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tt0114702 | Total Eclipse | The older Paul Verlaine meets Arthur Rimbaud's sister, Isabelle, in a café in Paris. Isabelle and her mother want Verlaine to hand over any copies he may still have of Rimbaud's poems so that they can burn them; they fear the lewdness of his writings. Verlaine reflects on the wild relationship he had had with Rimbaud, beginning when the teenaged Rimbaud had sent his poetry to Verlaine from his home in the provinces in 1871. Verlaine, instantly fascinated, impulsively invites him to his rich father-in-law's home in Paris, where he lives with his young, pregnant wife. The wild, eccentric Rimbaud displays no sense of manners or decency whatsoever, scandalising Verlaine's pretentious, bourgeois in-laws.
Verlaine is seduced by the 16-year-old Rimbaud's physical body as well as by the unique originality of his mind. The staid respectability of married, heterosexual life and easy, middle class surroundings had been stifling Verlaine's admittedly sybaritic literary talent. His taking up with Rimbaud is as much a rebellion and a liberation as it is a giving in to self-indulgence and masochism. Rimbaud acts as sadistically to Verlaine as does Verlaine to his young wife, whom he eventually deserts. A violent, itinerant relationship ensues between the two poets, the sad climax of which arrives in Brussels when a drunken and enraged Verlaine shoots and wounds Rimbaud and is sentenced a fine and two years in prison for sodomy and grievous bodily harm.
In prison, Verlaine converts to Christianity, to his erstwhile lover's disgust. Upon release he meets Rimbaud in Germany, vainly and mistakenly seeking to revive the relationship. The two men part, never to meet again. Bitterly renouncing literature in any form, Rimbaud travels the world alone, finally settling in Abyssinia (modern day Ethiopia) to run a "trading post". There he has a mistress and possibly a young boy-lover. A tumour in his right knee forces him back to France where his leg is amputated. Nevertheless, the cancer spreads and he dies at the age of 37. When he dies, the image of one of his most famous poems, Le Dormeur du val, appears.
During her conversation with Verlaine, Isabelle Rimbaud asserts that her brother had accepted confession from a priest right before he died, showing Christian penitence, which is why only the censored versions of his poetry should survive. Verlaine pretends to agree but tears up her card after she leaves. Later, Verlaine, drinking absinthe (to which he has become addicted), sees a vision of the sixteen-year-old Rimbaud, returned from some transcendent realm to express the love and respect Verlaine has thus posthumously earned. The film ends with the young Rimbaud walking alone on a mountain range, Verlaine proclaiming that they were both happy together, and Rimbaud claiming to have finally found eternity. | violence, romantic, cruelty, sadist, flashback | train | wikipedia | It's a good thing not too many people saw this film when it came out [no pun intended], because, if any of DiCaprio's female fans had seen him in this, one of his best early roles, his career would have been over well before he was involved in "Titanic." And that's because he's so utterly convincing as the tortured, bisexual teen genius poet Arthur Rimbaud, that it would undoubtedly set many of those young ladies to wondering if he'd played the part a little TOO well, if you get my meaning.
It's a good thing he wasn't successful, because I think that this film rates right along with "The Basketball Diaries" as possibly his best performance.But it takes two to tango, at least in this case, and David Thewlis is almost as good opposite DiCaprio as Paul Verlaine, who began as Rimbaud's mentor and wound up as his long-time lover.
I realized going into this film that it was not going to be a straight bio-pic about Rimbaud's life so that loosened my expectations for the movie a bit, which is good considering had I expected a life story I would've been sorely disappointed.
This film is more about Rimbaud's rocky relationship with fellow poet, Verlaine, whom he falls in love with and subsequently about Verlaine being stuck between a rock and a hard place with Rimbaud on one side and his beautiful but ultimately empty headed wife, Mathilde on the other.The set/costume design was done well enough; not enough to win awards but enough to make the time and place believable.
DiCaprio gives an inspired performance as the young, opinionated, Rimbaud as does Thewlis in his role as the older poet, Verlaine who takes him under his wing.
You won't get a complete round view of either man or his life here, but what you will get is a story about love, madness, writing and the search for meaning.If you like what you see of Rimbaud from this movie, I would whole heartedly recommend his work to you and any and all written biographies as they will shed even more light on a truly great poet's life..
Along this line, I am sure that the poetry of Rimbaud and Verlaine would have stood forward excellently, when recited in the movie about their relation.
It would also have helped in making their interactions understandable.After seeing the movie a second time, I read some of Rimbaud's writings, and there was a slightly different character emerging from his words, than the one portrayed, though excellently, by Leonardo DiCaprio.
He might have been type-cast, to do the obnoxious adolescent, but they got more than they bargained for - he included the most important aspect of Rimbaud: the prodigy poet, the artist living for art, loving for art.His acting is sometimes stunning, and not only in delicate scenes where minute nuances are essential, but also in all kinds of silliness in between.
His is the muse which revels in the squalor of creation.Many people will dislike this film because the two main characters, Rimbaud and Verlaine, are bisexual and not at all stereotypical.
the kind of love story you'd expect for people who live and breathe life in the way great alternaculture poets must.Eternity is where the sunlight mixes with the water.
It is one of DiCaprio's best independent films before he became a titanic superstar.Rimbaud"s painfully self-destructive bisexual life and his affair with Verlaine is not a "nice" story to tell, but the drama is interesting as a study in the eccentric mind of the artist.
David Thewlis' role was also very well acted (and quite impressive) as Paul Verlaine.Most have said it's not an accurate portrayal of what really went on....well that's what the disclaimer on the beginning of the movie states.
"Total Eclipses" narrates the romance that is born among the poets Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis, in a courageous and excellent performance, Thewlis plays strong scenes with experience and professionalism) and Arthur Rimbaud (Leonardo Di Caprio, before being thrown to the Hollywood's stardom in "Titanic").
The film documents, without make-ups,Paul Verlaine's slow destruction,a man who is consumed by the love and hate that he fells for Rimbauld.Director Agniezka Holland accomplished a touching and beautiful work,counting with a perfect plasticity that reconstitutes the time and the romance among the two men in a detailed way and without shame, what can,in fact,shock Di Caprio's fans in some delicate moments.Even being a little slow in a lot of parts of the story, "Total Eclipse" is efficient when its seen as a drama that lectures about the difficulty of being homosexual, but besides this topic, it analyzes what happens when people abdicate of their happiness and suffer due to social conventions, and finally it ends up in a intelligent conclusion:that only through the courage and through the love it's possible not only to break such barriers but also to achieve redemption.Director Agnieszka Holland conducts with experience a story that, in the hands of another director, could be reduced into a common and not very innovative denominator, and the lenses of her camera shows, without make-ups and courts to alleviate the impact of the scenes, the whole suffering, the prejudice and the pain that marks the relationship between Rimbaud and Verlaine.
There are rough scenes such as the one in which Thewlis is tirelessly sodomized by Di Caprio, there are moments of fondness when the two kiss each other,but in the same way the sick and morbid aspect of the relationship is expressed, when, for example, Rimbauld stabs Rimbaud's hand to prove his love.Being a heterosexual, i concluded that, instead of adopting a dogmatic and racist posture, it would be better if i could appreciate the film not as just another plot about two gay guys who are in love but I tried to enlarge my point of view, understanding that the film was, actually, a simple feeble love history marked by the suffering and resignation.
Thus, I recommend "Total Eclipse" as an intelligent and efficient drama, a work that deserves to be applauded by its initiative and courage, for the excellent performances and for the safe and kind work by Agnieszka Holland, who tells a love story in a distressing and realist form.
Poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud have been compared to Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, but aside from being gay the pairs have little in common.
Verlaine as played by David Thewlis is a really hateful person, gay audiences can't work up any sympathy for him.However Rimbaud as played by Leonardo DiCaprio by look and talent makes you perfectly understand why Rimbaud became so obsessed with him.
I found it interesting that Rimbaud and Verlaine flee to Great Britain of all places to be freer, the same place that in the next generation would persecute poor Oscar Wilde.DiCaprio and Thewlis play a couple of louts, but a fascinating pair of louts.
There will be those who watch this film for DiCaprio, which is fine, then there will be those who watch this for the fact that it's about a French Poet, Rimbaud.
This is a worthy and successful attempt to make a film about the famous literary and personal relationship between two great poets, Paul Verlaine and the young Arthur Rimbaud.
The life of Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis) begins in 1871 when he was 28 as that is when he discovered young Arthur Rimbaud (Leonardo DiCaprio) age 17.
And of course very few people could accept watching a movie on some "boring relationship of two unknown french bisexual poets".
Better watch it after having read some of there poetry of both because there are some scenes that can recall poems of there creations anyway this movie is the kind of which can't be acclaimed by all critics for being different of those box-office stereotyped flix...The Rimbaud i like is not exactly the one played by Di Caprio but I can say that his performance wasn't that much deceiving..
I've seen many biographical films, and few of them have been told with the complete witlessness of "Total Eclipse." This is a story about the French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine (Leonardo DiCaprio and David Thewlis), two brilliant but tortured artists who had an unhappy but surprisingly long sexual and mental relationship.
Rare are the times when we see either of them writing poetry, and rarer still are the times when we hear any of it.The story begins with Rimbaud arriving at Verlaine's house at the latter's request, after he's read some of his first work.
Soon they are having an illicit affair, though Verlaine does visit back home once in a while to set his wife's hair on fire and throw their baby carriage against the wall.From there the movie breaks down into a pointless, arbitrary series of events that I guess were included because they really happened, but haven't been shaped into any sort of story, and certainly don't do anything to make us care about the characters.
All through the film, I kept wondering, "when are they going to let him read his poetry, and show us WHY it was important, HOW it contrasted with conventional poetry at the time?" I mean, if you're brave enough to try to sell graphic homosexual scenes to a Merchant Ivory audience, then why not be brave enough to "bore" us with some literary analysis?.
Total Eclipse is a VERY well acted movie (espeacially on Leo's part) but the plot and subject matter is VERY questionable because the main characters are SO mean to each other and other people as well!!.
A young and very gifted poet Arthur Rimbaud (played by Leonardo Di Caprio who looks the part, but cannot quite play it) is invited to Paris by Verlaine (Thewlis) and they become lovers and work together on some of the most revolutionary verse the literary world has ever known.
If Holland is going to make a good film on this theme, then why not take two flamboyant people (like Rimbaud and Verlaine) and send them to Africa or another colourful part of the world where they can incorporate their life experiences into their poetry.
Later, when Rimbaud lived in Abyssinia for 11 years, he had relations with women, not with men.The reason why I love this film is because it contains poetry.
But what I originally enjoyed and also originally disliked the first time around were both confirmed when I saw it again: My initial delight was due to the fact that the portrayal of Arthur Rimbaud is as close to capturing the inner workings of the mind of an artist as any I've seen, particularly in the way that he demonstrates a very logical resistance to Paul Verlaine's amorphously fawning "love" that he offers Rimbaud.
This is the first film I've seen DiCaprio in, and I'm really starting to like him, and David Thewlis, as Verlaine, I've been raving about since his blistering performance in Mike Leigh's Naked two years ago.
Rimbaud's motivations seem to flutter between his desire for an intellectual equal and his need for monetary support, which, of course means Verlaine's wife because it was HE who married money, not her.My reservations about this film are primarily because it doesn't deal with the actual poetry of the men enough.
I would have loved to have heard the voice-overs of them both during the scenes where they cavort among the goats on a hillside, or as they climb around the crags of the Black Forest, and when Rimbaud mentions to Verlaine that "the writing has changed me" it would have done more of a service to the audience to let them know WHY he was having his sister burn his earlier poems.The photography, as I've come to expect from director Agnieszka Holland (The Secret Garden; Olivier, Olivier; Europa, Europa) is stunning, particularly the shots of Charleville, where Rimbaud's family lives on a farm.
But because it was so difficult to get at the time, then I started to look up about Arthur Rimbaud to know if aside young DiCaprio, it will be interesting to watch.
Total Eclipse actually has some good scenes regarding this affair, the problem is when I watch this movie from the start to ending I will be nothing but annoyed.
Joining DiCaprio in this tale of 19th century French poets is the brilliant David Thewlis as Paul Verlaine.There is actually not a single character in this film who is really likable, and that's what separates it from the rest of the pabulum that we tend to get as a daily diet.
I first saw this movie only because i am a leonardo dicaprio fan...but it turned out to be one of the most touching(in an peculiar way)films i have ever seen.
total eclipse made me want to find more about the poets,(i bought the complete works of rimbaud and am always looking for more info on him and his life...it also helps i speak some french)and it pulls you into their magnificently horrid lives.true, there should have been more poetry in the movie, but otherwise it was perfect.the acting is amazing:leo acts so natural and pure...but sometimes it's hard to watch because he is so cruel and obnoxious.david also is great, but his character is sad and far less interesting to watch.this movie is not for everyone because it is quite graphic and sometimes shockingly sick, but if your open you might love it..and hopefully read some of rimbauds poems..
Caprio give us the view what the Rimbaud looked like and the way he plays is breathtaking.I think this movie is underrated.
It is in this sense clearly a European and not an American (moral majority) film.Between his 16 - when he left home and joined Verlaine (Thewlis) - and his 19, Rimbaud (Di Caprio) wrote the fine flower of French poetry.
The film is based on the letters and writings of the two French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine.
One of the brightest times in the French spiritual culture known as Impressionism.The two main characters are brilliantly performed by David Thewlis as Verlaine and Leonardo di Caprio as Rimbaud.
What the movie is really about is the life of Arthur Rimbaud (Leonardo Di Caprio) and his meeting with the fellow poet Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis).
Total Eclipse is about the relationship between poets Arthur Rimbaud (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis).
Other then that, I thought Total Eclipse was a fantastic film that was snubbed Best Picture, Best Actor (Leonardo Dicaprio), Best Supporting Actor (David Thewlis), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Score.
If you don't mind dark material, see Total Eclipse, and then read some of the poetry of Rimbaud and Verlaine to learn more about the great poets..
A lot of people may be tempted to watch this one for the Leonardo DiCaprio nude scenes, but David Thewlis gives a terrific performance as well in this story about the absinthe-soaked love affair between French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine.
First, even though both Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, the main characters of this film, are considered to be genius poets by many French literary critics (in fact, Rimbaud's collection of poems "A Season in Hell" is considered to be a major achievement in French literature), the two are hardly household names in the English-speaking world.
Taking into consideration that the movie was about two of the greatest French poets, I was somehow looking forward to enjoying their great minds and spirit, and not just learn about their destructive love affair that seemed to be the main issue of the script.
The movie stays on the friendship and love between Verlaine and Rimbaud and doesn't focus at the artistic nature of those two great french poets.
Young, wild poet Arthur Rimbaud (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his mentor Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis) engage in a fierce, forbidden romance while feeling the effects of a hellish artistic lifestyle.Whether the main characters in this film are homosexual, bisexual or something else does not matter.
And Dicaprio is no Rimbaud-- his so called acting doesn't do justice to the Rimbaud I studied intensely.The actor who portrayed Verlaine is closer in temperament to the character-- but altogether this movie is a slanted look at the tempestuous affair between two noted poets.
In this very grim portrayal of the love affair between 19th century French poets Arthur Rimbaud (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis), we see how they in fact had a mutually destructive relationship.
The story of Verlaine and Rimbaud is told very nice and in this film you feel the impossible-love they have for eachother.
Okay here's my review of "Total Eclipse".Here's the plot: It is 1871 and the great poet Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis) has asked to meet with the teenage writing genius Arthur Rimbaud (Leonardo DiCaprio) after reading some of his poems.
He is a genius compared to Verlaine's already beautiful poetry.However, what I didn't expect was "Total Eclipse" mainly focusing on the homosexual relationship between Rimbaud and Verlaine.
This film does not do that.We do not hear much from Rimbaud's or Verlaine's poetry.
Whether you're disgusted at Verlaine's disgusting treatment towards his wife or even more disgusted at his self or whether you want to understand what there is to like about this two men, this film cannot fail to express your hidden emotions.Leonardo is brilliant as Rimbaud (and I'm not a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio).
This historical drama, directed by Agnieszka Holland, focuses on the rocky relationship between the renowned 19th century French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine.
Based on letters and poems, it presents a historically accurate account of the passionate and violent relationship between the two 19th century French poets Paul Verlaine,played by David Thewlis; and Arthur Rimbaud,played by Leonardo DiCaprio, at a time of soaring creativity for both of them.Rimbaud is a teenage wunderkind known for his rebelliousness against conventional society and his surrealistic writing.
I say the real poets would be very proud of the actors for doing a love story about them in a film more like! |
tt0101042 | Back to the Future | Teenager Marty McFly is an aspiring musician dating girlfriend Jennifer Parker in Hill Valley, California. His father George is bullied by his supervisor, Biff Tannen, while his mother Lorraine is an overweight, depressed alcoholic. While dissatisfied with Marty's relationship with Jennifer, Lorraine recalls how she met George when her father hit him with a car.
On October 26, 1985, Marty meets his scientist friend, Dr. Emmett Brown, at a shopping mall parking lot. Doc unveils a time machine built from a modified DeLorean and powered by plutonium stolen from Libyan terrorists. Doc demonstrates the navigation system with the example date of November 5, 1955: the day he conceived the machine. A moment later, the Libyans arrive and shoot him, apparently killing him. Marty escapes in the DeLorean, but inadvertently activates the time machine, and arrives in 1955 without the required plutonium needed to return.
There, Marty encounters the teenage George, who is bullied by classmate Biff. After Marty saves George from an oncoming car and is knocked unconscious, he awakens to find himself tended by an infatuated Lorraine. Marty leaves and tracks down Doc's younger self to help him return to 1985. With no plutonium, Doc explains that the only power source capable of generating the necessary 1.21 gigawatts of electrical power for the time machine is a bolt of lightning. Marty shows Doc a flyer from the future that recounts a lightning strike at the town's courthouse the coming Saturday night. Doc instructs Marty to not leave his house or interact with anyone, as he could inadvertently change the course of history and alter the future; because of this, Doc refuses to heed warnings from Marty about his death in 1985. Marty realizes that he has prevented his parents from meeting and Doc warns Marty that he will be erased from existence if he does not find a way to introduce George to Lorraine. Doc formulates a plan to harness the power of the lightning while Marty sets about introducing his parents, but he antagonizes Biff and his gang in the process.
When Lorraine asks Marty to the upcoming school dance, Marty plans to have George "rescue" Lorraine from Marty's inappropriate advances. The plan goes awry when a drunken Biff attempts to force himself on Lorraine. George arrives to rescue her from Marty, but finds Biff instead. George knocks out Biff and Lorraine follows George to the dance floor, where they kiss and fall in love while Marty plays music with the band. Satisfied that he has secured his future existence, Marty leaves to meet Doc.
As the storm arrives, Marty returns to the clock tower and the lightning strikes on cue, sending Marty back to October 1985. He finds that Doc is not dead, as he had listened to Marty's warnings and worn a bullet-proof vest. Doc takes Marty home, then departs to 2015.
Marty awakens the next morning to find his family changed: George is a self-confident, successful author, Lorraine is physically fit and happy, his brother David is a successful businessman, his sister Linda works in a boutique and has many "boyfriends" and Biff is now an obsequious auto valet. As Marty reunites with Jennifer, the DeLorean appears with Doc, dressed in a futuristic outfit, insisting they accompany him to 2015 to fix a problem with their future children. The trio get inside the DeLorean and disappear into the future. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | The weekly adventures of Marty and Doc. This little animated series came about a year after the third movie, either an attempt to keep Back to the Future in the public eye or just to cash in on the films.
Either way, this was a fun series.
Some of the stories were very fresh and clever.
One story that comes to mind is Doc, Jules and Verne traveling back and accidently preventing the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Those live action bumpers of Christopher Lloyd are clever and funny.
The series vanished after it's production ended and has sometimes appeared on a cable station.
Watch it if you can..
Not as good as the movies, but still entertaining..
While this animated series if BACK TO THE FUTURE is not as good as the BACK TO THE FUTURE movies, it is still entertaining!
It's pretty good for an animated show from 1991, but the animated shows today are better.
This is one of the few animated shows from the early 1990's that doesn't make me groan..
great cartoon, I really enjoyed it..
this is a great cartoon, I really enjoyed it, I am a big fan of Back To The Future it's my top favorite movie of all time, so I am inclined to like this, but it's very enjoyable and good for the kids, I like the parts with Dr Brown I think they're interesting and funny,Sad that this show is unavailable on DVD along with some other shows I loved like The Wonder Years,and China Beach.I just keep waiting for them to get caught up to these shows and release them.
I am happy to find all 26 episode on you tube some of the quality is not that great but hopefully it is released on DVD.
1. Back to The Future 2.
Return of The Living Dead 3.
The Crow 4.
Robocop 5.
Batman 1989 my top 5 movies of all time..
BTTF Continues....
The animated adventures of Doc and Marty were a great way to continue the series, however a few things could've helped.
First of all, only a few cast members from the films returned to voice characters, which is a shame.
The only time we see Christopher Lloyd as Doc is in the wrap arounds, and the voice of Doc is provided by Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer Simpson).
It probably would have been a more successful show had Michael J.
Fox also returned as the voice of Marty.
However, the true fans are still happy with the result, and the show has a sort of cult status.
The fact that CBS only seldom aired reruns, the audience wasn't wide and many fans of the film series hadn't seen this show.
Thankfully, the whole series is now available on dvd since 2015, the franchises 30th anniversary..
A nice little animated series to follow.
I think it was a nice and short animated show of Back to the Future.
The episodes are entertaining, and is something you can complete watching in little time too.
I think it was a fine idea to have an animated series of Back to the Future.
I think it compliments the movies well.
I'm not so sure if most of the Back to the Future fans are even aware that such a show exist: it's a cool show if you ask me..
An Honest Review.
We really wanted Marty didn't we?
We wanted Fox.Instead we got Doc Brown and his family.
Bumber.
I mean, Marty was in it, but he wasn't the center, central driving force of the story and as kids we didn't like that one bit.Sure...it was still fun.
It was still funny, and Marty was still there, but the focus was on the Brown children, likely because the people that made the cartoon decided that--despite the fact that there were tons of cartoons about teenagers and adults--that children wanted a cartoon about kids their own age.And because of that it really wasn't Back to the Future.You couldn't buy us off that easy..
It could entertain fans of the franchise, but it doesn't do lots of good.
Back to the Future: The Animated Series is far from a perfect animated adventure of the Back to the Future world.
It has enough humor, color and happiness to entertain younger 5-9 year old fans of the franchise, but for ages 9 and up, it isn't good enough.Cons: The animation is typical Saturday morning, the jokes usually fall flat, and the two new kids of Doc and Clara, Jules and Verne, really make the show worse.
They are super annoying and unfunny, and if they weren't even in the show, it would be 3x better, and i would give it 8 out of 10, but they just aren't good.
I also don't understand why Christopher Lloyd couldn't be Doc in the animated segments, but can be Doc in the live action segments.
Pros: It is at least trying to give you good entertainment.
The episode Brothers is pretty good, and is one of the only good episodes in the short lived series.
It has more laughs, more plot, and better Jules and Verne, surprisingly.
Doc actually sounds like Doc in this episode.
But those are the only pros in the show.Overall, I have mixed to negative reception to this animated show.
The mixed part is the plot.
Its sometimes pretty good, but some of the episodes have a really bland one.
The negative is everything else.
At least try new animation.
It would be better.
I won't really recommend this if you love the movies, but I guess its enjoyable for the young ones..
There was this odd trend in the 80's and 90's where if a movie was popular, it would get a cartoon series.
Even if the movie was more for adults than kids (like "Spaceballs" and "RoboCop") it got a cartoon.
And one of those movies was "Back to the Future".
Now, I'm not saying all cartoons based on movies are awful, just look at "Real Ghostbusters", but this one isn't that good.
I'm a hard core "Back to the Future" fan, but even I can't defend this as a great show.
However, it is a guilty pleasure for me.
However, it is a guilty pleasure for me.
I do find myself watching it every once in a while, and even chuckling at some of the jokes.
I even try to watch the "Christmas Carol" episode around Christmas.
If your looking for an animated show based on a movie that's just as good as the movie, this is not for you.
But if you're a hard core "BTTF" fan and can enjoy anything with Doc and Marty in it no matter how silly it is, feel free to give this a shot..
"You know, you could get into a lot of trouble by going back in time to see your relatives.".
PLOT SPOILERS.Following on from Back to the Future Part III, this animated series continues the adventures of Marty McFly, Doc Brown and his family, and other residents of Hill Valley.
It's now 1991 and the Browns - Doc, wife Clara, sons Jules and Verne and dog Einstein - have moved back to the 20th Century.
Marty is still dating Jennifer Parker and the two are now in college, but their time travel adventures haven't stopped!
Using the new DeLorean and the time train, both of which now can travel through space as well as time, our time travellers explore the past and future, whilst trying not to get into trouble with the various Tannens throughout history!
I haven't seen every episode of this series (I've seen 14 out of the 26 episodes made), but from what I have seen so far the series is quite good.
For a movie spin-off series, it stays familiar to the original films (unlike some other series from this time) and the characters we know and love from the films transfer well to the series.
The animation is mostly of a good standard, and although there are some animation mistakes (as in every series!) it looks visually good, with some good backgrounds.
The characters look like their film counterparts, except for Jennifer who for some reason has gone blonde, and Biff who does not look like the 54 year old man he should be by 1991 (here, he looks more like his 18 year old self from 1955).
Most of the time the characters act like they did in the films, although some BTTF fans might be slightly annoyed that the main focus of the series is on Jules and Verne rather than Marty and Doc (some episodes do not feature Marty at all).
Marty sometimes acts a bit stupider than he was in the films - luckily, moments like this are rare.Tom Wilson and Mary Steenburgen reprise their roles as Biff Tannen and Clara Brown respectively from the films, and Christopher Lloyd plays Doc in live action sequences beginning and ending each episode, although he does not voice the animated Doc for some reason.
Dan Castellaneta, who voices Doc, does a very good imitation though.
David Kaufman takes over from Michael J Fox as the voice of Marty, and although his voice isn't *exact*, it is still close enough, although there were times when I thought he didn't sound like Fox that much.
The voices of Jules and Verne (neither of whom spoke in their one scene in Part III) are spot-on, with extra praise for Troy Davidson who voices Verne.Now, onto the episodes.
These do vary in quality.
Others are not so good.
Others are not so good.
The best episodes in my opinion are those where the time travellers go to some time and end up changing history, and have to change it back (my favourite episode, "Go Fly A Kite", deals with this - in this episode Verne accidentally interferes with Benjamin Franklin's famous "Kite" experiment.).
A few episodes did not involve time travel, and in my opinion these were the weakest.
However, every episode that I have seen so far has had a few moments that made me laugh or smile, or a line that was funny.Overall, not a bad series, that although not as good as the films, and despite many continuity flaws (for instance, in the films Doc was 65 in 1985, but according to the series he was 4 in 1926...), still manages to entertain and occasionally educate as well.
There were some very good episodes in the series, and a few not-so-good ones, but every episode is worth watching at least once.
Luckily, most of them can be watched again and again and can still entertain.
A decent adaptation of a film series.
In the animated series of Back To The Future, the brown family has moved back to present day Hill Valley and have settled in quite well.
Along with Marty, the family often go in trips in time through the use of the delorean and steam train.This is definitely one of the better cartoon adaptations of a film series as it often uses time travel to teach different morals to kids but it can also teach them small bits about history such as the fact that the Pilgrims would sentence people they accused of being witches without hearing their side of the argument.Despite being a decent adaptation, it suffers through its characterisation of Marty.
He is not the same as he was in the films and is reduced to the idiot friend of the main character.
Although Marty had his silly moments in the films, the cartoon goes overboard with this which makes him too dumb to live.
Another problem with Marty is his hypocrisy.
In an early season 1 episode, he gets mad at Jennifer when he jumps to the conclusion that she is going on a date with another guy, but he flirts with multiple women from the different time periods.One thing that may disappoint some viewers is the lack of episodes that just focus on Marty and Doc Brown who were the focus of all three films and the majority of the episodes focus on the Brown children, Jules and Verne despite the fact that they don't appear in the trilogy until near the end of the third film.Overall, an okay adaption of a film series with good lessons and history facts but suffers from dumbing down Marty's character and focusing on minor characters that did not appear until the end of the trilogy. |
tt0378072 | Hum Tum | Karan (Saif Ali Khan) is a cartoonist and a self-styled ladies' man. His daily comic, named "Hum Tum," explores the battle of stereotypical male/female behavior. On a plane from Delhi to New York, he meets Rhea (Rani Mukerji) who doesn't seem to be interested in him. His feeble attempts at flirting go nowhere, but when they have a stop-over in Amsterdam, she agrees to explore the city with him. Karan quickly learns he has little in common with the feisty but proper Rhea, but he won't give up. He ends their contentious time together with an unwelcome kiss. Outraged, Rhea slaps him, and storms off, but Karan insists they'll meet again. After a few months he spots her in a park in New York, and she makes a scene with his girlfriend (Shenaz Treasurywala), who turns out to be Rhea's childhood friend, which ends in their break-up.
Three years later, Karan is helping his mother plan a wedding that turns out to be Rhea's. Rhea is marrying Sameer (Abhishek Bachchan). They bicker again, but this time, they part on good terms. Years later in Paris, Karan is visiting his father (Rishi Kapoor), when he runs into Rhea. He learns from Rhea's mother (Kirron Kher) that Sameer has died in a car accident, and he sets out to help her reclaim her positive outlook on life. Karan returns to Mumbai, and three months later, Rhea and her mother visit. Sensing that she needs to be with a strait-laced, "boring guy," he conspires with Rhea's mother to fix her up with his shy best friend, Mihir (Jimmy Shergill). But eventually Mihir falls in love with a friend of Karan's, Diana (Isha Koppikar) and they get engaged. On the engagement night Rhea learns from drunk Diana about the conspiracy, and gets upset with Karan. Mihir makes Rhea realize hers and Karan's love for each other. That night Rhea and Karan consummate their relationship. Karan deems it a mistake and asks Rhea to marry him as he feels he took advantage of her, and that marriage will rectify the mistake. Rhea becomes upset, as she did not consider their actions a mistake; she realizes she loves him but tells Karan that they should not commit one more mistake by marrying for the wrong reasons. Rhea leaves him since Karan projects his confused feelings as guilt rather than as love for her. Karan realises his mistake and seeks her out. One year later Karan's cartoon Hum Tum becomes a hit and he writes a book about Hum and Tum. Basically the story is based on his lovestory with Rhea. Rhea reads that book and finds him in the press conference. Karan and Rhea reunite again. Karan admits his love for her, and they get married and have a baby girl. | romantic, comedy | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0109028 | Á köldum klaka | Hirata (Masatoshi Nagase) is a successful Japanese businessman whose plan for a two-week winter holiday in Hawaii to play golf changes when his elderly grandfather (Seijun Suzuki) reminds him that he should go to Iceland.
Hirata’s parents died there seven years ago, and the seven year death anniversary is a significant event in Japanese culture. Hirata must perform a ceremony in the river where they died after drowning in an avalanche – the drowned must be fed by the surviving family members if they are to find peace.
Hirata goes to Iceland – to Reykjavík. His final destination is a remote river on the far side of the island. He encounters one mishap and misadventure after another. He first accidentally gets on a wrong bus filled with German tourists traveling to see the hot springs. He also confronts a language barrier; Hirata cannot speak any Icelandic, and knows very little English. After his first day's misadventures, Hirata decides to purchase an ancient, bright red Citroën DS to make the journey. During the long drive, Hirata meets several strange people along the way. These include the mystical woman who sells him the car, that only plays one radio station. Next, Hirata meets a local woman who collects photographs of funerals. The following day, Hirata meets two American hitchhiker/fugitives (Lili Taylor and Fisher Stevens), who turn out to be armed and dangerous who proceed to steal his car. Nearing his destination on foot, Hirata arrives in a small village where he meets an old man (Gísli Halldórsson) named Siggi, the owner of a local lodge who teaches Hirata how to drink the most potent alcoholic beverage in Iceland.
After explaining his determination to travel to where his parents died, Hirata is aided by Siggi who borrows a pair of Icelandic horses from a local farmer, and the two of them travel on horseback to Hirata's destination. After riding across an ice cap glacier, over a ridge and into the valley where Hirata's parents died, he dismounts and tells Siggi that he must go on alone to complete his journey. After traversing a rickety bridge to the river, Hirata arrives at the river bank where he performs his cleansing ceremony at last. He then rejoins Siggi waiting for him and they both ride on their horses down a gully where they make it to a beach and the final shot shows them riding down the coast towards a nearby coastal village which hopefully will have a ferry to take Hirata back to Reykjavik and presumably back to Japan. | cult, comedy | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0174480 | Autumn in New York | Will Keane (Richard Gere) is a successful 48-year-old restaurateur and womanizer who is the subject of a recent New York Magazine cover story. Charlotte Fielding (Winona Ryder) is a free-spirited, 22-year-old woman brought to Will's upscale restaurant by her grandmother and friends to celebrate her birthday. Will notices her immediately and her grandmother, an old friend of his, introduces them. Will admires the hats she made for the occasion and is surprised to learn that Charlotte is the daughter of one of his old girlfriends, Katy, who died in a car accident.
The next day, Will calls and asks Charlotte to make a hat for his date to an upcoming benefit dinner. A few days later, she delivers the hat to his apartment. Stood up by his date, he invites her to accompany him to the formal benefit. There they dance, get to know each other and later end up back at his apartment where they have sex. The next morning, while having breakfast on his terrace, Will explains that their relationship has no future. She acknowledges this, revealing she is dying from a heart condition. Later, Will tells his friend, John Volpe (Anthony LaPaglia), about his interest in Charlotte.
The next day, Will calls on Charlotte and they go out together. They talk about their age difference and her illness. As they walk through the beautiful fall foliage in Central Park, Charlotte recites lines from the poem "God's World" by Edna St. Vincent Millay. As they talk, she notices him checking his watch, and she takes it from his wrist, saying she'll return it when he forgets that she has it. At his restaurant, they continue to get to know each other while preparing a meal for his staff. Watching her among his friends, he begins to fall in love.
Back at his apartment, Charlotte experiences severe heart pain. At the hospital, Will learns from the doctor that she is suffering from neuroblastoma, a rare illness in adults, which in her case produced a tumor near her heart. She has perhaps a year to live. In the coming days, their relationship grows, and she learns more about him. When she asks why he is so interested in food, Will responds, "Food is the only beautiful thing that truly nourishes."
At a Halloween party, Charlotte, dressed as Emily Dickinson, entertains children by reciting lines from one of Dickinson's poems and bringing the words to life with butterflies on her fingers: "Two butterflies went out at noon and waltzed above a stream, then stepped straight through the firmament and rested on a beam; and then together bore away upon a shining sea – though never yet, in any port, their coming mentioned be." Meanwhile, in another room, Will meets a former girlfriend and the two end up on the roof having sex. Later, Charlotte suspects that he was unfaithful, and after denying it, he acknowledges his actions. Charlotte breaks off their relationship. They are both deeply affected by the breakup.
Meanwhile, Will receives a letter from Lisa Tyler (Vera Farmiga), the illegitimate daughter he's never met. He goes to the museum where she works and recognizes her from an old photo, but he is unable to approach her. A few nights later he arrives home and Lisa is waiting for him in the lobby; they talk for the first time. She is pregnant and has become sentimental about parenthood, wanting just to meet her own father. She tells him about a dream she's had, that he's been trying to find her all these years in order to say he was sorry for abandoning her. Will says quietly, "Yes I am."
The next day, Will is walking through Central Park and steps over a fence onto a path, leaving behind some children playing beneath a tree. That night, Charlotte returns to her apartment and finds Will asleep in her chair. Angry at first, she tells him to leave, but he apologizes and pleads to be given another chance – to let him love her again. She cries as he holds her in his arms, and later that night they make love. In the morning, Charlotte recites to him lines from a poem: "The stars are soft as flowers, and as near; the hills are webs of shadow, slowly spun; no separate leaf or single blade is here – all blend to one." Later, while skating at Rockefeller Center, Charlotte suddenly collapses on the ice. At the hospital, Will learns that the tumor has progressed and that she may only have a few weeks to live.
In the coming days, Will searches for a specialist who can perform the necessary heroic surgery to save her life. He turns to his daughter for help, and she finds a specialist who agrees to perform the surgery when the times comes. On Christmas morning, Charlotte wakes up and hears Will decorating the house and terrace. As she prepares to bring him his Christmas gift, Charlotte collapses. She is rushed to the hospital and the specialist is called. At the hospital, Will comes to her side and whispers to her lines from a poem: "Time cannot break the bird's wing from the bird. Bird and wing together go down, one feather. No thing that ever flew, not the lark, not you, can die as others do." Their hands separate as Charlotte is taken to the operating room.
Will, his friends, Lisa, and Charlotte's grandmother wait during the long hours of surgery. Outside the hospital, seagulls fly off into the snowy skies over the city. Finally, the specialist emerges from surgery, and as he approaches it is clear from his expression that he could not save her. Back at his apartment, Will finds Charlotte's Christmas gift lying on the floor – a small box with the hat stem she designed for him. Opening the box, he finds the watch she took from him on their first date. He stands at his window weeping, holding the box closely to his chest.
The following summer on a small boat on Central Park Lake, Will is holding his newborn grandson in his arms as his daughter Lisa looks on with a loving smile. Will notices a swan, and then a reflection in the water of a young woman walking over the Bow Bridge. Father, daughter, and grandson drift peacefully on the lake. | tragedy | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0094357 | Ying hung boon sik II | Several years after the events of A Better Tomorrow, Sung Tse-ho (Ti Lung) is offered early parole by the police in exchange for spying on his former boss and mentor, Lung Sei (Dean Shek), who is suspected of heading a counterfeiting operation. Inspector Wu (Lau Siu-ming), the leader of the crime task force, wants to mark his retirement with the capture of a high profile criminal like Lung.
However, Ho, still loyal to Lung, initially declines. He changes his mind when he discovers that his younger brother, Sung Tse-kit (Leslie Cheung), is working undercover on the same case, and agrees to go undercover to protect his brother, who is expecting a child along with his pregnant wife Jackie (Emily Chu). While working the case, the two brothers meet and agree to work together on the investigation.
After being framed for murder, Lung seeks Ho's help. Ho is able to help him escape to New York, but Lung suffers a psychotic break and is institutionalised after receiving news of his daughter's murder and witnessing his friend being killed.
Meanwhile, Ho learns that Mark Lee has a long-lost twin brother, Ken (Chow Yun-fat), a former gang member who went legitimate and left Hong Kong as a teenager to travel across America, eventually settling and opening a restaurant in New York City. However, Ho tracks down Ken and enlists his assistance in freeing Lung and nursing him back to health.
Targeted by both assassins hunting for Lung as well as American mobsters looking to extort Ken's business, Ken and Lung (who is still catatonic) go into hiding in an apartment building, and where Ken arms himself. During a shoot-out with the mobsters, but Ken and Lung find themselves cornered. Seeing Ken wounded and in trouble, Lung regains his sanity and kills the last of the Americans pursuing them.
The two return to Hong Kong and link-up with Ho and Kit. The group discovers that one of Lung's employees, Ko Ying-pui (Kwan Shan), is responsible for trying to kill Lung and has taken over the organisation in Lung's absence. Lung resolves that he would rather destroy his organisation by his own hands than let it fall into dishonor and ruin, and the team starts planning to act against Ko.
After doing some reconnaissance in Ko's mansion alone, Kit is fatally wounded, roughly at the same time his daughter is born. He is rescued by Ken, who attempts to rush him to the hospital. Knowing that he won't make it, Kit persuades Ken to stop at a phone booth to call his wife. He manages, just before he dies, to name his child Sung Ho-yin (in Cantonese, "the Spirit of Righteousness").
After attending Kit's funeral, Ho, Ken, and Lung take revenge on Ko by attacking his mansion during a meeting with a counterfeiting client. An enormous gun battle ensues. The three, assisted by Ho's former boss in the taxi company, kill approximately 90 others (including Ko) but are all severely (perhaps mortally) wounded in the process. After the shootout ends, the three sit down in the mansion and are surrounded by the police, led by Inspector Wu. Upon seeing the condition of the men, Wu motions to the other officers to lower their weapons. Ho remarks that Inspector Wu shouldn't retire yet as there is "much work left for [him] to do." | cult, violence, flashback | train | wikipedia | Most of the original cast return, including Chow Yun-Fat as Mark Lee's twin brother Ken.Taking place a few years after the events of the first film, we see how things are finally starting to look up.
I love this movie to death, the acting is wonderful, believable and very realistic and Chow Yun-Fat which is my favorite actor gives one of his best convincing performances I have ever seen as Mark Gor's twin brother Ken. Not only he but everyone of the cast gives a wonderful performances on a screen which I love it.Plot: Restaurant owner Ken Gor, twin brother of Mark Gor, teams up with police detective Kit and his struggling ex-con brother Ho to avenge his old friend's daughter's death by a Triad gang.What I love about this movie is: Chow Yun-Fat does not die in this movie he acted wonderful his different character Ken. Ti Lung and Leslie Cheung are back as the brothers from the first film which I am not sure but I have saw a lot of actors from The Killer in this movie.
With Hard Target, Broken Arrow, Hard Boiled, Paycheck and The Killer would be a Better Tomorrow II my sixth John Woo favorite film that I love to death.A Better Tomorrow 2 is a 1987 Hong Kong action film written and directed by John Woo. A follow-up to its popular predecessor, A Better Tomorrow, the film stars returning cast members Chow Yun-fat, Ti Lung and Leslie Cheung alongside new cast member Dean Shek.
The film was released in Hong Kong on 17 December 1987.10/10 Grade: Bad Ass Seal Of Approval Studio: Cinema City Film Workshop Distributed by Golden Princess Film Production Starring: Dean Shek, Chow Yun-fat, Ti Lung, Leslie Cheung, Emily Chu, Kwan Shan, Kenneth Tsang, Shing Fui-On, Lam Chung, Ng Man-tat, Peter Wang, Lung Ming-yan, Louis Roth, Regina Kent Director: John Woo Producer: Tsui Hark Screenplay: John Woo, Tsui Hark Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hr. 45 Mins.
Chow Yun-Fat is back, teaming up the cop "Kit" and ex-con "Ho" to deal some serious whup-ass on a gang of thugs, for killing their friend's daughter.This one's not John Woo's best but it's still great in the genre of HK cop movies.
Not to give anything away but - you will see what I mean.Better Tomorrow II proves that nobody looks cooler wielding a 12-gauge shotgun than Chow Yun-Fat (ok, maybe Schwarzeneggar in T2).The final gun battle at Ko's mansion is phenomenal - it gives Scarface a run for its money in terms of body count and ropes of blood splashing on walls.
This time, the twin brother of Mark, (a character played by Chow Yun-Fat from the first A BETTER TOMORROW) Ken (Chow Yun Fat), must team up with undercover cop, Kit (Leslie Cheung), and his brother Ho (Ti Lung) and a good friend named Lung (Dean Shek) to avenge the death of Lung's daughter who was murdered by a Triads.
Like the first film, it's got a hard storyline to follow, however, it has some fine acting that makes you care for the characters and it has some awesome action scenes (most notably, the final shootout).
To me, Chow Yun Fat may have been the charismatic centre of ABT but it was always about the brothers Ho and Kit. In ABT2, the film spends way too much time on two NEW characters - the twin brother Ken and framed gangster Si Lung, who is gradually going insane after falling foul of Hong Kong's triads.
But saying 'this is a John Woo film' and that 'action is the priority' would do a disservice to the original, which may have changed action cinema, but always kept in mind the story and characters at hand..
The story begins where the first film left as Ho (Ti Lung) is in prison after the gun battle in which he and his brother Kit (Leslie Cheung) and Mark Lee (Chow Yun Fat) met their destiny at the end of the first film.
Kit is police again and works in the same underground operation as Ho. This all leads to series of betrayal, death and fighting back as Mark's twin brother Ken (Chow) arrives from New Your to Hong Kong to help his friends in this heroic fight that will end in one of the most over-the-top gun battles ever committed on celluloid.This film is more fierce than first Better Tomorrow, but not as fierce and merciless as Woo's most personal masterpiece, Bullet in the Head.
When a man grabs a gun in order to use it at some other human being, he takes the full responsibility for his actions and this is once again, very sadly, shown in Better Tomorrow 2.Better Tomorrow 2 is not as visually stunning as the first film, which ends in brilliant night time scene at the harbor where smoke and blue are as alive as the characters in that sad finale.
It is the most fierce segment of bullet spitting, blood spraying gun mayhem I have witnessed in any film, and I think the films which manage to come near this scene's power, come also from some Orient country, probably from Hong Kong since these film makers have their style in using camera and edits and it seems to have no comparison with films from other countries.Better Tomorrow 2 is great piece of action mayhem cinema, with heart too, but this is not its director's masterpiece, which is in my opinion Bullet in the Head, a film which the director himself prefers, too.
Better Tomorrow gets 9/10 from me and since it is not as deep and philosophical as possible, I really want to appreciate its cinematic styles and interesting themes and messages of film maker John Woo..
A shoot-em-up gangster melodrama from a then-little-known filmmaker named John Woo, "Tomorrow"'s rampant violence and stylish action scenes instantly established Woo as one of the greatest action directors in the world, and the result was one of Hong Kong's highest grossers ever.
After the trend-setting scene where Chow Yun-Fat burst into a room and gunned down a group of bad guys in all sorts of stylish and inventive fashions, everybody in Hong Kong had to go out and buy a trench coat like the one he wore, which guaranteed the actor instant stardom as well.
But bad subtitles do not ruin a film where what you see on the screen is too explosive to be described with words.This was the film where John Woo demonstrated that he could just go all-out, and two of his works that followed this, "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled", are placed by many among the ranks of the greatest action films of all time.
After watching it, I was quite happy that Mark had a twin brother.It's the individual moments like that which make "A Better Tomorrow II" an action classic.
The famous "Rice" scene shows where Tarantino got his trademark's strange dialogues, along with the black-suit-white-ties from "Reservoir Dog" (And he'll be the first one to admit it !) This mix of action and parody looks weird when you expect a straight sequel to the first one, but give it a second try - then check out the third part by Tsui Hark and the other John Woo's movies (except "Broken.
Being a big fan of John Woo's kinetically charged Hong Kong action films, including the first "A Better Tomorrow", this one came as a huge disappointment.
The slow motion shooting (a touch of Peckinpah) mixed in with fast and furious movement and close quarter gun battles was both stylish and exhilarating in these works."A Better Tomorrow II" may be at best adequate for a run of the mill Hong Kong action flick.
Chow Yun Fat's backslide down the stairs while shooting at a bad guy seemed like a bad photocopy of vintage Woo. Maybe it was the bad lighting, I don't know...it just didn't seem to work.And while these films always indulge in overblown melodrama, often with humour, some of the scenes in ABT II were just painful to watch.
This film broke off a potentially very creative relationship between Tsui hark and John Woo; and it certainly feels like more than one film Certainly, until Chow Yun Fat shows up, the plot is a little complicated, and a little unbelievable.
Ti lung must also be credited with turning in a strong and well-grounded performance, even when the script calls for him to get schmaltzy.This is also the film that salvaged character actor dean Shek from obscurity, he wanted to prove he could act, and though he over acts occasionally, he actually does pretty well, especially in the final gun battle.It must be said that throughout his career, John Woo has repeatedly attempted to grasp the essence of the 'battle of bloody porch' from Sam Peckinpah's "the Wild Bunch" and duplicate it - and he has always failed.
As in GOD OF GAMBLERS, one character's madness takes up a big part of the running time.What you get here are a number of Hong Kong megastars (alongside Yun Fat, Ti Lung has a welcome role, plus A Chinese GHOST STORY's Leslie Cheung) indulging themselves in some frenetically exciting shoot-outs.
This film is a prime example; the action set-pieces look terrific, even if the majority of the participants are relegated to the status of human cartoons, and Chow Yun Fat looks cool as the identical twin brother of his character from the first film, but other than that there's not a lot going for it.
Also, the pic fails to fully develop the younger brothers relationship of Kit and Ken Gor.Before A Better Tomorrow 2(1987), John Woo and Tsui Hark were good friends but after became bitter rivals.
Chow Yun Fat dishes out an emotional intensity that adds to the high octane action.The original cut of A Better Tomorrow 2(1987) is said to be around 130 minutes in duration.
Well, take the sheer amount of insane action that is packed into the movie into consideration, and then of course you have the likes of Chow Yun Fat and dead actor Leslie Cheung at the helm.The story in "A Better Tomorrow II" is pretty straight forward.
And this definitely is from the golden age of the action cinema to make it from Hong Kong.As mentioned earlier, then the movie does have some good acting performances in it, not only from Chow Yun Fat and Leslie Cheung, but also from the likes of Lung Ti, Kenneth Tsang, Man-Tat Ng and Ming Yan Lung.This is definitely a movie that should be on your to-watch-list if you are a fan of Asian cinema and in particular Hong Kong cinema.
The way they introduce his new character is perhaps one of the strangest "What am I watching?" moments I've seen in a long time, but again, once you get over the initial surprise, it's actually kind of fun.And on the technical side of things, John Woo doesn't disappoint.
The plot is a bit more convoluted this time around, but it's still easy enough to follow that you won't mind.All in all, A Better Tomorrow II isn't quite as good as its predecessor, but it's still definitely worth a watch if you're fan of John Woo and liked the original..
After years in prison, Ho (Ti Lung) is released and recruited by a task force intent on taking down a reputed counterfeiter, Lung (Dean Shek).With his brother Kit (Leslie Cheung) already under Lung's command, Ho agrees to help the police.But it's not Lung, Ho and Kit must worry about, it's Lung's lackey (Shan Kwan), who's usurping their leader.With help from an old friend's twin (Chow Yun-fat), Lung and his loyalists set out to ruin his former empire.While closely related to the characters from the first film, this John Woo helmed sequel doesn't require previous knowledge to impress viewers with its stylized gunfights.
The incredible Chow Yun Fat and Ti Lung return in this epic sequel to the classic trend setter that took the world by storm!ABT2 takes the action scenes up a notch (or ten) and delivers the biggest body count of its time along with some of the greatest scenes of gun play from the works of John Woo, Ching Sui Tung and Tsui Hark.Featuring a host of well known faces from HK's golden age, A Better Tomorrow 2 is simply an action epic and beats its predecessor for action in what it lacks in drama!With a host of on-set trouble and production nightmares, the film still manages to come off near perfect and shames any US action flick that was kicking about around the same time.See it!.
First at all: I'm sorry about my bad English."A Better Tomorrow 2" is the best of the three Ying Huan Boon Sik-films of the action-god John Woo (Face/Off).
For fans of violent action for its own sake only; those who are expecting the drama and terse emotion of the original will be disappointed.An unfortunate waste of the talents of Chow Yun-Fat and Leslie Cheung, but as usual the action sequences are lovingly crafted by John Woo..
The rest of the movie is pretty cool, including a gunfight in a Brooklyn hotel, Ala Taxi Driver, and a scene where Chow Yun-Fat makes fun of the fetishized Better Tomorrow dress..
From the beginning,you can tell this is a A Better Tomorrow movie, all the characters from the first (who lived) are back, the plot sometimes is a little weak, but you can tell the irreplacable master John Woo didn't initially want to make a sequel to his breakthrough,but he made a exception to help out his friend Dean Shek,who was having money troubles at the time, everyone puts in a great performance once again, and I know this will sound campy,but it felt good to see Kit and Ho getting along,when Ken Gor threw on his brothers sunglasses and jacket, it literally threw chills down my spine.
Now although the story isn't as good and the film isn't as dynamic, the action scenes rock and it gives you another look at the saga which is A Better Tomorrow.
"A Better Tomorrow II", sequel to Hong Kong's most successful film of alltime, follows the continuing struggles of Ho, the ex-con, and his cop brother Kit, the good-guy who can never succeed because of his brother's reputation.
Not an instant classic like Tomorrow 1 or The Killer, but worth taking a look at for people who've seen the first or enjoy watching Woo/Chow films..
Of course, it is helpful to remember that the first "A Better Tomorrow" film changed Hong Kong film history; it even put director John Woo and star Chow Yun-Fat on the map, where they have stayed ever since.
However, the last fight is amazing; real John Woo magic.In short, don't watch the whole thing, just fast-forward to the action at the end.I rate "A Better Tomorrow II": 2/10.
It's not worth your time for Woo, Yun-Fat, action, Hong Kong, or gun fans.
Review: Like the first movie, this complex storyline has enough elements to keep it interesting throughout and the gun action from Chow Yun-Fat was great.
That just shows you how unique John Woo's vision is.I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/crime/drama's starring Chow Yun-Fat, Lung Ti, Leslie Cheung, Dean Shek and Shan Kwan.
Needless to say A Better Tomorrow 2 is long-winded, melodramatic and altogether too confusing, yet it is a better film than one thanks to John Woo hitting his straps in directing action sequences.It turns out that Ken (Chow Yun Fat) gets involved with Lung in the US (where he proves that he shouldn't have tried to speak English on film, at least at that time).
The original cast is back, including superstar Chow Yun Fat as the twin brother of one popular character killed in the earlier film, and the bigger budget means better production values, with a few scenes photographed on location in NYC.
"A Better Tomorrow 2" is a perfect example of Hong Kong's heroic bloodshed cinema.Chow-Yun Fat pulls off one of his most charismatic performances to date and Dean Shek is equally memorable as Lung.The plot may be slightly incoherent for some,but the characters are very well-developed and there is enough bloody violence to satisfy fans of heroic bloodshed cinema.The finale of the film is incredible with all the guns,grenades,bloodshed and swordplay.A must-see for fans of Chinese action.9 out of 10..
But while none of the actors do a bad job, none of them get to show off their acting abilities like they did in the first film because nobody goes through any arcs in this movie.There's also a really funny scene where Chow-yun Fat#2 deals with some a$$hole American who starts a temper tantrum over fried rice and it's just hilarious!
This film is a sequel to A Better Tomorrow, the movie that brought John Woo to the notice of the world.
The characters and cinematography may not be on par with films like Bullet in the Head and The Killer, but still has enough of a John Woo mark on it to make it a superior movie.
didn't Chow Yun-Fat's character die at the end of the original A Better Tomorrow?
The character of Mark Gor was definitely dead at the end of the original, so Chow Yun-Fat returns to play his twin brother!
Better Tomorrow II is the 1987 sequel to Better Tomorrow.It again is directed by John Woo and stars Chow Yun Fat.It's fairly interesting how they bring him back after the events of the first movie.I like this one more than the first one.While the first one had more drama and plot, this one has more awesome action scenes, as well as a good amount of drama and plot.The film is about people who kidnap a man's daughter and it is now up to him and another team of people to get her back.The action scenes in this one are great! |
tt0087032 | Cannonball Run II | Having lost the first Cannonball Run race, Sheik Abdul ben Falafel (Jamie Farr) is ordered by his father (Ricardo Montalban) to go back to America and win another Cannonball Run in order to "emblazon the Falafel name as the fastest in the world." When Sheik Abdul points out that there is no Cannonball Run that year, his father simply tells him to "buy one."
To make sure his ulcer does not prevent him from winning, the Sheik hires Doctor Nikolas Van Helsing (Jack Elam), who teamed with JJ (Burt Reynolds) and Victor (Dom DeLuise) in the first race as his in-car physician. Most of the participants from the first race are lured back, including JJ and Victor, who have taken jobs working with a flying stunt crew.
In a subplot, Blake (Dean Martin) and Fenderbaum (Sammy Davis Jr.) are in financial trouble with Don Don Canneloni (Charles Nelson Reilly), who in turn is in financial trouble with mob enforcer Hymie Kaplan (Telly Savalas). After the Sheik manages to bail out Blake and Fenderbaum by handing one of Don Don's thugs a stack of cash, Don Don hatches a plot to kidnap the Sheik in an attempt to extort money from him.
The race begins with JJ and Victor dressed as a US Army general and his driver, a private. They catch the attention of Betty (Marilu Henner) and Veronica (Shirley MacLaine), who are dressed as nuns for a musical, but remain in character and hitch a ride with JJ and Victor when they think the guys could become overnight millionaires. They do not lose their habits until later.
Other racers include Mitsubishi engineer Jackie Chan, teamed with a giant behind the wheel (Richard Kiel) in a car—a Mitsubishi Starion—able to go under water. In a red Lamborghini (white at first) with "two great-looking chicks in it" (as the cops chasing them continually say) is the duo of Jill Rivers (Susan Anton) and Marcie Thatcher (Catherine Bach). Another team (Mel Tillis and Tony Danza) is accompanied by an orangutan, who at times appears to be the driver. They are pulled over at one point by traffic cops Tim Conway and Don Knotts.
JJ and Victor stop along the way to help a stranded soldier, Homer Lyle (Jim Nabors). They also get much better acquainted with their passengers, Betty and Veronica, who change into something a little more comfortable.
Don Don's enforcers (including Henry Silva and Godfather film actors Alex Rocco, Abe Vigoda and Michael V. Gazzo) continue to blunder along the way, with disastrous results.
After Don Don's gang capture the Sheik, the racers band together to invade Don Don's "Pinto Ranch". JJ, Victor, and Fenderbaum infiltrate it in drag, dressed as belly dancers. Others barrel in by car and rescue the Sheik, who is reluctant to leave, since he has his pick of women there. The three "dancers" and Blake go to their Leader (Frank Sinatra) to seek help, only to have him jump into the race himself.
In the end, the Sheik bankrolls Don Don's Ranch and then declares that he is upping the stakes to $2 million for the winner. All jump into their vehicles and make a dash for the finish line, avoiding traffic patrollers on the way.
The Sheik, as it turns out, loses yet again, this time blaming the doctor who rode with him for injecting him with an unknown substance. But he convinces his father that he will win the return-trip race, having hired the winner of this one. It turns out to be the orangutan with a penchant for destructive behaviour and giving elderly ladies the middle finger. | cult | train | wikipedia | null |
tt5225338 | The Eyes of My Mother | Francisca and her mother live on a farm where they raise cows and other animals. A trained surgeon, Francisca's mother teaches her how to remove eyeballs from farm animals, and is taught the legend of Francis of Assisi. Suddenly, Charlie, a door to door salesman, appears and asks to use her bathroom. Against her better judgment, Francisca's mother lets him into the house. After a struggle, Charlie kills Francisca's mother. Charlie is injured, presumably by Francisca's father, who arrives home while Charlie is still attacking the mother in the bathtub. Francisca's father seems undisturbed by these events and chains Charlie in the barn. Francisca and her father bury Francisca's mother in the backyard. Charlie explains the incomparable thrill of killing others. Off camera, Francisca removes Charlie's eyes and vocal cords and bags them and onscreen puts them in the refrigerator. Francisca explains to Charlie that he was not killed because he is her only friend and she will look after him. Over time she tortures him with her mother's surgical implements.
Years later, the adult Francisca's father dies, and she preserves the body. She meets Kimiko, a Japanese student, at a bar. Kimiko and Francisca return to Francisca's home but Kimiko is perturbed at Francisca's description of the death of her mother and the revelation that she murdered her father. Kimiko tries to leave, but Francisca murders her and offscreen chops her up and bags the organs, putting them in her refrigerator with Charlie's and presumably her father's parts.
Afterwards, she bathes Charlie, who was still chained up in the shed, and it is assumed that she has sex with him. Charlie is then stabbed by Francisca as he tries to escape. Back in the barn, she admits he was right about murder and kills him.
Francisca goes hiking in the woods and catches a ride with Lucy back to the house. Lucy has a baby son who Francisca kidnaps upon reaching the house. Francisca stabs Lucy before praising her dead mother and keeping Lucy's son as her own child, who she names Antonio. Like Charlie, Lucy has her eyes and vocal cords cut out by Francisca, but this time her surgery is visible.
Antonio grows into a school age child and is shocked at seeing Lucy when he enters the barn, which he is told never to go into. Antonio later unlocks the barn and Lucy escapes. A trucker finds Lucy and police are called to the barn. Francisca is shown digging up the grave of her mother in the woods while talking to her skull. After holding her son as a hostage, Francisca is killed by the police. | tragedy, violence, murder, dark, sadist | train | wikipedia | It defies belief that some film makers can make dozens of films throughout their career, garnering experience the entire time, and never make a film half as good as 'The Eyes of My Mother', and then someone can come along on their very first attempt and achieve this masterpiece.
For people who are expecting a slasher or bloody and gore film then this isn't one for you...Probably one of the best films of this year and the cinematography in black and white is brilliant and just adds to the suspense of the film throughout.Personally I loved that this film made me feel uncomfortable the entire time never knowing what was going to happen.It makes you feel sympathetic to the main character but also for the rest of the cast as well in a messed up way!
I am not going to let anything away with this film but for commercial horror fans this isn't for you.Think the anti Christ without sex but with a stunning female lead who work solo through out and make us fall in love yet hate and also feel Sorry for her all at the same time!
The movie starts with the shot that let's you know it's going to be a black and white film, totally setting the tone.The film is about a girl name Francesca who lives a very isolated life on a farm with her mom and dad.
This is when we learn what it's like for a little girl to become a woman literally all by herself.Francesca experience some pretty violent acts as a child that were treated like every day life and with no one to teach her otherwise, she grows up with little to no filter on the value of human life, except for that one raw emotion she has not to be alone, but one that she has not learned how deal with like the rest of us.This was like watching the slow development of like Micheal Myers or Jason Voorhees.
It's really a stroke of good fortune nobody opened a camp in the near by area.It's a very quiet story of horror, so quiet it does not really register as one, it also has elements of torture porn, which, like the horror is very quiet, but it only makes the actions of Francesca more disturbing to watch as she tries and fails to figure out how to make friends and start a new family, which produces deadly results.An amazing work of art that I would recommend for horror fans.http://cinemagardens.com.
Unfortunately, as with many other prestige horror movies with pretensions to high art, although it's beautifully shot in crisp b/w it suffers from a typical lack of ideas and intellectual depth, resulting in a depressing and empty experience, rather than an exhilarating, educating or illuminating one.
The Eyes of My Mother is an insightful, meaningful, and exquisitely beautiful horror film, and undoubtedly one of the genre's most important offerings ..
The film is originally shot in black and white which truly adds to the unsettling nature of what takes place during the entire 76 minute duration.
This is truly Americana in its darkest form.The film starts off with the Diana Agostini and Olivia Bond (who plays a younger Francisca) as her mom was teaching her how to surgically remove eyeballs from the cows, which is quite a disturbing start but it leads the audience into the person she is to become in her later years.
This act of violence leads the young girl unbeknowningly down a dark path, as she learns about life, love, and death in her own dark way.Years later and now a mature and beautiful woman played by Kika Magalhães, she tries to coexist with society with some horrifying results.
It's worlds apart in regards to what we tend to label as horror — no jump scares, no boogeyman to run from, and a distinct lack of gratuitous gore has allowed this film to standout as a genuine psychological terror.
Just because the movie is shot in black and has slow tempo it doesn't make it a work of art, nevertheless a good (horror) movie.
This movie has no story at all, just a bunch of stupid actions that someone decided to write and film.
The movie feels slow, the few other characters have short screen time and are usually mute, and the movie is in drab black and white.Being a psychopath, Fransisca feels absolutely nothing for anybody else, and has no qualms about what she does to others to fulfill her own desires.
The entire movie is about 75 minutes long, and although they abuse static scenes (making it feel a lot longer, by the way), they couldn't spare 3 or 5 more minutes to make a decent ending.
Seriously, the "horror" tag should be removed from the genre section 'cause it's quite misleading.The black and white element was successful to me - it made splatter scenes less unpleasant - and gave the movie a noir atmosphere at points.
Sometimes slow all the way through is a good thing in a movie, even if you are like me, where it's normally not your cup of tea.
This is a difficult one, i mean, it's a horror story but everything is done off-camera so no red stuff or to be honest nothing at all and still some do find it rather creepy.Being shot in black and white doesn't make it easier to watch.
Most horror movies these days (or any kind) don't have much happening on the subconscious level, a lot of them tend to be more self-conscious, skating along on the surface, with twists and turns in the plot, jump scares, etc., but occasionally a film comes along that taps right into the unconscious, ala "Night of the Hunter", "Psycho" - I would consider "Eyes" to fit in that grand company.
Telling the story of a Young girl who is thrust into a life of hardship and loneliness, The Eyes of My Mother portrays itself in a very unsettling black and White tone.
It's unique, disturbing and more horrific than all the slasher, gore-fests out there.I've been a lover of horror films most of my life but have soured over the past 10 - 15 years due to the lack of imagination and cookie cutter plots that have inundated the genre.
I predict great films from him.If you like a different kind of horror story, please watch this film!.
To think that a child could evolve into something that morbid is absolutely terrifying and even though this is fiction it definitely had me wondering about all sorts of things.The fact that the film is entirely shown in black and white added to the isolated and grisly atmosphere.
And the way the scenes were filmed, following Francisca around, emphasised her gracefulness in all movements, regardless of whether affection or horror inducing.Being Portuguese, it bothered me that the mother and child characters did not speak the language well, especially when the grown Francisca was obviously native.
There is such a psychological depth to this movie, and a perfect balance between macabre and normalcy that I never knew was possible in a horror film.Even if not perfect plotwise, The Eyes of My Mother will surely stay with me for a long time.
Director Nicolas Pesce makes great use of the film's short running time (under 80 minutes) and relatively claustrophobic atmosphere.
The fact that this movie is rated as high as it is, makes me want to puke.I'm a big horror fan.
I personally did not like the fact it's in black and white and the acting is so terrible and the story as no meaning it's so ridiculous and the movie just was not interesting.
The horror and the disturbance, in black and white (the most suitable media to express the light and the darkness of time) crosses the eyes of the spectators and the characters; and this horror tinged with the sadness of fado, the Portuguese songs that seem even more desolate in the immensities of the North American prairies (almost as in those typical Russian songs, where there is always a husband, a son or a mother, lost in the war, or winter, and that never returns), in the end, recreates an appearance of pain, the illusion of a self-contained picture that closes on itself and from which the viewer can not easily escape.
Camera angles, blocking of the actors and symmetry of each bit of the movie is many times lacking in what we are watching in today's horror films, you know what's happening, it is bothersome without buckets of blood.
Slow black and white wannabe horror movie.
For a horror movie I see that The Eyes Of My Mother gets a high rating on here.
It's a mediocre horror movie with a very slow story.
And despite what the genre claims to be, this is not a horror.You expect something to happen during the movie to make it worthwhile watching, but this movie just teases you with very boring scenes until the very end.Imagine a movie that has a continuous prologue which lasts 70 minutes and then just ends without anything interesting happening.No actions, no story and funnily enough not even a sight of dialogue.
It's not a typical horror movie for sure, but it's a film that will follow you and that stays with you long after you watch it.
She is a dark, brutal character who's actions make you terrified of her but in a weird way watching her try to socialize and live a normal life brings out some sort of an innocence in her that makes you feel sympathy for her and Kika Magalhaes manages to bring out both of those sides of her beautifully.The bottom line is that it's a movie that you will either love very much or a movie that you will hate.
The Eyes of My Mother is a directorial debut set in black & white and after seeing it I'm excited to see what else the director does.
I do understand if some feel like this isn't really a horror movie.
Given that a foreboding soundtrack adds to that a little bit more, this leading to obvious nods to other black-and-white horror classics such as Nosfaratu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and the eerily creepy The Night Of The Living Dead, there's a certain original tone to this whole black-and-white material.Another filmmaker inspired by this technique is writer-director Nicolas Pesce who adds a lot of tension to his debut The Eyes Of My Mother.
An original feature that places its main character Francisca (Kika Magalhaes), a woman living a lonely country life in the middle of nowhere, he gives her a story she feels pain in fact this pain is shown from the first few moments of the film.
Crafted with restraint, told with startling composure, and all the more uplifted by Kika Magalhaes' downright deranged performance, The Eyes of My Mother is a disquieting, disturbing & demented psychological horror that paints one of the most unsettling portraits of loneliness & perversion but it isn't a film that's meant to appease all.The Eyes of My Mother tells the story of Francisca, a young girl living a quiet life with her family in a remote farm.
But when a stranger appears in her house & promptly kills her mother before being knocked out & chained by her father in the barn, the trauma of the tragedy unravels Francisca's deepest & darkest desires in unexpected ways.Written & directed by Nicolas Pesce in what's his directorial debut, the story follows a three-tier structure, each focusing on Francisca's personal growth and is narrated in a very patient manner as Pesce allows the silence & stillness to ratchet up the anxiety while delivering moments of pure horror that only get more unsettling as the story progresses.Employing a minimalist approach, Pesce takes the route of slow-burn storytelling which works out in the film's favour as even moments of nothingness end up adding something to its grisly tale and, in turn, make those violent, perturbing scenes stand out even more.
Further assisting its ominous tone is its black-n-white cinematography, methodical editing & muted score.Coming to the acting department, The Eyes of My Mother is Kika Magalhaes' show all the way as she carries the entire film on her own and delivers a bone-chilling performance.
It's a quiet showcase from the young actress, conveying more from her unblinking gaze & silent expressions than the choice of words, and provides an unnerving insight into her character's psyche.On an overall scale, The Eyes of My Mother is a gruesome example of body horror that's definitely not for the easily distressed and packs many moments that are powerful enough to linger on long after the credits have rolled.
But unless you LIKE being horrified in an especially nauseating way, I would recommend avoiding this one.Within the first 9 minutes of this movie, including the opening credits and a foreshadowing sequence, a young girl of perhaps 9 or 10 years old has a ringside seat at the brutal murder of her mother by a serial killer.
I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect the film was shot in black-and-white because the ordinarily bright colors of gore are very muted in black-and-white, and the director didn't want them distracting from the subtler but more powerful horror going on.
I really don't want to experience a horror picture that works so hard to GET AT YOU in this way.I can "appreciate" the skillfulness and artistry with which this movie was created.
The plot revolves around the life of a woman who witnessed the brutal murder of her mother as a child, and the subsequent events, combined with her near total isolation throughout her entire life, leave her with a desperate need to be loved by someone, anyone, in any way, without any regard for the potentially devastating effects her actions might have on those unlucky enough to cross her path...Shot entirely in black-and-white, this movie is a beauty to behold from start to finish.
Shot in eerie black and white, 'The Eyes Of My Mother' is an atmospheric horror film with a great premise, but something is missing to make it a priority watch.
Somehow off-screen (and there are many moments off-screen but with explicit message) the killer ends up beaten and chained in the barn.The years pass and the child becomes a woman without any social nor moral values due to her extreme isolation, incapable of distinguishing good from evil (and the father does not help either due to his apathetic personality or perhaps he became so after the trauma of losing his wife).When the father dies, the loneliness of Francisca becomes overwhelming, being that every attempt at human contact ends up tragically for those unfortunate ones who cross paths with her.My verdict:The movie is in black and white (which plays on its favor), does not contain too many gore, is extremely slow paced even for just 76 minutes of its duration, but the images and message are strong and disturbing enough to be clearly classified as horror.
The only negative aspect I have to point is the fact that the daughter speaks Portuguese better than the mother, which is odd, but since the mother as little screen time it does not affect the overall quality.If you're looking for gore this is not the movie; but if you seek a truly terrifying story, then I highly recommend it..
NON SPOILER :If you are a lover of horror and thriller movies and just love a movie that can mess your mind up like hell then this movie is for you, its not a very very exciting movie for the first half but it surely spices up through out the movie.SPOILERS BELOW....SPOILERS: first its about a girl who witness her mother being murdered and her father attacked the murderer soon after.
A definite recommendation to both horror fans and true movie lovers.***Final thoughts: Funny, this girl – the main star of The Eyes of My Mother, reminded me so much of Angela in Sleepaway Camp.
Young director, Nicholas Pesce wanted us to watch a movie with the eyes of the psychopath he has created.
The Eyes of My Mother is a chilling psychological horror film.
The film begins with the young main character, Francisca, tending to the cows on her rural and isolated farm home with her mother, am older portuguese woman who used to work as an eye surgeon.
The mother's retelling of the story of Francis of Assisi at the beginning sets up much of the symbolism for the film- Francis spent much time in his life in isolation, and ended up being fatally afflicted with Trachoma (and infectious disease of the eye).
As I was watching this, I was dreading the point where a part of the film dragged, or there was some misstep in the story, but every shot in this film, every line, feels like the director and writer was completely confident in it succeeding, and it does.
It's an extremely intentional black & white art-house horror film, with more attention to detail than gore throughout.The story centers around Francisca (played by Olivia Bond first and then Kika Magalhães who was particularly awesome), a young girl whose quiet, simple life is turned upside-down by the murder of her mother (Diana Agostini) and, shortly after, the passing of her father (Paul Nazak).** SPOILERS!
Here's The Lowedown on "The Eyes of my Mother" (R - 2016 - US)...The universe is unfolding as it should.Genre: Horror/DisturbingMy Score: 5.6Cast=3 Acting=8 Plot=7 Ending=4 Story=7 Scare=3 Jump=2 F/X=7 Gore=6 Disturb=9A young, lonely woman is consumed by her deepest and darkest desires after tragedy strikes her quiet country life.
"Loneliness can do strange things to the mind." This movie was twisted...disturbing...and boring!!
It's all filmed in black and white and that takes away from the visceral gore that should have been seen. |
tt0289229 | Hukkle | The story takes place in an ordinary village in Hungary. It begins with an old man who has hiccups, and takes place in front of his house near a can of milk. He observes the daily habits of the villagers, and the viewer is shown many sequences about different events: A young man drives his horse and cart filled with milk cans. Normally he would clean the cans, but he's distracted by a girl sitting in the sun. A threshing-machine is harvesting. A cat becomes poisoned and eventually dies. A mole is killed by an old lady ploughing the ground and she gives the mole to her dog. A farmer takes his pig to a sow for fertilization and the two owners watch with satisfaction when the pigs copulate. The men of the village bowl to kill time. The old man is still having hiccups.
The village seems idyllic, but there are mysterious things happening. During these events, there are sequences about women trading bottles with unknown liquids. From time to time a man dies and the collective village walks up with a chest and comforts the widow. The postwoman also shows up from time to time and gives the widow her dead mother's pension. It all seems harmless and normal life continues after the burials. When a fisherman disappears, a local policeman is determined to find out what happened to the fisherman and eventually finds out at the end when he sees the mailman appear with a package for the widow.
With (almost) no dialogue in the movie, it seems the events around the villagers, animals, and plants have no meaning. However, at the end of the movie there is a wedding where some girls sing an old folksong which reveals the murder-mystery. | psychedelic, murder | train | wikipedia | This film challenges the idea that we need dialogue to define human interaction, or even interaction between humans, animals and the environment.
It may sound boring, but isn't because you are constantly wondering what will happen next.The movie covers the life of a small Hungarian village during the course of, more or less, one day.
One person may come up with a completely different view of what happened in the movie than another, even if they were watching it together.
I watched this with my girlfriend, the red-haired queen of late night cinema, and we had a terrific argument over our differing opinions on what exactly had transpired in the movie.
During the argument, she seized a burning stick from the fireplace and commenced beating me with it to emphasize her point, thereby proving the supremacy of a piece of wood over well-constructed film criticism.This film should be seen by anyone who enjoys experimental film in any way, or simply wants to see something different but not boring.
I applaud the director who can not only conceive of such a movie, but execute it in an interesting and watchable way..
At first this film may seem like a documentary about daily life in a small village, yet it becomes much more, and if you don't pay attention, you may miss the underlying story of a murder mystery.
Also, the contrast of country life and technology is shown subtly.At our showing of Hukkle at the SF International Film Festival, we were lucky enough to have the director present and he answered questions about the film.
Though this film is fiction, the underlying occurences actually happened in a small village in Hungary in the 1900s.Wonderful cinematography, beautiful scenery, unique sounds, and an original idea all contribute to making this film awe-inspiring..
Hukkle is kind of a symphony of sights and sounds, without any real dialogue.
It's sort of like a nature documentary, with humans as just one of the subjects, just one part of the ecosystem.
The setting for this most unsettling of films from 27 year old director, Gyorgy Palfi, is a tiny village somewhere in Hungary.
Palfi's camera lovingly observes these rituals of everyday life: farm machinery, insects at work, flowers blossoming, a lone jet fighter screams overhead.
Never does one's attention flag during the film's economical 75 minutes running time.
I am happy that so many people from different countries have liked this Hungarian film - which is quite rare.
I think it is not by chance that the first member of the crew named in the opening credits is precisely the sound designer.You have to have some patience to get really into the film, but afterward, it is really worth it.
In fact, eating does not mean anything good in this film...The morale of the story is well summarized in the closing folksong "Ki az urát nem szereti" (Who does not love her husband).
The only time where words are used in this film to say something....And yes: "Hukkle" does not mean anything on Hungarian, it is an onomatopoetic (sound-imitating) word that imitates the sound of a hickup.
I saw Hukkle two years ago at the national film festival of Istanbul (2002).
One of my favorite films and number one in its own, unique category.
Every comment is acceptable but with an objective approach i would say that the movie basically explains how murder is actually only death.
It's a Hungarian film, with almost no dialogue, and it's trulyunique.The work "hukkle" is an attempt to imitate the sound of a hiccup.Throughout a movie--set in a rural Hungarian village--an old mansits by the side of a road and hiccups.
Meanwhile, life in andaround the village goes on as people eat, work, and play.Despite the idyllic nature of the landscape, something bad ishappening in the village.
The film curator at the GeorgeEastman House in Rochester--where the film was screened-- told us he had seen the movie five or six times, and would explain themystery to us after we'd watched the film.
Maybe you have to see the movie five times to get it, or maybe after five viewings you lose it.According to the curator, this film is due out on DVD, and it's worthfinding and watching.
Hukkle is the first feature film of hyper-talented young director Gyorgy Palfi, and is a real masterpiece, the likes of which very rarely come out of the hands of a lively, extroverted 30-year-old.
An old man who sits out in front of his country shack in rural Hungary starts hiccuping, thus setting the pace of the film.
If one pays the attention Hukkle deserves, finds out that beyond the series of beautifully breathtaking pictures and unique sound effects the feature does have an underlying story unfolding.
This film doesn't describe itself easily, but above all it's a very lyrical film underlined with a beautiful dramatic story about the life on the country somewhere in Hungary.
All seems to go very peacefully, but somewhere underneath the skin it's like the animals in the film want to say that there is definately something going on!The way you will find out about what is going on will leave you speechless for some time, wanting to see the movie again to possibly find hidden clues and/or messages you've failed to see the first time.
This may be the best film that'll be released this year....
I saw this movie on this years International Film Festival of Rotterdam.
The reason I really love this film is not so much the story which isn't very outstanding.
If you like any work of Bert Haanstra you will surely love this film.If you have any chance to attend a screening: go go go!!.
I've written elsewhere about the size of the components in a film, that there are wonderful effects that can accrue when these are exploited.
But I really didn't like it because there's no understanding of the bricks, the nature of the units that make up a film.
Wish it worked.Interesting as all getout is the nature of the Hungarian mind.
You don't want a treatise on warring theories in science in a movie comment, but be aware that there are different views of how things are put together in the world, and it boils down to how you abstract the bricks.We owe the bright Hungarians for the notion that the world has symmetries that transcend numbers and probabilities.
This film is truly innovative and original, both technically(photography, editing, direction)and also as far as its story is concerned.
The only one there is translates the title of this rural set Hungarian film, from 2002 - as "Hiccup".But, what we do have is an elderly gent, gently hiccupping his day away, sitting outside his old cottage - as the world goes past.
We also have dark goings on as the womenfolk seem to be feeding their men food and drink that seem to have come from a special source.Every conceivable village activity, from beekeeping to the flour mill, from the bobbing of the cotton wheels and whirring of sewing machines, to a giant, lazy catfish gobbling a mouthful in the local lake.
What IS going on?The images are often in close-up, the natural sounds amplified.
This ever interesting short film (70mins) does seem to take its time to make its point.
A joy....but like actual hiccups, you'll want to move on once it's over..
The best movie I have seen in many many years.
To me this is what film making is all about.
It was recommended by a friend who owns a video store in Hungary and sees countless movies all the time.
I was simply mesmerized by the cinematography, sound, and video effects.
Hollywood film making is way behind the sophisticated European thinking and creating.
I'll not synopsize this nearly mute (plenty of sounds - just minimal sub-titled language - and song lyrics, at that!) film gem for you.
Plenty of that has already been done by others and in other places.It is a splendidly crafted film - outstanding storyboarding, cinematography, and "casting." Just see it!
But, whether or not you come up with an underlying theme or specific story, you must "enjoy the ride." See some of the other reviews for the ideas of others as to how to make it more than "beautiful cinematography, sound, and editing" for their own sakes.(Personally, I think it has subtle hints that make of it a sociological gender study that is not necessarily limited to rural Hungarians, and a murder mystery and subsequent quandary.).
Strange film focusing on the human, plant and animal life of a small Hungarian village.
At first i thought there was no real story or plot and it reminded me a bit of films like Bodysong or Naqoyqatsi.
However, whereas those films put their images to music this one had no music or dialogue but instead focused on the sounds of life - such as animals, machines etc.
You can certainly view this film in that stlye - and enjoy it because although those sort of films can lose your interest after a while Hukkle has great camera angles, close ups and superb editing which means it doesn't outstay its 75 minute running time.But if you look deeper into the film there is a very subtle plot - as we see a body in a lake at one point and a policemen investigates it.
However nothing is resolved and its almost as an aside but once i started thinking about it (or in my case reading about it) the more i want to watch it again!A unique film..
...and even then the Hukkle keeps its own regular rhythm at the very end.As a kid, I remember there used to be a visual game in magazines where a photograph zoomed in extremely tight or shot from an odd angle was presented, and you had to guess what the object was.
This film features many such shots...and in its speechless stroke of genius, the story itself is presented that way as well.Let me state that this movie is clearly not for everyone, at first it reminded me of the beloved Ann Arbor Film Festival, which hosts many fine but often fiercely independent short films.
But "Hukkle", while succeeding in its artful attack, moves beyond that.But it does so slowly...The film moves almost at the pace of the tiny Hungarian village where it was mostly shot.
Indeed from the DVD extras, I get the sense that Gyorgy Palfi wanted to have the film linger even longer in spots.
The frog also was apparently delicious, at least according to the famished catfish.I really want to resist saying more, I'm just trying to figure out a way to direct the people who would enjoy this film toward it.
I suspect that if you ever entertained notions of attending film school, you would enjoy this.
He likely was a city mouse out in the country, but he was welcomed in to their wine caves, their apiaries and those plastic thatched houses, but more importantly the lives of the sturdier folks occupying them.With the DVD you get a couple of bonus tracks, the subtitled commentary by Palfi and his cinematographer was very insightful on several levels.
It almost seemed at times like the film was not only a riddle from Palfi to us the audience, but a puzzling challenge to Gergely Poharnok and the rest of the crew!Additionally Palfi's voice, it's genuinely genial tone but never mawkishly so, while I don't speak Hungarian, I was curious to see him interact with the villages...and that is also in the Extras!I eagerly look forward to more of his work, the Taxidermist is not readily available yet...but hopefully soon.
"Hukkle" is cinematic experience that looks like the greatest (mute) documentary ever put on celluloid, but if you concentrate just a little more, you'll notice that this is actually a serial killer thriller...
Environmental detail makes a fascinating film.
May I also add that in addition it is also rather beautiful, somewhat brutal (some of the animal stuff bothered me a bit, especially the semi-paralysed cat - which I trust was faked somehow, I hope...) and just when you start slipping into the rhythm of the film the director keeps pulling out surprises to keep you on your toes, or awake depending on your stamina and tastes.I can't quite see the oft-noted parallels to David Lynch so much as Donnie Darko which seems more like kinfolk to Hukkle.
An eerie, nearly silent presentation of life in an anonymous Hungarian village caught between the timeless traditions of old and emerging new technology: this dichotomy is shown sensitively and in symbiotic relationship: the new technology seems to enhance rather than destroy or clash with traditional social mores.
Whilst none of the characters ever ostensibly talk, there is always a background buzz of everyday sounds which paint a fulsome audio picture of village life, as it unfolds through the goalposts of every human existence: birth, childhood, wedding and death: all sequences which are portrayed sympathetically with respect to the local meme..
A day in the life of a Hungarian town told by incredible cinematography and acute sound.
A day in the life of a Hungarian town told by incredible cinematography and acute sound.
This dark yet funny film at first glance seems to be just a series of random events linked together by smooth camera transitions.
"Hukkle" is an onomatopoeia that is supposed to imitate the sound of a hiccup.
The opening scene of the film features an old man who cannot stop hiccuping, I believe the director was relating the pace of the film to a hiccup hence the name.During the opening credits the first name featured was that of the sound engineer Tamás Zányi.
A fitting honor since there is no dialog in this film, the story is told entirely through sound.
It truly is amazing to watch and listen to a movie like this.
It's like watching a Hungarian reality show.Once you realize that there is a story underneath all of this, it makes it even better.
If not, there is a nice song at the end with the only subtitles in the film to help explain everything.
Although, one would benefit from a second viewing to pick it all out.Visually, this film is wonderful.
This strange and wonderful Hungarian film was shown at the Seattle International Film Festive this year (2003).
The film is told without words.
Like a David Lynch film something seems to be going on as a mesmerizing murder mystery is slowly revealed.
Even the film's official website is unique.
I then re-watched the movie.
There really is one core story going on here - the movie only diverges from this story in a handful of scenes.
You need to be very observant of what's going on in each scene especially the glances given by people.
Every scene plays like one from a completely different movie, and although certain characters reappear, what connection is intended to be inferred is left up to interpretation.
We wander from point to point with absolutely no idea of why, and as it becomes more and more ridiculous (there is a scene straight out of The Matrix, complete with outdated special effects), one can do nothing but stare at the absurdity of it all.Don't get me wrong - the lack of a story or of dialogue doesn't per se bother me much, it's just that Hukkle tries way to hard to not only be beautiful but also meaningful, and utterly fails.
At first it was hard to get in to the world of Hukkle but by the end I didn't want this film to be over.
It is one of the slowest films I have ever seen yet it kept my attention.
Original, innovative, beautiful and at times shocking, or jarring.Enjoyably avant-Garde, and highly recommended for any true film lover.
There is no true plot or story, but yet we see vague glimpses and hints into the lives of the people of this small town.
So whether you are a techno image geek or in it for a good story Hukkle will probably have something for you..
Apparently a lot of people consider this film "art" and thought it was worth praising.
Dreary and depressing shots of countryside, and boring people doing nothing (namely, an old man with a creepy smirk by the side of the road hiccuping non-stop throughout the entire film - which I personally could hardly tolerate.
I sat through this film hoping that something would develop any second, and then it ended.
The life of a small and poor Transdanubian village is presented in "the movie of noises".
The story ends with the desperate expression of the local policeman who - although he is aware of all this - cannot decide what to do as practically all women (including his mother) is involved in the murders.This is indeed a very strong movie, especially if you consider that it is the debut of a young director.
I am not sure that the extreme story (the series of the murders) is really in place, perhaps a simpler, more down-to-earth story would have been a better choice, although I accept that the contrast of the dark and shocking story and the idyllic pictures adds extra and needed spice to the film.In summary, this is in the "must" category.
This was an interesting movie until the director thought it necessary to kill animals.
It began with an interesting reliance on sound without dialogue.
It seemed like this film would continue in the vein of Bela Tarr and other Hungarian directors.
Not a new idea: Bunuel abused animals in some of his films, and a neo-realist Italian film whose name escapes me showed villagers torturing a pig as the director filmed it as an amoral and passive journalist.
This film goes even further though.
The director actually has at least one animal poisoned for the sake of a large;y absent plot line. |
tt0039036 | Till the End of Time | Right after VJ Day, two Marine Corps buddies, Cpl. Bill Tabeshaw (Mitchum) and Pfc. Cliff Harper (Madison), are among a group selected to return immediately to civilian life. Bill, a former cowboy, has a silver plate implanted in his head, a "souvenir" of Iwo Jima, but has won $2,100 gambling and plans to buy a small cattle ranch in New Mexico. Former college student Cliff is physically uninjured but harbors deep resentments about losing nearly four years of his life because he enlisted right after Pearl Harbor.
Arriving home in Los Angeles, Cliff finds that his parents are not home but meets his new neighbor, Helen Ingersoll (Jean Porter), a vivacious 18-year-old who is instantly infatuated with the decorated hero. Anxious to see old friends, he heads for Scuffy's, a bar that was his favorite soda shop before the war. He is greeted by his friend and naval aviator Pinky, who introduces him to Pat Ruscomb (McGuire).
Immediately attracted to each other, they abandon Pinky, go to Pat's apartment and kiss impetuously. Pat withdraws from him, however, and reveals that she is a war widow who has never gotten over her husband's death 14 months before. Discouraged by Pat's moodiness, Cliff returns home to be reunite with his ecstatic father C.W. (Tom Tully) and mother Amy (Ruth Nelson). Cliff wants to talk about his experiences but Amy immediately changes the subject. His family wants things to be like they were before the war, making Cliff feel increasingly out of place. He tries to call Pat, who does not answer, and goes to bed. After his mother tucks him in as if he were still a boy, Cliff cries himself to sleep.
The next day, Pinky invites Cliff to go skating with him and Pat. Unsure if Pinky and Pat have a relationship, Cliff brings along Helen as his date, who treats Pat as middle-aged matron. In a coffee shop, Cliff spots a lonely soldier with "the shakes" and goes to help him. Cliff comforts the veteran, a psychiatric patient on leave who is afraid to go home, while Pat talks about a fearful moment in her own past to give him courage.
A few days later, C.W. questions his apparently direction-less son about his future and is disappointed when Cliff tells him the only decision he has made is to make no decisions for now. At breakfast Cliff tries to relate to his mother the misery of living in a foxhole but Amy forcefully refuses to listen. Bill Tabeshaw, on his way to New Mexico, stops by to invite Cliff to make a "social call" with him. Amy is polite to Bill but clearly disapproves of his many differences from her son.
The "social call" is a visit to Marine Sgt. Perry Kincheloe (Bill Williams), a legless double amputee who was in the hospital with Bill, now living at home with his mother (Selena Royle). Perry, once a boxer, is grooming his younger brother to become the fighter he can no longer be. Though happy to see Bill, Perry is discouraged and politely rejects encouragement to use his artificial legs.
At Scuffy's, Bill expresses disappointment that Perry, after progressing nicely in the hospital, is no longer part of a military team and has given in to self-pity. Cliff runs into Pat at the bar, where she is waiting to go out with an Army Air Forces captain. Unhappy and jealous, Cliff comes home late and argues with his parents, who are upset that he is always out and accuse him of "gallivanting around with boys like this Bill Tabeshaw." C.W. tells Cliff "it's just not like old times," but Cliff is unable to make them understand that old times were three years ago and he has to make his own plans.
Cliff waits for Pat's return outside her apartment. He sees an intoxicated Pat impulsively kiss the captain goodnight. Embarrassed that Cliff has seen her, Pat treats him flippantly and he calls her a tramp. Later Cliff apologizes to Pat for his behavior, explaining that he had begun to think of her as his girl.
Pat breaks down and confesses that she is still miserable because that although she married to give her husband a dream to come home to, his death left her only with her own dream. Pat reveals that the captain was her husband's co-pilot traveling home after his discharge, and in the moment that Cliff saw her, the captain had become her husband in her mind.
Ashamed, Cliff admits that he too is lonely and confused. At Pat's suggestion, Cliff then takes a job at the factory where she works but on his first day tries to pick a fight with his supervisor. Talking it over with Pat, Cliff proposes to her but she rejects him when he wants only to live on the beach until his money is gone.
Bill returns to Los Angeles after losing all his stake money gambling in Las Vegas. The plate in his head is also causing him severe headaches. Cliff tries to convince him to go to the veteran's hospital but Bill refuses. They go out drinking and Cliff telephones Perry to help him convince Bill to see a doctor.
Perry finds the courage to don his artificial legs with encouragement from his mother and goes to the bar. Before they can talk Bill into getting help, they are approached by a group of men who invite them to join their veterans' organization. Bill is told that the organization is restricted to exclude "Catholics, Jews and Negroes" and spits in the face of one of them. During the ensuing mêlée, Perry discovers that he can still throw a punch and Bill is hit over the head with a beer bottle, seriously injuring him.
At the hospital, Bill is prepped for surgery, and tells Cliff that if he pulls through he plans to go back home to New Mexico and work toward one day buying that ranch he's dreamed about. Cliff and his father, C.W., keep a vigil while Bill is undergoing surgery. Cliff tells his father that despite what he's been through readjusting to civilian life, in many ways he feels luckier than Bill and Perry - he has a job that he likes, though he's not sure he wants to make it a career, and he has Pat, with whom he desires a lasting relationship. C.W. accepts his son's modest ambitions for the future, telling him "You didn't make yourself a soldier overnight, you can't become a civilian overnight." The next morning, Cliff and C.W. leave the hospital, having learned that Bill will be alright, and he is met by his mother, who has brought Pat with her. Cliff and Pat run toward each other and happily embrace. | romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0433286 | Dragon Booster | === 10,000 years ago ===
Ten-thousand years ago, on the planet of Draconis there existed a breed of Gold-Boned animals called dragons. These Dragons had star-shaped marks on their foreheads (called bone-marks) and were known to all as Star Dragons (they were later renamed as Gold Dragons when the other colours emerged). Humans and Dragons lived side by side and together they built an almost atlantean world.
=== 5000 years ago ===
Five-thousand years ago, humans and dragons spread across the planet and settled in places far off. To better adapt to the new challenges faced by them, the humans bred the pure Gold Draconium STAR-CLASS star dragons into specialised sub-breeds:
Black Draconium PSI-CLASS Dragons
Red Draconium MAGMA-CLASS Dragons
Green Draconium BULL-CLASS Dragons
Blue Draconium ENERGY-CLASS Dragons
Purple Draconium PACK-CLASS Dragons
Orange Draconium CONTROL-CLASS Dragons
Light Green Draconium SCAVENGER-CLASS Dragons
Light Blue Draconium NAUTILUS-CLASS Dragons
Turqouise Draconium SONIC-CLASS Dragons
Brown Draconium EARTH-CLASS Dragons
Grey Draconium BONE-CLASS Dragons
White Draconium SKY-CLASS Dragons
As the colors of Draconium changed, the Dragons did not only change in appearance, but they also changed in their emotional states. The shape of their bone-marks as well as the color and frequency of their Mag-energy also changed shape. Their human riders also suffered similar behavioral changes due to the direct bond between human and dragon. Great Draconium Empires formed across the planet based on these Draconium Colors. They battled against each other and vied for supremacy. The Order of the Dragon Priests, who had dedicated themselves to the preservation of the last of the Pure Gold Draconium STAR-CLASS Dragons, warned the people that there would be a time when the dragons would rise against them if the dragons were not respected and freed. The people did not believe them, so the Dragon Priests continued their work of keeping the Gold Dragons preserved.
