized, none of the 4 Fox L&H films I have seen has a colorized version at YouTube..
NOTES: Laurel & Hardy's final American film.
Nor does the support cast come up to the standard of their other Fox features.
The girls are most certainly attractive, but they have a relatively minor role, the proceedings being dominated by Ralph Sanford and Richard Lane, capable enough actors within the limits of their usual type-casting, but not the sort of personalities we are likely to enjoy throughout an entire film.
Still, for all the film's shortcomings, Laurel and Hardy are still a delight and their routines are fairly amusing..
Laurel & Hardy's last major film has a skeleton of a plot..
Going "Down Mexico Way" as private investigators, the boys once again are part of a case of mistaken identity with Laurel believed to be a famous (!) Spanish bullfighter. |
tt0082984 | Reborn | In Reborn! a boy, Tsunayoshi "Tsuna" Sawada, is chosen to become the tenth boss of the Vongola Family, as he is the great-great-great-great grandson of the first Vongola boss—who moved to Japan from Italy. Timoteo, the Vongola IX—the current head of the family—, sends Reborn, an infant hitman from Italy, to train the reluctant Tsuna. Reborn's chief teaching method is the "Dying Will Bullet" (死ぬ気弾, Shinukidan), which causes a person to be "reborn" with a stronger self to execute his dying wish. The clumsy, underachieving Tsuna becomes stronger, more confident and willing, making him a suitable Vongola family boss despite his continued reluctance. He makes several friends, including Kyoko Sasagawa.
Tsuna gets out of many scrapes on his way to becoming the Vongola boss, fighting escaped Mafia convicts posing as Kokuyo Junior High School students. The Varia, the Vongola assassin squad, want their boss, Xanxus, to be the Vongola boss and initiate a competition with Tsuna. To defeat the Varia, Reborn recruits Tsuna's schoolmates as Vongola guardians: Hayato Gokudera, an explosives expert who wants to be Tsuna's right-hand man; Takeshi Yamamoto, an athlete who likes baseball and thinks of the Mafia as a game; Ryohei Sasagawa, captain of the school boxing club, and head prefect Kyoya Hibari. Lambo, a weak infant hitman who wants to kill Reborn; and Chrome Dokuro, a girl with links to the criminal Mukuro Rokudo, also join them.
After defeating the Varia, Tsuna and his friends are transported to the future to face the Millefiore family, who are killing the Vongolas. They discover that the Arcobaleno, the seven strongest infants, are dead except for Lal Mirch. When Tsuna and the Vongola guardians fight the Millefiore, they learn that Shoichi Irie, a comrade of Tsuna's future self, sent them to the future because the future Tsuna said they were the only ones able to defeat Millefiore leader Byakuran. Byakuran, who has obtained knowledge from parallel worlds, wants to obtain all the Mafia rings to become omniscient.
Tsuna and his group defeat Byakuran and return to the present, where they learn that he is to be installed as Vongola X. The ceremony is disrupted by the Shimon Family, who have sworn revenge on the Vongola founding father for allegedly betraying the first Shimon boss. Tsuna confronts the Shimon Family on a secluded island; the Vindice, a group of former Arcobaleno who protect the laws of the mafia, are involved in the fight and imprison the losers. After several battles it is learned that Daemon Spade, an illusionist and first Vongola generation guardian, was manipulating Shimon, using the conflict to control Mukuro Rokudo and remake the Vongolas in his image. The combined strength of Tsuna and Shimon's leader, Enma Kozato, defeats him.
After Tsuna reconciles with Shimon, Reborn and the other Arcobaleno compete among themselves to remove their curse. Each Arcobaleno chooses a representative to fight for them and the winner will be able to undo the curse. The Vindice enter the competition, informing Reborn and Tsuna that the tournament is a front for the selection of a new Arcobaleno; the previous Arcobaleno die or become Vindice. Tsuna joins the remaining teams to defeat Bermuda, a former Arcobaleno, and the Vindice. On the final day of the Representative Battle of the Rainbow, Tsuna defeats Bermuda and his team. Checker Face, who inflicted the Arcobaleno Curse of the Rainbow, reveals his true identity as Kawahira, administrator of the humankind's ultimate power, Tri-ni-set. Finding another way to keep the Tri-ni-set safe, Kawahira agrees to entrust it to future generations and remove the curse.
After the Arcobaleno battle, Tsuna refuses to become the tenth head of the Vongola Family and Reborn leaves. A week after his departure, Tsuna realises that he is still his no-good self; nothing has changed. Reborn returns to train Tsuna as Neo-Vongola Primo, similar to Vongola Decimo; Tsuna remembers that he now has friends he can rely on and has been changed by his experiences, thanks to his tutor and partner Reborn. | romantic | train | wikipedia | REBORN (Bigas Luna, 1981) **1/2. This was a complete obscurity for me when I chanced upon it on the weekly TV guide but, with that cast (Dennis Hopper, Michael Moriarty, Francisco Rabal) and director (Bigas Luna), I decided to check it out. As it turned out, it's a bizarre and wildly uneven religious satire (with some mild horror/thriller elements added towards the end) but a handful of powerful moments make it worth watching nevertheless. In short, it deals with an introverted Italian woman who suffers from stigmata attacks and is invited by a flamboyant American televangelist (Hopper) to appear on his show; the ensuing repercussions include an unheralded miracle cure during a mass rally and her falling in love with her "captor" (Moriarty, giving his typically offbeat characterization) after a traumatic first sexual encounter in a hotel room - in itself, a very disturbing and blackly comic sequence. The rushed ending, featuring sympathetic aide-turned-villain Rabal chasing Moriarty and the woman as Hopper flips out at his headquarters is clumsy and incoherent but the disjointed whole is held together somewhat by the constant and effectively unnerving (this being the 1980s, would it be otherwise?) synthesizer-based music score.. I did the final cut on this film. I was the producer of the completion of this film and have the credit of Producer on the print. Bigas Lunas has a unique and powerful style, letting Hopper go fairly wild here, but within the confines of Bigas's deeply felt spirituality. The film is full of unforgettable moments and images, many so vivid that they can change our remembrance of what is real. The film moves from Houston with Hopper in a revivalist church, a minister losing his faith. The film moves to Spain, where a young woman experiences an unusual stigmata-like experience that clearly sets her as an affirmation of Catholic reality. Beautiful, disturbing and I hope, worth seeing.. Unusual and compelling (Christian) religious horror. Bigas Luna is a truly original filmmaker, and this is a very strange, but very interesting movie. It's kind of a second-coming movie, only very different from what you'd expect. Michael Moriarty and Dennis Hopper are both great. I'd mostly recommend it to fans of strange low-key horror. |
tt0180793 | The Last September | Preface
Although The Last September was first published in 1929, a preface was written for this text decades later to be included in the second American edition of this novel. Concerned that readers unfamiliar with this particular chapter of Irish history would not fully comprehend the anxieties of these times, Bowen takes great pains to explain the particulars of both her writing process and the political reasons for the unsettled atmosphere felt throughout the text, palpable even in its most seemingly serene moments. Of all her books, Bowen notes, The Last September is "nearest to my heart, [and it] had a deep, unclouded, spontaneous source. Though not poetic, it brims up with what could be the stuff of poetry, the sensations of youth. It is a work of instinct rather than knowledge—to a degree, a ‘recall’ book, but there had been no such recall before.” While Bowen's own beloved family home, Bowen's Court, remained untouched throughout "The Troubled Times" this preface explores the ramifications for witnesses of “Ambushes, arrests, captures and burning, reprisals and counter-reprisals” as "The British patrolled and hunted; the Irish planned, lay in wait, and struck.” "I was the child of the house from which Danielstown derives" Bowen concludes, “nevertheless, so often in my mind's eye did I see it [Bowen’s Court] burning that the terrible last event in The Last September is more real than anything I have lived through.”
Part One
The Arrival of Mr. & Mrs. Montmorency
The Last September opens in “a moment of happiness, of perfection” as Sir Richard and Lady Naylor welcome their long-awaited guests, Hugo and Francie Montmorency, to their country estate, Danielstown, in Cork, Ireland. Despite—or, in some characters’ cases, in spite of—the tensions produced by what Bowen obliquely refers to as “The Troubled Times,” the Montmorencys, the Naylors, as well as the Naylors’ niece, Lois, and nephew, Laurence, attempt to live their lives in the aftermath of The Great War while coping with the occasionally conflicting dictates of their class's expectations and personal desires. Preoccupied with the concerns of social obligations which must be met even as they are enacted against a backdrop of uncertainty and national unrest, the residents of Danielstown occupy themselves with tennis parties, visits, and dances, often including the wives and officers of the British Army who have been assigned to this region. The people of Danielstown all share a particular interest in the shifting relationship between Lois and a young British officer, Gerald Lesworth, as Lois struggles to determine precisely who she is and what it is she wants out of life.
Part Two
The Visit of Miss Norton
Lois’s confusion regarding her future and the state of the bond she shares with Gerald is temporarily sidelined by the arrival of yet another visitor to Danielstown, a Miss Marda Norton whose connection to the Naylor family remains strong even in the face of perpetual inconvenience and Lady Naylor’s long-standing polite aversion to the younger woman. Marda’s presence is, however, as much of a blessing for Lois and Laurence as it is an annoyance for Lady Naylor and Hugo Montmorency—the latter having developed a one-sided fixation on the soon-to-be-married Marda.
While Lois and Marda’s friendship deepens, readers are also made aware of escalating violence as the fragile status quo established between the British Army, the Black and Tans, and local Irish resistance is threatened by Gerald's capture of Peter Connor, the son of an Irish family friendly with the Naylors. Unbeknownst to the residents of Danielstown (with the single exception of Hugo), Lois and Marda's acquaintance with Ireland's national turmoil is expanded firsthand as they are confronted by an unknown individual while on an afternoon stroll through the countryside of County Cork. Although permitted to depart with only a trifling wound to Marda's hand and Lois's promise that they will never speak of this encounter in the ruins of the old mill, this meeting and Marda's subsequent return to England signal a shift as the novel's characters’ attention return to the various topics occupying their thoughts before her arrival.
Part Three
The Departure of Gerald
After Marda Norton’s departure, Lois’s attention is once again firmly fixed upon both Gerald and the activities organised by the British officers’ wives. But despite Lois’s determination to finally come to a firm conclusion regarding her future, her relationship with Gerald is first delayed by Lady Naylor’s machinations and then left forever unresolved by Gerald’s death—which may have been at the hands of Peter Connor’s friends. Not long after Gerald’s death Laurence, Lois, and the Montmorencys leave Sir Richard and Lady Naylor, but the Naylors have little time to enjoy their solitude at Danielstown. The Naylor family estate and the other great houses are put to the torch the following February—likely by the same men who organised the attack on Gerald—their destruction reinforcing the fact the lifestyle once enjoyed by the landed Anglo-Irish gentry has been brought to an end. | romantic, murder | train | wikipedia | "The Last September" tells of the beginning of the end of the Anglo-Irish, circa 1920ish, in Cork, Ireland by examining the clockworks of one family of privilege surrounded by rebellion, on the cusp of degentrification, and trying to keep a stiff upper lip in the face of waning denial.
Beautifully filmed and visually delightful, this film sports a wonderful cast who deliver finely nuanced performances.
Unfortunately the subject matter is somewhat esoteric, the story meager, and the film burrows into the moment to moment minutia; something which is both it's strength and its weakness.
The narrative is a mess but there are many fine visuals and isolated moments of deep emotional intensity.
Michael Gambon and Maggie Smith were excellent, but Jane Birkin and Fiona Shaw have some of the most powerful scenes, with their relationship problems seeming to amplify the dislocation all the characters are feeling, Irish but not Irish, English but not English.
However, it is Keely Hawes' intense performance as Lois that held the movie together for me, with her coming of age, and the relationship choices she must make, personalizing the larger conflict between English and Irish that the film wants to illuminate.This is director Deborah Warner's first film (she's an experienced stage director) and I feel she relied too much on her cinematographer, Slavomir Idziak.
He did a very fine job with the landscapes and interiors, but there are too many gratuitous camera tricks and heavy-handed visual cues that don't contribute anything to the story or it's impact.
The interviews with Fiona Shaw and Deborah Warner on the DVD are also worth a look..
challenging Anglo-Irish period piece.
A family of British aristocrats living in County Cork finds their comfortable lifestyle threatened by the Irish rebellions of the 1920s, when the headstrong older daughter develops a fatal attraction for a notorious local patriot (i.e. terrorist) with a price on his head.This won't be the last film to dissect the bloodlust lurking just beneath the glacial politeness of upper-crust British manners, but the perceptive screenplay (adapted from a novel by Elizabeth Bowen) shows an unbiased lack of sympathy for either side of the conflict.
Deborah Warner makes an easy transition from a theater background for her feature film debut, directing a first-rate cast (including Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, and Fiona Shaw) with impressive, understated visual flair and an eye for the telling detail.
The specific Anglo-Irish perspective could make the film a tough sell to American moviegoers unschooled in the social/political snake pit of Emerald Isle antipathy (here placed into an intriguing, almost tribal context), which may explain why the promotional trailers make it look like any other romantic melodrama in funny period dress.
It's a misrepresentation likely to alienate the film's target audience, but discerning viewers should find plenty here to provoke their thoughts..
Not everyone is familiar with the unique place of the Anglo-Irish in Ireland, and some of my companions expressed trouble following who was who, and how were they related.
But the film itself is a compelling story of conflicting loyalties, misunderstood motives, and troublesome times.
One of the most interesting "period pieces" I've seen, and of course, it's worth the price just to see Maggie Smith again..
Living in a very particular time and place..
"The Last September" is set in County Cork, Ireland in 1920, just prior to the institution of the Irish Free State, the days of Michael Collins.
(Mr. Collins and the other scions of the revolution are notably absent in this film.) The view of the film is narrowed to the trials and tribulations of Anglo-Irish aristocrats, and friends, who inhabit their country manor on their last Summer holiday in colonial Cork.The film's strength is its microscopic cinematic views of the lives of the aristocrats and their guests.
This created a discomfort, an edge, for me.Sometimes Gothic, sometimes just frustratingly slow, the film's moods are overpowering.
I found myself twisting in my seat at these moments.Lois, played marvelously by Keeley Hawes, reminded me of Lucy Harmon in Bertolucci's "Stealing Beauty", as played marvelously by Liv Tyler.
Perhaps this is to be expected, since she represents theelusive True Spirit of the Irish, conflicted about passion and pride, freedom and violence.
Fiona Shaw captures in her character what Lois must become.
The relationship between the two women is a painfully powerful representation of the Death of Self at the hands of conventions, the consequences of classism, sexism and tribalism.The handling of the the other characters seemed cursory and prone to stereotyping.
Michael Gambon and Maggie Smith did the work and turned the coal of potentially predictable rich 'county' types to diamonds of lovably faceted eccentrics.The film is not easy.
I guess it was like life itself, in a particular place and time..
John Banville's Delightful adaptation of Elizabeth Bowen's Novel.
Having tried to read the novel on which this movie was based and not enjoyed doing so all that much, this film was an unexpected delight.
Like BBC's Persuasion and Vanity Fair, this film tries to rescue the period adaptation from the asphixiating clutches of Merchant-Ivory while retaing a large degree of textual integrity.
Banvill, who brought the Irish "Big House" novel into the postmodern era with _Birchwood_ brings a contemporary eye to this tale of Anglo-Irish Aristocrats in the Last Days of their tenure.
It's wonderfully acted, with Jane Birkin giving the sort of display of gap-toothed Anglo-Saxon diffidence that made _La Belle Noisuise_ tolerable; Maggie Smith doing her usual indignant aristocrat, Fiona Shaw playing Fiona Shaw, and Micheal Gambon thankfully playing an Anglo-Irish rather than Irish character.
It's a film that anyone with a casual interest in Irish history will be enlightened by and one that anyone with an eye for beauty will be delighted by..
But the strength (and the JOY) of this film is the manner in which it has so genuinely captured an era and a place, the Ireland of 1920.
Maggie Smith never has been better.
This is a fine and memorable film in which the story is really less important than the dream like images that support it.
Not easy, not especially familiar to many of us but extremely thought-provoking, given the Anglo-Irish theme and the time in which the film is set.
An excellent cast led by the magnificent Maggie Smith who simply oozes condescension, snobbery, class-ism and caste-ism, while displaying genuine affection for 'her own kind of people'.
Keely Hawes creates the right air of fragility, self-absorption and feyness.
Her scenes with the admirable Fiona Shaw are powerful and reflect her dawning sense of self and of a desperation to escape, as the story unfolds.
So good too to see the excellent Richard Roxburgh, playing Tennant's best pal in the army.
In summary, a film that is worth making the effort to see and to mull over.
Superbly atmospheric tale of the end of an era in 1920s Ireland.
This is the only feature film directed by the well-known London theatre director, Deborah Warner.
She has a wonderful feeling for mood and atmosphere, and this film is soaked in it.
The story is from a novel by Elizabeth Bowen and concerns the landed gentry known as Anglo-Irish who once inhabited grand mansions in southern Ireland (Eire) until the Troubles, when most of the mansions were burnt down (a great loss to architecture) by the 'republicans'.
The film centres upon the great house and grounds of the Naylor family, and does not deal with the larger picture in Ireland.
The remarkable Keeley Hawes starred in this film just before appearing in WIVES AND DAUGHTERS (1999, see my review), and as she began acting on television at the age of 13, she was already a trooper by this time, aged 23.
In the story, the beautiful and skittish young Hawes has known since childhood a sinister young man who has now become an IRA killer, and she helps to conceal him in a local ruin, bringing him food and comfort.
She does this despite knowing that he has just killed someone, fascinated by the evil of him and feeling no compunction because she likes the thrill and finds him sensually exciting.
The uncle is played with his usual expansive flair and mellifluous voice by Michael Gambon, while the aunt is played by Maggie Smith, who adds her lustre as always.
An unexpected intrusion into the story is a visiting woman played by Jane Birkin, who adds a mysterious presence.
An especially fine performance is given by Fiona Shaw, who effortlessly dominates scenes when she is in them.
As Ireland and the characters of the story hurtle towards tragedy, we see a true 'end of an era', filmed on location in one beautiful rambling old house which seems to have avoided destruction.
As visions of lost worlds go, this is a fine one, and the story is absorbing and beautifully filmed.
The film had no less than eleven producers, so many that they outnumber the main players in the cast.
One is reminded of the 'Irish joke' which asks how many Irishmen it takes to change a light bulb.
This film deserves much more attention than it has had, and is a truly wonderful evocation of a time and place now lost in history..
WONDERFUL FILM.
I just saw THE LAST SEPTEMBER at the Montreal International Film Fest.
An incredible cast in an incredible film - what else can I say?
MAGGIE SMITH is amazing (is she ever not?
I DON'T THINK SO!) and the rest of the cast, Michael Gambon, Fiona Shaw and a whole bunch of other people are simply wonderful as well.
Beautifully filmed, music was GREAT.
If you're fond of British costume dramas like "Wives and Daughters" or "Downton Abbey," then this won't be the first time you've seen Michael Gambon as the dithery country squire or, God knows, Maggie Smith as the sharp-tongued lady of the manor or even Keeley Hawes as the out-of-control ingenue that's got everyone so worried about her.
This time the setting's a little different—a rural estate in County Cork in 1920, about halfway through the Irish struggle for independence.
Other big names in Anglo-Irish drama and letters are involved (novelist Elizabeth Bowen, director Deborah Warner, actress Fiona Shaw, who plays a witchy houseguest), plus 80s fashion icon Jane Birkin in a minor role and a couple of artful Kieslowski cronies as cinematographer and composer.
The plot's a bit creaky—KH's character is being courted by an eager British officer, but soon discovers that a childhood friend, now a fugitive IRA gunman, is lurking on the grounds—and the pacing in the opening scenes is suitably Chekhovian, but the resolution is fast and furious, even a bit confusing at one point (how does Peter get away?).
Though I'm not sure this prestige project quite adds up to the sum of its parts, we still found it fascinating, and we've watched it on streaming Netflix a couple of times.
Great film with Maggie Smith turning in an amazing performance as always.
A great great film on many levels.
As always, Maggie Smith turns in an amazing performance, as she has consistently done so throughout her career.
Jane Birkin, Fiona Shaw and Michael Gambon also are wonderful to watch.
Beautifully filmed and scored..
Lots of "fine acting" and an Antiques Roadshow design aesthetic is supposed to compensate for its total lack of emotional or intellectual content and its narrative illiteracy.
I should have guessed what this film would be like from a couple of hecklers at the cinema I saw it."I've seen milk turn quicker than this".
I should have too.All I can say about this film is a perfect cure for insomnia...show this to a chronic insomniac and they will be out like a light in a couple of minutes.An A-list cast should have turned out something much more interesting than this bore-fest.
This movie reminded me of Howard's End.
Though Howard's End was much easier to follow, and there were beautiful scenes, it was very boring.
In Late September, it was very hard to tell who was related to who and the plot was unrecognizable through the first half of the movie where we suffer through the prattle of supposed problems of the rich.
The last half of the movie was more interesting but the ending just trailed off.
Beautifully filmed but lacking any center.
It does have two great actors of the UK screen: Maggie Smith (being serious, for a change), and the always fascinating Michael Gambon.
They get to recite some lines that allow them to sparkle, but are really secondary characters to Keely Hawes and David Tennant, two star crossed would be lovers, who talk past each other.Set In Ireland just post the first World War, and with local sentiments rising to rid themselves of the Brits, the movie tries to show metaphorically the divide within Irish breasts.
What we get instead are boorish Black and Tans, a sociopathic "freedom fighter" on the run, and a vapid young woman who wants to say yes to romance, but ends up being manhandled instead by a man who, fresh from the kill, wants to shag!
Once bitten, she comes back for more and ends up bemoaning the death of the British soldier she spurned for the Irish killer.Keely Hawes is fine to look at, but I have yet to see her really grip a role.
Here she manages quite well to show us a self centered young woman looking for something other than a fine upstanding young man before she has to marry one.
She finds a dangerous killer hiding out in the abandoned mill, and knowing full well that he has brutally tortured and killed a bullying British soldier, she decides to tarry and stand mesmerized as he proceeds to get half way through artlessly depriving her of her maidenhood.
Slow-moving and extremely melodramatic film, but still interesting.
Rare in that it compares a girl's (as opposed to the more common male narratives) coming-of-age to a nation's coming-of-age.There is a certain amount of James Joyce-ian cruelty and mocking towards the Irish, Anglo-Irish, and British identities depicted in this film.
The British soldiers are portrayed as silly, superficial, self-absorbed characters.
Yet they are also powerful in that they have shaped the identities of both the Anglo-Irish (or pseudo-British) family, and the lower-class Irish "freedom-fighters." Once the soldiers leave to return to the front-lines, both Irish "halves" lose their purposes and identities.
The director asks harshly, "Who are you and what is left of yourselves once your audience and oppressor have left?"Likewise, the coming-of-age experiences of Lois, and "the woman passing out of her prime" story of Marda (played really well by Fiona Shaw) are also critically assessed.
Lois is just beginning to discover the power (sometimes dangerously misdirected) that comes with female sexuality, while Marda is experiencing the powerlessness of female aging.
Again, the director makes the point that identity cannot sustain on the outside; it must come from within.*******Spoilers*******Unlike the Irish and the Anglo-Irish family, however, Lois does possess a very strong inner core of identity that remains untouched, and it is not because she is oblivious to or uninvolved with the complicated social, political, religious, and economic situations that she encounters.
Therefore, the fact that she leaves Ireland at the end of the film can be seen as tragic.
The U.S. during the 1920s was generally regarded as place where you forgot where you came from so that you could become an "American." But had Ireland - as a country, as a nation, as a homeland - become a place where someone with so strong an identity would be left unsatisfied?.
A film that deserves a wide audience.
This is a great piece of work by first time film-maker, Deborah Warner.
A stellar cast of film and theatre heavy weights (Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon and Fiona Shaw) star in a Chekhovian "comedy" of changing times and politics.
Set among the Anglo Irish, the film is a coming of age story for its young heroine (a great performance from Keeley Hawes) who lives with her aunt and uncle (Smith and Gambon) in aristocratic insulation and isolation from the increasingly violent struggles that edge ever closer.
Apart from the performances (Gambon and Shaw being particularly fine), what impresses is Deborah Warner's complete grasp of her material.
The evidence here is that she has a career every bit as impressive ahead of her in film: The Last September is fluent, assured and extremely watchable, with every last detail (music, design and lighting)beautifully and sympathetically realised.
So I watched this a couple days ago and I'm not really sure what the point of making this movie was.
As far as acting goes, it was good.
A girl plays with an officer, then goes for a bad boy rebel dude, and she ends up being the cause of one of their deaths.
Bland political era piece.
An end of a privileged era...Irish that served the British are about to lose it all.
There is violence and guerrilla warfare.Set amongst this Lois (the lead heroine) of this novel film flirts with a British Captain and falls in love with an Irish nationalist.
In the end during their second meeting (Lois and nationalist) the British Captain is killed and Lois goes off to greener pastures.The setting is beautiful but there is a gloom of impending defeat.The best part of the movie is the beautifully recreated scenery of 1920.The story sort of limps along in a vapid way with no tension or excitement.
The 3 way love triangle just isn't defined well enough to carry the entire thing--at least not the way it was done.Most cinema goers would have no clue about the political importance of the piece...the word BLAND comes to mind as an over all description of the movie.About the only people this film might appeal to are those interested in Irish politics however not the N.
Irish that is for sure it is much too sympathetic to the rebels. |
tt0311455 | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | In the Second Age of Middle-earth, the Dark Lord Sauron forges the One Ring in Mount Doom to conquer all, abandoning a great part of his power to it in order to dominate, through it, at a distance, the other Rings of Power, which had been granted to lords of Elves, Dwarves and Men. An army of men and elves battle Sauron’s forces in Mordor, where Prince Isildur of Gondor cuts the One Ring off of Sauron's finger, thereby temporarily destroying his physical shape, and decides to take care of the Ring himself, but the evil influence of the Ring corrupts Isildur, preventing him from destroying it in Mount Doom. Isildur is later killed by Orcs, and the Ring is lost for 2,500 years, found and owned by Gollum for five centuries. The Ring is then found by a Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins.
Sixty years on, Bilbo celebrates his 111th birthday in the Shire, reuniting with his old friend Gandalf the Grey. Bilbo reveals he intends on leaving the Shire for one last adventure and leaves his inheritance to his nephew Frodo, including the Ring. Gandalf investigates the Ring, discovering its true identity and warns Frodo. Learning Gollum was tortured by Orcs and told them that Bilbo took the Ring, Gandalf instructs Frodo to leave the Shire, accompanied by his gardener Samwise Gamgee. Gandalf rides to Isengard, meeting fellow wizard Saruman the White, but learns he is in league with Sauron, who has unleashed the Ringwraiths to find Frodo. After a brief battle, Saruman imprisons Gandalf. Frodo and Sam are joined by fellow Hobbits, Merry and Pippin, and they evade the Ringwraiths, arriving in Bree where they are meant to meet Gandalf, but are instead aided by a ranger named Strider, a friend of Gandalf's who escorts them to Rivendell.
The Hobbits are ambushed by the Ringwraiths, one stabbing Frodo with a morgul blade. Arwen, an elf and Strider’s lover, comes to Frodo’s aid and successfully takes him to Rivendell where he is healed, meeting Gandalf who escaped Saruman on the back of a giant eagle. Arwen’s father, Lord Elrond, holds a council, deciding that the Ring must be destroyed in Mount Doom. While the members argue, Frodo volunteers to take the Ring, accompanied by Gandalf, Sam, Merry, Pippin, elf Legolas, dwarf Gimli, Boromir of Gondor, and Strider, who is revealed to be Aragorn, Isildur’s heir and rightful King of Gondor. Bilbo gives Frodo his sword, Sting. The Fellowship of the Ring sets off but Saruman’s magic forces them to travel through the Mines of Moria.
The Fellowship find the dwarves within Moria have been slain, and they are attacked by Orcs and a cave troll. They defeat them, but are confronted by an ancient demon called a Balrog. Gandalf casts the Balrog into a vast chasm, but its fiery whip drags Gandalf down into the darkness with it. The rest of the Fellowship, now led by Aragorn, reach Lothlórien, home to elves Galadriel and Celeborn. Galadriel privately informs Frodo that only he can complete the quest and one of his friends will try to take the Ring. Meanwhile, Saruman creates an army of Uruk-hai to track and kill the Fellowship.
The Fellowship leave Lothlórien by river to Parth Galen. Frodo wanders off, confronted by Boromir who tries to take the Ring in desperation. Afraid of the Ring corrupting his friends, Frodo decides to travel to Mordor alone. The other members fight off the Uruk-hai, but Merry and Pippin are taken captive, and Boromir is mortally wounded by the Uruk chieftain. After killing the chieftain, Aragorn helps Boromir die peacefully. Sam follows Frodo, accompanying him to keep his promise to Gandalf to protect Frodo, while Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli go to rescue Merry and Pippin. | good versus evil, fantasy | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0441936 | Mulawin | === Plot ===
Long ago, in the dense forests of the Philippines, there lived a race of "bird-men" called Mulawin, men and women with feathers and wings like an eagle's. In those days, this noble and peace-loving race freely interacted with human beings, although they never moved too far away from the forest because it is from trees that bird-men draw their strength. But, as the human population grew in number, the people's demand for territory and resources also increased. They deforested more and more of the lands that were the Mulawin's home, and the bird-men were forced to seek refuge high in the mountains, away from greedy humans.
Despite what they suffered from the common people, the Mulawin would not harm them in return; they wanted only to preserve their way of life as best they could without coming into conflict with men. However, a splinter group soon formed with quite different intentions. This group broke away from the main tribe and became the Ravena, a fierce new race of bird-men with black and red plumage and a fearsome appearance. The Ravena's sole ambition was and is to subdue both the Mulawin and human beings.
The Mulawin founded a new home for themselves, naming it Avila, whereas the Ravena called their own realm, Halconia. At this time, the Queen of the Diwata (fairies) presented the Mulawin with two gifts: the Molave tree and the bird, Balasik. The Molave tree is the most treasured possession of the Mulawin, for if it is lost or destroyed, Avila will also lose its power and be conquered by the Ravena. The Balasik is a magical bird. Like an oracle, it knows and always speaks the truth. What is more, it is like an alchemical elixir of life: it gives youth and strength to whoever owns it. Although the Balasik rightfully belongs to the Mulawin, this clever bird pledges allegiance to no one.
Time passed on, and human beings and Mulawin grew to distrust one another. The Mulawin, fearing their own extinction at the hands of men, saw the latter only as selfish and destructive to the environment. For their part, humans made no distinction between the Mulawin and the Ravena. They taught their children to fear and despise both races of bird-men, even though it was only the Ravena who would attack and prey upon humans. As humans encroached more and more into the territories of the bird-men, Mulawin and Ravena alike fled farther away and were seen less and less often. Hence, people came to regard the idea of bird-men as nothing more than a myth, an old wives’ tale to frighten naughty children.
Now, it was foretold by the Balasik bird that a savior was about to be born. One who would unite the races of men and the Mulawin against the forces of evil. But before the child could be identified, the Ravena stole the Balasik from the Mulawin. With Balasik went the knowledge of the savior's identity to the kingdom of Halconia.
That is how the hero and the heroine's journey begin. | fantasy | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0097446 | Goldeneye | In 1986, at Arkhangelsk, MI6 agents James Bond and Alec Trevelyan infiltrate a Soviet chemical weapons facility and plant explosives. Trevelyan is captured and gunned down by Colonel Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov, but Bond flees as the facility explodes.
Nine years later, in Monte Carlo, Bond follows Xenia Onatopp, a member of the Janus crime syndicate, who has formed a suspicious relationship with Charles Farrel, a Canadian Navy admiral. As Onatopp crushes the admiral to death with her thighs during sex, his credentials are stolen by Ourumov, who uses them to board a French Navy destroyer with Onatopp to steal a Eurocopter Tiger helicopter. Ourumov and Onatopp later fly the helicopter to a bunker in Severnaya, Siberia, where they massacre the staff and steal the control disk for GoldenEye, an electromagnetic Soviet satellite weapon from the Cold War. They program the GoldenEye to destroy the complex, and escape with programmer Boris Grishenko. Natalya Simonova, the lone survivor, contacts Boris and arranges to meet him in Saint Petersburg, where he betrays her to Janus.
In London, M assigns Bond to investigate the attack. He flies to Saint Petersburg to meet CIA operative Jack Wade, who suggests that Bond meet with Valentin Zukovsky, a former KGB agent and business rival of Janus. Zukovsky arranges a meeting between Bond and Janus. Onatopp surprises Bond at the Grand Hotel Europe and attempts to kill him, but he overpowers her. She takes Bond to Janus, who reveals himself as Trevelyan; he faked his death at Arkhangelsk but was badly scarred by the explosion. A descendant of the Cossack clans who collaborated with the Nazi forces in the Second World War, Trevelyan had vowed revenge against the British after they betrayed the Cossacks, which drove his father to kill Trevelyan's mother and himself. Just as Bond is about to shoot Trevelyan, Bond is shot with a tranquilizer dart.
Bond awakens, tied up with Natalya in the helicopter, which has been programmed to self-destruct. They escape but are captured and transported to the Russian military archives, where Minister of Defence Dimitri Mishkin interrogates them. Just as Natalya reveals the existence of a second satellite and Ourumov's involvement in the Siberian massacre, Ourumov arrives and kills Mishkin. Intending to frame Bond for the murder, he calls the guards, but Bond and Natalya escape. In the ensuing firefight, Natalya is captured. Bond steals a tank and pursues Ourumov through St. Petersburg to Trevelyan's train, where he kills Ourumov. Trevelyan escapes and locks Bond in the train with Natalya, setting it to self-destruct. As Bond cuts through the floor with his laser watch, Natalya triangulates Boris' satellite dish to Cuba. The two escape just before the train explodes.
Bond and Natalya meet Wade in Cuba and borrow his plane, where the same night, they make love. The next day, while searching for GoldenEye's satellite dish, they are shot down. Onatopp rappels down from a helicopter and attacks Bond. After a fight ensues, Bond shoots down the helicopter, which snares Onatopp and crushes her to death against a tree. Bond and Natalya watch water draining out of a lake, uncovering the satellite dish. They infiltrate the control station, and Bond is captured. Trevelyan reveals his plan to rob the Bank of England before erasing all of its financial records with GoldenEye, concealing the theft and destroying Britain's economy.
Natalya programs the satellite to initiate atmospheric re-entry and destroy itself. As Trevelyan captures Natalya and orders Grishenko to save the satellite, Boris unwittingly triggers an explosion with Bond's pen grenade (received earlier from Q), which allows Bond to escape to the antenna cradle. Bond sabotages the antenna, preventing Grishenko from regaining control of the satellite. Bond and Trevelyan fight on the antenna's suspended platform, which finishes with Bond holding a dangling Trevelyan by his foot. Bond releases Trevelyan, who plummets into the radio dish and is subsequently crushed to death by falling debris. Boris survives, but is then frozen solid by a cascade of liquid nitrogen. Natalya commandeers a helicopter and rescues Bond. It drops them in a field, where the couple are rescued by Wade and a team of Marines. | flashback | train | wikipedia | the missing Bond film?. 'Goldeneye' is the story of Ian Fleming's exploits in the Secret Service during World War II, and plays like the Bond movie we had all forgot - incidentally, Charles Dance, who plays Fleming, would have made a wonderful Bond in his day; what a shame it never happened.With a TV feel but a strong and absorbing plot (including a fun role for Julian Fellowes as Noel Coward), Goldeneye delivers on all fronts, becoming an interesting curio on the side of the main 007 films.Strong support from Phyllis Logan, Patrick Ryecart and other familiar faces from 1980s TV makes this move along smoothly. It has emotion, tension, gambling, Martinis, and a bit of sex. Just like the perfect Bond mix in fact.. Decent Time Passer/Quasi-Bond Film. This film features the adventures of Ian Fleming, the real life spy who wrote the original James Bond novels.This film plays vaguely like a Bond movie, though with more realism and less action. It does have the same sort of flirtatious attitude to it, though. This makes the film a rather interesting curiousity piece for Bond fans.Lots of allusions to Bond, not just direct references, hinting that a number of things in Fleming's life got put into the novels. I'm not sure about the accuracy of these allusions, but they do enhance the film. And one death in the film affectedly more emotionally than the vast majority of Bond movie deaths.It is a bit dry at times, and does have a bit of a TV movie feel to it. That said, overall I was pleasantly surprised, and this is certainly above average for a TV movie. Bond completists should definitely check this one out.. Worth Watching. Typical TV movie-type bio on Fleming's life. Though Dance does a good job in the role (and even looks a lot like Fleming), the producers try to make the film seem like a pseudo-Bond film with the pretentious Bond film music intruding over scenes that don't require it, and showing Dance in Bond type scenarios, which of course Fleming was never in. At least it does not shy away from the darker parts of his life - his affair with a socialite married woman who would become his future wife; his affinity for sexual fetishes such as pseudo rape and whipping; the death of his girlfriend in an London air raid (she dies while on an errand to fetch his handmade cigarettes).The period detail looks accurate and it was fortunate that they were able to actually film the Jamaica scenes at the actual Goldeneye estate. My other major fault with the film is the casting of Julian Fellowes as Coward. He neither looks like Coward or talks like him. It's a shame as Coward was a close friend of Fleming's and is such a historical figure.There were so many better parts of Fleming's life and career they could have touched on, considering the large amount of historical figures he knew and worked with during that era of WWII and the Cold War. This seems like a watered down biography, and I think that the film's low budget probably had a lot to do with this. Hopefully one day PBS will do a proper job of Fleming in a miniseries. Until then, this will have to do. By the way, skip any of the other current film "bios" of Fleming. They are atrocious, mostly fictional and are a large disservice to the life of such a fascinating author.. A celebration of Britishness. Don't expect a James Bond film - there's not much in the way of action, stunts or gadgets. There are, however, several good-looking women, an interesting story of espionage and international intrigue, and an respected actor, Clarles Dance, in the role of Ian Fleming.The film (for it is just under two hours in length) is a biography, based on the real-life wartime adventures of Ian Fleming, who was a commander in the British Navy. The story is inter-cut with scenes of a slightly older Fleming filming an interview from his Jamaican retreat, Goldeneye. His friend Noel Coward is never far away, and supplies much of the humour.The feature is worth watching, mainly for the the depiction of how the James Bond novels were inspired from real life events. |
tt1930315 | Cyberbully | Taylor Hillridge (Emily Osment) is a teenage girl who is being raised by her single mother, Kris (Kelly Rowan), along with her younger brother, Eric (Robert Naylor), living in St. Louis, Missouri. She is close friends with two other girls, Samantha Caldone (Kay Panabaker) and Cheyenne Mortenson (Meaghan Rath). Earlier, Taylor made a seemingly innocuous comment to one of her classmates, Lindsay Fordyce (Nastassia Markiewicz), to which Lindsay took great offense.
She receives a computer for her seventeenth birthday from her mom. At first, Taylor is excited by the independence of going online without her mother always watching her. Meanwhile, her crush, Scott asks her to the dance, to which she says yes. Cheyenne is happy for her, but Samantha does not like Scott because she previously went out with his friend, who later dumped her. Taylor soon finds herself the victim of cyberbullying when she becomes a member of a social website named Cliquesters.
Things begin to go wrong when Taylor's brother, Eric, hacks into her account and posts a defamatory message about his sister, having been angry at her when she refused to let him use the laptop. Students at school write horrid comments about her and she becomes afraid to face her friends at school. Taylor also meets a guy named James online and thinks he is just being nice, but winds up spreading a rumor that Taylor slept with him and ended up giving him "the clap". Taylor gets pegged as a "slut" and "whore" as a result of the bullying. The abuse that Taylor receives from the hands of her schoolmates pushes her to a breaking point. Scott also tells Taylor that he cannot take her to the dance because of an excuse that obviously sounds made up (that his mom is forcing him to take another girl) and Cheyenne and Samantha begin to turn their backs on Taylor.
Overcome with depression, Taylor posts a video online saying that she can no longer live with herself. Samantha sees this and quickly goes to Taylor's house and finds her trying to commit suicide by overdosing with pills, but cannot get the cap off. Taylor is then sent to a hospital. Taylor's mom learns from the incident and takes on the school system and state legislation to prevent others from going through the same problem as her daughter. Taylor's mom recommends that she go to a support group and get help. Meanwhile, Samantha finds Scott at a cafe and insults him for leaving Taylor. Taylor finds that one of her classmates, Caleb is going through the same exact thing, only he is targeted for being gay. Taylor finds support in the group and deals with the bullying much better. She finds out that her best friend Samantha is the one who created the "James" profile and set Taylor up. Samantha feels guilty and becomes a victim of cyberbullying herself. Taylor finds out about this and tells her about her support group and eventually forgives Samantha, rekindling their friendship.
In the end, Taylor, Samantha, Cheyenne, Caleb, and Scott all stand up against Lindsay. Other classmates witnessing Taylor standing up to Lindsay realize how bullying is terrible, and antagonize Lindsay for her abuse. A law is then passed against cyberbullying. | dramatic | train | wikipedia | This movie has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever, as it consists of abysmal acting, poor directing, and in my opinion, the worst drama script I have ever read in my entire life.
If I wanted to be informed about cuber bullying I would read an article about it.Now that the elephant in the room is out of the way its time or the movie's problems.
The idea that anybody has taken this film seriously seems like a sick joke.Cyberbully is not worth your time, unless you want a few cheap laughs..
Not a huge deal, but considering this movie was seemingly produced entirely by Canadian's it's a little telling.Overall the production quality is low, I'm kind of glad I missed this when it was originally aired on ABC Family, this is not a film I would be showing to a teen, it trivializes real cyber-bullying..
The movie might actually be brilliant as a black comedy - note the moment Taylor Hillridge tells her best friend that she "can't get the cap off," which is almost undoubtedly bound to be remembered as a staple in television comedy.
In fact, at points, the film is so ridiculous that it nearly seemed to have been made as a black comedy."Cyberbully" also has amateurish cinematography (half of its shots appearing to have been taken from some serialized drama) and a plain script with wooden dialogue, even though the acting performance of Emily Osment is worthy of praise.
This is completely inaccurate, as most social networking websites will let you delete comments, block profiles of people, and report spam comments."Cyberbully" has convincing acting and entertainment, as well as good messages, but is unrealistic and sometimes even unintentionally humorous at times; both far overshadow any redeeming qualities you will be able to find..
While I would agree with some other people's comments that the girl being bullied would likely be popular in real life, the movie as a whole makes a very important point, cyberbullying is a legitimate problem.
However it is Kelly Rowan, who plays Emily's mother who steals the show, paying a hilarious homage to the television series Quincy M.E. Cyberbully is a great film which I recommend every teenager and their parents to see..
They took a 5th grade look at bullying and completely exaggerated this issue.The only realistic characters were the people the mother talked to.
although there was slightly different circumstances (i/e the things the people were saying about Taylor), this film tugged on my heartstrings so much that i decided that (after 3 years) it was time to talk about what happened to me.
I went into Cyberbully thinking to myself "Oh look - an ABC family movie about the internet.
No doubt its going to be badly acted, badly written, hilariously misinformed with planned adverts every four or five minutes to hammer home the point of internet security and bullying, and, no doubt, it being an ABC family drama, after all, it will have no relevance to real life, it will shoehorn in seemingly random issues such as sexuality, and, perhaps most importantly for the demographic, it will, at no point, have any black people.
Osment's character very accurately shows the struggles most young teenagers go through of trying to play it cool and ignore their adversaries, all the while hurting and desperately wanting to be liked.
It so accurately captures the cocky attitude teenagers have of thinking they can handle tough situations, all the while slowly breaking down.The movie was even accurate down to the attitude of the school towards bullying, and how in many schools today, the "no bullying policy" does little, if nothing, to help students.I did find the ending to be unrealistic and cliché (let's face it- no cafeteria speeches like that actually occur in schools), but Osment's acting during the beginning and middle of the movie is brilliant enough to nearly make up for it.Overall, give this movie a go.
when watching this it was like watching me and i think that if you watch this movie it will change many people's life.
I see ABC Family has taken a point from the Lifetime Movie Network's oh-so-delicious- aged-gooey-bleu-cheese morality plays and produced Cyberbully, the tale of the anarchy that ensues when hormonal teeny-bopper girls play rumor mill amid the seedy beds of online chat rooms.
It tries to be a movie with a good message but it ignores the MAJOR points of cyberbullying and constantly shouts out the lie that it's always the internet that does it and never the people actually bullying them.
No one in this movie acts like a real person and the "bullying" is the tamest thing I've ever seen in my life.
The main character Taylor (Emily Osment), is one of the most unlikable protagonists I've ever seen in any movie, she's extremely annoying as well.
The recent teen suicides has shocked USA and many campaigns and stars have spoken again it.Emily Osment has come a long way from Hanna Montana's sidekick to this, she gave truly amazing Performance in the movie.
It shows the effects that name calling and vicious rumors can have on the mental state of a human being.It also gives great advice on how to deal with bullying and it also shows the different ways parents and adults may react to bullying.This movie should be part of the ALL school curriculum's, to teach kids and adults alike what bullying can truly do to a kid.
This movie touched me in so many ways, I loved Emily Osment, I loved Kay Panabaker, I thought they all did well, I think this would be a great film for everyone, One thing I didn't get was why Lindsay was always smiling.
Bullying has been going on for such a long time and I'm finally glad that a movie has come out to tell teens that ur not alone and that you have to be strong and stand up for yourself.
I understand that cyberbullying can be a problem, but this movie makes it look like a joke.
If the main character was intelligent and actually tried to stop what was happening but the bully was doing something like creating new accounts, then I might've been sympathetic towards her.
If someone who bullies online watches this they will probably say something like; "what a loser, this movie is so gay" rather than take a lesson from it.
At least ABC Family is making an honest and fair attempt to address an issue that needs to be addressed.Cyberbully focuses on a teenage girl named Taylor Hillbridge (Osment).
The quest isn't going so well, but a determined mom with a struggling teen isn't likely to give up any time soon.ABC Family hasn't necessarily made the best TV movies recently (can't forget - they made Mean Girls 2), but this one stands out for its message and its acting.
I really don't think it matters that the victim in this film is a pretty, blonde 17 year old girl who would apparently be popular in the "real world".
I also don't think the film needed to end with a victim of the bullying successfully committing suicide to get the seriousness of this subject over to people.
its usually people who aren't conventionally attractive whom are picked on
not pretty blonde's or boyish pretty boys.why does the mainstream entertainment industry always seem to simply slap reading glasses on a pretty boy or dress a cute girl awkwardly all while expecting the audience
particularly bully victims to identify with the characters that are supposed to represent them.
It stars Emily Osment, Kay Panabaker, Kelly Rowan, Jon McLaren, Meaghan Rush and Natassia Markiewicz.This is a TV movie of some note, Cyberbully, as the title suggests, deals with the prevalent problem of on line bullying.
Story has Osment as Taylor Hillridge, she's your everyday high school teenager, she's pretty, has good friends and is getting interested in boys.
In real life people act a lot more like the people in this movie than they do in your everyday Hollywood production.Part 2: Short but powerful.I think most people think poorly of this film because the general people have a standard, which this movie does not abide by.
I did not feel it was over the top at all and have seen way more dramatic things in real life than in this movie.
part 4: The point.I think most people need to take their luxury Hollywood glasses off, and should turn their brain, and maybe more importantly, their hearts on if they want to watch this movie.
Most of the bullying done in this movie is more real than people expect.
Even if any of the bullying wasn't real, it wouldn't matter because the purpose of this movie was clearly to give out a good and clear messege, that Cyberbullying is bad, even though its just words being sad to other people, people have feelings and words can hurt them, and i think this movie could really inspire people being bullied on the internet, that they don't have to take bad things being said to them, but they can also take a stand and do something about it.
Also throughout the movie when Taylor is wanting to overdose, the music is sad and very emotional.The effect of what cyberbullying causes to people.
Cyberbully (or Cyberbu//y because it's Leet and therefore really cool and edgy and hip for people like me who wouldn't know a lolcat from nyan cat) is an amazing film that changed my life forever.
Lots of Canadian melodrama ensues, and lots of stuff happens that would never happen in a real American high school.This movie does not have your typical bullies (think Roger Klotz from Doug), but rather touches upon the dangers of gossip and having a bad online reputation, like that girl from Norway with the horrible voice that we've all seen on YouTube.
However, the movie did have a purpose and attempted to deliver a positive message about the realities of teen bullying, focusing mainly on the aspect of "cyberbullying" obviously.
Teen girl Taylor Hillridge gets a a laptop for her birthday and signs up on a social networking site and starts to get bullied.
I thought Cyberbully was brilliant and I think everyone should have to watch this because I actually didn't realize bullying was that bad until i watched cyberbully.I think Emily Osment and all the actors in this went way above standard they were brilliant at playing their part it was so realistic.This taught me that you should really talk to someone about being bullied,that you should face things inside of hiding hold your head up high,try to ignore comments and people that are being mean to you and don't try get back at people.There will always be help when you need it and don't try give your life away because there is other people who don't have a choice of living but everyone does if you don't hav an ilness like cancer..
This Film Is the best i am 14 years old and of course i use Facebook and twitter there are mean words that get thrown about like there nothing and they will not hurt the person, everyone knows teens have a bitch about other people online to their friends and think nothing of it, it might only be small stuff but if that person saw it, it would not be small to them.
The people who are leaving baaad reviews of this film obviously have no idea what it's like being cyber bullied!!!
The best compliment I know how to give Emily Osment is that she actually brings some life and emotion into an otherwise worthless script that reads like it was shot more as poor in-school propaganda (isn't it all) than a movie with actual entertainment or emotional value.
I was skeptical to watch this movie from the very start, but my friend convinced me that the film was great and had a really good message.
Not to mention the fact that about thirty seconds after Taylor makes an account, she gets a friend request from the movie's pathetic "love interest".
All you need to know about what happens next is that the most popular girl in Taylor's school is posting obnoxious things online about Taylor, tons of other people join in and bully her too, and Taylor is having an overly dramatic breakdown every other scene.
She and her best friend end up confronting the outrageously stereotypical "popular girl" that had been bullying Taylor online.
A teenage girl by the name of Taylor Hillridge gets a new laptop for her birthday and her brother "hacks" into it, creating a fake status update on this fictional social-networking site called Cliquesters where it portrays her as a slut and then she gets bullied for it in school and to top it off, some guy online named James lied to people that she gave him STDs. The premise itself doesn't sound THAT bad.
She also allows a friend request to some guy she doesn't know named James earlier in the film and guess what, the guy betrays her by lying to people that she gave him STDs. Is she seriously THAT hungry for boys that she's willing to do something like this?Samantha is just plain weird.
It was about as good as I had expected, which wasn't very good.First of all, our heroine is a seventeen-year-old girl named Taylor Hillridge (played by Osment) who doesn't exactly seem like the kind of person who'd be a victim of vicious bullying.
What a great lesson!In the end, this movie painted bullying and depression as something frivolous and trivial, instead of actual highlighting the importance of protecting teens from online harassment.
I know what I'm talking about.Anyone who takes the internet as seriously as the characters in this movie shouldn't be on it in the first place, a lot of people say.This movie isn't about cyberbullying.
Sure, it might hurt, but no normal human would try to kill themselves over it.Mind you, this movie tries to make "cyberbullying" look like the biggest problem since the Cuba crisis.
This video could have easily been a subverted educational video for the patriot act, Stay scared and sign away the freedom of others.=Spoiler alerts after this!= The biggest problems with this film was how the mother disregarded freedom of speech to create a law making it illegal to insult minors online at a point where her daughter had learned to finally learned to deal with a small group of bully girls.
So, Taylor, blessed with prettiness, caring parents, upper middle class wealth and good friends falls victim to being called such savage things on her social network page, words that would drive ANY 17 y/o to a suicide attempt.
Several reviews have laughed at the plot, claiming a thin, blond hair, blued eyed girl with friends and supportive family being bullied into attempted suicide is unbelievable and unrealistic.
This movie follows Taylor as she deals with being bullied online and is eventually pushed to her breaking point.
This movie shows just how bad cyberbullying is and how far it can push people.
I actually think that this movie should be shown in schools to show just how bad words can hurt..
I don't get why people say " This movie is unrealistic blah blah " When it is, they also say that why would someone this pretty get bullied?
There was no clarification on whether her statements about Scott were true, however.Now that I've gotten those quirks from other reviewers out, I'd like to give a review myself.I was not going to watch this movie, but when I saw Emily Osment casted for the main character, I decided to give it a try.
Throughout the entire film i was waiting for her to punch the leader of the bully girls in the face, which would actually solve the problem or at least make her feel empowered instead of pathetic.I made this IMDB account specifically to review this movie because I disliked it so much.
I understand the point the producers of this movie are trying to push across, that cyber bullying is real and is a problem.
However I think the way they try to portray this problem is completely out of the realm of possibility, and could have been portrayed in a different, more believable way.First: The main character(Taylor's) brother posts a fake status on her Clickster(this movie's Facebook imitation) page.
I think if the movie was made in a more realistic way, it would be even more unwatchable, so I think trying to raise awareness about cyber bullying through a movie isn't a good idea.Watch only if you want to point and laugh about how overly dramatic it is and how serious it takes itself..
WARNING MAY HAVE SPOILERS!To start off, reading some of the reviews it looks like people are not seeing the point to this movie.
This movie makes you want to make a difference, and as a person who has seen bullying, one definitely needs to be made..
but there are just too many flaws that make it impossible to do so.For one thing, the main character and victim of bullying, she is a blonde named Taylor, played by Emily Osment.
Reading some of these comments, some of the things that people don't understand about the film ARE explained in the movie, but vaguely.
I had to watch the movie a few times before I fully understood why certain characters did what they did (ex: Samantha making the fake profile, why Lindsay hates Taylor).
Many people have said that girls that look like her don't get bullied, well news flash, they do.
And I guess not enough people at Emily Osment's school knew her too well, because they immediately thought it was true.The first time she is bullied is by her brother, who says she's like a naughty girl.
Take "Odd Girl Out" for instance (a great movie, by the way).All in all, I thought "Cyberbully" was not as bad as most of the reviews suggest.. |
tt0133122 | New Rose Hotel | Set in the near future, huge megacorporations control and dominate entire economies. Their wealth and competitive advantage reside in the human capital of their employees and the intellectual property they produce. Corporations jealously guard their most valuable employees and go to great expense to keep them safe and happily productive. There is little point in traditional corporate espionage as new products are developed at a lightning pace; there is no time to capitalize on the intelligence acquired from a rival firm, it will be obsolete before it can be used.
The story follows two corporate extraction agents, who perform the new version of corporate espionage, grabbing scientists and engineers from rival firms. Given the level of protection offered, extracting them from a company is a highly dangerous affair. In the story, the narrator and his partner Fox have joined up with a new associate, Sandii, in an attempt to extract an extremely talented biologist from a hot new German research company. The company's security is superb, and the attempt takes considerable time to plan.
After successfully extracting the scientist, Sandii disappears. The scientist begins work at his new company in a secret lab in Africa, only to learn he has been infected by a deadly disease that kills him and everyone else in the lab. Realizing they have been betrayed, Fox and the narrator run, their bank accounts wiped out by their now-former employer. Convinced the two are behind the whole affair, Fox is killed in retaliation and the narrator goes into hiding. The story takes place a week after the events, in run-down capsule hotel in Japan, the New Rose Hotel. The narrator spends his time waiting for assassins to arrive, pining over Sandii, and contemplating suicide.
"New Rose Hotel" presents a bleak future as extrapolated from contemporary economic and social trends. Set in the Sprawl, the same period and universe as Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, it is solidly cyberpunk in its style and vision. | flashback, murder, sci-fi | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0050166 | Band of Angels | Amantha Starr (Yvonne De Carlo) is the privileged daughter of a Kentucky plantation owner. However, after he dies, a shocking secret is revealed: unbeknownst to Amantha, her mother had been one of her father's black slaves. Legally now property, she is taken by a slave trader to New Orleans to be sold. On the riverboat ride there, he makes it clear that he intends to sleep with her, but desists when she tries to hang herself; as a beautiful, cultured young woman who can pass for white, she is far too valuable to risk losing.
Amantha is put up for auction. When she is callously inspected by a coarse potential buyer, she is rescued from further humiliation by Hamish Bond (Clark Gable), who outbids the cad, paying an exorbitant price for her. Expecting the worst, Amantha is surprised to be treated as a lady, not a slave, by her new owner. At his city mansion, she meets his key slaves, his housekeeper (and former lover) Michele (Carolle Drake) and his conflicted right-hand-man Rau-Ru (Sidney Poitier). Rau-Ru is grateful for the kindness, education and trust Hamish has bestowed on him, but hates him anyway.
As time goes on, Amantha and Hamish fall in love. He arranges to send her to freedom in the North, but she decides to remain with him. To complicate matters further, Hamish harbors a terrible secret from his past that troubles his conscience.
Then, the Civil War breaks out, and New Orleans eventually falls to the Union. Hamish becomes a wanted man when he joins the other plantation owners in burning their crops in defiance. He and Amantha are helped to escape by Rau-Ru, who had fled and joined the Union Army. | revenge, romantic, melodrama | train | wikipedia | Clark Gable dominates the film as an ex-slave trader and plantation owner in the antebellum South.
He's got a great hate for his benefactor who he really sees as no different than other, crueler slave holders.Today's audience which has seen Steven Spielberg's great true film Amistad about the illegal African slave trade, can appreciate far better Gable's dilemma.
Gable's description of life in the slave trade when he levels with Yvonne DeCarlo is a high point of the film as is his description of the rescue of an African baby who grew up to be Sidney Poitier.The film does borrow liberally from Gone With the Wind in terms of Gable's character.
Though Knowles is reputed to be a dead shot as a duelist, Gable faces him down and makes him turn tail in my favorite scene in the film.Band of Angels did not get the best of reviews at the time it came out.
Clark Gable plays Hamish Bond, a slave owner who treats his employees with kindness like Carolle Drake as Michelle (we find out she was also his mistress) and Tommie Moore as Dollie.
In Kentucky in the antebellum of the Civil War, Amantha Starr (Yvonne De Carlo) is the pride and joy of her father, the plantation owner Aaron Starr (William Forrest) that treats her slaves with dignity.
Amantha meets the slaves Rau-Ru (Sidney Poitier), who is treated like a son, and Michele (Carolle Drake), who is Hamish's mistress and in love with him.
Rex Reason, as a union officer, former acquaintance of De Carlo, who turns smarmy when he discovers her in New Orleans, provides a time capsule example for the word "hipocracy." That the plot is one of those is one of those where you can see both the short- and long-term developments coming (right to the film's climax) from the proverbial "mile away," doesn't diminish the enjoyment of this presentation on many levels -- the final being that this is among several of the films Gable made in what was the unexpected end of his iconic career, from a heart attack only a few years following..
Instead it's a great surprise to see it is set during the Civil War. Based on the novel by Robert Warren, it tells the story of Amantha Starr (Yvonne De Carlo) an attractive young white girl raised on a southern plantation in a well-to-do fashion.
First thing that upset me was they cast a white actress to the part of a mixed black person, Hollywood did this often in movies about mixed race people (Pinky, Lost Boundaries, Imitation of Life, Show Boat), they always would cast white actors and actress and try to make them look ethnic, instead of hiring light-skinned black actress and actors to play the part, it would bring an authenticity to the role if a real black played the part.
For this particular movie, Band of Angels, Hilda Simms (famous for playing Anna Lucasta on Broadway) who was a beautiful, talented, light-skinned black woman, would have been perfect as Manty, but as some reviewers have said, a true black and a white kissing and being in love on screen was taboo and something the world wasn't ready to see yet, but it was okay to see a "pretend black girl played by a white" and a white man in love, how much sense does that make???
She couldn't bring the suffering and hardships of being black like a real black actress could.This movie showed some truth about slavery, many white slave masters were sleeping with black women and having black mistresses.
I wonder how many white slave owners back then thought they could make up for buying slaves by being nice.Michele, played by model Carrole Drake, is a pretty house slave, who once was the mistress of Clark Gable, but when Manty was brought in, Michele had to move over, but she still loves him.
Its a great story with even better performances by Gable and Poitier and Yvonne De Carlo, together they really bring this film into the heart.
It's hard to find anything to say about BAND OF ANGELS except that it was photographed in excellent technicolor and Max Steiner actually manages to create an interesting score--though definitely not one of his best.Indeed, no one is at their best in this film--not Clark Gable, as an older and tired looking version of Rhett Butler, nor beautiful Yvonne de Carlo--each given some of the worst dialogue any actors have ever been saddled with.
I've seen the movie many times and i love it it is actually more true to life than most people would like to admit back in the the actual times this type of life was actually real and very common place many many plantation owners took black slave woman as mistresses often approved buy their wives especially in areas of new Orleans it was practically considered a sign of wealth and almost their duty to take a mistress it left their wives to deal with other more social matters they often set their mistresses up in a little cottage and fathered many children the female children of these relationships were prized for their cream colored skin an highly sought after sadly if the plantation owner ever died their children being part black were not allowed by law to own or inherit any of their property so for those of you who didn't like it for its truth oh well its more well written than most of the special effects computer generated garbage thats out their.
Supported by Sidney Poitier and Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Clark Gable and Yvonne deCarlo play the lead pair, who openly 'live in sin' and are otherwise reprehensible.
While not being another "Gone with the Wind" classic it is a film far ahead of it's time, representing very realistically the way in which black slave labor was ruthlessly exploited during the mid 19th century.
Bearing in mind that this film was released well before the advent of civil rights laws of the 60's, left it's release vulnerable to an improbable success at the box office due to the views of a divided nation.Clark Gable is magnificent as the suave well dressed self assured Hamish Bond who harbors a secret past, rescuing part black blooded white female Yvonne De Carlo playing Amantha Starr, from her uncertain fate at a public auction of slaves in New Orleans.
On their arrival by riverboat Bond, knowing that an impending war between North and South is inevitable gives Amantha a further chance to escape to the north before the conflict, but she refuses and joins him in her increasing infatuation of her lover rescuer.Her arrival at the plantation causes immediate commotion between Bond's black employees, and an advance on her by neighboring French upper class aristocrat Charles De Marigny played by Patric Knowles causes a violent intervention between him and Ra-Rau, who flees the plantation pursued by white vigilantes at the instigation of Marigny.Bond who was absent at the time, returns to the plantation, learns of the events which have taken place, and challenges the over confident Marigny to a gun duel who cowardly refuses.In the meantime the Civil War is well underway, and Ra-Rau joins the Union forces of the north, turning against his former master Bond who he blames for his demise and his previous subservience to him as his aide.The victory of Union forces over the Confederates leads Bond to abandon his plantation burning and destroying his cotton crops and barns.
Bond displays complete coolness in the face of this confrontation and confesses his role as a slave trader and how he rescued a child during a massacre of a village in Africa.Bond goes on to reveal how he took the child home, raised him like his own son, and called him Ra-Rau.Ra-Rau is stunned, lowers his gun and tells Bond he is free to leave and Bond discloses that he is to be picked up by his old friend skipper at a cove en -route to the West Indies, but at that moment other Union troops arrive accompanied by their white Captain who tries to buy off Ra-Rau by suggesting a promotion for him if the Captain is allowed to claim the military credit for Bond's capture.
The clothes are really the only good part of the film, so if you're the type of person who watches movies only to look at the costumes, rent this one.Yvonne De Carlo is a Southern belle, but when her father dies, her mother's race is revealed.
It's classic Max Steiner, which means he'll use silly ditties and score a drama as if it's a cartoon.On a side note, Sidney Poitier plays Clark Gable's "head slave".
Sold into slavery when it is revealed that she has African American blood, an orphaned young woman has to wrestle with her racial identity as well as the unclear intentions of an owner who treats her as a guest rather than a slave in this Raoul Walsh drama set during the American Civil War. There are some great subplots, particularly Sidney Poitier as a bitter slave who decides to assert himself, however, the central story is too melodramatic to click with personal identity issues pushed into the backdrop to focus on the tension between Yvonne De Carlo and Clark Gable as the protagonists.
What is enjoyable about the film is the fact that it tries like hell to be politically correct in some areas (e.g. Sidney Poitier prancing about as if he were Hamish Bond's son, yet he has this love-hate relationship with him), but doesn't bother to be politically correct in others, with slaves singing happily (why do slaves always sing in these stupid movies?) & Dolly (like Prissy from GWTW).
It's just great to see up & coming Sydney the actor with the Clark Gable the legend playing a character similar to Rhett Butler, and for the last time.
As is often the case with latter-day movies by great directors, it has an archaic feel, as though the directory knows he can't make movies just like the ones he made 20 years ago yet can't quite get the hang of modern film-making.The unfortunate thing is I wanted to see this movie for Sydney Poitier but he comes in on the late side and by the time he arrived I'd reached the point where I couldn't take any more.Then there's the slavery thing.
If you'd cast a black actress in the Yvonne De Carlo role then kissing Gable would have got the movie banned in most of the country.At the same time, people weren't idiots in the 1950s.
In fact, I suspect the book this movie was based on was far more nuanced (one would hope).So things like the well-dressed slaves, the benevolent slave-owners, the happy singing black folk, they're not "the best that could be done at the time." They are examples of lazy, thoughtless filmmaking.
Sidney Poitier does a good job in the film as the angry ex-slave and it's interesting to see a younger Efram Zimbalest, Jr. playing a supporting role.
certainly not "Gone With The Wind" but living in the south, and since yesterday was the anniversary of the Civil War, I watched the TCM marathon.The acting isn't superb and yes, Gable is looking a much older Rhett Butler here, and seems to walk through the part of swaggering blockade blackguard and tradesman, a familiar role.
After acting with Jack Warden in 'Edge of the City', the 30 year old Sidney Poitier teamed up with Clark Gable on Yvonne De Carlo (fresh from 'The Ten Commandments') in this reworked version of 'Gone with the Wind'.
I just saw it for the first time and I felt that it could have been better after all the hoopla and praises I have read about it.A Warner Bros extravaganza based on the novel by Robert Penn Warren, "Band of Angels" is a grand and episodic Civil War epic, a lyrical love story between a virile slave owner named Hamish Bond (Clark Gable) and half-white, half-black southern belle Amantha Starr (Yvonne deCarlo).
The world was full of all colors during the time leading up to the Civil War in the South
The cry for freedom was in the air like a rising wind
Slaves have already gone wild on many plantations but not yet on Pointe du Loup, Louisiana, where it was still serene
Hamish Bond maintains a plantation outside New Orleans
At the slave mart he buys a beautiful girl for $5,000
She is the daughter of a supposedly wealthy Kentucky planter
After her father's death she discovered he has left her nothing but debts
She also discovered her mother was a black slave and that, according to the custom of the time, she is classified of Negro blood and literally sold down the river to discharge her father's debts
Amantha Starr is horrified and degraded at the treatment shea well-bred white girlreceives when she becomes classified as a woman of mixed race
Hamish doesn't relegate the proud dark-haired woman to slave quarters but treats her as a lady in his household, where romance develops
Clark Gable plays the New Orleans wealthy gentleman who got a past he'd like to forget
He knows better than most men that money is no cure-all
He used to think it was
He used to think it would open the door to friendship and other essentials more important than power
He used to believe it was everything: a drug for loneliness, a painkiller for certain memories, the whole apothecary shop for every problem of life
He bought the attractive Amantha because she was on the slave block
Somebody else was bound to bid her on
That fellow with laced cuffs putting his hands on her and he hates lace cuffs
Yvonne de Carlo plays Amantha, the lady of quality with Negro heritage
She didn't go on her way north, nor she jumped the boat at Pointe du Loup
She has suffered, and she always will, with Hamish or without him
There always will be the fires, the memories because she loves him, and because he's the only man she ever loved, or ever will
The young Sidney Poitier plays the rebellious ambitious chief slave Rau-Ru who gets off the sidewalk for nobody
No constable or paddy roll ever stopped him
No steamboat captain ever asked to see his pass
Will he feels lucky enough to deliver his boss to the hangman one day?.
Sidney Poitier, who I little appreciate in films also has an obnoxious, tiresome, vindictive and ungrateful character, which is difficult to bear, but these minor points apart, the film is excellent, especially in the development of the amorous relationship between Clark Gable and Yvonne de Carlo.
Clearly, Gable, as Hamish Bond, has no interest in supporting the recent unsettling changes in the political scene and the impending Civil War. He recognizes that these events will probably shatter his idyllic life and that the lives of many of his slaves will likely be changed for the worse if they are liberated by the Yankee troops.
19 years after "Gone with the Wind" Clark Gable returns as a very-much-like Rhett Butler role of Hamish Bond; no doubt for the pleasure of us moviegoers it's one of his best roles.A very rich ex-slaver takes an interest in a white girl suddenly being sold as a slave based upon the revelation that her mother was black.
"Band of Angels"1957Directed by Raoul WalshStarring Clark Gable, Yvonne De Carlo, Sidney Poitier, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Carolle DrakePlot: a light-skinned daughter of a plantation owner and a slave is sold into slavery after living a young life of luxury.
Yvonne DeCarlo is a great beauty.The film has glorious sets of the old South, lovely gowns, and a series of bodice-ripper scenes that some will find arousing.It has a tried and true bodice-ripper, romance novel plot: a woman falls in love with her rapist, and in this case, her owner: a slave trader who bought her at a slave auction.Many viewers will find this plot, though, icky, and Gable is too creaky here to ignite the kind of spark he could once ignite that will get us past the ick factor.The real problem with this movie is this: the movie thinks that it is a groundbreaking, truth-telling, realistic depiction of the horrors of the enslavement of African Americans.
Carolle Drake, whose dignified performance is the best thing about the movie -- it is a real tragedy that this is the only film she ever made -- plays a slave woman who is in love with her owner.
The poor, stupid slaves who welcome their arrival, Gable intones, are not intelligent enough to realize how lucky they had it under their beneficent Southern owners.Again, if you like seeing beautiful women in pretty costumes, and if you want to see Yvonne De Carlo's bodice ripped -- six or seven -- I lost count -- men in the film attempt to have their way with her -- and if "woman falls in love with rapist" plots are your cup of tea, and if you can ignore the nauseating denial that underlies this exercise, then you may enjoy this movie.Otherwise, it is more of sociological interest than aesthetic..
Band of Angels (1957)A lot of people saw this as Clark Gable playing up the "Gone With the Wind" angle, but it's really a story about slavery and race in America.
Sure, it's a bit watered down for the late 50s sensibilities, and yes, it's pretty melodramatic stuff, but it's not a bad movie and well worth a look.A young, beautiful Yvonne De Carlo plays Amantha Starr, the daughter of a plantation owner.
Hamish Bond (Clark Gable) buys her, but sets her up like a lady.A 30 year old Sidney Poitier plays Rau-Ru, a freed slave and raised as Hamish's son.
Clarke Gable was very good as Hamish Bond, there is some excellent acting here. |
tt0339160 | Hitman 2: Silent Assassin | The game starts with a conversation between two men in the port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. They travel to a remote laboratory operated by Dr. Ort-Meyer, finding everyone inside dead. A review of the security footage shows a man in a suit killing several guards and orderlies. Recognizing the man as Agent 47, one of the men decides to hire him.
With all evidence of his existence erased, 47 decides to leave his life as a contract killer and retreats to a Sicilian church owned by Father Emilio Vittorio, taking a job as a humble gardener. One day, 47 agrees to attend one of Vittorio's confessions, seeking forgiveness. Shortly afterwards, a car arrives at the church and Vittorio goes to shoo it away. Instead, the occupants abduct him and leave a note demanding a ransom of $500,000. Unable to pay such a large sum, 47 contacts the ICA (International Contract Agency) and agrees to perform a contract killing in exchange for information on the whereabouts of Vittorio. He gets information from the Agency that Vittorio has been taken to a cell in the basement of the Villa Borghese, a local Mafia hideout.
47 infiltrates the Villa Borghese and kills his target, but fails to find Vittorio; thereafter, he steals a car and escapes. To repay his debt to the Agency, 47 accepts several contracts in Russia. Upon completing them, he negotiates a deal with his employers for both a payment raise and any information on Vittorio. Eventually, he gives up his search, believing his friend to be dead. Returning to his previous profession, he carries out a number of hits in countries such as Russia, Japan, Afghanistan, Malaysia, and India.
Eventually, 47 learns that Vittorio's kidnapping was an elaborate setup by Sergei, the brother of one of 47's five fathers, to lure him out of retirement. He also learns that all of his targets were individuals who were involved in the sale of a nuclear warhead to Sergei's gang, and that the items he was sometimes ordered to "retrieve" were the components of two additional nuclear missiles. The warheads possessed key signature software that would disguise them as American-made, and therefore bypass the American missile defense system. Sergei, who intends to sell the missiles, needed to eliminate everyone involved in the deal, and therefore arranged for 47 to take the contracts. Learning this, 47 pursues Sergei, who has taken Father Vittorio hostage inside his church.
47 kills Sergei and his men, and frees Vittorio. Vittorio gives 47 his rosary and begs him to give up his path of violence and death. 47 decides that he is incapable of finding inner peace and leaves the rosary on the church door, formally returning to the ICA. | violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0423731 | Samurai chanpurû | A young woman named Fuu is working as a waitress in a tea shop when she is abused by a band of samurai. She is saved by a mysterious rogue named Mugen and a young rōnin named Jin. Mugen attacks Jin after he proves to be a worthy opponent. The pair begin fighting one another and inadvertently cause the death of Shibui Tomonoshina, the magistrate's son. For this crime, they are to be executed. With help from Fuu, they are able to escape execution. In return, Fuu asks them to travel with her to find "the samurai who smells of sunflowers".
=== Setting and style ===
Samurai Champloo employs a blend of historical Edo-period backdrops with modern styles and references. The show relies on factual events of Edo-era Japan, such as the Shimabara Rebellion ("Unholy Union"; "Evanescent Encounter, Part I"); Dutch exclusivity in an era in which an edict restricted Japanese foreign relations ("Stranger Searching"); ukiyo-e paintings ("Artistic Anarchy"); and fictionalized versions of real-life Edo personalities like Mariya Enshirou and Miyamoto Musashi ("Elegy of Entrapment, Verse 2"). The content and accuracy of the historical content is often distorted via artistic license.
=== Historical context and Western influence ===
Samurai Champloo contains many scenes and episodes relating to historical occurrences in Japan's Edo period. In episode 5 ("Artistic Anarchy"), Fuu is kidnapped by the famous ukiyo-e painter Hishikawa Moronobu, a figure prominent in the Edo period's art scene. Episode 23 ("Baseball Blues") pins the main characters in a baseball game against Alexander Cartwright and a team of American baseball players trying to declare war on Japan. As for Western influences, the opening of the show as well as many of the soundtracks are influenced by hip hop. In episode 5, Vincent van Gogh is referenced at the end in relation to Hishikawa Moronobu's ukiyo-e paintings. A hip hop singer challenges the main characters in episode 8 ("The Art of Altercation") and uses break dance throughout. In episode 18 ("War of the Words"), graffiti tagging, a culturally Western art form, is performed by characters as an artistic expression and form of writing. The ending of the episode has Mugen writing his name on the roof of Hiroshima Castle, the palace of the daimyō in Edo Japan.
=== Sexuality ===
The topics of sex and sexual orientation are shown multiple times in Samurai Champloo. One topic that is frequently shown regarding sexuality is the use of brothels and prostitution. Brothels are seen in multiple episodes and are significant to the plot. The show includes Yakuza brothel ownership, characters being sold into prostitution and other issues regarding the subject. Another topic in the show is homosexuality, with one episode revolving around a homosexual Dutchman. This episode makes the claim that Edo-period Japan had liberal expressions of homosexuality that can most easily be compared to ancient Greece. | psychedelic, violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0111359 | Tall Tale | In 1905, Daniel Hackett (Nick Stahl), a young farmer from the western town of Paradise Valley, is unhappy with his life as a farmer and dreams of life in New York City. His father, Jonas (Stephen Lang), likes to tell Daniel tall tales about Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan and John Henry to which Daniel has heard many times leading him to doubt their existence. Meanwhile, Paradise Valley is being coveted by a greedy developer, J.P. Stiles (Scott Glenn). Stiles attempts to convince area farmers to sell their land to him, most notably Jonas as his farm lies in the center of where he wants to develop. However, when Jonas refuses to hand up his deed, Stiles hunts him down and shoots him, but not before Jonas hands the deed off to Daniel for safe keeping.
With Jonas in critical condition and unable to farm, his land is put at risk. Upset, Daniel runs out to hide in his father's boat and falls asleep. When Daniel awakes, he discovers that the boat had come untied and drifted downstream to the deserts of Texas. After a brief encounter with some thieves, Daniel is rescued by legendary cowboy Pecos Bill (Patrick Swayze). The duo later team up with lumberjack Paul Bunyan (Oliver Platt), and strong African American ex-slave John Henry (Roger Aaron Brown). Each of these heroes hooks up with Daniel and becomes involved in an increasingly bitter and boisterous fight against Stiles, whose plans to buy up land threaten the very strength of the folk heroes and the well-being of the common people.
When Stiles takes the deed, Daniel wakes up realizing it was just a dream. He ventures towards Stiles train who was about head out into the lands. Daniel confronts him, and they attempt to run him over, until John arrives and holds the train. Stiles orders his men to kill them, but Pecos arrives and shoots off their trigger fingers, and the villages join in to help, while Paul, who went inside while nobody noticed, cuts down the mine poles. Daniel then finishes off the last pole killing Stiles and his men, and the crowd cheers for him.
Daniel then returns to the farm and admits that the stories were true and their land is important. Paul with his blue ox Babe, and John with his mule Cold Molasses, say goodbye to Daniel and disappear afterwards. Pecos leaves his horse, Widow-Maker to Daniel and twirls his lasso at a twister for his departure. | good versus evil, violence | train | wikipedia | This is a Disney family movie, and the lead character is 12 years old.
The barroom scene with Calamity Jane is a treat for lovers of Old West humor, and Texas son Patrick Swayze is perfectly cast as Pecos Bill.
It is a great family movie that is based on the Tall Tales that many of us learned in literature classes.
If you know who Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, or John Henry are, you will find those heroes here.
If you don't, what better way to learn about some of American histories classic Tall Tale characters that once put a sense of pride in being American.
The American Tall Tale characters are brought in one at a time to help the boy through the situation and teach him the way of being a man, with respect..
I expected some sort of supernatural-type hero story with he likes of Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan and Jhn Henry, but this movie was more like a regular adventure.
It was that kind of story.The kid in here, "Daniel Hackett," played by Nick Stahl, was a little annoying for awhile, the typical snotty kid they like to show in the movies, but came to his senses by the end and wound up a decent kid who respected the people he was supposed to respect.Meanwhile, all the characters including bad-guy "J.P. Stiles" (Scott Glenn) were a lot of fun not only to watch but to listen to, with some good dialog.
Patrick Swaze was a hot as "Pecos Bill" and Oliver Platt equally fun as "Paul Bunyan," and who doesn't admire big "John Henry" (Roger Aaron Brown)?Why this is not available (at least in Region 1) on DVD is a mystery to me.
Sometimes a person has to make a stand to protect his or her way of life and I think this movie does that in a way that is easy to interpret.
It's really too bad that others can't manage to see it through the eyes of its intended audience: a seven-year-old who is enthralled by the likes of Patrick Swayze, Oliver Platt, Scott Glenn, Catherine O'Hara, Roger Aaron Brown, Scott Wilson, William H.
I, for one, am glad that there is still mindless, FUN entertainment for children to watch in between the movies we adults view that are full of explosions, blood, gore and full frontal nudity.
Instead of baseball legends a boy receives aid from some legends of the Old West-- Pecos Bill (Patrick Swayze), Paul Bunyon (Oliver Platt), John Henry (Roger Allen Brown), and Calamity Jane (Catherine O'Hara!).
I totally dug this movie when I was a kid (like 7 or 8 or 9 years old).
Anyway, I guess it's just personal preference, but I remember digging it, and to say that no child got anything out of this silly movie would be wrong.
Wild West Wizard of Oz. Disney has retold (again) the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, this time with a male protagonist, Paul Bunyan as the Cowardly Lion, John Henry as the Tin Woodman, and Pecos Bill as the Scarecrow.
I saw this movie for the first time today with my 8-year-old son, and as cheesy as this sounds, I know we will both remember this day forever.
But if you are the father of a small boy, go to the public library's children's room and get this movie pronto.
And if, like me, you're an old movie propman, get ready to enjoy some of the nicest set dressing and model work you've seen for a long, long time.
Written by Steve Bloom and Robert Rodat, and directed by Ornie Orsatti, Tall Tale stars Nick Stahl, Patrick Swayze, and Scott Glenn.
Released in 1995 this Action/Adventure film takes place in an old western town at the start of the twentieth century and focuses on the modernization of America.In 1905, Daniel Hackett (Nick Stahl) lives with his mother and father on the farmlands of Paradise Valley.
As the film progresses the audience learns that Daniel is growing sick of his life on the farm and expresses his bitterness to his father, Jonas.
Daniel's father tells him repetitive stories of folk heroes, Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, and John Henry, in whom Daniel no longer believes.
When Jonas stands up to stiles and refuses to sell his land he ends up being shot, but not before he hands the deed to his land to Daniel.
The two of them later meet up with famous lumberjack Paul Bunyan and ex-slave John Henry.
The team gets into a tough battle with Stiles, whose greediness threatens the strength of the folk tales and the livelihood of the farmers.The acting by the Stahl, Swayze, and Glen was very impressive.
The costumes were dead on for what viewers would imagine Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, and John Henry to look and dress like.
The costumes really brought out the feeling that this film was based in the early Midwest and the set was designed perfectly to give the feeling that the audience is involved in a folk story.
For example Paul Bunyan's log home was exactly what you would imagine it to be, along with his blue ox, Babe.I would highly recommend this film, as I have loved it since I was a child.
It is a great movie for children and for families, and should be watched by anyone who enjoys adventure films..
The movie was a great way to introduce my kids to the folk tales of our country in an engaging, comical way.
The family-film presentation is true to the Code championed by those legends: Protect the land, defend the defenseless, and don't never spit in front of women nor children.
The scene in which Pecos emerges, like heroic resolve itself, from the midst of a richly diverse public that has F I N A L L Y come together to nobly stand against the takeover by predatory eastern greed and its hired guns --- Rodat's script does not favor a disarmed populace --- deftly fulfills the principle of showing not saying it.
See this serious as a heart attack film --- we get a horrific prophetic vision, in a scene that is Hell on Wheels not Little Red Caboose, of a subjugated West whose workers are getting additional productivity squeezed out of them (to use a post-Bailout euphemism) with literal whips --- before or after the documentary Inside Job. Speaking of hired guns, Wall Street and the Business Roundtable, America's unelected, voter-unaccountable rulers with politicians in their pockets, have a vested interest in popular media as both profit sector and opinion influencer.
That this deeply patriotic lament/warning is fit for children older than perhaps 7 --- a 12-year-old boy is propositioned by a pathetically degraded woman then nearly killed by a knife-wielding Wall Street hatchet man and former farmer (played presumably as written with non-cartoonish touches of passionate hate, cold honesty, restrained pride with demanding eastern bosses, and even a flash of tenderness by Scott Glenn) --- does not make it lightweight.
Pecos Bill, Calamity Jane, free man John Henry, and Paul Bunyan are what many used to want America, at least the American West, to be: an America standing morally tall.
(We still talk about it and it was almost ten years ago!) All of our favourite fairy tale characters came to life and were transported to a place where heroes lived and dreams came true.
Then watch this movie again and see it for what it is; a child's imagination on-screen.
Disney fantasy set in Old West America at the turn of the century: young farm boy, imaginative but unhappy, dreams up Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan and John Henry when the family farming home is threatened by a slimy land-developer.
Other cast members (Patrick Swayze, Oliver Platt, and Nick Stahl) do commendable work, but film lacks real emotion and depth.
A young boy draws on the inspiration of legendary western characters to find the strength to fight an evil land baron in the old west who wants to steal his family's farm and destroy their idyllic community.Director Jeremiah S.
Great family movie.
It is a good all around family movie.
The movie takes us through some American mythical characters who we can reminisce about such characters as Pecos Bill.
LAO, a true family movie: there's something anyone can relate to, but with some hokey flaws that ultimately don't matter.There are so many great parts to it, that it's a shame that some of the editing and a few character blunders are handled so badly.The John Henry competition is pretty much thrown away, just because of some bad editing.The bad guy is an out-of-place cartoon, supposedly in the "real world" but seems like a fugitive from THE WILD, WILD WEST.
He is pitted against the well-drawn characters of Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, John Henry and Calamity Jane, all of whom start out as cartoons, then are cleverly nuanced.
Tall Tale: A movie that tells a tale of a boy growing up in the 1800's.
It goes on, into the Sahara Desert, through fights with bad guys, standing up to Paul Bunyan (one of the best quotes of the movie is at this point), basically any sort of adventure you can imagine!
Patrick Swayze's dry humor is perfect for the role, as are the roles of Paul Bunyan and John henry equally well played.
If someone is looking for a lighthearted adventure, Tall Tale is the movie for you!!!!!.
That's the one good thing I can say about this movie.
Patrick Swayze, Oliver Platt, and Roger Aaron Brown make the most of their characters and have great chemistry together.
At the last minute, Jonas's son Daniel gets ahold of the deed to their land and runs away with it, because Stiles will stop at nothing to snatch it right out of his hands (a tried-and-true legal tactic).
Tall Tale is a fun little movie.
The basic plot is that a young boy enlists the help of fictional heroes to save his family's farm from an evil capitalist.
The fictional heroes are all that separate Tall Tale from a normal "Kid tries to save his family's farm/home/whatever from an evil land baron" story.
If you like American folktales, then rent Tall Tale.
A fun movie even if you haven't heard the Tall Tales!.
It features all of the same stories I heard about Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, and John Henry.
Nick Stahl (Daniel Hackett) proves in this movie that he is a very talented actor, at a young age, by making a normally cheesy script sound...
Another admired actor of mine would be Oliver Platt (Paul Bunyan) He adds more humor to this already funny movie.
A good cast stuck in the wrong movie.
A remarkably distinguished cast gets lost with a poor script in this live action Disney film set in the 1905 American WestScott Glenn can play a good villain (see Night of the Running Man), but he is completely flat here as evil industrialist JP Stiles.
In one of his last roles Burgess Meredith is wasted, as is the talented Oliver Platt who given a character as thin as a piece of paper and asked to do his best.In the lead role fourteen year old Nick Stahl, who was absolutely riveting in Mel Gibson's 'The Man Without a Face', could've done the movie in his sleep.
Even so, he delivers the best performance out of anyone here.The fact that this is a Disney family film seriously hampers it's realism in depicting the West.
Some of us may wonder how appropriate it was for Disney to make a movie linking American legends and historical events, but I wish to assert that "Tall Tale" is worth seeing.
It portrays a boy (Nick Stahl of "In the Bedroom") joining up with Pecos Bill (Patrick Swayze), Paul Bunyan (Oliver Platt) and John Henry (Roger Aaron Brown) to fight a developer (Scott Glenn) in the American West in 1905.
The movie sort of gives one the feeling that these tales may have had some truth to them.
But the actors in the movie made it ok to watch (Patrick Swayze and Nick Stahl)the thing is I couldn't understand that Walt Disney made this picture and I have never heard of Caravan pictures.
All I know is that Walt Disney made all those animation films like the classics Snow White and the seven Dwarfs, 101 Dalmations, Lady and the Tramp etc.
But this movie just doesn't fit Walt Disney's idea of a great film.
"Superstar Patrick Swayze stars as gun-slinging, tornado-riding cowboy legend Pecos Bill in Disney's most rousing Western adventure yet.
Summoned by the imagination of a young boy, Pecos sets out to help the lad save the family farm from a greedy land-grabber.
Packed with plenty of rollicking action and visual effects, untamed adventure doesn't ride any faster or shoot any straighter than 'Tall Tale: The Unbelievable Adventure'!" "Tall Tale" is a competent, unabashed re-envisioning of "The Wizard of Oz" (1939).But, they went down the wrong yellow brick road by retrofitting it to the American West of 1905 - with folk heroes "Pecos Bill" (standing in for the Scarecrow), "Paul Bunyan" (the Cowardly Lion), and "John Henry" (the Tin Man) made more ordinary than they were even in the old adventures told before the arrival of radio, television, and motion pictures.
Most exciting scene has young Nick Stahl (as Daniel) standing up to a train driven by Scott Glenn (The Wicked Warlock of the West).
Chechik ~ Nick Stahl, Patrick Swayze, Oliver Platt, Roger Aaron Brown.
A young boy named Daniel Hacket doesn't believe his father is doing the right thing when he passes up an opportunity to sell the family farm for purely sentimental reasons.
He also doesn't believe all the tall tales his father tells him of Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyun and Jonn Henry.He is later entrusted with the deed to the farm by his father who then gets critically injured.The villain of this film, Mr. Stiles, won't rest until he has every deed to Paradise Valley, the area where the Daniel lives.Daniel falls asleep in a boat and is carried off.
Along the way they meet Paul Bunyun and John Henry.
They also must struggle to avoid Stiles and his men who are hot on their trail.On the journey, Daniel sees why the land is so important to his father and finds himself fighting for it just as hard.I find this to be a charming and heart warming film.
too bad because it's so well made and intelligent that it should be appreciated more than it is.a almost virtually unrecognizable Patrick Swayze gives a powerful and memorable performance that i think is one of the best of his career and one of the best Pecos Bill interpretations.
all the performances here are well done, but it is Swayze's "Pecos" that stands out.director Jeremiah Chechik gives the film a elegant look that is unusually refined for family films of this kind.
especially notable is the design of Scott Glen's villain's ominous looking train.the film also amusingly and accurately, conveys these early American legend stories fear of progress and the machine/industrial age, that was such a common theme with stories like 'Paul Bunyan' and 'John Henry'.so much of this is so well done that you almost hate to quibble about it but i feel it does have a basic flaw.
Tall Tale is a pretty dumb film, and contains an UNFORGIVABLE 'twist' 15 minutes from the end...
Such as Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan and John Henry.
And then, fail to even follow through on that miserable old plot device.So, in a final confrontation that even defies the pathetic logic set up by the makers, you wonder: Just what is the moral here?It's a good thing to risk your life for a farm, which is probably going to kill you through stress and overwork anyway?Fictional figures from history will save your bacon when all else fails (I'm thinking Bill & Ted did that one better)?
This is my favourite Disney film of all-time!I'm a mixed foreigner from Japan, and I feel like one of the PRIVILEGED people who got to see this movie!
It's an educational film for those studying American Tall Tales.This is a Disney Drama Classic!!
Nick Stahl, Patrick Swayze, Oliver Platt, Scott Glenn, Stephen Lang, etc...
I was really hoping for Doug Walker to review this film during his last "Disneycember" (yeah I know) Great family movie, with a great story, and good morales, too!
;)And in my book, it seems quite Biblical too, with the facts that 3 legendary characters, Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, & John Henry are sent to help this boy, Daniel Hackett; they're somewhat like 3 GUARDIAN ANGELS (since the Number "3" appears quite a lot in the Bible).
Motivation is very important, always , but to Daniel Hackett a boy who hates the farm his father is giving his life for, mythological characters like Pecos Bill, John Henry and Paul Bunyan are just big lies.
John Henry will compete with a steam powered hammer, Pecos Bill will ride a tornado, and Paul Bunyan has a blue ox sidekick (with whom he once dug the Grand Canyon).
P. Stiles one of the baddest guys you will ever meet and Patrick Swayze is an excellent Pecos Bill.
Typically when your parents arrived to ask you how the movie was, someone in your party was sure to say "so and so, got to sit in the front row!" America in its innocence (good or bad) dropped their children off for the double feature that usually ran on Saturday afternoon.
As the movie progressed, I understood why Paul's character had to portray more of a gruff Uncle.
The sunglasses added to the costume in the desert scene finally made him Paul Bunyan to me.Speaking of eye candy, that smile on Brown had to be the deciding factor that he was cast as John Henry. |
tt3489184 | Constantine | God and Lucifer have a standing wager for the souls of all mankind. Angels and demons are forbidden to manifest on Earth; instead, their hybrid off-springs (human-angel and human-demon) can be used to influence humans.
In a church ruin in a Mexican countryside, a scavenger named Manuel finds a spearhead wrapped in a Nazi flag, which is later revealed as the Spear of Destiny. Manuel becomes possessed and begins to make his way to the US.
Exorcist John Constantine exorcises a girl possessed by a soldier demon trying to break through to Earth, something that should not be possible under the wager's rules. He meets with the androgynous half-angel being Gabriel. He asks Gabriel for a reprieve from his impending death from lung cancer. Gabriel declines, telling Constantine that he exorcises demons for selfish reasons and will not earn his way to Heaven.
After being assaulted by another demon, Constantine goes to former witch doctor Papa Midnite, who runs a club serving as neutral ground where half-breeds do not have to conceal themselves. Midnite does not believe Constantine's claim of demons crossing over. Constantine leaves, after exchanging hostile words with half-demon Balthazar.
Elsewhere, a woman named Isabel Dodson commits suicide in a psychiatric hospital. Her twin sister, Detective Angela Dodson, refuses to believe Isabel, a devout Catholic, would kill herself. Watching security footage of Isabel's suicide, Angela hears her saying Constantine's name. Angela finds Constantine and asks him to help investigate. After they are attacked by winged demons, which Constantine believes were targeting Angela, he agrees to help.
Constantine briefly transports himself to Hell, and sees Isabel damned to eternally relive her suicide. He briefs his findings to Angela. He explains to her that he was born with the power to see the true nature of the half-breeds. He committed suicide to escape his visions, but was saved by paramedics. However, for the sin of taking his own life, his soul is destined for Hell. The two examine Isabel's room in the hospital and find a clue pointing to a prophecy that Lucifer's son, Mammon, will attempt to claim Earth as his own kingdom. To do so, Mammon requires a powerful psychic and assistance from God.
Angela tells Constantine that Isabel was a clairvoyant and a psychic, and was committed by her parents as a result. Angela had the same gifts, but suppressed it. At Angela's insistence, Constantine reawakens her psychic ability through a near death experience. She immediately finds a clue pinpointing Balthazar as an accomplice to the plot. Constantine interrogates Balthazar, who reveals that Mammon has the Spear, stained with the blood of Christ - the assistance from God. Angela, now the psychic in place of Isabel, is abducted by an invisible entity and impregnated by Manuel.
Constantine convinces Midnite that the demons are breaking the wager's rules. With Midnite's help, Constantine finds out how the Spear emerged and Angela's location. Constantine arms himself, and goes to the hospital, accompanied by his driver and apprentice Chas Kramer. The two fight their way through an army of half-demons and exorcise a possessed Angela. However, Chas is killed by the invisible entity, which turns out to be Gabriel. Resenting God’s favoritism towards humans, the half-angel plans to unleash Hell on Earth to weed out those deemed "unworthy" of God’s love. Gabriel casts Constantine from the room and prepares to use the Spear to cut Mammon free from Angela.
Out of options, Constantine slits his wrists. As he bleeds out, Lucifer arrives to personally collect his soul. Constantine tells Lucifer of Mammon's plan to usurp him. Lucifer easily overpowers Gabriel, burns Gabriel's wings and banishes Mammon. In return for his help, Lucifer grants Constantine a favor. Constantine asks that Isabel be released to Heaven. Lucifer complies, but then realizes that he cannot take Constantine to Hell. By selflessly sacrificing himself, Constantine is granted entry to Heaven. Infuriated, Lucifer heals Constantine's injuries and cures him of cancer, hoping he will eventually make a mistake and damn himself again. Angela and Constantine depart, leaving the now human Gabriel. Sometime later, Constantine, now making an effort to quit smoking, entrusts the Spear to Angela.
In a post-credits scene, Constantine visits Chas' grave, where Chas appears in an angelic form and flies away. | paranormal | train | wikipedia | Being a MASSIVE fan of the Hellblazer comics, I was dead excited to see that they were finally going to bring an accurate version of John Constantine to life.
It's true to the source material (making it different from both Arrow and Gotham) without being a slave to it (making it worth watching instead of just reading).Matt Ryan and Angelica Celaya's on-screen chemistry is exquisite, sexual tension real but not overpowering.
Special effects whose corniness is justified by the circumstances, and to my mind the most important bit: real, human stories.Amidst the occult, the psychic, the voodoo and the demonic, the show is about redemption, worldview, escaping, and struggling with "inner demons." Constantine is entertaining, but more than giving you something to care about, it gives you something to relate to.
They are going to do one of two things-- U.S. network programming that isn't specifically called a "Mini-series" either runs- on till it runs out of plot line or gets canceled with no conclusion worth the name.
I'm not a big comic book fan and I never knew the character prior to the film, but for what is worth I enjoyed it back in the day and I was hoping for more for a long time.The series starts off on the right note and with a proper rhythm.
The Hellblazer comic was supposed to be a intelligent look at a warlock named John Constantine who is a complete lying and con man.
First of all , hats off to Matt Ryan for actually bringing the crazy witty bastard we all know as John Constantine to life.
I just finished episode 1 and like Gothem having Frank Miller & Bob Kane (probably the best writers of Batman comics and going way back ) on the writing staff, this show Constantine will be appreciated by fans for what hopefully will be a sustained effort at excellence in writing and faithfulness to character.
The Hellblazer of Alan Moore and Garth Ennis is a deeply flawed and nuanced John Constantine and with Chaz and Zed at his side this wrecking crew are sure to make a dent in hell's plots.Other Comic luminaries that worked on the monumental character are Dave McKean, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman and Stephen Bissette.
I have also watched the movie which I did enjoy, as well as John Constantine's limited presence in other series..
Being a fan of the character for a long time, I can say THIS is THE John Constantine I'd hoped for in the barf-of-a-movie that everybody seems to love (Keannu Reeves as Hellblazer?
My expectations were accordingly measured.However, I'm an avid watcher of series like Supernatural (yes, still) True Blood and Hemlock Grove, besides more gritty fare such as American Horror Story and Hannibal.
I adore horror, and so I figured there was no reason not to give Constantine a go.With that in mind, watching the pilot episode, I tried to think of this simply as a new, American supernatural TV drama series.
Sadly, all attempts at acting are instantly bulldozed by the ham-fisted direction.In the end, I am left with the simple question "why bother?" The answer, sadly, probably has more to do with DC Comics' fervent wish to scramble onto the coattails of Marvel's recent success in film and television, and very little with any real interest in making a worthwhile TV version of Hellblazer/Constantine.Perhaps the pilot—as is often the case—is poorly representative of the series as it will continue.
Instead of being mesmerized by an original story, I felt like watching an episode of Supernatural season 4 or 5 (which were not bad), but I found that Constantine was missing the originality that made the comic so entertaining.I look forward to future episodes to see if the series will pick up the pace or if I will move on to something else.
Based on a comic (Hellrazer) this supernatural thriller series follows the adventures of John Constantine, a dark exorcist, occult detective and con man.An anti-hero himself, Constantine, struggling with his own sins as he tries to protect humanity from evil supernatural forces.Matt Ryan is suitable for the main role although his qualities are totally different from those of Keanu Reeves who played the titular character in the 2005 movie.The series will remain more faithful to the comic than the 2005 film but the depiction of Constantine's as a hard smoker will be absent due to broadcast television restrictions!!!
So I was wondering around the internet today and found Constantine.After hearing about it a while back and watching the trailer I didn't expect much form it and honestly I thought it would be a shitty attempt of reviving one of my favorite Keanu movies.And then I saw it.
I will say to all the Constantine fans that it has that something we all loved from the movie and despite not having Keanu or a Keanu look a like the protagonist manages to pull threw with his acting.The script was good enough, the acting was OK and the world was awesome like in the movie.All and all i enjoyed way more than I thought I would and would recommend it..
While a good movie it had nothing to do with the comic book character John Constantine.
This TV series seems so far to be going back to the comic books and finally getting this character pretty darn close.
I hope they do and keep the characters and stories where they come from, the comic books.
I think it is just the result of what happens when someone, the producers, together with their chosen writers try to push everything that has ever been shown in every supernatural movie or serial of the last 15 years into their first episode of their show.
Bad accent, super flat humor and Constantine looks like an older version of Jason Stackhouse (and Jason was def not our favorite True Blood character).
Top of all, Constantine acts like an over dramatic clown, making stupid faces and speaks out senseless lines.We were looking forward to this show based on the impressive Constantine movie and the DC Comics, never expected they'll ruin the franchise already with the pilot.
Premiere episode reminds me of a very old joke.An octogenarian is installed in a retirement home by his children.His first night there, a female occupant of the same age surprises him on route to his room, and challenges "Super Sex?" The gentleman thinks about this for a moment, and finally responds "I'll take the soup, thank you very much." This show verily defines the word "ambitious" in that it is not only attempting to bring a graphic novel to life, but it also has to knowingly suffer comparisons to the film, which featured a remarkably smooth and assured performance by KR.I do like the casting.
With Bogey playing Constantine, or at least a younger, British version of Bogey.Personally, I almost liked it, but, then, I spend too much time watching TV and can be lured into a show simply by sheer novelty.I am not sure the average viewer, a viewer who can push buttons on his PVR and instantly get SHIELD or ARROW or PERSON OF INTEREST or PENNY DREADFUL, will be quite as forgiving...?
Keanu was not as bad as many deemed him to be, however the script of the movie lacked a lot, but I really liked the dark vibe of Constantine.This show however takes everything that was cool about Constantine - removes it and replaced it with utter rubbish.The acting is so bad its almost a disgrace considering what we get on television these days.
And the envy I feel towards those one million non-viewers is stronger than any emotion that I experienced watching the Constantine pilot.No supernatural curse was necessary to doom this show; the half-baked script got the job done beautifully with dull characters, languid storytelling and lots of humorless, uninteresting words.The actors look good.
Although the themes are parallel, the characters are very different, and the movie aimed at an echo of noir, with brilliant big budget special effects.I'd happily and equally look forward to seeing more of the series, or a sequel to the Constantine movie.
CONSTANTINE was a 13-episode series that was ignobly cancelled after just one series and it's based on the Hellblazer comic, just as the Keanu Reeves big screen adaptation of the same character was.
I'm a fan of the movie Constantine that stars Keanu Reeves so I got excited when I heard there will be a series.I think expected too much from it.
Matt Ryan plays the titular character John Constantine with such conviction.
Still watching the first and as it turns out only series of Constantine, I couldn't believe when I read it had been cancelled after one season, it's rare the networks even let through a series like this and coming from the UK we only get very few of them.
I watched every episode of Grimm and Sleepy Hollow and halfway through I think Constantine has them both beat, the characters are all very watchable though I'm pretty sure anyone as prickly as Constantine would get thumped a little more than he does but no one's perfect and that includes TV execs, you had a gem here and you let it go, I can only hope some other studio picks it up and runs with it i for one will be glued to the screen when they do..
Given I'm enjoying seeing Constantine on "Legends of Tomorrow" at the moment, and (though nothing like the character, I quite like the Keanu Reeves movie) I thought I'd check this out even though I know it that was quickly cancelled.Matt Ryan plays John Constantine, paranormal investigator, cursed soul, wise ass; who, sensing a rising darkness checks out of a mental institution and begins to cross the country, vanquishing demons and saving the vulnerable.
He's joined in his mission by Zed (Angelica Celaya) a woman with psychic powers and Chas, John's seemingly immortal muscle and conscious played by Charles Halford.The best part about the series is probably apparent from the fact he still plays the character, Matt Ryan is clearly enjoying himself with the smoking, drinking and carousing.
Matt Ryan is a refreshing change to a dull live action lineup, so props to you, love.Though yes we are excited for his return in showcases like Legends of Tomorrow and Arrow, nothing will ever grasp the dwindling thread that was Constantine's greatness.
I hope after Supernatural's 13th season (when it was promised to end) Constantine comes back !
At first you get a punch in the face by this jerked off British guy with his hair colored blonde being Constantine, and after being a really big fan of Keanu's Constantine (well..Lawrence's actually) i was seriously like what in the f is this sh*t...but i kept on and i fell in love with it...Matt Ryan played an amazing role.If you guys love the god/heaven/hell/Satan/magic/exorcism/witchcraft theme don't pass out on this one.
The show follows John Constantine (played by Matt Ryan) who is a paranormal investigator/exorcist who has to fight against "the rising darkness".
Matt Ryan is amazing as Constantine and one of the best casting choices I've ever seen in not only a show, but in comic book based media.
You're going to really enjoy this if you like the genre and while Matt Ryan does the job well, there are times where he falls short on his acting and you lose the flow of the episode.
Having said that, I did grow to like the series, perhaps some better story lines, really hope it comes back for a 3rd season.
Four Episodes in and I'm hooked, as a fan of Hellblazer I know that I can't expect to see word for word representations of what's going on but so far it seems that they're on to a good thing here.
I've only recently become a fan of the Constantine comics after the new 52 series came out.
Matt Ryan plays John Constantine on the show and he is the perfect choice for the character, he has that cocky sarcastic charisma nailed and it allows him to own this whole show.
Now that the writers have decided which direction they want to go, they're doing so beautifully.John Constantine is a bastard of a character (which is why so many of us love him) and Matt Ryan is perfect for it.
this is just my opinion, I like Keanu Reeves in the movie Constantine from 2005 if you have not seen it take a look.1 back actors.2.he is from england.3.they replaced the Lucy Griffiths.
On one side there is the confusion over things happening without no explanation, flow or scheme and then as a fuel to the fire you have an English actor playing the central character whose diction is itself a hard shell to crack and add to that the misery of watching his acting that is like somebody on extreme sugar rushIf you have watched the movie Constantine starring Keanu Reeves, then you will understand the grievances i have towards Matt Ryan.
while Keanu reeves successfully portrayed the arrogant, troubled and brooding character of Constantine, Matt was unable to convince of the same.The graphics on the other hand was pretty impressive and a great visual delight but unfortunately without a solid script , a befitting central character, the series is not much to look forward toIf anything goes like the first episode then this series is a thorough disaster waiting to happen but since it has only been one episode so far, i will try for another chance for the series, even though there is no hope visible as of now.After Watching Second episode Yes things have settled down but does that mean it is getting interesting?sadly No would be an appropriate answer for me.
I liked the movie starring Keanu Reeves but the series is just too good and boy Matt Ryan is just mind blowing with his portrayal of the titular character.
Its like a modern day Buffy the vampire slayer equivalent, very good program and can't wait for a second season but please don't put this on hold for the flash!Watched 7 episodes of the flash and just lost interest it was same old every time and boring to be honest.
I'm not familiar with either the original DC comic creation or the earlier movie involving this character in the 90's but I enjoy the other DC TV shows "Arrow", "Gotham", The Flash" and "Supergirl", indeed I saw him first in an "Arrow" cross-over and was intrigued by him.The central character reminds me a bit of Paul Blackthorne's "The Dresden Files" which too, sadly got cancelled after just one season, concerning itself with devils, demons and the dark side in general, with our charismatic hero taking them on at every turn.
Constantine appears to be hunting down evil spirits wherever they are and for the second episode at least looks to have hooked up with a young female acolyte to give him his "assistant" a la Dr Who.The production values are good, the writing acceptable and the overall plotting fine.
I like him, he's tough, cynical and driven, the overarching plot here appearing to be his quest to reclaim the soul of a young girl who was lost to the dark zone while in his care.It's a shame that this show cancelled after just one series, maybe the fact Constantine doesn't wear designer clothes in his civilian alter-ego or a superhero costume when fighting crime, stopped his catching on with the wider public.Anyway I liked it and will watch all the episodes I can in the future..
The plot of the episodes go "Plop." If the goal is a second season, then, the writers need to undergo alcohol or drug rehab, seek out divorce lawyers and get their own lives in order before they introduce "A Hero Who Can And Does Battle Supernatural Evil." Actor Matt Ryan does the role of John Constantine well.
Drop the British accent and dialogue and be The American Hero Who Battles Supernatural Evil.Look to "The 2005 Movie" for the inspiration to make "Constantine" a working TV Series..
The Constantine character were better, the story was better and there were more spells then the movie.
Also Matt Ryan's acting is on point of what I would think Constantine would act in TV show and movie form.
So im going to start by saying that i am a big fan of the hellblazer and constantine new 52 comics but that will not impend to much on this review Constantine starts with its first 3 episodes being a little drawn out whilst it develops the characters throughout the series.
There is some promise here and the series will probably do better with those who aren't fans of the comic book or the horrible Keanu Reeves film.
John Constantine is (as some people may know) a comic book character from the same company that counts Superman, Batman and such among its properties.
On the surface, yes, this TV Constantine resemble the comic book character a lot more, than the Keanu Reeves of Constantine the Movie.
On top of that, the visuals of the pilot are just rehashings of the same clichés you see in the lowest budget horror films you can imagine.The one good thing is Matt Ryan (who plays John Constantine).
There is great potential in this department.Unfortunately the pilot generally leave little hope for the series in the future if you're acquainted with John Constantine from the comics.
Constantine First Two Episodes Review: Better Than GothamDC Comics have premiered three different TV shows this fall.
SPOILERS!Constantine is based on the successful DC (and more specifically, Vertigo) comic series Hellblazer.
The movie was fun, but not great.The main character of the show is John Constantine, an exorcist, demonologist, and, um, dabbler of the Dark Arts.
Later, I watched the second episode, and my speculation was confirmed.Season 1 of Constantine is going to be just like the first season of Supernatural. |
tt0068323 | Buck and the Preacher | Buck and the Preacher opens with a deep rhythm and blues soundtrack reminiscent of a John Wayne Western that was given deep soul and harmony from the 1970s. The camera switches scenes to a camp of African-Americans who have been just freed from slavery and are heading West for a better life. A band of men on horseback terrorize the camp by burning wagons and tents and killing men, women and children. The leader of these white bandits, DeShay (Cameron Mitchell), is wearing an old cavalry jacket hinting at his military past.
Buck (Sidney Poitier) enters the scene and dismounts his horse to walk up to his home. DeShay makes Buck's wife, Ruth (Ruby Dee), wave to him as if everything is all right. Buck begins to approach the house and is then caught in a firefight between DeShay's outlaws. Buck remounts his horse and flees after being chased by the bandits. He then stops at an apparently empty campsite with a burning campfire, food and a horse. A naked man, the Preacher (Harry Belafonte), is bathing at a nearby stream and approaches the campsite to dress, but Buck steals the Preacher's horse and his breakfast at gunpoint.
The Preacher dresses and takes Buck's horse to the nearest town where he grabs a drink and finds out the location of the nearby camp from an African-American boy working at the general store. The Preacher is approached by DeShay and told that any information helping him to find Buck or bringing Buck in dead or alive will be worth a five hundred dollar reward. The Preacher is excited about this because he has a good feeling Buck is at an African-American wagon camp of which the little boy spoke.
Buck returns to the camp and is told by the men that an elderly Indian wise man thinks they should continue West and not turn back. The elder is shown throwing animal teeth on a towel, which the audience assumes to be a prediction of the future. Buck agrees to further help the group as the Preacher appears and punches Buck in the face. Buck then agrees to feeding the Preacher and giving him his horse back - after which the Preacher must depart and leave their camp. Buck does this because he fears the Preacher's motives for wanting to stay after he is caught looking at the women folk and wondering aloud where the money was kept.
The Preacher leaves the group and stalks Buck when he leaves to make a deal with the Native Americans. The Native Americans pursue the Preacher and Buck bargains with them for protection of the wagon group. The Native Americans are portrayed as shrewd bargainers who constantly haggle for a better deal with Buck. After reaching an agreement, the Preacher has a new-found respect for Buck because of his hard work effort and desire to help the traveling freed slaves.
While the two protagonists are negotiating, DeShay and his men raid the camp again and do more damage. The Preacher turns cheek at this point in the film and stops attempting to corner and kill Buck for the reward because of Buck's compassion towards the wagon camp. The Preacher then tells Buck where DeShay and his men are camped and suggests an ambush.
Buck agrees to the Preacher's plan, and together they ambush DeShay's campsite - killing him and most of his men. The sheriff from a nearby town pursues the pair, but they escape on horseback. The two men - along with Buck's wife - then decide to rob the bank at the town where they murdered DeShay's men in hopes of gaining more money for the African-Americans in the camp so they have a better chance of surviving the winter. The three unsuccessfully rob the mail office first and then cross the street to rob the bank. The sheriff returns to town during the robbery and chases the three robbers - along with their bags of loot - out of town.
Buck, the Preacher and Ruth ride hard for the Indian Territory and reach it just in time. A Native American war party is defending the boundaries of their territory and does not permit the sheriff and his posse to cross into their lands. The sheriff continues the search and finds the wagon camp but decides not to attack it. One of the men in the posse suggests they attack the camp to bring out Buck, but the sheriff disagrees arguing that the African Americans did no harm.
In anger, the man kills the sheriff and orders the posse to attack. Buck approaches the wagon camp and lures the posse into the mountains. A gunfight ensues, and the Preacher is wounded but the posse is defeated. The Native Americans who said they would not fight Buck's battle send several warriors to help and end up being the force that turns the tide of the shootout in Buck's favor.
The movie ends with Buck, the Preacher and his wife riding happily into the prairie. | blaxploitation | train | wikipedia | Buck and the Preacher was the first movie I ever saw about the black experience after the civil war that was centered on their migration west.
I've seen this movie three times since it was originally shown, and have enjoyed it as much each time, while Buck, a no-nonsense Wagon Master played by Sidney Poitier takes his responsibilities very seriously.
That is what makes the meeting of Buck with the Preacher, played by Harry Belafonte Jr. so poignant.
They are at opposite ends of the cultural trust scale, but they are forced to team up against a common enemy to secure their individual survival.The Preacher, shiftless and scheming, and the only stereotypical character in the movie, is very well known to blacks, and not really as funny to blacks as non-blacks may sometimes think.Buck and the Preacher was one of the first modern movies about black people to provide any depth to the characters, and also to present characters and subject matter that are not normally associated with the black experience.
Poitier plays Buck, one of few blacks who are qualified to be wagonmasters.
It is after the Civil War and he is helping escort former slaves into the west.
The movie is brutally honest with the hatred that these brave men and women faced, but the film has a strong sense of hope.
Harry Belafonte has the most colorful role as The Preacher - a reformed thief who befriends Buck when given no one else to trust.
Recommended to anyone who enjoys a fresh, historical angle with their westerns..
Sidney Poitier made his directorial debut with "Buck and the Preacher", in which he played a wagon-master leading freed slaves across the Old West.
The whole time, they have to battle night-riders trying to return them to slavery in Louisiana.
But then, Poitier joins up with Harry Belafonte, a reformed thief spreading the Gospel across the Old West, and they figure out a way to protect the freed slaves.Probably the most important aspect of this movie was that it came out around a time when Hollywood was releasing many blaxploitation movies portraying African-Americans as kick-ass brothers and sisters with hearts of gold.
A lively and good Western concerning a wagon train chased by bandits, being well played and directed by Poitier.
It regards a trail guide and a con preacher join forces to help a wagon train of former slaves who are escaping from cutthroats and seeking to homestead out the West .
They placed their hopes in the hands of the few black wagonmasters that knew the territories of the west .
This movie deals with a hard , long travel throughout the wilderness of a group of negroes and slaves freed after the end Civil War , being led by an intrepid wagonmaster (Sidney Poitier) along with a roguish preacher (showy acting by Harry Belafonte) wielding a peculiar Holy Bible .
And being harassed by marauding white nightriders (led by Cameron Mitchell) all the way down .Sidney Poitier performed and shot this picture , delivering it all the traditional ingredients of amusement : Riding pursuits , spectacular battles , croosfire , bank assaults , ambushes , fights with Indians , and many other things .
While at the same time inserting a thought-provoking issue of accusatory coment on the ill-treatment of the ancient slaves whose graves are as unmarked as their place place in history .
It has an interesting subject which is rather reminiscent of John Ford's Wagonmaster played by Ben Johnson in similar role to Poitier .
Nice , though , the idea of having Indians riding and coming to rescue of the wagon train besieged by bandits , it is a gem , instead of the ordinary Union cavalry .
Harry Belafonte steals the show giving an overacting and Poitier the player seems content to stand back and let the limelight falls on Harry .
Ruby Dee also provides a decent playing , she interprets the attractive spouse of Sidney .The motion picture was professionally directed by Sidney Poitier .
Poitier's talent, conscience, integrity, and inherent likability placed him on equal footing with the white stars of the day.
Sidney directed a few pictures , and most of them were comedies .
As Poitier made : Ghost dad , Fast forward , Hanky panky , Stir Crazy , Piece of action , Let's do again , Uptown Saturday night , and this Buck and the preacher .
Rating : 6/10 , passable and aceptable Western movie.
At a time when Hollywood had no interest in making such films.
Blaxploitation films and comedies were the rules of the day.
Poitier makes a great cowboy and fine director here.
I suspect the reason this film is/was not more popular is that there were so few good guys of the White persuasion.
It's one of the only westerns ever made that is a story about black people in the Old West, with black actors in the lead roles.
Harry Belafonte is excellent as the Preacher.
Sidney Poitier is also very good, and although the story contains the full compliment of standard cowboy movie clichés---shoot-outs, posse chases, bank robberies, whining ricochet sounds, etc.---, it's very entertaining.
The vast majority of Hollywood westerns are exclusively white, and feature virtually no black people at all.
Indians are almost always featured as pidgin-speaking cigar-store cartoon characters, with white actors usually in the speaking parts.
Some idiot composer came up with the pounding tom-toms, descending minor theme music played by trombones and low brass whenever Indians come into the picture.
So it's great to see a western like Buck and The Preacher that is different.
As a result, it's a lot better than your average western, even though it milks the same old clichés..
We tend to forget that in 1972, in the heart of the whole "blaxploitation" movement, that the very idea of casting African-Americans in traditional white roles was daring in and of itself.
As such, Buck and the Preacher, starring Sidney Poitier (who also directed) and Harry Belafonte in the titular roles must have created quite a stir upon its release.
The story is pretty standard for a western--a wagon train heading west, led by a tough-as-nails trail guide, is harassed by outside forces (usually bandits or American Indians), but in this case, the settlers are all freed slaves, and the "outside forces" are hired guns by the south, bend on stopping every black settler group, destroying their supplies (and murdering a few of their people), thus terrorizing them into returning to the plantations.
Former military sergeant Buck (Poitier) will have none of that, and the slick-talking con man "Preacher (Belafonte), whose initial intentions may seem questionable, mans up and does the right thing, joining forces with Buck for a typical final showdown.
A traditional western with an African-American cast is daring as it gets in 1972, but don't let that keep you away.
The original score by Benny Carter, heavy on the mouth harp and that weird pig-sounding instrument they use on Green Acres, will annoy the hell out of you yet stay with you for days..
This might possibly be the first Western to feature two black leads with white characters largely relegated to peripheral roles or stereotypically villainous parts.
Sidney Poitier who replaced Joseph Sergeant as director one week into the shoot and Harry Belafonte play the leads.
Poitier is Buck, a former cavalry man now acting as a wagon-master guiding former slaves to a new life in the west.
Belafonte is the preacher, a semi-reformed con man who briefly considers betraying Buck and his charges to the evil nightrider Deshay (a squinting, cigar-chomping Cameron Mitchell) before throwing in his lot with him.This being a film of the early 70s, there isn't much of a moral code here.