=== 3000 years ago ===
Two-thousand years later, the Prophecy of the Dragon Priests came true. Dragons, realising that they had been tricked, rose up against their masters and began the Great Dragon-Human War. Led by the legendary Armeggadon (human leader of the Black Draconium Empire) and the Dragon League of Eight (Eight Pure Black Draconium Dragons), the Dragons fought against humans, and the ensuing war threatened to rip apart the planet. At this time, a single Gold Dragon, the last of his kind at the time, chose a human to be his hero, a Dragon Booster, in order to prove that unity was still possible. Seeing this, many dragons joined their side. Enough gold draconium was mined to make the Armour of the Dragon Booster, and they fought together against the forces of Armeggadon and the League of Eight. However, it was not enough that they had a gold dragon, and the Dragon Booster had to win the four primary colors of draconium over to their side. The Draconium colors of Green, Red, Blue and Black each produced a booster who joined with the Dragon Booster: the Power Booster from the Green Draconium Empire, the Fire Booster from the Red Draconium Empire, the Energy Booster from the Blue Draconium Empire, and the Shadow Booster from the Black Draconium Empire. Along with their followers, these Five Boosters slowly managed to halt the advancement of Armeggadon and the League of Eight. During this time, the Grey Draconium Dragons constructed the Horn of Libris and gave it to the Dragon Booster, telling him to use it when the time was right; the Dragon Booster entrusted the Horn to the Energy Booster. Soon afterwards, Armeggadon was sealed in the Shadow Track by the Shadow Booster. The time being right, the Dragon Booster and the four primary colors of draconium, along with the fringe elements of the other Draconium Empires that had joined their side, combined their powers and powered up the ancient gold draconium structures present underneath the planet and released a burst of balanced power that reverted all the dragons on Draconis back to gold. However, the Bone-Marks of the reverted dragons were not changed and were instead severed off. Dragons went into the new world with a small nub in the place of the Bone-Mark.
=== After the Dragon-Human War ===
The war was over, but the danger was not. The severed Bone-Marks were found to possess the spirits of the warrior dragons and were capable of possessing dragons. The Dragon Priests took upon themselves to guard the dangerous Bone-Marks. The world of Draconis was in shambles and uncertain as how to rebuild. At this time, the Dragon Priests helped to write the Academy Charter and began construction on the Dragon City Academy. This Academy and the Elite Track was originally intended to be a means of preventing another Dragon Human War to take place. However, the Dragon Priests soon realised that the Academy and the Elite Track was merely another way of starting another Dragon-Human War, so they retreated from the world. The Dragon Priests hid and guarded the Bone-Marks as well as various other powerful artifacts from the Dragon Human War, such as the Gauntlets of the Booster. They also produced another prophecy that foretold another Dragon-Human War and the return of the Black-and-Gold Dragon who would choose another Dragon Booster. They foretold that only the new Dragon Booster and the new Dragon of Legend would be able to stop the new Dragon-Human War. Eons passed, and the Dragon Priests once again wait for the One. | good versus evil | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0047389 | Rails Into Laramie | In the Wyoming Territory during 1869, Union Army Sgt. Jefferson Harder enters a casino and, within minutes, instigates a brawl. Just as he is thrown through the window, the soldiers sent by Gen. Augur to bring Jeff back to the fort arrive. Back at the fort, Argur explains to the hot-headed officer that the construction of the cross-country railroad has been halted outside Laramie by Jim Shanessy, who runs the town and wants the crew to stay and spend their money at his hotel and casino. It is only the threat of the blockade that convinces Jeff to take the assignment. He is further annoyed when his arrival in Laramie is met with dismay from the chief railroad engineer, Lee Graham, Judge Pierce and Mayor Frank Logan, who expected him to bring troops.
Graham, Pierce and Logan grow more aghast when Jeff warmly greets Shanessy, his childhood friend. Jim is at first pleased when Shanessy offers him free board at the hotel, but when the businessman's henchmen, brothers Con and Ace Winton, deliver a two-thousand dollar gift, Jeff recognizes it as a bribe. In the lobby, Jeff agrees to meet later that night with Pierce, who is still suspicious of him, and then visits the ineffectual but good-hearted marshal, Orrie Sommers, and advises him to ready the jail cells.
At the casino soon after, Shanessy introduces Jeff to his partner, beautiful Lou Carter, but Jeff spurns Lou's advances and returns the money to Shanessy. Shanessy, who remains friendly even after Ace threatens Jeff and is beaten up in return, invites Jeff to his home, hoping that Jeff's lingering feelings for Shanessy's wife Helen will keep him from pursuing his new duties. Later, Jeff meets with Graham, Pierce and Logan, and then, armed with their promise of complete authority, visits the railroad work site, where the men are drinking, gambling and sleeping. After Jeff knocks out the brawny foreman, the other men back away, allowing him to shut down the makeshift saloon. The next day, however, when Jeff posts notices that all the men have been fired and construction suspended, both the workers and the town merchants complain bitterly.
Graham calls a council meeting, at which some merchants demand Jeff's court-martial but, after he explains that he can rid the town of gambling and alcohol and only those who want to work will remain, they agree to give his plan a two-week trial. Shanessy counters by refusing to grant workers credit, and when they gather into an angry mob, as he has planned, he easily convinces them to wreak havoc on the town and defeat Jeff's plan. Jeff, however, arrests Shanessy, and that night, Lou invites Jeff to her room and, explaining that no local jury will convict Shanessy, offers to help. A mistrustful Jeff kisses her but then leaves. At the jail, Shanessy talks Jeff into visiting Helen, and when Jeff later leaves her house, too attracted to her to stay, he is beaten and deposited into a railroad car by Shanessy's men. In the morning, Jeff's absence results in a mistrial. Shanessy then instructs the workers to burn down all the railroad camps, after which every arrest Jeff makes is dismissed by crooked juries. He then sends for backup troops, but Shanessy shuts down the telegraph and, anticipating that Jeff will travel to see Augur himself, creates a landslide that blocks all traffic.
Graham, Pierce and Logan insist that Jeff rehire the workers, and when he refuses, they send Orrie on horseback to Cheyenne to order Jeff court-martialed. Soon after, Jeff discovers that Orrie has been killed on the trail, and Lou informs him that Shanessy is the culprit, but the only way to convict him is to construct a jury out of the Wyoming women who have just been granted the right to vote. Still skeptical, Jeff visits Shanessy, and when Ace pulls out a gun, Jeff shoots him and arrests Shanessy again. This time, Lou sits as foreperson on the female jury, and, to Shanessy's shock, they find him guilty. Jeff thanks Lou afterward, and although she first spurns him, he grabs her and she falls into his arms.
The night before Shanessy's scheduled hanging, Helen slips him a gun, and with it he knocks out Jeff and races to Lou's, shooting her in the back. Jeff revives and gathers a posse while Shanessy commandeers a train to Cheyenne, not realizing that the landslide has just been cleared on the tracks, and a passenger train is headed straight toward him. Jeff rides to Shanessy's train, leaps on and shoots his way to the front. There, with the passenger train fast approaching, he knocks out Shanessy and reverses the train only moments before a collision. Weeks later, railroad construction has resumed, and Jeff reports to a recovering Lou that although he must return to the Army for six months, he will consider Laramie his home base. | violence | train | wikipedia | Ridin' the rails ........
John Payne stars in this 1954 sagebrush saga, which also features several western favorites as co-stars.
The railroad sends a representative to get to the bottom of a gang's attempts to disrupt the rail-lines.The film is well-paced and Payne is a good choice to play the lead role.
Dan Duryea steals many of the scenes he appears in and the great Lee Van Cleef was fine in his all too brief supporting role.Payne appeared in a number of Westerns in the '40's and '50's, but was never able to reach the same success as John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart or Glenn Ford had in the genre.
This film was a good example of his work and should be enjoyed by die-hard Western movie fans.........
Saving the Railroad.
Troubleshooter Jefferson Harder (John Payne) is sent to Laramie by the Army to investigate the sabotage that is preventing the railroad from finishing it's line connecting the East and West.
Upon arrival Payne quickly finds out the worst kept secret in town, that old buddy and current town saloon owner Jim Shanessy (Dan Duryea) is behind the chicanery, though nobody is ever able to prove Shanessy and his henchmen (Myron Healey and Lee Van Cleef) are involved.
The town leaders, while happy about support from the Army, are disappointed from the start that they have only sent one man to do the job and grow increasingly critical of the heavy-handed tactics employed by Payne to clean up the town.Rails Into Laramie packs a lot of action into it's 80 minute run time.
Between busting bad guys heads Payne barely has time to strike up a romantic relationship with Dance Hall owner and partner of Jim Shanessy, Lou Carter (Mari Blanchard).
Very little melodrama to be found in this one as Payne spends most of his time eradicating the town's scofflaws.This movie follows the Universal International Pictures formula of using off the A-list leading actors with familiar casts, packaged in a medium budget production.
A formula that worked very well for them and it works here too.
John Payne may be the best leading actor of the post World War II era that few people remember today.
A versatile actor Payne looked equally a home whether in the saddle, a crime drama or a comedy.
Here he carries the day in this action saddle flick.Good drive-in grade Western flick..
The Equality State.
In this quality B western rails are going into Laramie, Wyoming, but they're not leaving.
That's because saloon owner Dan Duryea with the implicit connivance of the town's merchants is finding all kinds of ways to keep the railroad workers spending their pay in their town and not getting any work done.
All this is troubling the railroad owners and troubleshooter John Payne is detached from the army to deal with the trouble.Rails Into Laramie takes elements from the DeMille classic Union Pacific and Destry Rides Again and a nice story is concocted.
Payne is a stalwart no nonsense hero who when he's not on the job is a bit of a hell raiser himself.
But when he's given this job he's quite serious.Dan Duryea the chief villain is married to Joyce McKenzie, but has his partner in the saloon Mari Blanchard on the side.
He's also got to do his bidding treacherous telegrapher Douglas Kennedy, bully boy railroad worker Charles Horvath to intimidate the others, and a pair of killer brothers Myron Healey and Lee Van Cleef.If you know the plots of both the previous mentioned films than you know the result in the end.
What I really liked about Rails Into Laramie was the fact that Wyoming was organized as a territory at the same time as the transcontinental railroad was coming through and women got the vote.
They also got some other rights and that fact is integrated into the plot.One of John Payne's good B westerns from the Fifties and the rest of the cast supports him well.
And Dan Duryea is always excellent..
There's only one problem...why?
This part of the film never really made much sense....
A very common and rather clichéd plots for old westerns is the notion of someone trying to stop the railroad.
While there really wasn't a historical basis, too many films were about a supposed overt or covert effort to stop progress.
In most all of them, however, the reason why the baddies are doing this is pretty obvious...but in this one I really couldn't see why Shanessy (Dan Duryea) is doing this...and it's a major weakness of the film.The man sent to help get the railroad built is an Army Sergeant, Jeff Harder (John Payne) and through most of the film, he makes very little progress thanks to Shanessy and a rather stupid town that tolerates Shanessy's antics.
It all leads up to a murder conviction, a jail escape and train chase.
None of it's bad...none of it's outstanding in any way.
A standard and rather clichéd film.By the way, late in the film a lady is shot from about 8-10 feet away with what is probably a .45 Colt cartridge.
Amazingly, she survived...a miracle and a half!.
Get back to work you drunken bums!.
Progress on the railroad has pretty much ground to a halt as the workers spend most of their time drinking rotgut in Dan Duryea's boozer.The leading citizens of the town request military help and tough soldier, Payne, is appointed as a sort of temporary marshal.
Trouble is, he's an old mate of Duryea so it looks as though there's going to be a conflict of interests.This is an above average Universal western: the two main protagonists play off each other well and there is excellent support from a very large cast of familiar westerners (many uncredited).
Special mentions must go to Lee Van Cleef as a menacing, trigger happy bad guy (was he ever anything else?), Mari Blanchard as a saloon girl with a heart of gold (was she ever anything else?) and James Griffith, cast against type in a humorous role, as a bumbling ineffectual lawman.Action scenes are well staged - particularly those on the trains - the photography is first class and the Technicolor beautiful as always.Oh, and as an added bonus for B western fans, there's a title song over the opening credits rumbled out by the ever popular Rex Allen.....
intelligent screenplay, good direction by Jesse Hibbs.
Jesse Hibbs directed some westerns like this one, "Ride Clear of Diablo" and "The Spoilers" which achieved a rare overall perfection, considering what they were aiming at, a public wanting to see a B Technicolor production.
Besides Hibb's direction there are the good performances by John Payne and Dan Duryea.
Mari Blanchard is not as good here as she was in "Destry" , made in the same year.
The intelligent screenplay by D.D. Beauchamp and Joseph Hoffman, even makes a point about the political importance of women, in situations where they are braver than men.
Dan Duryea is Jim Shanessy, a man who is making money counting on the spending of the railroad workers, and in consequence, trying to make them slow down so they can stay longer where he has his establishments.
Jeff Harder (John Payne), his old time friend is set in charge of cleaning up the place.
When he arrives, the town leaders, which are expecting hundreds of soldiers , and do not absorb his friendship with Shanessy have a reaction that reminds us of "Destry Rides Again" and "Destry".
There are excellent scenes of Harder using his fists and fighting skills.
Rex Allen sing the main theme song..
"You either go backwards or forward.
You can't stand still.".
The premise of this picture managed to puzzle me right from the start and I couldn't figure it out.
In any other Western, the town boss or main villain would be looking for a way to buy out all the surrounding ranchers so he would have control of the property when the railroad would eventually come through.
A railroad station usually meant increased business traffic for the local establishments, which were also usually controlled by the principal bad guy.
In this story, businessman Jim Shanessy (Dan Duryea) wanted to slow up or stop the railroad construction to keep the local workers hanging around his saloon in town or the one he owned at the mining camp.
It all seemed kind of contrived to me.As in any other Western however, the hero needs to step in and stop the skulduggery going on.
Jeff Harder (John Payne) is a Cavalry sergeant disturbed out of his twenty eight day leave to go on a special mission to Laramie and solve the railroad problem.
Arriving in town he quickly surmises that he'll eventually have to go up against long time pal Shanessy and his henchmen, Ace (Lee Van Cleef) and Con Winton (Myron Healey).
Shanessy's business manager and partner Lou Carter (Mari Blanchard) appears to be the wild card in this stacked deck, and you might consider her eventual turn to be a bit of a twist ending.The story introduces a nifty element of American history by inserting a sequence involving an all woman jury, the first of it's kind in the country making headlines in the Laramie Journal.
This followed Wyoming becoming the first state to give women the right to vote, and it was an interesting departure from the main story.
It also proved to be the impetus for the undoing of Shanessy as the town's principal money man, though it would take a bit more leg work on the part of Harder.
Right up until the end I wasn't sure what Lou Carter was really up to but the closing clinch with Jeff Harder answered that question.
Apparently he'd be facing a new hitch once his cavalry one ran it's course..
The rail line has trouble reaching Laramie..
Universal-International presents a western thought of as mediocre by critics; but this doesn't mean the movie is not worth watching.
RAILS into LARAMIE stars John Payne as Jefferson Harder, who intends to go to Laramie and clean up the wide-open town.
Plus there is the matter of the railroad having problems building their line into town.
Everybody around knows that all of the crime is coming from a gang taking orders from Jim Shanessy(Dan Duryea).
No charges are able to stick in court because somehow the all-male juries are intimidated.
Shanessy is surprised when his old buddy Harder arrives in town.
It doesn't take long for Jeff Harder to find out that the railroad is not progressing, because Shanessy and saloon gal-pal Lou Carter(Mari Blanchard)are a tough team keeping the railhead out of Laramie so both can control their criminal activities without any interference.
Well, Harder is in town and is determined to clean up Laramie, so the rail line can come through.Decent old west saga that also features: Barton McLaine, Ralph Dumke, James Griffith, Joyce Mackenzie and Lee Van Cleef. |
tt0421201 | Flash Gordon | The Planet of Peril
The planet Mongo is on a collision course with Earth. Dr. Alexis Zarkov takes off in a rocket ship to Mongo, with Flash Gordon and Dale Arden as his assistants. They find that the planet is ruled by the cruel Emperor Ming, who lusts after Dale and sends Flash to fight in the arena. Ming's daughter, Princess Aura, tries to spare Flash's life.
The Tunnel of Terror
Aura helps Flash to escape as Zarkov is put to work in Ming's laboratory and Dale is prepared for her wedding to Ming. Flash meets Prince Thun, leader of the Lion Men, and the pair return to the palace to rescue Dale.
Captured by Shark Men
Flash stops the wedding ceremony, but he and Dale are captured by King Kala, ruler of the Shark Men and a loyal follower of Ming. At Ming's order, Kala forces Flash to fight with a giant octosak in a chamber filling with water.
Battling the Sea Beast
Aura and Thun rescue Flash from the octosak. Trying to keep Flash away from Dale, Aura destroys the mechanisms that regulate the underwater city.
The Destroying Ray
Flash, Dale, Aura and Thun escape from the underwater city, but are captured by King Vultan and the Hawkmen. Dr. Zarkov befriends Prince Barin, and they race to the rescue.
Flaming Torture
Dale pretends to fall in love with King Vultan in order to save Flash, Barin and Thun, who are put to work in the Hawkmen's Atom Furnaces.
Shattering Doom
Flash, Barin, Thun and Zarkov create an explosion in the atomic furnaces.
Tournament of Death
Dr. Zarkov saves the Hawkmen's city from falling, earning Flash and his friends King Vultan's gratitude. Ming insists that Flash fight a Tournament of Death against a masked opponent, revealed to be Barin, and then a vicious orangopoid.
Fighting the Fire Dragon
Flash survives the tournament with Aura's help, after she discovers the weak point of the orangopoid. Still determined to win Flash, Aura has him drugged to make him lose his memory.
The Unseen Peril
Flash recovers his memory. Ming is determined to have Flash executed.
In the Claws of the Tigron
Zarkov invents a machine that makes Flash invisible. Flash torments Ming and his guards. Barin hides Dale in the catacombs, but Aura has her tracked by a tigron.
Trapped in the Turret
Aura realizes the error of her ways, and falls in love with Barin. She tries to help Flash and his friends to return to Earth — but Ming plots to kill them.
Rocketing to Earth
Ming orders that the Earth people be caught and killed, but Flash and his friends escape from the Emperor's clutches, and Ming is apparently killed in the flames of the "sacred temple of the Great God Tao". Flash, Dale and Zarkov make a triumphant return to Earth. | comic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0109665 | Dream Lover | The movie opens on divorce proceedings involving Ray Reardon (Spader), a successful architect, and his first wife. Shortly after their divorce, he agrees to go to a gallery opening to meet a woman with whom his obnoxious friend, Norman (Larry Miller), sets him up. While he is there, he embarrasses himself by bumping into a woman (Amick), making her spill wine on herself. She wastes no time verbally abusing him. A week later, he runs into the woman, named Lena Mathers, at the supermarket. She apologizes for her behavior and the two go to dinner. They have sex the next day, marry shortly thereafter, and become parents.
Despite his happiness in the marriage, Ray becomes suspicious after catching Lena in several lies about her past. Over time, Ray becomes increasingly paranoid when his wife begins sporting bruises that she will not explain and begins doing things that indicate she is having an affair. During a tense confrontation, Lena taunts Ray by claiming to have had an affair with an unnamed friend of his and refusing to tell Ray if their children are biologically his. Ray hits Lena, who then has him arrested and committed to a mental hospital for observation. Despite an attempt to prove that Lena has been lying, the judge finds Ray to be mentally incompetent and orders him held for six months. Shortly after Ray has been committed, Lena privately admits to him that his suspicions about her were correct all along and that she had planned for years to do what she did to get his money.
After Ray convinces one of his friends to tell Lena that she has made a mistake in her "master plan", Lena shows up at his birthday party to talk to him. Ray lures her away from the attendants who are supposed to be supervising him and tells her that having him declared insane was the "mistake" because he could not be held legally accountable for killing her. He then chokes her to death on the lawn. | insanity, revenge, psychedelic, murder | train | wikipedia | DREAM LOVER has a tightly wound plot and fine performances by the entire cast.
Nick Kazan has some great dialogue in here like "What you think is paranoia is heightened awareness." Some folks might fault Spader's character as very stupid (really, you should find out as much as you can about a potential mate before marrying them!) Still, this a great neo noir thriller that really goes to show that beauty is often skin deep.
I wasn't expecting a whole lot from this film as I'd not heard much about it, but was totally captivated by it.The performances from James Spader and the achingly beautiful Mädchen Amick are first rate, and the script is flawless.
A lot of the plot feels like a rehash of Hitchcock, but it's done incredibly well, and hey, if you're going to steal from someone, might as well steal from the best.The twists and turns really work, and take the viewer along for the ride as well.
one of those that few people know about, but when they see it they think it's a great film as well.An added bonus is that the home video version contains a few minutes of extra "steamy" scenes that were cut from theaters.I think this film is an underappreciated modern-day classic, and I urge everyone to check it out..
DREAM LOVER is a nicely made, well-acted little film about a man who meets and marries the girl of his dreams but begins to wonder who she really is.
The cleverest touch is having a framing device which has a crazed clown at a carnival who explains the major plot developments to James Spader's character and to us as well.
But a chance encounter with a beautiful young woman named Lena (Madchen Amick in a very incisive performance) changes that.
The plot twists and turns like a pretzel.
Not only did the performances from Madchen Amick and James Spader feel realistic and genuine, the actions of the two seemed based more in reality as opposed to the Hollywoodized version of revenge and anger.
Great acting and atmosphere, with plot twists right till the end.
Great acting, interesting characters and a tight plot that keeps twisting right through the very end.
I highly recommend this film for anyone looking for a psychological thriller.
Excellent performances by James Spader and Madchen Amick backed by a decent script, direction and dialogue make this one of my all time favourites.
Its a movie which makes you realize that people aren't always what they seem to be and how certain events in Life do not always have to be a coincidence.
Dream Lover is one odd little film.
On one hand, it's a Neo-Noir style mystery romantic thriller, but for some reason; supernatural themes are constantly hinted at through the tone, title and dream sequences featured throughout the film.
I have to say that it really looks like director Nicholas Kazan wasn't really sure what he wanted the film to be, and what we've ended up with is a disjointed blending of a few different genres, which hasn't come out all that well.
Still, Dream Lovers does manage an interesting story in spite of this; and while I'm biased because I love a good mystery thriller, I'd say it's just about worth seeing.
It's not long before he meets the beautiful Lena Mathers, whom he falls in love, marries and has kids with...before realising that he doesn't really know anything about her.
Around the same time, strange events transpire and it becomes obvious to Ray that Lena isn't who she appears to be, and so he endeavours to get to the bottom of who she is.James Spader takes the lead role and both acts and looks the part that he is playing.
The leads do have chemistry together, and while the film is in no way as sexy as Nicholas Kazan obviously thinks it is, there are no problems on the acting front.
The plot really is all over the place, yet somehow it still manages to be rather predictable and despite being a mystery, Dream Lover soon sets itself into a rhythm.
I don't like the title very much, as it gives the complete wrong impression of the film - and while it sort of makes sense given what happens, it could have been marketed better.
It all boils down to a decent enough ending which, while not very clever, manages to make sense in spite of the fact that it's all a little bit silly, and the final sequence is by far and away the most powerful in the film.
Overall, I can't really give Dream Lovers high recommendations, but it's enjoyable and I think the majority of negative comments directed against it are unfair..
A husband discovers that his gorgeous, seemingly perfect "Dream Lover" of a wife has many hidden secrets, and could turn out to be more of a Nightmare..
Quite honestly, I can't understand where some people saw the "twists" here; "Dream Lover" is as predictable as yesterday's news and as obvious as its overwrought dream scenes.
But Spader and Amick do make an attractive couple, and there are some genuinely erotic moments in the early parts of the film, so as long as you know why you're watching the film (it's certainly not for the "twists"), you'll probably be satisfied.
For you classical movie fans and fans of the Fifties music scene, this film Dream Lover will not contain a note of either Jeanette MacDonald's first film hit song from The Love Parade or will you hear Bobby Darin's hit from the Fifties, both entitled Dream Lover.
Neither song while different in style is positive in nature and wouldn't be right in this very downer of a thriller.James Spader can't believe his luck in finding Madchen Amick, she's the perfect beautiful woman.
This woman is an eleven plus and after a divorce from Bess Armstrong, Spader's in need of reassurance that he's still got it.They marry and have children, but gradually he starts noticing little things that she always has a perfect explanation, but rattle Spader beyond the point of endurance.
When he starts investigating his wife, Spader finds a lot of things just don't add up.Dream Lover is a neat little thriller that will keep you guessing right to the end who is going to come out on top.
In fact neither of them really do, or at least that's how I view the film.Spader, Amick and the rest of the cast respond well to writer/director Nicholas Kazan's script and guidance.
When Spader starts investigating the past of his wife and finds she's just a down home girl from Texas instead of what she puts out, he meets up with William Shockley her old boy friend.
His one scene in the film with Spader will leave an indelible impression.In fact Dream Lover will leave an indelible impression on you..
After an intense divorce, Ray accidentally bumps into the beautiful Lena at an art gallery.
Nearly two years, into their marriage Ray begins to discover that Lena isn't the person he thought she was.
Secrets begin to unravel and as Ray begins to discover the truth, Lena has an alternate plan for him.Nicholas Kazan's 'Dream Lover' mainly focuses on the relationship between Ray and Lena.
Initially, it may give the impression of being just another 'relationship thriller' but the film does succeed in creating a tense atmosphere especially as Ray becomes more and more suspicious of his wife.
The director and actors already hint from the very beginning of Ray and Lena's relationship that something is not quite right.
As a result of which much of the character remains a question mark.'Dream Lover' is executed brilliantly.
The cinematography is wonderful particularly in the way it captures the interiors of Ray's house and background score is beautiful.James Spader and Mädchen Amick are in top form.
Spader displays Ray's vulnerability, humbleness and strength with conviction while Amick's luring beauty and restraint make her just right for the part.
The rest of the cast does a fine job in providing support.'Dream Lover' is pretty much about Ray's illusion in finding the perfect partner.
The strenghts of this underrated and rather unknown movie are especially the outstanding performances by James Spader (who is great as usual) and Maedchen Amick who for the first time really shows how much sex-appeal she's got.
Furthermore she's completely believable in this role as a beautiful, nontransparent and sort of crazy young woman.The problem of this movie is that it goes on too long especially after Spader's and Amick's characters meet and fall in love.
Nevertheless "Dream Lover" is a smart and extremely sexy and well-acted film - that's why you won't regret watching it.Overall rating: 7 out of 10..
I love sexy femme fatale movies in general .i probably enjoyed Dream Lover more than i should have .
i would have liked to have known more about the main character Lena Mathers as the plotting perfect wife from hell .
this film is more of a mystery than a thriller .
i bet there were a few alternate endings to Dream Lover but they decided to take the easy way out .
Dream Lover is an OK movie to catch on cable or DVD .
I first saw Dream Lover on television, the movie did not catch my full attention.
This is what was missing when I first viewed Dream Lover on television.
Once I saw Dream Lover on the Cable Network, I viewed the movie with my full attention and no interruptions.
I then realized that Dream Lover was a picture filled with twists and manipulation and suspense that was worth watching over and over again.
James Spader (Ray) came off as a sincere husband who was totally manipulated by a woman Madchen Amick (Lena) whom he loved and trusted in spite of many suttle lies that he became aware of throughout their marriage.
This is a movie worth watching, it makes one wonder if they really can know a person..
Spader fans will also like his slightly absent-minded professor character in Stargate..
James Spader playing yet another yuppie dullard, this time entering into a marriage with a mysterious, oddly detached young woman who has a hidden agenda (never mind that it takes her two babies and many years to carry it out).
Threadbare thriller with a ridiculous plot-twist midway through, uninteresting characters, sterile atmosphere and a thin, colorless cast.
The dream sequences themselves, set in a gaudy-wicked carnival, are visually striking but have little-to-zero connection to what's going on in the story.
Madchen Amick did a wonderful job playing the wife and mother.The movie belongs to James Spader.
Here he realistically plays a new husband and father gradually coming to terms with a bad situation.The plot is tight; it moves along and the characters are well written and keep our interest.I was wondering why James Spaders hair seemed painted or fakey or plastic-y.
There was a carnival setting that opened the movie and reappeared several more times before showing up at the end.
His dream lover is a...nightmare.
Dream Lover is not a high body count, stab at the air with a knife movie, so back off if that's what you're expecting.
James Spader plays Ray, a very successful business man who has just gone through a very painful divorce.
From there, he meets Lena, and at first, she seems like everything that he has every dreamed of.
It very slowly, unveils Lenas ultimate plan, a secret plan that will turn Rays life for the worst.
Dream Lover is obviously not a movie for everyone, but those that who will dig it, I must warn you....this one is going for your head, and it is going to stay there.
Amick is the hottest lead, with charm and looks but also a sinister grace of the most storied villains in the film canon.
I love everything about this movie...and did I mention the hotness??.
Just resist the temptation.What Hitchcock had going for him is everything Dream Lover lacks.
I'm being generous here; the film actually fails to thoroughly set Spader up as an emotional cripple, though it takes a feeble stab at it.
When you leave a good Hitchcock movie, you think, "That could have been me." When you leave Dream Lover, you think, "eight bucks, and they said it was Hitchcock-like!p.s. For the commenter who was impressed by the movie's "paranoia is a heightened state of awareness" line: that's the signature statement of the Scottish (anti-)pyschiatrist R.D. Laing from the '70s.
In "Dream Lover", a prosperous architect (Spader) marries a too-good-to-be-true woman (Amick) and gets more than he bargained for and possibly more than he can handle.
Full of plot holes and improbabilities, be sure to dumb yourself down for "Dream Lover", stick around for the punchline ending, and enjoy.
As we go through it all, we come to understand that he had his dream woman all along and blew it for capricious human nature, it opens with him being divorced from her.It sits for a while on an edge I like.
Ray Reardon (James Spader) is a successful architect.
This rather slow romantic thriller reminds me a little of the old "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" show from the 1960s -- an engaging idea with little effort spent in polishing it up in a satisfying manner, as if the writers were working under a deadline.A rich architect (Spader) accidentally meets a ravishing young woman (Amick) at an art show.
As one of the guests at a party remarks, the child doesn't look like Spader at all.
Amick swoops around in slinky gowns and glamorous hair dos and a Rajah's fortune in jewels, and Spader labors away at the firm, bringing home the shekels to pay for his perfect family.About half-way through the film, things get a little twisted though.
And Spader is required to do what all sane people in the movies do under similar circumstances.
In any case, Spader enlists his first wife in a ploy to get Amick to visit him.
And the climax looks like an idea someone dreamed up while stoned.
(My dreams are splotchy and not half so neatly organized.) Spader does fairly well in his role.
Larry Williams, as a weak friend of Spader's, talks fast but comes across more as a self-indulgent idiot than a good pal.It's not an insulting film.
Handsome and successful architect Ray Reardon (a strong and engaging performance by James Spader) is recovering from a painful divorce when he meets and immediately falls in love with the charming and beautiful Leena Mathers (a marvelously sultry and enchanting portrayal by the luscious Madchen Amick).
Writer/director Nicholas Kazan relates the crafty and involving story at a steady pace, peppers the picture with several neatly surreal dream sequences, and delivers several nifty twists and turns that culminate in one startling doozy of a surprise downbeat ending.
However, he has recently gone through a very painful divorce.His friends try to cheer him up by showing him the positive sides of being single but for Ray marriage and stability is just too important.But when he meets Lena his gloom is quickly forgotten.
She is beautiful, sensual, mysterious and he is drawn to her like a moth to a candle.They marry quickly, have their first child and Ray lives in a total bliss.But then strange incidents occur which shed some light on Lena's background.Ray slowly realises that he hardly knows anything about her at all....For once James spader plays a decent character whose misfortunes have nothing to do with him.
Nothing really does.Amick is okay to begin with, but hen she just goes way over the top it's almost border-lining pantomime.It's all very yuppie and snobbishly made, almost as if it was made for the middle classes, but I hated the fact that they did this, I don't live like that, and why do all these things happen to stupidly rich people.If you are a Spader fan, it's worth watching, he is good, but for anyone else, it's a mess.
Dream Lover is about a man who marries a woman and then has questions about her past.
Dream Lover features a fine performance by James Spader, one of my favorite actors and a good comic relief performance by Larry Miller.
Everyone loved Sex, Lies and Videotape, but no one has heard of Dream Lover(which is a far superior movie).The movie is fast paced and moves with ease.
Amick is a wonderful actress and has a great report with Spader.
You'll recognize some of them, but the ones that stand out are in the nut house.This movie proves that sometimes hitting a woman is justified and it takes very little wrong doing to be committed.
Hitchcock made his plot twists appear believable, the twists in this film just seem silly.
Good paranoia thriller with an excellent twist payoff.
Ray marries Lena on the rebound after his divorce.
But the reveal is not the best bit Hang in there, because there is a payoff which is worth the admission money on its own.This little known and undervalued film, starring James Spader in an early role with Madchen Amick is a hidden gem.
Only one reason to watch it -- James Spader.
James Spader has always been a rather interesting actor, and often he has played slightly creepy characters.
Nevertheless, he is a fascinating actor to watch.The problem with this film is the ending.
And so, instead of playing it safe (since he is not really crazy), he does the one thing that will keep him there, never to regain his children and home.Mädchen Amick is effective here as the mysterious wife...although (and here's another problem) we never quite learn why she is what she is; I was not at all familiar with her as an actress.
Larry Miller...well, I never understood him as an actor...and still don't.This is the type of film I often like -- a suspense thriller. |
tt0036218 | Northern Pursuit | After a German U-boat drops off Nazi saboteurs, RCMP Corporal Wagner (Flynn) captures the leader, Colonel Hugo von Keller (Helmut Dantine), the only survivor after an avalanche wipes out the rest of the group. When left alone with the Canadian Mountie, von Keller discovers that Wagner speaks German and is of German ancestry, and tries to persuade his captor to help him. After being taken into custody, von Keller leads a jailbreak from a prisoner of war camp, enlisting other German soldiers in his escape. Wagner, seemingly under suspicion by the RCMP of being a Nazi sympathizer, asks to be discharged from the force and is contacted by Ernst Willis (Gene Lockhart), a real enemy agent, who hires him as a wilderness guide.
Wagner and his new confederate set out for the north by train, while a pursuing Mountie who makes contact with Wagner is killed by the agent. Wagner is taken to von Keller and convinces him that he is loyal to Germany and can guide him and his companions through the Canadian wilderness to a mysterious destination. His fiancee Laura McBain (Julie Bishop) is held as a hostage to ensure his loyalty but Wagner, acting as a double agent, manages to send a message to headquarters to alert them of the Nazi saboteurs' plans.
Fellow Mountie Jim Austin (John Ridgely) follows their trail, but is spotted and killed, along with Willis and an Indian porter, before the group reaches a mine shaft where bomber components have been secreted before the war. The bomber is assembled and takes off for its mission: to bomb the main arterial waterway between the United States and Canada to disrupt transatlantic shipping of war materials. Wagner manages to escape, climb aboard the aircraft to shoot the crew, and parachute to safety before the bomber crashes. After recovering from a wound he received during the skirmish on board the aircraft, he and Laura marry. | intrigue, murder | train | wikipedia | This Mounties versus Nazis picture bears little resemblance, as claimed, to The 49th Parallel and even less to Across The Pacific.From the opening scene with a German submarine breaking through the ice in Hudson Bay to the climatic showdown in a bomber aloft, Northern Pursuit is high-powered excitement all the way.
Top action director Raoul Walsh directs top action star Errol Flynn with a script by popular western writer Frank Gruber and high class novelist William Faulkner.
Solid support is provided by Helmut Dantine, reprising his ruthless Nazi officer from Edge Of Darkness (see my review), perky Julie Bishop, Tom Tully, John Ridgely, and Gene Lockhart in another of what was becoming his stock sneaky, Nazi sympathizer role.
The story of German descent Mountie Flynn penetrating a Nazi-sympathizing Canadian spy organization co-operating with escaped German prisoners of war maintains suspense and interest throughout.
He had had to flee his home country because because of his anti-Nazi activities.While not a classic of the genre like Edge Of Darkness, Nothern Pursuit is a top "A" production war/intrigue thriller, effective WWII propaganda yet enjoyable, exciting, smooth entertainment from Warner Brothers' and Old Hollywood's Golden years..
(This is addressed in some brutal killings partway through.) The key plot idea is that a group of expert Nazis might actually sneak into remote areas of the country to perform acts of sabotage.The movie audience here is mostly in the United States, to be sure (Canada's population is so small it is always a secondary concern from the studio's point of view).
The idea of a Royal Mountie, in this case, the dashing Errol Flynn, going after the bad guys have all the elements for a good adventure.The screen play is ultimately the downfall of the film, although there are hints of greatness, especially on the last part of the film which involves a daring attempt from the head Nazi infiltrator to fly an aircraft with a bomb on board.
Julie Bishop is Errol Flynn's love interest, although there's no obvious chemistry between them.Raoul Walsh's fans will probably enjoy this film a lot more than the casual viewer..
But neither is it the bad movie some of the previous reviewers suggest.I found it very suspenseful.If you try viewing it as the original, intended audience did back in 1943, when the U.S. was not winning the war in Europe and there were fears of German infiltration everywhere, you can imagine how relevant this story would have been to audiences.Tension is maintained for much of the movie by keeping us in suspense regarding Flynn's character's allegiances.
Although not quite as gripping as "Desperate Journey", or as marvelously sprawling as "49th Parallel", this slick film is everything you could ask for in a WWII actioner--even more, with Errol Flynn teaming up with Raoul Walsh.
The acting is good, and the direction is taut and entertaining, with writers Bessie and Gruber providing a suspenseful story line concerning a nazi spy(Dantine) captured in Canada by a Royal Mountie(Flynn), the spy's escape from prison camp, and Flynn's efforts to thwart Dantine's nefarious mission in the great white north(and a dastardly mission it is, too--those dirty Nazis!).Adolph Deutsch scores a cleverly subtle soundtrack to raise the suspense quotient, as he did for "High Sierra" and "The Maltese Falcon".
This is a real bow-wow.Errol Flynn stars in "Northern Pursuit," a 1943 propaganda film directed by Raoul Walsh.
It also stars Helmut Dantine, Gene Lockhart, and Julie Bishop.Walsh told a story of how Jack Warner used to call him up to his office and tell him he had to direct a script for him.
This scenario might have been the case for "Northern Pursuit." Flynn and Walsh were very close friends, but they both might have been blind-sided into this one by dear old Jack.The premise story concerns Nazis in Canada who are trying to get way into the Canadian wilderness, where parts of a bomber have been hidden.
Flynn is a mountie whose character is of German descent, so he goes undercover and, knowing the area, helps the Nazis on their journey.Even if you ignore this plot, and you have to in order to get through the movie, it's pretty slow going.
Helmut Dantine and Gene Lockhart give excellent performances, though, and handsome, charismatic Flynn does as well as he can given the circumstances.A youngster on this board trashed this movie, the 1940s audiences, and propaganda films in general, making mention of the "special effects." Given that this was filmed on a Warner sound stage without benefit of CGI and a computer, the film looks pretty good, with some very effective effects.
In Northern Pursuit, the brothers Warner tried to adapt the earlier Humphrey Bogart film, Across the Pacific to a story about our neighbors to the north.
I'm sure Errol Flynn's name above the title sold a few tickets back in the day, but as for drama Northern Pursuit is one of the more laughable examples of wartime propaganda zeal.Like in 49th Parallel a group of Nazis get over to Canada, but they're going to the great frozen north instead of away from it.
Later on when Dantine escapes to try and complete his original mission, Flynn joins him and this is where the plot of the film looks just like Across the Pacific.
Errol was fresh from his acquittal in that rape trial so I'm sure he had other things on his mind.Seen today, Northern Pursuit is unintentionally funny in many spots, it's one of the low points of Flynn's career at Warner Brothers..
WWII movies are very entertaining because WWII can be viewed as more if a "just war", if anything can be imagined...and a lot of heart and passion went into many of the films, which were manned by the best directors and crews, and populated by some of the greatest of actors.
Nevertheless, the weak script and cardboard characters contribute toward reducing it to a standard and slick wartime adventure.Flynn is a Mountie of German descent, pretending Nazi sympathies in order to spy against Nazis operating in Canada.
WWII propaganda films were painful viewing for anyone of even modest intelligence because their intent was to demonize the enemy and frighten the viewer, who ideally would rush out of the theater and begin manically buying war bonds.Second it is a screenplay by Frank Gruber who wrote very bad western novels and detective fiction before inflicting himself on motion pictures and television.
If your plausibility meter has just jumped off the scale remember that this was intended for an audience raised on "The Adventures of Tom Swift".Errol Flynn plays a RCMP agent who infiltrates the Nazi network and is later forced to help with their scheme because they are holding his girlfriend (played by Julie Bishop) as a hostage.
Helmut Dantine plays a fanatical Luftwaffe pilot and Gene Lockhart (June Lockhart's father) plays an undercover Nazi agent.Unfortunately Gruber's goal was to induce hysteria rather than to script characters with logical motivations.
Flynn can be excused for sleepwalking through this thing, as it would be difficult for anyone saddled with a script this bad to summon up much energy.If you don't get some laughs from the premise or the dialogue you might still get some entertainment from the scene of the Indian Guide (played by Joe Herrera) trying to escape.
He looks in great shape despite the fact that he had a dicky ticker, a bad back, tuberculosis, a couple of exotic diseases picked up along the way and a liver that was in more danger of destruction than any target of the Nazis in the film.Set in Canada during WW2, Errol plays Steve Wagner, a Royal Canadian Mountie of German Ancestry whose loyalty is questioned when he comes across Nazi secret agents who are planning to bomb a canal that is critical to the Allied war effort.Although the story feels cobbled together, the film looks good.
Although Errol was rarely upstaged, Helmut Dantine was Warner's go-to Nazi guy during the war years.
He was no off-the-rack, monocled Nazi stereotype, he came across as vigorous, smart and fanatical; a formidable enemy, he was also good looking and often got the best lines.If you like the stars, and Flynn was absolutely unique, then there is much to enjoy here.
The cover also touts the performances of Helmut Dantine as "excellent as the formidable Nazi leader", and Julie Bishop adding "high drama to the film" as Flynn's love interest, but neither make much of an impression in their roles.
It's a Stiff Looking Film that despite its Wide Open Wilderness Setting, comes off as a Claustrophobic, Constrained Clunker that was Forgotten Immediately and remains in the Periphery when Propaganda, War, or Errol Flynn Movies are Considered..
In making this film it's obvious the studio had in mind to have lighting strike twice, with the combination of Flynn/Walsh and Nazis.
Errol Flynn,(Corporal Steve Wagner) was a Royal Canadian Mountie who found a man who was exhausted and found in deep snow.
This man was Colonel Hugo Von Keller,(Helmut Dantine) who is a Nazi officer and also a pilot who was on a secret mission in Canada.
Quite entertaining but Dantine's evil Nazi is a much better, more believable and realistic character than Flynn's debonair, smooth wilderness expert Mountie.
Directed by the great Raoul Walsh, here we have Errol playing a Canadian Mountie of German descent who tries to infiltrate a group of Nazi saboteurs led by Helmut Dantine.
About the only time you really see that Flynn charm is in the film's final line, which is probably the most memorable part of this besides the curiosity of the "Mounties vs Nazis" plot.
As I said, not the best of Flynn's WW2 movies but anything starring Errol and directed by Raoul Walsh is going to be worth a look.
the Nazis, Round 3' Battleground: CanadaBeing myself a Canadian, I was thrilled to find in my 'TCM Spotlight: Errol Flynn Adventures' (five films made during WWII in which Errol Flynn battles the Nazis) a film helmed by one of my favourite American directors of the period, in Raoul Walsh, with Flynn starring as a RCMP officer (typically called 'Mountie') making sure the Nazis can't succeed in their quest to sneak into Canada and, there, create another front in their quest to bring hell on Earth.
As a child, I loved his rendition of one of my very favourite heroes (Robin Hood), and lately I quite enjoyed seeing the ill-starred (dying at 50--again in Canada--from a heart attack brought on by chronic alcoholism) native Australian who was perhaps the second-most alluring male thespian of all-time, behind the equally ill-fated Rudolph Valentino, in an audacious TCM 4-pack of outstanding adventure movies, such as 'Captain Blood' and 'The Sea Hawk', and an equally intriguing 4-pack of Westerns he made as his star began to wane.This doesn't disappoint, as Walsh directs, just like he always does, with an appealing eye and a talent for setting up suspense and excitement.
Northern PursuitThe reason Canadians didn't fight the Japanese during WWII was because they had them all locked in internment camps.And while Japanese-Canadians were never a threat, the axis members in this action movie were.RCMP Corporal Wagner (Errol Flynn) and his partner (John Ridgely) capture a Nazis Colonel (Helmut Dantine).On discovering Cpl. Wagner is of German ancestry, Herr Colonel asks him to join him.
Later, when the Colonel escapes, Cpl. Wagner does.Together, with Native guides, they recover a German bomber that had been stashed in northern Manitoba before the war.Now, the only person who can stop Jerry from air-bombarding Canadian waterways is the two-timing Mountie, who's been working undercover.Using Idaho's snowcapped mountains to represent the prairie terrain of the Keystone Province, Northern Pursuit is a geographical joke.
The eyes of Helmut Dantine and Errol Flynn tell the entire story in this 1943 thriller.
Gene Lockhart gives a fine supporting performance as a Canadian spy, a true patriot to the Third Reich, who learns what happens when you have completed your assignment and can now pose a hindrance.Flynn gives a strong performance here as a scorned Canadian working in counter-intelligence for them.This is certainly A World War 11 interesting film..
Of the Northwest Mounted Police, it is the German descended Errol Flynn who becomes the pawn in his plan to get more of his men (all being transported to a prisoner of war detention center) and get to the secret base.
Flynn pretends to be a traitor, and as for the rest, well, more of the same from other war propaganda films.Except, this more of the same is an exciting snowbound trek across the Yukon territory, as far up north as humanly possible to travel.
There are a few plot clichés which include Flynn's fiancée Julie Bishop conveniently used by the Nazis to keep Flynn in line, and poor Gene Lockhart, typecast once again as a fool, a supposed American businessman who is a traitor both sinister and cowardly, getting no sympathy.As for Dantine, there are a few moments where his character shows tinges of humanity, but when you've got Hitler in your brain, those moments are brief.
It is a great loss.Flynn is more or less kidnapped by German pilot Helmut Dantine and his three Nazi companions and forced to lead them across the wilderness of northern Manitoba, where a bomber is stashed.
Errol Flynn Foils the Nazis Up North.
This is a very watchable and somewhat typical WWII anti-Nazi Hollywood propaganda film.
Errol Flynn plays his character well and convincing and proofs that he can still play a great leading man, even when the movie itself is a lacking one.The movie would had been a so much better one if it had had some more action and tense moments in it.
It's pretty obvious that this movie was of course a piece of anti-Nazi propaganda, released in 1943.Still watchable, as long as you don't expect too much fireworks from it or of Flynn.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
Perhaps the reason they filmed such a bad plot is because it was WWII and they wanted a good propaganda piece for the audiences--but still, it should have been a lot better.
Even though Errol Flynn had little to do in most of the movie, as usual his performance appears effortless as he was a very good actor.
Raoul Walsh directed four of Errol Flynn's World War II movies at Warner Brothers.
Errol Flynn portrays an undercover RCMP Corporal in pursuit of a Nazi pilot ultimately intent on bombing the St. Lawrence Seaway.This movie is set in "the frozen north" of Canada.
This film is so heavy on propaganda it permeates you pretty quickly.The plot outline is a group of Nazi soldiers are infiltrating the Northern Canadian wilderness to make their way to a secret abandoned mine where they have secretly throughout the years been hoarding airplane and bomb parts.
Errol Flynn was also in this one but the story and characters are far more believable.Not a bad film, just not a very good one..
This was part of a running gag, as Laura's notoriously frugal Scottish father (Alec Craig) had just done this line, after agreeing to pay for the expensive wedding reception.How very ironic that Helmut Dantine: former leader of the anti-Nazi activists of Hitler's former hometown: Vienna, should be fated to play evil Nazi leaders in several war propaganda -slanted Hollywood films released during WWII.Presumably, the take home message for contemporary audiences was that North Americans had better be wary of Axis spies and sabotage attempts, even in the heartland, which was directly reachable by Nazi U boats, via Hudson's Bay. Also, Americans and Canadians of rather recent German immigrants should be kept under surveillance as potential spies and saboteurs.
The far-fetched details of the screen-play also don't help a possible recommendation of this film.The screenplay begins with a Nazi submarine surfacing near an ice-choked western shore of Hudson's Bay, offloading a number of airmen, who somehow walk across the treacherous floating chunks of ice, to the shore, with skis, for a 5 day trip over snow to an abandoned mine shaft in northern Saskatchewan, where pieces of a bomber have been stored in crates since before WWII began.(Never mind that Hitler never expected to have to fight the British Commonwealth and France, in his goal to conquer the USSR!).
recycled the essence of Across the Pacific (1942), this time using Errol Flynn (in lieu of Humphrey Bogart) as a disgraced Mountie that infiltrates a German operation – led by Helmut Dantine (of course) – on Canadian soil.Directed by Raoul Walsh and scripted by Frank Gruber and Alvah Bessie from the story by Leslie T.
White, Flynn plays Steve Wagner who, along with fellow officer Jim Austin (John Ridgely), initially captures Nazi Colonel Hugo von Keller (Dantine), who'd survived an avalanche that destroyed his original invasion team.
***SPOILERS*** The usual WWII Hollywood propaganda flick involving Canadian Mountie Cpl. Steve Wagner played by Australian/American Errol Flynn-All three countries fighting for the allied side-doing his bit for the cause by betraying his country and joining the Nazis so he can find out what their up to and then turning the tables on them.
It's when Nazi airman Col. Hugo Von Keller,Helmut Dantine, is found almost frozen to death in the Canadian wild that Wagner-a Canadian of German decent-wins him over by playing traitor to his country Canada and offering to help Hugo in sabotaging the allied war effort.With his partner in the Mounties Jim Austin, John Ridgely, in on the shame he trails Hugo and his fellow Nazis, who just escaped from a Stalg 17 like POW camp camp,,to where their going in the northern Canadian wood along with Wagner's girlfriend Laura McMcBain played by Julie Bishop- You can't make a movie with Errol Flynn not having a love interest in it-who somehow got hooked up with the group tagging along.
In NORTHERN PURSUIT, Errol Flynn plays a Keystone Mountie bumbler who keeps getting the other Mounties killed (including the Best Man for his upcoming wedding). |
tt1153546 | BloodRayne: The Third Reich | Rayne fights against the Nazis in Europe during World War II with the French resistance, encountering Ekart Brand, a Nazi leader whose goal is to inject Adolf Hitler with Rayne's blood in an attempt to transform him into an all powerful dhampir and attain immortality.
The film opens with train cars full of humans being sent to concentration camps when they're intercepted by a French resistance group. Soon, Rayne (Natassia Malthe) arrives and kills most of the Nazi troops and corners their commandant in a train car. As the two talk, a Nazi shoots Rayne, splashing her blood on the commandant's face. Rayne kills the soldier before impaling the commandant on a pole and leaving him to die. Rayne soon converses with the leader of the resistance, Nathaniel, who is aware that Rayne is a dhampir. After finding the train cars full of prisoners, the resistance and Rayne decide to work together to fight the Nazis. After they leave however, the commandant is revealed to have survived his presumed death as a result of some of Rayne's blood getting in his mouth, implying that he is a dhampir.
Back at the headquarters of the Third Reich, a scientist named Mangler (Clint Howard) is torturing vampires as a way of studying them so he can make Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich immortal. A Third Reich lieutenant informs the doctor that the commandant was attacked by a 'vampire' in the daytime, intriguing his interest.
Elsewhere, Rayne heads to a brothel to get a massage when she overhears a soldier beating on one of the women. Rayne easily beats the man down, forcing the owner of the brothel to close early, despite being warned that the Nazis would suspect something. She ignores the warning and warns Rayne that she'd not be a problem for her business. As Rayne prepares to leave, a voluptuous woman stops Rayne and thanks her for saving the woman from before. Initially refusing at first, the woman seduces Rayne and has sex with her. | violence, murder | train | wikipedia | no sexy chick in latex as expected.Instead of Bloodrayne, a hot SENSUAL SEDUCTIVE female, we got from the casting crew a HYSTERICAL whining girl, she just can't pull it off, her voice is irritating, has nothing sensual or seductive, like vampires should have, instead it s dominated by the rebel 19 year boy looking like dude.2.
she moves like a pregnant woman in disarray.As a conclusion is a bad movie, has no story, the main actress talks and walks like a spoil led little brat,with an irritating voice, has nothing suave in her movements and nothing seductive about it.sub mediocre movie, i in fact tried to find a rating lesser then 1 on IMDb, cause it s not worth the 1point.i could V done a greater job, and i don t believe there is a worse actress then this one , at least for this role.great work.
The actors were good so it is not their fault that the film seems like it was shot in space as it lacks atmosphere.This is set during the 2nd world war so you would think that a vampire wearing a modern,tailor cut leather trenchcoat sporting tribal graphics coupled with undergarments from Ann Summers, would be a little out of keeping with the clothes of that era.
There is also a severe lack of musical accompanyment to any of the scenes so you get no sense of build up or excitement which makes it very flat.It is a real shame as this could have been up there with the greats of vampire films but they should have given the job of director to someone else...anyone else..
Were it leaves for example the script of the original one is that here we do have e lot of nudity even on the part of Rayne, this time played by Natassia Malthe as seen in Bloodrayne 2 and Lake Placid.
In the World War II, the Damphir Rayne (Natassia Malthe) fights against Nazis and joins the resistance lead by Nathaniel Gregor (Brendan Fletcher).
Now Rayne need to fix the problem, otherwise Hitler may achieve her power with the research of Doctor Mangler (Clint Howard)."Bloodrayne: The Third Reich" is a low budget movie by Uwe Boll with the combination of vampires, Nazis and eroticism that does not work well.
Bloodrayne: Third Reich is a good low budget movie.
It has all needed ingredients: sexy female her (very voluptuous Natassia Malthe), over the top bad guys (good doctor Mengele played by Clint Howard), cool fights choreography and interesting story with some funny ideas.
By the way – being a Boll haters is so "yesterday"
Most of action horror/action fans will have a good time with this one, as I did, just don't expect big budget Hollywood blockbuster .
However, there are some downfalls after that, especially the fight scenes are less spectacular than some in the previous two movies, and Bloodrayne's character isn't developed much, pretty much a ball in a pinball machine, same player shoots again...
If you are at a certain mental age the lesbian scene (yuri) so frequent in movies today might be a reason to watch those 3 minutes, but the rest is utter crap.
Joining up with allies in WWII Germany, the half-human/half-vampire finds that one of her victims was a Nazi officer now bestowed with her powers and intends to use them in a plot to make Hitler immortal.An incredibly enjoyable and entertaining entry to an already fun and entertaining series, though this one doesn't reach the heights of the original.
As well, the increased amount of nudity certainly helps this one along, and altogether with a fast pace and enjoyable, simple story it gets a lot of good grace, only with the nagging problem of it's way too short running time to count as any sort of real flaw here.
Bloodrayne: The Third Reich is the third chapter of Uwe Boll's saga based on games about half-human, half-vampire.
The first film was set during Middle Ages, the second in Old West times, this time we're in the dark days of The Second World War. We find Rayne (beautiful Natassia Malthe reprising her role from the previous film) somewhere on the Eastern Front fighting side by side with the rebels against Nazis.
There's the crazy Dr Mangler (played by Clint Howard in a top form) and Nazi Commandant (Michael Pare) who accidentally becomes day-walking vampire (thanks to Rayne's own blood).
Malthe plays her role extremely good, "real" and – although I do like Kristana Loken (from the first Blodrayne movie) - I have to say Natassia is the perfect Rayne.
But it's is the best DVD premiere movie in the recent years and the best film in Bloodrayne saga so far.All to all: Don't trust all those people who basically say "every Boll's film is a bad film
because
doh
it's film from Uwe Boll".
What drew me in wasn't that I was a fan of the films or even Boll, but the concept of a war torn backdrop with Nazis tackling the supernatural in the shape of a vampire.
It was like I would believe the 40's Germany would be like, and the emotional state that the country had would be like.For a movie in the Bloodrayne legacy, Uwe Boll managed to take that whole concept and totally screw it up.
And I had looked forward to this, liking the first part, so I thought it had to be better than part 2, but no, I was disappointed.Uwe Boll have some good movies to his name, and also some bad movies; "Bloodrayne: The Third Reich" adds to the list of bad movies!
If you like watching a woman in hot (totally out of the time period) costume and with way too much cleavage going on, then this movie might be something for you though..
As much as I love vampire movies, this one was not worth the rental fee and was 30mins of my life I'll never get back (turned it off - just couldn't sit through it, that's how bad it was).
Of course twickle it, but still use the game overall style.Anyway i guess having this is still better than nothing, and like i said this movie redeem a little bit the 2 previous bad movies made about BR.And to finish, Rayne using a little bit of her "trash talk" is really good to see, this is from the game at least, and Natassia nude scene was ....huuuum delicious..
There are a lot of gratuitous elements that look cheap, are inserted randomly and have no reason usually for being there, and the love scene was completely out of place and pointless.Acting is not much better.
the lead woman has her breast heaving out of her dress, which is not a bad thing but bearing in mind this is meant to be a serious film, its wrong, just does not seem right, the acting is wooden but not the worst I have seen, now I was going to download the other 2 films that came out before this one, but do not think I will bother, if this is any think to go by, its below average, however if you are stuck in the house on a Sunday afternoon and the only selection available to you is a "Asylum" movie (company that churn out crap B movies) or this vampire flick, this one wins hands down, so not all bad..
His best scene is when he confronts Rayne near the end of the movies and tries to drink her blood.
And the story itself should have worked- Rayne, Nazis, vampires, powerful blood, creepy experiments, etc.
Sooner or later, Nazis always show up.Okay, Rayne, the immortal half-vampire (or Dhampir) is living through World War II, and the Nazis are overrunning Europe.So in the middle of a fight she joins for no good reason, she inadvertently turns a Nazi into a vampire like herself.And then you have poor Clint Howard (Opies lesser-loved brother) playing an evil Nazi Doctor who wants to make Hitler immortal.
The "actors" and "director" should all behind bars for this pathetic attempt.Seriously, it is REALLY bad.Probably the best part of the movie was the original WWII archival footage of Hitler.The initial fight scene, I guess, was comical.
I thought that casting Natassia Malthe as Rayne in the second movie was a big improvement.
The opening to this one was actually almost like a real movie, great music, camera work and made you want to keep watching.
This may actually be better than the second one, at least this one isn't way too long for its own good and has some decent aspects that could be entertaining if you are in the right mood.Its not very good, after all, it is an Uwe Boll film, but I will say that it is nice to see a relatively modern low budget Nazisploitation movie, there's only a handful of them.
It suffers from many flaws the usual Uwe Boll movie has, like awful lines of dialog that someone read and actually thought would be decent enough to keep in the movie (which is unbelievable), the usual cheap effects, the disjointed editing, the incompetent direction and the dull characters we are suppose to care about but we are never given any real reason to.Overall, a pretty bad movie that could be amusing to Nazisploitation fans who watch all kinds of crap just to see sexploitation scenes and Nazis getting killed in very unconvincing ways..
First of all, we are VERY FAR from Bloodrayne, this is more a personal fantasy movie created for the author and no one else...well maybe teenagers in search of cheap, sleazy sex scene.A lot of the movie is spent showing you the actress body's and people abusing it many ways.
It doesn't look as cheap and tacky as some of Uwe Boll's other movies - there's something resembling production values here (like with costumes and props), and the Croatia backdrop is well photographed.
Still, the outfit went some ways towards disguising her awful acting skills and I found it almost impossible to not stare at her breasts for almost the entire 20 minutes I managed to endure of this abomination.Uwe Boll gets a lot of stick but there are worse films out there than what he makes, so I feel it unjustified.
Actually, he's kind of a source of inspiration in that he does what he loves regardless of what people think, and makes money at it too!So, Uwe Boll: so-so; BloodRayne: The Third Reich: just watch some porn and enjoy yourself..
It sounded highly unconvincing and so 'over the top' that it might have been okay for a theater performance but not for this or any movie.-the whole movie feels very stiff and heartless -the acting is partly okay but it is overall poorly directed and cut -the action scenes are weakly executed, they are basically very short clips, filmed separately, assembled into one scene to convey the disability of the actors to perform believable moves-the 'love scenes' are not terrible per se but do not contribute to or fit into the plot, especially the first one -the heroine's costume and her typical Gothic red, black hair make her looks quite stupid and far from 'cool'The most audacious part of this production is to turn it into a 70 minute movie (plus 10 minute credits).
Brand turns to Nazi mad scientist Doctor Mangler (Clint Howard) to assist him through his transformation, Brand wants to capture the powerful Rayne to collect her blood so Adolf Hitler can drink it & become an all powerful & immortal Vampire!This American, Canadian & German co-production was co-produced & directed by Uwe Boll & is the third entry in the Bloodrayne franchise which originally started life as a video game, the first Bloodrayne (2005) isn't that bad actually & might even be described as alright & while I can't really remember Bloodraye: Deliverance (2007) I doubt it was any worse than this.
The first Bloodrayne was set in 18th Century Romania, Bloodrayne: Deliverance was set in 1880 in the American wild west while the script here opts to place Rayne in 1940's Europe during World War II fighting Nazi's no less & ultimately the so silly it's fun concept of trying to stop Adolf Hitler from becoming an immortal Vampire.
The dialogue alternates between bland & downright hilarious, it's obvious this was written by someone whose native tongue is not English & doesn't really care about treating World War II, the Nazi's & death camp's with any sensitivity.To give Bloodtrayne: The Third Reich some credit it does look quite nice, Natassia Malthe reprising the role of Rayne for the second time is hot but she is given little to do other than swing her sword's during the tame & repetitive fight scenes.
I won't mention their German accents either...Bloodrayne: The Third Reich is a mixed bag, at times it's silly & unintentionally funny while at other's it's a total bore but some sex, a hot looking leather clad babe in the lead & some fun to be had at Michael Paré & Clint Howard's expense means it's not a total disaster & bad movie fans should gain some pleasure from it, the short 70 minute running time helps too..
Sadly, the movies suffers from the classic case of what I like to call "The Uwe Boll Flush" - Making a poor movie version of a great video game.The acting in this film is sub-par, the worst of it coming from the heroine Rayne, played by Natassia Malthe.
Although she is quite stunning, she can't quite seem to pull off playing the popular vampire very well.****WARNING: Two Spoilers Below**** Another issue I have is for the Sex Scenes: Yes, watching two women have sex is quite a site to behold, and normally I'd be singing praise for it, but in this movie, it seemed unnecessary, and the movie would've been SLIGHTLY better without it.The ending was also sub-par and rushed.
Uwe Boll took something unpolished, added some unnecessary sex scenes, gave it a title and told us to like it.If you enjoy watching these kind of movies and don't care how weak the plot is, then this movie is for you.If you are the kind of person who enjoys watching real movies, you can skip this one..
I watched the whole movie and the only good part of it the actress (actually I would use comas so "actress") who is playing the character of the damphire.
Bloodrayne: The Third Reich is actually better than i expected ,and i would be happy to buy it .It is a decent vampire movie .The lesbian scene with Natassia Malthe is worth my time and money .
This is the third story in Uwe Boll's vampire hunting heroine and this time the Nazis have really p'd her off.
Boll also indulges himself in a lengthy soft core lesbian sex scene just because.Like in all badly written films the Nazi troops can't hit anything unless the script calls for a character to be injured.
First Uwe Boll movie I have seen..
They tried to make something between a Nazi vampire fun movie, combined with a bit historical correctness.
Total Supervillainess of the bad guy and completely madness of the doctor would have done the trick.During the whole movie, from the beginning to the end, you can feel in every scene, what they had tried to create.
The script is terrible, the plot is flat, the acting could be down right laughable if I hadn't been crying for the damage films like this do to my desire to watch movies.
For the record I have seen the previous two BLOODRAYNE movies and personally I thought they weren't really bad but they weren't exactly good either.
The acting in this film is also terrible and believe it or not, Natassia Malthe, Micheal Pare and Clint Howard are all three good actors but here they struggle to play their characters convincingly not that they're worn out but because the material they had to work with was that bad and to further illustrate.
The supporting cast members who play German characters don't even pull off a German accent successfully.Overall, This movie is just plain bad and I believe this is the last Uwe Boll film I'll see this decade as his last few efforts were also rather terrible..
Okay it was done by Uwe boll (who did deliverance, the 2nd in the series), and the same person playing Rayne, but I thought well it being called the Third Reich then maybe they have learned their lesson and went back to the game's storyline and maybe this one will be good, I have to give it a chance.
Now he was in the Third Reich, but not as his character he was in the first two movies, but as a Nazi vampire.
If you are expecting a good and serious vampire movie then please don't even think about starting here.
After watching horrendous Uwe Boll movies, I am so happy to say that this is my final one.
This movie features Rayne in World War II fighting Nazis.
It turns out Hitler doesn't appear at the end the film even stops before what looks like a cool fight scene.There's a lot of nudity here and I think you could even consider this soft core porn.
I remember watching House of the Dead, one of many movie games, Boll has raped, and thinking how hilariously bad it was.
Many lines sound as if someone just read them for the first time, straight off of a page, and many scenes feel like they are acted out by amateurs who haven't read the script, and thus, don't know what their character should be feeling.That is all very sad, because there was potential to make this as great as "Hot Fuzz" and other sleeper hits, if not in popularity, at least in passion.The thing is, by any summary, this movie seems like it would be good. |
tt0070947 | Zanjeer | ACP Vijay Khanna (Ram Charan) is a brutally honest police officer who has been transferred yet again by the system for chasing the corrupt underworld goons. He is continuously disturbed by the killing of his parents years back. He keeps remembering a man in a black raincoat on a white horse and with a tattoo on his right arm killing his parents on Vijay's birthday for filing a case. Vijay was brought up by his uncle and was always absent on his birthdays. He is in charge of a case where the district collector has been murdered and burned to death. The key eye witness Mala (Priyanka Chopra) has seen the murder by Teja's (Prakash Raj) Gang and refuses to co-operate. Teja is the head of an oil mafia operation and doesn't want Mala alive. Vijay manages to convince Mala to give a statement which makes her perpetrators come after her. He gives her shelter in his house to protect her and she starts to like him while Vijay does not reciprocate the same. This includes her giving him a potato and egg for lunch at his office and then annoying him by celebrating his birthday. He shouts at her and she begins to cry. Vijay tells her that he did not want to celebrate because his parents were killed on the very day and reveals his past to her. He finally reciprocates her love as he realised that Mala is slowly becoming an important part of his life. He also encounters Sher Khan (Sanjay Dutt/Srihari) who is into buying and selling of illegal cars. Seeing Vijay's honesty and determination, Sher Khan turns over a new leaf and mends his ways to transform into a person who now only goes by the book. He has made Vijay a friend for life and will do anything to help him out. Vijay also encounters Jaydev a.k.a. JD (Atul Kulkarni/Tanikella Bharani), a reporter who had written bad comments about Vijay in the newspaper. Seeing Vijay's honesty and integrity, Jaydev becomes an admirer of Vijay and begins to give him all the information he has regarding the oil mafia. Meanwhile, Kataria (Bikramjeet Kanwarpal) the man who murdered the collector has been caught by Vijay. Kataria is revealed to be Teja's man and he reveals that they steal petrol and oil from container trucks, add kerosene in them and smuggle them around and outside the country. Vijay uses this information and puts Kataria in custody but the next day he is found murdered in custody. In the middle of this, Vijay also finds about a man Prashant Khanna, who was killed years back by Teja. Due to certain incidents which gave Vijay wrong informations about the oil mafia Teja is handling, Vijay is suspended till the investigation is done with. Now Vijay warns Teja that there are no seniors or rules that bind him and now Vijay will finish Teja in his own style. Slowly, Vijay begins to destroy almost all of Teja's oil refineries. But Mala says that all these activities that Vijay is doing can have dangerous consequences. One night, Vijay and Mala go to a restaurant for dinner where Vijay gets attacked by two of Teja's men in the bathroom. Vijay kills both the men and calls Teja and warns him that even if he sends the rest of his 198 men (it was earlier mentioned by Teja that he has 200 workers under him), nothing will happen to Vijay. A few days later, Sher Khan invites Vijay and Mala to a party. Later on, when they are returning home, they are attacked once again by ten of Teja's men. Vijay manages to lock Mala in a small room there and gets badly injured fighting them. He is almost killed but just in time, Sher Khan comes there, handles the rest of the goons and along with Mala, takes Vijay to the hospital. The next day, Teja comes there and criticizes Vijay saying that he is one who can only talk and doesn't have the guts to face Teja. After he leaves, Mala finally tells Vijay to finish Teja once and for all. That night Teja's men along with Bosco (Ankur Bhatia) kill Jaydev and the whole city begins to panic. Meanwhile, two sub inspectors who work under Vijay gives Sher Khan information that the night Kataria was murdered, an inspector, Saalwe had arrested a man for a petty case. But Saalwe did not record the case and so they suspect Saalwe and the man who he arrested had killed Kataria. So, using some of his informers Sher Khan finds Saalwe and Teja's trusted man Bosco (Ankur Bhatia) who was hiding himself and Saalwe in a colony. Then he puts them in front of the commissioner and they agree that they had killed Kataria by breaking his neck and they had done it on Teja's saying as he feared Kataria might leak all the information about his gang. The commissioner realizes Vijay's Innocence and claims Teja a wanted criminal. Out of fear, Teja runs away into an old mine with Mona (Mahie Gill), but Vijay manages to track him down. Teja manages to get Vijay at gun point and pulls his coat's sleeve back. Then Vijay notices a tattoo on Teja's arm and realizes that he is the very one who killed his parents. Then Vijay says that Prashant Khanna who Teja killed years back was Vijay's dad. Teja is shocked and reveals that Prashant had filed a case against him and so Teja had to kill Prashant. In a fit of rage, Vijay begins to beat Teja badly. Vijay then breaks Teja's arm and kicks him into a bundle of petroleum barrels and shoots the barrels, causing Teja to die in the blast. The government announces all the wealth to be given to Mona, who was also said to be in all of Teja's nefarious activities. The film ends with Sher Khan and Mala coming to visit Vijay at the station, Mala finally being able to cook some food for him and Vijay smiling at Sher Khan when he sees a drug mafia case coming on TV. | revenge, murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0041434 | The Grey Hounded Hare | Bugs Bunny pops out of a hole, wondering what all the 'racket' is. He quickly finds out that he is at a greyhound track. Bugs decides to check out the dogs, commenting positively on dog #7, a large grey greyhound named Gnawbone, then angering him.
After this, Bugs goes outside to see the race from the sides. Before the race begins, the announcer announces some of the dogs that are racing, including "Bill's Bunion", "Pneumatic Tire", "Father's Moustache", "Motorman's Glove", "Bride's Biscuit" and "Grandpa's Folly", (the latter of which has been "scratched" from the race, as in uncontrolable itching) in an homage to Spike Jones' "William Tell Overture."
Bugs watches as a rabbit lure is led out. Not realizing the rabbit is a mechanical fake, Bugs instantly falls in love with it ("Wow! What a hunk of feminine pulchritoodee!"). Upon seeing the dogs being released from their starting boxes, declaring that "chivalry is not dead", Bugs decides to "rescue" the lure and jumps into the track, taking down some of the dogs one at a time. During this sequence, the announcer, shocked at what he sees, kills himself off-screen. Bugs eventually teases the dogs enough that they start chasing him out of the track and into a taxi, which speeds off towards the Dog Pound. However, dog #7 was not fooled and is waiting for Bugs.
Bugs then faces off with dog #7 through trickery, first using a balloon decoy, then using a dynamite stick. Finally, dog #7 has had it and starts to charge at Bugs "like a bull" in attempt to kill the rabbit once and for all, but Bugs plays matador and causes dog #7 to charge into a fire hydrant, putting the dog out of commission, with a white flag of surrender on his tail.
After defeating dog #7, now free to pursue "Dreamboat" unhindered, Bugs gives the lure a kiss, getting a large shock, just before the lure goes back into its starting box. He goes for another kiss and gets electrocuted again. | psychedelic, romantic | train | wikipedia | Bugs Trying To Hit On A Hot Hare In The Fast Lane.
Bugs tunnels from underneath and finds himself at the local dog track After checking out all the entries, he wanders over to the fence to get a close look at the race.It begins and, lo-and-behold, there's a cute little rabbit!
Bugs is immediately smitten.
Unfortunately, that's the mechanical one the dogs chase each race.
Bugs doesn't know it's a fake, he thinks "she" is cute and he's going to save her before all those dogs catch up to her.Bugs does his best by trying to eliminate the field, one by one.
However, the gray dog is more than a challenge for Bugs....and, for some reason, Bugs has a hard time catching up "to that dame."The cartoon is funny and something a bit different.
I can't recall seeing any cartoons involving dog (greyhound, to be exact) races..
this cartoon was not a dog.
I'll admit that I don't really know anything about dog races, but you don't need to know anything thereabout to enjoy "The Grey Hounded Hare".Bugs Bunny stumbles upon a dog race, and quickly learns that the contestants don't like rabbits.
But what truly riles him is the fact the dogs are chasing the female rabbit with whom he has just fallen in love (it's a robot, but he doesn't know that).
So, that long-eared rascal sets about coming up with ways to stop the dogs from chasing the rabbit.
That is, until the final showdown with a big bellicose dog.Maybe this isn't the best cartoon that the Looney Tunes' creative team made, but there's really nothing bad about it.
And the end scene is a good lesson about the dangers of electricity..
Funny despite the lack of a good second-string character.
Woken from his sleep by all the disturbance, bugs comes out of his hole to find a grey hound race about to take place.
He goes in to place a bet and settles down to watch the race.
However, when he sees that a pretty young rabbit is used to make the dogs run, Bugs has no choice but to step in and save the maiden.From the very moment that Bugs looks into the mouth of one of the dogs to see what the best bet for winner is, you can see what the problem is going to be with this cartoon - no foil for Bugs to work offa.
And indeed as the cartoon gets going, that is exactly the problem.
The action is still quite amusing but it needs to have a focal point alongside Bugs himself and the main greyhound just doesn't cut it as a character.
Despite this the cartoon still works in a basic way and is pretty funny for the most part.Bugs is as good as he always is but at times you feel the need for someone decent for him to outsmart; somehow it isn't the same to see him tricking a group of anonymous dogs.
When he does go one to one, the dog is just too unmemorable to really make a good companion for Bugs and it stutters the cartoon a bit.Despite this, Bugs is Bugs and he is still worth watching no matter who he's with!
The cartoon is far from his best and really needed a better character for the lead dog to have but it still gets by with some nice laughs and the fact that it's still a Bugs Bunny cartoon!.
"Pneumatic Tire is flat!".
Funny Bugs Bunny short directed by Robert McKimson.
This time Bugs shows up at a greyhound racetrack, where he mistakenly thinks a fake rabbit used as a lure for the dogs to chase is real.
So Bugs tries to rescue the rabbit and winds up fighting with the dogs.
A simple but fun cartoon with some good gags and lines.
The animation is beautiful, with well-drawn characters and backgrounds.
Love the colors.
Carl Stalling's music is quite nice and the voice work from Mel Blanc is, as usual, excellent.
This isn't one of my favorite Bugs cartoons but it is a good one that movies along quickly.
The stuff with the racetrack announcer is probably my favorite part of the short..
Demonstrates what's wrong with Bugs Bunny.
All too often, Bugs Bunny resembles the stereotypical American tourist, bigoted, unable to understand why he's not welcome, incapable of realising that he got things wrong the first time round.
(That's the stereotype, anyway.
I've yet to encounter it in real life.) He is BEYOND brash, his rhinoceros-thick hide so impenetrable that the creature inside must be regarded as merely stupid.
We long for his comeuppance, are galled to discover it will never come, and insulted by the request that we be GLAD that it will never come.At least, that's what happens here.
Bugs falls in love with a mechanical racetrack hare, and rushes off to save it from the slavering greyhounds chasing it - and he never learns his error, as I kept hoping he would, so that he'd go away and leave the rest of the world alone.
It's not always like this with Bugs.
He's impossible to dislike in a wonderful work like "Rabbit of Seville", for example, because Chuck Jones is a master director who knows how to make the character work for rather than against the cartoon.
But it's important to realise that Robert McKimson's sin here is purely negative.
He doesn't MAKE Bugs irritating; the character is irritating already.
Rather, McKimson's stale and unimaginative direction does nothing whatever to alter or subvert or compensate for the character, leaving us with a tiresome, earthbound cartoon about an odious loudmouth..
Not among Bugs' best, but an above decent cartoon nonetheless.
As a huge Looney Tunes fan, I re-visited The Grey-Hounded Hare after seeing it a few times as a kid and completely forgetting about it, and I liked it.
The story is rather standard and the lead dog while not a complete dud I agree didn't strike me as memorable.
However, Bugs is great as always, likable but with a bit of arrogance about him.
The animation with good colours and backgrounds and decently drawn characters is quite good, and the attention to visual detail is evident.
The music is as quirky and energetic as I like it, the dialogue is witty and fresh and the pace is solid.
Mel Blanc's voice work throughout is superb.
Overall, above decent.
8/10 Bethany Cox. Bugs goes wrong: a humorless cartoon results..
THE GREY HOUNDED HARE is unfunny, basically everything Robert McKimson tries to make this cartoon succeed goes wrong.
Do not we all love Bugs Bunny?
Of course we do.
But he just doesn't seem himself in this cartoon.
I am at a loss as to why this film doesn't work, I don't know why it is quite barren and humorless.The story is one of the biggest negatives.
Bugs likes a mechanical dog race track hare, and attempts to save her from the dogs that chase her.
Since the object of his aggression is constantly running, it just doesn't seem like the sort of situation for a character like our beloved rabbit.
He is a practical strategist, who sits down with his adversary and outwits him.
What is there to outwit in this film?
The dogs are running after the rabbit, and they have no intention whatsoever of stopping mid-race.
Plus their personalities are nonexistent, there's no way to differentiate between the contestants.
You are not sure whether they're smart or dumb.
It's a useless situation for Bugs Bunny.I have some serious complaints about the direction by McKimson.
The guys from Termite Terrace are mostly so impeccably precise when it comes to detail.
McKimson just didn't seem to care.
Before the race begins, the announcer introduces us to each contestant canine, ready to run in their pen, the doors soon to be opened.
Since these are portraits of the dogs, the features and colors are drastically different from one to the other, though you can't recognize a distinct breed.
This is a strong point.
The close-ups are good.
You know the names beforehand.
But when the race begins, the commentator names the dogs as they pass by; and lo and behold, the names may be different, but all the dogs except for a big ferocious one are identical, rust-red whippet-like dogs!
The whippet is a miniature but speedy version of the greyhound.
In fact only one of the dogs in the introduction was similar.
I am horrified.The animation seems a bit primitive, and there's not much I have to say about it.
A plus point is good layouts: The kennels and the stands are both detailed and accurate.
Not that much above your average Warner Bros.
short film, however.
And as another note, the ending is pretty useless.
Overall, the attempts at slapstick fall flat on their faces inexplicably.
If you have something better to do (you probably will) turn the sound off and wait for the next cartoon for seven minutes when you see the title.
It's not worth it..
Bugs checks out the dog races..
An enjoyable short, though not one of the best Bugs Bunny shorts.
It has more than a few moments and an entertaining ending.
Because i want to discuss some details, this is a spoiler warning: Bugs winds up at a dog racetrack and decides to check out the dogs.
He goes over to where they're being fed and pokes and prods them, going so far as to stop one of them from eating so he can check out his teeth.
The dog makes it clear that he doesn't like rabbits.At one point, there's a panning shot of the dogs in the upcoming race, with a very pun-filled voice-over describing the dogs (for example, "Motorman's Glove will have a hand in it!") and then the race begins.That's when Bugs discovers that a (mechanical) rabbit is used to get the dogs to run and Bugs falls in love with this "hunk of feminine pulchritude!", but then he realizes that the dogs are *GASP* chasing his "dreamboat".
Declaring that "Chivalry is not dead!", Bugs begins setting out to prevent the dogs from harming his "lady" fair, with disastrous consequences for the track and the dogs.
The voice-over is hilarious.Naturally, Bugs has to have a primary nemesis and it's the dog he got into a scuffle with earlier.
They have several encounters, most of which go badly for the dog, until the dog surrenders toward the end.
Bugs can now join his "dreamboat", who has been ignoring his advances and running in circles.
The ending is cute, so I won't spoil it here.
This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 4 and is well worth seeing.
Recommended.
Greyhound owners beware!.
"The Grey Hounded Hare" is one of the weaker Bugs Bunny cartoons directed by Bob McKimson.
The chubby Bugs causes a great deal of mischief at a greyhound racetrack.
His objective: to prevent the canines from chasing a mechanical female rabbit, with whom he becomes infatuated(!).Highlights from this cartoon?
The racetrack commentator offers some good puns about each dog's name as he introduces the canines before the race begins.
Bugs jumps onto one particular dog's back and covers its eyes, causing it to run in all directions and crash into a wall.
And at the end of this short, Bugs receives a severe electrical shock from kissing the mechanical rabbit.
(Honestly, something is truly wrong with Bugs if he insists on protecting & pursuing this mechanical device and never figuring it out!) "The Grey Hounded Hare" is a cartoon with plenty of action and violence, but most of the harm is inflicted on the innocent canines.
Considering how greyhounds are abused, beaten, left for dead, and generally mistreated, those of you who own greyhounds will probably wish to skip this cartoon..
Back in the 1900s, a popular cocktail was called "Sex on the Beach" .
. but Bugs Bunny's idea of recreation during the 1940s Warner Bros.
Looney Tune THE GREY HOUNDED HARE seems to be Sex on a Stick.
Bugs apparently doesn't get out much, because the mechanical rabbit at a dog track strikes him as the epitome of "female pulchritude." If it were up solely to Bugs, the phrase "breeding like rabbits" would be synonymous with "multiplying like unicorns." Of course, Bugs' dream boat cruises around the canine raceway like a slot car.
Bugs mounts her split inner rail several times, seemingly willing to do the deed in full view of the grandstand crowd.
However, since the NC-17 movie rating wasn't around in the 1940s, Bugs is necessarily thwarted at every turn.
(As the animation department at Warner delighted in clever wordplay referencing previous, usually outside, works, they surely would come up with a snappier title for this entry were it released today: LARS AND THE REAL BUNNY or BROWN BUNNY DOWN are a couple that come readily to mind.).
A lovely cartoon, bright and very funny.
Robert McKimson's 'The Grey Hounded Hare' is a really lovely cartoon.
Bright and colourful, it pits Bugs Bunny against a whole racetrack full of greyhounds as he attempts to save the female mechanical rabbit they are all chasing.
Warren Foster's script is great, filled with knowingly dreadful puns involving the greyhounds' unusual names and a great running commentary during the race section.
Bugs rids himself of the majority of the dogs at the halfway mark but is left with the tough No. 7 who keeps fighting to the last.
McKimson directs the whole thing with aplomb, making Bugs an aggressive and determined character who, in the end, is as gullible as those he dupes, falling in love with a mechanical rabbit who administers violent electric shocks to anyone who gets fresh!
I've loved 'The Grey Hounded Hare' since I was a kid but one thing trouble me even back then.
At the cartoon's climax, it genuinely appears to me that Bugs is kissing the mechanical rabbit's bottom! |
tt0178299 | Carmen | Place: Seville, Spain, and surrounding hills
Time: Around 1820
Act 1
A square, in Seville. On the right, a door to the tobacco factory. At the back, a bridge. On the left, a guardhouse.
A group of soldiers relax in the square, waiting for the changing of the guard and commenting on the passers-by ("Sur la place, chacun passe"). Micaëla appears, seeking José. Moralès tells her that "José is not yet on duty" and invites her to wait with them. She declines, saying she will return later. José arrives with the new guard, who is greeted and imitated by a crowd of urchins ("Avec la garde montante").
As the factory bell rings, the cigarette girls emerge and exchange banter with young men in the crowd ("La cloche a sonné"). Carmen enters and sings her provocative habanera on the untameable nature of love ("L'amour est un oiseau rebelle"). The men plead with her to choose a lover, and after some teasing she throws a flower to Don José, who thus far has been ignoring her but is now annoyed by her insolence.
As the women go back to the factory, Micaëla returns and gives José a letter and a kiss from his mother ("Parle-moi de ma mère!"). He reads that his mother wants him to return home and marry Micaëla, who retreats in shy embarrassment on learning this. Just as José declares that he is ready to heed his mother's wishes, the women stream from the factory in great agitation. Zuniga, the officer of the guard, learns that Carmen has attacked a woman with a knife. When challenged, Carmen answers with mocking defiance ("Tra la la... Coupe-moi, brûle-moi"); Zuniga orders José to tie her hands while he prepares the prison warrant. Left alone with José, Carmen beguiles him with a seguidilla, in which she sings of a night of dancing and passion with her lover—whoever that may be—in Lillas Pastia's tavern. Confused yet mesmerised, José agrees to free her hands; as she is led away she pushes her escort to the ground and runs off laughing. José is arrested for dereliction of duty.
Act 2
Lillas Pastia's Inn
Two months have passed. Carmen and her friends Frasquita and Mercédès are entertaining Zuniga and other officers ("Les tringles des sistres tintaient") in Pastia's inn. Carmen is delighted to learn of José's release from two month's detention. Outside, a chorus and procession announces the arrival of the toreador Escamillo ("Vivat, vivat le Toréro"). Invited inside, he introduces himself with the "Toreador Song" ("Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre") and sets his sights on Carmen, who brushes him aside. Lillas Pastia hustles the crowds and the soldiers away.
When only Carmen, Frasquita and Mercédès remain, the smugglers Dancaïre and Remendado arrive and reveal their plans to dispose of some recently acquired contraband ("Nous avons en tête une affaire"). Frasquita and Mercédès are keen to help them, but Carmen refuses, since she wishes to wait for José. After the smugglers leave, José arrives. Carmen treats him to a private exotic dance ("Je vais danser en votre honneur ... La la la"), but her song is joined by a distant bugle call from the barracks. When José says he must return to duty, she mocks him, and he answers by showing her the flower that she threw to him in the square ("La fleur que tu m'avais jetée"). Unconvinced, Carmen demands he show his love by leaving with her. José refuses to desert, but as he prepares to depart, Zuniga enters looking for Carmen. He and José fight, and are separated by the returning smugglers, who restrain Zuniga. Having attacked a superior officer, José now has no choice but to join Carmen and the smugglers ("Suis-nous à travers la campagne").
Act 3
A wild spot in the mountains
Carmen and José enter with the smugglers and their booty ("Écoute, écoute, compagnons"); Carmen has now become bored with José and tells him scornfully that he should go back to his mother. Frasquita and Mercédès amuse themselves by reading their fortunes from the cards; Carmen joins them and finds that the cards are foretelling her death, and José's. The women depart to suborn the customs officers who are watching the locality. José is placed on guard duty.
Micaëla enters with a guide, seeking José and determined to rescue him from Carmen ("Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante"). On hearing a gunshot she hides in fear; it is José, who has fired at an intruder who proves to be Escamillo. José's pleasure at meeting the bullfighter turns to anger when Escamillo declares his infatuation with Carmen. The pair fight ("Je suis Escamillo, toréro de Grenade"), but are interrupted by the returning smugglers and girls ("Holà, holà José"). As Escamillo leaves he invites everyone to his next bullfight in Seville. Micaëla is discovered; at first, José will not leave with her despite Carmen's mockery, but he agrees to go when told that his mother is dying. As he departs, vowing he will return, Escamillo is heard in the distance, singing the toreador's song.
Act 4
A square in Seville. At the back, the walls of an ancient amphitheatre
Zuniga, Frasquita and Mercédès are among the crowd awaiting the arrival of the bullfighters ("Les voici ! Voici la quadrille!"). Escamillo enters with Carmen, and they express their mutual love ("Si tu m'aimes, Carmen"). As Escamillo goes into the arena, Frasquita and Mercedes warn Carmen that José is nearby, but Carmen is unafraid and willing to speak to him. Alone, she is confronted by the desperate José ("C'est toi ! C'est moi !"). While he pleads vainly for her to return to him, cheers are heard from the arena. As José makes his last entreaty, Carmen contemptuously throws down the ring he gave her and attempts to enter the arena. He then stabs her, and as Escamillo is acclaimed by the crowds, Carmen dies. José kneels and sings "Ah! Carmen! ma Carmen adorée!"; as the crowd exits the arena, José confesses to killing the woman he loved. | satire | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0087075 | The Company of Wolves | In the present day, a young girl named Rosaleen (Sarah Patterson) dreams that she lives in a fairytale forest with her parents (Tusse Silberg and David Warner) and sister (Georgia Slowe), but one day her sister is killed by wolves. While her parents are mourning, Rosaleen goes to stay the night with her grandmother (Angela Lansbury), who knits a bright red shawl for her granddaughter to wear. The superstitious old woman gives Rosaleen an ominous warning, to beware men whose eyebrows meet. Rosaleen returns to her village, but finds that she must deal with the advances of an amorous boy (Shane Johnstone). Rosaleen and the boy take a walk through the forest, but the boy discovers that the village's cattle have come under attack from a wolf. The villagers set out to hunt the wolf, but once caught and killed, the wolf's corpse transforms into that of a human being.
Rosaleen later takes a basket of goods through the woods to her grandmother's cottage, but on her way she encounters an attractive huntsman (Micha Bergese), whose eyebrows meet. He challenges her, saying that he can find his way to her grandmother's house before she can, and the pair set off. The hunter arrives at Rosaleen's grandmother's house first, where he reveals his bestial nature and kills her. Rosaleen arrives later and discovers the carnage, but her need to protect herself is complicated by her desire for the hunter. In the ensuing exchange, Rosaleen accidentally injures the huntsman with his own rifle. Upon this blow, the hunter contorts in pain and transforms into his wolf shape. Rosaleen takes pity on the wounded beast, noting that his pack could leave him behind. She sits down, and begins petting the wolf kindly and tenderly while telling him a story.
Ultimately the villagers arrive at the house some time later, looking for a werewolf within. Instead, they discover that Rosaleen herself has become a werewolf. Together, she and the huntsman escape to the forest, joined by a growing pack.
Back in the present day, Rosaleen awakes with a scream, and discovers wolves outside her house, followed by their breaking through the window of her bedroom.
Perrault's Le Petit Chaperon Rouge is then heard being read, with the moral warning girls to beware of charming strangers. | comedy, fantasy, cruelty, gothic, cult, alternate reality, violence, atmospheric, psychedelic, suspenseful, storytelling | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0132347 | Mystery Men | In the metropolis of Champion City, the would-be superhero team of Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller), the Shoveler (William H. Macy), and the Blue Raja (Hank Azaria) attempt to make a name for themselves, but their suspect skills make them ineffective, and they find themselves upstaged by the city's most successful superhero, Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear). However, Amazing is finding that his effectiveness at fighting crime has practically made his job obsolete, and without any worthy adversaries remaining (some of them are either dead, in exile, or still in jail), his corporate sponsors are beginning to pull their funding. To create a need for himself, Amazing uses his alter ego, billionaire lawyer Lance Hunt, to argue for the release of insane supervillain Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush). The plan backfires; once reunited with Tony P (Eddie Izzard) and his Disco Boys, Casanova Frankenstein blows up the insane asylum, captures Amazing, and prepares to unleash a doomsday device: the "Psycho-frakulator", which lethally bends reality. Mr. Furious, while spying on Casanova Frankenstein's mansion, discovers Amazing's capture and informs the others.
After an unsuccessful rescue attempt, the three realize they need more allies, and through word-of-mouth and try-outs, they recruit Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell), the Spleen (Paul Reubens), and the Bowler (Janeane Garofalo). The newly formed team "assaults" Casanova, which only succeeds in annoying him and damaging his car. While drunk from celebrating their victory, the team is nearly killed in retaliation by Tony P and the Disco Boys, but they are saved at the last minute by the Sphinx (Wes Studi). The Sphinx trains them, but his methods annoy Mr. Furious – he has them complete rote team-building exercises and speaks exclusively in Chiasmus. They also seek out mad scientist Doc Heller (Tom Waits), who specializes in non-lethal weaponry, to equip them for their battle.
The group breaks into Casanova's mansion during a gathering of several of the city's gangs; but, while attempting to free Captain Amazing, they inadvertently set off the Psycho-frakulator, killing him instead. Without Amazing, the team despairs of saving the city, but the Shoveler delivers a pep-talk that succeeds in uniting and inspiring them.
With new-found purpose, they assault the mansion and, by making effective use of their negligible superpowers and Heller's weapons, manage to subdue most of Casanova Frankenstein's henchmen. Unfortunately, as the heroes approach Casanova Frankenstein, he reveals that he is holding Mr. Furious' girlfriend Monica (Claire Forlani) hostage, and proceeds to activate the Psycho-frakulator, which begins to wreak havoc upon the city. While the team tries to stop the device, Mr. Furious takes on Casanova Frankenstein. After initially taking a beating, Mr. Furious unleashes his inner rage and manages to fight effectively for the first time. He defeats Casanova Frankenstein, who is thrown into the core of the Psycho-frakulator and killed by its reality-bending powers. The rest of the team helps The Bowler use her bowling ball to destroy the device and escape the mansion as it implodes.
The team is interviewed by reporters, begging to know their team name. As they argue among themselves, one reporter states "Well, whatever you may call them, Champion City will forever owe a debt of gratitude to these 'Mystery Men'," but the others are too busy arguing to hear it. | cult, comedy, psychedelic, humor | train | wikipedia | It's not a perfect movie, but it definitely deserves another look and perhaps a cult following.The story: a bunch of low-level superheroes save the day.
Time for the Mystery Men: Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller, gets mad), The Shoveller (William H.
Macy, beats people with shovels), The Blue Raja (Hank Azaria, British, throws forks), The Bowler (Janeane Garafolo, bowls), Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell, guess what he does), The Spleen (the great Paul Reubens, farts), and The Sphinx (Wes Studi, cuts guns in half with his mind, I am not kidding).
I really wanted this film to be good, and unlike most of my recent trips to the cinema (read Blair Witch Project) I wasn't disappointed.Mystery Men was definitely not a high-effects, tension-filled action flick, it was a comedy.
Macy plays a great straight man, while Kel Mitchell and the fart-powered Paul Rubens are added just to keep the kiddies happy.Though the sets are bizarre (and at times seem like ripoffs from both Batman and Blade Runner), and some of the jokes are obvious, it is still just plain funny.
MYSTERY MEN is a send-up of every superhero flick you've ever seen, but its unlikely super-wannabes are so interesting, varied, and well-cast that they are memorable characters in their own right.
The comedic talents of the actors playing the Mystery Men -- including one Mystery Woman -- are a perfect foil for Wes Studi as what can only be described as a bargain-basement Yoda, and Geoffrey Rush as one of the most off-the-wall (and bizarrely charming) villains ever to walk off the pages of a Dark Horse comic book and onto the big screen.
Director Kinka Usher stays true to his own credo, "Play it straight and they will laugh," and with the help of a superb cast has crafted what should become the #1 cult film of all time, `Mystery Men.' When an evil villain, Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush) is released from a mental institution, captures the local superhero, Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear), and threatens to take over Champion City, three wanna-be superheroes, Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller), The Shoveler (William H.
Mr. Furious has his rage; The Shoveler, his shovel; The Blue Raja flings silverware (mainly forks, and the occasional spoon, but never a knife); the Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell) can turn invisible as long as no one is watching; the Sphinx (Wes Studi), a heavy hitter from down south, is very mysterious and can break guns in half with his mind.
In the history of movies based on comic books, "Mystery Men" is one of the most underrated ones.
"Mystery Men" spoofs several aspects of superhero movies like "Superman" or "Batman," such as the pithy sayings, and the questions about secret identities.
The only one who COULD defeat the bad guy is "Captain Fantastic", who unfortunately was captured by Cassanova and the Mystery Men are forced into action.I loved the many quirky characters in the film.
This movie deserved better It's great fun, has some wonderful jokes and sight gags, some in-stuff for the "Geeks" amongst us (And we know who we are), and the effects are indeed effectual.
When superhero Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear) is kidnapped by the lascivious Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush), it's up to superhero wannabes Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller), The Shoveller (William H.
Along the way, the group is joined by Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell), Spleen (Paul Reubens), Baby Bowler (Janeane Garofalo) and The Sphinx (Wes Studi), all of whom provide some riotous lines.Among other things, this was the first place where I ever saw comedian Eddie Izzard (he plays Tony P., one of Frankenstein's henchmen).
Macy was hysterical as family man The Shoveler, Hank Azaria's Blue Raja was a master of throwing forks (never knives), Janeane Garofalo (back when she was likable) was The Bowler, Kel Mitchell as Invisible Boy (who can only turn invisible if no one is watching), and even Paul "Pee Wee Herman" Reubens was a riot as The Spleen, who took passing gas to a whole new level.The ringleader of the group is Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller) who seems to become the focal point of the movie more than anyone else.
I thought it a bit ironic Stiller would trash this film given most of the scenes that annoyed me involved him, although he does redeem his role by movie's end.The group of supervillians is impressive as well, led by Geoffrey Rush as Casanova Frankenstein and Eddie Izzard and Pras as the two Tonys.
Even Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear) isn't much in the way of a superhero to the Mystery Men, given how condescending he acts towards them and how full of himself he is.
Kinnear did provide a great performance there, no question.If you're a fan of what Marvel is putting out these days, this movie will make you laugh and cheer for the good guys..
A good cast, some quirky dialog, and a director who knows when to just let his cast have a good time all add up to a fun time."Mystery Men" is not a genre flick in the usual sense, nor is it a Ben Stiller vehicle.
Mr. Furious, The Shoveler, and The Blue Raja (who has no blue in his costume, but claims "if you know your history, it makes perfect sense!") are excellent and Stiller, Macy, and Azaria have great chemistry.
Who ever heard of a hero that can only turn invisible when nobody's watching, or a mainstream superhero with sponsors like Pepsi, who is so good (apparently) that he has to let criminals out of jail in order to have somebody to fight?
I am a little sick of these types of movies myself, but I do not hold it against "Mystery Men", which I liked when I first saw it and still do..
I always try and find something good in a movie yet this defied me in watching Mystery Men. I sat there for what seemed like ages whilst failing to be entertained by any aspect of this film, not helped by my family watching it because I had said it was supposed to be really funny and their reaction was less than pleased.
William H Macy, who i consider one of the most underrated actors of our time, and the rest of the cast looked like they were really trying to make something good out of this film, yet they failed for an inexplicable reason.
Maybe it was the script, or the jokes or the general idea of the film but it just did not work in any way, it tried to rip off many aspects of the superhero genre in an intelligent way, but failed.Overall I have to say that watching this film was one of the most painful experiences of my movie loving life and if you ever come across a copy of this film i urge you to take the tape and burn it to prevent others from watching it.
Part of it is the script--ill-plotted but full of good jokes--but most of it is the triumphant cast: Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Hank Azaria, William H.
Macy and Paul Reubens are among the faux ubermenschen; Geoffrey Rush, Eddie Izzard and Lena Olin are among the villains; and Greg Kinnear is, shockingly, very near to sublime as Champion City's reigning superhero, Captain Amazing.The whole movie is a show-biz metaphor.
It seems like some people here on this site are giving Mystery Men credit for simply trying to be funny and having some cool actors.Quite simply, this film is a mess..
The characters all seem interesting enough and their backgrounds amusing, but all of that potential is completely disregarded to make room for stupid jokes and quibbling between characters, obviously a decision from the people putting this thing together.Plotwise, Champion City is protected by Captain Amazing (Kinnear), but his success makes it tough for the small-time crime fighters like Mr. Furious (Stiller), The Shoveler (Macy) and the Blue Raja (Azaria) to make a difference.
I'll tell you what the mystery is as far as I am concerned: how a cool, extremely witty, and thoroughly entertaining movie like this one can fail at the box-office when far less worthy films not only make massive profits, but go on to spawn umpteen often inferior sequels.
It does little to build my faith in humanity.For me, Mystery Men is two hours of sheer joy, with some incredibly funny lines of dialogue, excellent special effects, imagination to spare, and wonderful characters brought to life by a superb cast, my favourite performances of the whole film being from Wes Studi as The Sphinx, who continually spouts hilarious pearls of wisdom, and Geoffrey Rush as delightfully devious villain Casanova Frankenstein.Oh well, if the general public can't appreciate such a creative, quirky and innovative gem, it's their loss; I guess it'll be up to the select few with far superior taste to keep the flame alive....
Enter the Mystery Men: Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller), The Bowler (Janeane Garofalo), The Blue Raja (Hank Azaria), The Shoveler (William H.
Mystery Men (1999, Dir. Kinka Usher) When Captain Amazing is kidnapped by Casanova Frankenstein a group of superheroes combine together to create a plan.
Now, the group who include such heroes as Mr. Furious, The Shoveller and The Blue Raja must put all the powers together to save everyone they know and love.The film 'Mystery Men' has one of the best combination of cast in a comedy film.
The films contains amazing talent from the likes of Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, William H.
The most tuned in audience for this film would be people who really enjoy comic books and/or superhero shows and are intellectual enough to appreciate the absurdity of them.I understand that there was a Mystery Men comic before this.
Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear) has always kept Champion City safe from the evil bad guys, keeping a band of wannabe super heroes in the shadows; but when Captain Amazing is captured by his arch nemesis Cassanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush) its finally time for The Blue Raja (Hank Azaria), The Shoveller (William H.
Macy), Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller) and more to step foreword and save the day.Mystery Men is littered with truly ridiculous characters, each with their own spin on the superhero as we know it and they all perform brilliantly to make this film a very crazy and very funny ride.7/10 it's very silly and great fun.
Mystery Men is not your average superhero flick, but also it is definitely not on the same lines as Batman, Superman, the X-men, Daredevil and so many other comic book adaptation movies.
And whilst, the cast is made up of virtually non-A listers, the fact that it has an array of stellar acting talent in the shape of Ben Stiller, William H Macy, Greg Kinnear, Hank Azaria and Geoffery Rush,of whom all provide really good performances as their characters, is impressive still.
By means of which i am saying that the likes of the X-Men trilogy, Batman, Fantastic Four etc have become so accepted by the mainstream and in the Hollywood movie business that its initial comic book roots and origins have been stripped away and as a result, its cult factor has deteriorated.
The film has a wonderful cast: Ben Stiller, Bill Macy, Hank Azaria, Greg Kinnear, Geoffrey Rush, Jeanne Garofalo, Eddie Izzard, Paul (Pee-wee Herman) Reubens and, best of all, the deep-voiced singing legend that is Tom Waits.
Great name and he plays the character way over the top but i loved it.My favorite moment is when Mister Furious says Captain Amazing and Lance Hunt are the same person and the shoveler explains why that's impossible..
Macy, Stiller, Rush and others deliver wonderful performances and Neil Cuthbert's script bring's Burden's comic book to life.I tend to choose films by screenwriter as opposed to actor, director etc.
So, if you are like me and x ray the script of a film, you will love Mystery men..
The core trio are very good: Mr. Furious (Stiller), the Shoveler (Macy) and Raja (Azaria) form the epicenter of a great cast.
While it may not be the most successful or best movie ever, Mystery Men provides a great comedy that spoofs superheroes.
Captain Amazing doesn't wear glasses." Ben Stiller's Mr. Furious character is by far the best and funniest character in the movie.
Macy), Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller), and The Blue Rajah (Hank Azaria) are 2nd rate super-heroes who are trying desperately to protect Champion City from evil, but there's a little problem- Champion City already has a superhero- Greg Kinnear's CAPTAIN AMAZING!
This is really my kind of humor !But the gathering of a great cast of actors and the professional looks (camera work/costumes/special effects) are the most important thing in this movie !
The cast is just amazing with special accolades going out to Hank Azaria as 'the Blue Raja', Geoffrey Rush as 'Casanova Frankenstein' and who could forget Ben Stiller as 'Mr. Furious'.
As the terrible mysterious Sphinx says: "You will need more than Forks and Flatulence..." - but do you?A fun Comic-Book Superhero movie that uses the premise of real people dressing up and fighting crime.
And, of course, being real people - they are rather lame at it, over-shadowed by the city's real hero, Captain Amazing.The sadness and sheer stupidity of grown men (and women) running around dressed up as Super-Heroes is the main gag of the film, and this is played fairly straight - with conflicting home-lives and the effect on jobs acted out in several scenes.
But it's mainly fart gags, sarcasm and situation-comedy that provide the laughs throughout the film.All the cast turn in good performances, but it is Hank Azaria (Blue Rajah) that really makes it for me.
All-Star cast with Ben Stiller, Pee-wee, Geoffrey Rush, Eddie Izzard, Garrofalo, Macy, etc., etc.If you're looking for the funniest movie out there this is it..
Not since "The Simpsons" have so many incompetent, mediocre characters been made to appear so heroic.A one line description of the plot--a group of untalented super-hero wannabees struggle to save a real superhero and their city--sounds like a recipe for a disastrous film.
I must confess that I avoided watching this film as I thought it sounded rather silly...However, despite my initial reservations, I finally gave in and watched it - and was surprised at how enjoyable I found it.This film is a superb spoof of super hero films like the Batman films, the X-Men, Spiderman, e.t.c - and yet it still retains some original ideas.The humour seemed reminiscent of the Naked gun movies, so if you liked those then I would recommend this to you.It could have been funnier and sillier (perhaps a few Batman 'BAMS' and 'BIFFS' during the final fight-scene), but I think the production team wanted to keep an element of more subtle tongue-in-cheek humour and in so-doing they were able to retain an element of plausibility (if thats the right word ?!) and a better story overall.
The thing with "Mystery Men" is, you need to have a certain understanding of the idiosyncrasies of superhero comic books and be able to laugh at them.
If you grew up reading comic books or watching "Superfriends" or the live-action "Batman" on TV, you'll probably like "Mystery Men." If you never found anything particularly entertaining or humorous about that genre, you won't enjoy "MM." As one who grew up on superheroes, I loved this movie!
This is why I feel a lot of people did not understand the film or thought it was stupid.I never get tired of Mystery Men. It never takes itself too seriously and often displays a witty sarcasm when dealing with the main characters.
Fans of Ben Stiller who are really familiar with his style of humor will have a much better appreciation for the kind of corny dialogue he expels throughout the movie.The set designers, art directors and Kinka Usher did a great job in capturing the mood of what a real super hero city could possibly be like.
I think the setting and mood of Mystery Men is much more appealing as a comic book world than any of the Batman movies ever were.
When Spleen discusses how he got his powers from a curse, it sounds like he's reading directly from a comic book, and you get the feeling that many heroes introduce themselves by their origin story, and they concern themselves with writing a theme song.The amount of talent gathered in this movie is awesome as well, and you can definitely see that each actor was having a great time working on the film.
Give me a break!If you grew up reading tons of superhero comics and watched the Batman TV show, you'll love this film.
The director does a GREAT job of making the movie LOOK LIKE A COMIC BOOK.
At several points, the effect is striking -- you can just *see* what the scene would look like if it were drawn by a comics illustrator!Good stuff, if you're a comics fan, or if you can watch a funny movie without making notes on the lighting effects or the inconsistencies in the star's makeup..
The art design of the film really fights with its ironic nature.If you're a comic book fan, I recommend renting this movie, if you can find it for cheap.If you're looking for a good superhero parody, check your local listings for the cartoon 'The Tick', it spoofs comic book heroes better than Mystery Men did..
the Mystery Men, are Mr. Furious, The Shoveler, the Blue Raja, Invisible Boy, The Spleen, The Bowler, and The Sphinx.
It's a great movie, and its not just for people who enjoy comic books.
As far as feel-good films go, it outdoes everything else I've seen; it isn't exactly my favorite movie, but it makes me happier to watch it than any other.
The first thing I thought after watching "Mystery Men" was how could this movie be so unpopular? |
tt0108565 | Wide Sargasso Sea | The novel opens a short while after the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 ended slavery in the British Empire on 1 August 1834. The protagonist Antoinette relates the story of her life from childhood to her arranged marriage to an unnamed Englishman (implied as Mr Rochester from Jane Eyre). As their marriage progresses, Antoinette, whom he renames "Bertha" and confines to a locked room, descends into madness, in part from despair at being torn from her island home in the Caribbean and subjected to an alien culture and climate.
The novel is split into three parts:
Part One takes place in Coulibri, Jamaica, and is narrated by Antoinette as a child. Since the abolition of slavery her family has become very poor, Antoinette's mother Annette must remarry to a wealthy Englishman Mr. Mason. Angry at the returning prosperity of their oppressors, freed slaves living in Coulibri burn down Anette's house killing Antoinette's younger brother who is mentally disabled. As Anette had been struggling with her mental health up until this point, the grief of losing her son drives her to worsen. Mr. Mason sends her to live with a couple who torment her until her death and Antoinette does not see her again.
Part Two alternates between the points of view of her husband and of Antoinette during their "honeymoon" excursion to Granbois, Dominica. Likely catalysts for Antoinette's downfall are the mutual suspicions that develop between the aforementioned couple, and the machinations of Daniel, who claims he is Antoinette's (illegitimate) brother; he impugns Antoinette's reputation and mental state and demands hush money. Antoinette's old nurse Christophine openly distrusts the Englishman. His apparent belief in the destructive accounts about Antoinette aggravate the situation; Rochester becomes visibly unfaithful to her and emotionally abuses her. He begins to call her Bertha rather than her real name and flaunts his affairs in front of her to cause her pain. Antoinette's increased sense of paranoia and the bitter disappointment of her failing marriage unbalance her already precarious mental and emotional state. She flees to Christophine's house, her former servant and the woman who raised her. Christophine uses obeah to try to ease Antoinette's pain, however, foreseeing danger in this reverts to alcohol to calm her distraught friend. Antoinette returns home in a drunken rage and Christophine confronts her husband. The Mr. Rochester figure does not accept Christophine's suggestions of help for his wife and decides to take her back to England.
Part Three is the shortest part of the novel; it is from the perspective of Antoinette, renamed by her husband as Bertha. She is largely confined to "the attic" of Thornfield Hall, the Rochester mansion she calls the "Great House." The story traces her relationship with Grace, the servant who is tasked with guarding her, as well as her disintegrating life with the Englishman, as he hides her from the world. He makes empty promises to come to her more but sees less of her. He ventures away to pursue relationships with other women—and eventually with the young governess, Jane Eyre. It is clear that Antoinette is not of sound mind and has little understanding of how much time she has been confined to her attic internment. She fixates on options of freedom including her Stepbrother Richard Mason who, however, will not interfere with her husband, so she attacks him with a stolen knife. Expressing her thoughts in stream of consciousness, Antoinette dreams of flames engulfing the house and her freedom from the life she has there, she believes it is her destiny to fulfill the vision. Waking from her dream she escapes her room, sets the fire, and takes her own life by jumping from the roof. | insanity, revenge, flashback | train | wikipedia | I think that there seem to be some confusion expressed in a number of the reviews of this and a subsequent version of Jean Rhys' most famous novel.
Bertha (to use Rochester's name for her) was clearly white enough to appear white and indeed, like Jean Rhys herself, may have been entirely of European ancestry.
The Wide Sargosso Sea is a sort of prequel but it is also a re-imagining of the back story for Jane Eyre that is intended to take Bertha's character and expand on it with Rhys inability to ever fully reconcile herself to the differences between her origins and life in Europe.3.
Of the two filmed versions, the first makes the characters too physically attractive and really misses the novel's stress on the protagonists never meshing rather than loving and losing love.5.
The first film seems to run out of time and rushes the end.
The novels (both Jane Eyre and The Wide Sargosso Sea) have a great deal of narration which is lost in the earlier film and perhaps insufficient in the second.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.Finally, while not great, the films both aspire to be literary, which means a lot in an age when filmmakers think there is a need for horror/splatter movies and lots of people apparently agree so I for one say thank you for both versions of the Wide Sargosso Sea and all of the versions of Jane Eyre that offer relief from the current tripe..
The following review is taken from my contribution to a thread called "Worst novel adaptations" from the Film General board: Wide Sargasso Sea was originally a beautiful, haunting novel set in mid-19th century Jamaica written by Creole-Welsh writer Jean Rhys in the 1960s.
Plot-wise, it's basically the prequel to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, the story of a young Mr Rochester traveling to the Caribbean and meeting his first wife, the "mad wife" in the attic featured in Jane Eyre (though here she is young and not yet "mad", and we are described what gradually led her to losing her sanity).
It's a sensual novel, mainly because the lush Jamaican countryside and emotional spontaneity of the local people was too much for the straight-laced, English Victorian gent, Rochester.
But there are no sex scenes in the novel - basically, it's NOT an erotic novel as the film "adaptation" would suggest.
There's lots of passion in Wide Sargasso Sea THE BOOK, but it's mostly emotional.
It has no artistic integrity whatsoever, as its shameless makers must surely know they lifted their middle finger at the spirit of the Jean Rhys novel when choosing to make the film the way they did.
Just a lot of pointless, choreographed sex between beautiful people in an "exotic" setting.
Needless to say I think you should give this insulting (to the memory of Jean Rhys) film a miss, especially if you've read the novel: it'll just frustrate you, no matter how keen on a bit of easy titillation you may be feeling at the time..
The Wide Sargasso Sea is one of the most beautiful books ever written.
Following a string of only mildly successful novels and short stories, Rhys disappeared off the radar, and many believed her dead.
Throughout her house were numerous manuscripts forming what became The Wide Sargasso Sea. The novel was a labour of love for Rhys in a sense, but despite the critical acclaim it received she described the success as (I paraphrase) too little too late.Rhys' novel details the relationship between the Rochester of Jane Eyre and Antoinette, his first wife.
Rochester cannot handle this aspect of her nature, and attempts to remove it from her but cannot; it is inherent.The film suggests that Anotinette descends into madness.
Antoinette never went insane, but rather the anger if her treatment at the hands of Rochester drove her to an act of rashness, but not madness.
This was, it would appear, to make was for as much gratuitous nudity as possible.All that redeems the film (and the only reason I rated it a 3 and not a 1) is the beautiful depiction of the scenery.
I suggest people who have read the book avoid the film, and those interested in both stick to the novel and stay well away from this..
The film that gives Mr. Rochester his motives and makes Jane Eyre more understandable.
Anyone who has ever read Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte's brooding masterpiece, knows the adult, world-weary Edward Rochester.
What Charlotte never fully explains is how Mr. Rochester came to be the aloof, stony man he is and how is wife came to be mad.Well, The Wide Sargasso Sea attempts to answer those questions.
In my opinion The Wide Sargasso Sea does an excellent job.This is a vivid and sensual film, and depending on the version you see, VERY explicit.
I recommend this one.I like to watch The Wide Sargasso Sea first and then put on my VHS of the splendid A&E production of Jane Eyre with Ciarn Hinds as Rochester.
"Wide Sargasso Sea" is a very elegant, sexy, melodrama about the meaning of love.
Young Creole girl Antoinette Conway is married to Englishman Edward Rochester, and the two move to her coastal home in Jamaica.
Kinda slow, but worth it, it makes you think and has the feel of a gothic potboiler."Wide Sargasso Sea" is Unrated for graphic sexuality and nudity.NOTE: "Wide Sargasso Sea" is available in R-Rated and Unrated versions.
This movie takes a great, rich, wonderful novel and reduces it to the level of near soft porn.
Major plot points seem to happen suddenly, without context or explanation and characters are poorly developed And the nude scenes aren't even very good, they were just cheesy - after the second or third time Rochester and Antoinette stripped, I was laughing out loud.The film has some great Jamaican locations, but that's about the only good thing I can say for it..
'Wide Sargasso Sea' is a film that combines a very loose film adaptation of Rhys's novel with sex scenes that are alternately hokey and hilarious (they never get it on nearly as prodigiously in the novel).
However, their abilities are wasted on a film that suffers from amateurish pacing (with the story advancing in disorienting fits and starts), inconsistent cinematographic style (occasionally stunning, sometimes questionable, such as the event early on with the parrot).Anyone looking for a faithful adaptation of the novel is frankly out of luck and anyone wanting a true background on "Jane Eyre" would do well to read the far-superior book of the same name.Cheers and good luck..
I think reading the book helps the viewer appreciate the movie.
The movie tells the story of the crazy wife in the attic in Jane Eyre.
The spirit of each main character appears nude as well, by the film's end.
Karina Lombard's beauty (as Antoinette) runs all through here, but women will get quite a few opportunities to view Edward (played by Nathaniel Parker).
But "Wide Sargasso Sea," in Lombard's portrayal of Antoinette, overmatches "Swept Away" for the strength of its lead female character.
I'm not saying "Wide Sargasso Sea" is the better film.
Both stories originated with women writers: Jean Rhys, in the novel of the same title for "Sargasso" (many years before the film was made).
I've read Rhys' novel, by the way -- you can't blame the director or the film's scriptwriters for the passion and sensuality portrayed onscreen in "Wide Sargasso Sea." It amazed me how closely the screenplay matched the original text in terms of the dialog.
Yes, the passion and nudity aren't so explicitly described in the novel -- but that doesn't mean they aren't felt and imagined all the more powerfully by the reader.
As it was, it seemed to always be missing something.Now, I understand Jane Eyre fans know all about Edward Rochester (Nathaniel Parker) and the "mad women who lives in the attic" (Karina Lombard as Antoinette Cosway).
But, not having read the books, I have to rely on the movie to tell the story.
I've heard so many great things about the novel Wide Sargasso Sea and I expected this movie to at least live halfway up to its literary counterpart.
Within the first ten minutes of the movie, however, the ludicrousness of the storyline reared its proverbial ugly head.First of all, the movie's treatment of Black Jamaicans reads like something out of a Jim Crow era film.
This aspect of the film is downright nauseating.Secondly, Mr. Rochester's character is diametrically different from the Rochester of the Jane Eyre novel.
Of course, the film depicts his earlier years before he develops into who he is in the novel, but give me a break!
Based on Jean Rhys' 1966 novel, "Wide Sargasso Sea" is the story of Antoinette Cosway, who shows up in Charlotte Bronte's classic 1847 novel "Jane Eyre" as Rochester's first wife Bertha Mason - confused?
Gorgeous Jamaican scenery, lush erotic scenes (I think I saw the uncut version) that perfectly convey Rochester and Antoinette's passion, but a sense of foreboding (for those familiar with the Bronte book, anyway).
The ending is a bit abrupt, and seems rushed after the leisurely pace of the rest of the film.Having just read Rhys' novel, I was delighted at how much of its dialogue and narrative was so faithfully adapted, and praise the screenwriters for making sense out of a rather confusing book - it jumps around in time, and is narrated by Antoinette and Rochester in turn.
Excellent performances from KARINA LOMBARD(is that her real accent?) as Antoinette, NATHANIEL PARKER as Rochester, and CLAUDIA ROBINSON as Christophine (a much more sympathetic character than she appears in the book).
Back when this movie came out, I read reviews which said how powerful and erotic it was.
I haven't read Jane Eyre, and maybe this movie tries to explain a few things which happen in that book, but on the whole it seemed contrived, and lacked any real passion.
No one sets out to make a bad movie, but I think this film had to have fallen short of what the filmmakers intended.
One sign that they felt the script wasn't delivering the punch needed was the number of times the stars shed their clothes.It's a pretty complex plot, and is the prelude to the story of "Jane Eyre".
Antoinette Cosway (Karina Lombard), like her mother before her, marries an English gentleman; in her case this is Edward Rochester (Nathaniel Parker).
For a while, Edward and Antoinette are happy, and can't leave each other alone, having many a sweaty encounter in the candlelit bedroom.Then everything starts to unravel; the madness that runs in Antoinette's family begins to overwhelm her, and there is trouble with the servants.
Edward heads off to England and it all ends in tears, flames and madness.The over-the-top quality of the whole thing does give the film a certain energy, and there is frisson in naked trysting to the beat of voodoo drums, but there is a lot in the film that just doesn't gel.Narration can be a lazy way to tell a story in movies.
The script problems are not helped by the awkwardness of the lead actors.The film includes real locations in England and Jamaica but are shot in a very straightforward and unimaginative way.
While not unwatchable by any means, the film has more than a few problems to overcome, not the least being an actress out of her depth, and little feeling for time and place..
the idea is that Jamaica, like the emblematic Sargosso sea, will tangle you up and pull you into it.
the fact that the film only exists to fill in a few gaps from Jane Eyre (explaining where one character came from) explains a lot.
the author would have done better by making a stand-alone film.Lombard is great in her role which is quite difficult to pull off.
I think all the main actors portray Rhys's characters well: Rochester as masterful yet in over his head; Antoinette as passionate but mercurial; the servant girl Amelie as wide-eyed and irresistible; and especially the spooky Christophine as intensely self-possessed and a formidable defender of those she holds dear.On DVD, this film can be watched in its NC-17 form or one that was edited down to a softer R rating.
There is occasional female nudity (mainly by Antoinette) and a bit of male frontal nudity (by Rochester), but the sex is not strikingly graphic.
"Wide Sargasso Sea" is a 1993 film starring Karina Lombard and Nathaniel Parker.
Based on the novel by Jean Rhys, it's Rhys' imagining of the first marriage of Edward Rochester's, before the book Jane Eyre begins.
It takes place in 1840s Jamaica.Mr. Rochester (Nathaniel Parker) arrives by arrangement to marry Antoinette (Karina Lombard) so that she may keep her property.
The voodoo and the presence of Antoinette's servant Christophene (Claudia Robinson) is threatening to Rochester.
The marriage begins to disintegrate.As I didn't read the novel and I am a huge fan of Nathaniel Parker, I didn't have the problems with this film that others did.
Though there is no sex in the book, the film is sexually charged.Nathaniel Parker is about 31 here, very young, and a newlywed.
Karina Lombard and Parker were nude quite a few times and in the throes of passion.
The film ends incorrectly -- the happenings shown did not take place until much later in the book Jane Eyre.
If you're a fan of Nathaniel Parker's or Karina Lombard's, run, don't walk, and rent it.
This disc contains both the R and NC-17 rated versions and checking the running times, that latter is only about 15 seconds longer, hardly a justification for putting both on the same disc, especially since it's all fairly tame nowadays as a sex film.
Anyway, this movie is a filming of a novel that sought rather ambitiously to serve as a prequel to Jane Eyre, telling its story from the viewpoint of Mr. Rochester's mad first wife and filling in how she wound up as she did.
Jean Rhys has taken seven years to finish the novel, on which the movie is supposed to be based on.
However, this rated film seems to be only concentrating on the sexual relationship between Rochester and Antoinette, as well as Sandi and Antoinette.
The relationship with Sandi is deliberately kept as question marks for readers to ponder upon in the novel, but here in the movie it is explicitly interpreted and the sympathy created by Rhys is lost.
But the movie is nevertheless a representation of colors in the Caribbeans--red, purple, blue and green--the exotic side of life that has repeled Rochester..
Well, ok, it's the sequel to "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte.
We watched the movie and it's slow and I really hated "Jane Eyre" so I didn't like this one much either.
Some years later, Mason arranges Antoinette (Karina Lombard) to marry Edward Rochester (Nathaniel Parker) and they take over his island property.Karina Lombard is undoubtedly a beautiful woman.
This film was gorgeous; Jamaica is a beautiful country.
But for those who haven't read the book, there should be enough information in the film itself to keep the reader afloat.
At no point in the movie were Mr. Rochester's "issues", as it were, fully explained.
Again, maybe this is the ultimate point, that Mr. Rochester is a snob and the archetypical Victorian Englishman and that Antoinette is the victim of both his prejudice and that of the Jamaicans.
One minute they are sailing off for England and the next she is the insane woman in the tower who burns down Mr. Rochester's house in "Jane Eyre." There is by no means enough plot development to support such a leap.
A period piece, sensual and evocative; also great prequel to Jane Eyre.
The movie is based on Jean Rhys' 1966 novel and is a prequel to Charlotte Brontë's 1847 classic Jane Eyre.
Having read Rhys' book, I can attest that the movie is sufficiently true to the novel (it's always best not to expect too much in that respect).
The Sargasso Sea is painted on screen as an ethereal place, one of almost psychedelic imagery, but quite pleasant though; it is in fact a very real region, not mystical nor mythical.We follow young Antoinette Cosway, played by Casey Berna on her journey from the time her mother, played by the beautiful and talented Rachel Ward, retreated from the outside world and went mad, till the time of her passing, which Antoinette claims happened in the burning of the family mansion.
In comes Edward Rochester (yes, that's the Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre) played by Nathaniel Parker, who by marrying her assumes the land owner status he was destined for.
The two have an idyllic honeymoon at home; we get to view Lombard's grace and beauty in sensual scenes with Parker, but this happiness is short lived as the couple's distrust of each other is fueled by Antoinette's entourage and Edward's new acquaintances on the island.
The novel did not lead me to expect the level of sensuality you'll find in the movie, but I'm thankful it went that way.The cast includes characters such as Christophene, Amelie and Young Bull, who play an important part of Antoinette's life; they are played respectively by the mysterious Claudia Robinson, the seductive Rowena King and intimidating Paul Campbell.
The one thing that I always felt I wanted to know more about concerning the novel Jane Eyre, was the backstory of Mrs. Rochester; Jean Rhys' novel satisfied that thirst and if you don't wish to read it, only care to see the movie, then by all means see this one, go rent it if you can still find it.
By the way, the novel is really a short read so why not go for that if you care, as I did, for Mrs. Rochester's backstory; you'll find Rhys' style most pleasant (you can almost hear the period accent). |
tt1152758 | Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father | Kurt Kuenne and Andrew Bagby grew up as close friends in the suburbs of San Jose, California, and Bagby frequently appeared in Kuenne's home movies. As these movies became more professional in quality in later years, Bagby invested in them with money he had saved up for medical school. While studying in Newfoundland, Canada, Bagby began a relationship with Shirley Turner, a twice-divorced general practitioner thirteen years his senior. Bagby's parents, friends, and associates were uneasy about the relationship because of what they saw as Turner's off-putting behavior. Turner moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa, while Bagby worked as a resident in family practice in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
In November 2001, as the relationship began to crumble, Turner became increasingly possessive. Bagby broke up with her and put her on a plane to Iowa. Turner drove almost 1,000 miles back to Pennsylvania overnight, and asked Bagby to meet her at Keystone State Park. Bagby was found dead the following day, face down, with five gunshot wounds. When Turner learned she was a suspect in the murder investigation, she fled to St. John's, Newfoundland. As the legal drama unfolded, Kuenne began collecting footage from his old home movies and interviewed Bagby's parents, David and Kathleen, for a documentary about his life.
After she reached St. John's, Shirley Turner revealed that she was pregnant with Bagby's child. While her extradition was pending, Turner was not held in custody; she gave birth to a boy she named Zachary. Bagby's parents moved to Canada to gain custody of Zachary and to obtain Turner's rendition for a trial in the U.S.. However, the extradition process was repeatedly prolonged by Turner's lawyers based on legal technicalities. When a provincial court ruled that enough evidence pointed to Turner as Bagby's killer, she was put in jail and Bagby's parents, David and Kathleen, were awarded custody of Zachary. Meanwhile, Kuenne traveled across the U.S. and the United Kingdom to interview Bagby's friends and extended family. Kuenne also went to Newfoundland and visited Zachary in July 2003.
In jail, Turner wrote to a judge and, contrary to normal legal procedure, received advice on how to appeal her arrest and imprisonment. Turner was later released by a Newfoundland judge, Gale Welsh, who — despite what the film presents as ample evidence that Turner was psychologically disturbed — felt she did not pose a threat to society in general. Turner was therefore released on bail and successfully sued for joint custody of Zachary with the Bagbys, although their arrangement was tenuous. The arrangement ended in tragedy when, on August 18, 2003, Turner jumped into the Atlantic Ocean with thirteen-month-old Zachary in a murder-suicide. David and Kathleen were left dumbfounded and grief-stricken. Kuenne's attempts to arrange interviews with the prosecutors and judges who facilitated Turner's freedom were rebuffed.
Distraught over Zachary's death, and outraged at the Canadian legal system's failure to protect the child, David and Kathleen mounted a campaign to reform the country's bail laws, which they believed had helped allow Turner to kill her child and herself. A panel convened by Newfoundland's Ministry of Justice agreed, releasing a report stating that Zachary's death had been preventable and that the government's handling of Turner's case had been inadequate. Turner's psychiatrist was found guilty of misconduct for having helped her post bail, and the director of Newfoundland's child welfare agency resigned. David Bagby wrote a best-selling book about his family's ordeal during the saga. Kuenne finished his documentary and dedicated it to the memory of both Bagby and his son; the film ends with the Bagbys and their relatives, friends, and colleagues reflecting on the father and son, as well as the impact that David and Kate had on all of them. | murder, sentimental | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0424993 | Employee of the Month | For years, Zack Bradley (Dane Cook) has been working at the local "Super Club" as a box-boy. He lives with his grandmother and spends his free time with co-workers Lon Neilson (Andy Dick), Iqbal Raji (Brian George), and Russell Porpis-Gunders (Harland Williams). Despite his "slacker" like ways he is kind-hearted, popular and supportive. His coworker Vince Downey (Dax Shepard) earns the Employee of the Month title for the 17th time in a row. Vince is egotistical and rude towards his co-workers, mainly his box boy Jorge Mecico (Efren Ramirez), who he berates constantly. His co-workers dislike him, but he is oblivious to this. When new cashier Amy Renfro (Jessica Simpson) is hired, Zack and Vince fall for her and compete for her affection. Zack is told that Amy slept with the "Employee of the Month" at her last job, so he decides to win the title. Amy has dinner with Vince, but is repulsed when he puts the move on her. Vince doesn't realize how Amy feels, thinking they had a good kiss and continues pursuing her. Zack steps up his act and becomes a harder worker, giving Vince competition for the title. He also goes on a date with Amy, which takes place entirely in Super Club.
Within a few days, with Vince still winning the daily star, Zack realizes that getting "Employee of the Month" is not as easy as he thought. With Iqbal's encouragement, Zack finds his groove and to Vince's horror, wins the star the next day. A war of attrition begins, as Vince tries everything he can think of to derail Zack's string of stars, even breaking into his house to reset the clocks and cause him to be late. Zack barely arrives on time and Vince's attempt to sabotage him is unsuccessful. Zack takes Iqbal's shift on the day of a championship slow-pitch game against rival chain Maxi-Mart. However, he leaves to play in the game and Iqbal is fired. Frustrated at Zack's new attitude, his friends tell him he is turning into Vince and feel his attempt at getting the title is a result of trying to have sex with Amy. Amy overhears the conversation and is disgusted at Zack for his true intentions. Amy tells Zack her last boyfriend, who was Employee of the Month, was conniving, conceited and impolite which was why she requested a transfer because she could not stand being with him.
At month's end, Zack and Vince are tied. On the day of the tie-breaking competition, Zack quits, gets Iqbal his job back and tells him he took responsibility for what happened, making a heartfelt apology to Lon, Iqbal, and Russell. Zack tells them he plans to win the competition, not for recognition or to make an impression, but for pride. When the store manager is about to announce Zack's resignation, Zack, Lon, Iqbal, and Russell show up claiming Zack never filed the resignation papers. It is revealed Russell bribed the human resources manager with a broken Butterfinger. Zack tries to reconcile with Amy, giving a heart-felt apology and telling her that no matter what, he is a better man because of her. Despite Vince's protests, the competition, for the fastest checkout, is held. The Employee of the Month Award will be granted to the person who finishes the task first.
Vince beats Zack by seconds, but during the award ceremony, Semi (Marcello Thedford), the security guard, brings a surveillance video of the competition that shows Vince throwing items behind his back and onto the belt without scanning them. Vince denies the allegations of under-ringing. The store's assistant manager, who had just completed an audit of the tills used in the competition, proved the surveillance video was right about Vince giving customers free things and has been doing this for 18 months, costing the store thousands of dollars. When security tape footage is shown and his register receipt totals proved he cost the store money, Vince is fired and required to wear a police tracking device in lieu of jail time. Zack ends up winning the competition having the second most points and Amy's love. Six weeks after Vince is terminated from Super Club, he is on probation and working at Maxi-Mart, a rival store. Jorge finally learns to assert himself and treats Vince the same as he was treated by Vince. He is still willing to give Vince a ride to the bus stop, knowing that this would put Vince outside the range of his probation leg-tracker. | entertaining, revenge, cult, comedy, romantic | train | wikipedia | It didn't look that good, I'm not that big of a Dane Cook fan (and in no way a Jessica Simpson fan), and I didn't enjoy "Waiting" too much (though I'm not sure how much that relates).
I went in hoping for something that was like Clerks or Office Space, What I received was unfortunately this piece of crap.Employee of the Month could have been funny or decent, but like most comedies made in the last decade, all of the characters and situations are unbelievably over the top.
On face value, 'Employee of the Month' looks pretty bad and after seeing it, it's not that great of a movie by any means but it isn't as terrible as it looked.
Dane Cook does a good role,and Dax Shepard was what made me love this movie.
But if you want to see a good movie with Dane Cook, Dax Shepard, Andy Dick and Harland Williams watch this movie.....you cant be disappointed..
Zack Bradley and Vince Downey (Dane Cook, Dax Shepard) are employees of the Super Club retail chain who already don't get along, except that Zack is a slacker box boy, while Vince is the chain's star cashier who has been Employee of the Month for 17 years straight.
When a pretty cashier named Amy (Jessica Simpson) shows up at the store, the competition heats up as Zack is hell-bent on beating Vince to win the coveted award and the heart of Amy.Employee of the Month turned out to be a lot better than the preview promised although it's still a bland comedy with only a few funny characters and moments.
Overall, Employee of the Month is a bland and harmless comedy that's only worth checking out if you're a huge fan of Dax Shepard or Dane Cook.
I think it would have been a much better movie with some small story line changes and most of all...if they had another actress...any other actress...playing the role of Amy. I was somewhat shocked that a "superstar" like Jessica Simpson, could be so horrible in a movie.
I had absolutely no interest what so ever in seeing Employee of the Month, let's face it, Jessica Simpson does not equal movie of the year.
But all that changes when a new girl, Amy, starts working with them and now Guy and Vince are competing for employee of the month since they heard about Amy only liking the best workers.
The only thing funny about this movie was Andy Dick, the relationship between Dax and Pedro, and Jessica Simpson's horrible acting abilities.
Dane is the character that makes the movie worth while and i loved the employee of the month stars ...
Anyway...a nice comedy with plenty of laughter...I saw it with my friends and you should to, it is well-worth seeing and most of all it is good because i love Dane and his ideas and also I enjoyed the fact that Andy Dick was in the cast...i like him very much from Radio News...so...u should see this flick...I'd give it a solid 7.5 for effort and comic moments and the plot, original as well...
She's just in the movie for her cleavage show, but it is not worth it.Dax Shepard is real good and brings up a few laughs with Efren Ramirez.
Dane somehow looks lost and frustrated and does not look like a part of the movie.There is not much spend on the movie, expect probably renting a Costco.The story might have been interesting if Dane tried to win the Employee of the month in his own 'box boy' way.
I have watch this movie last Saturday in a friend place and I liked it very much, I don't understand the under-rate of this movie in IMDb. I was not so happy when my friend announce the title of the movie and tell is a romance/comedy, I was afraid because you can expect the worse in this movie category, so I was ready in the conception of a complain to skip it and move for the next movie of our evening show.Surprisly I get hook from the start, the movie is light and entertaining, the story is good ,the acting is good, the humor is good.What is wrong with you people ?
Dane cook was awesome, Dax Shepard was great and so was Jessica Simpson.
But despite his now obvious appeal as a comic actor, I think he still needs to realize what movie choices are good, and which are bad.Employee of the Month, simply put, is a movie that set itself up for satiric greatness by taking place in a Costco/Sam's Club/WalMart hybrid, but just does not bother mining for any comedic gold.
Because Zack found out that the new cashier, Amy (the obviously attractive Jessica Simpson), only dates those high-calibre employees.Instead of mining, the film's writers have basically taken every cliché of every movie with a slacker pining for something more just because of the possible prize at the end, and mixed them into becoming something that is barely their own.
What is even worse is, it is his supporting cast that actually gets to swear.Yes, the likes of his character's friends which include Andy Dick, Harland Williams and Brian George, all seem to get to swear, and all seem to get the memorably funny one-liners.
His timing is a lot better perfected than the majority of the cast, and much like Cook, gets a few funny lines.
So, as anyone could predict, she spends the entirety of the movie looking gorgeous and delivering lines with such stupidity that you wonder why Cook or Shepard did not bother quiting the film because of how shallow and ridiculous their co-star is.
Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson, and Dax Shepard star in the most funniest, heart-warming films of the century.
Dane Cook stars as a normal box-boy worker with 3 friends and his medieval rival at Cashier Stand #1, played by Dax Shepard, but, heads roll when a new cashier, played by Jessica Simpson, transfers to the Super Club supermarket, and appears to have some romantic issues for the Employee of The Month.
Now, Dane Cook starts working hard with extra effort, but, has to beat his opponent, Dax Shepard in this outrageous comedy to see who will win Jessica Simpson's heart.
Dax Shepard and Efren Ramirez are screamingly hilarious, and Dane Cook, Andy Dick, Brian George, and Harland Williams are screamingly funny!
He was in RocketMan, dammit.I suppose the brainstorming session for this movie went something like "hey, a lot of people are shopping at Costco these days, let's get some people who are currently famous and make one of those summer-camp competition high jinks movies, except it'll be set inside a price club instead of Lake Chippewa!" They got the famous people, and Dax Shepard, and went to work assembling the supporting team that would be responsible for producing the laughs that the inept stars couldn't.
How many of them can walk down the street and have people say "hey, that's Andy Dick!" I rest my case.So basically, Employee of the Month is a really banal, useless comedy that looks to cash in on these times of bulk consumption and Texas Hold 'em.
Also, I know Dane Cook is a very funny guy, I love his stand up comedy, but he should have took a second look at this movie script and backed out.
I know comedy isn't meant to be taken seriously but who thinks up an idea like thatIf you have a mental age of over five and you have seen a film better than 'the Hamilton's's' you will not enjoy this film, trust me you will not - it is not funny, the characters are completely pathetic the storyline is weak and barely visible and Jessica Simpson is not the only person here who cannot act, i am not being dramatic, 1/10 i believe is a fair scoreof course this is just my opinion if you want to prove me wrong go ahead, but you will regret it.
No matter how talented or funny the actors may be in reality, there is no way they could have saved this script.If I ever see Dane Cook, or Jessica Simpson, I'll have to yell at them for wasting an hour and a half of my life I'll never get back.P.S. If the movie wasn't bad enough, the deleted scenes and extras are even worse.....
Perhaps the movie was trying too hard to be funny, but nothing seemed to work at all.I have nothing against Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson and Dax Shepard but surely they could have done better.To sum up the entire review, the movie was absolute crap.
Likable loser Zach, played by Dane Cook (still not funny), begins an all out competition with head cashier Vince (Dax Shepard) to win the coveted position ofwait for itemployee of the month.
Oh, and apparently uber-hot new cashier Amy (Jessica Simpson) only dates the employee of the montha plot point that is so stupid and inexplicable that it takes a lot of guts (or just plain laziness) to base a movie off of it.The majority of the film consists of the back and forth banter between the two lead charactersa concept that is lot more humorous in concept than in execution.
Having seen one other movie with Jessica Simpson (can't even recall what it's called), I can say with absolute certainty that she is truly talentless, and *really* not funny.Actually, she is not the only one -- the acting in general was quite bad in this movie.
Really enjoyed Employee of the Month, Its laugh out loud funny in places and the writing and direction are solid, don't get me wrong it's not the comedy of decade but deserves more than 5.5 so felt that I have to write a few positive words.Zack is a really likable character, well played by Dane Cook but Vince steals the show, a great comic performance, some great lines and situations, the supporting cast are all interesting and likable and are played well especially Jorge, Vinces sidekick and Glen Gary ( or Glen Ross) the store manager who really hams up the part and what's not to like or look about Jessica Simpson?Well worth and hour and a half of your time..
Employee Of The Month is just one of those comedy films that actually was fun to watch as soon as you pop it.Granted there are characters that could have been done with out and no this film will not win any rewards but it is pretty fun.Employee Of The Month follows the story of Zack (Dane Cook) and Vince (Dax Shepard) as they fight to be Employee Of The Month to try and impress Amy (Jessica Simpson).
It also features a very good soundtrack with songs that were made for the movie.Dane Cook is really funny in this film and he show case his talents in comedy films plus Dax made that kind of villain that show how much an antagonist he is through the film.
The film story is really the selling point of course with Dane, Dax and Jessica being the main stars of the film.With a good story and laugh out moments with good one liners you should enjoy this film.I give Employee Of The Month an 8 out of 10.
We ended up turning off Wedding Crashers after too many groan-inducing scenes, but watched Employee of the Month all the way through and laughed at most of the jokes, which was the opposite of what I expected to happen.
The best line of the movie was when she said "you employees of the month are all the same" I am pretty sure it was not meant to be funny, but it was so bad that i laughed.
Employee follows the war of wits between two co-workers, Zack Bradley (Dane Cook) and Vince Downey (Dax Shepard), to win the "E of M" award.
All of his jokes all flat and are, for the lack of a better word, stupid.Dax, who I usually like on Punk'd, gets no character development and acts the same throughout the entire movie.I'm not even going to review the plot.
Surprisingly, Andy Dick was the only slightly humorous person in the movie which featured not only Dane Cook, but Jessica Simpson's ample cleavage, I think Jessica Simpson may have been in it also, but I don't really know for sure.
Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, and language Employee Of The Month is a comedy starring Dane Cook and Jessica Simpson.I saw it a few months ago on the movie network.I don't really remember much about the movie.Its basically about a box-boy who works at a walmart type store.One day a hot clerk comes to work with them and its a rumor that she sleeps with the "Employee Of The Month".So basically the box-boy tries hard to become the employee of the month which angers his enemy, a rival clerk who is always employee of the month.While doing so, he looses his friends and gets to learn more about the new girl he is smitten by.Employee Of The Month has a few laughs but is overall nothing special..
The plot, for what it's worth, sees Dane Cook and Dax Shepard as co-workers who vie for the title of "Employee Of The Month" in the hope of getting into Jessica Simpson's underwear.
There're good laughs in this movie, like that scene when VINCE is trying to match with what AMY will say next, and the stupid guy only says crap!
DAX and Dane are seriously funny.Even Jessica Simpson doesn't ruin it with her acting.
There is a great cast of comedic actors including, Dane Cook and Dax Shepard who play the main characters.
The jokes are terrible and in my opinion Jessica Simpson and Dane Cook have no business being in a movie.
I think Dane Cook's comedy albums are okay but he is just awful as an "actor", and Jessica Simpson's lack of acting ability is already well known.
This was a surprisingly low-key break-out vehicle for Dane Cook, which is ironic because his whole style of comedy on the stand-up front is all about being over-the-top.The real gem in this movie was Dax Sheppard, who, once again, like he did in Idiocracy, took a part which was designed to fade into the background in favour of the star, and turned out a noteworthy performance.The ever-decorative Jessica Simpson also delivers an outstanding performance i.e. she does a stand-up job of making her breasts stand out in all her scenes (how many more "standing" puns do I need to make?) She also smiles nicely throughout the movie.All-in-all, a fun way to spend a couple of hours.I really hope Dane Cook gets a chance to do what he does best though, which is to be Dane Cook, because this movie certainly didn't give him the space to do that..
The supporting cast helps capture some of the potentially funny situation.**** Employee of the Month (10/6/06) Greg Coolidge ~ Dane Cook, Dax Shepard, Jessica Simpson.
this movie surprised me - i laughed a lot more than expected, and had a really good time watching it.i don't agree with many things in the plot though : i don't like how the writers are turning the viewers against Vince's character (played superbly by Dax Shepard, who i didn't like much in Idiocracy, but then i didn't like that movie at all...) i don't like writers' decision to turn Zack's friend co-workers against him at one point of the film i don't like Jessica Simpson's part, playing the role of a stupid blonde, but then...she really has a pair of beautiful - eyes -but if you don't mind all those, you can only enjoy this moviepeace.
Super Club is a huge store (like a Sam's or COSTCO, but I think much, much bigger) and the there is a race to be Employee of the Month between Zack (Cook) and Vince (Shepard).
I mean, c'mon...Dane Cook rides a tiny motorcycle...Andy Dick can't see anything, Jessica Simpson has weird ears...ha ha ha ha...what amazing comedy.
If you went into a Dane Cook Jessica Simpson comedy expecting anything else - please.
Laugh-out loud comedy showcasing Cook & Shepard; Dick steals the movie.
EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH (2006) *** Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson, Dax Shepard, Andy Dick, Harland Williams, Tim Bagley, Brian George, Efren Ramirez, Marcello Thedford, Danny Woodburn, Sean Whalen, Barbara Dodd.
Two Costco-esquire store employees, one is 17 consecutive Employee of the Month recipient Vince (Dax Shepard), the other is the definition of lazy slacker, Zack (Dane Cook), are suddenly thrust into competition when they hear that the new cashier, Amy (Jessica Simpson) will date the employee of the month.
As an employee of a store similar to this, I expected a film along the lines of Office Space and Waiting..., but what I got was a clichéd and sometimes unrealistic movie that showcased the talents of Dax Shepard and Dane Cook well, while further showing why Jessica Simpson is not an actress.
Aside from that, Employee of the Month is a funny and light-hearted comedy that isn't as bad as others say it is.Dane Cook was never on my list of favorites.
Even though Dane Cook isn't really funny in his stand-up, he proved to pull off a good slacker in Employee of the Month.
Overall, it's okay.Starring: Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson, Dax Shepard, Andy Dick, and Marcello Thedford.
Employee of the Month is actually not a good movie.
First off, the acting was pretty bad (especially Jessica Simpson), the jokes and gags were not funny, the characters were boring and annoying and the plot was very simple and very predictable.
Employee of the month is about a slacker box boy(Dane Cook) working at a Costco like store(Pretty sure it was filmed in a Costco) who decides to make a change in his work style in order to impress the new cashier(Jessica Simpson) who happens to have a thing for Employees of the month. |
tt0821810 | All Roads Lead Home | The story is about a 12-year-old girl, Belle, who loses her mother in a car accident. She is sent to her grandfather's for releasing all of the kennel dogs where her father works. When all the animals start to get sick and die in Belle's hometown, her father's veterinarian girlfriend struggles to find out what is killing the healthy animals. When Belle's father and his girlfriend visit, Belle's dog attacks the grandfather's farmhand Basham. Because Belle is now running the farm, she decides the dog should be put to death because that is what she learned on the farm. She learns this after running away with one of her grandpa's horses, two puppies, and the dog she will later decide to euthanize. She almost dies while running away in the middle of a torrential downpour when she slips and falls and goes unconscious on a pair of railroad tracks while a train approaches. Luckily, Basham saves her. When the dog is about to die, It is discovered that the food Basham was carrying contained a lethal mold that was killing the animals. The vet goes to the factory where the food was made and fixes the problem, ending the dog epidemic. Then, Belle's rich grandpa has an inn turned into a no-kill animal shelter. And they all lived happily ever after. | tragedy | train | wikipedia | Defining Family Entertainment...perhaps re-defining..
All Roads Lead Home Review By: J.
Franklin Bradley, LBK Holdings, Inc.True "family entertainment" is far more than just something everyone in the family can watch together.
If done correctly, "family entertainment" is characters and situations that can be felt and understood by all generations
nicely blended into a compelling bit of storytelling that captures the imagination of it's audiences.Just such a movie is "All Roads Lead Home", a little film with a really big payoff for its audiences.
Each character adds a piece to the mosaic, from a cantankerous grandfather to his rebellious granddaughter, her father and his struggles with parenting, guilt and trying to move on with his life.
Each has a differing view of their shared tragedy, yet no resolution can be found until they fight off the demons of mistrust, misunderstanding, stubbornness and resentment.
Together, these characters form a wonderfully complicated mosaic, never fully revealed until the last piece is put into place.Audiences of all ages will be mesmerized by this film.
For it is a journey through life's complications, with every age and viewpoint represented.
There truly is something for everyone in "All Roads Lead Home".
And that "something" is a heart-warming story that proves that "family entertainment" really can reach out and hold an audience from the first to the last word of the script.
Its storytelling at it's best.
And it shouldn't be missed..
Low Quality Movie.
I don't typically post comments for movies, but I had to write in about this one.
After seeing a decent rating (6.2 stars on IMDb is not bad), and mostly positive reviews, includes superlative statements such as: "It could be the most powerful animal-themed film I have seen.", "Defining Family Entertainment...perhaps re-defining." and "Put it on your "must-see" list.".We rented "All Roads Lead Home" for our family, and were put off by the overt over-the-top animal rights themes, low budget look of the film (simplistic camera work, minimal post-processing, poor editing, sub par acting) and *very* choppy plot.
The story seemed contrived in parts to go out of its way to pull at emotional connections to animals, and in all but a very few scenes was ineffective at doing so.That is not to say that this film should not be watched, or is worthless, it just seemed like from many of the comments on IMDb that this was an Oscar-quality film.
I would rather people go into this with their eyes open, so I decided to post.
A number of these comments appear to be written from the perspective of a personal friend of the film crew, or someone who was invited to a private screening.
Hardly a unbiased source.
I don't at all mean to question the integrity of those comment authors, we are all entitled to our opinion!
But I did want to balance that out with a more realistic look at this film.To realistically rate this anything higher than 5/10 stars would be quite a leap, even for someone who enjoys cheesy sappy movies.
This was a cheesy sappy movie that was done poorly with a small budget.I would not recommend this movie, and feel there are many better choices on the market when it comes to family friendly movies..
Mediocre At Best.
I didn't watch this movie with high expectations so I wasn't too disappointed but I feel like there was a lot of wasted potential.
What could have been a touching story about reverence and respect for life, and healing after a tragedy turned into nothing more than animal rights propaganda.
I found the acting from all parties to be quite unconvincing.
The "troubled daughter" as it read on the back of the movie cover, was a sweet grieving little girl who made a few mistakes with the best intentions at heart.
I was not raised on a ranch, but I have a hard time believing that animals are tossed aside and killed so quickly and completely without thought as in this film.
For the younger audience this movie could possibly be enjoyable but let me put it this way, if I wanted to watch some kind of PETA film, I would have rented one..
One of the best family films I have seen in years....
The description 'family film' gets tossed around a lot.
I have found that either these so called family movies are either A) animated or B) still contain language, themes, etc that aren't exactly family friendly.All Roads Lead Home is different.
It is a wonderful film that manages to be sad, happy, funny, touching, and uplifting all at once.
I won't go into to too many details as I don't want to ruin the story, but the message is simple, every living thing deserves a chance.The movie also deals with death and dying which in my opinion is a positive.
It shows that death is a part of life, it isn't glossed over but it also is shown morbidly or overly traumatic.All in all it is a great film that I highly recommend...it will make you cry, make you laugh, make you think and most importantly if you watch it with children, make you talk.
There are a ton of discussion topics that are dealt with in a positive way and I think that is both important and not something we see a lot of in 'family films.' See this movie..
Heartfelt for entire Family!.
Our family was so taken in by this movie!
You fall in love with the characters and feel what they are going through like you are part of the story.
This movie definitely makes a statement about the love and care of animals.
It is amazing how true it is about animals intuition if they could only speak to us more clearly.
Peter Boyle's last performance is hilarious!
The art direction is outstanding.
The Missouri & Kansas landscapes are picturesque!
Could not wait for it to come out on DVD to buy and share with friends and family that did not get a chance to see it.
Would love to see more of these actors in future movies.
Thanks for making a movie that all ages could see!!.
Great family movie especially if you love pets!.
All Roads Lead Home is a great family movie everyone can enjoy.
The movie will make you laugh and cry!
It is a wonderful movie that you can walk away talking about and feel touched.
The filming and choice of scenery was well done by Dennis Fallon and his crew.
We enjoyed watching Peter Boyle in his final acting role.
Peter Coyote did a wonderful job in portraying the grandfather in the movie.The selection of actors and actresses for this film was properly chosen.
The movie has a strong message for animal rights and animal welfare.
The movie also shows the respect and love for all creatures small and large.
I attended the preview of the movie at the Mall of America in August 2008 and thoroughly enjoyed the film along with my other 9 friends.
They as well had rave reviews that there was finally a good family movie out there to be seen.
Each one of us had the opportunity to meet Dennis Fallon the director in person.
He answered our questions, and explained how scenes were made.
This is definitely a must see family movie that can be enjoyed for years to come.
I believe this is a movie in its infant steps towards the betterment of animal welfare.
We are all hoping that there will be more movies similar to All Roads Lead Home that can be produced.
I would highly recommend this movie to families with children 7 years and older.
Anyone who has a sincere appreciation for animals will certainly enjoy this film..
Alireza.Akhlaghi.Official.
It's about the animal's axis and its rights.
It also has the feature of drama, which means that it will include in it the story which to bring the film ahead and bring the audience to the film.
But its overall appeal is about the relationship between the girl and her grandfather and the way they look at the animals.
In general, Basic and fundamental changes in the approach of humans to each issue are seen with the sacrifice and transfer from generation to generation, and this change of approach in the story of the film is somewhat respected, but when an elderly man has the flexibility himself It seems like the change process is going to improve our situation and our attitude toward issues as if it were going forward ten years ago, and we do not drown in the swamp of our time.
The film is well worth mentioning about the impact of change in look and the direct relationship we are having with the progress of the course on the subject of the film.
Of course, with a little deeper insight, this can be extended to all aspects of life.
Believing change and attitudes can significantly reduce the costs of arrears that arise from selfishness and personal ambitions, which means progress.
At first glance, the film shocked its audience with an unpleasant incident, but in the third scenario, the recovery is going well and there are some good changes in Hook's brain, with his granddaughter, Bele.
It's not bad to see the film from the direction of view and look better for tomorrow.
This movie will help you..
A Wonderful Way to Spend an Evening.
Posted by Mike FryThis evening, I had the privilege of seeing a private screening of a film titled "All Roads Lead Home".
The movie is a must-see for anyone who feels a connection to nonhuman life forms.
It could be the most powerful animal-themed film I have seen.
It features a stellar cast and a story beautifully told.
Those who may shy away from a movie labeled as a "family film" will appreciate the boldness with which "All Roads Lead Home" tackles tough issues.
Be clear: This film is perfectly acceptable for all members of the family.
However, it is far from the cliché, formulaic sorts of "family films" one might associate with that genre.
All Roads Lead Home has already begun racking up some pretty nice awards, including one for Best Feature Drama at the International Family Film Festival.
It also got kudos at the Palm Beach International Film Festival and the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
In some ways, these last two mentions are extra remarkable, because family films are not typically the kinds of films that do well at film festivals.
The success of THIS "family film" at these international film festivals is a testament to the broad range of appeal "All Roads Lead Home" has.
Put it on your "must-see" list..
Good film, with reservations.
****** SPOILERS !!!
******I rented this film and watched it with my teenage daughter.
Overall good, with many issues that are food for discussion.
I won't repeat those here.My problems have to do with portraying the rancher and his help as barbaric.
It's one thing to humanely cull animals that are not useful, or too sick and expensive to be cost-effective to keep.
This would have been distressing enough for a tender-hearted city girl.
When it came to (apparently) drowning unwanted puppies, though, I began to wonder if I was watching a propaganda film for a certain animal- rights group.
This is NOT, in my experience, typical behavior for a livestock operation, it's also illegal, and the girl should have called the law on 'em..
It's a shame this was Peter Boyle's last film.
I saw this movie at my girlfriends aunt's place this past weekend, and I must say that it was an all around bad film.
It had potential to be a decent to good family film about dealing with tragic loss for both father and daughter, but in stead it came across as a thinly veiled animal rights advert.
Even the music was poorly handled, the sound track seemed to range from schmaltzy hallmark commercial stuff to over the top and melodramatic, not to mention that it was actually edited into the film poorly(at some points the music almost drowned out the dialogue), which pulls the viewer out of the film and probably only hurt the acting which was already on life support.The story itself seemed altogether forced, the mother dies at the beginning because she needs to reach something in the back seat, so she unbuckles her seat belt and stops watching the road.
I was left feeling less bad about the mother dying and more thinking that she stupidly risked her husband and daughters life as well as other nearby motorists just to do something irrelevant.
Why not have the car get plowed into by a drunk driver who runs a red light or something else equally tragic and realistic?
***SPOILER*** There were also these sub-plots about this tainted animal feed and the decision to put down this little girls favorite dog on the ranch which didn't seem to serve any purpose other than to waste time.
And then there was the part where Peter Coyote orders one of his ranch hands to DROWN A LITTER OF PUPPIES, seriously that's the kind of thing they put in bad Stephen Segal movies to make the bad guy even more evil.Finally, and this is just a nitpick, but Jason London looked like he belongs on the sex offender registry with his greasy looking hair and scraggly goatee.All around I was left thinking that the biggest tragedy wasn't the little girls mothers death, but that this would stand as the last film in Peter Boyle's otherwise remarkable career.
Fortunately for him, unlike Raul Julia in Street Fighter, most people won't remember this movie..
A movie with potential........
I was hoping for family entertainment that I could watch with my grandkids in a couple of years.
Unfortunately, I bought the movie, and can't return it now.
It began poorly with an irresponsible move on the mother's part when she unbuckled her seat belt on a dark rainy night to dig for something in the back seat!
I should have turned it off there...The vet and her assistant were poorly cast as well.
Cute girls, but way way way to girlie for the parts they played.
Very unrealistic and annoying.
What?....Used to acting on 2 1/2 Men????
Oh, maybe stay there....It was also very poor taste to have such low pants and excessive skin showing on the vet.
She had to keep hiking up her pants in a few of the scenes, and had some issues with bending or squatting.
Not appropriate for this type of role or film dealing with a girl recovering from her mother's death, and having trust issues with her dad.
(Not a future mom role).
I've never met a female vet who dresses like this either.I agree with other reviews about this having the feel of an animal rights movie.
Waste of film time, and not important to the plot.And for people who were sensitive to animals, they should have readily "listened" to the trusted dog when he seemingly barked for no apparent reason.
They would have seen the hole in the grass and at least thought about what may have been wrong in the barn.
Also, the reaction to put the dog down was WAY to severe.This had the potential of being a "keeper" movie.....Now, I just feel like I wasted my money.
Perhaps they could have a re-do to redeem themselves and send me a copy so I don't feel like I totally wasted my money. |
tt0459668 | Kilomètre zéro | The story begins with a road trip story set in Iraqi Kurdistan during the Iran-Iraq war in 1988. The radio announcer is describing the events happening.
The scene then switches to a Kurdish village a few weeks before the Halabja poison gas attack where Ako, a young Kurdish man, is forced to join the Iraqi Army, while he is dreaming of escaping the country. A few dramatic scenes follow, some of them being flashbacks of home. Ako is sent to the frontline with a few Kurdish comrades and is subject to abuse by the other Iraqi soldiers, due to his Kurdish background.
There are other scenes depicting abuse also. In one, a man is beaten for refusing to run laps with the others. In another, a firing squad is seen in executing captured Kurdish guerillas.
When Ako is given a mission to escort the coffin of a dead Iraqi soldier to his family, an unexpected opportunity for escaping comes up. His driver turns out to be an Arab with strong feeling against the Kurds. They are given a small car with the coffin draped in an Iraqi flag, strapped to the top. The two set out for the long journey across the Iraqi landscape, and encounter a few happenings along the way. In one, they are confronted by a screaming Iraqi woman who is convinced that the dead soldier is her husband. In another, the two men are sitting together as they take a break, and the driver refuses to let Ako look at a picture of his wife.
As the journey goes on, Ako does his best to trick the driver into heading toward Kurdistan. He eventually finds his village, now destroyed and abandoned. However, he finds his wife, but their reunion is cut short by an Iraqi bombardment.
The setting switches to Ako and his wife in 2003. They discuss how much they lost during the war, and hear the news that Baghdad has fallen to Coalition troops. They are overjoyed, and celebrate their newfound freedom. | comedy, satire | train | wikipedia | this movie writes history.
"If the starting point is zero the only way to move is forward", said director Hiner Saleems in an interview.
His movie "Kilomètre zero" is made out of this indestructible optimism in the middle of horror.In a small town in the North of Iraq during the times of the "First Golf War" the Kurd Ako (Nazmî Kirik) is recruited by force to fight against Iran, while Saddam Hussein is already preparing his extermination campaign against the Kurdish minority.
After some time at the front he gets the order to escort a killed soldier to his family his chance to escape the war.
Together with an Arab driver who treats him only with contempt he takes of for an arduous journey through Iraq.With charm Hiner Saleem masters all the patterns that makes a movie on dictatorship and suppression attractive for the festivals.
There is the stage-like minimalism in plot and equipment, the impressive photographic production and the excellent choice of music.
With so much ability the spectator excuses generously that the plot is getting out of hand in the end.
The almost absurd ease is a clear post against melodramatic transfiguration of war à la Hollywood.
An important reminder that suffering never can be completely seized by a movie.But what makes this movie really special is something else.
It's the small glimpses between the lines of the film-text.
Truly eerie moments in which the movie is dropping all playfulness in front of a scenery of constant murder and terror.
There is just nothing like this movie.
Over 10 years virtually no movie was produced in the nation of Iraq.
This is a piece of movie history.Trivia: The constant presence of a huge statue of Ex-dictator Saddam Hussein on the set was problematic.
The sculptor ordered to make this "piece of art" was once even thrown into prison before the filmmakers could clarify the situation..
Black Humorous Propaganda.
In the late 80's, in the small village of Amedi, the Kurd electrician Ako (Nazmî Kirik) is forced to leave his family and join the Iraqi army to fight in Basra against Iran.
When he is assigned to escort the coffin of a deceased soldier to his family, the crosses the country with an Arab driver and plots a scheme to desert the army and bring his wife and son to Paris."Kilomètre Zero" is a film of the Kurdish director Hiner Saleem with a black humorous propaganda against Saddam Hussein's regime but unfortunately with bad taste.
I did not see the point of the cow defecating in front of the camera, or the offense against the flag of Iraq since Ako's attitude is neither dramatic nor funny and the flags of all countries should be respected.
My vote is four.Title (Brazil): "Quilômetro Zero" ("Zero Kilometer").
The wet dream of a ex soviet film maker.
This movie is the wet dream of any ex soviet film maker, director, producer, script writer, whatever.
And not just ex soviet, any Eastern European too.
The irony, the depressive scenes, the ugly irony, the pointless violence, simply all of it would feature proudly in any of the tens (or hundreds?) of crap features about how the stalinists came and pushed that particular proud savage territory from organic apple makers to polluted bankrupt industry nobody seems to need.Sadly this is not enough.
The trailers that came as a bonus with the DVD are far better than the whole film.
There is a simplicity and an irony that simply can't be found in the whole hour and a half.
The camera is nice.
The idea is even better.
And everything seems to stop there.
The feature is too long for the story.
And it has timing problems -- for example a man who died after the main characters leave the front is mysteriously already waiting somewhere near the end.Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch.
Saleem don't like it.
Set in 1988, the young man Ako is conscripted to fight (along with his fellow Kurds) for the armed forces of Iraq in their conflict with Iran.
The draft process is fraught with ethnic hatred and the newly-inducted soldiers conduct the fight only with an eye to helping themselves to find a way home, even if it means a self-inflicted gunshot wound.Ako gets a chance to return home as part of a funereal honor guard, traveling with an Arab driver in a truck carrying a flag-draped coffin.
As the body rots in the hot mid-Eastern sun the Arab and the Kurd unsuccessfully suppress their animosity towards each other.
The hatred which continues to this day (although it is both Shiite and Sunni Arabs who hate each other as well as hating the Kurds) lends but a small sense of the tragedy that is inevitable in ethnic conflicts.
A tragedy seemingly mocked throughout the film by a statue of Saddam Hussein sitting on the back of a flatbed truck, running about the countryside in constant salute, mutely exhorting Iraqis to the greater glory of the state.Ako does get home, and his family's story is somewhat resolved at the end as we fade to April 9, 2003 in Paris.
On this day we see Ako and his wife together in Paris, jubilant at the news of the US taking of Baghdad.
At this point the current-in-time viewer realizes how this movie lives up to its name: given the state of Iraq in early 2006 three years after the US invasion, we know that is where Iraq today is at Kilometer Zero..
the past, the present and the future of the Kurds.
As stated in french ' notre passé est triste, notre present est tragique, mais heureusement on n'a pas d'avenir" (our history is sad, our present is tragic, fortunately we dont have any future).
This movie is a bit about the history of the Kurds in Iraq.
Besides the obvious anti war tone of the movie, I gues this movie tries to highlights some facts about the Kurdish history.
A Kurdish movie made in 2005 with the artists from Kurds from Iraq and Turkey.in addition ot the anti-war tone of the movie, I can underline some messages: -The the despair of the Olds who put the Kurdish generations in the illiterate and oblivion.
-The very frequent and well known fact that since a Kurd run a way from his own militia would be forced to serve in the bang of disgusting torturer and his life would be a mess.
-A kurd will usually be despised and deceived by the others.
-A kurd will not be both pious and racist towards other languages ( The Kurd will feel anger and despair watching the Kurdish soils around him, while the arabian racist driver praying).
-Western had forgotten the Kurds but nevertheless it is only them where Kurds today could find the refuge.
is the declared liberty at the end of the movie real?
We have to wait the future to tell us. |
tt0116908 | The Long Kiss Goodnight | Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) is a schoolteacher in the small town of Honesdale, Pennsylvania, with her boyfriend Hal (Tom Amandes) and her daughter Caitlin (Yvonne Zima). Eight years earlier, she was found washed ashore on a New Jersey beach, pregnant with Caitlin and totally amnesiac. Having never remembered her real name or any part of her life from before that day, "Samantha" has hired a number of private investigators to try to discover her past, the latest being Mitch Henessey (Samuel L. Jackson). During the Christmas holidays, Samantha is involved in a car accident and suffers a brief concussion, and when she recovers, she finds that she possesses skills with a knife that she cannot explain. Some time later, they are attacked by "One-Eyed Jack" (Joseph McKenna), a convict who escaped from jail after seeing Samantha's face on television, but she demonstrates the prowess to subdue and kill Jack bare-handed. Worried that she may scare Caitlin, Samantha leaves with Mitch, who has been able to find a suitcase purportedly belonging to her, to seek out answers.
The suitcase contains a note directing the two to Dr. Nathan Waldman (Brian Cox), who they arrange to meet at a train station, unaware that unknown agents are tracing the doctor's calls. En route, Samantha discovers the bottom of the suitcase contains a disassembled sniper rifle which she can expertly reassemble, along with other weapons. At the station, Samantha and Mitch go to meet Dr. Waldman and are attacked by a number of agents, but the two manage to escape with Nathan's help. The doctor reveals that he knows Samantha is really an expert CIA assassin, Charlene Elizabeth "Charly" Baltimore, who had disappeared eight years prior. Unsure if they can trust him, (due to the surprise attack they'd just escaped, and him being the only person they'd contacted), Samantha and Mitch leave Waldman behind and seek another contact named on a note within the suitcase, Luke (David Morse), believing him to be Samantha's fiancé. Waldman catches up, trying to warn them of something, and they realize too late that Luke was actually Samantha's last assassination target, "Daedalus"; Luke kills Dr. Waldman and captures and tortures Samantha (has her strapped to a large water-wheel to enquire why she's resurfaced after all these years), whilst repeatedly held underwater she's finally jolted into remembering her past life. Samantha escapes, kills Luke, and escapes with Mitch. First however, she has a quick snazzy blond 'makeover' to her old self, which Mitch hardly recognises.
Samantha/Charly struggles with the duality of her life, realizing that the "Samantha Caine" personality was her 'school-teacher cover' to get near to Daedalus eight years earlier, and considered abandoning it. Mitch helps her to recognize the importance of her daughter to her. Continuing to search for answers, Charly and Mitch learn about Daedalus' involvement in "Project Honeymoon", which she disrupted on her mission eight years earlier and resulted in One-Eyed Jack's incarceration; "Project Honeymoon" was a false flag chemical bomb detonation in downtown Niagara Falls, New York, planned out by the CIA, used to place blame on Islamic terrorists and to secure more funding and power for the department. Charly realizes that a new group is plotting to restage the attack, led by her former boss at the CIA, Leland Perkins (Patrick Malahide) and a psychological-operations specialist named Timothy (Craig Bierko), who Charly had had a romantic relationship with in the past. She and Mitch head to Niagara Falls, and learn that Timothy has kidnapped Caitlin, as well as the motivation behind 'Project Honeymoon' - simulating an Islamic terrorist attack so as to increase CIA off-shore operations funding, recently cut off by Congress. Charly implores Timothy not to hurt Caitlin, after realizing that Timothy is actually Caitlin's biological father.
Charly and Mitch attack the staging area, forcing Timothy to launch the attack early; meanwhile Caitlin escapes and accidentally locks herself in a cage on the truck carrying the chemical bomb. Mitch is gravely injured in the attack, but gives Charly cover to give chase to the truck. She overpowers the truck's driver, diverting it out onto an empty bridge before it overturns. Charly and Timothy fight, but she overpowers him and knocks Timothy out on top of the truck. Badly injured, Charly frees Caitlin and tells her to clear the bridge, but Timothy's agents prevent her from leaving. Mitch suddenly arrives in a car, races across the bridge, and picks up Charly and Caitlin in time before the truck bomb explodes, killing Timothy and the remains of his force, as well as destroying the bridge. They just manage to escape the blast by the skin of their car's bumper, as they dodge flaming cars raining down on them.
In the epilogue, Charly has returned to her assumed identity of Samantha Caine, moving with Caitlin and Hal to a remote farmhouse with a bunch of goats, and declines an offer from the president to rejoin the CIA. For his part, Mitch enjoys the publicity attracted by his role in the crisis, and is last seen being interviewed by Larry King on television, where they discuss Perkins, who was indicted for treason. | comedy, mystery, neo noir, cult, flashback, humor, action, suspenseful | train | wikipedia | null |
tt2120152 | The Invisible War | The Invisible War features interviews with veterans from multiple branches of the United States Armed Forces who recount the events surrounding their assaults. Their stories show many common themes, such as the lack of recourse to an impartial justice system, reprisals against survivors instead of against perpetrators, the absence of adequate emotional and physical care for survivors, the unhindered advancement of perpetrators' careers, and the forced expulsion of survivors from service.
Interspersed with these first person testimonies are interviews with advocates, journalists, mental health professionals, active duty and retired generals, Department of Defense officials, and members of the military justice system. The film also includes footage, often shot by the veterans themselves, which documents their lives and continuing struggles in the aftermath of their assaults.
In the film's most prominent narrative, Coast Guard veteran Seaman Kori Cioca struggles to earn benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay for the many medical difficulties that have resulted from her rape. With the help of attorney Susan L. Burke, Cioca, along with other survivors featured in the film, brings Cioca v. Rumsfeld, a civil suit against the Department of Defense alleging a failure to adequately address sexual assault within the military.
Other past incidents of sexual abuse recounted in the film include the 1991 Navy Tailhook scandal, the 1996 Army Aberdeen scandal, and the 2003 Air Force Academy scandal. The Invisible War uses these examples to argue that the military has consistently made empty promises to address its high rate of sexual assault. These stories culminate with an examination of the previously unreported culture of sexual harassment and sexual assault at the prestigious Marine Barracks Washington.
The survivors and advocates featured in the film call for changes to the way the military handles sexual assault, such as shifting prosecution away from unit commanders, who often are either friends with assailants or are assailants themselves. | thought-provoking | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0069747 | Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob | Rabbi Jacob (Marcel Dalio) is one of the most loved rabbis of New York. One day, the French side of his family, the Schmolls, invite him to celebrate the bar mitzvah of the young David. Rabbi Jacob boards a plane to leave America for his birthland of France after more than 30 years of American life. His young friend Rabbi Samuel comes with him.
In Normandy, the rich businessman Victor Pivert (Louis de Funès) is also on his way; his daughter (Miou-Miou) will be married the next day. Pivert is a dreadful man: bad-tempered, rude and a bigot, with a well-honed racism against blacks, Jews, and pretty much all foreigners. He and his driver, Salomon (Henri Guybet), have a car accident in which Pivert's car (carrying a speed boat) flips upside-down into a lake. When Salomon, who is Jewish, refuses to help because Shabbat has just begun, Pivert fires him, much to Salomon's content.
Arab revolutionist leader Mohamed Larbi Slimane (Claude Giraud) is kidnapped by killers who are working for his country's government. The team, led by Colonel Farès, takes him by night to an empty bubble gum factory... the same place where Victor Pivert goes to find assistance. Pivert involuntarily helps Slimane to flee, leaving two killers' corpses behind them. The police, alerted by Salomon, find the bodies and accuse Pivert of the crime.
The next day, Slimane forces Pivert to go to Orly airport to catch a plane to Slimane's country (if the revolution succeeds, he will become President). However, they are followed by a number of people: the jealous Germaine, Pivert's wife, who thinks her husband is going to leave her for another woman; Farès and the killers; and the police commissioner Andréani (Claude Piéplu), a zealous and overly suspicious cop who imagines that Pivert is the new Al Capone. Farès and his cohorts manage to kidnap Germaine, and they use her own dentist equipment to interrogate her.
Trying to conceal his and Pivert's identities, Slimane attacks two rabbis in the toilets, stealing their clothes and shaving their beards and their payot. The disguises are perfect, and they are mistaken for Rabbi Jacob and Rabbi Samuel by the Schmoll family. The only one who recognizes Pivert (and Slimane) behind the disguise is Salomon, his former driver, who just happens to be a Schmoll nephew. But Pivert and Slimane are able to keep their identity secret and even manage to hold a sermon in Hebrew, thanks to the polylingual Slimane (who is deeply gutted, of course).
After a few misunderstandings, Commissioner Andréani and his two inspectors are mistaken by the Jews for terrorists, attempting to kill Rabbi Jacob. The real Rabbi Jacob arrives at Orly, where no one is waiting for him any more. He is mistaken for Victor Pivert by the police, then by Farès and his killers (both times in a painful way for his long beard).
There is a chaotic, but sweeping happy ending:
the revolution is a success, and Slimane becomes President of the Republic
Pivert's daughter falls in love with Slimane and escapes her dull fiance near the altar to go with him
Pivert learns tolerance towards other religions and cultures, and also Salomon and Slimane make peace with their respective Arab and Jewish colleagues
the Schmolls finally find the real Rabbi Jacob
the Piverts and the Schmolls go together feasting and celebrating | avant garde | train | wikipedia | Life couldn't be better.The one thing the handful of viewings of the film has taught me is that the movie plays differently every time I see it.
No matter though I've enjoyed it each time I've watched it.The story of a bigot who gets way laid and ends up on the run all over France only to end up posing as a beloved Rabbi, is ripe with comic potential most of which is put to good use.
Also put to good use are some twists that no rational person would come up with, but which work in the context of a wild comedy, the bubble gum factory for example.This is a wonderful life affirming story that makes you laugh until you cry while showing that ultimately we are all the same.
Which is kind of tragic in view of the films opening shots which are some of the earliest film footage shot at the World Trade Center, which had just opened.If you like to laugh see this movie, its wonderful..
Meanwhile the bigoted French Victor Pivert (Louis de Funès), who is the owner of a factory, is traveling by car with his Jewish driver Salomon (Henri Guybet) to France to the marriage of his daughter Antoinette Pivert (Miou-Miou).
When they meet the Jewish community that is welcoming Rabbi Jacob in the airport, they have to proceed in the farce getting in more confusion."Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob" is one of the funniest comedies of cinema history, with a complex screenplay entwining the lives of several characters without coincidences but hilarious situations.
Louis de Funès is fantastic with a top-notch performance, considered by fans of the French king of the comedy as his best ever.
This is slapstick farce at its very best, triumphantly showcasing Luis De Funes, who was as big a comedy star in France as was Jerry Lewis.
The premise is the typical switched identities / coincidental mixups / innocent man being chased plots of the genre, but what makes this one sublime is the unbelievably rubber face and spot-on timing of De Funes, backed up by a good supporting cast, decent script and excellent direction.
It's worth it!PS: As a little treat, look closely at the actor who plays Rabbi Jacob.
After seeing this movie, I wanted to write a review saying how funny this film was, so anyone checking IMDB would know.
I can only add that my French teacher said most French people have seen the movie many times and practically know it by heart.
Adventures of Rabbi Jacob with the great comedian Louis de Funs is probably his greatest achievement to date.
Unfortunately this movie is unavailable even in France, but I am sure that it will soon appear on DVD as have some other de Funs movies at this time, two by Gerard Oury..
Louis de Funès was the comedian of the french television and is still extremely popular there as in many other countries like Belgium or Germany (in Germany at least a bit) I can recommend every movie he has made, but this one is still my favourite!!.
I think one of the funniest scenes is when the loud over-the-top older Jewish lady meets LDF in his disguise as Rabbi Jacob at the airport & they talk about different types of fur coats in crazy accents & with the maddest wordplay ever I can't imagine how this was translated into English (especially as I'm a translator myself!).
Give Louis de Funes a good role and the freedom to go nuts, and you will have a good movie.
In Rabbi Jacob, Funes is the owner of an industrial plant who "knows that the people like to be lied to" ("mais il AIME qu'on lui mente, le peuple!").
If you've seen de Funes before, I'm sure you can imagine the hilarious scenes that arise out of this predicament..
I grew up watching this film in our Beta video (oh yes, way before VHS existed and DVD wasn't even thought of) and now, 20 years later I see it again in an anniversary edition.
I just watched it on DVD with my father again and was a blast from the past for both of us, he had seen it with my granddad 35 years ago in the cinema and with me and my brothers several times on video.
I am saving this film to watch with my kids too in the future, they'll grow up with it too.Such a great time...and so many memories.
Louis de Funes plays the role of Victor Pivert, an industrialist with a Napoleonic complex and a tendency for racist viewpoints, who inadvertantly teams up with, Mohamed Larbi Slimane, an exiled Arab political oposition candidate who is on the run from hired assassins in Paris.
Pivert and Slimane masquerade as two Jewish rabbis in order to save their lives.
Watch out for the incredible mime scenes by Louis de Funes at the gas station and in the Orly airport..
This brief exchange is one of the most memorable comedic movie scenes of French cinema and I admire Gérard Oury, who directed the film, for his equal talent as a writer.
It's funny because no one would make such a big deal about having a Jewish driver and be so damn serious about it, and it's also smart because it sets the tone of our lead character: Louis de Funès as Victor Pivert, a racist, xenophobic and narrow-minded bigot.
Not racist but glad though that his daughter is marrying a white, "very white
even a little bit too pale" in his opinion.Only Louis de Funès could have played a despicable character with such comical appeal.
And this lesson is very explicit in the film's synopsis: Pivert becomes the hostage of an Arab revolutionary leader named Mohamed Larbi Slimane (Claude Giraud) and to escape from some other Arab goons, both disguise as rabbis.
And beyond this ethnic premise, one of the funniest movies of French cinema: a comedy of slapstick and errors, but not without a subtle and poignant touch of social and political commentary."The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob" marks also the pinnacle of the collaboration between Gérard Oury and Louis de Funès, after three of the greatest French box-office successes, with a de Funès, at the top of his game with his hot-tempered mannerisms and all the expressions that elevate his talent to the level of Chaplin, Keaton and Donald Duck.
Take the way he mimics the sound of a woodpecker ('Pivert' in French) when he gives his name, his devilish smiles, his body language, a true comical talent who alas would never be the same after "The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob".
Indeed, Louis de Funès suffered a massive heart attack two years after the film, and would never have the same range of physical talent.
But let's get back to the laughs."The Mad Avdentures of Rabbi Jacob" starts with a respected Rabbi leaving New York for the first time after 30 years, to celebrate his nephew's bar mitzvah.
Rabbi Jacob is played by Marcel Dalio, Gabin's companion in "Grand Illusion", the croupier in "Casablanca", an underrated figure of French cinema, miserably exploited by the Nazi occupation to denounce the Jewish control on filmmaking.
Rabbi Jacob is Dalio's last memorable role and what a fitting way to share it with another veteran actor.
And involuntarily, it's Rabbi Jacob and his assistant who contribute to the misunderstanding, because they share the same physical features than Pivert and Slimane, so when the lead pair is seen at the airport by an old Jewish grandmother who can barely see, Pivert becomes Rabbi Jacob, and Slimane Rabbi Zeligman.The film is a spell-binding rodeo of gags, involving Pivert, Slimane, three Arab agents, three French cops, the Schmoll Family, Pivert's wife, from a chewing-gum factory to a dentist's room, from a synagogue to a Jewish quarter street, with an interesting running-gag involving Slimane's fondness on red-headed women.
If you haven't seen the film yet, just watch this part on Youtube: a real classic of French cinema.The film is punctuated with more serious moments, particularly relevant in the context of the film (released right before the Kippur War) and even today, when both Pivert and Slimane bless the Jewish boy, and the powerful handshake between Sliman and Salomon, after Pivert genuinely asked them "Sliman, Salomon
are you guys cousins?" Like the greatest comedies, the film knows how to loosen up, and it was a nice touch for Gérard Oury to think of such moments.
Oury, from a Jewish background, can hardly be accused of Anti-Semitism of course, but through his film, he proves that one of the most essential elements of Jewish humor is self-derision.The film features also one of the most memorable scores of French cinema from the Master Vladimir Cosma, the sight of New York with his catchy Yiddish-like tone is the film's most unforgettable signature, enriched with a more melancholic melody at the end.
Speaking of the ending, it's a bit chaotic in the way it sweeps off many of the subplots with some deus ex machina resolutions or cringe-worthy dated humor, but it doesn't really affect the film, not after so many great laughs anyway.
Louis is very funny in this one, and the film reflects on every aspect of being Jewish, the cultural aspect and other religions in broader view.
In "The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob", Louis De Funes can apply all his talents: Not only his notorious fast-talking that makes him even for native French speakers hard to understand, the sudden break-outs of his temper, his enormous capability for slapstick which included for him playing whole scenes without a double, but also his wonderful pantomimic talents.
In this film, his name in "Pivert" (which sounds a bit like "pervert"), this is the bird pee-wit, and whenever Victor Pivert is asked about his name, he feels urged to imitate the bird in a pantomimic manner, whereby his acting gets every time more insane.
De Funes played his movies with such an intensity that he suffered several heart attacks before his last one killed him in 1983.
French people say that the three greatest French comedians of all times were (in alphabetic order) Bourvil, Fernandel and Louis De Funes.
In the films of Bourvil and Fernandel you can laugh with a warm and happy heart, but in the films of Louis De Funes you cry out with insane laughter.
And now look: In the USA there are exactly 2 of his movies available: "The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob" and "Delusions of Grandeur", both directed by the French comedy giant Gérard Oury.
A third movie, again by Oury, you can buy from a New York video place for approximately 50 dollars on VHS: "La Grande Vadrouille" - by many considered one of the best French movies ever.
Only from the 6 "Le Gendarme De St-Tropez" movies which made De Funes internationally known, not one is on a DVD that would play on an average American player.
One of the best movie featuring Louis DeFunès.
In this one, he plays Pivert, a French industrialist who's all surprise to learn that his assistant, Salomon, is Jewish!
I've seen this movie maybe a half-dozen times, but never got tired of it.
That's good for *** out **** stars.Seen at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, at the Bloor Cinema, on April 24th, 2002..
One of the funniest Louis de Funes Movies.
If you have seen other Louis de Funes movies, and have missed on this one, you need to rectify this immediately!
Louis de Funes was at his best as Rabbi Jacob, and the rest of the cast isn't bad either.
Comic of situation never stops.One thing I would mention in particular: contrary to other 70s-80s french comedy which tend to age a bit, this movie has remained unscathed by time, and is every bit as funny as the first time I watched it.For those of you who have never seen Louis de Funes in action, check out the small, bald, eternally grumpy, over-excited comedy star that he was...no wonder my favourite comic died of a heart attack!.
I accidentally re-viewed this movie and to my surprise, it's humor worked out as a wonderful antidote to the recent painful terror we had to witness in Paris.
Main actor Louis de Funès is - even then at 58 years of age - a genuine example of an ADHD disorder.
His physical comedy, delivery and facial expressions are all sure to keep you laughing the entire film.With its theme of Jews & Arabs (and Frenchmen), I was wondering how this would hold up after 9/11.
'les aventures de rabbi jacob' and 'la grande vadrouille' are according to me the best french movies ever.
After some weeks of searching I managed to get both movies.'les aventures de rabbi jacob' has some epic movie scenes.
Every movie lover must see this scene.the second scene when louis de funes (known as rabbi jacob) gets in the Jewish town and must welcome the people.
To make this scene epic, louis de funes performs a nice Jewish groupdance....For some people louis de funes is just an hyperactive big-headed person.But if you can manage these characteristics, you will fall in love with the movie!.
"Les Aventures De Rabbi Jacob" (1973) is actually based on two very different plot lines: The movie starts in New York, showing children playing in a street somewhere in Lower East Side and waiting to say good-bye to their revered Rabbi Jacob, who, after more then thirty years, returns to his native France in occasion of the Bar-Mitzwah of his nephew David.
However, before the Rabbi and a good dozen of his friends make it - all together in one single taxi can - to the airport, the movie starts, so-to-say a second time, showing the industrial Mr. Pivert (Louis De Funes) and his chauffeur Salomon rushing home to Paris for the wedding of Pivert's daughter.
However, again, the fact that Salomon is Jewish, is a little side-line again to the real Rabbi Jacob, who turns out to be his uncle.
After a long and funny trip, they arrive just at Orly Airport where the real Rabbi Jacob and his assistant arrive (merging of the second and third with the first plot-line).
And at this point, the road-movie goes over into a screwball comedy, because the Jewish grand-mother, the sister-in-law of the real Rabbi Jacob, takes Pivert and Slimane for the real couple, because they had themselves to disguise as rabbis on their flight from the Colonel Fares and his henchmen and are at that time in Orly, when the real Rabbi and his assistant are scheduled to arrive.
Thus, Pivert and Slimane, neither Rabbis nor even familiar with basic Jewish customs, have to play their newly overtaken roles as good as it gets in order to escape Fares and the henchmen.
One really has to watch this movie several times - not because it is so complicated, but because in order to scoop out the tremendous potential of truly effective humor that is in it.
This film is doubtlessly De Funes greatest performance ever, he pulls out all the stops which he commands, there are even people saying that "Rabbi Jacob" remains to be the greatest French comedy made ever..
Like so many other Europeans of my age I split my sides with laughing when I saw Rabbi Jacob the first time 30-35 years ago.
And I was not disappointed.Sure, the movie drags a little here and there, especially in the opening scene (Rabbi Jacob leaving New York).
I first saw this movie when I was 8 years old, and I laughed my head of with the slapstick humor (the bubblegum factory scenes).
Now I laugh at all the subtle anti-racism humor, whether it is anti-Jew, anti-Muslim, anti-black and anti-Belgian ("un belge, là on est derrière un belge") humor which 25 years after the release is still very up-to-date and funny (a sign of good quality).
This is probably the funniest movie De Funes made in his brilliant career.
The movie is partly a physical comedy, but no modern comedians were as good at it as De Funes (Sellers in The Party comes close) and he made a great movie here.
As with some movies, this one is best watched in the original language, so here's a great reason to learn French!.
This early 70s movie is about a white catholic french racist man compelled to live a crazy week-end filled with Arabs and Jews!
For sure, the movie plays on the clichés about everyone (even the french!) and it's really funny!
So racism is erased by making people ask questions and a movie like this is the perfect tool!
Having grown up with his movies (them being brought regularly on German TV), I always had the impression that Louis de Funes and his films got better with age.
Perhaps one of the best examples is "The Mad Aventures of Rabbi Jacob".
But the performance becomes a little more subtle when de Funes character reluctantly goes into hiding as 'Rabbi Jacob'.
It mostly is in French.The plot is utterly insane with various groups of people chasing each other, mistaken identities all over, and a businessman trying to pass as a rabbi to avoid the bad guys killing him.I have never seen a movie with so many continuity breaks.
When I was young I have seen this movie and I have found it very funny.
Obviously, there were no Jewish actors in France at the time.
And Slimane is another Frenchman playing black-faced in the '70s.Of course, some of the French can be bigots, but look at the Pivert character: it is because he was not exposed to something else.
Louis de Funès is one of my favourite actors because of his physical way of acting and his perfect timing for expressions.
This comedy starts with industrial Victor Pivert, who's is always picking on his employees and is a real racist, picking on his Jewish chauffeur. |
tt0486578 | First Sunday | The film is set in Baltimore. The film follows Durell (pronounced Darrel) (Ice Cube) and LeeJohn (Tracy Morgan), who are best friends and bumbling petty criminals. At the beginning of the film, the two have just began working in a store that repairs electronic goods. The manager is impressed by Durell's skillful ability to fix things. LeeJohn gets both men fired when he attempts to steal a television from the store. Durrel attempts to find another honest job, but no one he asks is willing to hire him as he has stated a criminal record on his application form.
LeeJohn gets them a one-off job for local criminal or con man Blahka, who will pay them $3000. While attempting to deliver ten stolen wheelchairs worth $1200 each, the duo lose the merchandise in a police chase. They are sentenced to 5000 hours of community service. Then they are told they have 24 hours to pay $12,000 to cover the loss or they will be shot dead. Simultaneously, Durell's son will have to move to Atlanta unless Durell gives his ex some money to pay her lease on her business premises.
Durrell does not care about Blakha, but nevertheless the pair work together to raise the money they need. First they try to get a loan from a guy named Mordecai at a massage parlor. LeeJohn goes to get a massage hoping to get close to the pretty Chinese attendant. He enjoys the massage immensely but is scared away when his masseuse is revealed to be Mordecai (a man). The next day Durrel attempts to take Lee John's mind off what happened by pointing out a beautiful girl, Tianna the pastor's daughter, heading into the church for service. They follow her into the church and join the mass for service. The church has raised $230,000 dollars and is considering moving to new premises. Lee John comes up with a desperate scheme to rob their neighborhood church. Durrel is against the idea but eventually agrees, seeing no other option. Instead, they are forced to deal with much more than they bargained for.
They enter the church's office and encounter the terrified and smarmy deacon. They soon realize that the church is far from empty, as they believed. They accompany the deacon to a meeting, planning to leave quickly so that his absence does not cause suspicion. During the meeting it is made clear that the Deacon is pushing the pastor to move the church. Tianna sees the deacon for the money-hungry self-righteous man that he is, but is unable to convince her father. She is however close to one of the Church senior members, Momma T. The church choir then show up for an unscheduled rehearsal further endangering the pairs' plans. Finally losing patience, Durrel fires a gun into the air and orders the Deacon to get the money.