The good guys steal from one another and rob banks, a character defect shrugged off with the explanation that the town folk who are pre-occupied on a posse-ride to catch the duo as they rob the bank deserve to be robbed.
This was Poitier's directorial debut and it shows in some glaring narrative gaps and a strange kind of painstaking attention that somehow transmits itself onto the screen so that the film rarely seems to flow the way it should.
Poitier never really convinces as an actor either, although Belafonte is a standout as the sneaky, morally dubious preacher..
buck and the preacher.
this movie goes down as one of the best westerns..
buck(sidney poitier) helps a group of black settlers....
the preacher(harry belafonte)....
and solid acting amonst poitier-belafonte-ruby dee and cameron mitchell...
both poitier and belafonte(very funny man)....
Fine western, well-acted.
Hollywood would have us imagine the western migration as an all-white experience.
This picture tells the story with black actors, although facing the same menace they flee, racism.
The antagonists are a gang of "night-riders" both hunting Buck, but also terrorizing the black wagon-train.
I still remember there's a scene with Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier, and I think, a snake...along with Car Wash, Uptown Saturday Night and others of that era, it is one of the funniest films I've ever seen as a child...Brava!.
Buck and the Preacher is directed by, and stars, Sidney Poitier.
It's written by Ernest Kinoy and Drake Walker and joining Poitier in the cast are Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee and Cameron Miller.
Music is by Benny Carter, with notable contributions from Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and cinematography is by Alex Phillips Jr.The Civil War was over and by law the slaves were freed.
But when the promise of land and freedom was not honoured, many ex-slaves journeyed out of the land of bondage in search of new frontiers where they could be free at last.They placed their hopes in the hands of the few wagon masters that knew the territories of the West.None of this came easy, for not only did they have to overcome a hostile wilderness, but night-riders and bounty hunters were hired by "persons unknown" to hunt them down and turn them back to to the fields.This picture is dedicated to those men, women and children who lie in graves as unmarked as their place in history.Quite an opening statement that, a real attention grabber, then the throat grabbing ups still further as we land in a camp of African Americans, freed from slavery, ready to travel West for a better life.
As the camp burns and the distaste in the throat refuses to leave, we feel we are in for something special with Poitier's directing debut, a peek at a part of history rarely shown in the movies.Sadly the film never hits these heights again....
In some ways it feels like kicking a man when he is down, for Buck and the Preacher is well directed, very well acted, expertly photographed by Phillips (Durango, Mexico and Kenya standing in for Kansas Territory) and features a very untraditional, but pleasing, score by jazz man Carter and blues men Terry & McGhee.
With Belafonte providing great chemistry as well, whilst gleefully stealing the film from his more illustrious acting brother, there's still much for the Western fan to feast on here.
There's the unusual but much appreciated sight of the Indians painted as saviours, a dignified and intelligent race riding in cavalry style, the chief (Enrique Lucero) negotiating with Buck (Poitier) like a royal master of his creed.
For a while into the movie I thought it might be an all-Black cast Western but that changed when the night riders showed up.
There actually was a series of all-Black Westerns back in the late Thirties starring cowboy crooner Herb Jeffries, who's singing sounded as good as guys like Gene Autry.
One name I was surprised to catch in this film's credits was that of Clarence Muse as the old black fortune teller Cudjo.
He had a lot of roles portraying dignified black characters in the Thirties and Forties, and since I brought it up I had to take a look, but he didn't appear in any pictures with Herb Jeffries.Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte team up in this one following a less than friendly first impression between their characters.
Poitier is wagon master Buck, leading freed black slaves across the West to destinations they might call home following the end of the Civil War. Preacher Willis Oaks Rutherford is more of an opportunist than a Man of God, but he did have the Bible thing down pretty well when he needed it.
Who was going to argue with the Reverend of the High and Low Order of the Holiness Persuasion Church.As a revisionist Western this one works to show a different side of the Old West experience though it doesn't set any new standards by my estimation.
The inclusion of the Indian tribe on the side of the black settlers was an interesting element, helping them out in the final shoot out against the night riders even after stating they wouldn't get involved.
The serio-comic African-American western "Buck and the Preacher," starring Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte, certainly wasn't the first black horse opera, but it may reign as the most prestigious.
For the record, the earliest known African-American western was a silent movie, "The Crimson Skull" (1922), that dealt with a cowboy who thwarted rustlers by wearing a skeleton costume.
Fifty years later, "Buck and the Preacher" came out.
Not only does it qualify as a good, entertaining western, director Sidney Poitier and co-star Harry Belafonte sought to make an oater that chronicled the tribulations facing African-Americans who had uprooted themselves from the post-antebellum South and were heading westward to start new lives that had nothing to do with slavery.
Cast as a former Union soldier with the rank of sergeant, Buck became a wagon master who escorted freedom seeking slaves to new lands.
The conflict in "Buck and the Preacher" grows out of this exodus from Louisiana, and the appointed representatives of those plantations that dispatched desperadoes, such as evil Beau Deshay (Cameron Mitchell of "Garden of Evil"), who gathered a small army to terrorize blacks and compel them to turn back and pick up where they had left off.
The sheriff of Copper Springs (John Kelly of "The Revengers") warns Deshay to 'walk softly' in his town because the migrating blacks are committing any crimes.
Instead, the sheriff is intent on hunting down Buck (Sidney Poitier of "Lilies of the Field") and the Reverend Willis Oakes Rutherford (Harry Belafonte of "The World, the Flesh, and the Devil") after they shoot up Copper Springs and rob the bank.
Although they are breaking the law, Buck and the Preacher have struggled to recover the money that Deshay's mob has stolen from them.
Buck is fleeing from Deshay and his rabid gun hands, and Deshay knows that he has been leading the African-American settlers.
The screenplay by Ernest Kinoy, who scripted an earlier Poitier movie "Brother John," slickly pits our two protagonists against each other until they can become as thick as thieves.
Deshay and his gun hands encounter the Reverend Rutherford in the hamlet of Frenchman's Ford since they have been trailing Buck's horse.
Instead of killing the silver-tongued Reverend, Deshay dangles the prospect of $500 in the Reverend's face for word about the whereabouts of Buck.
The Preacher administers a blow to Buck and rightfully claims his horse.
Buck swaps horses before he sets out to lead the newest caravan of pioneers.In case it isn't clear, Deshay and his despicable gun hands are prepared to kill some of the settlers and burn their wagons with their sole possessions in order to turn them around.
Eventually, Buck and the Preacher catch up with Deshay and his hooligans.
They find these murderous cutthroats in Madame Esther's bordello and a gunfight ensues, with Buck demonstrating the power of his special arsenal of hand guns.
Floyd rides with the sheriff's posse to catch Buck and the Preacher.
In a sense, Buck and the Reverend Willis Oakes Rutherford aren't conventional heroes.
"Buck and the Preacher marked Sidney Poitier's debut as a film director.
Poitier and Belafonte had hired Joseph Sargent, director of "White Lightning" and "Colossus, the Forbin Project," but Sargent and his two leading actors had a difference of opinion.
They fired Sargent, and Columbia Pictures couldn't find a replacement on such late notice, so Poitier took the helm.
"Buck and the Preacher" is as western as all get out..
There's a combination of tragedy and triumph here as Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte combine their light-hearted personalities into emotional drama with this story of two men who, at first on opposite sides of the spectrum, find a common cause in fighting against bigotry.
Poitier is a former Northern soldier who has been helping newly freed slaves go west with little help from the vigilantes hired by plantation owners in getting what they still believe their property back so they can continue living "their right way of life".
Robinson's Dathan, and Moses being seen in the forms of Buck and his reluctant partner, a traveling preacher who initially agreed to be informer for the white vigilantes.There's a lot to like about this moving drama with a western setting, and when Ruby Dee, as Poitier's long-suffering wife, reveals how she longs to raise her children far away from even any memory of slavery, you really feel what the millions of slaves must have felt after they were allegedly freed but could not get what was promised to them, still facing adversity for decades after the end of the civil war.
Poitier and Belafonte make such a great team and give such a light-hearted performance that at times, it doesn't seem like they are acting.
There's a lot of sadness in the light-hearted structure of the story, including the attacks on the innocent people striving to find a new land and their dealings with the Native Americans who are fighting their own struggle against the racist white men determined to steal everything from these people that they can get their hands on. |
tt0114594 | Swimming with Sharks | Buddy Ackerman, an influential movie mogul, hires Guy, a naïve young writer, as his assistant. Guy, who has just graduated from film school, believes that his new job is a golden opportunity. Despite warnings from Rex, the outgoing assistant who has become hardened under Buddy's reign, Guy remains optimistic.
Buddy turns out to be the boss from hell; he treats Guy like a slave, subjects him to sadistic (and public) verbal abuse, and has him bending over backwards to do meaningless errands that go beyond just his work life. Guy is humiliated and forced to bear the brunt of his insults. Guy's only solace is his new girlfriend, Dawn, a producer at Buddy's firm. When Buddy apparently fires Guy in a phone call, Guy snaps and takes Buddy hostage in order to exact revenge. He ties Buddy up and subjects him to severe beatings, torture and mind games. It is later revealed that due to a botched call waiting function on Buddy's home phone, Guy hears Buddy and Dawn arranging a rendezvous at Buddy's house.
Once in Guy's power, Buddy reveals for the first time a human, vulnerable side. He tells a tragic story about his wife's death on Christmas Eve 12 years prior and reveals that he, too, was once a bullied assistant to powerful, tyrannical men and spent a decade putting up with such abuse to get to where he is today. He also reveals that abusing Guy was his way of teaching him that he must earn his success. Dawn arrives at the scene to find Guy aiming a gun at Buddy's face, whereupon Buddy tells Guy that he has to pull the trigger in order to get ahead in the business. After a moment's indecision, Guy fires the gun.
The climax of the film reveals that Guy killed Dawn (who is blamed for kidnapping and torturing Buddy), and was subsequently promoted. In the final scene, Guy coldly tells a former colleague to find out what he really wants and then do anything to get it, echoing the numerous times he has been told this by both Buddy and Dawn. During this speech, Buddy passes by his office, makes eye contact with Guy and gestures to call Guy into his office for a meeting. Guy excuses himself, takes a pass on a request for dinner since he has to wrap Christmas presents and goes into Buddy's office. The movie ends with Buddy shutting his office doors as other personnel pass by. | comedy, cruelty, murder, bleak, satire, revenge, sadist | train | wikipedia | The movie charts his learning of the ways of Hollywood through becoming an assistant for fastidious big-shot producer Buddy Ackerman (Spacey), and his subsequent unlearning of the 'normal' moral values that apply almost anywhere else.
"Swimming with Sharks" was made right around the time Kevin Spacey was becoming a rising star - his name was becoming well known enough that he could help finance low budget movies.
It works better as a dark satire - I expected something like "War of the Roses," but instead I got a Tarantino version of "Office Space" (complete with torture, violence, revenge and mayhem!).Frank Whaley stars as Guy, a typical nobody who dreams of being a somebody.
(Even his name confines him to anonymity.) When he lands a job working for world-famous producer Buddy Ackerman (Spacey), his future looks bright...until he realizes what he's in for.Spacey delivers the best performance of the film, yelling, screaming, and throwing hissy fits practically every time he's on screen.
Joel Silver is rumored to have been the basis for Ackerman.The movie isn't great and never really achieves the amount of laughs I wanted but if you view it as a very dark drama-comedy you're more likely to enjoy it.
The best aspects are the witty script and Kevin Spacey's scene-stealing performance; together he has good chemistry with Whaley and the movie succeeds based on the actors' success in their roles..
This film would be worth watching just for Kevin Spacey's portrayal of the ultimate boss from hell, Buddy Ackerman, but there's also much more than that going on.
One of the key lines of dialogue towards this end is Ackerman's, "If you're not a rebel by 21, you've got no heart, and if you haven't gone establishment by 30, you've got no brain".Ackerman obviously has problems or he wouldn't be acting quite in the way that he is, but director George Huang and Spacey are also careful to show that Ackerman has a lot more going on than surface behavior--he's acting the way that he is purposefully, both to get his due now as part of the establishment and to coyly manipulate his young, meek and abused underling, Guy (Frank Whaley), along with everyone else he comes into contact with.
Swimming with Sharks sees Guy (Frank Whaley) attempt to "turn the tables" on his abusive boss Buddy (Kevin Spacey), and while this makes the film simple and unoriginal in terms of plot, it is a cut above the rest thanks to the performances of its small cast.One would assume that we would root for Guy, the innocent graduate demeaned by his aggressive boss, but the way the film tells the story prevents us from empathizing with him (as does his awful haircut); knowing that he tortures Buddy physically for his mental abuse complicates our response, and puts us on Buddy's side, allowing us to enjoy the games Buddy plays with Guy. This is something that's made very easy to do by the acting.
Kevin Spacey is typically excellent as Buddy Ackerman and is the most engaging character in the film, remaining funny and manipulative throughout, even while being tortured and held hostage, as well as handling the more serious emotional aspects of his character expertly.
The hostage situation revelations pull the audience between the impassioned-now-heartless Buddy and the desperate and confused Guy, but ultimately good does not prevail, and the shooting and Buddy's manipulation of the situation remove us from both characters as the film ends.All in all, Swimming with Sharks is an enjoyable film.
This low-cost(less than $1M) film must not have had a very big marketing budget -- it completely escaped me at the time -- but it's one of the best performances Kevin Spacey I've ever seen.
Not that there is any secret to be revealed here - pretty much everything you need to know about the soulless, spirit-crushing side of movie-making is contained in Raymond Chnadler's 1945 essay "Writer's in Hollywood", which contains more horror than any of the celluloid parodies it has since inspired.Swimming with Sharks is the tale of innocent Guy (a freshly scrubbed Frank Whaley), whose monster boss is tinsel town king-maker Buddy Ackerman, a screaming, mood-shifting bully who dangles just enough opportunity before Guy to keep him on his leash.
One would be hard pressed to find as fitting an example of this Hollywood introspective neo- realism as writer/director George Huang's semi-autobiographical (but hopefully only to an extent...) Swimming With Sharks - a biting, cynical look at the interior of the film industry which challenges the preconceptions of the industry and its bleak aims.Like Robert Altman's The Player, Swimming with Sharks offers a harshly critical commentary on the corporate moneymaking machine that is Hollywood, but from the opposite end: the perspective of a low level assistant striving to rise in the ranks.
Kevin Spacey is the main pleasure to behold here as the film's main selling point, the "boss from Hell" figure Buddy Ackerman.
Kevin Spacey, perhaps the finest actor on the planet, is brilliant as usual in his hilarious turn as Buddy Ackerman, one of the nastiest characters that you'll ever see anywhere on film.
On with the movie, the story of an ambitious youngster who wishes to engage in a key role of the film industry and starts to work as an assistant for a completely manipulating, ungreatful, demeaning movie producer george huang(the writer and director) could come up with.
the movie begins with guy (frank whaley) kidnapping buddy ackerman in his own house and concurrently whit guy's act of abuse to his hated boss, unfolds the story of a young kid with high hopes who was entangled both in the cynic world of his women loving, hair losing boss and in a relationship with a struggling movie producer - dawn (michelle forbes- now on "homicide - life on the streets").
the movie continues up to the point where guy has to decide which of those worlds to choose and now i won't add anything in fear of disclosing the end (and its unpredictable no matter which option you chose)the movie is a complete delight and all i can say is - this may not be the best film you ever seen but it will sure leave enough of an impression to more than justify the two hours of your leisure time.9 out of 10 in my scale.
Kevin Spacey( Buddy Ackerman),"The Tower of Babble",'02 did such a fantastic job of acting his horrible part as a boss, you were convinced he was a real person.
Frank Whaley,(Guy) "A Good Night to Die",'03, was the poor slob who started out his new career under the wonderful supervisor, or Boss, Buddy Ackerman.
The film is about cut-throat movie producer Buddy Ackerman (Spacey) who brutally indoctrinates his assistant Guy (Whaley) into the world of film making.
I thought Spacey was rather one-dimensional as an actor, but this began to change my mind, as reinforced by his outstanding multi-dimensional work in K-Pac, among others.This movie probably means more to Hollywood insiders who have to try to cope within the "system" than the rest of us (we've all had jerks for a boss, right???).
Whaley is very good and the mousey personality suits his looks.Overall it may be a little hard to watch because it is a very bitter tale from Huang, however Spacey is a master and delivers a performance that shows why he became famous..
So I will delve more into Whaley's character.Guy is climbing up the ladder, and anyone who has worked in an impersonal corporate environment will relate, and find humor in this; the scene where Benicio del Toro tells him to take up smoking; ("You'll need it in this place")....also the scene where Kevin Spacey demands that Guy ..."keep up to date on any hair replacement products"....There are many great lines, depicting the superficiality and insane pettiness in many offices.Michelle Forbers portrays a producer, whom Spacey has used before; ("Get your pretty little butt in my office"...Spacey says to her); today that may cause a lawsuit in the corporate environment;but it is what he was surely thinking; if not worse.One of the more pertinent scenes is when Michelle Forbes is asking Guy ...."Why do you take his s - - -"; and Guy responds that....
Swimming with Sharks is the 1994 cult comedy about a young, naive, starry-eyed, kid called Guy, (played by Frank Whaley.) who dreams of making it big in the world of Hollywood producers.
(played by Michelle Forbes.) And as their relationship develops, Guy slowly becomes more and more frustrated with Buddy until he finally decides to get revenge.Swimming with Sharks fits right in with other 90s films like Office Space, Fight Club, and Falling Down.
Another problem I have with the film is that the other two leads seem so weak when compared with Kevin Spacey, don't get me wrong neither of them or bad, and Frank Whaley is able to pull of his character fairly well, and has some good line delivery.
I really thought that this film was good.Kevin Spacey plays a film executive(Buddy) but he is also the boss from hell.
But, Kevin Spacey is an excellent, verbal tsunami as Buddy Ackerman – and totally believable because he is a great actor.Frank Whaley's Guy is certainly out of his element working for Buddy – he wants to write and make meaningful movies, not be a gofer that is verbally abused for getting Equal instead of Sweet & Low. Michelle Forbes' Dawn, who also wants to make meaningful movies, seems way out of Guy's league.The ending leaves a lot to be desired..
Guy (Frank Whaley) has finally had it with his boss Buddy Ackerman (Kevin Spacey), and he takes him hostage with a gun.
A very funny & underrated film, featuring Kevin Spacey's best acting performance EVER!.
It is worth renting 8 times over to watch Spacey's do his foul mouth, smarmy, sarcastic, ultra-egomaniac act better than he has ever done before and better than he has done since.Spacey plays "Buddy Ackerman", a powerful Hollywood studio executive with a menacing reputation as the "Boss From Hell".
He quickly learns that Buddy really is the `Boss From Hell' like his former assistant warned him and the movie is about him going off the deep end as a result.Spacey's performance is not only ruthless and menacing, it is bitterly hilarious and downright amazing.
Kevin Spacey gives what I think is the third-best performance of his career (besides "American Beauty" and "The Usual Suspect") as boss-from-hell Buddy Ackerman, who at first starts off as simply a two-dimensional demon, yelling, cursing, and generally making life miserable for everyone, but after a while, as more is revealed about both Buddy's life and the way Hollywood *really* works, becomes almost understandable.
more because they seemed so believable) that you feel a little guilty laughing at anything.All in all, I think everyone did a good job in this movie, and unlike a lot of people, I thought the ending was just right.
So, if you can bring yourself to actually watch a Kevin Spacey film these days, this one will certainly showcase much of the acting talent and stage presence that would cement his 'A-list' credentials.Spacey plays 'Buddy Ackerman' - a 'Harvey Weinstein-esque' type film producer who is well-known in Hollywood circles (you can write your own comparison gag for that one!).
Buddy Ackerman (Kevin Spacey) is a Vice President at a major Hollywood studio, and Guy (Frank Whaley) is his new assistant, replacing Rex (Benicio Del Toro).
Yes, Kevin Spacey was good as Buddy and the rest of the cast was also good, but generally the movie falls apart because we don't really see a good enough reason for Guy (Whaley) to lose his mind so badly.
It's notable that the one dream of authenticity in the film--Guy talking about moving to Wyoming with Dawn (Michelle Forbes)--is treated and dispensed with as an unreachable fantasy, and it's also notable (and is fairly literally pointed out in the film) that Dawn, the one character who tries to demand being more authentic amidst the "shark infested waters" of the professional world, basically never gets anywhere.In the highly metaphorical ending of the film, things remain manipulative, political and backstabbing, and in that climate, at least two out of three characters "win".
It's notable that the one dream of authenticity in the film--Guy talking about moving to Wyoming with Dawn (Michelle Forbes)--is treated and dispensed with as an unreachable fantasy, and it's also notable (and is fairly literally pointed out in the film) that Dawn, the one character who tries to demand being more authentic amidst the "shark infested waters" of the professional world, basically never gets anywhere.In the highly metaphorical ending of the film, things remain manipulative, political and backstabbing, and in that climate, at least two out of three characters "win".
Like Robert Altman's "The Player," this is one of those thrillers about people in "the biz" who are driven to the breaking point by how cruel L.A. can really be.The film's writer/director George Huang himself was a former personal assistant to some of the biggest names in Hollywood, has described the movie as "20% autobiographical." Much of this one is said to be based on his experience working for noted mega-mogul producer Joel Silver for Columbia Pictures.
Like Robert Altman's "The Player," this is one of those thrillers about people in "the biz" who are driven to the breaking point by how cruel L.A. can really be.The film's writer/director George Huang himself was a former personal assistant to some of the biggest names in Hollywood, has described the movie as "20% autobiographical." Much of this one is said to be based on his experience working for noted mega-mogul producer Joel Silver for Columbia Pictures.
I was also scared as an audience member every time the newbie opened his mouth...I wanted to shout at the screen and yell - "No, you'll only get your ear bent by Buddy!!" It is a shame that this film is not so universally shown and known - i think the writing is as sharp as the acting and actors - Micheele Forbes, Benicio del Toro (Yes him) Spacey and Frank Whalley - all appear in fine form and also the ending (which i will not give away) is an amazing twist - true Holloywood!
He is outstanding in this film where he stars as the pushy boss that go's too far and makes Frank Whaleys life a living hell as a P.A.The film follows Whaley's character (Guy) throughout his days at the office to the eventual breakdown and confrontation with Spacey (Buddy).
I saw it five times that weekend.Spacey's portrayal of Buddy Ackerman, the boss from hell, is right on target, and will go down as his best performance up until 1999's 'American Beauty' (in my opinion it was better than Beauty, but the critics apparently didn't think so).
Frank Whaley, as Guy, the films protagonist, is Spacey's equal, or pretty close, he gives a great, underrated performance here.
I rented this movie exclusively because Kevin Spacey is in it, and he does a good job, even if this isn't his best film.
All the other actors do their roles well enough to make the movie good, but they are not working on the same level with the exception of Benicio Del Torro who matches Spacey with his own talent and charisma, but Benicio is not in the film very long.
At the same time he is both hysterical and terrifying.Frank Whaley is passable as Buddy's assistant Guy, but it is Spacey who owns this movie.
It follows Guy (Frank Whaley) who is a clean-shaven enthusiastic new recruit into this unique world landing himself a job as the personal assistant to Buddy Ackerman (Kevin Spacey) an expletive throwing repugnant studio executive whose addition to your CV opens every door imaginable but is counteracted so much by his demeanour that many would find it not worth the trouble.Guy seems to have the determination to see it through helped by script writer and love interest Dawn (Michelle Forbes) but after working for the man for over a year, cracks begin to surface and Guy is finally pushed too far showing up at Buddy's home in the middle of the night intent on revenge.
Add all of this together to an unexpected ending and it makes for an interesting watch.Yes there are moments where I felt things were not quite working and the relationship between Dawn and Guy lacked that believability factor but Swimming With Sharks certainly made the time fly and has enough to keep it fresh in the mind for a couple of days at the very least.For further reviews feel free to check out: http://www.fanaticalaboutfilms.com.
SWIMMING WITH SHARKS (1995) ***1/2 Kevin Spacey, Frank Whaley, Michelle Forbes.
Usually on the mark black comedy a la "The Player" set in Hollywood with novice assistant Whaley the brunt of his employer's scorn, movie executive Spacey (in one darkly funny turn), The Boss From Hell who winds up paying dearly for his humiliating demeanor.
Lead Kevin Spacey, who also served as one of the film's producers, gives a controlled and focused performance as the power-mad mogul whose ego is out of control; he does good work, and yet the character doesn't ring true.
Sure, Kevin Spacey is fantastic in this film, but that still doesn't help over come the fact that the story is weak and petty, the lead character is nothing more than a two-dimensional cut-out representing the p***y frustrations and alter ego of the writer, and that the ending makes little sense.
Kevin Spacey is just the sort of actor that always seems to do that."Swimming with Sharks," is the story of a young man, Guy ( Frank Whaley), who is determined to make his mark in the Movie industry.
This film has Kevin Spacey at his best, acting like a jerk! |
tt0059894 | The War Game | Filmed in black-and-white with a running time of just under 50 minutes, The War Game depicts the prelude to, and the immediate weeks of the aftermath of, a Soviet nuclear attack against Britain. The narrator says that Britain's current nuclear deterrent policy threatens a would-be aggressor with devastation from Vulcan and Victor nuclear bombers of the British V-bomber force. A Chinese invasion of South Vietnam starts the war; tensions escalate when the United States authorises tactical nuclear warfare against the Chinese. Although Soviet and East German forces threaten to invade West Berlin if the US does not withdraw, the US does not acquiesce to communist demands and the invasion takes place; two US Army divisions attempt to fight their way into Berlin to counter this, but the Russian and East German forces overwhelm them in conventional battle. In order to turn the tide, President Johnson authorises the NATO commanders to use their tactical nuclear weapons, and they soon do so. An escalating nuclear war results, during which larger Russian strategic IRBMs are launched at Britain. The film remarks that many Soviet missiles were, at the time, believed to be liquid-fueled and stored above ground, making them vulnerable to attack and bombings. It hypothesises that in any nuclear crisis, the USSR would be obliged to fire all of them as early as possible in order to avoid their destruction by counterattack, hence the rapid progression from tactical to strategic nuclear exchange.
In the chaos just before the attack, towns and cities are evacuated and residents forced to move to the country. On September 7 at 9:15 a doctor visits a family with an ill patient. As he finishes checking up on her and steps outside the air-raid sirens start to wail in the distance, followed by a klaxon horn from a police car. The doctor rushes back in with two civil defence workers and starts bringing tables together to create a makeshift shelter. Suddenly, the town of Rochester is struck by an off-target 1 megaton Soviet thermo-nuclear warhead aimed at RAF Manston, a target which, along with the Maidstone barracks, is mentioned in scenes showing the immediate effects of the attack. The missile's explosion causes instant flash blindness of those nearby, followed by a firestorm caused by the blast wave. The air in the centre of the firestorm is replaced by methane and carbon dioxide and monoxide and the temperature rises to about 500 degrees. The firemen soon pass out from the heat in the chaos. By then the V-bombers carrying green bamboo gravity bombs and blue steel cruise missiles reach the border of the Soviet Union and presumably breach anti-aircraft defences by using a special instrument in their cockpits to jam defending radar signals. They head to their counter value targets, civilian cities. Later, society collapses due to overwhelming radiation sickness and the depletion of food and medical supplies. There is widespread psychological damage and consequently a rising occurrence of suicide. The country's infrastructure is destroyed; the British Army burns corpses, while police shoot looters during food riots. The provisional government becomes increasingly disliked due to its rationing of resources and use of lethal force, and anti-authority uprisings begin. Civil disturbance and obstruction of government officers become capital offences; two men are shown being executed by firing squad for such acts. Several traumatised and bewildered orphan children are briefly featured, questioning whether they have any future and desire to be "nothing." The film ends bleakly on the first Christmas Day after the nuclear war, held in a ruined church with a vicar who futilely attempts to provide hope to his traumatised congregation. The closing credits include an instrumental version of Silent Night. | cult | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0031890 | The Saint Strikes Back | While dancing at a New Year's party, the Saint spots an agent of Valerie Travers preparing to shoot someone, so Templar guns him down first at the stroke of midnight. Templar is placed by witnesses at the scene, so the San Francisco police request the assistance of Inspector Henry Fernack (Jonathan Hale) of the NYPD. Before Fernack can leave, the Saint arrives in New York and accompanies him to the West Coast.
Travers' father had been a police inspector whose efficiency caused trouble for a mysterious criminal mastermind named Waldeman. When a large sum of money was found in his safe deposit box, however, he was fired on suspicion of working for Waldeman and committed suicide. Travers is determined to clear his name by any means necessary. The Saint takes up her cause, despite her hostility for his interference in her plans and her suspicions about his motives. Templar gets the cooperation of the police commissioner, over the objections of Chief Inspector Webster and criminologist Cullis, who wonder if the Saint is Waldeman himself.
Templar and Travers cross paths again when the trail leads to Martin Eastman, a noted philanthropist and seemingly-irreproachable citizen, whom they both suspect is linked to Waldeman in some way. Templar forces Travers and her gang to drive away, all except her burglar, Zipper Dyson. Templar gets Dyson to open Eastman's safe and takes the money inside. The serial numbers confirm that it was stolen in a robbery perpetrated by Waldeman. When Eastman contacts Cullis instead of reporting the theft, Templar knows that Cullis is also working for Waldeman. With that information, not only does the Saint exonerate Travers' father, he also identifies Waldeman. | revenge, murder | train | wikipedia | "Well, not the man who knows everything, just the man who knows the important things." George Sanders is the mysterious, charming and dangerous Simon Templar: "You're important to me—that's why I know you," he explains to an annoyed Wendy Barrie, whom he has just forcibly escorted from a nightclub—moments before the cops arrive to investigate a murder.
Sanders explains her plot nicely to the investigating officers: "She thinks he got a dirty deal from the police so she's enlisted a bunch of second rate crooks to annoy you."The Saint is on the scene as one who always takes an interest in rooting out corruption; in this case, his sense of adventure and interest in justice have brought him all the way to San Francisco.
The supporting cast includes great character actors who all do their jobs: Jerome Cowan is a cop who's obviously mixed up in the dirty business somehow; Neil Hamilton is another detective; Barry Fitzgerald is "Zipper," a small time crook impressed with Sanders' style ("I never seen such a cop").Jonathan Hale is again on hand as Inspector Fernack, the old pro who has had dealings with Templar in the past.
His relationship with the Saint is of course complicated—one minute he is sticking up for Templar's motives and methods, not much later he is (momentarily) convinced that Templar is the mastermind behind the whole San Francisco setup.Besides the great cast, this film features a strong script and is beautifully photographed—a very classy B mystery..
"The Saint Strikes Back" (1939) is directed by a young John Farrow, who would not only go onto to make film noir classics like "The Big Clock" (1948), "Alias Nick Beal" (1949) and "Where Danger Lives" (1950), but he would win an Oscar for writing the screenplay for Michael Todd's multi-award winning "Around the World in Eighty Days" (1956).
So, not only do you have a notable director at the beginning of his career here, but George Sanders in his first role as The Saint, eleven years away from getting the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for "All About Eve" (1950).
The acting too, is polished and professional.On the other hand, the screenplay, written by John Twist, from Leslie Charteris's "She Was a Lady" (1931), credited in the film as "Angels of Doom", while it moves briskly along, is a tad confusing.
This was George Sanders's first appearance as the Saint, where he replaces Louis Hayward.In this one, the Saint is sent to San Francisco to investigate a shooting at a night club.
With the help of his acquaintance Inspector Fernack who has come down from New York, they help a daughter of a crime boss.Joining Sanders in the cast are Wendy Barrie and Jonathan Hale.Not a bad Saint movie.
It's not too bad a b movie, with Sanders, Barrie, Hale, Cowen, Hamilton, Gargan, Fitzgerald and even Willie Best we could be either with Charlie Chan, Moto, the Falcon, Blackie, Holmes or the Saint etc.
In other words you get the chance to spend another hour in the company of some old friends, from plain to urbane, murdering and being murdered - always a pleasure in my book.Barrie's a hard-boiled dame out to avenge and clear her framed and dead father, a police detective by planning and carrying out with her coterie a string of underworld assassinations.
Sanders joins in the fun simply by dancing in the right club in the right place in the right city at the right time with the right lighting falling on both him and the first killer (at the right time!) and killing him.The story and acting's OK, the only gripe I've got is near the end with the hurried and almost laughable discovery of who the evil genius (Waldeman) was - did they almost forget about his relevance in the plot?
George Sanders made his debut as Leslie Charteris's international man of mystery Simon Templar, AKA The Saint in this film, The Saint Strikes Back.
For all the rumors about his crooked ways Sanders is more often helping the local authorities than not, especially if it's doggedly honest Inspector Fernack of the NYPD homicide squad resolutely played as always by Jonanthan Hale.
But Sanders had to have the worst case of it film history as he flies from San Francisco to New York after saving Wendy Barrie from being the object of a hit man.
Sanders then flies back bringing Hale in tow.She's close to them however in her associates and it's up to the Saint to discover who's a San Francisco rackets boss and bring them to justice.Sanders who in most films was the movie's biggest cad is a fine hero, a regular modern Robin Hood.
George Sanders makes his first appearance as the Saint in this film and all I can think is: "Hey, It's Addison DeWitt, private eye!" Because this Saint is nothing but snide, more prone to shoot off a cutting remark than a gun.
This was also the first of Barrie's three appearances in the Saint series, although she played a different character each time.But what of the film itself?
I love B-detective series films like Charlie Chan, Sherlock Holmes and The Falcon.
While the Saint series is not my favorite, I have always enjoyed them because I love seeing George Sanders so gracefully navigate himself through the mystery--he was the epitome of cool and sophisticated.
This is not George Sanders' best "Saint" movie by any stretch("The Saint in London" gets that honor).
George Sanders is introduced to us as Simon Templar in this movie.
Wendy Barrie plays the female lead(as she did in two other Sanders-Saint films)but she is much too stiff.
When Simon Templar (aka The Saint) helps self-styled crime boss and daughter of a disgraced cop Val Travers to get away from a nightclub after they were both involved in a shooting.
Meanwhile Templar gets on the wrong side of Travers and earns her vengeance while also trying to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding her father's fall from grace at the hands of an internal investigation.Following on from the hard edge and anti-hero approach of The Saint when he was in New York, this film cannot help but feel like much more of a sedentary affair with a more liberal approach perhaps befitting the San Francisco setting.
That said the film still has a nice feel to it that makes it just a shade better than the b-movie series generally achieved from this point onwards.
The story is quite good although not anywhere near as engaging as it should have been and I must admit that at times I drifted away as it lacked a consistent hook to keep me watching.Coming in to replace Hayward, Sanders was never really going to do it for me as I already knew him to be all about the smoothness and the suaveness and it didn't surprised me when his criminal edge was played down to almost nothing and he turned in the sort of performance that made him vastly inferior to the original Saint (in my mind anyway).
Hale is OK while people like Elliot, Fitzgerald etc all fill in around the edges.Overall a well-directed film that is a reasonable stab at continuing the series but, for reasons that are perhaps obvious, scaling down the mean edge the original had.
Sanders is a nice lead but he cannot lift the material and the end result is a standard b-movie that will please fans of The Saint and The Falcon..
In this, the second "Saint" film, George Sanders takes over the role of Simon Templar and makes it his own (though Louis Hayward was excellent in the debut of the series).
At just 64 minutes, "The Saint Strikes Back" is packed with unexplained plot twists, huge helpings of comic filler and enough suspicious characters to form two football squads.In many an early detective novel, the writer included a list of characters, major and minor, so the reader could refer back to it when things got murky.
Let's move on to another." Fortunately, Sanders' later "Saint" films were much better than this..
'The Saint Strikes Back' is a decent start for the Saint films starring George Sanders, but there are better films in the series since, this had a bit of a finding-its-feet feel and the previous Louis Hayward outing had a tougher edge that is lacking a little here.Sanders himself is super-suave, sophisticated and wonderfully caddish, while also giving a charming and humorous edge and delivering some cutting lines with aplomb.
The sets are very atmospheric, captured very well by some classy photography, and John Farrow directs with a briskness and a clear purpose.Regarding the script, some of it does get confusing especially towards the end, but Sanders has some nice cutting ones and the dialogue did amuse and provoke thought enough.
Some of the film also got a tad over-complicated, though most of it was not too hard to follow, particularly towards the end.Overall, decent first Sanders-Saint film and Sanders acquits himself very well in the role, but not one of the better films in the series.
The second movie in RKO's The Saint series is the first to star the inimitable George Sanders.
Here we have Simon Templar, aka the Saint, helping a woman who turned to crime after her policeman father was disgraced and committed suicide.
While Louis Hayward was a tough and gritty Saint in the first film, George Sanders is all style and class.
Jonathan Hale plays Templar's police inspector friend who finds himself torn between trusting Simon and doing his duty.
George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, John Hale, Jerome Cowan and Barry Fitzgerald star in "The Saint Strikes Back," which serves as the debut of George Sanders as Simon Templar.
He follows Louis Hayward who starred as The Saint in "The Saint in New York." Simon travels from coast to coast more than once in this story, which concerns a San Franciso crime ring.
As a result, his daughter, Val (Barrie) has formed a crime organization of her own, hoping to draw out the head of the ring, a man named Waldeman, who is responsible for framing her father.Templar and Inspector Fernak (Hale) work together to find Waldeman -- of course, Fernack thinks Waldeman might actually be Templar.Directed by John Farrow, the script is a little confusing.
He made a big impression on me when I saw The Saint in New York a long time ago.Wendy Barrie plays the late police inspector's tough daughter, and she's pretty hard-nosed.
Hale and Sanders play well off of one another.I like some other Saint films better, but this one is okay..
THE SAINT STRIKES BACK, an early adaptation of a Leslie Charteris novel starring George Sanders, is a real chore to sit through.
Saint Strikes Back, The (1939) ** (out of 4) The second film in RKO's series has George Sanders taking over the role of The Saint.
Another problem is I think Sanders, a great actor, is too dry for the role and this eventually turns the character pretty boring.
Several years after this film Sanders would make The Falcon series and I think he did a better job there, although looking at this film and those Falcon movies it's hard to tell which is which because Sanders plays the role the same way.
Perhaps I wouldn't have been so hard on this film if I hadn't watched it so closely with The Saint in New York but where that film is original and entertaining, this one here just comes off rather bland..
I like George Sanders as the saint.
I wasn't sure.In spite of the plot issues, and inconsistent behavior of some of the characters I still enjoy watching George Sanders Saint.
George Sanders steps into the shoes of Simon Templar for the first time and beds himself in for a further four movies.
Support is good from Wendy Barrie, Jonathan Hale, Jerome Cowan and Barry Fitzgerald, while director John Farrow, without adding any stylish flourish, at least keeps the picture nice and brisk.
You have to stay wide awake to follow the plot convolutions of THE SAINT STRIKES BACK and by the time it reaches its final scene you may lose your way keeping track of a number of undeveloped characters whose names are bandied about with such nonchalance that in the end it hardly matters when you discover who the main culprit is.The plot revolves around hard-boiled dame WENDY BARRIE who's surrounded herself with gangsters in order to avenge the death of her father.
She's a one note actress if ever there was one.Fortunately, the script is graced by the presence of GEORGE SANDERS, who can deliver a crisp line with so much bite and sarcasm that it's fun to see him using his verbal wit on some unsavory characters.
NEIL HAMILTON makes no impression whatsoever in a colorless role as a man supposedly in love with Barrie, but BARRY FITZGERALD turns up to put some spice into the story, at least in the last half of the film.It's strictly formula stuff intended to entertain as a programmer in the late '30s and offers nothing very original or new to make it anything more than something of passing interest..
Leslie Charteris' series of novels of the adventures of the slightly shady Simon Templar ("The Saint") was brought to the screen in the late 1930s with the up and coming George Sanders as Templar.
The films are not the best series of movie mystery serials - but they are serviceable.
Like Rathbone's Holmes series or Oland's Chan's series the show frequently had actors repeating roles or playing new ones (the anti-heroine in the film here was played by Wendy Barrie, who would show up in a second film in the series).
But as the film dealt with the identity of a criminal mastermind, it became obvious that this person was made so slightly noble as to merit being the mysterious mastermind (i.e., the script disguised him as the least likely suspect).Barrie is after the proof that her father (who died in prison) was framed by the real criminals in a robbery gang.
Best has to remind him (when he feels better) to head for a location that Sanders told him to go to at a certain time.There is also an interesting role for Gilbert Emery.
After Roger Moore, this was my very first SAINT film with George Sanders.
However, this gets my vote for the WORST Saint film ever made-- and let me tell you why.I sat thru this thing at least 3 times and could not make heads or tails of the plot at all.
And then, not long after seeing Louis Hayward in THE SAINT IN NEW YORK, I started reading Leslie Chartis' books.
And then of course there's George Sanders, who's COMPLETELY miscast as Simon Templar.
The dialog Templar spouts in much of this film would be impossible for ANY actor to deliver credibly, EXCEPT for Louis Hayward, and I doubt even he could have made the story in this one fly.
Maybe it wasn't just RKO's low low budget that caused him to depart after only one picture-- maybe he read the script, too.In all fairness, and despite himself, the next 4 SAINT films all had the dialog tailored specifically to fit Sanders' personality.
Truthfully, the only one who comes off unscathed is Jonathan Hale, and you can't help but feel sorry for his Inspector Fernack, for the dizzying way Templar leads him on a confused merry chase, on his way to becoming a "hero" at the end.As if everything else wasn't so bad, at the end of the film, the "big reveal" as to the true identity of the main villain ALSO is told entirely thru confused dialog, and we find that the baddie got KILLED-- off-screen!
Ironically, RKO distributed the 2 British-made films that followed, and simultaneously did THE FALCON series, initially also with Sanders, which was based on a novel that was the subject of a plagiarism lawsuit brought against it by Leslie Charteris!
I guess that didn't bother RKO any...Finally, allow me to recommend much better Simon Templar films...THE SAINT IN NEW YORK THE SAINT IN London THE SAINT TAKES OVER THE SAINT'S VACATION.
It is interesting the control that even RKO had over casting.The creator of The Saint character did not like George Sanders playing the role of the character he created.
It sold a lot of tickets and it even does a great job giving the series new star a lock on his role.Overall a smashing success for Saint fans everywhere.
Hayward starred in the first movie, director Ben Holmes" "The Saint in New York." Interestingly enough, Hayward encored as the halo clad hero in the 1953 film "The Saint's Girl Friday," long after not only Sanders, but also Hugh Sinclair had impersonated the fictional Robin Hood character.
Sanders starred in five "Saint" sagas between 1939 and 1941 for RKO Pictures.
"The Saint Strikes Back" is a rather straight-forward crime thriller with the Saint living up to his own self-proclaimed description of himself as "the man who knows everything-just the man who knows the important things." Indeed, our hero knows ahead of time that the heroine he must save is not guilty of murder.In "The Saint Strikes Back," our adventure-prone protagonist dispatches a New York cop killer, Tommy Voss, in the Colony Club nightclub in San Francisco on New Year's Eve and sets out to save Val Travers (Wendy Barrie of "Dead End") who has suffered a lot of bad publicity since her father was framed for police corruption.
Incidentally, Hale co-starred in the first "Saint" escapade and he reprised his role here.This Saint outing is adequate, and Twist gave Sanders some good lines that he utters with aplomb.
Since I've never read a Charteris novel, I cannot understand what the author objected to about Sanders' performance, but the British actor seems born to play the role, and he appears to have a grand time doing it, savoring each of his loquacious lines. |
tt0108968 | Touched by an Angel | The episodes of the series generally revolved around the "cases" of Monica (played by Roma Downey), a young angel recently promoted from the "search and rescue" division, who works under the guidance of Tess (played by Della Reese), a sarcastic boss who showed greater respect as an authority figure of her employee. Monica in one episode outlines that she started in the choir then annunciations, followed by search and rescue and then case work. Most cases involve a single person or a group of people who are at a crossroad in their lives and facing a large problem or tough decision. Monica and Tess bring them messages of hope from God and help give them guidance towards making their decision. During their first episode, the pair receive a red 1972 Cadillac Eldorado convertible as a gift; they use it for transportation throughout the rest of the series while in the human world, with Tess doing the driving. As the series progresses, Monica continues gaining experience as a case worker and, during some cases having to learn lessons of her own.
During the series pilot, an angel of death named Adam is introduced. In the season two premiere, "Interview with an Angel", the Angel of Death is introduced as Henry. In the season two episode entitled, "The One That Got Away" Andrew (played by John Dye) is introduced as the Angel of Death. (Initially a recurring character, he becomes a main character in season three, making him the permanent Angel of Death for the remainder of the series.)
During season seven, a new angel, Gloria, is sent by God during one of Monica's assignments, who becomes a regular character for seasons eight and nine, as a trainee under Monica and Tess's guidance. In the series finale, Monica is up for promotion to supervisor, pending the outcome of a difficult case in which she must defend Zack (Scott Bairstow), an innocent drifter accused of causing a boiler explosion at a school two years ago in the small town of Ascension, Colorado. The explosion killed most of the children, leaving the citizens devastated. During the case, Monica sees many familiar faces, including Joey Machulis (Paul Wittenburg), one of Monica's previous assignments who is a witness to the events, his brother Wayne (Randy Travis), who is now sheriff, Sophie (Marion Ross), a formerly homeless acquaintance, and Mike (Patrick Duffy), a lawyer Monica saved during her search and rescue days who is now the Mayor. An out of town developer claims Zack is the perpetrator and despite the lack of evidence, Zack is put on trial. Monica does all she can to help him, including asking Mike to represent him, but the prosecutor in the case, Jones, is really Satan in disguise, and Zack is eventually convicted.
After the trial, Monica is able to help the citizens realize their mistake and to see that Zack's return to the town had helped them finally start living again. They begin going back to church, welcomed by the pastor they had once abandoned. Their change of heart, however, cannot free Zack, so Monica visits him in jail and reveals that she is an angel. She then promises him that she will become his guardian angel, forgoing all future assignments and the coveted promotion, to protect him from harm in prison. When she returns in the morning, however, the cell is empty. The citizens decide not to search for him, and it is revealed that Joey inadvertently caused the explosion after the devil tricked him into turning the boiler too high to warm some kittens he'd found.
The perplexed Monica returns to the desert to find Tess and Zack. There, she learns that Zack was actually God, and that her defending him was a test, which she passed by being willing to sacrifice herself for him. Monica is promoted to supervisor. As she leaves, she says her goodbyes to Gloria, and to Andrew, who gives her a pocket watch to remember their friendship by. Before parting, Tess gives Monica the keys to the Cadillac, as she is leaving her job to sit at God's feet. Monica is last shown driving away as the camera pans out over the desert. | inspiring, philosophical | train | wikipedia | What we must rely on is faith and hope to give us the strength to go on with out lives when tragedy or insurmountable difficulties strike us down.The angelic combination of actors, Roma Downey, John Dye and the legendary Della Reese give a completeness, perhaps whole roundness to these inspiring hours.
The addition of Valerie Bertinelli was very welcome and has brought a wonderful character of innocence and comic relief (for the sake of a better word) at the same time.I am very thankful for this series and for the actors, directors, producers, writers and crew who have dedicated their time to bringing this to us.If you've gotten this far in my review and you're still not convinced...I beg you give it a chance.
Tess is hilarious, Monica is lovely, and Andrew is just the sweetest, kindest, gentlest, most lovable Angel of Death you'd ever want to meet.
They work together perfectly, and not only help everyone they meet but inspire almost everyone who sees the show to help others.In the words of a boy I know who just saw the famous 100th episode--and he'd never seen any Touched by an Angel before--"Emotionally charged.
Many people say Touched by an Angel is the show that makes you cry, but always in a good way..
Before watching this show I never thought much about God and Christianity but after only seeing one episode of Touched by an Angel I was not only in love with the show but also started thinking about God which resulted in me believing in God and having a relationship with God. I loved Monica, Tess, and Andrew but I have to admit I didn't much care for Gloria who joined in the late seasons.
Touched by an Angel saved my life particularly the episode which had song testify to love (psalm 151).
Sure, it was a little cheesy and syrupy at times, but you knew that going in, and you watched it for the message it delivered.But I can sum up the impact it had on me, and could have on you, in one sentence:"It's the only TV show that regularly made me cry."It was so good, it spawned another superb show called "Promised Land."If you've not seen it before, then make a point to catch it re-runs.
Now, mind you, I have very little faith in the existence of God or, God forbid (natch), angels, I can't help but feel a little, well..."touched" at the end of every episode.
While the show has a certain degree of humor from episode to episode, the producers made the show meaningful to the problems of today's world, with each episode addressing a different and difficult topic in life's journey - ranging from gang problems to drugs to cancer to war to racism, with all giving proof in the end that God's intervention and love is always at hand for those who ask for it.
Well-known American Jazz singer and actor Della Reese is well-suited in the role of Supervisory Angel Tess, while Irish-born actor Roma Downey stars in her role as Angelic case worker Monica, who is often given a helping hand from Andrew, The Angel of Death, played consistently well by American actor John Dye..
And afterwards I spent three hours vomiting stomach acid into a bucket.So, in a few words, this show disgusts me.If I remember correctly, I watched the episode where one of the angels talks to a young girl who worships Satan and says "the lord loves you, even if you did steal Marylin Manson CD's".
I think TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL is best described as a like-it-or-hate-it show.
Monica and all the rest are friendly people,even though Tess can be a bit bossy and Monica can't sing very well.I just love to watch Touched, because it shows angels helping people and points out that all is not bad in this world, where the news is covered with drugs,violence, etc.
Pros: God and his message of divine loveCons: Dramatically sappy, obviously unsubtle when it comes to references like "Salvation's Child" for example, most stories focused on social issues or people in doubt after bad things happened to them, guest stars usually has beens or B-actors (with few exceptions who also appeared on better films/series/etc.), soothing snyth music and historically inaccurate on some episodes alongside New Age tone..
My favorite character was the 'Angel Of Death' Andrew, played by John Dye, because he just doesn't take the dying away; he makes sure the dying understand why they are going to heaven.
My favorite character was the 'Angel Of Death' Andrew, played by John Dye, because he just doesn't take the dying away; he makes sure the dying understand why they are going to heaven.
"Touched By An Angel" was so touching that it made me want to do one of two things: become an angel like Monica, Tess, or Andrew, and be on the receiving end of their help..
"Touched By An Angel" was so touching that it made me want to do one of two things: become an angel like Monica, Tess, or Andrew, and be on the receiving end of their help..
First let me say, I am a Christian and do believe in God and angels and for a while I watched this show every time it was on, however it's getting old.
If you need to see angels to believe in God, or don't believe you can help people without magic powers or a magic spotlight, then the show is doing more harm than good.
I also believe that if angels exists, there duty is to watch over people, not invade there lives, and get into business that is not there problem.
So my children and I scanned the cable channels for something different to watch and happened to find the 'Hallmark' channel and subsequently 'Touched by an Angel.' From its title we all thought that this was going to be sickly nonsense, but how wrong we were !!Although we are only on season 5 here(so great there are still many episodes to come) we have thoroughly enjoyed the series.
While I am sure Touched by and Angel did some good back in 1994-2003, I think it is more needed now more than ever.
It really touched a lot of lives and I think saved a lot of people or at the bare minimum, got people interested in learning more about God and His message for the world.
As far as various weekly stories go, this is a great show (some episodes more interesting than others) But, unlike "Highway to Heaven", this one wants to take the concept of an angel seriously, and the angels, especially Monica, are preachy when helping those in need.
(Believe you me, I am not usually an emotional or "soppy" person.) At 43, I am not especially spiritual in nature, and I am somewhat of a sceptic, so it surprises me when I say that I actually enjoy looking forward to the next episode of this programme (Although series 9 is my favourite, I have not seen a bad episode in any series).This has to be one of the all time great programmes, which should appeal to the whole family.
It reminded me that we are not alone, that we have a Father above who loves us no matter what, he can forgive us and help us through the rough times.From the very first episode to the last show of the final season, I was never disappointed in Touched By An Angel.I'm getting to re-watch this show on GMC (now called UP)and I realize there just aren't shows like this on TV anymore..
Hi, I don't know if I've seen this PARTICULAR episode or not, but I would just like to say that Touched by an Angel is a wonderful show!
OK, there are some things in it sometimes that I don't like, and , I thought I heard one of the angels take the Lord's Name in vain once, (Which is TOTALLY NOT COOL if they did *,note to the writers and producers), but they're good story lines.
But like everyone I think the one thing I hate the most is near the end of an episode when Monica tells her assignment that 'I'm an angel sent from God to tell you that he loves you'.
But always, God sends her her own guiding angel.It is in the form of Tess (Della Reese) who is older, tougher and much wiser as she had her lessons, too, long before Monica's time.
Mostly, I liked the whole show, not just the characters, not just the stars.I wish producers would still come up with uplifting, feel-good shows like this once in a while, shows that make a difference.If this show ever gets re-shown, I would definitely watch it all over again.
I especially like Roma Downey and John Dye. This was a message oriented series that deals with a different subject with each different episode they make.
I especially like Roma Downey and John Dye. This was a message oriented series that deals with a different subject with each different episode they make.
I especially like Roma Downey and John Dye. This was a message oriented series that deals with a different subject with each different episode they make.
I wish I could have seen more of Celine Dion and Wynona in future episodes because they were fantastic."Touched By An Angel" is a show that should never have been canceled because it was a show that not only touches everyone watching it but the guest stars who have acted on it.
It is as if this show has a special gift for touching and uplifting people that are surrounded by the show.My favorite character was the 'Angel Of Death' Andrew, played by John Dye, because he didn't just take the dying away; he made sure the dying understand why they are going to heaven."Touched By An Angel" was a very touching series with a lot of heart..
I love this heartwarming family series in which angels are sent by God with assurances of His love and a message of hope to troubled individuals.
I don't think most viewers expect God to work exactly as this series portrays, with an angel miraculously appearing to show us the way in answer to our prayers.
The cast are all wonderful in their angelic roles...Della Reese as the exuberant, plain spoken, and guiding Tess, Roma Downey the lovely Monica, John Dye the compassionate Andrew (the Angel of Death), and Valerie Bertinelli the uncertain newcomer, Gloria.
So what, it doesn't matter because God still loves me and so does Jesus for what we are and who we are.To tell the truth, I'm afraid of reading the bible because some of the passages scare me somewhere and I tend to misinterpret everything in word-for-word like "salvation", "taking my eye out" or "cutting my hand off"; even some websites made me buy into things that are posted on them, until I had help from my mother, brother and grandparents that the websites are a no-no for me and to ignore the garbage that people get strict about trying to persuade people into their beliefs, instead of helping like how Monica, Tess and Andrew tell people when they feel worried and scared of the future until they tell them that there's nothing to fear and that we can't change the past, but we can change where we're going in the future.
The episodes I find helpful are "Into the Light", "Out of the Darkness", "Redeemable Love" "The Invitation" and "Two sides to every angel".I wanna be in heaven when the time comes and I believe it is more beautiful then I'll ever imagine.
I hope that "Touched by an Angel" will continue on for as long as possible and hopefully, it will eventually be one of the most popular TV series in the world of entertainment..
My favorite character has got to be the 'Angel Of Death' Andrew, played by John Dye, because he just doesn't take the dying away; he makes sure the dying understand why they are going to heaven.
Touched By An Angel is so touching; it makes me want to do one of two things: become an angel like Monica, Tess, or Andrew, and be on the receiving end of their help.
It touches my heart every time I watch and brings tears to my eyes every Sunday.
Wonderful acting by Roma Downey, Della Reese and John Dye. Anyone who watches this show will be "touched by an angel".
Watch this show, and you will feel as if you were touched by an angel.
Anyone who believes in angels, or who just needs to be cheered up or feel better should watch this wonderful show.
Just a few minutes ago I finished watching my first episode, and it left me with a lump in my throat the size of a golfball, and I'm happy to say that it looks like I'm going to be busy Sunday nights from now on too.I really do believe in angels now too..
So I watched an episode of Touched by an Angel - S1, E9 called "Fear Not" about a little girl who I thought was going to be miraculously saved but she wasn't - she died.
Always makes me feel good knowing our God loves us deeply.
I have found the series to be very comforting and uplifting because of how well the main characters are played i.e. Monica as a very approachable person, funny, and sensitive to people's feelings, Tess, who is brilliant, bold and also funny, and Andrew, a wonderful way to portray the angel of death, helping to take away the fear and trepidation.
I always feel uplifted after watching these series, and often challenged by the messages in each i.e. re forgiveness, and trusting God, and hope that things can and do change if we reach our in faith to Him. Well done to the writers and cast, for portraying God and His grace in such a way that anyone can watch these and be touched, not only by an angel, but by our loving Heavenly Father as well..
Touched by an Angel is a touching, heartfelt and emotional TV show, featuring three angels, Monica (Roma Downey), Tess (Della Reese) and Andrew (John Dye) who were sent by God to Earth to help troubled people get through their trials and adversities and remind them that God loves them and will guide them through the hard times.This show really tugs at your heartstrings as each episode focuses deeply on the people's problems - from family issues to displaced dreams, and from life and death ordeals to friendship tests.
Love, hate, anger and forgiveness are elements that are elaborately portrayed in the show and the angels' mission in bringing hope, understanding, faith and God's love to these troubled people will give you feel-good moments.Downey gave a lovely portrayal as the sweet and gentle Monica, a caseworker angel out to help each troubled person or persons with getting through hard times, while Della Reese portrays her gruff yet good-hearted and humorous supervisor Tess.
John Dye brings a little bit of balance and grim in his character as opposed to Downey and Reese, portraying Andrew the Angel of Death.The episodes ranges from sweet and light-hearted to downright dramatic and sad.
best thing to come out of the U.S. every episode except for about two out of 200 was nearly perfect, as good as TV gets, great writing, production, script, sets, lighting, superior music, perfect casting, a long running series that has not surpassed to this day.
This program can get you off at the edge of your seat and, if you don't believe in God then i think you should watch this program because this actually don't try and force you to believe that God or angels is real but it can give you so much hope, you sit there to enjoy, cry, smile and realise that this program can help you if you want it to, or you see loads of love and emotion.
Sometimes you get a bit bothered with every episode ending in "Im an angel sent by god", not because of the religious connotations, just the predictability that you know Monica never stuffs up.
I love Monica's love for people and urgency with which she carries her message, and Gloria's humorous lack of experience yet firmness of purpose and direction that makes her unquestionably angelic.Most of all, I enjoy the story of each episode.
Watch this show and you will be touched by an angel!.
I do believe in God and Angels, but that is not the reason I love this show.
I even know athiest who watch and enjoy Touch by an Angel.
Touched By Angel - One Of The Best Shows On Television.
I have been a huge fan of Touched By An Angel ever since the first episode aired back in 1994.
We're about two seasons behind, but I still love to watch it anyway....I am sick of all the violence, sex and foul language that is on the majority of television shows today and Touched By An Angel is a breath of fresh air.
It's a very beautiful show and I love seeing the way in which Monica, Tess and Andrew deal with various situations.It is very emotional and I do end up with tears in my eyes after most of the episodes.
This show has helped me to grow in my relationship with God too!My favorite episodes are: Psalm 151, My Dinner With Andrew, On Edge, Fighting The Good Fight and The Spirit Of Liberty Moon.Watch this show and trust me, you will be "touched"..
Touched by an Angel is a very nice series.
If you watch each episode of all the seasons, you will discover that according to the angels, God loves all of his creatures, human as well as wayward angel. |
tt1629705 | Blackthorn | Twenty years after his disappearance in 1908, an aged Butch Cassidy (Sam Shepard), living under the assumed name James Blackthorn in a secluded village in Bolivia, decides to end his long exile and return to the United States after learning of the death of Etta Place. He writes to her son, Ryan, who is in fact his own son, telling him he intends to return. After years of raising horses and living a solitary life, Blackthorn sets off for Potosí to sell his horses. He tells his lover, Yana (Magaly Solier), that he will see her again before leaving Bolivia.
At Potosí, Blackthorn withdraws his savings from the bank, sells his horses, and then heads back to his village. Along the way, he is ambushed and nearly killed. He shoots his attacker, but not before Blackthorn's horse, Cinco, bolts off with his money. The shooter is Eduardo Apodaca (Eduardo Noriega), a Spaniard mining engineer who claims he was shooting at pursuers. He begs Blackthorn to save him, and offers to share part of the $50,000 he stole from Simón Patiño, a powerful Bolivian industrialist and mine owner. The money is hidden in an abandoned mine, and he will compensate Blackthorn for his help.
Blackthorn and the Spaniard set out across the desert plateau with Patiño's posse within a day's pursuit. They reach the abandoned mine and find the money, but the posse catches up with them. Following a shootout, Blackthorn and the Spaniard escape with the money. They make their way to Blackthorn's cabin, where the famous outlaw remembers his old friendships with the Sundance Kid and Etta Place, and how they escaped from Pinkerton Detective Mackinley (Stephen Rea). Yana joins the men at the cabin, and Blackthorn gives her a pocket watch he won in a card game. At first she rejects it as a "gringo machine", but then accepts the gift as something to remember him by. Despite his asking her to spend one last night with him, she advises she must return to her own family. Later that night, Yana returns to the cabin to stay with Blackthorn on his last night before leaving.
The next morning, two female members of the posse come to the cabin looking for the Spaniard, and in the ensuing gunfight, Blackthorn is wounded, and Yana is killed. A heartbroken Blackthorn and the Spaniard leave with the rest of the posse not far behind. They set out across the Uyuni salt flats, hoping to reach the coast where Blackthorn can find a boat to take him home. Halfway across, the posse catches up to them, but Blackthorn and the Spaniard split up and are able to kill their pursuers and escape.
When he reaches Tupiza, Blackthorn is treated by a doctor, who notifies former Pinkerton Detective Mackinley—now living a quiet life in Bolivia—of his famous patient. Mackinley confirms the man's identity. For years Mackinley claimed that the two bandits killed at San Vincente were not Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and now he will finally be proven correct. But after initially notifying the Bolivian army of the discovered outlaw, Mackinley changes his mind, returns Blackthorn's pistol, and helps him escape. When Mackinley later discovers that Blackthorn was involved with the Spaniard, he reveals the truth to him about the Spaniard and his pursuers. Apparently, the $50,000 the Spaniard stole was not from the powerful mine owner, Patiño, but from the mining families who recently took control of the mines. The Spaniard stole the money from "the people"—something Butch Cassidy would never have done. Although disgusted with Blackthorn's involvement, Mackinley does not betray him.
In flashbacks to those days when he and the Sundance Kid rode together, he recalls how his partner, being wounded and near death, asks for Butch to "do it," and so Butch regretfully and lovingly takes the life of his best friend.
In the present, Blackthorn, distressed, tracks the Spaniard into the Andes, with the Bolivian army not far behind. When Blackthorn catches up with him and confronts him with the truth, the Spaniard does not deny it, saying the money he stole was indeed from the mine owners—just "different owners." Blackthorn shoots the Spaniard in the leg and leaves him and the money for the Bolivian army, who soon arrive and kill the thief.
In the closing scene, Blackthorn, remembering his life and friends in better days, is last seen looking back over his shoulder and presumably escaping across the mountains. | revenge, flashback | train | wikipedia | I am not to sure about the stories take on Butch, but besides that I really enjoyed it, the scenery was fantastically caught on film, the story moves at a nice pace, and at times really hit a nerve with me about life, friends that have come and gone, and growing old, and looking back at what we might have done different.Anyway I enjoyed this film, not a Oscar winner, but well worth it, solid acting by all actors, I gave it a 7.5 out of 10.
The meditative beauty, poetic narration and sublime photography of Salles and something of the supercool bravura of Kim Jee Woon's masterpiece.Everything pays off here: the unexpected flashbacks which actually work dramatically and interact with the central story, the performance of Shephard which is Oscar worthy - this sounds like a cliché but he is really wonderful in this film and deserves recognition for his brilliant work - Eduardo Noriega is also back to being the resolutely appealing actor able to make you feel for him even when his character is unsympathetic, which he proved in the classic Abre Los Ojos.Blackthorn is a sad film which tells the story of an aging outlaw's attempt to make up for the things he regrets as he's nears the end of his life.
Not so, for here is Butch Cassidy 20 years after the supposed event, alive and well and living in a secluded Bolivian village under the name James Blackthorn.What a lovely idea, that of one of history's most famous outlaws actually living longer than history led us to believe.
But not all is as it seems and with flash backs showing Butch and Sundance in their prime (Waldau as the young Cassidy is an inspired choice as per likeness to Shepard), aided by the feisty Etta Place, this is a fully rounded tale.The film quite simply is unhurried and respectful to the art of story telling and is rich with a lead characterisation of considerable substance (Shepard is wonderful, really gets to the soul of the character).
I'm awfully glad I did.20 years after the standoff in which he and the Sundance Kid supposedly died, an aging Butch Cassidy (Sam Shepard) still lives in Bolivia, laying low and breaking wild horses for wealthy riders.
It has a number of dramatic details that make it believable (taking a slice of meat off the dead horse and roasting it on the campfire).In all the expanse of the Bolivian landscape the humanity and characterizations are not lost and we care about Butch Cassidy, his lady love, and even the ex-Pinkerton who discovers, then assists our anti-hero on his way to settle the score.All the elements of classic Westerns are at work here and the pace is methodical and maintained for a rhythmic ride.
This tale of an aging-exiled American outlaw and his attempts to return home may seem a bit straightforward and tame, but in the end it's not and you'll be glad to have spend the hour and forty-five minutes partaking in this latest great example of the genre.The directing isn't too bad either and the actors generally deliver their lines well, although a few are a bit over-read.For a modern western that's not an adolescent fantasy and has a great deal of heart, it gets 9/10..
This Spanish picture is an enjoyable drama Western with an interesting characterizing about the celebrated leader of the ¨Wild Bunch gang¨ of train robbers , Butch Cassidy who along with Sundance Kid were one of the last old-style bandits of the West and they had the quick wit and strength of character to dominate more desperate men .
In Bolivia, Butch Cassidy who left long time ago his criminal activity and now calling himself James Blackthorne (Sam Shepard) , pines for one last sight of home , an adventure that aligns him with a young robber (Eduardo Noriega) and makes the duo a target for gangs and lawmen alike .
Furthermore , it deals with young Butch Cassidy (Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau as James joven) , Sundance Kid (Padraic Delaney) and Etta Place (Dominique McElligott) , whose scenes are developed in flashbacks , both of them when the Pinkerton and railroad agents (Stephen Rea) hot on their trail , the Wild Bunch broke up and both sailed to South America after the turn of century and disappeared there , possibly dying in a shoot-out in 1909 near La Paz , though the story here narrated is quite different .The film contains human drama , thrills , violence , riding pursuits and action Western complemented with moving tension and intrigue , including some twists and turns .
Cassidy, going by the name Blackthorn decides to help the man.Outstanding: Filmed beautifully and directed with a solid hand that really shows the vivid beauty of the locations.
You would like Blackthorn if you like Unforgiven, Appaloosa, Open Range or, of course, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but not if your taste it's nearest to The Quick and the Dead, Young Guns I or II, or Cowboys & Aliens..
An aging Butch Cassidy (Sam Shepard), now calling himself Blackthorn and living a quiet life in 1920s Bolivia, learns that Etta Place has died in San Francisco, living her young son behind, to whom Butch has long been writing in the guise of "Uncle Butch." He decides to travel back to the States to see his "nephew," and sets off with the blessings of his indigenous girlfriend Yana (Magaly Solier).
But Eduardo isn't all that he seems, and in addition to the posse, an old broken-down Pinkerton man, Mackinley (Stephen Rea), is also aware that Butch Cassidy didn't die all those years ago....I'm not big on Westerns usually, but this is an exception.
Beautifully filmed on location in Bolivia, and employing numerous indigenous actors, we are also treated to flashback scenes of a younger Butch (played as a young man by Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau, who looks very much like a younger Sam Shepard), his friend the Sundance Kid (Padraic Delaney) and their mutual love Etta Place (Dominique McElligot), which deepen and enrich the larger story.
It's the story about an aged Butch Cassidy that goes by the name James Blackthorn now and that lives a retired life somewhere in Bolivia.
In the flashbacks Nicolaj Coaster-Waldau and Padraic Delaney play Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. But the star of this movie is Sam Shepard.
Released in 2011, "Blackthorn" is the unofficial sequel to the 1969 Western hit "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." It took 42 years, but it was worth it.THE PLOT: Almost 20 years after Butch Cassidy was supposedly shot-down in Bolivia he is shown alive and well, living in a ranch house in the mountains under the name James Blackthorn.
Unfortunately for him, a young outlaw (Eduardo Noriega) puts the kibosh on his plans, but they eventually team-up, perhaps because the dude reminds him of his younger days or of his deceased best friend, the Sundance Kid.Another reviewer pointed out that Butch Cassidy is essentially regarded as a real-life Western Robin Hood.
"Blackthorn" borrows from Westerns like "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (naturally), "The Shootist" (1976), "Unforgiven" (1992) and the more modern "Seraphim Falls" (2006).
What makes "Blackthorn" unique is its setting in Bolivia; and, to a lesser degree, the time period, 1927.FINAL SAY: I suppose you could say that this is a character study and Sam Shepherd is excellent as Butch Cassidy.
But Sam Shepard embraces the role of Butch Cassidy and provides a strong and driven protagonist for the film.
As that is what Butch Cassidy is, a legend, and it was only a matter of time before cinema decided to embrace his presence once again for another fantastic western.Both Shepard and Noriega are implausible in their roles, complimented with a sturdy performance of a washed up pinkerton by Stephen Rea. But an actor who hasn't had nearly enough recognition within cinema is Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau, who a lot of you will recognise from the popular television series, Game of Thrones (2011).
His presence in Blackthorn not only reinforces the film, as he plays a young Butch Cassidy, but he also bears great similarity to Shepard conveniently.
Butch Cassidy is probably the most recognizable name in Western film history that by obfuscating the hero's identity & rewriting cinema history only contorts what the film's story should be.I think this is probably one of the finest westerns to be made in some time along w/Ed Harris' Appaloosa which treat the Western as is should be; a true American art form.What holds my praise back a bit are the various flashbacks which kinda rewrite what we know of Butch's adventures only to justify character shadings which if dropped would've still have been appreciated via Sam Shepherd's great performance.Not a total miss & definitely worth a view..
Blackthorn (2011)** 1/2 (out of 4)This film goes on the assumption that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid didn't get killed by the Bolivian Army in 1908.
Our film kicks off twenty years after those said events when Butch (Sam Shepard) finds himself wanting to get back to his family in the U.S. so he takes his life's savings and heads off but a turn in events places him with a Spanish (Eduardo Apodaca) criminal on the run from the law.
this film was a very nostalgic journey for a viewer like me, witnessed the good and old wild, wild west faded away with the last bandit in American history of the west, just like butch cassidy/blackthorn said: 'and then came the railroad and the big ranchers that changed everything....', indeed..
I like westerns, I liked "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", so I was intrigued by this movie.
I suppose we do wish that this was a true story.James Blackthorn (Sam Shepard) once known as Butch Cassidy seems to be alive in Bolivia and wants to go to the United States to see his nephew Ryan.
Notables: Magaly Solier as Yana, love interest to Blackthorn; Dominique McElligott as Etta, who traveled with Butch and Sundance initially to Bolivia and later is shown as pregnant seemingly with Sun Dance's child; Padraic Delaney as Sun Dance; Stephen Rea as Mackinley the Pinkerton man who takes Blackthorn to safety.This was well told and acted throughout.
Having watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid only a few months back the story was still in my mind quite well giving me a chance to better understand this movie, to be honest I didn't really need to have that knowledge going into this as it was easily self sustainable and watchable in its own bubble.This was a good character driven/story based Western, the sort I can actually sit and watch and enjoy.
It boasts a compelling story, a fine script, an excellent cast, stunning photography of some magnificent Bolivian locations and a terrific performance from Sam Shepard as Butch Cassidy (alias James Blackthorn).
The picture is different in tone - more serious and downbeat - than the classic "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969), but it is still a worthy companion piece to that film - largely due to Shepard's expert characterization and Mateo Gil's sure-handed direction.
The actor and playwright who passed away in 2017 shows here what an excellent actor he could be when given the right role.Shepard plays the ageing Butch Cassidy who did not die in a shootout in Bolivia but laid low living a modest life with his housekeeper Yana and longing to go home which he tries to do when his old flame dies back in the USA.On his way back to America Butch comes across a Spanish mining engineer named Eduardo Apodaca (Eduardo Noriega) who has stolen from a mining company and is now in pursuit.
Butch decides to team up with this young upstart who does not realise that legendary outlaw he is riding with.However pretty soon McKinley (Stephen Rea) an old alcoholic agent from the Pinkerton Gang senses Butch's scent as he never believed that Butch died all those years ago.This is a contemplative film, with maybe a too simple story.
'Blackthorn' imagines an alternative end for the legendary outlaw Butch Cassidy to the one in the standard story: that he died, still a relatively young man, in Bolivia.
Flash forward 20 years and Butch, now known as James Blackthorn (Sam Shepard), is still in Bolivia and living a quiet life breeding horses and enjoying the scenery.
James and Eduardo get tangled up together as only two people can in the middle of nowhere Bolivia and they start working together to get the money and stay alive.But what happened in the 20 years from when we last left Butch Cassidy and what happened to the Sundance Kid?
In 1927 Bolivia, Butch is living under the assumed name James Blackthorn (Sam Shepard).
There are flashbacks of Butch and Sundance with Etta as they are pursued by Pinkerton Detective Mackinley and the Bolivian Army.Spanish director Mateo Gil takes on the modern western.
In this movie, Butch Cassidy is portrayed as having faked his death and lived under an assumed name (James Blackthorn).
In any case, it is a great film, so it makes me hope it's not too late for Mateo Gil to develop a fruitful career as a full-length film director.On the surface, Blackthorn doesn't tell anything new; it brings back the crepuscular atmosphere of the likes of Sam Peckinpah's westerns, with an iconic but worn-down figure as the main character.
The most original aspect of the film, again only at first sight, comes from the setting; this western takes place in the barren landscapes of Bolivia, the country where supposedly Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid got killed (see the last shot of George Roy Hill's 1969 movie).
Unless I'm wrong, there are six flashbacks throughout the movie, showing us the younger years of Butch Cassidy and his teaming up with the Sundance Kid and their lady friend Etta Place.
So when we see him in the present, supposedly as a character with great relevance in the film and in Butch Cassidy's life, it doesn't work very well because we've only seen him for about a minute before that.Blackthorn has a few other flaws, mostly in the form of missed opportunities, not to mention a somewhat unsatisfactory ending, but its qualities easily outshine them.
For those unfamiliar with the original "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" movie it is a worthwhile thing to rent it and watch this classic high rated western of 1969 as well as to browse the annals on the subject of the characters at the library.
He writes that it's time to come home - meaning he is to leave the quiet life in rural Bolivia and make the long journey back to the U.S. This aging "Uncle Butch" we meet is played by the great Sam Shepard.
Of course, Butch has become more trusting in his old age, and Noriega turns out not to be the partner than Sundance once was.This whole story is a bit outlandish, but it's at its best when Blackthorn runs smack dab into Makinley, one of the old Pinkerton men who was chasing him twenty years ago.
This is not a follow-up, by the way, to George Roy Hill's 1968 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but one might be tempted to think so.
Throughout the picture we get flashbacks to the good old days, to Butch and his outlaw buddy The Sundance Kid. Those scenes are propped up to show up the glory years, but they don't seem to have a point.Shepard does an okay job at playing the lead, but there's something too polished and relaxed about this Butch Cassidy.
Blackthorn is really good.Sam Shepard puts in a top notch performance as a late life Butch, living a modest life in Bolivia and dreaming of going home 19 years after...
it adds a deep level to the film.I saw some crazy reviews on here, including a long one that got most of the movie, and Butch's real life wrong so I assume they didn't actually see Blackthorn, or know anything about the man....
I went back and watched the 1969 blockbuster "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (which I saw first run when it came out and loved) and came away feeling that it was kind of commercial and that Blackthorn was the far better film which is something that I never ever...
Mateo Gil's "Blackthorn" ranks as a rugged, entertaining western set in South America that qualifies as a kind of sort a sequel to George Roy Hill's exceptional horse opera "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." This visually stunning oater lensed on location in scenic Bolivia by "The Others" lenser Lucio Godoy should be seen on the biggest screen possibly because the film reeks of grandeur.
Basically, this western concerns an older but wiser Butch Cassidy after the Sundance Kid has died and their girlfriend Etta Place has left the country.
No, "Blackthorn" isn't as good as the brilliant "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," but it makes a worthy companion piece.
Like the posse in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," the posses in "Blackthorn" don't know when to quit and they are determined to bring back our heroes dead or alive.
Checking to see if anything interesting was being shown over the last days of the Easter holiday,I was thrilled to spot a Shepard Spanish Western (!) being shown,which led to me pulling out the black thorn.The plot:Leaving the US with a myth of him and Sundance both being killed, Butch Cassidy changes his name to James Blackthorn and goes to live a life of solitary in Bolivia.
An old lawman after the young Butch and Sundance- Stephen Rea- also shows up, and all hell breaks loose.Yet another great performance from all-around "Renaissance Man" Shepard, as well as great story and direction.
BLACKTHORN is a low key little western story with the added attraction of having been filmed in Bolivia. |
tt0490798 | When a Killer Calls | A killer goes into a house, killing a mother and her two children. In the process, he takes pictures on his cell phone of the attack. Elsewhere, Trisha (Rebekah Kochan) is babysitting a girl, Molly, while her parents are out. She needs this to go well because her last babysitting job with the Hewitts did not end on a good note. On the way to a speaking engagement, Molly's parents are killed by an off-screen attacker that they obviously knew. Meanwhile, Trisha begins getting increasingly threatening phone calls and texts. After, she puts Molly to bed, the caller escalates his taunting. He sends her pictures of the previous murders claiming he did it for her. Although she believes it is her boyfriend Matt calling her, she calls the police who inform her that they will trace the call.
Matt (Robert Buckley), along with his two reckless friends Frank and Chrissy arrive saying they have been chased by cops after Frank brandished a gun at a bowling alley during an argument. They ask to stay until it is safe to leave. Matt assures Trisha that he did not make that call. Going into the basement to make out, Chrissy hears a strange noise. Frank is killed when he investigates and Chrissy is beaten unconscious when she goes to find him. Worried that Frank is getting into trouble again, Trisha has Matt find out what he is doing. When he goes to the basement, he is knocked unconscious and tied up by the killer.
Watching the news of a triple murder earlier that night, Trisha realizes the pictures sent to her are real and that they are also of the Hewitts. The killer calls Trisha and informs her that she needs to check on Molly. After the police call and inform her that the calls came from inside the house, she discovers a camera in the living room. She checks on Molly and finds her dead with Richard Hewitt (the murdered family's husband and father) in the bedroom. She tries to run from him but is quickly tripped and knocked unconscious.
Awakening in the basement, Trisha discovers she is gagged and tied to a rafter, Matt tied up on the floor, Chrissy tied up and gagged on the couch, and Frank dead on the floor. Richard tortures the group and kills Chrissy before he goes upstairs to kill some investigating police officers. Richard also explains the reason for the murders, revealing he had become obsessed with Trisha after raping her one night. Using this time to free himself, Matt stuns Richard and frees Trisha. However, Matt is killed doing this. Trisha manages run out of the house and retrieves Frank's gun which he stashed in Matt's truck. She shoots Richard several times, ensuring he is dead, and then walks away from the house into the surrounding woods. | murder | train | wikipedia | "When a Killer Calls" is an unusually nasty slasher flick, with some very unpleasant and unsettling sequences.
The decision was clearly made to try and cash in on the remake of "When a Stranger Calls" by pretty much putting in -- almost word for word -- the phone call sequences from that movie.
So for the beginning of the film, we really like and are rooting for the babysitter (a nice believable job by Rebekah Kochan), but then she's joined by standard slasher-flick teenage friends and the mood is ruined.The flick sort of works, but it probably a lot more unpleasant than you'll be expected, so be fore-warned..
After wading through a morass of God awful horror films of late, this was, by comparison, a pleasant surprise.Granted this is a knock-off (to be kind) of another B movie, I found it didn't have the flaws that run rampant through other entries in this genre.It had a professional look, was decently directed and the acting was better than average for this type of film.
Most importantly, the script was at least thought out, and didn't have the gut-wrenching plot holes and improbable logic (or lack there of) I've come to expect.Don't get me wrong, it certainly isn't a horror classic by any means but if you're looking for something in this vein and there's nothing else to rent (as was my case), it won't feel like a waste of time.Back-handed compliments to be sure, but I don't think the remake of When a Stranger Calls will be a whole lot better..
In this case we get When a Killer Calls, ripping on the Sony remake of When A Stranger Calls (2006).
Killer is obviously low budget, with passable-at-best special effects for the gore, though the acting is surprisingly decent for the most part.
Just want to inform you guys that this movie was actually pretty good !!!
This movie has enough blood, gore, and some sexy make out scenes of course, to keep any horror buff like me 100% satisfied!
Even though its not a high budget movie, the effects wore definitely kinda creepy sometimes.
Worth watching if u like a kick ass horror movie thats for sure!!Tom. A rip off it is, horrible it isn't.
An extremely amateurish rip off of When A Stranger Calls but unlike the well filmed, atmospheric remake of the 1970's chiller this one has balls.
Right from the beginning of the film it has the feeling of unease and dread with brutal and effective yet generic kills that were disturbing and gutsy.
This movie has a very visibly low budget and less than impressive acting that were the movie's downfall but the body count was decent and the killer was sadistic and stopped at nothing to bring fear to this poor babysitter and the stalk sequences though handled in a silly amateurish way did bring some suspense and creepyness to the film enough to make you look over your shoulder especially if you watch it alone in your home.
The acting was beyond atrocious thanks to a horrible script and unoriginal story but towards the end it seems like everyone tried their best to step up their game which led to an effective, harrowing finale which might make you think twice about babysitting.
Overall it's obviously a ripoff, unoriginal, flimsy but its brutality, creepyness and ballsy nature will creep under your skin, sure it wasn't amazing but as a generic rip off of stalk and slash it isn't half bad.
When a Killer Calls (2006) ** 1/2 (out of 4) The Asylum's mockbuster of WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (the remake) has Trisha (Rebekah Kochan) going to babysit when she starts tor receive harassing phone calls.
Pretty soon she starts to think it's her boyfriend but when he shows up at the house she knows it must be someone else and soon they're all under attack.
WHEN A KILLER CALLS is a film that you'd think would be horrible but I have to give director Peter Mervis credit for actually delivering a pretty strong film and one that certainly isn't going to be for the weak.
Normally killing a child or children is a major no no and when a film does it you know it means business.
I think fans of gore should be entertained by this thing because it's quite savage in regards to the violence and there's a lot of the run stuff going around.
With all of that said, there are still some problems in the film including a pretty boring second act.
Once all the teens get to the house things really slow down quite a bit and the 91-minute running time could have probably benefited from some of this stuff being cut out.
Another problem is that some of the performances really weren't all that believable but Kochan is decent in the lead and Mark Irvingsen is good as the killer.
WHEN A KILLER CALLS really shorts itself because many people are going to pass it up because of it being a rip of another movie but that would be a shame.
Basically a sick and depraved version of Fred Walton's "When a Stranger Calls" (1979), but not as bad as you might think.
It has the same basic plot to "When a Stranger Calls", such as a girl babysitting a child and then gets harassing phone calls from some mysterious guy which then turns threatening.
Considering that it comes from Asylum a low budget studio who are known for their less than average movies.
Some of the scenes may offend and can be pretty intense and more violent than what you'd expect it to be, but If you got nothing better to do and you're bored, give it a shot, but don't expect it to be that great..
A lot of people find this movie to be something amazing, but I can't help but feel that the people voting for this film are people upset by the fact "When a Stranger Calls" didn't live up to their horror expectations.The producer must've got the entire cast and crew to come here and make "kick-ass movie!" comments because, unfortunately, no one with human taste would find this movie to be as good as they claim it to be.Watching this movie, I just can't help but feel this is done by a 17 year old dude who just learned a couple of new camera effects.
The "special effects" in this film come up as high as weak lighting, twitchy cameras, and rain storms that doesn't even seem to cover an entire patio.
These stabbings (which looks VERY fake, by the way) just don't do for anyone anymore, it's not 1980 anymore.The characters are all predictable, and unlike it's alternate, "When a Stranger Calls" (which I think this title is only a lure for the emo-kiddies who were upset with the lack of gore from it's alternate), you have no reason to care for these characters.
The only thing this movie is missing is the shower scene that literally turns into a blood bath.I do like the idea that this movie gives no mercy to the children.
I doubt it'll start a new wave for the horror genre, but it's a good moment to look back on.The acting was...
I could easily talk about how the protagnist's, scared reactions and frightening faces come up super short but that would be like trying to prove to someone that a pickle is green.Overall, the only reason I might've given it this high of a number is because I was air-drunken enough to watch the fake ass looking slashes..
i found this movie to be mostly a P.O.S.it was low budget,but that isn't the problem.the problem is,the movie is just lame.it doesn't really make a lot of sense.yes,it does explain why things happened,but that's not what i mean.there was just no reason for it all.the movie also moved very slow.the last ice age was quicker than this.also, i think they went overboard a bit in the kills.i don't mean they were too gross,but the killer just seemed to spend too much time smashing his victim over the head,or stabbing his victim.
maybe i'm being petty,but i just didn't like the movie.the whole thing seemed like a lower rate version of "When a Stranger Calls" and maybe that was the whole point.but so what.for me "When A Stranger Kills" is a 4/10*.
For The Asylum, actually When a Killer Calls is not that bad.
By all means it is far from great, but compared to the usual schlock from The Asylum, along with I Am Omega When a Killer Calls was actually tolerable.
It does have its flaws certainly, most acting is not good, often pretty bad, though Robert Buckley's eyes are gorgeous.
However, it doesn't look too bad, you don't expect much from The Asylum in this regard but it does at least have a decently atmospheric feel to it.
The killer, played by Mark Irvingson in the best performance of the movie, is quite sadistic and exudes menace, if there was any character that was at least convincing it was certainly him.
WHEN A KILLER CALLS a TheAsylum release Starring Rebekah Kochan and Chriss Anglin "MOVIEMAKER magazine recently said this about TheAsylum movie paradigm,to piggy back your film upon other studios marketing-commercials-perhaps threats of lawsuits This is why you can have 3 War Of The Worlds( including TheAsylum w/C.Thomas Howell) make money." This is a brutal movie,We can blame the success of SAW and HOSTEL,They must be painful to sell to today's teen audience(Which a whole other article).
We were glad to see Chriss Anglin again,and the lead was impressive-REBEKAH KOCHAN,the lady is so sweet and strong in When A Killer Calls,This is most impressive after the mean-spirited friend she played in EXORCISM:THE POSSESSION OF GAIL BOWERS.
The special effects by Mili Rendler are brutal,yet real looking.Faces are contorted in a cutting fashion,and Hands get hammered(NOT DRUNK ).Two other performances we liked are Mark Irvingsen as the suspect and Sarah Hall as the other girl,Mark comes on as time-bombish and Sarah is oddly compelling to the viewer.Peter Mervis ( interviewed last time)delivers a smoother film than DEAD MEN WALKING,his first TheAsylum picture and shows the learning of a craft..
This movie is a jumpy horror flick with no meaning at all.
It looks like some 17 year-old idiot wrote this movie and a 10 year old kid shot it.
Just for your own sake, don't even think about wasting your time watching this crappy movie..
A decent slasher flick with lots of vicious killing.
The acting was your typical slasher film acting but probably about as good as When a Stranger Calls.
I have to say the characters were sub par and not very smart and killings the kids was pretty wrong but at least they didn't hold back on that.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it got me wondering about this movie and if it was really a labor of love or a labor of cash.
It is plausible that the filmmakers wanted to do a completely no-holds-barred retelling of the famous Urban Legendy/When a Stranger Calls chestnut, and if their goal was to show us things we don't expect, mission accomplished.This has to be the ONLY film I have ever seen (out of tens of thousands) that features the "realistic" on screen killing of children.
When a Killer Calls is clearly an obvious rip off to the remade 2006 film "When a Stranger Calls".
A babysitter named Trisha receives anonymous and scary phone calls late at night, asking her if she checked the child she is babysitting.
The exact same thing the stalker asks in "When a Stranger Calls".
This film opens up with a rather chilling murder scene, which also includes us seeing two young children and their mother being stabbed to death.
Probably a first in horror to actually see children being murdered on screen, it was pretty brutal.
The scenes with them had a real Laurie and Tommy from "Halloween" feel to it which was nice.Most of the call scenes involving Trisha and the killer were actually very well done and a little unsettling.
Not really gruesome, but the number of times he stabs each victim is just brutal.There is a decent revelations to the killer's identity, but the last twenty to thirty minutes of the movie is where it fails for me.
I don't need to see Trisha tied up and being tortured by watching her friends be cut and stabbed.
I also didn't think showing three kids being murdered by the killer was necessary.Overall, an average low budget horror movie.
There were some unnecessary torture/murder scenes, but some genuine creepy moments during the phone calls helps make the movie watchable at least once.5/10.
When a Killer Calls.
When a Killer Calls.
This killer is so cold-blooded and remorseless, he ties up his prey with rope, takes phone photos, and makes them wait out their execution.
Like Michael Meyers, the killer breathes across the phone when he's across the phone with Trisha, and this is the device he uses to torment her over the period of the night.
She believes that the one calling her repeatedly on the cell phone is Matt, her boyfriend.
The parents of the child Trisha's babysitting actually know the killer(which means he's a local citizen and we hear his voice which sounds surprisingly friendly)and they make the unfortunate mistake of stopping off to see if he needs assistance.
Prepare to hear a hell of a lot of ringing because the phone jingles over and over in this movie, THE ASYLUM's answer to WHEN A STRANGER CALLS which might also bring to mind SCREAM.
The killer continues to threaten Trisha on the phone until she Star 57's his ass(the killer also sends her pictures of victims he butchered).
His gal, Chrissy, is also a bit of a bad girl and when the two go into the basement, a little surprise will be in store for them, interrupting their make-out session.There's a murder similar to what you might remember from BLACK Christmas(the use of a plastic bag to suffocate a victim while he's being stabbed several times).
The killer is savage in how he beats and stabs victims, with blunt force, in furious anger, the sound effects on the soundtrack extra loud to emphasize the brutality of his actions.
Regarding the endless phone call harassments, I did keep asking myself why she just didn't silence her phone as to keep it from ringing continuously, but then the movie would lose it's purpose, the heart of the terror of the situation is the killer's menacing voice and what he says to the heroine over the course of the running time.
There's a particular scene directly lifted from WHEN A STRANGER CALLS which is more than a bit insulting.
There's included the typical staircase scene where the killer falls down the steps and the heroine must cross over him, with the usual hand grabbing ankle.
And, the killer plays with Trisha by having her rope-tied while slaughtering a victim(not to mention he rips her shirt, exposing her breasts, humiliating her).
With Rebekah Kochan(one of several in THE ASYLUM's HALLOWEEN NIGHT, another slasher which ripped off various classics including HALLOWEEN)as Trisha, Robert Buckley as Matt, Sarah Hall as Chrissy, Derek Osedach as Frank, and Mark Irvingsen as the psycho.
This came out the same year as the official remake of WHEN A STRANGER CALLS(starring Camille Bell)which proves once again that those of THE ASYLUM have no shame..
When A Killer Calls has got to be the biggest ripoff released by Asylum so far.
And I hate to say it, but this could've been more entertaining than the big-screen crapfest that was released around the same time if not for one fatal mistake -- Rather than revelling in B-movie ripoff glory, it tried to do something original.
Then it heads in another direction, and it veers away from just another dumb, fun slasher movie with a sexy "teenage" cast to a Hostel-esquire gore/borefest.I guess this falls into the "Oh well, whatever" category.
Oh well, whatever.If you like this kind of movie (dumb, cheesy, predictable, campy splatter movie with sexy cast), then you'll be fine up until the ending.
this film is basically a poor take on the old urban legend of the babysitter who gets crank calls telling her to check the children, she calls the police who trace the calls and find there coming from inside the house.
when a killer calls has a story so simplistic a little kid could have written it.
not much suspense, it becomes clear who the killer is halfway through the film.
at the beginning, when the first victim is killed it looks like a bondage fetish scene from a porn site or something.
To sum it up in a nutshell, this film was disappointing and could have been shortened by twenty minutes.The acting was sub-par, the only decent actors of the bunch being Trisha, the killer and Molly.
The story/scriptwriting was poor, the unnecessary torture/romantic scenes being dragged on for way too long and a disappointing ending.The start of the film was rather slow, the fake-looking gore not much of interest.
Trisha arrived at the house, and there was some premise for a good storyline.Trisha started to receive the threatening phone calls, which heightened the suspense.
This momentary suspense, the best feature of the movie began to build, but then the friends crashed the place, wrecking all potential suspense/horror in the film.The plot then becomes obtuse from here on.
This scene was dragged on and unnecessary.The killer then makes her way for Trisha and ties her up.
She feels like someone is watching her walking, yet HANGS UP with her friend?!?
She assumes it's her boyfriend calling her cell phone all the times it's really the killer?
She looks at the phone screen a lot, yet doesn't know it's NOT him?!? |
tt0057985 | The Curse of the Living Corpse | In 1892 New England, Rufus Sinclair suffers from catalepsy and lives in fear of being pronounced dead and buried alive. To prevent this, he leaves detailed instructions to the family and his staff, but when he is found, his greedy family—eager to claim their inheritance—have him quickly interred. Rufus leaves specific instructions on how to be buried, which are violated and the family lawyer, while reading the will, lets them know they will die from what they fear most:
Bruce will have his face disfigured; the widow Abigail will die by fire; asthmatic and alcoholic son Philip will suffocate; Philip's frustrated wife Vivian will drown; faithful manservant Seth will "join me in my tomb"; and all-around-nice-guy nephew James will lose that which is most dear to him, his pretty wife Deborah.
Abigail reveals she left a diamond brooch on Rufus's coffin, Bruce, needing the money, and family maid and lover Lettie recover it, though Bruce is perturbed to find it on the floor. He leaves Lettie at the crypt against her wishes, saying they need to return separately—and she is beheaded by a masked killer—seemingly Rufus returned from the grave. He leaves the head to be discovered by Bruce and others on a dinner tray. Bruce vows to stop Rufus while forcing Vivian to help him.
Bruce is maimed in the face by the masked killer—who then drags him to his death behind a horse. Vivian reveals that Lettie was murdered; Seth tells the remaining family members that Bruce's corpse is at the stable. Phillip finds Abigail's diamond pin on Bruce's body, and Abigail runs away in tears. The family lawyer sends Robert into town for the police. Phillip is named the new family patriarch and vows to do his best. Abigail says she's glad Rufus is alive so he can pay for the two murders. Seth feels he's in the clear, until Phillip reminds Seth that he violated the terms of the will and is "one of them now."
The police arrive, and Phillip informs him that the family believes Rufus was buried alive. The lawyer agrees and says that Rufus will now be totally insane. Phillip and the rest of the family give the police Rufus's description, and the police vow to find him. After Abigail has a panic attack, Phillip stays with her on her request, but then ducks out to get a drink, which he shares with one of the policemen. They get drunk, and Phillip tells him that Abigail has a morbid fear of fire. The masked figure later enters Abigail's room, chloroforms her, binds her to the bed—and sets her aflame. The family is unable to save her. The men then search with dogs, leaving Vivian and Deborah at the house.
Seth enters the crypt, apologizing for failing in his task of lighting the torches. He attempts to do so, and is murdered when the figure pulls a sword from the cane, fulfilling the will's threat he would die in the crypt. Deborah convinces Vivian that they should dress up for Phillip and Robert. Phillip and Robert wander from the search party and Robert finds Seth's corpse.
The masked killer knocks out the policeman on guard and then strangles Vivian while she's bathing. Deborah walks in, and the masked killer drags her away to the bog. Robert chases after them. The killer is revealed to be Phillip, upset with his treatment by his father and the rest of the family, the forgotten child. Phillip says he did not wish to kill her, but must now. Robert arrives and the two fight. Robert gains the upper hand, and Phillip sinks into the bog—dying as the will foretold.
Robert and Deborah leave happily. The two policemen decide to share Phillip's remaining booze, while lamenting over his ability to commit all the murders. They discover that the alcohol was merely tea, and that Phillip was not an alcoholic at all, just playing one so he could get away with the crimes. | revenge | train | wikipedia | But despite the general cheesiness of the film and the very, very familiar plot (sort of like an "old dark house" style film), the overall effort is still fun and entertaining.
Once upon a time, The Curse of the Living Corpse was a staple of local free broadcast television horror and all-night movie slots.
I say spare the unneeded "comedy relief".The story is an old-school "Ten Little Indians" drawing-room who-dun-it, with mayhem stalking about the mansion and the nearby forest, while the style of the movie is updated (for 1964) Gothic.Roy Scheider is very good in his first outing and, though the film is not so much scary, it is gruesome to similar effect and may disturb sensitive viewers.A reasonable diversion for fans of indie horror..
While this film is by no means a thriller on par with anything Mario Bava directed or anything Edmond O'Brien starred in, it still is a pretty decent watch.
The acting is overdone, the comic relief (if one can call it that) is so pitiful that I was seriously hoping the Constable (the "funny" character) was the next beheaded.THe story surrounds a New England family of status and money.
That isn't to say that it looks completely realistic, but nonetheless at the time it must've caused quite a stir.The murderer is allegedly the dead father returned from the grave to revenge his disobedient family.
I won't spill the beans but you can probably guess the twist about a half and hour into the film.Roy Scheider makes his screen debut and chews the scenery with vigor.
This is done by killing each person in the manner that they fear most: mutilation of ones' face, drowning, fire, etc."The Curse of the Living Corpse" was written, produced and directed by Del Tenney, something of a cult figure even if he only made a handful of movies.
His tribute to the classic "old dark house" genre of black & white horror films is actually reasonably competent, although it must be said that it's mostly pretty lighthearted and fun stuff.
Tenney's screenplay won't bear much scrutiny, but in a fairly lightweight lark like this, that might not matter too much to the prospective viewer.The movie is very much noteworthy for being the screen debut for future star Roy Scheider, who gets the top billed role and who is obviously having fun.
This can also boast the only other film appearance for Candace Hilligoss, known to horror buffs as the star of "Carnival of Souls".The story comes complete with comedy relief cops played by Paul Haney and George Cotton, who supply us with the blatantly goofy ending.Nothing great but it is entertaining.Seven out of 10..
Has the patriarch of a turn-of-the-century New England family actually returned from the dead to start murdering his relatives, one by one?
Believe me, by the time you get to the end of this low-voltage horror film, you won't really care anymore.
Of interest only as the film debut of Roy Scheider, as well as the second movie appearance by "Carnival of Souls" star Candace Hilligoss..
This takes place in an indeterminate time period, with a glaring lack of modern technology, which adds to the gothic feel of the film.Candace Hilligoss from "Carnival Of Souls" is our heroine, which is another intriguing aspect of the movie.
Roy Scheider (billed with the middle initial R.) and Candace Hilligoss (post-"Carnival of Souls") are the only drawing cards of this cheap, somewhat atmospheric, but slow and sloggy thriller.
Initially, it appears to--complete with hat, cape, and cane in hand!--but what follows is pretty tired, even for the bargain-basement horror genre.
Curse of the Living Corpse, The (1964) * 1/2 (out of 4) Del Tenney directed "old dark house" film has a father dying and then someone coming back from the grave to kill off his children.
Best known today for featuring Roy Scheider in his film debut..
Del Tenney brought us that abysmal dreck Horror Of Party Beach.Curse Of The Living Corpse is the other part of the double feature.Surprisingly it is an above average thriller worth checking out.
Rufus Sinclair suffered from catalepsy.He also suffered from impacted rhoids cause he was a mean old cuss.He abused his entire family.Everyone lived in fear or hatred of the old man.
Anyway old Rufus has seemingly kicked the bucket(died that is).However in his will he had certain stipulations that had to be carried out just in case he was suffering from a catatonic fit.If these conditions weren't met he would return from the grave and kill his family in the ways they feared the most.
Of course the conditions weren't met.A member of the household staff winds up being beheaded and her head is served on a breakfast tray.The eldest Sinclair is dragged to death behind a horse,one is roasted alive in her bed, one is stabbed and another is drowned.Has old Rufus come back from the grave or is it somebody else?You'll be guessing until the end.
There is a lot to like about this film.It is never boring and is well directed (surprise) and the acting for the most part is top notch.I would have liked to seen the comedy relief dragged behind a horse to their deaths.The outdoor scenes are magnificent and the moody black and white photography is top notch.As a bonus there is also an amazing amount of skin in one scene(for 1963).
I found this B&W '63 drive-in genre movie rather difficult to assign a star rating because, today, it's clearly a CULT FILM and peoples' opinions are going to vary widely.Scheider, the only real star in this one, was subsequently type-cast, (especially by "Jaws"), and here, in what was surely a very early career entry, he plays a divergent role as the family drunk and weakling.The story, which takes place in 1898, is about a rotten and rich old patriarch who suffers from catalepsy and, following the pronouncement of his death by the oldest son who is a very cheesy and unethical doctor, the family hurriedly secures his casket in a mausoleum.
Since the old bugger was always terrified of being buried alive, in his will he had assigned each and every family member, as well as a trusted servant, a little task which would allow him to escape his tomb in case he might not really have died.
So, you pretty much KNOW, right off the bat, what's going to happen to these folks.About halfway through the film, a buffoon of a police inspector is called in to investigate the deaths that have transpired so far, and he's assisted by his equally inept constable.
These two also hang around the old mansion to make sure that there are no more murders, albeit they are not very successful in this endeavor.About the only bright figures among the family spore are a nephew and his pretty wife, both of whom the old man apparently liked somewhat -- but even these two are still under the testamentary threat just like the rest of the clan.
Still, the viewing audience at least has a couple of characters who are sympathetic to root for, which generates some additional subtle level of suspense.The murder-fare includes a chopped off head, some very nasty quicksand, and various other vehicles of horrific death.
sort of a Bela Lugosi 'Plan 9' look.The biggest actual problem with this film is that the director chose to make the horror/mystery facet serious, and the police activities as a tongue-in-cheek operation -- in this movie, the two concepts fail to mesh.
Also, Scheider is pretty convincing in his role which also aids in carrying the film.Finally, this flick really doesn't drag at any point which is an unexpected, but pleasant, surprise.
(Some Spoilers) Having a morbid fear of being buried alive due to his catalepsy old man Rufus Sinclair stipulated in his will that everything should be done by both his relatives and servants after his death to make sure that he's in fact really dead.
For some strange reason the movie "Curse of the Living Corpse" which should have ended right there and then just keeps going on until it's final and not so surprising ending.
Rufus, or whoever the masked and crazed killer is, goes not only after his family members but also his maid Litty Crews, Linda Donovan, who was not only excluded from his will but didn't do anything wrong, in his premature burial, to give him just cause to murder her.Dressed up like Zorro Rufus does in everyone in a way that they fear most by playing on their phobias; like fear of drowning suffocating and and fire.
In fact Rufus' intended last victim is, like the brutally murdered Litty, totally innocent of his wrath, in not following his instructions, his nephews Robert, Dino Narizzano, girlfriend Deborah, Candace Hilligoss.By then he truth is finally revealed to who's behind all these killings and it only a matter of time for the killer to get his just deserts, in what he fears the most,at the bottom of of a nearby bog on the Sinclair Estate.Some really grizzly murder scenes, that includes a decapitation, that matched anything released back in those days, 1964, like the shower scene in "Psycho" and the string of vicious and blood splattering dismemberment's in "Blood Feast" makes the film "Curse of the living Corpes" truly terrifying to watch.
Still the acting and direction is far above average for a low budget horror movie like "Curse of the Living Corpse" and it's that what makes the film more then worth while to sit through..
"The Curse of the Living Curse" is a decent enough but rather unspectacular affair.**SPOILERS**After a funeral procession, Bruce Sinclair, (Robert Mili) Abigail Sinclair, (Helen Warren) Phillip Sinclair, (Roy Scheider) Vivian Sinclair, (Margot Hartman) Seth Lucas, (J.
There's a brutal severed head, being dragged around over the ground tied to stampeding horses, thrown and sunk into a pit of quicksand, another is set on fire while trapped in a burning bed in the film's best scene, a sword in the neck and being drowned in a bathtub, which has a pretty sleazy air to it.
In general, whenever the film has a death or is setting it up, it's the best moment, and all combine to make the film really entertaining.The Bad News: This one here is overall decent and contains a couple flaws.
The goofy-looking killer's wardrobe is something, but it's not as bad as the other ones.The Final Verdict: While it isn't that bad as a cheap Gothic film, as anything else it isn't that spectacular and comes off as rather decent.
The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964) is a mediocre horror featuring a young Roy Scheider eleven years before, "You're gonna need a bigger boat." Roy's performance was the one strong point and sole reason I sat through this otherwise unremarkable film.
But they soon start getting creatively picked off one by one.You can see the twist ending coming from a mile away.With the plot holes, overacting and bad dialogue it misses the mark and falls some where between horror and dark comedy.
"The Curse of the Living Corpse" (1963) is probably director Del Tenney's best movie (faint praise indeed, with such competition as "The Horror of Party Beach" and "I Eat Your Skin", both 1964).
For those already familiar with the film, let's examine some of the details: since Roy Scheider is climactically revealed as the disguised killer, he could not be the corpse that awakens in the tomb while the lawyer is still reading the will; the gloved hand that locks the pretty blonde maid in the crypt would seem to be Scheider's, since the corpse is also locked in, and commits the film's first murder; after this, however, there is no evidence that the cowled killer is anyone but Scheider, yet there are no explanations as to the disappearance of the corpse, who is not found in the crypt when the maid's headless body is recovered and later dumped in the bog; if the secret passages included an unknown entrance to the crypt, then Scheider could have locked in the maid, returning via the hidden passage to kill her; after his brother is dragged to a violent death back to the stable, Scheider appears in the living room looking rested and relaxed; a drinking session with the idiot constable gives him the time to murder his fearful mother, but he sneaks in through the second floor window; lastly, Seth is murdered in the crypt despite the fact that all of the men are off on the manhunt; after Seth's murder, Scheider is clearly seen leaving the posse behind to return to the house for a final reckoning with the two remaining women.
As one of the previous comments points out, the film does not bear close scrutiny (except by those of us with too much time on our hands), but could have been a classic of the genre rather than just a minor "cult" item notable chiefly as the film debut of Roy Scheider.
That old horror movie cliché, the reading of a will, kicks off this gruesome slice of grand guignol, which is surprisingly nasty at times given its vintage.
The film opens with the interment of abusive tyrant Rufus Sinclair, much to the delight of his living relatives and staff, who are keen to lay their hands on the dead man's fortune.
Suffering from a malady that could give the appearance of death, Rufus's greatest fear was to be buried alive and so his will demands that each beneficiary take steps to ensure that this does not happen; if they violate his trust, they will not only be disinherited, but will be cursed by the supposedly dead man who threatens each with a violent end in a manner according to their worst fears.
A local police inspector and his inept constable investigate...With it's remote country building, hidden passageways and even a portrait with eye holes to spy through, Del Tenney's The Curse of the Living Corpse is chock full of tried and tested 'old dark house' tropes, but keeps things reasonably interesting with its graphic killings.
The best and bloodiest comes early on, with the discovery of a sexy blonde maid's severed head on a breakfast platter, but other mean-spirited moments include the face slashing of vain lothario Bruce (Robert Milli) who is dragged to death behind a horse, the burning of Rufus's widow Abigail (Helen Waren), and the drowning of Vivian Sinclair (Margot Hartman, the director's wife) as she takes a bath (the actress providing the film with some brief nudity).By no means great, but still worth a fair-to-middling 5.5/10 for the murders, which definitely help to make this otherwise routine gothic chiller more memorableN.B. The big screen debut of Roy Scheider, who plays drunken Philip Sinclair..
Yes, this is the typical "Old Dark House" premise where the deceased head of the family vows to come back to get them if his post-mortum requests are not honored.If you were a fan of the early years of "All My Children", you will be shocked to see the elegant Hugh Franklin (Dr. Charles Tyler) as the family lawyer, joined here by Robert Milli (who played Lars Bogard in the early 80's) as the elegant but self-centered elder son who only has his own interests at heart.
Indelible images, all.Of course, over time, slasher and gore films have desensitized movie-goers to the point that scares are much harder to come by today.
I'd love to watch "Curse of the Living Corpse" again and relive the birth of my love of horror flicks!.
Soon after it is discovered that the old man's body is no longer in its resting place and the forewarned deaths begin happening.
The cast features the debut of a young Roy Schieder; other players include: Candace Hilligoss, Helen Warren, Hugh Franklin, Paul Haney and Robert Milli..
Even Roy Scheider (in his first movie) and Candace Hilligoss (from "Carnival of Souls") are lousy.
One dies because he feared of a scarred face(the killer, if it is the dead father, uses a hidden sword within the cane he always carried around to let everyone know he was drawing near), is slashed in said face, & dragged by the murderer on a horse until dead, another feared death by drowning and is submersed underwater by the killer until dead, another has a great fear of fire and the killer sets her aflame, etc, etc..
I really don't know if there's anything to recommend regarding "The Curse of the Living Corpse" for it's essentially a killer doing in relatives one by one, but the murders aren't that well staged and the characters are portrayed by the cast so badly you might be looking at your watches far before it's over.
It might be of interest for fans of Roy Scheider since this is his film debut, though if he comes off rather unlikable..he portrays the second son whose a worthless, aggressive, confrontational, alcoholic jerk often causing verbal jousts with his relatives.
And, of course, a mystery killer starts bumping folks off in assorted horrible ways.Writer/director Del Tenney offers a flavorsome gloom-doom period atmosphere, presents a colorful array of despicable characters, generates a reasonable amount of suspense, and delivers several moments of brutal violence that are quite harsh and sadistic for a film made and released in the mid-1960's.
Moreover, it's acted with scenery-gnashing theatrical aplomb by a game cast: Roy Scheider really hams it up in his film debut as pathetic drunk Philip, Robert Malli contributes a deliciously hateful turn as arrogant jerk Bruce, Margot Hartman likewise registers well as the snarky Vivian, and Candace Hilligoss makes a favorable impression as the sweet Deborah.
Atmospheric, but fairly moronic horror chiller; only notable for Roy Schieder's film debut.
(Relatives of a family gather around a creepy old house for the revealing of a will, but they end up disappointed with the outcome.
It's black and white, so it certainly has some atmospheric scenes, along with decent suspense, but idiotic characters, and a disappointing ending which is out of left field did it in. |
tt0211174 | Up, Up, and Away! | Scott Marshall (Michael J. Pagan) comes from a family of superheroes. His father, Bronze Eagle (Robert Townsend), has the gift of flight. His mother, Warrior Woman (Alex Datcher), has the power of super strength and superior hand-to-hand combat skills. His brother, Silver Charge, is gifted with super speed, electrical and magnetism manipulation. His little sister, Molly (Arreale Davis), has both x-ray and heat vision. His grandfather, Steel Condor (Sherman Hemsley), has super strength, invulnerability and flight (though at his old age, he flies slower than cars), and has an ongoing feud with Superman. His grandmother, Doris (Joan Pringle), has the ability to morph. Unfortunately, Scott lacks powers and if none appear before his 14th birthday, he's normal for life. The Marshalls all share the same "superhero weakness", which is aluminum foil.
An activist group known as "Earth Protectors" have been giving out CDs about the environment to Scott's classmates. The programmer, Nina (Olivia Burnette), wants to use them to educate, but her partner, Malcolm (Kevin Connolly), has greedy plans for the program. When a bank robbery fails, he realizes the program only work on kids; he experiments, giving the kids chocolate cravings, making them all wear blue, etc. After Scott loses track of time due to being mesmerized by the CD, Jim gets suspicious about Earth Protectors; he takes Adam to the bank to search for the Earth Protectors program. Unfortunately, Adam overloads the computer, frying the system. Scott pretends to have super strength and flight powers, so as not to disappoint his parents; his grandfather learns the truth, deciding to support him. Malcolm decides to use Nina as a Damsel in Distress for a win-win plan; he'll capture the heroes in the way of his plans, or simply be rid of Nina. Ironically, this occurs on Scott's birthday; his parents and the guests decide to let Scott try saving her. However, both almost die until Jim saves them, having been told the truth by his father.
Scott loses his mask, which Malcolm matches to him; he visits Scott's school, using an improved CD to force him to reveal everything about his family. He then has a new CD given to Scott, telling the teacher that all the children's parents have to watch that night's lesson. Unfortunately, Scott accidentally switches CDs with a girl named Amy (Jamie Renée Smith); as result, her mother (Nancy Sorel) subconsciously robs a bank and goes to Earth Protectors' HQ. They use her as bait lure the heroes, and capture them with foil. Scott, along with Amy and his best friend, Randy (Chris Marquette), head to the warehouse to save his family from being brainwashed by Malcolm. They are helped by Nina, who has realized Malcolm's intentions; before they can alter the program, Malcolm's goons capture them. Less than a second remaining before his family is permanently reprogrammed, Scott smashes the main computer with a soccer ball.
Silver Charge uses his powers to (literally) burn away their memories of the heroes' identities. Amy admits she likes Scott and asks him to a dance, but Adam erases her memories of everything that happened. Scott's parents decide to let Randy keep his memories as Scott needs a friend to talk to about his life. When it comes time to pick a soccer team captain, Amy and Scott pick the other, resulting in them being co-captains. Randy asks about heroes, learning that the Green Hornet was one of Scott's birthday guests. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0365960 | Zero Day | The film begins with the introduction of Andre Kriegman (based primarily on Eric Harris) and Calvin Gabriel (based primarily on Dylan Klebold) announcing their intention to attack their high school, calling their plan "Zero Day". They keep a video diary on the camera, carefully hiding it from their friends and families. The majority of the film is portrayed through their video filming, and shows them planning, preparing, and explaining some of their motives.
Other scenes show the two attending Andre's birthday party, egging the house of someone they dislike, and Cal going to the prom while Andre works at a pizza place. In one video entry, Cal notes the origin of the name "Zero Day": Cal and Andre originally planned to attack on the first day on which the temperature dropped to zero degrees after they had finished their preparations. This plan soon proved impractical, and they set May 1, 2001 as the new date. Wanting their attack to have a memorable name, they agreed to keep the original title.
The second to last scene of the movie show the boys arriving at school on May 1 and preparing their plan and weapons in Andre's car. Andre says that he could never have carried out Zero Day without Cal's help, a sentiment Cal echoes. They run into the school, armed with three pistols, an M1 carbine, and a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, all stolen from Andre's father and cousin. The shooting is shown through the viewpoint of security cameras very similar to Columbine High School massacre's view. The dialogue is heard via the cellphone of a student who is shot and killed. Shooting at anyone they see, Andre and Cal eventually see law enforcement arriving in force after sixteen minutes of shooting. After arguing over whether to engage the police in gunfire, the pair decide to count to three and shoot themselves.
The next scene is set on May 10, nine days after the shooting. A group of youths film themselves going to a park where memorial crosses are standing. They say that Andre and Cal killed twelve students and themselves. Finding crosses for the pair, they set them on fire and run back to their cars. The last scene shows the two crosses burning. | violence, revenge, cruelty, murder, sadist | train | wikipedia | The film was clearly following the basic outline of what happened at Columbine High School of April of 1999, but what struck me was how believable the two lead actors were.
I think what most people will find disturbing is they will actually have feelings for the two lead characters, Calvin and Andre (Played by Cal Robertson and Andre Keuck).
A week after seeing this film, I still think about it.Those of you who have not seen Zero Day please keep in mind the following: The film is an independent with little to no budget and the film is shot on camcorders.
Basically the blame is about Coccio doing an easy and overplayed social message...well, Mr-I'm-a-reviewer, it's an easy and overplayed critic of movies with a social charge.Not that I want to expose my life here, but I come from a small town with a similar school than these guys go.
Through the movie you are shown how the actors illegally shortened shot guns, made pipe bombs and came up with an action plan for "Zero Day".
As they begin the deadly countdown to their final act of revenge, the two start a video diary to explain their feelings and chronicle their mission.There is another similar movie like this, called "Elephant." Why do I bring this up?
Well, for starters, this is shot differently, much along the lines of "Cloverfield," "Blair Witch Project," and "Diary of the Dead." This makes the movie all the better because it's much more painfully realistic.But what won me over was how the movie was willing to show the "other side of the story." You get to know these two shooters, unlike "Elephant." I actually cared for one of the shooters and could understand their actions and why they did what they did.
I believe everyone has a right to do what they want with art, to a degree, my only issue with the movie it that it could be viewed for the wrong reasons, But it also may answer some questions for people interested in these kind of situations, and the moments leading up to them.
in the videos they make it mentions the bullying that happens to them and how people said stuff about there clothes and the things you are into I'm not saying its right but many people do do things like that.and also the thing is with this people are suspected to like it because of the sensitive topic they have chosen on this film.so thats my review on zero day.and lets just say the end shooting scene is messed up..
The thing about this movie that really got me shocked was the way they spoke, even tought they where about to go in to there own high school and kill young ppl, they was still acting like all other ppl, u know, they went to parties, made jokes to each other, was lauingh, u know you having a good time..But seriously, i can't explain the movie it's just so damn good.
Not only is this the best movie of its kind(school shooting)The way Ben Coccio(the director) decided to film it was magnificent.
What is most disturbing about this film is not that school killing sprees like the one depicted actually happen, but that the truth is they are carried out by teenagers like Cal and Andre...normal kids with normal families.
By using a hand held camera technique a la Blair Witch, Ben Coccio succeeds in bringing us into the lives of two friends who have some issues with high school, although we aren't ever told exactly what is behind those issues.
It does feel like actual footage, rather than an edited mocumentary (for the latter see "Grave Encounters").Unfortunately, the scenes where the killings take place, is only about 2% of the movie (about 5 minutes or something).
That was the only thing I didn't like in this film.I saw another documentary based on the Columbine massacre -- the guys' interactions with the victims were documented, and the killings were very graphic.
The film really feels real, the actors are superb, and the camera work is good (not annoying, like in "Blair Which" or "Cloverfield").All in all, I'd say it's definitely one of the best in this genre..
While I don't endorse any behavior like this, or the actions perpetrated in the film (and it is not the director's intent to glorify it in any way), the point of view offered reminds us that the perpetrators of these acts are still human.
That's what makes this movie so genuinely different from the likes of "Bowling for Columbine" or other documentaries about school shootings.
Thanks to the style the movie was shot in it feels very authentic and makes it very suspensefulIf you clearly notice the small hints in this film, it is not hard to realize the criticism it gives about societyPretty good acting-> watch the movie, it's awesome.
This was a necessity for the film, Zero Day, which gives an in depth look at the psyche of two school shooters.
It was like actually being able to watch the video diaries of the Columbine shooters, expressing their feelings, and explaining their actions, prior to that tragic day.
Zero Day is heavily inspired by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the middle-class Colorado teenagers who committed the Columbine High School massacre, probably the most infamous high school shooting in US history.The attack was the result of two damaged people becoming friends and progressively normalising each other's warped world views.