When they try to steal the money they find that the money has already been stolen. Enraged, they both hold the church hostage until the money turns up. Durrel ties the pastor up, as he is defiant and difficult. Durrel then interrogates everyone about the money's whereabouts. He appears to suspect Tianna, who looks down on him for obvious reasons. She reminds him that the pastor is her father. Durrel rebukes her by reminding her that without money the church could not move, to which she has no argument. Meanwhile, Lee John takes Timmy, a little boy, to the bathroom as he was making a fuss about wanting to go. When he says that he will return the child back to his mother (the kind sister Doris), the boy reveals that his real mother has left him. Lee John feels empathy for the boy.
The police pass by and Durrell orders everyone to the back room and orders Ricky to poke his head out the door and talk to them. Ricky does so, and attempts to signal to them with blinks and long drawn-out words. However the police simply figure that he is eccentric. The hostages moan that it is too hot. Durell goes to fix the broken air conditioner, while LeeJohn watches over the hostages. To Lee John's bewilderment, sister Doris begins cooking for everyone, using the church's kitchen. Doris gives him a plate, and fondly remembers how her husband loved her cooking on his birthday. He expresses his sadness at never having had a birthday as no one knew his birthday, and is comforted by Sister Doris.
Meanwhile, Durell and Tianna go to fix the air conditioner. After an awkward conversation, where Tianna warms to Durrel and questions what he is doing, they finally get the air-conditioning going. Durell then orders everyone back to the lobby. The blind, deaf janitor finds the missing money. Durell receives a phone call from his son, which he is ashamed to answer. Momma T then asks for Durell's purpose for what he is doing. Durell claims that he is doing it for his son. Momma T rejects his claim and says that Durell is doing it for himself, as he is blaming everyone but the person responsible, himself.
Durell says that he will not lose his son and leaves the money. Unfortunately, cops have surrounded the church blocking their way out. The pastor tells them to escape out the back, which leads to a chase. The two criminals soon get caught. At the trial, which the entire church attends, the Deacon says that they have been accused of stealing 64,000 dollars. But the amount of money he claims was almost stolen was twice the amount the Deacon claimed was collected. This puts the deacon at question. The case is dropped after no one stands when witnesses are called. Durell goes back to Omunique's apartment where he is confronted by the men who gave them the wheelchairs.
After he explains his situation, the two men allow him to go and get his son. Omunique opens the door, yelling at Durell and asking him where did the money come from. The money was left at her doorstep and Durell tells her it was a gift. He implores her not take his son away, claiming that his son is all he has. She responds that she will stay. In the end LeeJohn and Durrel appear much happier. It is implied that Durrel is closer to his ex-wife and son, while LeeJohn remains close to Doris and Timothy. The remaining money is used to restore the community and Tianna is seen painting a community centre. | comedy | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0367859 | O Homem Que Copiava | Nineteen-year-old André Maciel (Lázaro Ramos) works as a photocopy machine operator in a convenience store in Porto Alegre. Disillusioned with his life and obsessed with material wealth, he dreams of being an illustrator, but his comics, though well drawn, are rejected by publishers. After André returns home from work, he spends time in his room drawing or spying on Sílvia (Leandra Leal), a neighbor who lives in an apartment across the street with her father Antunes, with binoculars.
Following Silvia to work one morning, André finds that she works at a lingerie store, coincidentally called ‘Sílvia’s.” Once he follows Sílvia inside the store, he realizes he needs an excuse to be in there, and tells Sílvia that he is looking for a birthday gift for his mother. Sílvia suggests that he buy a robe that costs R$38. However, André cannot afford this, and he promises Sílvia that he will return and buy it later.
One evening, he visits a club with Marinês (Luana Piovani), an attractive co-worker, who introduces him to a friend of hers Cardoso, (Pedro Cardoso), who works in antiques. André is initially impressed by the well dressed Cardoso, whom he assumes is well off. Later, when they are alone, Cardoso hits on Marinês and she refuses him, all but admitting that she is a gold digger and having suspected earlier that Cardoso is poor from his resoled shoes, and that she dislikes Cardoso's smoking.
Leaving the club, Andre boards a bus and sees Silvia, wanting to make small talk, he promises to buy the robe at next opportunity.
Still believing that Cardoso is rich, André visits him at his place of work and finds that he sells junk for a living. Over coffee, André realizes that Cardoso also has no money and in a later scene, that Cardoso is as obsessed with material wealth as him, believing it to be necessary to woo Marinês.
By chance, André's boss leaves him with a R$50 bill in order to run some errands. Giving in to temptation, André photocopies the note bank notes at his job. To dispose of the note, André begins gambling in the lottery. One of André's counterfeit notes is accidentally used by Cardoso to buy them drinks and André reveals his counterfeiting to Cardoso. On of their lottery runs, André plays the sequence of numbers ‘1 2 3 4 5 6', earning him the mockery of Cardoso, who believes that that combination will never come out.
A relationship blossoms between André and Sílvia, and eventually, André asks for her hand in marriage. Sílvia says yes, however, André tells her that they cannot get married right away; André feels as though he needs more money in order to provide for Sílvia – more money than he can get from counterfeiting.
André hatches a plan to pull a bank heist with Cardoso and purchases a gun (using more counterfeit money) from Feitosa, a drug dealing acquaintance of his. The heist is successful, however, André was unmasked and was subsequently forced to shoot Antunes, a passerby, to make his getaway.
André and Cardoso are both relieved to find that the police sketch of the bank robber looks nothing like him. That joy is compounded when the pair find out André won the lottery. However, André is worried about being recognized should his lottery win be published in the news in light of the bank robbery. The pair rope in Marinês to help them claim the winnings.
Flush with cash, André, Cardoso and Marinês go on a shopping spree. Cardoso and Marinês check into a luxurious hotel, where they have sex. André asks Silvia to leave with him, but she believes that Antunes would not allow it. André agrees to meet Antunes.
Meeting at a restaurant, and while the other party is not present, André learns that Silvia hates Antunes, who she believes isn't her real father, Antunes reveals to André that while he recognizes him, he will not turn André in nor does he want any of the heist money, but half of the lottery money.
Leaving the restaurant, André is accosted by Feitosa, who had been arrested earlier when he tried to spend some of the counterfeit money given to him by André but managed to get released quickly due to having underworld connections. Feitosa had figured out that André is the bank robber, having been questioned about the gun that he sold André, and demands the heist money. André agrees to pass the money to Feitosa the following day.
That night, Silvia confronts André, having learnt about his part in the bank heist from Antunes. André initially proposes to pay off Antunes with the heist money, but Silvia proposes to kill him instead.
The next day, André double crosses Feitosa and leads him into a trap, killing him. Later, André, Cardoso, Marinês and Silvia set a trap for Antunes. Initially, the plan goes awry, but they succeed in killing him and framing him for the bank heist.
The film ends with the four friends at the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, where Sílvia meets the man she believes is her father, Paulo (Paulo José), while also subsequently revealing that she had orchestrated some of her initial coincidental meetings with André. | entertaining, comic, flashback | train | wikipedia | And that's exactly the situation the main character, André, is in.André is a nineteen year old, relatively poor kid who lives with his mother in a small apartment in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
When he falls in love with Silvia, a girl from the neighborhood that he spies on with a telescope, he needs money to spend in the store where she works.
But then it all gets out of control, certainly when he decides that photocopying is not the only way of making money...Even though André is portrayed as a criminal in the movie, you'll cheer him on to succeed in his dreams and you'll hope that he doesn't get caught or get into serious trouble.
There is something about all the characters that makes you wanting to know what happens with them in the next part of the movie.Next to the nice story and the fine characters, I also want to put some emphasis on the excellent way everything was shot.
I liked it a lot and it makes me look forward to other Brazilian movies.
It's visually spectacular, clever, funny at times, you don't see it all coming as layers peel away, there's love, tension and it's truly what film making is supposed to be about.
And it's a movie that can make you think a lot, if you want to - you can also choose just to hop on board and follow the flow of this journey.Great ending!
Andre, the protagonist, is a 19 year old Brazilian, toiling as a "photocopy operator," while pursuing his hobby comic illustration, and a love he is not sure he can realize.
It is bright, uplifting, and full of exciting plot twists that will keep the viewer glued to the screen until the very end (although it starts a bit slowly).The director uses cinematic technique to portray a fragmented worldthat of Andre's existence, (as well as that of contemporary Brazil, as a whole) and attempts to scrutinize the minutiae of daily life in order to distill its essence and produce a vision of WHY we go about mundane and mechanical daily tasks, and how easily one can get caught up in a web of deception and false pretense.
The photography is excellent, combining the brightness and color of South America with cutting edge editing and camera technique.The film is also a subtle social commentary on the state of modern Brazil, illustrating the drastic economic disparity between the wealthy social elite and the pedestrian worker, yet stressing the fact that one can cross over to the other side with greater ease as technology and years advance.
"The Man Who Copied" documents a class of people who live a short, but dramatically visible step above those portrayed in "City Of God," and really succeeds in drawing us into the mindset and dreams of the characters.
This is a "coming of age" story, not just for its central characters, but for Brazil itself.If you enjoy this film, I strongly suggest that you check out "City Of God," "Nine Queens," and "Amelie." All of them are foreign films (two from South America) and all share some unique common thread with this film.
The need of money can make a person do some desperate things and Andre becomes desperate when he meets the girl of his dreams.
The people around him like his girlfriend Sylvia, his co-worker Marinez, and her friend Cardoso are all appealing characters to watch.
This is a fun movie to watch with interesting twists and turns to the very end.
André (Lázaro Ramos) is a nineteen years old man who works as a photocopier operator in a small suburban store.
André works with the sexy Marinês (Luana Piovani), a silly beautiful young woman, who usually says that she is virgin and will only have sex with a non-smoking rich guy.
While following with humor the saga of André to get the love of Silvia, we find comedy, drama, action and romance in this outstanding film.
A creative plot, that proves that money doesn't bring happiness, but helps a lot...Lazaro Ramos is in one of its best performances.
A clever plot with an inspiring cast,thats how I define O homem que copiava(The man who copied).We follow the journey of Andre,a fotocopy operator that works in a small city.Without challenges in his life or money,he decides to turn a voyeur.He buys a binocle and starts spying the girl that lives in front of his apartment.Later he becomes her friend and gets obsessed about her life.But if he wants to win her heart he must win a lot of money,so he decides to copy cash in his fotocopy machine,then...It happens lots of things,and I'm sure everybody will be delighted with the funny and crazy things that Andre does to win money!Andre is played by Lazaro Ramos,one of the best actors of the new brazilian generation, he plays with such frankness and innocence Andre that fits perfectly to the great actor!Add to the story ,the beauty and talent of the most enjoyable,funny,sexy and above all things breath taking Luana Piovani playing the girl who works at the same stationer's shop that Andre.There is Pedro Cardoso very comfortable in his role and Leandra Leal playing Sylvia,the passion of Andre.The movie has almost the same interaction of Nueve Reinas,the argentinian movie with Ricardo Darin!If you Liked Nueve Reinas you'll certainly like O homem que copiava.It hasn't arrived at the United States yet ,but when arrive run to the cinema ,cos' you won't be disappointed!!
Great movie about an ordinary guy from the south of Brazil, who had an ordinary job as a photocopier operator.
I now have quite a few Brazilian friends (including my beautiful girlfriend Kellen Artenuza) and I must say that this movie shows us a side of the Brazilian culture that we don't get to see often, that being the day-to-day life and the things that "possibly" go through a natives mind.The movie is well balanced; action, love, suspense, drama and comedy.
That's a really great movie, very fun, the plot is original and the script unpredictable.
We witnessed every small detail of the main character's simple life in a very beautiful way for more than 3/4 of the film but everything got an unbelievable and shallow pace suddenly and I was left for wondering why he did this and that without any clue.I would have recommend it to anyone and regard it as a masterpiece but unfortunately it's only a nice film for me now, after the terrible last quarter..
The plot is about a normal, and poor, guy, with dreams and a distant love, like everyone one of us had once in life.
Lázaro Ramos is in an astounding performance, Andre becomes a very touchable character, and we laugh and cry with his plans to make money to finally approach his real love.
Speaking in Andre's love interest we need to talk about Leandra Leal in a very competent and flawless performance she makes a sweet, but rather deep and human, girl.
The chemistry between them is very believable and make the plot sound amazingly near to the audience.The work of Jorge Furtado is memorable, the narrative is fast and very funny, the work with the cameras don't have a single flaw, making a clear and polite movie.
Anyway it doesn't matter if you don't have a powerful 5.1 system in your room."O Homem que copiava" is a very competent movie, full of comedy and dramatist, with brilliant acting and an end that show us that the concept of good and bad are perfectly relative.10 out of Ten!.
This movie is the story of a young man in Porto Alegre, Brazil who workers as copy machine operator in a small store.
In an age where our cinematographic vision and sensibilities are blurred beyond repair by senseless, worse than junk box office nonsense like Spiderman, Harry Potter etc, it is nice to learn that a film has been made in Brazil by Jorge Furtado which talks about a common man from a realistic point of view.
This is precisely why this film will be remembered for many years in the near future.As "The man who copied" is a brilliant film it invariably needs to be known far and wide.It is an eclectic mix of various genres including animation cinema.
The story starts showing André (Lázaro Ramos), a poor and so far honest guy working at the Xerox.
Although Lázaro is one of the most acclaimed Brazilian actors, his performance as André was very poor compared to his other parts.The movie proceeds to attempt to show a romance between André and Silvia, a girl he spies at and works nearby.
Their conversations and moments together sound completely empty and acted.When André decides to make money at any cost and drops his honest self the movie goes on action mode, with a rushed plot after more than half of it was just André introspecting.
O homem que copiava (The man who copied)- 2003 - Brazil - Director: Jorge Furtado - Genre: Drama/Comedy - Stars: Lázaro Ramos, Leandra Leal, Luana Piovani e Pedro CardosoThis movie involves some conflicts experienced by André (Lázaro Ramos) a young shy and humble Brazilian who works in a copier to help his mother.
The fact of moving away from the big centers in Brazil - São Paulo and Rio - is one of the interesting points that the film presents.André is very shy, and therefore an observer.
He decides to buy a gift for his mother, to get closer to Silvia, or at least to try, Silvia suggests a nightshirt, but this costs R$ 38.00 and André doesn't have the money.Lack of money is a big problem in his life, which can be seen already in the first scene of the movie.
In other words, he gets what he wanted: money, lots of money.The film is narrated by André himself, which leads us to get an idea of how he perceives things, sees the world and his particularities.
Perhaps there is some ambiguity in the title of this film, André, the man who copied leads a repetitive and somewhat dull life: his days are like copies, nothing happens, nothing changes, just the same thing, every day; and for him a little money would make all the difference in his life.This is the second feature film directed by Jorge Furtado, who was born in the city where the film is set.
Winner of several film festivals around the world, highly recommended and successful in Brazil and outside also, it's a very interesting story to think about money and happiness..
Like I read in another person's comment, this film makes me want to look for other Brazilian films.
Lazaro Ramos and Pedro Cardoso are an incredible actors.The dialogues are intelligent,clever and fun and this is very rare to find in a film today.The end is totally unexpected and makes that you love even more this film.And the theme that sounds with the credits is the perfect end.
Last year in Spain,Localia TV ,aired O HOMEM QUE COPIAVA,TOLERANCIA and SAL DE PRATA (in august 2006) and since then i felt in love with this movie.I need to watch every month this film..
I'm a bit suspect to talk about this movie because it was shot in the city where I live (André, the main character, appears working in the same supermarket in which i usually go and I've already been in the stationery where he also worked) and the editor was my teacher at the University (I study journalism).
And then he makes this second one.The proportions of this "O Homem Que Copiava" (aka The Man Who Copied) are a hundred times bigger than Furtado's first feature.
André (Lázaro Ramos) is eighteen and a photocopier operator in Porto Alegre (capital of Rio Grande do Sul) who lives in a tiny condo with his mother (whose face is never clearly seen).
When the movie starts, he already has a binocular, for which he saved money for a long time.
Lázaro Ramos's André is a very shy guy, but not dumb, that just wants to marry the girl loves.
Leandra Leal is doing a perfect job as Sílvia, a girl that dreams of going to Rio De Janeiro and meet a guy who was a very good friend of her mother's--and that might be her father.
Jorge Furtado conducted the actors in very nice way and the various formats used throughout the movie are original.
The movie is sensitive and makes you enter in character mind, something like "what do I do if I were him at this time".Andre is the typical honest guy that goes to the wrong way, but do not lose his characteristic of to be a good boy - the direction and acting are perfect at this point -, making you think that, although all the crimes involved, the characters made the best choice for your own lives.Good acting!
After that, the movie falls into a unbelievable cartoonish sequence of events that makes the time you spent with the first 2/3 of the film worthless.To someone outside Brazil, I think surely is a different experience that's why the reviews are so positive.
(The story stuck with me for a while, and I spent some time discussing it with the friend I saw it with.) It's the depth, the incongruities that kept me thinking about it, that makes me like it.
"O Homem que Copiava" ("The Copy Guy") is a great example of how the movies made in Brazil need not to be restricted to the "Rio de Janeiro-Favela-Mundo Cão" formula.
And gets wide recognition in despite, or maybe because, of it.It's a movie that is light and fun, without being dumb - The characters quickly become dear to the audience, and you just can't help but to cheer for them.The movie makes very good use of its few darker moments as well - Like the troubled relationship between Silvia and her Father, or the resolution given to it.The leading quartet of actors is top-notch, and it's, IMO, a proof of good quality that the worst of the four onscreen is Pedro Cardoso - An acomplished and talented comedian that, unlike the rest of the protagonists, can't manage to speak with the typical "gaúcho" accent..
Jorge Furtado made the best motion picture of his whole generation of Brazilian film directors, and this is maybe the best movie of all Brazilian cinema.
However he has only ever made contact with her at her shop and has to find money to buy things from her, the first of many problems that his strange relationship with her presents him with.The curious title drew me to this film and I was drawn in further with the stylish and slick delivery, which mixes comedy with drama, animation with live action and is all held together with a strong central turn from Ramos.
That said the story does work well enough to engage and the breezy pace makes up for some of the weakest in the material.As writer and director though Furtado has done a good job of taking this comic love/stalking tale and building it up from minor problems over money into a bigger story that has a happy ending.
Peeping Tom. Andre, a young man who works in a small stationary store in Porto Alegre, Brazil, has to struggle to make ends meet.
In watching the girl, Andre discovers her father, a security guard, spies on her while she is in the bathroom.As it turns out, Andre, who operates the photocopying machine at the store, gets to meet the object of his affection by following her all the way to the place where she works, where he pretends to be looking for a present for his mother.
Since his funds are limited, and with the arrival of a new color machine, Andre finds a way to get his hands in some money, which involves copying a bill.At the same time, through Marines, a woman who works with Andre, he gets to meet Cardoso, a man who sees an opportunity to get rich in two ways, passing fake bills and even attempting to hold up a bank by surprising the guards.
Imagine Andre's surprise when the combination he played at the lottery is the winner!Jorge Furtado, the director of this entertaining Brazilian film, shows he is a natural for this type of comedy.
Luana Poivani and Pedro Cardoso are seen as Marines and Cardoso, who are also tied to all the action in the film.At the conclusion of the story we are shown how Silvia knew what Andre was up to from the start in a funny way.
The movie starts pretty much with Andre (Lazaro Ramos) having a crush on Sylvia (Leandra Leal)which he has only a remote chance of going out with.
It starts as a simple love story, but then things get complicated as he and his friends work together to get what they need in their lives.
Jorge Furtado (director)doesn't only makes us think about the true significance and motivation of money, but also how far are people willing to obtain love.
While I didn't expect the ending, since the viewer is seeing the movie from Andre's perspective.
Pedro Cardoso gets this film into a whole new level and is perfect for his role, what felt like a mere "cameo" by him turned into the best character in the film.
Luava Piovani seems to be a cameo-based character that got WAY too many lines.This movie feels like "Ilha das Flores" meets "Small Time Crooks".
It's about a poor teenager, Andre who's in love with Silvia, who lives near him.
The movie title is about how Andre first photocopies money - but soon it leads to an obsession.
He soon gets the girl; Silvia, and with friends Marines and Cardoso, begin a huge plot to get rich in other ways.
The Man Who Copied was a comfortable movie with the twist at the end. |
tt0340163 | Hostage | Former SWAT officer Jeff Talley is a hostage negotiator in Los Angeles. One day, Talley negotiates with a man who has taken his wife and son hostage after learning his wife was cheating on him. Shortly after Talley denies a SWAT commander's request to give snipers the order to open fire, the despondent man kills his wife, son, and himself. Traumatized, Talley moves with his family and becomes police chief in Bristo Camino, a suburban hamlet in Ventura County, California.
A year later, Talley finds himself in another hostage situation. Two teenagers, Dennis and his brother Kevin, and their accomplice Marshall "Mars" Krupcheck take hostage Walter Smith and his two children, teenage Jennifer and young Tommy, in Smith's house after a failed robbery attempt. The first officer to respond is shot twice by Mars just before Talley arrives. Talley attempts to rescue the officer, but she dies in front of him. Traumatized and unwilling to put himself through another trauma, Talley hands authority over to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department and leaves.
Smith has been laundering money for a mysterious right-wing militia and criminal syndicate through offshore shell corporations. He was preparing to turn over a batch of important encrypted files recorded on a DVD when he was taken hostage. To prevent the incriminating evidence from being discovered, the syndicate orders someone known only as the Watchman to kidnap Talley's wife and daughter. Talley is instructed to return to the hostage scene, regain authority, and stall for time until the organization can launch its own attack against Smith's house.
Dennis forces Kevin and Mars to tie up the children, while he knocks out Smith and finds a large amount of cash. In an attempt to end the standoff and secure the DVDs himself, Talley meets with Dennis and agrees to provide a helicopter in exchange for half of the money. When the helicopter arrives, Dennis and Kevin bring the money to Talley and prepare to leave, but Mars refuses to leave without Jennifer, with whom he has become infatuated. Talley says the helicopter will only carry three additional people and insists that Jennifer stay behind, but the deal breaks down and the boys return to the house. Talley learns that Mars is a psychopathic killer who could turn on the hostages and his own accomplices at any moment. Mars does, in fact, kill Dennis and Kevin, just as Kevin is about to release the children.
The syndicate sends fake FBI agents to recover the DVD and they storm the house; Talley is instructed to not go near the house. Jennifer stabs Mars and locks herself and Thomas in the panic room. Hearing their screams, Talley breaches the house and is attacked by Mars, who then kills most of the fake agents using his pistol and multiple Molotov cocktails. Mars is then shot in the side by the only surviving agent. The agent tracks down Talley and the children, and demands the encrypted DVD. After Talley gives him the DVD, Mars reappears, distracting the agent long enough to be killed by Talley. Mars then prepares to throw his last Molotov, but collapses to his knees, weakened by his injuries. He makes eye contact with Jennifer, then drops the Molotov and immolates himself.
Talley escapes with the children by shooting the indoor glass waterfall, which extinguishes the fire. He and a recovered Smith then go to a rundown inn where Talley's wife and daughter are being held captive by the Watchman and his crew. Smith, feigning hatred for Talley, is freed in exchange for the family. While demanding that the Watchman kill Talley, Smith shoots the Watchman. This allows Talley to kill the other gunmen and rescue his family. | suspenseful, neo noir, violence | train | wikipedia | It seems to have all the elements of the Bruce Willis action movie, so one might think it cannot surprise anymore.
It has the opening failure of the perfect cop, and the almost "post traumatic stress" side to the character who then moves into a smaller town, but carries his burden along with him.But this time, Bruce Willis doesn't seem all that perfect, he is scared, his voice is shaking in several situations and even cries.
There are also some unexpected resolutions and some even less expected symbolic shots.Bottom line is, Hostage is a good pick not only for the action/thriller fan, but also for any movie goer..
Thoroughly entertaining from start to finish, Hostage offered some great action, drama, emotion and most of all some fantastic acting, mainly by Bruce Willis and Ben Foster.
Things start off on an intense note as we see a grizzled-looking Bruce Willis attempting to negotiate with a psycho who has locked himself and his family in their house.
Revealing anything would be a disservice to your viewing enjoyment, so I'm not saying anymore except that the character is very well-developed.I know it's only March, but other than Million Dollar Baby, Hostage is the best movie I've seen this year.
With more Drama, much darker and less humor is Hostage one of the most adult (means grown up) Action Thriller I saw in Years.The story is great.
Artistically and dialogue wise this movie is lacking, except for the first scene, but this is to be expected from a Bruce Willis film.
But they also adequately describe Bruce Willis' latest movie Hostage.
The movie was darker than I expected, but I liked it better this way, it was more believable and scarier...a real thrill ride!!
The film focuses a previous LA hostage negotiator (Bruce Willis) who subsequently a failed negotiation goes away to a little town along with his wife (Serena Scott Thomas) and daughter , Amanda, (Bruce Willis's daughter in the movie, was played by his daughter Rumer Willis , she wanted the part, but Willis made her audition like everyone else and she got the part) .
Bruce Willis , as usual action hero , confronts perils and risks and he must battle till vanquish in this overly violent action film , his main enemy results to be a psychopathic young killer (an excessively nasty Ben Foster) .
The flick will appeal to Bruce Willis fans and action movies enthusiast .
like the way they did the hostage of Willis's family, although at times predicable, excellent throughout.
Herein lies the beautiful action of the movie so grab your seat and hang on for the ride.This is a film with superb acting from Bruce Willis to his own daughter Rumer Willis to Jimmy Bennett whose shrieks during the film rivaled my own.
That being the case, and given that the last Bruce Willis film that I saw was the weak-at-best Tears of the Sun, I went in with no expectations whatsoever.The opening titles were original and very well done, setting the tone for the film and making me think that maybe bringing the valium wouldn't be necessary.
Every time I felt that the plot was going to go down a cliché and predictable route, I was surprised, right up until the ending of the film, which had every bit as much tension and drama as the rest of the film, which is something of a departure from what I've come to expect from big budget Hollywood productions.This film is every bit worth the ever more outrageous price of a movie ticket, though since it was a preview screening, I was thankfully spared the usual torrent of "Director's cut" cola commercials, which I don't think I will ever be comfortable with - advertising is there to fund media which does not have another generous supply of revenue, and if I'm paying $12 to see a film, I really don't see why I should be subjected to commercials.Rant aside, see this film, I find it hard to picture the kind of person that it would disappoint, at least as someone I could take seriously.
And the fault lies with both director Florent Emilio Siri and screenwriter Doug Richardson, whose previous scripts, "Die Hard 2" (1990), "Bad Boys" (1995) and "Money Train" (1995), aren't exactly known for their subtlety or originality.The basic plot: The tranquility of Talley's small town gets disturbed when three young men (Ben Foster, Jonathan Tucker and Marshall Allman) break into a mansion equipped with state-of-the-art surveillance and security and hold its three occupants hostage.The film's big flaw is the lackadaisical storytelling.
Bruce Willis was excellent in this movie, the cinematography was amazing, the plot (as I said) was unpredictable and suspenseful ...
This film has some great suspense and it almost plays out as a horror film, but it doesn't quite reach that level.This film is about a former big-town cop who heads to small town and he soon faces a massive threat as a rich family is held hostage by three teens.
You have your cliché-ridden 'depressive cop rising from the ashes'-story, a unbelievably ridiculous plot of three teenagers taking a rich family as hostages that eventually turns into a soap opera and - later - a hilarious 'The Shining gone Scream gone Why The Hell Is This In The Script' teenage screamfest, and finally there's the really bad-ass guys who put the cop under pressure and are of course superior to anyone.It's not just that we have seen this a thousand times (only less ridiculous), the script is fleshed out in such a boring, and at the same time absurd manner that you cannot help but ask yourself where this movie is going.
This could have been a solid action thriller with a straight storyline, concentrating on one problem or situation, but in the end they try to put so much confusing stuff into this, completely forgetting the viewer in the end.I'll admit that Willis puts up a good performance, but it doesn't save this time-waster from being utter trash.
There's even a scene that is supposed to be dramatic and get you feeling for the characters when the little hostage boy asks Bruce Willis if he is Captian Xuemba (or something) and if it's like he's going to save the planet.
I like movies with powerful, believable content in the plot and "Hostage" certainly won't be taking a back seat to many other films in the years to come in this respect..
There's a scene where they face off with Willis and a chopper thats truly nail-biting, and it wouldn't work at all if they were bad actors.So i recommend this movie even if you think it looks generic from the trailers.
Bruce Willis was powerful and convincing, and the 113 minutes of the film rushed by like a 90-minutes movie.
Other than that the film was a great ride, an effective tour-de-force of edge of your seat movie-making, with lavish cinematography.
One of Brucey's best movies.This is Bruce Willis's best movie next to 'Die Hard' and 'The Fifth Element'.If you are a Bruce Willis fan or like a movie that gets you on the edge of your seat then this is the next movie you must see.Jeff Talley (Bruce) has been a Hostage negotiator for 7 years.
Bruce Willis is excellent in this movie (IMO his best performance next to 12 monkeys).
I like Bruce Willis and I think that he's a great action star, but this movie does nothing for him.
The foul language was at first, grating (EVERYBODY swears), then ultimately stultifying (and no, not everybody talks like that).Willis has an expression on his face that says he knows he's not in something as good as Die Hard (or even its sequels).
This is the WORST movie we have seen in at least 5 years And we were DIE-Hard fans (get-it?) Too over the top, predictable, and non-intellectual Wait 5 more days for it to be on video, if it makes it that far There was NO character depth Bruce was trying for an Oscar too many times with lots of crocodile tears It was a combo of that other loser movie where the rich people get trapped in their own house by criminals and a BAD version of die-hard or rambo ...
Personally, I thought it was the icing on the cake of badness that the little boy in the story somehow knew what to do in situations of being held hostage, if so he probably would have been smarter than me and not seen the film.
Bad acting by Willis (who is often good, but not here), plus a horribly clichéd and predictable plot filled with convenient contrivances throughout equals a 'no-need-to-see'movie.
For a good Willis movie, rewatch Die Hard, Pulp Fiction or Unbreakable..
I'm not sure these folks saw the same movie I did.Bruce Willis plays a former hostage negotiator, and one year after an abysmal tragedy, we find him riding out the end of his career as police chief in a quiet little town.
Go figure, something does.Three young adult wannabe hoodlums break into a family's home to steal a car, when things suddenly go wrong and turn into another hostage situation for Bruce.
Small-town sheriff (Bruce Willis, who was at one time a hostage negotiator) goes to the scene and tries to solve the problem -- a problem he learns later on to be bigger than he thought.Suspenseful, smart, and well-acted thriller is a lot of fun.
The ending almost looks like a cross between a soap opera and an action flick.Other than that, 'Hostage' delivered the goods one might expect from a thriller..
I kept thinking through the whole house burning scene ''I hope they manage to save the fish'' In fact I almost turned the TV off about 20 minutes before the end....don't know why I didn't.Don't get me wrong, it wasn't really, really awful, it was just an average B movie....and I want the last two hours of my life back please!.
Bruce Willis was likable in a character that would appear to recycle the hero of the "Die Hard" films.
Although it didn't stay true to the book in a number of key places (but what film does), it was still pretty close.Operning Credits were excellent, with the animation being representative of the live scene that it eventually transformed to, but that was kinda to be expected since the Director had mainly worked on Directing Video Games before (Splinter Cell Series).All in all, I can't really find fault with the film, its not going to win any big Oscars, but its definitely worth seeing..
In a small town in California, the chief of police Jeff Talley (Bruce Willis) is facing relationship problems with his teenager daughter.
The story is very well developed and the cast has great performances, highlighting Bruce Willis in the role of a suffered man living with the guilty of a wrong decision, and Ben Foster in the role of a sadistic and psychotic killer.
Two sets of bad guys really!Bruce Willis's character wasn't up to the usual Bruce Willis style which is a lot tougher.Really if I hadn't been doing something else worthwhile during the time I had this playing I might have just turned it off.I give it 4 stars out of 10 just because there was some action in the movie.
Bruce Willis turned in a pretty good performance as Jeff Talley.
As the movie opens, Talley is an LAPD hostage negotiator, whose job goes wrong when a negotiation he's leading fails, and several people - including a young boy - die.
But those who made this couldn't leave well enough alone.Adding the plot point about Talley's family being taken hostage by a gang of criminals wanting to get a DVD in the possession of the owner of the invaded home did nothing for me except confuse things.
So intense and such a good plot line.The first 1/4 of the movie explains the background of the characters, then after the action just starts without any notice and doesn't stop.
At other times your yelling at the screen for some of the idiotic things the characters do.If you have seen the trailers and haven't read any spoilers, you will have no idea how this movie is going to turn out.FANTASTIC - 9/10.
HOSTAGE should not be one of them.This film has lots of action, lots of tension and, for this thirty-something, it was nice to go see a movie that a) had actual surprises and clever twists b) didn't have characters doing stupid things because of lazy writers c) had a cast of characters with layers as opposed to cut-out cannon fodderAssault on Precinct 13 was fun, and slightly clever, although it didn't take a genius to see everything coming.
At first i didn't think i would enjoy this movie as I am not really into action films.
Even a trainee in Hollywood could make a better movie.I thought the action was too slow, everything was easy to guess, the playing was really bad, especially Mars.
This is one of the better action movies of 2005.Bruce Willis did a superb job of playing a negotiator turned sheriff.
I don't know where the DIE HARD comparisons are coming from because Bruce Willis is not John McClain in this movie.
Excellent.Bruce Willis is most definitely back on form here, it's a much more mature and restrained Die Hard, think of that role mixed with Unbreakable and you really do have his acting style here.
In particular the kids who lead the hostage taking are superb, confused, unsure, but pushed forward by the totally psychopathic Ben Foster, a wonderful performance there.There is little in the way of traditional Willis action sequences, albeit for the one main hostage ending sequence, but this does little to dull the movie, in fact it strengthens it.
Willis isn't too old for this kid of movie, he's just not been getting good enough roles..
After a forgivably-predictable compound ending, (( the malevolence of Ben Foster's character alone is worth the price of admission, which was actually handled with care by this movie's stylish filmmaker )) the edge of your seat will have released you from being held "Hostage." (( forgive me for the play on words I couldn't resist, even if I tried )) Butch Coolidge is back....
To be honest with you it seemed like the typical Bruce Willis movie.
Bruce Willis has overdone the action movie hero and should retire.
This movie starts out quite good (although cliché is written all over Bruce Willis character) and continues on a good roll.
Everyone is acting great (either in a normal or psycho way, depending on their character), which makes it harder to not like the movie.
The music, the acting, the way that the plot plays out and the script all contribute to making this film feel more like an opera than a thriller, with all the characters wearing their emotions on their sleeves and overacting to the point of sheer annoyance.
Also -Bruce Wilis is there as a policeman,so this is a sure fact for a good movie as usual.In the beginning starts with the presentation of the Bruce Wilis job - to convince a man to not kill his wife and child, but finally they are dead because he try to save everybody but the sniper guys can't shot in the way to save and the mother and the boy.There was a great scene with the dead boy with his mouth full of blood...read nice made!Oh, another impressing thing in the movie was that the doter of the rich man was surprising not pretty actress and generally there wasn't much beauty in the movie , i mean in the face of actors (except Bruce Wilis of course:))The house of the rich family is was cool...i watched the movie with few people and everybody was saying "wow, i want a house like this" I gave a point 10 but if there was 11 or up I'm giving it!!.
I think the creepiest bad guy on film in the character of Mars, played by Ben Foster.
Jeff Talley (Bruce Willis) is a former LAPD hostage negotiator.
Upon first glance, Hostage looks like one in the long line of Bruce Willis action flicks that are formulaic, and just a bit repetitive.
Bruce Willis plays Jeff Talley, a police hostage negotiator who gives it up when he blames himself for failing to prevent a tragedy.
a hostage situation.Bruce Willis is the negotiator, and that's about all you need to know about this sorry film, which manages to toss hardly any curveballs the viewer's way.
Oh, but then he's pulled back in, owing to a story contrivance meant to advance the plot and keep Bruce Willis on screen at all times.And that's a pretty good idea, all things considered.
Bruce Willis is a pro at the action movie hero character and doesn't fail us this time.
Throw in shoddy character development, horrible child acting, unresolved story lines, and Bruce Willis' real life coat-tails riding daughter, and you have "The Hostage." This film presents one conflict as the premise of the movie, only to have a larger conflict become the actual overall focus.
Jeff Talley(Bruce Willis,cool and collected for as long as possible),once an ace hostage negotiator for LAPD S.W.A.T.,is now a chief of police in a small,rural California town.
As a result, we care too little about the rest of the characters because we never really get to know them.The movie changes other elements like the location of the house and the circumstances leading to the original hostage taking.
You've seen these types in just about any other standard action thriller.I wanted to see more of the wisecracking Willis character, but Hostage really couldn't do that.
The premise of this overtly confusing offering is Bruce Willis who plays Jeff Talley, an experienced hostage negotiator who is hiding from himself. |
tt0226874 | Joshû sasori: Dai-41 zakkyo-bô | Nami Matsushima (Meiko Kaji) is locked up and bound in underground solitary confinement. She makes a weapon out of a spoon by holding it in her mouth and grinding it against the concrete floor. The chief warden, Goda, is to be promoted to a higher post shortly. When an inspector visits the prison, Matsushima is brought out of confinement for one day. During the inspection, Matsushima makes a surprise attack on Goda and scratches his face. The other prisoners start to riot, but the guards defuse the situation. The prisoners are punished by being sent to an intensive labour camp. Goda believes that Matsushima may inspire the other prisoners to revolt. He assigns four guards to publicly rape her. Returning from the intensive labour camp, Matsushima is in a van with six other convicts, one of whom is Oba (Kayoko Shiraishi). The other convicts beat Matsushima, who falls lifeless and bleeding. The guards are alerted that Matsushima is feared dead. When they stop the van to inspect her, Matsushima strangles and kills one of the guards, and Oba and the other convicts get the other guard and blow up the van. When Goda sees the van's ruins, he sends search parties to look for Matsushima.
The convicts escape to an abandoned village, where Oba reveals her crime: when she found her husband cheating on her, she drowned her 2-year-old son and killed her unborn baby by stabbing herself. In the village, the convicts find a mysterious old woman wielding a dagger. A surreal sequence follows, where the crimes of each of the convicts are explained. The old woman gives Matsushima her knife before she dies. Her body then turns into leaves and is blown away by the wind. The convicts see a town, where they decide to steal new clothes from to escape. Waiting for nightfall, they hide out in an abandoned hut. One of the convicts, Haru sneaks out of the hut and into her own home, which is nearby. There she is reunited with her son, but also two jailers. They offer to set Haru free if she reveals the others' locations. Distraught, Haru goes away. One of the guards follows her while the other returns to Goda. Matsu kills the guard following Haru.
A tourist group is passing through the region for sightseeing. They are warned to look out for the convicts. Three men in the group are especially rowdy and sexually aggressive, sexually harassing the tour guide. One of the convicts is returning from the river when the three men find her and rape her repeatedly. They throw her down a cliff into the river. The other convicts find her body and give chase to the men. They find the tour bus and hijack it. Oba and the convicts torture, strip and bind the three men. They also harass the other passengers, and another surreal sequence shows the convicts being ostracised by society, for which the convicts are taking revenge. As the bus approaches a checkpoint, Oba throws Matsushima out of the bus as a decoy. Matsushima is captured, but Goda's men arrange a roadblock in front of the bus, consisting of a large truck with Haru's son on it. The bus is stopped and Haru rushes out to meet her son. As the guards try to catch her, Haru is shot by sniper guards. Oba then orders the convicts to kill the hostages. Oba kills the bus driver and drives the bus, circumventing the roadblock.
At night, the bus is cornered by the police. Goda sends Matsushima to the convicts to learn the hostages' status. Matsushima lies that the hostages have been killed, and the police lead a charge on the bus. The convicts throw the three men out, who are killed by police bullets. In the ensuing fight, all the convicts except Oba die. Oba is injured and set to return to prison in the same vehicle as Matsushima. Goda orders the guards to kill Matsushima on the way as if she had attempted to escape. The guards stop at a junkyard and are about to shoot Matsushima, when Oba saves her by biting the guard. Matsushima kills the guards. The next morning, Oba dies in the junkyard. Matsushima is finally loose.
Goda is promoted and now has a job in the city. Matsushima tracks him down and kills him by stabbing him several times. The film ends with a surreal sequence of all the female convicts of the jailhouse wearing their striped prison dresses running free in the city, passing Matsushima's dagger amongst each other. | cult, cruelty, violence | train | wikipedia | I think it is important to view the Scorpion films in the proper context: They are excellently produced potboilers which are very pleasing, and their use of Meiko Kaji as an unapologetically aggressive and vengeful woman looking out for herself, while praiseworthy today, was particularly innovative 35 years ago..
It's difficult to describe a movie like Female Convict Scorpion Jailhouse 41.
In this same class I have seen Touch of Evil and several other "classics." I was amazed to see that this film only had 6 votes(7 including mine), so I had to add my own comment.This film is masterfully shot in a classic Japanese style that emphazises color and full use of the widescreen presentation.
Exaggeration of many shots and the characters themselves.The story itself is very unique, following a group of escape female convicts lead by an awesome character named Scorpion.
She doesn't speak because she knows that actions speak louder than words.Anyway, I highly recommend this film for anyone who is a fan of foreign films, and I also recommend it to those who like stories based on comic books.
I believe that this film is based on a series of Japanese comics; it is put together like a comic book, so it is obvious that many shots and the story are out of this world, as movies such as The Matrix have proved to the main-stream audience..
Jailhouse #41 is the first sequel to said masterpiece and sees the successful reunion of director Shunya Ito and star Meiko Kaji.
I'm guessing that the first film was a big success in its native Japan (and rightly so) as the pair obviously wasted no time in making this sequel, seeing as it was released the very same year!
The two films have obvious similarities and follow something like the same plot formula, but the two couldn't be much different in terms of style as while the first film was your 'by the book' women in prison flick, this one takes a more risky approach!
The film starts as the last one left off with a scene that sees our heroine Matsu (a.k.a. Scorpion) being tortured by the merciless prison guards - lead by the one eyed guard that Matsu had a hand in disfiguring in the first film.
She's brought out of the dungeon to attend the visit of a high ranking official, but after a riot breaks out, Matsu takes her chance to escape along with six other prisoners...As was the case with the first film, this one excellently straddles the line between trash and art.
Meiko Kaji excellently steps back into her role, and this time she is required to look daggers more often and speak less often as she has very few words in the film.
Overall, I can't say that I liked this film as much as the original; but it's certainly a good follow up and comes recommended to anyone who enjoyed the first in the series..
The first film in this acclaimed Japanese exploitation cycle, entitled "Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion", literally perplexed me because it was such an atypical W.I.P accomplishment.
The second entry in the series, entitled "Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41", actually astonished me even more!
Most of the action takes place outside the prisons' walls, during an escape that gradually changes into a wild and surreal 7-headed girl-power road trip across the desolate Japanese countryside.
Meiko Kaji's performance is once again marvelous and she receives excellent support from Kayoko Shiraishi (who's overacting actually works) as Oba and Fumio Watanabe as the sadist head warden.
The Toei Series Joshu Sasori (aka Female Convict Scorpion) is based on a 70's comic series which ran in the Japanese Adult Manga Magazine Big Comics.
Joshu Sasori Dai 41 Zakkyobou (Female Convict Scorpion-Jailhouse 41) is the second movie of the series (Kaji would star in two additional sequels).
Matsu (Meiko Kaji) is the Scorpion of the title and is the near silent heroine of the movie.
In classic Japanese exploitation fashion she is subjected to all sorts of cruelty and punishment at the hands of a sadistic prison warden and his equally sinister underlings.
During the course of the movie She joins a gang of other female convicts and escapes from prison.
Effortlessly cool, visually stylish, and brutally violent, Female Convict Scorpion Jailhouse 41, the sequel to Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion, opens with Meiko Kaji's Matsu locked in an underground cell, where she has been imprisoned by her vengeful one-eyed warden.
However, after attacking the warden once again, she is taken to a quarry for some extreme punishment (strapped to a tree and gang-raped by three guards); it is here that she seizes her opportunity to escape, along with six other desperate women.As the seven fugitives race for freedom though a barren Japanese landscape, they are closely pursued by the warden and his men, who are hell-bent on recapturing their prisoners.Part shameless exploitation flick and part experimental art-house classic, this film has 'cult' stamped all over it: the film features plenty of scenes of rape, murder, and general gratuitous violence for those who enjoy extreme cinema, yet still finds time to include some amazing cinematography, a few wonderfully surreal and trippy hallucinogenic moments, and a beautiful haunting soundtrack.
Something for everyone!With a totally entrancing central performance by the beautiful Kaji, plus great support from the rest of the cast (especially the woman who plays the psycho child killer with the scarred stomach), Female Convict Scorpion Jailhouse 41 is an unmissable treat for fans of 70s Japanese cinema.7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb..
The Western of the series; Scorpion breaks out of a prison van with six other girls and they're all on the run from newly promoted Inspector Goda.
Female Prisoner Scorpion, Take Two. Matsu, known to the prisoners as Scorpion, is locked away in the bowels of the prison as revenge for disrupting the smooth operation of the prison and for her disfiguring attack on the warden.
But the punishment gives her an opportunity to escape along with six other female prisoners.Jasper Sharp notes that while the 1970s were full of women in prison films all around the world, the Scorpion films were "far better made and far less exploitative, and adopting an almost fantastical approach to the material".
He also notes that this second part, interestingly enough, spends a great deal of time outside of the prison.There is is a definite shift from the first film.
After beginning the brilliant "Sasori" series starring the great Meiko Kaji, with "Joshuu 701-gô: Sasori" in 1972, director Shunya Ito carried on to make this first sequel, "Joshuu Sasori: Dai-41 zakkyo-bô" aka.
"Female Convict Scorpion Jailhouse 41", which comes very close to the brilliance of the first part.
Brutal and beautiful, sleazy and visually stunning, full of violence as well as full of symbolism, "Jailhouse 41" is another true gem of Exploitation-Art.After disrupting a prison ceremony, which was to impress a government official, Female prisoner 701, Nami Matsushima aka.
Sasori endures the torture with her usual stamina, and takes the first chance to escape with six other female prisoners...As the first film, "Jailhouse 41" is again very violent.
Brutal tortures, murders and rapes are featured as well as visually stunning artistic elements, symbolism, and dream-like sequences.
As the first part and the sequels to follow, the main theme song is the iconic "Urami-Bushi", which Kaji, who is not only a brilliant actress but also a wonderful singer, sings herself.Personally, I still prefer the first "Sasori" film, and the third part "Joshuu sasori: Kemono-beya" aka.
Not counting the soundtrack, which she sings most of.I didn't expect much from a cheap women-in-prison exploitation flick, but this film would barely be a passable effort by a high-school film class..
Meiko Kaji plays the title role, a stone-faced badass in the Man With No Name mode, in this bizarrely stylized adaptation of a popular _manga_, brimming over with gore, nudity, gratuitous sadism, bad-trip fantasy scenes, chain-fu, spoon-fu, dog-fu, bus-fu, anything-they-can-get-their-hands-on-fu, and more castration imagery than one can -- pardon the expression -- shake a stick at.And I'm not even going to TRY to describe the musical numbers.Truly this has to be seen to be believed, and even then it's going to take some effort..
Second in the series and another extreme and eventful exploitation film with much imaginative innovation.
Wild and brave film making with another excellent performance from Meiko Kaji, although come to think of it, I don't think she says very much.
The second film in a series of Japanese exploitation features, this regales us with the further adventures of a sexy young female convict named Matsu (Meiko Kaji), who's earned the nickname "Scorpion", as well as awe and admiration from her fellow prisoners.
Their tale is somewhat episodic, as, among other things, they encounter a sickly old woman, come across an abandoned settlement, take a bus full of hostages, and attempt to punish some horny tourists / rapists.This is a very stylish film, and people will marvel at the sharp "dutch angles" used by the filmmakers, and the various oppressive visuals.
Is this yet another sleazy Japanese exploitation film or was it secretly directed by Nagisa Ôshima under the influence of LSD?
Bizarre oneiric interludes and crazy camerawork abound in "Jailhouse 41," the standout of the four part "Scorpion" film series.
Jailhouse 41 is the second film in the Scorpion series directed by Shunya Ito and of course starring Meiko Kaji along with plenty of other actors and actrices from the first film.
Meiko (Matsu) has been locked away in the bowels of prison for her countless attempts to escape and of course her disfiguring attack on the warden.
Leading to even more punishment and humiliation, but also giving her the opportunity to escape with six other female prisoners.Prisoner #701 was pretty much located in and around the jail, but this time Shunya Ito decides to take it one step further and have them explore the almost surreal landscape of Japan.
It takes the visuals to a whole new level with crazy colored lighting and/or moving set pieces, it's the sudden switch that makes it work.Taking you from one gorgeous place to another, Jailhouse 41 is an exciting thrill ride just like the first one.
Wow. Meiko Kaji rocks as the Scorpion.This movie is great.
The acting by Kaji aka Matsu/Scorpion is great.
A bunch of female inmates manage to escape (it helps that all the male guards are morons as well as evil) and commandeer a bus armed with, as I recall, one knife, a pair of chopsticks and a really mean looking origami creature (okay, I made that up).
("I like Noh theater." "What do you have against theater, Mike?".....)Anyway there's a climax of sorts with the Scorpion chick and the warden which I won't give away although I'm not sure it makes any difference.
The director immediately follows that up with a closing shot of all the female convicts running along in their striped uniforms that look like those of soccer players, as though slyly acknowledging that the whole point of the enterprise was watching a bunch of cute chicks.
That would've been a blast.There seems to be a Japanese word for everything, and one I especially like is KOROSHI, "death by overwork." So gentlemen, along the way to this inevitable end of ours, feel free to partake in some cheap thrills as in "Scorpion," artfully filmed cheap thrills at that.
Considered by most as the pinnacle of the series Meiko Kaji revises her role as prisoner 701: scorpion.
Another Sergio Leone influenced film in which the protagonist is the sort of character who would traditionally be a villain - a steely eyed, unsmiling killer (lead actress Meiko comes off like a female Charles Bronson) - who happens to be the only principled person in the film's bleak landscape of casual, opportunistic violence.
At any rate are few movie heroines unbreakable like these are as they are somehow restoring some justice in a male chauvinist world, those pigs deserve it.Kaji Meiko is as cold as the blade of her butcher knife and is great as mute and tougher than Clint, the others were well cast also, but I could wish for some better acting, in specific from the child killer.
Don't get me wrong, it's nothing like the Kill Bill series in terms of plot or story, it's just the whole look and feel.
There was one scene in particular in which the camera transition made me feel like I was having De Ja Vu...I'm curious if it's the same transition mentioned in a previous comment.Outside of that, I thought this movie was rather entertaining.
I've seen my share of female prison films, and like most before me said it's probably the most interesting of the lot.
Second Entry in the "FEMALE SCORPION" series....
FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION: JAILHOUSE 41 - the sequel to the equally excellent FEMALE PRISONER #701: SCORPION - is another winner in the 70's Japanese exploit-style genre.
Along with having fun, sleazy, violent, sexy story lines and characters - there is still a real emphasis on QUALITY cinematography and storytelling that is lacking from a lot of modern shot-on-video, micro-budget, "underground" and exploitation films.
This added dimension gives these 70's films a quality of "respectability" and seriousness, despite usually containing some pretty off-the-wall subject matter...FEMALE CONVICT continues the tale of Matsu (aka Scorpion by the other prisoners and guards)- a hard-ass, unbreakable inmate who's short on words and long on action, and has a penchant for violence and creative jailbreak.
In this installment, Scorpion has been in the "hole" for a year since we last saw her in the FEMALE PRISONER film.
A prison Official is coming to check up on the prison Warden (the guy that Scorpion stabbed in the eye in the last film) - so they decide to dust Scorpion off as the prison Official wants to do a meet-and-greet with the convicts.
As punishment, Scorpion is subjected to a public gang-raping from some of the other prison guards.
Free again, Scorpion exacts revenge on the sinister prison warden in much the same fashion as the end scene of the first film...There's all kinds of stuff going on in FEMALE CONVICT.
This doesn't impact the film negatively - in fact, they're kinda cool - it just gives FEMALE CONVICT a little less straight-forward feel then FEMALE PRISONER.
Overall - another winner for fans of such films as SEX AND FURY, FEMALE YAKUZA TALE, LADY SNOWBLOOD, of course FEMALE PRISONER #701: SCORPION, or pretty much any 70's era Japanese pinky/exploit-style films.
Meiko Kaji returns as Nami Matsushima aka Scorpion, this time singing two theme songs (one of them being the classic "Urami bushi") and saying only two lines of dialogue, continuing to suffer abuse and humiliation only to slaughter everybody with her knife.
Jailhouse 41 is the second film in the Scorpion series, way more surreal than the first one (also directed by Shunya Ito).This film has far less nudity and seemingly lower production values than the first one, but it's a bit more violent in comparison.
Matsu escapes with six more convicts and is trailed by the vengeful warden whose eye she has stabbed in the first film.
The final scene has one of the coolest screen transitions I've seen; Matsu simply slices the screen in half and moves to a different location.The story to this film is a lot weaker than the one in the first film, and there is some awkward editing, but it's still entertaining and worth a watch..
JAILHOUSE 41 is the second of the FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION films and sees Meiko Kaji returning to the role of Matsu, a prisoner dominated and abused by both prison guards and her jealous, vengeful peers.
I found this to be a superior film to the first, because the story is more action dominated and there's more backside-kicking from the empowered females rather than endless torture and humiliation.There's a jailbreak at the film's outset and the rest of the narrative follows the plight of a bunch of women on the run.
In this sequel to "Female Prisoner #701-Scorpion", the inmate known as "Matsu" (Meiko Kaji ) has been captured after her escape and placed into a harsh isolated confinement by the warden.
She uses this opportunity to attack the warden and cause a riot among the prisoners after which she is tortured and then raped.
Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was an artistic "Women-in-Prison" film unlike anything else in the genre.
This is one of my favorites in Japanese exploitation cinema, the second part out of four from the scorpion series created by Shunya Ito. I consider this movie as a masterpiece, because of its surrealism, color, camera angles, its intensity and its main character, played by Meiko Kaji (also known from Lady Snowblood).Despite its simple plot, its exaggerated violence and eroticism and everything else related to exploitation cinema, Ito manages to create something poetical, original and captivating.
Meiko Kaji's second appearance in the Scorpion series is in my opinion the best one.
In the first part (Female prisoner 701), Matsu is a poor woman, betrayed by her lover, looking for revenge.
In this episode the scorpion woman is more bitter, way more dangerous, and insanely mysterious
The plot is simple: the prison director, Inspector Goda, is mad at her (she stabbed out his eye in the first part), and wants to make her suffer and drive her crazy.
A rape, a murder
And a final bloodthirsty, but very satisfying vengeance.Meiko Kaji (also the singer of the original soundtrack song) is delivering an ecstatic performance playing Matsu's character so intensely with only 2(!) lines of text..
Unlike any other women-in-prison film I've ever seen!.
The Scorpion character is put in solitary confinement, raped, nearly beat to death then betrayed by her fellow inmates before ending up (appropriately enough) in a garbage dump at the end of the film. |
tt1599351 | Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo | After wrapping up their latest mystery, Velma gets a call from her mother asking that she check on her younger sister Madelyn, who attends a college for magicians. The gang head off to the Whirlen Merlin Magic Academy, located in an old Irish castle. They meet the owner, Whirlen Merlin, along with his brother Marlen, who acts as cook and butler, and Crystal, Whirlen's former stage assistant. Fred is smitten, to Daphne's irritation. The gang learns that a giant griffin has been scaring away the students and staff. After dinner, Velma, Daphne, and Fred are talking in the hall, when Daphne comments on his attraction to Crystal. Fred explains that she is so graceful, then he and Velma make fun of Daphne's klutziness.
Later that evening, Madelyn, who has had a crush on Shaggy for years, takes him on a romantic walk to in the gardens and show him an ancient sun-dial. Madelyn explains that the gryphon was meant to protect the school, but then the gryphon chases them from the garden. A student takes a picture of the gryphon, which appears on the morning newspaper. The rest of the students leave, so the gang starts taking classes themselves. Meanwhile, Calvin Curdles, a powerful vegetable ice-cream guru, continually offers to buy Whirlen's castle from him. The gang promises to investigate to see if Curdles is behind the Gryphon, so he tells Amos to call if he hears anything new.
Velma finds Daphne practicing ballet so she can be more graceful and capture Fred's attention. The two then stumble on a secret passageway leading to the attic of the school, where they discover (through an old scrapbook) that Alma Rumblebuns, the school's head maid, used to date Calvin Curdles. Meanwhile, Shaggy and Scooby discover the special effects room of the castle, where they are discovered by Ms. Rumblebuns and knock over some chemicals, creating a fog. The room is revealed as Marlen's private laboratory, where he creates holograms and puppets for Whirlen's show. Madelyn then finds a book about the ancient staff of O'Flannery, which is said to control the gryphon. Even though Amos warns them that the Island where the staff rests is haunted by a Banshee, the gang go to get the staff. They travel to O'Flannery's crypt and recover the staff, but are chased away by the Banshee and narrowly escape.
Afterwards, Shaggy and Madelyn sit down and talk, and Shaggy discovers that he likes Madelyn just as much. But afterwards, the gryphon quickly appears and chases them again. As the gang runs to the castle, Shaggy and Madelyn bump into Amos and misplace the staff with Amos' pitchfork. When Madelyn runs outside to recover the staff, she is kidnapped by the gryphon and taken to its Roost, an ancient derilict dilapidated tower. Meanwhile, the gang finds out that Amos has been secretly working for Calvin Curdles to try to get Whirlen to sell the castle. Amos calls Curdles to the castle while the gang goes to resccue Madelyn, and Calvin tries to convince Whirlen to sign over the castle. Whirlen almost does but the gang suggests that they wait before the deal is signed, still believing that Curdles is behind the entire thing.
They get into the tower with the spear,but they are separated in the process when the gryphon attacks. Shaggy and Scooby are left alone while the others get help, and Shaggy discovers the staff is a key to the roost where they rescue Madelyn. But their reunion is quickly cut short again when the gryphon attacks but they are able to escape. Shaggy also throws the staff at the gryphon during the process, causing it to go out of control. Everybody else rushes outside including Curdles. The gryphon crashes to the ground, where they discover that it is actually a giant puppet, controlled from a blimp hidden by a fog machine run by Whirlen's brother Marlin. He had discovered that Lord O'Flannery had devices hidden in the Gryphon's Roost, hoping it would make everyone think a monster lived there. Marlin used the devices to scare trespassers away. He was also behind the banshee, which was only a hologram.
Tired of doing all the work but getting none of the credit, Marlen decided to use his puppets and illusions to become a famous magician himself, but he needed money and the only way was to get Whirlen to sell the castle. So Marlin had his gryphon puppet scare everyone away. He apologizes for trying to make Whirlen fail, knowing how much the school meant to him, not wanting to take away his dream. Whirlen forgives Marlin, and all is well. Velma reveals that Amos found Marlin rebuilding the Gryphon and told Curdles about it. Curdles reveals he wanted to buy the castle to win back Alma's heart after having left her years before to make something of himself. He instead got distracted by the money from his vegetable and meat ice cream cones.
Alma accepts him back and they become a couple again. The Merlin brothers decide to make Madelyn their apprentice and soon after Calvin Curdles sponsors the reopening of the Merlin Brothers' Academy of Magic, where Madelyn performs with Daphne acting as her assistant. In one of the tricks she appears in the seat next to Fred and gently teases him, causing Fred to see her in an all new light. Scooby 'tames' a lion; which is actually the real Scooby controlling a puppet Scooby, which tames the lion. | horror | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1819443 | 3 Minutes | The film centers on the unnamed main character (Harry Shum) receiving a handgun from an old man (Thaine Allison Jr.) and being told he has to complete an unspecified task within three minutes . Shum's character then rushes into a storage yard in pursuit of "Steve" (Stephen Boss), who evades Shum's gunshots and hides. Steve finds a dead body (Nicholas Acosta) holding a lightsaber, and uses the weapon to disarm Shum, who draws his own lightsaber. After a short battle, Shum decapitates Steve and runs back to the old man, where he is told that his time was three minutes, eighteen seconds. Shum panics and runs away. A fourth unnamed character (Katrina Law) comes forward and receives a pistol from the old man who repeats his "three minutes" instruction. Law's character then leaves the garage, presumably in pursuit of Shum.
The project is part two of a projected trilogy of short films including a prequel and sequel. The film was originally designed as a vehicle to showcase a wider range of acting skills for the two leads, Harry Shum Jr. and Stephen "tWitch" Boss, especially outside of the singing and dancing sphere. 3 Minutes has received coverage from the official Star Wars site, Wired.com, and Gizmodo, as well as the New York Post, Seventeen Magazine, Audrey Magazine, and Hyphen Magazine. It was also featured on Vimeo's Staff Pick of the Day on its debut day. | violence | train | wikipedia | 3 Minutes of greatness. 3 Minutes by Ross Ching was great and action packed. Ross Ching is a very good up and coming director. This story can really work out as an actual movie if he puts his mind to it and adds more scenes. 3 Minutes is really great and I can totally see it becoming a movie with suspense and revenge. At first, you think this movie is just one of those action kind with no brains or plot but within 3 minutes you get action and a twist at the end leaving you wanting to see more.Ross Ching is a great director and editor. He has a definite future in directing because the shots and choreography of the fight scenes were superb. The effects were great too it almost looked like a real movie done with professional editors and CGI. |
tt0087561 | King Lear | King Lear of Britain, elderly and wanting to retire from the duties of the monarchy, decides to divide his realm among his three daughters, and declares he will offer the largest share to the one who loves him most. The eldest, Goneril, speaks first, declaring her love for her father in fulsome terms. Moved by her flattery Lear proceeds to grant to Goneril her share as soon as she has finished her declaration, before Regan and Cordelia have a chance to speak. He then awards to Regan her share as soon as she has spoken. When it is finally the turn of his youngest and favorite daughter, Cordelia, at first she refuses to say anything ("Nothing, my Lord") and then declares there is nothing to compare her love to, nor words to properly express it; she speaks honestly but bluntly, which infuriates him. In his anger he disinherits Cordelia and divides her share between Regan and Goneril.
The Earl of Gloucester and the Earl of Kent observe that, by dividing his realm between Goneril and Regan, Lear has awarded his realm in equal shares to the peerages of the Duke of Albany (Goneril's husband) and the Duke of Cornwall (Regan's husband). Kent objects to Lear's unfair treatment of Cordelia; enraged by Kent's protests, Lear banishes him from the country. Lear then summons the Duke of Burgundy and the King of France, who have both proposed marriage to Cordelia. Learning that Cordelia has been disinherited, the Duke of Burgundy withdraws his suit, but the King of France is impressed by her honesty and marries her nonetheless. The King of France is shocked by Lear's decision because up until this time Lear has only praised and favored Cordelia ("That she, women even but now was your best object, the argument of your praise, balm of your age"). Meanwhile, Gloucester has introduced his illegitimate son Edmund to Kent.
Lear announces he will live alternately with Goneril and Regan, and their husbands. He reserves to himself a retinue of one hundred knights, to be supported by his daughters. Goneril and Regan speak privately, revealing that their declarations of love were fake, and that they view Lear as a foolish old man.
Edmund resents his illegitimate status, and plots to dispose of his legitimate older brother Edgar. He tricks their father Gloucester with a forged letter, making him think Edgar plans to usurp the estate. Kent returns from exile in disguise (calling himself Caius), and Lear hires him as a servant. At Albany and Goneril's house, Lear and Kent quarrel with Oswald, Goneril's steward. Lear discovers that now that Goneril has power, she no longer respects him. She orders him to reduce the number of his disorderly retinue. Enraged, Lear departs for Regan's home. The Fool mocks Lear's misfortune.
Edmund learns from Curan, a courtier, that there is likely to be war between Albany and Cornwall, and that Regan and Cornwall are to arrive at Gloucester's house that evening. Taking advantage of the arrival of the duke and Regan, Edmund fakes an attack by Edgar, and Gloucester is completely taken in. He disinherits Edgar and proclaims him an outlaw.
Bearing Lear's message to Regan, Kent meets Oswald again at Gloucester's home, quarrels with him again, and is put in the stocks by Regan and her husband Cornwall. When Lear arrives, he objects to the mistreatment of his messenger, but Regan is as dismissive of her father as Goneril was. Lear is enraged but impotent. Goneril arrives and supports Regan's argument against him. Lear yields completely to his rage. He rushes out into a storm to rant against his ungrateful daughters, accompanied by the mocking Fool. Kent later follows to protect him. Gloucester protests against Lear's mistreatment. With Lear's retinue of a hundred knights dissolved, the only companions he has left are his Fool and Kent. Wandering on the heath after the storm, Edgar, in the guise of a madman named Tom o' Bedlam, meets Lear. Edgar babbles madly while Lear denounces his daughters. Kent leads them all to shelter.
Edmund betrays Gloucester to Cornwall, Regan and Goneril. He reveals evidence that his father knows of an impending French invasion designed to reinstate Lear to the throne; and in fact a French army has landed in Britain. Once Edmund leaves with Goneril to warn Albany about the invasion, Gloucester is arrested, and Regan and Cornwall gouge out Gloucester's eyes. As he is doing so, a servant is overcome with rage by what he is witnessing and attacks Cornwall, mortally wounding him. Regan kills the servant, and tells Gloucester that Edmund betrayed him; then she turns him out to wander the heath too. Edgar, in his madman's guise, meets his blinded father on the heath. Gloucester, not recognising him, begs Tom to lead him to a cliff at Dover so that he may jump to his death.
Goneril discovers that she finds Edmund more attractive than her honest husband Albany, whom she regards as cowardly. Albany has developed a conscience—he is disgusted by the sisters' treatment of Lear, and the mutilation of Gloucester, and denounces his wife. Goneril sends Edmund back to Regan; receiving news of Cornwall's death, she fears her newly widowed sister may steal Edmund and sends him a letter through Oswald. Now alone with Lear, Kent leads him to the French army, which is commanded by Cordelia. But Lear is half-mad and terribly embarrassed by his earlier follies. At Regan's instigation, Albany joins his forces with hers against the French. Goneril's suspicions about Regan's motives are confirmed and returned, as Regan rightly guesses the meaning of her letter and declares to Oswald that she is a more appropriate match for Edmund. Edgar pretends to lead Gloucester to a cliff, then changes his voice and tells Gloucester he has miraculously survived a great fall. Lear appears, by now completely mad. He rants that the whole world is corrupt and runs off.
Oswald appears, still looking for Edmund. On Regan's orders, he tries to kill Gloucester but is killed by Edgar. In Oswald's pocket, Edgar finds Goneril's letter, in which she encourages Edmund to kill her husband and take her as his wife. Kent and Cordelia take charge of Lear, whose madness quickly passes. Regan, Goneril, Albany, and Edmund meet with their forces. Albany insists that they fight the French invaders but not harm Lear or Cordelia. The two sisters lust for Edmund, who has made promises to both. He considers the dilemma and plots the deaths of Albany, Lear, and Cordelia. Edgar gives Goneril's letter to Albany. The armies meet in battle, the British defeat the French, and Lear and Cordelia are captured. Edmund sends Lear and Cordelia off with secret-joint orders from him (representing Regan and her forces) and Goneril (representing Albany's) for the execution of Cordelia.
The victorious British leaders meet, and the recently widowed Regan now declares she will marry Edmund. But Albany exposes the intrigues of Edmund and Goneril and proclaims Edmund a traitor. Regan falls ill, having been poisoned by Goneril, and is escorted offstage, where she dies. Edmund defies Albany, who calls for a trial by combat. Edgar appears masked and in armour, and challenges Edmund to a duel. No one knows who he is. Edgar wounds Edmund fatally, though he does not die immediately. Albany confronts Goneril with the letter which was intended to be his death warrant; she flees in shame and rage. Edgar reveals himself, and reports that Gloucester died offstage from the shock and joy of learning that Edgar is alive, after Edgar revealed himself to his father.
Offstage, Goneril, with all her evil plans thwarted, commits suicide. The dying Edmund decides, though he admits it is against his own character, to try to save Lear and Cordelia; however, his confession comes too late. Soon after Albany sends men to countermand Edmund's orders, Lear enters bearing Cordelia's corpse in his arms, having survived by killing the executioner. Kent appears and Lear now recognises him. Albany urges Lear to resume his throne, but like Gloucester, the trials Lear has been through have finally overwhelmed him, and he dies. Albany then asks Kent and Edgar to take charge of the throne. Kent declines, explaining that his master is calling him on a journey. Finally, Albany (in the Quarto version) or Edgar (in the Folio version) implies that he will now become king. | tragedy, cruelty, murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0023225 | Million Dollar Legs | While visiting the mythical country of Klopstokia on business, brush salesman Migg Tweeny (Jack Oakie) collides with a young woman (Susan Fleming) on the street and the two fall instantly in love. Her name is Angela—all the women in Klopstokia are named Angela, and the men are named George—and she is the daughter of Klopstokia's President (W. C. Fields), whose country is bankrupt, and who relies upon his great physical strength to dominate a cabinet that is conspiring to overthrow him. Tweeny, hoping to win the hand of The President's daughter in marriage, presents him with a plan to remedy Klopstokia's financial woes: The President is to enter the 1932 Summer Olympics, win the weightlifting competition, and collect a large cash reward that has been offered to medalists by Tweeny's employer. Tweeny then sets out to find athletes to make up Klopstokia's Olympic team, and quickly discovers that the country abounds in athletes of preternatural abilities. The team, with Tweeny as their trainer, boards a steamship bound for America.
Meanwhile, the rebellious cabinet ministers, who are determined to sabotage Klopstokia's Olympic bid, have enlisted the services of "Mata Machree, the Woman No Man Can Resist" (Lyda Roberti), a Mata Hari-based spy character who sets out to destroy the Klopstokian team's morale by seducing each athlete and then setting them against each other in a collective brawl. Her efforts have the intended effect: when the team arrives in Los Angeles they are in no condition to compete. After a pep talk from Tweeny fails to inspire them, Angela tracks down Mata, defeats her in an underwater fight, and forces a confession from her before the assembled team, which restores the athletes' fighting spirit. They take to the field and begin winning events.
By the time the weightlifting competition begins, Klopstokia needs only three more points for victory. In the film's final scene, Tweeny excites The President's fierce temper in order to inspire him to a final superhuman effort. The President throws a 1000-lb weight at Tweeny, missing him but winning both the weightlifting competition and the shot put for Klopstokia. | romantic | train | wikipedia | Million Dollar Legs is one of a kind, a truly bizarre comedy with attitude to spare and an otherworldly quality all its own.
The closest cinematic parallel would be the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup, made at the same studio (Paramount) by the same producer (Herman J.
Both movies take place in mythical countries and include elements of political satire, with oblique references to the financial crisis then sweeping the globe.
Viewers with a taste for surreal silliness will be in seventh heaven.This film was made in anticipation of the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.
Mankiewicz, an eccentric wit from New York who'd been a regular member of the Algonquin literary set, assigned the script to his 24 year-old brother Joe and a writer named Henry Myers.
Mankiewicz told interviewers that the studio brass responded favorably to his crazy ideas and didn't seem too concerned about what kind of movie it turned out to be, as long as it involved the Olympics.
One wonders how those Front Office executives -- not to mention Olympics Committee officials -- reacted when they saw the results.Our story is set in the republic of Klopstokia, a land that time forgot where, we're informed, the chief imports, exports, and inhabitants are nuts and goats.
In Klopstokia all the women are named Angela and all the men are named George -- except for our leading lady's little brother Willie, who shoots people in the butt with arrows.
The plot concerns a visiting American brush salesman (Jack Oakie) blessed with the name Migg Tweeny, who falls in love with a Klopstokian girl (Susan Fleming) who happens to be the daughter of the country's beleaguered President (W.C. Fields).
Tweeny's boss is eager to bestow money on deserving athletes, so Tweeny, who has been fired, contrives a plan to recruit a team of Klopstokian super-athletes for the Los Angeles Olympics.
Million Dollar Legs is generally remembered today as a W.C. Fields vehicle, but although he has a number a good moments he's really just a member of the larger comic ensemble.
Jack Oakie and Susan Fleming are the juvenile leads, and while normally I don't much care for Oakie I must admit he's quite appropriately cast as the feckless American brush salesman.
And special mention must go to the great Lyda Roberti in the role of the Mata Hari-like Mata Machree, the Woman No Man Can Resist.
Faced with formidable competition Roberti rises to the occasion and practically steals the picture with a show-stopping performance of her big number "When I Get Hot in Klopstokia," a tune that sadly doesn't get much airplay nowadays.There aren't many movies that even try to be as wacky as this one, but that doesn't mean Million Dollar Legs hasn't been influential.
Movie audiences of the day would have gotten it.Jack Oakie is perfect as the fast-talking brush salesman who saves Klopstockia.
My favorite line of hers, when she does her hootchie kootchie dance to try to inspire Hugh Herbert to greater feats of strength: "I been done all I can do - in public." There are so many other quotable lines in this movie - it's the kind of movie you watch and recite along with the actors.It helps to understand this movie to know a little something about what was 'in' in 1932, but it isn't absolutely necessary.
Million Dollar Legs is the second feature film with W.C. Fields in the sound era.
A year before Duck Soup was out, Million Dollar Legs took some real good political jabs using the American hosted Summer Olympics in Los Angeles as a background.
Certainly saved on location shooting.In fact one of the best things Million Dollar Legs has going for it is the good use of newsreel footage of the Olympics cut into the film.
In fact Paramount exploited the Olympics better in this film.W.C. Fields is the President of Klopstokia, a Ruritanian like country in Europe where all the people are trained from earliest times on earth to be athletes.
Fields in fact is the strongest man in his kingdom and that's how one becomes president.
When and if one beats him as Treasury Secretary Hugh Herbert keeps trying to do, you become president.But Herbert's lined up the rest of Fields's disloyal cabinet against him.
He's a fast talking salesman for Baldwin Brushes and he's got a great offer from company president George Barbier.
He recruits international femme fatale spy for hire Mata Machree played by Lyda Roberti.
Make sure they're heads are not in the game.Like Duck Soup to which this film bears a lot of resemblance Million Dollar Legs is good satire, a little gentler than Duck Soup, still it hits what it aims at.
220 years ago Million Dollar Legs could have come from the pen of Jonathan Swift.
This film went a long way to making W.C. Fields a star.
He was a star on Broadway in the Ziegfeld Follies and in George White's Scandals, but in silent films and in his sound work so far, he played mostly supporting roles in feature films.
In a battle of wits, nobody tops him and that includes the director and the writers.Fields and Oakie are supported by a real good cast of comic actors.
Besides who I've mentioned, special mention should go to Andy Clyde as Fields's major domo and Ben Turpin as the silent cross-eyed spy.For fans of W.C. Fields, a must.
Everything's perfect in this little, silly comedy about a small country trying to get out of their financial con-dish by getting a sponsor for their people in the Summer Olympics.The entire cast is just great from W.C. Fields down to Vernon Dent and Billy Gilbert.
One of the funniest lines: (To Mata Macree's butler:) "I want to see this woman no man can resist." (Butler:) "Madam is only resisted from 2-4 in the afternoon."This film, along with "International House" and "If I Had A Million" is the kind of silly, clever comedy that only Paramount could've released..
MILLION DOLLAR LEGS (Paramount, 1932), directed by Edward Cline, may have a a backstage musical sounding title to it revolving around sexy-legged chorus girls, but is actually a surreal comedy with all the elements of a slapstick silent Mack Sennett comedy, minus the Keystone Kops and bathing beauties.
Consisting of several silent screen comedians of the past, namely Andy Clyde and Ben Turpin (hilarious as crossed-eyed spy), the real stars are Jack Oakie and Susan Fleming, though the movie itself is remembered for the performances of second billed W.C. Fields as the President (not of the United States), and fourth billed Lyda Roberti, as the sexy spy known all over as "the woman no man can resist." MILLION DOLLAR LEGS, pertaining to Andy Clyde's character with the ability to run miles within a few minutes, is mostly an ingredient type of oddball comedy Paramount produced in the 1930s, a plot less story where nothing makes sense though laughs are plentiful right down to the silliest situations.
An easy blend of farce and satire predating "Monty Python's Flying Circus" of the 1970s, set in a fictional location, Klopstokia, a locale from the creative mind of Charlie Chaplin, though written by Joseph Mankiewicz, with plot and a "Migg Tweeny" sounding name more like something from of W.C. Fields himself.
Even if Fields didn't contribute in the screenplay as he did in his later works, he does retain his familiar character throughout, from some of his classic routines down to a "hearty handclasp." Forward: "Klopstokia - A Far Away Country; 'Chief Exports - goats and nuts; Chief Imports, goats and nuts; Chief inhabitants, goats and nuts." Klopstokia, population 81,006, a mythological country somewhere on this planet where all the girls are named "Angela" and the men called "George." Enter Mr. Baldwin (George Barbier), manufacturer of Baldwin Brushes, and Migg Tweeny (Jack Oakie), his top salesman whose specialty is selling brushes that brush.
On his way to the shipping dock, Migg meets and immediately falls in love with a girl named Angela (Susan Fleming), whose little brother, Willie (Dickie Moore) enjoys shooting arrows at his intended victims, believing all Americans are Indians, and father (W.C. Fields), the the president of Klopstokia.
Because every citizen is athletically superhuman, with the president weight lifting ton-heavy objects and using one of his staff members as a human weight lift, Tweeney saves the day by having Klopstokians participate in the Olympics in Los Angeles.
All 's well until Mata Machree (Lyda Roberti), a seductress spy, is hired by the president's trusted Secretary of State (Hugh Herbert) wanting to take control of Klopstokia, in order to keep the the Klopstokian team from winning.Often compared with the Marx Brothers 1933 comedy-satire, DUCK SOUP (Paramount), MILLION DOLLAR LEGS doesn't have any landmark songs as "Hail to Klopstokia" in place of "Hail to Freedonia," but it does consist of tunes as "When I Get Hot" (sung by Lyda Roberti); and "One Hour With You" lifted from a 1932 Maurice Chevalier musical retitled "Wolf-Boogle-Jig" subtitled a Klopstokian love song (sung by Jack Oakie); and "Good Night." Members of the President's cabinet include Billy Gilbert (the sneezing Secretary of the Interior); Teddy Hart (Secretary of War); Irving Bacon (Secretary of the Navy); and Vernon Dent (Secretary of Agriculture).
Susan Fleming, Oakie's love interest, who at times resembles Ruby Keeler, tap dancing performer of 1930s musicals for Warner Brothers, never achieved major stardom, yet is known basically as the wife of comedian Harpo Marx.In spite that MILLION DOLLAR LEGS is a very funny 62 minute movie, it's rarely revived these days.
A wild and crazy comedy, MILLION DOLLAR LEGS is something that needs to be seen to be believed.
Besides WC Fields there are a host of well-known comedians who contribute to the merriment found in this film.
Susan Fleming (the future Mrs Harpo Marx) plays WC Fields' daughter.
I love W.C. Fields, but even if you are relieved to know that he does not dominate this film you can be assured that Lyda Roberti, Jack Oakie and Ben Turpin are more than capable of carrying out what is a very funny farce on the Olympics..
W. C Fields is the hot tempered President of Klopstokia, an impoverished country where the Presidency is decided by arm wrestling matches.
(Sample Fields dialog; "The Constitution forbids me to hit a man under 200 pounds." "I just had my lunch of roast goat stuffed with eel." Lyda Roberti is hysterical as Mata Macree, a Brooklyn accented femme fetale "Not too clozz boyzz, youse catch on fi-yer." 62 minutes of genius comedy..
I found Million Dollar Legs to be one of the funniest films I've seen.
Besides THE PRISONER OF ZENDA the number of films dealing with fictitious foreign states include musicals, comedies, and even straight political dramas.
Look at THE LOVE PARADE, THE MERRY WIDOW, DUCK SOUP, and the present film, MILLION DOLLAR LEGS.
Basically these countries have very poor populations ("Klopstokia" in MILLION DOLLAR LEGS is said to be basically made of nuts and goats; "Marshovia" in THE MERRY WIDOW, and "Freedonia" in DUCK SOUP depend on the largess of one rich woman in each country).
Moreover W.C.Fields is as capricious in his way as Groucho Marx was in DUCK SOUP.
The Vice President (Hugh Herbert - not quite so silly in this film as in others) keeps looking for ways of turning out the President either legally or by underhanded ways.
When Klopstokia sends a large team of splendid athletes to the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, Herbert hires the world's greatest vamp/spy - Mata Machree (Lyda Roberti) to demoralize and split up the team (and so discredit the President).
Fields is forced to rely on Migg Sweeney, a brush salesman (Jack Oakie) who is romancing Fields' daughter Angela (Susan Fleming) by singing the national love song, "Woof Blugle Gif" which is based on the tune of "One Hour With Your" from the Paramount film of the same name.
Migg manages, despite his fear for his safety from his prospective father-in-law, does do the best he can to keep the team in tack, and to try to bring it to Olympic gold.The film is fast, as well as funny.
He made some marvelous movies and I was expecting it to be a treat because of the unusual cast which featured a couple silent comics (Andy Clyde and Ben Turpin) along with Jack Oakie and Fields.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be a pretty dopey film--with lots of crazy ideas but it never really was very funny.
In many ways, it reminds me of the Marx Brothers' "Duck Soup"...but not nearly as entertaining.The film is set in the fictional country of Klopstokia, population 81006.
Eventually, he and other Klopstokians go to the Los Angeles and that is when the film gets REALLY dumb.
The laughs all are the sorts that 6 and 7 year-olds would enjoy...but I just felt like again and again they went for cheap dumb jokes instead of stuff that would appeal to a wide audience.The problems with this film are very difficult to describe--most are sight gags that fall flat and describing funny scenes isn't particularly effective.
The bottom line is that Turpin had nothing to do in the film and Fields simply did many much better films...many..
The inimitable W.C. Fields, shackled to a script he (unfortunately) didn't write, plays the unflappable president of a mythical nation hoping to strike gold on the Olympic field of competition, but any other resemblance to a formal plot is strictly coincidental.
But why carp about a film this old with a running time of only 64 minutes?.
Jack Oakie stars as an American brush salesman working in the tiny country of Klopstokia.
He meets and fall in love with president W.C.Fields's daughter.
He is rejected as a potential suitor until he convinces Fields that the nearly bankrupt country can get the money they need by sending a team to the Olympic games in Los Angeles.
fun W.C. Fields film from 1932.
Fields is the president of Klopstokia, and the fuller brush salesman wants to marry the president's daughter.
The spy Mata Machree makes a date with everyone on the olympic team to distract them.
Co-stars Jack Oakie, Lyda Roberti, Susan Fleming.
C. Fields as its president).Second review - a "non-sequitur" doesn't mean "lines that don't make sense".
Fields 8, Oakie 0, in this Ruritanian contest, er, comedy.
Another Ruritanian comedy, set in Klopstokia where all the women are named Angela and all the Men are named George and W.C. Fields is the President who maintains power by beating everybody at arm-wrestling.
The romantic lead is played by that stuffed animal Jack Oakie and his romantic interest is Susan Fleming, who is pretty enough.
She tries to teach him, and he never manages to finish, a love song with nonsensical words to the tune of "One Hour With You," sung by Maurice Chevalier in the Lubitsch movie of that name that came out the same year Black-clad, wandering-eyed Ben Turpin keeps appearing as a spy in various ingenious and absurd moments.
The plot involves going to the Olympics in Los Angeles (pronounced with the hard G).
This 62-minute oddity is a poor man's DUCK SOUP.
Fields plays the president of a mythical country and is surrounded by bungling conspirators.
Most of the comedy consists of set pieces that probably were not fresh even in 1931 (Fields hooking his hat on his cane, Billy Gilbert sneezing comically, Ben Turpin crossing his eyes).
Fields fans will be especially disappointed--despite the billing, his is no more than a supporting role giving him little opportunity to display his genius..
I'd never heard of "Million Dollar Legs" until it was shown on cable a few days ago.
Some people said this was the funniest film they'd ever seen, and one person called it "the funniest movie ever made" -- evidently someone who has never seen any actual comedies.
A Lost W.C. Fields Film-Great fun and Satire!.
Directed by Edward Cline who directed some of W.C. Field's best movies.
A "Duck Soup" type of story that makes great fun of government bureaucracy and politics.
The obscure, poor country of "Klopstokia" where W.C. Fields is the President because he always wins at hand wrestling.
Jack Oakie plays Migg Tweeny, an American brush salesman and falls in love with "Angela" the President's only daughter.
(Susan Fleming) Several scenes will remind you of the palace in "Duck Soup".
Stars many old-time comedy actors: Ben Turpin (as "The Cross-eyed Spy").
Lyda Roberti plays the spellbinding blonde spy "Mata Macree".
Great fun, as any Field's film always is, but not as funny as some of his other films.
True Field's fans, however, will love it!
Her main brunette competitor in real life was Harpo Marx wife.This is the same studio and production team that was making the Marx Brothers great Duck Soup and even greater Horse Feathers, plus Monkey Business.
The plot involves the LA Olympics so the studio put togther an all comedy star olympics of their own.The pace is frantic, especially those million dollar legs.
While it is all in fun, when President Fields wins 2 Gold Medals, he deserves them and in the next few years would earn many more..
This film gets its high rating just because W.C. Fields is in it.The problem is that he isn't in much of it.He only had a couple of funny bits, and they weren't all that funny.Poor writing and direction is the problem.W.C. could be great, this film didn't give him a chance.Another problem is that the pace of the film is very slow and comic timing doesn't seem to have been invented yet.Ben Turpin never served a purpose except for the fact that he was cross eyed, Ha Ha Ha very funny, NOT.Jack Oakie and Hugh Herbert also turn in uncharacteristically dull performances.When all of these people are deadly dull the problem must be the writing and direction. |
tt1621429 | S.W.A.T.: Firefight | Sgt. Paul Cutler (Gabriel Macht) is an ex-military L.A.P.D. S.W.A.T. officer and considered to be one of the best, even holding a record of having no civilian casualties for ten years. After successfully rescuing hostages with no casualties, Cutler is requested to train the Detroit S.W.A.T. with an updated training curriculum from the F.B.I.'s Hostage Rescue Team training program. Shortly after arriving in Detroit, Cutler immediately imposes his authority and has a rough time with the Captain (Giancarlo Esposito) of the department as well as one of the senior S.W.A.T. leaders Justin Kellogg (Nicholas Gonzalez). During the middle of a training exercise, the team responds to an emergency call when ex-government agent Walter Hatch (Robert Patrick) is holding his girlfriend (Kristanna Loken) hostage.
The girl is rescued but takes Officer Kellogg's handgun and asks Cutler to move so she can shoot Hatch. When Cutler tries to calm her down, she puts the gun to her head and commits suicide. Cutler's 10-year record with no hostages lost is broken and it takes its toll on him. The rift between Cutler and Kellogg escalates at a local bar, where Cutler makes a bet for Kellogg to beat him in a higher score with an arcade machine in exchange for Cutler leaving the city. Kellogg loses the bet, and is instead reassigned to "Charlie Company". Due to low manpower, Cutler enlists military squadmate Lori Barton (Shannon Kane) to assist his training. As the training goes on, Hatch steals a binder which contains details of tactics and information on the members. Meanwhile, Cutler starts a passionate relationship with Kim Byers (Carly Pope), the Detroit PD's Psychiatrist. The phone calls from Hatch now increase and he kidnaps Kim after planting a bomb under Cutler's car and shooting a member of the S.W.A.T. team. The Captain orders Cutler to return to Los Angeles, where Hatch wouldn't be able to target him.
The S.W.A.T. team is then called to a derelict warehouse where things do not appear to be right as no officers are on the scene. In the van, communication from the station shows that the call was a hoax. One S.W.A.T. officer is killed by a bomb while Barton and Watters are kidnapped. Aware of the full situation, Kellogg gives Cutler access to the armory and a squad car to save the hostages at one of the training grounds. Cutler briefly rescues Watters, but Watters perishes due to gunshot wounds to the chest from one of Hatch's henchmen. Cutler manages to save Barton and pursues Hatch. Cutler engages Hatch in a hand-to-hand fight while Kim tries to cut free from a bomb vest. She manages to escape it after Lori breaks the chain holding her with a shot from her sniper rifle, and throws it towards Hatch just as Cutler kicks him back into the wall. Cutler fires a shot, hitting the vest and detonating it, killing Hatch. Support arrives, with Cutler graduating the surviving members. Cutler asks Kim if she wants to go back to Los Angeles with him. | revenge, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | SWAT is more like a glorified TV movie than a big budget Bruce Willis movie blockbuster.Its worth watching if you like your cop/hostage movies.
I'm a big fan of Robert Patrick, hold respect for Gabriel Macht and it was nice to see Kristana Loken even in a minor role, which she played in style.
If you evaluate the actors' performance based on the first SWAT movie with Collin Farrel and Samuel Jackson, you might be a little disappointed, but if you watch it as a stand-alone, you might like it.
The flip-side of this coin maybe some of you won't describe as something bad, but I personally am getting a little tired of a trend in recent action movies - sloppy endings.
Some may say "this is an action movie, just watch the action and don't think too much for the ending!" But I like endings that make me smile and think to myself "yes, that was good!".
I fully agree with some other reviews that point out that maybe due to time restrictions the movie was cut short, but unfortunately the part that suffers the most is the ending.
There are a few scenes throughout the movie that are just seen so many times and maybe if they were cut in order to add up a few minutes to the ending, the movie would have been better.
I like it very much when the good and the bad guy talk to each other, before the final showdown.
And something else - I really feel Robert Patrick's character (he is the bad guy) was presented too shallow.
He has too little screen time to convince the audience he really is the bad guy, which is a big flaw of the script in my opinion.
Patrick is a very, very, very underrated actor, especially when he plays bad guys and this movie does't utilize his talent whatsoever.
Don't get me wrong, this movie is worth a watch, if you like that genre (police, SWAT team action movies, hostages, tactics), you will enjoy it.
6/10 - because good acting is never enough to save a poor story or a poor movie as a whole..
It's the confirmation of what we already knew, five minutes after the movie started, this is a bad written script and a bad story-line.
Please put the 90 minutes that you would spend watching this movie to better use, because if you don't, you will regret wasting so much precious time!
I watched the trailer and thought this would be a good film, but it was so awful, I spent the last 30 minutes wanting the film to end so I could write this review and save people the time!
The main problems for me are awful acting, think cheese and rambo and you might have an idea, none of the actors gelled together to make it even feel like it was a good script, the baddies actually don't do anything during the movie to make you feel like its life or death, the storyline just has not been properly thought out and it shows.I don't know if this movie is going straight to DVD, but I would recommend it does and gets lost, because if I paid to see this I would be demanding my money back!!.
I've watched this movie and seen the other reviews, first lets me tell you a little about this movie.
Without giving too much away I'll say that there's a bad guy who doesn't take too kindly to the hostage dying, and makes this team leader his primary target, and everything pretty much goes from there.Now for the review, the movie in itself is not bad, the acting is pretty good, here's the reason why its getting such bad reviews.
Up to where the movie escalates into running out of time, its very good, but as soon as it gets to the point of where the main character is racing the clock, its missing..
The bad guys are literally 2 people, they aren't anywhere near as badass or as hardcore as it was portrayed, because it takes about 2 min to neutralize both of them, they make the main bad guy out to be really smart when in fact his "setup" was nothing short of childish, i.e. anyone with half a brain would have thought out a further trap plot then he did, from these things I can only conclude that there is a mass amount of movie missing, if there isn't however then the director knows nothing about how to end a movie and thats where the bad reviews come in.
The story is really badly done , events move way too quickly for the time frame and to be frank , it has all the cheese you would find in a 90's Si-Fi series.I promise you this will go straight to DVD and then straight to being a bad retail mistake!Advoid this shockingly bad film at all costs!.
OK, let me first say that this is my first ever review - I was compelled to write one based on simply how BAD this movie is.
Another reason I felt angry enough to write a review is because I normally like these kind of movies.
Normally all you have to do is include something like SWAT, SAS or Marines in the description of the movie and point me towards it and I will lap it up.
If you want some decent SWAT like viewing entertainment, I recommend Flashpoint (Canadian TV Series) or possibly watching paint dry could also be considered a viable alternative..
Los Angeles SWAT team leader Paul Cutler (Gabriel Macht) is sent to Detroit in order to certify the team there for Homeland Security work.
I am not a big action guy (I am a horror fan), but this film gripped me and never let go.
I watched it not expecting great things, especially considering the low ratings and the fact that its a straight to video bandwagon film.
Yes the acting is not Oscar threatening and there are some cheesy clichés but overall I thought it was a well presented mature film, at the right pace with an above average plot.
overall, although not on par with the 2003 original, it certainly stands up on its own as easy to watch action movie.
So if you like action movies with tons of shootouts, loud bangs and don't mind plot holes or people behaving strangely you'll love this film.
Although the original SWAT may have embellished the realms of reality a little, it was a movie I was still able to watch and enjoy to the most.
No doubt the money is there in the props and gear, but the execution is not beyond what I would expect to see on commercial TV in the middle of the day.I'm not adverse to stretching the realms of reality a bit, I enjoy the old Bond films as well as things like Die Hard 4, but the stretches of the reality in those films are within an expected context and add to the experience more in their own out there and comedic fashion.
In this movie however everything is pitched as though it is supposed to be dead serious, so if you're a person who has even half a clue, or an ounce of respect for that matter, of what these guys do in real life, then this movie will most likely eat at you the entire way through.
You could see this coming as soon as the opening credits rolled and we see a clip being filled with spent ammunition.So unfortunately I think we've just set the public impression and fear of what real SWAT teams are back about 20 years thanks to this movie, and I can now see a great many children being spanked and sent to their room for even suggesting any aspiration of being a SWAT officer when they grow up.Alas movies are not supposed to be documentaries.
So the one main comparison for me that comes to mind between the quality of SWAT: Firefight vs the original SWAT movie is the difference between Behind Enemy Lines with Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman and the later WWE produced sequel Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia.
Feels like it was made by a third rate director, who just graduated one of the better film schools, but who did it all by the book.Film is clear, good shots, and action is easy to follow.
Only character they actually started giving a bit of depth, was the guy who was eating all the time.
Worth watching if you like swat action.
If not, stay away, you will regret it.I'm still going to buy it, but only because I like SWAT movies..
But the movie showed solid script, above average production, simple and clear directing and good, I repeat, good acting of Gabriel Macht and other characters.
I just watched two absolute shocker movies (Hunt to Kill and Wall Street 2), which looked like they'd been made with a handy cam (similar to Blair Witch Project).
Let me assure you, the directing and producing of SWAT 2 is as good as the original SWAT movie.SWAT 2 is not in the class of an AVATAR or TITANIC (which are currently rated around 8.2 on IMDb), but it is easily as well put together as any action movie involving Sylvester Stallone or Jason Statham.
Had this film included Samuel L Jackson or another high-profile character it would have ended up at the box-office.Overall this film is very good and in my opinion a solid 7 / 10.
Robert Patrick is very good at playing the psycho bad guy, although he was a little over the top, I feel if he was not in it the movie wouldn't have been as good.
Don't expect a super great action movie, but if you want a very entertaining and tense movie you won't be disappointed in this one.
No sooner is he there than a botched hostage negotiation sets deranged stalker Walter Hatch (Robert Patrick) up to have a mad-on for him.Truth be told, the first SWAT film didn't do much for me, however that film had a few things going for it that this didn't, first most no one will mistake Gabriel Macht as an action hero anytime soon.
The banter between admittedly fairly well-done action sequences was atrocious and Robert Patrick, whom I usually enjoy watching, was utterly wasted in this drek..
I have been looking for a new hobby and watching this movie convinced me that writing screenplays is well within my abilities.
All I have to do is watch any blockbuster cop movie from the 80's, change the actors and come up with a catch phrase for the leading actor.
A real film about SWAT life would be great, but these action ones are simple guilty entertainment.
It is not one of the better action movies.
S.W.A. T.: Firefight is a movie geared for those who like action movies with details.
It is a good movie to watch with friends.
You know I love movies about SWAT teams, I love guns (although never actually held one) but this movie didn't make me feel the thing; even though they tried.
There's a final confrontation in an abandoned training facility when Walter takes Cutler's girl, the department's shrink, hostage.SWAT Firefight is a good low-budget action thriller.
The action is well-filmed and you do end up caring about the characters.
I wish there had been more focus on the training of the team, that was the original purpose of the movie, but that's completely set aside for the hunt for Walter.
Apart from the backdrop, the only other positive thing to say about this in-name-only sequel is that it makes the disappointing original movie look better..
Decent movie, well worth watching..
So, it was surprising to me to find out that, 8 years later, someone decided to make a straight-to-DVD sequel of that movie, surely with the intention of starting a low-cost franchise, with a famous title and a similar narrative formula to the ones from some modern TV programmes which combine cop action, melodrama and some special effects.
But even more surprising was the fact that I found S.W.A.T.: Firefight very entertaining and much better than the original, mainly thanks to Benny Boom's efficient direction and the competent performances.S.W.A.T.: Firefight might not be completely original, but the screenplay is well structured, and I think I liked it more as a cop drama than as an action film.
Even the occasional romantic scenes are made with subtlety, even if their only function is establishing a "damsel in danger" with the intention of adding suspense to the movie's ending.What takes me to one of the best elements from S.W.A.T.: Firefight: the villain.
I honestly could not swallow this actor in other movies I saw him (The Spirit, Whiteout and Love and Other Drugs), but in S.W.A.T.: Firefight, he brings a genuine and sincere humanity to his character.
As for the direction, I liked the style and the way in which the action scenes were filmed.
In conclusion, S.W.A.T.: Firefight is a very competent action film which ended up being much better than I expected, and which I consider to be worthy of a recommendation..
I'm a real fan of SWAT movies or shows, but this one was not worth the 90 min.
Like he threatens the good guy by shooting a 50 caliber over the phone saying how it "will kill a man through a wall from a mile away and he wouldn't even hear it" yet he never does anything with it...
instead he attacks with his own limbs and a pressure sensitive bomb trigger yet somehow the good guy is able to deal with the situation and eliminate him within a minute.in conclusion, its too macho too corny too cliché and too bad to be worth 90 minutes of your time..
Well this movie starts OK,tries to set base but can't.The script is very weak.....no real story whatsoever.They just wanted to show a maniac with arms going after the good guys....even with these kinds of resources they weren't able to pull this off.It has many flaws as well like: 1-When "Paul" makes "Watters" "the Sniper Man" instead of "Kellogg" the best shooter in the team.......it shows his poor judgement.
4-Well our lead goes to Detroit on mayor's request to certify there "SWAT" team....and at the end of the movie he says "consider them certified"like killing that alleged "maniac" and "watters" getting killed was the certification they needed.All in All it was a "boogusss" movie.....and don't just go there to see "S.W.A.T" in action ....you'll be disappointed..
I saw the first S.W.A.T. movie and I really loved it back then and now when this one came out I said this is going to be a great movie but when I saw the first 15 minutes or so I knew that it is not as good as the old one.
The worst part is as you watch it more you start to hate it more and at the end of the movie you will say: This is so bad , I wish I could get my 90 minutes back!
One last thing , what makes this movie so awful is the huge amount of unrealistic events in it and I am not talking about regular movie stunts like a car jumping a bridge or shooting while driving I am talking about a bomb that blows up while it is thrown out of a room and the two good guys (who are in the same room) do not get a scratch!.
come on...What's the point of the baddie practicing with a rifle that "kills you through a wall a mile away", apart from using 3 minutes of the movie?At the end, they get an unverified call about a guy who threatens to jump from a 4th floor.
Is this really the job of a heavily armed SWAT team to be there first?1/10 is very generous indeed.AVOID this movie, don't waste your time.
This movie was available ON DEMAND, so I thought I'd give it a chance, mostly because it starred Gabriel Macht, an actor I've enjoyed in supporting roles in major films.
The movie starts off well: Sgt. Cutler, an LAPD SWAT leader with a military background (Macht) is sent to Detroit to train-up their SWAT team for some special Federal hostage/rescue certification.
The film takes the time to develop the team members to some degree and includes the requisite tension between the new officer and the locals that leads to one of the more senior Detroit SWAT members, Kellogg, being "re-assigned," despite the fact that he's by far the team's best sniper.
We felt the team soul this is the most important part of the movie.This movie was like a weekly TV films.Maybe they can made lots of SWAT movies with same characters.Could be every year.Then it could be some kind of classic movie.7/10 Thank you !.
I've already added a few in the goofs section, but here are a bunch of things that made me not like the movie:-Detroit PD's SRT (not SWAT, as they are in the movie) is a VERY top notch unit, equal to LAPD SWAT in terms of quality officers, training, and equipment.
That they shoot on the move rather than standing still is NOT what sets them apart from police SWAT teams.-The fact that they called it "Detroit SWAT" rather than "SRT" shows a lack of attention to detail, IMO.
C'mon man!-And of course, my favorite thing (and they do this even in the good cop movies) the fact that police officers gun down the bad guys, and that's that.
It was so full of cliché's like the main guy goes to sort out a raggedy bunch of Swat from Detroit, where he bumps into the glamorous Police shrink and has a romance with her. |
tt0051310 | The Scarlet Pimpernel | In 1792, at the bloody height of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror, vengeful French mobs are outraged when again and again French aristocrats are saved from death by the audacious "Band of the Scarlet Pimpernel", a secret society of 20 English noblemen, "one to command, and nineteen to obey". Among the latest scheduled for execution are the Count de Tournay, former ambassador to Great Britain, and his family. However, one of the Scarlet Pimpernel's men visits them in prison disguised as a priest and gives them a message of hope. As the prisoners are being escorted to the cart to be taken to the guillotine, the guards take the count away; French leader Maximilien Robespierre wishes to question him further. The countess and her daughter are rescued and spirited away to England.
Back in Paris, Robespierre meets with Chauvelin, the republic's new ambassador to Britain, to discuss the problem of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Summoning the Count de Tournay, they offer him his life in return for information from his English contacts as to the Pimpernel's true identity. The Scarlet Pimpernel is Sir Percy Blakeney, a wealthy English baronet and friend of the Prince of Wales. Sir Percy cultivates the image of a fop in order to throw off suspicion. His pose is so successful that not even his French wife Marguerite suspects the truth. Though the two are in love, Sir Percy no longer trusts his wife because of her past denunciation of the Marquis de St. Cyr, which led to the execution of the marquis and his family.
Through his network of spies, Chauvelin discovers that Armand St. Just, Marguerite's brother is one of the Scarlet Pimpernel's agents. Chauvelin orders Armand's arrest, then uses the threat of his execution to force Marguerite into helping him discover the identity of the Pimpernel, who he knows will be at an upcoming ball. At the ball, Marguerite intercepts a message given to Sir Andrew Ffoulkes, a member of the Pimpernel's band, stating that the Pimpernel will be in the library at midnight. She passes the information along to Chauvelin, who goes to the library to find only Percy, apparently asleep. While waiting, Chauvelin falls asleep; when he wakes up, he finds a message from the Pimpernel mocking him.
The next morning, Percy and Marguerite travel to their house in the country. There, Marguerite breaks down and tells her husband of Armand's arrest and her deal with Chauvelin. Confronting her, Percy learns the truth behind the denunciation of the marquis; he had her imprisoned for consorting with his son. After the revolution freed her, she told her friend Chauvelin, who was the one who denounced them. Promising to use his influence at court on Armand's behalf, Percy leaves for London. Afterward, Marguerite notices a detail on a portrait of the 1st baronet hanging in the library – on his finger is a ring decorated by a pimpernel. Realizing that she has inadvertently betrayed her own husband, she rushes out of the room, only to be presented a letter from Chauvelin announcing that he had discovered the Pimpernel's true identity as well. Racing back to London, she warns Ffoulkes that Percy's life is in danger. Ffoulkes agrees to mobilise the band to warn Percy.
To lure Percy into his trap, Chauvelin has both Armand and the Count de Tournay transferred to Boulogne-sur-Mer. Despite the vigilance of Chauvelin's men, the Pimpernel frees the two men from prison through bribery. However, one of the prison guards tells Chauvelin that the Pimpernel will be at a certain tavern (the Lion d'Or) that evening. Marguerite goes there to warn Percy, only to be arrested by Chauvelin and his troops. Percy arrives at the appointed time and is met by a gloating Chauvelin. Percy distracts him long enough for Armand and the count to board the ship, but as he prepares to leave, Chauvelin announces that he has Marguerite in custody. Percy surrenders on the condition that she be freed. He is led away by soldiers to be shot by a waiting firing squad. Chauvelin exults at the sound of gunfire, but Percy returns to the tavern very much alive, revealing that the men in uniform are in fact his. After securing Chauvelin in the basement, Percy joins his wife on the ship back to England. | historical fiction | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1491044 | The Iceman | In the 1960s, Richard Kuklinski (Michael Shannon) marries Deborah (Winona Ryder) and the couple have two daughters. Kuklinski keeps secrets from his family. He works dubbing pornographic films which he then supplies to a mob operated syndicate, but he tells his family that he dubs Disney cartoons. Kuklinski is also deeply troubled. The subject of brutal beatings he received as a boy from his immigrant Polish father, Kuklinski is an emotionally disturbed and intensely violent man. In one instance a man insults him after a game of pool. Kuklinski follows the man to his car and murders him by quickly slashing his throat.
Another secret Kuklinski keeps is his younger brother Joseph (Stephen Dorff) is serving a life sentence for raping and murdering a twelve-year-old girl. Roy DeMeo (Ray Liotta), a powerful mob boss, shuts down the pornographic film business in which Kuklinski was involved and brings him on board to work as a contract killer after Kuklinski passes an impromptu audition which was killing a homeless man with Roy's gun.
During the killing of Marty Freeman (James Franco) for using DeMeo's name too freely in his business dealings, Kuklinski meets Robert Pronge (Chris Evans), another hitman for the mob. After DeMeo puts Kuklinski on suspension for allowing a teenage girl to live after witnessing a hit (Kuklinski reveals that he never kills children), he teams up with Pronge, who is a freelancer, and splits the contract payments with him in return for helping him on contract assassinations for DeMeo's boss Leo Marks (Robert Davi).
During his suspension, Kuklinski begins to show more of his anger and rage to the point of destroying his own kitchen while having an argument with Deborah. Kuklinski also shows paranoia when he looks at a moving ice cream truck and instantly thought of Pronge. While distracted Kuklinski crashes his car into another vehicle, nearly killing his family, who are in the car with him. The man he hit, who was injured in the crash, gets out of his car and insults Kuklinski and his family, which causes Kuklinski to enter such a raging fit that he then initiates a high speed chase after the man through three neighborhoods, again putting his family in danger.
DeMeo eventually finds out about all of this unauthorized employment after Kuklinski murders one of his associates on Leo's orders, and threatens Kuklinski at the same time that he severs all ties with him. Meanwhile, Kuklinski attempts to collect his $50,000 pay for the hit from Leo, but is denied the payment, prompting him to kill the mobster when he threatens his family.
Kuklinski's daughter is later seriously injured by a hit-and-run car accident. Kuklinski suspects Pronge and shoots him in a public park.
Following an undercover sting operation, Kuklinski is arrested in the year 1986. Neither his wife nor his daughters had ever suspected him of being a cold-blooded killer. Kuklinski admitted to having committed over 100 vicious murders, both for personal reasons and for profit, in his 22-year career. After being sentenced to two life terms in prison he never saw his wife and daughters again. (In real life, Barbara and his daughters visited him in the hospital shortly before he died) [1]
As the movie ends, Kuklinski's only regret was hurting his family for the sins that he did and the dangers he put his family in. In 2006, he died in a prison hospital, from a rare inflammatory disease, just before he was to testify against a Gambino crime family underboss.[2] | violence, murder, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1185838 | Easy Rider: The Ride Back | The protagonists are two freewheeling bikers: Wyatt (Fonda), nicknamed "Captain America", and Billy (Hopper). Wyatt dresses in American flag-adorned leather (with an Office of the Secretary of Defense Identification Badge affixed to it), while Billy dresses in Native American-style buckskin pants and shirts and a bushman hat. The former is quite open to people they meet on their journey and accepting of help while the latter is more hostile and suspicious.
After smuggling cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles, Wyatt and Billy sell their haul to "Connection", a man (played by Phil Spector) in a Rolls-Royce, and receive a large sum in return. With the money stuffed into a plastic tube hidden inside the Stars & Stripes-painted fuel tank of Wyatt's California-style chopper, they ride eastward aiming to reach New Orleans, Louisiana, in time for the Mardi Gras festival.
During their trip Wyatt and Billy stop to repair one of the bikes at a farmstead, and have a meal with the farmer (Warren Finnerty) and his family. Wyatt seems to appreciate the simple, traditional lifestyle presented here. Later Wyatt stops to pick up a hippyish hitch-hiker (Luke Askew) and he invites them to visit his commune, where they stay for the rest of the day. Life in the commune appears to be hard, with young hippies from the city struggling to grow their own crops in a dry climate with poor soil and little rainfall. At one point, the bikers witness a prayer for blessing of the new crop, as put by a commune-member (Robert Walker Jr.): A chance "to make a stand", and to plant "simple food, for our simple taste". The commune is also hosting a traveling theater group that "sings for its supper" (performs for food). The notion of "free love" appears to be practised, with two of the women, Lisa (Luana Anders) and Sarah (Sabrina Scharf), seemingly sharing the affections of the hitch-hiking commune-member before turning their attention to Wyatt and Billy. The hitch-hiker asks the two bikers to stay at the commune, saying, "the time is now", to which Wyatt replies "I'm hip about time...but I just gotta go." As the bikers leave, the hitch-hiker (known only as "Stranger on highway" in the credits) gives Wyatt some LSD for him to share with "the right people".
Later, while naughtily riding along with a parade in a small town, the pair are arrested by the local authorities for "parading without a permit" and thrown in jail. There, they befriend American Civil Liberties Union lawyer and local drunk George Hanson (Jack Nicholson), who has spent the night in jail after overindulging in alcohol. George helps them get out of jail and decides to travel with Wyatt and Billy to New Orleans. As they camp that night, Wyatt and Billy introduce George to marijuana. As an alcoholic and a "square", George is reluctant to try the marijuana ("It leads to harder stuff", and "I don't want to get hooked"), but he quickly relents.
Stopping to eat at a smalltown Louisiana diner, the trio's appearance attracts the attention of the locals. The girls in the restaurant think they're exciting but the local men and a police officer begin making loud and denigrating comments and taunts. One of the men menacingly states, "I don't believe they'll make the parish line." The waitress does not take their order and Wyatt, Billy and George, feeling the hostility, decide to leave without any fuss. They make camp outside town. The events of the day cause George to comment: "This used to be a hell of a good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it." He observes that Americans talk a lot about the value of freedom but are actually afraid of anyone who truly exhibits it.
In the middle of the night a group of locals attack the sleeping trio, beating them with clubs. Billy screams and brandishes a knife and the attackers leave. Wyatt and Billy suffer minor injuries but George has been bludgeoned to death. Wyatt and Billy wrap George's body up in his sleeping bag, gather his belongings, and vow to return the items to his parents.
They continue to New Orleans and find a brothel George had told them about. Taking prostitutes Karen (Karen Black) and Mary (Toni Basil) with them, Wyatt and Billy decide to go outside and wander the parade-filled street of the Mardi Gras celebration. They end up in a cemetery, where all four ingest the LSD which the hitch-hiker had given to Wyatt. They experience a bad trip.
Making camp afterward, Billy declares that their trek has been a success. Wyatt disagrees, declaring, "We blew it." The next morning, the two are continuing their trip eastward to Florida (where they hope to retire wealthy) when two rednecks in an old pickup truck spot them and decide to "scare the hell out of them" with their shotgun. As they pull alongside Billy, one of the men lazily aims the shotgun at him and threatens and insults him by saying, "Want me to blow your brains out?" and "Why don't you get a haircut?" When Billy casually flips his middle finger up at them, the hillbilly fires the shotgun and the shot hits Billy. His motorcycle goes down and he lands near the edge of the road, seriously wounded in the side. As the truck then takes off past Wyatt down the road, Wyatt turns around and races back to put his American flag-emblazoned jacket over his critically injured friend, who is already drenched in blood, before riding off for help. Seeing the injured biker, the old pickup truck turns around and closes in on Wyatt. The hillbilly fires at Wyatt as he speeds by, killing Wyatt instantly, his motorcycle goes flying in flames. As the murderous rednecks drive away, the film ends with an aerial shot from a helicopter of the flaming bike in the middle of the deserted road and two bikers lying there, as the camera recedes into the sky. | cult, avant garde, dark, flashback | train | wikipedia | Not about the Motorcycles, and More of a Dramatic Bio of the ER Characters' Family.
This creation has little to do with the style, direction or intent of the original 1969 film.It tries to explain in a rather technical and overly melodramatic way effectively how Wyatt and Billy ended up on the road in the first place.
In doing that, each character is dissected and re-introduced from childhood on up, in a cinematic style that attempts to replicate some of the original's fragmented and flash-back style, but can't quite seem to keep the energy and story direction clear enough to attain a connection to the audience of any of the characters.Jeff Fahey (Wes Coast) and Sheree J.
Wilson (Shane Williams) are individually interesting to watch in their character's depth but it's hard to carry a full 90 minutes on the supporting roles.The motorcycle riding scenes are decorative more than substantive to the story (similar to what you'd experience watching an advertisement from a manufacturer, sans a voice-over.) There are a plethora of many gorgeously restored antiques and collectibles thrown in scenes that are dropped in as just set decor, which doesn't portray the connection between their owners and the bikes.
For a film that has a lot of biker characters, it seems odd that you never see any sweat, dirty hands, nor unpolished chrome throughout the story.
Even the tires seem to get cleaned between scenes, even though being ridden on dirt back roads.Technically, the locations and sets were well-developed, but there's very little tying those beautiful settings to what they mean to the characters (very similar to the bikes).
Kind of like watching Clark Griswold having just arrived after days of driving at the edge of the Grand Canyon saying, "Gee, nice.
Hey, let's get going to Wally World!" Ultimately it's hard to believe the development of the storyline - you are left wondering why each character went to the effort of overcoming whatever obstacle was thrown into their path by the script.
They could have just turned away and had the story go in an organic direction, but instead from scene to scene, you can almost hear the actors' inner voices saying "Not sure why I'd do or say that...
but, oh well, that's the way it's written." There was a LOT of time, energy and budget behind this film - that's apparent from the attempt to recreate 70 years of historical time-line locations, events and settings.
Perhaps it was too much trying to tie together the back stories of 10 different characters, for that span of time, leading to the iconic pair that took to the road in Easy Rider (1969).
I would have preferred a trimmed-down version of the story focusing perhaps simply on the father's anger and angst, the son's need to return, and the sister being caught in-between trying to understand why these polar opposites are a family, apart.As presented, it strongly resembles a social media fan page for ER (1969) with fan-produced character fiction stories, photos and video clips posted to it, each one stating "Here's why I liked ER, and why I thought such-and-such happened.".
Looking back (through the mirror?).
While this is a sequel it's also kind of a prequel, looking back on what happened before the Original "Easy Rider" (ER).
Of course some people might feel offended just by that simple fact.
And that impression will not fade with the beginning of the movie.
Actually while there is a resemblance (haircut and the general look), the acting feels like a TV soap.
And that is not good at all.Fortunately Jeff Fahey comes along and the "fun" sort of begins.
It elevates the movie a bit and it's almost a shame you don't get more of him and his character interaction.
But it's more about, where were and were are we going (concerning the characters).
There is still a lot of bike love and people who are fond of that will cherish those moments.
For everyone else, it's not really that worth while, while not really bad either..
Story Line !!!!!!!.
The way HOME has a great story line of Hickok's coming of age as of Morgan's coming of age.
The story of how the 60's pulled families apart.
I can see how the reviews were low on this movie because of the acting but the cinematography is wonderful, as well as an excellent soundtrack to portray a vivid and heart warming story of family, friends and times.
Possibly you need to have been raised it this time line to fully understand.
I highly recommend the viewing of this movie, if it doesn't effect your soul, then you are truly in trouble as a human being.The attention to detail on the motorcycles is very good, even the blue Billy bike that Wes is riding is an exact replica except for the color.
And the other vintage motorcycles makes the watch worth while.I feel the lack luster of this movie was do to the director not being able to pull the best and most realistic performance from his actors.
With better direction this could have been a top ten movie..
Not So Easy: A Ride of Flashbacks.
"Stay with me: I need to make a sequel to one of the most influential and defining movie of multiple generations, but without the solid acting, excellent music, staple plot and pot or connection to the first one," must've been the pitch.
And, incredibly, the studio head bought that.Obviously, when someone wants to make a sequel to a decades-old and virtually untouchable film, most people would see disaster written all over it.
And Easy Rider: The Ride Back is complete proof of that.Granted, I had never seen the original until I heard about this one from the hilarious How Did This Get Made?
podcast, and despite them telling me I didn't need to see the first one, I went ahead and made this a double feature
especially since the first one's considered an all-time classic.
They couldn't have been more right.
This "follow-up" had about a one percent association with the first one and that was just because both contained motorcycles.
This movie, if you can call it that, was so incoherent, messy and amateurish
calling it The Room on Wheels would be very kind.
The sound was always off, the cardboard characters were instantly forgettable and unforgivable and the music was both a complete distraction and absolutely atrocious – and I'm not just comparing it to the first one, but even if one did, they'd shoot the director.Basically, and mind you, I just finished watching this, I am guessing the movie is about a Vietnam deserter's long – make that overbearingly long – motorcycle ride home to see his disapproving father.
Along the sad (for us, that is) journey, there are about 83 flashbacks to what seems to be another movie and the plot gets so convoluted, heavy, random, clichéd and includes about 12 or so main characters that I stopped trying to figure out who was who and never cared a split second about any of them.
And this includes a woman who got raped.
Her story arc (of many others) was far beyond the caring stage once introduced, so there wasn't even an emotional tie to her.And this was all from a movie that's supposed to be a sequel to Easy Rider.
This was as much a sequel as Halloween III: Season of the Witch was to the first two Halloween movies.Mercifully, after watching 80+ mostly god-awful films to catch up on the How Did This Get Made?
podcast, this was the last I'd see for a couple of weeks when the next podcast is published.
Ranking them, this has to be in the top ten of those as the worst of the worst.
It was unbearable at times to sit through this and no one whatsoever should see it.
At least with another road-trip movie, Thelma & Louise, they had the common courtesy to drive off the Grand Canyon when they knew they had nothing left to live for.
We were NOT so lucky with the main characters here.* * *Final thoughts: Though I don't ride motorcycles, I can sense that keeping your mouth open for a cross-country trek isn't the smartest thing one can do on a bike.
Enter Phil Pitzer, co-writer and star of this turkey and watch this man with his mouth agape the entire movie.
Considering 60% of it is shot like an ad for Harleys on long, desert highways, it's entirely distracting and thoroughly disgusting watching his mouth open on the open road.
Bad, bad choice for anyone who didn't stop him from doing that.That said, one nice thing about his poor decision was that it did give me some hearty laughs and at least I got an ounce of entertainment, albeit unintentional, out of the film..
The Captain America bike couldn't even save this crap..
Wrote this review 4 years ago for another site but forgot to upload it here.
Is it a spoiler to let someone know it sucked?Easy Rider: The Ride Back.
My thoughts; Editing - Bad. Directing - Bad. Music - Bad. Acting - Bad. Camera Work - I think someone bought a dolly and thought they knew how to use it after reading the manual.
Story - Made no sense.
The ending was the best part since it meant the movie was over and it was horrible!
It's like they found everyone that made all the bad biker movies in the sixties, brought them all together, and told them to make a bad motorcycle movie and they took it literally.
Awaste of 1 hour and 38 minutes of time.
Going to erase it from my hard drive so it doesn't waste my drive space.
I give it 2 stars and that's only because of the Captain America Chopper.
Still the best looking chopper ever built.
Without that I would give it -2 stars.
This movie sucked, big time! |
tt0030798 | Storm Over Bengal | Two Royal Air Force officers, Flt Lt Hallett and F/O Neil Allison visit a British outpost in India. Neil is the younger brother of Army Intelligence Officer Captain Jeffrey Allison who is away on an undercover mission in the unaligned and independent Princely state of Lhanapur. The British are worried about radio broadcasts from Ramin Khan inciting the Indian people to revolt. Upon the death of the elderly Maharajah of Lhanapur, Ramin Khan schemes to usurp the throne as a base for his revolt.
Disguised as an Indian holy man, Jeffrey gathers intelligence on Ramin Khan's insurgents whilst the British send a diplomatic mission to Lhanapur who are ambushed and killed. The young Neil is himself in love with Jeffrey's fiancee Joan Lattimore and is jealous of his brother. Upon his return from Lhanapur Jeffrey postpones his wedding so Joan can flee to safety. With the death of the diplomatic party Jeffrey is flown to Lhanapur by Hallett in his aircraft to meet with the Maharajah. Ramin Khan captures Jeffrey and mortally wounds Hallett who flies back to inform the British of Ramin Khan's activity. Ramin Khan is delighted as he plans to ambush the British field force in a ravine near the caves of Kali. | intrigue | train | wikipedia | Days of the Raj.. I must admit that I am a fan of all those old movies that were set in India during the days of the British Raj, and this movie, while certainly made as a B programmer, has stayed with me for over 50 years!! I still recall Patric Knowles as the Soldier, with the then lovely Rochelle Hudson as the usual damsel in distress, while the evil Khan played by perennial heavy Douglass Dumbrille - it was a lot of fun, with a cast of well-known faces, with unknown names in supporting roles. One thing that really stuck in my memory was the musical score which I have now discovered was nominated for an Academy Award - very hard to believe for a B film. If you can find this in a DVD or Video store , rent it as you will really enjoy it.. solid action film deserves to be better known. Crazed Indian is broadcasting calls for armed insurrection in the name of Kali from somewhere in the wilderness. The British send their best man,Capt. Jeffrey Allison, into investigate. Meanwhile back at the base Allison's girlfriend and brother (who resents his brother's fame and loves his brothers girl) arrive for his wedding. Republic action movie moves like the wind covering a great deal of territory in its 60 or so minutes. At times this is like the best of the serials Republic turned out only with a larger cast and a less meandering script. It looks great and if I wasn't as well versed in the Republic style of action I would have sworn this came from one of the major movie studios. This is one of those neat little films that you stumble across and can't believe isn't better known. Worth a soda and a bucket of popcorn.. More middle eastern gunfire over the sands of time.. Stereotypes and cliched rule the reels in this fortunately short programmer where romantic intrigue and political strife cross each other as two distinguished members of the foreign legion (Patric Knowles and Richard Cromwell) both love the same girl (Rochelle Hudson) while working together to stop the villainess sheik (Douglas Dumbrille) from further disturbing the peace they are trying to maintain. It's entertaining enough but there's nothing new to be found in this action/adventure that somehow garnered an Oscar nomination for its music. The film is overripe with every type of cliche that dominated features and serials in the 1930's and 1940's, from the oh so noble white men, the frail heroine concerned over the man she loves being in danger, a guru like wise man who spouts philosophies on his death bed, and of course, the one dimensional villain. Dumbrille could play these types of roles sleep walking. There are a few thrilling moments that makes this tolerable, but it's difficult to remain completely interested in something that has been redone ok screen dozens of time. |
tt0337960 | Danny Deckchair | Danny Morgan (Ifans) works as a concrete maker driver and construction worker who lives in a big Australian city with his girlfriend but is unhappy with his life. Danny yearns for the simple life while girlfriend Trudy (Clarke) fantasizes about bright lights and fast times. While Danny plans for their annual camping trip, Trudy tells him she has to work, so the trip is off. In reality, Trudy is using her work connections at a local real estate agency to set up a meeting with a handsome local sports reporter, Sandy Upman (Muldoon). Danny sees them together while he's shopping for a weekend barbecue, leaving him even more disenchanted with their relationship.
During the barbecue in his backyard, Danny, being an inventive character, ties a bunch of helium-filled balloons to his deckchair as his friends hold him down. When they inadvertently let go, Danny is set on an airborne adventure across Australia, which causes him to become a national sensation. As he floats over idyllically beautiful rural landscapes, totally foreign to the concrete structures of his discontent, he appears on the verge of some enlightenment. After he's beaten up in a rugged ride through a thunderstorm, fireworks from a small town's macadamia festival burst his balloons. Danny lands in a tree in Glenda's front yard as the remnants of his chair float away.
Glenda (Otto), who was watching the fireworks from her front porch, sees Danny fall into the tree but doesn't see the deckchair. As firemen and townsfolk arrive to find out if the fireball caused any damage, they see Glenda helping a disheveled Danny. Glenda tells them that Danny is an old professor from college days and takes him into her house, which belonged to her parents. As he recovers from the harrowing end to his journey, the lonely Glenda, fascinated by the strapping Danny, doesn't press him about his past. Danny doesn't help matters by offering only vague explanations about his origins and unorthodox arrival in the town of Clarence.
As Danny explores the town, Glenda's friends wonder about their past relationship, but they are quickly won over by Danny's whimsical ways. This was easy to accomplish as Glenda's friends are just happy to see that the withdrawn, and sometimes depised, traffic officer is with someone special. Using his easy-going manner, Danny persuades Glenda to dress-up and go with him to the harvest ball. She gives him some nice clothes (formerly her father's) to wear to the ball. After Danny looks in the mirror, he shaves his beard and trims his hair. At the ball and around town, Danny's mysterious past, detached demeanour and off-the-wall ideas make him an instant hit with the townsfolk. His ideas that were considered hair-brained in the big city seem fresh in the small town of Clarence, and he is hired to become the manager of an aspiring politician's campaign. As they spend time together at Glenda's house, Danny finds her father's old motorcycle, which for sentimental reasons Glenda keeps in the shed. After she shows Danny pictures of her parents on the motorcycle exploring the country, Danny fixes up the old motorcycle when Glenda is at work.
All the while, the big city media can't get enough coverage of Danny's disappearance, constantly broadcasting interviews of his friends, family and co-workers. Trudy takes up with the sports reporter (Muldoon), who sees covering Danny's story and Trudy's suffering as a way to the top.
Back in Clarence, Danny is forging a deep connection with Glenda. But their budding relationship is not viewed by everyone in town as all peaches-and-cream. Their flirtations arouse jealousy and suspicion in Glenda's male co-worker, the town's police supervisor, who busts them for speeding when they take Glenda's motorcycle out for a ride. But nothing fazes Danny as he continues to immerse himself in his ideal world. He even goes so far as to give a stirring speech at a political rally, and he is asked by some of the townsfolk to run for office.
All caught up in the dizzying events surrounding the political rally, Glenda and Danny spend the night together. He wakes reveling in his new soul-mate, gets dressed in a haze of happiness and steps outside onto Glenda's porch to greet the dawn of his perfect new life. However, local kids have found and reported the deck chair causing Danny's past to come crashing down upon him in a torrent of media frenzy.
As a shocked Glenda emerges from her house to see what all the noise is about, she spots Danny running down the street with a crowd in hot pursuit. Just then, Trudy and Upman drop down in a news helicopter and land in the street in front of Glenda's yard, stopping Danny dead in his tracks. Trudy reclaims Danny amidst an explosion of camera flashes to take him back to the big city, where she can bask in his new-found fame. As his half-truths become uncovered in the stark light of media exposure, Glenda rails against Danny as he's whisked away.
Although she is angry at being deceived by Danny, his departure brings Glenda to the stark realization that she has been deceiving herself as well. She finally admits to herself that her life is at a dead end and she decides it's time for a change.
Meanwhile, unhappily plugged back into his old job and with Trudy trying to capitalize on his fame, the deep changes within Danny that happened in Clarence make city life all the more unbearable. Danny confronts Trudy, tells her it's over and uses the connections his media storm have forged to get on a military plane to win Glenda back.
Back in Clarence, Glenda has finished packing up her motorcycle and is saying goodbye to her friends. Just then, Danny parachutes out of the plane over Clarence and crash-lands in the tree in front of Glenda's house as she's starting to leave on her motorcycle.
At first, Glenda appears excited to see Danny; but immediately she starts yelling that he can't just drop in and everything will be all right. Glenda resolutely drives off before Danny can convince her how much he needs her and his new life in the town of Clarence. Dragging his parachute, Danny runs after her, shouting that he'll do whatever it takes to get back together. As she drives away, Danny's parachute cord gets caught on the back of the motorcycle and he is lifted into the air. As Glenda glances into her mirror for one last look at her old life, she notices Danny flying behind her and stops the bike. As he comes down, Danny and Glenda get entangled in the parachute, wordlessly embrace and kiss.
As the movie ends, Danny and Glenda, in their bathrobes, symbolically float upward in deck chairs as they talk about their future plans. | romantic, fantasy, comedy, prank | train | wikipedia | I think this will be one of the first comments for Danny Deckchair, so let me start this section off by saying straight away that I really, awfully enjoyed this film!
I was sorry to see the finish of it, and thats something that you cant always say about movies.Starring Rhys Ifans (fantastic actor!), and Miranda Otto (impresses me whenever I see her), this fun romp never once left me bored.
Be it the numerous moments of hilarity as Danny lights up the screen or the quieter, more touching personal moments when Glenda and Danny are getting to know each other, this film was interesting and entertaining to the last.
Also interesting is the unsaid statements about what a bit of fame does to some people, as Trudy (Justine Clark) shows her true colours once Danny flies away on his Deckchair.When it all boils down to it, this is an entertaining and ultimately heartwarming film that isn't afraid to be Australian.
Miranda Otto (Glenda) also did a wonderful job playing the shy parking officer who fell in love with the "alien" from the sky.I would definitely (and have done so) recommend to anyone just trying to chill out with a movie for an evening and walk away refreshed..
This little movie was very refreshing from the usual romantic comedy machine that Hollywood cranks out just to make a few bucks from romance novel loving ladies.Here's the point: it was a little funny, it was a little romantic, it was a little dramatic, and it was fun to watch.
I took a few points off for the editing, sometimes it jumps around a little too much, but for me it wasn't too distracting since everything else made up for it.Following the romance story of a guy that falls from the sky in a woman's backyard - doesn't it sound intriguing?If you like the genre, definitely a different, refreshing pick - and one that guys can watch without regret.
By the end of the film, you really feel like you have a new friend in a strange way.
If you like sweet, romantic comedies or you're looking for the perfect date movie Danny Deckchair is for you.
Rhys Ifans, maybe best known as the slovenly roommate in Notting Hill, is unexpectedly charming as the title character, Danny.
Danny is a goofy, hard-working everyman who doesn't know what he's missing until he literally falls into the backyard of the beautiful, but lonely Glenda, a small town parking cop.
Like a Jimmy Stewart character in a Frank Capra film, Danny finds a passion and integrity that he didn't now he had and he's able to inspire goodwill in everyone around him - including this film's audience..
In this charming little comedy from down under, Writer/Director Jeff Balsmeyer takes us inside the lives of 2 people we really like and one ...
The plot line is relatively simple, which arguably detracts from the film, but it has it's moments, such as the moment Danny launches into the air on his deckchair.
Overall, I would recommend this Aussie film to all people looking for a good laugh.
"Danny Deckchair" tells of the adventures of a young concrete truck driver who decides to tie a bunch of helium filled balloons to his deck chair to soar aloft.
With lots of heart and unpredictable predictability, "Danny Deckchair" should be an enjoyable watch for those who don't mind a little schmaltz with their romantic comedy fare.
Its a light, full-hearted film meant to make you feel good about life and love and all that stuff.
Rhys Ifans (Danny) and Miranda Otto (Glenda) are fantastic together and their performances keep the viewer captivated throughout the entire picture.
Meanwhile, back in Sydney, the other prisoners are trying to determine what happened to the escapee when a local policeman in the Northern town, jealous of how happy these two are, decides to let said Sydney prisoners know where their man is.As I said earlier, the film relies very heavily upon the performances of the actors to stay afloat.
Rhys Ifans, best known as one of the emaciated, lunatic twins of Twin Town, makes it incredibly easy to sympathise with his character, the titular Danny Deckchair.
Miranda Otto, now infamous as Éowyn, the only woman who actually goes into battle during the Lord Of The Rings saga (at least the way Tolkien wrote it), is equally convincing as the parking cop whose life is forever changed by a man falling out of the sky and into her front yard.
This is particularly clear at the end when Danny finds himself back in Sydney and, disgusted with the way of life there, decides he is far better off in a town where everyone seems to know his name, and not just because it has been broadcast to death on the news.
Without the supporting characters who represent Danny's former workmates and significant others, the story would probably fall flat.All in all, I gave the film a nine out of ten.
It does have a few moments when the pace slows too far for its own good, but this is one of the best films to come out of Australia since The Pirate Movie.
The changing emotions visible on the faces of the two main characters required attention, so I couldn't just listen and glance over while doing other things like I usually can.One thing that I always ask myself in reading a book or watching a movie is, "Do I care about these characters?" If there's no reason to care what happens to someone, why spend the time?
The relationship of Danny and Glenda felt plausible, handled with sensitivity and realism with neither of them starting out "looking for love" which really means "wanting sex with someone, anyone" that most Hollywood romances think we want..
Danny Deckchair is a great little comedy.
While appearing unskilled in the ways of love, Danny will win your heart as he takes you with him on his journey that all starts with an accidental balloon ride - when his deckchair takes off with him.
Perhaps it's just an early midlife crisis talking, but I find that this sweet little oddity from Australia has the ability to make you sit up and say, "By George, I could change my life!" Of course, plenty of people hate Frank Capra movies.
Just as he made moviegoers ponder, "What would things be like if I had never been born?" Jeff Balsmeyer leads us (or at least some of us!) to the question "What would I do if I could start fresh, and completely reinvent myself among strangers?" Balsmeyer's Danny is a creative, adventurous soul whose humdrum, habitual city existence has hemmed him in and shrunk his world.
Apart from Danny's cringeworthy accent and the implausible motivations of the main characters, the plot was full of holes.How is it that a bearded man arrives in a small country town, has his photo plastered all over the media as the 'balloon man', and yet not one single person recognises him?
While the movie starte a bit slow for me, I was drawn into Danny's character within a short time.
However, the plight of feeling trapped in urban life and mundane routine, while wanting to somehow experience a little bit of contact with nature and people in a more intimate manner; does speak to almost anyone stuck in a job they don't especially enjoy, whether they do them well or whether they pay well or not.
This movie speaks to our inner desire to experience life in a more meaningful manner beyond merely getting things done good enough.
Danny Deckchair is an Australian film, although I don't think it really focuses on that very much in the movie, it concentrates on the good things in life, being original (or at least creative), having fun, finding your soul-mate and falling in love, these are the IMPORTANT things and I think that's what this movie is really trying to tell us.
The only thing I think this movie should have more of is moments of bonding between Glenda and Danny, you didn't see much of them getting to know each other.
Danny Deckchair was a really good movie illustrating the Real Life..
the film's director turns out to be an American who exported the'true story' of American urban legend Larry Walters (aka 'Larry Lawnchair'), and then changed the title to "Danny Deckchair," (which just sounds stupid), in order to make it more 'Australian.' then they cast a Welsh actor, Rhys Ifans, to play an Australian, because, well, i don't know why.
Danny Deckchair is based on a true story of a guy who actually did tie a bunch of balloons to a chair and took off.
Watch Danny Deckchair and enjoy life!.
While there are some special effects, this film is a good old fashioned romantic comedy which works and is proof that good old fashioned story telling never goes out of fashion.Hollywood saturates the globe with depictions of American life despite the fact that Americans only make up 6pc of the worlds population.
Rhys Ifans and Miranda Otto sold this for me, and I also tend to at least look at pretty much anything shipped from Australia; their films aren't consistently spellbinding (The Dish?) but are often of a quality missing in the studio flicks.
It's good to see the good guys win for a change, and Danny Deckchair is a love story that gives you the warm fuzzies.
And the whole concept of him tying helium balloons onto his lawn chair to see if it will make him fly, as unrealistic as it sounds, just emphasizes the surreal adventure he is about to embark on to find his calling in life.If you like romantic comedies and Australian people, or the happy and fantastical towns from such movies as Edward Scissorhands and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, you're bound to be won over by DannyDeckchair..
He sort of came across as a person that I would be friends with, and as such, I wanted to know what would happen to him.His adventures are fun, if perhaps a bit formulaic, and the outcome is never in doubt, but I never minded because to me, the movie was meant to be about the everyday life of an ordinary guy who made an unusual decision and in this regard the movie excelled.The acting is understated and convincing.
The main and secondary characters are well written, perhaps a bit clichéd (I think this adds to the movie by keeping you focused on Danny).If you are looking for a fun lighthearted movie, give this one a chance.
"Danny Deckchair" is a film inspired by a strange guy in the States who rigged up a chair with helium-filled balloons--and he took a trip that ended up getting him publicity AND in trouble with the authorities for unauthorized use of the airspace!
See this cute film."Danny Deckchair" is a lovely romantic film.
Danny's got a pretty boring life in suburban Australia when he decides to take to the skies in a chair tied with helium balloons.
Of course Rhys Ifans (Danny), and Miranda Otto (Glenda) are sensational, but so too is the impossibly adorable revelation Justine Clarke (Trudy).
Well, that is just about what happened for Danny (Rhys Ifans) as he was facing a world where his ordinary life was starting to come undone in his relationship with Trudy (Justine Clark).
Escaping suburban life in Australia, Danny departs to the skies on a deck chair tied with helium balloons.
He disembarks his air-journey by landing in a tree in Glenda's (Miranda Otto) yard and he and Glenda start to form a bond that could lead to a lasting relationship but alas, as he hides his past and how he got there, this relationship has it's twists and turns.Come on men, we've all pretty much dreamt of doing this - strapping balloons to a chair and just floating away to a new life.Cast includes Ifans, Clark, Otto, Rhys Muldoon (Sandy Upman), John Batchelor (Pete), and Alan Flower (Ray Vitali).
It's the first film from this American pleasant guy who married an Australian woman...Look for the similarities between his life and the movie !!!
Nobody is judging Australia, but keep making films like this and you'll do fine.I wished it had been less of a vehicle for Rhys Ifans and focused more on Miranda Otto's character.
With less focus on the actors and more on the reason for watching movies, lots of long build up to emotional effects and a great use of set and place, I had a really good time seeing the movie.
If you sit there like an idiot each Christmas and watch "It's A Wonderful Life", stop while cruising cable channels when you come upon "It Happened One Night" or still get a lump in your throat when you see Jimmy Stewart give his desperate speech in "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington", then, by God, you're gonna LOVE this movie!
For those of us who enjoy Rhys Ifans, this little film will not disappoint.
He lifts off by accident and gets blown far to the town of Clarence where he crash lands in Glenda Lake (Miranda Otto)'s tree.The deckchair trip is actually a small part of the movie.
Danny Deckchair is one of those extremely cute movies that attempts at every level to be more than just this "cute" movie about a man, but more instead a more soul wrenching story about life.
He reminded me of Hugh Grant and that aura that seems to surround him in many of his films.1) The contrast between Danny's old life and the one that he creates with Glenda borders fantasy.
I never felt that I was watching a "real" town in the film, but instead a "cute" situation that Danny was accepted into.2) There was little to no explanation of what Danny had done.
Again, no explanation was needed, no sub-story needed to be developed, there was this aura of familiarity with Danny that soared to new levels of "cute"-ness.Perhaps I have overburdened you too much with this "cute" factor issue, but I really walked thinking that it was just this really "cute" film that was flimsily defined, but left you with this amazing sense of goodness in your heart.
Danny Deckchair proves that everyone can find their place in life and that sometimes it takes a great feat to accomplish this, but in the end you will find your happiness.
Lalalala I liked the movie and I am in love with Trudy.
Rhys Ifans brings Danny Morgan to life and no one could have done it better.
His third film is good but his previous two are probably in the sewers.Based on a true story, the tale of a cement truck driver named Danny, whose long awaited vacation is cancelled thanks to his scheming girlfriend, Trudy.
Danny escapes his grim life in suburban Australia and blasts into the skies in a chair tied with helium balloons.
While the media back home becomes obsessed with the story of his disappearance, Danny gets to reinvent himself in this new town, and in his great adventure, he discovers a true soulmate in Glenda.
Wonderful romantic little film shows that change is possible.
It is what I call a quirky Australian film because it has an almost absurd premise, or plot, yet it is believable because the characters are real caricatures of the sort of people you would meet in the suburbs of the cities and the small country towns.For example Danny as a bricklayer has that earthy look on life which appeals to the girl he mets in Clarence and the impact he has on the town.This is uniquely Australian type film that they could not make in the USA.It is well worth a watch although the ending was a bit flat..
The title suggests a mediocre film where the viewer might be led to think the only high point (pun intended) is Danny's launch into the air on a balloon laden deckchair.
With a good cast set you would think that the actors in "Danny Deckchair" could easily make something memorable and enjoyable.
It is a story of Danny re-discovering himself, and what he wants out of life.
Danny is eventually 'found', and returns to his home, but unhappy with his old life, parachutes into Glenda's yard, and as the movie ends we thing they will live happily ever after..
Witness the 2004 Australian film Danny Deckchair, which is an off the rack romantic comedy without a whit of inspiration, and as predictable as they come.
The premise for the film comes from the spate of real life nuts who tied balloons to chairs and other devices, and took off into the skies.
what a gem this movie is.i had seen it advertised several times,and thought it would be boring.however,it happened to be on today,and there was nothing else on,so i thought i'd take a chance.boy,am i glad i did.this movie has a very original premise,great characters,good writing,and good acting.the movie basically tells the story of Danny Morgan(Rhys Ifans) a cement worker who finds out his girlfriend thinks very lowly of him and may have cheated on him.anyway,long story short,Danny ends up floating away in a deck chair to a new life.i won't say any more because i don't want to spoil it.let's just say Danny meets some new people and learns some life altering lessons.this is a romantic comedy of sorts,but 1 that most guys would appreciate and enjoy.the beautiful Miranda Otto plays the romantic interest.
the romance isn't the heart of the movie,though.the movie is concerned more with the life of Danny(Ifans)and those who he meets on his travel.this is a small Australian movie,and it proves you don't need a huge budget or big name stars to make a movie work.but you do need an original story with likable characters,which this one has.if you have a chance to see this movie,i urge you to do so. |
tt0284674 | Pauly Shore Is Dead | The film begins as an autobiographical look at Shore's early professional successes on MTV and as the star of a series of 90s comedies. Shore's film career leads to his taking a starring role in a vehicle on the Fox Network, in which he plays the slacker son of a millionaire. The pilot of the series turns out to be a commercial and critical failure, and Shore becomes a pariah virtually overnight, with his friends distancing themselves from him for fear that it will tarnish their own careers. Shore is ultimately reduced to living in his mother's attic and watching BackDoor Sluts 9 starring his ex-girlfriend, who will no longer see him.
One night, Shore is visited by the ghost of his mentor, comic Sam Kinison, who encourages Shore to fake his own death as a means of revitalizing popularity in Pauly Shore films and merchandise. Shore decides to go through with the plan, which initially works: Once word of his "death" breaks, celebrities eager for the residual publicity begin appearing on television in large numbers to declare Shore a comic genius and lament his early death. Shore, eager to bask in the publicity, begins appearing in public wearing a disguise; he is quickly outed, arrested, and sent to prison.
In prison, Shore is attacked by one of his former fans, "Bucky from Kentucky," a redneck whose world view was shattered when he learned that Shore had willingly put his own fans through the ordeal of thinking he was dead. Shore survives the attack, which causes him to realize that even though he was no longer as famous as he once was, he still had fans who loved him. Shore and Bucky have a heart-to-heart about the nature of celebrity, and Shore decides to start his career over.
After getting out of prison, Shore sets about making Pauly Shore Is Dead to chronicle his own rise and fall, using information he has gathered from years in Hollywood to blackmail various B-list celebrities into appearing in cameos; he reserves the information he has on A-list celebrities for the planned sequel. | comedy | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0434670 | Chrono Crusade | Chrono Crusade is set in the height of the Roaring Twenties, where jazz is king, bootleg liquor flows freely, and the mob rules the streets. It is a time of prosperity, luxury and decadence, and the division between rich and poor grows even wider in the wake of the First World War. It is at such times of great change and upheaval that the dark things that lurk below the world of man can come to the surface. In the world of Chrono Crusade, a fictional organization known as the Order of Magdalene (or more specifically, the characters of Sister Rosette Christopher and her soul-bound demon partner, Chrono) exists to fight the demonic threats that appear with increasing regularity across America. Both Rosette and Chrono are revealed during the course of the story to be driven by a shadowy past, centered on a search for Rosette's lost brother Joshua who is shown to have been taken from her by the sinner, Aion, a demon who shares a dark and bloody history with Chrono. He seeks nothing less than to overthrow the delicate balance between Heaven, Earth, and Hell (in the manga it is the demons hierarchy he wished to destroy).
The anime follows the manga through the events of Volume IV, but it diverges during a crucial plot event, creating different courses of events and endings. The characterization of some the characters, including Rosette and Aion, and their roles in the story were changed drastically in the adaptation of the manga. Much of the story is driven by the individual pasts of the main characters and the complex relationships between them.
=== Setting ===
The Order of Magdalene is an organization that banishes devils and demons. The Order has many branches around the country (some that are mentioned/visited include the Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle branches); each one is presided over by the Council of the Catholic Church. The New York branch of the Order is headed by Kate Valentine, assisted by Ewan Remington, who lead the fight against the forces of darkness. The Order has many members; however, in times of great crisis, other less generally accepted individuals may be introduced into the Order to help fight the forces of darkness.
They use various weapons, mainly guns, swords, and melee weapons, many of which are developed by the New York branch's own Edward "Elder" Hamilton. The Order's preferred handgun is the Colt 1911, often loaded with Sacred, standard bullets containing holy water, and Gospel, bullets with alchemy-transformed silver. The bullet Spirit was also developed, but upon test-fire it was found to be too dangerous, using a repressed lower-class demon for its explosive power. Tetragrammaton, a gun with high power against demons with low backlash, is given to Rosette and later used by Chrono. Besides using guns, there are members of Order with special powers as well, using devices like tomes, violins, or dolls. They also use Angel Capture Fields, specialized barriers that can repel demons, their powers, and other astral based substances, and are set up by creating a rectangular array of cross-shaped stakes in the ground and activating them. The Order also developed Soul Dive, an experimental system used to dive into souls for direct exorcism. The Order also unveils its flagship, the Metatron, in the final showdown with Pandaemonium and Aion. | paranormal, psychedelic | train | wikipedia | Nun with guns, how can you go wrong?.
Well like my title suggests, this anime has a nun with guns.
Correction numerous nuns with guns.
Also this has nothing to do with the Chrono Trigger/Cross games.
Heck it's nothing near it unless the new games feature a nun with a gun.
Also a note I have only watched the Japanese version so my review is only looking at that part of it.
But I was surprised enough that it was actually set in the States, a lot of anime isn't is all I am saying.The main characters are Rosette Christopher and her (caddy) friend Chrno (Chrono depending on which version you are used to).
Rosette is apart of the Magadalan order who battle demons that are terrorizing everything.
But there is something that the public doesn't know about the Order and that is that there is a demon that is working in the Order.
Of course this demon isn't bad, but he was and he is trying to atone for his sins.Rosette is looking for her younger brother Joshua, so Rosette and Chrno are on a journey to find where her brother is.
They meet interesting characters along the way well some are interesting and some are annoying as hell *cough* Azmaria *cough* Chrono Crusade is enjoyable but short considering it is only 24 episodes long.
I was crying so badly while watching the last 3 episodes one after another.
It was a snowballing effect and really pulled at my heart strings.I give Chrono Crusade a 3 and a half out of 5.
Overall story is nice, the background music is so fitting and the voicing apart from Azmaria's is nice to listen to.So give this anime a try, if I didn't get you with my title then hopefully I convinced you with my review.
And just one more push, I mean really how often are you able to watch something with a nun with guns anyways?.
Chrono is a demon gone bad, of course since good is bad for demons that makes him a good guy.
Anyway, this good demon has made a contract with a nun, (of sorts), named Rosette.
Together they fight evil, with machine guns and blessed bullets, while searching for Rosette's younger brother Joshua.
Demons teamed up with nuns with guns is a fairly ridiculous premise to be sure, but there have been worse that made good.
I am not a religious person in any way, but I am fascinated by religion and different beliefs so it's good material for me.Technically, everything is good; great art, sound and animation.
Character design is mostly the average big eyed, super cute deal which works for me.
The demons, in their true forms, are sufficiently cool looking as well and the battle scenes are flashy and fun to watch There are a few things that just didn't really work for me.
Most of the humor is absent towards the end of the series anyway as it becomes increasingly serious.The biggest problem for me has to be the characters.
However, aside from Chrono and Rosette and maybe the butler, I either didn't like or just didn't give a crap about any of the characters.
They were simply not interesting and there was little to no character development for anyone besides the main two.In the end everything wraps up fairly well and Chrono Crusade, despite its shortcomings, manages to be a bit above average.
Nothing spectacular but it's worth watching..
Nothing spectacular but it's worth watching..
The series evolved beautifully and I was hooked to the end.
Demons try to "take over the world, Pinky", and to do so they must follow complicated rules and rituals, like hackers trying to get into a legitimate system.
People of faith (mostly young sexy girls) fight with holly water and blessed machine guns against evil.
The demons keep telling us that God should intervene if he is not an "absentee landlord" and by the end of the series you really begin asking why he doesn't.The link between the main female character and Chrno, the good demon (yeah, you heard that right), is reminiscent of Inuyasha, but not so completely goofy.
The main villain, in his twisted plots, seems to touch a little on Berserker.
Even Azmaria is just a crying child that I secretly wanted dead from the middle of the series.
She has this magic ability to revive people, but doesn't really use it.In the end, even if the last episode concludes the story and is very sad, one kinda gets bored with all the mystical mambo jumbo.
If you are a god, then probably a detailed and complicated story is for you (God is in the details, they say), but for us humans, getting the point is kind of important..
Demon and Nun?
another anime with a nice soundtrack, the piano, cello, violin pieces(: Chrno- a demon.
Rosette- a demon exorcist.
yeah, Chrno's a demon who betrayed his own kind, long story.
an ex-sinner, a group of demons who betrayed their own race, and Chrno betrayed the sinners as well.
Rosette's after Aion, the sinners' seemingly leader.
Aion took Rosette's brother, Joshua when he was a kid and fixed Chrno's horns on him, giving Joshua this power of stopping time.
which used to be Chrno's power until he fought with Aion and lost both his horns.
which means, a demon making a contract with another being.
in change for the contractor's life, the demon is able to return to its true form.
Chrno's contractor happens to be Rosette.
it's really sad and funny.
and you cant miss Chrno in his demon form!.
This is one of the worst anime series I have ever seen.
When I watched the manga review in a magazine, I thought it was maybe interesting, but when I got the chapters I realized it was a complete stupidity.OK, the first 2 or 3 chapters are OK, and the series have an standard.
The series tries to show some mystical based upon the Christian mythologies, but it's a total stupidity.
It features some demons and stigmata scenes...
It seems the series tries to seem deeply-thought, complex or mythologically reviewed, but a watcher with a bit of brain and cultural references, will realize soon all those elements used don't have a real sense: THEY ARE PUT THERE ONLY TO IMPRESS THE IGNORANT WATCHERS!!The final chapters are full of totally nonsense elements: battles with cat-eared demons, references to a supposed fight between demons, and demons who controls time (with no apparent reason).
The final is totally nonsense; an ignorant watcher will see on it a floating final that gives them a place to meditate; but the truth is this: THE FINAL AND THE COMPLETE SERIES IS A TOTAL INCOHERENT AND INCONGRUENT NONSENSE..
A nun battles demons in '20s New York.
This anime series is set in 1920s New York where Sister Rosette of the Magdalene Order battles demons alongside her partner Chrono.
He is an unlikely partner in the battle against evil as he is a demon himself; he has formed a contract with Rosette that controls his powers...
Early on they fight demons-of-the-week but later their ongoing battle is with Aion.
Aion is a powerful demon who is collecting individuals known as apostles for reasons that aren't immediately clear.
One such person is Rosette's brother Joshua; another is Azmaria, a young girl who is rescued by Rosette and Chrono.
As the series progresses they get closer to Aion but the danger to them and the world increases.I rather enjoyed this series; it opens well with a deal of humour as it introduces us to the main characters and their world.
This might lull one into thinking it will be light-hearted throughout but it does get darker in tone later on.
The characters are solid; Rosette and Chrono are good protagonists; solid support is given by Azmaria and members of the Magdalene Order and Aion is a suitably menacing antagonist.
The story is told in a way that gives the characters solid motives which we learn about as the series progresses.
The character designs are good and the animation is of a high standard.
Now here is an Anime worth seeing, (If you haven't already) honestly it's hard for me to comprehend how you can be bored with it?
True there are some slow moving moments, but that gives you a chance to catch your breath and not become overwhelmed.Loved it.
Like most Anime, it's goofy, fun, exciting, and has those wonderful moments of drama in it.
Chrono certainly doesn't skip out on the Animation.
And there are quite a few obvious continuity errors you can spot, as well as some very sad mistakes (Like being unable to spell Brooklyn) But besides a few pet peeves I liked it.
Now this does go into a bit of fanservice as it's a GONOZO production and no one does fan service better than GONZO, but hey, it's all good.
It's a nice change that fanserivce doesn't dominate the plot.The music, one of the first time I've heard a full Symphonic Orchestra, but they could turn the score up a little.
While the violence certainly did get a little gruesome, it only makes sense in a horror film obviously intend for older audiences.
Which brings me to my next point, writing.Now I did not read the manga by Daisuke Moriyama so I can't and won't compare, but the plot is a human one, more human than what I was first anticipating when I started this series.
ADV went the extra mile to include the slang of the period, and there's plenty of funny moments.
As few Anime take place out side of Japan, this is well done.
Most shows just make fun of it, or have to make a great parody, but this proved to be different.
While certainly incorporating heavy fantasy themes in this, the writers very much incorporated basic teachings, (namely the confrontation with Aion) Again this really is smartly written, the writers really did their homework.Chrono: "Are you all right Azmaria?" Azmaria: "Yeah, I'm jake." (Lol) Heck I once got into a 20's speech mania!
(Part of that was to be blamed on "The Great Gatsby") I think Chrono Crusade is one of those that prove you can have a smartly written plot and have it be entertaining (No need to dumb it up) Regarding connections to the game Chrono Trigger, It might just be me, but I believe I can see one small connection through simple allegory.
The concept of time and time winding down till the end.At first is the slowness, of developing Rosette, bothered me.
In my opinion, I think the Main Character should be heavily developed in the first Episode, but as the story went on, it made sense why.
This is a plot Anime, but even in Plot Anime, they still develop the characters just as much.
But I really started to enjoy this when we got to Episode 7.
It's amazing, because the series starts out light and comical, but right as we get to episode 7, everything went incredibly dark.
And I love Azmaria.
And Hilary Hagg, I think is terrific with Rosette.
He does so well as Chrono.
Another beat, this show is great with supporting characters.
You can tell Father Remmington really, cares for Rosette.And again, I love the drama.
How Rosette strives to help her brother even at the heavy cost to her life.It's wonderful, and that Episode where we see them as young children, was great.
You see Joshua so full of ambition, and life, even though he's always ill, he want's to make Rosette happy, and that means splitting them up.
She's so protective of him.Great show this is, "Nuns with Guns, how can you go wrong?" Okay technically they are not nuns.
'Nuns with guns', the perfect description to describe Chrono Crusade, an anime about the roaring 20's, when nuns went out to kill devils.
hell, Chrono Crusade takes protagonist, Rosette Christopher, an elite exorcist of the Order of Magdalene, on a journey to save her brother, Joshua, from the clutches of Aion, a devil bent on bringing together the realms of earth and heaven: a rebirth where he'll be the creator.
Aiding Rosette is Chrono, a devil whom she has made a contract, whereby both are bound together, except that Rosettes contract, shortens her life considerably.The story sounds all too impressive, yet fails in many regards.
Character development happens a little too quickly, and the story, after a great start, falls into fillers, which is sacrilege for an anime of only 24 episodes.
This becomes Chrono Crusades main problem: its divide between light and dark moments.
The light moments are frivolous affairs, adding no depth to the overall story.
It's the dark moments that have to compensate for this, and luckily, they do the job and are able to catapult Chrono Crusade into the top tier of anime.
However, throughout the anime, these moments are short-lived, as they become over flown by more light moments.
The dark seeps back in the final 7 episodes, but it all just seems to be too little too late.
Events have to be quickly dealt with, but for those willing to watch to the end, will be surprised.
The last episodes are spectacular: very gripping and makes you want more.
Sadly, the lack of momentum early on, is a liability, which hurts Chrono Crusade in the long run.Voice acting is very good, though a little annoying at times through filler episodes.
Characters themselves are likable.
You want Rosette to achieve her aims of rescuing her brother; you want Chrono to keep fighting along side her.
It must be mentioned that the villain, Aion, is easily the main attraction of the story.
He is evil in its purest form, always taunting, and underneath his handsome figure, lays a deathly charm of seduction.Besides an exceedingly well produced villain, Chrono Crusades other strength, is in the music department.
The animation is worthy of Gonzo Digimation, however, at the same time, it's not their best effort.
Some scenes are poorly done, even by Gonzo's standards, and thankfully, these times are only in the filler episodes.I cannot stress the importance of beginning the proper story early on in an anime, and Chrono Crusade could have been so much better, if this had occurred.
Sadly, it is left to the last minute, having to play catch-up, but Chrono Crusade finishes on a positive note, even if the story becomes depressing towards the end.Chrono Crusade has all the makings of the best of anime, but only until the end does it do itself justice.
Its ending establishes that Chrono Crusade is more then a story about 'nuns with guns', but that it does possess something far better: soul and it is this soul that proves that Chrono Crusade can and should rank amongst the best..
"Rosette Crusade".
Naming this anime "chrono crusade" is a bit misleading!
Because the plot is mostly about Rosette Christopher,who is accompanied by Chrno (a demon)!
Although Rosette is a nice character, Chrno is far more interesting!
This anime was good but could have been much better if they focused on him and his history!
And what is the point of calling this series "Chrono Crusade" if it is about Rosette!
But that aside this anime has everything!
She can summon different creatures to use in battle!
It looks spectacular!
The ending was very sad and very dark!
To conclude "Chrono Crusade" is a very moving and entertaining anime!.
Chrono Crusade.
We follow the missions of Sister Rosette and her contracted devil Chrono as they battle devils and devil worshipers for the Magdelene order in 1928 Brooklyn, NY.
In their missions they deal with protecting God-empowered apostles (which it turns out includes Rosette's long lost brother Joshua) and a young choir girl who ends up staying at Rosette's place.
However, their missions also bring them across devils that remember Chrono's once high status among other devils and so challenges to his power come dangerously often.
What is this long time rival of Chrono's, Aion, planning?
And how does it factor into the Fatima prophecies of which the aforementioned Apostles are a key component?This is really a well thought out series with quality animation and an endearing soundtrack.
Having a series set in Roaring '20s New York City is a stroke of genius too.
There is a remarkable sense of sweet sorrow to the story almost immediately when the audience learns of Rosette's fate as Chrono's contractor.
"The odds are good I won't make it past 30.." Rosette says to a young choir-girl and apostle.
Between Rosette's boisterous way of life in the short time that she has and Chrono's fending off of hatred by other humans and devils...
the comic klutziness of Rosette is a much needed relief.This series has some unpleasant undertones, but a great message of overcoming any bad hands that life can deal..
What I thought about the series.......
I loved this anime series.
There was just so much love in the story, and nobody even said anything.
But that's one of the points that made this movie so great.
It's really worth watching!
I cried every time, up to the end!
:)I hope all you anime lovers out there enjoyed it as much as I did!
I definitely recommend this movie for anyone looking for a heart warmer and needs a good cry!.
To be honest with you, I think this type of story in an anime should be a lot more darker like this anime was too flowery in my opinon.
I even think it would be better if the demon and the nun weren't a team but rather be enemies and then become a couple at the end.
I had to stop at the mid way of the first episode, it just acted too much of pokemon then a horror anime...Rather a waste of good minutes of my time.... |
tt0118972 | The Devil's Own | In 1972, eight-year old Francis McGuire witnesses his father being gunned down in front of him due to being an Irish republican sympathizer.
By 1992, an adult Francis (Brad Pitt) and three other I.R.A. men are caught up in a firefight in Belfast when members of the British Army try to capture him. One gunman is killed and another, Desmond, is wounded as Frankie and the last gunman, Sean Phelan (Paul Ronan), flee. Hiding out in the countryside, Francis and his friend Martin MacDuf (David O'Hara) see a British Army helicopter circling overhead and decide they need Stinger missiles.
Francis, traveling under the alias "Rory Devaney," is picked up at Newark Airport by IRA sympathizer Judge Peter Fitzsimmons (George Hearn), who has arranged for "Rory" to stay with New York City Police Department Sergeant Tom O'Meara (Harrison Ford), his wife, Sheila (Margaret Colin), and their three daughters in Staten Island. The judge gives Francis a handgun. "Rory" befriends Tom during his stay.
Meanwhile, Sean has acquired a large fishing boat, and repairs it with Francis so that they can use it to sail back to Ireland with the missiles."Rory" meets with black market arms dealer Billy Burke (Treat Williams). Burke agrees to purchase the missiles with his own money, waiting for Francis to pay him on delivery in six to eight weeks. Judge Fitzsimmons has his family's nanny, Megan Doherty (Natascha McElhone) deliver the bag of money he has raised to Francis. During an Irish celebration of the confirmation of one of Tom's daughters, Megan phones Rory to tell him Martin has been killed and to postpone his deal with Burke.
Tom decides to retire from the police force after an incident involving the shooting of a carjacker by his partner, Eddie Diaz (Rubén Blades). When Tom and Sheila arrive home that afternoon, they are attacked by masked intruders. As sirens are heard approaching, Tom persuades them to leave while they still can. Even though his bag of cash is still hidden under the floor in his room, Francis knows that Burke is behind this attack and confronts him. Burke reveals he's kidnapped Sean, ordering Francis to get him the money or his friend will die.
Francis attempts to collect the money at the O´Meara house but Tom has already found it, forcing him to reveal his true identity. Tom and Eddie arrest Francis, but Francis escapes captivity, shooting Eddie in the process.
The FBI and the British authorities question Tom about his association with Francis. Tom refuses to cooperate, aware that the British would kill Francis.
That night, Francis meets Burke in a warehouse, and one of Burke's thugs tosses Sean's severed head at Francis's feet. Francis gives them a bomb-laden bag that explodes when the thug opens it. Francis grabs one of their guns, and kills Burke and his men. He drives off in a van with the missiles, stopping by the Fitzsimmons house to ask Megan to tell his superiors that he is returning with the missiles. He plans to spend the night and leave the next morning.
Tom crashes a cocktail party there to confront the judge. He recognizes Megan from a photo that Sean had taken of Francis and Megan dancing, which he found in Francis's bag. He chases after her, but Frankie escapes. Tom persuades Megan to tell him where Francis is going by promising to protect Francis from being assassinated. Tom finds Francis, just as Francis sails away from the pier, Tom jumps aboard. The two fire on each other, wounding each other respectively. Francis seemingly has the upper hand, but collapses from his wound when he hesitates on shooting Tom. As the two men embrace out of mutual respect, Francis dies. Saddened by Francis death, Tom turns the boat to shore as the sun starts to rise over the ocean. | tragedy, revenge, neo noir, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt4287118 | Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 3 | Each episode revolves around Yellow Guy, Red Guy, and Duck Guy meeting one or several anthropomorphic characters, who begin a musical number related to a basic concept of day-to-day life with an upbeat melody similar to that of a nursery rhyme. As each song progresses, it becomes apparent that its moral or message is nonsensical or self-contradicting, and that the "teacher" character has ulterior or sinister motives. The climax of each episode typically involves a shock element with use of graphic violence, and sometimes other coercive or warped themes.
=== Episode 1 ===
The first episode begins in a kitchen where the main cast is eating breakfast. A singing sketchbook teaches the main characters to "get creative", singing about childlike activities. The climax of the episode is an exaggerated depiction of 'creativity' in which the puppets dance increasingly erratically and engage in deranged acts like covering a heart in glitter and serving a cake made from viscera, complete with shaky camera shots and increasingly frantic music. The video ends with everything seemingly restored to normal and the sketchbook telling the puppets to "never be creative again".
=== Episode 2 ===
A talking clock, Tony, sings about time. The protagonists question the reality of time, to Tony's annoyance. Tony then accelerates the passage of time, rapidly aging the cast and causing them to decay alive. Red guy becomes old and his fur turns grey, while duck guy and yellow guy begin to rot alive, with duck guy's eye falling out. The events are revealed to be part of a television programme watched by the three friends, although the end implies the rotting was real due to duck guy's eyeball being visible by the television. Also, yellow guy's hair is visible during the end credits, with maggots appearing to multiply on it. This episode introduces Yellow Guy's father, Roy.
=== Episode 3 ===
At a picnic with Yellow Guy and Red Guy, Duck Guy kills a butterfly. Yellow Guy, distressed, flees to a tree and is found by a butterfly, Shrignold. He and his friends sing about love, saying that true love is kept for one's 'special one'. After a brief anecdote featuring 'Michael, the loneliest boy in town', Shrignold then introduces Yellow Guy to Malcolm, the 'King of Love', and the leader of a cult whom they worship by feeding gravel to him. The plot takes a sinister turn when the cult explains that he must lose his memories and name. The video ends with Yellow Guy waking up where he started, and his friends bringing him an egg which splits, revealing a maggot-like creature who calls Yellow Guy "father" and is promptly squashed by Duck Guy.
=== Episode 4 ===
The protagonists are playing a board game. They express their desire to learn about the World, and a globe named Gilbert comes to life. He prepares to sing to them, but Colin, a talking computer, randomly begins to sing about how clever he is, cutting Gilbert off. Throughout the song, Red Guy expresses frustration at his questions not being answered and promptly slams Colin's keyboard. This enrages Colin and makes him take the characters to the 'Digital World'. Colin sings about the "Three Main Activities of the Digital World" – viewing different graphs, Digital Style, and Digital Dancing. These are repeated until a room becomes populated with distorted dancing clones of Colin, Yellow Guy and Duck Guy. Red Guy escapes only to find a film crew wearing spandex suits apparently filming a crude replica of the first episode. A crewman snaps a clapperboard, whereupon Red Guy's head suddenly explodes into glitter.
=== Episode 5 ===
The other two main characters seem unable to understand that Red Guy is missing, although they are aware that something has changed. Various characters led by a steak gives increasingly bizarre and self-contradictory advice about eating habits in song. The song is stopped twice by the telephone ringing. Duck Guy answers the telephone, but does not respond to what he hears on the line. Eventually, he becomes irritated and runs off-set, knocking over the camera. He wakes up in an operating room to find a large tin can eating his organs. Yellow Guy continues following the song and becomes bloated from eating cans of meat labeled with Duck Guy's picture. During the credits sequence, Red Guy is seen dressed in a coat and scarf, walking away from a phone booth carrying a suitcase, revealing he was the one calling throughout the episode. The creators claim that a phone number printed on the phone booth in this video was being called within seconds of the episode's release, which at first they would answer and pretend to be characters from the show.
=== Episode 6 ===
Yellow Guy is in bed, crying because he misses his friends. As he tries to go to sleep, a lamp who sings about dreams appears. Despite Yellow Guy's protests, the Lamp drags him along for an animated sequence that ends with him having a dream about drowning in oil. Yellow Guy then wakes to see the Lamp transform his mattress into oil. Red Guy wakes in an office with multiple other red people wearing clothing. He starts to sing a song about an office file, but his colleagues are not impressed. Later, at a bar, he performs the Creativity song from episode 1. The crowd starts booing. Red Guy notices Roy in the crowd. The microphone and boombox turn into teacher-puppets and he is transported to a dark black room. Red Guy follows the sound of the dream song to a machine with monitors showing Yellow Guy. Red Guy presses buttons that transform the lamp into other characters including Tony and Colin. Roy taps Red Guy on the shoulder with a massively elongated arm. Seeing Yellow Guy becoming gaunt from his ordeal, Red Guy disconnects the machine's power supply. The scene cuts to a reshoot of episode 1 with the protagonists recoloured. The calendar turns from 19 to 20 June. A sketchbook starts singing the same song from the first instalment but is cut off as the episode ends. | brainwashing, romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1772270 | Foxfire | Foxfire is narrated by Maddie Wirtz, a high school senior living a rather normal life in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon. Maddie is in control of her life, with a boyfriend, as well as plans to go to art school. One day in science class, the students are watching the teacher Mr. Buttinger try to make Rita Faldes dissect a frog. A mysterious and beautiful leather jacket-clad "new student" stands up to Mr. Buttinger and releases Rita's frog. When Mr. Buttinger sentences them both to detention, the drifter reveals that she's not a new student after all and escapes through the same window as the frog.
Later, in the girls' restroom, the drifter and some other girls are listening to Rita describe Mr. Buttinger's untoward advances. When the drifter says the only way to stop the teacher is to stick together, the only girls to stay are Rita, Violet and Maddie. When detention time comes, Mr. Buttinger indeed begins his advances toward Rita, but is startled by Violet's entry. When Maddie and the drifter come in soon after, he realizes the situation is becoming serious. The girls confront the teacher about his abuse and they become involved in a physical altercation, which ends when the ordinarily shy Rita slams his face against a lab bench and tells him "if you ever put your hands on me again, I'm gonna snip your little nuts off with my toenail clippers." At this point Goldie Goldberg walks in, and joins the assault by declaring "this is great; Buttinger is such a fuck." The girls run from the school and then decide to go home.
At Maddie's house, Maddie is surprised by a knock at the window, which turns out to be the stranger from the earlier assault, there to return Maddie's dropped address book. The girl tells Maddie she's a drifter who got kicked out of school "for thinking for herself." Maddie agrees to let her sleep on the floor. The next morning, Maddie catches up with the girl on a bridge. The girl tells Maddie her name is "Legs" and brings Maddie's art supplies up onto the bridge. Maddie, who is afraid of heights, can't join her. A truck startles Legs, who drops the art portfolio over the edge of the bridge. Legs climbs over the edge of the bridge to retrieve the bag, which deeply impresses Maddie. As they part, Maddie tells Legs of an abandoned house up the river where Legs could stay.
At school, the girls are called in to the principal's office, where their claims of sexual harassment fall on deaf ears and they are suspended for three weeks. The girls are escorted off campus and Maddie is not allowed to retrieve her art school portfolio. Instead of going home with the news of their suspension, they all decide to go to the abandoned house up the river. There they meet Legs, who suggests they break into the school to get Maddie's portfolio.
The girls sneak into the high school through a vent and go into the art room. While the other girls are busy collecting Maddie's work, Goldie is put off by an unflattering Polaroid and moves into a side room to smoke a joint. She throws her match into a pile of oily rags, starting a fire and setting off the sprinklers. The girls have to escape the police who come to investigate and eventually reconvene at the house.
Back at the house, Legs decides to commemorate the night by giving herself a tattoo of a flame on her breast. One by one, the other girls ask Legs to give them the same tattoo.
This act dictates the final bond that ties the girls together. However, things start to go terribly wrong. First, Maddie is threatened by a group of jocks who dislike the idea of the girls reporting their abusive teacher, since he is also the coach of their football team.
During an attempt to "teach her" a lesson, she is rescued by the rest of the group and they steal Dana's (the main bully) car, with Legs driving. Eventually, after running into some cops on patrol, they continue their run after Legs refuses to stop, leading to an accident which in turn leads to Legs being put in a correctional facility. The girls continue on, but aren't as close-knit anymore.
Goldie gives in to the pressure and runs away from home. Maddie somehow finds her and brings her back to the abandoned house. After Legs gets out, she returns to the "hang out" and is shocked to see Goldie's state. She, together with Maddie, go to Goldie's (adoptive) parents home, demanding 10 grand for rehabilitation purposes for Goldie. When her father refuses, Legs threatens him with his own gun and takes him hostage in the house, where they tie him to a chair and pressure him for the money.
Goldie, oblivious to this, is startled to see her dad and calls out to him in surprise. This however, surprises Rita, who accidentally shoots Goldie's father in the chest. Chaos ensues, but the girls keep calm and decide to take him to the hospital. Rita drives the others, while Maddie and Legs stay back.
The scene toward the end of the film centers around Legs and her relationship with Maddie. Legs is done with her current circumstances and surroundings and is shown walking the highway again, looking for a ride. It is this same highway upon where Maddie almost lost her art portfolio. Maddie finds Legs and calls out to her in an attempt to make her stay. Legs is hesitant, but holds to her decision to leave. Upon Maddie's disappointment, Legs asks her to come along. After thinking for a while about her future, Maddie decides to stay but assures Legs that she will never forget her. Legs, hopeful that Maddie will choose to come along, is slightly overwhelmed, but understands and reciprocates, by telling Maddie she will always be in her heart.
As Legs boards a truck that stopped, Maddie watches it disappear down the road and walks over to climb the bridge (in the same way that Legs did, thus conquering her fear of heights. In a voice-over, we hear that Maddie has graduated high school, gotten accepted into art school, and traveled half way around the world, stopping at airports and bus stops along the way. She has not seen Legs again, but she meets the others once in a while and they get together to reminisce about the past. | violence | train | wikipedia | An excellent film!.
I have not read the novel, nor seen the 1996 version, so I cannot base my review on any sort of comparison.
Filled with newcomers, this film really surprised me.
I was hooked from the first scene and my interest continued for the length of the film.
This is a long film, over two hours but it did not feel like it.
The performances were outstanding, especially by the actress portraying legs.
With so many lousy films and independent attempts that are failures, it was a pleasure to be rewarded with this viewing.
I would guess that several promising careers have now begun.
Kudos to all involved with the making of this film!.
less than impressed.
Laurent Cantet director of the Cannes palm D'or and Oscar Nominated "The Class" latest effort "Foxfire" did little to impress me a film about a group of teenage girls in upstate New York in 1950's who call them selves "Foxfire" they are angry and out to cause trouble and who can blame them I blame the director of this film and the dialect coach and casting director.
The ensemble performance by the female cast played out like amateur actors in a B film the dialogue sounded to Canadian who can blame Laurent Cantet he is French he probably couldn't notice the difference and the dialect coach must have been deaf.
The film itself stretched out its welcome running 2hours and 20minutes I felt the film was going no where after watching it for 90 minutes.
And the fact that the film won a best actress prize at The San Sebastian International Film Festival Katie Coseni the jury must not have had much to choose from to give a best actress award..
2 hours and 15 minutes I'll never get back..
This film was only marginally a 2...it really deserved a 1.
A few of the actresses were decent some of the time...but overall this was a total waste of film, and a total waste of my time to watch.
There was nothing about the plot or the characterizations that made me want to keep going after the first 30 minutes...but I kept persevering, although I should have gone with my first impulses and stopped then.
The only thing in the whole movie which wasn't a waste of time was the soundtrack--some good choices of more obscure '50s jump boogie contrasting with the more mainstream pop of the era.
As for the more recent music in the movie, I don't have anything good to say about Taylor Kirk except that he seems a Leonard Cohen wannabe.
Poor scripting, marginal acting, bad accents...and although I've never read the Joyce Carol Oates book on which it was based, I know now why I don't want to.
I've also never seen the earlier movie based on the book, but I certainly saw nothing in this movie that would make me want to watch another crack at the same material.
If you have any interest in good filmmaking, don't waste your time watching this trash..
Not as good as the original.
One of my favourite stories about a group of teenage girls who form a group to get back at their society, which they feel is very unfair towards them.
This film is a much more realistic adaptation to the novel by Joyce Carol Oates than the original 1996 version.
I love the storyline and was very excited to watch this film, having seen the original and read the book.
However the acting is no where near as good as the 1996 version (you must be mad to make a new version of an Angelina Jolie movie?!), and I would also suggest reading the novel before watching, as it makes everything a lot clearer.
If I had not read the novel prior to watching, there are some parts which I doubt I would have understood properly.
Definitely recommend this film to anyone who loves a film with a great female lead..
Better than original.
Definitely the 2012 version of Foxfire is much better than the 1996 Version and more faithful to the book.
The 1996 version was set in the 90's with mid/upper class girls with intact families who didn't know abuse, poverty, and oppression against females as was so showed in the book.
The 1996 version was more about girls who had little connection to each other suddenly deciding to get together and party more so than girls with history together and genuine affection for each other forming a club that became their obsession and their life, a club with a true purpose to help and protect causes, avenge wronged females, more than just cause mayhem.
The 2012 did show the heart of the book as it should have, and the relationship between the girls and Maddy and Legs was better shown and fleshed out than the first movie.
2012 movie showed the girls in the proper 50's era, that they were all poor, neglected and abused and that they were oppressed for being female.
The majority of the important plotting of the book was in the newer movie, as well as direct quotes from the book and dialog, and all this made this a much better and more faithful film.The casting was also pretty accurate; Maddy, Rita, Lana, Goldie, Marianne, and V.V. were more or less accurately chosen in their portrayals and in the physical looks of the girls, and the acting was adequate.
Violet in my opinion was ill chosen and portrayed.
Violet in the book was a stupid, very helpless and desperate girl who was dramatic and constantly getting herself into trouble.
Violet in the movie is pretty and well put together, controlled and quiet, and she certainly didn't have the emotional outbursts and dramatics of the Violet in the book.
But most damaging of all to the movie, in my opinion, is the casting and portrayal of Legs.To me, teen Angelina Jolie is the one thing about the 1996 film that completely trumped the 2012 version.
In that movie, she was androgynous and clearly impulsive, passionate and intimidating, capable of softness and emotional showings all at once, as Legs should be.
Angelina's acting and portrayal were not "perfect" to the book but her physical description was good and her persona was as well.
I could understand, watching Angelina, why the girls would find her charismatic and intriguing and want to follow her and idolize her.This was not the case with the girl who played Legs in the 2012 version, Raven Adamson.
For one thing, the look was all wrong.
Though I appreciated that she was not wearing makeup, as she very well shouldn't have been, she was a small, delicate-looking, very pretty and feminine looking girl with no remarkable features.
Legs was in the book described basically as a wild-haired, bonier teenage Angelina Jolie, as beautiful and bold-featured but androgynous, always dressing in men's clothing and so uncomfortable with her femininity that she actually bound her breasts.
2012 Legs was a pretty little girl who looked no remarkably different than the other Foxfire girls.
I couldn't see how anyone could find her to be physically imposing.
More than this, her portrayal was just wrong.
She was high- voiced and matter of fact most of the time, showing little exuberance of Legs or charismatic posture or gestures or even facial expressions.
She wasn't very emotional even when she was supposedly emotional, and she didn't come across to me as someone so remarkable that others would clearly see her as their leader.
It was as though they put Legs's words in her mouth and told her to do the things Legs did, but she wasn't becoming Legs at all.Some important aspects to Legs were left out as well.
There was no mention of her love of heights, just a couple of times where she sat on a roof with Maddy, and she didn't win a contest for pole climbing or get shown to be respected and intimidating of the boys their age.
Legs's father was not shown to be physically abusive, and there was no scene where she accused him of murdering her mother.
Her mother is in fact never mentioned.
Legs's baby sister was never born, and Legs's love and concern for her sister was a large part of what drove her to want to kidnap Kellogg in the first place- to be able to get enough money to provide for her and the rest of Foxfire.
We never saw her inside the prison at all, so we have no idea of what really happened to her in there other than the two sentences she told Maddy about it later which did not in any way capture the horror of her experiences as the book did and how vulnerable and helpless she felt inside there.
The prison major changed Legs's character in the book so that she came out shocked and yet harder afterward, and there was little show of this in the movie except that she talked to Maddy on the roof about her surprise that women could be the enemy too.
Legs seemed to be the same person the whole way through the 2012 movie, and this is over the course of several years.I feel that the lack of understanding of either the actress or the director of who Legs was as a character hurt the movie in comparison to the book.
It's not a bad movie, but if you read and loved the book as I do, Raven Adamson and her portrayal of Legs simply can't live up to the Legs of the book..
Awesome film.
With so much independent garbage smothering red box & Netflix, I approached this movie with expectations being real low.
But almost instantly you get hooked and want to know who these characters are.
The movie is a very long watch, but I forgot about the clock and just enjoyed the thrill ride.
This movie has the fill and look of a big budget movie and you forget instantly that it's a independent film.
I enjoyed the book and the film real gives a great visual to a perfect story.
The acting was great by everyone, the fresh talent they collected for this movie was spot on.
I feel this movie will launch a lot of great talent into the stars.
If you have the time and your even thinking of watching this movie, do it..
A perfect women's tale.
I confess that I have always loved men's stories: hard, brutal but also touching, poignant.
Stories about pure manhood.
And believe it or not, but that doesn't make me hate the same schemes with women only.
Mixing up of men and gals is not always appropriate.
I love features such as John Ford's SEVEN WOMEN, A GUN FOR JENNIFER or Paul Henreid's GIRLS ON THE LOOSE, and so many other movies.
Tales where women have strong and powerful characters, harder than males.
All this shown with a perfect sensitive talent.
This movie makes no exception.
Tha characters in this feature are most brilliant, described in a flawless way.
It is a 143mn film and there is no length.
A delightful movie.
I guess it is based on actual events.
I don't know the actresses, but I repeat, they are absolutely outstanding.
I particularly loved the lead character: Legs.
Laurent Cantet gives here his best performance..
Not that good.
It starts off pretty good!
You've got the girls standing up to the perverts, but really after that it's just women stealing and breaking shit from innocent people (and like 1 bad guy).The characters feel undeveloped and everyone only has one or two character trait, I know that it's not possible to write a story behind all of the girls but they just needed to focus on some of them!
The "main" character legs doesn't come off like a good person in the end she's just manipulative and mean, in the end they show some stuff from the past and you're supposed to feel sorry about Maggie(or whatever her name was) losing legs but legs just wasn't a like able character.
This was the problem with all of the characters, you just didn't feel for them!
I didn't know anything about the character who killed mr Kellogg's!Some things felt like they were thrown in there!
Like the racism, when they built it up it made me think the the gang would realize that things wasn't like they were supposed to be and that they'd change BUT NO!
The black girl just went home!
Like what the actual fuck?
Now it just feels like it were thrown in there to show that "Oh no racism is bad"!
Another thing whitch they just left was the guy gang!
When they were shown driving past each other I really thought there would be some fight between the two gangs!
Well nothing happened and they just left it there.(I also don't get the old man because he didn't really do much)
Well overall I didn't think it was good but watch it yourself and form your own opinion I'm no professional and it might be right up your alley!Hasse Hansson 43 Denmark.
Foxfire 1996 - Foxfire 2012.
Now - this is a totally different film from the 1996 version - that was an Angelina Joly display - and I loved it.
The 2012 film is so much darker and has so much more integrity than film nr.
1 - yet the sexual sphere was less in this film.
The boys got away totally - I mean the high-school thugs - but it concentrated on the promiscuous dirty old men.
But than again that would not have worked without the gangs physical involvement.
I do'nt get that - "dirty old men" are formed in early years- why not address it - like nr.
I have not red the book, only seen both movies but I am bewildered.
I liked nr 1 because of Angelina Joly, but I liked nr 2 better because of it's message - STAY OUT OF CRIME !!!!.
Fox Fire Burns and Burns and Burns!.
*This film is the girls answer to Stand By Me* I saw the 1996 version because, I LOVE ANGELINA JOLIE!
I read the book because I liked the movie!
(I do things back wards, if I like the movie I read the book,while most other people do the opposite.) I liked the book because it gave better backstory to certain characters and was more dramatic!
I liked the 1996 film because Angelina Jolie was in it was set in a contemporary setting and was more upbeat!
The pros of the 2014 film, It is a lot closer to the book, except two or three scenes that were in the weren't in the film, (which may be a good thing) The cons of the 2014 film, Goldie is a lot less likable in the 2014 film vs the 1996 film, the tattoo scene in the 2014 film is non-nude.The 2014 film is a bit more depressing and drawn out than the 1996 film.If you want a modern upbeat quick feature w/ nudity!
watch the 1996 film.if you want a story to play on you're emotions I recommend the 2014 film.the 1996 version is re-watchable and you walk away from it empowered and uplifted the 2014 isn't as re-watchable and leaves you feeling emotionally drained and a bit depressed!
I also have the soundtrack to the 1996 film!
this is no-way relation to the 1987 film of the same name! |
tt0775480 | Hellphone | The film begins with Sid Soupir admiring the girl of his dreams, Angie. His friend, Pierre (also called Tiger), encourages him to talk to her. Sid agrees but decides to impress Angie with his skateboarding moves first. At first he succeeds in getting Angie's attention, but then he crashes into a vegetable cart. Angie's two friends, Margot and Clemence, laugh while Angie pulls Sid to his feet. Sid offers to make plans with Angie as Angie's sort-of boyfriend, Virgile, and his friends watch from a distance. Angie agrees and offers to get Sid's cellphone number but Sid replies he does not have a cellphone at all. Tiger butts in, making up a lie that Sid had to cancel his cellphone plan because a crazy Russian ex-girlfriend was stalking him. Unimpressed, Angie's friends lead her away.
Back home, Sid asks his mother if he can have his birthday money in advance. She is only able to spare €30 and Sid resolves to ask money from his boss at the fast food restaurant he works at.
At his job, Sid asks his boss for his paycheck in advance but the boss refuses. Seeing as €30 will be the only money he is able to raise, Sid goes to a dinky shop run by Patrick Vo. After some haggling, Sid gets a cellphone, a sleek red phone with two protruding horns at the top. The phone comes to life in his hands, which astonishes the shopkeeper who has been trying to turn it on ever since he got it. He tries to take the phone back so he can sell it for more money, but Sid runs away.
At school, Sid shows off his phone to Tiger, who is amazed by it. Meanwhile, Clemence brags to her friends about her successful audition. Sid gathers up his courage to ask Angie for her number but Clemence and Margot laugh at his new cellphone and lead Angie away.
In science class, Sid and Pierre are teased by Virgile and his friends. As the lesson continues, the Hellphone dials Margot's number and tells her to set Clemence's hair on fire with the Bunsen burner (Clemence landed the role Margot auditioned for). Hypnotized, Margot obeys. She is sent to the principal's office where she tries to explain her actions. Unimpressed, the principal lets her go without a clear punishment.
After school, Sid and Tiger visit their favorite skate shop but are disappointed to find out the ownership has changed. They leave without buying anything and the next day, at home before school, Sid practices on what to say to Angie. To his embarrassment, the phone calls Angie. Sid manages to small talk with her and when he hangs up, he is surprised to see Margot on his recently made calls list.
In math class, Margot texts Clemence her apologies but Clemence refuses to forgive her. During the teacher's lecture, Sid fills in Tiger on his phone's weird doings. Annoyed with their talking, the Mr. Mazeau, the teacher, flicks a piece of chalk at Sid's head and demands for him to answer a particularly difficult question. Sid looks at his phone helplessly and to his amazement, the phone provides the correct answer. However, the teacher believes Sid cheated with his cellphone's calculator and confiscates it, throwing it out of the classroom window.
As soon as class lets out, Sid and Tiger rescue the phone, relieved it isn't damaged. As they ponder how the phone knew the correct answer, Sid and Pierre see Angie and her friends being walked to their next class by Virgile and his entourage.
Later that night, Mr. Mazeau is working in his classroom when he receives a mysterious phone call. We then cut to Sid waking up on his birthday and the phone wishes him a happy birthday in the form of a hologram. Sid goes to pick up Pierre for school and tells him about it. Pierre get worried and insists that Sid throw away the phone but Sid refuses. Pierre takes the phone and asks it for help in getting rid of their detention. It calls the school secretary who believes that Sid and Pierre are, in fact, the principal. They take advantage and not only get rid of their detention, but install the McDonald's menu for their school lunch. With the phone, the boys go on a spree. Meanwhile, at school, the school janitor finds Mr. Mazeau on the ground, with his mouth stuffed with pieces of chalk.
At a strip club, Tiger asks to borrow the phone so he can get his divorced parents back together. Sid refuses, believing that the phone chose him for a reason. However, he relents but the phone refuses to work for Tiger, causing him to comment that the phone appears to be in love with Sid.
In the end, our three protagonists (Sid, Angie, and Pierre) manage to freeze the phone, and throw it overboard on a ship as Sid and Angie kiss. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | It's a lot of fun (...but just don't expect it to be scary). Hellphone is the story of a boy who , not really knowing it , buy an evil phone who has a mind of its own to get the girl of his dream. It's a crazy film from beginning to the end , it goes at a crazy speed both in the writing and the direction, the camera keep zooming in,zooming out,the color are bright and the actor all have very high energy. There's a lot of dark comedy in there too (There's a scene were a fast food owner deep fried his own head)and plenty of laugh. Jean Baptiste Maunier had become very popular in France since "les choriste" and even if I must say that I don't consider myself a fan of him , I really did find him convincing in the role of a metal-head kid. But in my opinion the real star of the film is Vladimir Consigny who plays Virgile , the self obsessed bad guy in the story,he bring a lot of fun to the role ( and I'm not talking about the strip tease scene ) he's just a really different sort of villain. The last 15 minutes of the film are the best for both fans of horror and comedy. It's a really hard film to describe but if any of you saw film like "Idyle hands" or "Shawn of the dead" I am sure you will have a fun time watching this silly horror/comedy.. Very entertaining and a lot of fun. Hellphone came as a surprise to me. I rented it believing to get a standard horror/teen b-movie. Instead I got a clever made comedy with brilliant dialogs and perfect actors. The script is very well written and the director did a good job, since he managed to make even simple scenes interesting to watch. I had the feeling that the whole cast and crew really enjoyed their work and I for myself never enjoyed a movie that much since "Interstate 60".Hellphone is full of dark humor, even the "brutal" killings makes you smile. Another plus are a lot of references to other movies ("The Birds", "Vertigo", "Christine", "Gremlins", ...). The supporting actors are well chosen. Each of them reminds you of typical cartoon characters. All of them add well to the story.It's a joyride for everyone who likes entertaining but not too heavy stuff. Something you can watch over and over again. |
tt0068828 | Lady Sings the Blues | In 1945 New York City, Billie Holiday is arrested on a drugs charge.
In a flashback to 1928, Billie is working as a housekeeper in a brothel in Baltimore where she is raped. She runs away to her mother, who sets up a job cleaning for another brothel in the Harlem section of New York. The brothel is run by an arrogant, selfish owner who pays Billie very little money.
Eventually, Billie tires of scrubbing floors and becomes a prostitute, but later quits and returns to a nightclub to unsuccessfully audition to become a showgirl. After "Piano Man" accompanies Billie when she sings "All of Me", club owner Jerry books her as a singer in the show.