The pair seemed to be a dichotomy, however they were completely drawn to each other; the film shows that the murderers of both Columbine and Zero Day were empowered by their friendship, they fuelled each other's emerging superiority complexes and nihilism until they felt ready and even obliged to execute their shocking crimes.I remember reading a lot about Columbine in my mid-teens, Harris and Klebold's ages of 18 and 17 respectively seemed distant to me at the time, it is only now having long passed those ages that I realise just how young they were to have developed such morbid, poisonous psychology and then do what they did.Harris and Klebold's contrasting personality traits can be clearly seen in the lead characters, Andre Kriegman (Andre Keuk) being Harris and Calvin Gabriel (Cal Robertson) being Klebold.
The film, which has a mockumentary format, begins with the pair setting up their camcorder and standing outside of their high school, irreverently introducing to the viewer both themselves and their 'big ass mission' called 'Zero Day'.
This home movie realism is complimented by Keuk and Robertson's great performances, they responded very well to director Ben Coccio's encouragement to improvise – they're completely natural.Andre has delusions of grandeur, he envisions Zero Day as some sort of Armageddon.
This self-importance was apparent too in the Columbine killers, Eric Harris smugly remarked – 'It'll be like the LA riots, the Oklahoma bombing, WWII, Vietnam, Duke (Nukem) and Doom all mixed together
I want to leave a lasting impression on the world." They aimed to not only shoot many people but also kill hundreds with bombs they planted in the school's cafeteria, thankfully the rudimentary home made devices failed to detonate.Andre, like Harris, is the clear ringleader of the pair.
Again, much like Harris and Klebold, Andre and Calvin aren't abject loners, they have other friends, although perhaps superficial ones, and they're invited to a party early in the film, however Calvin finds socialising difficult – 'I'm just not good at parties.' It is most likely their inability to integrate with other people in a meaningful way that is their chief source of anger.Despite this, there are moments that occur outside of their toxic 'campaign'.
I have seen the film numerous times with other people and its last scene always creates an uneasy silence.Zero Day's greatest merit is that it's never heavy handed, it doesn't contrive a clear, simple answer to why massacres such as Columbine occur.
It is hands down the best way to make a low budget movie and it also makes the movie feel so intensely real as long as you get good enough actors which this movie definitely did.
The story line is dark and very exciting the whole way through.This movie is about a bunch of tapes who were filmed by two boys who were planning a school shooting.
They weren't stupid, they were just in high school which is one of the most socially difficult place a person could be put.Zero Day is a camcorder movie.
They weren't stupid, they were just in high school which is one of the most socially difficult place a person could be put.Zero Day is a camcorder movie.
I think Joseph Cambell stated it best, in reference to watching this movie, any religion (story) works, but only from within the confines of its origination.In addition, I think the film won the jury award at the festival that year, so obvously someone must have liked it..
The constant rhetoric of how violent video games are not to blame (I get the impression Ben Coccio is an avid gamer), or how media and music is completely devoid of influence is the obvious message (we even get a laughable scene of the two boys burning ALL their cd's, talk about subtlety!), but the movie only gets away with it because its 'fiction'.
Of course I don't think kids that play video games are more likely to kill people, but if I'm not mistaken, didn't video tape exist of the Columbine kids (or some teen killers) shooting guns in the forest claiming how much they looked or acted like the weaponry in Doom?
Zero Day is a bad movie not because I really believe a correlation exists, but because the film maker doesn't know what hes trying to say, and the movie does more to disprove his point then support it.
Obviously, not everyone had the same reaction to the movie, but at the very least, don't have a big meal just before you watch it.The young actors were very good, and the documentary feel worked for me; I just couldn't stand to look at it..
Presented as a series of video recordings made by the two troubled men (I cannot refer to persons who kill as boys or teens), the months of preparation leading to zero day (the codename for the day on which they will attack) the film tries to present the situation from the opposite end of the gun.
It was extremely realistic which grabbed me the most, but I just hated the kid's personalities, they didn't know how to finish their sentences and although they talked like they were organized, it didn't really appear so as the movie kept going.
You may hate them, you may claim to understand them and feel as though you can relate, but regardless this movie will make you think about school shootings from a different perspective.The movie is shot entirely using a hand-held camera, something that I think works quite well as it makes it more realistic.
It is told completely from the killers point of view, from their "missions" to family outings, all leading up the big day "Zero Day" in which they are planning on a massacre at their school.
They are shown to be surprisingly normal, typical teenage boys leading ordinary lives, and if we didn't know what they were planning we wouldn't expect a thing (They make it clear throughout the whole movie that no-one else knows about their plan)The acting is extremely good considering the two actors are complete unknowns.
It is very realistic and well-done, and it is very difficult to watch.All in all Zero Day is an excellent movie, and I think everyone should at least check it out.
In the past, we have always simply branded killers "psychopaths" and assumed that either they were biologically wired for disaster or had media influence, but as Zero Day shows sometimes the motives are deeper than that, and we can never truly understand why tragedies such as school shootings happen until we have seen it from the perspective of the killers..
Charting the lives of two friends Andre and Cal leading up to an attack on their high school.
Cal and Andre talk constantly about how much they are on a different level, how above the rest of us they are and how they will 'leave us all behind.' Like the columbine killers they truly feel superior.
We do not want to relate to them, when it is over and Cal is back with Andre silently preparing one of their final videos we like the characters feel once again at ease safe in the fantasy world they created.
It is violent and real, our heroes have become monsters and the reality of their fantasy is a terrible tragedy, which costs them everything.The final scene shows a group of teens filming themselves burning the crosses erected for Andre and cal in disgust that they have been memorialised.
Having known Andre and Cal we can only feel almost a sadness that they are actually gone forever and that they certainly did not win anything.Zero day is a must see for anyone interested in these violent acts sensationalised by the media.
The mainstream media spins and spins but Ben Coccio looks school shootings right in the face, able to go where no other form of media has EVER gone before, into the minds and hearts of two young men planning to kill their classmates.
If it would have had a single preview on a single blockbuster movie, everyone would have gone to see what the big deal was about, Zero Day.I believe this is the best film adaptation of a school shooting of the few that have truly attempted it.
The shooting itself only takes up about ten minutes of the hour and a half long film, because It mostly focuses on Cal and Andre, and what they did up to that point.If you have not yet seen this movie, go rent it, and watch it.
My opinion on Zero day the movie and how it relates to Columbine..
It makes you realise the true horror of shootings- especially if you were to know that person, and this movie makes you feel like you know these people.I recommend Zero Hour to those who feel they are mature enough to watch it.
Shot on video almost totally from the teen's perspectives "Zero Day" feels very real and authentic, like you are right there.
The two lead actors are awesome, the film isn't ever boring, and the concept behind it (though obviously inspired by the Columbine killings and the home movies of the killers) is really interesting.
The acting was amazing, after I finished watching the movie I had to go and check that those weren't the actual tapes left by the perpetrators of a school shooting.
In the last scene when a group of kids go to the crosses by the school and they get to the ones of Andre and Calvin and then light them on fire, spit on them, write things on them, even though you've see all they did you still feel like they didn't deserve it.
"Zero Day" is a very different and unique kind of movie, and that's a good thing.
It's a found footage film, like "Blair Witch Project" and "Cloverfield", but rather than telling the story of three teens lost in the woods or a group of friends running through the city while a monster is attacking it, it is about two boys that plan to do a school shooting, very similar to "Elephant" which came out the same year, and I'm assuming "Zero Day" was inspired off of "Elephant", but Zero Day is still fun to watch.
You see Cal talk to his brother while camping with his family, and he seems like a likeable guy, and you want him to live a long and great life, but then you realize he is about to shoot-up his high school with his crazed and anger induced friend.
With an inspiration from the Columbine shooting this movie makes me wonder a lot of things.
The film was excellent, although it was hard to watch with the shooting and of course, the boys admitting by video that they have pretty crappy lives.
Zero day is basically what would happen if Eric and Dylan (the boys who caused the Columbine High School Massacre) videotaped themselves in preperation.
But if I didn't know what Eric and Dylan looked like, the film didn't show end credits, and they just told me this is what they shot before the shooting, I may have believed them.Most of the movie is these two kids preparing for the day of the shooting.
This film is so much more than that.Yes, it runs along the same road that the Columbine shooters took.However, this movie is not about the shooting itself; it's about the ten or eleven months of planning that Andre and Cal (the perpetrators) did.The thing I liked about this film was that most of it was done with a cam-corder, and it really seemed like home videos (a lot of the segments were based off the infamous Basement Tapes).
It's very violent and graphic, and if you can't handle those types of movies, this is not the film for you.Like the guys from Columbine High School, Cal and Andre kill themselves, but the movie isn't all about that, it's about what happened before, and the planning that went on.
Andre and Cal seem like such normal kids in the scenes involving parents and relatives, and it shows how blind we can be sometimes.It truly is the "One Great Columbine Film"..
As part of what I call the 'Columbine Trilogy' (along with 'Home Room' and 'Elephant', 'Zero Day' presents us with the perspective we sadly need to hear if we really want to prevent future school shootings, Eric and Dylan's.In this case of this movie, we have Andre and Calvin's. |
tt0021048 | The Lash | When Francisco Delfino (Richard Barthelmess) goes off to study for four years at a university in Mexico, his home in California is a part of Mexico. By the time he returns (around 1850), however, California in the hands of the United States. He finds his family living in fear and the family estate is in shambles. Although the land deeds granted by the Spanish throne are supposed to be recognized by the U.S. government as proof of ownership, some unscrupulous California land commissioners are attempting to cheat the landowners.
Delfino becomes embroiled in an argument with a Federal official, Peter Harkness (Fred Kohler). When Delfino shows an interest in Rosita (Mary Astor), a girl that Harkness regards as his girlfriend, Delfino is tied up and lashed across the face. He is only saved from further assault by the sheriff, David Howard (James Rennie).
Delfino embarks on a career of Robin Hood-style banditry to avenge the brutal treatment of the Spanish and Mexican settlers, and there is soon a price on his head. Now close friends with Delfino, Howard has fallen in love with his sister, Dolores (Marian Nixon). When their father is shot, Delfino avenges his murder. He delivers the deed to his family's property to Howard, who allows him time to escape to Mexico — where Rosita promises to meet him. | revenge, murder, melodrama | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0108911 | Bishôjo senshi Sêrâ Mûn S | An extraterrestrial entity named Princess Snow Kaguya (プリンセス・スノー・カグヤ, Purinsesu Sunō Kaguya) arrives on Earth in an attempt to freeze it, but a fragment of her comet has been lost and she is unable to proceed without it. She has her henchwomen, the Snow Dancers, search for the missing fragment. In Tokyo, a young astronomer named Kakeru Ōzora (宇宙 翔, Ōzora Kakeru) finds the fragment and keeps it in his observatory to study it further.
Meanwhile, the Sailor Guardians are enjoying a day in the Juban Shopping District. Luna falls ill and decides to go back to Usagi's house. Along the way, she collapses while crossing the road, and is almost hit by a car, but is rescued and nursed to health by Kakeru. Luna then develops strong romantic feelings for him, even kissing him on the cheek in his sleep, leaving Artemis devastated. Luna herself ends up with unrequited love because it is revealed that Kakeru himself has a girlfriend, an astronaut named Himeko Nayotake (名夜竹 姫子, Nayotake Himeko), and more importantly, because Luna is a cat. The two are devastated because Himeko is oblivious to Kakeru's belief of Princess Kaguya's existence. Later, after finding herself unable to reconcile her differences with Kakeru, Himeko leaves on a space mission.
The fragment of the comet attaches itself to his life force, and begins slowly stealing his life-force energy, causing him to become very ill. Kaguya later steals the shard, but because it is linked to his life-force, he is brought even closer to death when Kaguya throws the shard into the ocean and creates an enormous ice crystal that will continue to draw away Kakeru's life force energy completely. She and her Snow Dancers then begin freezing the entire Earth. The Sailor Guardians attempt to stop her, but every time they kill the Snow Dancers, Kaguya keeps reviving them using the crystal. Just before Kaguya could kill the soldiers, Usagi tries to stop her and uses the Holy Grail to transform into Super Sailor Moon. She uses her Rainbow Moon Heartache attack but is easily overpowered by Kaguya's strength and power. Determined to protect the Earth, Usagi prepares to activate the Legendary Silver Crystal's immense energy and power. The eight Sailor Guardians, along with Chibiusa, combine their powers and abilities all at once to activate the Legendary Silver Crystal, and it hits Kaguya head-on. The Silver Crystal's power also destroys Kaguya's Snow Dancers, the ice crystal in the ocean, as well as her comet.
With peace once again returned to the Earth, Usagi wishes for Luna to become Princess Kaguya. Concerned about Himeko's safety, Kakeru wanders in the snowstorm and is saved by Luna at the exact point Kakeru saved her, transformed into a beautiful human woman. She takes him near the moon, where Himeko, on her space mission, witnesses the phenomenon and realizes that Princess Kaguya is real. Luna tells him that he needs to start focusing on his relationship with Himeko, and the two kiss. After returning to the Earth, Kakeru takes up Luna's advice and meets Himeko at the airport, where the two reconcile. Artemis meets up with Luna and the cats reconcile. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | Unlike so many long term animes that get the first season right then go downhill, Sailor Moon only gets better and better with each passing episode and the story only becomes stronger.It's really ashame how many people pass this off as some second rate anime to be shunned.
With all three movies and most of the series, it wasn't a bad break.As for Sailor Stars, I've read the saga and I've seen some of the important events and can honestly say that it's a darn shame that it'll probably never see the light of day in the US.I'm not going to even get into the Sub VS Dub debate, just about every early translated anime has the same argument over and over again.
Makes for a good watch, especially for seasoned Sailor Moon fans that want to find out what will happen.Obviously, if you've never enjoyed Shoujo before, you may not enjoy this one.
This is the best series in Sailor Moon, with Sailor Stars in a close second, Classic third, and SuperS and Return last.
Luna senses that the 14 year-old girl is the soldier of love and justice and offers Usagi a special broach that allows her to transform into Sailor Moon!
The storyline may seem a bit repetitive at times (with the Dark Kingdom's main goal is to steal energy at first, then get their hands on the elusive Ginzuishou), but get rid of the filler episodes, and you get an amazing epic of the moon princess and her soldiers being reborn on Earth after a disaster had befallen on the Moon Kingdom over a millenium ago.Besides Sailor Moon, the other four sailor senshi make their grand entrances as well as Tuxedo Kamen, a rather two-dimensional character who saves Sailor Moon in times of crises by throwing his trademark rose at his enemies.
The music is certainly worth listening to as it captures the clumsiness of Usagi at first to its seriousness and beauty of her becoming a soldier of love.The animation may seem a bit subpar at times but that has improved in later seasons.
One of the many trademarks of this series is its impressive attack and transformation sequences that are really just pleasureable to watch and admire.If you have only seen the dubbed version of this series, I suggest you find a way of getting the original episodes, subtitled.
Bishôjo senshi Sailor Moon can appeal to many kinds of people-Preteen girls,preteen boys,teen girls,teen boys,adults,perverted men(and women).Bishôjo senshi Sailor Moon is the Japanese(real) title to the series.In America it's just simply called Sailor Moon.The American version is edited and dubbed so it's "suitable for all ages".While the Japanese version is probably for ages 13 and up.I can't fully disapprove of the American version since that's what got me into the series,but the real version is so much better.I'm not going to list all of the changes in the American version since there are so many,but I'll list a few major changes.Bishôjo senshi Sailor Moon shows death,violence,male and female homosexuality,etc.Sailor Moon basically cuts or gets rid of the death scenes and episodes where the main topic is about death are never really shown.Most violence is edited out completely,and gay characters either get gender changes(this refers to the males) or are labeled cousins(this refers to the two lesbian Sailor Scouts who are a couple).The American voice dubs are sort of annonying.Though despite all these changes in the American version it is still mildly entertaining.Amazon.com sells both English dubbed(kiddie version) and English subtitled(real version).So everyone can be happy!.
We are also introduced to the Sailor Starlights.This season is a good conclusion, and in the end we learn about Chaos(evil energy) and Cosmos(good energy)However, I feel that the series shouldn't have focused so much on the starlights and their gender-changing wasn't necessary.Plot:8/10 Characters:7/10 Screenplay:8/10 Music:9/10 Presentation:8/10 Action:7/10 OVERALL:8/10The verdict?
The start of the season (the first 6 episodes), is actually the ending of the previous season Sailor Moon SuperS.
If you have not seen the previous season it is still watchable, although you will be missing some important story elements.Like all of the Sailor Moon story, this one is also a moving (as in constantly building) storyline that adds a little more detail and builds to a stunning conclusion on the 200th and final episode.
Any person who is seriously interested in watching this series should consider viewing the rest of the series before watching this (or at least watch Sailor Moon SuperS), so that important plot elements and details are understood.The final 6 episodes to the season (episodes 194-200) are truly fantastic and provide an excellent ending to the series.
The ending is just that good.The series attracts fans due to the complex storyline and also the way it is presented to the viewer, revealing a little piece of the larger story per episode.
Sailor Moon....the Anime series that changed my life.
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon is perhaps one of the most successful anime ever, and now that Sailor Moon has turned 10 (it started in 1992), it is often refered to as a classic, but it hasn't been decided if there will be a new Sailor Moon series.Anyways, Sailor Moon S (note: I'm only referring to the anime, not the manga) has the most dramatic plot, screenplay, and action, making it highly addictive.
They also are in search for the Messiah who is also believed to stop this oncoming Silence.However, what makes this season especially memorable is the difference in fighting style and ideas the new senshi have compared to Sailor Moon's.
The climactic episodes with the Holy Grail and the transformation of SuperSailorMoon are definitely high-points displaying Sailor Moon's maturity.The second half of this season focuses on the relationship between Chibiusa and a mysterious girl, Hotaru.
so like all the others out there, the was an issue with the 2nd disc, mainly episode 80 where the video craps out, well fear not as they have since fixed that issue in this box set and if you buy the December release of this item you will get the corrected box set, just watched the episode on both DVD and bluray sub and dubbed and nothing is wrong with it, now for the series in itself this is sailor moon R part 2 of season 2, or as some would say the dark moon ark, this is NOT THE DIC DUB so serena is not her name it is her real name of usagi, its wonderful that vis media has obtained the rights to all 200 episodes and from what I hear the 3 movies and a few sub plot episodes as well, the season is much more accurately dubbed in English and the Japanese subs are much more accurate to what is actually being said, if your a fan of sailor moon or grew up with the really bad DIC dubs I highly recommend getting this as this is an awesome bluray set and a wonderful treat for fans young and old, cant wait for the season 3 arc where we get the fan favorite outer senshi, and the infinity arc from the manga, anyone would be a fool to not add this plus the last 3 sets to there collection, the DIC dubs have there charm but this redub is so much better as the plot is much more closer to the series as a whole and fits better with the last 3 seasons.
Sailor Pluto also makes an debut in this season.Several months earlier prior to this review, I made a review about the first season: It was a great classic within the world of magical-girl-anime.
The first arc in this season is basically a filler arc, but the Black Moon arc is pretty interesting.As I have watched the Japanese version of this anime, the eye-catch which shows the Sailor Senshi as Chibis (short humans) is simply my favorite sequence, by the overall eye-catches shown throughout the entire "Sailor Moon" franchise.
For those who don't know what an eye-catch is, it is simply a short sequence made for a commercial break.Dali's epic song "Moonlight Densetsu", which was played in the first season, also serves as the theme song for the second season.Conclusion: If you like watching anime made in the 90s, as well as anime dealing with magical girls, then this one may be a good choice for you.
The first part of this series continues with the Nehelenia storyline (though I really think I have seen enough of this story), but this arc is essential for the second part and provides a good transition between the SuperS season and the introduction of the evil god-like Sailor Senshi of the galaxy, Galaxia.Many fans of the Outer Senshi would be glad to hear that Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and even Saturn make their appearances, and this time, they help the Inner Senshi and Sailor Moon in their battles.The latter half of the season introduces the new Sailor Senshi: the Sailor Starlights.
Some of the main topics, however, are especially repetitive and used in previous seasons: the arrival of new Sailor Senshi and whether Sailor Moon can trust them, the search for true Star Seeds is similar to previous years when enemies searched for Talismans, or the Golden dream mirror.I suggest that everyone who hasn't seen this series should start watching the first episode of Sailor Stars, and not the final episode (as most people did).
:)But anyhow...what I found more interesting is that Sailor Moon Supers is more amusing than the regular series I used to know and love.
Actually, you can get to like it after a while, especially the normal and long (when all the Sailor Senshi transform at the same time)Moon Cosmic Power music..
Sailor Moon SuperS has got to be one of worst seasons I have ever seen of an anime.
Most of the episodes are sappy filler, moving no plot along typically consisting of an enemy only to give the Sailor Senshi a chance to transform and use their flashy attacks (One enemy just got around to attacking and was destroyed immediately).The ending has an arc to the next season Stars, but alone is unsatisfying and rediculously sappy as well.PS, for any of you who thought that Chibimoon would get any more useful, you were wrong.
And the show is very enjoyable to watch most of the time (with the notable exception of Sailor Moon SuperS, which is mainly a result of the focus on Chibi-Usa instead of Usagi, Chibi-Usa isn't a terrible character but she just isn't as compelling and interesting as Usagi.) But even that season has its moments.So, to conclude, while the show isn't the flawless masterpiece as its biggest fans claim(and calling it the best show ever is quite overboard), it's also not the brainless bimbo-fest it's biggest detractors make it out to be either.It's a good show, but far from perfect.
I preordered this back in July the day it was announced at the official Sailor Moon panel at Anime Expo and got a special screening of the English episodes "The Rod of Love is Born!
I mean, I live that Pioneer used the original cover art and that they had English Subtitles for the Japanese voices, BUT they completed omitted the first and second opening songs and only used the third one throughout, spoiling Hotaru Tomoe's appearance much earlier in the series as well as hinting Super Sailor Moon is the messiah (she flies with butterflies and purges the dark clouds making way for light to come through).
We actually got to see some developing character drama/arcs which kept the season interesting, made the characters actually feel more human at times I easily forget I'm watching animated characters but most importantly actually made me care deeply it really felt like what happened to them mattered.
I actually did like Chibi USA's character arc part of it in a way predates "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith" and the "Dark Emma arc" on Season 5 of "Once Upon a Time" thought truth be told the arc on this show I thought was much better as it was more focused; we see how Chibi USA has great aspirations/ambitions but isn't' immune to dark influences much as Anakin Skywalker getting seduced by the dark side of the force.
"Sailor Moon" is simply a cute show which has nice and colorful animation, as well as humor, action and romance.Nice to see how the epic relationship between Usagi and Mamoru Chiba is building up over the course of this season.
The pretty expensive set I have was originally made as a part of the Japanese 20th anniversary celebration.Do you like watching anime consisting of magical girls, but yet not having watched "Sailor Moon", then this one is definitely for you.
^_^ If you are a beginer to Sailor Moon, start with the first season and skip this season!!!!!How it could be improved: - There should be more Outer Senchi involvment - The story line could be improvedThis season was so horrible, that it ALMOST had flop ratings, but the previous season, had Super Hit ratings.~_~(what a waste)The good points of this season: - The music - The movie - The games - The products - Every thing but the actual season.
I DO like this series but I feel it is the least best of the five sailor moon seasons.
Even though Nehelenia and Zirconia are not that interesting, the main henchmen (the Amazon Trio & the Amazonness Quartet) are decently fleshed out, and become sympathetic characters by the time their "Stage Out" comes along.So, even though Super S isn't the best, it's still worth watching if you like to see a lot of cute moments interspersed with the standard SM action, romance, and love/friendship celebrating that we've come to know and love.
The first arc with Ann and Ail is a good transition from the first season to the original storyline which involves the future of Tokyo, though the story with Ann and Ail may be a bit repetitive at times with the use of the same plot: the search for precious energy.The second part of the Sailor Moon R story introduces a small pink-haired girl closely resembling Usagi.
But of course like most other people of my generation I watched the localized English dub that removed all the references to Japanese culture, sexuality, violent content and scenes that I don't even think needed to be removed in the first place but if it wasn't for the English dub I would have never discovered the original uncut Japanese version years later which in my opinion is much better.Anyone who is an anime fan should know the story of "Sailor Moon".
Along the way she forms new friendships and alliances with new Sailor Senshi (Sailor Soldier when translated) named after the inner and outer planets of our solar system and a mysterious figure called Tuxedo Kamen (Tuxedo Mask when translated.) Sounds very cliché and formulaic when you think about it but at the time this was very groundbreaking for anime because it was a merging of Magical Girl and Superhero genres.The first season of "Sailor Moon" is still very great and entertaining to this very day because it introduces our main characters who are very likable and have unique personalities and villains who are very nasty.
A rather disappointing storyline focusing on Chibiusa is really the main factor that caused this series to be the worst of the five Sailor Moon seasons.
Her relationship with Sailor Moon as well as Pegasus/Helios is developed however, and it's also a treat to see Usagi and Chibiusa bickering, but it really really does get tiring to the point that it's annoying.The animation seems to have worsen quite a bit probably due to the horribly bright pastel colors, compared to the previous S season except for the improvements of the senshi's transformation and attack sequences (always eye-candy for many to watch).The whole dream motif lacks any serious drama but rather focuses on maturity, which at times fails to improve with such an uninteresting plot.
It's one of my favorite arcs of the entire Sailormoon saga, and the one that drew me into the series with just one episode.If you've only watched part of this series and aren't sure if you like it, do yourself a favor and check out the second half of the R season and see why so many have enjoyed it over the years..
Like I said, reflects level of thought.6) "Sailor Moon is a show that can be enjoyed by all ages- from 10 to 16 (my age) to 27 to 60 I know people of all the ages that are devoted moonies..." Good for you.
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon is the worst anime I've seen.
After finding out that Sailor Moon was indeed a Japanese Anime I had to take a second look at it again,and when I found some Real Audio clips on the net,it was much more Dramatic than the original DiC version,no silly little school girl stuff here real emotional value here.
Even when I watched the cut-up dub episode, I always knew about what happened to the "Scouts." Sailor Moon's tears were way too much for the other girls to have just been "taken by the Negaforce." That's right Dic, North American children aren't *that* stupid!This season is full of quite a few fillers, but the voice acting is good and the characters are enjoyable.
Highlights of this season include:-The Nephrite/Naru love storyline.-The Moon Princess being revealed.-When Tuxedo Mask is taken.-Seeing Usagi's change from coward to heroine (though it's a slow process -_-')-Sailor V's past, which is shown in an episode that was left out of the dub release......and of course the finale!
Thanks to Viz re-dubbing Sailor Moon, it got me into the series and especially the new anime reboot Sailor Crystal.
The first season, Sailor Moon Classic is easily my favorite season of the original anime!
i think this was a really good season of Sailor Moon.
The only thing i did not like was they showed sailor moon at the last episode completely nude. |
tt0082926 | Polyester | The life of fat housewife Francine Fishpaw (Divine) is crumbling around her in her middle-class suburban Baltimore home. Her husband Elmer (David Samson) is a polyester-clad lout who owns an X-rated theater, causing anti-pornography protesters to picket the Fishpaws' house. She also states that "all the neighborhood women spit at me" whenever she is at the shopping mall. Francine's children are Lu-Lu (Mary Garlington), her spoiled slutty daughter, and Dexter (Ken King), her delinquent glue-sniffing son who derives illicit pleasure from stomping on women's feet. Also adding to Francine's troubles is her snobby, class-conscious, cocaine-snorting mother La Rue (Joni Ruth White) who robs her blind and only cares about her "valuable shopping time."
Francine seeks solace in her best friend Cuddles Kovinsky (Edith Massey), an independently wealthy, simple-minded woman and the world's oldest debutante. Cuddles was once the Fishpaws' housekeeper, but she inherited a large sum of money from a very affluent family that she used to work for, and has befriended Francine. This infuriates La Rue, who admonishes Francine, "She was a scrub-woman. Give her carfare...a ham at Easter, but for God's sake, don't hang around with her!" Cuddles tries to cheer Francine with "seize-the-day" bromides, to no avail.
Francine discovers that her husband is having an affair with his secretary, Sandra Sullivan (Mink Stole), and later confronts them during a motel tryst and demands a divorce. Francine then falls into alcoholism and depression, exacerbated by her children's behavior: Lu-Lu becomes pregnant by her delinquent boyfriend Bo-Bo Belsinger (Stiv Bators) and she tells her mother, "I'm having an abortion, and I can't wait!"; and after Dexter is arrested at a supermarket for stomping on a woman's foot, the media reveal that he's the "Baltimore foot stomper".
Lu-Lu goes to a family planning clinic for an abortion, but is harassed by anti-abortion picketers. She flees, returns home, and tries to induce a miscarriage, causing Francine to call an unwed mothers' home. Two nuns arrive, cart Lu-Lu out of the house, lock her in the trunk of a car, and take her to a Catholic home for unwed mothers. Meanwhile, on Halloween evening, La Rue is shot by Bo-Bo and his friend, who have come to trash the Fishpaw house. La Rue manages to retrieve the gun and shoots Bo-Bo dead. Lu-Lu comes home from the unwed mothers' home and, upon discovering her dead boyfriend, tries to commit suicide by sticking her head in the oven. Francine comes home, sees her daughter's suicide attempt, and faints. After this, Francine's life begins to change. Dexter is released from jail, completely rehabilitated. Lu-Lu suffers a miscarriage from her suicide attempt and sees the error of her ways, turning from a high-school harlot to an artistic flower child who enthuses, "Look, Mother, I've discovered macramé!". Francine finally summons the strength to tell off La Rue. A beacon of light arrives in the form of lounge-suit-wearing, Corvette-driving Todd Tomorrow (Tab Hunter), lifting Francine's spirits. Todd proposes marriage to an elated Francine, who accepts.
However, it is soon revealed that Todd is romantically involved with La Rue and they are conspiring to embezzle Francine's divorce settlement and drive her insane. Meanwhile, Elmer and Sandra break into the house to kill Francine, but are felled by Dexter and Lu-Lu. Dexter steps on Sandra's foot, causing her to accidentally shoot Elmer; Lu-Lu uses her macramé to strangle Sandra. Cuddles and her German chauffeur/fiancé Heintz (Hans Kramm) arrive and run over La Rue and Todd.
The film concludes with a happy ending for Francine, her children, and Cuddles and Heintz. | pornographic, comedy, murder, cult, absurd, psychedelic, satire, humor | train | wikipedia | I have to comment on this movie.It was 1981 and it was my birthday.I moved to a new job and knew absolutely no one and went to a theater to see "Polyester" knowing nothing about it.It was raining and as soon as I entered to buy a ticket three employees started laughing and looking at me.They said you are the only one here to see the movie.I was handed a card and I went to a seat and sat down and the previews started.An usher walked by and I said hey,turn down the lights and turn up the sound.I put my feet up on a seat-back and thought hey,this is okay.It was my first John Waters movie and I laughed a lot at the crazy movie.I used the scratch and sniff card as prompted by the screen which was cool.I had a great time.It wasn't until several years later when I saw more Water's films that I even knew that Divine was actually a man and Water's films were a wee tad irregular.If you are humored by odd movies and odd people then watch the movie.I wish I had saved the scratch and sniff card.Not a movie for the kids..
I was familiar with Waters' work, having seen PINK FLAMINGOS, and was ready for the "Odorama" cards handed out when you bought your ticket, but my "associates" were a bit mystified.
Anyway, it had the usual John Waters' cast of characters (Mink, Edith, Divine, etc.), along with the late, great Stiv Bators making his big-screen debut as (what else), a delinquent.
This was my first John Waters movie, and it opened with scratch and sniff cards.
And Mom worries about fresh scents.With these subplots to the main plot, it should be obvious that plot resolution and character development are not the main attractions in a John Waters movie.
Even the fairytale resolutions to the problems are a hilarious sendup of 80's America.If you want to see what makes John Waters such a cult hero, but would find Female Trouble or Pink Flamingos too offensive, this was his first attempt to bridge the gap to the more accessible films he made later, while still having enough of the gross-out quality for a good laugh riot.
Polyester is the bridge, as so many people put it, between his disgusting yet entertaining earlier work to more mainstream films like Hairspray.Divine plays Francine Fishpaw.
I love John Waters movies.
This movie is filmed in oder-rama and the DVD comes with a scratch and sniff scent card.
John Waters was still doing really outrageous movies when "Polyester" came out.
Portraying suburban Baltimore housewife Francine Fishpaw's (Divine) world falling apart, the movie pulls no punches.
A seriously divine comedy about the twisted and perverted American family life that only John Waters can deliver.This film revolves around the main character, an aging housewife played by the transvestite Divine.
My first John Waters gross-out movie had me hooked to his works, but after seeing his other, much better earlier movies, I see that POLYESTER isn't as great as it was cracked up to be.Divine is much too whiny (but good and campy) as Francine Fishpaw, a troubled housewife whose husband is a cheating porno theater owner, daugher is a slut, son is a glue-sniffing foot fetishist, and mother is a hateful kleptomaniac.
While POLYESTER has plenty of great scenes (Dexter stomping on womens' feet, LuLu ditching a dorky date for her real boyfriend BoBo, the gigantic Jean Hill hijacking a bus and popping a car tire with her teeth), it is one of the weaker Waters movies.
It also features great cameos from Waters regulars Mink Stole (Elmer's mistress), Mary Vivian Pearce (a nun), Susan Lowe (foot stomper victim), Cookie Mueller (foot stomper victim), Marina Melin (foot stomper victim), Sharon Niesp (a nun), George Figgs (abortion picketer), and the guy who played Dawn Davenport's teacher in FEMALE TROUBLE.POLYESTER is not one of my highly recommended Waters movies, but is a great start for those who want to gradually build a following of his films and is a nice farewell to lovable Edith Massey in her last Waters movie..
"Polyester" is a freaked out satire on the American Way of Life that lives in the first line from his great main actor Divine and his fabulous performance as cheaten and alcoholic house wife.
Another memorable performance is given by David Samson as her Homer Simpson-like husband, who runs a porn movie theatre and has an affair with his slutty secretary...
The first "commercial" film for John Waters is considerably more tame than his earlier works, but is still a lot of fun mostly in part to the Odorama gimmick, which pays excellent tribute to B-movie horror maven William Castle who pioneered the movie gimmick back in the 50's.All of the usual suspects (Divine, Edith Massey, Mink Stole) provide their ever so dependable over the top performances, and heck - Tab Hunter ain't too hard on the eyes either :) He fits in well with the rest of the motley crew.
if you live in the immediate area, come to the clearview theatre in chelsea...I'm really hoping the idea will catch on, and hopefully other john waters films will come back to life there...
I mean this one did play in regular theaters i'm told unlike the previous ones...and it was tamed down quite a bit compared to say Desperate Living, but it had Jean Hill , and that's got to count for something...and it was edie's last film (SNIFF) ...plus it was just hilarious to see Divine in such a submissive role here.
While Waters would eventually redeem himself with Pecker and, to a lesser extent, Serial Mom (only to slip up with Cecil B.) Polyester remains a classic and my favorite of his films.
The only good thing in her life is her darling friend Cuddles(Edith Massey, in a memorable final performance) who recently inherited a lot of money and is now a millionaire.
The film deals with all of Francine's problems including her disgusting husband who is constantly playing pranks on Francine with his slut secretary(John Waters regular Mink Stole, in a scene stealing performance) and the porno picketeers who stay outside.
Of course, these smells are dealt with by the infamous 'Odorama' card(I'd love to see Waters' use this more in other films) which can sometimes be quite repellant.
I love the movies before this, regardless of content, but they all tend to be aimed at the audience that also stars in those films....Polyester was the first film that exposed those characters to mainstream America.
Cult director John Waters skimmed the outskirts of mainstream film-making with "Polyester", which had a bigger budget and better distribution than his previous output--it's even got Tab Hunter in the cast!
Divine is a riot as a three-hundred-pound suburban housewife who is trying to deal with her wildly dysfunctional family: her daughter is pregnant, her husband is cheating on her, and her son is a notorious criminal (he sneaks up on unsuspecting ladies and stomps on their feet!).
I hadn't seen "Polyester" since its initial release, and was curious about it after having just viewed the recent Criterion Blu-Ray of one of John Waters' earlier independent productions "Female Trouble" (1974).
I guess Waters figured it was time to sell out for the Reagan era, which was probably a savvy business decision, but the way in which he did it, by doing a broad satire of a Douglas Sirk melodrama using trashy characters and a "reformed" Divine as the pathetic (rather than monstrous, as he played in "Pink Flamingos" and "Female Trouble") character of Francine Fishpaw comes off as a cheap, slapstick betrayal of his earlier anti-aesthetic.
Perhaps Waters is even satirizing himself by having his heroine be a pro-life Christian, to show how "sick and twisted" heterosexual family life is in surburban America; recall that Edith Massey, playing Aunt Ida in "Female Trouble," states this explicitly in one of her scenes with her son Gator.I guess after realizing he couldn't "go home again" and had to do something totally different (his next film after this one, "Crybaby", was pretty iffy, too), Waters hit upon the goldmine idea of doing a musical, "Hairspray," which ended up rejuvenating his career and was later successfully produced as a Broadway smash.
If John Waters did nothing else in his career he created the fabulous screen team of Divine and Tab Hunter.
But the Fishpaws make the Bundys look like the Cleavers.Our leading character is Divine all 300 pounds of her who has let herself go to seed married to this bum of a husband David Samson who is getting on with his secretary.
But that's only the beginning.Divine created some very funny characters for John Waters in her life.
This was her great strength as a performer.Waters serves up some real funny stuff in Polyester.
If you aren't so convinced of "Polyester"'s determination to give a sloppy kiss to the good old days of the campy melodrama, listen to this plot: overweight housewife Francine Fishpaw (Divine), who considers herself to be an atypical "good, Christian woman", is about to have a nervous breakdown: her dear husband, Elmer (David Samson), is the successful owner of a local porn theatre and an adulterer of the lowest common denominator.
Consider that Tab Hunter, yes, Tab Hunter, the Golden Boy of the 1950s teen movie, is her love interest; that her supposed BFF, portrayed by the indelibly lovable Massey, is nearly toothless; that the film, as part of a marketing stunt, came with Odorama scratch-and-sniff cards to give the viewers a realistic aromatic experience.Nothing about "Polyester" is remotely serious, and I like it all the more for it.
At first, it seems like a bunch of super messed up friends got together and decided to make a movie, but as the film continues, one realizes that Waters is actually a clever writer, and Divine is a star, especially when it comes to sniffing loudly (you've got to promote that Odorama, after all), making disgruntled moans, and being all around charismatic.
POLYESTER, while representing an improvement in filmmaking technique from previous John Waters' movies, is still noticeably lacking in the narrative department.
Part of the reason it's like this may have something to do with the type of movie that POLYESTER is making fun of, and the satire is pretty dead-on at times, but it succumbs to a lot of the goofiness and clichés as well.
As far as acting is concerned, Divine was never really the greatest actor, but she managed to put together a decent performance here, at least more so than she did in previous John Waters films.
Overall, POLYESTER isn't John Waters' best movie nor his worst.
It's also more tame than previous Waters movies, so newbies to his style wouldn't be as put-off by this as something like PINK FLAMINGOS or FEMALE TROUBLE..
...in context of John Waters' reality...Polyester is a perfect balance between Waters' somehow-charming trademark gross-out sleaze (in explaining the character of Baltimore, he calls those movies "documentaries") and major - picture production values.Packed with his regular ensemble of - uh - actors, a (closet homosexual) 50's heartthrob, hysterical social satire, and ODORAMA, this movie has something to purturb EVERYONE several times over.For the mild-mannered, it's much easier to take than his early debaucheries, while for die- hard Waters fans, it retains the hammy, outlandish - uh - acting that helps make his movies so eccentric..
I recently had the pleasure of seeing John Waters live show followed by a screening of Polyester and we were spoiled and got the Odorama cards!
One does not see this film for its true like story line, but to see over the top blown up characters that make you laugh.
Honestly, each actor's character is so unique it's hard not to mention them all.If you're looking for a really good laugh and a strange movie Polyester is the ticket.
John Water's Purest May Not Rank This Film as Highly as His Earlier Work..
Okay I know a lot of John Water's fans _won't_ rank this movie as high as some of his earlier work, because it is fairly "mainstream" for Waters.
I liked Divine's performance in this film and loved the relationship with Tab Hunter.
Also get to see another fav of John Water's, Mink Stole, as well as many other "regulars" to his films.
If you like John Waters, you will love this film.
This later John Water's flick didn't have the same effect, grossness, punch, and ultimate filth of his earlier work, but it still is funny and suitable entertainment.
The story of the Fishpaw family is a funny, polished satire of the corrupted and degenerately hypocritical world of the U.S suburb, but it's a mainstream movie, and a comedy, not a cult.
The Fishpaws consist of Francine(christian mother and alcoholic, palyed by Divine), Dexter (shoe fetish and glue sniffer), cheating husband Elmer (runs a porn theater and cheats on Francine with Mink Stole, playing his cheap secretary Sandra) and slut daughter Lulu.
An interesting but mainstream John Waters movie, which he wrote superbly..
Crazy send-up of American family life by John Waters.
After several years of crudely made, crudely funny films such as PINK FLAMINGOS, director John Waters graduated to a somewhat more sophisticated style, and POLYESTER has a comparatively (note the word: comparatively) subtle script, cinematography that doesn't shake, sets and props that don't actually look like they were salvaged from the local junkyard, and even a mainstream star: 1950s matinée idol Tab Hunter.The story concerns the extremely dysfunctional Fishpaw family.
And then there is the mother, poor Francine, extra large and utterly at sea, hoping against hope for middle class respectability in the midst of it all.Tab Hunter (who is even more of a stud here than in his earlier pretty-boy days) romancing female-impersonator Divine is a major draw, and there is enough hilarity--ranging from a nun-enforced hayride for single pregnant women during a rainstorm to a black gospel singer who hijacks a bus to chase down a juvenile delinquent--to keep the show rolling, and the satirical edge is often quite effective.Even so, POLYESTER lacks the same shock appeal that made Water's earlier work so entertaining--and it is a tremendous pity that we can't experience the film in its original "ODORAMA." Recommended, but primarily for Waters fans interested in seeing him in his transitional phase.Gary F.
what a fantastic movie, and no one could have played this lead role other than the spectacular Divine, you really just wanted to cuddle this poor woman, everyone turned againsed her, her husband, her mother, her children, her hole life was a complete tragedy, maby im being soppy, but her character was a little bit to down trodden for my liking, the only thing that kept this movie together was her 1st class acting and i think the producer and director, had a serious bad day before making this movie.
This must be one of the worst efforts in moviemaking I have ever seen, and also one of the funniest.The story of Francine Fishpaw (played by transvestite Divine), the good Christian "wife" of a porntheater owner and how she became an alcoholic is told in such a bad and tasteless way that it became funny to watch.
The same thing counts for the costume design, absolutely fantastically horrible, all that Polyester.At least John Waters in consistent in one aspect of the film: everybody is a lousy actor.
I don't care if John Waters is tamed down here, this movie is funny.
Even though he's sick and twisted, when he wants to be, John Waters is actually a good director.Polyester certainly doesn't have much of a plot and is more concerned about the characters, a trait which I find admirable (that's what the Coens do).
The pushy husband, the cross dressing Divine, Lulu, the foot fetishist son (and thank God this movie doesn't have too much Edith Massey, that woman looks like she was dug up from the grave).
Her porno theater owning husband is having an affair with his secretary and unafraid to show it, the daughter hangs out with the bad boys, and as I mentioned earlier, the son is a foot fetishist (I think it'd be funny as hell to smash random people's feet).
The first bad John Waters movie..
The first Waters movie I saw was Serial Mom and I loved it.
The only thing I liked about that movie was DIVINE.
This movie deliberately set out to be offensive and awful--though fortunately NOT as offensive and gross as Waters' earlier film, PINK FLAMINGOS.
In addition to the family, a whole cast of maniacs and freaks co-star in the film--ranging from the always gross and untalented Edith Massey (who is so bad she's GREAT) to the once-famous Tab Hunter to Jean Hill in a small part as a woman who hijacks a bus in a small but hilarious scene.
Polyester was the very first John Water's film I saw, and I have to say that it was also the "worst" movie I had seen up to that point.Water's group of "talent" included several people who I am sure worked for food, and were willing to say the lines Waters wrote.
Every thing about the movie is terrible, acting, camera, editing, and the story about a woman played by 300 lb transvestite Divine was purely absurd.That said, I have to recommend this film because it is very funny, and you won't believe the crap that happens to poor Francine.
Edith looks and sounds like she is reading the lines off a cue card and has never seen the script prior to filming.Despite all of Francine's travails, Waters cooks up a fabulous Hollywood ending and everyone (who survives) lives happily ever after..
Polyester (1981): Dir: John Waters / Cast: Divine, Edith Massey, Tab Hunter, David Samson, Mink Stole: Released with "ordorama" where cards are distributed for scratch and sniff action when a number flashes on screen.
Divine plays Francine Fishpaw whose life is coming undone. |
tt0117276 | Overnight Delivery | Wyatt Trips (Paul Rudd) is a student at Twin Cities College, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is in a long-distance relationship with his high school girlfriend, Kimberly Jasney (Christine Taylor), who is currently a student at the University of Memphis. Wyatt loves Kim, even though they have never consummated their relationship.
One day when Wyatt calls Kim, her roommate's reply leads him to believe that Kim is cheating on him with some guy named "The Ricker". Heartbroken, he goes to a strip club, gets drunk and becomes acquainted with one of the club's dancers, Ivy Miller (Reese Witherspoon). She suggests to Wyatt that he break up with Kim by sending her a scathing letter and a topless picture of himself with Ivy. Wyatt complies by sending the package through Global Express, an overnight delivery service.
The next morning, Kim calls Wyatt claiming "The Ricker" is a dog who she had to dogsit. Regretting his actions, he realizes he has 24 hours to retrieve the package before it gets to her. Wyatt and Ivy go to the Global Express office where, by chance, they encounter a spiteful classmate of Wyatt's (Sarah Silverman) who refuses to help them. Wyatt tries to talk the deliveryman (Larry Drake) into giving him the package, but he thinks Wyatt is a spy for the company, and refuses to break the rules.
Wyatt buys an air ticket to Memphis, but his co-passenger turns out to be a serial killer, John Dwayne Beezly (Tobin Bell), who takes him hostage. Wyatt escapes and runs into Ivy on the road. Fearing that if he went back to the airport, the FBI would question him and he would not make it to Memphis in time, he begs Ivy to drive him all the way. They happen upon the Global Express delivery truck at a gas station. Wyatt breaks into the truck and locates the package, but the truck unexpectedly drives off. Ivy gives chase but despite their efforts they fail to retrieve the package.
At their next stop, Des Moines, Iowa, airport officials do not allow Wyatt to board the connecting flight. So they decide to travel to St. Louis, Missouri to board another connecting flight. En route to St. Louis they have an argument which leads to an accident which ends up with their vehicle falling into the river. They have dinner in a cowboy diner and then try to run out on the check, but get arrested. After posting bail, they are let off and once again happen upon the delivery truck outside a diner. While the deliveryman is having dinner, Wyatt decides to empty the truck's gas tank in order to stall him, but a carelessly flung cigarette butt sets fire to the gas and causes the truck to explode. But even that doesn't stop the deliveryman (who is clearly over the edge by now) and he drives off. Wyatt and Ivy then steal a drunk's car and drive to Kim's campus.
After saying goodbye to Ivy, Wyatt gives chase to the delivery man and stops him in time. But after meeting Kim, Wyatt suddenly realizes that he loves Ivy and not Kim. After breaking up with her, he runs into another guy who is wearing the same kind of locket that Kim gave him long ago. Wyatt correctly surmises that the guy is none other than "The Ricker" and Kim was cheating on him after all. He allows the delivery man to deliver the package, and confesses his love to Ivy, who kisses him passionately. | romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1920029 | La casa de al lado | The Condes, a wealthy and influential family, appear to have it all: money, power, and a close, beautiful family. They were recently rocked by a tragedy when Adolfo (David Chocarro), husband of the eldest daughter Ignacia (Catherine Siachoque) died by falling out a window in the family mansion. The other 2 siblings are Carola Conde (Ximena Duque) and Emilio Conde (Gabriel Valenzuela). Meanwhile, Adolfo's twin, Leonardo, continues to live in the mansion, confined to a wheel chair. When Gonzalo Ibañez (Gabriel Porras) marries Ignacia 6 months later, he is compelled to unravel the mystery of what happened to Adolfo. Mysterious events begin to envelop the Conde family suggesting that Adolfo is alive and well.
Next door live Pilar Arismendi (Maritza Rodríguez) and her husband, Javier Ruiz (Miguel Varoni), with their two children. Behind the gloss of success and family felicity lurks a dark reality and secrets that threaten to devastate both the Ruiz and Conde families. Javier is a highly regarded and influential attorney, who, for years, is employed by the Condes. Javier's privileged position becomes threatened by Gonzalo, who is appointed Javier's business associate by his powerful father-in-law, Renato Conde (Daniel Lugo). Javier will do anything to protect to what he believes he is entitled. Romantic intrigue develops between the neighbors and further confounds the mysteries, the tension, the dangers, and the suspense that loom large in the novela. Pilar has a sister called Rebeca Arismendi (Karla Monroig).
It is revealed that Ignacia, Carola, and Emilio are not biological siblings, as their parents could not have children, and so they were adopted. Emilio gets married to Hilda (Sofia Lama) but they divorce after she gives birth to a child with problems and she soon starts to have problems herself. Emilio starts working as gigolo.
Gonzalo/Inaki Mora, Adolfo/Ismael Mora and Leonardo/Ivan Mora turn out to be brothers, being Mabel and Igor's sons. They want to take revenge on the Condes' so they had thrown Ivan out of the window and Adolfo took his place. They murdered several persons who found out their true agenda. The first person to whom is revealed that Gonzalo is a criminal is Matias (Jorge Luis Pila), Rebeca's fiancee. Gonzalo shoots him, Adolfo being present.
Pilar falls in love with Gonzalo and divorces Javier. Gonzalo kidnaps Rebeca after she had found out that Adolfo/Ismael and him are murderers. Adolfo/Ismael discovers her, she manages to escape but he follows her by car and causes her an accident. She remains paralyzed, mute.
Pilar's twin sister, Raquel Arismendi (Maritza Rodriguez) also wants to get revenge and pour out her wrath on the two families, Ruiz and Conde. She wants to destroy Pilar because she had a better life. Cecilia gave her for adoption because she coul not raise both of them. Raquel had a bad life, was abused by her stepfather, killed him, ended up in prison. She is the author of "La Casa de al Lado" and "Condenados"; in "Condenados" she announces the next murders. She poisons Sebastian. She shoots Ignacia and kills her. She helped Renato Conde to commit suicide. She has a brief fling with Ismael.
In the series finale, Raquel is accidentally stabbed by Pilar. Ismael is burned to death by Carola. Gonzalo is arrested. | suspenseful, murder, horror, haunting, psychedelic, revenge | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0040257 | Cry of the City | Martin Rome (Richard Conte), a hardened criminal, is recuperating in a hospital from a shootout that leaves a police officer dead. At the hospital, he is briefly visited by his fiancée, Teena Ricante (Debra Paget). A shady lawyer representing another crook, Niles (Berry Kroeger), claims that he participated in a jewel robbery with her in which a woman was killed. Rome is innocent of the jewel robbery, but the police suspect that he carried out the robbery in conjunction with Teena, and begin a search for her.
With the help of a trusty (Walter Baldwin), he escapes from the prison ward, afraid that the lawyer will try to frame Teena and himself. He is pursued by an old adversary, police lieutenant Candella (Victor Mature), who grew up in his neighborhood and knows his family. Rome, feverish from his bullet wounds, receives help from his brother Tony, who worships him, and an old girlfriend, Brenda (Shelley Winters). Meanwhile, Candella and his partner (Fred Clark), track him down through the streets of New York. He locates the female accomplice of the real jewel thief/murderer, a strongly built masseuse named Rose Givens (Hope Emerson). He tricks her and she is apprehended by the police. In the struggle she shoots at Rome, wounding Candella.
Candella, shot in the shoulder, flees the hospital in his obsessive pursuit of Rome, ultimately tracking him down and killing him. Just before that happens, Tony, in a final break with his brother's criminality, refuses to steal their parents' savings. | murder | train | wikipedia | Victor Mature and Richard Conte are in great form as Candella and Marty respectively.
There is no real romantic sub-plot - Teena appears briefly at the beginning and the end, but plays no part in the story - and Candella is too busy making himself at home in the Rome household to go out and get a girl.
Yes, it's a typical one of its day in that it highlights two boyhood friends who wind up on the opposite side of the law ("Angels With Dirty Face," etc.) but it is well done.Victor Mature "Lt. Candella") and Richard Conte ("Martin Rome") both do a very credible job as the good and bad guys, respectively.
Shelley Winters, Debra Paget and Hope Emerson all provide solid female acting support in this little-known film noir.
Emerson ("Rose Given") might be the least known of the three, but not to me since I am a big fan of the Peter Gunn TV series of the late 1950s in which she played a key role.With film noir making a comeback in recent years, I hope someone puts this movie out on DVD..
Victor Mature and Richard Conte deliver strong performances in this engrossing, uplifting story of the struggle between a cop and a criminal.
In New York, when the cop killer Martin Rome (Richard Conte) arrives in the hospital badly wounded, the lawyer W.A. Niles (Berry Kroeger) unsuccessfully tries to convince him to confess the robbery of a collection of jewels and the death of the owner.
When Martin escapes from the hospital, Lieutenant Candella (Victor Mature), who is an old friend of the Rome family, investigates the case and has to chase Martin."Cry of the City" is a moralist police story, with the fight between good, represented by Lt. Candella, and evil, represented by Martin Rome.
Cry of the City has good performances by Richard Conte and Victor Mature.
Lieutenant Candella (Victor Mature) pursues Martin Rome (Conte) relentlessly after he escapes from a prison hospital; Rome is determined to clear his girlfriend of suspicion in a jewel theft by finding the real culprits.
Director Siodmak, one of the masters of film noir, suffuses the film with a dark mood, atmospheric locations, and those corrupted personal transactions that define the genre.In a hospital in the middle of the night a priest murmurs and family-members weep quietly over a dying man who is chained to his bedMartin Rome has just killed a cop in a shoot-out.
From the opening strains of Alfred Newman's "Street Scene" Theme Music, which accompanies the Credits to the End title, "Cry of the City" invokes a tale of good and evil in the persons of Victor Mature & Richard Conte........Boyhood pals from the lower East Side of N.Y......One a Cop, the other a Gangster................But make no bones about it, this film is Conte's showcase and he makes the most out of it in a chilling performance as Martin Rome(Roma), a savage killer with no remorse at all.........He is persued throughout the film by Victor Mature as Leut.
Candella, Chief of the Homicide Beaureau......and Mature gives a fine performance in the role...........Supporting players are highlighted by Hope Emerson in a performance of a lifetime, as a Female version of Conte.....their scenes together are cat & mouse......but which is which?.......For a special treat on the film noir craze of the 1940s; and a pure New York City feeling; do not miss "Robert Siodmack's"...."Cry of the City"-1948---20th.
Furthermore, the classic B&W photography of the city streets, a study in sunlight and shadows, heightens the tense mood and atmosphere of an engrossing crime story.VICTOR MATURE and RICHARD CONTE are adversaries, one good, the other bad, buddies who grew up together on the city streets.
He gets fully developed characterizations from his principal actors, as well as the supporting cast which includes FRED CLARK, DEBRA PAGET, TOMMY COOK, SHELLEY WINTERS and a standout turn from HOPE EMERSON as a woman intent on a jewel heist.New Yorkers will be especially interested in seeing the Third Ave. El appearing prominently in one of the lower Manhattan scenes, as well as other Manhattan shots that show the city as it existed in '48.
I hope there's a special place in Hollywood heaven for one-and-only characters like the hulking Emerson.In fact, the film features a number of unusual and unheralded players that spice up the proceedings—Walter Baldwin as the trustee Orvy, crooked teeth and all; Betty Garde as plain- looking nurse Pruett, who takes no guff from anybody including cops; and Barry Kroeger as puffy-face lawyer Niles, an insult to his profession.
It's the death penalty for sure, but Conte does in fact charm his way into an escape (I won't say how) and from then on because of his wound has to rely on a lot of help including his own family.Some other standout performances including an old girl friend, Shelley Winters whom he has obtain an unlicensed physician to tend him.
Tommy Cook plays Conte's hero worshiping younger brother who realizes just how much he and the family were being used in the climax.Most of all there's Berry Kroeger who plays one of his usual slime ball characters as a criminal attorney who indulges in a bit of criminality himself most discreetly behind the scenes.
In fact, this is the way they used to make great films.Victor Mature, as the cop, and Richard Conte, the criminal, star in this terrific film.The film shows that despite an excellent upbringing by a Conservative Italian Catholic family, Conte chose a life of crime and he is about to be joined by his kid brother who idolizes him.When Conte breaks out of jail, the fun really begins with everyone in hot pursuit for him.The picture is aided by a fine supporting cast.
We have Fred Clark as a fellow cop in a pretty serious role for him.What makes this film so good is that it shows how innocent, decent people could be drawn into Conte's web.
Richard Conte's performance as the truly ruthless bad guy is quite majestic and Victor Mature, as the ever on his heels good cop, does well to keep up, in both senses of the word.
It stars Victor Mature, Richard Conte, Fred Clark, Shelley Winters, Betty Garde, Hope Emerson and Debra Paget.
Music is by Alfred Newman and cinematography by Lloyd Ahern.They were once boyhood friends in New York's Little Italy, but now, on either side of the law, Lt. Candella (Mature) and cop killer Martin Rome (Conte), are on a collision course from which neither may survive?Excellent and under seen film noir from 20th Century Fox who initially conceived it as a follow up to cash in on the success of Kiss of Death the previous year.
Cry of the City may be simple in premise, that of a good versus evil chase like formula, with an extra edge added as Candella and Rome battle for the soul of Rome's younger brother, but what unfolds is a tough and uncompromising story painted vividly with style and atmospheric grace on a noir canvas by Siodmak.Siodmak made no secret of the fact he was "uncomfortable" about coming out of the confines of studio noir productions into airy location filming, but the great man need not have worried, for here we get a perfect example of what he could achieve outdoors.
New York thrums to the hustle and bustle of day time life, of transport duties and everyday mundane functions, only to then become at night a city crying to the tune of ghetto dislocation, where rain sodden streets, long shadows and emergency service sirens struggle to hide the corruptible and forlorn people shuffling about the place.Packed with classic noir characters, such as a shyster lawyer, amoral doctor and a devilishly brutish masseuse with a kink (the latter played by Hope Emerson with a near film stealing performance), it's the doppleganger effect that most shines through in this part of noirville.
It's fascinating that Candella is still a firm favourite of the Rome family elders, like he is the good son that Martin never was, while the attire of hunter and prey is most interesting, why is it that our good cop Candella is in dark clobber and our cop killing criminal is in lighter garb?The pretty girls Paget and Winters are just peripheral characters, so there's no femme fatale angle to speak of here.
Richard Conte and Victor Mature play tough adversaries in "Cry of the City," a 1948 film noir from 20th Century Fox, directed by Robert Siodmak.
The underrated Conte was always a force to be reckoned with, and this is one of his best roles.There are some stunning shots to be appreciated in "Cry of the City" - my favorite is as Rose Given takes a walk down her long hallway, the shadows that look like prison bars giving way to curtains and Rose's face and body walking into focus.Much to like here, but in the end, it's quite predictable, right down to the ending.
This Robert Siodmak work may seem derivative as another film noir.But it does not follow the rules.First the two leads are cast against type.We would expect Mature as Rome and Richard Conte as Candella.It increases the interest because we do not know how their characters will evolve.Then ,and it was extremely unusual at the time,there is no female central character;gorgeous Debra Paget appears in the first sequences ("she must be an angel") and only returns at the end of the movie in the church.No central female character ,but plenty of them ,and all are interesting: a nurse and her mom,a street gal (Shelley Winters),a mannish (lesbian?) female crook-the scene in the subway is very suspenseful-,and finally Rome's mom.A true mom,who still believes in her children ,but who begins to lose her illusions; fortunately there is a younger son,and the cop keeps a close watch on him.This mother is very different from the terrifying over possessive one Siodmak had introduced in his overlooked " Christmas holiday" (1944).
A familiar story of a cop (Victor Mature) and a criminal (Richard Conte) who grew up in the same tough New York City neighborhood, in the same culture, but chose different paths in life, and end up facing off against each other.
Mature's part as the detective could almost put him in the role of the bad cop out to bring down the neighborhood hero, though the story, with some excellent lines for Mature, leads us to the truth, that Conte was playing the part of a fairly ruthless con man, especially with the people closest to him.
Victor Mature plays the cop, Richard Conte the criminal Martin Rome, who is in jail for killing a cop but is able to escape and go looking for the girl who might have helped him in a jewel heist.
Siodmak does a terrific job with the material as he milks all the suspense he can out of each scene but he also lets the screenplay do its job of bringing the characters to life and making them seem real and not just something out of a bad crime movie..
First of all, there seems to be a misunderstanding regarding the backgrounds of both Lt. Candella (Victor Mature) and Martin Rome (Richard Conte).
Was it because of prior incidents with her son Martin?, 2) Martin's criminal background is never addressed in any way in the film; we know him only from the time he has killed a cop, just before the movie starts, 3) The whole family is known as the Romas, yet Martin seems to be known everywhere as Rome; did he Americanize it, just get known by it in nefarious circles, or what?, and 4) When we first see the Roma family, the father is handing over what looks to be some kind of ceremonial sword and the cash balance of the treasury of some Italian fraternal organization for which he has acted as treasurer, and it appears that he is being forced to do so; is this because the family name has been so blackened by his son?
Hope Emerson's performance is one of the greatest in all of Film Noir, even for her relatively short time on the screen, and the subway scene with her, Rome, and Candella is surely the most exciting in the film.
Anyway, despite those unanswered questions of mine, this is a terrific film, containing Richard Conte's finest film performance, Emerson's quite mesmerizing one, and with lots of good work by everybody else, especially by the oft-maligned but really quite excellent and charismatic Victor Mature, who managed to inhabit most of his roles in a manner that did not call attention to itself..
Lieutenants Victor Mature (Candella) and Fred Clark (Collins) get to gangster and cop-killer Richard Conte's (Martin) hospital bedside because they want to bust his backside and get information regarding a couple of crimes.
Robert Siodmak packs a lot of color and tension into this tale of Martin Rome (Richard Conte), an escaped and wounded murderer who wanders around a city that oozes staged authenticity, bringing trouble to everyone he manipulates into helping him -- a kind of "Odd Man Out" as seen in a schmutzy mirror.It's a very well-done example of a dark crime drama, and this despite the fact that it lacks a sense of place.
This is, in my opinion, a vastly underrated gem of the film noir genre, and I fervently hope that some day soon it will get the restoration and DVD release it richly deserves.Victor Mature is often a rather wooden actor, but in this film he plays perfectly against Richard Conte.
Conte is a wounded cop- killer on the run who encounters a variety of richly drawn and often bizarre characters in his long flight through the dark streets of the city.Often in film noir there will be a moralizing speech tacked in towards the end that is supposed to teach some imaginary, incredibly naive audience that "crime doesn't pay." In this film Mature's version of that speech actually rings true.
The unglamorous style actually was a major plus here--no cops working people over in the back room, no bullet-proof good guys and these cops were basically honest yet human.The film begins with Richard Conte in the hospital after having killed a policeman.
Reflecting lights off the wet streets
neon signs flashing inside buildings
the noises of a busy city
odd angles
low angles
exotic women
black and white
of course we are into a noir movie.At the beginning we see Martin Rome (Richard Conte), badly wounded in a hospital bed, receiving the Last Rites of the Church.
As Rome tries to leave on his own, he is stopped by Candella."Cry of the City" is filmed on location in New York.
**SPOILERS** Suffering from four bullet wounds cop killer Marty Rome, Richard Conte, had just about had it.
Teena wasn't wanted by the cops for any crime that she committed like Marty is!The other half of the story in "Cry of the City" has to do with Marty's boyhood friend from the neighborhood police Let. Candella, Victor Mature.
Cop killer Richard Conte escapes from a prison's hospital ward with police lieutenant Victor Mature and his partner Fred Clark on his tail.
Conte however is only interested in making sure his girl Debra Paget doesn't get caught up in anything and tries to get her out of harm's way by finding the people behind the heist.A basic plot that is transformed into a crackerjack top-shelf noir by the excellent cast and crew led by director Robert Siodmak ('The Killers').
Noir regulars Conte ('New York Confidential') and Mature ('I Wake Up Screaming') play characters that fit them like a well- worn glove and it shows.
And of course this is helped by some great performances, especially Mimi 'Mama' Aguglia ('The Brothers Rico') as Conte's mother and Hope Emerson ('House Of Strangers') as a masseuse/jewel-thief are memorable.Shot both on backlots and on the streets of NYC, the movie looks great.
It focuses on two long-time family friends, Victor Mature and Richard Conte, one on the right side of the law, the other accused of killing someone on the right side of the law, playing a game of cat and mouse where only death can bring peace for one of them.
It gets complicated, but not convoluted, and that keeps you gripped to the screen.There are two small roles for the film's "leading ladies", Shelley Winters as Conte's girlfriend and Debra Paget as a neighborhood girl who knew both Mature and Conte growing up.
But for me, it is Emerson who steals this film with her long scene taking care of an exhausted Conte (having escaped), then using her brute force to get her hands on the jewels he had stolen before allegedly killing a cop, and ending up with a gun herself shooting randomly in a Manhattan subway station.
The natures of the movie's two leading characters, however, are far more straightforward.Cop killer Martin Rome (Richard Conte) is being cared for in a New York City hospital after having been seriously wounded during a shootout that took place when he was interrupted in the course of carrying out his latest robbery.
You remember that scene where Lieutenant Candella (Victor Mature) challenges Marty (Richard Conte) by stating that he (Candella) has a gun and Marty doesn't believe it?
In the nineteen forties however he made a handful of films in which he turned in decent performances - Kiss of Death, Moss Rose, I Wake Up Screaming and this entry, Robert Siodmak's Cry Of The City which co-stars him with Richard Conte in our old chestnut friend, the one about the two guys from the same tough neighbourhood one who takes the easy way out and becomes a hood (see Jimmy Cagney) and one who becomes one of the good guys (see Pat O'Brien).
This time around it's Richard Conte who remains a hood and Victor Mature who becomes a cop. |
tt0107617 | Mùi du du xanh | A young girl, Mùi, becomes a servant for a rich family. Mùi is notably peaceful and curious about the world. The family consists of a frequently absent husband, a wife, an older son, two younger sons, and the husband's mother. When the husband leaves for his fourth and final time, he takes all the household's money. He returns ill and passes away shortly after.
Ten years later, the family falls on hard times. Two sons have left and the wife has taken the place of the grandmother upstairs, rarely seen and tragic. Although the wife now realizes she considered Mùi one of her own, Mùi changes homes. She becomes a servant for a pianist who was a friend of the older son when they were younger. That man is engaged to be married, but he prefers playing the piano to spending time with his fiancée. One night, as the fiancée chatters on, his piano playing becomes more and more stormy as he ignores her. When she leaves she watches through the window. As Mùi comes into the room, his music becomes more harmonious. Later that night, the pianist goes to Mùi's quarters after dark and closes the door behind him. When the fiance learns of this, the engagement is broken. The pianist starts teaching Mùi to read and write as well as comport herself as a lady. A pregnant Mùi reads poetry to her husband, her unborn child, and the wife of her original household. | romantic | train | wikipedia | She quietly goes through her ordinary life, giving every tiny moment all her attention and invisibly enriching the lives of all those around her, until near the end of the picture she is given off to a family friend whom, coincidentally, she has fancied since she was little.
Even more astounding than the richness and beauty of this film, is the feat of finding two wonderful actresses 10 years apart, to play the same very unusual girl, both identically beautiful and graceful and having the Buddha smile.
In Tran Anh Hung's debut film The Scent of Green Papaya, Mui (Lu Man San) is a ten-year old girl who comes from a small village to the home of a wealthy Saigon merchant to work as a servant in 1951.
The first Vietnamese film ever nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film, Scent of Green Papaya captures the natural beauty of pre-war Vietnam, even though it was filmed on a set constructed in a Paris studio.
She observes her natural surroundings in great detail: ants carrying a small piece of bread, a frog sitting on a leaf, a cricket jumping at night, and the seeds of a green papaya.
In one scene, the mother stands over Mui while she sleeps and weeps silently for the loss of her daughter and perhaps for a Vietnam that she knows will soon disappear.Her husband (Ngoc Trun Tran) is a drinker and womanizer who has run off with the family's money.
Her leaving triggers in the mother a profound sense of loss for her "daughter" and a sense that the old way of life in her country is coming to a permanent end.In her new house, Mui must contend with the musician's Westernized fiancé who personifies the artificiality of modern society.
Though the film may try the patience of Western audiences, The Scent of Green Papaya, in its simplicity and awareness of the natural world, reminds us of the power of cinema to reach artistic heights..
This is one of the most gorgeous- looking films you'll ever see, extremely aesthetic, with beautiful muted browns and greens.
Much of the time you hear birds or insects; it's quite different.The drawback to this movie, one that will turn many people off, is the story is extremely slow, one of the slowest-moving films I have ever witnessed....but "Mui," the lead character is so appealing both as a young girl and then young adult that she makes it an involving story.If you have patience and a love of great visuals, this is a film to treasure..
One of the purest films ever made, this movie captures a sense of utter peace and spirituality, drawn from the main character's constant sense of wonder, awareness of her surroundings, and the pleasure she is able to take in simple daily tasks.
It is also an expression of the true nature of the medium, since there is no forced tension or plot points, and the camera explores its world in perfect freedom, and with perfect curiosity (to suit the main character, who is filled with curiosity for the world around her, often taking time to simply stare at the objects around her, as an ideal camera should).
Some say that the "problem" with this film is that it lacks tension, which to me seems to be an odd attitude--why should a movie "require" forced dilemmas in order to be considered good?
(particularly when film is such a good medium for expressing both every-day reality AND for expressing states of mind--in this case, the filmaker wanted to express a sense of quietude, which is perfectly legitimate, very real, and is well suited to the medium).
And it goes without saying that this is a perfectly constructed "poem" paying tribute a particular feeling and state of being (a state of being which is tied to the true nature of the camera medium), and that its plot is not the focus (nor should it be, in a film attempting to simply portray reality and express ideas/emotions in a way that is suited to the medium).
Also needless to say, every shot is beautiful, carefully framed, and the flow of the movie (in editing, acting, and music) is natural, expressive, musical, and in a word, "perfect".We should all seek to be more like this main character, and this camera, in our awareness of the world around us and our ability to find peace with the reality of everyday life.
One of the greatest things film can do for us is to make us reconsider the basic nature of the reality that surrounds us, and allow us to consider different ways of viewing it, allow us appreciate its inherent texture.
(note: I'm not claiming that tension is inherently bad, or that great films can't be made that way, but in most films the tension and dilemmas are forced, and in most films they goes against the camera's natural "state of being", and in many films this tension has no artistic purpose, even in films that are actually trying to say or express something).Regarding this filmaker's other film, "The vertical ray of the sun": visually it is even more beautiful than this film, and in parts it expresses an even purer sense of peace...
however, it does contain some overly strong moments of tension and dilemma that seem totally out of place within its calm style; also, although I have downplayed story and character in the above discussion, Green Papaya does have a well drawn and beautiful story that even has some mythic resonance (or more importantly, the main character has these things).
In any case, it's a well-filmed art-house movie, beautiful in its aesthetics (and thinking about it retrospect, a very close-up shot film to hide the fact it's all a studio set!) Unfortunately the movie suffers terribly in more ways than it's good.
An ordinary servant girl goes to live with a family at age 10.
What impresses most about the movie is, it tells the story of a family girl and how she identifies her in the surroundings, with the family he is living and more importantly with his emotions.
Slow pace of the movie helps the calm effect and suddenly takes the viewer by surprise the way story unfolds.
The video case for this film reads "a story of beauty, passion, and forbidden fruit".
They can't be, as the film I just saw was beautiful, but there was no passion and as for the fruit, this is all hogwash meant to entice the potential viewer to see this movie.
Instead, it was an agonizingly slow paced and not particularly interesting film that I would definitely not want to see again.
There was no great sense of excitement, mystery or anything--just a rather unexciting story about a young girl who becomes a servant and spends the next 10 years of her life working as a maid..
The tip of film who seduced without a sure cause.A sweet powerful flavor of memories, time's ash, images of other secret age, spell of a subtle shadow.Poem of silence, slice of amazing dream, form of cult for ambiguous god.Wall of a delicate world of small gesture and impressive light.Signs like stairs, warm remember and love like reality's skin.Trip of soul on personal space before the Fall.Is it a masterpiece?
Mui is the servant girl of a prominent family, but when times get tough she is sent to work elsewhere.
Despite the occasional feuds between Mui and the master's younger son, the director establishes a tranquil atmosphere through the use of jungle ambiance, soothing riffs from citars and flutes, mis-en-scene, and transcendence from the ordinary things of life.The predominant community established and focused on is of servant-hood.
Beautiful close-ups and slow motioned effects show Mui washing her hands and face in a rather spiritually ritualistic way.
However, the life of a servant, by definition, is still one of entrapment.The camera itself acts like a trapped servant for the majority of the film.
The community presented is also one that has a deep appreciation for the ordinary things in life.Immaculate close-ups of bugs, frogs, lizards and plants all help illustrate the love the people, and more particularly, the director, have for the beauties in nature.
As most writers here have not failed to point out, "The Scent of Green Papaya" is a slow-moving film.
But the strength of the film is sufficient to keep its flaws from sinking it.The emphasis on simple human kindness (as well as on sorrows and worries that all of us must face at some point in our lives) is refreshing; no larger-than-life characters here, just believable human beings.And yes, it's slow!
I'm glad there are also movies like "The Scent of Green Papaya" for those of us who sometimes enjoy the luxury of quietly and leisurely savoring sights, sounds, and thoughts..
Also all of it is filmed too close up.I got sick of the little boy who keeps farting at Miu or pouring hot wax over ants...also do Vietnamese spend all their time sitting on their haunches?
Kind of gross looking at least the way this movie depicts it--one close up of it would have been plenty not a dozen or more.Then finally comes part two...
a chick flick for Vietnamese girls with the perfect handsome rich man who spends all day playing the piano (He is cultured).
I was expecting beautiful shots of the coastal mountains of Vietnam or something when I heard it was a visual gem.I wanted to like this movie.
the scent of green papaya movie mention of about fifty years ago in the Taiwan region of the film's history.
Ten year old girl Mui arrives to work in an upper class troubled family.
Mui becomes a servant of the oldest son's pianist friend.The story is intriguing at first but it's a little slow.
A little girl, Mui (Man San Lu), goes to a house as a new servant.
Ten years later Mui (now a young woman, played by Tran Nu Yên-Khê) is sent to another family, a young pianist and his fiancé.The plot and characters aside, this film must be praised for its beautiful colors, especially the vibrant green (making the title most appropriate).
Very understated and slowly paced, it is the story of a 10 year old Vietnamese peasant girl who must work as a servant in a home full of dishonesty and pain.
The story is good, but it could have been told in an hour but runs 1 hour 40 minutes and about 1/3 of the film is just drawn out shots giving (in my opinion)us more detail than we really need..
Mui loves little beings like insects and frogs; she always works hard; she is so meek that everyone loves her.
It's the life story of a servant girl & has a wonderful ending.
If you really love films and you like art, you'll love this movie; if you don't, watch it anyway because it might change your opinion.
Since this movie I seek out quality foreign films.
Beautifully photographed, subtle film of the life and the sexual awakening of a servant girl who grows into a mesmerizing woman.
The Scent of Green Papaya is the sort of film that repays patient observation, and lends itself to repeated viewings.
Like many Asian films, TSOGP is instead driven by inter-action between characters and observation.
After seeing the entire film, I became aware that it had become a part of my mental furnishings; I realised I was spending quite a lot of time thinking about it in the following days.
I'm told by those who live with me that the highest compliment I can give a film are the words, "I need to see it again." And I do--I need to buy a copy and see it several more times.Ten year old Miu is sent from her home village to Saigon to work as a servant in a cloth merchant's household.
Her employer's wife soon sees her as a surrogate daughter, someone to fill the void of her own daughter's death and her own loveless marriage to a spendthrift husband who abandons the family for weeks at a time and comes home empty handed.Ten years later, Miu is sent to work for a family friend, a young man she has long admired.
The Scent of Green Papaya is one of those films that is easy to enjoy no matter where you're from.
Since the visuals tell most of the story, we're left with a very deep film that isn't tedious or overbearing so that we can focus without trying to read lots of subtitles or follow ten different things on screen at once.
The simple but elaborate set style adds to the "film as a universal" feeling that I got while watching it.
Without the great acting (especially by the actresses that play Mui), the film falls flat on its face.
It's one of those movies that seems to (and this happens at least once or twice a year for me) completely reshape my idea of what a film can and can't be.
I have a hard time believing that it could work.*Very Mild Spoilers In the Third Paragraph* To me, the best films are ones that are deep enough that they require multiple viewings to truly understand, but not so deep that I feel lost and turned off from (see: Goodbye South, Goodbye).
The jets flying over the house in the second part of the film adds to the setting even more because there is no need to mention it- we are too caught up in Mui's transformation into a woman to care about wars and such.
He's the anti Godard in a sense (no way can I actually back up that statement as I've only seen a couple of Godard's older movies- but from what I know, this seems like a logical jump).The Scent of Green Papaya isn't necessarily one of the best movies I've ever seen, but it sure is one of the most original.
Finally we have a bit of tension!This, then, is an 'art house' movie in which director Anh Hung Tran tells the story primarily with images and symbolism, and that he does very well.
The central image of the film, the green papaya with the immature seeds inside representing the potential of the little girl is however not to be forgotten.What carries this slow-moving extended vignette of ante-bellum Saigon, and saves us from abject boredom are the beautiful sets nestled in greenery with the Buddhist artwork, the wooden Venetian-slotted doors, the partitions, the lattice work, the vases, the statues, the charming music, both eastern and western, the intensively focused cinematography, and the charm of ten-year-old Man San Lu. Many viewers, however charmed, will not stay for the finale, which will be too bad because it is in the later stages of the film that the fairy-tale quality of the film is fully realized.
Mùi of course has come of age, and the developing love affair is revealed purely through camera work without any dialogue.Incidentally, I was somewhat surprised to learn that this beautifully rendered film was shot not on locale in Saigon, Vietnam where the action takes place, but in a Paris studio!
Take the movie as it comes and when you feel like it..
This movie is not just about Mui's work experience as a maid in a wealthy house, nor about her feelings for her new Master ten years later (a ten-year gap in the story), neither about Vietnam itself.
The movie looks like it's taken slices of Mui's personal story, so that people would have a private "look" at a few events that marked her life, a form of autobiography, as the ending demonstrated, by Mui talking directly to the viewer.
I actually love all the washing shot because I think it's one of the rare things in this movie that looks and feels like VN.
A beautifully filmed but rather ordinary life.
Definitely not the movie to see if you are looking for escapism or like Hollywood style movies.SPOILERS AHEADThe movie centres around the life of Mui, an illiterate servant girl (who eventually learns to read), when she is 10 years and 20 years old.
Her real daughter, who would have been the same age, died many years ago of disease.About two thirds of the way through the movie, Mui's life jumps abruptly 10 years into the future.
Mui has become a beautiful young woman, still very much the servant but with the strong curiosity that comes naturally with a developing intelligence.
A zen, slow movie and very beautiful decorated scenes.
If you like foreign films and listening to foreign languages while watching a movie that gives a peek into another culture, then this is one of the best movies ever made.
If you like a simple story with a happy ending and beautiful filming, The Scent of Green Papaya is for you.
There is an unparalleled aesthetic and soothing quality to the film that traces the life of Mui, a peasant girl sent to Saigon to work for a well-to-do merchant family, and her new "family." Mui is a calm, peaceful soul, filled with happiness and joy.
She teaches us to find the beautiful in the everyday and is an interesting contrast to the sons in the family, one who destroys the life around him and another who seeks to torment Mui relentlessly.
The Scent of Green Papaya is a Vietnamese drama and love story with a young lady who is a servant to a wealthy family consisting of a mother, father, three sons and a grandmother in her care.
Mui, the servant, goes to work for a pianist who is engaged to be married.
The scenery is beautiful as is Tran Nu Yen-Khe in the lead as Mui and The Scent of Green Papaya is a better than average love saga.. |
tt1488584 | My Super Psycho Sweet 16 | Madison Penrose (Julianna Guill) prepares for her sweet sixteen. She wants to have her birthday party at the Roller Dome, a once popular roller skating rink with a violent history to match. She and her parents go so far as to hire a party planner (Jacob Gentry). A few days before the party, while alone in the roller rink, the party planner hears a strange noise. The scene then flashes back to 1999, where Charlie Rotter (Alex Van) is the owner and entertainer of the Roller Dome (he is known as "Lord of the Rink" and dresses in costume attire). One day, Rotter is humiliated by an ungrateful teenage boy named Craig (Damien Haas), who slaps a cake out of Rotter's hands and rips his mask off in front of everybody, including his six-year-old daughter, Skye (Lauren Eichner).
Later that night, Craig and his girlfriend, Karen, break into the Roller Dome, where they are brutally murdered by the "Lord of the Rink". Young Skye witnesses the murders and calls the police. They find him in the basement and, upon arresting Rotter, discover that four more bodies have been dismembered and stuffed into an oil bin. While on his way to prison, the van crashes and burns, and Rotter appears to have died.
Ten years later, Skye Rotter (Lauren McKnight) is an outcast, tortured by her classmates because of what happened a decade ago. One day, she has a "moment" with Madison's ex-boyfriend, Brigg (Chris Zylka). That same day, after swimming class, Skye finds out that her gym locker has been trashed by Madison and her friends Olivia (Maia Osman) and Chloe (Susan Griffith). Madison's friend Lily (Leandra Teranzzano) tells Skye who trashed her locker. Lily admits that she actually dislikes Madison, and that the reason why Madison is attacking Skye is because Skye flirted with Brigg. She tells Skye to hook up with Brigg to get revenge on Madison at her sweet sixteen party.
Skye, in nothing but a towel and a one-piece bathing suit, tries to leave the building, but she is interrupted by Madison, Olivia, and Chloe. In addition to warning Skye about staying away from Brigg, Madison calls Skye a nobody and says that the yearbook would not waste space on her if she died. Afterward, Skye begins walking home in her swimsuit and towel. Brigg drives by her, slows down, and offers her a ride home. While driving, Brigg asks Skye to hang out Saturday night.
The next day, Madison hands out invitations to her Sweet Sixteen. Having invited Brigg, it interferes with his plans with Skye. Brigg goes to Skye's house and explains to her that he has to go because he and Madison have history, and that he will make it up to Skye. Skye tells him that they both know that this isn't going to work because he is popular and she is not. Brigg kisses Skye and lets her know that he wants to spend more time with her after the party, and he promises that they will go out. When Brigg leaves, Skye's best friend Derek walks out onto Skye's porch and asks if she was just talking to Brigg. Skye then asks Derek if he still wants to crash Madison's party.
Lily leaves a secret opening for Skye and Derek behind the roller rink, and the two sneak in without a hitch. Things seem fine at first, until the party planner is killed by Charlie Rotter, who survived the crash. Skye finds Brigg and they skate together. Derek and Lily are chatting, and she asks him to go get some fruit punch to mix with her vodka so they can party. Derek walks off to go get the punch, but Brigg's friend Kevin (Joey Nappo) sees him and locks him in the basement. After warning Madison of Derek and Skye's appearance, Kevin takes Rotter's "Lord of the Rink" costume and decides to play a trick on Skye by standing up in the mezzanine of the Roller Dome. Skye spots Kevin, thinks that he is actually her father, and then runs to him. Kevin laughs and mocks her as he starts to leave the mezzanine. He is then choked and bludgeoned to death by Rotter, who then finds his mask on the floor and puts it on.
Derek, still locked in the basement, is let out by Lily, who is drunk and ends up making out with him. Chloe has a plan of hiding in the bathroom stall with a fire extinguisher and assaulting Skye with it. Olivia proceeds to dump one of her drinks on Skye's lap so that she will have to wash up in the bathroom that Chloe is hiding in. Brigg, trying to find Skye, ends up in the VIP room and is ambushed by Madison, who throws herself at him and kisses him. Skye walks in on them and leaves the room upset. Brigg then tells Madison that he doesn't want her and leaves. Meanwhile, Chloe is waiting for Skye, and hears who she thinks is Skye walking in. She comes out, spraying the extinguisher at Rotter instead. Annoyed, he takes the extinguisher out of her hand and beats her to death with it.
Lily decides to key Madison's car for a birthday present. While she is keying the words "Happy Sweet 16" into the hood, the car revs up and starts chasing after her. She is rammed into a brick wall but escapes. She runs up to a stairwell, and tries to escape to the street ahead by trying to climb over a gate. Rotter catches up to Lily and kills her by slitting her throat with a sword. Skye runs off to her father's old office and calls Derek, letting him know that she wants to leave. Brigg then finds Skye and tries to explain what happened, but Skye wants to hear none of it.
While Madison's birthday cake is being brought out, Olivia goes to the bathroom to find Chloe, thinking that she's hooking up somewhere. Upon entering the stall next to where Chloe was murdered, Olivia discovers Chloe's body on the floor. She tries to warn everyone else, but Rotter appears and decapitates her, and her headless body skates and collides with Madison's birthday cake. Frightened, everyone leaves, except for Madison and Skye. Madison accuses Skye of ruining her party because of her relation to Rotter. While running, they find that Rotter has gutted the party planner. Brigg runs back in for Skye, and they run up to the mezzanine with Rotter in pursuit. Derek flashes the spotlight in Rotter's face, temporarily blinding and distracting him while Skye and Madison escape. As the girls reach the dance floor below, Brigg is thrown from the mezzanine above. As Skye, Derek, and Madison run out, Rotter grabs Madison and slams her head into a party table, knocking her out. Rotter catches up to Skye and Derek at the door and strangles Derek. Skye begs her father to spare him, and Rotter does so by throwing him out of the door, locking Madison, Skye, and himself inside.
Madison wakes up in the basement with Skye, their hands both tied to a table. Skye tells Madison that she is a "bully." Rotter unties Skye, gives her a knife, and tells her to kill Madison, wanting her to be a killer like him. But Madison manipulates Skye into refusing and stabbing Rotter in his leg with the knife, then dropping a cabinet on him, injuring and stunning him. She then tries to untie Madison. Madison insults her while they try to escape. Once untied, Madison selfishly knocks over Skye in order to get to the door, but Rotter reaches out and trips her. Learning Madison's evil heart, Skye locks Madison in with Rotter, telling her, "Have a super birthday, Madison." As Rotter gets up, Madison furiously screams insults at Skye as she goes up the steps. Rotter then slits Madison's throat, and he places her body in a chair with a party hat on her head and a very small cake with a lit candle in front of her. Skye leaves the building and meets Derek outside, who is excited to see that she is okay. Skye leaves town in Madison's new car as police arrive at the scene but Rotter is gone by the time they get there.
A few days later, Brigg has a bad dream that he wakes up injured in the hospital. Skye tells him that he's been out for days, and that she came back for him. Then she stabs him to death while crying to her father. He frantically awakes from the nightmare in the hospital. He says that he wants to see Skye, but the nurse tells him that no one has seen her. Saddened, he turns over on his side, only to see a picture that Skye drew on the table next to him, revealing that she was in the room while he was unconscious. | violence, prank, murder, flashback | train | wikipedia | Good Slasher Film.
It has a name like so many second rate holiday horror films that came out in the 1980's.
This movie did such an excellent job of being what a teen slasher film is meant to be.
There are terrible characters, bloody deaths for those characters and even and ending worthy of the genre.I won't give a full review here because others have.
Watch it if you haven't and if you enjoy good slasher films.
MTV occasionally pulls through and makes a really enjoyable movie.
Not too much gore, but just enough to make a good slasher flick.
The main character is really personable and is a pretty decent little actress.
As most of us do, I really hate that god awful "My Super Sweet 16" show and this movie does a great job making fun of that while still keeping on track with it's original slasher movie idea.
The biggest issue I had with this movie was that when it ended I wanted more.
I felt like it should have been longer with perhaps more killing, but I'm a little morbid.
It's fun watching these people die....
The trick to making a good slasher movie, is when the filmmakers create characters that you can really hate, so much so that you can enjoy seeing someones head get beaten in with a fire extinguisher.
Maybe that is an irresponsible comment considering the characters ages, but this has been the formula for this genre since the original "Halloween" was unleashed in the 70's.
"Sweet 16" is filmed with a surprising amount of style, using garish, saturated colors and violent murders accompanied by pulsating music, perhaps a bit of a tribute to Dario Argento's horror masterpiece "Suspiria." In fact it is pretty obvious that the creators of this film are classic horror fans themselves.
The story is traditional: a pretty, but very nasty girl gathers her classmates together in a roller rink/nightclub to celebrate her sweet 16, thus lining up her mates for the massacre to come.
In the classic sense this one is a real morality tale; everyone seems to get butchered directly after they do something "bad." A few unexpected plot developments here, not to mention an ending that is a nice tribute to the original "Carrie," and wraps up nicely.
Similar to a film called "Prom Night" from a couple years ago, however this one is a masterpiece compared to that lame, awful film!
Some other people commented that "Sweet 16" wasn't that graphically violent, but the original "Halloween" wasn't graphic either, and that is considered a classic today.
Recommended for slasher fans....
So bad, but so good!!!!!.
Trashy horror films, trashy teen films and TV movies are all guilty pleasures of mine, and this is all three rolled into one.
My Super Psycho Sweet 16 is probably the greatest title, this film is good because it knows what it is and plays on it, it's not trying to be serious and I say full props to the filmmakers for just doing something fun that doesn't need to be taken seriously.I have a severe phobia of teenagers so seeing these gross humans being knocked off one by one is quite enjoyable, I did however really like the main character Skye, her story is actually very cool, her father was a nut job who killed a bunch of kids and the place where he killed them is the setting for the sweet 16 birthday, is he the killer?
Is it Skye's new love interest, you'll be guessing the entire movie.Obviously the entire cast are teenagers of only just out of their teens so the acting is what you would expect, but it all just adds ti the campiness if the whole thing.
The only person who I recognize is Chris Zylka from the recent Ka-Boom, his cliché good looks are what is griping his career I'm sure.The only bad thing I would say about this movie is that the killing starts too Kate in the film, it could have begun a bit sooner, if this were a serious film it would really work against it but it doesn't, it's only a minor thing.A cool slasher film that is like Halloween meets I Know What You Did Last Summer.
A good TV slasher horror once they get to the party.
Spoiled princess Madison Penrose (Julianna Guill) wants her sweet sixteen party in the shut down Rollerdome.
Charlie Rotter was imprisoned when his daughter Skye (Lauren McKnight) called the cops and they found multiple bodies stored.
Brigg (Chris Zylka) recently broke up with Madison and he's flirting with Skye.
When Brigg goes to Madison's party, Skye and Derek decide to crash the party.It's almost a fine little high school TV horror movie.
Julianna Guill is a good mean girl.
Chris Zylka has leading man looks.
Matt Angel isn't good enough as the funny sidekick.
There are too many waste of time moments in the first half.Once they start the party, it improves markedly.
The kills are pretty good, and it does have the old fashion killer with a mask.
The girl with the fire extinguisher is a good solid kill.
I wish they could raise the horror atmosphere more in between the kills.
In essence, this is the '80s slasher film revisited for the MTV generation (and actually produced by MTV in this instance).
The inevitably MTV style is undoubtedly the film's worst aspect – in a couple of places it seems to turn into a music video for a while before remembering it's an actual slasher film and getting on with the plot.
Nevertheless this is a surprisingly entertaining little film, with a cast of intriguing characters and a kind of grand guignol feel to the set-pieces which raises it above slicker, kiddie-friendly Hollywood fare (at least one moment, neatly combining roller skates and a large axe, is enough to make any dyed-in-the-wool horror fan giggle with glee).Undoubtedly there are references that I, as somebody definitely not in with the MTV generation, missed out on (apparently the title is a play on a popular TV series).
Yes, there are problems, like varying performances, some clichéd characters and an ending that annoyingly opens up things for the sequel (shot at the same time, it seems).
Still, this horror fare is both watchable and predictable: there's something cosy, simplistic and old school about it, and it brings back memories of the way things used to be back in the cheesy '80s.Compared to something like the insipid PROM NIGHT remake, this is great stuff indeed....
My Super Psycho Sweet 16 is one of the best TV movies I have ever seen because it's horror and who doesn't like horror.
Madison,Olivia,and Chloe are the best characters.The chase scene with Skye and Madison was good, and Chloe's death scene was good too.The part I don't like with Madison is when Skye sees her kissing and Madison says kiss the birthday girl.
The best part is when Madison and Skye together get chased by the killer and then they hide and try to escape.
My least favourite part is when Madison,Olivia,and Chloe tease Skye in the change room that is kinda sad.That's my comment, look for my other comments..
For a TV movie it was surprisingly good.
Very compelling characters, especially Skye,you sympathize with her greatly.
And I must say I hated Madison and her friends, they all deserved it.The humor and measure of violence was great, it was cool the various weapons he used.
As for the ending when Brigg was dreaming her expression was pretty funny as she emotionlessly stabbed him.
It is very good the ending did not stop after Skye drove off, but some loose ends could of been tied up unless their planning on a sequel.
(Where'd she go, did her father die from being stabbed, what happened to Mr. Penrose, or Derek.)Some stupid moments, but overall good..
My Super Psycho Sweet 16.
Julianna Guill is a spoiled teenager, Madison, self absorbed(me, me, me) and materialistic, who is planning one of those Sweet 16 birthday bashes, the kind where everyone will be there and an exorbitant amount of cash will be wasted so that daddy's lil girl can have her dream party.
Lauren McKnight is Skye, the mistreated teenage girl who doesn't have the finest things like her peers.
What boils Madison's kettle is that her ex-boyfriend, Brigg(Chris Zylka), is interested in Skye.
Skye being the exact opposite of Madison doesn't go over well with all the rich kids, but Brigg seriously has feelings for her despite what others might think.
So those who are mean to Madison suffer the consequences for their actions when a psycho in a cloak and mask starts hunting them down one by one mostly in the backstage of the party.
MY SUPER PSYCHO SWEET 16 is in the same league as the recent PROM NIGHT remake.
The deaths themselves are somewhat brutal even if off screen such as the use of a fire extinguisher to bash a face in and the beheading of a girl as she attempts to skate to safety, interrupting Madison's cake presentation.
But, to be honest, MY SUPER PSYCHO SWEET 16 is simply no different than others of it's ilk.
The plot, funny as it may be for those who positively hate these kinds of Park Avenue girls, quietly fantasizing about their demises in the cruelest ways possible, follows the basic slasher guidelines.
As I mentioned above, MY SUPER PSYCHO SWEET 16 belongs in a double feature with the remake of PROM NIGHT.
Madison is so repellent due to her personality that, even when Skye tries to free her so that she could be saved from the psychopath, this girl still insults and ridicules her rival.
Matt Angel is Skye's nerdy pal, Derek, also a victim of bullying.
Starts out promising ...Sags in the middle...Does it's best to redeem itself in the end.
Take the premise of one of your most possible television "reality" series, mix it with the popular PG-13 teen-safe slasher genre, and release it the weekend before Halloween.
I've got to admit, when it comes to shamelessly plugging itself and leading teens wherever they want them to go and to listen to whatever they want you to, MTV has it figured out.
Do I sound like an old man?
The sad part is I'm alright with it now, where about three years ago I wasn't.My Super Psycho Sweet Sixteen starts out mildly promising with a pretty cool killing scene and a kind of "flashback" to the mid 90's to establish what happened in the roller-skating rink that the bratty teen wants reopened and remodeled for her big sixteenth birthday bash.
Right off the bat, you definitely hope for the horrible death of the girl and her pathetic father who caters to her every whim.
Like I said, it's a promising start.
They are definitely trying to recapture the whole Scream, Urban Legend, I Know What You Did Last Summer vibe.The teen actors are all really great as their superficial spoiled brat characters and fulfill all that the roles demand of them.
You've got your smart-mouthed jock goon, the sensitive jock who just wants to do something besides be known as a lunkhead sports guy, the misunderstood "weird" girl who just wants to be normal (which apparently means being a spoiled-rotten bleach blond whiner), the pathetic best friend who is equally as "weird" as the misunderstood girl (i.e. an updated version of Ducky from Pretty in Pink), the obnoxiously popular snobby girl that every other girl wants to be, and then all her sad and hopeless followers that don't even really like her but stick around to be "cool." The cool thing is that unlike your high school and real life, you get to see them all slaughtered before your very eyes.
It's almost like therapy for you to get to watch examples of all the kids that picked on you in high school being slashed in front of you.Unfortunately, the entire middle of the film is weighed down with a whole lot of fluff and the real good stuff doesn't even start until about thirty minutes before the film ends.
It also doesn't help that they show you who the killer is 40 minutes into the film, which as far as I'm concerned, defeats the purpose of even watching movies like this.
The other thing that was really funny about this movie, is the way they try to use a lot of dreamy, atmospheric indie rock music to give this a sort of emotional Virgin Suicides vibe.
One thing that I can say is that director Jacob Gentry (The Signal) definitely does have an eye for cool camera-work, but doesn't use it to his full potential here.Another thing that makes this movie so funny to watch is that it is so based in reality.
If you've ever seen My Super Sweet Sixteen you would know how pathetically close to real life this movie really is.
They really didn't even have to hire a professional cast of actors to make this movie.
They could have just taken footage of any of the episodes of the show and then use the actual real people and hire some guy to run around in a black robe with a mask and stage killing scenes.
It might have saved them some production cash
and they could have used the new all-too-cool faux documentary Paranormal Activity gimmick and made this even more popular.This is a movie where the end almost justifies the means.
As soon as they showed the killer halfway through the movie, I basically gave up on the film.
I had a really bad case of déjà vu, feeling that maybe I was being served another helping of the unbelievably horrible Prom Night remake.
I say almost, because it did it's very best to redeem itself with a witty ending that you kind of half-expect but still walk away feeling was a good attempt at being smart.Would I recommend this to die-hard slasher fans?
If you're looking for something that the non-genre fans can watch and be "safely" scared by, then DVR this thing one of the million times they're replaying it on MTV and serve it up on Halloween to them.
For die-hard slasher fans, the only thing this is good for is a night of making fun of it with a group of friends or to help put you to sleep after eating a bunch of candy you stole from your kids or kid brother from their trick-or-treating stash..
I'm a sucker for slasher films and although this was really laughably limp to begin with, it did warm up to be quite a fun little slasher film.So let's begin with the fact that this film really is bad, but that is what makes it entertaining.
It's a girly slasher, with lots of teen angst going on, hormones flying everywhere, falling in "love" and not again, we know the gag I've seen "Mean Girls".
In the usual clichéd way, were introduced to some cheesy blonde bouffant that looks more in his late 30's than early teens and guess what, we all fancy him don't we girls (I'm actually a boy :S) but unfortunately there's some sort of love triangle going on, with the daughter of a serial killer fancying him and the queen b**ch (oops I meant bee) also wanting him.I've seen "My Super Sweet 16" before because there's nothing I love more than to watch some spoilt daddy's girl getting exactly what she wants, I can laugh at them and be glad I'm not like them one bit.
This film spin-off has got the sexy brat right on.
She's really nasty and unlikable, and thinks the world loves her because she's got the looks.
Little does she know that us men want something a little more than looks.
The killers motives are to give kids "what they deserve" and I can't think of a better reason than that.
(Actually is a really pathetic motive.)So we've got this party, the girl no one likes gate crashes it with her geeky but nice friend and all hell breaks looks!
This is when the teen angst gets down to a lower tone and we get to see some unlikable, Yankee twits get slayed off by a man in a burger king mask.
A lot of the time, the killer is standing in the way of the decapitation so we don't get to see it which is a shame because the kills are at the heart of a slasher film.
I really did love the Birthday cake sequence (I won't spoil it) but I thought it was really something quit clever.We get an exciting climatic end, with an ending I really liked.
So in between the trashy teen romance and the clichéd labels we seem to get at these American schools.
there actually is a likable slasher film, that is enjoyable and entertaining.
I really should hate it but, I'm a sucker for slashers!.
My Super Sweet 16 was a great movie!.
This movie was an excellent example of a good slasher film today.
Everything in the movie (situations, people) were all believable.
In my opinion, there was no unexplained events that took place that made the movie seem "unrealistic" which is something I hate about a lot of horror movies.
The movie was well written and directed, and the actors were great.
I loved how even though the "mean" girls were bullying Skye, when some of them you felt kind of bad for when they died.
That's an example of great character writing from the writer.
The ending of the first movie was insanely good, makes you see the protagonist,Skye, in a whole new way!
The writers, producers, and directors did an amazing job with the first and sequel blending together realistically.Overall, My super psycho sweet 16 was awesome and I recommend it! |
tt4271918 | An Inspector Calls | At the Birlings' home in April 1912, Arthur Birling - a wealthy mill owner and local politician - and his family are celebrating the engagement of daughter Sheila to Gerald Croft, the son of one of Birling's competitors, Croft Limited. In attendance are Arthur's wife Sybil and their adult children Sheila and Eric. Eric, the younger, has a drinking problem that is discreetly ignored. After dinner, Arthur speaks about the importance of self-reliance. He talks about his impending knighthood and about how "a man has to look after himself and his own."
Inspector Goole arrives immediately, interrupting the evening and explaining that a woman called Eva Smith has killed herself by drinking strong disinfectant. He implies that she has left a diary naming names, including members of the Birling family. Goole produces a photograph of Eva and shows it to Arthur, who acknowledges that she worked in one of his mills. He admits that he dismissed her from Birling & Co. 18 months ago for her involvement in an abortive workers' strike. He denies responsibility for her death.
Sheila enters the room and is drawn into the discussion. After prompting from Goole, she admits to recognising Eva as well. She confesses that Eva served her in a department store, Milwards, and Sheila contrived to have her fired for an imagined slight. She admits that Eva's behaviour had been blameless and that the firing was motivated solely by Sheila's jealousy and spite towards a pretty working-class woman.
Sybil enters the room and Goole continues his interrogation, revealing that Eva was also known as Daisy Renton. Gerald starts at the mention of the name and Sheila becomes suspicious. Gerald admits that he met a woman by that name in the Palace Bar. He gave her money and arranged to see her again. Goole reveals that Gerald had installed Eva as his mistress, and gave her money and promises of continued support before ending the relationship. Arthur and Sybil are horrified. As an ashamed Gerald exits the room, Sheila acknowledges his nature and credits him for speaking truthfully but also signals that their engagement is over by handing the ring, that Gerald had bought for her, back to him.
Goole identifies Sybil as the head of a women's charity to which Eva had turned for help. Despite Sybil's haughty responses, she eventually admits that Eva, pregnant and destitute, had asked the committee for financial aid. Sybil had convinced the committee that the girl was a liar and that her application should be denied. Despite vigorous cross-examination from Goole, Sybil denies any wrongdoing. Sheila begs her mother not to continue, but Goole plays his final card, making Sybil declare that the "drunken young man" who had made Eva pregnant should give a "public confession, accepting all the blame". Eric enters the room, and after brief questioning from Goole, he breaks down, admitting that he drunkenly raped Eva before meeting up with her several times later and then stole £50 (~ £1570 in December 2016) from his father's business to help her when she became pregnant. Arthur and Sybil are upset by this, and the evening dissolves into angry recriminations.
The implication resulting from Goole's questioning is that each of the people there that evening had contributed to Eva's despondency and suicide. He reminds the Birlings that actions have consequences, and that all people are intertwined in one society, saying, "If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish", alluding to the impending World War. Goole then leaves.
Gerald returns, telling the family that there may be no "Inspector Goole" on the police force. Arthur makes a call to the Chief Constable, who confirms this. Gerald points out that as Goole was lying about being a policeman, there may be no dead girl. Placing a second call to the local infirmary, Gerald determines that no recent cases of suicide have been reported. The elder Birlings and Gerald celebrate, with Arthur dismissing the evening's events as "moonshine" and "bluffing". The younger Birlings, however, still realise the error of their ways and promise to change. Gerald is keen to resume his engagement to Sheila, but she is reluctant, since he still admitted to having had an affair.
The play ends abruptly with a telephone call, taken by Arthur, who reports that a young woman has died, a suspected case of suicide by disinfectant, and that the local police are on their way to question the Birlings. The true identity of Goole is never explained, but it is clear that the family's confessions over the course of the evening are true, and that they will be disgraced publicly when news of their involvement in Eva's demise is revealed. | plot twist | train | wikipedia | So if you like good drama you would be hard pressed to beat this and all the more amazing was the fact it was mostly delivered in a drawing room, so that speaks volumes for the way it was acted.
It's a whodunit of sorts but who did it isn't the point (while being the only point - it'll make sense after) An inspector calls onto a wealthy family at dinner time in 1910 to impart some seemingly unrelated piece of bad news.
It turns out each member of the family has encountered Eva, and each in turn damaged her life in some way.I must admit I had my doubts beforehand about this, I tend to think sometimes if it ain't broke don't fix it, I love both the 1954 and 1982 versions respectively.
As an English student who recently read thoroughly the play this movie is based of, my main thoughts about this film is that it's a perfectly crafted piece that follows the plot of the play quite accurately, but I also consider myself quite "unexperienced" in the matter because I have only seen this adaptation and not the rest- so maybe by watching the rest of the movies my opinion on the quality of this movie may differ, but I hope that not drastically.
Nevertheless, as soon as the plot starting moving the skepticism faded away and I was left awestruck by the actors' outstanding performances; Mr and Mrs Birling were just how I pictured them throughout the story; Gerald was given much more emotional depth than what I had imagined and Eric even though it wasn't how I initially thought of him made me comprehend a completely different interpretation of his character.
Above all, what most impressed me was the score; from the beginning until the very end the score was used skilfully to match the characters' emotions in certain scenes, but the feeling of strings and a piano matched the main themes of the play, and probably may be the main reason for my passionate liking of this film..
On the whole the suspense was well maintained and it stayed quite close to the original, although the later scenes after the Inspector left the house were new and added little to the overall story.
Through this brief sequence we are given a clear idea of the class-differences permeating the film between the haves and the have-nots, the exploiters and the exploited, that forms one of Priestley's major themes.Eva Smith does not appear in the Priestley text; in this version she is transformed into a hard-working girl who is not backward about coming forward.
Yet it soon becomes clear that all of them treat her as an object to be picked up and cast aside at will; it's a tribute to Eva's strength of character that she manages to sustain her integrity throughout, until she gives up the ghost and commits suicide.At the end of the film the floorboards shot is explained, as Eva describes herself as "a crack in the floorboards" - a member of the underclass who is allowed to fall through in a crassly unequal society.
No one, it seems, is willing to treat her on her own terms as a human being.Walsh's version also represents the Inspector (David Thewlis) as a mysterious figure moving slowly in the darkness towards the Birling residence, walking along a narrow slum in shadow, his bowler hat and long coat silhouetted, and visiting the dying Eva in hospital.
Thewlis's expression remains impassive throughout - even if he despises the Birlings' superciliousness, he will never let his emotions get the better of him.In the central moments of the drama, as the truth about the family was gradually revealed, Walsh used repeated close-ups to focus on the protagonists' changing expressions: Arthur's look of quiet confidence was transformed into an expression of utter despair as he ran his hands through his hair; his wife Sheila (Miranda Richardson) tried her best to retain an impassive exterior, but the tell-tale movements of her cheek and neck-bones betrayed her emotions.
Her stoicism in the face of the inevitable truth-revelation was contrasted with Eric's expressions - at first he looked guiltily at everyone in full knowledge that he had been in some way responsible for Eva's death, but as the drama unfolded he acquired a strength of character as he tried to come to terms with his past.
After watching this movie adaptation of An Inspector Calls, I felt that this remake turned into a great success.
But as the film progressed my attitude towards the characters changes, Eric and Sheila aren't the spoiled brats I thought they were- they actually care about the death of this young woman.
Gerald, I realized has more emotional depth Han I gave him credit for, but Mr and Mrs Birling we're exactly what I thought they'd be like and their attitudes towards Eva didn't really change.
As for the Inspector I thought that David Thewlis did a great job being the Inspector and his character was also amazing but what I didn't like about the Inspector was that towards the end of the film, he starts time traveling (Priestly hinted that the Inspector was supernatural) but I started getting very confused and became unsure of if he was there before she died and it was a flash back or he is the reason she is dead...
Surely one of the best films of the year with a great suspense and twists.I expected a crime solving drama, like a detective use his brainpower to nab a suspect in a style, but this was complete an unexpected narration with various angles of briefing involving a family and their individual link to a woman.
But what this film's specialty is that makes realise for its characters that how their part influenced a woman's life.It's the year 1912, during a wealthy Birling family celebrating their daughter's engagement, a mysterious inspector interrupts them to question on a woman who committed suicide on that evening.
The character played by David Thewlis as Goole was effortless, but very important among others in the film, so it is impossible moving away without praising his contribution.
JB Priestley's play An Inspector Calls from 1946 is a celebrated theatrical play that depicts the Birling family cruel treatment of Eva Smith a former factory employee, shop girl and then a fallen woman.
Their daughter is due to marry a suitable suitor and Arthur Birling (Ken Stott) is looking forward to receive an offer of a knighthood.However an Inspector Goole (David Thewlis) arrives to spoil the celebration that a young woman has tragically killed herself and each person in the room shares some responsibility.This television film is a more sombre affair than the Alistair Sim version and maybe appears a tad heavy handed with its moralising which still has relevance today (Priestley was a socialist).
I think the ending worked better in the Sim film but I felt this was the better film as some of the hard edged Birlings (Stott and Miranda Richardson) revert to type as soon as the Inspector leaves unaware that a counter punch is yet to be delivered..
David Thewlis was the only redeeming actor in the film, and he tried hard to make his character believable, but I think he also felt the story lacked reality and it showed..
It's filmed with class and atmosphere and the production and costume design are evocative and beautiful to look at.Faring best of the cast are David Thewlis, Ken Stott and Miranda Richardson.
The rest of the cast also impress, if not quite up the level of Thewlis, Stott and Richardson.Writing is similarly very strong and thought-provoking, a lot is covered and talked about but done in a way that never comes over as confusing.
The emphasis on the psychological elements give a lot of complexity, help make the characters interesting and show their flaws without making us hate them.'An Inspector Calls' storytelling is gripping from start to finish.
While taking its time to tell the story it does not drag and the ending, while a bit confusing on first watch, is very clever and unexpected.Overall, splendid stuff and a 2015 television highlight.
I was initially hesitant as the poster was not particularly attractive, but I am glad that I did not judge this book by it's cover.It was quite obvious that this was a piece created for the theatre, and fortunately the actors managed to pull of this filmed version perfectly.It's one of those pieces where each word has a sense, where each movement and each reaction has meaning.JB Priestly understood how to portray society and it's problems down to a tee.This piece/film/play is as pertinent today as it was in it's époque.I thoroughly recommend this film as one of those that at first appears to be a slightly superficial but with some retrospection we are understand how deep it actually descends.Definitely worth watching...
But we pretty much sat through the entire movie wondering why this inspector thought it was ok to show up and accuse 5 people of "killing" a woman by being mean to her one time each over the course of 2 years.
It's a shame the director did not extend changes or liberties to it, but the critics may have had a go at him/her if they had.Some reviewers here did not like the time travel bit the inspector was doing at the end, but I understood a different sequence was occurring which was not time travel, but another chance for the family to do the right thing before the tragedy actually occurred.
It's very well acted by its ensemble cast with David Thewlis almost ghoulish as the soft-spoken, avenging "Inspector" Goole, Ken Stott as the self-important patriarch Mr, soon-to-be Sir Birling and especially Sophie Rundle as the spirited but doomed Eva/Daisy/Alice whose fate casts a long shadow over the whole Birling family, father, mother, son, newly engaged daughter and her well-to-do fiancé Mr Croft, assembled at the Birling mansion to celebrate the engagement.The play is opened up just enough so as you'd notice with some external scenes but mostly, as you'd expect it's played indoors, intensifying the drama to a backdrop of hypnotic chamber music as the plot edges inevitably to its climaxes.
I say climaxes because of the two big reveals that Priestley employs, firstly exposing the hypocrisy of the staid pre-Great War English society in their links to this young woman's demise and then the brilliant twist at the end just when it seems as if they've all gotten away with it.Some of Priestley's wider themes seem to be just that, i.e. wide of the mark, like his prediction of a bloody uprising by the downtrodden working classes, although considering the social upheaval later in the depicted decade, obviously with events abroad in Russia, Ireland and Weimar Germany to name but three, never mind the General Strike and Red Clydeside disputes of the post-War era here in Britain maybe he wasn't so far out either.
It's only in the words and actions of the two youngest members of the afflicted Birlings that we see any hope of societal change in the future as we observe their conscience-stricken reaction to events, neither tainted by the jaundiced, self-motivated experience of their elders.The treatment of the Inspector I thought played up the fantastic element just a little too much with the extended epilogue showing him as a sort of omnipresent spirit surrounding Eva as she comes to her fateful end almost as if the director felt the need to explain his unexplained presence,which for me reduced the character's effectiveness as the pricked conscience of the group, his last appearance should really have been after he finished with the family at the house.Nevertheless, any production like this which respects the context of the original play as this one undoubtedly does, even if at times it creaked rather than crept along, still managed to entertain me just as it always has, as a taut, cleverly written, psychological thriller with a moral in the tale..
'AN INSPECTOR CALLS' - 2015Directed by Aisling Walsh{Maudie; Song for a Raggy Boy}Starring David Thewslis{Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas}, Ken Stott{The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; Cafe Society} and Chloe Pirrie{Shell; Youth}Plot Overview: After a young girl commits suicide, Inspector Goole(David Thewlis) pays the Birling family a visit.
My opinion of the play is that it's a perfectly passable metaphor for Socialism VS Capitalism, contains some good characters and lines but ultimately falters due to its 'Scooby-Doo' plot structure.
Inspector Goole was the only character I liked in the play, and that statement carries over to this film.
I should like and care for certain characters in the movie, Eva Smith for example, but I just don't.
David Thewlis was excellent and it has a fantastic atmosphere, but the story and characters are distinctly lacking.
An Inspector Calls (2015) This BBC production is a clever, subtle, well acted movie that is very much in the form of the play it is based on by J.B. Priestly.
However, somewhere along their path to happiness they fell and lost their morality - Left with a mere visage to conceal their selfishness.Throughout the film, each member of the family is slowly picked apart by the inspector, and while the adults won't take responsibility for their actions, the children are quickly filled with guilt.
Despite all of the film being a simple conversation, it was an unfortunately accurate depiction of social class, and each carefully described event helped the audience piece together the mystery, and with each family member their actions only got worse.
'An Inspector Calls' is a wonderful play written by J B Priestley and first performed in the mid-1940s.
That said, this version comes close.As the Inspector, David Thewlis is wonderfully cast and Ken Stott makes a great contribution as the rich and selfish Mr Birling.
I had no idea about this film nor what to expect other than I love British movies and the lead actor, David Thewlis.
A classic story, An Inspector Calls has been remade many times, done as a play, for TV, film, and radio.This particular production is from the BBC in 2015.
David Thewlis plays the mysterious Inspector Goolie, who is investigating the suicide of a young lower-class woman.
We are responsible for each other."And that about sums up the themes of this excellent story, beautifully acted here by Thewlis, Miranda Richardson, Ken Stott, Sophie Rundle, Kyle Soller, and Finn Cole.Written by J.
Once the inspector arrives and begins his perfect unraveling of the family, if you don't know exactly what's coming before each member makes their big reveal then you really are in for a shocking treat.
The cast does a brilliant job; David Thewlis is great as The Inspector, he gives a subtle performance as the character who clearly has a low opinion of those he is dealing with.
The 1954 film version I had studied as part of my A-Levels so know it inside out more so then the book, this new version competes very well, the only area I felt it didn't was The Inspector himself, Sim brought something multi dimensional to the part, witty, intelligent with a darker undertone, David Thewlis I didn't think added such depth to the role, he was good but just lacked a bit of sparkle.
The inspector asked all the right questions, and did so precisely in the order needed to make all of members of the family aware of they're part in the tragic demise of the low class girl.
"An inspector calls film" has perfectly suited the characters into the 1912 lifestyle, setting the scene in a single night in April, in the luxurious mansion of the Birling's high class family.In my opinion, this film has plasm through the characters, all the feelings and thoughts that the characters in the play had, making the film be the live version of the play.
Sybil Birling played by Miranda Richardson, perfectly acted a high class powerful lady which is cold, doesn't show any sign of empathy or even care about her sons, family, nor even any lower class person as Eva Simth ( Sophie Rundle ).
In the film his character reflects the power a business man like him has in society and shows that he is cold hearted as his wife, and the capacity he has for firing from his business any employee he wants, doesn't matter the reason he has.Gerald, Sheila and Eric ( Kyle Soller, Chloe Pirrie & Finn Cole) give the appearance of the younger generation which is manly guided by stereotypes and influenced by the society and their high class parents.
Eric, represents the 'black sheep' of the family, hiding all his feelings, thoughts and acts, making him be totally invisible and in a certain way mysterious until Inspector Goole (David Thewlis) appears in scene.
In my opinion, David Thewlis has successfully acted Inspector Goole, showing how determine and cold minded he needs to be for the puzzling and enigmatic situation of Eva Smith's death.
In my opinion, this movie adaptation of the famous play 'An Inspector Calls' clearly shows what the author (J.B Priestley) wanted to transmit to the audience: we are all a community and, therefore, we should all care about each other.
Ken Scott, for example, who played Mr Birling did a great job, he clearly showed how Priestley would have wanted the film to be.
The Inspector (David Thewlis), in the other hand was always firm, he didn't move much and he showed very little compassion with the other characters.
In this play, a rich, British family (representing capitalist mentality) sit down and try to enjoy a nice dinner, celebrating an engagement, when the Inspector arrives (representing the socialist way of thinking) and tells them a girl (Eva Smith) committed suicide because of them. |
tt0073335 | Mahogany | Tracy Chambers is a sassy industrious young woman living in the projects of Chicago who dreams of becoming a fashion designer. She has worked her way up from salesgirl to secretary and assistant to the head buyer at a luxury department store (modeled after, and filmed at, Marshall Field's on State Street, Chicago). Her supervisor at the department store, Miss Evans (Nina Foch), does not support Tracy's desire to be a designer. She dissuades her from taking the night class due to her belief that it is interfering with Tracy doing her job for her effectively. In actuality Tracy is attempting to bring her dream of being a designer into fruition. She visits her aunt who works in a factory and gives her designs to sew together for her and she visits buyers to see if anyone will purchase her designs. There are no takers as well as comments made to her that the designs are good for Paris but not Chicago. She does not give up though.
One day a great photographer, Sean, played by Anthony Perkins, comes to the department store to shoot models, all Caucasian. He is clearly dissatisfied with the models and the shoot. Tracy and Miss Evans come in to observe and see what they can do for him. As soon as Tracy meets him she begins to talk about what a great photographer he is, Miss Evans cuts her off by asking her to fetch chairs for the models and coffee for herself and Sean. When Sean first sees Tracy he says that she is the type of model that he is looking for not realizing that she is Miss Evans secretary. Miss Evans then insists that she is only a secretary to which Sean insists that he has found a great model. Tracy is smitten with the attentions of the photographer because he is a conduit into the world of fashion that she is working so hard to get into but she is not romantically interested in him. When his time is done in Chicago he lets her know that she would do great in Rome and that he will be sending for her in the future. She takes that news with a grain of salt.
One night, while coming home from her art class, she is verbally accosted by Brian Walker (Billy Dee Williams), a local activist trying to make the neighborhood aware of the gentrification taking place in their community and attempting to drum up support for change. Tracy is tired and somewhat beleaguered by her circumstances. When Brian directly addresses her through the bullhorn as she walks past him, she then begins to exchange verbal slings with him because she is in no mood. During the verbal exchange, an upstairs neighbor looks out his window and yells at Brian about making so much noise late at night while opening a can of beer and some of the foam falls on Tracy. Everyone laughs, except for Tracy who then, in a beer-soaked huff, heads up to her apartment.
Tracy again encounters Brian during her walk to work. She sees and hears him talking through a bullhorn while neighborhood buildings are being demolished. The construction workers make comments meant to annoy Brian, such as that the neighborhood is better with the rat infested buildings coming down. However, Brian decides that he will not retaliate and continues to speak about the situation. At one point, Brian puts the bullhorn down and Tracy sees her chance to get back at him for their last encounter. While no one is looking, she pours milk into the mouthpiece. When he picks it up, the milk splatters all over him. For Brian, this is the last straw. He assumes that one of the construction workers has done it and a free for all fight begins. The police are called and Brian is taken to jail.
When Brian is let out, he finds Tracy waiting outside the police station. She tells him that she bailed him out because it was she who had poured the milk. She also tells him that she has written a bum check for his bail and they high tail it away from the precinct. He tells her that he will give it back to her and he then talks about when. She tells him that she is not interested in him and that she was only relieving her guilty conscience for the misunderstanding which put him in jail. He insists that he will return the money and so she tells him to put it in the mail slot.
One night she hears coins, lots of them, being placed in her mail slot. She opens the slot and tons of change fall to the floor. She opens the door and finds Brian is in the hallway. They begin a relationship at that point and Brian becomes her boyfriend. Their relationship includes her assisting in his running unsuccessfully for office in the district. The same night when Brian insists Tracy give up her dreams for his, Tracy receives a call from Sean (Anthony Perkins) to come to Rome and she flees in the middle of the night to become his muse.
Sean reinvents Tracy as "Mahogany" and ultimately she becomes among the most in-demand fashion models. An uneasy relationship develops with Sean, who is possessive and jealous of anyone vying for Tracy's attention. He struggles to control Tracy sexually and artistically by discouraging her attempts to break away from modeling and further her design aspirations. Tracy, feeling she owes Sean a great deal for bringing her into a world where she has wealth and fame, reluctantly agrees to sleep with him. Sean's implied or latent homosexuality makes the union a failure. Sean goes on to menace and threaten Brian, who visits Tracy in Rome. Brian fails to persuade Tracy to return home with him to support him in his political aspirations, and Tracy remains behind with Sean. This leads to tragic consequences and a new, wealthy benefactor for Tracy who finally helps her realize her design ambitions.
Tracy becomes demanding, cruel to her employees, and unwilling to express her appreciation to her new benefactor by becoming his mistress. She finds her career is not all she dreamed it would be without the love and support of Brian. Tracy realizes she must decide whether to continue with her material lifestyle and loveless relationship in Rome or return to the man she loves in Chicago. | melodrama | train | wikipedia | Casting Diana Ross as a fashion model was truly inspiring since it gives her an opportunity to look sensational throughout.
Billy Dee Williams is fine as her idealistic boyfriend intent on changing the world rather than his clothes, but the most fun is provided by Anthony Perkins whose performance could be subtitled "Norman Bates's Greatest Hits." As the neurotic and gay photographer, he chews the scenery like never before, and gives a sensational performance..
And so with "Mahogany," her second motion picture, Ross' mentor/lover (and, now, director) Berry Gordy fashioned an extravagant "hymn to how glorious it is to be Diana Ross", as reviewer Rex Reed put it.
Not since the glory days of Joan Crawford's dewy-ewed close-ups had a star been so lovingly photographed; never considered a classic beauty, Diana Ross is astoundingly luscious in this film.
She plays Tracy Chambers, a spunky Chicago ghetto girl with her eye on becoming a great fashion designer.
Tracy falls in love with Brian (Billy Dee Williams), an earnest politician, but his social conscience is at extreme odds with her desire for fame, fortune and the good life.
Enter Sean (Tony Perkins), the world's most famous fashion photographer, who discovers Tracy, whisks her off to Rome, and prego!
(Sean calls Tracy "Mahogany," you see, because she is also "dark, beautiful, rich and rare.") When in Rome, Tracy/Mahogany indulges in la dolce vita, drips candlewax on her nude body at a Roman orgy, becomes the renowned fashion designer she always dreamed of becoming, and also becomes the kept woman of filthy rich Jean-Pierre Aumont...but, she soon learns, "Success is nothing without someone you love to share it with." If you haven't already guessed, despite the chic Roman locales, there's more corn here than in the state of Kansas.
However, Diana Ross simply dominates the screen; it's a shame and a sin that her acting career never fulfilled its promise (due in large part to the mostly negative reviews "Mahogany" initially received), because she's precisely the larger-than-life, iconic figure that Hollywood's been lacking for so long.
Having said that, "Mahogany" IS best viewed as camp--the cornball dialogue, outrageous costumes (designed by Diana herself) and over-the-top performances ensure its cult status.
Only in this valley, the only doll is black beauty Diana Ross, piloting the whole vanity vehicle like a Sherman tank.
She plays Tracy Chambers, a gorgeous secretary from the mean streets of Chicago who finds fame and fortune (but alas--poignant sniffle--not happiness) as Europe's top model/designer, Mahogany ("Meeeee!
As her lovely theme song flows from the soundtrack, Ms. Ross throws a tantrum in a fountain (which ends up on a Revlon billboard); does a wax-covered striptease; and wears a number of eye-popping, often hideous fashions that she designed herself, including a Sea Monkey costume and a sugar glider made out of pantyhose.
It has to be seen to be believed.But no-one can inspire a drag queen like Ms. Ross who never lets plot or story-line interfere with her chances to soft pout or give us long enigmatic looks.
The storyline is simple....girl from the projects with big dreams leaves behind the bleakness of Chicago as she is "discovered" by Anthony Perkins who can't quite figure out if he is gay in the movie (as he was in real life) or straight.
The result is unintentional hilarity.Part of the rags to riches subplot (if you can call it that) is the Billy Dee Williams character who we know is the true love of Ms.Ross.
Actually I don't remember the story, because the camera barely moves from Ross the whole time.If you love high camp then this movie is for you.
Fun fact, some of the frocks on display were designed by Ms. Ross, and the whole camp drag-show was put together by her then lover, Berry Gordy.This move is camptastic!.
The over the top fashions, some designed by Diana Ross herself are hysterical and totally fun to check out.
Anthony Perkins has never been better in this over the top performance of one very strange photographer who can't quite decide whether to make the moves on Diana Ross or her 70s superstar smooth as hot chocolate boyfriend Billy Dee Williams.
The movie is overloaded with Ross from the theme song, the (ugly) clothing she designed for it, & the fact that she's in just about every scene.
Billy Dee Williams is very good as her leading man, as he was in "Lady Sings The Blues".
Ghetto girl from Chicago wants to be a fashion designer, but her politician boyfriend wants her instead to help him take care of the unfortunates at home (which is more important, after all, than working with coat-hangers, but can't he see that a big salary from the Mrs. might be used to strengthen his campaign?).
As good as Diana Ross was in "Lady Sings the Blues", I was restless with that film for a number of reasons (it followed the standard bio-flick pattern, it was heavy-handed and drab).
However, "Mahogany" exists purely on adrenaline, and Ross is hyped-up, high on life, and her kicky fashion scenes are both entertaining and gaudy.
The love story with Billy Dee Williams is relaxed, Anthony Perkins is loose and campy as a gay shutterbug who puts the moves on La Ross, and the decadent, glamorous surroundings are fun escapism.
Diana Ross is luminous, funny, charming and beautiful in a role that doesn't ask much of her but to pose - her delivery and timing are good, but the dialogue she's asked to utter sounds pretty campy today.
Billy Dee Williams as the Honest Politician Who Loves Her - well, he's good, but you could have hired a Steiff teddy bear to play that role.
Have to wonder whether Tracy's designs were set up to be appallingly bad (and they are) so that the audience would object less to her decision to give up on the fashion world.In my view, the best quote is not the oft-trotted out one about success, but: "You're only young once; you can be immature forever."The overall "stand by your man" message is singularly abhorrent, but "Mahogany" is such fine kitsch that even the staunchest feminist will laugh, despite herself..
In "Mahogany," a young woman has aspirations of becoming a successful fashion designer only to learn a life lesson from her wannbe politician boyfriend that success is meaningless without true romantic love (yeah, right).Motown singing legend (and Gordy's onetime lover) Diana Ross stars in the title role as Tracy Chambers, a black woman from the slums of Chicago who's starving for success in the fashion design industry.
Torn between her relationship with her boyfriend, along with his political ideals, and the golden opportunity of making a significant step in achieving her dream of becoming a successful fashion designer, she opts for the latter and abruptly departs for Rome.Although a pop singing icon, as the movie's hit theme song ("Do You Know Where You're Going To?") will attest, Ross' acting abilities in this movie however leave a great deal to be desired.
Although few would argue that the ostentation of the European fashion industry, the setting for most of this movie, is fitting for her real-life persona as that of the narcissistic Motown diva.Anthony Perkins appears as a prominent but emotionally imbalanced fashion photographer named Sean who under the guise of being Tracy's mentor, and similar to another Italian benefactor that she encounters later in the movie, has lecherous ulterior motives up his sleeve.
His unrequited attraction for Tracy results in some very unpleasant and devastating consequences, making her start to realize that success in the European fashion industry ain't exactly all that it's cracked up to be.Billy Dee Williams plays Brian, Tracy's altruistic boyfriend, who, with his own aspirations, has ambitions of becoming the alderman of the Chicago ward where Tracy herself resides.
As the consummate movie matinée idol, and in somewhat of a reprise from the previous movie in which he co-starred with Ross, "Lady Sings the Blues," he does suffice in "Mahogany" as the handsome leading man.
However, in scenes where he's embroiled in altercations with construction workers while conducting political campaigns in the streets of Chicago--and besting the roughnecks in street fights--are a tad "Hollywoodish" to say the least and far more humorously cheesy than action-packed.But above all else, what makes the movie such an unadulterated piece of camp (or crap) is the ludicrous, naive theme it perpetuates—"Success is nothing without someone you love to share it with." In what was presumably meant to be the climax of this movie, and to the background of heavy sentimental orchestral music, Brain emphatically delivers this line to Tracy amid a heated lovers' quarrel.
I love Diana Ross but hate this movie.
Diana Ross plays Tracy a poor black woman who hopes to become a famous fashion designer.
They fall in love (of course) but then she meets a famous fashion photographer named Sean (Anthony Perkins).
She starts designing her own fashions but discovers success means nothing without having someone you love to share it with.
Poor inner-city girl (Diana Ross) just wants to be a successful fashion designer but can't get a big break.
Oh, and there's some stuff about an up-and-coming politician (Billy Dee Williams) she loves and a homosexual photographer (Anthony Perkins) who "understands the needs of a woman." Cheesy kitsch from Berry Gordy.
Diana sings the theme song ("Do You Know Where You're Going To") that plays throughout the movie.
As Diana and Billy Dee argue there's this background actor in between them whose eyes just go from one actor to the other as they say their lines like he's watching a tennis match.
The Big Question is: should Diana choose her aging lover in Paris, including the promise of fashion immortality and unimaginable riches--or should she fly back to Chicago for the love of a good man and cook his dinner on a regular basis?
And Tony Perkins is around too,, probably strung out on something dangerous, making the film a few years after Psycho, still cruising on Norman Bates, so there's the added attraction of watching his shifty eyes never know quite where to land.
Diana Ross overacts in the second half of the film, screaming at Billy Dee, berating the workers making her outfits .
Nothing to really reccommend this film, except kitsch value, Diana Ross looking lovely despite some awful(self-designed)fashions, and a lush theme song.
Photographer Sean thinks Tracy should be a model named Mahogany, and he claims to like her fashions.I thought Diana Ross did a good job, somewhat charming, very determined to succeed despite obstacles and not willing to let anyone stand in her way.
I liked the theme song and the jazz that was played in some scenes where Sean and Tracy were together.
Not As Bad As The Wiz. This film is another vanity piece for the ultimate diva Diana Ross.
Only Billy Dee Williams and Jean-Pierre Aumont manage to do credible performances as the two men who love Ross' character and Anthony Perkins is at his creepy best as the psychotic photographer.
Unfortunately, Diana Ross is wasted in this role, which tends to prove that she had only one good performance in her and, unfortunately, it was in her debut, Lady Sings the Blues..
The fact that Diana Ross never looked more beautiful certainly makes the movie a bit more palatable..
This movie stars the famous Diana Ross and Billy Dee Williams (who I've noticed loves to smile a lot **giggles**).I've seen a few fashion films, and I will admitt, out of all of the ones I've seen, this one has to be the best.
It's more than just a fashion movie...its also a love story.
I love the outfits that Diana Ross's character designs and the ones that she wears.
Acting is over-rated and Diana Ross knew this when she was over-looked for an Oscar for Lady Sings the Blues.
Boy loves girl but girl has bigger dreams than Billy Dee Williams and his jive-talking ways.
Girl is discovered and scales the dizzying heights of modeling and managing not to detect Anthony Perkins was gay, all the while enduring bad lines, great lighting and seemingly never-ending photo montages of her looking fab.
Yes...girl finally realized fame and glamah is a mirage and all she really wants to do is return to the projects and have Billy Dee touch her in the mornings...but this time not walk away.Okay, maybe that's NOT the oldest story in the book, but this is a dazzling music video.
Anthony Perkins then lures Diana Ross away from Chicago, and away from the demanding BDW who wants her to give up her dreams and become the good wife.
Just to teach Brian a lesson, Tracy enters into an abusive but rewarding relationship with Anthony Perkins who plays the camp and sassily sadistic photographer Sean.
There are ups and downs, and moments of camp gold with some of the fashion shoots, and there is one scene where Diana falls into a fountain and it is later used as a fashion ad...because every designer in the 70's wanted to PROVE that polyester was resilient to fetid fountain water, and impervious to bad acting.
In fact I prefered it over Miss Ross's other movie Lady Sings The Blues..
Though Diana Ross has been in a number of films as well as TV movies, I don't think the general public thinks of her as a well rounded actress.
Diana Ross gorgeous, Billy Dee Williams handsome and strong.
this movie along with lady sings the blues is the epitome of diana at her best.
I thought Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, and Anthony Perkins were outstanding in their roles.
This was Diana Ross' second feature film, and Berry Gordy, who had done such an excellent job guiding her career, could have done a much better job to star this American treasure in.
Billy Dee Williams and Diana Ross should have made many more films together.
Even tho miss Ross is credited with the costumes designs for this film.
He's the reason why anything bad at Motown happened, just because of his "Diana Ross is the star, everyone else second-class" attitude.This movie was weird, no, wait!
Billy Dee Williams, I can't remember him in any movies, but he did a good job in Lady Sings...
This movie seems like it was primarily a vehicle for Diana Ross's singing ability.
"And now, Mahogany presents
the Kabuki Finale!" This is the movie that made me want to be a fashion designer *and* a drag queen.
Just like in *Mommie Dearest* when you *know* you're looking into the heart of Joan Crawford, *Mahogany* makes you feel as if you're looking into the heart of Diana Ross.
In this self-serving tale of the perils of stardom, Diana, as Tracy Chambers, scales the heights of the glamour and glitter of international high fashion and plummets directly into Bad-Movie-Hall-Of-Fame.
Just when things seem hopeless, her job in the display department of a local department store puts her in the line of vision of a famous, but unstable fashion photographer, played to extreme by Anthony Perkins.
Diana Ross is so beautiful in this film - mostly when she isn't modeling actually.
Only bad part to this film is when Tracy (Ross's character) seems to give in and become nothing but a helpmate to Billy Dee who doesn't care about her goals or dreams at all.
Being a fan of The Supreme's I heard some of Diana Ross's music on their greatest hits compilations so I'm familiar with Mahogany's theme: "Do you know where you're going to".
So I figured I'd watch the movie, especially considering how good Ross was in Lady sings the Blues, that must have jus been a one time thing.
It is sung as the theme throughout this film.I was expecting a Diana Ross performance as I saw in her nominated "Lady Sings the Blues" of 1972.
Ross plays Tracy, a poor secretary who yearns to be a fashion designer.
As they meet and fall in love, Tracy's big break as a model and designer come through Sean (Anthony Perkins), a photographer who may not be all that he appears.As her fame rises, Tracy/"Mahogany" discovers fame does not always equal happiness.
Berry Gordy's love letter to Diana Ross is one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time.
Frankly, the only thing saving this flick from zero stars is Anthony Perkins's ultra-campy performance of the photographer who gives Ross her big break.
My wife says that this movie is for people who like fashion and design.
The only thing I knew regarding this movie was the title theme that Diana sang (Do You Know Where You're Going To).
Anthony Perkins plays Sean McAvoy, the fashion photographer who tries to take advantage of Tracy's career (he gave her the nickname Mahogany).
Billy Dee Williams is great as the politician boyfriend of Tracy's.
"Tracy Chambers" (Diana Ross) lives in the south side of Chicago and works as a secretary at a large department store during the day and attends a fashion school at night in the hope of one day being a fashion designer.
However, things change when Tracy meets a famous photographer named "Sean McAvoy" (Anthony Perkins) who entices her to Rome to become a fashion model which could greatly help her in her initial dream of becoming a fashion designer.
Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film contained some decent drama here and there and Diana Ross performed in an adequate manner in the starring role.
Diana may belt out a song--look beautiful in fashionable outfits but sorry, the girl is not the best actress.
In most films, Anthony Perkins plays the psycho characters---here you will not be disappointed.
And Billy Dee Williams is the male dream cake as always.Much better movie than The Wiz, Diana Ross fans will love it. |
tt1890513 | Ragini MMS | Ragini (Kainaz Motivala) and Uday (Rajkummar Rao) go to a secluded house, set deep in a forest, for a weekend of fun. Upon arrival, Ragini and Uday discover worms in their bag of food; but neglect it. Uday has plans of recording a video of Ragini, without her knowledge, so that he can fulfill his dream of becoming an actor. However, they are interrupted by Ragini's friend, Piya and her boyfriend, Vishal. After a bash of music, dance and beer, Vishal asks Uday where the toilet is and after taking a dark way to the toilet, Vishal says that, on his way to the house, a local pan vendor told him the house belonged to a lady who was accused of being a witch by her family member, and subsequently killed by her family.
However, she returned as a vengeful ghost and murdered her entire family. After hearing Vishal, Uday goes downstairs. While returning to the hall, Vishal senses eeriness in the house and notices one room's door open and close on its own, so he enters in and the door gets locked from outside. After some time he enters into the house from the outside and blames Uday that he latched the door from the outside and says that he came by jumping through the window. Ragini finds one scratch mark on Vishal's neck and after an argument, Vishal and Piya leave the house confused. Uday then handcuffs Ragini to the bed. While they are kissing, the lights go out and Uday's neck is scratched by someone and he asks Ragini for his phone and he goes downstairs to bring his cell phone. While returning toward Ragini his hair is pulled by someone, and he finds himself bleeding from head. He calls his friend to see if he is playing a prank on him; after receiving a negative reply he realises that there is another presence in the house. Ragini then searches for the key to her cuffs and while searching Ragini spots a camera in the room and realises Uday's intentions. She is unable to do anything, as the key has gone missing, leaving her tied to the bed. As matters worsen, his phone battery becomes low so Uday tries to run away, leaving Ragini alone. The spirit does not let him escape however, and Uday returns upstairs, bruised. The ghost enters Uday's body and makes him commit suicide. Ragini struggles to unlock herself from the cuffs before sunrise. She finds the key under the bed, but fails to get it. The next night, the ghost attacks her again, but she manages to break free by cutting her hands with glass.
Ragini escapes the house and runs away, screaming for help. When she sees a car, she chases it, but finds Vishal dead inside. After trying to start the car unsuccessfully, she hides in an old well where she finds Piya's body. The ghost then grabs her and brings her back to the haunted house. The ghost tells that she is not a witch and she did not kill her children. Neither will she leave her house, nor will she let others get out of there alive. Ragini slowly rises up in the air and is slapped and thrown around. The ghost then tries to make her commit suicide but Ragini is able to stop her and toss the weapon away. Ragini stays suspended against the wall all night. As the sun rises, she slips down to the ground, having survived and is free to escape. On-screen text reveals that after a few days, a local boy finds Ragini unconscious and takes her to the hospital. She had to go through intensive psychiatric treatment for 10 months, and then she agreed to tell her story. | paranormal | train | wikipedia | In short, not a bad deal.What jars are some of the horror sequences, the director's sudden realization that horror movies should have horrifying effects - and hence a surfeit of effects (sound and visual) at the end.
RAGINI MMS - Movie Review : Watch the original 'PARANORMAL ACTIVITY' instead of this cheap imitation..
As an out of the routine review of this latest inspired project from a reputed production house, I would like to proceed giving you an idea of how RAGINI MMS may have been conceived a few months back.A Queen producer of the small screen after moving into film production, tastes a marginal success in one of her low budget projects, called LSD – LOVE SEX AUR DHOKHA, majorly shot on hand held camera.
Taking an idea from that, she thinks of making another movie on the similar lines to be made in a few months time.
Now, while her team is looking out for a plot to be selected, someone informs them about an Instant Hit movie in the West made on a shoe string budget with a horror plot called "PARANAORMAL ACTIVITY".
The next day itself everyone watches it, selects it and decides to write a more Indianised Script around the same theme of a haunted house and hidden cameras.But in a few days time, the team thinks that only horror element, without any other added gimmick as shown in the Original 'PA' may not work in India.
So taking a hint from their last successful project LSD, the writers decide on to bring in some Romance, Sex and Vulgarity into it which will make it more sensational and a news-making item at the time of its release.
As a result, a MMS scandal scoop is added into the film along with many long smooches and bed-room scenes to bring in more viewers into the theater.
Further, as in India it might be tough to terrify the viewers without any visible spirit (like in the original 'PA'), hence a vaguely visible spirit is also added into the movie, who speaks in a strange tone and also kills all the people visiting the haunted house in a bloody Ramsay manner.After having everything in place, while shooting the pre-climax sequences, both the director and the cinematographer suddenly remember another famous low budget HIT movie of the west called "THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT" and get excited.
So keeping the same film in mind they shoot the wandering in the woods (bamboo trees kind of forest) sequences in the end with the night vision hand held camera quite similar to as seen in TBWP.OK, now the film is ready
.and we need to promote it heavily.
And hence a perfect drama is staged to deliberately create another instant money-earner for the famous production house by fooling the audiences.But unfortunately, this time the whole process goes in vain since the end product turns out to be pretty confused, vulgar, funny and spooky all together taking the viewer no-where in its small yet over lengthy duration of around 100 minutes.
Later on though it manages to shake the viewer occasionally but on the whole, fails to give you a good entertaining time in the theater.The first time director, Pavan Kirpalani has got the talent but loses the track mainly on his editing table and could have easily made an impact with a heavily edited version of the movie, of around only 80-85 minutes.
In the first half it simply looks like a B grade sex movie desperately interested in exploiting the females on the screen.
Kainaz Motivala has a soothing presence and acts well.However, many of the viewers who haven't seen either PARANORMAL ACTIVITY or THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT may like it to some extent.
But for me, RAGINI MMS only remains a cheap kind of Indian imitation of the West, so I would rather suggest you to watch it's original if you really want to get spooked.And here are the two things I learned about Bollywood from RAGINI MMS : 1.
So with its heavy obsession with the length of the movie, the writers and the directors are forced to add extra sequences into their project to make it around 2 hours.And in both cases the victim remains the Project as well as its viewers..
Although not as impressive as the 'Blair Witch Project' or 'Paranormal Activity' (most of the horror elements have been borrowed from these movies), Ragini MMS still delivers 90 minutes of entertainment.
Don't watch this movie if you want to be on the edge of you seat because this movie is a little off that mark but it does give a good competition to the rest of the horror flicks in Hindi cinema.
i don't mind bollywood movies based on Hollywood inspirations but this movie lifts entire scenes, not just the story lines, from paranormal activity 1 & 2 + blair witch project....
right down to the white undershirt and shorts worn by the girl in paranormal activity.and oh yea, the score is from the fifth element -- the track "koolen." i'm not sure to what extent eric serra and producers of the English films can file a lawsuit against ekta kapoor but its something definitely to consider because this is just insane.
To begin with, I am a little disappointed with Ragini MMS in terms of originality.
The film has a little resemblance with paranormal activity (as it was seen in movie trailer).However makers have added the Desi spices to the movie by some Indianized dialogues (or say abuses) and strong story and sub-plots.The genre of the movie is a winner itself.The combination of sex and horror (which was used indirectly in Bhatt's movies is the stream line here).
Intentions of the film makers are very clear here.Just two elements horror and sex, no melodrama or Bollywood masala.Rajpal is very influential on screen.His screen presence and comic timing is bang on!Kainaz has improved a lot after her bubbly role in Wake Up Sid.Explicit scenes are done comfortably by the lead and their chemistry is extra ordinary.Story is straight without any twists and turns.Screenplay is tight and tangling.Dialouges are surprisingly fresh,witty and sultry.The dialogues (and slang) gives a good flavor to the horror movie.Background score is a mile stone for horror movies considering the fact that high pitched digital sound and scorching guitars are used for score in an Indian horror movie.Minus some originality and faulty editing, the movie is the scariest date movie of India till date..
Ragini MMS thrilled the hell out of me at every junction of its Paranormal Activity-type film-making.The lead actors are perfect but I don't think they go parallel to what I hear where the true events.
Although I don;t know the story, I guess she will be all right as the character Ragini because she's got what Kainaz has.
The plot promises itself to be a true story, where a girl was discovered unconscious after spending several days at a haunted house.A young man Uday (Rajkumar) brings his girlfriend Ragini (Kainaz) at an abandoned and fairly spooky mansion.
Finally the couple finds that they are left on their own to fend off the enraged witch, who would not stay calm unless her wrath is inflicted upon.There are some scenes that make you feel that you are on a trip to the country side and are spending a night or so in a haunted mansion.
The real-time camera work adds good punch of surrealism and originality.
If you are looking for an action-packed horror film (like most of the Ramsay hits), Ragini MMS isn't for you.
The fact that impressed me the most is that even though, primarily you get the feeling that it might be a movie with just sensual scenes and not so many significantly petrifying moments, it actually left its mark on me for the direction of the horrifying scenes and the quality of performances by the two actors.
But as the reel rolls & the movie unfolds, it turns into a nightmare for the two as they encounter a lot of paranormal activities happening around & realize that the house they are staying in is haunted.
I sincerely recommend this one to Vikram Bhatt and expect that he would probably learn a thing or two and would not dole out movies like Haunted 3D again.
And if he is too dim-witted to understand what a horror movie is then maybe it is time he hangs up his director shoes for the good of all humanity.
Applause to the whole team of Ragini MMS as they have surely provided a benchmark against which all future Bollywood horror movies must be evaluated..
After a long time, finally a Hindi horror movie that sends shock waves of fear while you watch it.
It has enough of spine-chilling moments to earn itself a viewing.'Ragini MMS' Synopsis: Out to relax & have fun at a farmhouse, a couple experience horror at the hands of an unknown entity.'Ragini MMS' is shot well, giving it a documentary type feeling.
At a crisp 90-Minutes, this horror flick leaves much an impact.Pawan Kripalani & Vaspar Dandiwala's Screenplay has a few loose ends, particularly in its first-hour, but goes full throttle in the second-hour.
On the whole, 'Ragini MMS' is a worthy horror flick..
It was only matter of time,before Bollywood get into the found footage genre.Ragini MMS (2011) Hindi movie, no need for any subs, as most of the times, they speak in English!Two couple who go to farmhouse and most of time, all they think of is having Sex.when get into the mood, there friends come, thing start to get scary.We see the ghost here and there, it is a shame , cause it take the tension away, however there were some scenes, that were actually surprising good.Near the end, after some descent scenes, it loses it tension again , which makes go down hill.This is actually Bollywood version Paranormal Activity4 out of 10 I think worth watching for least once!
"Ragini MMS" made on a shoe-string budget coupled with the efforts of PR machinery to manufacture topics at regular intervals leading to talk of the town, and eventually resulting in a steep ROI curve.
Fans of "Blair Witch Project" & "Paranomal Activity" would certainly not be impressed with a plot that has been tweaked to incorporate the voyeuristic element of MMS/ Big Boss thereby nearly missing being stamped as a plagiarised product.
for more movie Review like this page::::: https://www.facebook.com/MovieReviewByYunusIrshad.Ragini MMS (A)----------my Rating: 4.5/5 EXCELLENTVERY GOOD: * Background score * performances * Story (as it is inspired by true events) * Screenplay * Sex and Horror scenes with more thrills * Cinematography * Direction * Dialogues as it needed for a Horror flickVERY BAD: - SongsFINAL VERDICT: * It is a best Horror movie.....
I bet u that u will fear in dark and more sleepless nights.....Must watch in night to enjoy the flick.Out to relax and have fun at a farmhouse, a couple experience horror at the hands of an unknown entity..
I saw this movie at a theater near my house and let me tell you audience were not scared instead they were laughing.
The treatment of the film is copied from Hollywood flicks "Paranormal Activity" and "Blair Witch Project." I don't understand why Indian producers cannot hire writers who can write original stories and screenplays.
You all might have figured out by now that it is a copy of two Hollywood films, i.e., Paranormal Activity and Blair Witch Project.
The character of Uday is also not original it has been lifted from Love Sex Aur Dhokha.
As far as the horror element is concerned, well I was not scared and there were people around me in theater who were abusing the director for making a crappy film like this.
a decent Hindi horror movie after a long time.
After a long time a decent Hindi horror movie maybe after darr of RamGopal Varma before he turned himself into a factory.Premise is simple and though they say it to be inspired by real events this kind of story of a wronged soul communicating with innocent/scheming outsiders has been repeated umpteen number of times.
Acting by lead pair is too good ,though movie sags towards end but length has been kept proper and it ends before viewer will get bored.
While watching the latest horror film Ragini MMS I must have jumped out of my seat at least 38 times.
This pretty much sums up the movie.Plot So a sleazy Delhi type guy (from the cast of Love Sex Dokha) wants to shoot his girlfriend in a homemade sex tape.
These cameras along with the dude's own hand-held camera are supposed to make up the movie frames of Ragini MMS.
The film is over punctuated with sudden sound effects, whooshes sounds, heavy breathing, unlit screens, scary looking camera angles and of course glimpses of a traditional witch spewing Marathi to boot.
The film borrows from a number of point of view films like Blair Witch project (the apology to family and the running in the forest) as well as the more recent REC (the discovery of the room where the actual crime might have happened) and of course Paranormal activity (titled fallen cameras showing the horrifying proceedings)So the question remains - is Ragini MMS scary enough?
The premise of shooting through digital cameras does create a strong sense of realism which is why so many horror films get made in this format.
But the best character are the camera angles which leave just about enough nooks and crannies in each frame to give you a feeling of unease.In the end Ragini Mms could have been a landmark Indian horror film much like Ekta 's 'LSD' and 'Shor in the city' but its attempt to link the mms scandal to what is an out and out supernatural horror story ended up confusing the filmmaker.
Had it gone all out with a horror theme it would have been fun to figure out a number of horror movie questions - why Panditji sent them to the house, what was the crime committed, what happens to the bunch of boys who came out of nowhere to disappear in the same time.
why was the house fitted with cameras.But unfortunately someone in production did not want to let go of the MMS sleaze factor thinking that would sell the movie.
So the filmmaker gets to show the oh yes we believe that plaque "inspired by true events" and also gets to end the film, with a 'LSD' / 'Cloverfield' like epilogue which is supposed to make us emotional about the sleazy couple.
Special Mention : LSD fans can watch for a tribute where Yadav dances on Lucky Looka's "Tum gandi achi lagti ho!" – was the only time I smiled in the movie..
The Ragini B!tch MMS Project.
The Ragini B!tch MMS Project This raunchy date movie has turned the table into a voyeuristic horror genre on the likes of 'Blair Witch project' and fixed camera angle of 'Paranormal Activity'.
Only the technique and presentation style is inspired, and Ragini MMS has its own real story and Desi flavor.
The débutante director Pawan Kripalani has done justice to the digital real film camera by borrowing it from the producers of Love, Sex and Dhoka Ekta Kapoor.While Ekta has proved that if you have a good story, you don't need A rated superstars.
Dibankar Banerjee's casting from LSD has proved it once.This spooky genre has not wasted time in explaining the story behind the haunted mansion or the love between the two quintessential Bombay lovers.
In a country where movies like 1920, and Phoonk qualify as horror tales, you have to see the major step forward that this one makes.
The location chosen was good, especially the grove of trees that one has to cross to get to the house (Blair Witch Project).
I remember seeing the couple pass through it on their way in, at the beginning of the movie and it had struck me then that the last scene will most likely play out there (and it did).
Even the basic premise of the place being rigged with cameras and the whole movie being shown through their lenses (Paranormal Activity), gives it the more realistic and hands-on touch.
Another credit to the movie is that its parallel storyline, the one about the guy videotaping his sex sessions, was interesting enough to make you forget, at least for a few moments, that you are in to watch a horror movie.
For Bollywood horror movies, this does represent a level of maturity, hitherto mostly unseen.A special mention for the casting; the female lead plays her role well, depicting an innocent and trusting girl caught up in her boyfriend's malevolent schemes, and later running for her life from the ghost.
And for the ones into Hollywood horror movies like myself, watch it, but don't expect a single shock, or even a mild chill, and then sit down to write a review..
Blair Witch meets Paranormal Activity done badly with Indian actors..
At the house they stay at, there were many cameras, so much of the movie does not suffer from Uday's shaky hands.The MMS is for Multimedia Messaging Service, which allows for multimedia content to be sent over a variety of devices.
As in many USA/UK horror films of recent vintage, way too many frames of the movie are of rooms where nothing is moving; perhaps with sound, perhaps not.Uday handcuffs Ragini to a bed; they start intimate activities, but paranormal influences put them off before they get anywhere.
Ragini sees the cameras, and is displeased with Uday.A voice from somewhere repeats 'I am not a witch,' 'I did not kill my children,' and 'This is my house.'There is a long interval of Ragini, alone, suffering, trying to figure out how to get free of the cuffs and the bed.
Ragini finally gets loose about the time that two other people are about to open up the house. |
tt4667854 | SiREN | One week before his wedding day, Jonah and his groomsmen hit the town for a wild night of club hopping and debauchery. But the party becomes a savage fight for survival when they unwittingly unleash a fabled predator upon the festivities.
Jonah tries to figure out a way to save his friend Rand, who was kidnapped and tortured by the sadistic Mr. Nyx, a former carnival owner turned necromancer. The girl, Lily, is actually a demon from hell known as a Siren that was summoned years ago, taken by Nyx, and forced to become a sex slave. Jonah tries to tell Lily he made a mistake not knowing what she was. Lily becomes infatuated with him and wants him to stay with her, killing anyone who gets in her way.
Jonah makes a deal with Nyx that Lily will follow him to a church where she was summoned years earlier. Jonah is happy to see Rand alive and well, while Nyx plans to send Lily back to hell, deeming her too dangerous to anyone around her.
However, Lily gets the upper hand and kills Nyx and his henchman, saving Jonah and Rand. She kisses Jonah goodbye, and decides to stay in the church for the rest of her life. A month later, Jonah and his wife Eva get married. They both make love on their honeymoon. Jonah decides to get himself a glass of wine, until he realized that he had made love to Lily and not Eva, who is asleep on the couch. Eva notices Lily and starts to scream, where Lily starts to attack her. Jonah begs her to stop and decides to go with her, while Eva starts to scream for Jonah, who disappears into the night. | cult | train | wikipedia | null |
tt2663812 | An Adventure in Space and Time | In 1966, William Hartnell (David Bradley) is in his dressing room at the BBC. He insults a stagehand who calls him to the set, where the delay caused by his absence is noticed. Hartnell enters in costume, ready to film his last moments as the First Doctor and stands in front of the TARDIS console.
Three years earlier, BBC executive Sydney Newman (Brian Cox) is asked to create a show that will fill the gap between Grandstand and Juke Box Jury. He has an idea for a science-fiction series with the central character being a "doctor", although he does not know of what. When he tells his colleague Verity Lambert (Jessica Raine) she is hesitant to join the project. She changes her mind when Newman asks her to be the producer, not his assistant. Lambert and the show's director, Waris Hussein (Sacha Dhawan), meet William Hartnell to offer him the lead role in what will eventually be titled Doctor Who and, despite some trepidation, he accepts.
During rehearsal, Hartnell is dissatisfied that the TARDIS lacks an interior set. Newman then compliments Hartnell's acting ability to save his producer from a troublesome conversation. However, Newman has misgivings about Lambert's handling of her job. This inspires Lambert to become more assertive and she forces the set designer to finally create the TARDIS interior. He does so effortlessly, impressing Lambert. The recording of the pilot episode is beset with difficulties; Newman dislikes the result and orders a re-shoot. Following this, he is finally contented and schedules a transmission date.
Lambert and Hussein are nervous as the broadcast of the first episode occurs the day after the assassination of John F. Kennedy and its potential audience is diminished. Newman summons Lambert and tells her of Controller of BBC1 Donald Baverstock's (Mark Eden) decision to cancel the show, but Lambert emphasises her belief in it and demands he repeat the first episode before the second is screened. For the next serial, Newman expresses his concern about the Daleks, referring to them as "bug-eyed monsters", which he refused to allow on the show since its creation. However, Lambert eventually convinces him. Following the transmission of the first Dalek story, Lambert realises its popularity when she spots children impersonating the creatures' catchphrase, "Exterminate". Newman is pleased to tell her that the programme achieved a viewership of 10 million and continued production is now assured.
As most of the original cast and crew (including Hussein and Lambert) gradually move on to other projects, Hartnell's health declines, leading him to forget lines and require scenes to be re-shot — something the BBC can ill-afford. Hartnell meets with Newman and asks for a reduced workload, but the decision has already been taken to replace him. Hartnell has grown to embrace playing the Doctor and struggles with his emotional attachment to the character; with little choice, he reluctantly accepts the situation. He breaks into tears as he informs his wife Heather (Lesley Manville) of the news, admitting that he doesn't want to leave the role.
Before his final scene, Hartnell shares a brief exchange with his successor, Patrick Troughton (Reece Shearsmith). As the cameras are about to record, Hartnell looks across the main console and sees Matt Smith, who will play the same role nearly 50 years later. Smith silently acknowledges Hartnell's legacy before disappearing as Hartnell begins the scene. | historical | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1792131 | Spooky Buddies | The movie opens in the year 1937 where Sherrif Jim and others from the town of Fernfield set of to the manor of Warwick the Warlock. Warwick has kidnapped five puppies so he can sacrifice them to the Halloween hound, an evil hound who can open a portal to ghosts but only if he has the souls of five puppies of the same blood. One of the puppies, Pip, belongs to a young boy named Joseph. As the mob prepares to storm the manor, the hound kills Pip's siblings, but Pip escapes. Warwick chases her and grabs her just as the mob enters. The Warlock manages to escape just as dawn approaches. Thus, when the hound tries to kill Pip he fails and Pip becomes a ghost. Jim and Deputy Tracker surround Warwick, however he jumps in the mirror and escapes.
75 years later, the Buddies are on a school trip to Warwick's manor with their owners, Alice, Billy, Pete, Sam and Bartleby. When the class go to the graveyard to see Deputy Tracker's memorial stone, Billy finds himself scared of the appearance of the gravedigger, Mr. Johnston. Overhearing that the legend says that if you say 'Halloween Hound' three times in front of Warwick's mirror, you would release the Halloween Hound. B-Dawg, who is a "scaredy cat", tries to overcome his fear by doing the legend. Pip the ghost puppy tries to warn the Buddies, but B-Dawg is terrified by Pip's ghost and accidentally completes the reciting. B-Dawg's owner, Billy hasn't come up with his Halloween projects and decides to do it on Warwick the Warlock. With the help of Sheriff Dan, Enrique borrows Warwick's evidence file and staff. Billy's mother, Janice, buys Billy his costume for trick-it-treating, which is a Christmas Story-esque bunny suit, having misheard him saying, "Hip Hop Rabbit", when he meant "Hip Hop Rapper". Billy goes as Warwick the Warlock and humiliates B-Dawg in the bunny outfit. Billy meets up with his friends and the Buddies and they go trick-or-treating.
Two punks, Rodrick and Skip, who had scared the class earlier on during the trip, go explore the manor. They witness the release of Warwick and the Halloween Hound who step out of the mirror. Warwick thinking that Rodrick and Skip released them, turns them into obese mice after accusing them of stealing his staff. Warwick learns from his owl assistant, Hoot, that his staff is in the hands of Billy. Warwick immediately sets off to search for his staff and spell book. As he is searching the streets, he believes that the town is already taken over as everyone is dressed up for Halloween. He sends the Halloween Hound to find the Buddies, who ask for help from a sorceress dog named Zelda. It is here that Pip explains she is not trying to hurt them, but to warn them the Halloween Hound is coming. After using a spell to return her to her body, the Hound finds them and turns Sniffer and Zelda to stone. The kids are running from Warwick and hide in the Halloween party where Warwick finds his staff. They are rescued by Mr. Johnston (who is actually Pip's owner).
Warwick takes the pups hostage in his manor and says that if the book isn't returned, he will kill them. The Buddies have a daring escape from Warwick the Warlock. After escaping, the Buddies run from the Hound who has turned Pip to stone and opened the portal. The evil spirits who've escaped the mirror turn everyone in the town into zombies. Meanwhile, Hoot decides to stop and leave but is also turned to stone by the Hound. Warwick steals his book back and shoots his staff at Mr. Johnston.
The Buddies hide in the kitchen where Budderball starts devouring pickled eyeballs. The Halloween Hound finds them and B-Dawg comes up with a plan. Just when the Halloween Hound is about to suck out Budderball's soul, B-Dawg signals Budderball who farts, releasing out gas, repelling the magic and causing the Halloween Hound to have his own soul sucked out. The kids and Mr. Johnston find Warwick paralyzed after opening the Bible and Billy takes Warwick's staff. He reads the spell which returns the evil spirits and undoes the hounds evil, such as turning people into stone. Mr Johnston destroys the staff to prevent Warwick from coming back.
Mr. Johnston is reunited with Pip as well as the kids being reunited with the Buddies. The kids bid goodbye to Mr. Johnston, who has located the owners of Pip's brothers and sisters and travels around America to return them. The Buddies bid farewell to Pip who thanks them for helping him defeat Warwick. The film ends with the kids waving goodbye to Mr. Johnston as he drives off with the caravan and the puppies.
At the end, the "secret buddy" can be seen in the corner of the screen, his name being Nigel Dog. | paranormal | train | wikipedia | Halloween movie for children.
My six year old son found this movie to "spooky" to finish.
He begged me to turn it off because he was scared.
I found it cute and was surprised he didn't like it, since he is such a big fan of these films.
At the time I rented it, the clerk warned me that some other children also found it scary.
In the end, I will say it was a great movie in the lines of these movies, but just be prepared for your little one to get a little scared.
I will try it again, when he is older, possibly next year.
I would also like to mention that people need to remember these movie are made for small children so silly, over acting is expected..
Spooky Buddies vs Religion.
I have read a review on here with a person being so upset that the spooky buddies is pushing religion in the face of their children!!!!
The BUDDIES series is a Disney made series for children and young people, it do not push religion in your face, it's all for who ever believes in what ever....I am united, a Christianity religion but that does not mean the movie is poking religion in my face or your.
If you look into all movies and TV shows your child watches, you will see that all movies are created to entertain a certain audience....I am all for the SPOOKY BUDDIES and all of their movies.
Children love the buddies, and it isn't all about religion...just some people want to cause a riot I guess.
Following Along The Buddies Trail.
I managed to get hold of an advanced copy of the movie and my 9 year old was jumping for joy about that, I wasn't holding my breath about watching this movie with her but we both laughed within 30 seconds of it starting.
The production quality was equal to the other 3 in the series and I was very pleased because of that alone.
The acting was pretty over the top but for young kids it was perfect and nothing too scary, the story line was pretty thin but it kept my little girl dancing up and down right up to the final elimination of the bad evil Warlock.
It was all too cheesy but these movies are what it is all about as kids love cheesy and need a simple plot or they get lost.
I for one will say it is OK for young kids and not too silly but Pixar movies are far superior and let kids use their own imagination more as well as letting adults enjoy them..
Did Anyone Say Hocus Pocus?.
I watched this movie last night, and I'm still in shock.
I can't understand how the producers of the movie weren't sued.
Honestly, this was an extremely bad copy of Hocus Pocus.
There's a scene with a dance, a male witch, talking animals, a legend, a book with spells, a man who behaves like a zombie.
I could not believe what I was watching.
Hocus Pocus is one of my favourite childhood films, and it felt a little bit insulting to see how shamelessly the producers of this film had stolen everything from it.
It's just a pity because there are some known names on the cast list.
However, I did not see what other viewers are complaining about, the Christian matter.
There are a lot of films with witches, talking animals and spells, and kids don't get traumatized by it.
It's scarier fanaticism and complaining about talking dogs than this movie..
The Buddies work to ensure that good triumphs over evil - through Christianity?!.
I have seen all of the other movies in the "Buddies" series and I have never before noticed an overt Christian theme.
This movie actively promotes Christianity and I do not appreciate it.
I do not look to children's movies to educate my children about religion and I certainly do not need it pushed on them under the guise of entertainment.
The movie does have some funny moments in it and overall it's the same type of jokes we have come to expect from the "Buddies" franchise.
I am hopeful that the movie makers will be more mindful in the future that not all of their movie watchers are Christian nor do we want our children to be exposed to religion in the context of a children's movie.
We will not be watching this movie again..
A Great Halloween Movie for the Family.
I showed this movie last October as part of a Family Movie Night and 72 people came to watch it.
No one complained about any religious overtones and believe me they would have gone to my director if they did.
I found this movie enjoyable for adults and children and one of the best buddies movie they have made.
It was perfect for the season.
As a matter a fact I will be showing it again this month as there were no other recent family Halloween movies to show my audience.
This movie had my audience laughing and enjoying themselves.
Don't read too much into a movie, just sit back and have fun like my viewers do.
The Buddie movies are harmless, family fun and I always draw at least 30 people to this event.
I wish there were more harmless movies made to show families.
I was surprised to see that this movie had only a 4.6 rating on IMDb, it should at least be a 7..
wow, vewwy cool.
This movie is very good
Be sure to say your 5 daily prayers
Jimbob out!.
Calm down people, it's a kids movie.
It's a decent kids movie.
If it doesn't appeal to adults that's because it's marketed towards kids..
A BOOtiful production..
I was scrolling through the deep deep depths of netflix one night whilst a movie title caught my eye.
"Spooky buddies" it read.
I instantly clicked on it with great anticipation, hoping it would be worth the time.
Turns out it was more shocking than this is us and 911 combined!.
Spooky Buddies?
I think VERY SPOOKY BUDDIES!.
This movie sent my child to hospital.
He is 19 and after watching this movie, he couldn't sleep for weeks, until we finally sent him to a therapist who drugged him and sent him away.
This film is NOT FOR CHILDREN!!!
It should be rated 15, or even more!
The plot is OK, the acting was awful, and the Halloween Hound was far too scary.
We are a very religious family and the thought of talking animals coming back from the dead, shocked me.
This film is part of the Illuminati.
I am very disappointed Disney!!
This movie is shockingly awful!
do not watch.
The only reason I have gave it one star is because the acting from those dogs was excellent, I didn't know animals could talk??
Who knew?!.
The worst of the bunch!.
Being a huge fan of the Buddies movies, I was really excited about this movie when I heard it was coming out.
The gap between this one and "Santa Buddies" was nearly two years.
("The Search for Santa Paws" doesn't count.) For a while, this movie has been rumored, but I've found no info of it either on IMDb, Wikipedia, or even the official Buddies website.
But enough about that, let's move on to the review...Sadly, I'd have to say that this movie was not worth the wait.
Compared to it's predecessors, "Spooky Buddies" was a huge letdown.
Nobody I recognized worked on the movie (with the exception of Michael Bolton, who was the production manager for some reason), the story is unoriginal, the characters are uninspiring, the Buddies are not shown very much despite the fact that they are the titular characters, the CG effects badly rip off "Casper", and there's a lot of logic in the movie that makes so little sense that I'm sure the Nostalgia Critic will have a fit about!
I never thought I'd say this, but this was easily the worst of the Buddies movies.
At first I thought Disney would never disappoint me with this franchise.
(I'm still not sure why so many people hate these movies.) "Space Buddies" did come pretty close, but "Spooky Buddies takes the cake.
On a positive note, "Treasure Buddies" was a considerable improvement.
I'll just hope that Disney will continue to make these Buddies movies and make them the way they should be made..
It's a movie for little kiddies about little doggies!.
It's not a promotion of Christianity, witchcraft, or anything other than a Disney pursuit of the almighty dollar!
I normally ignore the comments of others on this site, but sheesh!
I really hope some of these posters are kidding.
This is a straight-to-DVD Disney time waster that only wishes to give parents something they can show their kids on a rainy afternoon or some such.
Maybe if I were under six years old I would also find this too frightening to watch.
But that's what they initially said would be the problem with Scooby Doo, and look how long that has endured.
Spooky Buddies is not great cinema, or deep cinema.
Take it for what it is.The story deals with an evil warlock attempting to unleash the powers of the underworld on an unsuspecting small town.
It looks like he lives in the same house as Jerry Dandridge in the original Fright Night.
Probably the same set was used.
Anyway, this warlock first attempts to unleash this attack back in 1937.
He and his evil Saint Bernard helper need the souls of five dogs related by blood.
They nearly succeed, but the townspeople show up in time to stop the ritual and one dog's soul is not taken.
Fast-forward to present day, and a group of five new puppies and five kids find themselves in danger of suffering the same fate.
Can the ghost of the dog whose soul escaped the underworld warn the new pups in time?
Or will the warlock and his evil dog catch the puppies and unleash their reign of terror on the town?
And most importantly of all...
will Nicholas Cage sue the makers of the film for making the warlock look so much like him??
The film is fairly cute, and certainly harmless.
It spends as much time with the local kids as it does with the dogs.
Even some of the local adults get in on the fun.
More than a few of the voice actors are recognizable, and I really wasn't sure Tim Conway was still alive before seeing this.
The Saint Bernard from the underworld who helps the warlock is kind of scary-looking, but he's no Cujo.
I wasn't sure why the owl character was needed, but kids might like him.
The puppies from 1937 who are of course saved and brought back to life are all cute little beagles.
The puppies from the present are golden retrievers, as they are supposedly descended from Air Bud or something.
I'm not really up on this Disney franchise.
All very cute little pups.
The film boasts better than expected special f/x.
Ignore the dire warnings of others when it comes to Spooky Buddies.
Its not going to scar any kid for life religiously.
Just a good way to kill an hour and a half.
Or something you can have on the background while your family is carving a pumpkin.
Considering what type of film it is, its probably worth about 7 of 10 stars.The Hound..
Too Evil for Children.
I do not recommend this movie for children who have not been desensitized to evil witchcraft.
References to evil spirits, the underworld, and black magic abound.
The Halloween Hound has yellow glowing eyes and *minor spoiler* breathes out black smoke that turns animals to stone.
He also "eats" the puppies' "souls".
This is necessary to *spoiler* "open a porthole" that will unleash evil spirits into our world and give the evil warlock Warwick (Harland Williams) control of the world.There are, interestingly enough, two references to Christianity in the film.
*Spoilers* One where the people are safe from evil in "the House of God" (a church), and another where reading words from the Bible thwarts evil.
As a Christian, these references did not at all make up for the unnecessary exposure to evil and witchcraft.
In my opinion, children DO NOT need this!We are fans of the "Buddies" movies, but NOT this one.
My 8 and 10 year old hated this movie.
They were both awake most of the night because of it.
If you do not like the first 5 minutes of this movie, turn it off!
It doesn't get any better..
Not a great movie, but what's up with the anti-Christian attitude?.
This movie is awful.
However, for reasons unbeknown to me, my kid likes this movie.*Spoiler* You have been warned.To respond to a few of the reviews, in the context of the movie, it makes sense that the old guy would hide the book in the church, given that most people in previous generations went to church - even if they weren't 'believers'.
People are correct when they say that all viewers aren't Christian, but it is also correct to point out that a lot of Disney viewers are Christians and support the Disney brand because they tend to be family-friendly.
It's a delicate line movie makers walk to tell their stories.
I'm not sure how you'd tell this particular story and exclude the church and the "good/evil" element.
It would have lost a lot of its 'punch'.
Honestly, I thought this scene w/the old man and the kids in the church was the best part of the movie.
Besides the end..
It wasn't spooky, and I sure don't want it to be MY buddy!.
I WAS going to be nice to this movie, since it just looked like your typical talking dog movie, and it didn't look all THAT stupid at first.
But then it just goes right up the deep end into total GARBAGE.
The villain is an idiot, the hound's means and methods don't make any sense, the acting is terrible, the decent animation is sadly overlooked, the story is full of cliches and contrivances, and seriously, the Halloween hound is defeated by a FART!?I don't care if this is a direct-to-DVD talking dog movie, I expected BETTER from you, DISNEY.
I expected a LOT better..
Not a very good choice for the family.
I mostly love to watch movies for kids,but this one was so bad that I couldn't even stand to see the whole movie.
I don't appreciate a lot of animals which talk,even more those who have the leading roles.
The plot was thin with a lack of fantasy.
Children's acting was fine, but sorcerer's was kinda bad.
It has,though,something that simulated to the good Disney movies,but it wasn't enough.
If you are an adult probably you won't enjoy it.
My younger brother(11 years old) and sister(14 years old) got bored in about 15 minutes,too.
It seems to me that this film is only suitable for children under 5 years old, because this scenario can't convince anybody else..
my little sister actually got scared at this?.
We wanted a movie from Cox on Demand.
It was between space Jam, or this garbage.
When Air Bud came out, it was a great movie about man's best friend, and playing basketball with him.
It slowly regressed to a lame movie that only Justin Bieber- Disney XD liking brainwashed children can like.
SPOILER AHEAD YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!the story consists of a hell-hound who tries to eat the souls of five sibling puppies, the puppies masters dress them up for Halloween, and big surprise, they can talk.
Just like the previous movies.
I don't deny that the hell-hound might scare little children, but from what I saw, they are expecting a horror of demonic proportions like Paranormal Activity, or anything Stephen king writes |
tt0020740 | Captain Thunder | Victor Varconi is a Mexican bandit who brazenly flaunts his ventures until the people of El Paramo demand that something be done about it. Charles Judles, the Mexican sheriff, offers a large reward for the capture of Varconi. Meanwhile, a pair of lovers, played by Fay Wray and Don Alvarado are disappointed when Wray's father Alvarado request to marry his daughter. Wray's father has his eye on a wealthy gringo, played by Robert Elliott, and wants his daughter to marry him. When Alvarado hears about the large reward for Varconi he sets out for the bandit in the hopes of getting the money so that he can be wealthy enough to please her father and marry Wray. Judles decides to light bonfires at points where the bandit is seen in the hopes of capturing him. When Varconi shows up at Wray hacienda to pay homage to her, she, at first, lights a bonfire. She subsequently changes her mind and hides Varconi from the soldiers when they arrive. At daybreak, Alvarado captures Varconi, in the hopes of getting the reward money. He turns him in and gets the reward money and prepares for the wedding. Varconi soon escapes from prison, to the embarrassment of Judles. At this point Elliot asks Varconi to perform a favor which he had promised him on a previous occasion. Elliot tells Varconi to break up the wedding so that he can marry Wray himself. Immediately after Wray is married by force she retires to her room. A gunshot is then heard. Wray returns to the party where Varconi informs her that she is now a widow and is free to marry Alvarado. | murder, melodrama | train | wikipedia | Wray Walks Away With It. Welcome to 1930.
Talkies are one year old and studios are continuing to experiment madly with all kinds of plots, all kinds of screenplays, and all levels of acting competence.
In this film we get broad elements of slapstick and mushy love scenes, and, because it's pre-Code, a little skin deliciously displayed (Fay Wray being happy to oblige).
You'll see early on that this film turns out to be way too rough-hewn, and its slapdash construction will not be successful: audiences don't want to watch a mess.
The only person really trying to make it all work is Ms. Wray; she practically owns the screen every time she appears, even with her awful accent.
If you find yourself attracted to her work -- as I have become -- this flick's worth a quick watch..
Excruciatingly bad Victor Varconi in lead, beware!.
I voted a 4 for this film only because Fay Wray's Spanish accented English was well modulated and consistent.
We must remember the times afforded Mexicans virtually no work in films and the rest of this turkey is evidence of the folly of that practice.
The film's setting is a Mexican village populated by: the cop from Warners' gangster films, a Swede as El Commandante and an Italian as the lead El Capitan Thunder, the much feared bandito.
The film drips with stereotypical south-of-the-borderisms.My problems with the film go beyond the casting.
As the film opens, El Capitan Thunder's gang has kidnapped 5 women that he tries to come on to.
An uncomfortable scene that gets worse with Varconi's histrionics.
Wildly gesturing, Crosland's camera has not only difficulty keeping him in frame, but the composition is somewhere between medium close-up and close-up, leaving his hands out of frame.
His arms flail, why?
The effect I found to be jarring and this sequence is long.
Seems like the director is trying to recapture Jolson's Jazz Singer magic with this somewhat ad-libbed bombast.
Charles Judels as Commandante Ruiz, the police captain, is given a similar scene with the same bad framing.
His scene stinks, too.And I'm not done complaining, yet.
While a nice musical underscore was added to the soundtrack, it must have been mixed at the Vitaphone "sea-of-100-turntables" as my print was clear and several layers of pop and crackle were evident.
Silent movie titles were frequently used between scenes and the plot is incredible.
Worst of all is Varconi's acting.
I got the impression he watched Fairbanks in Zorro (a silent), concluded good acting was emoting to the back row and then proceeded to emote past the lobby!
You'll wish lightning would strike Captain Thunder.The positives included Don Alvarodo as Fay's love interest and two dozen men riding backwards on horseback (with hands tied) in the first reel.
Best part: the film's only 5800 feet long so you'll only suffer for an hour..
A bad Cisco Kid knock-off that's not for the faint of heart!.
The few reviews for this film are all over the place--with scores of 2, 4, 7 and 8.
Some described it as "dreadful" or "weak" while others called it "richly entertaining"!
With such divergent views, I had no idea what to expect.
After watching the film, I thought the everyone was being way too kind to this terrible film.
Now to a degree you might want to cut the film some slack--after all, it was one of many films in the early days of sound that came up short.
Film dialog and acting did improve greatly by just 1932.
However, even for 1930, this film was truly craptastic.Apparently there was some sort of confusion among the actors.
While the film is supposed to be set in Mexico, many of the supporting characters speak with what sure sound like Italian accents!
It's the early days of sound movies, so perhaps they still didn't have voice coaches to help the actors--and they sure needed it here because even the Mexican accents were often pretty poor.
As for the leads, Fay Wray sounded better than I expected but oddly, the pudgy and Hungarian Victor Varconi was Captain Thunder.
The end result sounded a bit like Bela Lugosi and Pancho from the Cisco Kid series put together.As far as Varconi's look, it was pretty interesting.
Because the film seemed to be a ripoff of The Cisco Kid films, they tried to make him look like this character.
IN OLD ARIZONA, the first sound Cisco Kid film, had just won the Oscar for Best Picture and I think CAPTAIN THUNDER was Warner's attempt to cash in on the series' success.
However, dressing Varconi in an outfit EXACTLY like The Cisco Kid's did not produce the same effect.
Instead of a tough lover like Warner Baxter or Cesar Romero, he looked more like an accountant dressing up as The Kid for a costume party!
I just can't imagine women back in 1930 swooning for this guy!
This, combined with the accent, doomed Varconi to a second-rate performance (at best).By the way, although Varconi was bad, El Commandante Benito Ruiz (Charles Judels, who was Dutch) was by comparison even more dreadful--his acting and accent.
My daughter and I tried to figure out WHAT he was supposed to be--she thought German, I thought idiot.
Please don't get mad at me for making fun of the bad acting--they're all dead by now (as are their mommies) and I'm not hurting their feelings..
Sweet romantic comedy with gorgeous Fay Wray.
I can't understand for the life of me what people are thinking when they criticize this movie for the xeriff's jokes, the songs or the accent.
First of all, IT'S A COMEDY.
It's not drama, adventure or whatever genre IMDB claims it to be.
It's a sweet, lighthearted romantic comedy about a mexican thief who's actually a nice guy.
The screenplay is not intended to be anything else.Second of all, it's a movie from 1930.
An early talkie.
Directors were pretty much still learning how to work with music and accents.
Overall it works out fine.
We all know - as much as the audience in 1930 - that Victor Varconi and Fay Wray were not mexicans.
What matters is that Fay Wray is drop dead gorgeous!
She's talented and stunning.
Every one of her scenes, as the cute young girl that dazzles the good bad guy and ends up with a bit of a crush on him, is a delight.Varconi does a very good job in a role that would have been perfect for Douglas Fairbanks, ten years earlier.
One of the reviewers said Varconi "in spite of his age, did a wonderful job in this film".
Once again, I don't understand it.
What the hell is wrong with him or his age??
The man was thirty-nine!!
The perfect age for any role in a romantic comedy!Forget these reviews.
It's a sweet little comedy with one of the most beautiful actresses of all time..
A Richly Entertaining Museum Piece.
A delightful museum piece with lots of uproariously phony Spanish talk and inane chatter, accompanied by an appropriately wheezy music score.
All the acting is marvelously hammy.
Mind you, Mr Varconi does tend to out-stay his limited welcome to the point where he starts to get on your nerves, but no-one will complain about Fay Wray.
Admittedly, she can't act for toffee, but she is a fine figure of a young lady, and she does makes a gorgeous entrance in her slip.And would believe this tosh is directed by the great silent metteur en scene, Alan Crosland?
He gets few opportunities here for pictorial scope, though admittedly there are some nice visual touches.
As for the story, it's all that you might expect from an imitation Cisco Kid, with a plot twist that would certainly do credit to O.
Henry himself.Nonetheless, Crosland's overall contribution does not exactly shine.
He had not lost his touch, but was doubtless overawed by the technical requirements of early sound recording.
One suspects that this film was actually made before and not after "Viennese Nights", which is a much more accomplished (and far more expensive and expansive) production..
Dreadful Early Talkie -- It Isn't Even Amusing.
Back in 1930, the studios thought that audiences wanted operettas and more operettas.
So, by the end of 1930, movies that were operettas were quickly converted into regular movies, without the singing.
Judging by the plot, and the actual existence of a fairly decent musical score (not common in early 30s Warners pictures), this would appear to be one of those quickly converted movies.Without the songs, the movie is both rather short and horrible.
There really is only one good scene: the very pretty Fay Wray makes her entrance in a slip, because the daring bandit Captain Thunder, upon robbing her stagecoach, stole everyone's clothes.
(There was some reason given, but I just don't remember it.) Wray, herself, plays a Mexican senorita with the expected amount of hot-bloodedness.
Captain Thunder, alas, being middle aged with a receding hairline and advancing second chin, has far less sex appeal than King Kong.
Thunder, himself, overacts unamusingly, and is only surpassed in this by the bad actor playing the commandante who never can seem to capture Thunder.
Talking scenes go on and on and on and are filled with overwritten attempted comedy, or the sort of dialog that only a Lena Lamont could do justice to.
If there were any action scenes, I must have slept through them.Don't be tempted by the Fay Wray starring role.
Avoid this, and save the hour and a half in your life for a second viewing of King Kong..
Weak Movie.
Captain Thunder (1930)* 1/2 (out of 4) Early talkie has Victor Varconi playing El Captain Thunder, a Mexican bandit who causes as much trouble as he can but he'll always keep his word.
The bandit goes from one form of trouble to the next until he meets and falls for a lady (Fay Wray).
I had heard some incredibly bad things about this film but it didn't turn out as bad as I had feared, although this is still one of lesser films I've seen from this era.
Director Crosland is best known for THE JAZZ SINGER and other films from that era including DON JUAN and OLD SAN FRANCISCO and I must admit that I've never been a big fan of his work.
That trend continues here but to be fair I'm not sure how much blame should go towards him and how much on the screenplay.
Even as I write this I can't be certain to what this film was even trying to do.
I'm going to guess it was meant as a low-budget version of THE CISCO KID but I'm still not sure if the title character was suppose to be a good or bad guy.
Either way he is 100% annoying and it doesn't help that the first time we see him he's pretty much trying to get laughs by harassing women.
Wray, playing a Mexican woman, doesn't earn many acting stripes but she did have KING KONG coming in a few years.
She certainly looks great, which at least gives the viewer something to do in the film..
Captain Thunder (1930).
This film is not that bad.
The previous reviewers have been very hard on this film.
I will admit that the comic relief Commandant is very hard.
Honestly he should have been deleted with the songs!
Fay Wray is wonderful in this film, she always is, did she ever make a bad film, or at least one where it isn't worth seeing her?
She was so beautiful.
Victor Varconi, in spite of his age, did a wonderful job in this film.
He had personality, and a role that actually allowed him to express himself unlike most of his other parts in films when he was mainly wooden (scripts to blame, not him).
Don Alvarado, as Fay Wray's fiancé, has a larger role than his billing suggests.
These three characters are the only good ones, though, and I will admit that from now on, I recorded it off of TCM, I will be forwarding to the parts with these three actors because the rest of the film is either very boring or very bad, luckily their most of the movie!
I may revise this review later. |
tt0104487 | Illusions | According to film scholar and critic Clyde Taylor, “Dash's film plays inventively on themes of cultural, sexual and racial domination.” The film is set in Hollywood in 1942, a time when the role of the film industry was to create an illusion for the audience to believe in. This illusion was based on the creation of American history in films; what is seen on screen is usually what they want you to believe and not actually the truth. Made during a time of heavy war propaganda, Hollywood created its own version of America and its freedoms.
Illusions follows a young woman working at National Studios in Hollywood, very rare during that time. As the film progresses and we see this woman, Mignon Dupree, create the illusion of talent among white film stars while a young African American girl, Esther Jeeter, actually sings the part for the film. Dubbing of voices was not uncommon during those times but the use of dubbing voices using African American stars for a white performer and audience only shows the great divide between the races during that time.
Over the course of the film Mignon talks a lot about the illusion of Hollywood and the different levels of society that it creates in film and in real life. It is hinted throughout the movie, like when Esther tells Mignon, “Oh don't worry....they can't tell like we can,” that there is a secret that she is hiding. It is not until the final scene when the Lieutenant opens her mail to find a picture of Mignon's African American boyfriend that it is clear to the audience that she has been passing as a white woman and is actually an African American woman, just like the young girl Esther Jeeter that they use at their whim.
Dash's film hints on more illusions than just Miss Dupree's. Not only has Mignon created her own illusion but she is also a direct participant in Hollywood's. Mignon not only works in a field of illusions, working on sound dubbing in Hollywood and directly contributing to the industry's absence of African Americans in film but also the absence of African American woman in film and the work industry. Mignon is given a certain amount of power in her office but was still below her male counterparts, like the Lieutenant. When she is discovered to not be a white woman, she is placed at a lower standard and it is certain that she would be let go if anyone else had found out. Mignon has created not only opportunities as an African American but as a woman.
Dash has done the same in similar fashion by being one of the first African American women filmmakers to make it in the industry. Her work efforts have created illusions not only for the characters on screen but her audiences too. She has introduced many themes such as gender, sexuality and race; that other filmmakers have not touched before.
The film ends with Miss Dupree thinking to herself that she will get just as far as the white men and women that surround her. She will prove to everyone that race has nothing to do with ability and should not be a limiting factor. | romantic | train | wikipedia | About as entertaining as a root canal..
This film is like watching paint dry--NOTHING exciting happens.
The better part of the film is spent watching Heather Locklear sleeping, having the same bizarre nightmare over and over again.
Locklear, Carradine, Samms and Beatty never seem to leave the house, which gives the film an extremely stiff and claustraphobic feel.Carradine doesn't look much different than he did in "Revenge of the Nerds"; I half-expected Booger to show up.
Perhaps that's typecasting, but it caused me to have a real hard time believing his character could actually be married to someone like Locklear.
Besides, the dialogue is so plastic and the acting is so wooden than you don't care about their relationship anyway.
Not only do I have trouble belieivng that this film was actually made, but it's even harder to believe that pay movie services still have the audacity to show it.
Yes, it's really that bad.
And the voiceover by Locklear's character does sound like it was recorded by someone else.They recommend drinking warm milk or counting sheep if you can't get to sleep; I suggest watching this movie.
It will knock you out from sheer boredom.
I gave it a 1 out of 10; absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever..
The play is much better.
I bought this video because I was working on a production of the play it is based on "I'll Be Back Before Midnight." The play and the screenplay for this movie are both by Peter Colley, who is also an associate producer of the film.As has been noted, the director was working on an English-speaking production for the first time and was a Russian political refugee - who came to the US via Czechkoslavakia.
Better for him if he had stayed there.This is a terrible movie.
The suspense of the screenplay doesn't hold a candle to the play.
I can't believe that Colley made such a mess of what is basically a terrific comedy-thriller.
Plot lines are muddled, characters are non-existent or inconsistent, and there is not a moment of REAL suspense in the whole movie.The director must share some of the blame, too, of course.
I imagine the editors had their work cut out for them when they were handed this mess.
A narration (by Heather Locklear's character, but not done by Locklear) just confuses things more.IF you are considering doing the play, don't judge it by this movie.
This is one of the worst movies I have EVER seen.
The acting, the lighting and camera-work, the costumes, the music, and physical production are all just terrible.
Originally set in an old "haunted" farm house - the movie takes place in some Spanish-style castle.The whole premise is muddled and there is no mystery or suspense.
Even the "surprise" ending has only one mild shock-scare, and that one is here and gone before you know what has happened.I would say that the illusion here is that anyone involved knew anything about making a movie - especially a thriller..
What a waste of fine acting talent..
Some actors who really ought to have known better make ILLUSIONS appear to be way better than it really is.The plot- which borrows heavily from GASLIGHT and DIABOLIQUE and several far better films and even drags in a bell tower from VERTIGO- is a nasty brew of murder, greed, and incest.
For whatever reason, some excellent actors throw themselves away on this movie, which looks so cheaply made you can't even say they did it for the money.Heatler Locklear plays a young woman fresh from a mental institution who is married to Robert Carradine.
She's the daughter of a wealthy family and he's an aspiring archaeologist.
She gets out of the hospital and accompanies him on a dig, living in a huge rented house where Something Awful is supposed to have happened a couple of decades ago.
Miss Locklear is an excellent actress when she has the right material and a strong director- here, she has neither.Ned Beatty plays George, the hired hand.
He's an alcoholic whose wife and son have deserted him.
Beatty has worked with some of the finest directors in the business, most notably Lumet and Boorman.
Ned, say it ain't so.Susannah York has a tiny part as a doctor.
Given nothing to do, she does it well.There are many things unexplained in the movie, most notably:-- Ms. Locklear's character provides voiceover narration in an attempt to bring some coherence to the story.
But it's clearly not Ms. Locklear's voice.-- In the house where most of the action takes place, there's a horseshoe over a door which is pointing down.
I've always seen horseshoes pointed up, so as to hold in the luck.
Is this a point plot that got lost, or was this just how it was nailed up?-- Ms. Locklear does not provide the narration.
Neither does she participate in the nude scenes.
Good thinking.-- In literally the last ten minutes a major character begins to curse like a sailor.
Was the movie so boring that people forgot the nudity that had gone onscreen an hour ago?
Relax, boys, you got the R rating.-- Did the actors have the least idea that this was going to turn out this way?-- It's based on a stage play.
The act structure is clearly intact, and you can almost see curtains open and close.
Did the author ever think there was a reason this play was never the Toast of Broadway and maybe he should go in another direction?-- The director, apparently working in English for the first time, has not worked again.
What was his reaction when he saw this mess with his name plastered to it?.
A V.C. Andrews novel brought to life!.
I saw "Illusions" last night at 3 AM and this movie was pure enjoyment for me!
It was totally 80's-ish schlock, like a horror novel written for teenagers.
However, I enjoyed the movie not because of the storyline, which was rather predictable, but more because of the actors and my nostalgia for horror movies from the 80's.
I was surprised to learn that this TV movie was made in the 90's and not the 80's.
Emma Samms was perfect as the evil sister-in-law, and it was nice to see Heather Locklear in a good role, since I'm used to seeing her on "Melrose Place."This movie has everything -- schemes you can see from a mile away, people who turn out to be totally different from what they seem to be, hallucinations, dreams, ghost stories, a house in the country with an ever-so-helpful caretaker, murder plots, and so on.
The strangest part of it was that a lot of the narration sounded like it was done by someone other than Heather Locklear.
Anyway, I would recommend this movie as a nice getaway from reality..
Pseudo psycho thriller.
ILLUSIONS is a typical psycho-thriller of the era, made without much in the way of sense, danger, or excitement.
Heather Locklear - remember her?
- stars as a woman recovering from a nervous breakdown who begins to suspect that her husband might have it in for her.
Yes, that old chestnut again, complicated by the inclusion of her hot sister with whom her husband might just be having an affair.
This is a TV movie so very cheesy indeed, with plenty of signposted moments and twists that are anything but surprising.
Locklear is quite weak but the cast is bolstered by enjoyable stalwarts including Ned Beatty and Susannah York. |
tt0071334 | Claudine | The film tells the story of Claudine Price (Diahann Carroll), a single Black Harlem mother, living on welfare with six children, who finds love with a garbage collector, Rupert Marshall (James Earl Jones), whom she calls "Roop". The pair's relationship becomes complicated because of a number of factors. Among these are that the couple do not want to marry because they would not be able to support the children without welfare, and that the kids themselves, particularly eldest son Charles (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), are apprehensive of Rupert, and believe that he will leave their mother just like her previous husbands had.
Claudine and Rupert meet while both of them are at work. Rupert asks Claudine out on a date with him and Claudine accepts. When Rupert becomes invited inside Claudine's apartment, the children are rude and vulgar towards Rupert. This is also the first time the audience meets the children and sees the inside of Claudine's slum-like apartment. Later on in the film, the audience finds out that Claudine receives financial aid from the government through the welfare program. Throughout the film, Miss Kabak, the social worker, visits Claudine at her home and asks her if she is employed and if she is dating anyone. Claudine always denies Miss Kabak the truth and lies to her about being unemployed and single. If Claudine tells the truth and says that she is employed, the amount of financial aid she receives from the welfare program would decrease or she could also no longer receive any more financial aid. If Claudine dates anyone and receives gifts from her boyfriend, the social worker has to deduct any money or gifts Claudine is receiving from whomever she is dating.
Just before he is to announce his engagement to Claudine to the kids, Rupert is served papers for a court order relating to underpayment of child support of his own children; his work wages are garnished to pay the difference. Rupert becomes so upset about this that he disappears for a couple of days and loses contact with everyone. He moves out of his apartment, does not show up to work, and does not show up to the Father's Day celebration the children had prepared for him. Charles eventually finds him drunk at a bar and angrily confronts him. Charles is angry at Rupert because he left his mother without any explanation. Out of the anger Charles felt for Rupert, he engages in a physical fight with him. After the incident at the bar, Rupert eventually shows up outside of Claudine's apartment and speaks to her. After some time, the couple talk things over and make up. After several hardships and debating over whether they should marry because of financial issues relating to welfare, the couple decide to marry. They hold a wedding ceremony but it is interrupted when Charles runs inside the apartment in the middle of the ceremony while the police are chasing after him. The couple and the rest of the children run after Charles, leave the ceremony, and board the police wagon. The film ends on a cheery note with the entire family, along with Rupert, walking happily hand in hand through the neighborhood. | romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0119640 | McHale's Navy | The basic plot revolves around McHale's crew's wacky schemes to make money, get girls, and have a ball, and the efforts of Captain Binghamton (McHale's superior) to rid himself of the PT-73 crew for good, either by transfer or court martial. Although they are forever getting into trouble, they (almost always unwittingly) get out of trouble. Despite their scheming, conniving, and often lazy and unmilitary ways, McHale's crew is always successful in combat in the end. The entire show is based on only two locations, one in the South Pacific at a fictional base called Taratupa (the inferred location is in the Solomon Islands) and an equally fictional town in Italy called Voltafiore. The first few episodes merely indicate it is "somewhere in the South Pacific 1943". While in the South Pacific, McHale's crew lives on "McHale's Island", which is described as across the bay from Taratupa. It keeps them away from the main base, where they are free to carry out their antics and even fight the war. In the final season, Binghamton and the entire PT-73 crew move to the liberated Italian theater to the town of Voltafiore "in Southern Italy" "in late 1944".
=== Regular characters ===
==== Lieutenant Commander McHale ====
Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale (Ernest Borgnine) — A principal character of the series, he is also a former captain of a tramp steamer who is familiar with the South Pacific and is especially knowledgeable about the islands and natives around Taratupa, which often helps him in combat situations and makes him a favorite with the admirals (Borgnine actually served in the U.S. Navy during World War II) unlike his greedy superior. Like his crew, he is lazy unmilitary in many ways, but always a strong and competent leader who is very protective of his crew. Also like his crew, McHale likes to wear Hawaiian-style clothing when off duty and to use the PT-73 to go deep-sea fishing and water skiing (as Gruber says in the 1964 movie, "That's no officer, that's our skipper"). Gruff but lovable, he often calls his crew "schlockmeisters" and goofballs. He is called "Skip" by his crew. Although he very often bellows at them and tries to put his foot down, he loves his crew too much to be all that hard on them.
McHale's catchphrases are "Knock it off, you eight-balls", and when trying to come up with an excuse, a rapid "Well a, well a, well a". He speaks Japanese, Italian, and local island dialects. In the 1964 movie, he briefly speaks fluent French. When the crew is in Italy, McHale's knowledge of Italian serves him quite well, and his mother is Italian (both of Borgnine's parents were from Italy). In a dual role, Borgnine played his lookalike Italian cousin, Giuseppe, who does not speak English in "Giuseppe McHale" and "The Return of Giuseppe".
==== Ensign Parker ====
Ensign Charles Beaumont Parker (Tim Conway) — McHale's likable, but goofy second-in-command, he is referred to by McHale as "Chuck" and by the crew as "Mister Parker" (in the U.S. Navy, officers ranking from warrant officer to lieutenant commander who are not in command are often referred to as "Mister"). Tim Conway's bashful, unassertive, naïve, mildly gung-ho bungler often succeeds in spite of clownish ineptitude (a theme that was career-defining). Like Conway, Ensign Parker is from Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Parker was born between about 1916 and 1920 and worked for the Chagrin Falls Gazette.
Although he tries to be military, he is too much of a dimwitted klutz to command too much respect, and many of the episodes involve Parker getting into trouble because of his bumbling and ineptitude such as accidentally firing depth charges or shooting down Allied aircraft. Even before becoming a member of McHale's crew, Ensign Parker's personnel file is a laundry list of major foul-ups, including crashing a destroyer escort into a dock, doing something to the heavy cruiser USS Minneapolis, and calling in a naval airstrike on a Marine gasoline dump. Because of his considerable bumbling, the crew tries to protect Parker, whom they feel will not survive as an officer without their help. Also, he is very slow to catch on and does not know when to keep his mouth closed (McHale usually gives Parker a discreet kick or stomp on the foot to get him to shut up). For instance, when Binghamton says "the cat is out of the bag", Parker says, "I'm sure it's around here somewhere, Sir. Here, kitty kitty".
Parker's catchphrase is "Gee, I love that kind of talk" and he loves to cite naval regulations which he knows by heart, but somehow can never remember his serial number correctly. In the episode entitled "The Great Impersonation", Ensign Parker impersonates British General Smythe-Pelly (Conway in a dual role) in Noumea, New Caledonia (where he dodges assassins) while the actual general leads an invasion against Japanese forces. In another Conway dual role, Parker impersonates Admiral Chester "Rockpile" Beaty in "The Seven Faces of Ensign Parker". In "H.M.S. 73", Parker poses as a phony British rear admiral, Sir Reggie Grother-Smyth and impersonates British Admiral Clivedon Sommers in "The British Also Have Ensigns". From time to time, Parker is called upon to fool Captain Binghamton with a voice impersonation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Parker also does an impersonation of Roosevelt in McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force).
==== Captain Binghamton ====
Captain Wallace "Wally" Burton Binghamton USNR (Joe Flynn) McHale's perpetually frustrated, sarcastic, greedy, selfish, cantankerous and exasperated commanding officer who dreams of getting the only reward he wants a promotion all for himself, he is referred to as "Old Leadbottom" (usually behind his back – a nickname he received from a bullet wound to the posterior), but in the first episode ("An Ensign For McHale"), he calls himself "Square Rig Binghamton" and in another "Forty Knot Binghamton". He is a married naval reservist, and his job before the war was as the commodore of a yacht club on Long Island (possibly the South Bay Yacht Club) and the editor of a yachting magazine. His wife, whom he calls by the pet name "Pumpkin" (played by Ann Doran in "Pumpkin Takes Over"), lives in San Diego and calls him "Teddy Bear". In the 1964 movie, Binghamton implies he is from Youngstown, Ohio, which is where Joe Flynn was born. He was born in 1902.
Cantankerous and cross, Binghamton often dreams of a promotion to admiral or occasionally military glory, but is much too inept, cowardly, and a bit of a goof himself (early in the series, Binghamton is a rather serious officer, but becomes goofier as the series progresses). Binghamton does come close to a promotion to Admiral Rogers's staff in "The Balloon Goes Up", but because Binghamton took too long in getting things squared away (because of McHale's crew), someone else gets the promotion. The one time Binghamton leads the PT-73 into battle, he only succeeds in "sinking" an enemy truck on land with a torpedo (a gag used in the Cary Grant movie Operation Petticoat ), based on an actual attack conducted by the USS Bowfin.
Binghamton is constantly trying to "get the goods" on "McHale and his pirates" to send them to prison or get them transferred, and he comes close just about all the time, only to have McHale's crew get out of trouble, usually by having some kind of military success, through some form of blackmail (such as telling the admiral what really happened), or because Binghamton wants some kind of a favor from McHale. When he isn't complaining about McHale and his crew to his superiors Binghamton constantly tries to impress superior officers, VIPs, or people with connections for personal gain – which usually backfires, making him look foolish. As a running gag, Binghamton is forever being knocked down (usually by Parker or Carpenter) or covered with something messy (also usually because of Parker). Blind without his glasses, Binghamton also has his glasses knocked or taken off (to keep him from seeing something) a number of times. Occasionally, he is seen throwing darts at a picture of McHale.
His catchphrases are: "What in the name of the Blue Pacific" or "What in the name of Nimitz (or Halsey)?" (as when he sees gambling or native dancing girls on McHale's Island), and "What is it, wha', wha', wha', what?!" (usually in response to McHale's "Well a, Well a, Well a"). A running gag has a frustrated Binghamton looking up and saying, "Why me? Why is it always me?" (also used by Tinker in one episode) or "Somebody up there hates me!" His favorite catchphrase is "I could just scream!", which was once used by McHale and once by Carpenter. The only time Binghamton ever gets even with the PT-73 crew is in McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force when he orders the crew under the command of Ensign Parker to jump off a dock into the water. In the Pilot Episode, "An Ensign for McHale", the sign outside Binghamton's office reads "Capt. R. F. Binghamton, U.S.N.R." even though his name is later established to be Wallace Burton Binghantom.
==== Lieutenant Carpenter ====
Lieutenant Elroy Carpenter (Bob Hastings, a veteran of The Phil Silvers Show) — Binghamton's sycophantic aide, he is in many ways, like Ensign Parker. He is a bumbler and tries to be military, but is too inept to be taken seriously by anyone. He is slow to catch on and does not know when to keep his mouth shut. Like Parker, (as in many slapstick routines), he often knocks down, or causes Binghamton to be knocked down because of his clumsiness and dimwittedness. However, again like Parker, Carpenter is also subjected to Binghamton's tirades and mild physical abuse also used in slapstick routines. He was born circa 1912. and McHale calls him "Carpy." Early in the first season, Lt. Carpenter commands a PT boat, the 117, but soon drifts into less responsibility. In McHale's Navy (1964), Carpenter says he is from Cleveland. In the spin-off movie McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force, Carpenter is in charge of PT-116, which is promptly sunk in the first few minutes of the movie.
==== PT-73 crew ====
Quartermaster George "Christy" Christopher (Gary Vinson, also starred in the dramatic pilot "Seven Against the Sea") — Whenever McHale is not personally steering the -73, it will be Christy at the helm. Besides Binghamton, he is the only married man and the only one with any children. Christy marries Lt. Gloria Winters (Cindy Robbins) early in the series in "Operation Wedding Party", and she moves to San Diego. They have a daughter not long afterwards in "The Big Raffle" episode. Because his crew helped them get married, their daughter is named Quintina Charlene Leslie Wilhelmina Harriet Virginia Hetty Fujiana after the crew (for Quinton, Charles, Lester, Willy, Harrison, Virgil, Happy and Fuji).
Radioman Willy Moss (John Wright, also starred in "Seven Against the Sea") — a good-natured Southerner from Tennessee, he operates the crew's still and is in charge of radio and telephone communication for the crew. He also serves as the -73’s sonar operator. In "The British Also Have Ensigns", he is revealed to have 9 brothers and sisters.
Torpedoman's Mate Lester Gruber (Carl Ballantine) — a hustler and hack magician, his get-rich-quick schemes (such as promoting gambling and selling moonshine and war souvenirs) often get the crew in trouble (when the crew is not stealing supplies or equipment). Gruber hails from Brooklyn, worked in a used car sales lot, and frequently references the Dodgers and Ebbets Field. Carl Ballantine entertained troops with his comedy and magic during World War Two.
Motor Machinist Mate Harrison James "Tinker" Bell — (Billy Sands, "Pvt. Paparelli" on Bilko) — a top notch mechanic, he is in charge of keeping the -73 running.
Gunner's Mate Virgil Edwards (Edson Stroll) — the handsome and well built lover boy is a crack shot with a .50-caliber machine gun. According to the episode "The Truth Hurts", Virgil has been in the service at least 6 years.
Seaman Joseph "Happy" Haines (Gavin MacLeod, later of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Love Boat) — MacLeod left the series before the third season to appear in the movie The Sand Pebbles. He also appeared in the 1959 movie Operation Petticoat, which has a few similarities to McHale's Navy.
Christy, Willy, and even the still were carryovers from the original dramatic pilot.
In the first season, the crew members are on an equal social footing, but in later seasons, a "pecking order" is established with Gruber at the head, although three of the crewmen outrank him. Based on their shoulder patches on their dress white uniforms, Christy, Virgil, and Bell are all petty officers, 1st class, Willy and Gruber are petty officers, 2nd class, and Happy is a seaman (he does not wear a patch). However, none of them wears patches for their particular designation (quartermaster, radioman, etc.).
Sometimes, the crewmen wear crazy disguises to carry out elaborate schemes, such as when McHale needs to stage a phony Japanese attack, Fuji, along with Gruber, Bell, and Parker, dress up in Japanese uniforms using Gruber's war souvenirs (which he is forever trying to sell). When they are in Italy, several of the crewmen and even Fuji dress in German uniforms for similar reasons. In several of the episodes in the South Pacific, the crew dresses up to look like "native savages", with Gruber playing the part of a witchdoctor or a chief. When a situation calls for a disguise as a woman, usually Tinker or Ensign Parker dresses in drag.
==== Fuji ====
Seaman 3rd Class Fuji Kobiaji' (Yoshio Yoda) — perhaps the most unusual character in the series, he is the lovable, boyish, Japanese prisoner of war and deserter from the Imperial Japanese Navy whom the PT-73 crew takes on as a de facto comrade - and keeps hidden from Binghamton and almost everyone outside of McHale's gang. In the episode entitled "A Letter For Fuji", his name is given as Fujiwara Takeo; in "The August Teahouse of Quint McHale" and the movie McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force, it is given as Takeo Fujiwara. Although Fuji is a member of the Japanese military and has a girlfriend in Japan (Mioshi, whom he finds out is married), his only loyalty is to the PT-73 crew and not the Japanese war effort. In the episodes "The Truth Hurts" and "The Vampire of Taratupa", Fuji is revealed to be from Yokohama. In the tag of one of the fourth season episodes set in Italy, he is revealed to have a second cousin who is a lieutenant in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
In exchange for being given a safe house instead of imprisonment in a prisoner-of-war camp, Fuji gladly "serves time" as the crew's houseboy and cook at their camp on "McHale's Island". Keeping Fuji's presence and identity a secret from Captain Binghamton and others is a running gag, with wacky consequences throughout the series. For instance, to avoid detection during an inspection by Binghamton, Fuji disguises himself and poses as a Polynesian chief (Binghamton remarks: "With a Japanese accent?") in the premiere episode ("An Ensign For McHale"); in the first episode set in Europe ("War, Italian Style"), he is passed off as a member of the 442nd Japanese-American Regiment (where he finds a second cousin through his mother's family of Kobayashi). In "The Mothers of PT-73" and "Orange Blossoms for McHale", he is presented as a Filipino houseboy; in "Fuji's Big Romance", he is a part-Hawaiian sailor.
Fuji is involved in a frequent scenario on the show. Whenever Binghamton is seen approaching the island unannounced, the crew converges on McHale for instructions. Naturally, the primary concern is to get Fuji out of sight before he is spotted. So invariably, the first order out of McHale’s mouth is, “Fuji. Head for the hills!”, whereupon he takes off for the other side of the island. This scenario is played out so often, in one episode in the later seasons, McHale begins, “Fuji…” and Fuji finishes, “I know. Head for hills.”
Fuji's seemingly fluent yet awkward command of the English language serves as a comic device; particularly humorous is the unexpected and arbitrary use of American colloquialisms and ethnic phrases, all spoken with a thick Japanese accent - personal catchphrases include the Yiddish lament Oy vey and the Italian exclamation Mamma mia!. He fondly calls Commander McHale "Skippa-san" and Ensign Parker "Parka-san" (see Japanese honorifics).
=== More information ===
The first episode, entitled "An Ensign For McHale", sets the tone for the entire series. It involves Ensign Parker's assignment to McHale's crew after they already had gone through several ensigns who could not put up with their unmilitary, slovenly, and insubordinate ways. One of them even suffered a nervous breakdown. Parker is given one week by Binghamton to reform the crew or be given the worst reassignment possible. At first, the crew treats Parker as badly as they treated the other ensigns, but after McHale sees Parker has integrity, he decides to help Parker out by having his crew be much more like regular Navy.
The final season had a total change of scenery as Binghamton, Carpenter, and the entire PT-73 crew, along with Fuji (who hid in the -73 as it was being transported), move to the liberated Italian theater in "late 1944" to the coastal town of Voltafiore in "Southern Italy", where Binghamton becomes the military governor and they become members of PT Boat Squadron 19. Moneymaking schemes of the wacky and somewhat crooked Mayor Mario Lugatto (Jay Novello) and the looney antics of the citizens introduce many more plot twists and gags. For instance, when McHale and his crew first arrive in Voltafiore, they are greeted by the newly liberated citizens with the Nazi salute Sieg Heil. While Binghamton and Carpenter live nicely in the city hall, McHale and his men are forced by Binghamton to bivouac in tents near the beach. However, they stumble on an abandoned wine cellar, which becomes their secret underground hideout where they hide Fuji (and of course Binghamton nearly discovers it several times). They later add a submarine-style periscope and fancy furnishings. Colonel Douglas Harrigan (Henry Beckman) of the U.S. Army is, as the overall military commander of the area, Binghamton's superior and a thorn in Binghamton's side. A schemer, Harrigan is sometimes on McHale's side, sometimes on Binghamton's side, or plays one against the other—whatever suits his purposes. Beckman also played Colonel Platt in McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force.
In "McHale the Desk Commando", McHale learns what a tough job it is when he replaces Binghamton as base commander of Taratupa so Binghamton does not have to face tough-as-nails Admiral "Iron Pants" Rafferty (Philip Ober), who is inspecting naval installations (an episode with a young Raquel Welch as Lt. Wilson). About the only other time Binghamton betters the PT-73 crew is in McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force. He does so by pushing them off the dock one at a time (except Parker, who jumps off after the others were pushed off – McHale and Gruber were not in the movie).
Sometimes, Binghamton tries to use legitimate means to get rid of McHale and/or his crew (although usually in an underhanded way). In "All Chiefs and No Indians", Binghamton tries to get the whole crew promoted to chief petty officers so they will be split up and reassigned. When they deliberately fail the exams after they find out what Binghamton is up to, he gives them all passing grades anyway. Another example is in the episode entitled "Little Red Riding Doctor" in which Don Knotts is Army psychiatrist Lt. Pratt, whom Binghamton tries to con into believing McHale's crew is suffering a terrible case of combat fatigue and should be sent back to the States.
The two movies with the same basic cast, McHale's Navy and McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force (both in color), have the same basic plot scheme as the show in the South Pacific, and in many ways were merely extensions of the show. Even parts of the filming location for New Caledonia in the first movie are the identical to episodes from the show.
At the end of the fourth season in 1966, low ratings and repetitive story lines brought McHale's Navy to an end.
=== More characters ===
==== Urulu ====
Many of the episodes in the South Pacific involve interactions with native islanders. The most colorful is Polynesian chief and witchdoctor, Pali Urulu (Jacques Aubuchon), who is as shifty and scheming as McHale and his men. When McHale and the crew are in Urulu's village, the chief displays a portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt; when the Japanese troops arrive, Urulu turns it over to reveal a portrait of Japanese Emperor Hirohito (in another episode he does the same thing with the Japanese and American flags). Though "primitive", Urulu is like Gruber (from whom he learns a lot, usually to Gruber's regret) - a hustler who is always looking for ways to make money or swindle money from the Navy. In the episode entitled "We Do The Voodoo", after Binghamton refuses to pay Urulu for damage to his coconut grove, Urulu uses his powers to put a curse on Binghamton, who then has a streak of bad luck. In "The Balloon Goes Up", Urulu displays the sign "Gone Headhunting" when he leaves his hut and is called a cannibal by Binghamton and McHale (no indication that it is meant to be taken literally). Aubuchon also played the Russian sailor Dimitri in McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force.
==== Big Frenchy ====
Another shifty character is Big Frenchy, played by George Kennedy in episodes entitled "French Leave For McHale" and "The Return of Big Frenchy". He is a thieving French smuggler, captain of a small boat, and an old friend of McHale's who knows better than to turn his back to him. In "The Return of Big Frenchy", he convinces Binghamton and Parker that he is a member of the "French Underground" (Free French) so he can steal supplies. Kennedy also played businessman Henri Le Clerc of New Caledonia in the 1964 movie. Kennedy began his career in showbiz as a technical adviser on the 'Bilko' show.
==== Senior officers ====
The show has its share of admirals. Admiral Rogers is played by Roy Roberts in 22 episodes. In some episodes, his first name is John while in others, it is Bruce. Herbert Lytton played Admiral Roscoe G. Reynolds in 11 episodes. Bill Quinn played Admirals Benson, Slocum, and Bruce Elliott in six episodes. Willis Bouchey played Admiral Hawkins in three episodes. Admiral Rafferty was played by Philip Ober in "McHale, the Desk Commando" and "McHale's Floating Laudromat". Ted Knight played Admiral "Go-Go" Granger in "The Fountain of Youth" and "One of Our Engines is Missing". In "Uncle Admiral", Harry Von Zell played Ensign Parker's uncle Vice Admiral Tim "Bull Dog" Parker. Simon Scott played General Bronson 9 times when the show is in Italy.
==== Multiple character roles ====
Peggy Mondo played several roles in the series. She played the heavyset daughter of a Polynesian chief, Little Flower, who is always looking for a husband such as Ensign Parker or even Binghamton. Mondo also played Fifi in "French Leave for McHale" and a few episodes as Mama Giovanni and Rosa Giovanni when the crew is in Italy. Stanley Adams played a native chief, the Shah of Durani, and political boss Frank Templeton in the last episode "Wally for Congress". Richard Jury played Lt. Plowright in "Parents Anonymous" and a goofy dentist in "The Novocain Mutiny". Both Syl Lamont, who played Yeoman Tate, and Clay Tanner, who played a Marine guard, appeared in the series a number of times. Tony Franke also appeared in the series several times and as Sgt. Frank Tresh in the movie McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force. Dick Wilson played Voltafiori citizen and partner of the mayor, Dino Baroni. Walter Brooke and Nelson Olmstead each played several different naval officers. Among the actors who repeatedly played Japanese soldiers and sailors are Dale Kino (who also played a Nisei sergeant), John Fujioka and Mako (who starred in the movie The Sand Pebbles for which Gavin MacLeod left the series).
==== Guest stars ====
In "The Missing Link", Marlo Thomas played Binghamton's niece, Cynthia Prentice, who takes an interest in Ensign Parker, although it turns out entirely for anthropological reasons. In "Camera, Action, Panic", Arte Johnson played the bumbling Cameraman Sweeney who is making a movie of the PT-73 crew in action. In "Is There a Doctor in the Hut", Bernie Kopell (who starred with Gavin MacLeod on The Love Boat) played Colonel Pryer, who is the obnoxious manager of the movie star Rita Howard played by Lisa Seagram. In "Hello McHale? Colonna!", McHale finagles to have comic Jerry Colonna do an unscheduled Special Services show. Pat Harrington, Jr. played the thieving Guido Panzini in "McHale's Country Club Caper". Steve Franken played the snooty Lt. Jason Whitworth III in "Birth of a Salesman", whom Binghamton hopes will give him a job selling insurance after the war. George Furth played the self-centered Roger Whitfield III, who tries to take advantage of Binghamton's hopes to get his old job back at the yacht club owned by Whitfield's father in "Dart Gun Wedding". Marvin Kaplan played the MIT electronics genius Ensign Eugene J. Kwazniak in "All Ahead, Empty" in which the -73 is wired for remote control. Bernard Fox played the clumsy Sub-Lieutenant Cedric Clivedon in "The British Also Have Ensigns". Susan Silo played Virgil's stowaway girlfriend Babette in "Babette, Go Home". Jesse Pearson played singing idol Harley Hatfield in "The Rage of Taratupa". In "Make Room for Orvie", Michael Burns played 18-year-old Seaman Orvie Tuttle, who is the newest member of the PT-7 crew, but who does not go with the crew when they move to Italy in the next episode. Ann McCrea was cast as Carol Kimberly in "Beauty and the Beast" (1963). In "The Comrades of 73", in which the -73 is slated to be sent to the Soviet Union as part of Lend Lease, Sue Ane Langdon played Russian Commander Krasni and Cliff Norton played Russian Admiral Gurevitch (Norton also played an Australian sergeant major in the 1964 movie and Major Bill Grady in McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force).
==== PT-73 crew love life ====
McHale's always hopeful love interest while the show is in the South Pacific is Navy Nurse Molly Turner (Bilko's Jane Dulo), a New Jersey gal who is always trying to corner the ever romantically elusive McHale. Another love interest of the reluctant McHale is an old friend and a bit of a wildcat Kate O'Hara (Joyce Jameson). At first, his crew tries to get McHale interested in her, then Kate tries to blackmail McHale into marrying her, and then Binghamton tries to blackmail her into marrying McHale when she tries to back out herself. Yet another love interest of the always reluctant McHale is Maggie Monohan (Jean Willes) in "The Return of Maggie", the owner of a gambling joint in New Caledonia and an old flame of McHale's who wants him back, but he does not want her back (Willes played a very similar role as Margot Monet in the 1964 movie). Willes also played Congresswoman Clara Carter Clarke in "Send Us a Hero".
Though painfully shy around women, Ensign Parker's love interest in the South Pacific is a lovely French girl from a nearby island, Yvette Gerard, played by Claudine Longet (who also played an almost identical character, Andrea Bouchard of New Caledonia, in the 1964 movie). In "A Medal for Parker", his girlfriend back home in Chagrin Falls is Mary (Kathleen Gately), who is more interested in dating a war hero than Parker. While the very bashful Parker is shy around women, women are not always shy around Parker, such as in "The Happy Sleepwalker" when Lt. Nancy Culpepper (Sheila James) finds Parker irresistible. In "The Vampire of Taratupa", Parker dates Lt. Melba Benson (Ann Elder), who is as big a klutz as he is. In the episode entitled "36-24-73", situated in Italy, hints are given of a relationship developing between Parker and by-the-book female Ensign Sandra Collins (Maura McGiveney) after he sternly corrects her about in what sections certain regulations are (they then talk about what regulations are their favorites). Along with other WAVES clad in bathing suits, they provide valuable (albeit totally unwitting) assistance in capturing a German U-boat when its captain runs the U-boat aground trying to get a better look. McGiveney also played the part of Judy in "The Stool Parrot" episode.
Although the crew (especially the lover-boy Virgil) is forever chasing women (Navy nurses, native island girls, or local Italian women), certain women gain their interest more than others. After receiving a "Dear John letter", shy and broken-hearted Willy's love interest becomes Southern belle Nurse Cindy Bates (Brenda Wright). Tinker tries to impress and win over fickle Nurse Betsy Gordonlove (Barbara Werle) in "Scuttlebutt". Happy's love interest in "The Happy Sleepwalker" is Lt. Anne Wright (Lois Roberts). When Gruber's girlfriend Ginger (Jean Hale) shows up to surprise him in "Lester, the Skipper", McHale is talked into letting Gruber pretend he is the lieutenant commander of the -73 while she is there. In "Fuji's Big Romance", the lonely prisoner of war falls for lovely Sulani (Yvonne Ribuca), the daughter of a Polynesian chief, when the crew sympathetically takes him along on one of their social outings to a luau with the native islanders, .
Other than Binghamton and Christy, none of the regular characters on the show is married, and only Christy has any children.
=== Cast ===
Except where noted, the actors appeared on the show in every season:
Ernest Borgnine as Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale
Tim Conway as Ensign Charles Parker
Joe Flynn as Captain Wallace B. Binghamton ("Old Leadbottom")
Bob Hastings as Lieutenant Elroy Carpenter
Gary Vinson as George "Christy" Christopher, quartermaster
Bobby Wright as Willy Moss, radioman
Carl Ballantine as Lester Gruber, torpedoman's mate
Billy Sands as Harrison "Tinker" Bell, engineman and motor machinist mate
Edson Stroll as Virgil Edwards, gunner's mate
Gavin MacLeod as Joseph "Happy" Haines, seaman (1962–1964)
Yoshio Yoda as Fuji Kobiaji, cook, seaman 3rd class, Japanese POW; in season 2, episode 13 ("A Letter for Fuji"), he is given the name Fujiwara Takeo.
=== Historical inaccuracies ===
Like most comical shows about war, at least some historical inaccuracies are likely, including typically no one ever getting killed or seriously injured (even when a bomb explodes right next to them) and the enemy willing to surrender very easily (which in the case of the Japanese is very much historically inaccurate). Also, PT boats were made mostly of wood and very vulnerable to enemy fire, but other than a few bullet holes (which usually disappear by the next scene) and easily repairable damage to the engine or fuel tanks, the PT-73 is in the series rather invulnerable - even the 'bridge' where bullets are seen to strike forward of where the actors were standing, shots that would, in real life, have penetrated the thin wood construction, leaving all on the command-bridge dead or severely wounded from the bullets or shrapnel. Despite this, the series was known as being fairly historically accurate, at least more so than the series Hogan's Heroes and F Troop.
In the first episode, "An Ensign for McHale", Binghamton points to a map of New Zealand and the surrounding ocean areas. He indicates that the Japanese are all around New Zealand and that the Taratupa base is located immediately below New Zealand's South Island. Although Japanese submarines and even sometimes German U-boats were a threat to shipping in and out of New Zealand, the Japanese never seriously threatened New Zealand or controlled areas near New Zealand. The only American military forces stationed in New Zealand were on the North Island and the Navy would have had very little reason to have a military base at the south end of New Zealand. In "The Ghosts of 73", Binghamton indicates on a map that McHale's Island (and Taratupa) are located just off the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. Here again, the U.S. Navy had no PT boat bases in New Zealand and New Zealand was relatively far from any combat zone as depicted in the series. A map of the area around Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands that hung on Binghamton's office wall behind his desk would imply Taratupa's fictional location (a goof in "Alias PT 73" has the map upside down early in the episode and then correctly hung later in the episode). In the episode "One Enchanted Weekend", McHale points on a map of the Solomon Islands to an island along the Indispensable Strait and indicates that it is not far from the fictional Taratupa. Also, the Solomon Islands were the closest war zone in the Pacific Theatre to New Caledonia, which is referred to on numerous occasions as where the PT-73 crew would go for R&R. The island of Tulagi, just north of Guadalcanal, was used by the U.S. Navy during World War II as a PT boat base for year and may have served as a role model for the fictional Taratupa. However, in "McHale and his Schweinhunds", Binghamton and McHale point on a map to an island northwest of Borneo in what was then the Dutch East Indies as not far from Taratupa, but this would be very far into Japanese territory for 1943 and very far from Tulagi.
Despite the fact that during World War II, the front line constantly moved forward, and according to the series, the crew had been together about three years, the entire series is based on only two locations, one on a fictional island in the South Pacific and the other in a fictional liberated town in Southern Italy. Also, much of what takes place is, in some ways, as if it were peacetime, with the crew permanently stationed in one location and concerns about peacetime duties rather than fighting the war. In reality, PT boats and squadrons were moved several times to new bases as the front moved forward.
In the final year of the series, the entire crew and ship are transferred from the Pacific theatre to the European theatre in "late 1944". While it was not uncommon for larger vessels to be transferred from one theatre to the other, transferring very small vessels like PT boats, as well as the entire crew, would have been rather strange, particularly to the European theatre. After the invasion of France in the summer of 1944 and the Allies started winning the War of the Atlantic, the U.S. Navy then shifted its emphasis to winning the war in the Pacific and sent men and ships to that theatre of the war.
According to the episode "War, Italian Style", when Binghamton, Carpenter, and the Pt-73 crew move to Voltafiore, they are part of "PT Boat Squadron 19". This squadron was assigned to the Pacific Fleet and never served in Europe. Only two U.S. PT boat bases were established in Italy during World War II. The first was as an advanced base in September 1943 in Capri on the Island of Anacapri in the Bay of Naples in Southern Italy, and the other in the city of Livorno (Leghorn in English) in Northern Italy in October 1944 (Livorno had been liberated a few months earlier in July 1944).
In "The August Teahouse of Quint McHale", several items McHale's crew stole from supplies are labeled U.S.A.F., United States Air Force. However, the U.S. Air Force during World War II was part of the U.S. Army and was known as the United States Army Air Forces or U.S.A.A.F. The U.S. Air Force did not become a separate branch of the U.S. military until 1947.
The series depicts Japanese submarines and German U-boats trying to hit the fast-moving PT-73 with a torpedo. PT boats were too fast and maneuverable to be hit by a torpedo all that easily. The more likely scenario would involve the submarine or U-boat surfacing and then shelling the PT boat with its deck gun.
Although the series is set during World War II, women on the series do not have hairstyles common during the war, but rather have hairstyles common during the early 1960s when the series was produced. Several references are made to nurses wearing bikinis. The modern bikini was not invented until 1946 and was named after Bikini Atoll after it was used for numerous atomic bomb tests after World War II.
In several interviews, Ernest Borgnine said that the U.S. Navy sent over a technical adviser, but after the filming of the first episode, the adviser walked off the set in disgust because of the show's farcical and comical portrayal of the Navy, saying, "Don't call us; we'll call you".
As a note of clarity, in the episode entitled "The Comrades of 73", situated in the South Pacific in 1943-1944, the United States and the Soviet Union are correctly portrayed as allies without any suggestion that they are allies against Japan. The Soviet Union did not declare war against Japan until August 8, 1945 — two days after the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945. By the end of the series, the PT-73 and crew are fighting in Italy, and Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945 - well before the Soviet Union declared war on Japan.
=== The real-life PT-73 ===
The real-life PT-73 was finished on August 12, 1942, by Higgins Industries, Iinc., New Orleans. It was 78 feet long, weighed 56 tons, and had a top speed of 40 knots. It was assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 13 under the command of Commander James B. Denny, USN. The squadron participated in the Aleutian Islands Campaign from March 1943 to May 1944. The squadron was then transferred to the Southwest Pacific, where the squadron saw action at Mios Woendi, Dutch New Guinea; Mindoro, Philippine Islands; and Brunei Bay, Borneo. The squadron was also based for a time at Dreger Harbor, New Guinea, and San Pedro Bay, Philippine Islands, but saw no action from these bases. Overall, the real PT-73 did not have the kind of illustrious combat record depicted in the series. On January 15, 1945, it ran aground off Lubang Island in the Philippine Islands after delivering supplies to Filipino guerrillas and was destroyed by the crew to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. | revenge, cult | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0051911 | Marjorie Morningstar | Marjorie Morgenstern is a student at Hunter College and the girlfriend of an eligible young man, Sandy Lamm, who attends her family's synagogue. Her parents are happy with her choice of mate, and her mother Rose Morgenstern (Claire Trevor) tells her father, Arnold (Everett Sloane), that she hopes the two kids marry.
Marjorie breaks up with the boy, though, and goes to the Adirondacks that summer to be a camp counselor. One night, Marjorie and friend Marsha Zelenko (Carolyn Jones) sneak to a Borscht Belt resort for adults called South Wind. There she is caught by resort owner Maxwell Greech (George Tobias), but social director Noel Airman (Gene Kelly) vouches for Marjorie as a guest and offers her a job, beginning a relationship with Airman and a friendship with aspiring playwright Wally Wronkin (Martin Milner), who writes Airman's stage act. The latter has a romantic interest in Marjorie, but she's tempted by the older, cynical Airman, who meets the disapproval of her parents. Airman, whose original name was the more Jewish Ehrman, renames Marjorie as well from Morgenstern to Morningstar.
Marjorie's sweet Uncle Samson (Ed Wynn) comes to the resort to keep an eye on her. But when he dies of a heart attack while entertaining guests, Marjorie goes back to the city. There she dates a doctor named Harris, with whom she quickly breaks up when Airman returns to find her. He declares that love has convinced him to become respectable. Marjorie tells her mother, who insists her daughter bring him to a Passover meal. "Not Passover, mother. He’s not very religious. He doesn’t believe in those things," Marjorie says. Rose answers, "He doesn’t believe in those things... you’re going to get married. How are you going to raise your children?"
In the midst of the Passover meal, he leaves and Marjorie follows him. She is concerned he's bored, but he says, "I wasn’t bored. I was disturbed, deeply. I couldn’t help thinking of all the things I’ve missed in life. Family, your kind of family. Faith, tradition. All the things I’ve been ridiculing all the time. That’s why I couldn’t take it anymore. I love you very much, Marjorie Morgenstern."
Airman gets a job at an advertising firm and seems to do well. But one week he doesn't show up to work and refuses to take Marjorie's calls. She goes to his apartment and finds him drunk with a strange woman, Imogene Norman. He has decided he cannot stand the professional lifestyle and wants to be an artist. The impetus to change careers is the success of Wally Wronkin on Broadway; the playwright has launched a series of hits and Airman is consumed with jealousy. Airman and Marjorie reconcile when girlfriend Marsha's new husband agrees to invest in his play. But it gets panned by critics. "We were crucified," someone explains to Marjorie, and their relationship is unable to survive. He runs away, again; she chases after him, even to Europe. In the end, Wally tells her Noel is back at the resort, where all first met.
Marjorie returns to South Wind, where she watches Noel rehearsing a new summer show. Everything is exactly the same as it was, her first summer there, except for herself. Greech observes that she's done some growing up. We see her board a bus. In the rearview mirror, Wronkin sits in back. He smiles, as he's been waiting for her to get over her summer fling. The suggestion is that they will embark on the relationship Wronkin had been hoping for from the beginning. | romantic | train | wikipedia | I guess I can appreciate the film more than most since I saw a lot of the characters in my youth and afterwards.Everett Sloane and Claire Trevor, formerly of the Bronx, now reside in a doorman building in Manhattan.
In fact Claire Trevor has the best performance in the film.The Morgensterns have two children, daughter Marjorie and son Seth.
With best friend Carolyn Jones, who's very into alternatives, Marjorie takes a job as a counselor in a summer camp.
Now Marjorie's smitten and wants a show business career.Though Natalie Wood plays Marjorie and the title role, the most complex part is Gene Kelly as Noel Airman.
He also doesn't realize that show business is a business and there are a lot of people out there as talented as he without his issues.In fact the key scene in the film is when Claire Trevor on meeting him, sizes him up correctly in five minutes.
Kelly sizes Trevor up as well that she's a bit of a snob, but at least she has her's.This film brought Natalie Wood real star status.
A perfect Jewish princess, in the nicest sense of the term.Ed Wynn who never was able to translate his vaudeville and radio success to Hollywood until late in life also shines here as Everett Sloane's Uncle Samson.
The best thing about it is Gene Kelly, who is absolutely handsome, charming, and sexy as a slimy rogue who leads the sweet, innocent Natalie Wood down a treacherous emotional path.
This is one of those movies to see over and over for certain memorable scenes, the hauntingly beautiful piece, A VERY SPECIAL LOVE, and for the novelty of watching Gene Kelly in a strictly dramatic role.
But as for the treatment the film gives to the Herman Wouk novel, MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR experiences the usual celluloid plastic surgery and comes out an approximation of the 1950's best seller.
In short, what we get in the film is Natalie Wood, nascent and alluring, but resembling more a Beverly Hills rich girl than a Jewish American Princess.
The obvious parallel between the coming of age of Marjorie in the film and Natalie Wood as a leading lady cannot be ignored.
Noel Airman (Gene Kelly) is a shiftless romantic forever working on his musical PRINCESS JONES.
He's more or less a drifter and supports himself in summertime by working as a dramatic director at a Jewish summertime resort in the Adirondacks where young girls are drawn to him like moths.
Natalie Wood's performance as Marjorie Morningstar is superior and is performed with the same passion characteristic of almost every role she ever tackled.
It wasn't his first dramatic role by a long shot, for Kelly was always a fine actor in his own right and showed his talents in many of his musicals such as COVER GIRL and AN American IN Paris, but MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR was his first non-dancing dramatic effort.
Claire Trevor and Everette Sloan are Marjorie's uppity, bigoted Jewish parents who will tolerate nothing less than a wealthy husband for their daughter.
But the most obtuse character in the film is Wally (Mary Milner), the struggling playwright who's been in love with Marjorie forever.
She visits the old summer camp on the Adirondacks for one last time and looks on as Noel draws impressionable young girls into his web all over again.
The sequence itself is very effective; however, the movie's very last scene in which Marjorie boards a bus and discovers a smiling Wally behind her in the rear view mirror now ready to step into her life big time is a bit much.MORNINGSTAR works if you don't want to hold the script up to the light and just enjoy Wood and Kelly in a film.
No Other Movie Like It. The movie suffers in two ways when compared to the magical novel about theater and love: (1) by losing the late-Depression setting, when show-business was very different than in the 1950's, and (2) by casting Gene Kelly (who himself felt he was wrong for the part) as the tall, blond Noel Airman (Warner Brothers must have lost its mind not to use its contract star Tab Hunter).
Natalie Wood, not yet a superstar, had to read fourteen times for the role, but all of us who loved the book knew there was no one else for it.
Herman Wouk's classic coming of age novel about a young Jewish girl who wants to be an actress is faithfully brought to the screen by director Irving Rapper.Natalie Wood was,without a doubt one of the most beautiful women to ever grace the silver screen,and although her performance here is not nearly as good as the one audiences would be treated to two years later in "Splendor In The Grass",she's just so goshdarned gorgeous that it doesn't matter.A competent supporting cast,with Ed Wynn,and his bullfighting skit at the Mexican fiesta being one of the highlights.And the Passover Seder,with the little kids fidgeting,and the looks on everyone else's faces letting you know that everyone was ready for the food to be brought out hours ago definitely brought back memories.See the movie,and if you've never read the book,try to find a copy.I think I must have read it about 5 times when I was a kid..
And, in light of this, I was very pleasantly surprised by "Marjorie Morningstar"--a truly unique and lovely film from start to finish.Natalie Wood plays Marjorie Morganstern--a very impressionable 18 year-old who goes off to work at a summer camp.
There she meets an older man (while the character was supposed to be 32, Gene Kelly was 46 at the time) who seems very talented and highly attractive.
Apart from their nice work as well as some strong support from Ed Wynn and Martin Milner, the film has a gorgeous musical score--very haunting and sweet.
I recently saw this movie after adoring Gene Kelly's musicals since I was a kid.
This is pretty standard fare for Natalie Wood, but it is a rare treat to see Gene Kelly in a dramatic role.
After reading his biography, it is a sad irony that his character somewhat mirrored what was happening in Gene Kelly's personal life, in that his days of glory were something of the past.
This is not the Gene Kelly you know, but if you want to see him in something different, take the phone off the hook, grab a box of Kleenex and sit down with Marjorie Morningstar.
When I first saw it it seemed a coming-of-age movie of a very beautiful New York Jewish girl.
Within the last five years I've probably seen it ten times and even made a a trip to Schroon Lake, N.Y. where it was filmed and stood on the beach where Kelly and Wood went swimming.
I doubt if any of the other Hollywood cynics believed a word of it.Second, and this has a lot to do with the haunting song, "A Very Special Love" which Kelly keeps singing.It speaks to me of my youth and my Summer loves with a wistfulness that calls me back to a gentler time.
There is not a genuine note in this film from beginning to end.Hollywood had dealt before with cultural assimilation and and the complexities of mixed marriage, but with the introduction of the Production Code in 1934, a lot of the old ethnic clichés became out of bounds.
Ed Wynn, Jack Benny and the Marx Brothers prospered, but without the Jewish jokes.This film was one of the major entries in a renewed attempt by Hollywood to deal with the old stories.
The film credits Beachwold Productions, which points directly to Wouk's summer house at the time.Natalie Wood can do everything she is asked to do, which is a relief - that wasn't always the case.
By casting him, the film gives up on any more subtle characterization of Noel Airman, and turns into the umpteenth remake of "Abie's Irish Rose." I don't buy Kelly as a renegade anything and neither did the original audience.
This film has some of the most bizarre casting in Hollywood history - who could possibly conceive of Gene Kelly playing a Jew?
MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR hasn't held up well as a film or on the printed page - maybe in the 1950s she was the gal every young woman wanted to be or know, but when I finally got through the book a few years ago, I found her to be not only irritating but a tease of the first order - few men or women would have much patience with her superficial personality today.
I have watched Marjorie Morningstar on video a few times and have read others' review of it.
In any case, while the premise of a young woman falling for an older man with great passion is believable, Gene Kelly as Noel Airman to me was not even likable.