Billie's debut begins unsuccessfully until Louis McKay arrives and gives her a fifty dollar tip. Billie takes the money and sings "Them There Eyes". Billie takes a liking to Louis and begins a relationship with him. Eventually she is discovered by Harry and Reg Hanley, who sign her as a soloist for their southern tour in hopes of landing a radio network gig. During the tour, Billie witnesses the aftermath of the lynching of an African-American man, which presses her to record the controversial song "Strange Fruit". The harsh experiences on the tour result in Billie taking drugs which Harry supplies. One night when Billie is performing, Louis comes to see Billie. She collapses on stage. In her dressing room, Louis notices her needle marks, knows that she is doing drugs, and tells her she is going home with him. Billie promises to stay off the drugs if Louis stays with her.
In New York, Reg and Louis arrange Billie's radio debut, but the station does not call her to sing; the radio sponsors, a soap company, object to her race. The group heads to Cafe Manhattan to drown their sorrows. Billie has too much to drink and asks Harry for drugs, saying that she does not want her family to know that the radio show upset her. He refuses and she throws her drink in his face. She is ready to leave, but Louis has arranged for her to sing at the Cafe, a club where she once aspired to sing. She obliges with one song but refuses an encore, leaving the club in urgent need of a fix. Louis, suspicious that Billie has broken her promise, takes her back to his home but refuses to allow her access to the bathroom or her kit. She fights Louis for it, pulling a razor on him. Louis leaves her to shoot up, telling her he does not want her there when he returns.
Billie returns to the Harlem nightclub, where her drug use intensifies until she hears of the death of her mother. Billie checks herself into a drug clinic, but because she cannot afford her treatment the hospital secretly calls Louis, who comes to see her and agrees to pay her bills without her knowledge. Impressed with the initiative she has taken to straighten herself out, Louis proposes to her at the hospital. Just as things are looking up, Billie is arrested for possession of narcotics and removed from the clinic.
In prison, Billie goes through crippling withdrawal. Louis brings the doctor from the hospital to treat her, but she is incoherent. He puts a ring on her finger to remind her of his promise to marry her. When she finishes her prison sentence, Billie returns home and tells her friends that she does not want to sing anymore. Billie marries Louis and pledges not to continue her career, but the lure of performing is too strong and she returns to singing with Louis as her manager. Unfortunately, her felony conviction has stripped her of her Cabaret Card, which would allow her to sing in NYC nightclubs. To restore public confidence and regain her license, Billie agrees to a cross-country tour. Billie's career takes off on the nightclub circuit.
Louis leaves for New York to arrange a comeback performance for Billie at Carnegie Hall. Despondent at Louis' absence and the never-ending stream of venues, Billie asks Piano Man to pawn the ring Louis gave her in exchange for drugs. While they are high that evening, Piano Man's drug connections arrive; he neither pawned the ring nor paid for the drugs. Piano Man is killed by the dealers. Within the hour, Louis and her promoter call Billie with news that they got Carnegie Hall. Louis returns to find a very fragile Billie who is traumatized and has fallen back into drugs. Louis takes her back to New York.
Billie plays to a packed house at Carnegie Hall. Her encore, "God Bless the Child", is overlaid with newspaper clippings highlighting subsequent events: the concert fails to sway the Commission to restore her license; subsequent appeals are denied; she is later re-arrested on drug charges and finally dies when she is 44. Nevertheless, the Carnegie triumph is frozen in time. | murder, blaxploitation | train | wikipedia | The recent death of Richard Pryor prompted me to look at the 2005 DVD package of 1972's "Lady Sings the Blues", which proves the then-young comedian to be a fine actor in the meaty supporting role of Piano Man. Even though he was a master stand-up comic, it's still too bad he never pursued roles of a similar dramatic caliber since he obviously had the talent.
Similarly, Diana Ross never fulfilled the promise of her big screen debut in the title role as legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday (1915-59).Bearing no physical and little vocal resemblance to Holiday, Ross somehow gets under her true-life character's skin much like Joaquin Phoenix does in "Walk the Line" or Jamie Foxx in "Ray".
Her vocal performances really don't evoke Holiday's earthier style, though to Ross's credit, her vivid renditions of standards such as "Mean to Me", "Fine and Mellow" and "Gimme a Pigfoot (and a Bottle of Beer)" don't sound like Supremes redux either.This achievement is all the more impressive since director Sidney J.
Moreover, as Furie discloses on the accompanying audio commentary, the dialogue for several scenes is improvised by the actors, for example, the unnecessarily lengthy Club Manhattan sequence, where the lack of discipline becomes wearing.Contrary to the fact that Holiday's true life story has been well documented and interest in her legacy increased, the filmmakers altered events and people in order to maintain interest from what they thought were mainstream audiences at the time.
Consequently, the character of Louis McKay, Holiday's love interest and eventual husband, played with toothsome charm by Billy Dee Williams, synthesizes a lot of men who came into her life and helped shape her career.
The dramatized results leave out key figures of the jazz world like saxophonist Lester Young, trombonist Jimmy Monroe to whom Holiday was married, and record producer John Hammond, as well as Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Artie Shaw and Teddy Wilson--all important colleagues and mentors during the period covered in the film.
I pondered this question for the longest time, and remained disappointed in Diana Ross until the very first moments of "Lady Sings the Blues", which play like a jazz tune that seems, at first, to make no sense until you as the listener finally tune into the music which actually made sense all along.
Diana Ross dosen't so much act the part of Billie Holiday -- she crafts an unforgettable performance that both embodies the spirit of Holiday while also demonstrating the simplest but most complicated acting demands....she simply poses the question, "What if this were my life?".
I knew that Diana Ross would sing in her own style without trying to imitate the real Billie Holiday.
Talk about an anachronism, to say nothing of the way it cheapens some otherwise powerful moments.Lastly, I have to say that fans of Billie's music will be pretty annoyed at Diana Ross's versions.
This is really a movie for Diana Ross fans or for casual jazz listeners who have never heard of Billie Holiday.
Like another reviewer suggested, if you're truly interested in Billie, you should buy some of her records or try to find some old films of her performances.
Other than Diana Ross's harrowing portrayal of a heroin addicted singer (who could have been anyone but Billie Holiday), there is nothing to recommend this movie.
The first question that would run across the mind of anyone who'd watch this movie is: "Can Diana Ross act?" The answer, I'm glad to say, is an unequivocal "Yes." And I think that's what the director wanted to clear up right from the very first scene, with a flash forward to Billie Holiday's drug bust while the credits were still on.
As I had read previously, Ms. Ross didn't seek to imitate Billie Holiday's style, and instead created a distinct and appropriate - yet similar - jazz style of her own just for the movie (check out "Good Morning Heartache"), and I, being a fan, didn't mind the song interludes.What dragged the movie was the constant focus on Holiday's drug addiction (to showcase more of Ms. Ross's acting?).
It's too bad, since with better direction and screenplay, coupled with Ms. Ross's capable acting and singing, this could've been one of the truly great musical biopics..
Even at this young age, I was impressed to see a film on this grand scale that elevated a historical Black icon like Billie Holliday; this was unprecedented and this was not lost on me then or now.This is an excellent movie and by the rating it has received here (7/10) and the five Academy Awards & three Golden Globe nominations it garnered (Diana Ross won the Golden Globe for Most Promising New Actress); my opinion is not in the minority.
While this film may gloss over a lot of Billie's life, the script was based on her autobiography (this may be how Billie chose to remember her past) and the screenplay was also nominated for an Oscar.Diana Ross did not capture the look and sound of Billie Holliday nor did she attempt to.
The double album soundtrack topped the Billboard charts for two weeks, Diana Ross' only number one Pop album as a solo singer.This film made me a Billie Holliday fan at age 4.
This film and its music still stands the test of time as implied by the recent success of Diana Ross' CD, "Blue" (which was previously unreleased material originally recorded for Motown as a follow-up to this soundtrack) on the jazz and adult contemporary Billboard charts.
In addition, for it to be the only screenplay that she has ever written, Suzanne DePasse (who was a Motown A&R executive at the time and was the first and remains the only Black woman to be nominated for an Oscar for writing) created a great story even if it presents a slightly less gritty portrayal of the troubled singer's life..
This was a wonderful star-making vehicle for Diana Ross but the worst thing that could have happened to the legend of Billie Holiday.
But Ross phones in the tunes, with little feeling or style.Most of the other characters are cardboard, with Richard Pryor doing the weirdest role of his life as a timid, comical piano player.Absolutely unwatchable for anyone but die-hard Diana Ross fans, and for Billie Holiday lovers and movie buffs, sheer torture..
Diana Ross is quite superb as jazz singer Billie Holiday, but even so this clichéd bio-drama of the drug-addicted torch diva from the 1930s is hardly convincing.
Let us keep perspective here.)I personally think Diana Ross has had a more interesting life and is the better singer because I prefer pop to jazz.The problem with any bio-pic is that it needs some driving narrative beyond "aren't/weren't they great on stage." Holiday was raped/abused at an early age and this is put forward as the reason for her behaviour and yet this is a guess and a clichéd guess at that.Addiction happens equally to people that are and aren't raped or abused, that come from good homes, that are from all ethnic backgrounds.
Furie directed this biographical film about Billie Holiday, starring Diana Ross (who also sings).
The problem with Lady Sings the Blues is the director and the producer allowed Diana Ross and Richard Pryor, and others, to improvise.
Which actress or singer could deserve to embody the thick, deep soul of Billie Holiday??- Diana Ross?????
I wonder what Diana Ross thought when her lover and mentor Berry Gordy told her that as part of his plan to launch her post-Supremes solo career in entertainment, her debut film role would be playing the life story of the troubled blues singer Billie Holiday.
You have to at least admire their moxy.More than that, whilst the film I doubt follows Billie's life too slavishly and Ross certainly doesn't much look or sound like her, t'was often the way with Hollywood biopics.
Sure there's some airbrushing here but the film does show her troubled upbringing (and certainly one thing Ross could convey was waif-like as these early scenes demand) born to a single mother and forced to live apart from her, being raped at age 14 and then being put to work as a prostitute, indeed the film starts jarringly with the traumatic depiction of Ross being forcibly straitjacketed in a solitary confinement sanatorium padded cell, which must have come as a shock to her Motown fans used to seeing her in posh frocks and diamanté earrings.Of course the realism doesn't stop there as she later encounters racism out on the road in the South, having to sit outside a 'whites-only" diner while her band mates eat within, has a run-in with the Ku Klux Klan and witnesses a hanged fellow -black, the "Strange Fruit" which charged the famous song Holiday so chillingly evoked.
Most of all though, the eye-opening scenes are the vein-opening scenes as Billie finds that the only way to keep going out on the road is with narcotic stimuli.People might argue that the ending is too upbeat as she knocks them dead at her entertainment Holy Grail, the Carnegie Hall, but even then the screen insets tell us in reality Holiday ended up back on the drugs and was dead at only 44.While it's easy to see where the narrative is sanitised and takes short cuts, I consider the film well directed by the veteran Sidney J Furie.
She was never a truly great singer in the first place and blues could hardly be considered her natural musical idiom but while she neither looks or sounds like the real Holiday, you can see her feeling the songs and I think she does well in the traumatic scenes when she's at the mercy of the demon drugs.
In support Billy Dee Williams is fine as her initially aloof but later supportive husband and Richard Pryor puts in a scene-stealing shift as the singer's faithful piano accompanist.It's a bit of a cliche to say that I hope at least some viewers looked past Ross's interpretations of Holiday classics like "My Man", "Good Morning Heartache", "God Bless The Child" and her self-penned "Don't Explain" to the original versions.
Lady Sings The BluesThe thing that makes jazz musicians different from other musicians is they do their drugs before they perform.In fact, the singer in this drama did drugs constantly.Abused by men most her life, Billie Holiday (Diana Ross) abandons the brothel where she works for a nightclub where she accompanies the piano player (Richard Pryor).Her unique voice quickly attracts a suitor (Billy Dee Williams) as well as A&R types who sign her to a radio tour.Being on the road, however, only exposes Billie to the racial inequality crippling the country and the intravenous drug that will eventually enslave her.With Diana Ross' captivating performance as Billie both on and off the stage, this 1972 adaptation of Holiday's own biography is a heartbreaking account of her arduous life and untimely demise.And while drug use in Jazz may still be rampant no one cares enough to check.Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca.
While we can all regale each other with stories of Miss Ross' idiosyncrasies, one thing is patently clear: She WORKED this movie and this is the best singing I have EVER heard from her (or since, for that matter and I was a Die-hard Supermes fan!) It is also especially wonderful to see some wonderful African-American treasures like Richard Pryor, Billy Dee, Isabel Sanford, Scatman Scrothers, among others.
Listening to Diana sing "The Man I Love" and hear Billy Dee say "You want my arm to fall off?!" is worth the price of admission.I haven't even had a chance to look at the special features or deleted scenes which I am sure will round out what I consider to be a classic African-American feature.I HIGHLY recommend!!!.
Ray and Walk the Line (parodied deservedly but with warmth in Walk Hard) are our centuries answer to this, but back in the 70's there was Lady Sings the Blues, which took the life story of Billie Holiday, arguably the greatest of all the jazz singers, and made it into a two and a half hour vehicle for Diana Ross.
A young 28 year old Diana Ross earned an Oscar nomination for this 1972 movie about Billie Holiday.
"Lady Sings the Blues" is a song written by jazz singer Billie Holiday, and jazz pianist Herbie Nichols.
In my opinion I thought Diana Ross did an OK job at portraying the troubled Billie Holiday.
Besides illuminating the story of Billie Holiday and showing us early 1900's in America (fairly truthfully for Hollywood), it has Diana Ross, Billie Dee Williams and Richard Pryor.
diana ross gave the best performance of her career in acting out the role of lady day.
Diana's portrayal of Billie Holiday, Billie Dee Williams's acting, and Richard Pryor's performance were all Oscar calibur.
Lady Sings the Blues was an enjoyable Holiday biopic starring Ms. Ross.
In continuing my reviews of African-Americans in film in chronological order for Black History Month, we're now at 1972 with the biographical depiction of Billie Holliday as portrayed by Diana Ross called Lady Sings the Blues.
While the movie itself isn't very accurate in recounting Lady Day's life and career and Ms. Ross herself hardly resembles the legendary singer, it does move along nicely as a drama especially with two of her costars-Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor-providing many scene stealing moments.
LADY SINGS THE BLUES was the heavily fictionalized film biography of legendary cabaret chanteuse Billie Holliday, who rose to great stardom as one of the great blues impressionists of our time but, sadly, was never able to complete escape the multiple demons which haunted her for her entire life.
Diana Ross made an impressive film debut in the role of Lady Day, which garnered her an Oscar nomination.
Billy Dee Williams officially became a star with his charismatic turn as Louis McKay, Billie's true love and Richard Pryor also received an Oscar nomination for his funny and caustic performance as "Piano Man", Billie's best friend and piano player, who was chasing demons of his own.
The book Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday and ghost writer William Duffy came out in 1956.
Holiday had a great professional relationship and musical collaboration with pianist Terry Wilson who she called Prez and he called Lady Day but instead of the Wilson the film made up a character called Piano Man. Diana Ross in an over-the top performance in her film debut as Holiday received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for 1972.
Billy Dee Williams is Louis McKay the film's only other actual real life character.
She is playing the "Miss Ross" idea of Billie Holiday--she doesn't even attempt to sing like Billie.
Diana doesn't try to sound like Billie Holiday, but she's in her element as a torch song singer.
You BELIEVE she is Billie Holiday by the end of the film despite the heavy star persona that Diana Ross and Billie Holiday have respectively in real life.
The fact that the movie itself isn't very good and is wildly inaccurate in the portrayal of Holiday's life only seems to benefit Miss Ross.
Great wardrobe worn by Ross in this movie.Any good film is made up of a few really good scenes.
Diana Ross became Billie Holiday.
Diana and Billie Dee Williams looked great on screen together.
I thought the movie had a great mix of dramatic scenes mixed with musical numbers and a little comedy (Richard Pryor) to evenly pace this film.
This movie starts out bleakly- with Bilie Holiday's arrest for drug possession- but Diana Ross does a passable job as the great lady day-- all the bad things are accentuated- the rape as a young woman, the climb to stardom and the men who let her down- but the music is beautiful and Ross does a good job imitating the behind the beat style of Lady Day.
When this film opened, I was a 17 year old fan of Diana Ross.
He said that Miss Ross had failed to capture the essence of Billie's music, and that this film had reduced Miss Holiday's standing as the most important Jazz singer who'd ever lived to that of a mediocre pop vocalist.
Playing Miss Holliday in the film,Miss Diana Ross does not try to imitate her,nor does she resemble her in any way.She sings songs associated with her quite competently,and performs rather than acts,as top class singers(Frank Sinatra,Peggy Lee)tended to do.She is clearly a charismatic performer,and that shows on the screen.Unfortunately she does not share Miss Holliday's talent for turning dross into gold,for dross is what "Lady sings the blues" quite evidently is.
By the time she died of a heroin overdose at the age of 44 on July 17, 1959, Billie Holiday (real name: Eleanora Fagan Gough, a.k.a., "Lady Day") was already a show business legend: a singer of great talent and emotional power also notorious for a tragic, tortured personal life.
No matter; the intent of the movie all along was not to serve historical accuracy but to function as the ultimate prestige star vehicle for Gordy's protégé Diana Ross, former Supremes lead singer, who had just embarked on a solo recording and film career and demanded that Gordy give her the juicy part of Lady Day. The fact that Ross had very little acting experience and did not look or sound anything like Billie Holiday, prompted critics to wonder aloud if she could carry the film.
When all is said and done Diana Ross's Billie Holiday is the consummate victim-martyr and little else.
I got quite the education on the life of Billie Holiday by reading what some of the reviewers for this film had to say, most of which were derogatory about the story and Diana Ross's portrayal.
I think Diana did a damn good job putting her artistic touch to portraying Billie's life, her struggles, vices, love and yes, her music.
Billie Holiday.I thank my father for his love of good movies and for sharing movies like, "Lady Sings the Blues" with me.I'm out! |
tt0258760 | Lammbock | Kai and Stefan are two friends who own a gourmet pizza delivery business as a front for selling cannabis. Stefan is finishing law school and preparing to take the Bar examination to become a lawyer under the behest of his father, who is a judge. They visit their outdoor cannabis growing operation only to discover that aphids are destroying their plants. They visit a head shop and meet Achim, who informs them that he knows how to get rid of aphids, handing them a tub full of Aphidoletes aphidimyza. However, unbeknownst to the protagonists, Achim is an undercover police officer.
After much debate, the duo decide to bring Achim to the plantation so that he can help with the aphid problem, using an adulterant on the plants called "Brain cell massacre," which, according to Achim, is used in Kazakhstan plantations. On the way to the growing area, they try to pick psychedelic mushrooms, convinced that nobody will be suspicious of mushrooms on a pizza. They test them out on Achim while he is at the plantation, stating that they already tried some. Achim is poisoned by the mushrooms and goes into a convulsive state, when suddenly a hunter is spotted nearby. The "Brain cell massacre" is used to knock Achim out, and he is locked in the protagonists' trunk, along with the hunter who discovered the cannabis plantation as well as the harvested crop itself.
After narrowly avoiding an unrelated police search, the duo confront Stefan's father and confess their situation. Though Stefan's father becomes upset, he calls the chief of police, whom he befriended when he was a public prosecutor. With the help of the chief of police, the duo get off the hook, and Stefan takes his bar exam only to walk out at the last minute to pursue his lifelong dream of owning a cafe on a beach. | comedy | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1810697 | Meeting Evil | John Felton (Luke Wilson), who lives in Orly County, in an unnamed southern state, has a wife named Joanie (Leslie Bibb), and two kids named Sam (Gabrielle Harvey) and John Jr. (Sam Robbins). John is a mild-mannered real estate agent who has just been fired, making his personal crisis—his marriage is on the rocks due to his infidelity—go from bad to worse.
John comes home and finds a foreclosure notice on the front door, and goes inside to a surprise birthday party thrown by Joanie and the kids. The foreclosure notice has John angry, so Joanie takes the kids to a local park.
As John is in the backyard, staring at the hole that's being dug for the swimming pool he's having installed, there is an incessant banging on the front door. John answers, and it's a man who calls himself Richie (Samuel L. Jackson). He's wearing a suit and a fedora. Richie says his car, a 1972 Pontiac GTO broke down and requires a push. As John pushes the car from the back while Richie steers, the car backfires, injuring John's left knee. Richie opens the trunk of his car and approaches John concealing a revolver behind his back but hides it when he sees a little girl.
Richie offers to take John to the hospital, and he reluctantly accepts, not realizing that he's leaving his wallet and cell phone behind at the house. On the way, John wonders about Richie's strange behavior—Richie is continuously "whistling Dixie"—and Richie stops at a bar. John goes across the street to a cell phone dealership, where Rhonda (Tina Parker), a clerk with a severe attitude problem, rudely denies him the use of a phone to call Joanie.
At the bar, John crosses paths with Trevor (Jason Alan Smith), the man who fired him, and Tammy Strate (Peyton List), the woman with whom he cheated on Joanie. Tammy was Trevor's girlfriend before she left Trevor to be with John, a possible reason why Trevor fired him.
A few minutes later, police cars start showing up, and Richie suggests that he and John leave. They leave with Tammy in her car, and once they get out onto a remote part of the road, a trucker (Danny Epper) harasses them and forces them to pull over.
The trucker is Rhonda's boyfriend, angry that Rhonda has been killed, and he thinks John did it. John gets out of the car, and the trucker approaches him with a tire iron. Suddenly, Richie hits the trucker with the car, killing the trucker. It turns out that Richie, who killed Rhonda, is a murderous psychopath. But local detectives Frank (Muse Watson) and Latisha (Tracie Thoms) think John is the killer.
John realizes that this was not the day to play good samaritan. He and Tammy are in for a violent ride that they don't want to be on. Tammy escapes from Richie, and John tries to escape, Richie, disguised as a deputy, recaptures John. John forces Richie to let him go, and Richie threatens Joanie and the kids.
After a massacre at a store, John is arrested by Frank, who refuses to believe John's story about Richie, and that night, Latisha learns that John is not the killer—murders were committed in a diner while John was in custody, and Tammy has corroborated John's story about Richie.
Frank releases John, who goes home with Joanie and the kids, and Frank and Latisha, who thought Richie was killed at the diner, learn that he's still alive, and may be on his way to the Felton house.
In fact, Richie is already there, harassing the Feltons, and it's raining heavily. While they are eating dinner, Richie explains to John that Joanie is having an affair and had, in fact, hired Richie to kill him for insurance money. John attacks Joanie being egged on by Richie, she tries to stab John with a knife and he takes it from her ready to do the same but instead stabs Richie and she then uses one of John's golf clubs to attack Richie as well. John and Richie crash through a window and fall into the pool hole struggling, which has been filled with water because of the rain. Frank and Latisha arrive, and Latisha fires a shot that kills Richie. That night, in bed, Joanie asks if everything is going to be okay, and Joanie turns out her light. John turns out his light, ominously whistling Dixie, just like Richie. | suspenseful, murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0449869 | Chandramukhi | Saravanan (Rajinikanth), a psychiatrist, visits India on vacation. He meets up with his foster brother Senthilnathan alias Senthil (Prabhu), and his wife Ganga (Jyothika). Senthil's mother Kasthuri (K. R. Vijaya) wanted Senthil to marry Priya (Malavika), the daughter of his father's cousin Kandaswamy (Nassar), to reunite the two branches of the family after 30 years of separation because Senthil's father (Sivaji Ganesan) chose to marry Kasthuri instead of Kandaswamy's sister, Akhilandeshwari (Sheela). Saravanan learns that Senthil had bought the Vettaiyapuram mansion, despite attempts by the local village elders to dissuade them, and moves in with them. Akhilandeshwari is jealous of Saravanan and plots to kill him with the help of her assistant Oomaiyan (Sonu Sood).
When the family visits their ancestral temple, the chief priest reveals the reason everyone fears the Vettaiyapuram mansion. A hundred-and-fifty years ago, a king named Vettaiyan travelled to Vijayanagaram in Andhra Pradesh, where he met and fell in love with a dancer named Chandramukhi. However, she did not reciprocate his feelings as she was already in love with a dancer named Gunashekaran. As a result, Vettaiyan took her back to his palace by force. Unknown to him, Chandramukhi made Gunashekaran stay in a house nearby and had meetings with him secretly. When Vettaiyan discovered this, he beheaded Gunashekaran on Durgashtami and burnt Chandramukhi alive. As a result, Chandramukhi's ghost tried to take revenge on Vettaiyan, who with the help of various priests and sorcerers from all over the country, tames the ghost by locking it up in a room located in the palace's south-west corner. Priya is in love with Vishwanathan (Vineeth), a dance professor who reciprocates her feelings. Their love is supported by Saravanan, who requests Kandaswamy to arrange their marriage.
After hearing Chandramukhi's story, Ganga, who thinks that the story was fabricated to scare thieves from stealing treasures in the room, wishes to go there. She gets the room key from the gardener's granddaughter Durga (Nayantara) and opens the door to the room. Subsequently, strange things begin to happen in the household; a ghost frightens the people in the house, things inexplicably break, and Ganga's sari catches fire. Suspicion turns towards Durga. Senthil immediately calls Saravanan to solve the case. As soon as Saravanan returns, a mysterious being tries to kill Priya. Attempts to kill Senthil are made with poisoning his coffee and by pushing a fish tank on top of him. A mysterious voice sings during the night. Saravanan investigates these incidents.
Ganga mysteriously disappears during Priya and Viswanathan's wedding reception. Saravanan notices her absence and searches for her, but he is almost killed by Oomaiyan—who has been sent by Akhilandeshwari. Saravanan subdues Oomaiyan and with Senthil's help finds Ganga, who is supposedly being sexually harassed by Viswanathan. Saravanan reveals to Senthil and Viswanathan that Ganga suffers from split personality disorder. Saravanan explains to them how she became affected by it and how she took up Chandramukhi's identity. He tells them Ganga tried to kill Priya and Senthil, and framed Viswanathan for sexual harassment because from Chandramukhi's view, Viswanathan is her lover Gunashekaran since he stays at the same place Gunashekaran did. By framing Vishwanathan, Chandramukhi wanted to stop the reception. The only way to stop Chandramukhi is to make her believe Vettaiyan is dead since Saravanan impersonated Vettaiyan and disrupted one of the pujas conducted by the exorcist Ramachandra Acharya (Avinash) by conversing with the ghost to know its wish.
Akhilandeshwari overhears Saravanan's idea of self-sacrifice and apologises to him. Later, in the dance hall, the family and Ramachandra Acharya allow Chandramukhi to burn Saravanan alive. Ramachandra Acharya blows smoke and ash on Ganga's face when she is given a torch to burn Saravanan. Senthil then opens a trapdoor to let Saravanan escape, and an effigy of Vettaiyan gets burnt instead. Convinced that Vettaiyan is dead, Chandramukhi leaves Ganga's body, curing her. The two families are reunited after 30 years; Saravanan and Durga fall in love, and Swarna (Suvarna Mathew) and Murugesan (Vadivelu) become parents after eight years of marriage. | revenge, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0033124 | Swiss Family Robinson | The novel opens with the family in the hold of a sailing ship, weathering a great storm. The ships' passengers evacuate without them, and William and Elizabeth and their four children (Fritz, Ernest, Jack and Francis) are left to survive alone. As the ship tosses about, the father - William - prays that God will spare them.
The ship survives the night and the family finds themselves within sight of a tropical desert island. The next morning, they decide to get to the island they can see beyond the reef. With much effort, they construct a vessel out of tubs. After they fill the tubs with food and ammunition and all other articles of value they can safely carry, they row toward the island. Two dogs from the ship named Turk and Juno swim beside them. The ship's cargo of livestock (including chickens, domestic ducks, domestic geese, and domestic pigeons), guns & powder, carpentry tools, books, a disassembled pinnace, and provisions have survived.
Upon reaching the island, the family set up a makeshift camp. The father knows that they must prepare for a long time on the island and his thoughts are as much on provisions for the future as for their immediate wants. William and his oldest son Fritz spend the next day exploring the island.
The family spends the next few days securing themselves against hunger. William and Fritz make several trips to the ship in their efforts to bring ashore everything useful from the vessel. The domesticated animals on the ship are towed back to the island. There is also a great store of firearms and ammunition, hammocks for sleeping, carpenter’s tools, lumber, cooking utensils, silverware, and dishes. Initially they construct a treehouse, but as time passes (and after Elizabeth is injured climbing the stairs down from it), they settle in a more permanent dwelling in part of a cave. Fritz rescues a young Englishwoman (Jenny Montrose) shipwrecked elsewhere on their island.
The book covers more than ten years. The father and older boys explore various environments and develop homes and gardens in various sites about the island. At the end, the father wonders if they will ever again see the rest of humanity. Eventually a British ship that is in search of Jenny Montrose anchors near the island and is discovered by the family. The captain is given the journal containing the story of their life on the island which is eventually published. Several members of the family choose to continue to live tranquilly on their island while several of them return to Europe with the British ship. | romantic | train | wikipedia | Best of them all..
Saw this "Thomas Mitchell" Swiss FR years, decades ago broadcasted on TV.
In fact during the 50's and 60's this wonderful movie would be shown often.
It was just a great kids adventure movie, and is simply the best of them all.
Would be great to see it now, but....
Siss Family Robinson.
I also remember this movie from my childhood.
I thought that all copies were destroyed.
I would love to see it again.
If there is a copy out there I would love to know where.
This movie may be a little outdated, but for kids it would be great.
If the story and the cast remained with me for 50+ years, it might also remain with the kids of today.
Thomas Mitchell was a great actor, but I agree that the wife in this movie left a little to be desired.
There are also a lot of animals for the little kids to enjoy.
It's a basic, clean adventure where you don't have to worry what you child is watching, which is something rare in these days.
I recommend highly..
Unjustly forgotten, and in need of a remastered DVD.
While there is a slight personal preference for the 1960 Disney film, which is much more familiar to me, this 1940 film adaptation of 'Swiss Family Robinson' should be better known and unfortunately can only really be found on a too darkly lit and blurry VHS.
It is a film worthy of a DVD, and a remastered one at that.As an adaptation of the book (which is a very fun, suspenseful and thought-provoking read), this is the more faithful adaptation with more of the book's events intact, better performances from the kids generally and a darker tone.
For me though, the later Disney film is better made, has the better played Elizabeth, has a more fitting music score especially in the opening storm sequence (not knocking the music here though) and who cannot resist that treehouse?
Judging it as a standalone and moving on from the VHS issues, the only problems this reviewer found with the film were some draggy pacing in parts and Edna Best's stiff and overacted Elizabeth.
Although the VHS does the production values no justice, the settings and costumes are very nicely mounted and it's nicely photographed.
The Oscar-nominated special effects in the storm sequences impress and the storm sequences themselves though a touch overlong are spectacularly authentic with a real sense of danger.'Swiss Family Robinson' is rousingly and lusciously scored, securely directed and intelligently scripted.
There is more of the book's story here, and scenes like the salvage trips to the reef-bound brig, the lessons in candle-making and ostrich-taking, the recipe for Elizabeth's fish stew are portrayed in an amusing and exciting manner, same with the spider bite which does have a good deal of suspense.
The characters have lost none of their charm and appeal, while the animals are sweet and well trained.Best aside, the acting is good with a perfectly cast Thomas Mitchell and a delightful Freddie Bartholomew coming out on top.
An uncredited Orson Welles brings his distinctive booming voice to the narration, which doesn't make the mistake of being over-used or over-explanatory.In conclusion, very well done and unfortunately unjustly forgotten.
8/10 Bethany Cox. A little bit of alright.
Family (dad, mom, four boys) heading for Australia from England during the early part of the 19th century are shipwrecked on an island in the south Pacific and do their best to survive.
Concentrate on Thomas Mitchell's usual fine performance and less on the 1940 vintage special effects, and very poor print quality (typically available) and there is some entertainment to be had of here.
The lush "island" surroundings would have been enhanced by filming in color...but I have a suspicion this was not a very big budget picture and it would have been more obvious how many of the scenes were filmed on a sound stage in front of a rear projection screen.
Even the island looks like a matte painting.
Don't look for bedraggled, miserable Robinson Crusoes either, for generally, the Swiss Family have most of the comforts of an Andy Hardy home...so much for hokey 1930's family film realism..
Definitely a children's movie!.
I had never before seen any version of this film, nor have I read the book.My mother tells me that she first saw this film when she was 10 (1946) and simply loved it.
She hadn't seen it since.In the 70's she wondered what had become of this film and wrote to Frazier Thomas, host of "Family Classics", in Chicago.His response stated that Walt Disney purchased this film when his 1960 version came out and locked it away never to be seen again.She recently mentioned it again so I looked it up, and to my surprise, found it.
Swiss family Robinson is a good 1940 children's film.
But that is all!Thomas Mitchells acting is as good as always, and the boys did a good job acting like wealthy brats reformed by their ordeal.Did anybody notice that the youngest boy, Francis Robinson, played by Baby Bobbie Quillan, was a girl?
I didn't.I think Edna Best could have done better as Elizabeth Robinson.
Her acting was stiff and boring, though it may not have been entirely her fault, this is a 1940 film set in 1820.The story is ridiculous, most children's stories are, and there's too much religion for me, but I can look past these points.The special effects are dated but are reasonable for their day.This film is obviously a low budget production.
It needs a good disaster scene when the captain and crew are washed overboard and more adventure on the island.If you are into nostalgia take a look..
True family fun!.
Aside from the reviews I have read about this film, I am making the following statements because, I saw this film when it first came out in the theaters.My most memorable (mental picture) of this movie is of a young boy, perhaps 12 years of age - riding an Ostrich.
The family is on an island due to the ship they were on being wrecked, and they made it to shore, from that point on it is nothing but fun, the way they get organized, children being children, animals being animals, and the Mother and Father trying to cope with it all, they are a truly brave couple, and they fight the good fight together.
Well acted, and directed, it left me with plenty of good memories, it is a true SHAME if it is no longer available to be seen.Thanks to all who made this movie, so that I could enjoy it many years past..
Life on an island after shipwreck.
Purchased a VHS copy of this film from AMAZON years ago.
The quality is the worst I have ever seen.
I should have returned it.
Almost unwatchable.
My memories of this film go back to grammar school and watching it in the auditorium of my catholic school in West Philadelphia.
I remember the scary giant spider scene!
Disney should restore the film and release it to the public.
Disney has historical interesting films like this and Song of the South which they refuse to release in the United States for silly reasons .
The actors in this film did an excellent job of giving the viewer the feel of being on an island and the thought of never returning to civilized life.
All ashore who's going ashore!.
...and that includes dogs, cows, horses, pigs on a barrel and those of the human variety.
The birds can fly, joining the exotic variety which has probably never seen a duck in its life.
Thomas Mitchell, the pop from "Gone With the Wind", takes on the role of another literary patriarch, a successful businessman who immigrated from Switzerland to England, and now wants to find a new home with the Napoleonic wars approaching.
And what a home they find, but in this case, it is not Disney style.This version of the Johann David Wyss novel is in glorious black and white, and is all the better for it.
While the Disney version is worthy of its classic status, this version has been wrongfully overlooked, with a lesson pre-war of survival and growing up, and what living on this earth is all about.
Mitchell and his wife (Edna Best) have strived to raise their children with dignity and ideals, but they have ended up being too worldly and materialistic.
It's obvious that life in God's country will make men out of them, and only hard work will bring them survival in their challenging new home.Tim Holt, Freddie Bartholomew and terry Kilburn are the three post adolescent children, with Baby Quillan as the cute newest addition to the family that brings ooh's and aah's for his cuteness.
A giant sea turtle and ostrich are among the new creatures of God who help show the family the truth of their new paradise.
And if course, there's the famous tree house, not quite as grand as Disney's, but no bird's nest, either.
All in all, a fine version of a classic tale that I'd long wanted to see and was not disappointed in the least.
My only issue is the obvious passage of time that does not seem to age the youngest child as the two older sons obviously arrive at adulthood..
Bland.
SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON in the pre-Disney edition starred Thomas Mitchell as the father who ships off his family in the hopes of making his children men.
Its an often good looking film that is much too slow to really be of much interest.
Frankly part of the problem is that the film takes 20 minutes to get to the point where the family ends up on the island.
and by then you just want then to get on with it.
The rest of them film is them building and rebuilding their shelters as storms come.
The high point of the film is a spider bite late in the game.
I can kind of see why my mom loved this film but I also know why its fallen by the wayside. |
tt0047580 | Three Coins in the Fountain | A young American secretary, Maria Williams (Maggie McNamara), arrives in Rome and is greeted by Anita Hutchins (Jean Peters), the woman she is replacing at the "United States Distribution Agency". They drive to the "Villa Eden" Anita shares with Miss Frances (Dorothy McGuire), the longtime secretary of the American author John Frederick Shadwell (Clifton Webb), an expatriate living in Rome for the past fifteen years. On their way into town, the three women stop at the famous Trevi Fountain. Frances and Anita tell Maria that according to legend, if she throws a coin in the fountain and makes a wish to return to Rome, she will. Maria and Frances throw in their coins, but Anita, who is returning to the United States to marry, declines.
Anita takes Maria to the agency and introduces her to Giorgio Bianchi (Rossano Brazzi), a translator with whom she works. Maria senses that Anita and Giorgio are attracted to each other, though Anita states that the agency forbids its American and Italian employees to fraternize. Later that evening at a party, Maria is attracted by the handsome Prince Dino di Cessi (Louis Jourdan), despite being warned by Frances and Anita about him being a notorious womanizer. His girlfriends become known as "Venice girls" after he takes them to Venice for romantic trysts. Dino charms Maria, telling her to ignore what she's heard about him.
After the party, Anita and Maria walk home and Anita admits that she has no fiancé waiting back in the United States. She's leaving because she believes she has a better chance of finding a husband in America; wealthy Italian men are not interested in mere secretaries, and the men who are interested are too poor. As they walk, Maria is pinched by a man who pesters her until she is rescued by Giorgio, who then asks Anita to go with him the next day to his family's country farm to attend a celebration. Anita reluctantly agrees.
The next morning, Giorgio picks Anita up in his cousin's dilapidated truck. On their way out of town, they are spotted by her boss, Burgoyne (Howard St. John). On Giorgio's family farm, Giorgio tells Anita that he hopes to become a lawyer, despite his poverty. Anita then climbs into the truck and is almost killed when it rolls down the hill. After Giorgio rescues her, the breathless couple gives in to their attraction and they kiss. Meanwhile, back at the apartment, Dino calls for Maria and asks if she will accompany him to Venice. Desiring to see Venice but not wanting to lose Dino's respect, Maria arranges for Frances to chaperone them, to Dino's disappointment.
At the agency on Monday, Burgoyne questions Maria about Anita's weekend with Giorgio, and although she maintains that Anita did nothing wrong, Burgoyne assumes Anita is having an affair with Giorgio. The following day he fires Giorgio. When Anita finds out, she blames Maria for betraying her confidence and insists on moving out of their apartment. She visits Giorgio, worried that she may have ruined his chances of becoming a lawyer. Giorgio has no regrets.
Meanwhile, Maria sets out to attract Dino's affections. She learns about the modern art he loves, his favorite food and wine, and pretends to learn the piccolo (his favorite instrument). Maria even lies about her background, telling Dino she is three-quarters Italian. Beguiled by how much he apparently has in common with Maria, Dino introduces her to his mother, the Principessa, who expresses her approval. Later, Dino confides in Maria that she is the only girl who he has ever completely trusted. Troubled by her deception, Maria confesses her subterfuge, even showing Dino her notebook listing his interests. He angrily takes her home.
Frances meets with Anita, who admits that she and Giorgio are in love but will not marry because he is too poor. Frances returns home to comfort the guilt-stricken Maria, who is also determined to leave Rome because Dino has not contacted her since her admission. Frances tells her she is glad she is no longer young and susceptible to romance. The next morning, however, Frances suddenly announces to Shadwell that she is returning to the United States, explaining that she does not want to wind up an old maid in a foreign country. Shadwell, unaware that Frances has been deeply in love with him for fifteen years, offers her a marriage of convenience, based on mutual respect. Eager to be with him under any circumstances, Frances accepts.
The next day, Shadwell learns that he is terminally ill and has less than a year to live unless he goes to America for experimental treatment. Shadwell returns to his villa and coldly breaks off his engagement with Frances. After Shadwell leaves, Frances learns from his doctor the truth about Shadwell's condition, and then follows him to a café, where she proceeds to match him drink for drink while bickering about whether he should pursue treatment. Completely drunk, Frances climbs into a nearby fountain and sobs about her life. After Shadwell takes her back to the villa and tucks her in, he goes to see Dino at the di Cessi palace. Shadwell tells Dino he is leaving for the United States, where he will marry Frances. He uses reverse psychology to provoke Dino into realizing that he loves Maria.
After Anita and Maria are packed and ready to leave, Frances telephones and asks to meet them at the Trevi Fountain. When they arrive, Maria and Anita are disappointed to see the fountain emptied for cleaning. When they are joined by Frances, however, the water springs up again and the women are thrilled by its beauty. Dino and Giorgio then arrive, and as the men embrace their girlfriends, Frances is joined by Shadwell, and they happily admire the fountain, which has proved lucky to them all. | romantic | train | wikipedia | This pleasant comedy-romance opens with the beautiful view of the Fountain of Trevi in Rome, combined by another famous fountain garden at the villa d'Este in Tivoli where a great water organ exploits another attribute of moving water: its sound...But in "Three Coins in the Fountain," the 'sound of music' is the fine title song - sung by Frank Sinatra - that carries the whole picture...The film is about the search for love by a simple trio...
Three American secretaries believing in love, and throwing their coins in the 'Fontana Di Trevi' for a wish, for a romance, for an idealized love...The first person is Dorothy McGuire, the confidant secretary in love (since 25 years) with her elderly boss, the American writer Clifton Webb...The second is Jean Peters, a pretty indecisive brunette, doubtful in seeking love in Italy with Rossano Brazzi...The third, a decisive Maggie McNamara aspiring to catch a wealthy suspicious lover (Louis Jourdan) by the art of lying...Webb, Jourdan and Brazzi bring to the production its significant flavor...
The film, nominated for Best Picture, won two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Music Song...With a stunning photography in CinemaScope and sumptuous Technicolor of Rome and Venice, the motion picture is in itself a thin entertainment, but the title song carried it....
The year before Three Coins In a Fountain came out, Paramount had done another Rome based film in Roman Holiday.
Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters, and Maggie McNamara are three Americans sharing an apartment in Rome.
It was a BIG factor in the success of this film and won an Oscar for composer Jule Styne and lyricist Sammy Cahn.McNamara and Peters fall for Prince Louis Jourdan and aspiring lawyer and co-worker Rossano Brazzi respectively.
They never quite succeeded, but Dorothy McGuire conveys that she has a deep and abiding affection for Webb.The usual romantic complications occur, but it all works out in the end as it always does in these films.But the star is Rome and even seeing it 50 years ago, you'll still want to a pack a bag and see the place after watching this film..
The opening sequence of numerous fountains in full flood as Frank Sinatra crooned the Oscar-winning title song was just dazzling to those of us Americans who hadn't yet made a Grand Tour of Europe.
I never understood how Maggie McNamara ever passed muster with any studio's casting director, nor how the makers of this pastiche could have thought that the suavely handsome Louis Jourdan, playing an Italian of noble descent, would finally settle for a manipulative young American whose machinations had, prior to his capitulation, been nakedly revealed.
The lovely Ms. McGuire setting her cap for the aging, fastidious old fop, so well incarnated by Mr. Webb, was another of the difficulties even those first audiences had in suspending their disbelief.But, oh!, those glorious travelogue shots of Rome and Venice.
The characters, cast, and story are all innocuous, but they are never especially interesting.The title sequence is very enjoyable, with the Sinatra song accompanied by many excellent views of Rome.
"Three Coins in the Fountain" is a typical 1950's "Women's Picture." Back then, Hollywood studio executives were sure that the only thing a woman ever wanted to do with her life was find a husband and get married.Today, this film would be called a "chick flick." Modern feminists will probably hate it, because the three female leads seem to have marriage on their minds...and not much else.In the movie, three secretaries share an apartment at the "Villa Eden" in Rome.
"Oh, the rate of exchange in Rome is very favorable for Americans." Uh huh.Miss Frances (Dorothy McGuire) has been serving as secretary for John Frederick Shandwell (Clifton Webb), a snooty American writer, who has been living in Rome for the past 15 years.
(As other reviewers have pointed out, this skips over the fact that they would have been living in Rome before and during World War II, an event that nobody ever mentions in the film.) He proposes marriage to her on the day before his doctor tells him he has only a year to live.Frances' roommates, Anita Hutchins (Jean Peters) and Maria Willaims (Maggie McNamara), are working as secretaries at the United States Distribution Agency, one of those Hollywood "government agencies" with an eagle emblem on the door.
Unfortunately, Giorgio is immediately fired from his job for violating the USDA's policy against employees dating other employees, set in place by Mr. Burgoyne (Howard St. John), the doofus boss who runs the agency.Meanwhile, Maria decides to ensnare Prince Dino di Cessi (Louis Jourdan), an Italian prince known as "the predatory prince." Maria pretends to like all the things the prince likes (Italian opera, playing the piccolo), to trick him into marrying her, but of course, she falls in love with him instead.The movie's major strength is its outstanding cinematography, featuring beautiful views of Rome and Venice.
The director made no less than four of these types of stories (three ladies looking for love) and this one might be the least fascinating (possibly because, unlike the other three, this one doesn't have Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe or Ann-Margret!) The scenery and the title fountain are glorious, but the film lacks zest.
The real-life tragic Maggie McNamara is engaging as an Audrey Hepburn look alike who finds romance with a young Louis Jourdan, who sheds his usual French accent in this film.
The story at its center is trite and only exists in order to show the splendors of Rome in color and CinemaScope to lure patrons away from their television sets when the film was made, in the mid-'50s.The only performers emerging from the film unscathed are JEAN PETERS, gorgeous as a secretary looking for romance away from the office, and the two men who are in their physical prime and give the film's most ingratiating performances--ROSSANO BRAZZI and LOUIS JOURDAN, both being the prototypes of the sort of European men American women find so attractive.DOROTHY McGUIRE is saddled with the role of a spinster (of 38) whose object of affection is CLIFTON WEBB (mid-'60s) who seems an odd choice for any woman and tries hard to be his usual urbane self.
Surprisingly, the film--which gets off to a nice start with a rendition of the title song by Frank Sinatra--was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.Summing up: No surprises here, just a dull story that gets an occasional lift from the romance between Peters and Brazzi which is the best, but briefest, part of the whole film.
It's been plagiarised and remade so many times that it seems very ho-hum these days, but even when I first saw it, aged about 14, I wondered why the gorgeous Dorothy McGuire was considered to be old, and why she felt so strongly for the Clifton Webb character, who clearly (to me) was not romantically interested in women.
'Three Coins in the Fountain' is a film about three American secretaries that throw their coins into a fountain in Rome and hope for romance.
This typical early 1950s romance story has all of the "desk set" elements (found only in romantic dime novels): 3 American secretaries in Rome are searching for "meaning in life", hoping to find it in marriage.
The desired suiters are equally "fairy tale-like", including a Prince (played by Frenchman Louis Jourdan), a handsome full-blooded Italian (epitemized by Rossano Brazzi) and a distinguished Englishman (played by Clifton Webb).Old fashioned values are running rampant in this film.
In this movie Maggie McNamara gets Louis Jourdan to fall in love with her by pretending to like everything he likes--modern art, opera, Roman food and wine, etc.
The reason "Three Coins" was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar(as opposed to similar films like "How to Marry a Millionaire") is because of its cinematography, careful direction, fine acting, and the fact that it was adapted from a successful novel by John Secondari and the screenplay was smartly written by John Patrick, a Pulitzer Prize Winner.
It was the first in Cinemascope produced almost entirely on location and one of the ten most successful films of the 50s decade, so if you watch it, do it just for the fun of it and enjoy the beauty of its setting, eternal Rome.
Although Jordan and MacNamara have to tackle the least believable roles, their story has a very funny premise (the American girl doing her best to charm a bachelor Italian prince by pretending to enjoy everything he likes), and it becomes credible thanks to their acting efforts.
This had nothing to do with the availability of careers - since having a career does not preclude marriage - but reflected the knowledge that we all need someone in our lives committed to always care for us, and confer a sense of our niche in the world.Such directors as Jean Negelesco (How to Marry a Millionaire, Three Coins in the Fountain, The Best of Everything) created dramas based on these truths.
Three Coins In The Fountain deftly weaves together three love stories about American secretaries in Rome.
Miss Frances (Dorothy McGuire), who has been in Rome for 15 years, lives with a younger woman, Anita Hutchins (Jean Peters), and they're joined by another young woman, Maria Williams (Maggie McNamara), just arrived from the States.
Frances has been in love with her boss, the expatriate American writer, John Frederick Shadwell (Clifton Webb), all these years.
Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn penned the title tune, sung by Frank Sinatra (offscreen) as musical accompaniment to a prologue that showcases the fountains of Rome.Dorothy Jeakins designed the attractive fashions for the three women stars.CinemaScope doesn't have the thrills on TV that it must have had on the big screens of the 1950s, but there is enough in the way of clever writing and attractive acting to interest the viewer.
I have never seen the Trevi Fountains so empty, it must have been filmed very early in the morning.Three women who work as secretaries share an apartment in Rome.
Miss Frances (Dorothy McGuire) has been working conscientiously for noted writer John Frederick Shandwell (Clifton Webb) for some years.
He then finds out that he has less than a year to live which causes ructions with his new found relationship.Anita (Jean Peters) and Maria (Maggie McNamara) work as secretaries at for a US Agency.
Maria decides is attracted to the womanising Prince Dino di Cessi (Louis Jourdan.) She finds out all the stuff he likes, he is amazed by how much they have in common until she tells him the truth.The film is a bland fairy tale.
"Three Coins in the Fountain" is a romantic film of 1954 that especially appealed to young women (and some men) who dreamed about love matches in the romantic 1950s.
It's based on a 1952 novel by John Sedondari, "Coins in the Fountain." He was a Rome-born writer, producer and director who also co-wrote the screenplay for this film.
The movie is a light comedy and drama, and is about three American women working in Rome, each of whom seems spurned or ignored at first but then finds "true" love.
The movie also spurned a hit song by the same title, sung by Frank Sinatra in the film.
Clifton Webb plays John Shadwell, an expatriate American who has lived in Rome most of his adult life.
American girls dream of finding romance in Rome, but there is none for secretaries, Anita tells her replacement at the USDA.
But Maria soon meets Prince Dino de Cessi at a party at her boss's home who invites her to fly to Venice in his private plane.Bosley Crowther wrote, "A nice way to take the movie audience on a sightseeing tour of Rome, with a flying side trip to Venice, through the courtesy of CinemaScope, has been devised in "Three Coins in the Fountain," a handsomely colored romance that Twentieth Century-Fox delivered to the Roxy yesterday.
one for cinematography and one for the musical score.3 American secretaries in Rome find the perfect husbands for themselves...Apparently the "favorable exchange rates" allows them to live like Queens.
Squeezed in between the interior action there are some street scenes with cars and other fun period nostalgia--so it wasn't a total loss.The story isn't worth repeating....a maudlin marriage (the man finds out he has a year to live)....true happiness with working class cartoon Italian and his family singing as they drive through the streets of Rome..and a Cinderella--marriage to a prince--complete the ensemble.It is trite unbelievable but doesn't annoy in any way...
She isn't, which is not her fault.The photography of the rural scenery is beautiful, but other shots are not as good as in some contemporary European-set movies, like An American in Paris (most of which was filmed on the MGM lot), Funny Face (ditto), or The Sun Also Rises.The plot, as such, is not worth paying attention to.
Feminists would tear it to shreds and the script's as light as a balloon but this lovely airy fairy-tale about three secretary-birds in romantic old Rome works like a dream - provided you don't dwell too much on certain aspects..
It's left to Clifton Webb to play fairy-godfather as the expatriate novelist Shadwell (the man who wrote Winter Harvest, we're told, but we're not told what it's about), smoothly tossing-off a new masterpiece between epigrams and suddenly proposing marriage to Miss Frances (Dorothy McGuire), his loyal secretary for the last fifteen years (remember that) whom the film has been regarding as practically on the edge of the grave because she's 35 and hasn't got a man.
As this is a romantic film we are willing to let it stretch a little, but certain points about it that were acceptable in 1954 are now seen as hard to believe.The plot deals with three women who are Americans and find themselves working in Rome.
MacNamara meets a local Prince played by Louis Jordan, and Peters meets a young man working at the Embassy (Rosanno Brazzi) and two romances start up.
But then again, it would not have been a Hollywood film that could be enjoyed by the movie going public of those years.Three American women come to Rome to work in different venues.
Frances considers herself a spinster; she works for a writer that is well connected, but who has not written a book for quite some time.Jean Negulesco directed the film with an eye toward the beauty of Rome.
John Patrick adapted the novel by John Secondari with an eye for how it would play in Cinemascope.Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters and Maggie McNamara are seen as Frances, Anita and Maria.
Louis Jourdan is the prince charming and Rossano Brazzi was the stereotypical Latin Lover that he played to perfection during his American film career.Milton Krasner, the cinematographer, had a field day with all the beautiful natural scenery he captured for the viewer's pleasure.
Its direct descendant, "Three Coins in the Fountain," camped the story up, and began a whole sub-genre of trashy flicks: Three Gals Lookin' for Love!You know what you're in for as soon as Frank Sinatra, the studio orchestra, and a chorus of thousands begin blasting the swoony theme song, as the CinemaScope camera pans on countless smoochin' couples all around Rome.POSSIBLE SPOILERS...The three girls in question are Dorothy McGuire (the sensible spinster), Jean Peters (the working girl), and Maggie McNamara (the perky one).
The film excels in many ways, but the best aspect of the movie is the mood it evokes--through music, panoramic scenery and the mystique of both Rome and Venice.
In many ways, this made it look, at times, more like a travelogue than a romance--especially with the prologue that just features music and the sites of Rome.Now as for the plot, it's also pretty good--with a light romantic touch.
The sextet was interesting, Louis Jourdan wasn't even Italian but then neither was Clifton Webb, though Jourdan did personify the handsome Leading Man. Maggie MacNamara was the most interesting of the females but made only five films in total and in one of those she was uncredited; Jean Peters was arguably best known for becoming Mrs Howard Hughes in 1957 and retiring from the screen until the 70s and Dorothy McGuire was the best actress by a country mile.
You've got Clifton Webb as an American author living in Rome, who has a relationship he doesn't even realize with his secretary -- Dorothy McGuire.
And then there's Maggie McNamara -- who may remind you just a little bit of Audrey Hepburn -- as another American coin tosser.I always liked Clifton Webb, and he's very good here, although this is not his finest film.
Also in the office is Miss Francis (Dorothy McGuire), who work for an esteemed writer, John (Clifton Webb) and has done so for 15 years.
The life of Italy is no more romantically displayed.The plot of the movie revolves around three beautiful American women hired to work in offices in Italy.
Of course, in the end they all meet and fall in love by the fountain where they had wished at the beginning with their coins.While it was not as realistic as Roman Holiday, this corny movie stands the test of time.
Fortunately, the other players, led by charismatic Jean Peters, warm-hearted Dorothy McGuire, robust Rossano Brazzi and charming Louis Jourdan, more than take up the slack.A terrific crowd-pleaser in its time, "Three Coins in the Fountain" has lost none of its appeal today..
Arriving last is Maggie McNamara (as Maria), who is set to replace Jean Peters (as Anita), who rooms with Dorothy McGuire (as Frances).
Their respective romantic interests are prince Louis Jourdan (as Dino), translator Rossano Brazzi (as Georgio) and writer Clifton Webb (as Shadwell).
Also, although only two of the women throw coins in the Trevi Fountain, we can be fairly certain a third coin joined them at some point.***** Three Coins in the Fountain (5/20/54) Jean Negulesco ~ Maggie McNamara, Jean Peters, Dorothy McGuire, Louis Jourdan |
tt1374990 | The Prodigies | Ten-year-old Jimbo Farrar is a gifted child who is misunderstood and regularly beaten by his parents. One day he is badly beaten by his father while his mother cheers him on, and Jimbo gets carried away by his anger and loses control of his abilities. When he wakes, up he finds his mother's body on the floor, as she had been beaten to death by his father, who then hanged himself, all under the control of Jimbo. He is then sent away to a mental hospital, where Jimbo is visited by multi-billionaire Mr. Killian, who decides to take him under his wing to help him control his abilities.
Twenty years later, Jimbo has become a brilliant researcher in the Killian Foundation for Gifted Children, married to Ann with whom they are due to have a child. Jimbo has only one goal: to find young children who, like him, possess supernatural powers. Thus, he created an extremely complex online game in the hopes that he'll be able to identify any such people around the United States. One night, five unrelated teenagers pass the game and hack Jimbo's computer. In desperation, Jimbo shuts his computer down and restarts it, only to find a message on his screen with the words: "Where Are You?". Jimbo immediately sets out to find them and bring them to the Foundation, but on his return he learns of the death of Killian. The Foundation therefore passes onto Melanie, Killian's daughter, who plans with Jenkins - her second-in-command - to end Jimbo's game and instead work on a TV show. In order to save the game - and the possibility of locating more "golden children" - Jimbo has the idea of combining the ideas: create a large-scale televised competition to reveal future geniuses. The show, American Genius, is launched, and five teenagers are announced as participants - hand-picked by Jimbo, having met and identified them as "golden children": Gil, an abused child; Liza, a young girl trained to be a top model; Lee, a young Asian who helps her parents in their trade; Harry , an African-American whose mother wastes all her money in Paris; and Sammy, the only son of a wealthy family and physical ungrateful.
The five are identified immediately and Jimbo arranges to meet with them in secret in Central Park. No sooner are the teenagers gathered than two thugs assault and rape Liza. Jimbo, however, is not there: he has just learned that Ann is pregnant. He learns of the teenagers' situation too late and, by the time he arrives at the park, Liza is missing and the other four are on the floor, unconscious. However, through Liza’s agony while she is being raped, her pain is telepathically extended to the other four teenagers and Jimbo, who unconsciously drive out the thugs using mind-controlling abilities of their own. As soon as Jimbo recovers his senses, he hurries to Liza and finds her in a coma. The next day he learns that Melanie wants to cover up the crime, in order to preserve the TV show, by claiming Liza was injured by a hit-and-run driver. Furious, Jimbo violently demands an explanation, and his anger almost makes him lose control of his abilities. After this, he vows to protect the other four, and locks himself away in his office with his computer, afraid because of how he had almost lost control like in the day of the death of his parents. Meanwhile, under the leadership of Gil, the five teenagers infiltrate the archives of the Killian group, where they find video recordings of Jimbo during his sessions in the mental hospital. Here he talks about his feelings of isolation caused by his supernatural abilities, as well as the possibility of others like him being out there. The mention of him bringing them all together to avenge themselves for all the years of mistreatment entices Gil, Sammy, Lee and Harry to bring justice upon Liza’s attackers, which they do by brutally killing them as well as the officer, who helped cover up the crime, and his wife using their powers.
When Jimbo learns of this, he is very alarmed. Furthermore, Melanie refuses to recognize the truth if only to let the TV show continue, meanwhile the teenagers are demanding justice. However, one evening, as he tries to reason with the teenagers, they turn against him. Doubting his trust, they put him to the test by ordering him to kill Jenkins. Jimbo, who had made a promise to Killian never to use his power in such a way, refuses. The teenagers go on to make Jenkins beat up Jimbo (once again with their abilities) and kill Jenkins, then frame Jimbo for his murder. Although Jimbo initially attempts to explain to the policemen the truth about his and the teenagers’ superpowers, the policemen don’t believe him, particularly due his supposed history of having schizophrenia. Jimbo eventually relents and is sent to prison, where he is kept under surveillance. In the meantime, Gil, Harry, Lee and Sammy make plans for causing large-scale destruction upon the United States, under the belief that this will exact justice for all the pain they had been subject to in the past. Shortly afterwards, Liza comes out of her coma, and Ann visits her to ask her for help, for she now knows of Jimbo’s abilities from the police interview, as well as the teenagers’ plans to infiltrate the White House to launch nuclear weapons. However, Ann angers Liza, who loses control of her powers and almost kills Ann’s baby. In a desperate attempt to prevent the imminent destruction the other teenagers plan on causing, Ann reluctantly seeks help from Melanie, the organiser of the final of American Genius, which will take place in the White House, include the four teenagers plus another fifth contestant, and be attended by the President of the United States. When Jimbo learns of Liza harming Ann, he uses his powers to break free from prison and joins Liza to reach the other teenagers, as well as Melanie and Ann, at the White House.
On site, when she and Jimbo are attempting to sneak into the White House, they are halted by guards and Liza uses her powers for the two of them to escape. This triggering an alarm and initiates a security procedure where everybody in the Oval Office (including the finalists of American Genius) must get to safety in a security bunker. But once inside and all exits are sealed, the four gifted teenagers manipulate the soldiers and bodyguards into killing each other, and Melanie is shot dead under Gil’s will. Gil then begins the attacks by launching a nuke at Killian University, where Jimbo and Killian worked. Ann’s life is spared when Sammy raises the possibility that her child, being Jimbo’s as well, might also be a "golden child". Jimbo eventually arrives at the bunker with Liza, where he learns that Gil is the one leading the group into attacking the US. A fight ensues where Gil attacks Ann and Jimbo fights to protect her, until the fifth contestant fires a gun at Gil when Jimbo is at the verge of being killed. But Jimbo, anticipating the bullet, pushes Gil away and instead receives the bullet in his heart. While Jimbo lies in Ann’s arms, dying, Gil horribly attacks Liza for her refusal to cooperate with him, which brings Harry to his senses and convinces his friends to stop all the madness of attacking and killing masses of people across the United States. And so, while one controls Gil in order to prevent him from stopping them, Harry cancels the nuclear attack, saving Killian University by seconds. Shortly afterwards, Jimbo takes his final breath.
Three months later, Killian’s company has gone bankrupt. Ann, still pregnant, receives a package containing Jimbo’s phone (which he had lost in the fight at the White House), which has a final video message from Jimbo. Ann does not know it was left by Liza, who has disappeared from the radar along with Harry, Sammy, Lee and Gil. Liza, Harry, Sammy and Lee now search for other gifted people like themselves, using Jimbo’s game, but Gil now continues with his journey on his own, and it seems that he is plotting dark schemes. | revenge | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1363468 | Zenith | In the post-apocalyptic year 2044, the population has been genetically altered to live in a constant state of happiness, but without sorrow, happiness dissipates, leaving only a feeling of never-ending paresthesia. Only pain can make people feel alive.
Jack (Peter Scanavino), a young man and former neurosurgeon, is a peddler of substances that induce pain. A stranger knocks on Jack’s door and hands him a single video tape that Jack’s long lost father, Ed Alexander Crowley (Jason Robards III), left behind. It is the first in a series of 10 tapes in which Ed has documented his life and his pursuit of what he calls the “Grand Conspiracy,” a conspiracy that quite possibly could be the answer to what happened to Jack’s world.
Inspired by his father’s tape, Jack sets out on his own investigation. But in order to solve the whole puzzle, he must locate the remaining nine tapes. Jack begins to track down four more tapes, but the larger answer still eludes him.
Jack meets the provocative Lisa (Ana Asensio) in a strip club, and is struck by the fact that she is just as conflicted and lonely as he is. Through her, Jack encounters the possibility of real love. As Jack finds the remaining tapes, the lines between his interior and exterior world blur, leading him to question reality itself. Lisa and Jack decide to abandon the search for the tapes and leave the city.
Jack locates Ed’s last tape, and is suddenly faced with the same choice his father had to make forty years ago: to surrender his soul, or to remain true to himself, no matter the consequences. Jack's reality becomes the same reality as the final tape.
Jack is revealed to be an institutionalized patient (named Ed Crowley) with both epilepsy and a brain tumor, taking part in a clinical research trial in 2012, scribbling notes about Zenith while being monitored by a camera in his cell, wondering if this isn't another part of the conspiracy. | psychedelic, sci-fi | train | wikipedia | Almost perfect brain candy.
An exciting stand-up triple that falls frustrating short of a home run.
Wonderfully original and thought-provoking story covering the dystopian topics of power structures without rule-of-law, genetic manipulation on a mass scale, mind chemical crutches, and the erosion of scholasticism.
Acting, sets, and cinematography all done well, which is impressive given the film's 12 dollar and 50 cents budget.
Unfortunately, many story elements get tossed in without backdrop or development (how did everyone get genetically altered as soon as 2044, especially in a world lacking the organizational framework of governments?).
It feels like the too-condensed movie version of a epic-length cerebral sci-fi book series, like Herbert's Dune or Card's Ender, but sadly, no such luck.
Nevertheless, Zenith is brain candy worth chewing on over and over..
Sure footed cult movie to be is very engrossing and very well directed,..although what's the deal with that ending???.
Zenith has a great set-up, once everything has more or less been laid out to the viewer as to what's happening.
Its a plot line that calls to mind (and is kind of a blend of) 12 Monkeys, Donnie Darko (which this movie clearly yearns to be) and The Stepford Wives (of all things)but mixes and matches the 3 in such a way that it really feels likes it stands as its own film--which is quite impressive when you think about it.Movie works best quite honestly when you know as little about it as you can going in--but since you're here on the IMDb--you're gonna figure out the plot eventually anyways so i'll tell you very briefly what its about without giving away any spoilers---In the future (2044) there's an ex med student dealing black market drugs (depressents mostly) in a bleak world where well the things that are bad in today's bad economy/ society get extremely worse.
The drug dealer (who narrates the film in 3rd person) eventually finds out his dad was on a never ending quest to stop the current world's conditions from getting worse (which it of course did) and this quest ended up driving him crazy--a fate that the narrator is trying to avoid himself (its not really important what the quest is so much as that it getting done...but its something concerning the mysterious project zenith.) The narrator finds scattered videotapes that his dad left for him to ferret out what can be done to well save the world more or less from these nefarious people who would stand to profit from the bleak way the world currently is...and off we go.This is a very clever way of having the plot being set in 2 different time lines while running concurrently--- both in the narrator's time (which is the future) and in the dad's time (which is in our current present) where you see the narrator's dad in the videotapes trying to do his thing--the film essentially cuts back and fourth between the narrator in the movie's present and the videotapes of the dad's adventures in the movie's past which is of course actually our present--OH movies--i love you sometimes!) Anyways that gives you an outline of what the film's content is without actually telling you anything about what specifically is happening-- how its happening, or whether or not it all adds up to anything or not.
(hint--film tries to have it both ways in its ending...which may prove to be a little too cute for its own good--but by this point i was so wrapped up in the film's narrative that it didn't really matter until i thought about it after-wards.) Film is very very confident in its ability to grab and hold your attention--and it very, very much succeeds on that basic level.
Film is extremely watchable-and is very well shot (and edited) to boot.
The 2 lead performances are completely perfect.
You definitely buy the 2 lead characters as presented.
Even if the constant third person narration reminded me a little of Fight Club (another influence?)it was still very helpful in keeping track of what was going on, and which timberline we were currently in.The only real flaws in the film come after-wards in retrospect while thinking about it--which is of course where the fun in dissecting it comes into play (and will no doubt cloud many viewer's opinions of it overall) But it doesn't really matter because you will be engrossed while watching it--you can debate later on whether or not film adds up to anything--but you'll definitely pay attention to it while its unfolding and that sheer watchable factor cannot be underrated enough..
Fantastic.
Before I even get into the review of this movie I want to point out one crucial thing, this is NOT just a movie, this is what several people on the inter-webs calls an "alternate reality game" ultimately involving people who watch the film, listen to the album or read the book.
Great example is Nine Inch Nails album "Year Zero".Now let us get into the meat of this beefy film, a few reviews below me had to have been done by someone who is involved with Fred Phelps,maybe they decided to watch it with family, and then there is the possibility this person hasn't seen an indie movie in his entire life.This movie follows very close with the styles of Fight Club, with the narration, and such events that I will not disclose for your sake.This movie/mockumentary will start out kind of confusing but it wants you to hang in there because not only are the following hour and twenty minutes worth it, but are crucial for you to get ANY grasp on this film.
Without partaking in the ARG.
The camera styles used are just as you would expect on a low budget film, but it doesn't ruin or take away from the film at all.The acting is far from sub-par, but very well for relatively unknown actors and actresses, with slips here and there but its easily over looked.
Sets looked as though this dystopian 2044 would be possible.But the end, I didn't quite get it, its not as out there cause they're really is no end at the end of the movie, it is open for YOU the viewer to help Jack out, find out the true end of everything.But to say that they used the "F bomb" too much is BS, I have seen holly wood movies use it more, it sillier ways than this movie did, and to say that the "love" scenes were anything less than a standard holly wood "sex" scene is ludicrous, maybe if it was Channing Tatum and Katy Perry it wouldn't be as bad, or maybe if they played some John Mayer while it was going on, its crazy to say it was over used over played, it set the movie with a different feel.And yes there may or may not be a "rape" scene, but you decide, and tell me what you think.
Also note they're MAY be an abortion scene...
MAYBE you can help me out with that, maybe you have the 4:3 version that I could borrow to see more.Just trying to state the obvious, this movie is at its best a mind bending twist of crazy, and at its worst...
a mind bending twist of crazy, its no Serbian Film...there is very little that hinder this movie from being a top movie in 2010, or even being viewed once by all who have netflix.If you don't watch this you are missing out..
A Masterpiece of Independent Filmmaking.
I had the opportunity to see ZENITH at the IFC THEATER in NYC.The movie was in summary at least 100 times better than INCEPTION.
This is a statement for the quality of this independent film which was much less money to make than INCEPTION.
The story was imaginative and associated with current society.
The artistry in th...e acting and directing was quite evident.
The acting was raw..and the story was up your face, and the directing and cinematography was genius.
Each scene seemed like a painting which could be worth thousands in the art world.
It was quite interesting to see at a moment breaking the fourth wall.
This movie was provocative, thought stimulating, and a roller-coaster of goodies to see : A MASTERPIECE OF INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING ..WHICH I PREDICT WILL BECOME AN INDEPENDENT FILM CULT CLASSIC...
Get some sleep before you go see this,...
you will need all your brain cells so as to not miss one second of it.
Hope to see it in big theaters real soon..
Blah.
But much worse..
Yet another case of misleading reviews.
You are teased with terms like brain candy...
well, like a candy, it certainly doesn't feed.
Alas it doesn't even taste good.
The container is as bad as the content.Content first: Constant pontification on subjects that you will find provoking only if you were born after 2012.
When the first sentence begins with "Fact:...", you instantly realise that you'll be listening to a condescending moron who thinks he will teach you something.
I'm not referring to the character.
Then he badly explains the Milgram Experiment, a ground-breaker, in the 1960s, and you start to think that maybe you should re-watch Verneuil's I as in Icarus, a great movie that one.Don't go thinking that I'm bashing on the sole basis of the introduction.
All along, you'll get hammered coprolitic gems like "who are you to judge if you haven't produced anything ?" (let's ask Cioran about that), "I know words no one else knows anymore" (well, we all know people who can speak 6 languages fluently but have nothing interesting to say), a USA-Great Britain one-world government (and Australia once again forgotten in that definition of global), "Pain makes them feel alive", etc.
Nobody in the film crew has even realised, or dared to mention, how dumb the idea of paying for a pain-inducing drug is.Zenith exemplifies a contemporary trend in which any brain fart can find an echo on the Internet and be proclaimed as an idea.Container: To try to keep watching Zenith despite its early ineptitude is a true ordeal.
First, the acting is atrocious.
Not raw...
bad.
Absolutely all of it.
Unbelievably incompetent.
Strangely, all the actors are physically perfect for their respective parts, but none of them has any mike skill.
Put the narrator on top of it for new levels of annoyance.The camera work is of the same calibre.
In every single scene, the camera is set at the worst possible place, or on a shoulder, or is a cctv sensor...
It hopelessly tries to be arty, with zero flair.
The lighting is equally awful, and so on.
A sex scene is ugly, which is an unforgivable crime, repeated twice more.
Scenes of violence are over before you realise they started; they have no impact; they are unclear, like everything else.Using the word Independent as an excuse for incompetence is irritating.
It is, in fact, an insult to independent cinema.
There are masterpieces with the tiniest budgets out there.
Watch Man Bites Dog, made by three students with no money (not even a university grant) using all their family members for a free cast.
Because they have talent, unlike Mr Nikotic.
Wait, I take that back: I don't need a masterpiece as an example; just watch a good independent movie, or an okay one, but don't bother watching the abysmal Zenith..
Weak Storyline, Shocking to Shock.
I can't emphasize this enough: I regret watching this movie.
We've all wasted time on worthless movies, but I honestly wish I could "unsee" Zenith.
It's unnecessarily vulgar and completely worthless.
Zenith is well done in the way that a birthday cake made of rocks and muffin mix can be well done.
The cinematography is okay but nothing special.
Acting was okay, bordering on bad.
The Story is completely weak.
It's not profound, and this isn't because I didn't "Get it".
I know exactly what the movie is trying to do, but it just wasn't good.
The concept it tries to deliver is actually really basic.
It's nothing new.
And they didn't even deliver it well.
The movies description is accurate.
People looking for pain because they want to feel ANYTHING other than happiness.
I think this movie is something like a demonstration of such yearnings.
The content is weak and useless, but it does deliver plenty of "Shocking" things...
for the sake of being shocking.
There are SEVERAL graphic dirty sex scenes that just make you feel uneasy and dirty.
There's even a vulgar sex/rape scene between a Father and his Daughter.
The kinds of things that burn into your mind and you can't "unsee" them.
I'm not picky about the "F bomb".
I really don't mind it as long as it's not used in a vulgar sexual way.
In Zenith, they used it quite a bit like that.
The movie has plenty of violence, but nothing worse than many movies you may have already seen.
They push the envelope pretty badly when it comes to the sex, but not all that much with the violence.
Plenty of brutal beatings, gunshots etc.
A mild scene of a forced abortion.
Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of violence, but I've seen much worse.I continued watching this because I hoped that it had a worthwhile story.
I trudged through the awful sex and porn crossing my fingers that it wouldn't have any more and the story would get better.
Just more unsettling sex and a weak story.I would say don't bother, but it's worse than that.
Don't watch this, you may regret it.
But seriously.
Don't watch it out of curiosity now.
You should be curious about it like you should be curious about what it feels like to lick a hot stove..
Brilliant.
Brilliant.
If you have read about it, forget the online meta-something story lines which accompany the film, the conspiracy and warning signs, and go see this film with a fresh mind - but don't blink!
It is so dense with information and visuals that if you go for popcorn you will have a hard time to connect all the dots.
It asks the audience to be alert and to participate in the movie, but it's worth it.
Zenith obviously references/ is influenced by a lot of cult films, from Memento to Donnie Darko, with nods to La Jetee and Fight Club among others, but it is thoroughly original and unique.The film is not really about conspiracies, it is about power and lack of it, and how we relate to it, and by extension, what choices we make.
The director has repeated the concept of the experiment - beginning the film with the Milgram experiment, which is not a conspiracy but a test of obedience to authority (SPOLER ALERT) repeating the experiment in the middle of the film, referencing the experiment twice by a doctor toward the end of the film, and even the director is credited as "experiment supervisor." Peeling layer after layer of intense visuals and narrative threads, the film becomes an allegory on what it means to be human.
Jack, or "dumb Jack as they call him" recites into the camera about consciousness and the states of the mind (and mind you, he is an epileptic).Power corrupts, weather it is political, or the power that a parent can wield, and it is when the political becomes personal that we have to make a choice, as simulated in Milgram's experiment and as shown in Zenith.
Jack doesn't give up, although he is doomed to lose.
I don't think that I have ever seen a film like this, and couldn't stop thinking about it afterward.
If your idea of a 'good movie' is based on Hollywood or even Indy films of the last decade, you will probably walk away unimpressed.
But, as one of my favorite characters in Zenith rants into the camera, judging things without contributing or making something yourself can be self-defeating.
Productionwise, the acting is superb, the look and camera-work amazing, the directing masterful, and the amount of complex philosophical questions squeezed into a 90 minute joyride (with sex and violence and suspense) makes Zenith a unique brilliant film..
False mirror.
I find it interesting how some reviews are full of rage and others full of praise.
A great work usually does that.
Love or hate it, it arouses passion.
Time will tell but Zenith does push many buttons.
Bottom line, if you like films only as entertainment don't watch The film.
If you have an open mind and want something different see it.
A dark futuristic thriller on no budget, the film occasionally overreaches but it's fascinating, beautiful to look at and the score is amazing.
It's a heady movie but not preachy.
The film is our allegory.
Like Magritte's 'False Mirror' it looks inside out and outside in.
If you agree to this premise you will enjoy the ride and contemplate its ending long after.
If not, the film will fall flat as 'realistic dramatic construction' in three acts without closure.
But I don't think it was meant to be that.
We are living the future and with every day Zenith becomes more real.
The film was not shot there but the desolate landscapes look eerily like Detroit. |
tt1648112 | New Kids Turbo | Set in the small village of Maaskantje in North Brabant, a group of friends: Gerrie, Richard, Rikkert, Robbie and Barrie lose their jobs. The group perceives themselves as being victims of the widely reported credit crisis, although in actuality their misfortune is the direct result of their idleness, lack of common sense, and poor punctuality. Gerrie, for instance, turns up to work late and drives the forks of his fork-lift truck into a pallet of boxed plasma screen televisions. Similarly Richard brings his old bulldog to work with him, who in turn gnaws at and breaks the shovels of Richard's supervisor, and Rikkert is sacked by his boss, a sarcastic and abusive garage owner.
Gerrie is kicked out by his mother, after she catches him trying to steal from her purse. At around the same time, Rikkert breaks up with Manuela, his girlfriend, and Barrie's house (which is also an illegal cannabis farm) catches fire. Subsequently all three take refuge in the home of Richard and Robbie. The group go shopping and rely on Richard to pay, however his bank card is declined following the refuelling of Rikkerts Opel Manta. The group travel together to the local employment and benefits office and demand more benefits from the official, who politely refuses. Richard climbs over the desk and thrusts the official against the wall, telling him to "Give us more money, 'kut'". The following morning, Richard reads a letter sent from the benefits office and informs the group that as a whole their benefits have ceased entirely. The result of which is that the group decides that they simply will no longer pay for anything and go on a spree of petty robbery, most notably from their local petrol filling station, as the group run from the forecourt each carrying two large capacity containers full of fuel, chased by the petrol station attendant, similarly the group flee the local supermarket "Lupus" each carrying large quantities of lager. Gerrie steals deep-fried croquette snacks from the local takeaway whilst Barrie acts as a diversion. Richard, Robbie and Rikkert phone a delivering Chinese takeaway, but explain they have no money to pay the delivery rider when he comes to deliver.
With their level of criminality rising, more and more letters and final demands come through Richard's letterbox, followed by a visit from a debt collector, firstly deceived by a local Down syndrome sufferer - who is duped into opening the front door by Richard and the group - who confuses the collector by uttering the words "Lorry driver", before slamming the door closed again. He is 'paid' with a slice of ham, which he is led to believe is a ten-Euro note. The collector rings the doorbell again and this time is met by Richard. He explains there are serious concerns, before Richard reiterates that they are paying for nothing anymore. The debt collector starts to explain that that is not going to work, before being promptly punched in the nose and falling to the ground. He returns shortly afterwards, flanked by the local Police chief who is additionally punched by Richard.
Their actions draw the attention of a popular Brabant-based journalist, who makes a report on group for TV Brabant. They are presented in a sympathetic light and are described as victims with no focus being placed upon the severity of their illegal actions. The report sparks a series of imitation riots in other towns and cities across The Netherlands.
In the full swing of the crisis, Gerrie takes Barrie by bus to go to an old friend of his, Peter Aerts, aka "The Lumberjack", who is now a professional kickboxer to borrow a large sum of money. With this money he goes to a casino, where he places the entire loan on a single number at the Roulette table and wins. The entire group join him and although are unnaware of the origin of such a large amount of cash, are thrilled to have won against the odds. Gerrie however bets it all again, loses everything and promptly vanishes from the casino before the rest of the group discover what he has done. Then Rickert loses his Opel Manta as it gets picked up and towed away by the local authorities. Despite chasing it for a short distance with a small child's bicycle, the car is lost (except for a wheel that was secure to the kerbstone in an effort to prevent it from being removed.)
In response to the rising levels of civil unrest throughout the region, the Ministry of Defence in The Hague decides to wipe Maaskantje off the map in an attempt to stop the riots; however, the plan goes wrong when the neighboring town of Schijndel is accidentally bombed by mistake. The government explain the accident as a rogue Belgian missile experiencing technical problems and assures the population that the Netherlands and Belgium are not at war. When they see it, the boys know the situation is critical.
Walking back to Maaskantje they are apparently ambushed by multiple bursts of automatic weapon fire. Barrie is shot in the chest, but is apparently unharmed. The source of the gunfire is, however, Gerrie - who had met a farmer who had kept some weapons in his barn from World War II. He shows the group his cache of antique weaponry and invites them to take their pick. Whilst singing the Nazi anthem, he is accidentally shot in the head by Gerry, than Rikkert laughs and says: "more weapons per man."
Maaskantje is evacuated by the local residents, whilst the group make their way back into town, rendezvousing with their friends and colleagues. The five men team with Manuela, the owner of the local takeaway and the recently sacked local police chief. The Chinese restaurant delivery rider arrives and explains that he too wishes to help, before being one of the first casualties of the incoming troops. The troops are held back by bazooka, machine gun and rifle fire from the group and their friends.
The takeaway owner is cornered by a sole officer and was saved by a single shot to the back of the officer's head by Gerrie. The cafetaria owner exclaims that he could not be more proud of his son. Gerrie is taken back, but accepts a hug from his long-lost father.
The situation comes to a head as Richard faces the leader of the incoming troops, flanked by Barrie, Gerrie, Rikkert, Robbie, Manuela, Gerrie's father and the local police chief. As a thrown smoke grenade clears, the commander holds Richard with a semi-automatic weapon to his head and is flanked himself by several dozen highly armes officers. He orders the group to lower their weapons, which they do, but is caught off-guard by a DAF curtainsider lorry careering through his troops. The lorry comes to a crashing halt off-screen and the curtain splits open, spilling the load of lager. The driver is revealed to be the Down syndrome sufferer.
The Local police chief re-arms himself and promptly shoots the commander in the head.
The group are subsequently arrested and charged with a laundry-list of offences. The punishment is passed at 250 hours Community Service each. Whilst the five are carrying out the community service, "The Lumberjack" returns and demands repayment. He is about to launch into an attack on the group when he is crushed by a falling set of speakers and turntable deck, accompanied by DJ Paul Elstak.
The tagline of the film is 'Niemand komt aan Maaskantje!' (No one messes with Maaskantje!). In German this is 'Niemand fickt mit Maaskantje!'. (No-one fucks with Maaskantje!) | comedy, humor, stupid | train | wikipedia | To understand a part of this movie you have to know a little history.
In that time a lot of people dressed as the people in the movie, drove the Sita scooters and drive around in Opel brand cars pretending to be the tough guys.
Those were great times as we laughed a lot at their stupidity and general behavior.So basically the writers/actors use that background and show us that kind of attitude and fashion is still alive in Maaskantje (the town were everything takes place).
They are rebels, aggressive and lazy.The story itself is about all of them losing their jobs and when the bills get too much and they also lose their social security money, they decide no longer to pay their bills.
Of course it gets them into trouble and their aggressive behavior gets them even more deeply into trouble, up to the point were the authorities have to step in...The movie looks good in all.
The actors are well know for their short video's from earlier New Kids and the Pulp Show and a lot of things will seem familiar looking at them and the movie.I had a great laugh, it's an entertaining movie but don't have great expectations watching it.
Over 1 million people went to the cinema to see this movie and it's a big hit in Germany too.
It is no wonder this movie scores big time in Germany after movies like 'Manta Manta' and 'Manta the movie'...ps don't watch this movie if you are a cop!.
I think the acting was very good, (spot on!) and portrayed the characters just as they should have been.
Definitely different from the norm as far as stories and characters go.I found this movie to be very clever and entertaining.
Fantastic Movie, even better than the Sketches..
I've just seen New Kids Turbo in the cinema, and I'm not disappointed.
The same humor is used as in the Sketches, and the storyline is worked out great.
If you're a fan of New Kids you're also gonna like it.
Everything is played very well, and you really get sucked into the movie, and I guess the whole cinema thought the same.
Everyone was laughing all the time, and the humor in the movie isn't made for 'stupid' people.
There are a lot of smart jokes, and great plot twists that make everything more enjoyable.
It's a Dutch movie, nobody from other countries is gonna watch this).
I had a big interest in this movie, because I have seen a lot of comedies from USA, Fance and Russia.
I think that, if characters of the movie are stupid, then why the script has to be the same, i.
best comedy movie without a story..
This movie hardly contains a story.But it was the first time in the cinema that a complete audience applauded for multiple jokes in the movie.As well as breaking all movie records here in the Netherlands (where Harry Potter was expected to do that...)In a way it's Flodder² ;)If the US even considered remaking this movie so they have an English version it'd fail.
This movie sets the standard for this genre.It is really a turbo version of the sketches.In comparison to when Rambo stitches his own wound the version in this movie the guy acts much "cooler".
Funny how the audience reacts differently to the "killing" of animals in opposite to the "killing" of people in the movie.Even though I don't like bad language, here it is fully appropriate.
The bluntness is exact the way it should be.For people who don't like this kind of movie: don't watch it and/or lighten up..
I must admit having missed the modern meaning of "New Kids" in The Netherlands.
A paraphrasic sketch on the Deventer Humor Festival 2010 was needed to put me straight and to trigger some google-ing, just to make me feel having lived under a rock for 3 years.
Why did it not invoke censorship from TPTB (The Powers That Be)?Contradictory reviews are the best way to get me into a movie theater.
It could have been the only way to believably wrap-up the story line.Though a lot of political incorrectness passes by, plus an overload of strong language, I don't think any viewer of any age will be turned into a follower.
But the acting by Rijk de Gooyer was clearly recognizable as overly over-the-top, demonstrating it was not the right thing to do.Speaking for myself, having lived at several locations in the province of Noord Brabant, the dialect sounded very natural.
I'm not sure, however, this will apply to other Dutch speaking people.
Will this introduce a new trend?All in all, my final conclusion is that the movie is well made, casted perfectly, with the main actors performing very well.
They surprised me positively with that, being an achievement in itself.Hindsight addition one year later: My review of sequel "New Kids Nitro" is less favorable, and then I express myself euphemistically..
Funny how people do react on this Dutch Movie, you love it or you hate it.
First of all i was a fan of their sketches on Dutch TV, but this movie is much too long and goes on and on and on with no surprises.
It's a lot of the same, a real disappointment The Dutch Press seems to have the same different opinion about this typical Dutch movie.
They love it or they hate, in fact of the Dutch Papers NRC Next gave it 0 stars, which is uncommon, even for a bad movie .
Making a sketch of 5 minutes is much easier that making a feature movie.
"New Kids Nitro" is very much the "Flodder" of its generation, mainly because the makers just don't give a damn.
"New Kids Nitro" is vile, ugly and meaningless, and that's just incredibly refreshing in an era where so many movies are polished until they lose all their identity.
I didn't expect to go see a 'good' movie.
I am actually living in Brabant, nearby the little town where this movie takes place.
I do like a good, cheap joke.
I was ready to rumble..Let me start off by saying that this movie is a waste of time.
This is not a 'good' bad movie.
The rest of the movie is just terrible dialogue, one of the worst 'plot-jokes' I have ever seen, bad acting..
Unfortunately, they'll have to live with it for quite some time..This movie is gonna be an enormous hit, without a doubt.
This movie is nothing but a very bad acted, scripted and extremely boring 90 minutes of pure amateurism, without so much as a good laugh.I think only those with very little intellectual capacity can appreciate the so called jokes and constant swearing and referrals to po and pee.
I got a free ticket to see this movie but i noticed that the mood in the cinema was very subdued, just a few laughs instead of the great comedy i was hoping to see.
A total failure for Dutch cinema.I had expected more from the New Kids, who in real life are not so mentally disabled as their movie wants us to believe..
I preferred the sketches to the movie.
The New Kids were known for their sketches on the Dutch television and were popular amongst the youth.
Nevertheless I thought the short sketches were better then the movie.
New Kids Turbo is just an average movie to me with stupid but okay humor, but without a great story or acting.
The eighties culture of the Johnny's and Marina's with their Camino scooters, training tracks and mullets might be fun to watch for people that knew that era but for people that don't they might find it a bit dull and stupid.
In case you do not know, New Kids are a miniseries of short clips about an asocial group of Dutch hillbilly stereotypes living in Southern Netherlands.
Quite refreshing and well done actually.Now, New Kids popularity brought it onto the big screen, where it pretends to be a movie, but is basically the same miniseries as were shown on TV, just tied together with incoherent story bits to form a length of a movie.It is like the young writers and producers came to the director and said "We want to do an explosion.
We also want to do this and this because the Dutch will find it funny, and we want to do this because our friend here took a bet that we wouldn't have the guts to show this on TV, and also we always wanted to do this so.....yeah...go and pull it all together in a movie.
Subsiquently, the story unwinds itself half way through the movie, a sacrifice needed to fit in all the other stuff these "Kids" wanted to do on national television.It is still funny to see the "sjonnie" stereotypes - the actors do a good job here.
However, the movie is not as funny as it pretends to be.
In fact, the outtakes shown during the credits may get more laughs than the actual movie.Overall, for a Dutch person the movie is worth seeing, even if just to be able to say that he/she did.
I thought Dutch films could not sink any deeper....
The sketches of the third season which were aired on Comedy Central in the Netherlands were not as good, but still made me chuckle from time to time.
Then came the film New Kids Turbo.
I did not expect a film made from characters out of sketches to be a success, and it really wasn't.Okay, the actors played their roles relatively OK, but the entire film sucked.
I see the resemblance with the 90's culture in Noord-Brabant (I grew up near Maaskantje in the 90's) and that's about the only positive thing about New Kids Turbo.I didn't laugh once during the entire film, which is not a good thing, considering that it was supposed to be a comedy.
Everything in this film is exaggerated, which is not actually a bad thing, but it is in this case when the entire youth of Holland is pretending to be a 'new kid'.All in all, my advice to you is: do not see this film!
There are a lot of much better Dutch films!
And you call those people in this movie "actors?" I really don't think so.
Over one million Netherlands viewers who rushed into theaters and watched this movie?
Not even one second during watching this movie that I have found funny enough to make me laugh but I never doubted that my sense of humor is strong.
Then, why I didn't feel anything funny in this so-called "movie" ?.
Just went to see it and I have to admit, the movie exceeded expectations tremendously.
Having seen the sketches in before (and liking them a lot) I was really concerned that transforming this to a feature length movie would not work.
The five main characters all loose their job on the same day and then decide not to pay for anything at all any more.
The government tries to put them in prison for it (but fails horribly) resulting in what the guys do best, putting up some sketch and making the whole audience laugh.There's one very bad point in the movie.
Oh, and if you don't like the "New Kids" sketches on youtube, don't bother.
You won't like the movie.
Great movie, had big laughs, made me look for Schulten-Bräu.
I ended up finding a Scooter Song, the re-released version of "Friends", when it turned out to be a music video to this movie.
And I have to say: MAASKANTJE!I am absolutely amazed by the actors, the story-line seemed to be a bit flat at some cases, but it showed a nice story of friends of 5, losing their job, and fighting their way through that.
Some scenes were quite funny, and since we also have similar movies, like Üvegtigris (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0257290/) yet I always tell my friends about the movie, that it is a mix of "Beavis and Butthead" and our Glass Tiger (Üvegtigris).
They quickly get the idea...I have never been in the Netherlands, but this movie made me to get around to Noord-Brabant, and visit the famous place, and all the other places the movie was filmed.
Hard to believe, that the actors are just everyday guys, and their lifestyle doesn't even seem to be close to the one seen in the movie.
I'm not even that big of a fan of the sketches but really enjoyed the movie.
The acting isn't all that good, but you can just see the guys enjoying the part they play, which is a good thing in my opinion.The jokes are about the same as the ones in the sketches, but in the end better because they are part of a story.
The story itself isn't that bad actually, it's not just making jokes and creating a story around it in order to be able to tell those jokes, the story itself keeps you focused as well.This movie is probably most fun if you know who some Dutch guest appearances are like comedians Hans Teeuwen (the guy who fires Rikkert) and Theo Maassen (the guy in the bar), K-1 fighter Peter Aerts and singer Jody Bernal.
But even if you don't know them: go and watch this movie with some friends I know for sure that you and your friends will have an excellent night!.
Why this movie is such a great success can be derived from the extremely negative comments above.
This isn't a movie of great acting, screenplay, story or something which usually decides whether a movie is good or not.
This movie shows insight into the cultural emptiness of the dutch lower classes.
All dutch people sometimes have dinner at a 'friture' which significantly differs from a fast-food restaurant, though its purpose is the same.
Everybody knew what was coming and hoped it would be just like these series.
If you will think the movie over, you should notice that these boys hardly make any jokes.
But they act so empty-minded that even the dumbest person on earth would say: "These guys are really stupid." But if you look closer, you'll discover that they aren't really dumb.
They are just utilizing their freedom (maybe dutch freedom) by drinking beer, smoking weed, stealing, harassing people and swearing all the time.
In some way it's even a feel-good-movie, for people who can handle the rudeness of the boys from Maaskant..
The economic crisis has hit the Netherlands hard, especially for the New Kids (Richard, Rikkert, Barrie, Robbie and Gerrie) from Masskantje.
The authorities try to respond with escalating force but the boys respond with increased levels of idiocy.If you enjoy your comedy with manly moustaches, mullets, horking, swearing, white trash but want a European vibe set to Techno music, then New Kids Turbo is the film for you.
The New Kids are from a TV show on Comedy Central Netherlands.
It's not surprising that it's also shown on Dutch Comedy Central channel as well.*excerpt from www.cinemaliberated.com.
The movie accurately depicts the live in an average Branbant village.
Just a good laugh, don't make anything more out of it.
PG21 for language, but since it's dutch, who cares?
Please do not take this movie too seriously, and, people from Maaskantje, be happy about it.
OK, I've just enjoyed this movie even though I absolutely despise New Kids.
I laughed throughout the entire movie.I don't think there is any movie like this in the English-speaking world.
Some of the other reviewers have explained it brilliantly, but I'll give it a try.The plot is that five young men, through their stupidity, lose their jobs and then their welfare handouts.
But the new kids, despite trashing and abusing the town, love the place and defend it.This type of humour showcases shockingly unacceptable antisocial behaviour.
It's just the way they are.The new kids are lower class Dutch men (the lowest), so in a way this is a very classist movie.
The movie makes fun of them, but it also makes fun of the media, the police, the criminal justice system, the government and Dutch society.
The movie attacks the very concept of feeling good and watching a movie.
It's as if the movie makers are inviting to wonder why you're watching this sh*t.
There is some sophistication in this movie, but the sophistication is in its nihilism, its exploration of how low one can go, and its commentary on the stupidest aspects of modern Dutch society.
This movie has profound things to say about Dutch masculinity, but I'm not sure what.This movie is well made.