Claire Trevor looks as if she longs to be bad and back in 'Key Largo' and Carolyn Jones takes it on the cuff and probably wishes she was back in 'The Bachelor Party'.The book MUST be more interesting than this and I can't believe that the Gene Kelly role wasn't a tougher read.
This film teams an ageing Gene Kelly with the young Natalie Wood, in a tale that begins and ends at summer camp, where nice Jewish girl Marjorie Morningstern falls for the vain Noel Airman, a song and dance man stick in a rut.It is a good film, with a supporting cast which includes Ed Wynn, Carolyn Jones, and Martin Balsam.
The musical theme throughout, A Very Precious Love, grounds it as a first love fairytale, but I think sympathies will still be split between the rather shallow but naive Marjorie and the immature Noel.A true period piece which brings both laughter and tears, this film showcases Natalie Wood's talents just as Inside Daisy Clover did.
Gene Kelly, although good, is too old and a bit miscast - a younger actor might have brought the right nuances of the character, although I doubt they would have done it with such charm..
On her summer vacation, restless college beauty Natalie Wood (as Marjorie Morgenstern) gets a job at a New York camp and resort area; there, she falls in love with attractive older man Gene Kelly (as Noel Airman).
The story's moral seems to waver uncomfortably between "Don't reach for the stars" and "There's no place like home." **** Marjorie Morningstar (4/24/58) Irving Rapper ~ Natalie Wood, Gene Kelly, Carolyn Jones.
The very beautiful Oscar nominated song A Very Precious Love highlights this great film about a young lady finding love as a summer counselor at a camp.Natalie Wood portrays Marjorie Morgenstern in this classic flick.
Gene Kelly is the older guy of her dreams while Martin Milner is memorable as the young man she will find her place with.
It is shocking that Bette Davis's favorite director, Irving Rapper, allowed Gene Kelly to be in the title role of Noel Airman (Ehrman).
Novelist Herman Wouk's Jewish heroine, who rose from girlish camp counselor to college graduate to aspiring NYC actress, provides a meaty role for Natalie Wood, whose usual mannerisms (the breathy voice, the twitching mouth) are nicely modulated by director Irving Rapper.
Gene Kelly is terrific as the womanizing theater director whom Marjorie becomes hopelessly stuck on, and the Oscar-nominated song "A Very Precious Love" by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster lends pretty uplift to their romantic scenes.
In the supporting roles, Marty (Martin) Milner is excellent as an aspiring playwright and Claire Trevor has some strong early scenes as Marjorie's insufferable mother, but Ed Wynn's bit as an uncle is gratuitous, used weakly for both comic relief and pathos.
Martin Balsam's role as a doctor is curiously tossed away (perhaps landing on the cutting-room floor), yet Natalie Wood is the major surprise; although one gets the impression her costume changes and hairstyles were first priority here, Wood excels in a handful of dramatic scenes, creating convincing chemistry with Kelly even if (emotionally) the narrative is all over the place.
I used to see this movie on television in the "old" days but since it hasn't been on for a long time, and since I'm a Natalie Wood fan, I recently bought the VHS.
Herman Wouk's "Marjorie Morningstar", a book published in 1955, became an immediate bestseller.
The movie version changes the ending, as Marjorie had finally come to her senses about her infatuation with Noel Airman and she is seen boarding the bus where a patient Wally Wronkin, the man who really loved her is also riding.The film version by Everett Freeman took some liberties, perhaps to make it more appealing to a younger movie going public.
Perhaps reading the novel would be more satisfying because the original story is left to one's imagination.Part of the problem with the film was the casting of Gene Kelly, who was 46 at the time, against a radiant and youthful Natalie Wood.
Miss Wood, who was starting to appear in films as a young woman.
Ms Wood had grown up in the eyes of viewers of films of the late 40s and early fifties where she was seen playing small girls' roles.
It didn't help either that she and Mr. Kelly show almost no chemistry in their scenes together.Of course, "Marjorie Morningstar" had its following at the time it came out.
The supporting cast was good, especially Claire Trevor, Everett Sloane and Ed Wynn, who are seen as the parents and uncle of the young heroine.
Martin Milner, Martin Balsam and especially Carolyn Jones make a good impression.Irving Rapper, who had done better in previous movies, directed without breaking new ground.
Missing parts, but still showcases Natalie Wood and Gene Kelly.
The achingly beautiful Natalie Wood (my first movie star crush!) did a good job with the title role; very believable.
Contrary to other reviewers, I liked Gene Kelly's work in this movie.
He was a talented dramatic actor (especially in "Inherit the Wind") and seemed to really breathe life into the character of Noel Airman.
The supporting cast all did a fine job, particularly Martin Milner as Wally and Claire Trevor as Mrs. Morningstar.
Overall, I give it a 7 for what it did have: Natalie Wood and Gene Kelly, the South Wind sequences, and the fine supporting acting..
Beautiful Marjorie, coming of age in New York City, surrounded by her old-fashioned, traditional Jewish family but enamored of glamor and Broadway.
The horrible ending of the movie, with Wally Wronken "rescuing" Marjorie and being a total doormat, completely destroys the message and meaning of the novel -- that we all have dreams, and we all (as Marsha said), settle for what we can get and try to figure out how to be happy with it, rather than living with bitterness and regret for "what might have been."And the casting....Yuck!
I absolutely adore Gene Kelly, but was a terrible choice for Noel Airman.
Natalie Wood is gorgeous, and was okay as Marjorie - she communicated the love-bordering-on-obsession that we feel at that age.
The tragedies of the other characters - Wally, Uncle Samson, Marjorie's parents -- all go comparatively unaddressed in the movie.It wasn't intended to be a happily-ever-after story, the way the movie ended.
I like both Gene Kelly and Natalie Wood so enjoying this movie was never in doubt.It is a fairly straightforward show business concept.
Gene Kelly, who was in his mid 40s during filming, is 30-something Noel Airman, aspiring song writer who is also working on a production he hopes to become a Broadway hit.
His father is a successful New York businessman but to distance himself from that life Noel changed his last name from Ehrmann to Airman.As this story opens he is working on a minor stage production at a summer camp in upstate New York, the movie in various bits showcases Kelly's singing and dancing, plus of course his acting.
Natalie Wood, about 19 during filming, is just an 18-yr-old Marjorie Morgenstern who gets a summer job at a girls camp across the lake from the camp Noel is working at.
She is flattered.The other key character is played by a young Martin Milner as Wally Wronkin, also at the camp and also an aspiring playwright.
Apart from dear old Ed Wynn "Marjorie Morningstar" lacks a single sympathetic character.
Miss Natalie Wood is just about up to the task as Marjorie Morganstern,nice but dim,pretty but muddle - headed.Her naivety may well be the main attraction for Noel Ehrman(professional name "Airman")played by Mr Gene Kelly.He is a moderately able song and dance man who writes his own material and has a musical "Princess Jones" in his head if he can just get round to it.Girls gather round him "Like moths around a flame" as Miss Dietrich once memorably sang.
Mr Kelly,to put it kindly,never seems happy in his role until the final scene at the Summer Camp when Marjorie,back on a visit to lay a few ghosts,sees him singing to an adoring audience of acolytes.Happy that he has found something he is good at once more,she gets on a bus to go home and is confronted by her stalker,the writer Wally,who smiles at her.Good Grief.
Half a century or so ago,"Marjorie Morningstar" was a big movie.Now it seems to have shrunk somewhat.The garish colour and the corny plot have contributed to its fall from grace,but,most of all,apart from dear old Ed Wynn,it lacks a single sympathetic character..
One of Warner Bros' better 1950s melodramas, "Marjorie Morningstar" stars Natalie Wood as a Marjorie Morgenstern, a young Jew growing up in New York City.
Here she meets Noel Airman (Gene Kelly), a dancer and social director whom she falls instantly in love with.
She then abides by her parents wishes and hooks up with a "safe", "stable" and "successful" young man.The film doesn't pass judgement on either Noel or Marjorie. |
tt0036670 | Brazil | The movie is set in a fictional urban world, ruled by a “Ministry of Information”. The only recognizable ideologies are consumerism and terrorism control, leading to the desire to possess complete information about every citizen and the installation of a massive bureaucracy. Sam Lowry is an intelligent, but unambitious, low-level government clerk who frequently daydreams of saving a damsel in distress. His mother Ida is very wealthy and well-connected and obsessed with plastic surgery. When a fly gets jammed in a printer and results in the accidental incarceration and death-during-torture of Archibald Buttle (instead of Archibald Tuttle), Sam is assigned the task of rectifying the error. Visiting Buttle's widow, Sam encounters her neighbour Jill Layton. He is astonished to see that, although her hair is dark and cropped instead of blonde and long, her clothes masculine, and her demeanor gruff and walled off, she is the woman from his dreams. Jill is trying to help Mrs. Buttle determine what happened to her husband, but her efforts are obstructed by an infuriating bureaucracy. Unknown to her, she is now considered a terrorist accomplice of Tuttle for attempting to report the mistake of Buttle's arrest to a government which would rather dispose of all evidence and witnesses than admit its error. Sam finds Jill, declaring his love for her, but a wary Jill tells him that no one touches her, and she has to repeatedly throw him off her big rig truck.
Tuttle, who once worked for Central Services but left due to his dislike of the tedious and repetitive paperwork, now works as an illegal renegade air conditioning specialist. He encounters Sam when unconventionally repairing his air conditioning. Later two villainous Central Services workers, Spoor and Dowser, demolish Sam's ducts and seize his apartment as a retaliation for the illegal repairs. Meanwhile, Sam discovers that the only way to access Jill's classified records is to get transferred to Information Retrieval. Having previously turned down a promotion arranged by his mother, Sam speaks with family friend, Deputy Minister Mr. Helpmann, at a party and gets transferred. Obtaining Jill's records, Sam tracks her down before she can be arrested, then falsifies the records to fake her death, allowing her to escape pursuit. The two share one romantic night together but are soon apprehended by soldiers at gunpoint. Imprisoned, Helpmann tells him that there's nothing he can do for him, and that Jill was killed resisting arrest. Charged with treason for abusing his new position, Sam is restrained to a chair in a cacophonous metal shell, and is about to be tortured for a confession by his old friend, Jack Lint.
Suddenly Tuttle and other rebels explode into the Ministry, killing Jack, rescuing Sam, and blowing up the Ministry building. Sam and Tuttle flee together, but Tuttle disappears amid a mass of scraps of paperwork from the destroyed building. Sam stumbles into the funeral for Ida's friend, whose body liquefied due to excessive cosmetic surgery. Finding a rejuvenated Ida with the face of Jill, Sam falls into the open casket and lands in a street from his daydreams, where he escapes police and monsters by opening a door, finding himself in a shipping container size, ready made house, sitting on the trailer pulled by Jill's truck. The two escape the dingy city for a bucolic countryside, living in their little house. However, he is still strapped to the torture chair, where Jack and Mr. Helpmann declare him a lost cause due to completely dissociating from reality. Sam sits smiling and humming the song "Brazil". | romantic | train | wikipedia | Virginia Bruce Lends A Much Needed Spark. Brazil has some entertaining musical and dance numbers that are worth a look. Tito Guizar is an impressive singer, but as an actor he personifies the word: bland. The only real spark in this film is Virginia Bruce. She has a wonderful screen presence. She's animated, and emotionally on cue as an actress in every scene she's in. Too bad she didn't get to sing -- she's a distinctive and likable vocalist (she introduced the song "I've Got You Under My Skin" in 1936). Bob Livingston would have been a better choice for her love interest -- he is far more charismatic than Guizar. The first fifteen minutes are impressive as they introduce authoress Virginia, who's American book "Why Marry A Latin?" has caused a furor among Latin men. Along comes Guizar, who at one point becomes twin brothers, which is two too many Guizars for one movie.. The song "Rio de Janeiro". I wonder if the award-winning song really was called "Rio de Janeiro." According to my resource book on the Academy Awards, the song "Brazil" from this movie was the Academy Award winner for "Best Song" category in 1944.I checked with sheetmusicplus.com and could not find a song called "Rio de Janeiro." If there is such a song in print, I would like to know about it as I love Latin music.I agree this film should have been in color. Maybe Ted Turner can colorize it for us. Also, I should like to see it available on DVD soon.As for Edward Everett Horton being in the film, I believe he appeared in other films set in South America in this era. No doubt the interest in Latin America expressed through movies in the 1940s and television in the 1950s was because of South American oil the United States and Canada bought for military use during World War II and during the industrial expansion and prosperity that followed the war. If you think about it, you can see the political undertones in the films of this era.. Two weeks to learn everything about the largest country in the Americas.. Republic studio's attempt to produce an A musical at the height of world war 2 when MGM's reign dominated the genre, while 20th Century Fox was cherishing their domination over the Latin world in producing colorful spectacles with song. It's the story that hurts this one, not to mention the eternal stereotype of the happy Hispanic, the non- stop fiesta world and abundance of colorful characters in all age groups. It might have been a good will gesture, but it did a disservice in not taking them seriously, especially in a time that the world was turning miserably upside down.Veteran actress Virginia Bruce plays an American author visiting Rio who expects to learn all she can about thus huge paradise as she believes in a very short span of time. She hires Tito Guizar as her guide, thinking he's just a struggling street singer, unaware that he's a popular night club performer. Guuzar further complicates things by pretending to be two people, performing for her as his real identity, all the while romancing her under the guise of the struggling guide and street singer. One of the highlights is a tram ride past the statue of Christ the Redeemer, built more than a decade before, and equally profound in black and white as it is in color. Mixing in specialty numbers along with the Mexican born Guizar's songs, this includes the Oscar nominated "Rio De Ginaro". Edward Everett Horton provides amusing comic relief as the teller of tall tales while trying to break up Bruce and Guizar, even going as far as telling her a vicious lie about him. Robert Livingston, Republic picture's forgotten leading man, plays an American suitor of Bruce's obviously jealous of Guizar and Bruce's relationship. A cameo from Roy Rogers is really nothing but a waste of credit space, even though he does sing one song. However, a lavish carnival sequence makes up for flaws, even though it screams for color. |
tt1458915 | Tactical Force | Captain Frank Tate leads a four-member SWAT team consisting of Tony Hunt, Jannard and Blanco. They manage to stop a shop robbery and save the hostages, but inflicting great property damage. Their superior gets angry and orders them to go through training, which they do not take seriously.
Ilya Kalashnikova and Demetrius, two Russian mafia members, bring a captive named Kenny to a warehouse outside the city. They demand Kenny to recover the “item” he has hidden there. Lampone and Storato, members of the Italian mafia, arrive and start searching. The two parties intercept each other. Tate’s team arrives and starts training with unreal bullets without knowing about the current events at the warehouse. The two parties hide from the SWAT team; but the tension rises. The SWAT team hears it and Blanco goes to check it, being fatally shot. Tate and his team hears it. The Russians and the Italians realize that the SWAT team does not have real bullets. They form a fragile temporary alliance to kill the rest of SWAT. A shootout starts and the SWAT team escapes to the upper level, locking the door behind. It is revealed that Demetrius stole the item from Lampone before Kenny stole it from the former. Kenny reveals that the item is hidden in a sector that is behind the locked door. Demetrius calls for backup. SWAT team realize that they need to return to their truck to obtain the necessary tools including real ammunition and the radio to call for reinforcement. Kalashnikova and Storato bring the truck inside the warehouse. Members of the Russian mafia, headed by a man named Vladimir, arrive. Vladimir decides to attack the upper floor from outside windows. Lampone secretly tells Storato that he has called his own operatives in order to secure the item for themselves. Vladimir’men enter the floor and start searching for the SWAT team. Tate manages to reach the truck secretly and finds the radio damaged. He frees Kenny while Hunt fights off Vladimir’s men. Tate and Kenny return to the stairs by the door and lock it again. Jannard engages in a duel with Vladimir, who overpowers her before Tate arrives and kills him. Members of the Italian mafia, headed by a man nemed Tagliaferro, arrive, making Demetrius and Kalashnikova nervous of the outcome. Kenny gives the case containing the item to Tate, who gets surprised to know what it is. Tagliaferro finds a way from the rooftop and opens the door to the others. Kenny shows the SWAT team a hidden tunnel leading outside the location. The SWAT team and Kenny enter the tunnel, which is found by Tagliaferro. Hunt hears a sound from behind and Tate returns to check it while the others continue. Lampone orders his men to return Kenny alive. Tate is knocked unconscious while Storato and his men capture the others and bring them to a nearby warehouse. Demetrius tries to have Tate killed; but the latter reveals that the item is hidden; and they need him to find it. Lampone finds the case empty. He shoots Kenny, apparently killing him. Hunt agrees to go and return the item if Lampone does not kill Jannard. Storato goes with him. Tagliaferro arrives with his men at the other warehouse and demands Demetrius, Kalashnikova and Tate to surrender in order to be killed without pain. The trio enters the truck and escapes, evading the Italians. In the tunnel, Hunt gets in a duel with Storato and kills him. He returns and captures Lampone. The trucks arrive at the other warehouse and a shootout starts. The Italians are overpowered; but they get the upper hand at last and capture the SWAT team and the Russians. Using a flashbang, the SWAT team manages to free itself. Tate kills Tagliaferro while Demetrius, Kalashnikova and Lampone are arrested.
The SWAT team’s superior admires them. Kenny, revealed to be alive and an undercover FBI agent, arrives and informs them that he was on a mission which was ruined by the team. He also implies that Lampone is another undercover agent. The team is ordered not to talk to anyone about FBI’s mission. | cult, humor, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | But while it looks like they really had fun doing it the only reason I watched through the whole thing was to see all martial arts scenes with Michal Jai White because those few were the only half good thing about the flick.I'm pretty sure if any SWAT member ever sees this movie he'll face-palm himself black and blue because kids playing cowboys and Indians in the garden show better tactics and skills then the SWAT team in this movie.Then there is the endless talking of the bad guys in every moment they are in control.
It's like they were thinking "how long can we stretch the cliché of the bad guys talking too much until they get overpowered until someone switches off the movie or starts taking vodka intraveinously to find some fun in it?".The movie also had two female characters but they don't do much except getting one over the head at some point and more or less looking pretty.
Lexa Doig in SWAT gear is the "less" and Candace Elaine in leather the "more".It seems they tried to give the dialog this cult movie style of humor, the one that's pretty well executed in "Mean Guns", but all I could do here was roll my eyes.
As I said before, it just sounds dumb.I think you really have to be a fanboy/fangirl of one of the actors to find anything enjoyable about this movie.
Hard to know what to expect with the mix of reviews, however I thought the movie was much better then the IMDb rating.
It had enough action to keep me watching, enough comedy to keep me laughing and an overall engaging plot.
The acting was good enough for a'B' movie- it's not like it had Meryl Streep in it.
It was just as good as 'red' or the 'expendables' for story/ plot/ writing/ visual with a bit worse acting quality.
As a (somewhat implausible) action film, it was OK, almost pretty good.
After resolving a supermarket hold up in violent fashion, a Los Angeles S.W.A.T. team - leader Tate (Steve Austin), Hunt (Michael Jai White), Jannard (Lexa Doig), and Blanco (Steve Bacic) - are assigned to do training at a remote facility (with only themselves on the site...huh, no trainers?).
This is bad news as two mob factions (including Michael Shanks doing one of cinema's worst Russian accents) have descended up on the warehouse looking for a mysterious briefcase.
I enjoyed this movie right from the beginning, knowing it was a B movie but with good action actors.
Hopefully this will help in your decision on whether to watch, should enjoy if you like to the point action..
One of the worst action movies I've ever seen; Would NOT Recommend.
Directed by Adamo Paulo CulatranoStarring Steve Austin, Michael Jai White and Lexa Doig Plot Overview: After a hostage situation gone bad, Tate(Steve Austin) and his SWAT team are sent back to do basic training but when they are caught in the middle of a gang war and with no live ammo, things go bad real fast.General: Overall: I will never rate a movie either a 1 or a 10 just to decrease its rank.
I don't know what type of people will like this other than maybe if you enjoy Steve Austin and if you admire this 'style' of action.Wouldn't Recommend.Detailed: The acting was just all around atrocious.
To top that off, each and every character was either an archetype or human stereotype, and none of them were even remotely interesting or likable or enjoyable to watch.There was an idea, buried deep deep down under this trash, that could have made a competent, fun action movie with some quirky characters and cool one liners.
This good idea was completely disregarded after maybe 40 minutes and it just becomes a stupid action movie after that.
I'm not sure if there was an actual story and that plot overview I wrote above was something I think I made up to flow with the movie because very little time is actually dedicated to it.
Upon hearing the premise of this film, I thought it could be an alright and fun action movie with some witty one liners and clever action.
It was 2AM, I couldn't sleep so I started watching this movie, hoping it would make me sleep, but things went other way around totally.The beginning wasn't impressive, I thought the actors are pretty much suckers.
He killed all the scenes.Overall it was a good movie for me.
Director was successful at keeping the physical fights short, because everyone knows that physical action never lasts more than 2 minutes unless it's a superhero.I'm shocked to see the ratings of this movie.
TACTICAL FORCE is another vehicle for bald, hulking, ex-wrestler turned actor Steve Austin, who seems to have become the new Seagal ever since he starred as a villain in Stallone's THE EXPENDABLES.
It's as much fun as DAMAGE, proving that Austin is an adequate star for fans of light action.The premise and setting for this movie couldn't have been much cheaper: a small SWAT team are on a training exercise in an abandoned warehouse, but they soon find themselves assailed by various gangster types.
It's a workable premise - Tarantino revealed the brilliance of utilising such a setting and a small cast twenty years ago in RESERVOIR DOGS - and the decent pacing makes it a painless viewing experience.The production values are a little weak if you look at them too closely, and it's fair to say that the cast are well-suited to B-movies; Austin is on particularly dodgy ground here, and would do better to just keep his mouth shut and hit people as that's what he does best.
There are some heavyweights (physically rather than acting) in support, like Michael Jai White (just in case you wondered what happened to him after UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: THE RETURN) and the arresting Darren Shahlavi and Keith Jardine, but this looks and feels like a B-movie through and through.The action isn't bad, but I would have liked a little more of it.
But I went into TACTICAL FORCE expecting nothing, and I got a mildly entertaining movie instead, so I can't complain too much..
I think some may have seen this movie and thought it to be a serious film in t he likes of S.W.A.T.
(Jackson, Farrell, 2003), however, this film I think is intended to take a more comical side, while still focusing on action and story.
Unlike other S.W.A.T. or Police themed movies this one does not confuse you with all sorts of law enforcement lingo and the like, but immerses you into the world of Law Enforcement in a mild, and progressively more serious manner.I did see the twist coming to a point, however I don't think it was a dead giveaway.
And again, I'd like to point out that this is neither a fully blown COMEDY or POLICE THRILLER, but instead a satirical police themed action film, in close similarity to Hot Fuzz (Pegg, Frost, 2007).
I think the overall idea behind this film, and those like it, is to build a relationship with the main characters that will, by the end of the film, make you want to see a Part II.
Clever story line has a SWAT team training in an old hangar, only to cross paths with not one, but two gangs who are also inside the hangar, looking for a particular container.
Michael Jai White and Steve Austin co-star.
The big showdown near the end is all too predictable, and Austin isn't required to do much acting (he was much better in "Damage"), but this is a passable video on all other counts.
For a wrestler movie this is not bad, action is good.
Being an action movie starring a wrestler I can usually overlook stuff like this, but the words were distractingly bad.
Lines like "Eat my grandma" shouted before firing a gun really take away from the action and makes you laugh throughout the movie instead of wondering what is happening.
If you want to watch a real action movie with good lines, real actors, and real action, watch S.W.A.T. with Collin Ferrel, Samuel L.
I like action films.
He is the kind of talentless SoCal idiot who jiggles a camera and thinks he's making The Third Man. The rest of his talentless crew would have more dignity if they'd worked on a soft-core porn shoot.Steve Austin why do you make such awful films?
This is so awful it makes 1980's action films by Van Damme look brilliant by comparison!Your time would be better spent scrubbing that stain in the guest bedroom..
I had pretty low expectations for this movie but it turned out a bit better than I thought it would be.
I have to admit though the main reason I decided to watch this was because it as Steve Austin and Michael Jai White in the same movie.
So the plot is this, after a group of LAPD SWAT team doesn't do there job the higher ups wanted they get forced to do a training exercise in a warehouse.
Steve Austin and Michael Jai White definitely have the stuff to be B movie stars, but they need to take care when it comes to choosing the right B movie projects.
I've seen a lot of Steve Austin movies, they're fun to watch and always keep me on the edge of my seat.
For one thing, it was much too predictable, without any twists and turns most of us expect these days, and lacked the momentum Austin movies are known for.
(Credit, IMDb) A training exercise for the LAPD SWAT Team goes terribly wrong when they find themselves pitted against two rival gangs while trapped in an abandoned Hangar, armed with nothing but blanks.I really wish Stone Cold would choose better projects.
There is barely any action in this movie, which is something that might seem shocking, considering Michael Jai White is in this movie as well.
This movie itself DOES NOT aim such a thing.The movie is actually a short story of 4 careless officer (3 guys + 1 woman) who love more action and less thinking.
Most of us are used to watching action movies in which there are clever S.W.A.T. officers who always put the hostages' (even criminal's) safety as priority during their operations.
Jai White's acting and Lexa Doig's beauty worth mentioning) Musics and sound effects fit the action.
HOWEVER, if you watch it and just go along for the ride, you'll get some laughs, some adrenaline rushes and basically be able to have something fun to talk about with your friends.I'm sure that there are some LAPD cops out there saying, "You gotta be f***ing kidding me!" and LAPD S.W.A.T. units are going to be hiding their patches for awhile to try and live down the "crazed cowboy" image this movie has painted of them.
But take heart guys, I think anyone with a functioning brain will realize that the good guys are just as LARGER THAN LIFE as the bad guys are.It's an action movie and to be honest, I have to say that although the characters were outrageous stereotypes; the people portraying them did an excellent job of carrying it off without making it too campy.
Especially kudos to both females in this movie because they carried off their parts well without having to depend on their sexuality.**************************SPOILER ALERT******************************** It truly began to feel like a James Bond movie with the number of times that our heroes got captured and were ABOUT to be executed but somebody just had to say something before pulling the trigger.
There are some appealing moments and some pretty good fight scenes for and action movie enthusiasts.
It stars todays B-Action heroes, Steve Austin, Micheal Jai White, Darren Shalavi and Kieth Jarradine.
But of course this movie was meant to be fun and not to be taken seriously.So the basic premise of this movie is this, "A training exercise for the LAPD SWAT Team goes terribly wrong when they find themselves pitted against two rival gangs while trapped in an abandoned Hangar, armed with nothing but blanks." Thats about it.Actually there is much more than that.
Threre is an item in a briefcase that scared most of the members of the swat team that the bad guys are after.
But one thing is for sure, The action scenes are good.
Having two average action stars the movie completely fail to entertain me.
Acting was OK but still could have been better.But like i said its a B grade movie what more you can expect.
The director seems to try his best to make the movie better but half of the time he failed to do it..One thing i liked about this movie is its dialogues which was far better than any B grade movies..lots of punch lines and all.
All in all Lower your expectation watch this movie knowing and expecting as a B grade and Tactical Force might entertain you...This is only for hard core action movie fans and fans of Michael Jai White & Steve Austin..
The opening hostage scene is a precursor to how the entire movie is going to play out.Everything from the plot, action sequences, the realistic feel of the movie, are all cringe inducing.
first of all from the start the movie was just so bad the they need to fix the video the camera was moving and laging it didn't seem like they had the best camera guy that kind of ruined the whole movie it seemed like it would of been a good movie it had some good scenes if the camera just wasn't so bad thats why i gave this movie rating a 1 they should remake the movie it seemed like they were in a hurry to get it done it looked like a youtube video i think its not worth it to own the movie or even rent it i turned it off after the first scene where they come to breach the shopping store so out of everything i gave this movie a 2 out of ten as you could see the camera just ruined the whole thing even though it looked like they would have some pretty good scenes if the camera was stable it was like the documentary filming so i would not pay for this movie or even watch it not a good movie..
Buff SWAT team mess up a store robbery for some reason (maybe they didn't fire enough bullets) and have to do some training at an abandoned warehouse.Little do they know there is some deal going down by some really annoying bad guys who think it's cool to swear a lot and point guns at each other because the maker of the movie thinks this will make them look more menacing.When one of the SWAT team gets killed, this vexes Jai White, Austin, and the Woman and they decide to save the day.This is one of those movie that tries to be like the action movies of the late eighties/early nineties ad fails miserably.After seeing Black Dynamite, I couldn't believe how bad Jai White was in this.I could understand it from the rest of the cast, but he was the predominant reason why I was even considering this movie.Ther film is filled with unintentionally funny dialogue, and it all feels like it's rushed, and it look cheap.All in all, I wasn't expecting much, and I didn't get much..
I did think at the start it was a bit silly but after that it got better.The acting was OK and the action scenes were good.
I was waiting for one of them to say, "What about moose and squirrel."The dialogue was mildly humorous at times, a step up from Austin's other movies.
Likewise when you've got a premise that sounds very similar to the Walter Hill movie TRESPASS you're not going in to a movie with expectations , but to give it its due TACTICAL FORCE never really becomes a tactical farce eitherThe best point about the movie is its likable good guys with Steve Austin playing Tate who leads his small SWAT in to a heap of trouble involving two gangs of mobsters , one Italian and one Russian .
There's also an entirely unconvincing twist at the end involving good guy gangster Kenny which has to be seen to be disbelieved In all many of the reviews on this page state that TACTICAL FORCE is merely an okay action thriller and I certainly go along with that but to give the movie some credit it's perhaps more entertaining than it has any right to.
Lexa Doig is a third member.The upstairs of an abandoned(?) warehouse is set up with paper "bad guys" for the SWAT team to practice with simulation rounds.
Lexa Doig is a third member.The upstairs of an abandoned(?) warehouse is set up with paper "bad guys" for the SWAT team to practice with simulation rounds.
I was waiting for one of them to say, "What about moose and squirrel."The dialouge was mildly humorous at times, a step up from Austin's other movies.
There were no real plot twists except at the very end...and then it didn't make much sense.If you like Steve Austin movies, I think this was one of his better ones.F-bomb, no sex.
There were no real plot twists except at the very end...and then it didn't make much sense.If you like Steve Austin movies, I think this was one of his better ones.F-bomb, no sex.
The movie has a lot of plot holes and isn't really well scripted.
Even though it is full of plot holes I liked the action the movie had to offer, 5 out of 10. |
tt0102767 | The Refrigerator | The film opens with a couple drunk driving through the streets of New York. Upon arriving at their apartment, they make love in front of the kitchen. Afterwards, the wife walks into the kitchen whereupon the refrigerator opens up and sucks her in.
Steve & Eileen Bateman move to New York, renting the apartment with the killer refrigerator. Steve takes a new job, while Eileen dreams of becoming a performer. She pretends to receive an award then walks all over Broadway.
Steve, Nanny and Eileen begin to have nightmares about the refrigerator: Steve sees mini people inside the refrigerator (supposed victims) while Eileen sees unborn babies.
Steve is slowly driven to insanity by the refrigerator's influence, leaving Eileen to cope with her acting career on her own.
Juan, a plumber, comes to the apartment one night, warning Eileen that her refrigerator is from hell and the devil controls it.
Steve, Nanny and Eileen throw a party at their apartment one night. The refrigerator brings the other kitchen appliances to life and begins slaughtering the guests. Juan ties the refrigerator shut, and the surviving guests flee. Later, another couple is shown interested in buying the apartment. | cult | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0041088 | Act of Violence | After surviving a Nazi POW camp where comrades were murdered by guards during an escape attempt, Frank Enley (Van Heflin), returns home from World War II. The "war hero" is respected for his fine character and good works in the California town of Santa Lisa, where he, his young wife and baby had settled after moving from the East. What his wife does not know is that Frank relocated them in an attempt to escape his past. His nemesis is Joe Parkson (Robert Ryan), once his best friend, who also lived through the ordeal, although he was left with a crippled leg. In exchange for food, Frank had alerted the Nazi camp commander to the prisoners' escape plans, thinking wrongly that the men would not be punished. Joe is determined to exact justice on Frank, whose location he has learned from a newspaper story commending Enley for his civic endeavors.
Frank's wife Edith (Janet Leigh) is completely in the dark about his past, while Joe's girlfriend Ann Sturgess (Phyllis Thaxter) knows everything about her man, but cannot dissuade him from his passion to set past wrongs right by seeing Frank dead. Frank must confront the truth that he is a coward, not a hero.
Doggedly pursued by Joe, who stalks Frank's family at their house, Frank goes into hiding, leaving his confused wife behind. At a trade convention in Los Angeles, Frank enlists a past-her-prime prostitute, Pat (Mary Astor), who introduces him to a shady lawyer and a hitman, Johnny (Berry Kroeger). Frank lures Joe into meeting him at the Santa Lisa train station, where the hitman plans to drive up and kill Joe, the gunshot muffled by the noise of the train.
After waking from a drunken binge, Frank regrets the deal and tries to warn Joe at the station. Johnny is already waiting with a gun, but before he can complete the job Frank jumps in front of the shot. Although wounded, Frank manages to grab Johnny as he speeds off in his car, causing it to crash into a lamppost. Both Johnny and Frank are killed. Joe, realizing what Frank has done, kneels by his old captain and tells the officers that he will be the one to tell Frank's wife. | revenge, murder | train | wikipedia | In "The Search" he made use of a ruined Berlin to tell the story of a very young concentration camp survivor - a young boy separated from his mother - using the ruins as a metaphor for the many ruined lives.In "Act of Violence" Zinnemann returns to the aftermath of war - this time telling of two prisoner-of-war camp survivors, one of whom was a Nazi collaborator, the other one a vengeful fellow prisoner who takes it upon himself to track down and kill his former friend.
Cinematographer Robert Surtees makes great use of Los Angeles' seedier parts of town - I was reminded of how his son Bruce Surtees made similar effective use of San Francisco in "Dirty Harry" - this is noir at its best, not only in cinematic terms, but with those "only come out at night" characters you expect in a top notch thriller.Mary Astor is most effective as the barfly (couldn't make her a prostitute, though it is more than obvious) - and after her performance in the garish "Desert Fury" it's nice to see her in black-and-white again.
His calm, rational demeanor puts him in a different class of predator - he's good at what he does and he's used to doing it, like Alan Ladd's character in "This Gun For Hire" we can be sure that when committing murder, he feels "Fine, just fine."Janet Leigh appears as Heflin's wife - it's an early turn for her, and while it is a most stereotypically written "wifey" role, she invests it with all that she has, but the ending is such that we have to wonder just how she will react.
The tension is almost unbearable, all done through editing and camerawork and not one line of dialogue.Zinnemann would continue to look at war's effects on those who came home in "The Men" as well as "Teresa" and in "Hatful Of Rain" - the man may be the most unheralded of classic film directors, but his resume includes Oscar winners such as "High Noon" and "A Man For All Seasons" as well as such nailbiters as this film and the original "Day of the Jackal.".
(After helping to launch the cycle with her spectacular turn as Brigid O'Shaugnessey in The Maltese Falcon, Astor appeared in disappointingly few film noir; her expert performance here makes one wonder why, why, why?) Though the script opts for a strange and bitter "redemptive" ending, the acrid taste of Act of Violence lingers long..
Quite frankly this could be another classic Hollywood film noir, as it takes place in 1940's Los Angeles, and includes many famous landmarks, like the extinct "Angel's Flight."Janet Leigh, in her fifth film, gives a fine performance as Heflin's concerned wife, and Mary Astor is a real delight as the woman who befriends Heflin in his state of panic.This would make an excellent remake today, if done in the style of "L.A. Confidential." Catch this film sometime if you can.
Four years after America's victory, it was still daring to admit that not all of our boys behaved honorably overseas, and that our prosperity might rest on corrupt foundations.Frank Enley (Van Heflin) is a perfect image of postwar success, a war hero with a thriving business, a nice house in the suburbs, a beautiful wife and a young son.
Fred Zinneman keeps the suspense mounting through taut, spare direction: no excessive music or flashy visuals or extraneous flourishes, just a relentless focus on the collision courses of the main characters, who include Frank's wife (the girlish, gorgeous Janet Leigh) and Parkson's girlfriend (Phyllis Thaxter), who doesn't want her man to be a murderer.What would you do if you were starving, literally fighting for survival, and you had a chance to save yourself?
It stars Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, and Janet Leigh, with support coming from Mary Astor, Phyllis Thaxter & Berry Kroeger.
Robert Surtees photographs it from various California locations and Bronislau Kaper provides the music that is conducted by André Previn.An Embittered former POW (Ryan) is hell bent on revenge against his former commanding officer (Heflin) who betrayed his men's planned escape attempt from a Nazi prison camp.Superior film noir piece that is not only boasting a taut, intelligent and suspenseful story to work from, but also a collective group of film makers on tip top form.
While Astor almost steals the film from the guys as a brassy woman of the bars and streets who takes Heflin in off the now dangerous avenues and alleyways.Smart, pangy and dripping with noir style, Act Of Violence has so much going for it, and equally as much to say.
Enley (Van Heflin at his best) escaping from his demons, not just limping Joe Parkson (Robert Ryan) or bad boy Johnny (Berry Kroeger), through a vacant tunnel screaming at the top of his lungs, "Don't do it, Joe...Don't...." Or the scenes of Joe running down oppressive stairways to get away from the specters that haunt him.
Recompense comes only at the end of the film, not a closing that most would want or expect in a Hollywood film of the day, but the required one for the theme of the story.The entire cast of "Act of Violence" is first rate, giving performances worthy of recognition, but veteran actress Mary Astor as the lost soul, Pat, who takes an ambivalent attitude toward Frank, runs away with the show.
A purported war-hero lives in terror of being revealed as having informed on fellow POW's, and by the time his traumatized accuser, Robert Ryan, has closed in to take vengeance, the punishment seems almost secondary to Van Heflin's self-torment.
His direction and Robert Surtees' excellent B&W photography make this taut story even more watchable.VAN HEFLIN goes on a fishing trip and finds himself being shadowed by a man he knows wants to kill him--a man who knows about his past when they were both soldiers and imprisoned in a German prison camp during World War II.
That's all the wrap-up on the story I'll give here.There's a final twist at the end, but the whole film is absorbing and well worth your time with Heflin, especially, giving one of his most intense performances and Mary Astor doing a vivid job in a small role..
Taut direction and great performances from the entire cast make this a true classic.In one of his best roles, Van Heflin convincingly portrays a WW2 veteran who has rebuilt his life as a civic leader in small town America.
It could refer to Robert Ryan's desire to kill Van Heflin or it could equally refer to the act of violence that Heflin was responsible for when a number of his men, during the war, were murdered by the Nazis after he betrayed them.
Heflin now lives a life of almost desperate respectability in a small Californian town with wife Janet Leigh and it's to there that Ryan tracks him down.This is a morally complex film that was never the success it deserved to be.
Beautiful and talented Janet Leigh, aged only 21, is the adoring wife of Van Heflin, who delivers one of his finest performances as a man whose past has caught up with him in the most menacing way possible: as Robert Ryan with a gun in his hand deciding that van Heflin must pay for what he did when they were in the Nazi prison camp together.
Certainly this film, in which every frame is perfect, the script is well-honed, and the editing and construction without flaw, together with its spectacular performances (Mary Astor harrowingly convincing as a prostitute!) and Robert Ryan at his most grimly determined and menacing, where we come to realize that his need for vengeance is purely idealistic and not personal, shows clearly what a master Fred Zinnemann already was.
Frank Enley (Van Heflin) lives a Norman Rockwell life with his wife Edith (Janet Leigh) and baby.
Fred Zinneman directed this and apparently it was forgotten and impossible to find for decades but I can whole heartedly recommend it to anybody who love "film noir" genre - instead of being just another, nice old black and white movie, this turned out to be such a good, strong thriller that I ended up fully alert and awake until the very end.
Zinneman weaves excellent story where the all American good guy is haunted by some mysterious limping man but as the movie progresses we suddenly realize that roles are changing and viewer can't help but start questioning some really important moral issues here - contrary to simply passive watching, we started to THINK " hey, who is really a bad guy here?" - there is not much to talk about female characters here (wives and girlfriends are terribly one-dimensional in their "goodness" and meekness) until in the second part of the movie story proceeds into a criminal underworld where we meet elderly, tired prostitute played by brilliant Mary Astor (previously known for her elegance and aristocratic poise) who almost steals the whole movie with her realistic, powerful acting.
I think that Act Of Violence could have worked just as well if they had played each other's parts.MGM was a studio that did not do noir films very often, but in this case with Fred Zinnemann directing they did this one very well.
I'll also mention Berry Kroeger, who plays the hit-man Johnnie, and was clearly cast as a face to fit the part, yet he does a pretty good acting job as well.One thing that does link these darker MGM post-war flicks with the studio's lighter upbeat fare is a kind of melodramatic overstatement, which is great in the right place but harms a picture like Act of Violence.
Ryan co-stars in the film as "Joe Parkson." and plays a familiar role - the embittered villain, This time he's stalking an old army sergeant-friend, vowing to kill him for past deeds when they were both prisoners of war in World War II.
Van Heflin plays "Frank Enley," the guy with the guilty past whom Ryan is stalking.
Enley's side of the story is a little different because his intentions were to save those men but he, himself, as doubts about his own motives as years have forced him to reelect on that time.Nonetheless, trying to stop both guys from killing themselves are their woman: Janet Leigh playing Enley's wife and Phyllis Thaxter playing Parkson's longtime girlfriend.
"Act of Violence" from 1948, directed by Fred Zinnemann, is a strong noir starring Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, and Mary Astor.Ryan is Joe Parkson, a man disabled in World War II who wants revenge against his old commanding officer, Frank Enley (Heflin).
But he's carrying a dark secret, and Joe knows it.Excellent acting is the strength here, with Heflin giving a fantastic performance of man who slowly disintegrates, and Ryan in a familiar role as a killer.
Van Heflin's post-war suburban bliss with wife Janet Leigh is ended by the grim and dogged determination of pursuer Robert Ryan.
A surprisingly frank and morally complex film noir released immediately post-WWII.Van Heflin plays a man who ratted out some fellow soldiers in a Nazi POW camp; Robert Ryan is one of the survivors who comes to seek vengeance on Heflin after they've all returned to the States and have spent time rebuilding their lives.
But the women in the film make quite an impression, and no wonder given that two of them are played by Janet Leigh (as Heflin's wife) and Mary Astor (as a world-weary good-time gal who takes Heflin under her protective wing).
You soon realized that Frank held himself as guilty as Joe did by his not only turning his fellow US airmen in but also,and this really hit home with Frank, receiving and accepting food from his German captures for doing it.Afride for his wife Edith and young son Frank checks out of Santa Lisa to L.A at a contractor convention to draw Joe away from his family but the guilt that had been building up inside of him, about his actions in the prison camp, was slowly getting the best of Frank.
Frank ( Van Heflin) and Joe (Robert Ryan) were in WW II together, in a prison camp..
Van Heflin is Frank Enley, a World War II veteran who has survived and been decorated with honors, while nearly all his comrades died in a Nazi prison camp.
Frank Enley (Van Heflin) has gained social respectability in his post-war community, but his background as an officer in a Nazi pow camp appears to be tainted by some messy details.
On the other hand, Joe Parkson (Robert Ryan) has achieved none of this prominence, and he is disabled from the war both physically and mentally, determined to cross the entire continent to avenge the harm that he believes Enley caused to him and the other members of their captured unit in the German pow camp.In a sense, Joe is the personification of Frank's conscience as he pursues him, disrupting Frank's successful, picture book life in sunny southern California.
Beyond its depiction of two American veterans who were forced to endure brutal experiences during World War II, this is also a story about the state of our nation at the time and its determination to resume a sense of normalcy after enduring a very painful, even traumatizing, global conflict that inflicted huge, human costs on millions of Americans and millions more throughout the world.The cast is excellent, especially Heflin as the tormented central character, and Mary Astor in an uncharacteristic role as an impoverished prostitute who Frank accidentally meets in a sleazy bar while attempting to flee frantically from Parkson and his own, cloudy past.
Fred Zinnemann directed this post-WWII thriller that stars Robert Ryan as Joe Parkson, an embittered and determined WWII veteran who is stalking seemingly respectable and successful family man Frank Enley(played by Van Heflin) who has a dark secret from his past when he was the commanding officer in the German POW camp that he shared with Parkson and his group.
That man is Frank, played by Van Heflin, who, in contrast to Joe, has made a new and good life for himself in the postwar world.
Joe Parkson (Robert Ryan) is a disabled war veteran who calls at Frank's house and learns from his wife Edith (Janet Leigh) that Frank is away on a fishing trip.
Their story which initially appears to be a simple conflict between good and evil is gradually revealed to be something more complex and disturbing.Fred Zinnemann's direction and Robert Surtees' cinematography are both excellent and combine effectively to unveil the different aspects of Frank and Joe's characters and also to convey all the associated tension and anxiety that they feel throughout."Act Of Violence" certainly grows from its deceptively straightforward looking introduction into an absorbing tale of some substance and profundity..
Van Heflin is a WWII vet living the post-war dream with wife Janet Leigh until old army buddy Robert Ryan shows up with an ax to grind.
What really went on during the war for these two men and how each acted at the time sets a off a chain of events that has Heflin on the run, Ryan in pursuit and Leigh in a panic.
At first we do not know the reason for his quest.Cut to the Los Angelis suburb of San Rita where Frank Enley (Van Heflin), his pretty young wife Edith (Janet Leigh) and their young son are enjoying the good life.
The supporting cast is strong, and Zinnemann and company just get right into the action, saving all of the credits for the end, which would have been a real rarity in this era.Van Heflin plays Frank Enley, a successful building contractor who finds that he is being relentlessly pursued by one of his old war comrades, Joe Parkson (Robert Ryan).
Heflin and Ryan are both compulsively watchable, the young and gorgeous Leigh is a joy, Holmes and Kroeger are great fun to watch, and Astor is fantastic and a real standout among the cast.For those people who love this genre and also like a bit of action to go with it, "Act of Violence" is a satisfying bit of entertainment.Eight out of 10..
Act of Violence- From director Howard Zinneman(High Noon , From Here To Eternity) we get the story of 2 World War II veterans that have some unresolved issues.Robert Ryan is determined to find Van Heflin.Van Heflin has settled back into civilian life with a family,job and respect of the community-Robert Ryan has traveled cross country to confront Van Heflin.Oodles of suspense,great camera shots and an insistent score ramp up the tension in this superb noir dealing with the after effects of the war.Mary Astor is perfect as a down on her luck lady of the evening that befriends one of the characters during the second act.Look for a young Janet Leigh in her sixth movie.The scholarly commentary track is by Drew Casper.
He's heading to California, where he intends to murder Frank R Enley, a WW2 veteran and one time prisoner of war.The film's entire first act feels very much like the introduction to "The Terminator" (or the 1946 noir "The Killers").
Act of Violence **1/2 He Had Plenty of Film Time to Do Him In. A limping Robert Ryan is out to get Van Heflin since the latter betrayed his fellow men to the Nazis in a prisoner of war camp during World War 11.My main problem with the film is that Ryan had plenty of opportunities to blow Heflin away but did not.
Ryan plays his usual embittered self in this film noir production of 1948.Janet Leigh co-stars as Heflin's wife.
What makes Act of Violence interesting is the performances of the two leads, Van Heflin and Robert Ryan.
Directed by Fred Zinnemann, this thrilling drama stars Van Heflin as a man who finds himself being pursued by another (Robert Ryan) from his past. |
tt0301526 | The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze | Ducky's relationship with her brother Spike becomes turbulent when he repeatedly keeps her awake at night with his snoring, and for eating her leaves. She tells Cera about her feelings, and confides that she does not know how to express them; Cera agrees to teach her. Meanwhile, the children are attending a school in which they are taught by an old Pachyrhinosaurus named Mr. Thicknose, who professes to have been everywhere and seen everything. Littlefoot eagerly questions the topics they cover, to the old dinosaur's irritation. Eventually, Mr. Thicknose complains to Grandpa Longneck about Littlefoot's behavior. Grandpa, knowing Littlefoot meant no harm, explains to him why he must be more respectful to Mr. Thicknose.
Meanwhile, as Ducky treats Spike coldly, Spike meets and befriends Tippy, a young dinosaur from a migrating Spiketail herd that has recently arrived in the Great Valley. Ducky begins to miss Spike when he spends more and more time with the Spiketail herd. One day, the entire Valley is surprised by an overnight snowfall. While the children together have fun frolicking in the snow, the adults complain that Mr. Thicknose, purportedly the wisest in all of the Valley, did not warn them about this impending weather, and suspect that he does not know as much as he claims.
As time goes on, the dinosaurs begin to suffer from the freezing temperatures and the lack of food growth. The Spiketail herd leaves, as they consume more food than most species. Tippy's mother asks Ducky and Spike's mother, Mama Swimmer, if she can take Spike along during the cold time; Mama Swimmer decides that Spike should choose between staying in the Valley or leaving with the Spiketails. Spike is unsure, so Ducky angrily tells him to leave, which he agrees to do. Afterwards, however, she regrets her actions, and later sneaks away to follow the herd.
When her friends find out, they head off into the Mysterious Beyond to find her, but are interrupted by Mr. Thicknose, who decides to accompany them. After several mishaps, one involving a Sharptooth, and successfully finding Ducky, they come across a frozen pool of water that they accidentally break. Underneath the ice is a warm spring, and they notice there is lush food nearby. While they relax in the water and feed, Mr. Thicknose confesses that most of his knowledge comes from secondary sources; he listened to the stories of other travelers when he was a child, and in his adult years, he shared those stories to the children in the Valley.
Later, the group tries to contact the Valley's residents but find that a wall of snow has blocked them from entry. Ducky, remembering what Cera taught her, suggests that Cera get angry. She does so, and her enraged screaming causes the snow to fall down, enabling the Valley's residents to pass through. Meanwhile, the Spiketail herd is starving until Spike picks up the spring's scent. He leads the Spiketails there and reunites with Ducky. However, he falls into a deep part of the spring, and as he is unable to swim, Mama Swimmer jumps in to save him. When she places him on dry ground again, Tippy's mother says that Spike should stay with his family, rather than her herd. Ducky promises to Spike that she will not get angry at him whenever he snores, ever again. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | Unfortunately, this LBT has a spoilt, usually positive Ducky who is now grumpy and a storyline that is good for teaching but not very good for a LBT film.
Luckily, the plot is all right and the songs are good, especially "Family" and the learning songs.
The animation is quite good as well, sort of in between LBT 7's animation and LBT 9's animation.
The new characters are entertaining.
Mr. Thicknose is a wise threehorn (they are all dinosaurs) who likes to teach Littlefoot and his friends.
While he talks to them again, Ducky is angry at Spike and Littlefoot is worried that he is seeming to upset Mr. Thicknose.
The film continues on as a pretty good learning adventure and an adventure good for an animated film.The best character in this who is one of the main five is Petrie.Ah well.
Enjoy "Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze"..
Decent but not great.
While a long way from being the worst, this sequel isn't the best either.
It does benefit from some nice colourful animation, a sweet story and a sterling vocal turn from Robert Guillaume(who also voiced Rafiki in "The Lion King").
Actually in general the whole voice cast was very well done.
However, while sweet the songs aren't exactly memorable, some of the dialogue is a little on the corny side and the film is too short.
I may be alone as well in thinking the singing was a tad weak, Guillaume has done much better singing before.Overall, I do recommend it for kids, they will definitely love it.
However depending on whether you loved the first film, I did, or how old you are, others may find it disappointing.
It does do the right thing though, provides decent entertainment for its target audience.
Although the original film (10/10) can never be matched, this heartwarming sequel comes close.
This time Ducky & Spike take centre stage as their "sibling" relationship is tested.
They love each other but know that they are different.
Spike faces a difficult decision when a herd of spiketails, including a cute infant, invite him to join them.
The friends see snow for the first time and learn how it can be good and bad.
The characters are as loveable as ever and the songs are not unpleasant.
I am proud to own all 8 films and this is one of the best.
Long live the Land Before Time!.
Ah, I remember the good old days.
1988 it was, I was a little kid and had just been taken to see a great movie called Land Before Time.
I really enjoyed it and wanted to see more of the cute talking dinos.
Each sequel to the film has degenerated farther and farther from the original nice story into pure theatrical sludge.
The characters have become increasingly more annoying, the plots are trite, the songs make you pray for the ice age and those are the series's GOOD points.As for this latest cinematic suppository, I can't help but say, in all honesty, that I would rather be castrated with a rusty pizza cutter then sit through it again.
Five minutes of Land Before Time VIII can turn your brain into cottage cheese.
This is the worst case of sequelitus I have ever seen.It's high time these dinosaurs became extinct!.
this movie is red hot.
some of my friends laugh cause i still watch these movies to this day ...
I've been watching them for 15 years and i never get sick of them.
.i hope that they end up making at least 20 ..
because i know that i will still be watching them .
cause I'm sure almost everyone agrees how AWESOME all the Land Before Times are : ) me and my friends watch it all the time ..
and were 15 and 16 years old.
and we STILL love iti think that everyone should watch this movie ..
because land before time is RED HOT !!!!!!!!
Boy that Universal really knows how to milk (or should I say "Mine") a franchise to death, these sequels seem to get cheaper & cheaper every time, it's really sickning that one of Don Bluth's classic mytho's is getting buchered more & more with near low quality sequels like this, I wonder how Don feels about this?I'm sure glad MGM didn't take The Secret Of Nimh to the same direction as Land Before Time (hey, one dog ugly sequel was bad enough), if there's ever a Land Before Time 9, I think they should try "Land Before Time IX, The Mushroom Cloud"..
The Big Freeze.
The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze, the eight installment in the Land Before Time series.
I can't believe how many more movies there are to this series, it's a bit crazy, I feel like I'm on a Lord of the Rings type journey.
But still it has been a decent one, you know each time I go onto the home page of the new Land Before Time sequel, the rating is low and the reviews are all very bad, just saying how sick everyone is of this franchise.
Personally though I've enjoyed it, each film as silly as it may be, has a very good message and I think is just a great family film.
Something that both the kids and the adults can enjoy together.
After all it may be cheesy, but look who this was made for, the kids.
I like these stories, they're very cute and always teach something.Littlefoot and his friends are being tutored by a dinosaur named Mr. Thicknose who claims that he's been there, done that, seen it all, heard it all, etc.
When Littlefoot questions him, he gets angry and Grandpa tells Littlefoot that they all respect Mr. Thicknose and his "experiences".
Ducky is also getting annoyed with Spike lately, she can't get any sleep because of him, but when Cera tells her to express herself, she takes it the wrong way and gets angry with Spike letting him clearly know on how angry she is with him.
When the dinosaur families get trapped in a valley by an ice storm, one family of spike tail dinosaurs volunteers to leave since they consume more food than the others.
Meanwhile, the young dinos and Mr. Thicknose, head out to bring back their friend Spike, who has left his friends to be with members of his own species.
Spike also starts to miss Ducky, but they have bigger problems when the food is extremely scarce.
But realizing that Mr. Thicknose may not exactly know all, Littlefoot and his friends are now facing this challenge head on facing the extreme cold weather.The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze I think is a film definitely worth watching.
I loved watching Ducky and Spike's relationship being renewed, that they can get annoyed with each other but still end up loving each other more than ever in the end.
I also thought it was kind of funny with the story between Littlefoot and Mr. Thicknose, sensing that Mr. Thicknose was somewhat jealous of Littlefoot's curiosity and questions.
This is a good sequel to the series, yeah, I agree that there are a lot of these movies, but each one has been good for different reasons.
So I would recommend watching this one, so far all the sequels have been good, so I don't know what to expect in the next sequel, but I still have good hopes since this has been a great series to get into.5/10.
These need to go the way of the dinosaurs....
I loved the Land Before Time (first one).
I love Don Bluth movies in general.
I would like to point out The first LBT was the ONLY one that Don had a hand in.
You will notice that it is a new director every 3 or so movies after that.
It is so sad that it has become the norm now to take something that was wonderful and heartfelt and turn it into a marketing scheme =(.
I have only seen this sequel, and I don't plan on seeing any of the others, I prefer to leave my childhood memories of Littefoot, Petrie, Cera and the others intact.
I miss animated movies that had imagination and an obvious amount of thought and effort put into them, most movies now a days are cranked out for the soul purpose of making money.
Actually worth watching..
Until now, I have watched every sequel to the beloved Land Before Time (1988).
From the fifth installment on, I actually must confess that they have almost solidified on a decent level of quality.
The film is a little slow in the first approximately 15 minutes, but when the snow kicks in, the good stuff does too.
The film has pretty backgrounds and good messages about identity and family.
Most of the songs are also serving the movie and the story well, and what more can you ask for from a direct-to-DVD film?
I can't be mad at this film.
Yeah, 8th sequel in an everlasting line of them, I know.
I like it and will not feel guilty if I in the future will be showing it to my kids..
I wish they had died in the snow....
It is terrible in every respect: the "music" is insanely bad, the artwork isn't much better, and somehow the film manages to turn everything that's interesting about dinosaurs into boring klichés about friendship and the importance of not stripping old people of their dignity.
My favorite moment is when the dinosaurs decide to have a little snowball fight after the freeze sets in....
Great film, a bit light on action.
The action is not exactly long, but I think "Family" makes up for it.
(SPOILER) Snow falls on the great valley and there are a few days of snow fun.
Spike and Ducky get a bit mad at each other and Spike goes off with a migrating herd of Stegos.
The kids enlist the help of know-it-all fraud Mr. Thicknose to guide them through the Mysterious beyond.
They are reunited with ducky and face a rex.
They find a hot spring and green food.
Thicknose admits his fibbing.
Later, they go to the great valley to show the others the spring.
They are soon joined by the spiketails.(SPOILERS END) I still can't help praising "Family" for its significance to the plot..
This series needs ex-STINK-tion.
*This review contains spoilers*No need to adjust your trifocals, this site is correct in reporting that they really have made EIGHT of these `Land Before Time' movies.
And I am sorry to report that I have watched them all.
They are going to be making these things for about as long as the Mesozoic Period lasted.
While almost all of the LBT movies are derivative and lousy, I did like the schmaltzy Part II and I thought Part VII was a very good entry.
I watched Part VIII with the idea that, since it is hot off the heels of a good entry, it will be just as pleasing.
`The Big Freeze' is hands down the worst entry in the entire LBT series.In the plot, a natural catastrophe befalls The Great Valley, which leaves the adult dinosaurs squabbling as to how to handle the situation.
The young dinosaurs leave the valley to search for their own solution, solve the conflict, and return to The Great Valley to enlighten the adults as to how wrong they have been.
You say I just described the plot to EVERY `Land Before Time' film?
Well, of course I did, because they just reuse the same plot over and over again, changing the catastrophe and sometimes adding in an extra character.
This time, the disaster is a sudden and temporary drop in temperature.
At first the dinosaurs are thrilled by the snow, but when the coldness causes a food shortage, the adults begin to worry.
She lets Spike decide, and he goes with them after being egged on by Ducky.
Soon after, Littlefoot, Ducky, Petrie, and Cera decide to go bring Spike back home.
They are accompanied by Mr. Thicknose (voiced by Robert Guillaume), a stegosaur that is the oldest dinosaur in the valley and acts as the kids' teacher, though he knows very little about what is outside the valley.
Before you can say, `Been there, done that,' the movie is over.
Sure, this plot doesn't sound very bad, and it really isn't, but `The Big Freeze' crossed the line for this reviewer too many times.It's a given that any movie about dinosaurs is going to deliberately mess with the facts.
Most notably, the fact that many dinosaurs seen together in movies lived millions of years apart from one another.
Cartoon films, particularly this series, always defy laws of science, but do they have to go this far?
For instance, there is no way a dinosaur could stand the frigid temperatures for very long any more than today's surviving reptiles can without hibernation.
Furthermore, there is a scene where a Tyrannosaurus Rex is clobbered by a rolling snowball, something which couldn't have gotten big enough to do much damage in the brief time it was rolling down the hill.
Then Thicknose steps on it.
He makes it a little ways and them flops down.
Considering Thicknose must weigh many tons, you wonder why the ice slowly cracks instead of immediately caving in?
Sillier yet, the water under it turns out to be a hot springs.
How can ice form on hot water?
Even sillier than that, it is revealed that the springs have given life to a lot of green plants that all the dinosaurs from The Great Valley can eat until the weather warms up.
END OF MAJOR SPOILERSThese nitpicks may have made me hate the movie, but they aren't the only things.
Keeping with the LBT tradition, `The Big Freeze' harbors a handful of really lame songs that will certainly not have the kids singing along.
In one annoying song, Cera sings to Ducky that it is okay to be angry.
This could send the wrong message to children, who may not figure out by the film's end that the anger Ducky had was not right at all.
There is also a song that Thicknose belts out near the end about learning.
Listen closely to the actual words Thicknose sings.
These are good lines which would have been excellent in dialogue, but instead the words are forgotten in the context of a poor song.
What a shame that the best lines are given the worst delivery.I suppose it may seem like I am being too harsh, but really, there was no need for this gut-wrenching entry.
It exemplifies everything that makes this series lackluster.
When the ninth entry is inevitably made, I hope it learns from Part VIII what not to do.
What I Once Called the Best Sequel.
Another good sequel!
I know, what dimension is this?
The family dynamic in this movie is almost as good as the first movie.
They really dive into what a family is and how it functions.
The connection is very deep and it made Ducky's mom a good character!
Speaking of Ducky, she is developed very well here and I liked how they portrayed the sibling relationship between Spike and Ducky.
It was also one of the only Land Before Time movies that doesn't talk down to it's audience.
The solution to getting back into the valley isn't actually that obvious giving the movie higher stakes and let's the audience focus on the adventure and heart-felt, deep moments.
The final scene where Spike nearly drowns and his "mother" saves him was just outstanding!
In conclusion, I once considered this the best sequel but then another sequel came along.
Heck, I could go on and on about how deep this movie is but I want to keep this a short review because I might repeat myself if I go on anymore..
This one was made in 2001, a year after the 7th's release.
The story is about where Snow falls in the great valley for the first time, Spike meets a new friend called Tibby.
Tibby's mother asks Spike's mother permission if he could go with Tibby and his family on a long walk to where they lived.
Ducky gets jealous as she thinks that Spike doesn't want his intrests in Ducky no more..
LBT On Ice. The next entry in the Land Before Time saga, The Big Freeze, is not as good as the previous film The Stone Of Cold Fire, but it still manages to stand on its own.
Just as Stone of Cold Fire focuses more on Petrie, The Big Freeze puts Ducky and Spike into the limelight.
This marks the first time that we see any stegosaurs other than Spike, which is significant because before this point all that Spike knew was Ducky's family.
So when Spike befriends Tippy, a young member of the visiting spiketail herd, it's suggested that he spend more time with them.
Meanwhile, Ducky is torn between letting Spike go with the migrants once they leave or having him stay with her.
I won't give anything more away but I will say that this is yet another enjoyable entry in the series.
As mentioned, it's not as good as the previous one but it still manages to have much of the same charm and I like how, just as Stone of Cold Fire did with Petrie, it gives Ducky and Spike a chance to be in the spotlight and gives the viewer a chance to get a glimpse into their lives.
Mr. Thicknose is also very interesting, especially when he tells the story of his life.
It helps that he has the same voice actor as Rafiki from The Lion King.
But the highlight for me is simply adorable relationship shared by Ducky and Spike, who despite any differences seem like true siblings. |
tt0082242 | Dead & Buried | James Farentino stars as Dan Gillis, sheriff of the small New England coastal town of Potter's Bluff. In the film's opening scene, a mob of townspeople attempt to kill a visiting photographer. He is beaten, tied to a post then set on fire. He survives and is taken to a hospital, where he is murdered just out of sight of the sheriff and the doctor.
More visitors are murdered by the townspeople. Sheriff Gillis, assisted by Dobbs, the local coroner-mortician (Jack Albertson), works hard to discover the motive for the killings. Gillis becomes increasingly disconcerted as a grisly death occurs every day. In each case, the killers photograph the victims as they are murdered.
Gillis accidentally hits someone with his squad car following an attack. On the grill of his car, Gillis finds the twitching severed arm of the accident victim, who attacks him and flees with the arm. After the attack, Gillis scrapes some flesh from the vehicle and takes it to the local doctor, who tells him that the tissue sample has been dead approximately four months. Gillis grows suspicious of Dobbs and conducts a background check. He discovers that Dobbs was formerly the chief pathologist in Providence, Rhode Island, until he was dismissed 10 years before for conducting unauthorized autopsies in the county morgue.
At the climax, it is revealed that Dobbs has developed a secret technique for reanimating the dead, and all of the townspeople are reanimated corpses under his control. Dobbs considers himself an "artist" who uses his zombies to murder the living in order to create more corpses on which to practice his reanimation technique. The Sheriff is unaware that he is also one of the living dead, having been murdered some time ago by his undead wife under Dobbs' orders. Gillis notices his hands decomposing, and Dobbs asks to examine them. | violence, cruelty, murder, sadist | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0913445 | Young People Fucking | The film intertwines the story of four different couples and one threesome over the course of one sexual encounter, with specific chapters for each one: prelude, foreplay, sex, interlude, orgasm and afterglow. Each couple represents a specific archetype. The first out of five is called The Best Friends because the characters, Matt and Kristen, decide to become friends with benefits. They discover romantic feelings for each other.
The second stereotype being The Couple. Andrew and Abby, a long-time couple, are having trouble trying to put spice back into their lovelife and try something "new".
The third stereotype is labeled The Exes. In it, Mia and Eric meet up for a one-off sexual encounter after having broken up some time back.
In the fourth stereotype, The First Date, Jamie brings her womanizing date Ken back to her apartment.
And in the final fifth stereotype, The Roommates, two friends are roommates and one friend tells the other to have sex with his girlfriend. | entertaining | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0337909 | Calendar Girls | When Annie Clarke's husband John dies from leukaemia at an early age, her close friend Chris Harper, anxious to purchase a comfortable sofa for the visitors' lounge in the hospital where he was treated, hits upon the idea of printing a calendar featuring some of the members of the Knapely branch of the Women's Institute discreetly posing nude while engaged in traditional WI activities, such as baking and knitting, in order to raise funds. Her proposal initially is met with great scepticism, but she eventually convinces ten women to participate in the project with her. They enlist one of the hospital workers, an amateur photographer named Lawrence, to help them with the concept.
The head of the local Women's Institute branch refuses to sanction the calendar, and Chris and Annie go to a national congress of the Women's Institute in London to plead their case. They are told the final decision rests with the local leader, who grudgingly agrees to the calendar's sale. The initial printing quickly sells out, and before long the tiny village is bombarded with members of the international media anxious to report the feel-good story.
The women are invited to appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Los Angeles. While there, tensions arise between Chris and Annie. All the publicity surrounding the calendar has taken a toll on their personal lives, and they lash out at each other in angry frustration. Annie accuses Chris of ignoring her husband and son and the demands of the family business in favour of her newfound celebrity, while Chris believes Annie welcomes the Mother Teresa-like status to which she's been elevated that allows her to cater to the ill and bereaved who have bombarded her with fan mail. All is resolved eventually, and the women return home to resume life as it was before they removed their clothing. | dramatic | train | wikipedia | Annie´s best friend Chris (Helen Mirren)comes up with the idea of a nude calendar with the women of the W.I. club to raise money for a settee at the leukemia ward at the local hospital.
At first everybody is quite suspicious but the calendar turns out as a tremendous success which brings the girls even to Hollywood.I have rarely ever seen such a heart-warming and inspiring film.
(My favourite scene was the one with the oregano-joint ;-).) As most British comedies the actors were fabulous and the jokes did not seem constructed like they do in most Hollywood productions.This film is a hymn for all middle aged women.
"The women of Yorkshire are like the flowers of Yorkshire in the last state of their lives they look best."This film is highly recommendable for everybody even if you just want to see the beautiful landscape of Yorkshire..
One of the most delightful films of recent years, `Calendar Girls,' a distaff version of `The Full Monty,' is the true story of a group of middle-aged English women who became international celebrities when they designed and posed for a nude fundraising calendar that sold millions of copies worldwide.
Julie Walters and Helen Mirren head a wonderful cast, with Walters as a woman whose husband dies of leukemia and Mirren as her best friend who comes up with the idea of the calendar as a way of both honoring his memory and raising money for the local hospital.
`Calendar Girls' is heartwarming, touching and inspiring and what more could one ask from a `feel-good' film than that?.
Based on a true story, eleven members of a women's institute group decide to pose nude for a rather untraditional annual calendar to raise money for charity.With an all star cast lead by Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, we go on a journey through the ridicule and resistance that the ladies had to endure to achieve this amazing feat, which ultimately raised millions.Calendar Girls is brilliantly performed and directed, and it has many heart wrenching tales that lie beneath the main story, each pertaining to the girls own reasons and drives to fight for what eventually became a mammoth success.Heart Warming, Funny, Charming and Entertaining, undoubtedly a winner on every level.8/10.
Based on the true story of a few society women in England who decide to do a quasi-nude calendar to raise money for a cancer center.
Inspired in his speech to the local Women's Institute, where he said that "the flowers of Yorkshire are like the women of Yorkshire", and "the last phase of the women of Yorkshire is always the most glorious", her best friend Chris Harper (Helen Mirren) decides to make a calendar with twelve local middle-age women nude to raise funds for the wing of leukemia treatment in the local hospital.
The calendar becomes well succeeded, making them famous and affecting their lives."Calendar Girls" is a good dramatic comedy, with an interesting screenplay and great performances of Julie Walters and Helen Mirren.
It is unfortunate that Calendar Girls isn't the sort of movie that gets nominated for Oscars because, in my opinion (for what that's worth) this movie would have won hands down!It is good, clean fun without needing any of the profanity or gratuitous sex or violence that seems to define nominated films these days.
Yet is ISN'T "sanitized" or ridiculously "cleaned up" for family viewing - and, what's more, it's based on a true story!I laughed myself to tears at everyday little incidents that were just SO believable and, to be honest, anyone who didn't thoroughly enjoy Calendar Girls has a severe mental disability where they they live in a fantasy world full-time!This is one of those very few movies that you can watch again and again and still laugh your head off.
They had a good laugh doing it, and the calendar had its 15 minutes of fame, helping to boost the contribution to charity beyond a million quid.A soundbite of a story, but hardly a film.
It is based on a true story, and that makes a difference - in fact, the most fun I had was watching the DVD extras when the real Women's Institute ladies talk about their experiences.Calendar Girls is a genre film, ticking off all the boxes.
The concept is pretty basic, an untimely death spurs a group of middle aged women to try and help the widow purchase a sofa for the family room at the hospital where her husband died, but it's how the story unfolds that makes this such a lovely movie.
Much like one would expect out of a crisply produced, professionally acted British film, Calendar Girls delivers feel good without the big whoops and roaring laughter that accompanies its American counterparts.
"Calendar Girls" is a mildly amusing film based upon actual events about a group of mature women in England who, in order to raise money, spice up the annual fund-raising calendar by appearing nude.
Patrick Doyle's score is soothing and whimsical and Nigel Cole's direction is in perfect keeping with the gentle tone of the film without losing the pace.A huge part of 'Calendar Girls' appeal is the cast, everybody does well but particularly excellent are Helen Mirren and Julie Walters.
This film is about a group of brave middle aged women who tries to raise money by posing nude in a charity calendar."Calendar Girls" chronicles their internal struggles, family pressures and the hardships they have to endure, all simply because they are charitable and want to raise money for a good cause.
Starring some of the 'whos who' of British film and TV this is a touching film based on the true story of the Yorkshire WI that decided to produce their annual calandar featuring the ladies in the nude performing the usual things that WI women do - like flower arranging or cooking cakes.Note that there is no nudity in this film as everything is tastefully covered up - added to the fact that all the ladies are middle aged.
Great performances from Helen Mirren - looking great for her years, Julie Walters and Celia Imrie who I will never look at in the same way again.There is some lovely comedy mixed with the tragedy of losing a loved one to cancer that makes you literally laugh while crying.There are the usual picture postcard British locations and a little bit of slush - with some strange Yorkshire accents - these were forgivable given the overall quality.I am loathed to compare this to any other movie - but will say that if you enjoyed Local Hero and the Full Monty you will find something in this for you.All in all, an inspirational story that shows just what can be achived with one simple idea..
Initially a blithe, lightly charming true story of two fifty-something girlfriends who spearhead their stuffy women's group in an English village into backing a nude calendar made up of the elderly club members (with proceeds going to charity, of course).
Julie Walters and Helen Mirren were both good in their respective roles, and the film could be both funny and moving at times, but was never anything more than fairly average light entertainment.
"The Full Monty" has a lot to answer for!"Calendar Girls" is set in a branch of the Women's Institute in northern England where best friends Anne (Julie Walters) and Chris (Helen Mirren) tire of the relentless tirade of boring speeches and endlessly singing "Jerusalem".
It's a perfect blend of tragedy and comedy and ultimately, that's the sort of thing that the film's audience is looking for.On the flip side, I did feel it went on for too long and there were still aspects of the story that weren't fully explored such as the impact on Helen Mirren's son (John-Paul Macleod) or what happens to the women after the publicity died down.
If you're drawn to it because you think it's a goofy comedy, as the advertisements for it would have you believe, be warned---it's got a good deal of humour, but it's also a very serious film, much more so than "Monty." Helen Mirren and Julie Walters do fine work in the film's lead roles.
While I know it was based on a true story, there was something about the characters and the way that it was filmed that had me rooting for these women from the beginning.
Helen Mirren leads a group of English women in posing semi-nude for a calendar to raise money for a hospital where one of the women's husbands died of cancer a short time before.
Now it is true that this did happen in real life but as a movie I would have liked to have seen the film tie itself up in a little more lengthy manner.
A group of middle-aged ladies belonging to a feminine institute or association in a small Yorkshire town, that among other activities promoted charity sales to help humanitarian causes followed and accepted an odd but funny decision of one of their fellow members of posing naked (but conveniently disguised) for photos of a calendar each of them being a month.
'Calender Girls' is a charming little British comedy about a group of middle-aged women who go against convention when they decide to create and pose for a calender in order to buy a sofa for the hospital and raise money for the fight against leukemia.
They, and fellow members of the Knapely Womens Institute, will pose in some strategically nude pictures and sell them as a calendar!.Based on a true story, and following on from the roaring success of 1997s The Full Monty, it was a story just begging to be adapted for the big screen.
The cast are uniformly excellent, Julie Walters, Helen Mirren {gorgeous}, Linda Basset, Annette Crosbie and Geraldine James are particularly memorable in telling this tale of a close-knit village quite unsure on how to deal with a touchy subject-and then the following press sensationalism that shifts the girls {and sadly the film} to another plane.The picture manages to be that rare old thing of a comedy drama actually impacting heavy on both fronts, the comedy moments are joyous and flow frequently for the first two thirds of the picture, whilst the touching drama, of what is a serious subject at its core after all, really touches a nerve.
They're going use local members in the photographs - and they're going to do it naked.Needless to say this idea not only causes quite a stir in their small Yorkshire village, but also in the W.I. itself, but these are feisty women and not ones to be put off by the disdain of others.Annie (Julie Walters HARRY POTTER, BILLY ELLIOTT, EDUCATING RITA) has recently lost her beloved husband John to Leukaemia and wants to use the calendar to raise money to buy a sofa, in his memory, for the waiting room in the local hospital.
The 'Naked Truth' documentary on the DVD introduces you to the real life calendar girls upon whom the story is based and the other doc shows the actresses creating a second calendar for 2004 which was sold for the same good cause as the original.
(Well, they're nude, but neither we nor the calendar actually shows any nudity; the view of each women is blocked by strategically placed props.)This is a pretty thin story line, and I think the director and writers struggled to add enough sub-plots to fill out the movie.
This one is based on a true story about a chapter of the Women's Institute (kind of the English version of the Junior league but much lower key) who did a tasteful nude calendar to raise money.The ladies of this particular WI chapter have their quirks from the headstrong Annie (Helen Mirren) to the eager to please Chris (Julie Waters).
The film tries to show the good consequences and bad consequences of making a nude calendar for charity purposes, but instead ends up trying to turn every consequence into a humorous situation, sending the message that there could not possibly be any negative consequences all.
True, "mature" ladies represent only a small proportion of the population, so probably only a small number of people will really like this movie, but I give it an 8, for taking a real life instance and making its story line funny and sentimental in a tasteful manner..
"Calendar Girls" was one of my most eagerly anticipated films of 2003, on the strength of the trailer (or preview) and the casting of Helen Mirren and Julie Walters in the leading roles.
But, to use the calendar metaphor, it was not a red-letter day for me when I finally saw the film.The women in the cast are uniformly excellent, each beautiful in her own way, "like the flowers of Yorkshire", as the dying John Clark says in writing his own eulogy.
This is basically a light-hearted romp - with some serious side themes - through a small English town with a fun group of middle-aged and older ladies who decide that it might be a hoot if their annual organization's calendar fundraiser (usually a flop) included nude (not naked!) shots of the ladies doing the domestic things that they do.While much of the film is predictable (it was based on an actual event), you will laugh and cry
and then laugh and cry some more.
Helen Mirren displays good comic timing which she has had little option to use previously and while the other women were also excellent in their performances it was Julie Walters quietly grieving wife which really gave this film it's edge.
It was absolutely right to keep the movie - part from the money - a totally British affair with a British director Nigel Cole and a wonderful cast list of British actresses of a certain age, led by the splendid Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, supported by Penelope Wilton, Celia Imrie, Annette Crosbie and Linda Bassett (all very familiar to British viewers).
There are some lovely lines in the script, with the best one possibly being "We're going to need much bigger buns" (see the film and you'll see why I laughed so much), but there is also pathos, some drama and a little reflection, before the whole thing loses its way somewhat towards the end.
This is not in the same league as "The Full Monty" - with which it is (inevitably) compared - but it is a a delightful, feel-good movie that provides a rare opportunity for middle-aged women to carry a film plus splendid views of the Yorkshire Dales that will help the local tourist business.
Julie Waters, Helen Mirren, Geraldine James, John Alderton, all household names to us Brits, plus the other lesser known actors all give sterling performances.The story is emotional and is handled very sensitively using humour and appropriate dialogue.I never thought I would find the W.I. so entertaining, thinking it was all "jam and Jerusalem" I expected a boring fuddy duddy production.One downside to seeing the movie in theatres is you will miss so much of the dialogue due to an hysterical audience.
Based on a true story, eleven middle-aged Englishwomen pose nude for their annual Women's Institute calendar as a fund-raiser for the local hospital.
Chris (Helen Mirren) gets the idea to raise money for the hospital after Annie's (Julie Walters) husband dies of leukemia.
I hmmmed and haaaed over the cover for several months before actually taking the time last night to watch it, and as I said before, was pleasantly surprised.All of the actresses in this film really make it terrific and for their age they are all very classy, beautiful, attractive women.I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys; British humor, true stories and real life situations...:)The fact that the previews make it look stupid, make me angry, because the previews were the main reason why I didn't want to see it...but after viewing it, it's definitely a movie I would like to see again..
Summing up the movie in a paragraph is probably just as well quoted from the Famous Players website:This film tells the true (but slightly fictionalized) story of 11 middle-aged women, ages 45 to 60, from the small village of Rylstone in Yorkshire, England who posed naked for the annual calendar of local branch of the Women's Institute, to raise money for medical research, after one of the husband, John Baker, of one of the members, Angela Baker (Walters), becomes terminally ill from leukemia.It stars Helen Mirren and Julie Walters.
Middle-aged women creating a calendar which depicts them as semi-nude to raise money for a sofa for the local hospital lounge may not sound like enough to make an entire movie, but it is.
Overall, 'Calendar Girls' is a good movie to watch..
As someone who was fortunate enough to be at the world premiere of Calendar Girls in September last year, and to have met Angela Baker (the inspiration for Julie Walters' character) on several occasions, I would like to say that this is an amazing true story beautifully realised on film.In real life the "Girls" are just as inspiring, funny and brave as you expect them to be.
`Calendar Girls' is a fresh comedy about a group of twelve women who want to raise money for a local hospital to help fight leukemia.
Based on a true story, `Calendar Girls' tells the tale of Annie (Julie Walters), whose husband John (John Alderton) has recently died due to cancer.
Feeling that his death was in vain and seeing how her Women's Institute is planning on raising money for a charitable cause, Annie and her friend Chris (Helen Mirren) decide to pose nude for a calendar.
It is not a laugh a minute comedy there are some funny moments but the film really is about ordinary women in their fifties trying to do some charity work by doing the extraordinary i.e. posing nude to sell calendars. |
tt0181047 | Tekken 3 | Nineteen years after the King of the Iron Fist Tournament 2, Heihachi Mishima has established the Tekken Force: a paramilitary organization dedicated to the protection of the Mishima Zaibatsu. A squadron of the Tekken Force searches an ancient temple located in Mexico under the premise of an excavation project. Soon after arriving there, Heihachi learns that they have been obliterated by a mysterious yet malevolent creature who is known simply as Ogre. Heihachi, having captured a brief glimpse of Ogre with his own two eyes before its immediate disappearance now seeks to capture Ogre in the hopes of harnessing its immense fighting power for his own personal gain. Soon after, various martial artists end up dead, attacked, or missing from all over the world, with Ogre behind it.
Jun Kazama has been living a quiet life in Yakushima with her young son, Jin Kazama, fathered after the events of the previous tournament by Heihachi's son, Kazuya. However, their peaceful life is disrupted when Jun begins to feel the encroaching presence of Ogre. Jun is now a target and instructs Jin to seek Heihachi should anything happen. Sometime after Jin's fifteenth birthday, Ogre indeed attacks. Against Jun's wishes, Jin valiantly tries to fight Ogre off, but he knocks him unconscious. When Jin awakens, he finds that the ground surrounded his house with Jun inside it and it has been burned there, whether or not his mother is missing and most likely dead. Driven by revenge, Jin is confronted by the Devil, which brands Jin's left arm and possesses him. Jin goes to Heihachi, explaining his situation and identity and begging him for training to become strong enough to face Ogre. Heihachi accepts and takes Jin in, as well as sending him to school to where Jin befriends a classmate named Ling Xiaoyu and her pet Panda.
Four years later, Jin masters the Mishima karate style. On Jin's nineteenth birthday, Heihachi announces the King of the Iron Fist Tournament 3, secretly intending to lure out Ogre, while Jin himself prepares for his upcoming battle, having no idea that his grandfather is secretly using him, Xiaoyu (who seeks the tournament's prize money in order to build an amusement park), and the rest of the competitors as bait in order to lure Ogre out into the open.
In the final round of the tournament, Paul Phoenix enters a large temple, defeats Ogre and walks away from the tournament, thinking he is victorious. However, Ogre morphs into his second form: True Ogre. The tournament continued for one fight after Paul's departure and Jin finally confronts True Ogre. Jin battles and defeats him, and he completely dissolves. However, Jin is suddenly gunned down by a squadron of Tekken Forces led by Heihachi, who, no longer needing him, personally fires a final shot into his grandson's head.
However, Jin, revived by the Devil within him, reawakens and dispatches the soldiers, smashing Heihachi through the wall of the temple. Jin catches Heihachi right before he hits the ground, and he looks up to see Jin sprout feathery wings and fly off into the night. | violence | train | wikipedia | The best video game in history..
No game, fighting or otherwise, has ever touched the majesty and depth of Tekken 3.
The improvements on Tekken 2 are palpable, adding side-stepping and a much needed, flowing, 3D element.
The characters become part of your life as you play the game, with countless holds, throws and special moves.
I own a Playstation simply to play this game.
Once you have fully understood the depth of the game, and have friends who have attained a similar level, the game becomes inexhaustible, continuing to set new boundaries of skill, knowledge and timing.
Buy a Playstation.
Buy this game.
It's as simple as that..
THAT is fun.
Even after having tried the brand new Tekken Tag Tournament on the PS2, I still like Tekken 3 much more.
Fast, fun and furious, what more could we ask ?
The characters are different enough, even if some are way too strong compared to the others (like Bryan !) Moreover, given it's age, the designs are still quite good, too..
Best fighting game ever created.
"Tekken I" was a great game at it's time but "Tekken III" has outlived many of it's competitors.
Even though it's year and a half old it is still the best fighting game.
Many characters, amazing animation, really large list of moves from simple to impossible to perform.
Definately try it out (and check out the Tekken Tag tournament that recently came out on arcades...).
The best fighting game ever developed..
Tekken 3 is the best fighting game ever developed.
It blows any fighting game on the Dreamcast or any other format away.
The graphics are very, very, very good, and it moves very smoothly.
There are lots of characters, and 100s of combos and fighting techniques to learn.
Can`t wait for Tekken Tag Team..
The #1 Fighting Game Of the 90's.
Rated T for Violence.I really like fighting games and I play them a lot when I go to arcades.I have not played any Mortal Kombat games but I hear they are very violent and filled with blood.The ultimate fighting game in my opinion would be if a game mixed the excellent graphics,cool fight moves and interesting characters of Tekken with all the violence and gore of Mortal Kombat.Tekken 3 is one of the greatest fighting games of the 90's and Tekken 4 is the best fighting game ever.The graphics are simply amazing for 1998 and the combos are really cool as well.The characters are great and each has a unique fighting skill.Tekken 3 is a great video game and I recommend it to any fighting game fan.
The Greatest Game Ever ?.
Well, the only thing that can be said about Tekken 3 is that it oozes gameplay, you can keep on playing and still discover new moves for the fighters months later.
With wonderfully named fighters such as Yoshimitsu who is a sort of half human, half robot, Japanese fighting machine, and Nina Williams who is a gorgeous American girl who is trained by her father (I think), you just can't go wrong.
There are lots of different modes to play in, Tekken Force and Tekken Ball are to name but a few.
In my opinion this is a must buy for any Playstation owner.
My favorite Tekken game of all time.
Tekken 3 in my opinion is the best fighting game of all time!
because more characters to play and the graphics were nice.Graphics: The graphics were great!Gameplay: Superb!
The game play blew me away!
I almost had a 100 hit combo.
Loved seeing the replay over and over again.
smooth game play!Sound: Hate the new announcer that says "Fight" "You Win" "You Lose" "Perfect" and "K.O." His voice is too low unlike in Tekken 1 & 2Overall: Great game!I remember playing this when I was 7.
Yeah I was cheap when I first played it by using the same buttons now I'm used to the combos.
Like I almost played this 24/7!
I love playing this game especially survival mode.A 10 no I should give it a 100/10.
It is completely awesome!Where did my PS1 go?
I gotta play this again 24/7..
One of the best.
Nearly two decades after the second King of Iron Fist Tournament, Heihachi Mishima starts the third Tournament to attract Toshin, the killer of the mother of his grandson, Jin Kazama, and a God who is after the souls of the world's most powerful combatants.
I should perhaps start by saying that I barely know the first two entries to this series, and can draw no comparisons between this and those(I could compare it to the fourth, however I choose to abstain from doing so here, rather opting for presenting it in my review of that one, as there is plenty to go into).
Of the fighting games of the 90's, this is among the greatest.
It's got a fantastic mix of requiring training to master(and the typical button-mashing to use the strongest combos), and being fairly easy to get into(just pick up the joystick, get into the basic controls(low and high, punch and kick, for the four main keys), and you can have fun with it even before you spend a ton of time on it...
and if you never want to memorize advanced stuff, you can still hold your own).
This is not true of very many of the genre, where the latter is often non-existent.
Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and others only share the former attribute, and are thus only available to those who have a large amount of experience with it.
There is no "beginner class", so to speak, there's no room for it, it becomes elitist.
Here, timing, level of aggressiveness(you can pound on someone leaving them little chance to return blows...
this won't always work, nor will defensive strategy, thus matches will depend on the individuals involved, in addition to the range of expertise), focus and reflexes are key to winning, and the game-play is addictive.
Switching up your specific attacks tends to be a simple matter, as it ought to be: combine the type of strike(one of the aforementioned 4) with a direction or a jump, and it will differ, a little or a lot, from the regular one.
There is a wide array of styles of martial arts, and the nearly two dozen(!) characters are equally varied(each with two sets of clothing, and they tend to be nicely done, noteworthy; with this many contrasting cultures(and even worlds, in some cases) and methods of taking out others, everyone will be able to find something fitting their personal taste).
A wrestler in costume(King), a soldier(Hwoarang), an Asian teenage girl(Xiaoyu), a hyped-up psychopath(Bryan), a Native American girl searching for a relative(Julia), a biker with implausible hair(Paul), a 40-ish dedicated cop(Lei), a feisty restaurateur(Law), the sisters Nina(master assassin) and Anna(model) and not to be forgotten, the breakdance-fighting Eddy.
A couple of them are not even human!
Kuma the grizzly bear, Panda, Gon the tiny dragon(who spews fire!), Gun Jack the grand android, the sword-carrying(if he doesn't use it that much) Yoshimitsu(no clue what he is), Mokujin the living tree(!)(who imitates the others), you can even use the evil deity once you unlock him!
Obviously most of these do have to be earned, and it's often worth it.
I think they're all meant to have stories, although for most of them, I could not possibly tell you what it is.
They all have a closing cut-scene(and all of these are pretty well-animated...
the intro to this is absolutely epic, as are a handful of the endings), and they seldom have anything to do with what plot this might have, and when they do, you have no clue what's going on.
Maybe it can be looked up, but in my opinion, homework is for school.
A movie or a video-game should be self-contained, you shouldn't be forced to go elsewhere to piece it together.
It's fine for that to add to it; not everyone has time for that.
This has a sense of coolness and a strong atmosphere, except for the silly and weird stuff(...scroll back up to the list of playables), with slickness, an instantly recognizable announcer voice, and of course the soundtrack.
Techno electronica with an intensity to it.
The graphics are outdated today and arguably never looked completely polished, yet they really do look good and the camera-work is subtle and not as flashy as many later titles of this sort.
Color schemes, design and ideas are well-done, and while it isn't quite a feast for the eyes, it certainly isn't an assault on them, either.
The stages are reasonable, albeit not terribly standout, other than the lighting.
This is an early example of 3D, and as such, it looks clumsy compared to later ones that came after it was further developed(as early 2D ones are now unimpressive by comparison to later ones).
It does make ducking/hopping slightly difficult, because it gives you the ability to strafe by pressing the same thing.
This is especially frustrating in the Tekken Force mode, a sort of side-scroller where you progress through waves of increasingly tough foes that take less of a beating before going down than yourself, each ending with facing off against one of the main cast.
It's a fun ride, except for all the effort you have to put into merely moving up and down on the "layered" road, and to turning to face the enemy you wish to hit(you essentially have to hope for the best).
There's also a warped beach ball kind of face-off, where you either have to smash the ball into the opponent or onto the ground behind them, to damage, and thus conquer, them.
You can of course also play against one friend at a time, see how long you can last in Survival, and if you complete this as enough different warriors, you can rewatch the videos in it.
This has a massive amount of moves, and it tends to be tense.
There is brutality, violence and disturbing content(albeit no gore and not a single drop of blood) in this.
I recommend this to fans of this type of VG.
best tekken game ever.
This is by far the most badass tekken game the music is amazing the stages fit the characters so well and the game is very fast paced all the moves are smooth and flow great the only down side is that they took kazuya out of the game because he was one of my favorite characters from tekken 2 but other than that theres really is nothing bad about this game its just the perfect tekken game.
Good but a bit Sad. It's quite a good Game: Good graphics, Fun...
But I do not like the new Characters & new voice (the "You win, You lose...
Voice"). |
tt0117876 | Tenchi Muyô! In Love | The year is 1996, one year after the events of Tenchi Universe. After being defeated by the Jurai Emperor and the Galaxy Police (GXP) centuries ago, the monstrously-powerful Super A-1 class criminal, Kain, was permanently imprisoned in a subspace container of the GXP's headquarters. However, Kain managed to escape and used his time-space powers to destroy GXP HQ. He then set his sights on Earth and travels back in time to take his revenge on Jurai's royal family. Before the GXP was wiped out, they managed to broadcast a warning about Kain's escape, but due to its weak signal, both Kiyone and Mihoshi didn't comprehend the gravity of the situation.
At the Masaki house, Tenchi was watching an old film of his mother, Lady Achika, with Ayeka, Ryoko, and Sasami. This was the first time the girls get to see how Tenchi's mother looks like when she suddenly vanished from the film. As everyone was tried to understand the situation, the Misaki Shrine, the house, and Tenchi all began to fade out of existence. Coincidentally, Washu noticed a change in the space-time continuum and quickly devised a temporal shield to protect everyone from the effects of the changed time line. Washu theorizes that someone tampered with the established timeline and wiped out the Misaki family. To prevent Tenchi from vanishing, Washu devised a special temporal net to prevent Tenchi from fading out of time. However, the shield is only a temporary solution; Washu sends the rest of the group back to 1970 (via a highly experimental time machine) to prevent Kain from wiping out the Misaki and Juraian royal family.
In the year 1970, each of the girls assumes various covers to gain a watchful eye over Lady Achika as well as Tenchi's dad, Nobuyuki. At their high school, Ayeka and Ryoko pretends to be newly transferred students. Mihoshi is a social studies teacher and Kiyone is the school's janitor. Although it is their mission to save the Misaki family, Washu warns Tenchi of not interacting with his mother to prevent a potential temporal paradox. Still curious to monitor the situation as well as being close to his mother, he had Sasami act as his lookout to make sure it's safe.
To further increase their closeness to Achika, Ryoko and Ayeka made arrangements to live with the Misaki family as boarding guests. All of this was done due to the fact Washu couldn't pinpoint the exact time and place Achika will be killed; the group had to find various ways to be near Achika and the Misaki family to protect them. Through a special communicator outfitted for Sasami, Washu warned the group that Achika is likely to be killed within seven days, GXP HQ had been wiped out due to the escape of Kain, and that Tenchi has also seven days of protection from the temporal shield before it can't hold him anymore.
While on a field trip in Tokyo, Ryoko noticed a classmate constantly observing Lady Achika. She correctly deduced there's something wrong with him and she chased him down. It was revealed that he's an alien special ops GXP officer, here to capture Kain. However, he didn't appreciate Ryoko's intervention and even wanted to capture her. The two had a brief exchange that suggests Kain is coming to Earth and Ryoko gained a useful clue from him; their chat was short as both engaged each other in combat. Neither side gained ground and the officer cloaked himself to escape.
Later at the hotel, one day before Kain's estimated arrival, Tenchi and the whole group met at their hotel room to reconnoiter. After Washu had performed additional analysis, she was able to deduce that the GXP HQ's destruction and Lady Achika's death was related. Washu transported Kiyone back to modern times to access her ship's criminal database to read up on Kain. Based on the data they gathered, there's a strong possibility that Kain had come to take his vengeance upon the Juraian royal family for his imprisonment; Achika and the Misaki family are casualties of Kain's rage. Sending Kiyone back through 1970, the group was informed of the situation and Washu deduced that Kain is likely to strike near a large transmitter; Tenchi believes Tokyo Tower is the most likely place of attack while Achika is on a school trip there.
Washu explained that Kain was stopped by a combination of a subspace net and the Juraian Emperor utilizing his powers to stop Kain. The former emperor used all of his powers, at the price of his life, to stop Kain. Unfortunately, the powers of Jurai, even the direct descendants have weakened over time and can't be used to stop Kain. However, Washu devised special energy generators to temporarily create Juraian powers to entrap Kain. Because of Jurai's unique energies, only special places can be used to channel them and Tenchi realized it is related to Five Color Fudo Temples; the group is to split and activate the generators while Tenchi covertly watches over his mother. It was also around this time that Achika suffered a severe headache and collapsed, a suggestive symptom that preludes to her later demise.
On the day of Kain's arrival, the ladies dispersed throughout Tokyo to activate each of the Juraian energy generators at each of the Fudo Temples. Tenchi had the main generator on him and he stands closely to his parents. While riding on the elevator to the top of the tower, Kain attacked the elevator and Achika lost consciousness. Unwilling to see his mother harmed, Tenchi looked after her even though it could risk a paradox. Just as Kain was about to strike, the special ops GXP officer confronted Kain and he was ripped to pieces. Tenchi arrived and gave the generator to his father and asked him to activate it at the center of the tower while he faced him in combat.
While being pressed back, Tenchi exclaimed to Kain to stay away from his mother. It was then Achika stood against Kain. Just as Kain was about to take out Achika, Nobuyuki activated the generator and trapped Kain into another dimension. Unfortunately, Kain also dragged both of Tenchi's parents into the sub-space trap with them. Desperate to save his parents, Tenchi begged Washu to help him save them and she theorized a way of locking onto Achika's brainwaves for Ryoko to lock onto and teleport them there. However, it would also mean a confrontation with Kain.
Facing Kain would require drastic measures. Washu suggests to use the unimaginable: the dimensional cannon. Kiyone was against the idea as the cannon can destroy a small galaxy, but Kiyone relented as they're aware of Kain's powers. Using a special device, Tenchi locked onto Achika's brainwaves. It was around this time Achika activated her Juraian powers to face Kain; she also realized Tenchi is her son. Just as Kain was about to absorb Tenchi's dad, Tenchi arrived with Ayeka and Ryoko to stop Kain. Tenchi faced Kain in battle, but he wasn't strong enough and lost consciousness. Dropping his sword in combat, Achika picked up Tenchi's sword and enhanced its powers, strong enough to cut down Kain and defeating him.
Time was running out, the dimensional portal that opened for the trio to rescue Tenchi's parents was closing and Kiyone is poised to fire the cannon. Just as everyone returned to Tokyo Tower, Kain is shown to be still alive and clung onto Achika's hair, not letting her go. Kiyone fired the cannon and Achika managed to escape danger; Kain was vanquished. The timeline was repaired and everyone was sent back to their time. Before leaving, Ayeka had given Tenchi's parents special tags that will erase their memories of recent events. Lady Achika realizes she'll die young, but completely accepts her fate and only cares about living life to the fullest with Nobuyuki; she asks Ryoko and Ayeka to look after Tenchi as she can't be there for him when he needs her the most.
In the aftermath, the incident at Tokyo was chalked up to be an inexplicable incident. Tenchi reflected that her mother's Juraian powers could've saved her, but using it to defeat Kain had likely shorten her lifespan. However, Tenchi was happy to know that his parents had a great life together until her demise. In present time, the ladies all gathered together at the Misaki household to take a family picture of everyone together. | violence, psychedelic, comedy, adult comedy, flashback | train | wikipedia | Great movie (even dubbed); painless intro for anime novices..
My wife never had any experience with anime before she was with me; over the years I've sent her scurrying out of the room with much of what I watch...
Tenchi Muyo In Love, though, kept her interest piqued.The animation: beautiful; the usual Tenchi OVAs and TV-series are great, but the movie is a real knock-out.
Unlike the big-budget anime movies of late (and Disney films) the scenes have a consistent level of quality.
all of the scenes are great quality, with little to cause distraction.The storyline: good.
I would have preferred the story to stick with the emotional aspect- as exciting as a big demon fight is, the characters are even more so...
They're the voices I first heard when watching Tenchi, and they settle okay with me.
(My wife can't stand Sasami's English voice, however.) I don't feel like I'm either missing parts of the original dialogue, nor do I feel like the story is too Americanized.
It delivers entertainment in droves, and the characters are so well-rounded that it's hard not to come away without feeling affected, despite feeling like you've just watched a mish-mash of SF cliches.
Rather than the tour-de-force movies like Akira or Ghost in the Shell, this is the movie I'd probably show new-comers- "This is what Japanese animation can be like." When they're more willing to work at comprehending a story, then move on....
I'm not into Anime films, but this was really good!.
I'm not into Anime as much as some other people I know, but this movie knocked my socks off!
It's really awesome, especially because it reminds people how good animated films without the "Disney" trademark can be.
Plus, this animated film actually has a story that could have easily been made into a live-action motion picture.
The only problem I had was that this and "Akira" are pretty much the only Anime films I've actually seen.
I know kids in school who discuss and analyze the films as if they were like any other motion picture.
I guess I'm inexperienced with Anime films.
In Love adds fills a lot of holes in the original Tenchi story, cleverly adding some of the history of the Masaki family into the film as part of the main plot.
Soon enough Washu convinces Tenchi and the girls to travel into the past to find the man trying to kill Achika.
Generally Tenchi has it's problems balancing comedy and serious story line - however TMIL will never leave you lost or confused.
It flows better than any of the other Tenchi films and even the 3 original series.
You will not be disappointed, the film is well worth your time whether you're a Tenchi fan or not..
Cool Anime, but in need of a primer for non Tenchi Fans.
As an Anime fan to begin with, this movie is a delight.
The addition of Christopher Franke's (Tangerine Dream, Babylon 5, Raven, M.A.N.T.I.S.)music is icing on the cake.But, for non-Tenchi fans, or those new to this story , or Manga, a little introduction is needed.
Even that is difficult for the stories have been reworked at least three different ways in different productions.Basically the whole series revolves around Tenchi Masaki, a young man living in a rural province of Japan outside of Tokyo with his widowed father, an architect, and his grandfather, a shrine caretaker.
So his lineage has made him the target of both the scum of the universe, as well as an odd collection of women in his household: a 700 year old space pirate called Ryoko, who is also a stunningly lovely woman with a short fuse and super-powers, Ayeka, ruling princess of the House of Jurai and his grandfather's half sister (her mother pure blood Jurain, his mother human), her younger sister Sasami (who is psychically merged with a living all-powerful starship called Tsunami), Washuu, the exiled super-genius and professor of a galactic science academy (her inventions were a little destructive for the faculty, or the universe, to handle), Myhoshi, a ditzy member of the Galaxy Police force, Kiyone, her oft put-upon partner, and Ryo-oki, a cabbit (half cat, half rabbit), a creation of Washuu's which itself can transform into a living space ship.Now, with that out of the way, this adventure pits Tenchi against a powerful master criminal called Kain, imprisoned by the Jurain Empire who escapes from Galaxy Police's temporal prison and travels back in time to take revenge by murdering Tenchi's mother, thereby destroying him in the present, as well as decimating the Royal House of Jurai.
It is up to Tenchi and the ladies (all of whom have a love interest in Tenchi, to varying degrees), using Washuu's super science, to travel back in time to save Tenchi's mother when she was still Tenchi's age.What follows is an adventurous, funny and often touching story as Tenchi meets the mother he never knew, fights for her life and his, as well as juggle the love and affection of the ladies (especially Ryoko, who is deeply in love with him and Ayeka, who desires him as a mate of royal lineage).The film is a joy, as are the two sequels, which give a new and great creative take on the popular television and video series..
A subplot had been lurking in the background of the complex plot of Tenchi Muyo for some time: What happened to Tenchi's mother?
Intriguing lines would pop up from time to time, like Katsuhito saying of Tenchi: "He's the serious type, just like his mother." This first movie based on the series reveals the long-awaited story of Achika Masaki.The art and animation is gorgeous.
It stands out from the all the generic soundtracks these days, and lives up to the quality of previous Tenchi Muyo soundtracks, if not the spirit.Viewers unfamiliar to Tenchi or to anime in general may be confused by the mixing of genres.
Much of the movie is romantic comedy, but it switches gears often and without warning to drama, action, slapstick, mystery, and occasionally horror.There is a level of poignancy that only time travel stories can achieve.
My rating as a Robotech/Anime fan.
The movie opens up with some action in the beginning and the end for the first 15 minutes and the last 20-30 minutes.
The movie is a bit more serious than the first ova series, art work was really good, the drama could have been a bit more in-depth but I guess they made up for it in the 3rd movie.
I think the battle scene could have been drawn out an extra 5 minutes or so but I'm getting used to seeing most of the tenchi series/movies cut the battle scenes really short.My only nitpick is that tenchi's mom when she was morphed in to jurai warrior should not have been in a white dress with a cute pink bow on her back....cmon this is a jurai warrior/protector here not some cute little maiden in distress.
Although they did curb it a little bit with her pissed off look, and her wielding a light sword.Pretty difficult to find a good anime with a good story line, love triangle, and a bit of action but this one hits the mark.I gave it a 10.
What's more: You can buy the soundtrack and sit there, listening to it, and see about half the movie in your head, just because the music is so good at pulling the images out of your brain.
I waited to see this movie for two years, and had almost given up hope...
It's presented with a visual style that ranges from pulp SF to classical Japanese, and with character designs that are among the best ever used in a Japanese film.
The three movies had a much different tone than the OAV series, with the first and third one being far more dramatic.
Tenchi Muyo in Love is a really low-key, beautifully done production, which flows beautifully.
This was my first introduction to the Tenchi Muyo universe, but you'd be better off if you watched either the OAV or TV series first (they both tell modified versions of the same basic story).
This is easily one of the best Anime films I have seen in a while.
Tenchi sounds like Kermit, Ryoko sounds like she's been smoking for 40 years, Ayeka sounds a French prostitute, and don't even get me started on Washu, who's possibly the worst of them all!
I love this movie, don't get me wrong, and I liked the TV series and the OAV, but I saw it subtitled, and didn't think anything could ruin it, until now!
I still recommend the subtitled version to anyone who wants to see an animated movie with a real plot, and no singing animals, although there is a carrot-craving Cabbit!.
I can't say enough good things about this movie.I love the mix of styles.
But as you watch the movie, you find yourself drawn into the story.
The story that revolves around Tenchi's mother Achika, and the budding romance between her and Tenchi's future father, Noboyuki.
Little do they know that they have been targeted by a ruthless entity known as Kain.Tenchi fans will truly enjoy the movie as they get more of an insight on the clouded past on tenchi's parents.
The reaction of Tenchi and the gang around his parents is a pleasant experience for the viewer.Non Tenchi fans will appreciate the relationships between characters in the movie.
This movie is one of my favorite Anime movies of all time, and I believe it is better than the other two, but the second was great as well, except this one was much better.
The plot was wonderful, and the art/animation was of excellent quality.
It doesn't exactly follow the timelines of any of the Tenchi series, however, the movie's quality makes up for it.
A Must-See anime movie for Tenchi Muyo fans and for even the casual anime fan..
The animation was ok if though a bit shifty at times.
The nice thing about this feature is the fact that it deals a lot with Tenchi's father who is normally only shown as a weird pervert in the series.
Overall it is more for the anime lovers who know a bit about the OVA eps since this is basically sending out a lot of background information.
The new viewers will probably enjoy the animation but will be confused by lot of the personae..
Now, Tenchi, Ryoko, Ayeka, Sasami, Kiyone, and Mihoshi must travel back to 1970, to save not only Achika, but also their own lives as well.
With the help of scientific genius, Washu, Tenchi and the gang will travel back in time to save the Masaki family from the evil and sinister Kain.Intersting...isn't it?The fist Tenchi film made, but the second I saw after seeing "Tenchi Forever!".
Unlike "Tenchi Forever", this film is less dramatic and more comedy...which is what Tenchi is pretty much known for although the series itself has it's dramtic moments.
Of course, this film has it's dramatic times as well as it goes towards the ending.
And of course, the film ends with a sweet melody called "Alchemy of Love".Also, the DVD version of this movie has more information than "Tenchi Forever!".
:) I highly recommend it to Tenchi fans who have DVD players!!!!
This is an great movie!
This is an great movie!
I recommend it to any Tenchi fan out there!
I even recommend it to people who have never heard of Tenchi, although it might be a little hard to follow.
The story line was great, and so was the music and animation.
And all the characters really make this movie more enjoyable!.
This truly is the best of any of the Tenchi's.
A few months later we watched it again, and she had the same reaction.This movie has some top animation and a good solid story.
i am one of the biggest tenchi fans since i first started collecting the series.
now, i own every series, music video, and movie uncut and subtitled, even the last 13 OVA.
the story is really suspenseful, the animation is some of the best i've seen, and the villain is one of my favorites.
before any of you see this movie, you'll have to understand the story of the Tenchi series to be able to nod and follow along.
overall, this would have to be one of my favorite anime movies..
A truly great movie, with just one downfall....
I personally LOVE Tenchi Muyo!
It is the exact opposite of Tenchi Muyo!
However, the animation absolutely upholds the wonderful tradition of the Tenchi Muyo!
series and the story is just too great.
I really like this movie.
This is a movie for anyone who has an appreciation for good story telling..
I was introduced to Tenchi Muyo!
It was time to see the movies.
I watched Tenchi Muyo in Love second (oddly enough) and, perhaps it was in comparison to Manatsu no Eve, but I adored this movie.
The animation, the music, the sound, all superb.
I love the Tenchi characters, even dubbed, and the movie only made me feel even more for them.
If you're familiar with the series, it's great seeing the plot done with the Tenchi characters.
You learn a little more about Tenchi's character, and a lot more about his dad and mother.
This is a must see for any Tenchi fan, anyone curious about Anime, and anyone who wants to see how animation *should* be done.
An brilliant little anime with lovely effects and a cool plot..
This is one of my favorite anime movies.
It takes the already great Tenchi Muyo!
The plot is one of the best that I have seen in an anime movie.
Good Tenchi movie, at times a bit hard to follow..
I enjoyed this movie even though I was not familiar with the Tenchi Muyo show, it had a lot of colorful characters and was funny and had good action too.
The story though was a bit hard to follow, it made a bit more sense when I had seen the Tenchi show, but it still has points that make very little sense.
My guess is that this movie takes place in the realm of the show "Tenchi Universe" rather than the first show as this movie features both female galaxy officers that are in the "Universe" series while the original only featured the blond officer.
The story is a bit of a time travel movie with a dangerous being escaping a galaxy police stronghold and going back in time to kill a member of a royal family that has the power to bind his almost limitless power.
That person just happens to be the mother that Tenchi himself has never met.
At times it is a bit tough to follow the plot, it was very hard when I had not seen the show, but it has such colorful characters that its story shortcomings can be forgiven.
The action is good too, however, the movie is most certainly more comedy and such than action...most of the action comes at the tail end of this one.
The first and best of the Tenchi movies.
I'm a big Anime fan and this movie is up near the top of my Anime list of best movies, the movie could stand on it's own but to really know the whole story you need to have seen the rest of the Tenchi Muyo series..
The first movie of Tenchi, is, well, okay.
This is based on the Tenchi Universe series, and not on the OVA, what is up with that?
But despite that this is still worth viewing for the average Tenchi fan.
It has more background on Tenchi's past, and his mother, and father, and it mostly has Ryoko and Ayeka posing as high schoolers and Mihoshi as a teacher, a dull one though, but it is memorable.
Having not yet seen any other Tenchi Muyo, but enjoying anime I had high hopes for this movie.
In part, these were met - the humor generally works very well, the animation quality is uniformly high, and the emotional parts almost convince.Therein though, lies (in my opinion) the main failing of this film - enough time is never spent fleshing out the relationships between the characters.
This can be explained by its origin as a series, but weakens its qualities as a standalone film.
Also, as it is based upon a series, you know that no major characters can die (to maintain continuity with the series), which removes some of the excitement.I expect you would get more out of it as a fan of the series, so you then already know most of the characters.In conclusion I like the film, and will watch it again, but cannot agree with some claims that it is a masterpiece...(7/10).
A great installment to the Tenchi Muyo series.
As a stand alone movie it is great as well.
All along the way you get the great angst and humor that goes with the territory that is Tenchi Muyo...
**************POSSIBLE SPOILER*************** Of course once again the whole gang finds themselves clinging to Ryoko for help as she has to teleport everyone to subspace to save Tenchi's mother.
Tenchi Muyo fans will enjoy.
WARNING: SOME SORT OF A SPOILER When I first saw this movie I had no idea what Tenchi was.
I only rented the movie because I was an Anime' fan and thought it looked rather interesting.
Anyway the movie takes play space at the galaxy head quarters.
He is no friend of the Jurai so he goes back in time to attack Tenchi's mother.
Meanwhile in the Masaki household Tenchi and the gang are watching movies of his mother Achika.
Then Tenchi starts to dissapear.Before watching this movie you should watch the T.V. show first. |
tt0066819 | The Beguiled | During the middle of the American Civil War in 1863, injured Union soldier John McBurney is rescued from the verge of death by twelve-year-old Amy, a student at an all-girl boarding school in rural Mississippi, the Miss Martha Farnsworth Seminary for Young Ladies. The eponymous headmistress reluctantly agrees to take him in until he has built up his health, under the condition that he is locked in the music room and kept under watch. Edwina, the schoolteacher, takes an immediate liking to John, as does Carol, a teenage student.
John begins to bond with each of the women in the house, including the slave, Hallie. As he charms each of the women, the sexually-repressed atmosphere of the school becomes filled with jealousy and deceit, and the women begin to turn on one another. After Carol witnesses John kissing Edwina in the garden, she ties a blue rag to the school's entrance gate to alert the Confederacy of a Yankee soldier. When a band of Confederate soldiers pass by the school and go to investigate, Martha lies and convinces them John is part of the Confederacy.
Martha also becomes secretly infatuated with John, and it is revealed through flashback that she had an incestuous relationship with her deceased brother when he lived in the house. Martha considers keeping John at the school as a handyman, and later makes sexual advances toward him, which he declines.
Late one night, Edwina witnesses John having sex with Carol in her bedroom and, in a jealous rage, beats him with a candlestick, causing him to fall down the grand staircase and break his leg. Martha insists he will die of gangrene as a result of his bone breaking the skin unless they amputate his leg. The women carry him to the kitchen where they tie him to the table and feed him wine before Martha saws off his leg at the knee. John awakens to Amy standing by his bedside, and Martha and Edwina enter the room. When they reveal that his leg has been amputated, he goes into a fury, convinced that Martha went through with the amputation in retaliation for his declining her romantic advances.
In the aftermath of the amputation, John and Edwina's romance begins to grow, while his relationships with the other women in the house begin to deteriorate. One night in a drunken rage, John, convinced that Martha plans to hold him prisoner, acquires a pistol and threatens the women before killing Amy's pet turtle.
Martha convinces the women—aside from Edwina, who is not present—that their only option is to kill him. She asks Amy to pick poisonous mushrooms in the woods, which they serve to him at dinner that evening. At the dining table, John apologizes for his actions, and Edwina reveals that she and John have made plans to leave the school and marry. Edwina begins to help herself to the mushrooms, but Martha stops her. John realizes he has been poisoned, and leaves the dining room disoriented, before collapsing in the hallway. The following day, the women tie his corpse in a makeshift body bag, and carry him out of the gate, to burial. | suspenseful, murder, violence, flashback, romantic, melodrama, revenge | train | wikipedia | null |
tt2516720 | Susie Q | In the fictional town of Willow Valley, Washington during the year 1955, teenager Susie Quinn prepares for her Winter Formal. She and her boyfriend, Johnny Angel, are oblivious to the fact that an inebriated motorist would soon force their car into a waterway where they subsequently drown. Forty years later, a teenager named Zach Sands moves into that very house with his widowed mother Penny who has a new job as a news reporter. Zach's father had died in a car accident on his way to Zach's basketball game — and Zach feels so guilty he abandons basketball. Now a student at the local high school, Zach befriends the drama group but also makes enemies of the envious Ray Kovich whose father, Roger, is a banker.
While fishing with his younger sister Teri, Zach finds a bracelet that causes Susie's ghost to visibly manifest herself before Zach. Eventually, Zach researches Susie and discovers that she died 40 years ago. That night, Susie visits Zach again, and proves to him that he is the only one who can see her. Later Susie arrives at Zach's school, where he's distracted by the other girls in school - until Susie rips off part of the winter formal dress she's wearing to get his attention. Susie begs Zach to help her find out what happened to her parents but, while doing so, causes a scene in Zach's class. She apologizes, but continues to cause trouble at school and home until Zach agrees to help.
While visiting Susie's parents, Zach finds out they are facing homelessness at the hands of the local bank because of a missing title deed, and that the bank is demanding an unaffordable $25,000 balloon payment. However, this is only one part of a larger plan, led by Roger Kovich, that would eventually destroy the town. Heading back home, Susie confesses that before she died, her grandfather was looking for the deed for Willow Valley. She reveals to Zach that she is still earth-bound because of a mistake she had made in persuading her grandfather to rest, rather than help him find the deed that could have secured her family. Teri discovers that much of the town's land legally belongs to the Quinn family, and it becomes a fierce race to the finish as Zach locates the requisite title deed. It draws the attention of the police; meanwhile Roger is warned and makes his own plans. After the police arrest Zach and Teri, Susie manages to save them by scaring the officer into letting them go free.
Finally, Zach and Teri make it to the local news station just in time to provide their mother with all of the information about the Quinn family's history, which is broadcast on live television. In the aftermath, the bankers give up and apologize to the Quinns, the Kovich family leave town in an attempt on Roger's part to avoid criminal prosecution and Zach returns to playing basketball in honor of his late father. Susie, her mistake rectified, returns to the bridge where she died, where she reunites with the spirits of her boyfriend, Johnny Angel and her grandfather in Johnny's car. The ghostly trio depart for heaven, but not before Susie gives Zack her bracelet whilst bidding him an emotional farewell. In the closing scene, Zach meets a girl who looks identical to Susie and who introduces herself as Maggie. | neo noir | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0038259 | The Woman in Green | When several women are murdered and their forefingers severed, Holmes and Watson are called into action, but Holmes is baffled by the crimes at the start. Widower Sir George Fenwick (Paul Cavanagh), after a romantic night alone with his girlfriend Lydia Marlowe (Hillary Brooke), is hypnotized into believing that he is responsible for the crimes. He is certain that he is guilty after he awakes from a stupor and finds a woman's forefinger in his pocket. His daughter comes to Holmes and Watson without realizing that Moriarty's henchman is following her. She tells Holmes and Watson that she found her father burying a forefinger under a pile of soil. She has dug up the forefinger and shows it to them.
Fenwick is then found dead, obviously murdered by someone to keep him from talking. Holmes theorizes that Moriarty, who was supposed to have been hanged in Montevideo, is alive and responsible for the crimes. Watson is then called to help a woman who fell over while feeding her pet bird. He leaves, and minutes later, Moriarty appears and explains that he faked the phone call so he could talk to Holmes. When Moriarty leaves, Watson arrives. Holmes explains what Moriarty did, notices that a window shade that was shut in the empty house across the street is now open, and tells Watson to investigate.
Inside the empty house Watson, looking through the window, believes that he sees a sniper shoot Holmes in his apartment. Holmes then appears at the house and explains that he put a bust of Julius Caesar there because of the bust's resemblance to his own face (Holmes realized that as soon as he sat there, Moriarty would have him killed). Inspector Gregson takes the sniper, a hypnotized ex-soldier, away, but the sniper is later killed on Holmes's doorstep.
Holmes now realizes that Moriarty's plan involves:
1) killing women and cutting off their forefingers,
2) making rich, single men believe they have committed the crime,
3) using this fake information to blackmail them, and
4) counting on the victims being too terrified to expose the scheme.
He befriends Lydia, whom he had seen with Sir George at a restaurant, suspecting that she is in cahoots with Moriarty. She takes him to her house, where he is apparently hypnotized. Moriarty enters and has one of his men cut Holmes with a knife to verify that he is hypnotized. He then tells Holmes to write a suicide note (which he does), walk out of Lydia's apartment onto the ledge, and jump to his death.
Watson and the police then appear and grab the criminals. Holmes then reveals he was never really hypnotized, but secretly ingested a drug to make him appear as if he had been hypnotized and also insensitive to pain. Moriarty then escapes from the hold of a policeman and jumps from the top of Lydia's house to another building. However, he hangs onto a pipe which becomes loose from the building, causing him to fall to his death. | good versus evil, murder | train | wikipedia | It's an excellent film of the splendid Sherlock Holmes Basil Rathbone series including two first-range nasties : one man , Henry Daniell as Doctor Moriarty and one woman, Hillary Brooke as an illusionist with malignant aims.In the flick appears the usual of the Arthur Conan Doyle's novels : Mycroft (Sherlock's brother), Dr.Moriarty, Mistress Hudson , and of course Doctor Watson.The film has a creepy atmosphere , it's in black and white with lights and shades that originate an eerie setting.Set design is of first rate , the movie is very atmospheric ,the dark and gloomy slums of London are very well designed.Basil Rathbone's interpretation is magnificent, he's the best Sherlock Holmes in the cinema , likeness to Peter Cushing and Jeremy Brett in television.Basil Rathbone as Holmes plays in a clever, broody and impetuous manner.Nigel Bruce plays as Watson with humor, goofy and joy , he's the perfect counterpoint to Holmes.Rating : Better than average , 7/10 .
"The Woman in Green" is one of the numerous Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce appearing as Holmes and Watson.
After Holmes figures it all out, he must still try to catch the criminals, and there is an interesting final sequence in which Holmes himself is in great danger.Rathbone and Bruce always make a good team even with the most routine stories, and this one is bizarre enough to hold attention in its own right.
Hillary Brooke is also pretty good as his attractive and dangerous accomplice.Though not one of the greatest Holmes films, "The Woman in Green" has most of the features that Holmes fans look for, and it should not disappoint them..
Henry Daniell is a good Professor Moriarty and Hillary Brooke as The Woman in Green is mysterious and seductive.
Sherlock Holmes matches wits with THE WOMAN IN GREEN, a nefarious female who may possibly be involved in a string of ghastly London murders.Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce return once again to the roles for which they were most famous -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's celebrated detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusty companion Dr. Watson.
Although the film is short on excitement and could definitely use a more satisfying climax, Rathbone & Bruce are never boring, perfectly portraying Holmes' superior intelligence and Watson's amiable bumbling.One of the most enjoyable aspect of the Holmes films is the occasional vivid characterization provided by very fine supporting players.
Hilary Brooke is seductive, Henry Daniell is a terrific Moriarty, as always Rathbone and Bruce are tops as Holmes and Watson.
Daniell's Moriarty is a bit too average - I never got the impression of an evil or dangerous man who was a match for Holmes.Overall this is a good entry in the series.
There is more to the case than meets the eye, and could there be on old adversary behind the murders?.The Woman in Green is the eleventh of the fourteen Sherlock Holmes film's starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson, and the eighth of the eleven directed by Roy William Neill.
Most are much better than this one.Most of the Holmes movies have at least one interesting villainous character, here being the famous Dr. Moriarity (not played well by Henry Daniell) and "the woman in green" (played well by Hilary Brooke, but no hint of green or mention of that in this black-and-white film.)This Sherlock Holmes' episode was just too monotonous with the only entertainment provided when Dr. Watson (Bruce) was mumbling and bumbling around, which included being hypnotized.
Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) step in to help Scotland Yard when a series of murders hits London.
As a youngster viewing this film in the 1940's, I was always spellbound by the great acting of Basil Rathbone, (Sherlock Holmes),"The Comedy of Terrors,'64 along with Nigel Bruce (Dr. Watson),"Dressed to Kill",'46.
Basil Rathbone's performance is splendid just like always and Henry Daniel does a fine job as the third actor to play Holmes main nemesis Professor Moriaty.
Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and professor Moriarty (Henry Daniell) go at it again, but it is the humor of Watson that makes it all worthwhile.Of course, Moriarty has a beautiful accomplice in Lydia Marlowe (Hillary Brooke), who uses her wiles to try and trap Holmes, if that were possible.Watson (Nigel Bruce) seems to have all the best lines as he is hypnotized and sent on a wild goose chase.
Seven years and 11 movies later from when they first started, it is only natural that Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce's movies together as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson would show signs of weakness.
William Neal's direction is as tired as Rathbone's performance but still, mainly due to a solid script that finds Holmes investigating a series of murders (the most gruesome and mysterious since the days of Jack the Ripper, as he tells us) that lead him to a ring of blackmailers and hypnotists and an old friend he thought dead, Woman in Green remains watchable and enjoyable throughout..
The daughter of one of the men asks Holmes for help, and this leads him to an attractive woman - apparently in green, but it's hard to tell because the film is black and white - who lures the men to her apartment and hypnotizes them.The earlier films such as "Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror" were pure propaganda, but I didn't find them any less entertaining, and as Holmes is a real classic character, he fits well into the WW II era, as Cumberbatch does today, texting with his cell phone and using computers.
Rathbone's Holmes is in top form, Bruce's Watson manages to be sensible at least half the time, and Henry Daniell's Moriarty (cited by Rathbone as his favorite of the three Professors who played opposite him) is a sinister delight to watch...cold, calculating, and emotionally anemic, he is the perfect counterpoint to Rathbone's Holmes.On the technical side, the film is on a par with most of the series...very capably made, despite the less-than-ideal circumstances.
Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) once again faces off with his nemesis Professor Moriarty (Henry Daniell), as well as a beautiful hypnotist (Hillary Brooke), in this entertaining entry in Universal's Sherlock Holmes series.
And now we learn that he's allegedly been hanged in Montevideo a year ago - and yet, when an eerie murder series starts in London, with the victims all being young women from completely different backgrounds, and from their bodies always being one finger missing, instead of a 'homicidal maniac', as Watson suggests, Holmes again is sure that his literally...
indestructible arch-enemy is at his diabolical work again...His investigations lead him to believe that hypnotism is involved (which makes Watson even more disbelieving...) - and he finally decides to let himself be 'hypnotized' as well by that mysterious 'woman in green' who's obviously collaborating with Moriarty...A clever and rather creepy plot, some pretty suspenseful moments; but otherwise, especially for those who've seen many 'Sherlock Holmes' adaptations, more or less routine stuff: Holmes against Moriarty - once again....
Holmes' suspicions prove correct, of course: Moriarty is indeed still alive, carrying out a dastardly blackmail plot which involves beautiful hypnotist Lydia Marlowe (Hillary Brooke) tricking wealthy men into believing that they are murderers.This may be the 11th adventure for Rathbone and Bruce as Holmes and Watson, but there is very little indication of the kind of malaise that all too often strikes long running movies series.
After a temporary war-time dip in quality, the great sleuth's adventures quickly returned to form, and although this case might be missing the wonderful Gothic elements that typify the best of Holmes' cases (most notably, fog), its nastier-in-tone-than-normal plot still delivers more than enough intrigue, suspense and danger.Holmes' re-acquaintance with Moriarty is perhaps the film's highlight, Henry Daniell's devilishly devious quarry using Watson as insurance, leaving the detective frustratingly unable to act against him; Hilary Brooke is also excellent—extremely alluring yet completely wicked, she is the perfect partner-in-crime for the malevolent professor.
The Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce team is always a joy to watch, and Henry Daniell is a fittingly sinister Dr. Moriarity, but this film seemed a tiny bit less exciting than Hound of the Baskervilles, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes or Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman (my favourite!)..
"The Woman in Green", which ranks as the eleventh adventure in the series starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, is one of the most original and genuinely chilling entries in the entire cycle and especially horror fans will remember this story, as it features the return of Dr. Moriarty and an ingenious serial-killer premise.
Henry Daniell's portrayal of Dr. Moriarty is a terrific one and that sure isn't obvious, since the role was previously played by the brilliant George Zucco (in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes").
The titled Woman in Green is played by the sexy Hillary Brooke, who is partnered with Holme's arch-enemy Professor Moriarty(Henry Daniell).
And we aren't treated to very much signature background music while we watch Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) tackle a murder mystery involving a mysterious female (Hillary Brooke) and Professor Moriarty (now played by Henry Daniell).
The Woman in Green marks a cinematic landmark for me personally; as it's the last film in the classic Rathbone Sherlock Holmes series that I needed to see, and I must say that the run has ended on a high!
While this isn't the best in the series; the team of Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce and Roy William Neill et al have put together yet another excellent adventure for the super sleuth and his dippy sidekick, which includes the return of the fiendish Dr Moriarty!
The film once again sees Basil Rathbone in his trademark role, while Nigel Bruce supports him excellently, and the two share that great chemistry that makes this series what it is.
Scotland Yard, as usual, is baffled, and, as usual, turns in desperation to Sherlock Holmes.Though a rather late entry in a series which many feel lapsed in quality through time, The Woman in Green is actually one of the better movies in the Rathbone/Bruce Sherlock Holmes series.
Bruce's Watson is particularly endearing in his fumbling assistance, and though this is not one of Rathbone's best portrayals of Holmes -- one gets the feeling he's starting to go through the motions this late in the game -- his characterization benefits greatly by for once having a really effective feminine foil: Hilary Brooke as the evil, sophisticated blonde mesmerist proves a credible enemy.
Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce is great as always in this murder-mystery concerning a Woman in Green.
After ten films together, the chemistry between Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce translates into a convincing on-screen friendship as the iconic Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson; the genuine affection between the two partners in crime-solving is palpably evident in their eleventh outing, "The Woman in Green." Watson is evidently touched when Holmes openly admits he let a villain escape in order to save his dear friend's life.
THE WOMAN IN GREEN (Universal, 1945), produced and directed by Roy William Neil, the ninth installment of the modernized "Sherlock Holmes" mysteries for Universal (1942-1946), and eleventh featuring Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes) and Nigel Bruce (Doctor Watson) in their legendary roles, is, regardless of contradictions from previous theatrical episodes, another interesting entry in the series.
Along with some repeat performers in support, Hillary Brooke and Henry Daniell, who've assumed other character parts from earlier products in the franchise, would become central figures this time around, matching wits with the famed detective in another baffling mystery.The opening passage starts with an off-screen narrator, Inspector Gregson, filling in to what's to be presented as the police force come to the Scotland Yard building entrance: "I won't forget that morning, not if I ever live to be 100.
While there's an interesting segment where Watson gets hypnotized at the Mesmer Club by Doctor Onslow (Frederick Worlock), the true highlight belongs to Holmes when going into a trance by one of Moriarty's assistants, the titled character, who's never referred to in the story as "The Woman in Green." While Mary Gordon returns as Mrs. Hudson, series regular Dennis Hoey is absent this time around as Inspector Lestrade.Distributed to home video in the 1980s, and eventually DVD, THE WOMAN IN GREEN, which has fallen into public domain, has appeared on numerous television and cable television channels over the years, one of them being Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: March 8, 2004).
Tidy little Sherlock Holmes entry in the Universal series with BASIL RATHBONE and NIGEL BRUCE (more bumbling than usual) confronting the man behind a series of gruesome murders involving mutilation.
There's no Inspector Lastrade here, but there is Professor Moriarty (HENRY DANIELL), appropriately sinister and clever in the sort of role that suited him in the forties.The femme fatale of the title role is HILLARY BROOKE, who appeared in three of the Holmes films, always in a different role.
Women across London are being found murdered and Sherlock Holmes is invited to solve the crimes which have a strange quality in that the victims have their forefinger cut off This is another of the films featuring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson .
this is another film in the sherlock holmes series with Basil Rathbone as Mr. Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson.
The eerie Henry Daniell as Professor Moriarty is the best thing in this film adaptation of the Doyle story, "The Empty House." Rathbone and Bruce still work as Holmes and Watson, but you can see how the series is fading..
Roy William Neil directed Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce as Sherlock Holmes & Doctor Watson.
The movie is the eleventh film to star both Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson respectively.
The movie is not directly based on any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories and books on Sherlock Holmes, the movie is credited to have an original screenplay, but several of its scenes can be said to have been lifted from "The Final Problem" and "The Adventure of the Empty House." The movie plot starts with a string of random murders of women who then have their forefingers severed.
Woman in Green, The (1945) *** (out of 4) Eleventh film in the Basil Rathbone series has him once again playing Holmes and this time trying to crack the mysterious case of women being murdered and having their right forefingers cut off.
Brooks' housekeeper (subbing Mrs Danvers) and the actual murderer (only briefly seen) complete the Gang of Four.Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Holmes and Watson are as usual marvellously embroiled in solving a series of particularly gruesome crimes - apparently the censors had their say - of murder and mutilation of young women in London.
But what she to do with the Jack the Ripper fiend, now terrorizing London?Of the 12 Universal entries in the Sherlock Holmes cycle, all starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, The Woman in Green, alas, proves to be one of the weakest.
Sherlock Holmes is called in following a series of gruesome murders in which each victim has a finger cut off, and uncovers Professor Moriarty behind a sinister plot involving hypnotism and blackmail.A very enjoyable little Sherlock Holmes mystery, with a great script by Bertram Millhauser.
Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) and his assistant Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) are called in by Scotland Yard to help solve the most atrocious series of murders since Jack the Ripper.
Holmes comes to believe that the murders are incidental to a more sinister scheme, and what he discovers is a plot involving hypnotism and blackmail; behind it all is his chief nemesis, the diabolical Professor Moriarty (Henry Daniell).For his part, Moriarty engages the beautiful Hillary Brooke as his "Woman in Green", though that's a moot point since the black and white film never references her choice of attire.
Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are good as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.The standout for me in the film is Hillary Brook.
All in all this a good entry in the Sherlock Holmes Basil Rathbone films, but not the best.
The Woman in Green Above average fare for the eleventh of fourteen films with personal favorites Rathbone and Bruce and accolades to Hillary Brooke as Lydia and, of course, Henry Daniell as Moriarity.
The cast does a solid job with Basil Rathbone impressing as Holmes and Nigel Bruce being a good Watson; he provides most of the films laughs without being reduced to a mere comedy sidekick.
*Spoiler/plot- The Woman In Green, 1945, Sherlock Holmes is called to solve the "finger murders," a series of brutal and seemingly unconnected killings of women in London, and finds a beautiful hypnotist and his old enemy, Professor Moriarty, lurking in the shadows.*Special Stars- Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Henry Daniell and Hillary Brooke star.*Theme- Holmes solves every crime, eventually.*Trivia/location/goofs- Hillary Brooke is delightful.
Holmes is convinced that there is some sort of logical plan behind the apparent madness & senseless murders & after a meeting with the evil professor Moriarty (Henry Daniell) he is sure of it...Produced & directed by Roy William Neill The Woman in Green was the eleventh Holmes film out of a series of fourteen made between 1939 & 1946 to star Rathbone & Bruce as Holmes & Watson, it's not the best but it's not the worst either.
The acting is good with he usual likable performances from Rtahbone & his comedy sidekick Bruce.The Woman in Green is a good Holmes murder mystery, it's not the best this series has produced but it's not the worst either.
The Woman In Green is definitely one of the lesser entries in the Sherlock Holmes film series.
This was a very disappointing Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes story.
Instead, try seeing any of the other Basil Rathbone movies from the series, or, better yet, see one of the Jeremy Brett versions for a real look at Sherlock Holmes.. |
tt0104892 | Mistress | A young woman is torn between the affections of her two lovers. One is a young bachelor who brings passion into her life. The other is a married old man who has kept her as his mistress for years.
Architect JD (John Lloyd Cruz) has a chip on his shoulder about his businessman father Rico (Ronaldo Valdez) never really accepting him as his son. Seamstress Sari (Bea Alonzo) struggles to take care of her family. The two meet by chance, and JD aggressively pursues Sari’s affections. Though the two are clearly a good match, there is a problem standing in the way of their bliss: Sari is the mistress of JD’s father. Against his better judgment, JD continues to court Sari even after finding out this difficult fact. He hides his true identity as Rico’s son, and fights to win Sari’s heart.
Upon their struggles, Rico's wife was angrily dismayed to see Sari which is his mistress as both his son JD and himself had a rivalry for Sari's heart. When they travel through the province to deliver a wedding formal suit to her relative in the province, both Sari and JD finally show their true feelings with each other as they watch the wedding ceremony despite her relationship to JD's father, Rico as Sari finally gives in to JD's feelings and both became romantically involved as they make love.
After their travels in the province, they were found by JD's father Rico who is furious to see his son became close to her mistress making both having a fistfight as Sari tried to stop them until Rico suffers from a stroke.
At the hospital, JD finally apologizes to his father, Rico who is dying and bedridden and he gives his position to his son on their family business before he dies. In the end of the movie after JD makes his speech towards his father's business employees about his father's life and his business, he watches Sari who fixes the formal suits she had sew in the tailor shop as she saw him before JD drove his car away this implies that their romantic relationship is finally rekindled. | comedy, satire | train | wikipedia | the most accurate depiction of Hollywood outsiders trying to bust in.
Knowing several real-life wannabe actors, screenwriters, directors, and producers, none of whom are exactly 'A-List,' I thought this movie was an accurate portrayal of the twists and turns that the life of a project and one's personal life take while one, lacking connections, tries anything to come up with financing to get a potentially great movie off the ground.Look at how long it took to get "Ray" funded and made -- 10 years!
Similar stories abound.
It takes a monumental effort to get anything made that's a little bit different.
Guys who control the money don't like risk!
With all its iterations depending on the focus of the potential underwriter -- think Money-Man -- with a colorful cast of stars, all playing well-written characters, I can't get enough of this movie.
I own it and have watched it many times.
A real laugh fest for those captivated by all things "Hollywood." The name IMHO ruined this movie's chances at the box office.
It implies a certain salaciousness that is simply not there.
It is a warm and sweet movie about guys trying to help their sweethearts achieve their dreams.
Should have been titled, 'The Darkness and the Light,' which is the name of the screenplay they are trying to produce, or 'A Hollywood Story,' or something similarly innocuous.
Worth seeing by all means!.
Worth seeing.
Bob Wuhl, never acclaimed because he has little range, actually turns in an excellent performance as a screenwriter who pulls out all the stops to get his script filmed.
Martin Landau is his producer, and the money men they find, one of whom is Robert DeNiro in a wonderful role, all want him to cast their mistresses in the film.
Although the film is slow at times, excellents performances all around make this worth seeing..
brilliant and underrated.
A sadly underrated movie.
Hollywood could not have loved it because of the cruelly true things it says about how movies are made, about how a writer's creative vision becomes corrupted and debauched on its way to the screen.
That doesn't sound like a setup for a comedy, but a wonderfully dark comedy it is, with some richly witty dialogue.
Landau's performance is superb (he is one of the best actors around), and the descent of Wuhl's character from idealistic writer to desperate self-promoter - a sad journey - is made humorous.
Wonderful bits by Eli Wallach, Danny Aiello, and all three mistresses..
over looked gem.
This movie is another over looked gem made awares recently to my consumerized multiplex movie taste.
Robert DeNiro acted in this movie for free (according to IFC Channel's little factoid footnotes).
It has a low budget feel to it.
I dislike Robert "Arliss" Wuhl as an actor.
Nontheless I found myself intrigued and enjoying Mistress.The discussions about art, and how they are a reflection of real life: the question posed in My Dinner With Andre: Is the art a reflection of it's artist, or is the artist a reflection of his art ?
The discussion and breaking down of some of the tedious aspects of screenwriting and what it means and how one goes about it in the movie industry.
The compromises required in movie-making, and art in general, is an intriguing aspect to this movie, making it more than just a run of the mill "dish on Hollywood/Los Angeles" movie.
Also, the comprises woman in the movies have to make, and blacks.
I think this is a great movie for an aspiring (screen)writer/actor to watch by providing some of the clues to how one has to think or approach writing and also the realistic constraints that get applied by the way the industry is structured.(BTW, I feel as if I am the only one to notice that this seems alot like Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway ((which was released 2 years after this movie)); Woody Allen is the greatest, but the uncredited theft of this movie may be a travesty ((especially provided the knowledge, also courteasy of IFC's footnotes, that the Writer/Director Ron Powlus[sp] spent 7 years running around trying to get this movie made.
Which is a sad fact because this is an excellent movie and the amount of work he must have put into it is reflected.))Now looking at this as well, this is sort of a movie about the making of a movie about the real life making of a movie; which in itself is stating something very profound about movie making..
Very Underrated Gem. This is one of those movies that I fervently hope gets rediscovered one day.
The performances are top notch, especially Landau as the extremely obseqious producer and Ralph as DeNiro's actress girlfriend.
What makes this movie so great is that it understands the need of subtlety in satire, something that is often lacking.
This film also says a lot about Hollywood and financing that REALLY hits the mark, maybe a little to close to home for some in the industry..
Recommended.
A sophisticated dark Hollywood comedy, IMHO superior to THE PLAYER.
The cast is a powerhouse, but Martin Landau is outstanding, as is the black girl who plays Beverly, DeNiro's mistress.
I've seen it three times and laughed harder each time.
Basically, it's about the woes of a director/scriptwriter (Wuhl)who, upon wannabe producer Landau's urging, tries to pitch his script to three money guys (Wallach, Aiello, DeNiro).
He fights unsuccessfully to preserve the integrity of his artistic vision..
It`s Not BATMAN 3 That`s For Sure.
The info button described MISTRESS as thus " An earnest screenwriter sees his dream mangled in the Hollywood movie machine .
Robert DeNiro is a crass moneyman demanding a role for his talentless mistress " Great I thought , this is going to be like THE KING OF COMEDY except it`s set in Hollyloot .
Twenty minutes later DeNiro`s still not appeared and I`m aware of one thing - info buttons are never right The info button wasn`t so much wrong but it was rather misleading .
DeNiro does indeed play a crass moneyman who is after a role for his mistress but she`s not exactly talentless .
The plot mainly revolves around a failed director/screenwriter called Marvin who finds himself having to severly alter his script if he wants it produced , it`s a sort of satire/black comedy on the Hollyloot system of film making and once you get over the initial disappointment of it not being a Scorsese / DeNiro masterpiece it`s an enjoyable film , and one with a lot of scathing truth like a pitch is all down to presentation , casting is down to who the actress is sleeping with and a producer`s vulgarity is only matched by his ignorance .
Also watch out for the line " This isn`t BATMAN 3 " which at that time hadn`t been produced yet .
I guess someone made BATMAN 3 as a homage to MISTRESS ?.
"Mistress" misfires.
"Mistress", a misnomer, tells of a bunch of Hollywood hacks slogging through the process of networking, schmoozing, compromising, and sucking up required to launch a film project.
A messy flick with little to offer considering the talent behind it, "Mistress" seems to be trying to make the point that making a film is often about everything but the film...careers, quid pro quos, personal agendas, etc.
Unfortunately, "Mistress" is a poorly focused comedy/drama which doesn't work well in either genre.
Most likely to be appreciated by people like the IMDB.com users who are not Hollywood insiders but have above average interest in films.
The anti - "Player".
MISTRESS (1992) *** Robert Wuhl, Robert De Niro, Martin Landau, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Danny Aiello, Eli Wallach, Jean Smart, Ernest Brognine (cameo).
Bitingly funny satire about a struggling filmmaker wanting to make his dream script facing obstacles by each financial backer wanting their mistress in the film.
Christopher Walken and Laurie Metcalf have small roles..
Great actors in search of a script.
Pun intended.
This is a comedy about trying to make a movie in Hollywood.
There's a screenwriter (Wuhl), desparate to see his long-forgotten masterpiece brought to the screen, a producer (Landau) who hasn't had a hit in 15 years and three wanna-be producers (De Niro, Aiello and Wallach), of varying competence.
All of the producers have girlfriends who want to be in the movie.
Everyone has complicated lives.The theme is compromise, and who can and who can't.
Some parts of the film are mesmerizing, earning it a seven from me, and others sag.
A splendid birthday party serves as the climax of the film but I had no idea of why the birthday boy was being feted.See it if you like the lead male actors - they're terrific (even if it does remind you that women of the the same age can't find roles as juicy).
Otherwise, it's another "ain't Holywood awful" movies..
slow, but great casting!.
could be better, could also be worse..
nothing to see if you´re not a fan of Robert de Niro or Martin Landau.
I don´t really think Robert Wuhl is such a great actor.
He dissapears during the scenes with de Niro and Landau.
One reason to see the film is the fabolus scene where Christopher Walken commits suicide after delivering a chilling line.
Epic!!
well, it was not very bad, but it was nothing new.
I prefer "Ed Wood" with Johnny Depp if I wanna see a movie about moviemaking.** out of *****.
Impressive cast overplaying to the nth degree....
Barry Primus directed and co-wrote this 'Hollywood insider's comedy' which isn't very inside and is never terribly funny.
Robert Wuhl is a struggling screenwriter who, with help from Martin Landau's over-the-hill movie producer, hopes to get his picture made with financial backing from three hot-tempered high rollers; the catch is, each investor wants his mistress to have a part in the film, and all three women prove very difficult to handle.
Potentially interesting premise given over to foul-mouthed neurotics who are never as amusing as they're supposed to be.
Wuhl, an actor of quicksilver comedic timing, thanklessly plays the incredulous observer here, while the all-star supporting cast loudly plays up the material until the satirical edge flags and becomes cartoonish.
Primus' direction is wobbly and uneven, though he gets some amusing facial expressions from Robert De Niro (who also co-produced, for reasons which are unclear).
Shabbily edited, and with ungainly cinematography.
Requires some thought.
This film has a few good moments.
The story line about the director as an artist unable to overcome the devastating end of his first try to film his masterpiece is convincing and moving.
The rest of the plot about the producers and all their girlfriends is silly.
But, as you work through this dichotomy, you realize what is happening - somewhat in the manner of "Adaptation," the journey of the script in question is echoed by the journey of the characters to produce the script.
However, this film has none of the wit and pace of Adaptation.
The characters are fairly one dimensional.
Al Pacino does a shrill and annoying job of playing a shrill and annoying character..
Important comment on screen writing but a little dull.
The movie is actually fairly dull, not that funny, with kooky characters that are just kooky and not that interesting.
That said, it makes an important statement about Hollywood and Hollywood screen writing.The consensus is that this film accurately explains the hellish environment a Hollywood screenwriter goes through in trying to chase their dreams.
I've read a couple of biographies of famous writers and the issues they mention are shown in this film.
While most people presume that everything we see in a movie is based on the many concrete choices made by its screenwriter or director, the reality is different.
For a screenwriter either you never get the film made the way you want it, or you chase the paycheck and compromise with the money men.In this movie the money men are only willing to put up money for a film as long as their girlfriend is handed a juicy part.
This of course means the main character, a screenwriter played by Bob Wuhl, has to decide to compromise or not to compromise.
A complication exists in that his wife is in New York, trying to get their dreams of a restaurant up and running.
Unfortunately this isn't a real fallback option, since she isn't his muse; the Hollywood dream is.
Thus the concept "mistress" is multifaceted.
Is it a reference to the girlfriends of the producers?
Is it his wife?
Is it Hollywood?
Is it his dream of being a famous respected artist?
The movie could have gone deeper and been a powerful satire, a wonderfully entertaining critique and an important cautionary tale.
Regrettably its not as deep as all that and only succeeds at the latter.
Perhaps this is in itself a statement.
A very formulaic film done on purpose to explain why most Hollywood films are indeed formulaic?
It feels like a precursor to Adaptation.
Or am I trying to see things that aren't there?In any case while the whole experience is a little watered down, if you know someone that wants to be a screenwriter you should show them this film as it does lift the lid on the Hollywood dream and reveals how it really is, at least most of the time.
For a better quality satire on the same topic watch The Player (1992)..
Wears out its welcome.
Starts with a good premise and Martin Landau in the first scene.
Pretty soon Eli Wallach shows up.
Bit later Robert DeNiro.
Things are rolling along nicely when I realize Robert Wuhl, who irritates me at the best of times, was shouting his way through the movie.
And then Laurie Metcalf shows up.
Is she really this bad an actor or is it just a bad director working with no budget?
It's all downhill from there.
I just didn't care anymore.
Didn't care about Wuhl's character.
And why would I care about Christopher Walken's ''Warren'' character?
And who is the kid's dad supposed to be?
Elmore Leonard?
Yelling, yelling, yelling.
So tiresome.
I bet this movie didn't gross a thousand bucks when it was released. |
tt0119280 | Mrs Brown | Several screens of text giving some background are shown before a bust is shown flying over a palace wall and shattering into countless pieces. The film shows the story of a bereaved Queen Victoria (Judi Dench) and her relationship with a Scottish servant, John Brown (Billy Connolly), and the subsequent uproar it provoked. Brown had been a trusted servant of Victoria's then deceased and beloved Prince Consort, Prince Albert; Victoria's Household thought Brown might help to ease an inconsolable Queen since the Prince Consort's death in 1861. In 1863, hoping to subtly coax the Queen toward resuming public life after years of seclusion, Mr Brown is summoned to court.
The plan succeeds a little too well for the servants' liking, especially Victoria's chief secretary Sir Henry Ponsonby (Geoffrey Palmer) and The Prince of Wales (David Westhead) as well as other members of the Royal family; the public, press and politicians soon come to resent Brown's perceived influence over the queen. Brown takes considerable liberties with court protocol, especially by addressing Her Majesty as "woman". He also quickly takes control over the Queen's daily activities, further aggravating the tensions between himself and the royal family and servants.
The moniker "Mrs Brown", used both at the time and in the film, implied an improper, and perhaps sexual, relationship. The film does not directly address the contemporary suspicions that the Queen and Brown had had a sexual relationship and perhaps had even secretly married (see the article on Brown), though cartoons from the satirical magazine Punch are shown as being passed around in Parliament (only one of the cartoons is revealed to the camera, showing an empty throne, with the sceptre lying unhanded across it).
As a result of Victoria's virtual recluse, especially at Balmoral Castle in Scotland (something initially encouraged by Brown), her popularity begins failing and republican sentiment begins growing. Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (Antony Sher) has a weakening hold over the House of Commons and a fear of rising anti-monarchical sentiment in the country. He persuades Brown to use his influence with the Queen to persuade her to return to the performance of her public duties, especially the speech from the throne at the impending opening of Parliament.
Brown is reluctant to do so, rightly fearing that Victoria will take this as a personal betrayal. When Brown urges Victoria to return to London and fulfill her public duties, an argument ensues. Feeling betrayed by Brown, the Queen becomes enraged. When Brown once again refers to her as "woman", she sharply rebukes him. Leaving the room, she turns to Ponsonby and Jenner requesting that they serve her needs, clearly reducing Mr Brown's contact and influence over her. Their relationship was never to be the same again.
The Queen's eventual acquiescence and her decision to return to public life eventually leads to a revitalisation of her popularity and a resurgence in public support of the monarchy.
Brown continues to serve Queen Victoria until his death in 1883. In his final years, his duties become reduced to head of security. The palace staff has become weary of Brown's dogmatic ways and they mock and rebuke his security efforts as paranoid delusions. Finally, during a public event, a gun-wielding assassin appears out of the crowd leaping toward the royal family. An ever-vigilant Brown successfully thwarts the assassination attempt. At dinner the next evening, the Prince of Wales retells the story, bragging to their dinner companions that he had been the one to warn Brown of the assassin. Seeing through her son's bragging, the Queen announces instead that a special medal for bravery, the "Devoted Service Medal," will be minted and awarded to Brown.
Some years later, Brown becomes gravely ill with pneumonia after chasing through the woods late at night searching for a possible intruder. Hearing of Brown's illness, the Queen visits his room and is visibly shaken to see her old friend so ill. Placing a cool damp cloth against Brown's fevered brow, she confesses that she has not been as good a friend as she might have been in recent years. It is clear that her apology is accepted by Brown. The pneumonia proves fatal for Brown and he passes away.
During his years of service, Brown had kept a diary and, upon his passing, Ponsonby and Dr. Jenner discuss its contents stating that it must never be seen by anyone. Holding the diary at his side, Ponsonby walks away and it's implied that the diary will be destroyed or will disappear.
Dr. Jenner also reveals that the Prince of Wales has hurled the Queen's favourite bust of Brown up and over the palace wall, referencing the film's opening sequence.
The film's closing crawl notes that "John Brown's diary was never found." | romantic, intrigue | train | wikipedia | No question, we all seem to agree that Dench deserved the Oscar (ok, Hunt was cute in AGAIG but a long way from 'Best'), Connolly is surprisingly good in this very dramatic role (I'm not exactly a huge fan of his comedic work), and Sher was very clever as Disraeli.
But this movie is just a little bit more that just great acting, it is also a moving story of the burdens of office, the mores of Victorian society, the anguish of the death of a loved one, and the blessing of true friendship.
BROWN as written by Jeremy Brock and directed by John Madden (Proof, Shakespeare in Love, Captain Corelli's Mandolin) is a sprightly, entertaining and engrossing study of a moment in the life of enigmatic Queen Victoria.
Selecting an outstanding production crew and a fine cast this film succeeds on every level and once again proves to us that Judi Dench is one of the finest actresses on the stage or screen today.The story revolves around the time when Queen Victoria's beloved husband Prince Albert dies resulting in a clinical depression in the queen.
There her Scottish Highlander servant John Brown (Billy Connolly) nurses her back to normalcy but in the meanwhile sets up the appearance of an affair that scandalized the British Isles.
Disraeli (Antony Sher) visits in an attempt to right the situation but it is Brown's strong personality - an equal match for the wise and wily Victoria - that alters the course of events that returns Queen Victoria to her proper station.Dench and Connolly play so well off each other that their relationship has a wealth of charm, tenderness, bite, wit, and solidity.
Mrs Brown is an enthralling piece of work wonderfully crafted by Judy Dench and Billy Connolly.
The story is about queen Victoria and the relationship with Mr Brown after the death of her husband.
Undoubtedly this film appeals to so very many because of the fine acting, the tenderness of a story about how a man comforts a great human being in her grief, the wit, and the careful re-creation of a period of history.
Mrs Brown is a good movie with a good storyline ,excellent performances by Bill Conolly ,Judi Dench and Antony Sher.
Antony Sher(Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli)adds some humor to the the movie .It was a delight visiting the beautiful Scottish Highlands thanks to some marvelous photography and a very good recreation of the Victorian age.
The real show stealer I felt was Bill Conolly(John Brown).He is portrayed as a loyal,charismatic,fun loving Scottish highlander who can dare to defy the Queen's orders .The scenes involving Victoria and Brown are electrifying.It surprises me that a talented actor like Bill Connoly Does not get many good roles.I would definitely love to see more of this talented actor..
"Mrs. Brown" tells the story of the grieving widow Queen Victoria (Dench) and her relationship with a common Scottish horse groomsman (Connolly) whose audacity and devotion won him a position as the queen's closest consort and her everlasting affection.
A wonderfully executed period piece (circa 1860's), "Mrs. Brown" leans toward fact and avoids sensationalism as it tenders its biographically correct drama about a grieving queen who finds an unspoken love and renewed commitment to life in a most unlikely man.
Still, Mrs.Brown is a great film in all aspects, not just something for Dench-fans.
Film Portrays the Private Life of Queen Victoria and Mr. Brown.
Superb and thoroughly convincing portrayals by all, but especially Judi Dench as Queen Victoria and Billy Connolly as John Brown.
That he can never be anything else but her servant is understood but his heart takes much longer to learn.Besides this powerful premise Mrs. Brown works because John Madden's direction and the editing keep things moving, with many beautiful images shown along the way.
True, this is an epic, sweeping, costume drama, but it's one that stays so true in its wish to portray history and reality correctly, that the grand love scenes are ruled out by its no-compromise attitude.Beyond that (it's by no means a criticism), Mrs. Brown is a touching, very entertaining, extremely well acted drama.
Despite its focus on realism, it comes off as an extremely emotional (much thanks to Billy Connolly's performance) story about personal and political conflicts.Finally, I believe the political angle of the film will confuse some people who won't understand the issues at stake (this is how my girlfriend reacted -- she couldn't follow much of the narrative in the last hour or so); but those who do will be thrilled..
The film is beautifully shot, capturing the bleakness that would have been Queen Victoria's life at that time.
This simple tale is used to paint a picture of the Victorian court so perfectly that you're left with a conviction that this is exactly how it must have been.Certainly the plot restrains itself to the facts: Queen Victoria and her gillie John Brown were friends with a great affection for each other.
Billy Connolly gives his best acting performance to date, but Judi Dench is breathtaking.
Queen Victoria is suffering from terrible grief after the loss of her husband and the film is about her loyal friendship with Mr Brown.
With that kind of mentality operating, a whole lot of people questioned the need even for a monarchy.Into her life comes John Brown, brother one of the household help already at Balmoral and hired to tend the Queen's horses.
Connolly makes a fine Brown though if the film had been made 25 years earlier, the part was made for Sean Connery.Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown gained to Oscar nominations for Judi Dench for Best Actress and for Best Makeup.
Shooting on location in the royal palaces and grounds which are nicely preserved from Victoria's time, the film does have the look and feel of Victorian Great Britain and the troubled monarch who reigned over the Empire.Were she and Brown ever physical?
There may have been a bit of poetic license taken with the story of Queen Victoria and her Scottish groom, but this is an absolutely wonderful film!
Dench as Victoria and Connolly as Brown are absolutely superb, and the rest of the cast is just as good.
When the story begins England is growing very tired of their Queen's prolonged grieving over her now long-dead husband Prince Albert -- she has virtually eliminated her ceremonial appearances and cut herself off from the public literally for years.
And the acting is outstanding, Judi Dench is absolutely mesmerising as Queen Victoria and Billy Connolly was a huge surprise as John Brown, giving a restrained and very moving performance, proving he can do serious roles while being thoroughly decent at comedy as well.
Dame Judi Dench is "Mrs. Brown" - that is, Queen Victoria, and Billy Connolly is John Brown in this 1997 film, based on fact, of Queen Victoria's relationship with a Scottsman, John Brown, who becomes her servant.
The excellent script is by Jeremy Brock and the director is John Maddon, who does a wonderful job.The widowed, deeply grieving Queen Victoria has basically retired from public life when John Brown, who served her late husband, appears on the scene to help draw her out.
Billy Connolly, usually known for his comedy, does a remarkable job playing the strong headed and hearted John Brown- who was with Victoria for 30 years.
In Mrs. Brown his gift for comedy comes across as strong as ever but is complemented by the great dramatic acting, which is more than can be said about many a recent comics-turned-movie actors.
Starring Dame Judi Dench and a fine dramatic turn by Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, the story is about the tremendous grief of Queen Victoria, whose husband's death has left her so devastated that she has retreated from public life, leaving the monarchy in a frozen state of affairs.
Judi Dench's acting has never been finer, and Billy Connolly seems born to the role of the stout-hearted Brown.
In mourning after the loss of her husband Prince Albert, Queen Victoria calls for his former aide, John Brown to be on hand for her walks and such.
At the same time, the political absence of the Queen is felt within the Commons and pressure starts to build not only on her to return to public duty but also in relation to her unusual relationship with Brown.Nobody should let their lack of knowledge of the characters and the period put them off coming to this fine period drama; I myself knew nothing of them but I do try and spot a quality film when I see one and so it was here.
But I wouldn't deem it as a bad movie at all, it was actually made very well with some fantastic and very distinguished actors of our time.Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's marriage was one of the happiest in royal history, so when Albert passed away, Vicotiria is devastated.
But when a Scottish horse servant, John Brown, comes to help her, they become best friends and eventually lead into something more scandalous leading England her majesty's court to question her abilities as their queen.Mrs Brown is very well made and has a very strong cast that keep the movie together.
The intrigue and scandal surrounding Queen Victoria (Dame Judi Dench) and her devoted Scottish servant (played by stand-up comedian Billy Connolly) rivals any of today's tabloid headlines.
We know Judi Dench can play this sort of role better than almost anyone alive, but Billy Connolly is a revelation as the unstintingly loyal Brown.
The nature of Queen Victoria's relationship with her Scottish servant John Brown certainly isn't of earth-shaking historical significance, however it does make for an interesting enough story, some good speculation (both in their day and in ours) and a reminder that royal scandal didn't begin with the current crop of British royalty.After the death of her beloved husband Prince Albert, Victoria became very attached to Brown, who in turn became very protective of her.
The movie does portray in a very convincing manner the complications of such a friendship: the jealousy felt toward Brown by both his fellow servants (to whom he becomes quite haughty at times, rubbing their noses in his special status) and by other members of the royal family, who feared the potential for scandal and also resented the fact that Brown was closer to Victoria in many ways than they were.The movie is a good period piece.
The movie also features great performances from Judi Dench as Victoria and Billy Connolly as Brown.
Also not to be overlooked is a fine performance from Antony Sher as Disraeli - the Prime Minister whose own position as head of government is being threatened by the Queen's increasing unpopularity when she secludes herself for years after Albert's death, and who eventually has to seek Brown's help (because Brown seems to be the only one with influence over her) to get Victoria to reclaim her public role as sovereign.
Judi Dench plays Queen Victoria a year before winning her Oscar for playing Queen Elizabeth, and Billy Connolly plays the man who helps her recover from the depression she falls into after the death of her husband.This is a tasteful, quiet period piece that has not much to recommend it cinematically but does give one the opportunity to see some terrific performances.
The film is best in focusing on the relationship of the Queen and John Brown, and Dench and Connolly pull their roles off well.
The great loves of Queen Victoria, this one Mr Brown..
Then along came the Scotsman to care for her horse, Billy Connolly as John Brown, a take charge kind of guy who gave scant respect to the conventions of conduct around the Queen.
Judi Dench and Billy Connolly are great in this movie.
It's about the extraordinary man with the ordinary name of John Brown who brought a Queen out of mourning, and how their relationship leads to scandal in Britain.I found watching Young Victoria before Mrs. Brown to be useful and insightful into the eyes of Queen Victoria and her love for Albert.
HMMB is a British period film from John Madden (whose Shakespeare IN LOVE 1998 would upset the Oscar ceremony in 1999 and honor Ms. Dench's a golden naked man for best supporting actress), wrestling with a solemn relationship/friendship between Queen Victoria and her staunch servant John Brown, a royal entanglement which almost hamper the monarchy in UK history.It is perplexing to tell the narrative's dependability because Brown's diary has never been found, thus the film uses a mediocre approach to meticulously organize its contentious subject matter in a tenable and restrained patterns, the interaction between Queen Victoria and Mr. Brown is not as ample as one had anticipated, a bona-fide friendship never really sensed throughout the entire round, also the screen time of Dame Dench is curbed into sundry fragmentary montages, the sparkle of a two-hander abates slowly and the final showdown has been sketched into a intensive but abrupt manifestation.
It's a good thing that it did though because this film deserves a chance to be seen.The film tells the story of the unrefined scots ghillie who befriended (and, some believe, bedded) Queen Victoria, following the death of her husband.
Billy Connolly plays ghillie John Brown in a performance that is, like the film, subtle and full of understated emotion.
Judi Dench, as Victoria, is no less impressive.The script is witty and relevant, with some not-too-subtle references to the public invasion of the private lives of celebrities (a hot issue at the time following the death of Princess Diana).Definitely worth a look..
When "Mrs. Brown" came out, it seems like Judi Dench wasn't a household name in the United States - although she had appeared in a number of famous movies by then.
Here she plays Queen Victoria, having a fling with Scotsman John Brown (Billy Connolly).
Densch and Connilly earned our love.I am convinced the story was close to the truth and love does not always need sex, to be love.John Brown saved Victoria's life, by breaking through the protocol, and guiding her back to life.We have often seen like situations between a Royal and a common servant, where the common sense wins over divine responsibilities in Royality."Roman Holiday" comes to mind.
Protecting himself from life, germs, and villains imagined in his own mind, Hughes, is a prisoner of his own design.Mrs. Brown gives up a rare view of Queen Victoria, crippled by her fears of her beloved husband's death.
John Brown, a servant highly respected by the late Prince Albert, is brought in from Scotland to attend to the Queen.
Through it all, Mr. Brown demonstrates an unmatched allegiance to the Queen.This movie was incorrectly billed as a love story, but it is actually a story about the power of friendship and how two people from polar opposite social classes (a servant and a monarch) end up becoming friends.
Billy Connolly cleverly portrays the saucy and arrogant Mr. Brown, while the Queen is played with precision by the very talented Judy Dench.
Billy Connolly and Dame Judi Dench were magnificent in their roles.
This movie should've carried more Oscars and nominations than it had.The movie itself is about Scotsman John Brown (Connolly) who befriends Queen Victoria (Dench) who has been in mourning for her husband and consort, Prince Albert, since his death of typhoid in 1861.
Some contributors have written as if Victoria was already some ageing figure but she was born in 1819 and so was only in her early 40's at the time that John Brown came into her life.She still would have been very much pre change of life so there was always the real possibility or potential of emotions going beyond friendship and mutual respect.
This film is about the relationship between Queen Victoria and her personal servant John Brown.
The people who actually made the film did a good job of sticking to facts and were probably horrified by the way the film was advertised.The film begins a couple years after the death of Prince Albert--Victoria's husband.
[WARNING: This review may contain "spoilers."]This film is contrived from the historical friendship of Regina Victoria with her servant John Brown.
Judi Dench is magnificent as Queen Victoria, an awesome personality with a heartbreaking soul - and this performance earned her an Oscar nomination.
A matchless portrayal of Queen Victoria by Judi Dench, and an equally marvellous performance by Billy Connolly.
Brown's diary was naturally deliberately destroyed.Seven time Oscar nominee Judi was finally given one for her role as the Queen in Shakespeare in Love, a very fine film.
For the next 20 years, John Brown takes charge of the queen's life and the royal household.
He has been viewed by some historians as having helped bring and end to the Russian monarchy.Judi Dench does justice to the character of Victoria, and Billy Connolly is excellent in the role of John Brown.
Mrs Brown is directed by John Madden, is written by Jeremy Brock, has music by Stephen Warbeck and stars Judi Dench, Billy Connolly, Geoffrey Palmer and Anthony Sher.Queen Victoria(Judi Dench)is living in seclusion at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight for several years after the death of her beloved husband Prince Albert.It is while she is there that she meets a royal servant John Brown(Billy Connolly)who is put in charge of her horse.
I'm not sure if what happens in this story is true, the longest running queen to date having some kind of close relationship with her servant and best friend, from John Madden (Shakespeare in Love).
Queen Victoria (BAFTA, Scotland BAFTA and Golden Globe winning, and Oscar nominated Dame Judi Dench) has recently lost her husband and she is quite quiet about it.
John Brown (BAFTA and Scotland BAFTA nominated Billy Connolly) is the Scottish servant that helps her. |
tt0087523 | Euer Weg führt durch die Hölle | A group of gorgeous American models take a long trip to South America, to participate in a photo session on a location deep in the jungle, apparently somewhere around Peruvian tropical forest. While flying over a cocaine plantation, their plane is shot down by Cesar, a dangerous drug lord, and the girls are taken prisoner by his army. Cesar suspects that an undercover police officer is among the models (in fact, one of the women actually is a special agent), so he orders his mercenaries to drag the girls into his dungeon for interrogation. After being tortured by Angel, Cesar’s sister, and cruelly gang-raped by all soldiers, the models are imprisoned in an underground cell to await Cesar's decision whether to execute them or keep them as slaves for his soldiers' “entertainment”. With the help of an old female servant, the models manage to escape from the basement jail and get some guns. As they make their way toward freedom, they run into a high-level Mafia meeting there in Cesar’s manor. A final gunfight breaks out as the women fight to take revenge and escape alive.
The movie follows the line of sexploitation films (with a mix of Women in prison film and rape and revenge films), being a low-budget production with some nudity and rough sexual-violence. In fact, it contains a large rape scene, showing the defenseless girls tied by the wrists to the dungeon’s ceiling and fences and being sadistically stripped, groped and abused by dozens of soldiers. Precisely, this strong scene made the film rated R and, consequently, couldn’t aim to a mass audience. On later releases and in the edited for T.V. version, this scene has been deleted, to allow for a wider audience. | cult, violence | train | wikipedia | The latest weapon in the war on drugs: fashion models..
It's paced incredibly well, features the required dose of delectable nudity and exploitation, and is overall pretty well shot.
It also features a B movie cast to die for, which is what may bring this diversion to the attention of sleaze aficionados.
The godawful theme song is one debit, but that can't do much to affect the basic entertainment value of this thing.
It gets off to a fine start and eventually leads to a wild finale with lots of gunfire and squib use and explosions.
Director & producer Ernst R.
von Theumer, brought into to replace the fired Billy Fine, knows full well what kind of movie he's making and does his best to ensure that the viewers have a good time.A bevy of babes fly to an unnamed South American country to scout locations for a photo shoot, not knowing that they're doing this at a bad time.
A major deal is going down between an American mobster, Vito Mastranga (John Vernon) and powerful drug lord Cesar Santiago (Paul L.
Smith).
The plane in which the models travel ventures too close to the drug lords' domain, and is subsequently shot down.
The girls and their companions, Joanna Quinn (Nina van Pallandt), Larry (Marjoe Gortner), Laura (the ever bubbly Louisa Moritz), and pilot Ben Sturges (Kai Wulff) are captured by Cesars' minions and tortured by his kinky lesbian sister Angel (Sybil Danning, looking mighty fine as always).The cast of familiar faces also includes Alex Cord as Vitos' concerned nephew Nick, Woody Strode as an efficient goon in Cesars' employ, and Dana Elcar as a federal agent.
Danning is particularly juicy, but Smith, as could be expected, is an absolute hoot as a tough as nails baddie.
The ladies playing the models are lovely.
The story is a pretty straightforward one, and it moves along nicely to that aforementioned action climax.This one doesn't appear to be that well known, so if you're looking for lesser known B level sleaze epics from decades past, give it a look.Eight out of 10..
Commando models in green exploitation hell!.
A seemingly ordinary jungle action fare, this one benefits from a couple of notable twists, the main one being the group of heroines consisting of models!
Although this probably helps to make this film utterly unbelievable, that is in turn heightened by good villanous casting, giving us no less than four major "bad guys", including the seldom disappointing Woody Strode and never disappointing Sybil Danning.Add to this mixture the total lack of any concern for realism, and you get what I call an entertaining little picture.
OK, it's not a masterpiece on any level, but it is good at what it wants to be.Released on video in Finland in the early eighties..
A feast of wasted opportunities.
This is an 80s actioner about as generic as they come, only without good action, without memorable characters, and even without sexiness (which should have been the point of putting fashion models in the jungle).
The thing is, this could have been soooo much better if anyone really had put some passion into this project.
The setup has a lot of potential, but nearly every single opportunity gets wasted by bad writing or directing.
The pretty girls get no sexy scenes, the villains get offed in very uninteresting ways (and much too quickly - what a waste of Sybil Danning), the heroes don't get much heroing to do, and the jungle setting is used for maybe 10 minutes.That the movie had potential is witnessed by the fact that I was able to sit through it without fast-forwarding; despite all its flaws it's at least quickly paced and loud - 5/10..
This is a B movie, action, with lots of gun play and violence.It's also got too much in common with FIVE GAES TO HELL to not be somewhat of a remake of it.
But instead of captive nurses, these are captive models, whose men folk are killed, and it's "women" vs.
mercenaries.Even though it's not a war film, as "Five Gates" was, the evil men here are soldiers for a "war lord".This is very edgy, well directed, and with lots of famous character actors.It's also better than "Five Gates", because it takes a lot more risks, and dares to be different.
It isn't as "contrived" for the most part.The sound quality is less than desirable, though.
The lady singing at the beginning and end is not delivering "studio" sound.
The song is very distorted, for whatever reason.
Perhaps one of the worst "sound" mixes in film History.
It sounds as though they actually taped her song in the jungle itself..
That song!.
A group of fashion models travel with their producer Larry (Marjoe Gortner) and pilot/guide Ben (Kai Wulff) to a South American jungle for a photo assignment.
What could possibly go wrong?Jungle Warriors is worth seeing for any self-respecting fan of crap B-movies if only for its horrible theme song, which has to be the most tuneless bit of warbling ever to grace a movie.
The woman responsible for this insult to music lovers everywhere is Italian singer Marina Arcangeli: I'm guessing that her surname translates as Archangel, but let me assure you that there's nothing angelic about her voice, which is pure audible evil, sucking at the soul with every screeching syllable.Abysmal title song aside, this film is a fairly routine piece of cheesy 80s European action with a predictably dumb plot: the models are captured by a gang of ruthless drug runners who occupy a nearby Spanish fortress and, after their male companions are killed (Larry is caught in a booby trap, Ben has his head hacked off), they are left at the mercy of the despicable baddies, who rape and torture them.
Escape is, of course, inevitable, but how many of them will make it out of the jungle alive?This nonsense is made slightly more bearable thanks to a solid cast that includes seasoned genre regulars Paul L.
Smith, John Vernon, Woody Strode, and Sybil Danning.
Beware, however, of the severely edited R2 version of the film: the copy that I saw had clearly suffered at the scissors of the censors, the more extreme moments shorn of gore and nudity, making the experience rather frustrating for exploitation fans such as myself.5/10 (although it might possibly be worth a 6 with the juicier stuff intact)..
Pedestrian action film.
I admit that I might have had a higher opinion of "Jungle Warriors" if I had been able to see it in its full form; the Region 2 DVD version features many painfully obvious cuts that make the film more of a jumble than it already is (it would struggle to get a PG-13 in this form).
What's left of "Jungle Warriors" is not that good, anyway: it only gets interesting when the girls are machine gunning down the bad guys, but that doesn't happen often enough (actually, most of the bad guys just kill each other off).
Admittedly, casting Paul L.
Smith and Sybil Danning as kinky half-siblings was an inspired exploitation idea, but Danning is actually kind of wasted in this film.
A group of gorgeous models doing a photo shoot in South America run afoul of ruthless drug lord Cesar Santiago (hulking Paul Smith in excellent smoothly villainous form).
Director Ernst R.
von Theumer, who also co-wrote the cheerfully crass script with Robert Collector, relates the entertainingly trashy story at a brisk pace, maintains a blithely lurid tone throughout, stages the last reel outburst of stirring action with real rip-roaring gusto, delivers a handy helping of bloody violence and raw brutality, and further spices things up with a tasty smattering of gratuitous female nudity.
The choice cast of veteran exploitation cinema regulars have a ball with the winningly low-grade material: Statuesque blonde goddess Sybil Danning vamps it up deliciously as Santiago's sadistic lesbian sister Angel, John Vernon really sinks his teeth into his meaty role as jolly and easygoing mobster Vito Mastranga, Margoe Gortner frets up an obnoxious storm as whiny and irritating modeling agency producer Larry Schecter, Woody Strode projects considerable charm and authority as Santiago's formidable right-hand man Luther, and Alex Cord does well as Mastranga's antsy and slimy attorney partner Nick Spilotro.
Moreover, Dana Eclar is a hoot as excitable fed D'Antoni and the always delightful Louisa Moritz has a regrettably minor part as sweetly ditsy make-up artist Laura McCashin.
Nicholas Josef von Sternberg's glossy cinematography gives the picture an impressively slick look.
The theme song is hilariously awful.
Through the jungle in high heels, interesting cast.
I like jungle movies.
Usually some people are cast away in the virgin forest and have to find their way out of it often they are very ill equipped, wear a nightgown (see Ann Sheridan in Jacques Tourneur's Appointment in Honduras) or high heels, like in this flick.
The story is very simple, but effective.
Some babes and another team of bad dudes have appointments in an exotic country, the first for a shooting session with a fashion photographer, the second for some drug trade.
The groups meet and clash and there is a lot of barrel melting gun action.As I said, it works and delivers good and insightful entertainment.
I found the cast very interesting.
There are some good character actors.
Marjoe Gortner (Earthquake, The Nelson Marcus Murders-Kojak pilot) plays the fashion photographer as an overexcited, bossy, fussy mother hen, it looks like he thinks it is the biggest part of his career.
Don Siegel regular John Vernon (was also Cuban thug in Hitchcock's Topaz) is the Mafioso who doesn't seem to have a worry in the world although the whole atmosphere is very tense.
He is always laughing without any apparent reason (I suspect he was drunk during the whole shoot).
Woody Stroude appears too, as a mixture of guerrilla and bodyguard.
He seems to have a good time and displays much unexpected charm.That's not all.
The movie also boasts two iconic female leads: Nina Van Pallandt (Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye) is the leader of the fashion shooting crew.
She gets a lot of screen time and is surprisingly effective in a role that would have been tailor made for Pam Grier.
Muscular, wispy haired sex symbol Sybil Danning (kind of Austrian women's answer to Arnold Schwarzenegger) plays the sister of the drug lord (a Broderick Crawford lookalike, is also good and convincing).MINOR SPOILER The story goes as those stories go.
There is a good climactic scene towards the end: The drug lord and his entourage have dinner with the mafioso and his team on an open air terrace under the trees.
At the same time the captured babes manage to free themselves inside the drug lord's palace, of which the party is not aware.
The women try to get away, they shoot at a guard.
As soon as it rings out, hell breaks loose on the terrace, everybody overturning tables and reaching for a firearm.
Almost all of the action takes place in the drug lord's castle, an old, venerable, architectonically interesting Mexican fortress that is put to good use by the film makers.
I could bet on it they used exactly the same place for the Harrison Ford starrer Clear and Present Danger (as a Colombian drug lord's lair)..
Jungle Warriors is unfortunately lackluster..
A pretty irritating guy named Larry (Gortner) is in charge of corralling a bunch of models and flying them down to an unnamed South or Central American country (the movie itself was shot in Mexico).
They inadvertently land in the thick jungles of drug-smuggling country.
This particular gang of drug lords is commanded by Santiago (Smith) and his sister Angel (Danning).
They have a team of thugs led by Luther (Strode).
It's not looking good for the models, and making things even worse is that a mobster named Vito Mastranga (Vernon) and his associate Nick Spilotro (Cord) are collaborating with Santiago and Angel and are in negotiations for future highly illegal doings.
With no prior combat training, the models are going to have to take up arms against their captors if they ever want to strut on the catwalk ever again.
Will they be able to pull off this daring feat?
You'd think - you'd REALLY think - that a movie about a bunch of models who get together and have to shoot a bunch of guns to escape the jungle and get back at the baddies would be a surefire formula for cinematic greatness.
Or at least entertainment.
Somehow Jungle Warriors manages to fumble this potential home run, to use a spot-on sports analogy.
Lamely, the movie is talky, boring, slow, lacks action, and the worst crime of all is that it's not exploitative enough.
To compare it to something, Raw Force (1982) is better, and Jungle Warriors kind of falls into that video store shelf-filler netherworld inhabited by the likes of other similarly-themed mediocre flicks like Savage Justice (1988) and Sweet Revenge (1987).
Though to be fair and balanced, it is better than Mercenary II (1999).Perhaps you even saw this or the aforementioned titles collecting dust on the shelf of your local video store.
Sybil Danning's face couldn't be much bigger on the U.S. VHS box art (as was the case with her "Adventure Video" series), but she is painfully underused in the movie itself.
Another quite easy thing the movie could have done to improve itself would have been to include more Danning.
Actually, pretty much the entire cast gets the short end of the stick somehow.
Woody Strode says nothing, Danning is barely there, Paul L.
Smith has no facial hair and does minimal fighting, John Vernon is in a veritable sit-down role, Alex Cord does what he can, and only Marjoe Gortner adds some Woody Allen-like spice to this mush.
The models don't seem to have individual personalities.It's a plot we've all seen many times before, and they saved all the supposed action for the climax.
Some pew-pew machine gun shooting and maybe an exploding helicopter at the last minute doesn't make up for all the waterfall footage we'd seen for the previous eighty or so minutes.
But on the plus side, 80's buffs will be delighted to see a vicious-looking drug goon wearing an E.T. shirt, and a too-brief glimpse of the wardrobe girl on the fashion shoot who has a sideways ponytail and is listening to a Walkman with orange ear covers.
She should have gotten her own movie, she was the best character.
The whole thing tops off with a theme song featuring the aggressively abrasive, Lene Lovich-like vocals of one Marina Arcangeli.
So it all ends on a bad note, literally.Jungle Warriors is unfortunately lackluster, and it should have been called, if we may borrow a phrase from ourselves, Jungle Slog..
Kill them all but bring Mastranga alive to me!.
****SPOILERS**** Numb nut like movie with the distinction that one of its stars Dennis Hooper never made it on the screen by being replaced by Marjoe Gortner after he was arrested by the local police while walking in public stark naked and as drunk as a skunk.
The film itself had to do with a Mafia South American alliance to ship a load of cocaine to the states that went, excuse the pun, south instead of north of the border.
That's when the mob boys headed by Vito Mastranga, John Vernon, decided to double cross their Brazilian partners headed by the gorilla like, as well as cultured, Cesar Santiago, Paul L.
Smith, that lead to the fireworks at the very end of the movie.There's also this group of fashion models lead by Joanna Quinn, Nina Van Pollandt, who's plane crashed in rebel held , the Santiago boys, territory that were held hostage who in the end revolted and brought the entire drug operation to an end.
That with DEA agent D'Antoni, Dana "Egg" Elcar, coming to the girls rescue, as if they needed him, with a fleet of helicopters.
As for Santiago and his #1 henchman Nick Spilotro, Alex "Rip" Cord, they together with Mafia chief Mastranga ended up dead on arrival when the two crime faction came to blows with each other over Mastrangas double cross.
This also lead to Santiago's step sister Angel, played by the busty Sybil Danning,getting wiped out when a hand grenade, thrown by Mastranga men, blew up under her feet.****SPOILERS**** Slow moving at first the film picked up steam in the final sequence with the models taking control of the situation, after being beaten and gang raped by Santigao's men, and putting an end to this massive drug operation.
With all the action in the movie the best was saved for last with what sounded like a drunk and high on drugs Marina Arcangeli singing, or trying to sing, the movies theme song "I'm in your Reach"..
Lacked Passion and Realism.
While filming a photo shoot in the jungles of Central America, an airplane carrying the producer and several fashion models is shot down and they are subsequently forced to travel on foot in order to escape the vicious drug dealers who are after them.
Unfortunately, the producer named "Larry Schecter" (Marjoe Gortner) is soon killed and they are all taken captive and led back to the jungle mansion where the sadistic drug warlord named "Cesar Santiago" (Paul L.
Smith) is anxiously awaiting them.
Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film had some potential but the weak acting and rather meandering plot greatly affected the movie as a whole.
However, for what it's worth, I thought the presence of Suzi Horne (as "Pam Ross"), Mindi Iden ("Marci") and to a lesser extent Nina van Pallandt ("Joanna Quinn") brightened the scenery to a certain degree--but that still wasn't enough to overcome the general lack of intensity and passion shown in this film.
Because of that I have rated this movie accordingly. |
tt0035937 | The Ghost Ship | Tom Merriam (Russell Wade), a young merchant marine officer, joins the crew of the ship Altair. At first, all seems well and Merriam bonds with the captain, Will Stone (Richard Dix). The ship, already shorthanded due to the death of a crew member before it left port, loses another ("the Greek") when he develops appendicitis. (Taking direction over the ship's radio, the captain is to perform the appendectomy, but he is unable to make the incision. Instead, Merriam successfully removes the sailor's appendix, but – feeling he should be loyal to the captain and spare him embarrassment – swears the radio operator to secrecy. Afterward, the captain has a self-serving explanation for his failure.)
One of the crew, Louie (an uncredited Lawrence Tierney), tells the captain he should pull in to port and take on new crew. The captain says "You know, there are captains who might hold this against you, Louie." Shortly after, the captain closes the hatch to the chain locker with Louie inside, and Louie is crushed to death by the chain. Merriam believes that Captain Stone, who is obsessed with authority, did it intentionally. When they dock at the fictional Caribbean island of "San Sebastian" (which had appeared in RKO's I Walked with a Zombie—another Lewton production—and later in RKO's Zombies on Broadway), Merriam attempts to expose the Captain's madness at a board of inquiry. The crew all speak favorably of the captain, including the Greek, who credits the captain with saving his life. Merriam states his intention to leave the Altair.
After the inquiry, the captain admits to a female friend (Edith Barrett, who had appeared in I Walked with a Zombie) that he fears he is losing his mind. Soon after, Merriam is involved in a fight in port and knocked unconscious. One of his former shipmates – unaware that he has left the Altair – brings the unconscious man back aboard ship before the vessel departs. Merriam wakes up on the ship and fears that the pathologically insane Captain Stone may now attempt to kill him, a fear that is only reinforced when the captain, referring to the young officer's accusations, says "You know, Mr. Merriam, there are some captains who would hold this against you."
Merriam, scorned by the crew, finds that he can no longer lock the door to his cabin. Fearing for his life, he tries to steal a gun from the ship's weapons locker, but is confronted by Captain Stone. Stone dares Merriam to try to get the support of the crew, but Merriam is rebuffed in this effort. This changes when Radioman Winslow (Edmund Glover) receives a radiogram asking if Merriam is on board, and Captain Stone orders Winslow to lie, replying that Merriam is not aboard. The radioman shows Merriam the captain's reply radiogram and says that he now mistrusts the captain and will send a message to the company expressing his concerns about Stone's mental health. However, as he leaves Merriam's cabin, Winslow encounters the captain. As the two walk side-by-side, Winslow drops the captain's radiogram to the deck, and it is picked up by an illiterate crewman, Finn the Mute (Skelton Knaggs), whose internal monologues serve as a sort of one-man Greek chorus throughout the film.
Captain Stone now orders Merriam to send a radio message to the corporate office advising them that Winslow has been washed overboard. Merriam accuses the captain of murdering Winslow, and the two fight. Crew members intervene, and the captain has the crew tie up Merriam and put him in his bunk. The captain then has First Officer Bowns (Ben Bard) administer a sedative to Merriam. Finn finally delivers the captain's radiogram to Bowns, who can read. Bowns becomes deeply alarmed. The first officer talks to several other crew members, all of whom now begin questioning the captain's sanity.
Captain Stone overhears Bowns' conversation with the crew, and goes insane. He takes a knife and enters Merriam's cabin to kill the young officer, but Finn arrives to try to stop him. While the crew is up on deck singing, Finn and the captain engage in a desperate struggle in the dark, during which Finn kills the captain. After the captain's death, Merriam is reinstated and the ship returns to its home port of San Pedro. | insanity, murder | train | wikipedia | This was pretty good entry in the Val Lewton Horror Collection, even though it's anything but "horror." This film is a straight drama, almost a film noir about a paranoid sea captain (Richard Dix) who eliminates anyone who disagrees with his "authority," a key word in this movie.Russell Wade is the captain's protégé, and the story really centers around him and the conflict he has with his boss after he begins to find out what a violent nutcase he happens to be.
This Val Lewton produced film is not what one would likely expect from the title: a ghost story...so don't expect that going in.
It is more a psychological thriller, surrounding the personality of the ship's captain, played by that old war horse, Richard Dix. And he does a terrific job of letting the viewer glimpse the madness beneath his controlled exterior.
His byword is "authority" and he goes to unbelievable lengths to assert that authority.Russell Wade, with whom I am unfamiliar, plays the Third Officer, who sees through the captain in short order and vainly attempts to convince the crew of Dix's insanity......but to no avail.
Look for Lawrence Tierney, future Hollywood bad boy, as a target of the captain's revenge.Val Lewton was the master of atmospheric films made on a limited budget and he doesn't miss with this one.
Underrated (and for a long time, unseen) classic from the Lewton-RKO 9, with above average script, camera-work, cinematography, but highlighted by probably Dix's best performance as Stone, as a man who is insane try to fool himself and those around him by acting normal.
Perhaps not as mesmerizing as "Cat People" or as disturbing as "The Body Snatcher", but this still definitely is a genuinely creepy golden oldie horror gem like only the great Val Lewton could produce them back in the 1940's.
They all seem like unfortunate accidents, but pretty soon the young and ambitious officer Tom Merriam suspects that Captain Will Stone abuses his power in order to get rid of rebellious personnel.
The Val Lewton horror of course isn't very explicit (considering the time and budget) but this movie does contain at least one truly unsettling sequence; when a giant chain crushes a crew member.
Yet, as directed by Mark Robson, it is one of Lewton's very best.Russell Wade as the young sailor who is menaced by mentally off-balance captain Richard Dix is handsome and very persuasive.
I had never heard of him before, either.The movie has a marvelously eerie, foreboding quality that is maintained throughout, from the blind soothsayer we see before Tom Merriam (Wade) boards the ship, through the sea chanteys, Caribbean songs, the heroic mute sailor.I generally shy away from all-male casts but in this case, the claustrophobic nature of the plot would have been maintained better had it not been "opened out," albeit briefly, with the scene onshore involving the third billed admirer of Dix.(Her friend, whom we see greeting Wade at the end in silhouette, is a plot device to imply a happy ending.
What makes the film stand out are a few key scenes- an anchor blindly swings above the deck, crushing portions of the boat while frightened sailors try to stop it- Dix locking a man in a room sized container for the anchor chain- Dix and a very unlikely hero having a bloody knife fight in the dark while unsuspecting sailors play Calypso music not far away.
The picture deals with Tom (Russell Wade), a third officer who embarks on the ship Altair under command the stiff Captain Stone (Richard Dix) .
The film is produced by RKO (Radio Picture Inc.) and by Val Lewton , the great producer of horror classics (Cat people , Leopard man , I walked with a zombie) ; plus , he produced for director Mark Robson various movies (Bedlan , Isle of the dead and Seventh victim) in similar conditions .
RKO had built an expensive ship set for their 1938 production Pacific Liner (1939) , Val Lewton was given instructions to come up with a film that could use the still existing set .
Director Mark Robson and producer Val Lewton team up one more time for this interesting film that surprisingly has nothing at all to do with ghosts or any other supernatural phenomena.
Russel Wade takes his new officer position aboard a boat under the control of Captain Richard Dix. Dix outwardly seems gentle and benign but slowly dissipates into a mad man obsessed with his control aboard the ship.
The other sailors, a motley lot, play it safe and don't want to get involved.The film, produced by Val Newton and directed by Mark Robson, is now available on DVD and is well worth seeing..
This shows somewhat, as the film has something of a rushed and unfinished feel to it; but there's nobody better than Val Lewton for the task of putting together an eerie thriller, and considering the reasons why this was made; he hasn't done a bad job at all.
The plot is simple (probably as a result of the reason that the film was made) and it follows a ship whose third mate suspects that the captain may be the one murdering the crew, some members of which have been dying under mysterious circumstances.
Mark Robson isn't the best director that Lewton worked with - and all of his movies have been lesser entries in the great producer's list of film credits, but he knows what he's doing and this is another decent film from him.
Efficient little RKO suspense B, with Val Lewton producing and loads of fog, has third mate Russell Wade discovering that Captain Richard Dix is nuts and murderous, and can't convince any of his fellow crew of that.
Tasked by RKO Studios to take advantage of a previously existing set, producer Val Lewton came up with this pensive, interesting mood piece & character study, set on a ship.
But Stone continuously shows signs of instability to the young man, who comes to believe his captain - who fixates on the idea of "authority" - is capable of murder.While not quite as thickly atmospheric as the best Lewton productions, this is a deliberately paced, fairly spooky little gem.
The Ghost Ship stars Richard Dix as the captain of the freighter Altair and Russell Wade as his eager new third officer who sees some distinct flaws in the man whom he admired and was eager to serve under.On his first voyage some deaths among the crew start Wade thinking, but his doubts are resolved when Nick Stuart a happy go lucky Greek is killed when he's locked in an anchor chain room.
Merriam then believes that Stone's wayward behaviour has turned him into a madman, but when he tries to convince the crew of the Captain's unstable state, no one will take notice.Compared to the rest of the Val Lewton's films, this was a pleasant and unusual surprise for one that would be labelled one of his minor and lesser entries.
Even on its tiny budget, "The Ghost Ship" is a carefully neat thriller that builds up an startlingly eerie atmosphere and growing paranoia from director Mark Robson's terse craftsmanship and the psychologically structured story.
Strange occurrences plague his time on the sea, and soon Tom becomes convinced that the captain is a homicidal maniac who has the entire crew under his thumb.This downbeat and tightly-written psychological thriller was Mark Robson's second collaboration with producer Val Lewton, the first being the phenomenal Satanic horror noir "The Seventh Victim".
Overall, "The Ghost Ship" is a modest but well-made thriller; while it's not one of Lewton's greatest collaborations, it's a claustrophobic, fine film that is lifted up by atmospheric set pieces, some very nicely-orchestrate scenes, and a consistent feeling of unrelenting paranoia.
Very ship-shape thriller with Val Lewton psychological touches and well directed by Mark Robson.
However, it's consistently interesting and, naturally, highly atmospheric; the film is also notable for being largely set in one location, as well as for utilizing voice-over from a lesser character (a mute, played by the cadaverous Skelton Knaggs, acting as a sort of Chorus throughout but who is instrumental during the climax).Again, Lewton and Robson make the most of their second-rate cast - beginning with a ripe performance from lead Richard Dix (he was a Silent star who had achieved his greatest success with the original version of CIMARRON [1931; a Best Picture Oscar winner which I've had on VHS for a good number of years but have yet to watch!], so that his presence here is surprising - if also a typically offbeat touch by Lewton - but the film did lead him to "The Whistler", a series of 7 low-budget thrillers which I've always been intrigued by); especially good, as ever, is Edith Barrett (at the time, Mrs. Vincent Price!) in the film's solitary female role; Sir Lancelot, who appeared with Barrett in I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943), is one of the seamen but his role here is largely undistinguished; hero Russell Wade is okay under the circumstances (he had played a bit part in THE LEOPARD MAN [1943] and would eventually appear as Henry Daniell's young assistant in THE BODY SNATCHER [1945]) - his role is interesting in that he suspects ship's captain Dix of being unbalanced and a homicidal maniac after his own blood and, while being 'trapped' with him at sea, can't bring himself to convince the rest of the crew to his point of view (a situation which creates some genuine tension throughout)!
"The Ghost Ship" is an interesting psychological drama, which is one of the hallmarks of a Val Lewton-produced film.
Russell Wade, as the victim of the captain's mania, is somewhat disappointing as the film's lead (as he was in "The Bodysnatcher") -- he comes across as a goody two-shoes, one-dimensional character, with very little of the psychological depth found in Boris Karloff's Cabman Gray in the aforementioned film or Richard Dix's character in "The Ghost Ship".
Lesser-known Val Lewton film is engrossing, suspenseful story about a young man (Russell Wade) that signs up with a merchant ship whose obsessive captain (Richard Dix) may be going crazy.
Mark Robson directed this Val Lewton production that stars Russell Wade as Tom Merriam, a 3rd.
officer fresh out of training school assigned to the ship Altair, under the command of Captain Will Stone(played by Richard Dix.) Things go well at first, with a refreshing mutual respect between the two men on opposite ends of their careers.
Every Lewton/Robson is a miracle in itself.When you watch one of them ,you are sure to find elements which will be used again in the future.They have become the future perfect of the thriller.Not only "the seventh victim" did predate "Rosemary's baby" by 25 years ,but it also invented the "shower " scene in a Psychoesque way."Island of the dead" was the first movie to introduce war into the fantasy and horror genre."Bedlam" was the prototype of the insane asylum and influenced countless movies of the genre (Fuller's "Shock Corridor" ,in France Franju's "La Tete Contre Les Murs" ).And "The ghost ship" predates "The Caine Mutiny " by more than ten years,without strawberries but with a captain whose attitude ( authority obsession)recalls that of Humphrey Bogart in Dmytryk's classic.The reason why the Robson/Lewton works seem so impressive today is that ,with a shoestring budget ,with minimal sound effects,they build an eerie atmosphere ,turning a movie which is not even supernatural into a fantasy and horror gem:the scenes of the hook and of the chain locker should be studied today.Like in "the seventh victim" ,all happens in a "normal" context .How not to think of "Rosemary's baby" during the scene of the injection?After all,it could only happen in the hero's mind.Even a quiet scene when the young hero and the illiterate steer the boat or the very last scene are wrapped in mystery..
He's especially good toward the climax when his true nature is revealed.RUSSELL WADE, who looks somewhat like a more boyish version of Joel McCrea (if that's possible), is the young 3rd Officer assigned to the ship by Captain Stone (RICHARD DIX) and eager to be welcomed as a member of the crew.
But when strange things begin to happen, and one unfortunate man (LAWRENCE TIERNEY, uncredited) is ruthlessly dispatched by the Captain, Wade begins to suspect that Dix has lost his mind and is wreaking some kind of vengeance on the crew.Some nice B&W photography by Nicholas Musuraca gives atmospheric feeling to sustain an eerie mood throughout, but the script leaves a lot to be desired.
"Ghost Ship" is one of the nine "B" horror films turned out by producer Val Lewton and his "snake pit" "B" unit at RKO.
This one is directed by former editor Mark Robson (his second).A young seaman, Tom Merrian (Russell Wade) signs aboard a merchant ship as 3rd officer under Captain Will Stone (Richard Dix).
The story is simple a new officer aboard a merchant ship suspects the captain may be going mad but offers a lot of room for the actors to explore range within their characters, and Robson to construct suspenseful set-pieces that build the narrative to a strong climax.
Russell Wade may be a little stiff as the principled third officer, but it's Richard Dix's layered performance as the imbalanced captain that sells the story.
Ghost Ship, The (1943) *** (out of 4) Val Lewton production about a new sailor (Russell Wade of The Body Snatcher) who thinks his Captain (Richard Dix) is a maniac.
Tom Merriam (Russell Wade) signs on the ship Altair as third officer under Captain Will Stone (Richard Dix).
The story centers on a kindly young Third Officer named Tom Merriam (Russell Wade, who I've enjoyed so much in Lewton's THE BODY SNATCHER) who gets a position aboard a ship alongside Captain Stone (Richard Dix), an odd commander with a driving penchant for authority.
While enjoyable enough, I didn't think this feature quite hit the mark as a "good" picture, and for a Val Lewton film it seemed to lack the subtle cinematic style these movies are so well-known for.
Russell Wade was fine and much like the good-natured type of soul he played in THE BODY SNATCHER, but as the infrequently deranged captain, Richard Dix seemed a bit too inconsistent.
Russell Wade plays an officer signing aboard a ship under the command of Captain Will Stone (Richard Dix).
A young man (Russell Wade) signs on as part of the crew on a ship overseen by Captian Stone (Richard Dix).
He slowly begins to realize that Stone has some strange ideas of authority...and will do anything to stop someone from disagreeing with him...Not a horror film at all but a mood piece and a character study of a man (Stone) trying to come to grips with his inner demons--and being afraid of going mad.
Tom Merriam, the new third mate hired for the voyage at the center of the story, is an eager man who feels lucky to be serving in a ship where all the men seem to be loyal to the captain.
The evocative cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca works wonders in the movie.Richard Dix, a talented actor, plays the evil Captain Stone with his usual ease.
Sailor Tom Merriam (a solid and engaging performance by Russell Wade) signs on as third officer of the cargo ship Altair that's commanded with an iron fist by the strict Captain Will Stone (superbly underplayed with quiet menace by Robert Dix).
Up until then, the movie seemed like a pretty routine drama about a young 3rd officer aboard a cargo ship and his relationship with the odd but avuncular captain.
Merriman meets and, at first, likes his new skipper, Captain Wade Stone (Richard Dix).
The rest of the cast is solid at worst.Overall, while I'll never consider The Ghost Ship one of Lewton's best films, I enjoy it each time I get the opportunity for a revisit..
Tom is on his own & stuck out at sea with the increasingly unstable Captain Stone...Produced by Val Lewton & directed by Mark Robson I thought The Ghost Ship was sort of OK but a bit dull & uneventful as well.
Richard Dix is the mad captain in one of the series of horror films that Val Lewton produced.
Although Val Lewton's production team was renowned for crafting powerful, moody films on low budgets from second-hand sets, "The Ghost Ship" proves that they couldn't pull it off every time.The story is packed with incidents and characters, but at no point does it live up to the image evoked by the title, despite an eerie Roy Webb score.
**SPOILERS** Getting his first assignment as the third officer on a merchant ship sailing out in the Gulf of Mexico, to the the port-side town of San Sebastian, Lt. Marriam, Russell Wade, never expected that his captain Will Stone, Richard Dix, was mentally deranged and obsessed with his authority over the men he was in charge of to the point of being able to take their lives if he deemed it necessary.
The Ghost Ship came on BBC2 during the early hours and I was pleased I taped it as I had been after this movie for some time.A new third officer joins Captain Stone after the previous one had been killed.
Nobody believes him at first, apart from a mute and Stone gets his comeuppance at the end.The Ghost Ship is very creepy and atmospheric throughout and contains plenty of fog to make it like this.The cast includes Richard Dix as Captain Stone but I'm not familiar any of the other stars.This movie is worth looking at if you get the chance.
This movie may be expected to be your usual Val Lewton "horror" film saddled with your usual RKO hash of a title -- "The Ghost Ship" -- but it is the finest example of flipping off the censor that I've ever seen. |
tt0308208 | Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever | Returning home with his mother Vinn (Talisa Soto) from a trip to Berlin, Michael Gant, the son of Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) director Robert Gant (Gregg Henry), is kidnapped and his security detail is wiped out by the attacker, ex-DIA agent Sever (Lucy Liu). FBI agent Jeremiah Ecks (Antonio Banderas), left the agency after his wife Rayne was killed in a car bombing. His old boss, Julio Martin (Miguel Sandoval), asks him to investigate the Gant case. He claims that Rayne is still alive and he will give Ecks the information on her whereabouts, if he helps take down Sever. Ecks agrees and realizes Sever must be an orphan Chinese girl the DIA adopted to train as a covert operative and assassin with "no fear, no conscience and no morality." Meanwhile, Gant executes the only survivor of Michael's security detail. He then orders his elite agents, led by A. J. Ross (Ray Park), to pursue Sever and rescue Michael.
Ecks joins Martin and CSIS agent Harry Lee (Terry Chen) in Vancouver, where Sever is hiding out. Ecks learns that Gant stole an experimental weapon codenamed Softkill, a nanomachine which operates in the human circulatory system and can cause heart attacks at will. Gant had implanted Softkill in Michael in order to smuggle it into the United States. Ross and his men surround Sever in a shopping plaza, but she wipes out Ross's forces in a lengthy gun battle. Sever shoots Martin, and Ecks pursues Sever, climaxing with a fight that's cut off when Ross starts shooting at them with an M60 machine gun, giving Sever a chance to escape.
Ecks is arrested by Vancouver PD under the false pretense that he killed Martin. While being transported to jail, his convoy is attacked by Sever who frees Ecks. After a lengthy car chase, Sever tells Ecks that she's on his side and gives him his wife's location. Ecks meets Rayne at an aquarium and it's revealed that her "death" was orchestrated by Gant. Rayne ended up believing Ecks had died while he thought she was gone. Rayne then married Gant under the name Vinn. It ends up that Gant had Sever's family killed, it was initially believed that kidnapping Michael was Sever's revenge. However, Rayne reveals that Michael is actually Ecks' son, and Sever's kidnapping was for his protection.
Ecks, Rayne, and Sever go to Sever's underground bunker in an abandoned trainyard, where Rayne is reunited with Michael. Gant and Ross arrive with an army of heavily-armed DIA agents, and a massive battle ensues. Ecks and Sever eventually gain the upperhand, and Sever kills Ross in a fight in the bunker. Gant tries to retrieve the Softkill in Michael's arm, but is surprised to find it's not there. Sever kills Gant using a Softkill-loaded bullet, and escapes as the police arrive. The film concludes with Ecks and Sever looking over the sea and Ecks thanking Sever for reuniting him with his family. | murder | train | wikipedia | No, they pay these actors for face and name recognition, so when a movie like Ballistic: Banderas vs Liu comes along we don't have the inconvenience of learning about characters and plot.
Sarcasm aside - I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but I think Ballistic would have been a better, more sophisticated, film if they scrapped the plot and cliché character developments and just went for 90 minutes of uninterrupted Banderas and Liu gunning at each other backdropped by a slow-mo explosions.This film would have to scale a cliff before reaching the level of plot intricacies and intelligence that just thrive in Michael Bay films.We get a crappy plot and crappy characterizations anyway just in case we don't have a favorite actor to root for.
I was rooting for the aliens from Independence Day to come down and blow them all up, but the bastards got stuck in traffic.Somewhere in the movie is a subplot about a nano-assassin, but I cared about that as much as the movie does.And since we're being honest, I admit this is a great film to watch after a night of provocative and cultured cinema to recalibrate your personal scale to the realities of the industry.
The film's third-rate espionage plot makes no sense at all and serves basically as a lame excuse for endless explosions, shootouts and double-flipping car chases, which have become the standard accoutrements for virtually every action picture since `Bullitt' in 1968.
Antonio Banderas makes up the other half of the film's title (he is Ecks, she Sever), and one only wonders what he could have been thinking about when he signed on to co-star in this particular project.
This excuse for an action film has to be the most boring and dull excuses for a movie I've ever seen.
The only two things "Ballistic" had going for it were the presence of some rarely-seen hardware (fun for you firearms buffs) and some spectacular action sequences (though these were plagued by some annoying clichés, such as a protective vest preventing all injury to a character, and henchmen showing complete disregard for personal safety), and these were simply not enough to save this turkey.
The acting of both Lucy Liu and Antonio Banderas is very low-key - same as you would expect from main roles in a Western; very simplistic and sparse, seemingly shallow were it not for the implicit references to shared knowledge, which the audience is only let in on through flash-backs or from other characters.
This way of acting suits them both excellently, and creates an attractive ambient atmosphere, energized by their martial encounters and growing mutual sympathy.The bad guys (Gregg Henry as Gant and Ray Park as his right hand Ross) do not contribute a whole lot to this movie.
Gant is the sinister/smug/self-absorbed crook which Gregg also embodied as Val Resnick in Payback, and Ross' vocabulary is annoyingly redundant, particularly his constant use of the euphemism 'cancel' (one might be inclined to blame this on the script, but more subtle acting could have pulled it off by not emphasizing 'cancel' each time).Perhaps what I like most about this movie is that Lucy has a major role.
1/2 out of ****I'm not typically a particularly demanding moviegoer when it comes to action films; just give me well-choreographed mayhem set amidst a plot that makes a little bit of a sense or a few engaging characters and I'll probably be reasonably pleased.
I'm almost hesitant to say this, but the latest straight-to-video Jean-Claude Van Damme schlock might actually be better than Ballistic, which was arguably 2002's worst film (I've never seen Rollerball).There's something of a plot here, but I'm not entirely sure what the hell was going on.
Antonio Banderas plays FBI Agent Ecks, Lucy Liu is Agent Sever, and the two of them are duking it out because they somehow have crossed paths with a wealthy man (Gregg Henry) who is determined to smuggle a small electronic device that can assassinate its intended victim via heart attack.
And this is the only film I can think of where the people involved in a car chase actually follow the speed limit!I feel a bit sorry for the cast here, particularly Lucy Liu, whose martial arts talents are squandered here.
Her action scenes with Antonio Banderas and Ray Park were very good.
Just finnished watching this movie, don't know why i rented it maybe cause i wanted to see lucy liu in full action?!?!
If your expecting a movie with a good story line, plot twists, perfect acting well i geus this isn't your kind of flick.
Expect hard action (lucy liu can kick some serious butt!!), explosions, car chases, hot women and more fire power than rambo and commando put together.
"Ballistic" is a guilty pleasure, when watching it you now that it has gone too far in many moments, and anyone can notice that there's no screenplay (obviously no coherent story)...but who cares if you are having such a lot of fun.If you are a die hard-fan of action movies this is your sort of film.
Apparently they ran out of cars because towards the end of the film, they started blowing up railroad cars!Lucy Liu really delivers the goods here.
The plot wasn't really clear, sure, but if you like action movies then this is for you.
I've always liked Banderas.I don't anymore.How on earth such an actor could even contemplate acting in such a ridiculous piece of tediousness is waaaaaaay beyond me.There are absolutely no redeeming features - monosyllabic dialogue, wooden, stilted acting, John Woo-ish plagiarism - without the effect, mind-numbing musical score,NO sensible plot.Please, for the love of God, do NOT see this film.
The movie has some pretty cool action scenes, and I knew going in, that that's what I wanted to see.
Maybe I'm just better than most people at evaluating a movie before seeing it, but I fully expected to get more stylish action sequences, and less plot.
But it's the cool direction of "Kaos" (a cut down of his real last name), ESPECIALLY the action scenes, that set this film apart.
If your looking for nothing but a pure action film with no plot or great acting then I would suggest this film.I am a big lucy liu and antonio banderas fan so this movie appeals to me and is worthy of a good vote.The action scenes are very well done and the fight scene between lucy liu and ray park (Darth Maul) is my favorite.And kudos to ray park for putting on a pretty good performance of the bad guys right hand man.If your an action junkie like me then this movie is definitely for you..
This movie has a lot of good action, and no real plot.
On the plus side, some of the photography was beautiful.Bottom line: good action, crappy plot, looks cool, the two main character(s) are babes (depending on your gender/orientation).
This is an average action movie that I probably will watch again sometime when I want something that doesn't engage my brain but has pretty things to look at.
Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu are great fighters in this movie and so is Ray Park (fight scene with him is awesome).
Ecks v Sever has good-looking women, bad guys, explosions, great chase scenes.
ok admitedly, i did fast forward during the non-action scenes while reading the subtitles, because a) i'd read so many bad reviews, i know how these films are, i wouldn't be missing much b) i had 45 mins before having to return it c) it was free, i didn't care...
and this film has some fairly fun action scenes, a couple of shots would have looked very cool if put in a better context, (i.e SWAT guy falling off roof) so credit is due there :)Just sit through Ballistic, then sit through XXX, an utterly awful film in virtually every respect, that i'm amazed it isn't in the Bottom 100 instead of this..
While this is not the type of movie I would enjoy, I did like seeing Liu in a very different role as a capable martial arts fighter who also used serious weapons.Sever could beat up a big burly man who hit on her, or pretty much anyone else, or blow up everything in sight, or shoot at anyone around her with firepower I doubt most soldiers would have, and show no emotion whatsoever.
So, I watched 'Ballistic: Ecks vs sever' thinking that it would be the worst movie ever, right?
Throw in a number of explosions and what you have is 'Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever'.I'm astounded by the fact that 'Ballistic' - a fun, mindless action movie - is only sitting on a 3.5 on IMDb, while something truly terrible like 'Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle' can sit on a decent five.
Explosions, decent looking car chases, more explosions, a smattering of decent martial arts and gun fights, a few more explosions, and Antonio Banderas being awesome - what more does an action movie need?
'Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever' is a fun action movie.
Despite the fact that Talisa Soto can't really act, I think this was a pretty good movie.The only thing that strikes me as odd is how the plot is described and outlined.
Ballistic Ecks Vs. Sever is very artistically shot but the use of slow-motion becomes a little tiring half way through the film.The story revolves around Retired FBI agent Ecks(Banderas) and ex-operative Agent Sever(Liu) both with a seperate agenda involving the same man(Henry).
Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever was a great action movie.
Now, I know you all who hated the film must be thinking that I'm mad and I can't tell a good movie from a bad one- but I can.
And granted it wasn't "Gladiator" good but it certainly wasn't as bad as most of you said it was.The movie had a great plot.
But all this is true for "Spiderman" and its sequels and clones, and millions still pay to waste time with those.And most of the actors in "Ballistic" are doing their best; the pacing over all is quite good; the money has been well-spent to give the film a professional polish; and there's undeniable fun moments in the film, like Vin Diesal's cameo as a pick-up artist who gets his nose broken.But the film really survives as watchable more than once because of Lucy Liu, who is just a pleasure to watch as a betrayed ex-agent, exuding cold fury and an outsider's humanism at the same time; and because of the marvelous set piece at the Vancouver mall where Liu takes on a hundred SWAT cops and outshoots them all.
There's no point expecting "Die Hard" here, this is just another dumb action movie.But that doesn't make this a bad film; actually, it's a pretty good dumb action movie..
Give me a break.The movie was not A+ and yes there were few actual lines on at least Lucy Liu's part but I don't remember the film being advertised as a courtroom drama....
The action scenes are just fantastic and very inventive directed, Lucy Liu just kicks ass and Banderas also give it's best.
That was awesome!Antonio Banderas looked very and good acted good and Lucy Liu was very good.Ray Park was good and I just loved his fight with Lucy Liu!Talisa Soto looked beautiful!Gregg Henry was good.Wych Kaosayananda (Kaos) is a great director in My opinion and I hope he will continue to make more awesome films!I would like to see Banderas in more action films as well!If you love Banderas and huge non-stop action films then rent Ballistic: Ecks vs.
You say that Ballistic has "no story, no decent action, no effects." It makes me doubt that you actually watched the film.
Lucy Liu did some fight scenes in the Charlie's Angels film, but the action in Ballistic is on another level.
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsWych Kaosayananda (or Kaos,as he'd rather be known by this film) marks his directorial debut in Hollywood with this flat,empty and ultimately,for all it's loud,noisy pyrotechnics and explosions,utterly lifeless action vehicle,his only other directorial feature being a film he helmed in his native Thailand by the name of Fah.A mega flop in the States and,probably subsequently,a straight to video release on this side of the Atlantic,since first impressions always count,he'll have a hard time following it up with anything more successful,unless his next film is the sequel to another successful film with a major publicity campaign behind it.Ballistic:Ecks vs.
Sever is a failure on all counts.A complete case of style over substance,with no attention payed to writing an engaging script,balanced with all the attention in the world payed to orchestrating flashy,balletic action sequences playing over a thumping hardcore soundtrack,which backfires when these emerge as no fun whatsoever.The film has a runningly bland,tepid feel to everything going on in it,with weak,limp dialogue and soulless performances from the two lead stars (though with a script this weak,who can blame them?).Antonio Banderas emerges as wantern and disinterested in his role,while Lucy Liu,so engaging in the Charlie's Angels films,is here a perfunctory kick ass chick who barely utters a word until about two thirds of the way into the film.It's thankfully short and once or twice (literally) there are some engaging action scenes,but these belong in a much better movie where their presence would have had a more lasting impact.Don't waste your time or money.*.
OK, I know that most summer action flicks aren't exactly supposed to contain anything that comes even close to a semblance of a plot or story, but this recent film?
Think how rich you would be if you had a dollar for every cheap explosion, and ridiculously vapid villan that inhabited this "movie".As if the film's plot itself weren't a ludicrous tribute to the eighties, let's take a look at the director.
Well, Ballistic needs a disclaimer that says something like, "Exactly 1,587 cars got real blowed up during the making of this film, along with a black bus and some train boxcars." There are literally so many explosions in this piece of junk that it seems like the director (who, remember, calls himself Kaos) thought, "If all else fails, BLOW IT UP!" And there are far too many moments that reminded me of The Matrix, a movie that is ten times more intestering than Ballistic.
The story got so boring at one point that I actually played the Let's See How Many Lines Lucy Liu Has Game.
Antonio Banderas does a good job, even if he looks like he could use a bath and a shave for most of the film.
"Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever" is an odd movie in that it doesn't completely suck nor is it good.
some fighting scenes are unrealistic as hell, especially the HEAT-like shoot-out done by a a single female, but hey, its action and its a cool movie!
Do you people not know how to watch an action movie?
It's really not all that deceptive because he Ecks really IS against Sever at the beginning of the movie and Lucy sure as hell went ballistic more than once.
Imagine "Assassins", with Lucy Liu instead of Sly; and instead of a BAD script, this time not even an attempt at one, and you're almost there.I don't really know what else to say as it has to be at least three years since I watched this movie, and its detractors have a point when they say nothing about it really sticks in the memory except pyrotechnics and good looking, inexpressive stars.
I liked this.Not a bad film, and in some ways quite good fun.
If you like explosions and action this is your movie.
Really, the "plot" of this movie is just a cover so they can have some really cool explosions.And that's not a bad thing.Because explosions in movies are cool.Also,the fighting sequences and shootouts are really cool too.Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu do a fairly good job here,but the plot is beyond what their acting can save.Even though they are the 2 big name stars in the movie,the real stars of the movie are those oh so cool explosions!I'm going to give this movie a 6 out of 10,which is way more then this movie really deserves.If I was judging this for for it's plot,it would be a 1 of 10,because the script is on the level of "Glitter" or a Joel Schumacher Batman movie.The reason my rating is that high is simply because I like the explosions...the explosions are cool!.
What I fail to understand is why Antonio and Lucy would waste there time on a movie like this.
Lets see, what would be a good formula for an action movie.
Incomprehensible and totally unmotivated Antonio Banderas + stone faced psycho killer Lucy Liu + non-stop explosions and gunfire + the most jumbled up, idiotic, and unresolved plot ever + a soundtrack that is all techno and actually frequently says things like "go go go go" during action scenes + some of the most ridiculous looking stunts ever caught on film = GARBAGE!!!!!Oh and lets not forget the touching moment when Ecks (Banderas) is reunited with his wife just as the movie is having its most poignant moment.
I had the impression of listening to a very bad video clip that only had explosions in it.Dialogue 0/10 I think Lucy Lu had 3 lines in the movie.
The role works well for Lucy Liu if they have given her more to do, the movie would have been a lot better.
The plot is almost non existent, there's a lot of explosions and some pretty good fight scenes.
Still the fight scene between Ray Park and Lucy Liu was good and that's the only thing that saves this film for me..
Though if you like movies with unreal over the top action, this film is something you might like..
Just call the film "Ballistic" so it doesn't sound like a sequel to a movie nobody saw. |
tt0094050 | Stranded | The episode begins with Jerry and George at a drug store to purchase medicine where George becomes involved in an altercation with the cashier (played by Gwen Shepherd), accusing her of short-changing him ten dollars. He is removed by the security guard. George gets invited to a party on Long Island and brings Elaine and Jerry with him. Jerry and Elaine have a bad time trapped in boring conversations, and Elaine confronts a woman because of her fur coat. At one point during the party, Elaine does a mock Australian accent from the film A Cry in the Dark and exclaims "Maybe the dingo ate your baby?"
When a co-worker starts coming on to George, he strands Jerry and Elaine at the party, leaving them to wait for a very late Kramer. As a sign of gratitude for allowing him and Elaine to wait at his home, Jerry suggests the hosts, Steve (played by Michael Chiklis) and Jenny, stop by his apartment if they are ever in Manhattan.
A week later, to Jerry's surprise, Steve takes him up on his offer just as Jerry is heading out the door. Jerry allows him to wait in the apartment until his return. However, Kramer stops by and he and Steve have a drink and bond. Eventually Steve hires a prostitute to come over to Jerry's apartment. Jerry and George meet at the drug store where they speak about George's coworker, whom he slept with after the party. Then, after Jerry picks a medicine, George puts it in his shirt under his jacket as retribution for the short-changing incident before. The security guard witnesses the whole event and takes him to jail.
Just as Jerry arrives, Steve leaves the apartment without paying the prostitute, who refuses to leave until paid. As Jerry is paying the girl off, cops arrive and he's "busted" for fomenting prostitution. Elaine arrives and prepares to squabble with the prostitute over her fur coat. In the final scene Jerry and George fondly reminisce about their time in jail. | tragedy, violence, plot twist, flashback | train | wikipedia | "Will you help them get away"?. There are films that never seem to see the light of day and the late 80's obscure Sci-fi thriller "Stranded" happens to be one. Supposedly from the producers who brought us "Critters" and having the young up and coming star Ione Skye in the cast. I'm surprised that it wasn't a little more known. Anyhow the idea behind the story is very slight in what is an offbeat siege set-up with an intergalactic twist and while the threat wasn't inside the house but what was actually happening outside. This meant those sequences dealing with the aliens and their captors were less so interesting compared to the tension-fuelled and confrontational exchanges between the officers, local hicks and the mysterious FBI agent. Teenager Deidre and her grandmother live in an isolated country house when one night they find themselves held hostage by aliens who escaped their world with an assassin on their trail. The situation becomes worse when a local and police officer are killed leading to a standoff between the aliens and the officers.At just over 70 minutes, "Stranded" doesn't outstay its welcome and it's rather breezy as it hurries through. Even in that, the film is smart, taut and engrossing. The material is thoughtful and infectious in its themes. Rock solid performances ensure you keep watching. Maureen O'Sullivan, Joe Morton, Cameron Dye and Ione Skye all hold their own. Flea from the "Red Hot Chilli Peppers" plays one of the aliens and so does actress/stunt-woman Spice Williams-Crosby in the most distinctive costume design. Moody visuals are etched by director Tex Fuller, by letting the situation unfold with story development, character sensitivity and suspenseful set-pieces with some limited, but durable optical special effects. "Anything is possible. I suppose.". Aliens are humans with bad haircuts.... Maureen O'Sullivan and Ione Skye are surprised to find benevolent aliens hiding in their house from an interstellar assassin in this weird little film. It's not especially good or bad, but fun in that unintentionally trippy, MST3K kind of way. If you see it in the sale bin for less than three bucks, it's worth the buy. Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers plays the most annoying alien in the group.. A really solid, absorbing and intelligent sci-fi flick. Prince (Brendan Hughes), Sir (Dennis Vero), Queen (Florence Schauffler), Jester (a winningly playful turn by Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea) and their lizard-like, laser gun-toting bodyguard Warrior (bodybuilder Spice Williams in a gnarly scaly monster suit) are a desperate on the run quintet of wan, pale-eyed, white-haired benign alien beings who have narrowly avoided getting killed by another belligerent race of warmonger extraterrestrials. Their spaceship crashlands on Earth nearby the farmhouse of feisty Grandma Grace (a wonderfully spry Maureen O'Sullivan) and her withdrawn granddaughter Deirdre ("The River's Edge" 's Ione Skye, the fetching daughter of 60's folk-pop singer/songwriter Donovan). They have a nasty run in with two hunters, which results in one of the hunters and Queen both getting mortally wounded. Newly elected black sheriff McMann (an excellent Joe Morton, the former "Brother from Another Planet" in a very canny piece of casting), a staunch by-the-book professional, has to prevent the tense, nervy hostage situation from becoming an outright bloodbath and prove his mettle to his doubting men who include "Vice Squad" 's Gary Swanson as an antagonistic deputy and Harry Caesar as a more level-headed lawman. Making an already fraught situation more edgy and explosive are Susan Barnes as an icy government agent who specializes in mysterious close encounters who wants to relinquish McMann's authority and Michael Greene as the dead hunter's anguished, vindictive father who brings along a heavily armed posse so he can exact his own embittered brand of rough justice on the hapless aliens.Tex Fuller, an acclaimed documentary filmmaker here making his first fictional story feature, artfully creates a fresh, ingenious and absorbing sci-fi thriller variant on your standard hostage/siege scenario that's greatly enhanced by uniformly bang-up acting, sharply drawn characters who are basically neither good nor bad (the aliens are just trying to stay alive, McMann and his men are competent, well-trained fellows thrust into an odd ordeal that's beyond their ability to effectively handle, and Grace and Deirdre are innocent bystanders who get caught in the middle of the whole mess), Stacy Widelitz's shivery score, Michele Burke's nifty and elaborate, but never constricting alien make-up (although the extraterrestrials have little dialogue, their eyes and faces prove to be remarkably expressive), and Jeff Jur's slick, shadowy nighttime cinematography. Alan Castle's trenchant, thoughtful, multi-layered script works as an interesting and revealing allegory which bravely tackles such grave issues as racial prejudice, hostility and intolerance, mankind's gross inability to either accept or comprehend anyone or anything that's different and out of the ordinary, and any living, sentient being's profound need to survive. The film surely delivers a good deal of gradually mounting suspense and doesn't skimp on the exciting action, but what ultimately makes this arrestingly offbeat outing so special and provocative is its evenly balanced, nonjudgmental and always highly complex tone which never resorts to a crudely cut-and-dried broad strokes of black and white no-brainer mentality, thereby respecting the viewer's intelligence and furthermore giving said viewer a handy helping of food for thought to chew on and digest.. I thought this movie was really sweet.... It was cute and nice and endearing and it tugged on my heartstrings after a while for in the beginning I thought the aliens were mean and scary but later we get to see them under the light of truth and they are really sweet and nice and cute kinda like gizmos or um.... But I love Clarissa I mean Ione Skye lol, got to love her in the ultimate best film of all time 'River's Edge!' but yeah she's really sweet wish she would of gotten more protagonist roles, love her lil' lisp thing she's got going on... |
tt0301231 | Duniya | Shivlingu a.k.a. Shivu, an innocent villager who works as a manual laborer in stone quarry realizes that his mother is seriously ill. He gets his mother to Bangalore for treatment, but his mother dies and he is unable to arrange finances for her funeral. He manages to pay with the only ornament he had in order to carry out the funeral of his mother. With his inability to procure a tomb-stone for his mother's grave, Shivu leaves the city walking without any money, devastated.
While on his way he comes across a girl (Purnima) who is kidnapped and the abductors try to rape her. Shivu saves her and gets her to the orphanage where she is staying. The warden of the institute misunderstands the situation and believes that Purnima is in love with Shivu and had eloped with him. The warden asks the girl to leave the institution immediately.
Shivu wants to fulfill her wish to continue study and decides to support her education. But apart from a strong body he does not have any qualities to survive in this world. The circumstances make him work for the underworld. In the process his peers in the underworld have an eye on Purima, the love for Purnima makes Shivu to fight with mob leaders. In the process the kingpin is killed. Police wrongly believe that Shivu is responsible for the murders. Unable to see the suffering of Shivu at the hands of society, police, and the underworld, Purnima calls him to meet her outside the city. Without his knowledge, she gives him sweets laced with poison and she too consumes the same to end the chapter.. | revenge, murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1134629 | The Private Lives of Pippa Lee | The film chronicles the life of a woman named Pippa Lee (Robin Wright), with flashbacks to her tumultuous past. Pippa Sarkissian (Blake Lively) was the youngest child and only girl in her large Christian family. Her mother Suky (Maria Bello) was a neurotic mother with an obsessive fixation on her daughter's looks. By her teen years, Pippa discovers that her mother takes amphetamines in order to self-medicate her vast mood swings. She has a confrontation with her mother by taking drugs that results in Pippa leaving home and moving in with her aunt and roommate, who are in a lesbian relationship. After a time, the aunt discovers Pippa participating in erotic photo sessions with the roommate and her friends and Pippa is banished from that apartment and goes on to live a bohemian life of drugs and working as an exotic dancer. On a weekend jaunt with like-minded friends, she meets a charismatic publisher named Herb Lee who is 30 years older than she is and a romance develops between the young woman and the older man. The couple marry, have two children and later move into a retirement home in Connecticut. Through her marriage, Pippa has become the "perfect wife": loving, supportive, everything to everyone and no one to herself. The couple grow apart; Herb has an affair with one of Pippa's friends and middle-aged Pippa has encounters with a younger man named Chris. After Herb dies from a heart attack, Pippa finally breaks with her life of subservience and refuses to set up the burial, leaving the details to her children. The film ends with Pippa driving off with Chris. | comedy, flashback | train | wikipedia | This will be regarded as 'a woman's movie' since it is written and directed by a woman (Rebecca Miller) and its central character (Robin Wright Penn) and most of the support roles (Julianne Moore, Winona Ryder, Blake Lively, Mario Bello, Monica Bellucci) are women too.
Keanu Reeves is excellent in his role as well, and Maria Bello, Julianne Moore, Winona Ryder, and Alan Arkin show that they are still excellent actors and will continue thriving.
But it is really Robin Wright Penn that steals the show in Pippa Lee. She performs naturally and makes her character hold more depth and presence then was imaginable.
Many under-texts show us Pippa Lee as the disastrous teenager and young woman, heading into this relationship with this old man, who pretends to see her, but much more sees himself and his sophisticated needs.Good acting, good thoughts, unforeseeable feelings, but no real answer to the backlash question..
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is a film that concerns itself with the people in it, rather than a narrative.
I'll have you know that WAIT UNTIL DARK is in my Top 5 movies of all time, probably #2, and also in my Top 5 is THE PRINCESS BRIDE.THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE has some memorable lines of dialogue!
Its stellar cast makes this film a joy -- Robin Wright Penn is extraordinary as the titular character, while Keanu Reeves, Blake Lively, and Winona Ryder truly shine in supporting roles.
But "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" is, most of all, a vehicle for the legendary Alan Arkin as Pippa's husband Herb Lee. He's at his best yet.The script is about 5/50 drama and comedy so it's hard to pin it down either way.
"The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" is an independent, character drama, with an all star cast, and written by Rebecca Miller, the daughter of playwright Arthur Miller - so what's not to like?
Sure, Pippa was a child, then a teenager, then a young adult, now middle-aged and she will grow old - but I failed to see how this was different from everybody else on the planet.For character drama enthusiasts you will probably need to see this because I'm sure all the buzz it got piqued your interest like mine, but for everybody else there are plenty of other independent dramas out there with actual characters that will pique your interest..
Pippa Lee (Robin Wright Penn) is about ten years older than Lucy Jordan at her time of dying.
Outstanding performances by Robin Wright Penn as Pippa Lee, Blake Lively as her younger self, and Maria Bello as her mother.
This film is about the disintegration of the life of Pippa Lee, a suburban housewife with a shady past."The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" has a very strong cast, and their acting talents are put into full use.
The film gives us no compelling reason why we should care about her life story, which could have been anyone's life story.I find "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" boring and not engaging.
Coming of Middle Age. THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE are nothing more than a retrospective of how a bored mother and wife of an aging man longs for the unfulfilled passion of youth.
Pippa Lee (Robin Wright Penn) is a frustrated wife of aging Herb Lee (Alan Arkin) and feels her life slipping away from her when Herb moves them out of Manhattan to a retirement community.
What happens in the film is a series of flashbacks to her childhood, her drug-tossed teenage years and how she coped with her wholly dysfunctional mother (Maria Bello), keeping her under her thumb until she launches into a life of discovery through her aunt (Robin Weigart) and partner (Julianne Moore), confusing her to the point that she ultimately marries the established publisher, Herb, a man who lacked passion, and now is stuck in a tedious life that makes her have nightmares and sleepwalk.
Though this movie is from a novel by the director Rebecca Miller (who's playwright Arthur Miller's daughter) and adapted by her, it's very much material for a soap of the old "Valley of the Dolls" variety with desperate housewives, impossibly rich adulterous husbands, mysterious sexy losers, drugs, changed names, a shifting cast, people running off to begin a new life, and so on.The cast is intriguing.
Maria Bello (replacing Maggie Gyllenhaal, who dropped out) plays a drug-addled mother in turbulent flashbacks; Winona Ryder (whose personal history is interesting, if not her acting) is a disloyal friend in the present when Pippa has been married for 25 years to a prominent publisher (Alan Arkin).
How Pippa got to be in her present state of sedated uxoriousness with a feisty 80- year-old, what her 25 years of marriage to him were like, raising two grown children, Brian (Ryan McDonald), a young lawyer, and Grace (Zoe Kazan, Elia's granddaughter), a photojournalist working on the front lines: or all this little is said, and less shown.If this movie had a heart, it would be the present-time dying marriage with Herb (Arkin), whose heart is in shaky shape, though his ego is as robust as ever.
There are signs that Herb may be losing his marbles, but it turns out to be Pippa who's sleepwalking -- and, new thing, sleep-driving her car to a convenience store where she's rescued by Chris (Keanu Reeves), 35- year-old son of Shirley Knight and staying with her after a meltdown in his life out West.
"We're the ones who make you hotshots look good." You've got to hand it to lousy movies like 'Pippa Lee': watching them makes you appreciate the good ones..
Rebecca Miller's story of Pippa Lee is about a quiet nervous breakdown that a woman experiences in her stale marriage while she looks back to her unstable past.
Most of the film is seen through the protagonist's point of view and Miller has done a great job in defining the character and presenting the moments in her life that are perceived as being important to her.
Keanu Reeves is an odd casting choice as his character is supposed to be at least a decade younger than Pippa but Reeves barely looks a year younger than Wright Penn.
Julianne Moorse, Monica Bellucci and Winona Ryder are outstanding in their sequences of a few minutes.Arguably, 'The Private Lives of Pippa Lee' isn't plot laden but this is more a character-driven piece than anything else.
I'm glad Miller didn't put too much focus on the flashback scenes with young Pippa because the core of the story is about a woman going through a quiet nervous breakdown.This isn't a film that would appeal to everybody.
I also thought the sudden change in Pippa's personality (when she catches her husband with X), was a little drastic and especially how she suddenly sees herself free of the guilt.As flawed as it is, 'The Private Lives of Pippa Lee' is an intriguing character study.
And, so, well, er, what about these private lives?Young Pippa Lee is played by Blake Lively and middle-aged, present day Pippa by Robin Wright.
A Nutshell Review: The Private LIves of Pippa Lee. Similar to Evening, this film examines the life and times of Pippa Lee, played by Robin Wright Penn in her current, older age, happily married to Herb (Alan Arkin) and spending their twilight years in a retirement village, where everything seems perfect with friends and family, but with a series of events that threaten to tear at the fabric of their relationship, one fearful of dying, while the other discovering that her sleepwalking may prove to actually be the least of her worries.I suppose when one's retire, one will look back and reflect on the life that has so far past by, assessing if it was a life well led, or if there's any last ditch attempt to rectify and address issues before the time is up.
For about half the film, the narrative takes a walk down memory lane, and as we know how a woman's heart holds plenty of secrets, so does Pippa's, now played by Blake Lively, watching her lead a life that's aimless, and how she finally found an avenue of attachment to someone older, who provided her with that rudder in life.The film also touches for the large part on the role of mothers, with Pippa's tumultuous relationship with her mother, a woman reliant on a cocktail of drugs to get through life, and presented an entire series of bewildering emotions and mood swings through which Pippa grew up under.
In the current narrative, it shifts from Pippa's relationship with her own children, how they brought her peace, though still not without the reconciliation that she seeks with her daughter (Zoe Kazan).Written and directed by Rebecca Miller, part of the draw here is the ensemble casting, from the leads in Alan Arkin (again given some of the best lines here, with hair too to boot), and the bit roles played by Julianne Moore, Monica Bellucci, Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves, a thirty-something ex-priest in the making now turned divorcée and working in a convenience store, with whom Pippa forms a strong, inexplicable bond with.
While they may be bit roles, each play an important part in the formation of the Pippa character, especially Monica Bellucci as Herb's ex-wife, in a sequence that's quite shocking and unexpected, contributing to the key guilt factor that Pippa finds herself shouldering.
This proved to be a mold that's easily applied to each and every character here, where somewhat negative experiences transforms into one becoming jaded, or be filled with mistrust with people who we think are our friends, only to have betrayal stare right back in our faces.The Private Lives of Pippa Lee turned out to be less than the chick flick I thought it would be, and was quite the powerful drama it was, although I felt that it had room to flesh out more of Pippa's past, which seem to be rather quickly glossed over since it's a steep decline into a drug infused lifestyle.
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee has a few moments but really what is left is a pretty forgettable film.
The best aspect are the performances of some the actors but even then the film compounds its problems.Pippa Lee is played by Robin Wright Penn as a dizzy, hapless blond, detached from the world around her.
This is convincing until the flashbacks introduce us to the performance of Blake Lively playing the younger Pippa.
Blake Lively is a very talented actor.The other outstanding performance and the best in the film by a long shot is by Maria Bello as Pippa's drug addicted mother.
It's an ensemble cast production; Robin Wright and Blake Lively (Wright as the primary) in the title role, Alan Arkin, Winona Ryder, Julianne Moore, Monica Bellucci and Keanu Reeves.The story is told through flashbacks to learn how Pippa Lee became who she is, and why she's going through her mid-life crisis of identity.
Pippa Sarkissian (her maiden name) was a troubled young woman who, despite that, had a great heart and an innocence that was endearing both to the viewer and Herb Lee (Arkin) and he fell in love with her and helped her step out of her hippy-type lifestyle.Ryder plays Pippa's troubled best friend well and believably; she was troubled and desperate, she's always able to play vulnerable and broken.
Flashbacks to Pippa's childhood and young womanhood fill in surprising facts highlighting her struggles with her mother (Maria Bello) her Aunt's partner (Moore) her issues with drugs, troublesome relationships and decline of her self esteem.
A lovely low budget film, where the actors carry the plot with superb performances especially from Robin Wright - luminous and engaging, who really shows her prowess as an actress to lend such scope to a simple role.
Self reference, again.We have the mother, unhealthy, drug addict, and obsessed with her daughter, we have Sam, always in love, we have Arkin's character, who materializes in Pippa the frustration of his artless existence.
Robin Wright is very good as Pippa Sarkissian, who is a disaffected rock chick and party girl, living a life of partying then she meets successful businessman Alan Arkin on the beach one summer marries him and settles into life of middle age.Not the kind of life for a vibrant woman who still has dreams, passion, and is attracted to 35 year old Keanu reeves ( a hilarious scene as she is in bed with him and his mother pops in the bedroom).
A nice cameo with veteran actress Shirley Knight ("As Good as it Gets" mother to Helen Hunts character).Pippa knows her elderly is husband is cheating on her with an even younger waif (Winona Ryder).
Arkin's previous wife is portrayed by the gorgeous Monica Bellucci, and some wonderfully funny scenes by her as she threatens Arkin with a gun if he leaves the marriage.A good woman's story with clever humor, no trite romantic comedy "Lifetime" film here.
Pippa Lee (Robin Wright) feels lost after her older husband Herb (Alan Arkin) move them from Manhattan to a Connecticut retirement community.
In flashbacks, Pippa Lee reveals her life with her manic-depressive mother Suky Sarkissian (Maria Bello).
As a young woman, Pippa (Blake Lively) deals with her unstable mother and runs away to stay with her aunt Trish and her lesbian lover Kat (Julianne Moore).This is filled with great actresses doing interesting roles.
Spooky incidenses from Blake Livelys' portrayal of a younger Robin Wright Penn, i noticed her upper lip a lot, and when she decided to get on the pills her mom was on also, I was glad it was just a small slice of film, (it lasted like 45 seconds).
It was a faithful re-telling of the story as the author also directed the film but the main reason why I liked the book was the insight into Pippa's thoughts and the writing style, both of which could not be carried across to the big screen.
This film is a slow build, carried by Wright's performance, intelligent writing, and a shiny supporting cast--worth a slow-day viewing just to see what Bello, Arkin, Moore, Bellucci, and even Reeves, among others, do with their roles.
A "Lifetime" type movie but with a more top notch cast.The story quite simple about Pippa's life from childhood to empty nest and is told in flashbacks that aren't too hard to follow.
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, written for the screen and directed by Rebecca Miller based on her homonym book, falls into the mediocre category from my point of view; however, I have to admit it kept me moderately interested despite that.Instead of telling us a story, Miller presents us illustrative bullets of the factors which molded the main character's life through the years, and which by the way planted the seeds of her multiple neurosis.
Nevertheless, I think I can give a slight recommendation to The Private Lives of Pippa Lee mainly for its direction and competent performances.
Reminding you of his role in "Something's got to give" (2003), Keanu Reeves plays 15-years-younger neighbour who develops a romantic relationship with Pippa that stops tantalizingly short of an affair.
Pippa Lee, the woman at the center of this story, has come a long way to be this person we first encounter in a suburban setting.
Having left Manhattan with her much older publisher husband to the safe haven of a Connecticut peaceful living, makes her reflect on her youth and the way her life has turned out to be.Coming from a sort of dysfunctional family herself, Pippa Sarkissian led a stormy home life with her ow mother, Suky, an unbalanced woman that left scars in her daughter that will haunt her life forever.
Alan Arkin plays Herb Lee, the man that falls in love with the younger Pippa.
Pippa Lee, the young wife of a much older publisher, looks over the various stages of her life and tries to come to terms with her life and unhappiness.This is a really good film with a top flight cast (Robin Wright Penn, Alan Arkin, Maria Bello, Winona Ryder, even Keanu Reeves) working at the top of their game.
All these aspects are conveyed in flashbacks and the film goes in between different times in her life in a skilled way - almost like it is showing us the layering of her mind so that the viewer gets to understand her mental state through the clever editing, camera work and sensitive portrayal of characters.
I found the film of Private Lives of Pippa Lee much more interesting than the book.