They are indeed the heroes of the movie, but we're clearly laughing at them.
At no point is there any doubt that these caricatures are losers and broken people unable to function in any normal way.This is a very difficult movie to rate.
is a very bad movie and is dutch to.
after the first half(i watched so much just because of the rating keep expecting for something nice to happen but till the end it was a waste of time :( ), i just pressed fast forward watching it in fast motion , is a waste of time for someone who appreciates intellectually made movies with a flavor of some kind of comedy, action etc.
This i suppose wanted to be a comedy but because of the "to much stupidity" and boring action even the FEW moments where you can laugh a little are not so much of a laughter, for anyone with some IQ is a waist of time , i never write reviews in IMDb but for this movie with rating 7.0(13.04.2011) i wanted to say a word and to prevent someone else for wasting time with this because of his high rating (for now).don't want to watch a bad movie ? |
tt0036959 | The Invisible Man's Revenge | An eager scientist (John Carradine) tests his new formula for invisibility on an escaped fugitive (Jon Hall). When the formula works the criminal runs off to terrorize a family he believes cheated him out of a fortune years earlier.
Robert Griffin (Jon Hall) is nothing but a mad, psychopathic killer who should be locked away for good. Still he manages to escape from the secluded Cape Town mental institution where he has been committed, and now he is looking for revenge on the respectable Herrick family. A family consisting of Sir Jasper and lady Irene, and their daughter Julie, who are engaged in entertaining, and inspecting, Julie's new boyfriend, newspaper journalist Mark Foster, in the family residence. Later that night Julie and Mark leave the residence together, and Sir Jasper and lady Irene are left alone. That's when Robert decides to pay the couple a visit. Quite unexpectedly he enters the residence and accuses the couple of leaving him to die out in the African wild, injured, when they were on a safari together. The Herrick couple defends themselves, claiming they were told that he was dead and not injured, but Robert doesn't buy their explanation. He demands they give him his share of the diamond fields they all discovered together on the safari. Jasper tries to tell Robert that the diamond fields were all lost in a series of bad investments.
Robert refuses to give in, threatening to sue the Herricks, and to calm him down and get him off their backs they offer him a share in an estate, the Shortlands. His counter-proposal is that they should arrange for him to be married to their daughter Julie. After saying this he is drugged by Lady Irene and passes out in their home. The Herricks realize that their old friend and companion has gone completely mad, and while they are frightened of what he could do to them if they don't comply to his wish they see no problem with stealing the agreement made or pushing him further along the path of insanity with their betrayal. They search Robert's clothes and finds the written partnership agreement they all entered into some time ago. Taking the paper they next callously throw Robert out of their house. Robert nearly drowns where he lies, unconscious, but is saved by a local Cockney cobbler by the name of Herbert Higgins (Leon Errol).
Herbert decides to use this new found possibility - the information he got from Robert - to blackmail the Herricks. He is unsuccessful, as Jasper calls on chief constable Sir Frederick Travers (Leyland Hodgson). The chief constable declares Robert's claims to the Herricks' estate as void and orders him to leave his jurisdiction. Robert leaves for London, but on his way he happens to come by the home of eager scientist Dr. Peter Drury (John Carradine). This scientist is involved in some questionable research, and is very eager to find a suitable subject to test his new experimental formula on - a formula for invisibility. Robert asks that the doctor try it on him, and he agrees, completely in the dark of the fact that Robert wants to use this to get his revenge on the Herricks. Robert forces Jasper to sign over their entire estate to him. He also finds time to help his saviour Herbert to win a game of darts at the local inn.
Jasper secretly also agrees to give his daughter's hand in marriage to Robert - if he ever regains his visibility. Robert goes back to the scientists laboratory and witnesses how the doctor restores visibility to his dog Brutus, by giving him a blood transfusion. Robert breaks into the laboratory and knocks the doctor unconscious, before performing a blood transfusion on himself, using the doctor's blood. The transfusion results in the doctor's death, and to avoid capture Robert sets the laboratory on fire and takes off just before the police arrive on the scene.
Robert changes his identity to "Martin Field" and moves in with the Herricks at the estate which he is now owner to. When Herbert finds out about Robert's return he makes a futile attempt to blackmail him too, and out of pity - and perhaps thankfulness - Robert pays the man a 1000 pounds to get rid of him. Robert has one condition for paying the money: that Herbert kills the doctor's dog Brutus, who has followed Robert back to the Herrick estate after the fire.
Robert starts losing his visibility one day at the breakfast table, with Julie and her fiancé Mark present. He tricks Mark to follow him down into the wine cellar, where he knocks the man out, starting another, second blood transfusion with Mark's blood.
Chief constable Travers arrives at the estate after he has found out about Robert's return. With some help from Herbert and Jasper they break into the cellar just as the transfusion is about to be completed, in time to save Mark's life. Robert is attacked by the still very much alive Brutus, and killed. Mark tells the others that Griffin went insane when he was locked up in the asylum, and meant no one any harm until he escaped. | good versus evil, revenge, murder | train | wikipedia | "The Invisible Man's Revenge" isn't the equal of the peerless 1933 Laemmle-era original, but it's certainly better than the previous run of "New Universal" Invisible Man movies.
Jon Hall, relatively dull as the hero in "Invisible Agent," proves surprisingly effective as a full-throated villain (in this version he's a psychotic madman BEFORE becoming invisible); Leon Errol's dry wit is several cuts above the usual un-funny "comic relief" in these films; Lester Matthews and Gale Sondergaard make a nice guilt-ridden couple for the Invisible Man to have his titular revenge on; Alan Curtis and Evelyn Ankers are certainly more than competent as the romantic leads; John Carradine is in good form as the rather dotty scientist with the invisibility formula; and the direction by Ford Beebe, usually a name associated with Universal serials, is convincingly Gothic and well-paced.
Universal was on the downgrade as a horror studio by then (and their only further foray into invisible man-dom would be an Abbott and Costello vehicle in 1953) and some of the effects work is sloppy, but on the whole this film is convincing and vividly atmospheric.
Incidentally, in "The Face of Marble" from Monogram two years later (another underrated film with a fine sense of atmosphere even though its plot doesn't make a lick of sense even by the meager standards of horror fantasies!), John Carradine also played a mad scientist who had a dog named Brutus..
Griffin practically stumbles into the helping hands of Dr. Drury(John Carradine), who experiments with a new formula that makes animals invisible.
THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE (Universal, 1944), a promising title, directed by Ford Beebe, suggested by "The Invisible Man" by H.G. Wells, returns Jon Hall, recently from THE INVISIBLE AGENT (1942), in another caper revolving around the no-sight and sound about a man out for avenge those who had done him wrong.The story opens on the docks of London where Robert Griffin (Jon Hall) returns after five years of memory loss following a diamond field expedition in Africa.
Afterwards, Griffin stumbles upon the home of Professor Drury (John Carradine), a scientist who has discovered the formula of invisibility.
As an invisible man, Griffin gets his revenge, but in the process, does become what he is accused of being, a homicidal maniac.With this being the third "invisible man" story of the 1940s, not counting the comedy outing of "The Invisible Woman" (1940) starring Virginia Bruce in the title role, this latest installment gives some indication that the writers were attempting an original concept to an already unoriginal scenario.
One scene finds him impressing his friends at the pub in a friendly game of darts by hitting a target every time, compliments of his invisible friend.Evelyn Ankers, Universal's resident performer in the horror genre, who arrives 48 minutes into the story, is given little to do, compare to her secondary roles opposite Lon Chaney Jr. in "The Wolf Man" (1941); "The Ghost of Frankenstein" (1942) and "Son of Dracula" (1943), In fact, it's a wonder why Chaney never had the opportunity to assume the role as an invisible man, considering that he's played everything else in regards to Universal monsters.
An average production that contradicts its predecessors, the screenplay by Bertram Millhauser fails to mention Jack Griffin (Claude Rains) from THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933), to be the true inventor of the invisible formula, thus giving credit to another scientist, Drury.
Jon Hall may not have the charisma of Rains nor the distinctive voice of Vincent Price, but he does have the distinction of being the only actor to twice play an invisible man on screen, aside the fact that he was playing two different characters bearing the name of Griffin.Formerly available on video and currently on DVD as part of the "Invisble Man" collection, THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE did have occasional revivals on cable television's Sci-Fi Channel (1990s) and American Movie Classics (2001).
Not quite the closing chapter nor the finish of John Fulton's special effects department, Universal concluded this science fiction series with the comedy of ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN (1951), which they most certainly did.
So Invisible You Can't Even See Him. A rather weak and confusing script makes The Invisible Man's Revenge not nearly up to the standard set by the first Invisible Man film and the stylish performance of Claude Rains as the scientist who discovers the secret of invisibility and its trap.Our invisible protagonist in this film is Jon Hall who has come over to Great Britain from South Africa in the belief that Lester Matthews and Gale Sondergaard cheated him out of his half share of a diamond mine.
Even in the end, someone had a marvelous idea for the Invisible Man to get his comeuppance involving man's best friend and blew it in the execution.One very interesting performance in the film is Leon Errol, away from the comic parts he usually had.
He's still got some funny moments, but he's also a blackmailing scoundrel as well.The Invisible Man's Revenge is far from the best in the series.
1944's "The Invisible Man's Revenge" brought the infrequent Universal series to an end, apart from 1951's "Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man." It's appropriate that Jon Hall repeat the role again, after playing the heroic "Invisible Agent" in 1942; here, his Robert Griffin, no relation to prior Griffins, isn't so much a madman as a man who believes himself to have been wronged, and with Lester Matthews and Gale Sondergaard as the objects of scorn, you too may feel they were indeed guilty of the alleged crime (leaving him behind in the jungle to die after leading them to a fabulous diamond mine).
Lovely Evelyn Ankers is again wasted in a peripheral role, as she often was in Universal horrors, leaving the way open for the scene stealing John Carradine to command the screen, in only two scenes, as Dr. Peter Drury, the source of Griffin's invisibility, with transparent pets such as a parrot and a dog, whose later visibility will doom any future plans for our nonhero ("in this house, you've got to believe what you CAN'T see!").
Former adversaries in 1937's "The Hurricane," Jon Hall and John Carradine would once more oppose each other in 1957's "Hell Ship Mutiny." Director Ford Beebe ("Night Monster") was one of Universal's finest journeymen, again finding a slot for his father-in-law, Cyril Delevanti, selling Griffin some new clothes before nearly getting himself killed.
Now most of the time I like invisible man movies but this time I am willing to make an exception.Jon Hall took a break from costarring with Maria Montez to be in this thriller.
Because all that took place before the movie even starts and we have to hear about it from various characters the the film progresses!When Bob finally gets back to his not-so-great-friends Sir Jasper and Lady Irene he finds out that not only did they rob him they subsequently lost most of their fortune due to bad investments!
Run out of the mansion Bob gets lost in a storm and ends up at the house of Dr. Drury (John Carradine) whose neighbours think he is batty because he has perfected a way to make living things invisible.
He also directed NIGHT MONSTER (1942) and even managed to impress Alfred Hitchcock by bringing in such an effective thriller in only 11 days.INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE is far from the best of the series.
It's not the best Invisible Man movie, not the absolute worst, worth watching if only for people who must see all of a series..
It's established early on as a revenge story, with American Jon Hall (cast as a Brit, unless I missed something) returning to England for his share of a fortune in diamonds he was cheated our of by his former friends and business associates.Enter John Carradine--on a dark and stormy night, no less--and the invisibility aspects of the story begin to take shape.
That the film is handsome to look at helps enormously.This movie is not a direct sequel to any of the early Invisible Man pictures that preceded it.
The Invisible Man's Revenge is a lot better than that, and just as good as the first sequel in the series..
Robert Griffin (Jon Hall) escapes from an asylum and seeks out his old friends, Sir Jasper and Lady Irene (Lester Matthews, Gale Sondergaard).
They throw Griffin out, which leads to him meeting up with a Cockney blackmailer (Leon Errol) and eventually a scientist (John Carradine), who enlists him to take part in the inevitable invisibility experiment.
Reportedly the first draft of the script had Jasper and Irene as much more villainous characters and no doubt was cast on their attempt to kill Griffin, both in Africa as well as upon his showing up at their house in this film.
It tells of a gruff left-for-dead man coming back named Bob Griffin, having absolutely nothing to do with anyone in any of the other Invisible Man films, dealing with a couple that may or may not have left him in Africa.
In fact, I veered between *** and **1/2 for AGENT and between ** and **1/2 for this one: I opted for the midway rating because the former was undeniably silly despite its surface polish and the latter was somewhat unengaging but, at the same, solidly handled.In fact, THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE features a...ahem...revenge plot, settings and characters which would have been more suited to a Sherlock Holmes picture - which comes as no surprise at all since it was written by Bertram Millhauser, who scripted 5 of the 12 Holmes 'vehicles' made around the same time at Universal!
Besides, Jon Hall is miscast as a villain (explained as such in the abrupt and none-too-convincing epilogue) - which the script names Griffin but then doesn't bother to make him a relation of the original Invisible Man(!), Leon Errol's comic relief is an acquired taste, and John Carradine here basically duplicates his role in RETURN OF THE APE MAN (1944)...although having his faithful (and invisible) dog as Hall's mortal enemy was a nice touch!.
Although, I will say that Jon Hall is more tolerable in this villainous part than as the dimwit he played in "Invisible Agent."Hall's Robert Griffin shares the name of the Griffins in three of the prior films, but oddly no relation to those men is mentioned throughout the picture, and this Griffin is decidedly not a scientist.
Except that Griffin brings up his fugitive status again when, by the most chance of contrivances, he runs into a mad doctor (played by frequent Dracula actor John Carradine) experimenting in making animals unseen.Then, there's this long backstory that Griffin and his former partners the Herricks get into where Robert was presumed dead, but actually had amnesia for years, and there's the issue of the half of a fortune owed to him.
The darts scene, though, may be the best thing here, and it anticipates the boxing in "Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man" (1951)--even though the scene serves no purpose to the plot and rather grinds it to a halt.
This 5th film "Revenge" has a feeling of being the Invisible Man again.
The Invisible Man himself, Robert Griffin, is quite mad and twisted as Dr. Jack Griffin and Geoffrey Radcliffe."Revenge" is worth watching - and, to me, an underrated film in the series.9/10.
Final entry in the original Invisible Man series, and last on the Legacy Collection DVD set, this film clearly shows the lack of ideas around the character.
I think my problem here with "Invisible Man's Revenge" is that you have what appears to be a distinguished cast, but no one who really stands out with a stellar performance--or maybe more to the point, no one who comes across as affable or easy to root for.And that's not to say that I don't enjoy a character who is devoid of sympathy--I very much enjoy Lugosi's Count Dracula--but here, I feel it would help if the Robert Griffin character was in some way likable or sympathetic, but Jon Hall just comes across as a man with no redeeming qualities who will kill on the drop of a hat if someone crosses him in even the slightest way.Which brings me back to a point I brought up in another review--why didn't Lon Chaney play the Invisible Man; given that Universal tapped Chaney to play every other fright character for them, I think Lon could have given this role the touch of pathos it probably needed.The rest of the cast is pretty unremarkable, based on performance--John Carradine gives what may be the best performance in the picture as the "Mad" doctor who creates invisible animals as well as the Invisible Man. Evelyn Ankers is as pretty as ever but mostly wasted here in this movie- -no screams of horror from the great Ms. Ankers either (a pity)."The Invisible Man's Revenge" is definitely the runt of the Universal horror litter and a film I don't play often, but--if you're a serious horror fan--it wouldn't hurt to give it a look or two.4 stars.
Jon Hall returns, though not as Invisible Agent Frank Raymond, instead as escaped criminal Richard Griffin(no relation to the previous Griffins apparently) who finds refuge in the home of Dr. Drury(played by John Carradine) a kindly inventor who also has developed an invisibility serum, which he tests on Griffin, who then uses it to avenge himself on the treacherous couple(played by Lester Mathews and Gale Sondergaard) whom he blames for cheating him and leaving for dead.
At film's end, we are led to believe (by a chief constable who fails to mention them at all in his summing up) they have been whitewashed, presumably to set the heroine free to marry the movie's real hero, Alan Curtis (who makes a rather belated entrance when the movie is more than half over).Adding to the story confusion is Leon Errol in a major comedy role as a Cockney spiv who befriends the Hall character, and does a fair number of mildly amusing turns, including a happy scene in which he attempts to blackmail the villain who persistently outwits him; and a long, almost completely irrelevant sequence in the local pub in which he challenges the local champion to a game of darts and then tries out various throwing combinations that will have special effects fans really cheering him on.
This, the last of the Universal 'Invisible Man' series (before meeting Abbott & Costello), is a very enjoyable film that showed there was still life left in the concept.
Jon Hall, in his second invisible outing, plays a criminal named Robert Griffin who uses a formula for invisibility to exact his revenge on those that wronged him.
"The Invisible Man's Revenge" isn't that bad of an entry in the series.**SPOILERS**Returning to London, Robert Griffin, (Jon Hall) meets up with old friend Jasper Herrick, (Lester Matthews) and wife Irene, (Gale Sondergaard) and, after having too much to drink, finds himself thrown out of the house.
I think it is possible that I liked this film even more than I would have because the night before I'd watched the previous installment in the Invisible Man franchise--THE INVISIBLE AGENT.
Eccentric scientist Dr. Drury (a nicely quirky and lively portrayal by John Carradine) tests his in visibility formula on wanted fugitive Robert Griffin (a solid performance by Jon Hall), who uses his newfound invisible status to get revenge on his former friends who cheated him out of a fortune in diamonds.Director Ford Beebe relates the engrossing story at a quick pace, maintains a generally serious tone throughout, and further spices things up with amusing moments of amiable humor, with an inspired darts game sequence rating as the definite comic highlight.
The script is nothing special, either, although the cast does the best that they can.The film does benefit from having its vengeance minded main character be a true s.o.b. The man in question, Robert Griffin (Jon Hall), thinks that his old partners, the Herricks (Gale Sondergaard and Lester Matthews) double crossed him and cheated him out of a fortune in diamonds.
So, when he happens upon a nutty scientist, Dr. Drury (the well cast and delightful John Carradine) who's perfected an invisibility process, he volunteers to be the first human guinea pig, and uses his new "appearance" to his advantage.It's a shame to be referring to any of the films from Universals' 1930s and 1940s horror cycle as tiresome, but that's exactly what "The Invisible Man's Revenge" is.
However, Alan Curtis is fairly dull as reporter Mark Foster, and the film gives the lovely Evelyn Ankers precious little to actually do; her character really isn't *that* important to the plot.
The saving grace in this, the last of the "Invisible Man" series (other than a brief return with Abbott and Costello who basically encountered every Universal monster at some point in their career) is John Carradine as a mad scientist, a variation of Ernest Theiser's mad doctor in "The Bride of Frankenstein", complete with an invisible zoo who wants to add the vengeful Jon Hall to his collection of guinea pigs (one of which he actually has).
Carradine does not realize what a monster he's creating as Hall is out for revenge against old business partners he claimed left him for dead in Africa years before.
Lackluster sequel, and the weakest movie in the Invisible Man Series WARNING!!!!!!
Lackluster sequel and the weakest movie in the Invisible man series.
I though Jon Hall totally over acted as the invisible man and came nowhere to matching Claude Rain's or even Vincent Price's performance and plus his character is totally unlikable he is always a grouch and i just wanted him to shut up already he was great in the Invisible Agent but in this movie he was awful. |
tt0120434 | Vegas Vacation | At work, Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) has invented a long life food preservative, earning him a large bonus check. Clark announces to his family that he is taking them on vacation. Part of the reason for the trip is for Clark and Ellen to renew their wedding vows. Excitement wanes, however, when Clark says they are headed to Las Vegas, Nevada. His wife, Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) and teenage daughter, Audrey (Marisol Nichols) have their doubts, as Las Vegas is not known for its family-friendly atmosphere, while teenage son Rusty (Ethan Embry) appears to be more enthusiastic. Upon travelling to Vegas, they run into the "woman in the Ferrari" (Christie Brinkley) who appeared in the first film. Clark is the only one who sees her, but then notices that she now has a child.
Upon arriving in Vegas, the family embarks upon a series of misadventures. The Griswolds visit Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid), the husband of Ellen's cousin Catherine (Miriam Flynn). Eddie and his family now live in the desert just north of Las Vegas, on what used to be an atom bomb test site. While on a group tour of the Hoover Dam led by guide Arty (John P. Finnegan), Clark leaves the group after accidentally creating a leak in the dam's inside walkways, and is forced to climb the scaffolding to the very top of the dam to get out, because his cries for help cannot be heard over the roaring water of the spillway. Later that night they attend a Siegfried & Roy show.
The next night, tickets to a Wayne Newton concert and a dress for Ellen are sent in the mail. They go to the concert, only to realize that Newton had sent the dress. While singing, he brings Ellen up on stage to sing with him.
The next day, the family agrees to an "alone day" and are left to their own devices. Clark goes to a casino and becomes addicted to gambling, usually losing to a snidey dealer (Wallace Shawn) who enjoys Clark's humiliation. Rusty gets a fake ID from a Frank Sinatra look-alike (Toby Huss) and becomes a winning high roller, taking on the pseudonym 'Nick Pappagiorgio'. Audrey starts hanging out with Eddie's free-spirited and gorgeous exotic dancer daughter Vicki (Shae D'Lyn) and her friends. And Ellen begins spending time with Wayne Newton, who has feelings for Ellen.
Eventually, Clark gambles away the family's $22,600 bank account, leading a furious Ellen and both of the kids to desert him. Russ goes off gambling for cars, and wins four. Ellen goes to visit Wayne Newton, while Audrey goes to a strip club with Vicki and gets a job as a stripper. Eddie — who has money buried in his front yard — tries to come to Clark's rescue in return for everything the Griswolds have done for him and his family over the years. Clark and Eddie go to a local casino to get their money back, but Clark ends up gambling away Eddie's money too, causing him to reevaluate his behavior. Clark then realizes he no longer cares about getting his money back, but he needs to get his family back.
Clark then gathers up his family from around Vegas and they gamble their last two dollars on a game of Keno. They sit next to an elderly man (Sid Caesar) who compliments Clark on his family, and hints that he has been lonely all of his life. Out of sympathy, Clark tells the man to consider himself part of the Griswold family for the night. The man happily accepts Clark's offer, and both parties begin the game. At first, the Griswolds are optimistic, but as they realize they have already lost the game, they sit together in silence. Suddenly, the man next to them ecstatically declares that he has won the game. In his burst of joy, he suddenly begins to slip in and out of consciousness while Ellen sends Rusty for help. He awakens one last time and whispers a message to Clark, before dropping his winning ticket and lapsing one final time.
Clark, confused, tells Ellen that the man said "take the ticket." When the casino security guards and paramedics arrive, they declare the man officially dead. They tell the Griswolds his name was Mr. Ellis, and commented on how sad his loneliness was to them. As Mr. Ellis is carried away, a janitor approaches with a carpet cleaner, heading straight for the winning ticket on the floor. Though it appears Clark is going to allow it to be lost, at the last second, he slides the ticket out of the carpet cleaner's path. With their newfound winnings, Clark and Ellen get remarried. Afterwards, Clark gives Eddie $5,000 to repay his kindness. They all drive home in the four cars Rusty won on the slot machines: a red Dodge Viper, a maroon Ford Mustang, a black Hummer H1, and a white Ford Aspire. | entertaining | train | wikipedia | If you laugh at something senseless and absurd, such as Cousing Eddie babbling on about his worthless, pathetic existence, or Clark Griswald finding himself at the edge of the Hoover Dam, or even a busload of tourists crashing into the estate of "Mr. Las Vegas", Wayne Newton, so what?
The idea of the dysfunctional Griswalds venturing to Vegas for yet another "family vacation" and finding themselves experiencing the whims of the city of entertainment in their own individual ways, with Clark being a hapless, compulsive gambler, Ellen having somewhat of an affair with Wayne Newton, Rusty hitting it rich at the casinos and masquerading as a "playboy", and Audrey aspiring to be an exotic dancer, how hilarious can it get?
Couple this with the outrageous imbecilic likes of Cousin Eddie continuing to plague Clark's existence, and "Vegas Vacation" succeeds in delivering a royal flush of laughs.
If it's silly and inane, if scenarios are too illogical for words, and if not everything really comes together by the end, at least you have plenty of funny material to laugh away at, and that makes for a jolly good outing, when you find yourself laughing consistently throughout the film, which warrants a solid recommendation for "Vegas Vacation".
Mayhem ensues when the Griswolds go to Las Vegas in this fourth film in the 'Vacation' franchise.
Chevy Chase is solid as always and Wallace Shawn has a fun extended cameo this time round as a condescending croupier, but with minimal road trip elements here, the dynamic is not quite as juicy as the first or even second film.
The plot basically consists of each member of the Griswold clan having their own individual Vegas experiences, and while there is quite a bit of oddball humour in how Rusty makes it as a gambling king, there is not a lot of interest in Audrey becoming a Vegas dancer, Ellen being seduced by Wayne Netwon or Clark's gambling debt woes (Shawn's role in the matter aside).
Randy Quaid also has far too much screen time for his own good as the abrasive cousin Eddie and it is hard to know what to make of a scene in which Quaid and Chase visit an outskirts casino with "what number am I thinking of" gambling games.
Chevy Chase returns to the role of Clark Griswold, he gets these crazy notions and perfect ideas built up in his head, and as we have learned in the other films, they always disintegrate one at a time until he blows his top.
In `Vegas Vacation,' Randy Quaid has the longest screen time that Eddie's ever had before, and I think this is a good thing.
He pretends to be in love with Ellen Griswold (`It's a lock of my hair.') in the film; he tries to steal her from Clark, who forgets to pay attention to his wife while he blows his money away like it's just paper and nothing more.
I understand that it is not as good as the first film, but to tell you the truth, I used to have a hard time choosing a favorite - the three films (`Vegas,' `Christmas,' and the original - NOT counting the `European' sequel) are so different and funny that it really is hard to choose.
In the new film, Clark swings over the Hoover Dam, and it looks like Chevy really strained himself doing some of the physical stuff (even if it means dangling over a green screen).
It's pretty far reaching at times but there are solid moments here; such as Clark damn near destroying a damn and getting crazy (as only Clark Griswold can) playing cards and losing everything.The Wayne Newton gag soon grows tiresome and everything concerning Audrey and Russ pretty much stinks but Randy Quaid delivers once again as obnoxious Cousin Eddie and Chase hasn't lost his touch as the world's most annoying (yet somehow oddly endearing) family dad..
The final installment to the Griswald family's madcap misadventures, they're just as funny as the other three outrageous film before this one, as Clark, Ellen, Audrey and Rusty are out to stir trouble for themselves and everyone else surrounding them only this time the stakes are higher in the 1997 film "Vegas Vacation." The laughs are gut- bursting, and the hot Nevada desert is the perfect resort to capture just how zany and outrageous the Griswalds can be.
The film is truly a follow-up to "Christmas Vacation" as Clark finally got his big bonus from his marketing business after his newly invented cereal bars are a success and decides to use his money to his advantage and brings his wife and kids with him where they'll go on a frenzy gambling and living the life on Easy Street.
We were all shocked to see Clark as he dangles off Hoover Dam and crashing through Wayne Newton's house with the van.The movie is very rich because the film is unpredictable.
He was just playing himself, a sleazy Vegas singer who had the hots for Ellen.Usually in the other three films I laughed with the family, but in "Vegas Vacation", I couldn't help but feel sorry for them, especially from the kids (who looked too old to play the parts of Audrey and Rusty).
It was just lacking that unique comedy touch and outrageous absurdity that was found in the previous movies.The story in "Vegas Vacation" is about the Griswold's trip to sparkling Las Vegas, and nothing goes according to plans.
And soon things are spiraling out of control and Las Vegas is turned upside down.Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo carried this movie with their spot on portrayals of the beloved Clark and Ellen Griswold characters.
Randy Quaid also did a great job in revisiting the lovely cousin Eddie character.The comedy in "Vegas Vacation" was straight to the point and there was the trademark awkward situations, but it was not fully up to the level set in the previous movies.
The fourth installment in National Lampoon's Vacation film series, 'Vegas Vacation' is silly, but so funny too!
Its pure slapstick humor, that is enjoyable for anyone who's familiar with the Vacation movies & the crazy Griswold family.'Vegas Vacation' Synopsis: In the fourth outing for the vacation franchise, the Griswolds have to survive Vegas fever when they go to Las Vegas for a fun family vacation.'Vegas Vacation' doesn't get every joke or gag right, but at most parts, you laugh at the silliness.
I wish there were another vacation for the Griswold clan.There were many great scenes in the movie including the el cheapo buffet which was perfectly nauseating and Cousin Eddie frying chicken on a radioactive rock but my favorite has to be when Clark is lost inside the Hoover Dam and then catapults across the dam singing "Oh Beautiful." If laughs are what you want, then laughs are what you get..
"Vegas vacation" was written by Elisa Bell and Bob Ducsay.It's hard to find a good third movie in the series , much less forth.
It feels more like a commercial for Las Vegas than a comedy.The old cast is back – Chevy Chase , Beverly D'Angelo and Randy Quaid.
Surprisingly, "Vegas Vacation" was fairly successful at the box office, taking in almost $40 million (the budget mus have been low for this movie) Which meant there was yet another chapter in the saga, the even worse than this "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2- Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure".
In some instances, including complete dialogue lifts, the film recycles many of the jokes from the first film (for me the best part of the movie was the scene in which Christie Brinkley cameo's her character from the original Vacation film, in the same outfit, car and with the same music playing!).
Completely lackluster comedy, the fourth (and hopefully the last) in the financially successful "Vacation" pantheon has Chevy Chase back as goofy dad Clark Griswold, taking his family on another adventure, leaving the suburbs for the lights of Las Vegas.
As for other things, Beverly D'Angelo of course plays Ellen, Randy Quaid reprises his role as cousin Eddie, and Wallace Shawn, Sid Caesar, Wayne Newton, and Siegfried and Roy also appear.
In this movie--Clark Griswold has made some extra cash at work, and he decides to take his family to Vegas.
This movie has an awesome cast, with the guy--I forget his name--from Can't Hardly Wait, and the gorgeous Marisol Nichols as Audrey--who happens to be one of my favorite actresses (she's also on Showtime's original series, Resurrection Blvd.) The movie brings back Quaid as cousin Eddy, and his crazy family, which includes his daughter who is a stripper.
This time the Griswolds go to Vegas, where Rusty acts like an Italian guy, Audry wants to be a dancer, Ellen wants to have Wayne Newton or the other way around, and Clark Himself has a gambling problem.
So what we've seen it all before, before they made this film they should have gone and watched Christmas or the original Vacation and learn what makes a good movie.
Very good movie, and I'm not surprised because I love Chevy Chase and most of his films are great.
His last good movie was 1989's Christmas Vacation, which has more laughs in the first ten minutes than the entire duration of this film.
Love that dress that his wife is wearing at the end can't blame wayne neuton for chasing after her, Many of my favorite movies are from the 80's and this one seems like an 80's film it's wholesome entertainment for the whole family..
Fourth and it would appear final installment in the Griswold saga takes the clan to Vegas, where Chase confronts a secret gambling addiction and D'Angelo gets hit on by Wayne Newton.
"Vegas Vacation" is the fourth film in the popular series starring Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, the ultimate inept vacation taker.
This time Clark, along with wife Ellen (played again by Beverly D'Angelo) and kids Rusty and Audrey (shouldn't these kids be adults by now?), takes his family to Las Vegas for some wild and crazy fun.
This time I'm sorry to say that "Vegas Vacation" is the least funny movie in the series.
I have seen National Lampoons European Vacation and that was funny but you can't compare the two films , Chevy Chase should have stopped after the first couple of vacation comedies but as like a lot of comedies that have sequels ,Police Acadamy being the prime example,they dont know when to stop.
The Vacation series came back with a great film that only the Griswolds would make happen in Vegas.
From an hilarious R-rated comedy ("Vacation") to a pleasantly entertaining PG-rated family comedy ("Christmas.." & "Vegas...")Perhaps the only drag on the movie was the repetitive card table scenes with Wallace Shawn (better known from "The Cosby Show").The on-location filming in Las Vegas really makes the movie.
They could have cut corners and filmed at a crummy Las Vegas hotel, but they did not.Bonus points for the best looking "Audrey" of the series..
Randy Quaid's funny character is brought back from Christmas Vacation, but is saddled with uninspired and unfunny material, as a desert- dwelling hick, and Christie Brinkley's cameo was far too self aware (are we really supposed to believe they would cross paths again, 14 years later, and remember each other?) Wayne Newton's cameo adds nothing but his name value; Marisol Nichols is cute, but neither she (as Audrey) nor the guy (as Rusty) have anything to work with either, and both seem a bit too old for their characters.
And cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) shows up in this one too.Chevy Chase is his usual bumbling self, and that's what so familiar about this movie.
After a good start, Chevy is playing around with old Vegas like Seigfried and Roy, and Wayne Newton.
I recently ran into it on Comedy Central, and there was the question again; "what the hell?" The Griswold Family returns to the screen, this time taking a family vacation to Las Vegas.
Clark gambles away their money, the wife Ellen (D'Angelo) falls in love with Wayne Newton, Rusty gets a fake ID and wins big, and Audrey (played by the stunning and gorgeous Marisol Nichols) loosens up to become a dancer.It's nothing special, but back in the day, to a five year old, it was colorful, vibrant, jumpy, loud, and off it's own medicine.
After all, they do own a part of the name, might as well milk it.No matter, Vegas Vacation is a film I'm proud to call one of my favorite comedies, and my second favorite in the Vacation franchise.Starring: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Ethan Embry, Marisol Nichols, and Randy Quaid.
Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) decided to take his Wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) and his two teenagers Rusty (Ethan Embry) & Audrey (Marisol Nichols) to Las Vegas for Summer Trip.
As for Clark is been losing money consistently by playing Black Jack with a professor card dealer (Wallace Shawn).Directed by Stephen Kessler made an enjoyable third sequel to the ever-popular "Vacation" movies.
Griswold (Chevy Chase) got a big bonus for his long-life food preserver and decides to take his family, which includes his wife Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo, still looking hot after all these years), son Rusty (Ethan Embry), and daughter Audrey (Marisol Nichols), to fantastic Las Vegas!
Clark's (or Ellen's) cousins Eddie (Randy Quaid) and Catherine (Miriam Flynn) now live by Vegas, and no family member is going to not say hi.
This movie was very "fun" and for anyone who is crazy about Las Vegas it's great to watch.
In the fourth vacation film, we see the Griswolds visiting Las Vegas.
And of course Randy Quaid returns as Cousin Eddie in his best vacation role yet.The sub story about Rusty getting a fake ID and then gambling is the best part of the whole film.
Chevy Chase is good (although not exactly groundbreaking in this movie) and Beverly D'Angelo is as annoying to watch as ever.
Chevy Chase and Beverly D'angelo reprise their roles as the Clark and Ellen Griswold.
This one is by no means as good, however, by itself, it is a laugh riot!Again, Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo are back as Mr. and Mrs. Griswold, off on a family vacation, this time off to...you guessed it-Las Vegas!
And the whole thing was shot on location, so you get some great glimpses of Vegas throughout the film.Highlights include the Hoover Dam sequence, and the scene at Cousin Eddie's house.See this one when you get a chance.
Tedious fourth installment in the popular series has Chevy Chase and company taking a vacation to Las Vegas.
Many a night I have found myself with nothing to do and decide to watch the National Lampoons series one more time........Vegas Vacation is the fourth installment about the Griswold clan.
What the family don't know is that Clarke is on a mission to Vegas to gamble, or lose bigtime as it would be.The plot is very simple, the characters are familiar, even cousin Eddie makes an appearance.For all the fans of the National Lampoons series, Vegas Vacation still gives you that funny feeling when you hear the "Holiday Road" theme song kick in when the movie starts.I find Vegas Vacation to be a fun-loving, at times, hilariously funny movie about your not so average American family.Chevy Chase is a LEGEND !!!.
This movie was definatly better than "European Vacation" it had Clark take his family to Las Vegas They meet up with Eddie and his tribe, which makes for some laughs.
This time around Clark (Chevy Chase) and the family go to Las Vegas.
(The original idea for this sequel was to have the Griswold's stranded on a desert island - an idea that has more comic potential.) And it's not just Chase who is lost - the actors playing the kids look attractive and seem to have talent, but with nothing to do, they give horrible performances.The main sin "Vegas Vacation" commits is that it's simply not funny.
Vegas Vacation (1997): Dir: Stephen Kessler / Cast: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid, Wallace Shawn, Wayne Newton: Perhaps the most family friendly of the comedy series.
It's not even close to a perfect movie by any means, but it is quite enjoyable and a lot of fun to watch.As with all the other films in the 'Vacation' series, the biggest strength of Vegas Vacation is Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo.
Vegas Vacation is probably her best overall performance in the franchise, as she is given much more to do and has one of the better subplots of the movie.One of the trademarks of the series is that Russ and Audrey are portrayed by different cast members in each film.
In a movie filled with memorable quotes, that line and Uncle Eddie's (Randy Quaid)"where can I get some damn bait?" line are the two best moments of the whole film.As much as I like Vegas Vacation, I'll be the first to admit it has a fair amount of scenes that just don't work.
Here, we get Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, and Randy Quaid, the principal stars of the hitherto entertaining 'Vacation' series reprising their roles for said paycheck.
The film gets off to a good, fastpaced start, with things happening so quickly that we almost don't realize the movie has run out of gags and ideas by the time the Griswolds get to Las Vegas.
This time, the Griswolds again head west, but this time to Las Vegas, because Chevy Chase (who returns as Clark Griswold, alongside Beverly D'Angelo as his wife Ellen and Randy Quaid as Uncle Eddie) gets a bonus for developing a food preservative.
Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid, Ethan Embry, Marisol Nichols and Wayne Newton star in this 1997 comedy sequel.
In this installment, Clark Griswold (Chase) takes his wife, Ellen (D'Angelo) and 2 kids, Rusty (Embry) and Audrey (Nichols) to Las Vegas, Nevada for a family trip. |
tt0089603 | Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters | The film sets in on November 25 1970, the last day in Mishima's life. He is shown finishing a manuscript. Then, he puts on a uniform he designed for himself and meets with four of his most loyal followers from his private army.
In flashbacks highlighting episodes from his past life, the viewer sees Mishima's progression from a sickly young boy to one of Japan's most acclaimed writers of the post-war era (who keeps himself in perfect physical shape, owed to a narcissistic body cult). His loathing for the materialism of modern Japan has him turn towards an extremist traditionalism. He sets up his own private army and proclaims the reinstating of the emperor as head of state.
The biographical sections are interwoven with short dramatizations of three of Mishima's novels: In The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, a stuttering aspirant sets fire to the famous Zen Buddhist temple because he feels inferior at the sight of its beauty. Kyoko's House depicts the sadomasochistic (and ultimately fatal) relationship between an elderly woman and her young lover, who is in her financial debt. In Runaway Horses, a group of young fanatic nationalists fails to overthrow the government, with its leader subsequently committing suicide. Frame story, flashbacks and dramatizations are segmented into the four chapters of the film's title, named Beauty, Art, Action, and Harmony of Pen and Sword.
The film culminates in Mishima and his followers taking hostage a General of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. He addresses the garrison's soldiers, asking them to join him in his struggle to reinstate the Emperor as the nation's sovereign. His speech is largely ignored and ridiculed. Mishima then returns to the General's office and commits seppuku. | sadist, psychedelic, murder, storytelling, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0234000 | Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai | Rohit (Hrithik Roshan) and his younger brother Amit are orphans living with an elderly couple, Lily (Farida Jalal) and Anthony (Satish Shah). Rohit is an aspiring singer who works as a salesman in a car showroom, run by Malik (Dalip Tahil). One day he meets Sonia Saxena (Ameesha Patel), daughter of Mr. Saxena (Anupam Kher), when he goes to deliver a car to her home as her birthday present. Unknown to everybody, Saxena and Malik are running a drug cartel with help of two corrupt police officers (Mohnish Bahl and Ashish Vidyarthi).
Rohit and Sonia see each other later that night when Sonia and her friends are having a party on the beach. After Rohit sings for her, Atul (Rajesh Tandon), Malik's son and Sonia's friend, invites him on a cruise to perform. During the celebrations, Rohit and Sonia become drunk and fall into a lifeboat which separates from the ship and floats to an island. During their time in the island, they fall in love. They are eventually rescued by Saxena, who realizes their love for each other and does not approve. He demands that Malik immediately fire Rohit. Sonia's tries, and fails, to make her father see what a good man Rohit is. Saxena tells Rohit that he needs to become successful before he can marry Sonia, since she is from a rich, upper class family. Determined to prove himself, Rohit and his friends attempt to procure a record deal for him. Rohit eventually becomes a well known artist and prepares to put on a concert.
On the day of the show, Rohit goes to pick up Amit from school. Rohit witnesses the corrupt policemen and Malik shooting down a Commissioner (Ram Mohan) who has found out about their drug dealings. They discover Rohit's presence and shoot at him, wounding him. They pursue him over a bridge on the highway and knock his bike off track from the bridge causing him to fall into the river below. Rohit, who doesn't know how to swim, drowns. He is presumed dead. Amit is traumatised by the incident.
Sonia goes into depression due to Rohits death. After some time, her father sends her to New Zealand to live with his brother. Her cousin Neeta (Tanaaz Currim) tries to help Sonia break out of her depression by taking her out to explore the New Zealand night life. There she meets Neeta's friend Raj Chopra (also Hrithik Roshan). He strikingly resembles Rohit, and he is also a singer and entertainer. Raj falls for Sonia, but his face reminds her so much of Rohit, making her more depressed. On learning her story, Raj decides to go with her back to India. After arriving in India, one of the corrupt officers spots the pair and opens fire on Raj. After Raj and Sonia escape the shooting, Raj realizes that somebody is mistaking him for Rohit. With this incident, Raj and Sonia realize that Rohit was murdered.
Raj is welcomed by Rohit's family and friends. His presence brings Amit out of his shell and he learns that Amit witnessed Rohit's murder. Raj decides to set the trap to expose the killers, posing as Rohit. Only Sonia and Rohit's acquaintances know the truth. Raj proposes his love to Sonia, and even though she likes him, she is still heartbroken about Rohit's death. Malik panics upon learning that "Rohit" is alive. Raj performs a concert in tribute to Rohit, and Mailk and the corrupt officers arrive there undercover. Saxena learns the truth about the scheme from Sonia, and he warns Malik. After the concert, Raj reveals unknown details of the shooting that he learned from Amit. Due to these details, Malik assumes that Raj really is Rohit, and that Saxena is playing a double game. Before Raj can reveal the names of the people who killed Rohit, he is shot at again by one of the corrupt officers, but is saved due to wearing a bullet-proof jacket.
In order to catch Raj (who they believe is Rohit), the corrupt officers kidnap Sonia. Raj succeeds in killing them as well as their henchmen and rescues Sonia. Malik soon arrives on the scene, revealing his motive for mercilessly pursuing Sonia and Raj. Just as Malik is about to reveal the truth about his connection to Saxena, he is shot by Saxena himself, who feigns anger at his daughter's kidnapping. Amit arrives and immediately recognizes Malik as the man who killed Rohit. He tells Raj that on the day of the shooting, Malik was talking to someone named 'Sir ji' over the phone. Raj finds Sir ji's number in Malik's cell phone and makes a call. When Saxena's phone rings, Raj understands everything. On being confronted, Saxena confesses everything in front of Sonia and Raj before being arrested.
Sonia and Raj return to New Zealand, taking Amit with them. They get engaged with the blessings of their family and friends. | romantic, murder | train | wikipedia | Don't expect a deep art film or edge of the seat thriller this is a feel good movie with romance comedy and a little action.
and even if you don't like the movie you will have to love the guy.
Watch this great movie free of vulgarity and violence often filling the screen.and u will love kaho naa...
But amusingly enough, this is probably the closest I have been to that "ardent fan" title, having seen the movie more than an acceptable number of times, and being a Pakistani- I think we should forget the arms race- India has already conquered us with Hrithik!!!:)Hrithik is an absolute pleasure to watch.
Besides his great looks and The Bod, he is completely comfortable and un-selfconscious on screen, moves like a gazelle, could probably dance rings around Ricky Martin and HEY- he is a good actor too!
Ameesha, although occasionally stiff while dancing, and hams a couple of times- but few enough for her first film; has done a great job overall.
Rakesh Roshan has taken a typical Bollywood movie and made it with a kind of sincerety that seems like respect for the audience, not just a successful launch for his son..
Catchy songs, great dancing, beautiful locations, decent story with a touch of "Vertigo (1958)" and the debut of Hrithik Roshan, Bollywood's (Hollywood's?) next superstar.
Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai is without doubt a very entertaining movieand a great launchpad for Hrithik Roshan, the son of actor/director Rakesh Roshan.
At the start of the movie he is lovable as any Bollywood actor can be as a struggling singer.
Amisha is just the cute looker needed to make Hrithik look like a great lover.
:) The second entry of Hrithik makes him look real dashing and we get to see 2 avataars of Hrithik in one movie.
Hrithik Roshan: Bollywood's new Elvis.
After reading about Hrithik Roshan, Bollywood's hottest movie star in GQ magazine, I was truly amazed at his popularity in his native India.
I later watched the dvd release of KNPH, Hrithik Roshan's first hit movie.
Suffice to say that this film would have been very average, save for Hrithik Roshan who carries the entire production on his able shoulders.
His charm and intense style are certainly enough to catch the interest of most any movie-goer.Much of the movie is devoted to loving shots of Hrithik in various poses, and I'm certain that the female audiences in Mumbai were swooning in the crowded aisles each time he sang and danced.
Much of what occurs on screen looks like a Hindi pop music video made for even pre-teenage audiences.
This may have had a bit more realism and action than those, but the entire proceedings focus on Hrithik's singing, dancing, and posing in a way that glamorizes him to that extent.
The new year 2000 is almost over and looking back at the year on the Hindi film industry - it hasn't been hot at all.
The year will be remembered of course for the debut of an actor named Hrithik Roshan who was a nationwide phenomenon in India.
And in a nation of 1 billion people - that is a HUGE phenomenon.It was a case of a great looking guy who entertained people - good promotional advertising on the producers part and partly due to the dismal performance of the Khans' films that Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai did that well.
It's not that good.The plot is simple and nothing we haven't seen before folks.On vacation in New Zealand, an emotionally upset Sonia laments over the loss of her boyfriend Rohit; rich girl, poor boy scenario.
Love stories don't always need a moral - we just want to have a good time.
( No, I won't call 'Believe in Love' a moral)Director Rakesh Roshan manages to showcase all of his son's talents in this film: body build, dancing moves, a range of emotions and a knack for acting - something most actors in the industry today, lack.Amisha Patel isn't given a lot to do here and thankfully does it well.
This is of course Hrithik's movie - the one that shot him into the the pre-adolescent hearts of every girl in the country, and their mothers too!
He's under the spotlight 24/7 and a role model to many adolescent boys.Hrithik's made a great first impression, but in an industry as whimsical as ours where you're only as good as your next movie he needs to diversify his roles (if that's possible in our industry) and keep the hits coming.
Apparently most Indian movies have the same plot, singing, and dancing, so if you have seen a lot of these movies, it may not excite you like it did me, but I thought it was a well made (slick comes to mind), well acted, and a well produced piece of "Bollywood".
I'm not good at analyzing movies so I'll finish by just saying, I came out of the theater with a smile on my face, and a tune in my head.
Hrithik is great, but this film is not....
Fine, it has a Hrithik Roshan, and he gives a fantastic first performance, but come on, this film contains too many clichés to be called totally great.
A guy meets a girl, they fall in love, he is killed by some criminals, time goes by and she meets another guy who looks exactly like her dead boyfriend.
The music is nice, and Hrithik Roshan gives a very impressive debut performance.
He is good looking, his expressions are correct, and he is convincing in the two roles, though he is far better as Rohit, the simple guy, because he was a bit unnatural in his first few scenes as Raj, the cool guy.
Anyway, it is just a debut role - I think he deserved all the acclaim, although he certainly deserved to win all the awards he won for his performance in that year's gem Fiza (where he was much better) rather than this average flick.
Amisha Patel is pretty average in her debut performance and it's quite obvious that her voice was dubbed in this film.
All in all, Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai is a nice one-time watch thanks to Hrithik, but otherwise I rank it along with Raja Hindustani and to a lesser extent Hum Aapke Hain Koun as one of the most ridiculous films to have become huge blockbusters and won so many awards..
all in all a good movie to watch out for...
but did he deserve BEST ACTOR AWARD .shahrukh khan the same yr did superb in MohabateinKaho Na Pyaar hai is a launch pad for his son Hritik Roshan and he attempts a different feel in this film.
One expected the usual love story but the film has many surprises.Rohit is a poor orphan, living with his younger borther and making a living selling cars in a showroom.
In an effort to move away from the usual love story, Roshan has chosen a subject, which is too far-fetched.
Hrithik Roshan and Amisha Patel Rock!!!!!.
Hrithik did not over act like in Mujhse Dosti Karonge and he was quite entertaining in this movie.
Rakesh Roshan and (I think) Rajesh (with the songs) did amazing jobs, making the audience thirsty for the songs and newcomers Hrithik Roshan and Amisha Patel..
A great introduction to Bollywood and Hrithik Roshan for American audiences..
I have to admit I watched it simply because of the looks of the lead actor Hrithik Roshan.
After this I watched several other Bollywood films, some with much more traditional Indian themes and music, and I love them all.
It seems like almost every review section for a Hindi film has comments like "The best film Ive ever seen" and "The worst movie of all time." How does someone unfamiliar with all these movies know what to believe?
It started off as a really bad, MTV-like movie and then it redeemed itself with a little bit of depth and one of the most beautiful sequences in sight and sound I've ever seen or heard- Wah Ladki (something or other) You know it if you've seen it- it's where the whole movie theater flaps their arms up and down.
Now comes my 3rd Hindi film experience with Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai.
You feel like you are watching a really cheesy commercial for about 3 hours (When the gigantic coke signs appeared at the end of the film, while the main actor is singing and dancing on stage like an overgrown Backstreet Boy, I swore the film finally made sense- it was a 3 hour Coke commercial!) The movie is extremely cheery though.
But how does one explain a movie where a guy poops in his pants and it falls out (unseen) on the floor, where Santa Claus appears like a madman on a cruise ship, where the main character dies and you think its the end of the movie but then it says "INTERMISSION," where the last third of the movie is full of action sequences that completely destroy everything that came before- where the plot makes absolutely no sense and you know that the writer and director had to tack on an extra hour of nonsense to meet the 3 Hour Quota for Indian films.
It wants to copy American films, but doesnt know which one to copy, so it copies every single one- but is so bizarre that it is nothing like anything in American cinema.
I totally understand how this movie launched Hrithik Roshan into the stratosphere because he's a hunk and he can truly dance.But the film should be judged separately from the sensation that it caused.
Half way through the movie, my friends and I all shouted "Get a new song!" We just needed to hear the first few notes, and we would hit the mute.Amisha Patel is OK in her role, but not brilliant, and the plot is too sugary to be believed.
I wonder, why this movie won as the best film of 2000 ?
:-(Hindi movies have a lot improvement lately, but when KHPH appear, it look to me that Bollywood is return to it's cliche cinema again.
He definitely not just have a good look, but he prove that he can act too........Anyway, I hope there's nothing more movie like this in Bollywood cinema history.6/10.
Pyaar Hai", I doubt if I would have wanted to watch another Bollywood film.
I can think of many Indian films I liked much more--such as "Kahaani" and "Three Idiots"--films which were more original and lacked the strong formulaic qualities of "Kaho Naa...
Pyaar Hai".Hrithik Roshan (the director's son) and Kareena Kapoor both star in this film--and both went from being unknowns to mega-stars because of this movie.
A movie that will make you fall in love.
A movie that will make you fall in love with the lead actor!
This is Hrithik Roshan's first film.
And apart from being able to act, the guy has incredible screen presence.There are some inconsistencies in his "looks" and the director at times has forgotten that the actor is not his son Hrithik but a character Raj/Rohit yet the movie is a must see!This is the lead stars' first film and both of them have performed superbly.
She is awesome as Sonia!In KN..PH, Hrithik demonstrates his dancing, acting, fighting, emotive abilities and more.
The soundtrack and the movie are a must for bollywood fans "home collection of movies and CDs"-Hrithik's Angel.
Among recent hindi movies, KNPH (Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai) is just the perfect date movie for Valentine's day.
But, this film certainly knows what it wants to give to the audience - 3 hours of entertainment, in its purest form.
The film just doesn't let you too.On the whole, a nice movie for the whole family, and especially for couples..
Great Movie....Hrithik is amazing!!.
This movie is great.
The highlight of the movie is Hrithik Roshan.
Amisha Patel is great too.A must see movie and see it in the theatre!.
this is the typical bollywood movies, that makes you cringe everytime the actors say a word!
Hrithik, the one and only good thing abou the movie, looks good, and acts even better!
PATHETIC!!!So, is there anything else that was good about this movie?
The guy's character was handsome and a good singer and the girl's character was...kinda annoying really but she improved a bit as the movie went on.
Hrithik Roshan delivers a strong performance which goes a long way to give him credibility, considering the blatant case of nepotism that landed him the role in the first place (although he maintains that he has struggled much in his life to get to this point - which I am willing to give him; an assassination attempt on one's father certainly counts, but if I am not mistaken, that happened after the fact).Amisha Patel's performance, while a good-enough debut performance, leaves much to be desired.
Nice love story, simple story, great music.
Nice love story, simple story, great music, great acting from Hrithik Roshan, amisha Patel n others, music, direction is good too.
Hrithik will make you fall in love with him as a fan!!!.
Loved Hrithik!
I was taken away after watching this movie.
In this romantic thriller, working class Rohit (Hrithik Roshan) and wealthy Sonia (Ameesha Patel) fall in love.
Sonia goes to New Zealand where she meets Raj (also played by Roshan) who bears an uncanny resemblance to Rohit.
Returning to India, they discover that Rohit was murdered, and they try to uncover the killers.The first half of the film is a cute romance with typical resistance from Sonia's father (Anupam Kher) and the couple's determination to find a way.
Roshan and Patel both made their film debuts in this movie, and both showed a surprising maturity and poise in their acting.
best movie for amisha's lovers and fans.
Its really a great thing to observe an event Roshan had created in 2000 with the release of this film.The media went haywire , girls went crazy and films too.One could have easily seen the number of predecessors Hrithik Roshan had created after this boom.Body building became a fashion , dancing a hobby and film debuts a trash.More and more people started making their space in the land of all trades Bollywood.Capitalising on this bashing were media who wanted to score big on this Entertainment , Communication and Transportation boom in the land where once Gandhi moved.Indeed they are doing this today as well.Forget all this and the movie goes like this !
Kaho Naa Pyar Hai a movie about a man his death before the completion of his affair and then emerging again in a double role to complete his affair as well as to kill the person who created problem in the finishing of the affair of his previous double.The man is Hrithik Roshan his affair Amisha Patel and the villain Anupam Kher.The audience Bollywood crazy girls.
Hrithik Roshan debuts greatly with Amisha Patel , Anupam Kher gives a fine performance which reminds one of his performance in Tezaab.Rakesh Roshan the director behind this greatest film ever produced in India as depicted in the awards ceremony gives a knock out , superb directorial touch.Am I Bollywood certainly yes !.
This is such a good film, you don't want to know.
Excellent acting of two newcomers and a very nice film to watch if you're in love.
Hrtihik Roshan knows how to show his way of acting.
The other films are not so good as this one.
He is heart-meltingly sweet as both Rohit and Raj, and he does manage to convey the differences between them quite effectively (quite a difficult task as they are both "nice" young men).The songs are quite catchy, and whilst the dancing isn't as good as Hrithik's later films, I fully understand why this film made him a superstar.
Theatrically, not especially challenging, but he manages to play the two roles as two different people.This is a sweet, lovely popcorn movie, buy it on DVD to enjoy....
Super debut of Hrithik and Amisha.
Rakesh Roshan gave several superhits as a director, Khudgarz,Khoon Bhari Maang Kishen Kanhaiyaa, Karan Arjun.etc however in late 90s his films were not working, Koyla was a flop Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai marked debut of his son Hrithik Roshan who appeared as a child artist in Bhagwan Dada in 1986.
The film also marked debut of Amisha Patel.
The film created a huge hype as the songs were famous before release and Hrithik's good looks.
The film starts off as a normal love story which is interwoven with a crime angle and the interval ends at a sad note which is so far good, The second half shifts to New Zealand where Amisha meets the second Hrithik and then we all know how it will go about, Then again there is a shift towards the crime saga and the film ends as an actionner.
There are several great scenes like the reunion of Hrithik and his brother, The action packed climax and many more scenes are well shot, especially the scenes involving Rohit and Amisha.Direction by Rakesh Roshan is good Music by Rajesh Roshan was a big hit, The title song is superbly sung by Udit and Alka, while Pyaar Ki Kashti Mein is also a great song, Chaand Sitare by Kumar Sanu is seeped in melody while Sitaron ki Mehfil gets a boost due to it's picturisation and great singing by Babul Supriyo and superb dancing skills of Hrithik.
This film marked debut of Lucky Ali as a playback singing, Ek Pal and Kyun Chalti are fantastic songs, Jaaneman too is a great song by Asha however there are too many songs in the first half.Hrithik Roshan had good looks, In the first half he resembled Rakesh Roshan a bit in some scenes, he was very sincere in his debut and created a different personality for both the roles which is amazing for a newcomer. |
tt4877736 | BrainDead | In 1957, explorer Stewart McAlden (Bill Ralston), leads his team out of Skull Island with a captured Sumatran Rat-Monkey — a hybrid creature that resulted from the rape of tree monkeys on the island by plague-carrying rats. The team is stopped by warrior natives, who demand the return of the creature. Stewart gets bitten by the Rat-Monkey during their escape to a waiting jeep. Seeing the bite mark on Stewart's right hand, his men hold him down and amputate it. A bite mark and scratches are then seen on his left arm and his head, respectively, and those parts are also removed. The captured Rat-Monkey is shipped to Wellington Zoo in New Zealand.
Lionel Cosgrove (Timothy Balme) lives with his domineering mother, Vera (Elizabeth Moody). To Vera's dismay, Lionel falls in love with Spanish Romani shopkeeper's daughter, Paquita María Sánchez (Diana Peñalver). While snooping on the two during a visit to the zoo, Vera is bitten by the rat-monkey. The animal's bite turns her into a ravenous zombie. Lionel tries keeping her locked in the basement while simultaneously trying to maintain his relationship with the oblivious Paquita. Vera escapes and is hit by a tram.
As the townspeople assume she is dead, Lionel tranquilizes her to keep her still for the funeral. After she is buried, he returns to the graveyard to administer more anesthetic, but encounters a gang of hoodlums. Vera bursts from her grave, and kills the hoodlums, creating more zombies. As their numbers grow, Lionel conceals them in his house, and struggles to keep them under relative control with tranquilizer injections. Lionel's uncle Les (Ian Watkin) arrives to wrangle with Lionel over Vera's estate. Discovering the "corpses," Les blackmails his nephew into giving up his inheritance.
Lionel reluctantly administers poison to the zombies to "kill" them and buries them. However, the poison turns out to be a stimulant. Meanwhile, Les invites his friends over for a housewarming party. The zombies burst from the ground to attack the party guests. Lionel informs Paquita and Les of the zombie outbreak. Les escapes through a window while Lionel distracts the zombies from Paquita. Les goes into the basement, where he encounters Vera, who has turned into a giant zombie. She kills Les.
Lionel kills most of the zombies with a running lawnmower. He and Paquita fight dozens of zombies and animated body parts. During the conflict, an open gas pipe ignites, setting the house ablaze. Lionel manages to kill all of the zombies in the house. Vera, who has become a gargantuan monster with a grossly distorted head and huge breasts, emerges and pursues Lionel and Paquita to the rooftop. Paquita is left hanging on to the edge of the roof while Lionel confronts his mother. During the confrontation, it is revealed that Lionel witnessed Vera killing his father and his father's lover. Vera causes Lionel to fall toward her as she opens her womb, engulfing him. Vera then tries to kill Paquita by removing her hands from the roof. Lionel cuts his way out of his mother's body, causing her to fall into the burning house. Lionel and Paquita escape the building and walk away arm-in-arm as the fire department arrives. | murder | train | wikipedia | I expected a comedy, based upon television ads, so I watched episode one waiting for the moment when it diverged into that genre, but that moment never came.
There were bizarre happenings that suggest a writer with a dark sense of humor, but the episode played like straight horror/drama, like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."Still, I felt there was an undercurrent of something political.
Although the main character, Laurel Healy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), seems somewhat apolitical, she works for her brother, a Democratic senator, so much of the story originates from that point of view (and I think that's why some viewers think it espouses a left-of-center political viewpoint).
I noticed that when Laurel didn't like the right-leaning political commentary on one channel, she switched to a left-leaning channel.
Johnny Ray Gill plays Gustav Triplett, a quirky genius who struggles to understand the odd happenings around him.Update 8/2/16: More than a handful of episodes in, this show has shown itself to be consistently interesting and adorable and intriguing--an unusual combination.
I am raising my grade to "9".Update 9/15/16: From the musical reminders of what happened in the previous episode to the way the show perfectly captures the BS that passes for activity in government to the insightful lampooning of PC-inspired nonsense, this show is forcing me to give it a "10" because it is one of the best in recent years.
Self-combustion heads when and where you least expect, retro cocktails in new cool bars with old fashion spies, actors who're just the right level of clever and cute and definitely know their character well.
It's an entertaining mix of satire, suspense, sci-fi, horror, and of course, the possibility of romance, with the story set on a political stage.
No need to be into entomology or politics to enjoy it, but for the political tragic, there are appearances from wannabes Clinton, Trump and Bernard someone or another, with plenty of wheeling and dealing along the way.Don't be put off by the stupefying title of the first episode, ("The Insanity Principle How Extremism in Politics is Threatening Democracy in the 21st Century").Give this show a go!.
Braindead bites the jugular as a science fiction satire of the US political vascular system in a way that leaves the viewer with a disturbing lust for blood.
The characters & their interaction is really fun to watch.I hope many people watch this brilliant show.
While the subject matter itself is silly there is the right amount of politics and humor to keep the show moving forward at a solid pace.
The comedy is often dry, like they're not trying, I appreciate this and believe this type of humor is not utilized enough in today's television.
I decided to check out this new show and I have to admit, it's pretty funny.Disclaimer: I'm not a member of either of the major parties - I ditched my "life-time club membership" right after voting in the primaries.
It takes potshots at both sides.It's obviously both satire and fiction but with current real-life elections underway, I can see where this might rub some people the wrong way.At this early stage I don't see any agenda and there might just not be one, or it might hint at the fact that the 2-Party system simply isn't working in a country that claims to value personal freedoms and democracy.I say enjoy it for what it is.
Using this device the series is able to examine the ugly practices of American Politics and the Darker Side of the Federal Government the way that is most effective; with Humor.
Watching the trailers for that show I thought it was going to be absolutely horrible, but I ended up watching the first episode anyway, because I personally watch a lot of political TV shows (even bad ones.) It was good timing on the networks part: year long shows are on break, spring shows just ended and most other summer shows didn't start when this show first aired.
It has a mix of a lot of different categories: political thriller, comedy,romance, and sci-fi.
Comedy, Sci-Fi, Horror, (the horror isn't like real horror) and most of all politics.
I cannot compare this with any other comedy.Its a brilliant effort and explaining the reason why things happen the way they do in Washington, there must be something wrong with their brains.As the episodes continue they better and better.
Braindead is amazing, i love it, if you don't like, or understand, or know what satire is you will hate it and be as confused as a person who just had space ants eat through your mind senses.
A B movie styled scifi about ants from spaceits very original to put these things together and for it to work is a credit to all the people involved cant be easy for the actors to pull off.I'm so glad this is on TV please watch its an easy show to bash for some people but I'm sure it will gain a good hardcore following.
Absolutely incredible genre-defying blend of suspense, sci-fi, and comedy, one of the best shows I have seen since 24 and Game of Thrones.
Something completely new, and with the comedy not in any way lessening the suspense.For the first time ever, even the episode recap at the beginning is actually worth watching - with an original funny song at the start of each episode.
It has a little bit of something for everyone...political satire, drama, science fiction, horror, and a whole lot of comedy.
I know this series did not do well in the ratings however, my personal opinion is that this was one of the most enjoyable shows that aired this summer (2016).
But if it never comes back, this show can be viewed as a Mini-Series that you can begin watching whenever you want and know that, like a good standalone novel, will leave you satisfied when you finish watching the last episode.Thank you to the cast, writers and directors for a job well done!.
I watch tons of movies and series, much too much honestly, but I have time enough and I love it so I'm not going to feel guilty about it.
When you see that some series go on and on forever while they should just cancel them, and then you see a quality show like this one that probably will end after one season you know it's a shame.
BrainDead has everything to be loved, a great script, a sense of humor that will make the most depressing people smile, a mild bit of horror, and a great cast.
Meh. When I first read the description I figured it could be a mix between House of Cards and The Walking Dead or at least The West Wing meets The Strain but after finishing the pilot I must say the "horror" tag is all but missing.Tony Shalhoub,Danny Pino and Mary Winstead do a great job to get you interested in watching the next episode(s) but the writing is not very original and the dialog barely got a few smirks on my face.It did however spark my sci-fi interest and I'm willing to give this show a try just because of the writers and the cast.
OK so I read the summery and it made me think of an old sci-fi where space worms had taken over the minds of London's political party....
that's how the summery read too, silly, not very creative and trying to cast a house of cards vibe on the whole thing in hopes of luring fans of that as well as sci-fi fans.Well the pilot didn't disappoint, the writing is borderline and not very memorable sadly, a moment of silence for all those wasted opportunities please!They deal with the sci-fi silliness well though, there is no horror here even though there is some gore it's handled in an iZombie fashion.Silly fun and not too serious even though the whole house of cards vibe is still there.
I'd say wait a bit, if they lower the class a bit and upped the silliness it would be a lot more interesting but as is it feels like two shows competing for the same air time..
Anything but brain dead, this brilliant TV series is the best show to come along in years!
Darkly humorous and fearless, it uses the dark analogy of space bugs infiltrating the brains of people in Washington to illuminate what really goes on in Washington and how great power wielded by fallible humans can go terribly wrong.
It also provides the powerful message that is dawning on people across the country; that we need to think for ourselves and not believe what authority figures tell us - their motivations may not be in our best interests.
It's an interesting enough premise, but after watching the pilot I find myself thinking this would make a much better 1 shot (movie) than a series...
It's full of some interesting performances, and I'm a fan of the King's production work, so I figured I'd give their new show a chance (RIP The Good Wife) - but here their last big political project had some major longevity and and obvious trajectory for development, it's very difficult to see how you could sustain anything resembling dramatic (or comedic) tension over an extended period of time.This show has also made me hate The Cars.Also, it's not remotely a horror show, it's akin to iZombie, not The Walking Dead..
Each week we can't wait to turn on the television to watch the next episode.
I recommend it to anyone who follows American politics and thinks it is nuts - this explanation of why almost feels like the only one that could possibly explain it.
Good mix of politics and the actual invasion, worked so well.
This show would work even if it focused on just the politics or the aliens since the writing is excellent and the whole cast are great to watch with interesting back stories and such.Really hoping to see more of this, great having original shows such as BrainDead, even their 'previously on' section is awesome by doing it as a little song that changes each time.
Get spin on the election and how people are acting irrational needs a next season to make fun of how politics and the right and left are somewhat extrem..
It would have been a refreshing change to have concentrated on the story line and left the liberal bias out of the story I won't be watching any more episodes because of this.
Still it's watchable enough that I made it to the end with a sense of relative satisfaction.The premise is that aliens, in the form of ants, have invaded the brains of several power players on Capitol Hill with an as-yet-to-be-determined agenda that is up for the protagonist.
Characters such as Gustav add a lot to the plot but others (like the woman Gustav is hitting on) are somewhat and forgettable and Tony Shaloub's villainous senator is amicable but not worth the hype.Of course this might all vary, and I wouldn't be surprised if this show had its die-hard fans.
Red Wheatus (Tony Shalhoub) leads the Republican Senate bug-brains.
the story is very different that is what make this series unique.I would like to invite all of u to watch first two three episode because i think this show is not much popular as much as it deserve since now The Night of series is over this will keep u busy.ans here is another thing this series has the best way to start the episode.
it comes with a humors song and i love it.Hopefully the first series ends well didn't thought space bugs will be this much cool..
I've seen it described as comedy/drama/horror/satire, but that gives the impression of a lot more punch than this show has.
We don't know what the budget fight is about, the two people who will clearly have sex eventually do some mild political sparring that carefully avoids any significant conflict, and the approach is very much the both-sides-are-recalcitrant trope that doesn't jibe with the current reality of the anti-compromise Tea Party situation of the real world.
This review DOES NOT bash the show for how it portrays the Republican or Democratic party; that's just ridiculous; however, the show does do an outstanding job at mocking all politics in general!I will caveat this with the fact that I am fan of Sci-Fi and "B" movies; so, I may have lower standards than most!I came across this show and decided to give it a go; I had read the summary but was somewhat unsure of what to expect.
I waited to write a review until I had watched the first two episodes.
With two episodes in, all I can say is that I'm disappointed that this is airing on CBS; only because I believe CBS will fail the show as compared to the show failing CBS.The humor in the show comes from, in my humble opinion, the fact that the invasion takes place in DC and the ridiculous nature of politics in DC overshadows the fact that an alien bugs have landed on the planet and are slowly taking over mankind.
The story may seem slow at times, but you really do become invested in the story and what is going on with the main characters.Give it a try and at least watch the first two episodes before writing it off.
All the while only a handful of people are suspicious, but can't get any traction because of Congress' well- documented inability to function and the fact that D.C. is the place where dreams of making a difference come to die.The complaints about it being partisan (pro-Democrat) are completely wrong--the Democratic members are just as self-centered, venal, and out of touch as the Republicans--as a evidenced in episodes 2 & 3, where the Democrats turn on each other, leaking stories to the press and even using constituents asking for help for publicity ("Shutdown Annie").I particularly love the fact that the central plot line takes some of the sting out of the sad fact that our elected representatives would rather fight with each other than do their jobs.
Enjoying it - figuring out why some people's head explodes (is it because they are the smartest ones and their brain is stronger than the alien bugs?) and others are just taken over (the weak minded ones?).
But it's just fun to think that aliens have really taken over Washington - especially this really strange year of politics.
I am sure there will be many redeeming factors in time, just very sorry the beginning premise did not hook me, left me empty and for the most part un-entertained.Had 'Monk' been based on space bugs I would have felt the same way.
Thought it sounded quite interesting a little fun.But, straight off the bat it was Democrats trying to save the world from Republicans, and that was about it.Some space ants, poor humour, and I suppose watchable if you were a Democrat looking at watching more Democrats attacking Republicans.In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing hadn't been written by Obama, Clinton, and Sanders, because you can actually see those characters in it, and the title gives it away.Now, I feel I am free to make my political review, as the whole show is a political view, and nothing more than an advert for Democrats.
LOL Danny Pino, who exited "Law & Order: SVU" last year, stars as a left- wing senator trying to get biz-ness done in DC while Tony Shalhoub plays a right-wing congressman who's brain gets invaded by alien insects, and well, behaves like a typical republican congressman...LMFAO!!
The thing that kinda surprises me so far about this show is how it behaves like your typical hour-long drama, only with that little touch of Ivan Reitman/Robert Zemeckis-style sci-fi-yielding supernatural comedy thrown in.
I don't know a lot about the political structure of the U.S.A. so I can honestly say that I don't see this show as a Republicans vs.
But there was also Donald Trump so I don't think there's any obvious bias there (or maybe there is - like I said, I don't know your political structure).Anyway, what I am seeing is a very cleverly written script with some interesting concepts."Space-ants" come to Earth and inhabit the brains of people (both politicians and non-politicians).
Some of the people who are not infected are trying to work out a way to save the Earth from the hostile take-over.At this stage, I'm only half-way through the first season and I can only hope that it either gets tied up with a very good conclusion or, goes on for a second season.It's funny; clever; fresh and, I think it's worth watching..
I watched all of the episodes.
Why ANYONE would rate something after seeing only one episode is beyond me.First, I don't like stupid humor or horror, so the whole grotesque parts of the show made me turn my head, plus it was just stupid.I get that they were saying that humans on both sides of the political spectrum are braindead (and they are), but towards the end they actually swayed from that point & focused more on the romance.They touched very briefly on how corrupt mainstream media & the gov't is, & how they get away with doing terrible things because everything is hidden from the public.
I wish they would have focused more on that truth & all the false flags that are played out to make people afraid, but I got the feeling they don't actually know a lot about the dirty dealings the gov't actually does, or they were told by legal that they can only go so far.I think there was supposed to be 4-5 seasons, but it got canceled after 1.Whether that's because the EVIL CORPS that run hollywood & the gov't didn't like the truth in it, or the show just wasn't good enough, I won't ever know. |
tt0116594 | I Shot Andy Warhol | The film opens with a flashforward to moments after the shooting. This is quickly followed by a scene with Valerie Solanas (Lili Taylor) in custody for the shooting of Andy Warhol (Jared Harris). The film then takes us back to a time when Valerie is living in New York making a living as a sex worker. A series of further flashbacks point to her difficult childhood, and success in studying psychology at college. Here, Valerie discovers that she is a lesbian, that she can write, and that she has a distinctive view of the world. This leads her to New York City and its downtown underworld. Through her friend Stevie (Martha Plimpton), she meets Candy Darling (Stephen Dorff), who in turn introduces her to Andy Warhol.
Meanwhile, Valerie also meets Maurice Girodias (Lothaire Bluteau), the publisher of Olympia Press. While Valerie wants Warhol to produce her play, Up Your Ass, Girodias wants her to write a pornographic novel for him. Once she signs a contract with Girodias, she comes to suspect his offer is not a generous one and may not be in her interest. She comes to regret signing this contract. At this point, her increasing derangement leads her to believe that Warhol and Girodias are controlling her. The film concludes, where it began, with Solanas' attempted murder of Warhol. The film then steps ten years into the future, where Warhol lives in fear the rest of his life that Valerie will strike again while he continues his life up until his death, and in death Valerie's "pornographic" novel was the SCUM manifesto, which is now regarded as a feminist classic. | queer | train | wikipedia | I Shot Andy Warhol, is based on the true life story of Valerie Solanas, who was a female radical in the 60's and was a lesbian and very against men.
She wrote a play and came to New York, with a friend of hers who is a drag queen named Candy Darling to meet Andy Warhol.
Valerie, gives Andy Warhol's company (called the factor) her play and soon she comes back and talks to Andy about it and Andy gets her to star in a couple of movies that he directs.
But soon Valerie starts to get paranoid and thinks that Andy Warhol, has to much impact on her life and thinks that he and the book publisher are setting her up so she plans to make herself famous by shooting him.
Andy Warhol survived the shooting but died several years later due to complications and Valerie, was sent to a mental hospital and was homeless for quite awhile until she died of pneumonia.
I Shot Andy Warhol, has good direction, a good script, good performances from everybody involved, good original music, good cinematography and good production design.
I Shot Andy Warhol, is a fascinating character study and a very interesting film.
It shows the many different stages in a time of Valerie's life and it is compelling and played very well by Lili Taylor and all of the other actors.
Also being a fan of Andy Warhol, I found the scenes with his factory and underground lifestyles with his films and art to be really interesting as well.
I Shot Andy Warhol (1996) was an interesting movie that I saw on satellite t.v. a few years ago.
The movie was about the lesbian neo-feminist and founder of S.C.U.M. Valerie Solanis (Lili Taylor).
One day Candy suggests to Valerie that she meet with Andy Warhol (Jared Harris).
Jared Harris was perfect as Andy Warhol and Lili Taylor made Valerie Solanis into a tragic person who's life was filled with madness and heartbreak.
This movie is perfect and ideal for those who always wanted to know what happened to Warhol during the late sixties and how his life and attitudes were changed forever.Highly recommended..
Lili Taylor, as I think I've said here before, is one of my favorite actresses, but I have to admit I was hesitant about seeing this film, especially when a friend told me he found it overrated.
Taylor and Jared Harris were fine as Valerie Solanas and Andy Warhol, respectively, but the real surprise for me was Stephen Dorff as Candy Darling.
The Woman's Version of Peeping Tom. If Peeping Tom was directed by a woman, then it would probably resemble Mary Harron's wonderful I Shot Andy Warhol.
What was so great about I Shot Andy Warhol is how it takes a woman who most people would consider a psychopath and it humanizes her.
We see what drives Valerie Solanas to commit her "insane" act of shooting Andy Warhol, and we come to understand why she did what she ended up doing.
In other words, I Shot Andy Warhol successfully gets into the head of "insanity." After watching this film, I thought of a poem from Emily Dickinson: "Much madness is divinest sense.
Lili Taylor gives a savagely kinetic performance in this representation of a disturbed individual who may just also have been a genius despite, or because of, her treatment at the hands of various men throughout her life.Judging biopics in terms of historical accuracy is for the most part a futile exercise.
The 'so what?' factor is superseded by the fact that this actually happened, and the legacy of Solanas still divides contemporary feminists.As cinema, the film succeeds through the charisma exuded in Taylor's performance.
The female director sets her stall out straight away - what you are hearing now leads through a direct line of cause and effect to the monstrous act you will see committed by Solanas later.If the film has a major flaw, it is the title.
Lili Taylor plays Valerie Solanas, an educated loose cannon, guerrilla female activist and self-described 'bull dyke', who was taken into custody in June 1968 after shooting and wounding Andy Warhol at his New York City office/hangout The Factory.
Good-looking movie investigates a hazy chapter in history, yet leaves some unanswered questions in its wake (I wasn't aware that apparently an assistant was also shot, though the film makes no attempt to explain what happened to him).
Terrific art direction and composition, but the film lags a bit in the narrative department, with Solanas meeting an anti-bourgeois activist which doesn't come to much and has a facetious, puzzling relationship with publisher Maurice Girodias which seems half-baked.
I can think of no other reason why anyone would want to make a film about Valerie Solanas (Lili Taylor), the spunky, chain-smoking, foul-mouthed, self-centered, lesbian feminist who, in the summer of 1968, shot Andy Warhol (Jared Harris).
and guru of all things avant-garde, who attracted the chic and the trendy to his New York City "Factory", the center of counterculture pop art.In the film Solanas, who harbors an enormous grudge against men, comes across initially as assertive and resourceful.
Costumes, prod design, music, and lighting are all credible.For modern day feminists, "I Shot Andy Warhol" probably is required viewing.
Stephen Dorff and Lili Taylor and Jared Harris are all great in this film, particularly Dorff.
Although this film is overlong and often dull, it's still an intriguing look into a feminist gone way over the edge, who directs her wrath upon one of the most polarized artists of the century (you either love Warhol or you despise him, it seems).
People who are neutral towards his "greatness" (like me) or unfamiliar with his work may lose interest in this film; only Lili Taylor's hard-edged performance keeps the somewhat muddled story above water.
And since I've never met anyone who worships the ground Warhol walked on, I can't say as to what those people might think of this film...in its favor, the script is objective towards both Valerie Solanas and Andy.
Lily Taylor was astonishingly good as Valerie in I Shot Andy Warhol.
It's a thoroughly enjoyable fictionalized chronicle of the emergence of the SCUM Manifesto and the events leading up to the shooting of Andy Warhol, by Taylor's character a paranoid schizophrenic, man-hating, lesbian.
I must admit to start that I admired Lili Taylor's performance of Valerie Solanas.
I must confess that I didn't pay too much attention to the counter-culture of the 60's, as I was too busy raising a normal family and earning a normal living, and I also never liked Andy Warhol's art or his films.
Solanas is a trash talking, independent thinker that somehow found herself next to one of the most modern men of our century, Andy Warhol.Lili Taylor helms this unbridled beast Solanas like no actress I have seen before.
Jared Harris is superb as Andy (one of the best reincarnations of him) and Stephen Dorff blazes onto the scene as Candy Darling.
It was a very true story that is more than just Andy Warhol, but also develops themes of feminism and women's rights.
As the title explains, the film tells the story of Andy Warhol, and the girl who shot him.
A bio-pic about Valerie Solanas, a disturbed writer who shot and wounded artist Andy Warhol.This is one of the best films of the 1990s, showing a different side to the often romanticized era of the 1960s.
Based on the true story of Valerie Solanas who was a 60s radical preaching hatred toward men in her "Scum" manifesto.
She wrote a screenplay for a film that she wanted Andy Warhol to produce, but he continued to ignore her.
This is Valerie's story.Dr. Dana Heller, professor of English at the Old Dominion University, argues that the film stages the conflict between Solanas and Warhol as less the result of gender politics – particularly because Solanas intended no connection between her writing and the shooting – than of the decline of print culture as represented by Solanas and the rise of new non-writing media as embodied by Warhol and the Pop art movement.
In the screenplay, Harron and Minahan describe Solanas as "banging at an ancient typewriter" and the film frequently shows her typing, for which she is mocked by Warhol and other Factory regulars.
Solanas' writing is set against the new technologies of reproduction championed by Warhol.The Andy Warhol in this film is nothing compared to the one played by David Bowie in "Basquiat".
The film in general is excellent, though, and Lili Taylor was the perfect person for the role.
Her intelligence and humor and always evident, but for all her strutting arrogance, she conveys an uncertainty and vulnerability that foreshadows what is ultimately a painful and tragic descent into violence and paranoia.The evocation of the late 60's New York underground, and Warhol's Factory in particular, is brilliant, even more so when you consider the low budget and that Andy Warhol's Estate refused to allow any of the artists work to actually be duplicated for the movie.
While the narrative lags in spots and could have benefited with a little tightening in the editing room, I Shot Andy Warhol is still a wonderful testament to the ambitious possibilities of low-budget, independent film-making..
And of course, Lili Taylor plays the idiosyncratic Solanas marvelously.Unfortunately, the focus on the context of the events causes the film to suffer as a narrative.
lili taylor was so great in Household Saints, although the script makes her go a little over the top at the end in this film..
it told of how valerie solanas came to write the SCUM Manifesto and why she shot Andy Warhol, hence the name of the film.
The movie also does an excellent job of portraying the fragmented life and difficult personality of Valerie Solanas convincingly.My only problem with this movie is this: you don't have to be Andy Warhol's biggest fan to think that the fact that Solanas tried to wipe out three people in cold blood (that she only wounded two wasn't for lack of trying) is an at best insufficient reason for turning the lime light on to her.
Making a movie about the Factory scene from Valerie Solanas' perspective is like making a movie about the Beatles as seen through the eyes of Mark Chapman..
Lili Taylor plays Valerie Solanas, a wannabe novelist, that tries to garner fame by shooting Andy Warhol.Taylor does a good job portraying a complicated and highly -disturbed woman.
After seeing a fascinating documentary on Andy Warhol, it has become clear that Marry Harron's I Shot Andy Warhol is a great film.
The film is ultimately a criticism of Andy Warhol's (played masterfully by Jared Harris) cold, chic art world where the only things that matter are money and fame.
Valerie Solanas (Lili Taylor) wants to build a relationship (a business relationship and, more subtly, a personal relationship) with Andy.
First of all, while I like the way Harris is seen mainly in medium and long shots, giving him Warhol's lack of attainability, the Harron had to give her film that awful docudrama style (I suppose this is better than filming in that hyped-up, over-the-top style that young filmmakers like David Fincher are into).
I Shot Andy WarholBefore I saw this film, I never knew Lili could be so, loud.
Solanas, an impassioned political rhetorician and aspiring playwright, shot Warhol because "he had too much control over my life"--an oft-quoted sign of Valerie's nuttiness that the movie demonstrates was a statement of fact.
As it follows Valerie from panhandling to prostitution, to hunching over a manual typewriter with a Henry Miller squint, I SHOT ANDY WARHOL seems to want to have it every which way.
But the movie has funny, well-observed moments: the climax being a cut from Valerie and her cronies performing her demented play UP YOUR ASS at the counter of an automat, to Warhol and his cronies reading the same inflammatory dialogue on a couch at the Factory.
Lili Taylor gives the performance of her career as the deranged Valerie Solanas, writer, activist, visionary, and would be assassin.
'I Shot Andy Warhol' is first class all the way.
'I Shot Andy Warhol' is to date the best movie made about The Factory scene, and is a stylish, witty, bleak and thought provoking study of Obsession and Art. I hope Mary Harron makes another movie as good as this in the future..
Lili Taylor delivered a great performance, but that doesn't save this film.
This time it's the true story of the mentally disabled woman who shot pop artist Andy Warhol.
What makes Valerie Solanas somone you want to know?I'm sick of seeing movies about the effects of child abuse.
I don't even know the true story behind Solanas, but if people say "Taylor made a brilliant portrayal" than this is not a person I ever wanted to know.
One of the reasons it's so difficult to evaluate this movie is that it's hard to tell exactly how much of herself Lili Taylor is putting into the role of Valerie Solanas, the author of S.C.U.M. Manifesto and some kind of play called Up Your ***.
Here, her performance is outstanding but the part is again limited by the fact that, when you come right down to it, Valerie Solanas is not a particularly likable person, despite occasional flashes of wit, perhaps uninentional on her part, written into the script.
On 1968, Valerie Solanas (Lili Taylor) shots Andy Warhol (Jared Harris) and turns herself in to the police.
Valerie Jean Solanas (born 1936, died 1988), Wikipedia reads, was an American radical feminist writer best known for the "SCUM Manifesto" and as the would-be murderer of pop artist Andy Warhol.
Anything written about Solanas, understandably, makes her sound like a lunatic on the move — that's why 1996's "I Shot Andy Warhol" is such an impactful film.
"I Shot Andy Warhol" is so much more than a true crime story set to the screen; it's more comparable to a brilliant character study that just so happens to be based on true events.
Astonishing is the way "I Shot Andy Warhol" makes the situation feel as though it is happening before our very eyes.
He's polite to Solanas, never turning her down like he should, but is it because he's nice or because she acts as a distraction to his unhealthy habit of consuming himself with the other?"I Shot Andy Warhol" is gigantically effective; it tells a story coercive even to the most casual of a viewer while also authentically investing in the neuroses of the real figures it brings to the celluloid..
I read in Andy Warhol's biography that he was so repressed that he attracted unstable, outwardly angry people like this to himself all the time.
I had never heard of Valerie Solanas before seeing "I Shot Andy Warhol", but the movie does a very good job telling the story.
Lili Taylor does a really good job showing what sort of person Solanas was.
The movie doesn't try to deify Solanas in any way, it shows what kind of world she came from, and that she tried to make a new life for herself.
Although 'I shot Andy Warhol' might not be everyone's cup of tea, it is a nice, slick film that grabs the viewers' attention right from the start.
It is however Lily Taylor's performance that makes the movie.
Otherwise, 'Andy Warhol' is an intriguing drop into the world of one woman's insanity and it's resulting effects..
The movie without doubt was great, but why do they call Andy Warhol a genius, did he invent something or discover something outstanding?
Or did the director of the movie take some liberties to show the frame of her mind when she shot Andy Warhol?.
A Warhol film is being shot in The Factory, but we learn that Andy won't be around today.
It is the story of Valerie Solanas, a radical feminist lesbian in the 60's who writes her revolutionary manifesto that attempts to rid the world of the male species.
Her hatred for men is text book, sexually abused as a child, forced into prostitution to support herself, that would lead any woman to lesbianism.So, here we have this man hating butch dike played to perfection by Lily Taylor, although since I have never seen Solanas (and I'm sure either had Taylor) I'm not sure if it was true to her, or just Taylor's own wild imaginings of what this woman must have been like.
"I Shot My Load Right Into Andy Warhol's Apathetic Face".As for Valerie S., this woman clearly could not have had a high level of intelligence, while the opposite has been suggested here, rather groundlessly.
A movie about Valerie Solanas, 1960s radical feminist who worked with the pop artist Andy Warhol and - you guessed it - tried to kill him.
The story of Valerie Solanas who as the title indicates was responsible for shooting pop artist Andy Warhol.
I've never seen anything with the real Valerie Solanas in it (nor did I know anything about her until I recently saw Zbynek Brynych's 'Die Weibchen', based on the S.C.U.M. Manifesto), but Taylor does a fine performance, as does pretty much everyone else in the cast.I found this to be an interesting film; Solanas is an intriguing person whose personality was uncontrollable, not in the least by herself.
Had her Manifesto been published straight away and appreciated for the absurd piece of feminist work it has come to be, maybe things could have taken a different turn for her - though I wouldn't dare to feel certain about that, seeing as much of the publicity (probably) came with her attempting to kill Warhol ánd her mental problems may have been too severe anyway...Back to the film, for a minute: I really liked it, being a fairly straight-forward telling of Solanas' life, mostly focusing on (about) a few years up until she shot Warhol. |
tt0041593 | Little Rural Riding Hood | The film opens with a stereotypical hillbilly version of Little Red Riding Hood (voiced by Colleen Collins), telling the audience that she's taking "nourishment" (as she holds up a cliché moonshine bottle) to her grandma, who lives on a country farm. At the farmhouse, a wolf (voiced by Pinto Colvig) reveals himself to the audience, but confesses that he doesn't want to eat Red. He's actually in love with her and wishes to kiss her.
After a comical chase around the farmhouse, the wolf catches Red, and both prepare to kiss each other when a telegram arrives for the wolf from his city cousin (voiced by Daws Butler), inviting him to meet the city's equivalent of his Red (the same version seen in Red Hot Riding Hood). Upon seeing her photograph, the country wolf immediately falls in love with her and departs for the city.
Unlike his cousin, the city wolf is rich and more suave and sophisticated. The city wolf takes his cousin to the club where the city's Red performs her dance routine (this scene was borrowed from Swing Shift Cinderella). The country wolf whistles and leers throughout the performance, becoming completely aroused by Red. However, before he can rush onto the stage to join her, his city cousin stops him (by grabbing his suspenders, placing a hammer in it, then letting go so it would snap back and knock him out), and takes him back to the country, feeling that city life is too much for him.
Upon their arrival at the farmhouse, they find the country's Red waiting for them. Upon seeing country-Red, the city wolf, surprisingly, becomes wildly attracted to her, and runs to her, but is stopped his country cousin the same way the city cousin had stopped him earlier. Seeing an opportunity to see the city's Red again, the country wolf promptly decides to take his city cousin back home, claiming that he feels the country life is too much for him, and drives off back to the city. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0084747 | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street | === Prologue ===
The citizens of London, acting as a Greek chorus to raise commentary throughout the play, drop a body bag into a shallow grave. Sweeney Todd rises forth ("The Ballad of Sweeney Todd"), and introduces the play, set some months before the burial.
=== Act I ===
In 1846, young sailor Anthony Hope and Sweeney Todd, whom Anthony has recently rescued at sea and befriended, dock in London, where a half-crazed Beggar Woman sexually solicits them, appearing to briefly recognize Todd ("No Place Like London"). Todd tells Anthony of his troubled past as a naïve barber, when a crooked judge banished him in order to pursue his wife ("The Barber and His Wife"). Leaving Anthony, Todd enters a meat pie shop on Fleet Street, where the owner, Mrs. Lovett, laments about the scarcity of meat ("Worst Pies in London"). When Todd asks about her empty upstairs apartment, she reveals that its former tenant, Benjamin Barker, was transported out of England on false charges by Judge Turpin, who, along with his servant, Beadle Bamford, then lured Barker's wife Lucy to the Judge's home and raped her ("Poor Thing"). Todd's reaction reveals that he is himself Benjamin Barker. Promising to keep his secret, Lovett explains that Lucy poisoned herself and that their then-infant daughter, Johanna, became a ward of the Judge. Todd swears revenge on the Judge and Beadle, and Mrs. Lovett presents Todd with his old collection of sterling silver straight razors, which persuades Todd to take up his old profession ("My Friends" and "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd – Reprise"). Elsewhere, Anthony notices an exquisite blonde girl singing out her window ("Green Finch and Linnet Bird"), and the Beggar Woman tells him that her name is Johanna. Unaware that Johanna is his friend Todd's daughter, Anthony is immediately enamored ("Ah, Miss") and he pledges to return for her, even when the Judge and Beadle chase him away ("Johanna").
In the crowded London marketplace, faux-Italian barber Adolfo Pirelli and his simple-minded assistant, Tobias Ragg, pitch a dramatic cure-all for hair loss ("Pirelli's Miracle Elixir"). Todd and Lovett soon arrive; Todd exposes the elixir as a sham, challenges Pirelli to a shaving competition, and easily wins ("The Contest"), inviting the impressed, onlooking Beadle to a free shave ("The Ballad of Sweeney Todd – Reprise 2"). Several days later, Judge Turpin flagellates himself in a frenzy over a growing lust for Johanna, but instead resolves to marry her himself. ("Johanna – Mea Culpa"). Todd impatiently continues to wait for the Beadle's arrival, but Mrs. Lovett attempts to calm him ("Wait"). When Anthony tells Todd of his plan to ask Johanna to elope with him, Todd, eager to reunite with his daughter, agrees to let them use his barbershop as a safehouse. As Anthony leaves, Pirelli and Tobias enter, and Mrs. Lovett takes Toby downstairs for a pie. Alone with Todd, Pirelli reveals that he is actually an Irishman named Daniel O'Higgins, an assistant to Todd fifteen years ago, who knows Todd's true identity. When O'Higgins attempts to blackmail his former employer, however, Todd injures and hides him, later slitting his throat ("Pirelli's Death" and "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd – Reprise 3"). Meanwhile, Johanna and Anthony plan their elopement ("Kiss Me"), while the Beadle recommends Todd's services to the Judge, so that he can better win Johanna's affections ("Ladies in Their Sensitivities").
At first panicked upon learning of Pirelli's murder, Mrs. Lovett seizes his leftover coin purse and then discusses with Todd plans to dispose of the body. Suddenly, the Judge enters; Todd quickly seats him and lulls him into a relaxed conversation ("Pretty Women"). Before Todd can kill the Judge, however, Anthony re-enters to explain the specifics of his and Johanna's plans, accidentally informing the Judge, who storms out and vows never to return. Todd drives Anthony away in a furious fit of madness, determining that he will kill all future customers, since all people deserve to die: the rich to be punished for their corruption, and the poor to be relieved of their misery ("Epiphany"). Mrs. Lovett slyly suggests that they use the flesh of Todd's victims in her meat pies, and Todd joyously agrees ("A Little Priest").
=== Act II ===
Several weeks later, Mrs. Lovett's pie shop has become a thriving business, and Toby is now working there as a waiter ("God, That's Good!"). Todd and Mrs. Lovett acquire a specially-designed mechanical barber's chair that allows Todd to kill his clients and then send their bodies directly through a chute into the pie shop's basement bakehouse. Mundanely slitting his customers' necks, Todd despairs about ever seeing Johanna again, while Anthony discovers that Johanna is missing ("Johanna–Quartet"), having been locked away in an insane asylum by the Judge. After a day of hard work, Mrs. Lovett envisions a seaside retirement ("By the Sea"), but Todd remains fixed on his revenge. Anthony arrives to beg Todd for help to free Johanna, and Todd, revitalized, devises a plan to rescue her by having Anthony pose as a wigmaker intent on purchasing inmates' hair ("Wigmaker Sequence" and "The Ballad... – Reprise 4"). Todd later sends a secret letter to notify the Judge of Anthony's plot, hoping to lure the Judge back to his shop ("The Letter").