In terms of acting chops on view Keanu Reeves is a feather-merchant and doesn't really belong in the same movie as Julianne Moore, Alan Arkin and the rest but Miller's skillful direction carries him and makes it appear that he's actually giving a performance.
Robin Wright Penn Delivers As Pippa Lee. Written and directed by Rebecca Miller, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is a film that chronicles the fictional life of a woman named Pippa who has a neurotic amphetamine-addicted mother with an obsessive fixation on Pippa's looks.It stars Robin Wright Penn in the title role together with Alan Arkin,Maria Bello,Monica Bellucci,Blake Lively,Julianne Moore,Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder.Pippa Lee is the loving mother of two grown children, and the wife of successful publisher Herb.
Perhaps it's my age but I just didn't see anything compelling about Blake Lively's Pippa that would interest an older man except for her nubility and I don't think that Arkin's character is meant to be that one-dimensional.
While there isn't a lot new here I found the movie enjoyable for the roles that Robin Wright and Alan Arkin created.Robin Wright Penn is Pippa Lee, married to a man 30 years older.
Alan Arkin is her husband, Herb Lee, who early in life figured out he wasn't a very good writer, so he became a publisher. |
tt0037438 | Voice in the Wind | Jan Foley (Francis Lederer), an amnesiac Czech pianist is a victim of Nazi torture for playing a banned song. Living under a new identity on the island of French-governed Guadalupe, Jan tries to recall his past life while working for crooked refugee-smuggler Angelo (Alexander Granach). To the melancholy island of Guadalupe come a band of refugees, stripped of their friends and their country by the war. Among them dwells a brooding, sinister man known only as "El Hombre," whose memory was destroyed by the brutality of the Nazis. One evening, as El Hombre sits trance-like at the piano and plays a somber melody, his music drifts into the room inhabited by other refugees, Dr. Hoffman, his wife Anna, and their invalid charge, Marya Volny. El Hombre's playing reminds Anna of Jan Volny, a famous pianist from her homeland of Czechoslovakia, and she bitterly reflects upon the life that they lost. After finishing the piece, El Hombre reads a notice from the governor, warning of the refugees about "murder boats" that will promise them asylum in the U.S., but will leave them to perish at sea after fleecing them of their savings. The demented El Hombre takes the warning as a sign to destroy the fishing boat owned by his compassionate employer Angelo. El Hombre's act infuriates Angelo's cruel brothers, Luigi and Marco, who loathe the stranger and wish him dead. As Marya's condition worsens, Anna blames herself for forcing the girl to leave her homeland and recalls the conditions that drove them into exile: After invading Prague, the Nazis grant permission to Czech pianist Jan Volny to present a concert. They stipulate, however, that "The Moldau," a much-loved patriotic symphony written by Bedrich Smetana, be excluded from the concert. Carried away by the beauty of the music, Volny ends his concert with a four-minute paraphrase of the famed symphony. Realizing that his act will draw the wrath of the Nazis and that his wife, Marya, will also suffer at the hands of their oppressors, Volny arranges for the Hoffmans to smuggle her out of the country, but before he can escape himself, he is captured and subjected to unspeakable violence, which deranges him. En route to a concentration camp, Volny overpowers his guards and escapes. After making his way to Lisbon, he hides on a fishing boat owned by Angelo and his brothers, which embarks shortly thereafter and carries him to the island of Guadalupe. In the fog of his unhinged brain, Volny fails to remember his own name and identity, and is thus dubbed El Hombre. As Anna's thoughts return to the present, Marya, enchanted by the sound of El Hombre's piano, rises from her bed, inches her way down the stairs and then collapses in the street. El Hombre finds her there, and as he fingers the crucifix encircling her neck, his memory begins to return. When the Hoffmans come looking for Marya, El Hombre retreats into the shadows. Later, he begins to recall snatches of his life with Marya, but his reverie is cruelly interrupted by Luigi's harsh voice challenging him. Moments later, from the street, Angelo hears gunshots, and hurrying to their source, he finds Luigi, gun in hand, standing over El Hombre's body. As the brothers argue, Luigi stabs Angelo with an ice pick. Noticing that El Hombre has vanished, the wounded Angelo follows a trail of blood into the street and up the stairs to Marya's room, where the Hoffmans are notifying the police of Marya's death. At her bedside, El Hombre cradles Marya's lifeless body in his arms, begging her to return to life. His entreaties echo the words spoken to him by Marya at the time of their separation in Czechoslovakia, affirming her certainty that he will one day come for her. | murder | train | wikipedia | Beautifully written, directed and acted independent film..
Rare that an independent film could be made of such maturity in a time of studio run films.
Arthur Ripley helped create the character of Harry Langdon in the 20s.
A skilled writer, he had a keen eye and his direction of him own screenplay for Voice in the Wind is tight, powerful and direct.
I believe Francis Lederer gives one of his finest performances, with Sigrid Gurie as the wife he cannot remember.
Best of all, keep your eyes on two character actors: Alexander Granach and J.
Both give in-depth character studies that are the backbone of this unusual film.
Done on a shoestring budget during the powerful days of the major studios, the film is a character study in depth.
If you can pick up a copy of it, it's more than worth it.I wish I had more room to comment on this film, as I do know a few personal stories about how it came about.
I knew Arthur Ripley when he was near the end of his career.
Get a copy of this film..
a voice in the wind.
I saw this film at least six times.
I grew up a fan of Francis Lederer and I am also a musician.
This film was premiered by my uncle at the Hawaii Theater in Hollywood.
It was unique in more than one way: Not only was it an intensive dramatic story of a pianist who tries to recover from abuse by the Nazis, but elegantly portrays nationalism.
The Moldau by Smetana is the background music which holds the film together.
Keep in mind that I saw the film in the 1940s, and not since; perhaps no one has since.
Another uniqueness: my uncle managed to bring a pianist on stage; he began playing the Moldau and it bled into the film music.
The pianist, as I recall, was Vladimir Brenner, who sought to restore a career after the war.
I do not know if other theaters included an on-stage pianist.
Critics suggest the film was moody, even dull, but I found it then, as I remember it now, a film classic..
Arthur Ripleys finest work.
A film well worth watching..
While at the UCLA film division, I took a class in film directing from Arthur Ripley, the writer and director of VOICE IN THE WIND.
Produced independently at a time when few films were being made outside the studio system, Ripley poured his heart and soul into this film.
He showed a 35mm print in class and I watched it in awe.
It is a character driven film with excellent performances by Francis Lederer, Sigrid Gurie, Alexander Granich and J.
Carol Naish.
Carol Naish.
I only wish I was able to see the film again.
I have been searching for it, to no avail.
Prints are not to be found.
No DVDs are available.
I know some film collectors have copies, but getting a DVD out of any one of them is near impossible.
How can justice be given to this rare and beautiful film without seeing it.
Lederer's gradual restoring of memory is so well handled it is wonderful to watch his emotions change from grief to joy.
Hunt for a copy of this film.
If you find it, you will not be disappointed!.
First film I ever hated, but somehow still haunts me.
As a teenager I rarely saw a movie I didn't like, but this was the first one I actually hated.
I saw it in 1944 at a naval base in Newfoundland after months of isolation in the North Atlantic, so what few critical facilities I had were numbed and I was ready to enjoy any junk Hollywood threw my way.
I walked out of the theater actually angry!So how come it still sticks in my memory?
Nothing could be that memorably bad.
I suspect from reading other reviews that it had many haunting, persistent film-noir images unlike anything the major studios were grinding out then.If it ever shows up on Turner Classic Movies I'll certainly watch it with an eager, open mind..
Downbeat.
Jan Volny (Francis Lederer) is a concert pianist who has ended up on the island of Guadelupe.
He had a lover Marya (Sigrid Gurie) and they both fled the Nazi occupation of their homeland and have ended up in Guadelupe unaware of each other's presence there.
Jan has lost his memory and can't speak and lives as a vagrant.
He still plays the piano, in particular, a tune that was banned by the Nazis and is a symbol of Czech patriotism.
Marya is living a few doors away from him and is dying of pneumonia.
She hears him playing this particular tune and is drawn towards the sound.
However, she collapses and dies in the street - he finds her and slowly begins to remember who she is......
meanwhile, there are a couple of smuggler brothers Angelo (Alexander Granach) and Luigi (J Carrol Naish) who have fallen out over Jan as they blame him for setting fire to their boat......The quality of this film is poor and the pace is slow.
Its an atmospheric film that is told in flashback and its basically a depressing melodrama.
The music score is very good and the moments when Jan plays the piano are the best moments in the film.
Another good moment comes when Jan tells the Nazi interrogating officer what he thinks of him.
Unfortunately, this leads to his head injury and subsequent amnesia.
I'm not sure whether its a good film or not..
You can't let him get away with this provocation!.
***SPOILERS*** At first you think your watching the sequel of the movie "I walked with a Zombie" as the what looks like brain dead concert pianist Jan Volny, Francis Lederer, walking around the island of Guadalupe, with foghorns blowing in all directions, as if he was dropped off there from a UFO after being experimented on by the spacecrafts' alien crew members.
Known by the people in town as "The Crazy One" Volny just sits in his shack endlessly playing on the piano Smetana's touching melody "Moldau" for endless hours at at time.
Yes the guy is crazy but it was the music he played back home in Prague that got him to be that way.It was in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia that Volny makes the mistake in playing music forbidden by the Reich.
That had him arrested and about to be interned in a mental institution to be deprogrammed by Nazi doctors and psychiatrists.
On his way there Volny ended up killing the two SS men who ware taking him there thus making him a fugitive from the law, Nazi law, who was to be shot on sight for murder.
With him now somehow getting to the island of Gaudalupe his troubles were far from over.
It was his old lady Marya, Sigrid Gurie, who tracked him down there and is now herself suffering from double pneumonia because of the trip there that wrecked her health.The film tries to show its audience that the Nazi's among other things didn't appreciate good music like hard rock rock & roll and country & western as well as the classics that Volny was so found off.
It wouldn't have been a big deal for Volny to play the Nazie's music requests but his conscience wouldn't let him.
He ended up playing himself into madness and obscurity that cost him not only his sanity but his both wife's, Marya, life as well as his own.
And it wasn't the Nazis that did him in it was his fellow escapees from Nazi occupied Europe that did..
OFFBEAT AND DEPRESSING NOIR.
Since you'll never see this rare film,*SPOILERS*Here is a short synopsis:The film begins with a voice over about escapees from the war in Europe.
On the island of Guadalupe in 1944 refugees wait and hope to enter the US.
The Guadalupe government warns the refugees not to pay money to smugglers who will take their money and kill them at sea.
One group of these smugglers consist of the three brothers Angelo, Luigi, and Marco who regularly rip-off the refugees.
[The brothers seem like a twisted version of the Marx brothers - they are suppose to be Portuguese but they have bad Italian accents.
Angelo is Groucho without the wise cracks, Luigi is like an evil Chico, and Marco is like Harpo, without the Harp, as he only hums and whistles (he only speaks once in the film)].Anyway, this crazy guy called by the villagers "Hombre or The Insane One" lives with the brothers and his only talent is that he plays the piano in the local abandoned bar.
His playing bothers the brothers to no end.
Hombre stares into space and remembers....A flashback reveals that Hombre is actually Jan Volny, a Czech pianist engaged to Marya.
After a concert where he plays a forbidden piece the Nazis arrest him but not before he sends Marya away to Paris.
During the interrogation, a commandant hits Jan on the head with a candleholder and causes him to become bug-eyed, giving him amnesia.
On the train to the concentration camp, he is given a harmonica and starts to play the forbidden piece.
Immediately the two Nazis guarding him attack him.
Fighting them off, he knocks them out and escapes.
Next thing you know he is hiding in Lisbon and watches the three Portuguese?
brothers mentioned earlier beat a woman up (we never find out why).Back at the bar Hombre (Jan) begins to play the forbidden piece again on the piano.
Across the courtyard Marya (Somehow she is in Guadeloupe also) hears the music and thinks it might be her lost love Jan. She runs down into the courtyard and quickly collapses.
Jan hears her collapse and goes out into the courtyard and finds her.
He slowly begins to remember her and takes her back to the people she is staying with.
He staggers away, confused, back to the bar.
Luigi enters the bar enraged that Hombre is playing piano again, shoots him.
In comes Angelo who is angry that his brother killed?
Hombre.
They fight and look down to see that Hombre has disappeared.
Luigi then grabs a knife and kills Angelo.Jan goes back to Marya's apartment and cries over her body.
She has died of pneumonia.
In voice over, Marya vows that she will wait for Jan. End of film.
Very weird and really what was the point?.
Whether brilliant or not so brilliant, this movie is a MUST!.
Certainly the most off-beat of the wartime splurge of anti-Nazi pictures, this is an extraordinary and brilliant film, an experience so unforgettable, you will remember all this (either for or against) to your dying day: The two brothers, proprietors of a murder boat, so vividly portrayed by Alexander Granach and J.
Carroll Naish (who is a little inclined to over-accent the accent) and their enervating idea that you cannot kill a madman because he is really two people (with its shattering climax); the beautifully played piano solos; the haunting fog-shrouded photography by Eugene Schufftan; and the relentlessly probing direction of Arthur Ripley making magic of the necessities for small-budget filming.ANOTHER VIEW: "Voice in the Wind" does not impress so much on a second viewing.
In fact it often seemed slow-moving, torpid, over- talkative affair.
True, some marvelous ideas are broached in the dialogue, but a lot just seems to be marking time.
Whole slabs could be cut to advantage, e.g. a great deal of J.
Edward Bromberg's rhetoric.
And Francis Lederer overacts atrociously.
There's no denying, however, the innate power of many of the scenes, and the sheer originality of some of the film's subsidiary themes.
The powerful scene in which Granach attacks a woman on the pier with its background sound effects of whistling and laughter, its moody atmosphere and photography, can never be forgotten.
(Schufftan undoubtedly photographed the entire film with Dick Fryer pinch- hitting for him in the credits to satisfy the A.S.C.)On the whole, on a second time around, Ripley's direction does not seem as inventive and hard-hitting.
True, it's skillful and moody, but it does tend to emphasize close-ups.
On a repeat viewing too, the movie's shoe-string budget does become more apparent.
It was reportedly shot on a tight 12-day schedule – and I can well believe that statement!.
Voice in the Wind Blows Hot Air *.
You would think that a film about refugees fleeing Nazi Europe would sustain interest.Surprisingly, this film is utterly dull.
Francis Lederer, a Jew in real life, who fled the Nazi onslaught, as was the case with so many European actors, plays a pianist who was arrested by the Nazis for playing music which was forbidden by the regime.
Tortured, he suffers from amnesia.Meanwhile, he and his wife have fled to Guadalupe by 1940.
She has gone with her parents and while he plays his music, his wife lies terminally ill in a bed.
Her mother acts like the typical Jewish mother sobbing and bemoaning the fact of what has happened to her daughter.
Unknown to all, they don't know that each other is there until it's too late.J. Carrol Naish steals the film with a solid performance as an Italian captain in conflict with his own brother.The picture does not sustain you.
With the horns constantly blowing from the ships at sea, you can lose your concentration.
Come to think of it, that's not exactly bad with this turkey. |
tt1142978 | Ghostbusters | Parapsychologists Peter Venkman, Raymond Stantz, and Egon Spengler are called to the New York Public Library to investigate recent paranormal activity. They encounter the ghost of a dead librarian but are frightened away when she transforms into a horrifying monster. After losing their jobs at Columbia University, the trio establish a paranormal investigation and elimination service known as "Ghostbusters". They develop high-tech equipment capable of capturing ghosts and open their business in a disused, run-down firehouse. Egon warns them never to cross the energy streams of their proton pack weapons, as this could cause a catastrophic explosion. They capture their first ghost, Slimer, at a hotel and deposit it in a specially built containment unit in the firehouse basement. As paranormal activity increases in New York City, they hire a fourth member, Winston Zeddemore, to cope with demand.
The Ghostbusters are retained by cellist Dana Barrett, whose apartment is haunted by a demonic spirit, Zuul, a demigod worshipped as a servant to Gozer the Gozerian, a Sumerian shape-shifting god of destruction. Venkman takes a particular interest in the case, and competes with Dana's neighbor, accountant Louis Tully, for her affections. As the Ghostbusters investigate, Dana is demonically possessed by Zuul, which declares itself the "Gatekeeper", and Louis by a similar demon, Vinz Clortho, the "Keymaster". Both demons speak of the coming of the destructive Gozer and the release of the imprisoned ghosts, and the Ghostbusters take steps to keep the two apart.
Walter Peck (William Atherton), a lawyer representing the Environmental Protection Agency, has the Ghostbusters arrested for operating unlicensed waste handlers and orders their ghost containment system deactivated, causing an explosion that releases hundreds of ghosts. The ghosts wreak havoc throughout the city while Louis/Vinz advances toward Dana/Zuul's apartment. Consulting blueprints of Dana's apartment building, the Ghostbusters learn that mad doctor and cult leader Ivo Shandor, declaring humanity too sick to deserve existing after World War I, designed the building as a gateway to summon Gozer and bring about the end of the world.
The Ghostbusters are released from custody to combat the supernatural crisis. As they trudge up 22 flights of stairs in Dana's building, a romantic encounter between Zuul and Vinz Clortho opens the gate between dimensions and transforms them into supernatural hellhounds. After reaching the roof, the team is unable to prevent the arrival of Gozer, who appears in the form of a woman. Briefly subdued by the team, Gozer disappears, but her voice echoes that the "destructor" will follow, taking a form chosen by the team. Ray inadvertently recalls a beloved corporate mascot from his childhood—"something that could never, ever possibly destroy us"— and the destructor arrives in the form of a giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and attacks the city. The Ghostbusters cross their proton pack energy streams (reversing the particle flow) and fire them against Gozer's portal; the explosion defeats Stay Puft/Gozer and frees Dana and Louis. As thousands of New Yorkers wipe themselves free of marshmallow, the Ghostbusters are welcomed on the street as heroes. | paranormal | train | wikipedia | first off, i always thought the ghostbusters movies would make a good video game.
a few years ago i thought this in my mind, just a passing thought that GB's would be a cool game to play.
and let me tell you, its so worth it.I notice some guys are saying that this game "sucks" if your a hardcore gamer.
The game has plenty of neat and fun challenges to accomplish, and just from a game point of view, it looks phenomenal, like a movie.
But obviously most people love GB from what I can tell, so who wouldn't enjoy busting ghosts in full HD amazingly detailed environments and gadgets?
Its just fun, and it has some great humor which is sorely missing in many games today.whenever i see or think of ghostbusters, i get that warm and fuzzy feeling of back when i was a kid and loving to watch the movies, heck even the corny cartoon shows.
now, years later, to play a game and being able to hunt ghosts with the original cast in familiar locations, i mean it just brings back all those feelings i had when i was younger.
i loved both films, and personally i must admit i prefer the 2nd film, but this game seems to take a lot of its story from story elements from the first movie.
it follows the same formula of the last 2 films: there's disturbances, ghostbusters check them out and bust lots of ghosts, they find out who the big villain is, and they defeat him.
its this same formula that has made the GB films so much fun and memorable, and the game follows this tradition.
the gear itself is totally accurate and looks amazing in the game like the ecto goggles, PKE meter, and especially the proton pack, which you see change and alter throughout, with new upgrades that are fantastically wild but yet stay within the reality of the ghostbuster world.
busting ghosts was never this fun, i mean its awesome to be able to shoot the proton pack for real in a game!
the game definitely has repeat value, I've played it so many times now and let me tell you, busting ghosts NEVER gets old.
not good enough for a 3rd movie script (seriously, bringing back all the villains from the first movie can only work in a video game) but still a very interesting twist on the first movie's, and to an extent the 2nd movie's, ideas.
I read that the Wii, PS2, DS, and PSP versions are a completely different experience so read another review to learn about those.In the last year there were two franchise games that I feel really capture the feeling of being the character.
The other is Ghostbusters: The Video Game.
This feels like Ghostbusters.
Whether you're blasting ghosts with the proton pack, sliming possessed people, searching for spirits with the PKE, or just running around you feel like a Ghostbuster.The gameplay is entertaining in itself.
There are several problem-solving puzzles so the whole game isn't always point and shoot.
And nothing's quite as fun as slam dunking a ghost into the trap.The graphics are pretty good looking.
The ghosts look like the movies where they're almost like a muppet.
The graphics aren't boundary pushing but they're still pretty good, just take a look at the Stay Puft level.The atmosphere is really what makes it feel like Ghostbusters.
For example, in the library level Ray is great to listen to as he desperately hunts down the Library Ghost from the first movie.
It captured that great Ghostbuster dark humor feeling.The best part of the game is how authentic the game feels.
The firehouse is exactly like the films as are the hotel and the library.The story is grand enough to be its own movie.
It follows the usual film plot device of a powerful ghost trying to take over the world.
The story itself builds off the first movie with respect towards the second.My one and only problem with the game is that it is too short.
But maybe it was so entertaining I couldn't put it down until I was finished, and like the movies I enjoyed it so much I just wanted more.
It is entertaining enough to warrant more than one play through.This is a must for Ghostbusters fan.
Whether you've watched everything Ghostbusters a hundred times over, love the first and refuse to acknowledge the second, or simply grew up on the cartoon show(s).
Even non-Ghostbusters fans who are gamers of any level should check it out.
i saw the movies, watched the cartoon, i was even a ghost buster for halloween when i was 8 years old.well i was looking through game demo's on xbox live and saw that there was a Ghost Busters video game.
catching the ghosts were fun and awesome but i felt the demo showed it as more of a puzzle game.
well 2 years past since then and i was in the store looking for a cheap game to entertain me and i saw it on the shelf and it was pretty cheap.
The best Ghostbusters game ever!.
Set in 1991, it seems New York's favorite paranormal eliminators known as the Ghostbusters are still catching ghosts since the events of 1989 when they went back in business.
A new recruit joins our fellow men as a different kind of evil force is creating chaos from the Sedwick Hotel to all the way to Central park where the boys with the rookie must yet again vanquish the forces of evil.An outstanding movie based game that proves not all movie tie-in games blow!
i love how this game for the Xbox360, PS3 and other systems manages to be a sort of third movie but as a video game until we get the real GB 3 coming next year.
The original cast such as Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Dan Ackroyd, Annie Potts, William Atherthorn and Harold Ramis return to reprise their characters as well as 2 new characters voiced by Brian Doyle Murray and Alyssa Milano are introduced, the graphics are surprisingly well done including the settings.
The controls are very good especially when your catching ghosts as well as doing new tricks like Boison-Darts to the slime-shooting like in Ghostbusters 2 if you recall.There is terrific voice acting as well as the script written by Dan and Harold who worked on the first 2 movies scripts is quite good for a game.
It's a fairly simple if sometimes hard in a couple of levels kind of game that actually satisfies the Ghostbuster fan including myself and brings back some familiar characters such as Stay-Puft to Slimer, this one introduces the guy who made the Gozar worshipers in the old days and who is the one behind the river of slime from Ghostbusters 2.
I also love how it uses the original movie's soundtrack by Elmer Bernstein as well as the famous song everyone knows.One of the best games i've ever played for it is the best GB game since the Sega Genesis GB game and the Arcade Real GB game, however it is a BIG improvement over those horrible NES GB 1 & 2 games..
This game is number three on that list and I'm proud to say this is my favorite one.The graphics are excellent, I really love the detail to New York as well as some of the dark enviorments which I find really creepy, the one that sticks out is the Lovecraftian castle structure.
But most importantly the character models which are great, the Ghostbuters look just like the actors when they were that age in the 80's.
Music was also great from the old tracks we know well along with a few new ones.The story is excellent, it is well written and feels like this is the third and final sequel that never came to the silver screen; I love that the story adds more to the mythos of both the first and second films as well as has a bit more of a Lovecraftian feel.The voice acting is spot on, I really love that most of the cast members from the first and second film got to do this and the dialog they deliver is excellent, there are actually a few jokes that are memorable and made me crack up.
Though there are also a few new people like actor Max Von Zetow one of my favorite actors got to play the voice of Viego whom was the villain from the second film.
I thought he voice fit like a glove for this role it was as creepy and menacing as ever and I love the fact in this story this villain is having a second go in his plight; Viego is a sorcerer after all, who is to say he didn't have a back up plan.But most importantly the game play is excellent, it really made you feel like a Ghostbuster which is part of what a good licensed game should do.
And the control is excellent along with the combat, really like that you get to fight against the Marshmellow Man that was a gratifying feel.You have a variety of weapons from the regular streams, happy slime, blue beams, etc.
Also the weapons have a catch as you pack can overheat or charge is low depending on how long you fight or what is lacking in your pack, and you have to wait a certain amount of time before their on the right level again, so pick your shots carefully.There is even RPG elements as each of the ghosts you capture you gain money and you can buy things to upgrade you weapons and strength of you character.
Like with the parties in RPG games, if one guy is down then you have to do your best to revive him, it's really important because the number of teammates functional are the only way the overwhelming outcome can be overcome.The only bad thing about the game is that it was kinda short by my standards, I beat the game in about three days and personally wouldn't of minded if it was a bit longer, like in one level or two dealing with Sam Hein and his forces.
But then again same could be said about a lot of other video games out there, the ride is short but a sweet ride.Ghostbusters the Video Game is a busting good time.Rating: 4 stars.
The Ghostbusters franchise got its start with the classic comedic horror film of the same name in 1986.
The success of that film allowed the creators to make a sequel, two cartoon series, and a number of video games.
This new game brings the Ghostbusters back to life, complete with the original cast and a script written by Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd.Ghostbusters: The Video Game for the Xbox 360 takes place in 1991, the ghostbuster have practically become a household name and are looking to expand their business.
The conveniently take places at the same time that there has been an explosion in the quantity of haunting in New York City, even defeated enemies are making a come back, such as Slimmer and Stay Puff.You play as this new recruit as you fight a wide variety of ghost, spirits, and monsters as you and the Ghostbusters try to discover the source of the resurgence.
This leaves the game with little replay value.The levels are pretty linear and only allow the player to venture where the game wants them to.
Fortunately, the game effectively employs the use of the PK meter which helps to point the player in the right direction and also to find ghost and hidden objects.
They are all very believable and really suck you into several well designed surroundings.Between these levels, you can hangout at the station house and mess around with several interactive objects including some that you'll find hidden in certain areas of the game.
Upon returning to the game, you'll find that you will be starting and the beginning of the next level rather than the station house.
This causes you to miss the cutscenes that take place at the end, which usually provide key plot points.However, the greatest thing about the game has to be seeing cast back together again.
This could easily have been a simple check casher, but the writers and the actors put a lot of effort t into making the game as loyal to the original film as possible.
The entire cast is completely in character the interaction and chemistry between them is as good as it was in the movies.
There are even some points in the story where a major event occurs and he is barely even seen.Aside from these problems, Ghostbusters: The Video Game is a ton of fun, but has a limited lifespan which may not be worth the games self price.
This game is said to be a precursor to an additional film which is to be released in the next couple years.
If this game is a sign of how good the movie will be than I am indeed looking forward to it..
Their idea involves a company stopping the ghosts of New York City and they are a team who eventually who's has to save the world.
This is the movie Ghostbusters.What first could be said about this 1984 film is that it definitely relies on the characters.
He's the type of guy who basically "slacked" his way to being a scientist and who spends most of his time trying to get at Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) who's apartment was the first place Zuul, a creature wanting to take over the world was found.
This is a cast that works so well together and are equally funny and energetic.The movie takes this original idea of people fighting and eliminating ghosts and gives it quite a bit of depth.
The movie is filled with great special effects that are ahead of it's time and the movie also has a cool 80's New York vibe.
The aim mechanism is plagued by the same drunk effect than the Potter games.The production was good maybe too good as Venkman, Spengler, Stantz looks like in the reality and that's maybe the problem: I don't expect a game to be like a movie but to entertain me.
Here, the game is a sort of a real sequel and it's funny to notice that it has the same short-ends than GB2: they repeat over and over the story of GB1: slimmer, the first class hotel
So there isn't anything new but the lines are very funny!What definitely kills the game for me was the saving system: we can't choose the time to save that is to say the time when the player wants to quit the game (as the designers don't seem to understand it!): so after playing 1 hour non stop trying to put slimmer in the bag, then trapping 2 more ghosts, I get a new assignment: run after a fishy ghost!
When I tried to play again, I was back to the 2 lobby ghosts so bye, bye
Finally, this game was the tombstone of any PC games for me as I understand now that consoles easily out-date those machines.
Thus, you spend your time at configurations and when you can finally play, you discover that all your efforts were worthless as the game is actually crap.So, no more high-tech PC games for me and ultimately I had more fun with my GB2 Gameboy game!.
Excellent Graphics, Great Story, Short Game.
Of coarse you have the achievements to accomplish but after that you move on to the multi-player online.I am a big fan of Ghostbusters and most of the world is too, the story does bring back the classic moments in the first two movies.
Bringing back all the characters to play their voices inside the game, priceless.
But the more and more I played the game it got into a faster race towards the end.
I know that graphics and story is really important in a game, but it lacked in length.This game would be perfect for you or your family if you are a fan of the movies and actually remember them, if your not a fan and just want to play a video game, don't bother it would be wasting your time and/or money..
Its been 20 years since a ghostbusters movie, and this is the closest thing well get to a 3rd film.
Its Extrordinary great that they got Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Annie Pots, and William Atheron to reprise their roles from the films, sadly, no Rick Moranis :(.
In Conclusion, Great story, great voices, but kind of short (i beat the game in 2 days)and When is Ghostbusters 3 coming out?.
Sure, it's easily the best Ghostbusters game, but it's so much more than that..
It's hard not to be impressed by GHOSTBUSTERS: THE VIDEO GAME, from a few standpoints.
One, you're finally able to strap on a proton pack and go catch some ghosts (and if that's all you're looking for, you'll dig this; just hearing the warming up sound effects gave me a chill).
Two, it lets you revisit the cool parts of the original movie (the Sedgewick Hotel, the library, another go-around with Mr. Stay-Puft, and it deepens Ivo Shandor's story).
The same cast, the same writers, nice production values.My only gripe with the game is that too much time is spent with the ECTO goggles (put 'em on, take 'em off, repeat), but that's certainly not a deal breaker.
It's a lot of fun wrangling a ghost into a trap with the capture stream, and that alone would've been worth the price of admission.
Voices in a CGI game is the ideal scenario of keeping the cast as they looked back in '89, and a big enough budget means anything can be done on screen. |
tt0100123 | Matters of the Heart | Hope Dunne lives in a chic SoHo loft, content with her life as a top photographer. So when she accepts a London assignment at Christmas to photograph a world-famous writer, she never expected to fall in love. Finn O’Neill is taken aback with Hope and they have a windswept romance with Finn whisking her away to his palatial, Irish estate. Though divorced, Hope loves her ex-husband Paul very much. Paul, a retired surgeon,divorced her only because he didn't want to pull her along with him as he dies slowly from illness.
Hope begins to fall in love but soon finds that Finn and his life are not what she expects. Hope is madly in love with Finn but he is also the source of her fears. Finn' lies and hurt begin to unnerve Hope and she becomes scared and alone miles away from home with no-one to support her as she tries to deal with all matters of the heart.
Finn O’Neill exudes warmth and a boyish charm. Enormously successful, he is a perfect counterpoint to Hope’s quiet, steady grace–and he’s taken instantly by her. He courts her as no one ever has before, whisking her away to his palatial, isolated Irish estate.
Hope finds it all, and him, irresistible. But soon cracks begin to appear in his stories: Gaps in his history, a few innocent lies, and bouts of jealousy unnerve her. Suddenly Hope is both in love and deeply in doubt, and ultimately frightened of the man she loves. Is it possible that this adoring man is hiding something even worse? The spell cast by a brilliant sociopath has her trapped in his web, too confused and dazzled to escape, as he continues to tighten his grip on her. | romantic | train | wikipedia | Jane Seymour and Classical Music in One of the Most Beautiful Romances Ever Made.
In Cromwell, the sensitive teenager Steven Harper (Chris Gartin) dreams on becoming a pianist.
However, his rude father Glenn Harper (James Stacy), who is a disabled veteran from Vietnam, questions his masculinity since he wanted his son to work in his hardware store with his uncle Frank Harper (Geoffrey Lewis).
When Steven finds that the famous pianist and composer Hadley Norman (Jane Seymour) is living recluse in Cromwell, he approaches to her.
A couple of days later, Hadley finds that Steven is a talented pianist.
She becomes his teacher and plans his participation in a contest in Boston.
Despite their difference of age, they fall in love with each other.
Out of the blue, Hadley constantly goes to New York, and Steven believes she is meeting her former husband John Norman (Clifford David).
One day, Hadley disappears and Steven sees John packing her stuff.
Then he tells to Steven what happened to Hadley."Matters of the Heart" is one of the most beautiful romances ever made.
The sensitive story of a woman and her protégé falling in love with each other is adorable.
In the lead role is Jane Seymour, certainly one of the most beautiful actresses of the world; in the soundtrack, classical music.
The result is an unforgettable film that unfortunately was only released on VHS in Brazil.
My vote is nine.Title (Brazil): "Tarde Demais para o Amor" ("Too Late for Love").
A "must see" for Jane Seymour fans!.
Matters of the Heart contains dramatic dialogue which makes each scene so poignant.
I could relate to each character in various ways.
This movie is about life, and sadly, also about death, but it touches, then penetrates, the deepest core of the heart.
In addition, the piano music is amazing, as each piece is played so well and constructively placed in the dramatic scenes.
What remains a question I've had, is are the actors (Christopher Gartin and Jane Seymour) actually playing the piano in this movie?
If that's not the case, the movie is directed so well, it could actually fool you.
The piano music, the conversations, and the intensity of feelings dramatized in this movie will leave you breathless..
fantastic movie.
the title is so attractive and expressive , the actor Christopher Gartin was so so expressive , wonderful and convinced me that he is a pianist and also in great love with Hadely in their romantic situations also when he knew that she is ill and going to die, the actress Jane was very expressive , she was serious and some situations needed her to be tough and cruel ..she expressed well ,also she was romantic in some situations , she is a wonderful actress indeed , I enjoyed the classical music in this movie I enjoyed Gartin when he was training , enjoyed his expressions , his dealing with the piano and his looking at the notes as if he is a musician he was clever enough , it is a wonderful romantic movie I adore it.
Wonderful but sad story..
Excellent job of Jane Seymour as Hadley Norman.
IMO it's believable.
Jane at her best!
And a great Christopher Gartin whom I haven't heard of before I saw the movie.
Wonderful score and beautiful pictures.If you are a fan of Jane Seymour (I am!) and haven't seen this movie yet, it will move you to tears..
The secne in which she is about to die in her bed in the hospital and try to listen to his performance in Piano Competition from radio stirs me up so strong!.
Wonderful melodrama!.
Wonderful melodrama!.
Though this movie is not so much evaluated or taken it up as movie topics in Japan, I like it and saw it twice on Video in recent.
Though this movie is not so much evaluated or taken it up as movie topics in Japan, I like it and saw it twice on Video in recent.
Japanese title is "a Requiem to my lover", I think it is really right title and remain deeply in my heart forever.
Japanese title is "a Requiem to my lover", I think it is really right title and remain deeply in my heart forever.
The scene in which she is about to die in her bed in the hospital and try to listen to his performance in Piano Competition from radio stirs me up so strong!.
Decent playing in an OK movie of the week.
The answer is "No" the actors are not playing the piano.
The most telling clue is the hands are located in the wrong registers relative to the music when you see them playing.
The close ups show the hands of at least two others who knows how to play the pieces, but the effort expended does not match the soundtrack.
If you want to see a better match of actor, stand-in player, and musical dubbing, go see The Seventh Veil, if you can find it on a movie channel.Otherwise, this is a fairly standard TV movie of a nearly burned out artist who finds a protégé and some emotional fulfillment in a talented young man, Steven.I guess this was a weeper of the week back in the heyday of 1970's TV movies.
Lots of chances to exercise and practice acting, but not enough time to fully develop the story or characters..
typical TV formula movie.
Not a *really* bad performance, but this formula movie didn't have any surprises.
Jane Seymour does a great job as the recluse musician, but the story does not even nearly rise to her level.
Christopher Gartin does have his moments making all the goofy mistakes that an 18-year-old really makes.n.b. in the 1990's, there were no rich famous people driving MGA's..
A pretty mature romance.
What sets is apart from other romance movies is the dialog feels real, not contrived and the story isn't cliched.
An 18 year old boy and budding pianist in a small town starts taking lessons from a famous pianist composer who is in town to compose.
They start a passionate affair.
She enters him in a competition but she's dying of cancer.Jane Seymour is a great actress - better than TV standard then or now.
They use lots of real classical music like Chopin Scriabin Bach and the fictional composer's own compositions.They don't make TV movies like they used to. |
tt0936468 | Dard Divorce | Nathalie Stein, an embittered and exhausted young woman, is currently going through a bitter divorce from her husband Tim. A qualified attorney, she is doing her best to ensure that her two children, Jeremy and Elisabeth, never see their father again. Tim arrives to pick the children up for what is believed to be one last time. He fails to return with the children.
Nathalie's dog disappears under mysterious circumstances and she then discovers a piece of paper with the word "Dard" (the Persian word for "to inflict pain") written in blood in her house. Panicked, she calls the police, who cannot help without more evidence of a crime. She decides to meet Tim and the children in Chinatown, but they do not show up.
In the evening, Tim suddenly appears at the house, apparently badly injured. Before dying, he tells Nathalie that the children have been abducted. She immediately informs the police, but when the detective, James Gates, arrives, the body is gone and the site has been cleaned up leaving no evidence that Nathalie is telling the truth. Later a police officer, Phil Warren arrives to question Nathalie. Warren is revealed to be corrupt and overpowers Nathalie. Graphically depicted in flashback, he tells Nathalie that Tim had been hired by the Persian Mafioso Maho and had burst in on a drug deal organised by Maho, killing those present before running off with a million dollars in cash and the cocaine. Convinced that the drugs are hidden in the house, he tells her he has killed her son Jeremy with a chainsaw and will kill Elisabeth as well if he is not told where drugs and money are, Warren then tortures Nathalie in an attempt to get the information out of her, cutting off a finger and a toe with pruning shears. Nathalie eventually manages to break free and kills Warren with a broken bottle.
Then a mysterious man by the name of Daniel appears who informs her he had been following Warren. He offers to help her, tends to her wounds and calms her down. His story is somewhat different (also depicted in flashback) - that Tim had chanced upon a drug deal that had gone bad and that he had got hold of the two cases entirely innocently before disappearing. However, it is then revealed that Daniel's intentions are less honourable than they appeared - he drugs Nathalie and disposes of Warren's body. Daniel explains how he tortured and killed Nathalie's loved ones before torturing Nathalie herself with a hammer. Although under the effects of a local anaesthesia, she head-butts Daniel and is able to plunge a hypodermic into his eye before killing him with a knife.
Severely wounded, she clambers up the stairs when the phone begins to a ring. It is Detective Gates who is also corrupt. Gates sends her daughter Elisabeth in and points a sniper rifle at her head, ordering Nathalie to reveal the location of the money and drugs and to not move or he will shoot her daughter. Remembering their dogs disappearance, Nathalie suspects it has something to do with where the money is buried so Nathalie and Elisabeth attempt to come up with the answer through a riddle posed in one of Tim's old children's songs which reveals the location to them. As Nathalie bends to pick up a pencil however, Gates shoots Elisabeth in the shoulder. Nathalie picks up Daniel's pistol and shoots Gates as he enters the house.
Nathalie runs alone to the cornfield and meets Tim there, who has their son. The true story is revealed - Gates had employed Tim as an informer and was supposed to give him Moha. As Gates was one of the most corrupt cops in the precinct, Tim was ordered to kill Maha and bring him the drugs and money. Tim slipped some E 605 into the coffee at the diner killing the mafiosi and then shoots the other party when they arrive to make the deal. Nathalie was his last obstacle but, as Tim is about to shoot her, he is shot by his daughter Elisabeth from behind. Nathalie and the children begin a new life. | violence, murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0436498 | Last Rites | Father Michael is a New York priest with close ties to the Mafia crime syndicate — his father is a don. The priest's brother-in-law Gino, a mafia boss, is murdered while having sex with Angela, a mistress. She narrowly escapes by hiding in a bathroom and locking the door.
Pursued by hitmen, the mistress comes to the priest for confession. She is afraid to go to the police so Father Mike agrees to meet her at her choice of location. A cab driver transports him to a loft apartment, telling him a sorrowful tale of how Angela has helped him and his wife with the grief over losing a young son. Father Mike confronts her about knowing his relationship to Gino. She denies knowing the connection. When the two encounter the hitmen, the priest is wounded and one of the hitmen recognizes Father Mike.
Angela hides in his church. She tells him it was Gino's wife who shot him. Gino is buried, and Father Mike glares across the casket at his sister Zena, having seen her with the hitmen when he was shot. He speaks to his father, who says he expects to lose at his racketeering trial and be sent to prison. The Don tells the priest that his sister wants to run the business, but he has said no since she's a woman. As they leave the cemetery, the hitman tells the Don and Zena that he recognized Michael.
Zena comes to confession and tells Father Mike that she knows of him helping the girl. The priest begins to fall in love with Angela. He meets best friend Nuzo, a detective and godson of his father. Nuzo tells him not to trust her. He tells Mike that Gino gave evidence to a rival crime syndicate, which sealed the Don's fate, in return for 5 million dollars. Nuzo tells him to sit tight while he makes an arrest, but Nuzo is gunned down, dying in Mike's arms.
Father Mike and Angela flee to Mexico, heading for her village. For the first time the priest violates his vows and they have sex. In the morning she is gone. Meanwhile, the Don finds out they are in Mexico and sends Zena to kill the girl. Father Mike races to catch up to Angela, thwarting another hitman along the way. He arrives in the village in time for a festival.
Angela is a fraud who set Gino up and took the money. She is also married to the "cabbie" she sent to pick him up. Now she instructs her husband to kill him. He stops at the festival and Michael spots him. He witnesses the cabbie drive away in the rental car Angela took.
Michael goes to the hotel and finds a surprised Angela. He lies that he loves her and they have sex again. She awakens to see Michael sitting in a chair, staring at her. He stands, walks to the door and leaves her, saying "via con Dios" as he goes. She is stunned to see Zena step through the door. Zena shoots her as Michael continues down the steps past the body of the "cabbie." He gets into a limo and waits for Zena. She sits next to him and says "thank you, brother." He takes her hand and kisses it as they drive away. | violence | train | wikipedia | Awfully Bad. In Los Angeles, a meteor bringing some sort of disease falls on a group of homeless and turns them into flesh eater zombies.
Gangs of the Dead (2006) * 1/2 (out of 4) Also known as LAST RITES, this film was re-titled and thrown on DVD and is yet another stab at the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD line with some ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 thrown in for good measure.
A group of homeless people are standing around when a meteor crashes on them and turns them into flesh eating zombies.
There's some nice stuff here but in the end I couldn't help but be bored by this because we've seen the zombie side of things so many times.
Zombie fans might be attracted to the (new) title but they've pretty much seen everything here in much better movies..
Unlike most low budget films, they didn't use the pretty boy look.
All characters in the film are very charismatic and look the part, not to mention they are very good actors.It is the kind of movie you want to see with a crowd.
My only complaint is that I wish there were more gore, but other then that it is a very good movie.One thing I like is a surprised ending.
There are lots of great quotes on the packaging like "DAWN OF THE DEAD EAT YOUR HEART OUT" and "THE BUMS ARE EATING THE COPS" (??) but these have little or nothing to do with what is contained within.
i must admit that i did think it was a follow up to 28 weeks later but as soon as the film came on i could see that there was no link at all!!You can tell this is a budget movie and has some cheap actors but don't let that fool you!!!!
the film is actually quite good, the story line is what you'd expect from a zombie movie and it keeps you entertained!!
some people here have given it bad reviews but i think they are forgetting one main thing.....zombie movies were originally just like this one!!!
now im not saying this is as good as the original dawn of the dead or the return of the living deads but if this film had of come out in the late 70s early 80s it would of done quite well!I will say that if your a general movie fan that rents a film every week then this will probably not be for you, but anyone who's into their zombie films or old time 80s horrors will enjoy this one!.
It was quite nice not to watch only a movies were some guys fight zombies but there were some inner tensions because there are three different parties in this "building" so it's not only "kill the damn zombie!" but also "whos side are you on man?" and stuff like that.
That's why liked it, it had many surprises and was probably the "freshest" movie I watched in the last weeks, although of course it was not that well done but still extremely entertaining.
The only people I wouldn't recommend it to are: People who don't like minorities for their stereotypical behavior, people who don't like low budget and of course people who hate zombie-survival stuff.
From the opening scene its clear that LAST RITES (a.k.a GANGS OF THE DEAD) is a really low budget film but it has its upsides, the acting is decent the storyline is competently done and the direction is better than average for a film of this standard.The downside is this film is nothing groundbreaking and obviously won't sell a record breaking number of DVD's and because many people prefer bigger budget films, this one here might put people off, it doesn't have major production values and the sound is sometimes very poor, but despite all that the film is overall competently executed.If you're a zombie fan give it shot, I recommend though that you set your expectations low, like I said its a competent film but the films low budget certainly shows..
Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, for a low-budget zombie production, this film wasn't nearly as bad as I initially thought it would be.
Traveling through Los Angeles, a group of gang members ask a friend to make one last drug run before he can quit the gang business and go legit, but when the deal is interrupted by a rival gang they find a group of ravenous zombies created when a meteor landed nearby and try to get away from the zombies.When it tries, this one does have some good points to it.
From the general confusion at what's going on, the chaos of the sting and the zombies coming together all at one time makes for some really nice action.
From there, it gets in some bigger and better action, from the first few escape attempts that end up meeting the zombies face-to-face unexpectedly is quite nice.
The ending is also really action-packed, including a couple of quite nicely done moments that come off as really surprising.
The last good moments come from the opening and closing moments dealing with the meteors, as the beginning is a rather effectively done scene that is handled well and comes off as an original method for getting things done.
However, this film sets that scenario up with gang members who aren't exactly the types to put personal issues aside with their rivals for any reason, including a zombie plague, which is pretty much how the whole film breaks down.
Most of them look really similar to most other zombie films, not really making a distinct impression one way or another.
I've watched so many modern day zombie films that have the same plot as Night of the Living Dead that I've produced a template we all can use.Delete as necessary: A (meteor/satellite/witchdoctor/evil book/bad sandwich/particularly powerful fart) raises the dead, resulting in some (marines/drug dealers/teachers/dancers/elephants/British 70s TV entertainers) to barricade themselves in a (warehouse/farmhouse/underground bunker/hotel/shopping mall/portable toilet/suitcase) which results in much arguing.
This is a run of the mill zombie film and if you go in expecting that, you might like it.
The plot: Different groups of inner city L.A. stereotypes collide in a warehouse during a zombie attack.The film is very low budget, and the filmmakers were not particularly resourceful, creative, disturbing, or weird.
Instead, try a French horror film called La Horde, which rose above its stereotypes and clichés to be a gory, fun, and memorable B movie with some interesting things to say about racism and police brutality...
For a low budget film, it looked great and the special FX were awesome.
As this movie is also called Gangs of the dead and like it says above Last Rites, if i knew that was same movie, I would never have picked up (What the hell did it give a different name in the UK.)I can believe i have wasted a hour and half of life on this pieces of rubbish that is called a horror movie.The plot A meteor hit a place and then two gangs come to the same place and go to warn and then the people who should have died are backing attacking the humans.The zombies are not scary at all and the make up effect are really bad and have zombie have no idea how act like a zombie and the acting from whole cast was horrendous.
yes another movie where even the zombies can't act.
I love Zombie films, shame no one seems to know how to make them anymoreBlack and Hispanic gangs go bang, bang, with a penis replacement and use words like hoe and other stereo typical so called black gangster related sayings and while they try, listening people?
I said TRY to act,like gangsters, they just turn this into what looks like a low budget zombie?
It's only when I saw so many credits at the end I realised the 10 year old directing the film must have a lot of friends, who also must have seen the Australian film called Undead which used similar opening well sort of, but was one heck of a lot better, in fact it was good.Or did adults make this mess, I don't know, on the credits it looks like they had a large film crew, which makes me wonder how the hell this turned out to be such a load of pooh, 0/10 try again no gold stars for you.
Films are Built on story lines people not just crappy acting and a few visual effects..
bad title but a good zombies and gangs movie.
gangs of the dead is a good zombie movie that was made on a low budget.
there is not a ton of gore but when there is some it is pretty cool.this movie is a good mix of action and horror on a small budget.
Not only is this a bad remake with Black and Latino gang members in Los Angeles locked in a warehouse to escape the zombies, it is racist to boot.It has been a while since I have see Mantan Moreland yelling "Feets don't fail me now," but I certainly expected it to come out of the mouth of Dayana Jamine, who played the sister of one of the Black gang members like Moreland.Noel Gugliemi played Caesar, the leader of the Latin gang in a obnoxious stereotype of all ultra macho Hispanic.
It was pure racism.The zombie action was good when you saw it, but that was sparse as most of the action took place in the warehouse.Janine Foster was the best character in the movie, and I look for more of her in the future.Neat ending, though..
Weatherman(Cazimir Milostan)is a television personality whose wife is pulled from his convertible by the zombie bums as he looks on in horror, abandoning his vehicle, intruding upon Mitch's warehouse as well, put to good use by Caesar when attempting, unsuccessfully, to retrieve his vehicle.
The fate of Caesar is certain to earn a round of applause from the audience who watches a film like this..he is quite a despicable low-life who obviously gets his jollies from wielding his power with a revolver in his hand as those is fear for their lives do as he says.
Oh, and Reggie Bannister shows up.A better film than "Zombiez" and "Dead Heist," "Gangs of the Dead" is still a rather pedestrian urban horror flick that thinks racial stereotypes and bad dialog are better than actually giving the viewer anything good as far as horror is concerned.Granted, the occasional action scene and gory moment tends to put this above the previously mentioned films, and Reggie Bannister shows up at one point (though his role is essentially an extended cameo) However, the whole thing isn't that different from other Direct to DVD zombie flicks that can be found at movie rentals.
Maybe that's a good thing.It's kind of a shame really, because while watching it, I couldn't help but feel that with a better script and director, this could have been an enjoyable little zombie flick, and that the Urban Horror genre could finally have had a good recent zombie effort.
As it stands, "Gangs of the Dead" is pretty much just the same old song and dance you've seen before, and done better by other movies as well..
It's a little different than some other zombie movies, more like an action movie, but it worked...and there were a few twists that took me and the people I was with by surprise, which is hard to do, because I've seen a LOT of these kinds of movies, and thought I'd seen it all.
very cool.There are long stretches without any zombies but I didn't really mind because there was enough other stuff going on, and every time I started thinking I hadn't seen any zombies in a while, they'd come back (and usually do something really cool (there's a scene in here that's one of the sickest I've ever seen, in a good way!) The action scenes in this one are good, too, you can tell what's going on, not like Batman Begins or some of the 28 days later stuff.I liked the characters, even though there weren't really any 'good guys,' some of them were likable...I won't say which ones get killed or when, but it definitely wasn't who I expected.All in all, a really good film that went by FAST.
Duane Stinnett's "low budget" (it sure looks good for low budget) zombie flick is possibly the best zombie movie I have ever seen (so far).
But at least the language in this film is hilarious.Good idea, actually, just poorly executed.One REALLY good death scene.I've seen worse and would only recommend if you're having a beer and pizza night with your pals.Beer would probably make this movie a whole lot better than it is watching it, sober..
Gangs Of The Dead was alright.It's not a movie I'd ever watch again or buy & I'm not sure if I'd recommend somebody go see it (Maybe if NOTHING else is on) I definitely wasn't expecting to like it at all but I did & I have no idea why.It started off pretty good (That meteorite striking the bridge did look pretty cool) but fell off towards the end.I still enjoyed watching it though.My main thing with Gangs Of The Dead is that you would think a bunch of gangbangers would be able to band together (With the police as well) No matter how much they hate each other & try & fight the zombies trying to get into the warehouse to eat them alive.I think any group of people would at a time like this.Gangs Of The Dead isn't a movie I'd go out searching for but if you're able to see it for free, Why not?.
The filmmakers put a lot of work into the zombies, and although they're present in their entire film whether visually or spoken of, I must admit I would have liked to have seen more of them and 1-on-1 fights, but I guess that would mean I'm partial to zombie-stereotypes.What I did find quite odd is that I don't recall seeing much "brain-eating" per say, but skin was by all means ripping apart, and the victim's screeches still resonate in my brain - that fudgin' weather man left that girl to be eaten alive!I won't say more so that people won't want to see the film, but I think for a zombie flick it should be seen as both entertaining and original, which in my opinion makes it stand out a lot more that films that try to copy the zombie-formula..
The plot brings nothing new and the fact that the survival instinct never seems to kick in for any of the characters is annoying (the keep going with their gang rivalry even when they should just focus on surviving).The movie is visually very acceptable and the story so fast paced I didn't see the time go.
Low budget urban gang version of Night of the Living Dead..
Last Rites is set in Los Angeles & starts as a meteorite crashes down near a bridge where a group of homeless people are gathered, knocked down by the force of the meteorite hitting the ground the homeless get back up again but have been turned into flesh eating zombies.
With two opposing gangs, two cops & hordes of flesh eating zombies outside the unlikely bunch must put their rivalries aside & work together in order to survive but as tensions rise inside the warehouse it might just be safer outside with the zombies...Co-written, produced & directed by Duane Stinnett this cheap Night of the Living Dead (1968) rip-off might have been alright if it were not for the horrible character's that make it an absolute chore to sit through.
Basically Night of the Living Dead with an urban setting in a warehouse with cops & black gang members to keep the tensions high & the arguments coming Last Rites sees this bunch of people trapped inside a warehouse deciding whether to wait t for help or make a run for it.
This character & the way he acts gets really annoying, you just want someone else to shoot him just to shut him up, the other character's fare little better with two bland cops, various black gang members who just swear a lot & try to give it lots of attitude.
It becomes incredibly tedious to watch & as I said the story isn't bad, if the film was populated with more likable character's that you could emphasise with & root for then Last Rites might have been decent, as it is it doesn't so isn't.Retitled to Gangs of the Dead for it's US DVD release & puzzlingly to 48 Weeks Later for it's UK DVD release the film is fairly colourless & a bit bland to look at but competent enough & the initial CGI computer effect of the meteorite crashing to Earth in Los Angeles is quite impressive.
I was attacked by flesh eating zombies I'd rather run than drive off in a nice fast car, I mean that makes sense right?Filmed in Los Angeles the production values are decent, the special effects are alright & it's not the worst looking low budget zombie film out there.
The acting isn't great, the character's who are all annoying anyway come across as even worse.Last Rites is a decent attempt at a low budget urban gang Night of the Living Dead that gets a few things right but the horrible character's ruin the film as you just want to see them all ripped apart & eaten as soon as possible..
There is no reason to go into a major review of this film as it is utter rubbish, save yourself some dollars and re-watch your copy of Dawn Of the Dead for the 50th time at least you will enjoy it! |
tt0041716 | On the Town | Three sailors – Gabey, Chip, and Ozzie – begin their shore leave, excited for their 24 hours in New York ("New York, New York"). Riding the subway, Gabey falls in love with the picture of "Miss Turnstiles", who is actually called Ivy Smith, and fantasises about what she's like in real life ("Miss Turnstiles"). The sailors race around New York attempting to find her in the brief period they have.
They are assisted by, and become romantically involved with, two women, and pair up: Ozzie with Claire, an anthropologist; and Chip with Hildy Esterhazy, an aggressively amorous taxi driver. Claire claims that she's found her passionate "Prehistoric Man" in Ozzie at the Museum of Anthropological History. Hildy invites Chip to "Come Up to My Place". Finally finding Ivy, Gabey takes her on an imaginary date down his home town "Main Street" in a studio in Symphonic Hall - not realising that she is also from the same town. Later, Chip sincerely falls for Hildy telling her "You're Awful" – that is, awful nice to be with. That evening, all the couples meet at the top of the Empire State Building to celebrate a night "On the Town".
But when an ashamed Ivy walks out on Gabey to get to her late night work as a cooch dancer, the friends tell a despondent Gabey, "You Can Count on Me", joined by Hildy's annoying, but well-meaning roommate, Lucy Schmeeler. They have a number of adventures before reuniting with Ivy at Coney Island just as their 24-hour leave ends and they must return to their ship to head off to sea. Although their future is uncertain, the boys and girls share one last kiss on the pier as a new crew of sailors heads out into the city for their leave ("New York, New York" reprise). | romantic | train | wikipedia | Chip (Frank Sinatra) wants to see the sights; Ozzie (Jules Munshin) wants to play; and Gabey (Kelly) immediately falls into an obsession over a girl he sees on a subway poster, `Miss Turnstiles' of the month, Ivy Smith (Vera-Ellen), and vows to find her.
Vera-Ellen has a great number early on in the film, in which Miss Turnstiles is introduced; Ann Miller taps her way through a rousing routine in the museum (in which she is joined by Sinatra, Munshin, Kelly and Garrett) that really gives her a chance to show her stuff; and Sinatra and Garrett engage in a memorable bit in song, as she attempts to get him to `Come Up To My Place.' Through it all, Sinatra exudes a certain boyish charm while Garrett and Munshin provide the comic relief.
Peppy Ann Miller is, as always, a revelation as the toe-tapping anthropologist, taking full advantage of the zingy score's newer songs and embellishing them with now-classic dance routines.As a special treat, my favorite character actress, Alice Pearce, offers side-splitting comedy relief as Kelly's impromptu blind date managing to steal one song from the star ensemble while finding a touching moment of pathos in her final scene.
(Though for a brief while Sinatra does charmingly play a skinny little geek bent on seeing the sights of New York, flinging facts from his guide book and appearing unaffected by Betty Garrett's streetwise cabbie flinging herself at him.) Gabey (Gene Kelly) falls for 'Miss Turnstiles' or Ivy Smith (Vera-Ellen), and spends the day trying to track her down from information on the poster.
I thought it was a really nice touch to have Bern Hoffman singing a lazy-morning song, 'I'm Feeling Like I'm Not Out Of Bed' to bookend the film beginning and end, to give the sense of a full day having passed.It should probably also be granted that there isn't quite enough dancing, especially not from Gene Kelly (who is always a delight to watch, even when mostly playing the bystander as he was in the 'Count On Me' number) and Ann Miller, who got the chance to show off her amazing tap-dancing skills and gorgeous gams in the wildly energetic 'Prehistoric Man'.
The shadow sequence at the ballet barre with Vera-Ellen is also something incredible to behold and perfectly-staged.ON THE TOWN is a great night at the movies, and is time well-spent with a few characters you really get to know, an excellent cast (Alice Pearce practically steals the entire show as Lucy Schmeeler, for example--not an easy task considering who she was playing against!), and a great soundtrack.
There is also plenty of humour, such as the scene where Frank Sinatra wants to go sight-seeing, unlike his new-found girlfriend, a man-hungry female cab driver, who would rather take him back to "my place", Gene Kelly's search for "Miss Turnstiles", whom he imagines to be a glamorous and famous beauty queen, and the scene where the three men manage to demolish a dinosaur skeleton in the city's Museum of Anthropology.
Alice Pearce is also rather funny as Hildie's roomate, Lucy Shmeeler.I recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of musicals, especially the older ones, such as "An American In Paris", "Singin' In The Rain" and "Take Me Out To The Ballgame." This carefree frolic of a film will leave you laughing and singing for days!.
From the all-star cast of Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Ann Miller, Vera Ellen and others to the script itself written by the wonderful Betty Comden and Adolph Green, it is no wonder that this movie is still around.
Nevertheless it remains a highly entertaining romp how could it fail with a cast that includes Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Betty Garrett, Ann Miller and Vera-Ellen.
On the Town bristles with energy and humor and terrific performances by a great cast.Three sailors on a one day pass in 1949 New York City meet three girls, fall in love, and go back to sea.
That's about it for plot but this great musical is filled with top songs and dancing.Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin are the sailors; Vera Ellen, Ann Miller, and Betty Garrett are the girls.
So this was a great idea: to combine two talented filmmakers, because you need both of those elements for On the Town.The story reminded me of another musical starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, Anchors Aweigh (1945).
This plot less and structureless musical has somehow reached classic status despite the fact that, aside from the main number, it features one song and dance number after another that are awful.It does have some good points - the image of the three Sailors on leave is iconic and the opening sequence is always fun and promising, Ann Miller is her usual saucy and sexy self, Jules Munshin turns in a performance that actually pips Kelly and Sinatra, the 7 minute Gene Kelly fantasy dance is masterful unto it's own (but doesn't fit in the narrative the same way his similar sequences in Singin' in the Rain and An American in Paris didn't really fit).
It has everything going for it, except (1) taste, (2) music, (3 )intelligence.Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green wrote a great musical called "On The Town." It's about three sailors with a 24-hour leave in New York City in the middle of WWII.
It's still a great musical, a musical with a great book of the quality of that of "Oklahoma!" that tracks the adventures, romantic as well as touristic, of three guys who cross the bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan and want to drink in the whole city at once.MGM takes an estimable amount of talent: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin, Vera- Ellen (the prosecution exhibit for "Tap Thighs," but lovely nonetheless), Betty Garrett (the least well-used comedienne of the era) and Ann Miller (exploited but never really employed), and turns what could have been a landmark film into a dismal excursion that would leave the average guy wondering why anybody would want to live in NYNY.
Some of the format it is from the standard style of the Golden Age, where the characters break into song or dance in the middle of their normal doings--in this case, three sailors racing through Manhattan on 24 hour leave.Other parts have choreography, probably by Gene Kelly, that becomes abstract and cinematic, a Hollywood innovation (also seen, famously, in "Singin' in the Rain" and "An American in Paris").
Co-directed by Gene Kelly and a 25-year old Stanley Donen in his feature film directing debut, the movie has a consistently propulsive energy thanks mainly to the remarkable choreography by Kelly and Donen, the seamless blend of Leonard Bernstein's familiar music with studio tunesmith Roger Edens' original compositions, and the sheer ebullience of the performers.Written by the estimable team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, the threadbare plot is simply about three sailors - Gabey, Chip and Ozzie - on a 24-hour leave in New York City and the women they meet and romance.
The closest the story comes to dramatic tension is in the deceptions around Miss Turnstiles, who is not the big-time celebrity Gabey assumes she is but an aspiring ballerina named Ivy, who has to work nights as an exotic dancer in Coney Island.The film is obviously at its best when it's focused on the musical sequences - beginning with the actual locations used for "New York, New York" in establishing the sailors' energetic arrival, continuing with the elaborate "Prehistoric Man" number at the Museum of Natural History and bouncing through the title tune ensemble with all six principals singing and dancing their way down from atop the Empire State Building.
The plot, of course, is negligible, but that ends up working in its favor, since the focus stays on the appealing characters and on the excellent musical numbers.Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly are already enough to make a movie worth seeing, and this one is easily the best of their pictures together.
The plot is "back-of-a- cigarette-packet" deep but engaging for all that and I guess New York is the place for a 24 hour furlough.The movie is justly celebrated for its use of actual locations - for once the characters' shadows seem real - it only remains for the three couples to career around the city before getting all loved up on top of the Empire State Building in time for the neat final touch of the next batch of three sailors to take on the town in their day's leave.The songs are peppy, if not all top-notch, the title song and the city's anthem "New York New York" (at least until Sondheim / Bernstein and Kander / Ebb came along in later decades) being the best.
This is basically the same story except it takes place in New York and has co-stars another sailer played by Jules Munshin, who doesn't really add much to the film.ON THE TOWN has slightly better music and songs than ANCHORS AWEIGH mostly because Leonard Bernstein was involved and there are one or two funny one liners ("Dr. Kinsey, I presume").
Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin, Betty Garrett, Vera Ellen, Ann Miller and Alice Pearce, ask us to join them in the journey as the New York of those years is explored.This musical is a tribute to New York City and its spirit..
No film noir material anyway.Now, I read some reviews, many from contemporary critics or musical purists criticizing the fact that the film cut many good songs from Leonard Bernstein (he boycotted it as a result) but on the basis of my own experience, I can say the film is good because it doesn't take itself too seriously despite the powerful Bernstein signature tempo and that grandiose "Gershwinian" opening on New York city on the morning before Gabey (Kelly), Chip (Sinatra) and Oozie (Jules "what's-his-name" Munshin) set ashore and decide to have the most fun of their lives for 24 hours.
As for "Miss Turnstile" aka Ivy Smith aka Miss perfect who caught the eye of the best-looking sailor, unfortunately, Vera-Ellen plays it so straightly melodramatic that I wondered if someone forgot to tell her it was a comedy, she overplayed the romance in a way that contaminated her own beau and made me also wonder if the film wasn't enamored with Gene Kelly more than it was with New York City.Of course, a film like "On the Town" was bound to have a romance and it had to be Gene Kelly but that aspect is less effective than the humor, and some comical moments guidedby love didn't age well and were rather embarrassing to watch.
Adapted from the stage musical, this film features some of Leonard Bernstein's songs from the original show as well as some tunes from Roger Edens (all with words by Adolph Green and Betty Comden, who wrote the screenplay).The film is also a celebration of New York City, where three sailors (who have never been to the city) have one day of leave.Spectacle and talent are on display throughout the film.
Frank becomes the target of an aggressive taxi driver (Betty Garrett) and Jules meets Ann Miller (a scientist), while Gene is determined to find Vera-Ellen in the city.Production values are excellent and the on-location settings make their New York City adventures wonderful to watch.
Anyone seeing this and thinking its the real New York City will be disappointed , its the flip side of more realistic movies from that era like "On the Waterfront" or "Sweet smell of success" but to be frank it's a New York we would all like to live in, or revisit many times especially with Navy men dancing around the top of the Empire States building and pretty cab drivers on every corner, a city of magic and magical happenings.Of the three sailors Sinatra comes off as the sweetest, Kelly comes off a bit strange, feeling it is his mission to find the girl he spots on a poster, and spends the next hour doing just that, but it's okay because she wouldn't have it any other way.-hey, its a musical after all.There is a nice ballet sequence with Kelly towards the end, that foreshadows his work on " American in Paris"In short it's a delightful way to spend 2 hours and wonderful entertainment.
While not as good or iconic as a musical like "Singin' In The Rain" this is really a great movie for being so much fun with such great people like Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra involved.
Party all the way through all New York and out again, with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra leading the show, accompanied by a bunch of irresistible girls, like Vera-Ellen and Ann Miller dancing both their shoes and their heads off, but there is an uncountable number of other dancing girls as well.
Three sailors on a day of shore leave in New York City look for fun and romance before their twenty-four hours are up.You have to love any collaboration between Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen.
Gene Kelly (he's Gabey) finds Vera-Ellen (she's Ivy), Betty Garrett (she's Brunhilde) finds Frank Sinatra (he's Chip), and Jules Mushin (he's Ozzie) finds Ann Miller (she's Claire).The movie opens with the extraordinary production number "New York!
The story is simple: three sailors (Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin) have a 24-hour leave in New York and are looking for romance.
In particular Gabey (Gene Kelly) on the hunt for "Miss Turnstiles" Ivy Smith (Vera-Ellen), while Chip (Frank Sinatra) is snared by taxi driver Hildy (Betty Garrett) and Ozzie (Jules Munshin) falls for beautiful anthropologist Claire (Anne Miller).This film is just good, old-fashioned entertainment, with some great songs and fun comedy.
Plot-wise, it's a circus: Kelly meeting, than losing sight of, poster girl Vera-Ellen is a perfect springboard for the day-long cab chase which unites Frank Sinatra with the rambunctious Betty Garrett, stopping en route to bring Jules Munshin together with Ann Miller (who performs an electrifying, leg-displaying, tap number in the film's best song, "Prehistoric Man").
In turn "On the Town", Adolph Green and Betty Comden's masterpiece little creation, proved the fact that audiences were ready for a new kind of musical entertainment...a show carried by a small, intimate group of principal performers.In retrospect, Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra have matured as sailor characters in the four years since "Anchors Aweigh", clearly evident through the fact that this time the men search the town no strings attached...no young boys, operatic singers and the entire MGM studios...and they're fancy free.
In New York City, three sailors (played by Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin) begin their shore leave and set out to explore the town.
Great Fun. On the Town (1949) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Musical about three sailors (Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin) who gets a 24-hour leave and head to see NYC.
Chip, Frank Sinatra, tries but can't resist the bold advances of a cab driver, Betty Garrett; Ozzie, Jules Munshin, gladly fills the role of a lovely anthropologist's "prehistoric man," she being Ann Miller; and after a rather desperate searching, Gabey, Gene Kelly, finds the model who has posed for the Miss Turnstiles advertisements, Vera Ellen; she turns out to be a dancer at Coney Island, but the two find they do not mind her lack of celebrity one bit after all.
Three sailors, Gabey(Gene Kelly), Chip(Frank Sinatra) and Ozzie (Jules Munshin), have exactly 24 hours to hang around in New York before the ship leaves.In that time they pick up girls, destroy a prehistoric dinosaur and are chased by cops.Gabey falls in love with a girl from the poster who he thinks is a celebrity but she is just a dancer.This girl is called Ivy Smith, played by Vera-Ellen.He can't leave New York, before he finds Ivy.Chip's girl is a cab driver called Brunhilde Esterhazy(Betty Garrett).Ozzie finds his girl from the museum.That girl is called Claire Huddesen(Ann Miller).The boys go all around New York singing some classic songs.On the Town was filmed in actual sets, not in a studio, like they usually did with musicals.There ain't one dull moment watching On the Town.New York, New York-it's a wonderful town..
Three sailors (Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin) arrive in New York and have a day of shore leave.
There's nary a dull moment as we watch Gene Kelly search desperately for Vera-Ellen, Frank Sinatra play a young and naive sailor (!) who tries to resist going up to Betty Garrett's place but eventually gives in, and Jules Munshin add comedy to the proceedings while his young lovely, Ann Miller, adds her dancing skills.
Best musical numbers are "On the Town", the song sung by Frank Sinatra and Betty Garrett in the taxi and of course the famous opening sequence of "New York, New York"..
Three sailors (Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin) enjoy 24 hours' shore leave in New York.Most of this brash location musical counts as among the best things ever to come out of Hollywood; the serious ballet towards the end slows things down, but finally it's the film's sheer joy and vitality, and its astonishingly exuberant opening sequence that stick in the memory.
It overcomes the lack of a plot (but how many musicals actually have a good plot?) and some unlikely situations with it's great dancing sequences, humour and stars.Wonderful Gene Kelly is, well, wonderful as usual as Gabey, one of the three sailors who have a 24-hour leave in New York.
Basically three Navy sailors, Gabey (Gene Kelly), Chip (Frank Sinatra) and Ozzie (Jules Munshin) are very excited when their ship has stopped, and they have 24 hours leave to spend in New York, New York - a wonderful town!
Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin play the three sailors, and Vera-Ellen, Betty Garrett, and Ann Miller play the three girls they meet for a day. |
tt0030396 | The Mad Miss Manton | At 3:00 am, Melsa (Barbara Stanwyck) takes her little dogs for a walk. Near a subway construction site, she sees Ronnie Belden run out of a house and drive away. The house is for sale by Sheila Lane (Leona Maricle), the wife of George Lane, a wealthy banker. Inside, Melsa finds a diamond brooch and Mr. Lane's dead body. As she runs for help, her cloak falls off with the brooch inside it. When the police arrive, the body, cloak, and brooch are gone. Melsa and her friends are notorious pranksters, so the detective, Lieutenant Mike Brent (Levene), does nothing to investigate the murder. Ames writes an editorial decrying Melsa's "prank", and she sues him for libel.
Melsa and her friends decide they must find the murderer in order to defend their reputation. The resulting manhunt includes searches of the Lane house, Belden's apartment, Lane's business office, and all of the local beauty shops; two attempts to intimidate Melsa; two shooting attempts on her life; a charity ball; and a trap set for the murderer using Melsa as bait. During this time, the women twice attack Ames and tie him up, Melsa's friend Myra enthusiastically flirts with Ames, and their friend Pat eats incessantly. In the course of these events, the following facts emerge:
George Lane has been out of town for a week.
Sheila Lane hasn't been seen since the day of the murder.
Sheila and Belden may be having an affair.
Belden's apartment contains the brooch, a knife just like one used to intimidate Melsa, and Belden's dead body.
Lane's body is found in Belden's car.
George Lane left an insurance policy with his business partner Mr. Thomas as beneficiary.
Thomas has been going broke.
Someone may have been blackmailing Lane.
Sheila was once married to a convict named Edward Norris.
Norris was at a hockey game at the time of the murders, but left the game for ten minutes.
Norris has a job working for the subway.
Traveling from the hockey rink to the Lane house and back requires more than ten minutes using all standard forms of transportation.
George Lane recently lost money gambling.
Sheila Lane was hiding from the killer.
Sheila and Belden met at the Lane house after Lane was killed. They couldn't call the police without exposing their affair, and Belden was killed while moving Mr. Lane's body.
While Brent repeatedly accuses innocent people based on incorrect theories, Melsa deduces that Belden removed the body and cloak from the Lane house before the police arrived. Near the end of the film, an escaping would-be killer leaves behind a piece of tar paper, which reminds Melsa of the subway construction site. Returning to the site, she finds a fast electric cart on the track. This is how Norris made his way to and from the crime scene in ten minutes. Norris is captured after confessing to the murders and briefly holding Melsa and Ames at gunpoint.
During the film, the relationship between Melsa and Ames evolves from sharp animosity to love and marital engagement. Melsa appears to be hostile toward Ames during most of the film, while he almost immediately decides that he's going to marry her and begins to woo her aggressively. She stabs him in the leg with a fork in retaliation for a treacherous trick he played on her, but they have a friendly chat early in the story, and a longer, more heart-to-heart conversation later. After the police rescue them from Norris, the film ends with Melsa and Ames planning their honeymoon. | mystery, murder | train | wikipedia | This is a delightful comedy/mystery, very much of its time, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda.
Stanwyck does a great job as a madcap socialite (though the title would have you think she's a crazy bag lady) who gets involved in a murder and with reporter Fonda.
Miss Manton has a mouthy maid played by Hattie McDaniel (listed as McDaniels in the credits) and many girlfriends, all of whom are at her beck and call.Stanwyck's gift for comedy is apparent, and Manton was a perfect character for her - sophisticated, clever, and vulnerable.
This movie, a warmup for Stanwyck and Fonda for the later The Lady Eve, is entirely enjoyable.
Stanwyck, a rich deb, while walking her dogs in the middle of night, stumbles over a murdered man who disappears when she summons the police, of course.
They, in the time-honored tradition of Hollywood comedy/mysteries, jointly, and sometimes separately and at loggers head, try to solve the mystery and find the murderer.
The scene when Stanwyck sics 'em on Fonda ("Get him, girls"), with Fonda crawfishing as they advance, alone is worth the price of admission, as is the final avowal of love and proposal of marriage..
Barbara Stanwyck was 31 years old playing opposite stone-faced 33 year old Henry Fonda in this comedy love story/murder mystery, and if you want to see how Barbara steals every scene, this is a good one to watch.
This movie was selected by TCM as one of the films to highlight for their series "Black Images in Hollywood" due to the presence of Hattie McDaniel just prior to her Oscar-winning performance the next year in "Gone With the Wind." Hattie plays a sassy-talking maid for delicious comic relief.
An obscure comedy that truly utilizes all the cast members involved in a great screwball of a movie.
Henry Fonda is fun as the newspaper man who hates and then falls for her.A few years later, they were to be teamed again in Preston Sturges's great "The Lady Eve."The subway is a good gimmick, and all the minor players are fun.
I think this may be Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck's first movie together and sparks fly.
I wish Henry Fonda had done more comedy but he makes up for lost time here.
Unlike The Lady Eve, where he is primarily the straight man (with terrific physical comedy), in the Mad Miss Manton he gives as good as he gets with his leading lady.
In the first of their three co-starring vehicles, Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda shine in character clashing along with many illustrious supporting players in this Golden Era madcap Murder Mystery Comedy."The Mad Miss Manton" (RKO, 1938) follows the saga of wealthy débutante Melsa Manton (Barbara Stanwyck) and Hilda (Hattie McDaniel), her efficient housekeeper.Add to the program seven débutantes abiding in the lap of luxury, and supporting their comrade in society: Helen Frayne (Frances Mercer) Pat James (Whitney Bourne) Myra Frost (Linda Perry) Kit Beverly (Vickie Lester) Jane (Eleanor Hansen) Dora Fenton (Catherine O'Quinn) Lee Wilson (Ann Evers).Peter Ames (Henry Fonda), an ambitious newspaper reporter, Lieutenant Brent (Sam Levene) and Officer Sullivan (James Burke), who are all summoned to investigate the murder of a wealthy business leader, whose body unaccountably disappears, while another mysteriously surfaces.When Peter and Lieutenant Brent charge Miss Manton and her ilk of lovely Park Avenue débutantes with attempting to pull a prank, Melsa decides to take matters into her own very capable hands, with help from her associates, who, if you read between the lines, may be considered to exhibit characteristics of the Seven Capital Vices.Although these are not quite developed during its 108-minute screen story, traces of Avarice, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Pride, Sloth and Wrath are detectable among the fashionable set of peers.One often expresses her anger toward the behavior of the establishment.
Another sort of lies around without much to do, as others bathe in wealth and pride of their collective station in life, and so forth and so on.Suspects for the film's central crime display effective performances in well-cast roles, most bringing familiarity to the screen: Bat Regan (Paul Guilfoyle) Sheila Lane (Leona Maricle) Ronnie Beldon (William Corson) Edward Norris (Stanley Ridges) Frances Glesk (Penny Singleton) Mr. Fred Thomas (Miles Mander) and Gloria Hamilton (Kay Sutton).Rounding out "The Mad Miss Manton" cast includes some familiar faces, each bringing a special quality to an all-too-brief scene along the way: John Qualen as the Subway Watchman Robert Middlemass as the District Attorney Grady Sutton as the D.A.'s Secretary Olin Howland as Mr. X Charles Halton as Popsy, Melsa's Lawyer Vinton Haworth as Peter's Secretary Irving Bacon as Mr. Spengler, the Process Server Bess Flowers as a Charity Ball Guest and Gerald Pierce as the Newsboy..
Barbara Stanwyck in another "I saw the body until it disappeared" kind of farce, giving the audience a good time as she tangles with unbelieving police inspector (Sam Levene) and a newspaper reporter looking for a good story (Henry Fonda).The supporting cast includes Hattie McDaniel and Penny Singleton but it's Stanwyck's performance that makes this one shine.
Henry Fonda plays another variation on his mild-mannered dunce but it's Stanwyck who keeps the dialogue snappy and the events somewhat believable.
Passes the time pleasantly enough, but don't expect anything great.Stanwyck gets the glamour treatment and looks her best in the madcap title role..
Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda establish the wonderful screen chemistry that they would use to even greater advantage in 1941's "The Lady Eve." Her bored, adventurous debutante and his mild mannered reporter are a scintillating duo.
The stars of this film were paired twice before striking gold in Preston Sturges' The Lady Eve, appearing in a rather humorless comedy called You Belong To Me and two years prior in Mad Miss Manton.
MMM was a combination of murder mystery and madcap heiress nonsense with aspects of screwball comedy before it had been defined as such.
So you have two great, popular actors, thrown into a contrived script about Stanwyck as the heiress who sees someone slipping away from a murder scene, only to have the body missing when she calls the police.
It would take script writers a few more years to learn you shouldn't make Hank Fonda speak quickly and Stanwyck, much as I love her, never really does manage the glamour.
This is the film where Hattie McDaniel gets to throw a vase of water in Fonda's face, and there's some genuine suspense when Stany sits down with the unbalanced murderer for the denouement.
Barbara Stanwyck is, as always, seamlessly gorgeous, and she takes on a tireless leadership role while constantly flirting with a young and handsome Henry Fonda.
Next, Miss Manton (Stanwyck) is constantly surrounded by her group of elitist girlfriends.
Miss Manton's flighty friends in their 40's gowns with their big 40's furs and their typical 40's hairstyles keep this film light and fluffy.
THE MAD MISS MANTON (1938) is a funny murder mystery.
In a plot involving dead bodies lying around here and there and a murderer on the loose, the lighthearted screwball approach comes as a surprise.
(The convoluted "whodunit" aspect is a little weak.)Barbara Stanwyck is a New York socialite who's lost the trust of the police force (led hilariously by Sam Levene) after the evidence of the murder she reports disappears.
Henry Fonda is a newspaper editor who smears Stanwyck for her murder "hoax" and party lifestyle.
Soon Fonda and the cops get involved, but Stanwyck prefers to solve the mystery on her own, despite the dangers.The murder mystery story doesn't impress as anything too special, but the script is often much funnier than expected.
Hattie McDaniel is a hoot as Stanwyck's maid ("I's a pacifist!") and even Henry Fonda has his moments ("She's probably still in kindergarten.").
Halfway through the movie, I found I was enjoying it more than I'd expected at the start.At only 80 minutes, this is a breezy mystery/comedy with some big names (Stanwyck and Fonda) and a bunch of fun characters.
Henry Fonda is no match for the bevy of beauties in "The Mad Miss Manton." For that matter, he can't even come close to Barbara Stanwyck.
Because this film is all about the "gals" – the bunch of socialites who congregate around gang leader Stanwyck, who plays the wealthy Melsa Manton.
Fonda plays newspaper editor Peter Ames who is little more than a shill for the Manton minions.
One eats all the time, another is more infatuated with men than the others.And the leader, Barbara Stanwyck, is in nearly every scene so we can fall in love with her like our surrogate does: Henry Fonda (before anyone took him seriously as an actor) is a newspaper reporter, a standard device of the time to fold the audience in.The murders are more complicated in terms of who did them than usual , but the appeal of the thing was supposed to be clearly in the appeal of these eight woman.
A group of shallow socialite young women, led by Barbara Stanwyck, get mixed up in a series of murders.
Despite the disdain of both the police and newspaper editor Henry Fonda, the girls do a better job of solving the crime than them.
Out walking her dogs, wealthy New York City "prankster" Barbara Stanwyck (as Melsa Manton) discovers a dead body after investigating a suspicious incident, at an abandoned house.
Moreover, handsome newspaper editor Henry Fonda (as Peter Ames) prints an editorial dissing Stanwyck.
"The Mad Miss Manton" is a not very amusing or interesting comedy-mystery, with strong co-stars Stanwyck and Fonda as the main attraction; in this one, Hattie McDaniel (as Hilda) seems bigger than the both of them.**** The Mad Miss Manton (10/8/38) Leigh Jason ~ Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Sam Levene, Hattie McDaniel.
Socialite Melsa Manton (Barbara Stanwyck) is walking her dogs when she sees Ronny suspiciously running out of a deserted house.
Society deb Melsa Manton (Barbara Stanwyck) discovers a body late one night in a abandoned house.
The police don't believe her so Manton and her bunch of ditzy friends try and solve the murder mystery themselves.
Reporter Peter Ames (Henry Fonda) immediately falls in love with Melsa (after hating her on sight) and helps them.Pretty unknown movie...and it's easy to see why!
If you want to see a good movie with Stanwyck and Fonda see "The Lady Eve".
Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck made three films together and The Mad Miss Manton was the first.
Stanwyck and Fonda would do far better in Paramount's The Lady Eve.According to the films of Henry Fonda, Fonda really disliked this one, but in 1938 he was still not in a position to pick and choose his material.
Stanwyck and her cronies are guilty of obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence and Sam Levene as the investigating police officer ought to have run them all in.I'd pass this one by as an example of bad screwball comedy..
25 years back when I saw "The Mad Miss Manton" at a rep theater I thought the production pallid and I found Henry Fonda callow.
While I still don't think it would rival "The Penguin Pool Murder" (1932), "The Ex-Mrs. Bradford" (1936), or "Meet Nero Wolfe" (1936) as one of the top comedy-mysteries from that era, a lot in me has changed in 25 years.However, until that time, let me fantasize.
Mad Miss Manton, The (1938) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Disappointing comedy about a rich woman (Barbara Stanwyck) who gets involved with a murder investigation and a reporter (Henry Fonda) covering the case.
This was the first teaming of Stanwyck and Fonda but the end results aren't as good as I had hoped even though the film starts off pretty well.
The comedy works for most of the time as the two stars really do good work together but it's Sam Levene who steals the show as the wisecracking Lieutenant.
It wasn't even funny and why did barbara stanwyck and henry fonda waste their time in this movie.
He (Levene) played this same part many times in many movies during the thirties, and could have phoned this role in.
The only bright spot, if there is one, would be Hattie McDaniel, as the maid of the rich, madcap (I hate that over used word!!) Miss Manton.
Here, in a novel twist, the sleuth isn't a man; instead it's a pack of giddy socialite girls, of all things, led by the kookie Miss Manton (Stanwyck).
Stanwyck does a pretty good job of acting pixilated, not what you'd expect from her usual no-nonsense tough cookie, while Fonda tries to keep up, but is definitely in a secondary role.
As a comedy, the movie doesn't make the front rank of screwballs so popular at the time, but is generally pleasing with a different take on who gets to chase down the guilty party..
THE MAD MISS MANTON was similar to the Thin Man films because it relied heavily on sophisticated comedy and the actual murder plot was, at best, secondary.
Plus, like Nick Charles, Miss Manton was a rich society party girl.Since the plot isn't exactly relevant, the repartee between Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda is excellent and a lot of fun to watch.
In 1941, Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck starred in 'The Lady Eve' (one of the finest comedies of all time) but before this Fonda and Stanwyck made a relatively unknown comedy called 'The Mad Miss Manton' and may I say that this is an excellent lead-up to 'The Lady Eve'.
Unlike the Lady Eve, where Fonda is primarily the straight guy, in 'Mad Miss Manton' he holds his own and is especially good in the hospital scene, where he plays Stanwyck for the sucker.
In a turn around on their usual pairings, Barbara Stanwyck and her girlfriends discover a dead body.
This comedy holds up pretty well as it has a better script than a lot of B's had at the time..
Too convenient.But, it is a fast moving sort of comedy-mystery, and as long as you don't expect too much from it, it can be a somewhat enjoyable diversion.This seems like a bit different role for Barbara Stanwyck, and she is rather good at light comedy.
Even Hattie McDaniel -- just a year away from her historic role in GWTW -- is pretty tame here.This is another of those films that's worth one watch, but I doubt this will end up on your DVD shelf..
Some people say that this Stanwyck-Fonda vehicle was a perfect warm up for their "The Lady Eve" film in 1941.
Miss Manton finds a dead body in a deserted house and the police department does not believe her.
His one liners are memorable as is those of Hattie McDaniel, as Hilda, Miss Manton's maid.
Did anyone notice that in the screen credits, Hilda is listed as Hattie McDaniels?Fonda appears entirely too stoic in the part of the newspaper reporter who finds himself involved in the case and increasingly romantic with Manton.
SYNOPSIS: Melsa Manton, a spirited heiress, leads a group of six high society girls in a series of mad pranks which culminate in an attempt to solve a baffling murder.PRINCIPAL MIRACLE: Epstein manages to ingeniously combine a pretty amusing screwball romantic comedy with a suspenseful murder mystery.COMMENT: Definitely one for the connoisseurs, The Mad Miss Manton proved too mad for the general public's taste on first release.
And the romance between a handsome young Henry Fonda, as a newspaper editor, and Barbara Stanwyck as a flighty socialite, evolves out of nothing much.But those are the kinds of slapdash properties that you expect to find in a B feature.
"If you kill one of us you'll have to kill all of us," and another girl exclaims, "Quit that communist stuff!" There are one or two successful sight gags too, one involving Fonda and Hattie McDaniel, that will bring a smile if not a full-blown laugh.Stanwyck is okay.
If THE MAD MISS MANTON remarks "Let's all meet back at my place at eight," this bimbo objects, "That's Communism!" When Manhattan Detective Lt. Mike Brent orders this ditsy Missy's gaggle of girls into his paddy wagon so that he can "harass them, pound them, beat them, and humiliate them," she squeals out "That's Communism!" As police snipers surround decoy "bait" characters played by Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda in order to shoot the Real Killer in the back, the lame-brain blonde quibbles, "That's Communism!" As the crowd solemnly rises as One for Kate Smith's stirring rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner before the Rangers hockey contest at Madison Square Garden during the subsequently cut Hockey Game Alibi Scene concluding with that hallowed phrase "O'er the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave," this cockamamie socialite bellows "That's Communism!" Can RKO Radio Pictures be preparing her for the Rump Administration 79 years in advance?.
It's up to the great Barbara Stanwyck to turn fluff into something special.
With Stanwyck cast, the film becomes an A picture where all eyes are on the great lady of the screen in front of them.
Well known to local law enforcement for being part of a group of dippy Park Avenue socialites getting into trouble, and now, she wants them to help her solve the crime, leading to more murder and trouble with not only the law but determined reporter Henry Fonda as well.
Fonda, apparently unhappy with this part, doesn't let that show, and the chemistry with Stanwyck later confirmed in two other movies, is obvious.
Soon to win an Oscar, Hattie McDaniel is very funny as her maid, delivering each line with gusto.Moments of suspense and some great screwball one liners give this an important place in the comedy hall of fame.
Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda have a strong, sometimes even sensual chemistry in "The Mad Miss Manton", particularly when he tells her things like "I realize that I should let go of your hand, but I'm finding that I don't want to", or when they're alone in a moonlit room, talking about their mutual acrophobia. |
tt0064860 | I quattro dell'Ave Maria | Cat and Hutch arrive in El Paso where they unsuccessfully try to get bounty for Bill San Antonio from his last earthly remains – the boots. Instead they go to the bank manager Harold – which Bill in the first film disclosed as his partner in setting up the robberies – and announce themselves as Bill to see if they are received. They are, and convince him (not without some physical force) to make them a cashier’s check to be paid out in gold.
The banker visits the condemned man Cacopoulos, who is to be hanged the next day, and offers to help him escape if he restores the money. At night the deputy is knifed by two men, who let Cacopoulos out. He takes the dead man’s gun and shoots the two. He pours himself a footbath and tests the dead men’s boots to find a pair that fits. He then pays a visit to the bank manager. Cacopoulos reminds the manager that he and two others put him in jail for 15 years, and on his release framed him for murder with a stolen knife, that again was used to kill the deputy tonight. Consequently, he wants guarantees that he will not be tricked again. Harold throws the knife but Cacopoulos swings the chair so it strikes in the back, then swings back around and shoots the manager, adding that it is guaranty enough!
Dressed as a peon on a donkey Cacopoulos meets Cat and Hutch and robs them. They follow his trail south to Mexico and encounter people that he has given money – and a high wire performer Thomas, and assistant, that he offered money. They catch up with him in a village during a fiesta (that he has paid for). While Cat is lured away looking for him elsewhere, Caco, playing a joke on Hutch, appears before him and, in a quieter place, tells him about Harold and the other two ”friends” who shot his horse so he got caught after a bank robbery, and then framed him for murder. He says that he will give back their money, including what he has spent, if Hutch helps him collect his debts with the remaining two.
The first one is Paco who is a ”revolutionary” shown presiding over a kangaroo court condemning men to death for ”not fighting for country and freedom.” His men capture Cacopoulos and Hutch, but Cat enlists help from another ”revolutionary,” Canganceiro, by telling him about Cacopoulos´ ”treasure.” Together they defeat Paco’s men and the latter is killed by Cacopoulos, who in his wrath forgets to make him give back any money. After some pillaging by his men, Canganceiro starts another kangaroo court that executes people for ”fighting for country and freedom.” Cacopoulous is jailed until he tells where his treasure is. Caco attempts to escape by lulling the guards to sleep by telling the story of his heritage; his grandfather was a Greek who married a young Cherokee woman, and his father was one of their children. He told of how his father raised his family in a small mining town until he was mysteriously murdered, and how his grandfather, carrying little Caco, had to take his own son's body back to his own tribe. Hutch and Cat then help Cacopoulos escape, but he shoots off their saddles, quoting his grandfather that one partner is too little, and two are too many. They ambush the last two men of the pursuing Canganceiro bunch and take their horses.
They now follow Cacopoulos in the opposite direction, encountering dead Canganceiro men along the way, the last ones with their leader just outside Memphis. In Memphis they find Caco washing dishes in a saloon, together with the acrobat and assistant – because in this town people are only interested in gambling. That is substantiated by the fact that Cacopoulos has lost all his money while he was looking for Drake the third ”partner.”
Cat and Hutch visit Drake’s casino. Hutch loses all his money, while Cat spots the croupier looking at a hole in the ceiling. They put up Hutch to win money in a prizefight, buy weapons and give the rest to Cacopoulos with instruction for him to show up with it in the casino tomorrow.
That night, with some acrobatic prowess Thomas and Cat gain entrance to a room in the attic of the casino. There is the peek-hole down to the roulette table and a voice tube down to a basement room where a magnet can guide the roulette ball. Cat, Thomas and Hutch take positions in the two rooms. Cacopoulos however, seeks the company of a saloon girl and awakes in the morning robbed of his cash. He hastily replenishes it by forcibly inviting a bill collector to a ”game” of cards that Cacopoulos ”wins.” So Cacopoulos finally enters the casino, where he repeatedly puts the money on 13 until he breaks the bank with a $360,000 win. Drake and his men arrive and confront Cacopoulos leading to a showdown. The apposing parties wait for the roulette ball to stop, while the customers lie down on the floor and a Viennese Waltz is played (on suggestion from Cacopoulos). Drake’s men are shot and he is wounded, and taken by the vengeful customers, who realize they have been swindled. Cacopoulos faints from the shoot-out, but only his arm was wounded, and he leaves together with Cat and Hutch. | western, revenge, violence | train | wikipedia | The second, and in my opinion the best in the Cat Stevens/Hutch Bessy trilogy, Ace High' has enough fun for everyone to come out and play.
Eli Wallach joins the party for this film and, as a testament to the quality of actors involved, does not steal every scene he is in.
Director Colizzi went on to direct a few more films, but overall had a short-lived career, which is unfortunate because he tells a great story, and doesn't shy away from adding humor in awkward places, or generally being a little unconventional.
If you're a fan of spaghetti westerns you'll understand a lot of the humor herein, but even for the casual viewer there's plenty to keep you entertained.
All the actors do great work - from Spencer/Hill duo and Wallach himself to the black boxer champion, who gets beaten by Bud Spencer for $50.
this time playing an ethnic Greek-Mexican bandit with a Yiddish accent (oy vey) manipulating ol' buddies Hill & Spencer into a scheme to get back at the people who left him out to dry years back.
Colizzi directs with a sure hand, even allowing New York method actor Wallach to kvetch for several minutes at a time.
Ravioli and Fagioli Western from Giuseppe Colizzi trilogy with Terence Hill as Cat Stevens and Spencer as Hutch.
I Quattro dell'Ave Maria (original title) is an entertaining and amusing Macaroni Western starred by the notorious Italian couple , Hill and Spencer , pre-Trinity and Bambino .
Likable Terence Hill and stocky Bud Spencer team up again as the valiant and enjoyable duo .
This fun Pipperone Western deals with our intimate friends in Far West , they're two bank-robbers , the blue-eyes and sympathetic Terence Hill as Cat Stevens and a grumpy and goofy Bud Spencer as Hutch .
Then appears Cacopoulos (Eli Wallach) , a cunning thief who arranges to save himself from being hung on a fake charge , as he breaks out and steals Cat Stevens (Mario Girotti or Terence Hill , Massimo Giroti'son ) and Hutch Bessy (Carlo Perdesoli or Bud Spencer) a lot of cash and he also robs their horses .
Nevertheless , the cruel baddie is still alive and seeks avenge , he is a relentless saloon owner (Kevin MacCarthy of Invasion of the body snatchers) and supported by ominous hoodlums .This funny story contains crossfire , the usual slight fights and a little bit of action , pursuits and circus spectacle .
The humor is based on physical and personality differences of the starring , as Terence Hill is the sympathetic and brave hero and Bud Spencer is the corpulent and hunk man .
The movie contains gun-play , action Western , bloody spectacle and fist-fights .
Terence Hill as a two-fisted gunslinger and Spencer as a bouncing hunk are good but still not personified the Trinity hero characters .
Later on , the 'big time' duo of Spaghetti Western with humor such as ¨They call me Trinity¨, ¨ Trinity is still my name ¨ and sequels as ¨Troublemakers¨ were run out and for that reason were transfered in modern era film , playing the police/action genre and adventures as ¨All the way boys¨ also titled ¨Plane crazy¨ ; after that , they starred the successful ¨ Miami police series ¨, which belong the followings : ¨Crime Busters¨ , ¨Superfuzz¨ and ¨Supercops in Miami¨.
However , being the great American actor Eli Wallach from ¨Actor's Studio¨ who steals the show as Cacopoulus , a similar role to Tucco he performed in ¨The good , the bad and the ugly¨ .
At the picture appears customary Spaghetti secondaries who played ordinary characters as villains in numerous Spanish/Italian Western as Livio Lorenzon as Paco Rosa , Steffen Zacharias as Harold , Rick Boyd as Drake's blond henchman , Bruno Corazzari as Charlie , Frank Braña and Riccardo Pizzuti ,habitual secondary in Hill-Spencer films .
The movie is finely photographed by director of photography Marcello Masciocchi , and of course is shot in Almeria , Spain, location where were filmed hundreds of Western in the 60s and 70s .
Giuseppe directed a trilogy starred by Hill and Spencer as Cat Stevens and Hutch Bessy respectively .
A bit later on , Colizzi again directed Hill and Spencer at an adventure movie titled ¨Più Forte, Ragazzi!" or ¨All the Way Boys" or "Plane Crazy" , USA title .
The flick will appeal to famous pair fans , in fact , this was the second teaming of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer ..
When he escapes the noose, criminal Cacopoulos flees the charges against him and, on his way, robs two banker robbers Cat Stevens (no, a different one) and Hutch Bessy.
They start their search for him but meanwhile Cacopoulos is also bent on revenge on those that betrayed him and plans to get Cat and Hutch to help, whether they know about it or not.Screened under the main English title of Ace High, I recorded this film on late night TV hoping for a typical spaghetti western.
I know it was meant to be a comedy of sorts but it didn't sit very well with the spaghetti western genre because it made aspects of that feel like they had been badly done, as opposed to done for laughs.
Eli Wallach has fun in the central role and his performance is good value.
I couldn't shake the feeling that Hill had borrowed his performance from many other actors but hadn't been sure how to make it work for him; he didn't really have the screen presence required to carry off the character.
The support cast are all so-so, which works within the genre and as always much of the dialogue has that strange bad ADR/bad dubbing feel to it that I think is a prerequisite for the spaghetti genre.Overall this is an enjoyable enough spaghetti western but if you only know the Eastwood, "Fist Full" or Leone spaghetti films then you'll probably come away thinking this is a low-rent version of those (which I suppose it is).
(aka: ACE HIGH) Eli Wallach plays Cacopoulos, a generous bandit who gives away all he steals to those less off than he is.
That is, until he steals $300,000 from bounty hunters Cat Stevens and Hutch Bessy (Terence Hill and Bud Spencer) who then come trailing after him all over the southwest (or in this case, Almeria Spain) and want their money back.When they catch up with him, Cacopoulos let's them in on his primary motive.
It also has it's funny moments but isn't as humorous as Hill & Spencer's later spaghetti western; THEY CALL ME TRINITY (1971).
Character actor Eli Wallach is the real treat here as he carries his Tuco role from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" over to "Ace High." This is a pre-Trinity pairing of Spencer, Hill and most of the fun and hilarity is carried on the able shoulders of Eli Wallach, who is more than up for the assignment.
The comical duo Bud Spencer and Terence Hill are teamed with a likable crook played by Eli Wallach.Hill as Cat Stevens and Spencer as Hutch Bessy show the western people what they are made of.Wallach as Cacopoulos is fantastic with the stories about his grandfather.And another veteran actor Kevin McCarthy makes a great character as Cacopoulos' third enemy, the sniveling casino owner Drake.All these people work great together in Ace High from 1968.There are some great scenes in this western comedy.Bud boxing with the champion is brilliant.Guess who wins.The sequence in the end with the roulette table and the violin...beautiful, just beautiful.These movies bring me back to my childhood, back to the early 90's.Those were the days Bud Spencer and Terence Hill ruled the world..
This early outing for Bud Spencer and Terence Hill sees the pair in fine form in a huge spaghetti western with loads of story, characters and tons of action to recommend it from the start.
Obviously the Spencer/Hill relationship is played for laughs and both actors put in commendable performances; Hill as the Eastwood-style sharp-shooter, the intelligent member of the pairing, and Spencer as the clumsy but lovable oaf who's as strong as an ox and complements Hill's character perfectly.The dramatic angle of the storyline comes in the sweaty form of Eli Wallach, reprising his role from THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY as a bandit with a heart of gold who ends up being used and abused by those he considered to be his friends.
Writer/director Giuseppe Colizzi understands the old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" in regard to Wallach's performances so gives the public more of what they have seen already in the Sergio Leone film and the result is no less successful.
The film then plays its own ace by introducing arch-villain Drake, acted by American import Kevin McCarthy (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS) as one of those slimy villains you just love to hate, and the resulting climax is wonderfully exciting.Great use of widely differing music is made throughout the film from epic-sounding vocals to waltzes at the end!
Technically the movie is proficient with a more than adequate budget put to good use in the sets and costumes; solid, slightly artistic photography; and well-staged action.
One of the best I've seen from Spencer and Hill and a film guaranteed to please fans of the genre..
fun, fun, fun; well made in every detail; fantastic score, beautiful photography, story with twists, lots of action, fun actors - having fun doing the movie and being fun to watch, this western comedy is a delight.
giuseppe colizzi was a fine underrated director dead too early that invented the characters of Spencer-Hill.
"Ace high" is, probably, his best western.
I am a huge fan of the three main stars of this movie - Wallach, Spencer & Hill - so it is with sadness that I have to report negatively on it.
This is a very poor imitation of spaghetti westerns such as 'The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly', and Wallach tries hard - but ultimately fails - to successfully re-create a Tuco-style character here.
He and Spencer are magnificent together in more honest, comic capers like 'Watch Out, We're Mad' but this movie tries to be something it's not - stylish.I guess it proves how brilliant Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone are together, and how futile it is to attempt to copy their works.
I have to say this is in the top 5 best movies with both Terence Hill and Bud Spencer!
One bad thing about this movie is Eli Wallach.
Bud Spencer and Terence Hill click perfectly as a team and Eli Wallach, obviously enjoying himself, provides some funny moments.
During this he steals money owed to Hill and Spencer.
Wallach is probably one of the world's best character actors.
Hill and Spencer are wooden and this shows when pitted with an actor of Wallach's calibre.The guy is supposed to be a villain but you just can't help feeling sorry for him.
One can see the influence of Sergio Leone writ large all over this large-scale Spaghetti Western (and not just in the casting of Eli Wallach from THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY [1966]) – but Colizzi doesn’t in any way show a comparable talent!
The film happens to be the second teaming of popular Italian brawling duo Terence Hill and Bud Spencer (the first – GOD FORGIVES…I DON’T [1967] – was actually a prequel to this!) but Hill’s atypical glum countenance robs the film of some much-needed charisma.
Incidentally, neither title – American (which places an emphasis on the gambling subplot which comes into play only during the last third) or original, which roughly translates to FOUR GUNMEN OF AVE MARIA – is really satisfactory…but, then, neither is the film itself: one isn’t bothered by the sluggish pacing and extreme length of Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns, but that certainly can’t be said here!
Mind you, being a vintage outing, it’s moderately watchable and, at least, the print (via the Paramount DVD – how they suddenly felt the urge to release this I’ll never know!) was very nice…in contrast to its follow-up, BOOT HILL (1969), which I recently viewed by way of a horridly panned-and-scanned Public Domain edition.Anyway, the plot involves “lice-infected jailbird” Wallach being sprung from jail by a corrupt banker to retrieve a sum of money ‘stolen’ from him by Hill and Spencer; there follows an endless series of chases and double-crosses – with occasional interjections from black tightrope-walker Brock Peters and, it goes without saying, numerous stops for the duo’s trademark brawling antics.
"Ace High" is an adequate example of the Spaghetti Western genre that top-bills Eli Wallach as Cacopoulos, a bandit released from jail who's determined to avenge himself since his partners had abandoned him.
He doesn't exactly endear himself to bounty hunters Cat Stevens (Terence Hill) and Hutch Bessy (Bud Spencer) when he takes their money and decides to share the wealth with those less fortunate.
Yet, they all hook up (along with Thomas, an acrobat played by Brock Peters), in various attempts to get rich.Directed by Giuseppe Colizzi, this so-so film lacks the mastery of Sergio Leone, and doesn't tell a particularly interesting story (at least, not one that sustains itself for over two hours).
However, if you're intrigued by the casting of Kevin McCarthy in such a lark, be advised that he doesn't show up until an hour and 46 minutes into the story.The unorthodox robbery of a casino during the climax does help "Ace High" stand out a little bit.
This film essentially begins with a man named "Cacopoulos" (Eli Wallach) sitting in jail waiting to be hung for a murder he didn't commit.
Fortunately, he manages to escape and then proceeds to rob two drifters named "Cat" (Terence Hill) and "Hutch" (Bud Spencer) of a large amount of gold that they had just acquired from a bank the day before.
Needless to say, wanting their money back both Cat and Hutch set out in the same direction as Cacopoulous in an effort to track him down before he can spend all of it.
Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film is a sequel to the movie "God Forgives...I Don't!" which is probably best to see first in order to gain a better understanding of the overall course of events.
"Ace High" (1968) qualifies as one of the better hybrid action/comedy spaghetti westerns that followed in the wake of Sergio Leone's trend-setting bounty hunter movie "A Fistful of Dollars." Variously titled overseas as either "Revenge In El Paso" or "Four Gunmen of Ave Maria," this handsomely-produced, elaborately-staged, sun-drenched, shoot'em up shares something in common with the Lee Van Cleef oater "Death Rides A Horse" (1968) in that our lice-ridden hero (EIi Wallach) got double-crossed by his outlaw buddies and left behind for the law to catch while they made good their escape.
Italian western buffs who aren't familiar with this well choreographed dustraiser need to saddle up and watch the bare bones Paramount DVD with enhanced widescreen to see what other less well-known helmers were doing with the genre while Leone rode herd over sagebrushers.For the record, blue-eyed Terence Hill plays Cat Stevens (like the folk singer but no relation to him) and Bud Spencer co-stars as Hutch, his beefy, barrel-chested sidekick who shuns a Stetson.
A clue to its filming location is the lopsided anvil-shaped mountain in the background that dominates the long scenes not only in "Ace High" but also "For A Few Dollars More" and "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" the way that the Paramount logo mountain stood out against the studio sets in the old "Bonanza" TV series.
Another dead giveaway that this is a foreign western is the perfectly synchronized but too cool dubbing of Hill and Spencer.
Some of the dialogue sounds like it was translated into the English by foreigners, because nobody would talk that way, but that's what makes Italian movies of any genre so much fun.Actually, "Ace High" is the second entry in the only cinematic trilogy that Hill and Spencer starred in.
"Ace High" picks up where Colizzi's "God Forgives, But I Don't" wrapped up with the explosive death of bandit Bill San Antonio (American expatriate Frank Wolff of "A Stranger In Town").
Spaghetti westerns always had more plot than they needed.
One of the neat touches that occur through "Ace High" is little bits and pieces like the dusty boot prints that Cat and Hutch leave when they saunter across Harold's blood red carpet in this upstairs office.
Anyway, Cat and Hutch chase Caco across the parched southwest and run across a traveling circus sideshow Thomas (Brock Peters) who performs high-wire (in this caserope) acts.
Hill/Spencer teamed up with Wallach can't go wrong.
Yes if you know your Hill/Spencer you ought to know that they did three darker, and more serious westerns in the late 60's before they find their stride in "They call him Trinity".
All three were directed by Guiseppe Colizzi who later directed them in their first non-western "All the way boys" in 1972.
Eli Wallach is very good as the Greek.
And it feels almost like he came directly from the shoot of "The good the bad the ugly" to the set of this movie.
Bud Spencer is also surprisingly good here, but Terence is just a bit too stiff and almost somewhat boring.
Mainly because of Wallach and Spencer and a solid directing by Colizzi.
All in all Spencer/Hills best movie together before their heyday..
I think another reviewer for the film here got it right, it's got the trademarks of a spaghetti Western but may not suffice for the casual viewer.
I've seen the Hill-Spencer team up in a couple of other films ( "Boot Hill", "God Forgives...I Don't") and I just don't see the chemistry. |
tt0065032 | The Stalking Moon | U.S. Army soldiers round up a group of Indians, mostly women and children. Surprisingly, they find among them a white woman and her half-Indian son.
Sam Varner (Gregory Peck) is a scout retiring from the Army to his ranch in New Mexico. He agrees to escort Sarah Carver (Eva Marie Saint) and her son after she begs him. She wants to leave immediately rather than wait five days for a military escort.
Sam takes them to a stage coach stop called Hennessy. The boy runs away during the night. Varner and Sarah go looking for him as a dust storm begins. They find the boy and then hole up (literally) to wait out the storm.
When they return to the station, everyone there is dead, killed by the boy's Indian warrior father, Salvaje (played by Nathaniel Narcisco). Salvaje is greatly feared even among his own people - and with good reason: he is known to be a silent and ruthless killer. Salvaje means "Ghost" in Apache, or in their own tongue: "He Who Is Not Here", meaning a dead man.
Sam is upset that Sarah's impatience to leave has cost the people at the station their lives. When the stagecoach does arrive, Sam puts Sarah and her son on it and follows them to a rail station called Silverton. He trades government letters of transport for train tickets to Topeka, Kansas.
After some careful consideration, Sam decides to invite Sarah and her son to accompany him to his ranch where she can cook for him and an old man, Ned (played by Russell Thorson), who takes care of the ranch. Sam sells his horse and they take the train to New Mexico.
They uneasily try to coexist. Sarah and her son are not talkative despite Sam's best efforts. His friend Nick, a half-breed scout he has been friends with for ten years, shows up. Nick tells him that Salvaje killed everyone at Silverton and even killed Sam's old horse. It's apparent that Salvaje is coming to the ranch to retake his son.
Ned goes outside to feed his dog and finds it killed with an arrow. In a blind rage, he runs into the trees after Salvaje. Sam tries to bring him back, but can't find him. Shortly after, he hears Ned's death scream. Sam decides to go after Salvaje and create an opportunity for Nick to get a clear shot. But, when Sam is being tracked, Nick jumps up to warn him and Salvaje kills him. Nick dies in Sam's arms.
Salvaje enters the ranch house through a window. Sam blows out the kerosene lamp in order to hide in a dark corner. Sam shoots at him with a rifle and Salvaje flees, but he leaves a trail of blood.
Sam trails him and steps into a booby-trap that Salvaje has rigged with a knife. Sam is stabbed in the left thigh and bleeds profusely enough that he has to apply a tourniquet. The two men fight and eventually Sam shoots Salvaje three times as the warrior falls atop him, dying.
Sam manages to walk, stumble, and crawl back to the house, where Sarah rushes out to help him. | violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0091983 | Something Wild | Mary Ann Robinson, a teenage girl attending college in New York City, is brutally raped while walking in a park near her home in the Bronx. Traumatized by the experience, Mary Ann washes away all the evidence and destroys her clothing. She hides the rape from her mother and stepfather, with whom she has an already distant relationship. Mary Ann tries to continue living her normal life, unsuccessfully. She takes the subway to school and faints during the crush of people. This results in the police escorting her home, which upsets her prim and unsympathetic mother.
The rape continues to haunt Mary Ann. She leaves school abruptly and walks downtown, through Harlem and Times Square, down to the Lower East Side. There, she rents a room from a sinister landlord (Martin Kosleck), who overcharges her. She takes a job at a five and dime store, where her coworkers dislike her because she is distant and unfriendly. Her crude, promiscuous neighbor at the rooming house (Jean Stapleton) is rebuffed when she offers to "introduce" Mary to her male friends.
At the end of her tether, Mary Ann walks across the Manhattan Bridge and almost jumps in the East River when she is stopped by a mechanic, Mike (Ralph Meeker). At first he seems to be a knight in shining armor, offering her shelter and food. She decides to stay with him. But when he comes home drunk and tries to attack her, Mary Ann kicks him in the eye. The following morning he has no recollection of that, but his eye is badly hurt and has to be removed.
Mike now says that he wants Mary Ann to stay there, saying "I like the way you look here." She wants to leave but he refuses to let her go. He holds her captive in the apartment for months, even though she refuses to have anything to do with him.
One night Mike proposes to Mary Ann and she rejects him, saying she just can't without giving him any reason. He again attempts to be physical with her. Mary Ann reveals to Mike that it was she who blinded him in one eye. Mike still insists he needs her. When Mary Ann discovers the door unlocked she leaves, walking through the city and sleeping in Central Park. Her mood greatly improves, and she sees how wonderful life is. She returns to Mike's apartment saying "I came for you". She writes her mother, who comes to the apartment and is shocked to see where and with whom Mary Ann lives. She has married Mike and announces that she is pregnant (we don't know if it's by Mike or the rape, since is "sick" at one point in the store where she works before she meets Mike). Her mother insists that she "come home" while Mary Ann tries to impress her mother that she is living with Mike in this place which she now considers her home, and convinces her mother that she is not returning with her. | cult, comedy, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0115097 | Andersonville | The film begins with a group of Union soldiers being captured and forced to surrender at Cold Harbor, Virginia, in June 1864. They are transported to prisoner-of-war Camp Sumter, near Andersonville, Georgia. When they enter, they discover a former comrade, named Dick Potter, who explains the grim realities of daily existence in the camp – primarily the lack of shelter, clean water, and regular food supplies. He also states the danger of a rogue group of Union soldiers, called the "Raiders", who hoard the camp's meager rations, and lure unsuspecting "fresh fish" – newly captured soldiers – into their area of the camp, to attack and rob them.
With every able-bodied man required for fighting, young teenagers and old men are used as guards. At one watch tower, manned by two young guards, a Union soldier offers money for some corn. He is instructed to step over the "dead line" fence and approach the watch tower to trade, which contradicts the rules of the camp. But reluctantly, compelled by need, the soldier steps over the line, and (in a macabre type of game) the soldiers in the next watch tower shoot him dead.
As the story unfolds, the unit captured at the beginning of the film ally with some inmates, and help them by working on their tunnel under the stockade wall. Eventually it is complete, but one man tries to inform the guards, in hope of receiving a reward. He is captured and "TT" (meaning tunnel traitor) is cut into his forehead as a warning. The escape is attempted one night, and all goes well until the last man is spotted and shot, and the dogs are unleashed. In a very short time, most escapees are back in the camp and placed in standing stocks as punishment.
The situation with the Raiders eventually becomes unbearable, as group after group of new prisoners are targeted upon arrival. Night raids are made, with possessions being taken from tents and prisoners injured or killed by the Raiders. After a banjo is stolen, one man fights to get it back but is badly beaten. Things progressively get worse until finally one man decides he has seen enough of the "vultures out to rob and murder the new boys". He rallies support from the disparate groups, and within minutes hundreds of his comrades are charging the Raiders' camp. A massive and deadly riot ensues.
In the end the Raiders are beaten, stolen goods are redistributed to their owners, but many want them all hanged outright. But upon the insistence of a few, a request for a legitimate trial is made to Captain Wirz, the Confederate commander of the prison camp. A trial is held, with a jury made up of new internees, which ultimately results in the six ring-leaders being found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. After the executions life becomes relatively peaceful, but the cold reality of starvation, and lack of sanitation or medical care, begins to set in as emaciation, dysentery, scurvy, and fever take their toll, causing many to die. As the film ends, an announcement is made by Wirz that all prisoners are to be exchanged – the surviving Federal soldiers leave the camp, filing past their dead comrades on the way to the trains.
Against a view of the present-day Andersonville National Cemetery, the movie's end coda reads:
In 1864–5, more than 45,000 Union soldiers were imprisoned in Andersonville. 12,912 died there. The prisoner exchange never happened. The men who walked to the trains were taken to other prisons, where they remained until the war ended. After the war, Wirz was hanged, the only soldier to be tried and executed for war crimes committed during the Civil War. | murder | train | wikipedia | My opinion is that Andersonville is the best Civil War movie ever made, period.
As a former Civil War reenactor, I'm not going to sit here and nitpick at all the "mistakes." Were there mistakes?
You don't have to take a test after watching this movie!I think the REAL factor in Andersonville being such a great production was the fact that you had no real "name" people involved.
I think they got it pretty close.Forgive me, my reenacting brethern, but alhough Gettysburg was a tolerable film (I got to be an extra in that) and Gods and Generals was a disaster, the problem with these productions was the fact that they relied way too heavily on reenactors.
Andersonville followed Glory's success formula in using reenactors as background with small parts filled in by them (my buddy Martin Leibschner playing the banjo in the Raider camp was a good use of the talent reenactors can bring to film).Frankenheimer must be given a lot of credit, as should the writer.
Peter Murnik as Limber Jim added that "mystery character" to the film well (as the real Limber Jim who was at Andersonville is a mystery to history).
To try and recreate that place was no small task.I remember a reenactor bitching because for the "filling" of the stockade for the wide shots, they had to use women and even cardboard figures.
When they are dots on the screen, did it REALLY matter?I can't see this movie being topped in terms of a Civil War period piece.
Finally, the Civil War, down and dirty.
The movie Andersonville was one of intense drama.
That is what the Civil War was, and Andersonville was its worst.
The terrible suffering.Andersonville is set during the Civil War, in the south, in a Prisoner Of War camp run by the Confederate Army.
The best and the worst of humanity is shown in this film as the viewer is shown all ends of the spectrum of pain and suffering.Peter Murnik's character, Limber Jim, was the voice of conscience in this film.
In this film, Peter said so much without uttering a word.
His standing up to the injustice he witnessed and lived through, enabled his fellow prisoners to also rise up and change the world around them, as small as it was.In spite of the fact that this was a film and an artistic production, the real Andersonville shone through.
The viewer came away knowing the despair that the Union soldiers felt and lived.
There was no question that humanity, as a whole, had been wronged by the cruelty that took place at Andersonville.
The human race came away from Andersonville worse off for having realized that we could fall so far from the very civilization we pride ourselves on creating to treat other fellow human beings the way the Union soldiers were treated.Andersonville actually existed, and does so today as a Federal Park and tourist attraction.
The actors, staff and crew of Andersonville did such a magnificent job that anyone seeing this movie will know what it was like to have been there.
One of the best Civil War films Ever.
One of the best Civil War films Ever.
As a Civil War buff, this is one of my favorite films.
The closest thing to a romantic plot line would be when Martin speaks of his wife and asks Josiah to send her his wedding ring.If you enjoy war films that are not cluttered with cliche romantic plots and are more like buddy films this one is for you.
The acting is amazing, and the story if fresh look at a little known part of Civil War history.
The only problem with the film is time spent watching the men weaken and starve.
Those scenes could have been cut a bit, but overall they are needed in order to feel the despair of the men.The story and characters are completely enthralling and I recommend this film to everyone.
John Frankenheimer pain stakingly chronicles prisoners of war struggling to survive in an ill run Confederate prison camp during the Civil War. New prisoners are savagely introduced to the pecking order in this small pit of hell.
As a practicing Civil War re-enactor, I have found myself drawn into viewing this movie several times.
I have studied the true-life accounts left to us in the words of both Union and Confederate soldiers found in exerpts from the pages of their personal diaries, and in so doing, I have been able to combine this newly acquired knowledge with other experiences and studies related to this time period in our nation's history.
After doing this, I was then able to formulate unbiased opinions about the movie.We have to remember that the people of the middle nineteenth century were men and women just like us.
I felt that these natural human reactions and outlooks were well portrayed by the actors of the movie, "Andersonville"..
Andersonville reveals so much about human nature as clans of prisoners form and battle each other for limited resources, some become delusional and die in the throngs of madness, and others starve from sheer despair.
The complex characters in the film are its most compelling element, and their realism will convince the viewer that he is watching these scenes unfold from the guard tower.
It gets even better when you realize that 15,000 prisoners actually died in this camp in the Civil War..
This is a sobering, if perhaps a bit too long, recreation of life in the notorious Confederate Camp Sumter (better known as Andersonville after the neighbouring community) which housed almost 50000 Union prisoners of war during the last year and a half of the Civil War. I found it difficult to determine from what perspective the story was being told - which perhaps makes it a fairly balanced movie.
There's no doubt that the Confederate guards were portrayed as ruthless, and that Captain Henry Wirtz, the Camp's commander, was portrayed as both ruthless and perhaps a bit insane, but the bulk of the movie really deals with the problem of factionalism between the Union prisoners, as a group known as the "Raiders" establish their own ruthless control over the other prisoners, stealing from them, withholding supplies from them and sometimes murdering them.
The point at which the rest of the prisoners rebelled against them and finally, with Wirtz's approval, put them on trial, seemed to mark a transition in the movie.
After their trial and the execution of the ringleaders, the movie took on more of an air of hopelessness (and perhaps became a bit less interesting), as the prisoners await a liberation that, in the movie at least, never comes, as the movie ends with the prisoners being transferred to other prisons.The movie begins somewhat abruptly with Union soldiers captured in battle being sent into the hellhole that was Andersonville, but there was no real historical context given.
The whole Andersonville issue is historically controversial, and the movie alludes to the controversy, with Wirtz pleading with a Confederate colonel sent to inspect the camp for more supplies, and many today think Wirtz was unfairly condemned after the war for a situation that was largely out of his control.
Others complain that conditions in Union camps were also harsh, but that's neither here nor there for the purposes of evaluating this movie, which certainly presented a sobering enough look at the conditions in this particular camp - which was, after all, its purpose.The movie features not a stellar cast (there are some fairly well known faces, but no mega-stars) but a solid cast that did a pretty good job with their roles.
A Civil War Morality Tale....
"Andersonville" is John Frankenheimer's most pivotal step in his quest to regain a perch on Hollywood's "A" list of directors, and he is in true Frankenheimer form in this latest of TNT, Civil War-oriented mini-series.
Quite simply, it's about a group of Union soldiers and their span of a year doing hard time in the most infamous of Southern prison camps, and one of the most infamous of prison camps in recorded history, Andersonville, Georgia.
Andersonville the prison is literally a fenced-in cesspool of humanity: it's grossly overcrowded, there's not enough food to go around, there's no shelter from the heat or cold, the creek used for drinking water is the same used as a latrine by the camp's entire population, and, on top of all this, there's a vicious gang of marauding prisoner's that prey on their weaker counterparts, taking their clothing and what little food they may have for themselves.
I began watching this film expecting a smaller, tamer, less original version of "The Shawshank Redemption", and at several points you'll think likewise: we witness acts of both harsh brutality and stirring compassion, and follow our hero's as they decline physically and struggle to succeed morally.
What's interesting about this big-budget, well-hyped production, though, is that the entire cast are relative unknowns, the lead role being held by a young Broadway actor named Jarrod Emick, who's acting demonstrates he is just that: a Broadway actor.
look for a deliciously vicious role by Frederick Coffin as the evil prison gang's leader, and William Sanderson as his cowardly right hand man.
Macy as a Confederate prison inspector who discovers the camp's horrors and condemns it .
Even if you do not normally like 'films of this type', this film is worth watching or even studying, because of the overall excellence.
An admiration of the quality of this film is probably the reason that the brutal story that it portrays did not place a heavy or negative feeling upon me.
This film from John Frankenheimer however is one of the better ones.
A tale of imprisonment and survival inside the notorious Confederate POW camp known as Andersonville.
Civil War historians would probably with certainty find various historical inaccuracies but it is worth viewing although a tad on the long side.
Good performances from many of the cast but it seems Frederick Coffin and William Sanderson do the best job as two of the ring leaders of the camps vicious "Raiders" gang.
A must see for any Civil War fan..
Excellent Civil War movie..
This is one of my favorite Civil War movies ever.
Set in Andersonville prison in the last years of the Civil War, this movie follows the fate of a group of prisoners captured at Cold Harbor.
Superbly directed by John Frankenheimer, this movie was very well done, and all the actors involved did a great job.
Having recently visited Andersonville prison site, thoughts of this movie ran thru my head as I walked the grounds of the old stockade.
Movies like this help us remember the great sacrifices made by both the Blue and the Gray during our nations Civil War..
The American Civil War, and Union soldiers are imprisoned at Andersonville, a crude stockade establishment presided over by the inept and cruel Captain Henry Wirz.
It would prove to be a another dark and soul destroying chapter from the war.Lets get it out there right away, Andersonville was not the only hell hole prison operating during the American Civil War. Information from both sides of the coin is available on line for those wishing to explore further.
That said, Andersonville is a story that deserved and is needed to be told, and this John Frankenheimer directed two - parter brings it vividly into the viewers' lives.In filmic substance terms it has all the standard POW movie cliche's.
Macy.Yet even though 30 minutes could easily have been shaved off of the run time, Andersonville is a production that should stay with you.
This was a good Civil War movie.
This was a good Civil War movie.
It doesn't say so here but I'm pretty sure this was a made for TV movie?
The story focuses on the infamous Andersonville prisoner of war camp in the south during the Civil War, where starvation, cruelty and disease were rampant among the captured union soldiers.The movie holds back a lot, I think because it was made for TV like I said, and they obviously didn't put tons of money into it, but the story is good and the acting is quite good which elevates this to a higher rating.
He sent me 6 gorgeous pictures of my cousin's grave, of the whole cemetery, the dead house, and the 6 buried off to the side.
When we showed him the movie, and Cliff De Young tells one of the soldiers to be quiet, because of the tunnel?
He shouted out; TOBIAS!
It was fine to me, because my great great great grandmother's maiden name was Tobias..
Good movie, some electric acting and action scenes, but drifts into the arena of silly on more than a handful of occasions.Gotta disagree with some of "historynut"'s points....for one, I think the TV Guide review of this film hit the nail on the head with regards to the acting: "the performances have the subtlety of sports broadcasting".
And that excludes Jan Triska's performance as Captain Wirtz, which I think stole the film along with William Sanderson and Freddy Coffin.
Where it slips away from him seem to be the stunts...check out the prisoner v.s. raider brawl, led by Limber Jim. There's some play-fighting going on that has not been seen since my high school production of West Side Story.And as far as past reenactor usage in film...I agree they were used well in Glory.
There was a FAR more strict screening process in the casting of onscrean reenactors than in "Gettysburg" (I, too, participated in that film).
When reenactors were chosen to "get hit", they were then properly coached in how to take a death fall, and placed strategically away from the actors and stuntmen.
"Gods and Generals" also had a much higher production value than here, but that goes with the huge budget the film had..
Awesome - The Title For That Great Movie Should Also read War Is All Hell.
For a long time, I was rather suspicious about this movie, despite my lifelong interest in the US Civil War theme.
The movie seemed to be bland, long, vapid, without stellar cast, or rather grim.
It lasts for almost 3 hours, and yet, it is one of The best movies I have ever seen for along, long time.
This movie must be shown to all those who like to think that was is fun and action.
The movie is long, but never wastes a second of a precious time.
The brilliantly made casting, with such greats as Willaim Macy or Mr. Forrester among many, helps to build a great tension and produce a lasting impression - war is all hell.
The terrible fate of Andersonville prison camp inmates is shown so brutally vivid, so real, so true to life that nothing of an illusion remains whatsoever.
I like this tremendous film, it is Highly Recommended.
The hell that was Andersonville.
To this day Andersonville will connote unspeakable barbarism and suffering in a prisoner of war camp.
Yet one has to note that part of the problem was the lack of resources the Confederacy had to maintain prison facilities like Andersonville or Libby.Before Ulysses S.
No big names are in Andersonville, but that added to the realism.
Standing out are Frederic Forrest as the Massachusetts sergeant who sees his men the best he could, William Coffin as the head of the 'Raiders', and his second in command William Sanderson the last word in bottom feeders and young Blake Heron as a drummer boy prisoner.One thing that producer Ted Turner did not do was get too explicit as to just what young Heron might have had to deal with among a bunch of isolated and starving men.
Then again this was a made for TV movie, on the big screen prison rape might have been dealt with.Andersonville is an excellent production, a must see film for anyone even mildly interested in the American Civil War..
Civil War POWs survive war inside camp.
I believe this is one of the best and most fair-minded Civil War movies ever made.
The actors all give a first-rate performance, and the director keeps the movie focused and on track, without laying blame to either side.
Most of the movies facts are historically accurate and the dialog reproduces (in my opinion) the attitudes of the times.The Raiders were a historical reality, and the trial and subsequent execution were unique during the Civil War. While many parts of the movie are memorable, the most poignant scene is at the end when one of the major characters is buried in the cemetery.
Seeing nearly 13,000 headstones of real-life prisoners who died at Andersonville really puts the film in perspective..
I saw this film when it first came out 1996, and for all its flaws it's always had a special place with me - especially among the more romantic / heroic Civil War stories - for telling a story few of us have heard.
I've recently watched the film again having just returned from a trip that included a visit to the actual site near Americus, GA.
Read the real history of this camp and the history of the Union equivalent in Elmira, New York.
Having looked forward to seeing this film for quite a while, I was quite let down when I finally managed to view it.
Andersonville is a story that needed to be told, but this telling of the tale rattles and rambles trying to find its sense of direction.
It could have been, and deserved to be, so much more.So unless you really have to see a movie about this notorious prisoner of war camp, I'd give this one a miss..
Big fan of American Civil War era films here, and this one is close to perfect.
This is the "Nazi concentration camp" story of the American Civil War. Be ready for lots of sadness at the utter inhumanity displayed. |
tt0150111 | Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror | A group of teenagers become lost in middle America and arrive in Divinity Falls, where forgotten children have taken on the duty of serving "He Who Walks Behind the Rows". The teenagers have less than a week to get out of the town. However, they find that their car is destroyed, and the children are held accountable. Alison, the leader of the teenagers, overhears that the children are the adopted wards of Luke Enright, a madman who considers himself the savior of the children, and the earthly representative of He Who Walks Behind The Rows. Upon remembering that her brother is also among them, Alison and the rest decide to go to Enright's farm to discover the truth behind the bizarre cult.
Upon arrival, they are stopped by Ezekial, who could be considered the leader of the children, and he informs them they are on private property and must leave. (In Christianity, Ezekiel is told to have seen wheels of fiery light in the sky.) After a debate, Alison is finally allowed to see Luke. He informs her that her brother is there, and agrees to let her see him, only to be rejected by him for leaving him alone with their abusive father. Jacob informs her that he is engaged to be married to a girl named Lily, and also states that she is pregnant with his child. Meanwhile, the rest of Allison's group are kept outside, where the men are intimidated by a physically-powerful and exceptionally-tall teen named Jared.
Ezekial holds a ceremony for the annual sacrifice to He Who Walks Behind the Rows, which involves a child who has reached 18 years of age to leap into a flaming corn silo where the god is supposed to dwell. Jacob is chosen, but he refuses and tells Ezekiel that his religion is false, angering him. Kir, one of the "outsiders", agrees to become a part of the cult after reading a part of their "Bible" earlier. After Jacob attempts to leave, Kir chooses to take the fateful course, and climbs to the silo and leaps to a fiery demise. The rest of the group wishes to leave the town, but Alison refuses to leave without Jacob. They leave her, and she eventually reads a message Jacob left her in his Bible. It translates to "Help", and she realizes he wants to escape. She enlists the help of the sheriff to stop Luke and Ezekial.
Greg, who has developed a crush on Alison, chooses to go back and help her and the rest decide to go as well. Alison, with the aid of the sheriff and the fire department, attempt to stop the silo and arrest Luke. While trying to extinguish the silo, the flames come alive and kill the two fire fighters and Luke kills the sheriff and apparently himself after his head splits open and a burst of flame shoots through. Ezekial reveals that Luke had been dead for years, and he is the children's true leader. After killing two of the deranged kids, Alison meets her friends, and an all-out battle erupts between them and the kids ending with the deaths of everyone except Alison. Alison eventually finds her brother (captured by Ezekiel for disobeying him), and before dying he tells her how to stop the corn god. Ezekial tries to kill Alison, but after a struggle she sends him falling into the silo to a violent, fiery death. She then dumps fertilizer into the silo, killing the corn god in multiple explosions.
Alison then goes to Lily's house (Jacob's wife). Lily's parents tell Alison that Lily isn't ready to raise a baby because she is a baby herself. Lily tells Alison that it's for the best that she adopts her baby. As the film ends, the baby is seen being comforted by song, as the green-orange light of the silo fire is shown burning in his eyes. | cult, murder | train | wikipedia | Unlike many people who apparently don't like the Children of the Corn sequels, I happen to believe this is the best one of the series, I simply love this film, I think it is a great Slasher flick, not scary, just lots of fun, the cast was atractive,it was well acted, it has several familiar faces and there was MORE blood and special effects THAN in a lot of recent mainstream movies..
"Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror" is the fifth in the series, and actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be.
This film is about a group of teenage friends who happen to be driving through a small midwestern town that is home to more of the evil child cult.
We had some good cameo appearance by David Carradine, an evil supporter of the cult, and Kane Hodder (who played Jason in some of the "Friday the 13th" films) in a minor role of a local bartender.
I really didn't the movie was that bad though.Overall, this isn't as good as "Part IV: The Gathering" was (in my opinion at least) but it was an alright follow up.
"Children of the Corn 5:Fields of Terror" is actually better than the following entry "Children of the Corn 666".The acting is pretty good and the cameos by Fred Williamson,David Carradine and Kane Hodder are nice to see.The pacing is decent and there's a bit of gore.So if you like slasher/splatter movies give this one a look-I still think that Fritz Kiersch's "Children of the Corn" is the best of the series!My rating:6 out of 10..
This one is the best so far, by far, it actually holds your interest unlike the other films with the exception of part III that holds your interest all the way up to the lamest ending of all times.
There are 4 characters that we concentrate on all the way 'til the end of the movie which has the best ending in the series with more excitment muck like "Children Of The Corn II: The Final Sacrifice" 's ending.
New kid in the cornfield Adam Wylie (as Ezeekial) receives a blast of fire and becomes "Children of the Corn" leader.
The main star is Stacy Galina (as Allison), who has an actual connection to the "Children of the Corn" series in that her brother left home, saying he was going to join "He who walks behind the rows." Leading man is Alexis Arquette (as Greg).
The familiar ending suggests more of the same.**** Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (6/21/98) Ethan Wiley ~ Stacy Galina, Alexis Arquette, Greg Vaughan, Eva Mendes.
The film features a young Eva Mendes' in her first movie.
Mendes follows in the footsteps of Charlize Theron and Naomi Watts.We have some great roles filled by Kane Hodder (as a bartender), Fred Williamson (a sheriff) and David Carradine (a prophet and savior).
I think Stephen King appears as a drunk guy...I am still confused how this series was allowed to carry on for so long, but at least this one is saved by some good cameos and a fine special effects shot of a splitting head with a fireball inside.
Also, little Adam Wylie needs a lot more acting lessons.What this series needs is more titanic battles, more ambivalent leads, more esoteric lore and simply more imagination on the part of the writers (plural).
With the X-Files series running for 5 years now, I think there has been an over-exposure of horror, and what could shock in a movie a decade ago, now is something you're likely to see for free on week night television..
What's worse about this film is the fact the kids now have an adult leader who "cares for them": Luke Enright played by David Carradine.
I like David Carradine fine so that's not my problem - it's just the kids are suppose to have another child leader/prophet and not a *special* adult to supervise - that really takes away from the heart-line of the story.More to rag on: The 4 20-somethings...
This is going way off base again.They also stretched out the ending way to long - I didn't care for it.I will say there are a couple of okay scenes in this one and I did chuckle at the campy deaths (again) and dingy moments of the main characters.3/10.
Four friends end up in a seemingly deserted (and dangerous) town after crashing their car near at cornfield in Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror.
Flash forward a year from then, and the little boy Ezekiel(who hasn't aged) is in charge of the other children in town similar to Isaac in the first film, Micah in II, Eli in III and Josiah in IV.
Children of the Corn 5 is a pretty good installment to the film series.
Instead of ending it in the cornfields with the survivor walking away (which usually happens), it takes us a little further in time and concludes the film in an interesting way.
So far ,I have enjoyed the other 4 movies, at the moment 3rd is my favourite.Now I just see Children of The Corn 5 - Fields of Terror (1998)This movie was really dull for me, It had some descent well know actors in this movie, as well,The acting was good!
,there 3 points for thatThe story and the plot was really dull and I can't believe that a Hour went pass and nothing scary actually happened or anything too draw me into the drama .There was only one scenes, had some nice gory deaths and the final showdown was really boring and to quick!The ending was way to cheesy and it did not fit in with the rest of the movie as I did not find the rest of this movie cheesy.2 out of 10 for me this is the worst of the series so far!.
Before I start getting complaints, or at least dumbfounded looks, from people who strongly disagree with my rating, I should explain a number of ways in which I'm biased here:* I'm an easy date when it comes to horror films in general--as long as they're technically competent, they're almost guaranteed a 5 out of 10 from me.
The more horror films the better if you ask me, and never-ending series seem to agree with me.
* I'm a big fan of "B-movie" warhorses like David Carradine and Fred Williamson.And aside from those biases, this isn't at all a bad film, even if it can be a bit predictable.
It's consistent with the Children of the Corn mythos--in so far as the mythos makes sense in general--and also extends it nicely.
Children of the Corn movies can get sooooooooooo annoying, but I didn't mind this one too much.
Stacy Galina, Alexis Arquette, Eva Mendes, Greg Vaughan, Ahmet Zappa, and David Carradine were all pretty good.
I also have seen Eva Mendes in Urban Legends: Final Cut, which is another recommended horror film.
I also enjoyed how they carried over a bit of plot from the original Night Shift story with the pregnant girl Lily and the demonic(Possibly, we'll see in upcoming films) baby.
Having jack all to do with the previous four films (much like part 4 had jack all to do with the previous three), this strictly by-the-numbers slasher film is chock full of idiot 'teenagers' doing moronic things (IE going into cornfields alone, staying at abandoned houses, etceteras) is only notable whatsoever in somehow getting David Carradine, and Kane Hodder involved in this travesty.
Children of the Corn V Fields of Terror: Worst one yet.
This one failed to live up to my already low expectations despite the fact it had the best opening advantage from the start.You see Field Of Terror has a very impressive cast and was Eva Mendes very first movie role.
It also stars Jason Voorhees himself Kane Hodder, acting legend Fred Williamson, Charmed actor Greg Vaughan, auto erotic asphyxiation aficionado David Carradine and late Arquette acting family member Alexis.Its also apparent that the movie had a higher budget, unless of course it was all spent on that roster.It once again tells the story of the evil children controlled by He Who Walks Behind The Rows!
Though this time it gives no explanation how they came to be for the umpteence time.Sadly the plot is really quite poor, the execution is slow and lacking and the whole movie comes across really dull which is one thing I didn't expect.
Maybe the Children of the Corn candle is burning out, this is the fifth movie after all.
It just surprises me that 5 movies in the film gets a solid cast and fails to utilize them.Definetly a weak link.The Good:Interesting cast ensembleArquettes final sceneThe Bad:Really quite boringNaff endingThings I Learnt From This Movie:If the franchise's movies followed on as a proper series they'd have likely been more successfulNobody taught the lead actress to hold babies heads up.
I think the part where Ezekiel kills the man and says "the corn field belongs to us!" is class!
This is the first in the series to approach the material in a more tongue-in-cheek way, which is both a good and bad thing.The good thing; it's refreshing to actually laugh at the jokes rather than at some tacky lines this series is well known for.The bad thing; it's comic angle completely takes away the eeriness, which is kinda the point to Children of the Corn.This is definitely one the least violent in the series, because of its teen-comedy style.
I'm still not too sure how much I like this at the moment (can I accept it not being an eery film as I hoping for, I mean Wiley certainly did an admirable job, he didn't just make a clone, he created something different, but is that its problem?).
No, I think I'll accept it, to a point, but anyway one thing's for sure, it's far superior to the trash that is Children of the Corn IV..
Teenage horror meets the Children of the Corn..
The Children of the Corn-series is by no means a great series but still I never quite understood the extremely low ratings all of the movie received here on IMDb. Surely there are far worse genre series and movies to watch out there, though I also must say that this movie is the least one of the series that I've seen so far.Basically the movie adds too little to the long running series.
There are no real surprises, when you've seen one or more movies out of the series already.
It tries to be more different with its approach and characters this time.Horror movies always have been very popular with teenagers.
It's also the reason why there are lots of movies out there that feature teenage characters in the lead roles.
This Children of the Corn entry also felt to need to step in on this horror movie making trend, by throwing in a couple of high school student characters into the Children of the Corn franchise.
It's all pretty pointless, since it adds so little new or interesting to the franchise and as a matter of fact only brings the movie down even more.Horror-wise this movie is also obviously lacking.
Also Kane Hodder and David Carradine show up in some small roles and also they feel pretty pointless but this is probably also due to the overall story, which just seemed pretty pointless in general.All in all, another really pointless sequel within the Children of the Corn franchise, that really seemed to run out of good ideas pretty early on in the series already.
Children of the Corn V (1998) * 1/2 (out of 4) Fifth film in the series is once again a different direction but that doesn't mean it's going to work.
This leads to a strange home ran by a man named Luke (David Carradine) who is using the children to start a new cult.
In the end, this film offers nothing new or entertaining and its 83-minute running time goes way too slowly..
That is helped by what the earlier in the film, such as the children's actions against them in the cornfields being quite chilling and incredibly well-done to building up the actions of the cult as well as the rather fun scare tactics against them, which includes them toying with the car as well as the scares from the hotel sequences.
This one also has some rather fun sequences with the children running around attacking them, as the opening stalking scene through the cornfields is great, the sequence through the house where they each spy something off in the distance is pretty creepy at times and the different fights amongst the kids out in the fields with a rather fun encounter with a live flaming tower of fire being the most enjoyable and are all the more fun due to the explosions, gunfights, fight- fights and more going through the rest of the scene.
Even later moments, such as the wanting to join a cult based upon reading a Bible-sized book in a couple hours or the basic idea of the cult, sacrificing themselves at the age of eighteen with no exceptions makes very little sense, as does anything else in the film.
The other flaw to this one is the fact that the previous entries in the series had the cult's god as a worm-like creature, which is quite different from what's presented here.
It's certainly not painful to watch like most of the Children of the Corn flicks.
It has a decent plot, decent acting, and actually accomplishes more than a lot of the alleged horror movies of today.I'm no Children of the Corn fan.
This movie had alot more gore than Children of the corn's: 666, and Relavation, and it's alot more entertaining.It is not as scary as the fourth one was.
The leader in this film was different and what annoyed the hell out of him was people coming into corn!I like it in the end when the women is holding a baby , and when it opened it's eyes , here we go again, the corn field is calling!7/10..
This movie is about 4 young adults following some friends to Gatlin so Allison can find her brother.
I dont know why poeple critisis this films,this film was awesome!Im probably the biggest Children Of The Corn Fan there is.Poeple if you dont like them so much then why do you keep renting them when they come out?I know why,its because you do like them your just afraid to admit,because someone might think your crazy.These movies are the best horror films ever made (this one was the best).I cant wait till 6 which comes out on video and DVD on October 19th..
it was a little cheesy,but it was still the best in the series.The actors did very well in this movie.It was one of those predictable B-grade films,but good if u like that kind of horror movie.I just wish this would be the LAST one in the series..
Best of the series!Very good plot,well put together..
That hardly ever happens in horror flicks anymore....or not enough, anyway.I loved ALL the Corn films.
At best, this is a very so-so horror, but by Children of the Corn standards, it's the very top.
Good effects, and some suspense, but mediocre to bad acting, and a terrible plot, not to mention a horrible performance from David Carradine.
In conclusion, this sequel to the long running "Children of the Corn" movies should have stayed on the page..
I've seen all the 'Children Of The Corn' films before this except for part 3.
I think this group of kids is the most vicious I've seen in a COTC movie since part 1.
Later on the girl finds her brother and realizes that hes in danger when he gives her a coded message written in the corn kids cult book.
In fact after Kira kills herself, the film starts to get creepy and picks up steam after explaning a few things before that about the cult and how adults are viewed as corrupters of children.
Anyway the last 20 minutes has some great fight/chase scenes and one confusing scene where Ezekiel tells Allison that he put Luke to good use as their leader and then a flash of light comes from the corn silo at which Ezekiel turns around to see what the flash was giving our heroine Allison time to escape shotgu in hand.
The fight scene between Allison and Ezekiel was pretty good.
Ezekiel using his powers to ressurrect Luke as a puppet to use as the kids caregiver so as not to arouse any suspicion from the towns people or the police as to their true intentions was a good plot point added in by the writers.
Children of the corn actually isn't that bad and even adds back some of the original plot points that made The first three great.The fifth involves a small group of this kids this time who are trying to provide offerings to the corn god by setting traps and killing cross country drivers.The occult book is back even serving a purpose this time and he who walks behind the tiers takes the form of fire.
Oh, and there are some children, who worship some "that who walks behind the clouds" (hahaha, not funny, I know, that's movies joke, not mine), but that's not important in this movie, seriously you could add any slasher horror flick plot here and it would have made as much sense as this one, I enjoyed every movie in these series up to this point, but not this one, sorry, this one isn't COTC, not by a long-shot..
I am reading comments of other people, how cool it was, good plots, good scenes and I am saying to myself - these folks must be pure horror movies lovers. |
tt0113188 | Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain | In June 1980, Beth Easton (Christina Ricci) and her recently widowed mother, Kate (Polly Draper) move from Los Angeles to a small town in northern Washington, where they move into Kate's aunt's farmhouse. At first, Beth misses L.A. and resents their new life in the country. In town, she encounters Jody Salerno (Anna Chlumsky), a troubled but free-spirited teenager who has a bad reputation in the town. While riding her bike the next day, Beth is forced off the road by a semi-truck, and plummets down a steep ravine, crashing her bicycle into a river, where Jody is fishing.
Kate attempts to ingratiate Beth with two local girls, Tracy (Ashleigh Aston Moore) and Samantha (Jewel Staite), and while they are picking berries at the house, Beth encounters Jody, who has been hiding in a tree and throwing cherries at them. Tracy and Samantha warn Beth against associating with Jody, but Beth joins her on a walk through the woods. The next day when they are walking together, Jody tells Beth she has an adventure planned for the following day, and asks Beth to meet her outside the local high school. Jody fails to show, and a local cop, Matt (Brian Kerwin) offers her a ride to Jody's house. Jody's mother, Lynette (Diana Scarwid) answers the door, appearing shaken and inebriated, and tells Beth that Jody isn't home.
Matt brings Beth home, and realizes that he is an old acquaintance of her mother's. Beth receives a phone call from Jody, who directs her into the forest outside her house. She explains that she hid from Matt and Beth at the high school because she had broken in and stolen candy from the vending machines; she then tells Beth the story of Molly Morgan, a female miner who purportedly died in a mine collapse in Bear Mountain while searching for gold. The girls board a motorized boat which Jody has hidden along the river, and ride downstream and into the mountain, where she has set up a makeshift living space in the cavern entryway. Jody confesses to Beth that her mother and her mom's abusive boyfriend, Ray (David Keith), had gotten into a fight the night before, and that Jody may have fatally wounded him after he chased her into the woods.
Beth urges Jody to go to the police, and a rainstorm approaches. As the girls try to leave the cave, there is a collapse of boulders, which destroy the boat and pin Beth to the cave floor. Jody swims out of the cave and down the river, making it safely past a grizzly bear and to a road where she crosses paths with a sheriff. Beth is rescued just in time, as the water level has slowly risen inside the cave. At the hospital, Jody is confronted by Ray, who is still alive to the surprise of Jody and Beth.
Kate forbids Beth to spend time with Jody, but she appears at a Fourth of July picnic and divulges her plan to return to the mountain to get the gold. Kate eventually decides to let Beth see Jody, and they drive to Jody's house the next day. Inside, they find Lynette, beaten and incoherent, and no sign of Ray or Jody. Lynette is taken to the hospital and Beth insists to Matt that they go to the mountain, believing that Ray took Jody there. Beth assists Matt to the caves, but the two are separated inside. Beth finds Jody, who tells her that a drunken Ray beat her and forced her to take him to find the gold.
Beth goes back to find Matt, and Jody is grabbed from behind by whom she believes is Ray— when she turns around, she finds it is an elderly woman, who then recedes into the shadows. Ray appears and attempts to grab Jody, but is hit over the head with a shovel by the elderly woman, who is ostensibly Molly Morgan. Beth returns to find Jody and Ray, unconscious, but Molly has disappeared. Matt finally finds Beth and Jody and Ray is arrested. Lynette recovers in the hospital and Jody accepts her apologies.
In late August, Matt arrives at Beth's house, and brings her, Kate, Jody, and Lynette to the courthouse, where an attorney is representing an anonymous client who has bestowed a gift to the girls. They are given two bags, each containing gold, and are cheered and applauded by the town citizens including Tracy and Samantha. | good versus evil | train | wikipedia | Being a teenager this was a very good movie, and christina ricci is one of my absolute favorite actresses so it was a great movie for me and my friends to watch on a saturday night with a bowl of popcorn and a few sodas, go see it!!.
In fact, I don't know why I let this movie go for so long before getting it myself and watching it because it is very good -- a fantastic adventure and enough suspense to keep you watching it all the way through (at least the 1st time).When this movie aired on the Wonderful World of Disney this past Sunday night (June 11, 2000) I watched it for the first time to preview it.
I was also trying to do something else at the time, but it was so good that I could only continue what I was doing during commercial breaks.The next day, I just had to go out and find it on video to add it to my own video library and then I watched it again later that night and one more time the next night.
This is real good movie to watch over and over again, though, seeing it the 1st time is the best.To sum all this up in a few words, this movie has surely become one of my favorites and will most probably be a heavily played video, too!
I have seen this movie 20 times at least ,probably more..
I absolutely love this movie it made me cry the first 5 times I watched it.
I think this movie should get 20 stars out of 10, I have seen this movie so many times I have every single word of it memorized, this movie deals with so many issues we face today, and even though it was make in 1995 doesn't mean it's an old fogie movie that doesn't deserve the time of day, just trust me I have seen it enough times to know!
I think that if you are looking for a movie to sit down and watch and not want it to be over then you have found the right movie Gold Diggers can make you laugh, cry, and wonder what's going to happen next all at the same time!
So if you have yet to see this wonderful movie don't pass it up, go see it now!
I loved this movie but then I guess I love anything Christina Ricci is in.
But this is great for family time it is the mini- Indiana Jones and it was set in the pacific norhtwest that in itself gives it high marks..
I have seen this movie many times, watched it over and over and I never get sick of it.
A brilliant family movie that children will especially love for the adventure, fun, and triumph that it presents..
one of the best movies I've seen.
This is a movie that should be viewed by everyone because it is a true testament to what friends will do for one another without question.
Anna Chlumsky gives one of her best performances as Jody Salerno and Christina Ricci shines in her role as Beth Easton.
However, along the way they encounter problems that will test their friendship.I enjoyed and appreciate how the director took his time to focus the story more on the development of Jody and Beth's friendship instead of just searching for the gold.
One of the best examples was when Beth was trapped in the mountain and Jody went for help.
No matter who was in trouble or who was getting pucked on, they stuck together.I was thrilled to see a movie that is a change of pace from what has come out, which has come out recently.
I highly recommend this film because it shows the true meaning of friendship.
A Wonderful Family Movie.
Beth( Christina Ricci) and her mother Kate( Polly Draper) have just moved from L.A, to a small town where Kate's aunt used to live.
Beth becomes friends with this girl Jody( Anna Chlumsky).
Beth doesn't listen to those story's, she likes Jody no matter what people tell her.
One day, the two of them head out to this Bear Mountain that supposedly still carries gold.
But a accident happens to Beth and it is up to Jody to save her life.
This is a wonderful movie, I enjoyed it a lot.
Christina Ricci and Anna Chlumsky were great.
I would give Gold Diggers:The Secret Of Bear Mountain 8.5/10.
Okay I decided to sit down and watch this because I have seen both leading actresses in movies that have shown me they are pretty versatile actresses.
So even without giving a damn about the plot I decided to sit down and watch it because I was convinced the actresses would carry it.The plot is that a city girl named Beth (Christina Ricci) moves to a country town and her father is dead (If you've seen Casper, you'll find that a little surreal).
She eventually meets a tomboy named Jody (Anna Chlumsky) who I think is meant to be a kleptomaniac.
Over time they seem to develop a bond as friends and Jody tells Beth that she knows of a mountain that used to be mined that may still have gold in it and it all ties into a girl the same age as them living around that time called Molly Morgan.Okay so this is pretty much the same family/adventure movie that you may have seen at least once before.
What really ties this movie together though is the 2 leads.
They do have believable chemistry as friends and that really is the focus of the film - it's the friendship.With that said I just feel that this movie tries to fall into the climax that again, you would have bound to see in any movie at least once.
I mean did this movie really need a climax?
I don't even think it needed the whole "Gold at Bear Mountain" thing.
If you haven't seen these 2 in other movies nor care for them as actors then this could carry a risk of you not liking this movie.
So this movie is worth it, just for fans of Christina Ricci and Anna Chlumsky..
teases great adventure.
Recent widower Kate Easton (Polly Draper) moves her daughter Beth (Christina Ricci) from L.A. to Wheaton, Washington into the farm inherited from her aunt.
Beth struggles with small town life and befriends tomboy black sheep Jody Salerno (Anna Chlumsky).
Jody has a troubled home life with mother Lynette (Diana Scarwid) and her boyfriend Ray Karnisak (David Keith).
Jody tells Beth about Bear Mountain and the legend of gold miner Molly Morgan.This starts great with two charismatic child actresses in an outdoors adventure that is often left for the boys.
They even get on a boat like all great adventures.
What starts as a great adventure turns into a melodrama.
The Best Movie about friendship!.
Don't expect to like this movie if you are over 18, of course you might still LOVE it like I did.
It also shows a great friendship between two young girls!.
Gold Diggers: Secret of Bear Mountain is a very good film.
A great big adventure!
Christina Ricci and Anna Chlumsky did a wonderful job!
This movie is very good!
This movie is very good!
I usually love all the movies Christina Ricci is in such as "Sleepy Hollow", "Casper", "That Darn Cat", etc.
I enjoyed all of those movies as well as this one!
The story outline was terrific, the acting was great, and the filming was fabulous!
You should definetly watch this movie!
I love this movie!
This movie drags and drags, and has well, about 0 good qualities.
The plot is lame and very forced, the acting is bad at best, and the story is quite predictable.
If you are looking for good "family" entertainment there are tons of other options.
However, if you are looking to torture yourself and/or others, then check this movie out...it's something that you'll never forget, though more than likely you'll wish you could..
If you have seen this movie, I am very sorry.
If you haven't seen this movie, don't go out of your way to see it.
Before Christina Ricci was truly established as the screen's indie queen, it seems that she mostly starred in what were viewed as family movies.
"Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain" is a prime example.
I'll give the movie that.Also starring Polly Draper, Diana Scarwid (Christina in "Mommie Dearest") and David Keith (Drew Barrymore's father in "Firestarter")..
I absolutely love this movie, it's fun, heartwarming and it's a great movie for all the family, the first time i come across this film on video, when it was on sale at my local video store, the first time as saw it i through it was pure brilliance and fabulous acting from talented people.
it's adventurous and just the movie that every kid wants to watch.
There's not many movies like this come out today, it's a real joy to watch and in fact, I'm going to give my video of this to my younger cousin's as I'm sure they will enjoy this fantastic film.
overall i believe the people behind this movie did a wounderful job and i fell it's one of a kind..
This movie is rich in friendships!.
This movie is a true gem!
Two fine actresses who make a fine team: Christina Ricci(The Addams Family movies, Casper, and Now and Then) and Anna Chlumsky(Vada on "My Girl 1&2").
Beth(Ricci) is a city girl who meets Jody(Chlumsky) rough and tumble tomboy who seek "lost treasure".
The other girls don't trust Jody, but Beth pays no mind to them.
They ride on a rickety boat, which Beth is at the helm, while Jody gets down to The Bee Gees' "You Should Dancin'" which I think is the best scene I ever enjoyed.
Jody's stepfather is a bigger gold digger than the daughter, and Beth doesn't trust him at all.
The real fortune to me was the bond, and the trust Jody and Beth has formed.
This movie is a steal, but the rewards of watching it is worth a fortune!
Love this movie, just ordered the DVD..
Watched this the first time this morning on HBO and LOVED IT!!!
Just ordered the DVD to watch it again when I want to!!
The friendship between the girls is right on, reminds me of being young!
Will recommend it to family and friends, and even let them borrow the DVD I just ordered!
I know there are family members who will enjoy it, especially since the whole family can watch it together.
I have four Grandchildren now, so nice to have a good, clean movie for them to watch..
I have gold diggers the secret of bear mountain in WIDESCREEN!.
As you other fans of this great movie know, the movie is on VHS and in fullscreen and, of course the VHS is long out of print.
I know you,as well as I am waiting and waiting for Universal to finally release this beloved movie to DVD!
I am lucky enough to have the VERY rare laserdisc of this wonderful movie and it is in widescreen.
I just recently put it to DVD and you know, I cannot get enough of watching this wonderful movie!!
I have been truly enjoying the full beauty of the widescreen version as this version is just how the film makers wanted you to see this movie.Each day I find myself watching this movie.
Laserdiscs were at the time they were made the top home theater thing and were expensive too.So now, since I have transfered the laserdisc to DVD I can enjoy the DVD over and over and it is so wonderful!!!
The laserdisc of gold diggers the secret of bear mountain is a very rare laserdisc and, I am very happy I have it and, now have it on DVD-R.
The laserdisc player I have is the type with all the bells and whistles and so, because of this, it assures that the picture quality coming from that laserdisc will make the best picture quality it can give when I put it to DVD-R.Anyways I just wanted to share all this with you because I am just on such a high about this movie and truly love this movie, and to me, its kinda like a cult movie and I know there are many others who adore this movie.I also love this movie because of Beth, she is so sweet and has an innocence about her and, no matter how many times I watch her, I cannot get enough of her.I hope when Universal finally does release this movie to DVD , that they make it a special edition and,even a director's cut because there was other scenes filmed but not used and, you see a few of these cut scenes in the trailer.So,all of us who truly love this movie, lets hope so much that Universal will release a super edition of this movie to DVD!!
The story started out okay: A teenager from the big city moves to a small town and begins a friendship with the girl no one likes, who is physically abused by her stepfather.
Then both of them decide to set out to find gold on Bear Mountain.However, early in the movie, it takes a turn for the worse: it starts looping in an endless chain of clichés, which I'd like to point out.(WARNING: the following might be a spoiler for whoever hasn't seen the movie.)When Beth can't use the breaks on her bicycle, she screams for Jody to get out of the way - however, she refuses to take this advice, and runs forward - and faster than the bike - and falls in the river.Later, Jody tells Beth that she found an old book with the story of Molly Morgan.
Yet, no one ever went searching before.Jody and Beth wait on the boat for the exact time when the sunlight will bounce off the gold and reveal the mine (for only ten minutes).
Coincidently, the beam lands EXACTLY where the girls have their boat - and the it looks amazingly like a spotlight.Jody moves in to the cave - which has naturally formed stone furniture - and reveals to Beth that she killed her stepfather the previous night - with a fishing pole - and says that she was sure he wasn't breathing.
It was her LEG that was stuck.Jody never tells the police that her stepfather abuses her - even though she has the bruises to prove it.In the scene where Beth tries to find Jody in the mountain, she finds a particular cave with awesome lights moving on the walls.
These lights are revealed to be reflected by the natural - and lapidated - crystals in that cave.Jody and Beth find the gold!
Golden, glowing larvae.And finally, Molly Morgan appears and saves them both from Jody's stepfather.
Then, later, Jody and Beth receive a pack of gold from a lawyer "whose client wishes to remain anonymous".
But it's never explained how Molly Morgan has a lawyer - and just why she gave that gold to the girls..
I have grown to love this film and who have seen this film a zillion times.
This movie is based on what friendship really means.The film takes place back in 1980 where Beth Easton(played by Christina Ricci) moves to a small town up north with her mother.
There she meets the towns "trouble maker" Jody Salerno(played by Anna Chlumsky) who is right at home in the woods surrounding her.
Eventually Beth finds out from the towns people that Jody is impossible to become friends and to not be trusted.
Beth somehow sees behind this and how she could be the link to finding adventure.
Together they discover a legendary women who possibly hid gold in a cave called Bear Mountain.
With there friendship growing more as they trace the steps in finding the gold there becomes a set back.Jody who is symbolized as the bad girl in town is revealed as the girl who is a victim of child abuse from her mom's alcoholic boyfriend.
And with an incident that leads Jody no choice to leave the town.
Beth pleads to Jody to just come out and tell the truth.
But with a plan that is set becomes to change again to where Jody has to save Beth from drowning who is stuck underneath a rock and a tide that's fast approaching.
It's a race between time for Jody to stop thinking of herself and to go the extra mile for her friend.
Jody does come through for Beth, but soon it is Beth who is to return the favor and show the towns people that Jody is not who they all think she is.
With a stash of gold waiting to be found it's a race of finding that true friend who will go through that extra mile.
It's not just about finding treasure, its about loyalty and caring for your best friend.
Some really good history flash back scenes of Molly Morgan.The connection with the characters were excellent,it really gets you involved in the film.
Its really good to see how Beth and Jody develop as they are together.
Jody becomes very caring when Beth is in trouble.
Also Beth becomes a lot more adventures like Jody.Anna Chlumpsky and Christina Riccy did very well for the parts of Beth and Jody.
The only two actresses that weren't brilliant were the two girls that Beth met after first meeting Jody, they were average but not amazing.The direction was excellent by Kevin James Dobson, some really good long shots of scenery.There are some cheesy moments in the film, for example the beam of light that shines from the mountain and goes straight to Beth and Jody on the boat. |
tt0047684 | Yankee Pasha | [On-screen text: "Salem, Mass. 1800"] Fur trapper Jason Starbuck (Jeff Chandler) arrives in Salem. A general store owner challenges him to a horse race, but his rider's fiancee, Roxana Reil, gives a helpful tip to Starbuck on how to win the race.
A romantic attraction develops and Roxana's father advises her not to marry a man she doesn't love. Roxana sets sail for France, however, and her boat is attacked by pirates, who kill her father and take Roxana captive in Morocco, making her a slave.
Starbuck pursues her. He is introduced by a U.S. consul to the sultan, who is impressed with Starbuck's rifle marksmanship. He is offered a position with the sultan's infantry and given a slave of his own, Lilith.
Roxana has been sold to Omar Id-Din, who could be plotting against the sultan. Starbuck challenges Omar to a duel, with the winner acquiring the other's rifle and slave. Starbuck wins and intends to return home with Roxana, but they are betrayed by the jealous Lilith, who fights Roxana and tells Omar of their plans.
Starbuck is taken prisoner. Lilith has a change of heart, however, and changes clothes with Roxana to fool the guards. With the help of Hassan Sendar, one of the sultan's soldiers, they help rescue Starbuck, who leads the escape of other prisoners. He throws Omar from a roof. He and Roxana are free, and, as a reward, Hassan is given a new slave, Lilith.
Jeff Chandler recorded the song I Should Care on Brunswick Records from the film. | violence, action | train | wikipedia | From Salem to Morocco, he searched for the woman he loved..
Just picture yourself as a teenager in 1954 and this film comes out.
It starts as a western, it has a bit of a pirate movie, and then it switches to one of those "Ali Baba" type of films that people used to enjoy so much.
No, there is more, there is the beautiful Rhonda Fleming, Mamie Van Doren and a whole bunch of contestants for the Miss Universe title.
Jeff Chandler is Starbuck, a fur trapper who falls for Rhonda Fleming when he comes to Salem.
She breaks up her engagement because she also falls for him, but she cannot find him, so she leaves him a letter and sails with her father to Marseilles.
They are attacked by Moroccan pirates and she is sold as a slave for a harem.
Of course Starbuck goes after her.
It is hard for somebody nowadays to accept this movie, the times have changed, but for those teenagers who are now in their sixties it will always be meaningful..
Rhonda and Mamie in harem outfits!.
Watching so many of these 50s adventure movies, be they vehicles for cowboys or detectives, soldiers or swashbucklers, aliens or monsters, were like reading so much of the pulp fiction of the day.
Rather than spending days reading a book, you could spend a couple of hours whisked away to a fantasy land with some harmless adventure and thrills if not a lot of thought provoking ideas.
Forty some years later after growing older and wiser, there are still those times when I wonder where Hollywood's current head is, and head back to comfortable familiar territory.
I started watching these kind of movies about the time I reached puberty and needless to say, watching this movie with raging hormones was a thrilling experience back then.
Rhonda Fleming is still my favorite actress all these years later, and Mamie Van Doren was one of my favorite 50s blond bombshells, so how can I say anything bad about a Technicolor movie that puts both of these women in harem outfits?
I always thought Rhonda was at her peak in The Gunfight at the OK Corral, but to this day one of my treasured possessions is an autographed publicity still of her in her harem outfit.
Forget the hokum plot and go for the ride and check out two of the greatest harem beauties ever..
YANKEE PASHA (Joseph Pevney, 1954) **1/2.
This was due to an unscheduled, but most welcome, invite by a couple of movie-buff friends of mine (who are actually my Dad's peers).
Since we settled on which film we would be watching at the very last minute, I went into this knowing only the odd title (which I was familiar with alright, but it had somehow never cropped up for viewing until now) and the male lead involved (Jeff Chandler)
and, yet, I had to smile when, upon wondering if this was helmed by Joseph Pevney, his name actually turned up in the opening credits!
Being a Universal production, one has to remember that this sort of mindless crowd-pleasing fare used to be churned out virtually on an assembly-line during this era – with the slightest of trimmings to accommodate the studio's current top box-office draw (be it Chandler, Tony Curtis or Rock Hudson)!
Similarly, several journeymen directors flourished there at the time, proving adept at practically every setting and storyline the executives could throw at them!
Now, to get back to the single biggest coup of the film under review, it is the effortless blending of sure-fire formulas which rendered the whole most enjoyable: in fact, proceedings start off in a Western milieu, then the scene shifts to the high seas and a brief interlude of pirate action, before eventually settling into an Arabian Nights adventure!
Without wishing to attribute undue subtext to an inherently modest product, I am sure it would have greatly pleased the Surrealists to witness its depiction of amour fou literally transcending genre conventions!Anyway, here we find trapper Chandler and redhead Rhonda Fleming falling for each other virtually at first sight (though, typically, she is intended for another who unsurprisingly proves to be an arrogant bully).
Soon enough, the two men engage in a horse race, which Chandler wins thanks to an Indian yelp (like the one Richard Dix gave in CIMARRON [1931]) which frightens his rival's steed!
Sailing to Marseille with her father, she is kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery to a Moroccan potentate (or, rather, an aspiring usurper) played by Rex Reason – here billed as Bart Roberts and later promoted to lead status for the sci-fi classic THIS ISLAND EARTH (1955)!
The real ruler (an ill-at-ease Lee J.
Cobb) fears his own army would not withstand a full-scale attack by Reason's forces.
He is saved by the arrival of Chandler upon the scene, who offers to school his soldiers in quick-shooting tactics in exchange for a place at court in an effort to get wind of Fleming's whereabouts.
For his services, Chandler is not only garbed in the latest Oriental fashion but gets acquainted with their customs (including owning a personal slave-girl in the shapely form of delightfully "cackling" yet jealously conniving Mamie Van Doren, also thankfully the closest thing here approximating comic relief) – prompting him to exclaim at one point, "I can Salaam with the best of them!" As is to be expected, Chandler eventually regains Fleming and loses her once more to Reason, before himself falling into his clutches.
Their obligatory showdown (by the way, there is also a cat-fight between the two girls over their supremacy in Chandler's harem!) takes place on the prison turret, with the villain predictably getting his just desserts by being impaled on a set of horns which protrude from the walls to prevent convicts from escaping!
One thing which I noticed but forgot to tell my host (who is a Victor Mature fanatic) is that Reason's castle was, in all probability, the very same one to be featured (complete with a strategically-placed palm-tree) in Mature's own Universal-produced Arabian Nights epic THE VEILS OF BAGDAD (1953), and which had actually been one of the first titles we caught at his private cinema!
In fact, watching YANKEE PASHA – via a surprisingly well-preserved 16mm copy, despite the occasional image blurring and emulsion problems – in an ambiance which attempted to recreate the full theatrical Saturday matinée' experience (complete with walls adorned by vintage movie posters and musical accompaniment before the performance and during the reel-changing break) heightened the steady dose of unassuming colorful entertainment provided by the main feature.
In conclusion, the career of silver-haired Jeff Chandler may have been short-lived but it proved incredibly prolific nevertheless: having checked just now, I have some 23 of his films lying unwatched in my collection – as opposed to the mere 7 which I have gotten under my belt so far!
I once read somewhere that when Jeff Chandler completed Yankee Buccaneer in 1952 there were a lot of action sequences left over.
Like any other studio Universal never let anything go to waste so two years later Chandler wound up filming Yankee Pasha.
Fans of the stars should like Yankee Pasha.
It's a romance novel about a frontiersman who follows his lady love across the Atlantic Ocean after a misunderstanding about the lady's true intentions.
Rhonda Fleming is captured by Barbary Pirates and as redheads are a premium she catches the eye of Rex Reason the head of the Ottoman Sultan's local Jannisary forces in Morocco.
His troops even have the Sultan of Morocco somewhat intimidated, the Moroccan Sultan being Lee J.
Cobb.Jeff Chandler is not going to let an ocean or Moslem custom about women Christian captives interfere with his pursuit of his lady love.
Not even the Sultan's present of Mamie Van Doren to Chandler deters him one wit from his mission.Van Doren is as annoying to the audience as she was to Chandler with her constant cackling.
But this film isn't any great work of art.
Blonds and redheads certainly add some spice to any harem.If you like romance novels and are fans of the stars Yankee Pasha should work for you..
Instead, I will try to provide other interesting data about this film that has not been mentioned by any of the other reviews.
First of all let me to stick up for this entertaining movie that has everything you would ask to an adventure movie: action, romance, horse races, pirate attacks, scimitar duels, fights and humor.
Based on Edison Marshall's much longer and blooded best seller, Yankee Pasha casts Jeff Chandler as frontierman John Starbuck and Rhonda Fleming as her beautiful love interest.
Among other curiosities, Jeff Chandler, who had a really nice crooner voice, recorded the song I Should Care on Brunswick Records from the film.
Mamie Van Doren plays Starbuck's slave in one of her first important roles.
Although miles away from Marilyn, whom the studio planned to re-create, she plays her role nice enough to get her performance remembered.
Rhonda Fleming looks superb in oriental outfits - the brief white bikini one so revealing that I am surprised censorships did aprove it.
Another curiosity, several miss universe contestants were cast as the harem girls that are shown to Starbuck when he is looking for her love.
Edison Marshall wrote lots of popular historical novels with lots of blood, sex, swashbucling and adventures in faraway places such as Caravan to Xanadu (about Marco Polo travels), the Viking, Pagan king (about king Arthur), Earth giant (about Hercules), the Great Smith about John Smith, Gipsy sixpence (Richard Burton), Infinite Woman (about Lola Montes), Benjamin Blake (turned into a movie, Son of fury, starring Tyrone Power).
The fact that Yankee pasha action includes North America, Morocco and the Barbary coast (where berber pirates attacked United States ships as is also shown in 1950 movie Tripoli) is a fine example of Marshall around-the-world adventure stories.
Although some things could have been improved such as the Sultan's army training process and how do they get so many rifles considering Starbuck only has one - Starbuck could have time to search for her fiancee while waiting to obtain more rifles i.e.- it is a good entertaining movie with nice performances and well worth a view..
An Okay Adventure Film.
This movie begins in 1800 with a trapper named "Jason Starbuck" (Jeff Chandler) riding into the town of Salem, Massachusetts in order to sell his beaver pelts.
While in town he meets and falls in love with a young woman named "Roxana Reil" (Rhonda Fleming) who is engaged to a man she doesn't love.
So when the engagement is moved up by her fiancé Jason decides to leave town and go back to being a trapper.
What he doesn't know is that Roxanna has decided to break off her engagement and to do that she convinces her father to take her overseas to Marseilles instead.
On the way there, however, they are attacked by some Barbary pirates who subsequently sell her as a slave to a man named "Omar Id Din" (Bart Roberts) who puts her into his harem.
However, upon hearing the news that Roxana has called off her engagement and then that her ship was taken by pirates, Jason immediately sets to find Roxana and rescue her from the Moors personally.
Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an entertaining movie which would serve well as a Saturday matinée in the old days or as a late night movie on television today.
But it clearly isn't a classic by any means due to the predictable plot or some of the rather unrealistic scenarios.
That said, I have rated this movie accordingly.
On a proud pinto pony, deeply tanned Jeff Chandler rides into the frontier town of Salem, Massachusetts, wearing a carefully tailored buckskin-fringed outfit topped off by a Davy Crockett raccoon cap with its tail hanging down behind.
He's smiling but he carries a fully loaded musket and, when prodded by some kids, he whirls around in the saddle and shoots a weather vane half a block away.
He doesn't even take much time to aim.
His name is Jason Starbuck.
Rhonda Fleming and he fall in love at first glance and she helps him win a horse race against her dapper Wuss of a fiancé, all gussied up in a natty cloth suit and jockey cap.
He cheats too, but with the help of Fleming, Chandler wins the race and, with it, a passage to the Middle East.
He postpones his departure because, after all, there is Rhonda Fleming to be considered.
She's obliged to marry because her fiancé is wealthy and her father needs the money.
"Oh, Jason, if only we'd met before I was engaged!" They kiss heatedly.
He's a woodsman, with a woodsman's natural impulses, and he don't hold with this fancy money stuff.
That distant sound you hear is Levi-Strauss trying to deconstruct the situation.Fleming breaks off the engagement and takes a ship to Marseillies but the ship is captured and boarded by Barbary pirates.
They sling the fainting Fleming over their shoulders and cart her off, after tearing the top of her dress in a scene known as "the ripping of the bodice." She winds up in Morocco being given as a present to the Aga, who apprises her appreciatively in her raggedy garments and remarks, "Such a tasty dish should be well served." When she bites the hand of a servant who is trying to open her mouth and display her teeth, the Aga chuckles and says, "Such spirit will add a touch of spice to my harem." No kidding.
All the dialog sounds like this.Chandler tracks her down in Morroco but she's now part of the Aga's harem.
While he's trying to devise a rescue plan, Chandler demonstrates the art of American frontier shooting (you don't bother to aim) and is hired by the Sultan to train the infantry.
He manages to arrange a duel with the Aga -- American-style shooting -- and he wins not just his honor but the Aga's favorite harem girl.
Yes -- Rhonda Fleming!
More tribulations before they live happily ever after.I found the movie a little deadly.
Chandler isn't a bad actor in the right role but a dashing adventurer he's not.
And Rhonda Fleming seems unable to utter a credible line.
She's very pretty but her beauty is generic, like that of a mannequin in a store window.
It's not demanding, it's diverting, the characters are divided into Good and Evil, and it ends with the loving pair in each other's arms, sailing off into the western sunset, where they are viciously attacked by a great while whale who has been nudged just a little too far and the ship sinks and all hands are lost..
Chandler wins luscious Mamie Van Doren and Rhonda Fleming as slaves!.
A classic tale of adventure and romance, filmed in Technicolor(although rather washed out), and released by Universal.
Presently available at YouTube.
Two years earlier, Chandler had played the "Yankee Buccaneer": a rather similar
type of romantic adventurer.....
Loner trapper Starbucks(Jeff Chandler)wanders into 1800 Salem, Mass.
Tall, dressed in clean buckskins, with a coonskin cap, he immediately attracts the attention of unmarried gorgeous urbane Roxana Riel(Rhonda Fleming), who is riding in her 'surrey with a fringe on top'.
Would seem an unlikely association, as Roxana is engaged to her long time acquaintance, jockey Dick Baily: son of a wealthy member of the community, and her father's choice.
However, upon talking to Starbucks, we learn that Baily isn't really her choice, as she doesn't like his personality.
Although she's clearly attracted to Starbucks, and they engage in a passionate kiss, she discourages him from hoping to marry her.
She leaves a letter for him and , with her father, leaves on a ship for Marseilles(Why, I'm not sure), having cancelled her engagement to Baily.
A messenger finds Starbuck and gives him the good news about the engagement.
Starbuck returns to Salem, but learns of her ocean voyage.
He hops on the next ship going to Marseilles, still in his buckskin outfit.
In Marseilles, he learns that the ship Roxana was on was attacked by Barbary pirates, and she was probably captured, and taken to a slave market in Morocco.
Thus, he dons a Moorish outfit and sails for Morocco, where he impresses the Sultan with his sharpshooting, using his 'Kentucky' rifle(probably made in Pennsylvania).
The sultan appoints him shooting instructor for his soldiers, and gives him the gorgeous blond slave girl Lilith( Mamie Van Doren), who is equally satisfied with him as her master.
I wonder how he's going to instruct shooting with presumed muskets rather than his Kentucky rifle?
Rifles have the advantage of shooting straighter at targets than smooth bore muskets, which will make his task more difficult.
Later, Starbuck wins a shooting match with pasha Omar Id-Din, who agrees to give him his slave girl Roxana.
As you would expect, Roxana and Lilith are soon at each other's throats.
This was the dramatic highlight for me!, although I suppose the intended climax is the attempted escape of Starbuck and the other prisoners on Omar's death row.
Of course, there is the obligatory duel to the death between Starbuck and Omar.....One minor gripe: the coonskin cap was virtually a giveaway that a person was a backwoodsman.
However, they didn't normally wear them in summer, as usually portrayed in Hollywood films.
They made one's head too hot!......Familiar-looking Tudor Owen played the Salem merchant who bought Starbuck's furs and gave him advice.
Rex Reason played the evil Omar Id-Din, while Lee Cobb played the Sultan.
Harry Lauter played Roxana's early fiancé, while Arthur Space played the U.S. Consul in Morocco, who introduced Starbuck to the Sultan.
Hal March played Omar's guard who helped in the prison escape. |
tt0381772 | Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks | Jakers! takes place in two different settings, in two different time periods.
In the present time (the frame story), Piggley Winks lives in the United States of America (or Great Britain, according to different versions) and tells stories of his childhood in a rural area in the south of Ireland to his three grandchildren. In flashback, he is seen as a child, playing with his friends and going to school in rural Ireland in the mid-1950s. Most of the main characters are anthropomorphic animals—including Piggley and his family, who are all pigs. However, there are normal, non-anthropomorphic animals in the show as well.
=== Past ===
Piggley Winks lived with his parents Padrig and Elly and his younger sister Molly at Raloo Farm in Ireland during the 1950s. His best friends are Dannan O'Mallard, a duck who lives in a hut by a pond with her rarely seen grandmother, and Fernando Toro, known as Ferny, a young bull who lives with his father, the Spanish blacksmith Don Toro in the village of Tara. His rival is the main antagonist, Hector McBadger.
Piggley lives his everyday life on the farm as a normal child, going to school, helping his parents, taking care of his sister, and having adventures, almost always followed by his friends. He has always been interested in stories and legends, and his fertile mind and mischievous spirit put him in many unpredictable situations, like believing fairies turned Ferny into a bug, trying to hatch a supposed dragon's egg, using the Salmon of Knowledge to pass the school exam, and even trying to capture the legendary Fir Darrig.
Each story also features a subplot featuring Wiley, the sheep (voiced by Mel Brooks). As the only sheep in the flock who can talk, he believes he is their natural leader, and tries to get the other sheep to do all kinds of anthropomorphic things (singing, racing, playing sports, acting, etc.), with varying degrees of success. He is later assisted by his mate, a female sheep named Shirley (in earlier seasons, Shirley could not talk, and in the episode "Growing Pains" gave birth to a lamb, later named Little Baa).
A running gag on the show is that Wiley's subplot and Piggley's plot would collide (e.g. in "Sheep on the Loose", Wiley runs away and Piggley, as the shepherd, tries to find him).
CommonSenseMedia explain that at the end of each episode there is a live-action segment, in which "group of children talk about their own experiences and feelings, reflecting on what the episode has been about".
=== Present ===
An elderly Piggley lives with his daughter Ciara and her three children, the twins Sean and Seamus, and their older sister Meg. Whenever the children have a problem, Piggley tells them one of his childhood stories as a moral lesson. The grandchildren are able to identify exaggerations in his stories.
The original American accents of Ciara and her children have been dubbed with English accents for broadcast in the United Kingdom. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | You're telling me it's a kids' show?
But I didn't even notice it!.
Why isn't anyone talking about this show?
Why isn't everybody watching it?
Seriously, as far as kids shows go, this is a true landmark, and one of the finest things going on TV at the moment.
I read that this show is aimed at children from 3-7 years old, but if that's the case, how come I, 19 years old, have been watching it every day for weeks?
I never had too many hopes on television.
I knew there were a couple of gems to be fished out of the swamp of sit-coms and aimless dramas, but I never thought a kids show, of all things, would put them all to shame.
Why can't other writers watch this show and learn a few things about complexity and deepness in writing?
The stories are rich, well paced, funny and constructive.
Even the more subpar episodes put the latest seasons of The Simpsons on the trashbin (and I am a fan of the Simpsons).
The characters are complex and extremely realistic.
It truly surprised be how well the writers work these characters, and make pigs, ducks and bulls sound, act and FEEL like real children.
They're right there, in front of your eyes, and you don't realize they are computer animated.
And I thought that characters in shows like those could be shallow and bi-dimensional, and it would be fine, after all, it's just educational entertainment for children.
With beautiful computer-animated graphics and solid voice acting, you know you're in for a real treat.
I just can't believe a show as good as this can be done.
And why are people still watching Clifford?.
What a GREAT show!.
Found this show by accident skimming the Time Warner cable guide.
Almost skipped it because of the name, which made no sense to me, but I flipped past the channel and was instantly captivated by the terrific animation.
My 2 1/2 year old daughter loves Jojo's Circus and The Koala Brothers, and the animation was similar (better in my opinion) and the Irish accents on Jakers are charming (especially since we're Irish).
After seeing a couple of episodes now, I love the stories and so does my daughter.
They are not overly dumded down like too many kids shows.
The show gives good messages in one of the most intelligent and fun ways of any kid's show I've seen.
As I said, I have a 2 1/2 year old so I've seen a LOT!
I was also certain I recognized the voice of the one sheep, and sure enough, in looking it up on IMDb, I found it IS Mel Brooks playing the voice of a hilarious character!
The characters in this little show are extremely well developed and presented.
GREAT little series!.
Get this on your Tivo Season Pass list..
I'm pretty sure they write this for adults, and then just remove anything that isn't appropriate for kids.
Just a laugh a minute.
My eight-year-old caught me watching it and was amazed to see me laughing at a kid's show.
Better than the vast majority of the sitcoms that run during prime time, Jaker's is worth recording this during the day and using it to fill in the dead spots on the television lineup during the evening.
Remarkable how good a kid's show can be when a few good writers put their mind to making something durable.
Keeping it accessible to young viewers makes this quite a trick, and Jaker's does it.Wiley the sheep sounds suspiciously like former Gov. William J.
LePetomaine of Nevada.
Career change?.
Fantastic children's show--great for parents too!.
This is the best children's program I have ever seen.
It teaches responsibility, imagination, manners, multiculturalism and more in a most enjoyable fashion.
The animation is beautiful and the stories are pure delight for both kids and adults.
This is the one show I allow my 4 year old to watch every day and I enjoy it as well.
Each episode follows the same format, a modern day Grandpa Piggley tells stories to his three grandchildren about his adventures growing up in rural Ireland.
The childhood tales feature his family, his school full of adorable animal friends and his ever faithful companions, Ferny and Dannan (a veritable Ron and Hermione, if you will).
They have wild imaginations and good intentions and truly, each episode is pure delight.
I can't recommend it highly enough..
I can't recommend it highly enough..
Jakers A Kids Show???.
I read of a 19 year old watching Jakers The Adventures Of Piggly Winks and, I and my husband are 38 and 40 and we watch it everyday.
We think that it is the coolest show (although they should do more Mauri and Holly stuff) and we go out of our way to watch and or record it.
It is the cutest show and whoever thinks it's for children should try and watch a few episodes of it and they would have a change of heart.
It is a excellent show for children, teens and, adults of all ages.
Good Irish theme.Characters are fun to watch and a delight to observe.
Fun for the whole family.We highly recommend this program for someone who is seeking an unforgettable adventure.
Jakers The Adventure Of Piggly Winks is a one of a kind show.
-Curt & Lisa.
The Adventures of Piggley Winks.
Have just discovered this on Children's TV on BBC 1 and it's brilliant!
The characters are original and charming however the stars of the show are the 'random' sheep (voiced by Mel Brookes...say no more!) The situations featured in the stories are the things that children face all the time, which is why it appeals to all ages.
The 'moral' to the tale is stated at the end, although it is the characters of the 'children' (pig, duck, bull) that makes it so charming.
Although animals they are realistic.
The programme works on several layers though (especially with the sheep who offer a parrallel story)which is why its wit also appeals to adults.
This is wasted on children!.
Best Cartoon on TV.
I tune in every day to watch Piggly Winks...and I don't have any kids.
I love the premise of the show; an older Piggly Winks relaying life's lessons to his grandkids.
I love the characters, especially Ferny and Dannon, but all the characters are enjoyable to watch.
But mostly, I think this show is very well written.
The story lines are easy to follow, but are presented with humor and subtle details that adults will find entertaining.
The variety of characters give the show a fun diversity, and the details in the animation means you can re-watch it and see things you didn't see before.
I am very happy that I found this show..
So Glad.
I thought that my husband and I (38 & 35) were out of our minds, even if the kids are napping or in school we still sit down and watch Jakers.
We are serious Jakers Junkies.
We watch it 4-5 times a day between sprout and our local PBS.
I am so happy to see that we are not the only adults who absolutely love it.
I will say the only disappointment I have is that there never seems to be any new ones, although the local PBS has shown a few that we have never seen on sprout, I was disappointed that Wiley's voice was different(not Mel Brooks) in the episode about the haunted shipwreck.
Is this a permanent change?
I hope not.
Now I have to go and get ready for the 11:00pm episode after everyone else is in bed.
Glad to see there are others like me!.
Jakers!.
Jakers!.
Jakers!.
I discovered this show because we adopted a little boy (now 2 1/2) and of course, I started watching children's TV.
This is by far the best children's show I have seen (possibly because it is not just a children's show), and I often watch it whether my son is watching it or not.
The landscapes are beautiful, and the characters are amazing.
I like them all.
Piggly, of course, but also Ferny, Molly, Dannan, Hector, Mr. Hornsby, and Don Toro, the blacksmith.
It brings me back to a simpler time, when kids (like when I was growing up) didn't have so many toys, and we had to use our imagination much more for our everyday adventures.
I haven't seen many new episodes, and wonder how much time it takes to do a new show..
Weew!.
I love this show.
I watch it every morning when I get up.
The characters are so damn cute and the animation is awesome.
I love the Irish accents.
I'm 19 years old and this show is one of my favorites.
It kicks my ass.
Whoever made this show is a genius.
I seriously can't decide which character is the cutest.
Maybe Molly.
And I just figured out today that Mel Brooks does the voice of Wiley the sheep.
This is theeeeeeee most awesome show Evarrrrr.
Why do I have to make ten lines of text when all you have to do is go watch PBS and see how awesome it is for yourself.
I seriously wish there were cute shows like this on when I was young.
I do have to mention that Sean and Seemus get on my nerves though.
Woo. This show is brilliant.
I have to agree with everyone's review but have to give it another fantastic rap.
I am not Irish nor do I have any family connections to Ireland but ever since I was a child, I am now 38, I have wanted to go to Ireland.
I went there in 1990 for a brief time and I fell in love with everything about the country.
This cartoon transports me back to Ireland every time I watch it.
The characters are delightful, they have fun without being mean or stupid yet they are often silly, they take you back to being a child when you took pleasure in the simple beauty of life and friends and family were the most important things in your life.
The accents, the characters, the story lines, everything about this show is brilliant.
I love living in Australia but honestly dream of living in Ireland raising my children on a farm with my boyfriend.
My boyfriend bought me a Jakers' DVD with 4 episodes on it and it would be one of the best gifts he has ever given me..
Jakers,This Is Grand.
Each episode revolves around a similar format and is divided into two portions: the present day with Piggley telling stories to his grandkids (the twins Sean and Seamus and their older sister Peg), and the 1950s Ireland of Piggley's childhood where he spends time with his own parents and sister Molly and friends Ferny the bull and Dannon the duck.
In the present, Sean, Seamus, Peg, Sean and Seamus, or all three, have some kind of problem and Piggley recalls a time were he was in a similar situation.
For example, there's an episode where Sean and Seamus have to read Tom Sawyer for school (even though they seem to be in like 1st grade) and Piggley tells them about how he had to read a book version of an old folktale called Finn McCool.
In another episode, Sean and Seamus want to go to a very scary haunted house rather than go to their school's Halloween party and Piggley tells about how he stayed up to listen to a creepy radio show.
The landscapes are lovely and all the characters are quite amusing.
Piggly of course but also Ferny, Dannon, Molly, Millie, Wiley, Hector, Mr Hornsby, Miss Nanny, Don Toro, Peg, although Sean and Seamus do get a little annoying.
A great show not just for kids but for anyone.
I wish there would be some new episodes..
OMG i remember seeing this as a child and i absolutely loved it!.
I remember watching this programme when it was aired on RTE 2 and I liked it because I had never ever seen a cartoon that was based in Ireland.
Also the Irish accents were absolutely brilliant.
I was absolutely shocked to think that the rest of the voice actors who voiced the characters, were actually American.
You would honestly think that they were originally from Ireland, I still can't get over that!It was such a cute cartoon, I couldn't understand why it only won 10 awards but, i think it should've won like an Emmy or something big because it was so good!
I like how the story is set on a grandfather who is telling his grandchildren of his adventures as a kid.
It does make you think of your grandparents backstory.
I really cant wait to show this to my future kids and show them this! |
tt1319716 | It's a Wonderful Afterlife | Mrs Sethi (Shabana Azmi) is a widow living in Southall who wants to marry off her only daughter, for she is alone and unhappy. Her daughter, Roopi, (Goldy Notay) is a little plump and opinionated. Mrs Sethi finds that all her matchmaking efforts are rudely rejected. She avenges this behaviour toward her daughter by murdering the failed dates using her culinary skills. A police hunt begins for a serial murderer using a killer curry.
Mrs Sethi does not feel guilty until the spirits of her victims come back to haunt her. They are unable to reincarnate until their murderer dies. Mrs Sethi must kill herself to free the spirits, but vows to get her daughter married first.
The spirits realise that helping Roopi find a suitable husband before the police catch Mrs Sethi is in their best interests, and everyone begins to work together. Meanwhile, Roopi catches the eye of the young Sergeant investigating the case. | paranormal, murder | train | wikipedia | I don't believe this film was meant to be a serious comment on the British Asian way of life, just a wry look at the lengths this mother would go to in order to secure a husband for her daughter.
The characters were engaging, making me want to know what was going to happen to them all, and I never yawned once, which is a good barometer of an entertaining film in my opinion.
Some scenes had me wanting to jump up and join in, while another was an obvious homage to a 70's horror movie, but with an amusing twist.
The director gets the whole Indians abroad thing to absolute perfection.
Let me start with the end, which is the end credits Stayin Alive with Punjabi Remixed and the bloopers in the movie that are running with it.
I really like Gurinder Chaddha movies since Bend It like Beckham, the whole Punjabi touch to the movie that she gets, the wedding season and the all the food that comes with it which is like what Punjabis die for (or work for).
In this movie, you had all the elements put in place, you have good music, wedding, punjabi style the whole NRI culture based out of London.
The other added elements that make it a dark comedy, but surely not scary.Overall with all the elements are placed the only thing is it NOT a typical romance film with some really funny moments..
I cannot believe that I have just come back from watching this film at the cinema, and the best thing about going was watching the film trailers before the actual film started.
This is categorised as a "comedy horror"....it wasn't funny, and it would not scare my 5 year old nephew.
The film concept did not work and it felt like a lot of the attempted jokes were too forced.
The director attempted to make a film that would appeal to everyone but ended up as a huge disaster and did not have the fundamentals of being a good film.
The director has made other hit films such as Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Predajice and they were much more entertaining to watch.
No Afterlife Only Current Life Which Ain't Wonderful But Funny.
Granted the expectations were high because of Shabana Azmi but then again, what can one expect from Gurinder Chaddha.
That said, 'It's a Wonderful Afterlife' isn't that bad.
I prefer it over the boring 'Bride and Brejudice'.The minus points are that Chaddha relies on too many Indian British clichés which have been done to death in many other films.
Sally Hawkins is a scene stealer.Overall, I didn't mind 'It's a Wonderful Afterlife' for a one-time-watch.
It made me laugh even though it could have easily been a much better movie..
In terms of horror, comedy, crime thriller, love story, family relationships and everything else thrown into the film I found most aspects were topped by other films.
While I understand the Indian masala films usually involve having everything including the kitchen sink thrown into the plot, which will have enough room for the story to combine romance, mystery, drama, comedy, song and dance all together for possibly something for everyone to enjoy, It's a Wonderful Afterlife somehow had all these ingredients coming together, but felt a little too contrived at mixing everything up and gelling them all nicely, especially since it had a trailer that's not quite accurate, and it seemed more like a typical 3 hour film rather than its 100 minute duration.Gurinder Chadha's more famous for her directorial breakthrough Bend It Like Beckham, which arguably introduced Kieira Knightley to the world, and here she combines an ensemble with the likes of Jimi Mistry, Sally Hawkins and the Indian actors Sanjeev Bhaskar, Shaheen Khan, Adlyn Ross and Ash Varrez in a film that started like an investigative drama with a potential serial killer on the loose in the Southall district of London, the policeman D S Murthy (Sendhil Ramamurthy) who had been transferred in for investigative work in his own community to sniff out details of the suspects, Roopi (Goldy Notay) and her mother Mrs Sethi (Shabana Azmi) who is desperate for the former to get married with much of her rejection based on her plumpish looks, Roopi's best friend Linda (Hawkins) who finds her inner Indian self and is somewhat of a self-taught spiritual guru, and the list goes on.At best, the plot and its subplots were extremely scattered, and somehow it seemed that Chadha didn't manage to find common ground for all of them to coexist, with each plot line threatening to upstage and distract one from others.
The cat is let out of the bag early, and it's somehow not so much of a mystery other than a zany comedy to have these friendly ghouls make jokes at every opportunity.The romantic leads of Sendhil Ramamurthy and Goldy Notay also lacked believable chemistry though the rushed romance didn't help their cause since the detective also had to juggle an ulterior motive, while that between Jimy Mistry and Sally Hawkins went down the road to explore how some people groove to the beat of other cultures since they're not at home with their own.
Sally Hawkins though had a single major scene which mimicked a horror film where a woman scorned unleashes hell on earth during her own party, probably a comedic highlight of the film that defied all logic and pushed the film toward absurdity.I had enjoyed Gurinder Chadha's works such as Bride and Prejudice, and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, but somehow this entry into her filmography seemed like a step back.
Let's how she finds her groove back pretty soon with a stronger and more coherent story rather than leaving things scattered around..
Obviously fun to make, with familiar faces and heart-warming family drama, along the lines of "OMG what is Mum doing now?", as she tries to solve her daughter's seemingly non-existent marriage prospects.
Along the way, the audience bops along to Indian remixes of popular western disco and pop, and wonders how an unlikely murderer will meet their fate.
The dialog is natural, with gags, but the film's undeniable humour comes from the same loving, awkward moments that drive it's story.
I can't see anyone walking out of this movie, unless they don't wish to be entertained.It's a Wonderful Afterlife (2010) is not a work-of-art, not a beautifully made film.
It is a funny murder-love-story with falling down moments, with familiar actors having a blast making ridiculous comedy.
If you want a horror show, or a logical plot, then it may let you down.
Let face it Gurinder Chadha struck bingo with "Bend it like Beckham" and it was nothing but sheer luck.
When you watch "It's A Wonderful Afterlife" you can be certain to demand refund for your ticket.
Its an insult to my favourite feel-good Christmas movie "It's A Wonder Life" (can I demand a change of title as well?).
Its heights of brain-storming gone amok!Shabana Azmi:: Its sad to see a powerhouse of talent being wasted.Sendhil Ramamurthy, Sanjiv Bhaskar & Zoe Wanamaker were just OK.The cinematic liberties under the garb of Bollywood type of cinema should be completely stopped..
Sorry to see Shabana Azmi in this awful movie..
First of all let's talk about the inspiration angle behind the title of the movie, "Its A Wonderful Afterlife".
Gurinder Chadha undoubtedly thought of this name to take advantage of the huge popularity of an Old English Classic called "Its A Wonderful Life" featuring James Stewart.
The Black & White gem released in 1946 is considered to be one of Top 100 movies of All Time directed by the renowned director, Frank Capra.Incidentally the story of this Capra gem also revolves around a person who becomes a spirit after his death and then meets an angel, who shows him how people loved him while he was living and now how they all are missing him after his death.Taking hints from the title and the film, it seems Gurinder got an idea to write a script, revolving around some spirits and a concerned mother worried about the marriage of her overage obese daughter.
As a mandatory clause, the mother had to be from a punjabi family in order to incorporate all the other essential north Indian elements into the screenplay, as required to justify the famous Gurinder Chaddha trademark.
Now till here, everything seems nice and cool since the main theme of the movie sounds interesting having much scope of including all those emotions, comedy and drama, mixed with bhangra beats playing at the background.
But after watching the whole movie, you are just left with only one expression on the face, which goes like "What is this?"
.
Is this really a Gurinder Chaddha movie, who gave us "Bhaji On the Beach"and "Bend It Like Beckham"?
or She has just made this project to show some losses in her current balance sheet.Strictly speaking, after her below average "Bride & Prejudice" which was a big disaster, this is another completely unexpected, silly and awful dud delivered by the director, who once had a good name in both parts of the world due to her highly entertaining and successful films.
The movie is a big letdown, right from the word go, when you are made to witness some highly absurd sequences displaying few serial murders happening in England.
The murders are illogically related with eating Indian food and the manner in which the people die is definitely not hilarious from any angle.
So we have 5 highly annoying ghosts walking with Shabana Azmi throughout the movie, which never seem to be comical in any way.
Now talking about my first hand experience in the theater, quite understandably, most of the fellow audiences were not able to suffer it anymore and they walked out of the hall even before the interval saying nasty things about the movie.
This particular part was undeniably one of the most disastrous and weirdest thought put in by a director ever.So, as all the expectations from the movie were being shattered badly left and right, I was just sitting on my seat in a lazy posture, thinking about, why Shabana Azmi had to be there in this terrible project and what she may have imagined while signing the movie, after reading the final draft of the script.Returning to the review, due to my dreadful experience with the film, I frankly don't wish to write anything more about its direction, performances, script, music or cinematography.
But I really want to request Shabana Azmi, to please don't waste your precious efforts and valuable time in such intolerable projects.
The movie simply doesn't deserve to be there in your resume at all as it's a big black spot on the name of another masterpiece with a similar title.May be it's a clear example of a creative block being faced by the director and may she return back with a bang soon.
But as far as her "It's a Wonderful AfterLife" is concerned, it's one of the worst movies I have ever seen..
After a string of good films, especially the delightful "Bend it Like Beckham", Chadha seems to have lost her footing.
My favourite parts of the movie were the outdoor scenes in London's Southall community.
The acting is decent but the plot, even by screwball comedy standards, is completely unbelievable.
I get that Chadha is satirizing the extent to which Indian mothers will go to marry off their offspring.
Makes much of the film nauseating to watch.
Chadha also says the "Carrie" scene was her favourite.
Gurinder Chadha brings on her masala mix with the punningly titled Its a wonderful afterlife.People in Southall are getting murdered rather gruesomely.
They called the murderer's daughter fat, too big to get married.
Goldy Notay is the slightly on the heavy side jilted fiancée with a good heart but causing her mum (Shabana Azmi) to be stressed as she feels Goldy is being left on the shelf.Sally Hawkins plays Goldy's best friend who has acquiesced new age Indian beliefs after trip to India.
Sendhil Ramamurthy is an old pal of Goldy who is also the police officer investigating the murders and has a thing for Goldy.After a crafty title you feel the film will be a riff on the more famous James Stewart film but its a soppy love story which takes bits from other movies.
Some of the characters were not believable, why was Mark Addy's Detective Inspector hell bent on framing Goldy up for the murders when DNA evidence ruled her out?There are a lot of fat jokes, many of them predictable and unfunny and overall although the film is amiable enough with a nice use of Black's hit song 'Its's a wonderful life' used in a sequence, I felt the film was undercooked both as a romance and a masala comedy..
Good, Ghostly Fun. The premise may sound a little 'Serial Mom', with an over-protective mother ensuring that anyone who dares to slight her precious offspring doesn't live to regret it, but there the similarity ends.
I only intended to watch a small part of this film to chill out before going to bed, but it kept me entertained until the end.
Unlikely to become a well-loved classic like its (almost) namesake, but good, ghostly fun..
movies like this ever get made.
I watched this one chilly winter's afternoon while nursing a heavy cold, hoping for a mildly diverting way to pass an hour or so when even the thought of getting up off the settee was an effort.
Feeling better now but still struggling to believe how this wreck of a movie ever got a green light.It was fascinating in a perverse way: Just how much lumpy dialogue, heavily telegraphed and unfunny jokes, inane and unconvincing plot twists, pointless steals and clichéd direction can be packed into one movie?
It might be a Wonderful Afterlife but it was even better when the movie ended.
Sure the movie started off all good and well but when the spirits appeared, there were one or two funny scenes but it started becoming boring after a while and before you knew it, it started to drag on for too long.
The acting wasn't good either as the actors could have done a little better in playing as their characters, although the actors who played the spirits were amusing from time to time.
The writing is hit-and-miss because even though there were some okay scenes in the movie, sometimes it could drag on for too long.
The directing isn't really bad and the script wasn't either but the movie just felt too rushed and unnecessary.
There were quite a few scenes you could have taken out and you wouldn't have missed anything from the story.It was good for the first half an hour however, slowly but surely, it started to become tedious and boring.
The acting wasn't bad but I have seen miles better from some of the cast such as Sendhil Ramamurthy, who plays Mohinder in Heroes.
However, Sally Hawkins was great as Linda and she really lit up the movie.
The movie's humour felt like it was trying to force itself to be funny too many times and, I admit, there were times when I laughed a little at the movie but there were some scenes that felt way too forced when it came to the humour department.
There was one scene that just felt totally thrown in and random, I can't say much without spoiling the movie but you'll know what I mean if you decide to watch the movie, the scene involves Sally Hawkins.
I was also disappointed with the fact that Preeya Kalidas, better known as Amira in Eastenders, was only in the movie for ten seconds.
Overall, if you want a movie that's hysterical, don't choose this one but if you want a comedy that is mildly entertaining, doesn't take itself seriously and will kill time, then this is perfect.Read more reviews at: www.dudedazzmoviereviews.wordpress.com.
Messy and funny goodness.
I was really excited about going to see It's A Wonderful Afterlife because Gurinder Chadha is the director and she has directed two of my favourite films - Angues, Thongs and Perfect Snogging and also Bride and Prejudice.
I had also seen plenty of the film on TV and it looked like a fun film - I was right!
The film is set in London but is all about Indians.
Basically, an old woman called Mrs Sethi (Shabana Azmi) wants to commit suicide because she is a widow but she won't do it until her daughter Roopi (Goldy Notay) is married.
The murder brings the police in to things and the officer assigned to the case is called Murthy (Sendhil Ramamurthy).
Also involved is Linda, renamed Galani (Sally Hawkins), who wears Indian clothes, has an Indian fiancée (Jimi Mistry) and insists that she is psychic.It is a set-up for lots of funny things to happen.
There are quite a lot of fat jokes which get old after a while and also a lot of slapstick that sometimes is really hilarious and sometimes isn't.
There are also lots of people slipping over on curry which is so silly it's really quite funny.
The script overall is really funny and original.
There is a happy ending with a wedding as in a lot of Gurinder Chadha's films but the way it gets to the end is really original.
All of the cast are really good as well and deliver their lines perfectly, especially Shabana Azmi who is really super.
The film also looks really good but the cheap gore and exploding curry looks a bit out of place.In many ways this is a typical romance film with some really funny moments.
However, there are plenty of unique ideas in here and some great humorous moments that will make it worth seeing, especially if you like the director's other films.4/5 |
tt0249516 | Foodfight! | Foodfight! takes place in the "Marketropolis" supermarket. After closing time, the supermarket transforms into a city in which all the citizens are "Ikes", personified well-known marketing icons.
In the Ikes' world, heroic cereal mascot Dex Dogtective is about to propose to his girlfriend, Sunshine Goodness, a raisin mascot, but she goes missing just before he is able to do so.
Six months later, in the 'real world', a Brand X representative called "Mr. Clipboard" arrives at Marketropolis and aggressively pushes Brand X's range of generic products. In the world of the Ikes, the arrival of Lady X, the seductive Brand X detergent Ike, causes a commotion at Dex's club, the Copabanana.
Brand X products begin to replace previous products, which is mirrored in the Ike's world with the death of several Ikes. After Dex's friend Daredevil Dan disappears, Dex begins to investigate. After rebuffing Lady X's attempts to bring him to Brand X's side, Dex is locked in a dryer with Dan to be melted but the two manage to escape. Dan and Dex find out that Brand X contains an addictive and toxic secret ingredient.
Dex and Dan attempt to initiate a product recall with the store owner's computer. A Brand X Ike cuts power just as they send the message. Dex then rallies the citizens of Marketropolis to fight the armies of Brand X in a massive food fight. The citizens win the battle through cunning use of the supermarket's electricity and lightning rods to protect their own buildings.
Dan rescues Sunshine who had been held hostage in the Brand X tower and escapes with the help of Dan. Mr Clipboard then enters the Ike's world, and it is discovered that he is a robot controlled by Lady X. Lady X reveals that she had previously been the hideous Ike of an unsuccessful brand of prunes, and had been stealing Sunshine's essence to create a new brand. Dex and Sunshine defeat her, reverting her to her original form. With Brand X defeated, and a cure found that revives the killed Ikes, Dex and Sunshine finally marry. | romantic | train | wikipedia | This movie is so bad, it looks like something that some kid made on a 3d modeling program in his spare time and was super excited to show to parents.The only thing i liked is that it spawned 2 great review videos on YouTube.Seriously, if you spent so much money making it, you should at least finalize the qualityI think these people should look at what some people have managed to make on blender, a free modeling program.
If you're not familiar with the backstory, I'll give you a little rundown.In 2001, director Lawrence Kasanoff, who was known for producing the Mortal Kombat films as well as a handful of TV adaptations on the franchise, announced an undertaking like no other - he was going to make an animated film under his own company Threshold Entertainment that focused on the events that would take place inside a supermarket when the lights would turn off.
Dex and his gang of friends Sunshine Goodness (Hilary Duff) and Daredevil Dan (Wayne Brady) prepare to keep the supermarket in their hands, but Dex increasingly finds himself distracted by the likes of Lady X (Eva Longoria), a desirable woman who keeps trying to win Dex's eye and the store manager finds himself dictated by Mr. Clipboard (Christopher Lloyd), who is enforcing Brand X.To begin with, the animation is awful.
One can sort of forgive the animation for looking terrible, seeing as, understandably, everyone's hands just wanted to be cleaned of this film, but with twelve years of production and a forced rewrite thanks to a burglary, you would think the writing would be marginally polished.
"Hey, we can create a cheap CGI movie and make companies pay for the celeb voices in advance by inserting their brands in the film!" The result is worse than crass, it's abominably bad.
I guess there is some justice in the world.Ten years ago, when Threshold Entertainment's hard drives were stolen, writer/director/producer Lawrence Kasanoff called it an act of "industrial espionage." I salute the brave souls who actively hindered the production of this film.
Like the animated Titanic movie, it isn't just bad, it is bad in such a way that it will be considered inconceivable that such a movie could have even been green lit; a movie where people will see brief snippets and wonder if it was a real movie or just somebody's entry-level CG demo-reel.For this reason, this is not a movie that should be watched.
That thing is real?!" The C.G. is terrible, the characters are one-dimensional, the writing is asinine, the jokes make BioDome look like Waking Ned Devine, and the talent of the voice cast is squandered across the board.The only thing that makes this movie even worthy of note is the overabundance of marketing icons.
looks worse than animation made on a much lower budget 15 or 20 years before this film was released.
The humor is equally bland, consisting of fart jokes, bad puns, and sexual innuendos that seem rather inappropriate for a children's movie.A large part of the controversy surrounding the film's release was the rampant product placement.
Phantomstrider was right!Why didn't I listen to them?!This is an animated feature about a dog named Dex Dogtective who's played by Charlie Sheen and gets depressed after his girlfriend Sunshine Goodness disappears.
However, their voice acting in this movie can range from sub-par at best to bad at worst.If there is one tiny saving grace to the film, it's that the opening song is actually pretty good.
However, if you dig deeper into the movie, you'll see the real reason why it gets so much hate, it has a nonsensical story, annoying characters and sexual innuendos.
I've seen bad movies, but most people will be thinking that it makes no sense at all.
The brand mascots are real, so watching this movie makes you feel like you are getting beaten to death by advertising!
Considering that more money was used to make this more than a film made by Illumination makes this film easily the most mind bogglingly bad animated film in history, and I would like 5 minutes with the people who thought it was a good idea to release this garbage, as they obviously had no idea what they were doing.
This film will never be worth anyones time, as literally every other animated film, that even includes, I can't believe I'm saying this, The Emoji Movie and Norm Of The North, at least look like their animation studios put effort into those films.
NO SPOILERS NECESSARY!!!Seriously, who makes a movie that was supposed to be inspired by Toy Story and Wreck-It Ralph where the film has to do with food icons coming to life, which makes this film a PIECE OF CRAP!!!The CG is TERRIBLE, the jokes are UNFUNNY, the sexual innuendos are unnecessary
ya know, FOR KIDS!!!, and what are the filmmakers trying to accomplish with the story.
Looks like someone downloaded Blender and spent an afternoon learning to use the software.The concept of the film is like they'd watched some recent successes with animals and other kid friendly characters and picked up "101 Hilarious Jokes" from a charity shop.
It may sound like a cheat, but trust me when I say I saw enough of this movie to last a lifetime without having to watch it all the way from start to finish.This is the kind of shoddy work that would get penny-a-day workers in Malaysia scolded by their superiors - you can make it look s***y, but THIS s***y?
this is the opposite of that.Horrible puns (which can often, when done right, be really funny in real life, honest, I swear), horrible animation (it makes even the creepiest of the Uncanny Valley animated movies like Polar Express look like Sleeping Beauty), horrible voice acting (even Charlie Sheen, someone who just picked up a check for years on end to fart in front of sitcom canned laughter, seems bored - or Christopher Lloyd who's having a stroke in front of the world), and a horrible, unforgivable cynical grab at, on top of the aforementioned steals of Toy Story and Shrek: Casablanca.
It's not even joyful to dump on the movie, it's simply a waste that makes America look bad to foreign countries and sets us back another 50 years as far as being pioneers in the world of arts and sciences.Oh, and it is the kind of material that I'm sure, if you show to your kids or you are a kid and decide to watch this, that will give you nightmares.
All animation lover should watch this "pearl" to give a good laugh and every film student should see this as a learning experience about everything you should not do in a movie.Starting with the weird premise, market products that come to life when the market closes, and shelves magically transformed into a city.
The scenarios are really terrible and confused, you never know where the characters are, whether it's on the shelf, or in the world of products, or in the aisles of the supermarket.Can anyone explain to me why the hell this film had a big budget?
Is not really a bad movie it just you need to review it self because Look the sexuality is showing the incoming adults all of ya ll need to quit thinking that because I know it only paid 75,000 dollars but I do not care me and My cousins will watch this and I think I would get other op ions Just Shut up about your op ions and The movie has yalls favorite actors and Get the movie and they remade the quotes but they try to make it where kids will not get offended all the time but maybe is a bad movie but I think it is and a good movie it just the cgi animation are just like unofficial movies that came from net flex and all that.
You would think they could make a good movie with people like Charlie Sheen and Christopher Lloyd, but nope!
And the fact that $65 MILLION was poured into this film, and they couldn't get one likable character, one good line, one decent frame of animation, and at least one decent actor pretending to be actually decent!
The same can be said about the backgrounds--which are usually very fuzzy and look worse than an old-school computer game like "MYST".The dialog is the second worst thing about this 'movie'.
Some parents might strongly object to the fact that this film is ALL product placement aimed at children--with many of the characters consisting of unappealing corporate knockoff characters that look like McGruff the Crime Dog, Charlie the Tuna and Mr. Clean (among many others).
I could also talk about the plot involving the evil Brand X trying to take over the grocery store where all these characters live....but so many other awful things assaulted my senses that I really didn't even care about the insanely bad and cynical plot.Despite a plethora of B and C-list stars to provide the voices for these unpleasant characters, there just is no reason to see this film for the average person.
Now, I've seen bad animated movies in my time.
Like I said, the worst animated film of all time, and also probably the most expensive.
It's 65 million dollar budget is too much for its horrible animation that looks like it was filmed on Microsoft kinect, and also its blatant product placement that is worse than an Adam Sandler film.
The animation is unspeakably awful, not just the worst computer-animation in an animated film(excluding Video Brinquedo's and Spark Plug Entertainment's output, seriously the animation here makes Animals United seem like Toy Story in comparison) but some of the worst-looking animation ever.
The script was the worst culprit though, not in a long time has there been a script in an animated film this abominably bad, the bad-taste bathroom humour, out-of-place and inappropriate innuendo, Nazi overtones and equally crude one-liners and catchphrases that are enough to make anyone cringe taken to offensive levels.
Hey you, after knowing the existance of this movie, do you still thinking that the emoji movie is the worst animated movie, think again.This movies does what emoji movie does very bad and do it even worst, has very, very more product placement (just look at the poster), worst jokes ever, ridiculous scenes (the brand X and the ikes singing), a world with no rules about what happened to the real world in the night and viceversa (sausage party does something similar and has logic), and THE WORST CGI in a movie made enterly with CGI, it's seems more like a Playstation 1 or a Nintendo 64 game than a 2012 movie with high budget.Also has an awful script in so many thing, but at least emoji movie is visually aceptable, this thing isn't, don't watch it, better see a review in youtube, it's better than this excuse of movie..
Nostlagic Critic brought me here as I saw his review yesterday on this movie which stars Charlie Sheen(from All Dogs Go To Heaven),Hilary Duff(YES HILARY DUFF from A Cinderella Story was involved in this movie why Hilary why),her sister Haylie Duff,Christopher Lyod(Yes that dude from Anastasia and the villain of Who Framed Roger Rabbit),Eva Longoria(yes that chick from Desperate Housewives)all star in this movie that has been dubbed the worst cartoon of all time but one question I have to ask how on earth did this get 65 BILLION DOLLARS seriously Frozen was better than this piece of s***.
Watch as Mr. Clean, Mr. Bubble, the California Raisins and dozens of other icons take a backseat as cameos to a main cast of made-up, knock-off brand characters voiced by Charlie Sheen, Hilary Duff, Wayne Brady, Eva Longoria, Christopher Lloyed and a dozen other B-list celebrities with a tiny presence of REAL voice actors like Ed Asner and Jeff Bennett.
They should have worked more on the animation itself, the introduction was only the good thing about it as the movement of the city was astonishing, but to the point where the rest of the movie was brain-dead, I can see now why people must have stolen unfinished assets from this film, because they must have watched it and thought this was absolutely pathetic.
The plot switches around so much in it's focus, the jokes don't work on a level that transcends bad to the level of thinking this was a giant joke on humankind, the characters inconsistent and the sheer fact that this movie, a movie about recognizable brand mascots teaming up, take up almost no screen time.
The movie itself isn't good, the jokes are bad and the animation is lazy, and the story just isn't worth it.
Literally the characters have these cold dead eyes that never quite look in the direction they're supposed to.And if that wasn't bad enough the this whole thing sent Threshold into receivership and they needed to sell the movie off to the highest bidder.
Another reason to back this up is that the ending where the main character proposes to his girlfriend is really rushed, this could've been a good scene but it was wasted by the studio who wanted to get it out quickly and get some money, which they didn't do.There were quite a few famous actors in this film such as Charlie Sheen however; one member of the cast shocked me quite a bit: Christopher Lloyd as Mr. Clipboard.
The final thing I'm going to say in this paragraph is about the cheesy one -liners, because it feels like you're having a cringe attack when you hear them, they're so dull and the way they've been said is ghastly.One of the main monstrosities of this film was the animation, Google it now because it looks like it was from a PlayStation 2 game and it was made in 2012!
Again, all the many many lame jokes that fell flat on the floor, the poorly-designed characters, and especially all the food brand mascots that were in this movie were so distracting that it hindered the whole conflict of the entire film.
It's like watching a fan-made commercial in movie form.Food Fight literally wasted (let me put that in numerals, so get ready to face-palm) $65,000,000, and let me say that it did not go to good graphics.
A crossover with such poor computer graphics that high school students taking 3D Animation class can create something much better and more enjoyable to watch than Food Fight.Honestly, I feel so sorry for all the actors that had to be in this movie.
The animation is lifeless, the jokes are in no way funny at all, the sexual innuendos are just terrible, the script is so awful that I'd rather read Twilight, and last and certainly least, the Nazi and racist remarks in this film just makes me sick, who's idea was it to do all this crap?
It was just as bad as you would expect it to be.The premise of the film is similar to scenarios like "Toy Story": whereas in that film, toys came to life when people left the room, in this film the mascots and logos (called "ikes") for food and household products come to life when the grocery store closes at night.
It might have avoided the criticism that this film is a giant product placement, and most of the main characters aren't real icons any way.Voice acting-wise, most of the actors at least *attempt* to do a good job.
Part of the problem is just that the script is so bad, the characters so annoying, and the animation so ugly and terrible that I don't think they could have salvaged it.
This Ill-fated Movie Began Development And Production In 1992 By Kasanoff And By 1994-1999 There Was A 25 Million Investment With Natrual Image With Cash In Hand It Had A Budget Of 45-50 Million Dollars Back In 2000 It Was Announced by Larry Kasanoff That It Would Have An Exaaggerd Use Of Clear Animation With 80 Named Products And Their Associated Characters with A Planned 2003 Release However One Night In December 2002 The Entire Production Collapsed In Development And By Early 2003 KasaNoff Stated That Hard Drives Containing The Plot lines Were Reportedly Stolen In An Act Of Industrial Espionage And It Went down the drain But After Production Resumed In 2004 The Film Was Announced For A Late Fall 2005 Release But missed Despite Investing 100 Million Dollars And In 2007 Lionsgate Began Using Motion Capture To Create The Grosstique Ugliness Of Using Adult Jokes Finally In September 2011 FoodFight!
Does it look like there is any chance its a good movie?
Children were alienated by this piece of crap.Story is beyond awfulness, acting is like a joke, one-liners are terrible and animation is one of the worst.
This is probably one of the worst movies (animated or not) that I've seen in my entire life.
My biggest issue with this expired product is the 3 main characters, Dex Dogtective, a half human half dog who's dressed up like Indiana Jones and is played by Charlie Sheen, Sunshine Goodness who's a young woman(human) with cat ears and is played by Hilary Duff, and the main villain, Lady X who's played by Eva Longoria.
Dex Dogtective is the worst main character in any animated movie ever.
Besides the stolen hard drive, no there shouldn't be as they released this movie so the production isn't important to this review.The animation looks absolutely dreadful, some of the worst I've seen with it's ugly colour scheme, hideous models and bleak environments.The story is where Dex tries to figure out where his love interest is whilst flirting with another woman (who is the main antagonist), not too bad right?
if it weren't for the animation, this movie could've actually been somewhere close to a 5/10 rating.Go ahead, watch "Foodfight!," and marvel at the results of 10 or so years of production, and how awful said results are. |
tt2235902 | Geography Club | Russel Middlebrook is keeping a secret from his two best friends Min, a bright Chinese American girl, and Gunnar, a bright and socially awkward boy. Neither of them know he is gay and that he has been visiting an internet chat room to chat with other gay teens. When he discovers another guy from his high school in the room Russel is keen to meet up. He is surprised but pleased to find out his online friend is the popular Kevin Land. Russel shares this news with Min who says that she is bisexual and has a girlfriend, the soccer-playing Terese. Min suggests setting up an after school Gay/Bi/Straight Alliance group for support. The group meets and decides on the Geography Club name to keep it private.
At school Gunnar, who is unaware of Russel's sexuality, persuades Russel to go on a double date with him and two popular girls from their school. Russel is reluctant to go on the date, but agrees to do it for Gunnar, as this would be the only way for him to go on a date. When Gunnar and Russel go on their double date Gunnar is happy but Russel only puts up with it for his friend's sake. Russel's date tries to have sex with him and he puts her off by saying he's a virgin and he wants his first time to be special.
Russel joins the school football team so he can be part of Kevin's crowd. Russel plays well and wins a game for his team. Russel persuades Kevin to come to the Geography Club meeting. At school Kevin and his jock friends make fun of the school outcast Brian Bund and Russel joins in. Min sees this and is disgusted. Brian wants to join the Geography club but Kevin and Russel vote against this. Min wanted to let him join, and is angry with Russel for voting with Kevin. Min suggests they make the club public, making Kevin and Teresa nervous. Teresa breaks up with Min.
Gunnar persuades Russel to go on a second double date with the girls, this time at a cabin outside town. Russel is again pressured for sex and when Gunnar refuses to drive him home, Russel storms off. He phones Kevin who drives out to get him and they end up making out.
When rumours are spread by his unhappy date and her friend saying about a gay kid wanting to start a Gay/Straight Alliance, and that it must be Russel because he wouldn't make out with the girl. Kevin starts avoiding him. By lunchtime, Russell has nowhere to sit in the cafeteria except by Brian, as they are now both outcasts. Brian writes in an application for a Gay Straight club making people think he's the "gay kid". Russel asks Brian whether he's gay, and Brian says No but he doesn't want others to get treated like he is. The Geography Club resumes meeting this time seeking more open membership as an official club. After a showdown with the principal, approval is given and a liaison teacher appointed. Gunnar apologises to Russel and says he always knew he must be gay and he's sorry he pushed him into the dates. Kevin isn't willing to be out and he ends his romance with Russell. | cute, queer | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1330015 | Christmas Town | It all begins when Liz McCann and her son, Mason, leave on a trip to visit Liz's estranged father Jack for Christmas. He gave them instructions, but they just can't seem to find the exact place. Liz was driving, and Mason suddenly tells her to stop. She thinks her son saw something, but it was just a reindeer. Mason runs deep in the forest and sees a town in the valley. He announces to his mother that they have found the place, but Liz can't get the car running. Mason assures her they can walk, it's not that far.
They get there, and find out that the small town is called Hollyville. They walk by a strange factory, called "NP Enterprises". When they look through the fence, but they are interrupted by a man that tells them that there is "NO PEEKING!". Then they walk deeper in Hollyville. They find out that Jack, who was formerly a banker, is now working as a chef at the local cafe, called "The Egg Nog". They find a woman named Roxy to fix their car, and Liz hopes they will not stay for too long. Meanwhile, grandpa Jack takes them to his cottage, which has a huge Christmas tree inside. It is revealed that Liz doesn't quite like Christmas. Mason finds out that "NP Enterprises" is actually "North Pole Enterprises", and that Santa's elves work there, including the big man. | romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0272880 | Tekken | Mere moments after Jin Kazama's departure from the Hon-Maru dojo, G Corporation helicopters approach and begin deploying Jack-4s pods into the building. Heihachi Mishima and his son, Kazuya, are awoken to a squadron bursting through the walls. At first, the two battle the Jacks together until Kazuya leaves Heihachi for dead while escaping. The Jacks hold down Heihachi while one activates its detonator, creating a huge explosion that seemingly kills Heihachi. The only witness to the event is Raven, a mysterious ninja clad in black, who relays Heihachi's death to his superiors.
Heihachi's death is declared all over the world with everyone foreseeing the end of the Mishima Zaibatsu. However, somebody else takes over the company from the shadows and business continues as usual. Two months later, the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5 is announced. Meanwhile, Jin is plagued by nightmares triggered by his Devil Gene and tries to end it by entering the tournament. His father, Kazuya deduces that the Jack-4s were sent by G Corporation to assassinate him and decides to enter the tournament to take revenge against whoever had sent them.
The secret sponsor of the tournament and owner of the Mishima Zaibatsu is finally revealed to be Jinpachi Mishima, the father of Heihachi who was confined below Hon-Maru by Heihachi after a coup forty years ago. However, he was possessed by the Devil entity who granted him insurmountable power, after which he broke out of Hon-Maru during the Jacks' attacks. Jinpachi, in his last act of morality, had announced the tournament in the hope that someone would be able to kill him before his potential reign of terror could start. Jin makes it to the final round and faces his great-grandfather in a ferocious duel. Ultimately, Jin manages to defeat Jinpachi, who dissolves into dust and disappears shortly after, with his wish being fulfilled. Jin, after defeating him, becomes the new head of Mishima Zaibatsu, unaware that Heihachi survived the explosion and is working to retake the Zaibatsu. | violence | train | wikipedia | I personally am a huge fan of the Tekken series (specifically 3 and Tag Tournament), and when I saw that there was a Tekken anime, I was thrilled.
This movie had very little redeeming qualities to it: the characters were mostly annoying (ie- Lee Chaolan, Nina and Anna, Heihachi, Jun Kazama), and as has been mentioned before, the fighting and character development were minimal.
Seemed like the most interesting character was Jack and the little girl, though it seemed a little corny and done before (the whole machine learning how to feel, etc...).
What also bothered me was that some of the more interesting characters from the series (Paul Phoenix, King and Armor King, Yoshimitsu, etc...) were in it for about 5 seconds in the background in the final scene.
This movie gets a 2 for effort and the couple half-interesting scenes with Jack..
The beginning of the movie was the best part because it was giving the information of the story.
The thing that really made me mad was why show characters from Tekken 3 at the opening credits if they weren't in the rest of the movie.
Everyone had a story to tell in that game, but they only centered it on Jun and Kazuya.
I understand that in game story he was obsessed about controlling the Mishima Zaibatsu, but he would never go as far to kill himself and and destroy the company so no one else would get it.
Like I said before the only thing that was good was the information.
In 1993, NAMCO released the fighting video game 'Tekken' about a martial arts contest held by the powerful Mishima corporation.
It was extremely successful, and was followed by the greatest fighting game of all time-- named (what else?) 'Tekken 2.' At this point, there have been four more sequels, including a Tag Tournament and a Game Boy version.
Of all the characters in the game, only Kazuya, Heihachi, Lee, and Jun get any decent screen time (Lei and Jack-2 are the only others that get any real time at all).
A couple of Lee's scenes are interesting and there is one attempted assassination on Kazuya by Nina that's sort of okay, but otherwise this is a badly written, boring anime flick.
The script is so bad that the writers call 'Tekken' a mysterious thing that doesn't make sense.
Tekken means Iron Fights, and the geniuses who wrote this piece of crud don't understand that this is supposed to make just a little bit of sense.
The voice acting (I am talking about the English version) is awful, the direction is pointlessly poor, and the music score wanders between okay and really, really annoying.
First of all, the cons are that it is far too short, seemingly will lead into a sequel yet at the same time will not, and most of the minor characters only show up and do not interact with the story in any way.However, for the most part the pros beat out the cons.
For one, the story does go into Kazuya, the main character of Tekken 1 and 2's story, the dubbing isn't horrible (Except for Law), the soundtrack is amazing with Stabbing Westward, Offspring, and some other late 90's rock artists, and often fits with the action.Overall, if u like the game, see it first then think about buying it from there, if u haven't played the game, its a good rent, but you probably wont want to buy it.
From the video game 'Tekken' comes an anime movie, 'Tekken: The Motion Picture'.
On their journeys they encounter some strange enemies and of course hidden secrets are revealed.Although the animation is not as good as we normally see in this kind of movies there still is some energy, especially in the fighting sequences.
This is not a very good movie but since it is not that long, less than an hour, it was quite watchable.
There are better movies from the genre but for only an hour there is a good chance you will like it..
If you're a Tekken fan, you'll like this movie..
This movie is about a rich man, Heihachi Mishima, who is obsessed with destroying the devil in order to create a better new world.
Kazuya shows up indeed but as he attempts to kill his father he is consistently stopped by Jun, a girl from his childhood, who was there when Heihachi threw him off the cliff.
Now is there at the tournament and she won't stop at nothing to release Kazuya from the devil within him.Although this Anime is not the exactly best, I think they did a very good job with the story.
Considering the amount of Tekken characters in existence (52, including the ones that are not in the game)they managed to get many of the characters in it without harming the continuity of the story.
The problem is that it tries to have a good story about a few of the tekken characters.
Just character development, something thats unnecessary in a movie like this.
I hadn't heard of a film version of Tekken before, and it didn't look too promising, but as Tekken 3 is my all time favourite fighting game I thought I'd check it out - A genuine waste of an hour of my life I will never get back.I don't usually post reviews on IMDb, but I just had to warn anyone who felt as curious as I did about this that it WILL disappoint you unbelievably.
The voice acting is horrendous, each actor doing the worst they could from a clunky script that has each character stand there and explain there entire back story in between fighting.
The few fights there were managed to conquer the market in pure dull punch and kick tedium.The story itself barely goes through any of the characters.
Obviously we get the main story between Heihachi and his son, but favourites such as Paul are left to pose all "fierce" in ensemble shots while dull characters such as Lei steal all the limelight.Now for some good news.
Unfortunately, all I could think of was to work the "so bad it's good" angle, and if that's what you're after there are a few unplanned giggles here and there from the use of the boxing-gloved kangaroo and some invisible dinosaurs (don't ask).
Don't give your hopes up, though, as these will evoke no more than minor chuckles from the embarrassment you will feel for the people that thought up such a ridiculous mismatch of illogical plot and, in the female lead, the most irritating protagonist this side of...well, ever.In all, the only movie I've ever seen which I would actually pay money to avoid seeing ever again.
WHAT HAPPENED!?The movie starts oddly enough with Kazuya Mishima getting tossed off a cliff by his father, Heihachi which didn't really do anything for this movie.The only real good parts about this movie were the music in the English version, (good choices) and a shower scene and implied sex scene between Anna Williams and Lee Chowlan.Other than that...
Most notably, for a movie based on a fighting game, there doesn't seem to be very much fighting.
When the characters aren't 'fighting' they're yammering on about the hilariously lame plot which involves some kind of devil and an island and the end of the world or something.
Speaking of laughing, one of the major action sequences involves the characters fighting freaking INVISIBLE DINOSAURS.
They also managed to work the stupid boxing kangaroo into the story.
I caught this movie on cable with the terrible English dub, which gives it another point on the Hilariously Bad scale.
Tekken is not a game that would translate to the screen very well.
First of all Tekken has 20+ characters, most of which have little connection to one another so in order to get everyone on screen for a remotely decent length of time it would be a giant montage of fight scenes (because no one is about to sit through the slow development of all 20 characters out of which only 5 are worth talking about).
If they stuck with the Tekken 1 premise a simple tournament and a simple father/son rivalry, this would have worked much better.
They should have focused in on Kazuya's past, his rise throughout the tournament, the very beginnings of his dealing with Devil, and his confrontation with Heihachi.
The narrative could stick with Kazuya as he faces off with different people and occasionally jump to other fights by the main characters thereby incorporating them into the overall story as well - then it might be worth watching.That would leave the door open for a Tekken anime sequel, it would keep the non-Tekken literate viewers informed as to the whole mythology around Tekken, and it would have been an overall better film.
But nope, they tried to pack everything into one film even Tekken 2's joke characters which had no place in the game, much less the movie.
So we get lots of characters on screen who ramble and add nothing to anything and hardly ever fight despite being based on a fighting game.Another point for one I did not like for the quality of this anime's drawing.
Add to that the fact all of Tekken's characters previously have been strictly CG-rendered which makes a drawn interpretation feel like a fish out of water; looking across the characters I found myself saying, `That's not Lei Wu Long; that can't be Kazuya .
Final thoughts: Tekken isn't a game that lends itself too terribly well to anything other than its own medium.
It's shallow as a fighting game, so it's no surprising that the anime adaptation reflects this so well..
It encapsulates the basic story that we already know and adds elements that have either been kept from us or doesn't really work in game form.
I'm a huge fan of the Tekken series, as well as of anime movies, so it was only natural that I would see this film eventually.
Here's my quick take on it.The Tekken video games, despite popular belief, have very deep storylines.
The ones that did last long enough to have a real storyline were horrendously twisted from their video game counterparts', again, all in an effort to fit as much as humanly possible into an hour long movie.The Tekken part of the movie was mangled, but sadly, also was the anime part, which could have been it's redeeming quality.
However, the movie takes these elements to such a level that they appear to be almost a charicature of anime.
When dinosaurs get released all over the island...well, things just get ridiculous in that department.With all the bashing this movie has received from other critics and me, don't think you necessarily have to avoid it at all costs, either.
There are some good, action-packed scenes that make it almost worth suffering through the bad ones.
All in all, Tekken: The Motion Picture is good, campy fun that should be seen by all fans of the games once...and only once..
Tekken the movie is based on the namco game with the same name.
It features some of the best fighters in the world, brought together to compete for the title as best martial arts fighter in the world in the "Iron fist tournament".After just watching the film I feel like the producers could have done so much more with this film, it felt incomplete.
The character development never worked out, the voice actors ( refering to the English version ) where awfull.
Even though the animation was acceptable, it was far from good.The story was thin and never introduced you to most of the characters from the game.I would give it a 4 out of 10, sadly but true it doesn't deserve much more..
I've played the Tekken games.
They are fun, visually stimulating, in places madly complicated, but always worth playing.This movie, on the other hand, is a waste of time and effort, on both the creator's part and the viewers.To begin with, there are many characters in the Tekken game which a 60-minute movie cannot hope to address appropriately.
We are given glimpses of some characters who are key to the game's storyline, but in the movie?
The English dubbing borders on awful, the dialogue repetitive and prone to spoon-feeding the viewer the bleeding obvious, and the soundtrack in places misplaced.There were some nice ideas in the storyline, but it's so badly executed that you can't enjoy it, even as a fan of the game series.3/10.
The script was poor and really cheesy but the animation was good and the fight scenes weren't too bad.
But the thing is, why won't people ever learn that movies based on video games don't work at all?
It really annoys me, GAH!This crap movie is about the character Kazuya Mishima, before he became Jin's father, wants to kill his dad, Heihachi Mishima after he almost killed Kazuya on purpose but the only way to kill him, is by joining the Tekken fighting tournament on an island guarded by the military.I think you'd rather be playing the game than watch this garbage because TEKKEN: THE MOTION PICTURE gives you the reason why you should never watch movies that are based on video games.There's a saying that I made up called 'you've played the game, now don't watch the movie'..
Manages to be worse than the live action movie..
Three years later, ASCII and studio deen collaborated on "Tekken: the motion picture" in a possible bid to replicate the success of the previous video game anime adaptation.
The story somewhat follows that of the first two Tekken games: Special investigator and martial arts expert Jun Kazama is made to join the....."Tekken" tournament hosted by the mysterious Mishima corporation under Heihachi Mishima.
this anime takes place in SINGAPORE!!), Kazuya the rogue son of Heihachi Mishima is attacked by an assassin Nina.
Running at 60 minutes, it barely has enough time to develop the main story of Jun and Kazuya.
To make things worse, other fighters like Lee (who is jealous of his brother Kazuya and wants to kill him), jack (who's story seems ripped from Terminator 2 about the machine who values human life) and Nina hog the screen time with their own little story arcs.
It does not do justice to the quality of anime movies which are meant to have a bigger budget.
Character movements are lazily animated, frame rate is barely adequate and the fights lack a certain energy.
For example, Conversations involve a long pan over a still scene, Motion lines on a still picture and there are even some repeated scenes thrown in.Fans thinking that this could not be worse than the recent live action Tekken movie, think again.
Though the characters look exactly like they do in the game, the entire thing is ludicrous.
Even the final duel between Kazuya and his father is sadly anti-climatic.Tekken The motion picture fails in every way to mimic the success of Street Fighter The Animated movie despite even lifting some scenes wholesale from that anime: A nude shower scene, an attempted assassination in a bedroom and even a sumo wrestler character that parodies Street Fighter character E Honda.
Overall a major disappointment, not even worth the time to watch on youtube.2/10 for this horrid let down.An extra point since its set in Singapore for 3/10.
Indeed, how well can you do a story based on a game where you hit the other guy, and there's a cast of 20-30 fighters?
And even if the story is coherent, is it good?
Tekken normally has about 20-30 characters and they only concentrated on only 9 of them and more on Kazuya, Heihachi, jun, Lei, Lee, Jack while smaller roles were given to Nina, Anna, Michelle and Roger and Bruce.
the movie was supposed to be as good as the game but it wasn't most of everyones favorite characters like king or Yoshimitsu were only shown for a second i mean if you'd blink once you'd miss 10 of them.
the plot for Kazuya and Jun was very well but nothing was said about the others it was like they never existed.
The animation in Tekken is all digital, but since it's done by GONZO, it looks dull and boring.
You'd think that Namco could find someone a little better to handle the adaptation of their flagship fighting series-- like maybe Masami Obari.
Tekken: The Motion Picture is based on a popular sort of arcade fighting games and a series of console ports as well.
Anime and even live action films based on such fighters are quite common, ranging from series like Street Fighter, to movies like Mortal Kombat and everything in between.
Tekken:The Motion Picture falls somewhere in the "they don't" category.Before I get to the English version problems I'll start with the animation itself.
For the most part the movie plays well with only a few moments of very noticeable poor work.
At a mere 60min, Tekken could have seriously used an additional 30 min of fighting and development.
ADV does at least keep a good stable of talent and each character has a distinctive voice that fits to one degree or another.
Young Kazuya and Jun have a opening comment that will be replayed several times throughout the movie.
Kazuya is hurled from a cliff by his father, Heihachi Mishima and left for dead.
Jun is now a member of this force and is by chance mysteriously invited to the Tekken tournament along with wise cracking inter-pol agent Lei WuLong.
We get to see some cameos from main and side characters of the game (Looks to all be Tekken 2 crew,) and some sparring along the way to the climax, which is slightly anti-climatic.Good for a rental or for those who must collect everything Tekken.
But do give it a try if you like fighter anime. |
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