In the pie shop, Toby expresses suspicions against Todd and his own desire to protect Mrs. Lovett ("Not While I'm Around"). When he recognizes Pirelli's coin purse in Mrs. Lovett's possession, she distracts him by showing him the bakehouse, instructing him how to work the meat grinder and the oven, before locking him down there. Upstairs, she encounters the Beadle at her harmonium, requested by neighbors to investigate the strange smoke emitted by the pie shop's chimney. Mrs. Lovett stalls the Beadle until Todd returns to offer the Beadle his promised "free shave"; Mrs. Lovett loudly plays her harmonium to cover the Beadle's screams above, as Todd is killing him ("Parlor Songs"). In the basement, Toby discovers human remains in a pie, just as the Beadle's fresh corpse comes tumbling through the chute. Mrs. Lovett then informs Todd that Toby has discovered their secret, and they plan to kill him.
Anthony arrives at the asylum to rescue Johanna, but cannot bring himself to shoot Jonas Fogg, the deranged asylum owner who tries to stop them; Johanna does so herself, grabbing the pistol. Now, the asylum's inmates pour out into the streets, ecstatically proclaiming the end of the world, while Todd and Mrs. Lovett hunt for Toby, and the Beggar Woman fears what has become of the Beadle ("City on Fire/Searching"). Anthony and a disguised Johanna arrive to find Todd's shop empty. Anthony leaves to seek a coach after he and Johanna reaffirm their love ("Ah Miss – Reprise"). Left alone, Johanna hears the Beggar Woman enter and so she hides. The Beggar Woman seems to recognize the room, but, before she can make sense of it, the frantic Todd appears to greet the approaching Beggar Woman and lethally cuts her, sending her down the chute just a moment before the Judge bursts in ("Beggar Woman's Lullaby"). Todd assures the Judge that Johanna is repentant and the Judge asks for a quick splash of cologne. Once he has the Judge in his chair, Todd soothes but then suddenly mocks him. The Judge recognizes him as "Benjamin Barker!" just before Todd slashes his throat and sends him hurtling down the chute ("The Judge's Return"). The disguised Johanna finally stands, horrified, from her hiding place, surprising Todd. Todd next decides to kill her too, before Mrs. Lovett shrieks from the bakehouse below, providing a distraction for Johanna to escape. Downstairs, Mrs. Lovett is struggling with the dying Judge, who claws at her. She then attempts to drag the Beggar Woman's body into the oven, but Todd arrives and sees the lifeless face clearly for the first time: the Beggar Woman is his wife Lucy. Todd is in shock as Lovett confesses that she did not tell him the full story of Lucy because she loves him herself. Todd then feigns forgiveness, dancing manically with Lovett until pushing her into the raging fires of the oven. Full of despair, Todd embraces the dead Lucy. Toby, with his hair now white from shock and babbling nursery rhymes to himself, picks up Todd's fallen razor, and cuts Todd's throat. As Anthony, Johanna, and some constables break into the bakehouse, Todd falls dead and Toby drops the razor, heedless of the others, while absentmindedly turning the meat grinder ("Final Scene").
=== Epilogue ===
The citizens, soon joined by the ghosts of Todd, Mrs. Lovett, and the others, recite "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd." The company exits, with Todd and Mrs. Lovett being the last, with Todd exiting with an abrupt slam of a door. | revenge, comedy, murder, romantic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0119485 | Kundun | The film has a straightforward chronology with events spanning from 1937 to 1959; the setting is Tibet, except for brief sequences in China and India. It begins with the search for the 14th mindstream emanation of the Dalai Lama. After a vision by Reting Rinpoche (the regent of Tibet) several lamas disguised as servants discover a promising candidate: a child born to a farming family in the province of Amdo, near the Chinese border.
These and other lamas administer a test to the child in which he must select from various objects the ones that belonged to the previous Dalai Lama. The child passes the test, and he and his family are brought to Potala Palace in Lhasa, where he will be installed as Dalai Lama when he comes of age.
During the journey, the child becomes homesick and frightened, but is comforted by Reting, who tells him the story of the first Dalai Lama – whom the lamas called "Kundun." As the film progresses, the boy matures in both age and learning. After a brief power struggle in which Reting is imprisoned and dies, the Dalai Lama begins taking a more active role in governance and religious leadership.
Meanwhile, the Chinese communists, recently victorious in their revolution, are proclaiming Tibet a traditional part of Imperial China and express their desire to reincorporate it with the newly formed People's Republic of China. Eventually, despite Tibet's pleas to the United Nations, the United States, the United Kingdom, and India for intervention, Chinese Communist forces invade Tibet. The Chinese are initially helpful, but when the Tibetans resist Communist reorganization and reeducation of their society, the Chinese become oppressive.
Following a series of atrocities suffered by his people, the Dalai Lama resolves to meet with Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing. While Mao initially expresses his sympathies to the Tibetan people and the Dalai Lama and insists that changes must be made as the Dalai Lama sees fit, relations inevitably deteriorate. During their face-to-face meeting on the final day of the Dalai Lama's visit, Mao makes clear his view that "religion is poison" and that the Tibetans are "poisoned and inferior" because of it.
Upon his return to Tibet, the Dalai Lama learns of more horrors perpetrated against his people, who have by now repudiated their treaty with China and begun guerrilla action against the Chinese. After the Chinese make clear their intention to kill him, the Dalai Lama is convinced by his family and his Lord Chamberlain to flee to India.
After consulting the Nechung Oracle about the proper escape route, the Dalai Lama and his staff put on disguises and slip out of Lhasa under cover of darkness. During an arduous journey, throughout which they are pursued by the Chinese, the Dalai Lama becomes very ill and experiences several visions of the past and future. The group eventually makes it to a small mountain pass on the Indian border. As the Dalai Lama walks to the guard post, an Indian guard approaches him, salutes, and inquires: "May I ask, are you the Lord Buddha?" The Dalai Lama replies with the film's final line: "I think that I am a reflection, like the moon on water. When you see me, and I try to be a good man, you see yourself."
Once the Dalai Lama arrives at his new residence, he unpacks his telescope and steps outside. Erecting it and removing his spectacles, he gazes through it toward the Himalayas – and toward Tibet.
The film concludes with two lines printed on screen:
"The Dalai Lama has not yet returned to Tibet. He hopes one day to make the journey." | avant garde, murder | train | wikipedia | It's really difficult to describe how I feel about this movie since I have only viewed it once and was completely blown away, it left me in complete awe.Like most when I first started watching Scorsese I thought that he did brilliant gangster films and that was his thing, but I have recently discovered that this couldn't be further from the truth.
It is easy to see that he is an artistic genius, the acting in the film was great, but I could have watched it on mute and still have been amazed.If, like I was, you are unfamiliar with the Buddhist religion and the Chinese takeover of Tibet this film has even more to offer.
Scorsese's risk of using real Buddhists to do all of the acting payed off better than I ever expected it would, the fact that we are hearing the story through the people it affected adds another level to this movie.I cannot believe that this film only has a rating of 7 on this site.
Scorsese's vision's in this movie are unlike any of his films, not to mention a great score by Phillip Glass..
The cinematography and performances are excellent - the cast of mostly non-actors is surprisingly good, and much of KUNDUN is staggeringly beautiful to watch.It has also struck me that this film isn't as much of a departure for Scorsese as it first may seem - this film works well as something of a companion to LAST TEMPTATION OF Christ in that both pictures examine great faiths through spiritual figures in a way that personalizes the divine.
In their own ways, several memorable Scorsese characters - Sam Rothstein (CASINO), Henry Hill (GOODFELLAS), Rupert Pupkin (KING OF COMEDY), Paul Hackett (AFTER HOURS) and Alice Hyatt attempt this, some in ways that are desperate, comically misguided or just plain wrong, but they're all human, driven by some redemptive impulse nonetheless.The Catholicism of Scorsese's youth places great value on the importance of ritual, which is also true of Buddhism, which is depicted in a detailed and respectful fashion here, and the rhythm of KUNDUN - where the chronology of events isn't (or at least doesn't seem) forced, but are instead allowed to unfold in a more naturalistic and lifelike fashion also seems to mirror Buddhist ideas admirably.This is a far more complex film than it first might appear to be - far from being a simple biopic, KUNDUN is much much more.
The Dali Lama, must be grateful his story, can now reach the world and his personal mission, may be recognized and possible fulfilled in his lifetime?Like the "Last Emperor" and "Little Buddha" this "slice of the metaphysical river", is breathtaking in its visual beauty.
A story that grabs your heart and soul, and you find yourself, thinking about it weeks later.Now I have a "Free Tibet" sticker on my Pathfinder, out of reverence for this tiny country, raped by the political powers in control of China.Bravo to the cast, and film crews..
Using a cast of non-actors for the most part and opting for a more artful photographic style (kudos to DP Roger Deakins, veteran Coen collaborator, for his mesmerizing work here), Scorsese gives a truly spiritual film revolving around one of History's great tragedies.
It's something quite fantastic to watch such an amazing film about the early years of the Dalai Lama and the plight of Tibetan Buddhists knowing that it comes from a man who has long wrestled with his own religious ghosts (witness the still hotly debated conundrum that is his "Last Temptation of Christ").
With probably only "The Age of Innocence" to compare to in Scorsese's now hallowed canon, "Kundun" is a breathtaking work of art--visually sumptuous (with beautiful work from cinematographer Roger Deakins), hauntingly transcendental, and deeply symbolic.As an outsider looking in, Scorsese manages to create an intimate level of detail that someone who lives and breathes Buddhism might have overlooked.
From the rich colors of meditative sand art to the bright red blood spilled during China's unlawful occupation of Tibet, everything takes on a deeper meaning that leaves much to the imagination and higher mind.Wisely, Scorsese follows the same template of Richard Attenborough's equally resonating Oscar winning epic "Ghandi" by adapting a straight forward approach to his presentation of the Dalai Lama's most tumultuous years.
This is the best movie of Martin Scorsese and if I ever would have the pleasure to meet him personally I would say: "Thank you for making 'Kundun'."However - when I saw the rating (7 of 10) it achieved here at IMDb, I must admit, I was a bit shocked.
This may not make sense to most people, but after viewing the film, even if like me, you are not a very religious person, you cannot help but be moved by the selflessness and love that these characters experience.Cinematic ally, it is also one of Scorsese's most beautiful films as well.8 out of 10.
Throw in the intriguing Philip Glass score and you have quick a sensory experience.Scorsese took a brilliant approach to this film in many ways:-- Casting unknown actors: the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people are unpretentious themselves, casting any names in the part would not only be ethnically sacrilegious, but would have missed the point.
The sound track adds eminently to my collection of inspirational Asian music reflects the beauty of the chants that so typify the Tibetan Buddhist experience.As a historian I found the film a useful tool to introduce students and others to the Tibetan perspective on the events of the 1940's & 1950's without moving away from the essential message of Buddhism and the Dharma as interpreted by his Holiness.A jewel in my Film library and one watched many times..
This movie Kundun got me through some hard times,watching this movie hours after finding my girlfriend with her new man and being the last to know the relationship was over,I completely broke down almost on every chapter of the movie I felt I was from Tibet and I had been betrayed by the Chinese,but it was much more than that.Kundun with it's realty and emotion mixed with Philip Glass soundtrack makes this a movie that you become attached to the characters and sadden by their misfortune.Every time I watch this film I feel part Buddhist and this is one of my top 5 movies ,but truly I can't express how much this movie saved and uplifted me during my struggle.
I haven't seen any other Scorsese films except "The Aviator", but that can't hold a candle to this one.The two points that really make Kundun shine are the drop-dead gorgeous cinematography by Roger Deakins, which really adds a whole dimension to the film, but that's peanuts compared to the brilliant score by Philip Glass.
Although the newest religious hype is the Kabalah, it is a fact that several actors and actresses, directors, scenarists, music composers and many more others have converted to the ancient religion which Budhism is and that's probably also the reason why the subject Tibet has been used a few times in the movies.
In the same year, 1997, we got Jean-Jacques Annaud's "Seven Years in Tibet" with Brad Pitt and Martin Scorsese's "Kundun" with no known professional actors.It's not easy to tell which movie of the two was the best, because each of them has some good and lesser things to offer and both have a completely different approach to the subject.
Perhaps that's the way the life of a holy man like the Dalai Lama should be told, or perhaps it is a part of the Budhist culture that for everything you should take your time, but sometimes I really wanted that it all went a bit faster.
Focusing on a character other than the Dalai Lama allows for too many distractions within the plot of the movie, especially when the script for Kundun was taken from a biography of His Holiness.
The film fails to impress one as a comprehensive account of the Dalai Lama's life (and I don't think it was meant to be one, although various reviewers have commented on how the movie "fails to deliver the goods").
Even as the Dalai Lama grapples with the spectre of Chinese control of Tibet, his own safety, the loss of Tibetan culture and religion, his duty to his people, and the possibility of living in exile - the vivid fleeting interspersed images of the mandalas remind us that nothing is permanent - only that there is hope of rejuvenation and rebirth.
The experience of viewing this film will no doubt be enriched by familiarizing oneself with background information on the various facets of Tibet - its culture, its history and politics, spiritualism and Buddhism, and a fundamental appreciation of Eastern concepts dealing with the non-permanence and cyclical nature of life and death.
From the beautiful cinematography, the costumes, the musical score, the truly brilliant and amazing acting by every single participant in this motion picture the movie delivers a true perfectionism by Martin Scorsese.
I was actually fortunate enough to meet(well listen to, anyway) the Dalai Lama and he is a remarkable man, whose wisdom and kind words have done a great and immesurable deal more than a whole nation did to the people of Tibet.
The plot manages to be both epic (nations collide) and small (boy grows up) at the same time, but it is ultimately the smallness that you are left with : the story simply never takes off.The Dalai Lama is, rightly, played with a stillness and spirituality but there are not enough moments where this stillness is played off against more fiery elements or where any wit shines through - we're simply expected to look at the unblinking face and think "aaaah.
I think that many people should watch this movie because it showed what has happened to Tibet, and now their leader can not go back, and he needs to and the Chinese army should back down.
Those who think the film is "slow" or fault it for not being a strict documentary are simply obtuse beyond belief.If one wants only explosions and throbbing music cut on the beat of such destruction, one will will surely find it slower than a Bruce Willis or Arnold Schwartzenegger vehicle.This is a true film masterpiece, the action, drama, and conflict of which take place and evolve in the viewer's *mind and consciousness* -- assuming he or she has either, which from reading some of the previous reviews I find doubtful.Scorsese evokes a time, a culture, a sense of identity of a people and a place that no longer exists as they did and does it with images rather than explication or dialogue, as any great cinematic director does.I find previous comments about "wooden acting" by the non-actor cast inexplicable, given the extraordinary performances in the film.If one has difficulty understanding why the rest of us rated this film so highly, perhaps one would best look to individual sensibilities rather than poo-poo Scorsese's abilities or his achievements in this film.Kundun, unlike the vast majority of junk movies that are hyped and enjoy temporary box office success -- and which are evidently preferred by some who reviewed it -- will still be worth watching for the perspective on human consciousness, conscience, and moral choices it presents, 50 or 100 years from now..
The important thing to say is that this story is true and we hope that movie will contribute to open the eyes of the so called democratic countries to the drama of those people and force them to condemn Chinese authorities overtly for it and stop the hypocrisy of showing great indignation (sometimes feigned)for some human rights' violations while at same time disregarding some others even more brutal..
Having read the book, having been emotionally involved in the religious aspects, the heady politics and in the man himself, I expected much of this movie.The movie looks great, is well shot and Scorsese paints a wonderful and strangely glamorous view of HH Dalai Lama's early life as spiritual leader of Tibet.
It is beautifully filmed and the score is marvellous.Although background knowledge of the Dalai Lama and Tibet does serve to highlight scenes which might otherwise be considered exclusive, Kundun remains a thoroughly touching account of a man and nation torn by the terror of communist Chinese abuses.At times the English is a little hard to follow as the actors are all non-professional.
This film goes beyond the magic of Seven Years in Tibet (1997), deeper into the early life of the Dalai Lama while painting a more vivid picture of Tibetan culture and shedding more light on the Chinese `liberation' of Tibet.Kundun is as authentic as I can imagine for a Western film about an Eastern culture..
This film shows in great detail the temples of Tibet and the country scenes which have never been seen before and Scorsese looks deeply into the history of the Dalai Lama and how his religious convictions make his people love him from the bottom of their hearts.
Martin Scorsese deserves compliments for taking the time to portray the true story of the life of the fourteenth Dali Lama, a life that began in the turmoil of twentieth century conflict and continues today to appeal to the world to right the wrongs imposed upon his native land and people.
We see him go from a boy suddenly thrust into the role of this important figure in Buddhism, to a man having to deal with the Chinese occupation of his homeland.Probably the most important thing that the movie does is show that the Dalai Lama is more than a red-clad figure talking about peace and goodwill; he's a normal human being like the rest of us.
The Chinese occupation of Tibet and the escape of Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, are certainly stories that have the potential for great movie-making.
Scorsese has instead obviously wanted to concentrate on the story of the life of the 14th Dalai Lama as a boy and young adult and not on the Chinese occupation of Tibet, or the spiritual message of Buddhism.
Many others have failed and caused boredom, where this brilliant perfectly produced movie of Kundun aka His Holiness the Dalai Lama stands above the others in many ways.
): Kundun is director Martin Scorsese's take on the Dalai Lama- the second film on a similar subject in the same year(the other being Brad Pitt starrer Seven Years in Tibet) and neither films are what one would call great films.
Focusing on the life of the Dalai Lama, the film shows up closely in the Chinese government, which unfairly occupies Tibet.
Kundun, Martin Scorsese's beautifully realised story of the Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, is possibly his most divisive amongst fans.
Spirituality is woven into the movie's very fabric, as is the idea of watching a ready-made saint in action.A saint is precisely how Scorsese views the Dalai Lama, and Melissa Mathison's script paints him like a key religious figure whose teachings can now only be read in scripture.
Glass goes on to tell the story of a young Tibetan woman watching the filming of Kundun: "did it really look like that?"[she asked an older Tibetan friend] "Yes, it did".
The story of the fourteenth Dalai Lama might seem an odd subject matter for Martin Scorsese to tackle, but Kundun is definitely not your typical Scorsese film.
To get us in to the Buddhist mental state it must sacrifice in the script and drama departments (those who'll come looking for these two elements will be disappointed), but that is forgiven for the power of the magical ride Scorsese is inviting us into is overwhelming.For me, this is the best and most wholesome religious movie ever made- in no other film has any director captured such a vast and complex culture and way of life via the cinematic lens.There are scenes that still make me shiver with exhilaration after the 10th time I've seen them..
Even the very talked-about cinematography is exciting, with some exceptional moments.The topic is never explored with more detail (the life of the Dalai Lama), and for sure we stay with the feeling that something is missing.It's a movie that should be seen, but more as an appetizer for learning more about a great man..
This story of the fourteenth Dhali Lama as viewed by film legend Martin Scorsese captivated me with its images and colors.
By contrast, "Kundun" has nearly no acting, music I never want to hear again, and a plot that shows one small boy being pushed around by older people for his entire life.Minor note: Heinrich Harrer, the man who wrote "Seven Years in Tibet" does not show up in this film.
With close study and observation, concerning the Tibetan People, I have come to consider, that not so much Buddhism has come to Tibet, and created the likes of what can be seen all over, people in want of spiritual guidance or protection from the horrors of life, but that this particular multitude, the Tibetan People and with the whole of their Sprit World, truly converted to, and thus became, a true Buddhist People, a living Body, a Disciple of the teaching of Gautama Buddha.If you watch Kundun, the 1997 "official" story of the present Dalai Lama, notice the Shaman, the fortune teller.
It should be remembered that this film is noit meant to be a sweeping history of Tibet -- it is the story of the Dalai Lama told from his point of view.
After Little Buddha and Seven Years in Tibet this is the third movie about the Dalai Lama and Buddhism in general which I've watched recently.
I know that when one reviews movies, one's perspective is different - not necessarily better - just not the same.I like Martin Scorsese as a great director, as well a fascinating individual. |
tt0047528 | La strada | Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina), a credulous young woman, learns that her sister Rosa has died since going on the road with the strongman Zampanò (Anthony Quinn). Now the same man has returned a year later to ask her mother if Gelsomina will take Rosa's place. The mother accepts 10,000 lire, and her daughter departs the same day.
Zampanò makes his living as an itinerant street performer, entertaining crowds by breaking an iron chain bound tightly across his chest, then passing the hat for tips. In short order, Gelsomina's naïve and antic nature emerges, with Zampanò's brutish methods presenting a callous foil. He teaches her to play the snare drum and trumpet, dance a bit, and clown for the audience. Despite her willingness to please, he relies on intimidation and even cruelty at times to maintain his domination.
Finally, she rebels and leaves, making her way into town. There she watches the act of another street entertainer, Il Matto ("The Fool"), a talented high wire artist and clown (Richard Basehart). When Zampanò finds her there, he forcibly takes her back. They join a ragtag travelling circus where Il Matto already works. Il Matto teases the strongman at every opportunity, though he cannot explain what motivates him to do so. After Il Matto drenches Zampanò with a pail of water, Zampanò chases after his tormentor with his knife drawn. As a result, he is briefly jailed and both men are eventually fired from the travelling circus.
Gelsomina's difficulties with her forced partnership are the subject of frequent soul searching. Before Zampanò's release from prison, Il Matto proposes that there are alternatives to Gelsomina's servitude, and imparts his philosophy that everything and everyone has a purpose – even a pebble, even her. A nun suggests that Gelsomina's purpose in life is comparable to her own. But, when Gelsomina offers Zampanò marriage, he brushes her off.
The separate paths of fool and strongman cross for the last time on an empty stretch of road, when Zampanò comes upon Il Matto fixing a flat tire. As Gelsomina watches in horror, the strongman strikes the clown on the head several times. Il Matto complains that his watch is broken, then collapses and dies. Zampanò hides the body and pushes the car off the road where it bursts into flames.
The killing breaks Gelsomina's spirit. After ten days, her affect remains flat, and her eyes lifeless. Finally Zampanò abandons her while she is taking a nap, leaving some clothes, money, and his trumpet.
Some years later, he overhears a woman singing a tune Gelsomina often played. He learns that the woman's father had found Gelsomina on the beach and kindly taken her in. However, she had wasted away and died. Zampanò gets drunk and wanders to the beach, where he breaks down in tears. | bleak, violence, magical realism, tragedy, sadist, sentimental | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0028075 | Page Miss Glory | The cartoon opens with a town of Hicksville preparing to welcome Miss Glory. In a nearby hotel, a teenage bellhop, Abner, is anxiously awaiting her arrival, and has prepared for it, but falls asleep while waiting. As he "sleeps", he enters a dream sequence whereupon the hotel ends up morphing into the Cosmopolitan Hotel, an upscale big city hotel, with Abner morphing into a fully grown bellhop at the same. A man arrives and asks the now grown-up Abner to deliver a message to Miss Glory, who is staying at that hotel.
At this point, a band begins singing, with Abner the bellhop joining in singing "Page Miss Glory" (at this time, it was common for cartoon shorts to be based on songs, with "I Love to Singa", also released in 1936, based on the same song, being another example). The distinct pronunciation in how Abner says "Glory" as "Glore-EE" is loosely based upon the bellhop character in the Philip Morris cigarette advertisements on radio and later television who always called out for "Phil-ip More-Iss" as he made his way through a hotel. That character was played by Johnny Roventini for nearly 40 years. Abner eventually "meets" someone who he thinks is Miss Glory, but makes the mistake of standing on the train of her dress, ripping it off just as she crosses behind a potted plant. This woman then takes two large leaves off the same plant and begins performing a fan dance, oblivious to the fact that others are watching her dancing for a while. Eventually, the presence of "Miss Glory" is announced over the hotel's PA system, with everyone in the hotel apparently recognizing who Miss Glory is. Abner, in his rush to try to see her, is unable to get into any elevator for a while everyone else rushes, and eventually he brings back one of the elevators by turning its arrow, only for the elevator operator to then refuse to take him up. While "Miss Glory" is performing in the upper floors of the hotel (with the song also being sung), Abner is trying to figure out how to work the elevator, but ends up "knocked" out of the building and in front of a streetcar, which actually turns out to be the local hotel manager in Hicksville awakening Abner from his dream sequence to tell him that Miss Glory has indeed arrived—who turns out to be a young prepubescent girl, with Abner taken aback. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1346947 | Afro Samurai | In a feudal yet futuristic Japan, it is said that the one who wields the Number 1 headband is the fiercest fighter in the world and shall possess god-like powers. The only way to obtain the Number 1 headband is to challenge and defeat the current wearer in combat. However, only the Number 2 can challenge the Number 1 whereas anyone can challenge the Number 2. Thus, whoever wears the Number 2 headband risks constant attack. The Number 2 headband's current owner Justice fights and kills Rokutaro, Afro's father and owner of the Number 1 headband. Afro Samurai witnesses the fight and vows revenge against Justice who tells him to seek him out when he is "ready to face a god."
Years later, Afro is the Number 2 master swordsman. He kills the Empty Seven Clan and various assassins, recalls his past memory, and goes to Mount Shumi. He also confronts his vengeful childhood friend Jinno. Afro discovers that there are other headbands in existence, ranging to an unspecified higher number and sees that the corpses of those who wore them are skewered throughout Justice's safe house. Afro kills Justice and takes the Number 1 headband, and all of the headbands disappear. Afro returns and lives in the mountains to confront Jinno, who is adorned with every headband in existence and seeking revenge. The final scene shows that Justice has returned from the dead.
However, the story changes in Afro Samurai: Resurrection, when Jinno takes Rokutaro's corpse, while Jinno's sister Sio takes the Number 1 headband and asks Afro to find the Number 2. After taking the headband from Shichigoro, Afro confronts the resurrected Rokutaro, who kills Jinno and Sio. Afro defeats Rokutaro, gives the Number 2 headband to Kotaro and continues to wear the Number 1. | violence, sci-fi | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1034447 | Hydra | Young archaeologist Dr. Valerie Cammon (Polly Shannon) and her colleague Dr. Kim (Philip Moon) go by ship to a volcanic island in the Mediterranean sea. While she seeks relics in a cave, a seaquake sinks their ship without survivors. At about the same time all archaeologists except for Dr. Cammon get eaten by the re-awakened ancient Lernaean Hydra.
During the tempest, a whole island disappears. Two months later, Vincent (Alex McArthur) and Dixie Camden (Jana Williams) intended to organize a man-hunt for cranky millionaires. Their Captain (Michael Shamus Wiles), unaware of the Hydra, suggests the nearby, aforementioned island as a substitute.
Four ex-convicts, Tim Nolan George Stults), Gwen Russell (Dawn Olivieri), Bob Crick (James Wlcek) and Ronnie Kaplan (Texas Battle), are marooned at the shore and given 24 hours' headstart.
The following day the rich hunters (played by Paul Rae, Roark Critchlow, Ricco Ross and William Gregory Lee) arrive, but attract the Hydra's attention and get eaten. The same fate befalls some of the fugitives.
Dr. Cammon runs into the surviving fugitives and helps Tim to find the magic sword of Hercules. As Dr. Cammon tries to distract the Hydra, Tim gets the sword so he can now fight the beast, but, sadly, he retrieves the sword too late and Dr. Cammon is torn apart and eaten by the Hydra. Tim manages to cut off its heads for good, but fails to cut the last head completely off. With Dr. Cammon dead, the remaining fugitives are forced to go on without her help.
Eventually, the only ones left are Tim and Gwen and they return to the ship, not knowing that the Hydra has recovered and is following them. Now only one-headed, it can move like a snake and makes its way into the belly of the ship.
Gwen wants to use the radio for calling SOS but the microphone is damaged. Mr. Camden blindsides her and blackmails Tim. The Hydra kills Camden from behind, then devours Dixie. Tim grabs the magic sword again and this time, he really kills the monster.
Tim and Gwen reach Sardinia and use the $10,000,000. | revenge | train | wikipedia | Well, the good news is that Hydra is not the worst SyFy's done, and it's not quite bad enough to be down there as one of their worst.
Also the hydra itself actually looks good, not amazing, but compared to the cheap-looking and stilted-moving effects before and since this movie it is a considerable improvement.
The bad news is that Hydra is still not a good movie, I have seen worse by all means but it was still lame.
The main problem here was the story, a good idea on paper and is better paced than most SyFy movies but on film it was predictable and could have been developed much more than it was.
The hydra was not bad in look, but like the rest of the characters, you don't really feel threatened partly because the killings and gore lacked tension and had a you've-seen-it-all-before vibe and also that Hydra makes little to no attempt to expand on the hydra's origins and the like.
This will never be Emmy-worthy, nor will this enjoy record-breaking DVD sales later when it is released, but this is superior for a Sci Fi Channel Original.
Like Wyvern, the story and dialog is more involved, better detailed, and runs much more fluid than your typical Sci Fi Channel fare.
The long shots and scenic vistas are new for Sci Fi Channel releases, and I have to say they add a great deal to the overall feel and effect of the work.
That has been the greatest problem with Sci Fi Original movies, thus far...the horrible CG, trite dialog, and terrible acting ruin the possibility of enjoying a good suspension of belief, thereby negating its own work.
Cheesy monsters, wooden dialog, D list actors with porn names, military units outfitted in Cabella's catalog costuming, "Soldiers" with hair styles from the 1980's disco era, spurting blood, single camera/single take cinematography, re-used sets, cliché stereotyping, and an amazing array of Hooters waitress types who are geologists, physicists, astronauts, biologists, etc.For a fan of the original B movies these low budget, filmed in a week and written in a day formula pieces are true movie magic.And Hydra is just exactly as awful as you would expect.May God forgive me, I do love these so!.
Four incredibly wealthy men with more money than common sense, and whom all had lost a loved one due to murder, charter a yacht to an abandoned island where they will hunt 4 alleged criminals.
Yup, that must mean that it's SyFy Original picture time again.This creature-of-the-week meets "Most Dangerous Game" may be a tad better than the typical SyyFy flick but it still wears out it's (admittedly forced) welcome with cardboard characters that you don't really care what happens to & a monster that seems cool enough at first but gets more and more boring with each subsequent attack.
This is very much par for the course for the channel, a cheesy CGI-filled slice of monster mayhem in which various assembled non-actors are bumped off one by one on a remote island by the titular creature.The ridiculous set-up of the narrative is particularly amusing here.
At the same time, and most bizarrely, there's a MOST DANGEROUS GAME-style hunt going on too, where some big game hunters are tracking down convicted criminals and get cash prizes if they manage to murder them.Inevitably the stories all combine but in the most ordinary way imaginable.
HYDRA is for the most part a repetitive production in which almost the entire cast is bumped off before the survivors finally figure out a way to combat the monster.
The acting is poor and the CGI effects typically awful for a Sci Fi Channel production.
Originally scored for the SyFy channel on television and released on DVD, this film is embarrassing.
The Hydra monster is a critical piece in the story and falls off the grid in originality.
A better than average SCI-FI channel creature feature..
HYDRA begins with four rich hunters that have paid a large sum of money to hunt people on an uncharted island, but unknown to everyone there is something on the island that has a taste for human flesh, a creature of myth know as the hydra.Although I reckon this is not part of SCI-FI's man eater series, if it is its certainly one of the best ones I've seen, the film is actually really good when I look at the last few SCI-FI channel originals I've seen, because you get YETI which was a quickly slammed together mess, there was VIPERS that was a complete rush job and you had GRIZZLY RAGE that was neither of the aforementioned but it was crap anyway.This film was the exception to other SCI-FI monster yawns, it had better CGI effects, it had a good story to it, even though there was minimal character development and no real back story as to where the HYDRA came from or how it ended up on the island, the dialog was actually pretty sharp and not as ridiculous as in other SCI-FI channel films.My only complaint I have is the score, despite that it sounds similar to the score of another SCI-FI original called KOMODO VS.
COBRA, its very loud and sometimes it almost muffles the dialog, you can also hear the sound of really noisy trumpets that tend to make you cringe, just to give an idea of how loud the score is.Otherwise its a better than average SCI-FI original creature feature..
The plot is OK for a TV movie, but the movie could've been more amusing if the creature was something more ghostly or mysterious, instead of the bad CGI and his rapid inorganic movement speed.The characters buildup was not that properly orchestrated, makes sense to me with all these characters around, but at least the lead character must have got special treatment, there.
I wish most of the killing were done by the hunted, which may have made the movie more plausible.Also I don't know how the scientist survived the bare island that long.
I don't know how long she had to endure this monster chase and the island conditions.Will guys I watched this flick till the end for one reason: the ladies were nice to watch acting :).
"Hydra" is an incredibly fun and exciting Sci-Fi Channel original creature feature.**SPOILERS**Traveling through the ocean, Vincent Camden, (Alex McArthur) takes his friends Clarence Elkins, (William Gregory Lee) Alex Williams, (Paul Rae) and Sean Trotta, (Roark Critchlow) on a cruise to a deserted island.
Eventually finding a small island, they bring out captives Tim Nolan, (George Stults) Gwen Russo, (Dawn Olivieri) Ronnie Kaplan, (Texas Battle) and Bob Crick, (James Wlcek) who have all been involved in inflicting personal tragedies with the gang in the past and are now using the island as a place to hunt them down as revenge for those crimes.
While running from the hunters, they manage to stumble upon Dr. Valerie Cammon, (Polly Shannon) the lone survivor of an archaeological expedition surveying the island who claims a huge, multi-headed snake known as a Hydra is stalking the island and killing them one-by-one.
Unsure of how to defeat the creature, they try to find a way to kill it before being taken out by the hunting party after them as well.The Good News: This was a pleasantly surprising and quite enjoyable creature feature.
With the head-chopping bringing in more good stuff, as it allows the creature to spawn more heads with each swiped one, there's a never-ending amount of heads that can come, each one with those features coming along, and along with it's size there's a lot to like about the creature.
It also has one of the more unique stories for these kinds of films, with the captured people being used for a hunting party by those who have been burned by them in the past, and now have a chance at retribution being quite a novel idea and offering up plenty of good stuff.
The first is that it's unique and hasn't been done before, as the motives are well-reasoned and logical, only just in that it's the villains which are given that opportunity to do this, which is new and not really done that often which makes it that way from the start, but that also allows for some fun to be had later on at the island during the actual hunting.
The first encounters, where the lone crew-members stumble upon it are a lot of fun, and the hunter's attacks are just as good.
It's quite gory, as there's a multitude of bodies being bitten open with vicious abandon and letting the blood splatter everywhere, a couple limbs are torn off, bites to the chest, face and the head, being ripped in half at the waist, a wooden spear impaled through the leg and another is swallowed whole, among other kills.
These here make this one quite bloody, and are overall the film's good points.The Bad News: There wasn't a whole lot of flaws to this one.
One of the film's only flaws is that the Hydra's origins aren't given at all.
There's nothing about how it can regenerate it's heads or even why the sword is needed to kill it and how it works against the creature.
The only other big flaw here is the usual Sci-Fi Channel original standard, the atrocious and utterly unconvincing CGI used for the creature.
These are what's wrong with the film.The Final Verdict: An incredibly enjoyable and entertaining Sci-Fi Channel original, this one definitely manages to feature enough good stuff to be worthwhile.
An actual Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' that isn't terrible..
Hydra starts as four complete strangers wake up in a dark room chained up, they quickly deduce that they have been kidnapped, are on-board a ship & the only thing they have in common is that they have all spent time in prison for serious crimes.
It soon becomes clear what is going on, a guy named Vincnet (Alex McArthur) & US army Captain Sweet (Michael Shamus Wiles) have organised a hunting trip for four ultra rich businessmen who have had some aspect of their lives ruined by criminals in some way & the four kidnapped cons soon find out they are what the rich blokes are going to hunt & kill for sport & satisfaction.
The four unwilling hunt participant's are dropped off on a seemingly deserted & uncharted island but they & their hunters quickly realise that the island is home a huge multi-headed Snake like creature from Greek mythology know as the Hydra & it has a liking for human flesh...Directed by Andrew Prendergast I have to say that Hydra turned out much, much better than I thought it would & is actually the first half decent Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' that I have seen in absolutely ages & I've seen quite a few of the things.
For a start the plot has slightly more to it than usual & plays out like a cross between The Most Dangerous Game (1932) & Turkey Shoot (1982) with it's organised hunt with human prey plot, an Indiana Jones film with it's fantasy archaeological angle & your typical Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' with the title beast which is a lot better & cooler than most.
In Hydra we get a giant multi-headed Snake like creature that rips people to pieces on sight which is good enough for me although it's never given any sort of back-story & is merely presented in the film 'as is'.
I didn't like how this giant Hydra creature could just appear out of nowhere without anyone hearing or seeing it coming, the story could have been more developed & more could have been made of the hunt & the cons fight for survival since that aspect of the plot seems to just be there to get a group of people on the island & not much else.The production values are alright, it looks a little cheap at times but it's not too bad.
Usually these Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Features' serve up some of the worst CGI computer effects imaginable & while the effects in Hydra aren't exactly amazing they are better than usual with a fairly fearsome & cool looking central monster.
There's some gore here, several people get ripped apart, there's a severed hand, someones head is bitten off & there's a decent amount of blood.With a supposed budget of about $700,000 this looks quite good compared to a lot of low budget horror out there.
The acting is alright but nothing special.Hydra is yet another Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' with a CGI central monster, an isolated location & various character's for it to kill but the main difference with Hydra is that it works quite well & is fairly watchable if you know what to expect.
Better than I had anticipated & actually quite good..
Yet another perfectly awful Sci-fi Channel CGI monster movie.
Yet another variation on The Most Dangerous Game has four unlucky human prey, selected by a millionaire because they had prior criminal records and were able to "escape the system", kidnapped and dropped on a supposedly uninhabited island with an actual living multi-headed hydra of Greek myth who follow the heat of their chosen victims, chomping down on those they catch.
Nolan is an ex-commando so he's a resourceful survivalist who can assist his fellow hunted, Gwen(Dawn Olivieri), Crick(James Wlcek)and Ronnie(Texas Battle)using his brains and skills in an attempt to evade both the hunters(..each wealthy paying their "supplier" millions so that they can hunt their prey)and the hydra.
Meanwhile, the hunters themselves find the hydra isn't effected by their superior weaponry..if you blow of one of the heads, it grows two more!
Nolan and the group soon discovers an archaeologist, Valerie(Polly Shannon)whose expedition found the island with her the only remaining survivor.
She informs Nolan that in order to truly defeat the hydra is to cut off the heads with a mythical sword of Hercules himself, buried in small lava pit!
The CGI for the film is as dreadful as you'd expect as the hydra chomps down on human heads and it looks unrealistic and laughable.
"Evil Elvis" director Andrew Prendergast and "Blind Injustice" scenarist Peter Sullivan have appropriated the venerable manhunt plot from "The Most Dangerous Game" and bolstered the danger by adding a Hydra, the chimerical, multi-headed snake from Greek mythology, to their contemporary horror epic.
In "Hydra," three unfortunate men and one woman serve as the hunted on an uninhabited island while four wealthy safari hunters, who've anted up $10-million a piece, stalk them for the thrill of the kill.
"I think whoever comes to this island is going to be in for real surprise," one of the four hunted observes with insight.
Not even seasoned performers can make much out of this gabble."Hydra" opens with four archeologists exploring an unknown island.
The scene shifts to a tramp freighter named the Aegeas somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea. Four egotistical big game hunters have paid Vincent Camden (Alex McArthur of the "Desperado" movies) $10-million dollars each to hunt convicted criminals.
When the island that Camden has plied the seas for disappears, Aegeas captain, Mr. Sweet (Michael Shamus Wiles of "Fight Club") and his second-in-command, Mr. Winters (Dwayne Adway of "Soul Plane"), plot a course for another island.The uncharted island that they locate and schedule the hunt on is the home of the Hydra.
They release the prisoners the night before the hunt commences on the island, and Nolan assures his companions that they have to work together if they hope to stay alive.Meantime, four of Mr. Sweet's hired help encounter the Hydra.
When the four hunted wander up, he shoots the worse one—Bob Crick--and then the Hydra appears and finishes him off.
Trotta smashes the radio with his rifle butt and Elkins tries to get back to the ship.Meanwhile, the archaeologist who survived the first attack tells the hunted that the island showed up on a satellite mapping three months ago and they launched an expedition "in hopes that this might be the location of a fabled lost temple." She adds that they were hoping to find the Sword of Hercules.
They can cut the heads off the Hydra and kill it permanently, but they have to use the sword.
When the Hydra attacks them, Valerie shields Gwen and dies when the snake eats her.
Nolan has to battle the snake again after it has eaten Camden and his sexy, show-off wife Dixie.The special effects are what you would expect from this Sci-Fi Channel entry.
What is it with the Skiffy Channel and giant snake like things?
The plot- We open with an expedition to a Greek Island where the male participants are all gruesomely eaten by the cheap CGI Hyrda.
The Hydra is on the Island, too.The encounter the surviving scientist girl, who looks pretty good considering she hasn't had a bath or change of clothes in two months.
She tells them she'll help them escape if they find the Sword of Hercules (and any good student of Greek Mythology knows it's Heracles, but never mind.) We get lots of shots of the Hydra eating heavily armed goons.Another observation.
Two female characters are killed in the course of the movie.
(Okay, bad CGI blood and gore, but never mind.) The chicks are killed out of frame.
Okay, this is better than MOST Skiffy channel snakes eat lots of people movies, but that isn't saying much.
It really doesn't take any chances, the people you expect to get killed are and the ones you expect to survive (the ones where the script has built sympathy for) do.Come on, Skiffy, come up with some original ideas!.
This film would have been better without the monster.An uninspired retelling of The Most Dangerous Game, it benefits from attractive locations and technically competent film-making - good lighting and frame composition etc. |
tt0119707 | Mortal Kombat: Annihilation | The film begins in media res, when the evil emperor Shao Kahn opens a portal from Outworld to the Earthrealm and has reclaimed his queen Sindel, who is Kitana's long-dead mother. Earthrealm is therefore in danger of being absorbed into Outworld within six days, a fate which Liu Kang and the others must fight to prevent. Kahn fights and quickly kills Johnny Cage during the confrontation by snapping his neck, and the remaining Earthrealm warriors must regroup and find a way to defeat Shao Kahn.
An emotionally guilt-ridden Sonya Blade enlists the help of her old partner, Jax. Together they destroy Cyrax, and Sonya beats Mileena. Kitana and Liu Kang search for a Native American shaman named Nightwolf, who seemingly knows the key to defeating Kahn. Kitana and Liu Kang destroy Smoke with the aid of Sub-Zero, but Scorpion suddenly appears, attacks Sub-Zero, and kidnaps Kitana.
Meanwhile, Raiden meets with the Elder Gods and asks them why Kahn was allowed to break the tournament rules and force his way into Earthrealm, and how he can be stopped. The answers he receives are sparse and ambiguous; one says that reuniting Kitana with her mother, Sindel, is the key to breaking Kahn's hold on Earthrealm, but another Elder God insists that the defeat of Kahn himself is the solution. Raiden is then asked by the Elder Gods about his feelings and obligations towards the mortals, and what he would be willing to do to ensure their survival.
Liu Kang finds Nightwolf, who teaches him about the power of the Animality, a form of shapeshifting which utilizes the caster's strengths and abilities. To achieve the mindset needed to acquire this power, Liu Kang must pass his tests. The first is a trial of his self-esteem and focus. The second comes in the form of temptation, which manifests itself in the form of Jade, who attempts to seduce Liu Kang and offers her assistance after he resists her advances. Liu Kang accepts Jade's offer and takes her with him to the Elder Gods' temple, where he and his friends are to meet Raiden. The third test is never revealed. (Though it may be hinted that it is about trust)
At the temple, the Earthrealm warriors reunite with a newly shorn Raiden, who explains that he has sacrificed his immortality to freely fight alongside them. Together, they head for Outworld to rescue Kitana and reunite her with Sindel. With Jade's help, Liu Kang rescues Kitana, while the others find Sindel. But Sindel remains under Kahn's control and escapes during an ambush, while Jade reveals herself to be a double agent sent by Kahn to disrupt the heroes' plans. Raiden then reveals that Shao Kahn is his brother, and that Elder God Shinnok is their father. He realizes that Shinnok had lied to him and is supporting Kahn. With renewed purpose, Raiden and the Earthrealm warriors make their way to the final showdown with Kahn and his generals. Shinnok demands that Raiden submit to him and restore their broken family, at the expense of his mortal friends. Raiden refuses and is killed by an energy blast from Shao Kahn.
After a hard fight, Jax, Sonya, and Kitana emerge victorious against their opponents (Motaro, Ermac and Sindel respectively), but Liu Kang struggles with Kahn, and his Animality barely proves effective, exposing a cut to Kahn that proves he is now mortal. Shinnok, who explains that these are the consequences for breaking the sacred rules, attempts to intervene and kill Liu Kang on Kahn's behalf, but two of the Elder Gods arrive, having uncovered Shinnok's treachery. They declare that the fate of Earth shall be decided in Mortal Kombat. Liu Kang finally defeats Kahn, and Shinnok is banished to the Netherrealm. Earthrealm reverts to its former state, and with Kahn's hold over Sindel finally broken, she reunites with Kitana. Raiden is revived by the other Elder Gods, who bestow upon him his father's former position. With everything right in the universe once again, the Earthrealm warriors return home. | murder, cult, alternate reality, violence, good versus evil, absurd, psychedelic, revenge | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0106677 | Dazed and Confused | It is May 28, 1976, the last day of school at Lee High School in the suburbs of Austin, Texas. The next year's group of seniors are preparing for the annual hazing of incoming freshmen. Randall "Pink" Floyd (Jason London), the school's star football player, is asked to sign a pledge promising not to take drugs during the summer or do anything that would, "jeopardize the goal of a championship season". When classes end, the incoming freshman boys are hunted down by the seniors and paddled. The incoming freshman girls are also hazed; they are rounded up in the school parking lot by senior girls, covered in mustard, ketchup, flour and raw eggs, and forced to propose to senior boys.
Freshman Mitch Kramer (Wiley Wiggins) escapes the initial hazing with his best friend Carl Burnett (Esteban Powell), but is later cornered after a baseball game and violently paddled. Fred O'Bannion (Ben Affleck), a senior participating in the hazing tradition for a second year after failing to graduate, delights in punishing Mitch. Pink gives the injured Mitch a ride home and offers to take him cruising with friends that night. Plans for the evening are ruined when Kevin Pickford's (Shawn Andrews) parents discover he planned to host a keg party. Elsewhere, the intellectual trio of Cynthia Dunn (Marissa Ribisi), Tony Olson (Anthony Rapp), and Mike Newhouse (Adam Goldberg) decide to participate in the evening's activities. Pink and his friend David Wooderson (Matthew McConaughey), a man in his early 20s who still socializes with high school students, pick up Mitch and head for the Emporium, a pool hall frequented by teenagers.
As the evening progresses, students loiter around the Emporium, listen to rock music, cruise the neighborhood and stop at the hamburger drive-in. Mitch is introduced to sophomore Julie Simms (Catherine Avril Morris), with whom he shares a mutual attraction. While cruising again with Pink, Pickford, and Don Dawson (Sasha Jenson), Mitch drinks beer and smokes marijuana for the first time. After a game of mailbox baseball, a neighborhood resident brandishing a gun threatens to call the police. They barely escape after the resident fires at their car. After returning to the Emporium, Mitch runs into his middle school friends. They hatch a plan to get revenge on O'Bannion. The plan culminates with them dumping paint on O'Bannion, who leaves in a fit of rage.
After the Emporium closes, an impromptu keg party is planned in a field under a moonlight tower. Cynthia, Tony and Mike arrive at their first keg party, where Mike is threatened by tough guy, Clint Bruno (Nicky Katt). Tony runs into freshman Sabrina Davis (Christin Hinojosa), whom he met earlier during the hazing, and they begin hanging out together. Cynthia likes Wooderson and exchanges phone numbers with him. Mike, suffering from the humiliation of his confrontation with Clint, decides to make a stand, punches him, and gets tackled. The fight is broken up by Pink and Wooderson. Football player Benny O'Donnell (Cole Hauser) confronts Pink about his refusal to sign the pledge. Pink, the only player not to have signed, believes it violates his individuality and beliefs. Mitch leaves the keg party with Julie. They drive to a nearby hill overlooking town to make out. Tony gives Sabrina a ride home and they kiss good night.
As night turns to dawn, Pink, Wooderson, Don, Ron Slater (Rory Cochrane) and several other friends decide to smoke marijuana on the 50-yard line of the football field. The police arrive, so they ditch the drugs. Recognizing Pink, the police call Coach Conrad, his football coach. Conrad lectures Pink about hanging out with "losers" and insists that he sign the pledge. Pink says that he might play football, but he is not going to sign the pledge. Pink leaves with his friends to get tickets to an Aerosmith concert. Mitch arrives home after sunrise to find his mother has waited up for him. She decides against punishment but warns him about coming home late again. Mitch goes to his bedroom, puts on headphones and listens to "Slow Ride" by Foghat as Pink, Wooderson, Slater and Simone Kerr (Joey Lauren Adams) travel down a highway to purchase their tickets. | pornographic, cult, revenge, psychedelic | train | wikipedia | We didn't have the freshman hazing, and few of us could afford the cars (although we sure knew about them and lusted after them), but the rest of this movie is so dead on about my experience of High School in the 70's that it's scary.
To me it's a toss-up between the opening "Sweet Emotion" GTO in the school parking lot and the Emporium scene with "Hurricane" playing in the background while (The Past) Wooderson, (The Present) Pink and (The Future) Mitch walk into the Emporium while the camera films every little nuance in slow motion.
Geils, Midnight Special, Wings Over America tour, Bad Company - Movin' On, Mott The Hoople - All The Young Dudes, SD 455 with the Big Bird on the hood, Marshall Tucker Band - Heard It In A Love Song, Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery, Edelbrock Tunnel Ram with Holley Double Pumpers, getting high at dusk while listening to Pink Floyd's "Time" and looking at the Dallas skyscraper skyline against the setting sun.If you do then Dazed and Confused is right up your alley.
And of course this was an early movie for director Richard Linklater, who had made the relatively unknown "Slackers" previously and who would go on to make "School of Rock", which was almost as good as "Dazed and Confused".Taking place on the last day of school in a small suburban town, "Dazed and Confused" is a brilliant ensemble piece rivaling anything done by Robert Altman that covers the broadest spectrum of teenagers imaginable.
The dialogue is fresh and unexpected; lines about George Washington's proclivity for marijuana, why you just gotta love high school girls ("I get older, they stay the same age", as McConaughey's character says), and the herd mentality when a fight breaks out demonstrate how all-over-the-map the dialogue can be, and it's always affecting and usually quite funny.
I never even heard of the film until this year when I saw most of it on TV and promptly decided to pick it up the DVD when I got the chance.To my mind, "Dazed and Confused" is one of the best high school comedy-dramas, along with 1982's "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." The difference between these two films is that "Fast Times" contains more goofy antics whereas "Dazed" is more of a docudrama with amusing flashes.
In other words, although "Fast Times is generally realistic, excepting the over-the-top parts with Spicoli, "Dazed and Confused" is more like a slice from real life.What makes "Dazed" work so well is that it gets the LOOK of the mid-to-late 70s just right, particularly the hair & clothing styles.
Speaking of the actors, you get a few up-and-comers here: Matthew McConaughey, Milla Jovovich, Ben Affleck and one or two of lesser note (as far as future popularity goes).All the standard school archetypes are here: the jock who parties on the side, the bullies, the hot sister and her little long-haired brother, the black dude, the hot (feminist) teacher, the streetfighter, the cool guys, the geekier crowd, the babes, the guy who graduated years ago but still hangs around, the mentors & mentees, etc.And then you have the standard school experiences like parties at friend's houses, keg parties, fleeing bullies, dealing with coaches & teachers, flirting, the possibility of sex, hanging out, meaningless conversations, fights, smoking pot at school or in your friend's bedroom, etc.Like "Fast Times," "Dazed and Confused" is a joy to watch -- whatever your age -- because it successfully takes you back to the high school years with all its joys & agonies.Some don't like it because it's more of a slice-of-life film than a plot-driven, contrived story.
But -- really -- this isn't a movie to look for deep messages, its simple purpose is to take you back to the school years -- in this case, 1976 -- and all the fun & painful experiences thereof.No review of "Dazed and Confused" would be complete without noting the excellent soundtrack.
There is a certain innocence about the period that our up-tight and violent world of today could use right now.Our film shows us the trials and tribulations of kids just looking to get high, drunk, or just save their butts from being paddled on the last day of school.
Smith, Ben Affleck, Christin Hinjosa, Parker Posey, Nicky Katt.Directed by Richard Linklater."Dazed and Confused" is one of the best teen films ever made, and for many reasons.
Dazed and Confused has a lot in common with Fast Times at Ridgemont High; both movies contain a lot of future stars playing teenagers, both have lots of terrific Rock tunes on the soundtrack, and both derive laughs from their characters and situations and not through jokes, pratfalls and other typical Hollywood clichés.
One difference between the two films is that Dazed and Confused is a period-piece, filmed in 1993 it takes place in 1976, and directer Richard Linklater does a marvelous job capturing the habits, the styles and the attitudes of the era.
The movie follows a group of high school juniors and another group of 8th graders (next years seniors and freshmen)through the events surrounding the last day of school in Austin, Texas in 1976 (the whole film takes place in approximately 24 hours).
At this point I need to mention Wooderson (McConaughey,in his film debut), a key character, he's that 20-something dude that still hangs with the high school crowd.
so its worth viewing for historical and social aspects as well as its entertainment value.But anyway, I hope you enjoy one of my personal favorites...a really cool, funny and realistic look at what teenage life was like in so many towns in America in the mid-70s.It may be set in Texas, but it could just as easily be Ohio..
And it is likewise plainly obvious in the film just as it was in real life, the senior boys learned this bizarre monkey-like behavior from those bastions of simian progress, their "coaches", roles universally filled by academic failures who represent the Wooderson's of the future.As disturbing as the hazing is, it belongs in the film because it was there, it was real, it was a part of our lives in that time and place, and I felt a delicious satisfaction when that one kid's mom met O'Bannion at the front porch cocking a shotgun.
But if you, like the filmmaker, were a Texas high school student in those amazingly permissive 1970's, and didn't particularly hate your life at the time, I think you'll absolutely love it.
Although, the cast is pretty impressive - maybe not when this movie was made, but, in retrospect, there are a fair few Hollywood A-listers all here in the younger (pre-fame) days.However, as much as I didn't really like it, I had to give it credit for getting the 'look' of the period right on.
Taking the setup from the classic American Graffiti and switching the setting to post-Vietnam in 1976, this is a coming-of-age story about a group of teenagers that for the most part represents what the entire young generation of that time was feeling and going through.
The film covers one last day of school filled with many happenings including, hazing freshmen, playing mailbox baseball and getting shot at, as well as drinking lots of beer and smoking lots of marijuana.
Headlining it are a young Ben Affleck as a crazed senior determined to make the freshmen's summer miserable, Milla Jovovich who I don't think utters more than five lines in the whole movie, and Matthew McConaughey as an older guy who still hangs out with the high schoolers but is so cool and organizes the get-togethers.This movie is very funny in some parts, but it is also very deep.
It's a movie where if you like it you'll watch over and over and over and over again (I think I've seen it 20 times since last year.).
The 1950s has "American Graffiti" and now the 1970s has "Dazed and Confused." Both are well-developed depictions of life in America during those decades with a focus around high school, growing up and making important decisions about what to do and how to live life.
Both also gather a killer soundtrack from each decade and the result is more about evoking nostalgia and showing those too young to know what life was like.Director and writer Richard Linklater does good work with this film about high schoolers (mostly incoming seniors) on the last day of school.
Linklater's focus appears to be showing the many ways that teens handled life and how they felt about it in 1976 through mishaps and comedic moments.The cast is a lot of fun, especially because a lot of actors when they were a bit younger appear in the film: Ben Affleck, Matthew McCounaughy, Parker Posey, Adam Goldberg, Joey Lauren Adams ("Big Daddy"), Anthony Rapp ("RENT") and even more.
Good thing because I probably would've punched anyone who was.The sick feeling I got when watching "Dazed & Confused" was a lot like the sick feeling I got when watching Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange", except that Clockwork is a powerful, intentionally unsettling film with a purpose while D&C is just a mess.
While, yes, these things were known to happen in the 70s, it was only about as frequent as you'd expect today, generally describing the 0.05% bored rich kids whose mommies & daddies were buying them cars while the rest of us were schlepping around in our rusty Dodge Darts because that's all our part-time jobs would cover (minimum wage: $2.35/hr in 1976).It quickly becomes obvious that this movie wasn't trying to give us an accurate portrayal of the 70s so much as it was a series of gratuitous 70s clichés.
It is particularly irritating that the movie would take its title from the great atmospheric Zeppelin song "Dazed & Confused" while not acknowledging it once in the film.
Not mainstream enough, I guess.If you want a cool, nostalgic 70s trip with poignant music (not just the regurgitated radio crap), check out the films of Gabrielle Salvatores with obscure yet awesome songs like Deep Purple "Child in Time" or the movie Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas with Jefferson Airplane's incomparable "White Rabbit" or for you serious 70s rock fans, the movie "Buffalo 66" with great songs by bands like Yes & King Crimson.
Fine performances from mostly unknown cast(and on their way to bigger and better things) and great soundtrack makes for an authentic , nostalgic addition to the likes of "American Graffiti" and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High".
They are members of the incoming freshman class and, as part of a time-honored tradition, they are about to be totally and painfully humiliated by the new seniors.Dazed and Confused explores the beginning of the 1976 summer from the varying perspectives of an unusual group of characters.
But recently I watched it again, only this time it was put on in the beginning stages of a party at a friends, where essentially there was the same mood as in the film which made it more enjoyable (this, and that my friends had a drinking game that whenever Affleck of McConaughey came up on the screen someone had to chug a beer, but that's obviously besides the point).
His film is for people just like in the movie, those who are going through the rites and passages of adolescence, and that can either make people feel pity for the characters, or humor.
Bottom line, Dazed and Confused does the one day, one night time capsule bit to as far as it can go, and it's a very entertaining like that- that, plus a fantastic set of 70's songs...speaking of which, no one should complain that the title track from Zep isn't on the soundtrack since they nearly never give license for their songs to be in movies (the only exceptions I can think of are Small Soldiers which had Communication Breakdown, and Almost Famous which had a few songs, but was only because of Zep's friendship with Crowe)...and this all being said, it becomes a little more compulsively watchable on repeat viewings; perhaps making it Linklater's most accessible film..
Reading some of the comments here, you would think that this film painted an idyllic picture about the transition from childhood to adulthood, as represented by the final days of junior high/high school.Whilst the film does paint a picture of teens frantically trying to have a good time at any expense, the film seems more about bullying, both physical and psychological, and about the sad depths that American teens will go to conform.Supercially, this appears to be a standard teen movie, but I suspect that what at first appears to be a deliberately blasé approach to ritual beatings, is actually a quite subtle way of drawing attention to the "lives of quiet desperation" endured by many of the characters.The director is either a lot smarter or a lot less pleasant than you can tell at first glance.
I give a low score because even if the director was making a social commentary, the film was moderately unpleasant to watch, from a European's point of view.There are some here who doubtless empathise with the jocks and the party lifestyle, but then they were probably the same people who, in their school years, made life miserable for those around them.I don't know if this unpleasant movie really does depict American teen life, then or now, but if it does, it certainly explains a lot....
Linklater manages to keep this teen film, with characters revolving around the end of a school year, very down to earth and authentic feeling.
(about 60 miles north of Austin, where the film is set.) Everything from the kids hanging out by their Pick-up trucks in the parking lot of school, to the Freshmen initiations, to the beer keg party out in the middle of nowhere is SOOOO High School in Texas at that time.
I especially love the soundtrack since it reminds me of how my big sister introduced me to "cool rock & roll" ala "Almost Famous." Change the music and clothes and it was pretty much the same when I entered High School four years later in 1980.
I loved this movie it was amazing.......it brings back awesome memories that i never had.....it makes me wish we were still in those times....the best part is when they are throwing garbage cans.....and in the beginning when Pickford says " Slater-San " that whole scene is great.....I've watched this movie like 20 times within a month of owning it............
The remarkable thing about this movie is that each time you watch it it actually gets better.
I think everything is always about me, but this movie was the closest thing to an autobiographical portrayal of my high school years, and I don't even know Mr. Linklater..
A great cast of yet-to-be stars, a great script and a movie that reflects what it was like to grow up in the '70's as a high school kid.
It was one of the first things that came to me after first watching this movie and while it may not have the same mass appeal for anyone who grew up in the mid-70's it brings back memories of parties, friends, school and of course the music.
Dazed and Confused is a classic teen film depicting life as a high schooler.
Few of them succeed in creating the more valid, profound and honest interpretation of teen life.Dazed and Confused is a film without a story, but that is intentional because the film is about depicting the best years of our lives and when you can just do things in your time and the way you want them.
Yes kiddies..being a High School grad from '76 I will definitely concur on the "spot-on-ness" of Dazed and Confused, especially in the music.(although it takes place in Texas, it was a bit lacking in ZZ Top.."Beer Drinker-Hell Raiser" comes to mind.)Truly a "way-back" machine with attention to detail:those polyester-nylon Little League uniforms still make me cringe and those laughable (sansa-belt?) athletic shorts worn by the football coaches -"yeah,right coach".The acting is fine through-out.Yes there was a fair amount of"sparking a J"(not to mention a laundry list of pills and powders) and cracking a brewski.
I like this movie anyway but the fact that it was filmed in Austin, Texas where I live makes it that much better.
The movie is such a great escape from today, a good study of the 70s for teens in America and I always enjoy it since it froze time for me at the school that I went to back in 1993....
Fast Times at Ridgemont High looks like Shakespeare when compared to this movie..
Dazed and Confused is a great, funny movie that brought back some good memories of my high school days.
So many teen high school films these days are moronic and try way too hard to be funny to immature kids.
But I had my good times too in high school and the qualities this film presents are true of all teenagers, regardless of when they were born.Dazed and Confused chronicles the lives of teenagers in the seventies, a portrayal that seems to suggest a grander and more carefree way of life.
Overall, Dazed and Confused is a real original, a high school movie that really doesn't try to be anything more than an interesting and funny and even poignant portrayal of high school students and their thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
This is one of the greatest high school films of all time for me.
Watching this film recently made me think that maybe I missed out on something in high school.
A lot of the antics in this movie, as well as the characters, remind me of my days growing up.A great cast of relative unknown actors (at the time) are in this film. |
tt0046896 | Deep in My Heart | In Boston in the early 1960s, Geraldine Cummins was walking home alone from the movies when she was jumped and raped by a black man. Stunned, she returned home to her husband Bob, stating she had been raped. Sometime later, she finds she is pregnant. In the beginning she hates the thought of her unborn baby, not wanting a constant reminder of her rapist, but keeps it for a few reasons: she is Catholic and she harbors a small hope that it could be her husband's baby. Her husband is supportive during the pregnancy. As the months pass, Gerry comes to be attached to the baby, later stating "8 months is too long to close your heart to a piece of yourself." She becomes fearful of what will happen if her baby is black, the social isolation it would receive and what people would think of her. After going into labor and confiding in a doctor her situation, she becomes convinced that it would be best if she gave it up. The baby is a black girl. She names her newborn daughter Barbara Anne Cummins and gives her to foster mother Corrine Burrel, a black woman in Roxbury, a black neighborhood. Gerry is heartbroken to give up her daughter.
Seven years later, Barbara is a happy little girl, but wonders about her birth parents. Corrine assures her that she is her mother, though not her birth mother. A few months later, a social worker comes into their home and informs Corrine that Barbara will be adopted by white people living in Wisconsin. Corrine seeks legal action, looking to adopt Barbara for herself, but as she is divorced with no job and many children, she is turned down. Barbara is taken kicking from Corrine and the family she has come to know. Later, Corrine reports that the social worker sent her a letter saying that Barbara was happy, but Corrine knew that they emotionally "killed" Barbara when they took her.
Annalise's husband Paul is not very happy to be adopting a colored 7 1⁄2-year-old, but Annalise is thrilled. After a while, Annalise becomes worried about Barbara's very detached nature and suggests to Paul they move to a suburban neighborhood where Barbara could be around other black kids. Paul is angry that they have to change everything for a child he did not want, but agrees, only to leave them after moving. Annalise opts to go to work during the day and to school at night to support them. Barbara has once again receded into herself after the neighborhood children make fun of her for being black with a white mother, calling her 'Oreo' and 'nigger'. Over the years until she is 16, she is alone without her mother or friends. At 16 she meets Don, a football playing choirboy. She falls in love with him and ultimately gets pregnant. Annalise comes home one day to learn that Barbara has a boyfriend and has been in the house alone with her when she was not there. After a mild argument, Barbara leaves. Barbara does not come home that night and Annalise calls the school. She is told her daughter is 4 months pregnant. Barbara then moves in with Don's sister.
Years later, in the middle of Barbara's third pregnancy, the doctor suggests she look into her birth family history for medical reasons. This leads her in search for her mother. She visits Corrine and later contacts the agency in charge of her adoption. By reading her adoption records, she comes to know the truth about her birth and her biological mother. Barbara is emotionally conflicted; whether to believe her father's a rapist or her mother's a liar. Barbara now has 5 children and has been married to Don for 17 years but still displays sadness over her lack of knowledge regarding her family history. After a night of contemplation, she decides to seek out her birth mother. Geraldine's husband Bob has died and her own children have left home, so she now lives alone. Barbara finds her though marriage records and contacts Geraldine's twin brother, Gerald. She reveals that she is looking for her mother and leaves her name and number for him to relay to Geraldine. However, because the call came as he was walking out the door to go on vacation, he is unable to relay the message to his sister, Geraldine until he gets back. She tells her brother that the woman who called is her daughter. At first he is shocked and disappointed that she could just give up her own child like that (she had told her family that Barbara had died as a newborn), but she explains she was raped by a black man. He warns her that everyone will know she was raped by admitting Barbara is her daughter, but Gerry says she does not care. Gerald gives her his blessing. Gerry calls Barbara and tearfully/happily admits to be her mother.
Revitalized by the happiness of knowing she was wanted by both her birth mother and foster mother, Barbara reconciles with Annalise. Anxiously, Gerry and her 3 grown children wait at the airport for Barbara's arrival. Then finally, after 34 years, mother and daughter meet. After a nice dinner with her new-found family, Gerry and Barbara have a bit of a tense conversation about Barbara's paternity. Barbara reveals she hates her father, but Gerry replies that she forgave him the minute she saw Barbara. She also says that the day she gave her up was the worst day of her life. Barbara is angry as to why Gerry gave her up if she loves her, asking if it would have made a difference if she had been born white. Gerry shamefully replies that she probably would have, because she was afraid every time she looked at her she'd see her rapist. But now, she only sees her daughter. Gerry says she only wanted the best for Barbara, to be with people who could teach her courage, which she could not, because Gerry felt ashamed for being raped and having a black daughter, though she loved her. Gerry apologizes to Barbara and the two reconcile as mother and daughter. Later, at a family reunion, Corrine, Gerry and Annalise meet again for the first time. The film ends with a picture of the entire side of Barbara's family, her mothers, her uncles, her brothers and sisters, her children, and her nieces and nephews, black and white together, and Barbara no longer feels like one person alone without a family. | romantic | train | wikipedia | She was crushing on Sigmund big time, but Ferrer only had eyes for Doe Avedon who played his beloved Lillian Harris.Operetta plots are so silly that productions are hardly ever done today.
Criticism of such work as Maytime, Student Prince, Desert Song and New Moon rightly belong in those films, but speaking as someone who likes good melodies, Sigmund Romberg certainly composed them in abundance.
A particular favorite here is Tony Martin singing Lover Come Back to Me from the New Moon.One of the reasons that this film came out in 1954 was also because Romberg had a posthumous hit running on Broadway at the time.
MGM took advantage of her small screen popularity by casting her in Deep In My Heart.Don't expect the life of Sigmund Romberg here, but be prepared for a great melodic treat..
Like most of MGM's alleged composer biographies, it distorts the details of the composer's actual life (in this case Broadway operetta composer Sigmund Romberg), but hangs all of his magnificent songs on an all-star coat rack.
And there lies the attraction: seeing Gene Kelly in his only on-screen appearance with real life brother Fred; Jose Ferrer performing with real life bride Rosemary Clooney (in all of her stunning beauty); and his friend and business compatriot Helen Traubel trilling away-- most effective in the beautiful and uncluttered "Softly" and the lush "Aufwiedersen" for the ears of a dying Merle Oberon (was librettist Oberon supposed to have a crush on composer Ferrer?).
Also choice is Ann Miller's Charleston tap dancing (and she looked great in that red dress); and super-babe Cyd Charisse in an 'Arabian Nights' ballet with James Mitchell (maybe the single most erotic dance performed on film): "One Alone--" in an incredibly sexy, nearly all-lace gown..
Jose Ferrer does an admirable job of portraying the composer Sigmund Romberg, and an all-star cast performs some of Romberg's tunes.Especially noteworthy is Rosemary Clooney, singing, most appropriately, the song "Mr. and Mrs." with her then-husband, Ferrer.
"Deep in My Heart" was their only on-screen performance together.Other memorable moments feature brothers Fred and Gene Kelly dancing and Ferrer performing a one-man show.
Deep in my Heart deserves to be seen.The songs are still highly enjoyable, and Donen, Spigelglass, Ferrer and the rest of the cast gave their best to the film..
This is too bad, because it contains some wonderful musical numbers: Cyd Charisse at her most spectacular in a number from THE DESERT SONG, Gene Kelly and his brother Fred as song-and-dance men, Jose Ferrer doing a surprising one-man-show routine that is astonishing, as well as a charming song and dance with opera star Helen Traubel.
We don't watch musicals looking for high brow entertainment, but when we find one that has a story line, the numbers are brilliantly staged with beautiful costumes, then we have a winner, as it's the case with "Deep in my Heart".Siegmund Romberg was one of the most beloved composers working on the Broadway stages at the beginning of the last century.
His collaboration with Dorothy Donnelly produced a string of winning musicals that helped establish his reputation as one of the best musicians working in America.Of course, this is a film that, by today's standards, would be considered politically incorrect.
Like the great American composers of the early 20th century, Mr. Romberg drew upon his European roots and the popular culture of the times he encountered in his adopted country.One of the best cinema actors of the time, Jose Ferrer, plays the title role.
Doe Avedon is Lillian, the woman who stole Romberg's heart.One of the benefits of having made the movie at MGM is the added bonus of seeing stars of the magnitude of Gene and Fred Kelly, Ann Miller, Rosemary Clooney, Cyd Charise, Tony Martin, Jane Powell, Howard Keel, Russ Tamblyn, Vic Damone interpreting the best Romberg's songs as part of whatever musical he was working at the time.A movie to treasure..
Romberg was a Central European Jew who came to the U.S.A. as a refugee from the pre-first world war Hapsburg Empire; and made a very successful career as a much admired composer of light music, much of which was coupled with romantic songs written by Dorothy Donnolley for Broadway musicals.
Romberg is remembered for writing light Viennese style romantic orchestral music which was extremely popular in the pre-jazz era, and I was surprised how enjoyable this music made watching the film.
For me, and probably others of my generation, the music in more recent musicals does not often compare with that in this film.One of Romberg's best known stage works was 'The Desert Song', which has been filmed three times, (the 1929 version containing more of Romberg's music), and watching an Arabian Nights sequence featuring Cyd Charise and James Mitchell made me very sad that all colour copies of the 1929 film appear to have been lost (although a monochrome version prepared for TV has survived.) The background notes above may be helpful to the many people today who have never heard any of Romberg's music, but as a review of this film the following (which alone would not have satisfied the IMDb 10 line minimum criterion) is all that is needed: This is a perfect film to watch with a life partner, or significant other, at the start of a short vacation together.
The Life and Great Music of Viennese-American composer Sigmund Romberg.
Jose Ferrer, though not a favorite of mine, is a really great actor and he gives a tour de force when he performs his entire show, playing all the parts, in front of the woman he loves and her disapproving mother.
Tony Martin, Cyd Charisse, Howard Keel, Jane Powell, Ann Miller and Vic Damone all add their talents and are exceptionally appealing.
Helen Traubel sings quite a lot of songs in this film, but her voice is excellent, despite the rather simple role of restaurant owner-friend-singer.Also nice, is seeing some actors who are still with us in character roles such as Robert Easton, Russ Tamblyn, and I do believe I detected a very young Robert Wagner as the "football player" in the Artists and Models stage scene, as an extra.In all, this is an excellent film of the period, with very cute humor, and helps educate fully about Romberg's music..
"Deep in My Heart" is a 1954 MGM musical starring Jose Ferrer.
It purports to tell the story of Sigmund Romberg, and while much I'm sure is left out, the film is filled with not only great music, but great singing.Well directed by Stanley Donen, the movie shows us Romberg trying to fit in with the musical comedy style, but really having a talent with a more classical, operetta-like bend.Not only is the music beautiful, but it is exquisitely sung by some of the best singers of that era.
My favorite song, "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" from "New Moon" is initially sung by the great Wagnerian opera star, Helen Traubel.
MGM pulled out all the stops, with Cyd Charisse and Ann Miller taking part in "One Alone" and "It" respectively; Vic Damone is on hand for a well-sung "The Road to Paradise," and he's joined by Jane Powell for "Will You Remember" from "Maytime," which in the beginning of the film is the operetta Romberg keeps insisting he wants to do.Gene Kelly and his brother Fred Kelly sing and dance to "I Love to Go Swimmin' with Wimmin" - you an see from the titles that Romberg had a versatility.
Howard Keel a strong "Your Land and My Land." The song "Mr. and Mrs." is performed by real-life Mr. and Mrs. Jose Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney.
One number after another, a fine film for a music lover.The cast is interesting - Merle Oberon as Romberg's writing partner Dorothy Donnelly, Walter Pidgeon is Shubert, Paul Henried is Flo Ziegfeld, and Dorothy Avedon, who died some months ago, is Romberg's beloved wife Lillian.All in all, a feast for the ears and eyes, with Ferrer doing a beautiful, energetic job as Romberg, even at one point performing an entire musical at full speed by himself.
Deep in My Heart is a wonderful biography of the life and music of Sigmund Romberg.
The film is very well acted by Jose Ferrer, Merle Oberon, and opera star Helen Traubel.The star-studded music numbers are a must see for any fan of the great MGM musicals.
Selections include a dance sequence with Gene Kelly and his brother Fred Kelly, "Maytime" with Vic Damone and Jane Powell, dance sequences with the incredible talents of Cyd Charisse and Ann Miller, Tony Martin singing "New Moon", and a host of other stars in performing in grand style.
The production values are splendid and by far the best scenes are the most erotic Desert Song sequence with Cyd Charisse and James Mitchell and the very funny Anne Miller scene from Artists and Models recycling all the Singin In the Rain clothes..
Besides the married (at the time) duo of Ferrer and Clooney, the film also had the still-married duo of Charisse and Martin, although in different acts.
This biopic covers a substantial portion of his life, pausing to present musical numbers from his shows from his earliest success ("Maytime") to his work with Oscar Hammerstein.Jose Ferrer portrays Romberg with a light hand.
Nevertheless, as a collection of set designs, use of Technicolor, musical performances, gorgeous (and talented) females in stunning costumes, and star turns for otherwise "serious" actors like Jose Ferrer, DiMH is both visually and aurally mindblowing to any student of the development of film-making.
In fact, for me, a close second best to 1950's 'Three Little Words', which just gets the edge for having a little more energy pace-wise and never giving the impression that it should have been shorter.Despite pretty much all of them being heavily fictionalised, with some like 'Till the Clouds Roll By' and 'Words and Music' really coming to life in the musical numbers and losing interest pretty significantly in the biographical sections, all of the 1940s-1950s composer musical biopics (titles being 'Till the Clouds Roll By', 'Rhapsody in Blue', 'Night and Day', 'Words and Music', 'Three Little Words' and this) are worth watching at least once.Based on the life of operetta composer Sigmund Romberg, whose magnificent tunes often paired with librettos that could be silly and thin but with enough elegance and charm, 'Deep in My Heart' is very loose biographically but as a piece of entertainment in its own right it does excel.
It is let down only really by the story dragging pretty badly in the middle section where there's less emphasis on song and more on biography, with the biographical sections despite being nicely written and excellently played lacking the momentum shown when the music/dancing takes centre stage.
At over 2 hours, with parts dragging, it does feel like a long haul at times and did feel like it could have been 15-20 minutes shorter.However, 'Deep in My Heart' is a beautiful-looking film, photographed with elegance and lavishly designed.
The music is magnificent (more on the highlights later), with none of the singers and dancers not doing justice to it, while the script has some cute, witty and sometimes sophisticated humour and also some emotional moments like the very moving Carnegie Hall finale.Jose Ferrer gives a bravura performance in the title role, essential for being the one holding everything together.
A big standout is the Cyd Charisse/James Mitchell dancing in "One Alone", sensuous doesn't describe it, while Ann Miller electrifies in "It" and Jane Powell and Vic Damone make hearts swoon in "Will You Remember".
Helen Traubel also sounds great, and 'Deep in My Heart' offers rare and delightful chances of seeing Ferrer and real life wife Rosemary Clooney together in "Mr and Mrs" and brothers Fred and Gene (yes that Gene) Kelly in "I Love to Go Swimmin with Wimmen".
(There are some differences.)Early on in the movie,*Deep in My Heart*, Romberg acknowledged that his music was not *The Mikado* but that *The Mikado* in turn was not...something else.
The light touch and sense of fun evident in so much of Stanley Donen's musical work is almost entirely missing from this ten-ton biopic of Sigmund Romberg, played diligently but without charm by Jose Ferrer.
Some work out beautifully, though most of these have more to do with dance than Romberg's melodies: a nifty tap production number with Ann Miller, an extremely hot "Desert Song" pas de deux by Cyd Charisse and James Mitchell, a lively comedy routine with Gene Kelly and his brother Fred.
But the best of Romberg is stiffly staged in vignettes featuring a bored-looking Jane Powell and Vic Damone ("Maytime"), William Olvis ("The Student Prince"), and Howard Keel (a very uneasy "My Maryland").
(Personally, I feel Jose Ferrer's "tour de force" one-man presentation at the resort cottage could have been left out.) Running at 132 minutes, it's a long haul.Still, there's the lovely Merle Oberon, silver throated Helen Traubel, and a dozen guest stars in featured production numbers.
It seems to me Mr. Ferrer was at his energetic peak at this time and his exuberance simply needed to be reined in (probably by Director Stanley Donen)."Deep in My Heart" remains a fairly good biopic with great talent, variety, and energy.
A lot of people know that the musicals numbers are more times than not the best thing about the movie.
This film, "Deep in My Heart," is about one composer of serious music who wrote what he called dribble for the masses as a mean to an end, so he could realize his dream of writing his "Maytime" – Sigmund Romberg, as played by Jose Ferrer.
The musical numbers features Rosemary Clooney (Jose's wife in real life), Gene Kelly, and Ann Miller, along with a few other major names.
The numbers that did stand out to me is an energetic number Ann Miller did, Jane Powell and Vic Damone's "Maytime" interlude, and the sensuous dance of Cyd Charisse and James Mitchell.
If you have seen other musicals, biopics or not, then you will see that this film is really not one of the best, despite the talented stars involved..
As Hungarian composer Sigmund Romberg, who made a big splash in New York City in the 1920s writing the music for an array of hit Broadway shows, José Ferrer sings, dances and cuts up like never before, even dropping to one knee for an Al Jolson impression.
He's just about upstaged, anyhow, by a virtual roll call of MGM talent (Ann Miller, Howard Keel, Jane Powell, and Gene Kelly dancing with real-life brother Fred), all appearing in the kind of glorified cameos the studio excelled at during this period.
My title comes from Ferrer's twice burlesquing of the title of one of Sigmund Romberg's most popular musical plays "The Student Prince", the lyrics of which were done by his Irish- American friend Dorothy Donnelly, here played by Merle Oberon, who serves as his quasi-girlfriend in the film, until he meets the woman who will become his second wife: a rather faceless Lillian Harris, played by Doe Avedon.
I was initially attracted to purchase a DVD of this film because it mentioned that Romberg was the composer of "Desert Song".
Other film adaptations of Romberg's works include the 1954 "Student Prince", featuring Mario Lanza'a voice, if not troublesome body, and "Maytime", as well as "New Moon", both starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, back 15-20 years before.
Also, Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote or co-wrote the lyrics for several of Romberg's best known works(including "Desert Song"), wasn't mentioned until nearly Dorothy's death, and was barely included at all in the film.
I did find it rather good, including the derisive song "Fat, Fat, Fatima", lyrics by Ballard McDonald.Turning to the various 'guest' performers: noted ballerina/dancer Tamara Toumanova, as Gabe, sings(dubbed) and dances a bit to "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise", in a very gaudy outfit and set, which Romberg clearly doesn't like.
But Hollywood wasn't giving up on operettas, at least not yet, having just filmed Romberg's "The Desert Song" (for the 4th time, if you include "The Red Shadow, a 1934 short) and "The Student Prince", as well as Rudolph Friml's "Rose Marie".
A glorious opening has the MGM chorus singing the title song after a brief orchestral medley of his songs, and don't be surprised if your spine doesn't tingle a bit when the first close-up on Jose Ferrer comes up.As other musical biographies always start, Sigmund Romberg is a hopeful composer who reluctantly writes jazzy tunes (the delightful "Leg of Mutton") to get his name bandied about by Broadway producers.
It's ironic here that the best numbers are the ones for his operettas, "The Student Prince", "The Desert Song", and "New Moon".
In fact, "It", lively sung and danced by Ann Miller is a little offensive.As far as the storyline goes, the music drops out completely in the middle of the film as Romberg's romance with his future wife Lillian (Doe Averdon) erupts, but fortunately, it's not gone for long.
Supporting Ferrer, along with his wife, are the lovely Merle Oberon as Romberg's lyricist and book writer Dorothy Donnelly and the amazing Helen Traubel as Anna Mueller, his life-long friend who has the voice of an angel, not to mention the heart of gold to go along with it.
This is a decent film and has some really nice numbers by some of the great MGM stars of the day.
My favorite musical number comes from Jane Powell and Vic Damone.
My other favorite has to be the song and dance number by Gene and Fred Kelly.
Or Rosemary Clooney singing and dancing...with her husband Jose Ferrer (star of the film).
Among them are the "cameos" for the musical numbers -- (in addition to those already mentioned) Jane Powell, Vic Damone, Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse, Howard Keel, and Tony Martin.In terms of the acting cast, Jose Ferrer was different enough here that I must reevaluate his talents. |
tt0388980 | The Greatest Game Ever Played | Set mainly in 1913, the film is about Francis Ouimet, the first amateur to win a U.S. Open. Amateur golf in that era was then a sport only for the wealthy, and Ouimet came from an immigrant family that was part of the working class. Ouimet watches an exhibition by legendary British golf pro Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillane) as a 7-year-old boy, and becomes very interested in golf. He begins as a caddy at The Country Club, a posh enclave located across the street from his home in suburban Brookline, Massachusetts, while making friends with the other caddies. He works on his own golf game at every chance, and gradually accumulates his own set of clubs. Francis practices putting at night in his room. He wins the Massachusetts Schoolboy Championship.
One day, a Club member, Mr. Hastings, asks Ouimet to play with him over The Country Club course, where caddies have almost no access of their own, and he shoots a fine round of 81 despite a 9 on one hole. His talent, composure, and good manners earn admirers and interest. With the help of Mr. Hastings and the Club Caddiemaster, Francis gets a chance to play in an upcoming tournament, the U.S. Amateur, the local qualifying for which is to be held at the very same Country Club course. However, his father Arthur (Elias Koteas) tells his son to quit golf and get a "real job". Ouimet needs $50 for the entry fee, and so agrees to get a real job and never play golf again if he could not qualify; his father lends him the money. On the 18th, Francis faces a three-foot putt that would secure him a spot in the championship, but he looks over and his father is watching. Ouimet is distracted, misses and falls one stroke short of qualifying for the championship proper.
With much jeer from the rich folk, Ouimet, now 20, fulfills his promise to his dad and works at a sporting goods shop, while continuing to live at home. After some time with his golf forgotten, Ouimet is still at the bottom of the working class. But one day, the president of the United States Golf Association enters the store and personally invites him to play in the upcoming U.S. Open. After some maneuvering and consideration from his employer, Ouimet secures entry. His father informs Ouimet that he must find his own place to live after the tournament; Ouimet agrees. However, his mother has been supportive of his golf from the start.
Ouimet competes in the 1913 U.S. Open that takes place at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, the familiar course located across the street from his home. Against all odds, with ten-year-old Eddie Lowery (Josh Flitter) playing hookey from school to caddy for him, he beats the British champions Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, then considered the world's best golfers, in an 18-hole playoff, following their three-way tie after the regulation 72 holes, and becomes the first amateur ever to win the U.S. Open. His extraordinary feat even wins over his father. | flashback | train | wikipedia | With this backdrop, this based-on-a-true-story unfolds with a young, working class boy who takes on the golf establishment and the greatest golfer in the world, Harry Vardon.And the story is inspirational.
Against all odds, Francis Ouimet (played by Shia LaBeouf of "Holes") gets to compete against the greatest golfers of the U.S. and Great Britain at the 1913 U.S. Open.
(The caddy is hilarious and motivational and steals every scene he appears in.) But despite these handicaps, Francis displays courage, spirit, heroism, and humility at this world class event.And, we learn a lot about the early years of golf; for example, the use of small wooden clubs, the layout of the short holes, the manual scoreboard, the golfers swinging with pipes in their mouths, the terrible conditions of the greens and fairways, and the play not being canceled even in torrential rain.This film has stunning cinematography and art direction and editing.
And with no big movie stars, the story is somehow more believable.This adds to the inventory of great sports movies in the vein of "Miracle" and "Remember the Titans."FYI - There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past winners going back 70 years..
Actor turned director Bill Paxton follows up his promising debut, the Gothic-horror "Frailty", with this family friendly sports drama about the 1913 U.S. Open where a young American caddy rises from his humble background to play against his Bristish idol in what was dubbed as "The Greatest Game Ever Played." I'm no fan of golf, and these scrappy underdog sports flicks are a dime a dozen (most recently done to grand effect with "Miracle" and "Cinderella Man"), but some how this film was enthralling all the same.The film starts with some creative opening credits (imagine a Disneyfied version of the animated opening credits of HBO's "Carnivale" and "Rome"), but lumbers along slowly for its first by-the-numbers hour.
Credit should also be given the set designers and costume department for creating an engaging period-piece atmosphere of London and Boston at the beginning of the twentieth century.You know how this is going to end not only because it's based on a true story but also because films in this genre follow the same template over and over, but Paxton puts on a better than average show and perhaps indicates more talent behind the camera than he ever had in front of it.
Look at the immense body of fine work that Ron did after moving behind the camera.Bill like Ron was a great actor, but will be a superstar director if "Greatest Game Ever" is the indication of things to follow.Wonderful cinematography - fantastic direction - fine acting, especially by Elias Koteas, Shia LeBeouf, Marnie McPhail, Josh Flitter, Stephen Marcus, Justin Ashforth.This is a must see film not just as "feel-good", nor "sports film", this is very good cinema..
Toward the end of this movie, "Seabiscuit" came strongly to mind, although "The Greatest Game Ever Played" is far less complex a story than that film.
The other actors do a good job as well, and the film contains moments of really high suspense, more than one might expect from a movie about golf.
In the 1913 US Open, 20-year-old Francis Ouimet (Shia Labeouf) gets a chance as he played against his idol, 1900 US Open champion , Englishman Harry Vardon (Stephan Dillane) .
Shia LaBeouf delivers an engaging acting as Francis Ouimet ; he is backed by a good supporting cast such as Luke Askew as Alec Campbell , Stephen Marcus as Ted Ray , Peter Firth as Lord Northcliffe , Len Cariou as Stedman , Elias Koteas as his stiff father Arthur Ouimet and special mention to Stephan Dillane as Harry Vardon , protagonist's idol as well as contender .
I used to snicker at the over-dramatic title, but through great visual display credited to director Bill Paxton (better known for his acting in Twister and hilarious supporting roles in Aliens and True Lies) we find out that this has much more meaning than a game.Though the movie is about golf, it seems as though the sport is just the framework for what is really going on.
With the continued support of his mother, Francis eventually comes face to face with his idol, the golf legend Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillane).More impressive than the game itself, was the movie's cinematic achievement.
I also loved seeing the old wooden golf clubs and the bag.Director's Work:[70%] Bill Paxton is more associated to acting but this film shows he's got talent.
This movie is so good I am really glad you made this because if you had not then I would have never ever known about this story because I am not a big golf fan and I think it is kinda boring so thank you.
The directing has all sorts of clever golf shots, and the period costumes and sets are really top notch.There are a few small quibbles -- many of the minor characters seem a little too stereotypically cast from the class warfare mold, but this is forgivable with the major characters so well drawn.Shia LaBoeuf playing Francis Ouimet is, as usual, callow and sympathetic.
More specifically, it's based on the book that's based on the true story of Frances Ouimet.The story is so simple that even a Tennessee Vols fan can follow it - boy loves golf, boy becomes caddy, boy begins to play golf, dad isn't happy because he thinks it's a waste of time, boy miraculously overcomes insanely enormous odds, movie gives audience a bunch of warm and fuzzy feelings, the end.
I think this movie is a quality film and definitely worth watching.The story was engaging, the cinematography and effects were a lot of fun and turned even 'normal' scenes into interesting eye candy.I didn't read the book and have yet to research the characters, but I look forward to checking into the story and seeing how accurately the film portrayed it.
It is also based on a true story and is about an underdog coming back to win the U.S. Open This is a must-see for anyone who loves sports movies (golf in particular)or inspirational movies..
I call the genre that this movie belongs in: "the type of movie I can take my 10 & 12 year old kids and still really enjoy myself." Being big fans of the book & movie "Holes," this was a must see for the family, since they share the same lead actor.The cinematography was great - it made the golf scenes exciting (and I don't play anymore).I realize this was based on a true story - which probably means the golf scores were, at least, accurate.
The antagonist is the oppressive "elitism" of the age - which makes one smile considering how far the game has come (can you say "Tiger Woods"?).I highly recommend this movie, if you like a good story or good acting or a well shot movie or golf in general...or all of the above..
The "Awesome" in-game camera shots are LITERALLY taken from Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf on the Playstation, the story plods like a sulking school boy, the multi-stranded character and plot development cripples an already weak setup, and the grand finale is plain boring.Aside from that, it really was the greatest film I've ever seen in my entire life.
'The Greatest Game Ever Played' is the story about Francis Ouimet (Shia LaBeouf), one of America's most famous golfers.
Old movies I like but not golf however, within the first scene a young boy (Harry Vardon) is awaken by the voices of men.
The focus of the key relationship in a young man's life, that of his relationship with his father, was excellently portrayed in this movie, "The Greatest Game Ever Played." The movie captured the essence of how important it is for a father to validate his son and let him know that he has what it takes to follow his dream.It didn't matter that economic and social class mores presented obstacles to be overcome by both father and son.
I give it 3 stars (out of 4), but would only recommend it as (1) family fare (makes sense, it's a Disney movie); (2) to golfers who like the historical aspect of the story or (3) to those who might have read the book.
To his credit, Bill Paxton, the director, does a nice job with camera angles, special effects and capturing the personalities of the main characters including two of the real characters in the book, Ted Ray and Eddie Lowery.I can understand why this movie bombed at the BO; golf is difficult to sell when its live and the drama is unfolding, its impossible to sell when watching a guy line up a putt that took place 90 years ago and for which you already know the result.
This victory opened it up to the masses, much the way that Tiger Woods has opened golf to all races.Like Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillane) said to Lord Northcliffe (Peter Firth): " ...if Mr. Ouimet (Shia LaBeouf) wins tomorrow, it's because he's the best, because of who he is.
From the folks who brought us 'The Rookie', 'Remember the Titans' as well as lesser known 'Miracle' comes a true story about golf.he scene is set at the end of the 19th Century, a time of change, then fills in social, historical and personal context over two dozen years that builds to perfection to the 1913 US Open championship, which sorts through a tough field to a playoff between the worlds best and an unknown local talent diverted from his eventual career in business.Pitted against each other the two share some backstory.
There aren't very many golf movies and this one is THE golf movie that seemingly explodes on the screen with an amazing opening series of animated, antiqued colored titles and then with an brilliant display of cinematography and one of the most emotively, provocative musical scores, this almost epic feeling movie about 20-year-old Francis Ouimet ultimately leads to the climatic last third of the movie of the real life 18 U.S. Open Championship that pit young American amateur against the British Open Champion Harry Vardon.
Although a keen golfer myself with a love of the history of the game, perhaps due to not being an American, I somehow didn't know about this wonderful true story of young golfer Walter Ouimet winning the US Open golf championship in a play-off against two British golfing-greats Ted Ray and Harry Vardon, being caddied all the way round by a ten year old boy!
I doubt even Disney could have come up with a story so implausible although it's perhaps no surprise that it was Disney who funded this warm, if sentimental and idealised bringing to life of the tale.Yes, there are some unnecessary touching-ups to the original sequence of events, like the liberty taken with the last-hole winning putt (Ouimet actually won by five strokes) and especially the invention of a society love interest of young Ouimet, not only to add a touch of romance but also, in the form of her snobbish father and brother, some class-conflict, just one more obstacle for the young golfer to take on.
The film wisely chooses not to demonise his two main English opponents Ray and especially all-time great Vardon, indeed the latter is shown to have demons of his own and who apart from one mild example of gamesmanship practiced against an opponent, is shown to be demonstrably fair and sporting, very much upholding the traditions of the game.It does take a bag-full of camera tricks to make golf exciting in a movie and director Bill Paxton uses every one of them to try to do so, using zoom-ins and outs, fast-cutting and slow-motion, at times even sitting the viewer actually on the ball as it flies to its target.
These are perhaps overdone and betray the film's target family audience, but are compensated by good acting by all the main actors, especially young Le Bouef a credit to the memory of the modest but competitive Ouimet and the even younger Josh Flitter as Eddie Lowery, his moxy, pint- sized caddie, who was obviously 10 going on 40 (unsurprisingly the real-life Lowery grew up to become a millionaire).Filmed in warm soft-focus with a pleasant depiction of the era of golf's Golden Age and a stirring soundtrack at its back,this was an entertaining film, which while occasionally taking the circuitous route, managed to get round the course in a little bit better than par, I'd say..
If not the greatest game ever played, certainly the 1913 US Open, where 20-year-old amateur Francis Ouimet (Shia LaBeouf) defeated reigning champion Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillane), would have to rank in the top five.
I am not a golf fan but I found this movie inspiring to young people and I think as a mother it made my heart patter watching the mother of Grancis Ouimet push her son to greatness.
Its about a golf caddie, Francis Ouimet (Shia LaBeouf) who has a dream to become the best golfer in the world but he hasn't got the money to enter the sport.
Shia Le Beouf stars as 20-year-old Francis Ouimet, the historically amazing young man who had a knack for the game of golf and beat out two "veteran" British players (Harry Vardon and Ted Ray) for the U.S. Open, and did so using a preteen caddy with a loud personality but a love of the game.There have been a lot of films made featuring golf at their cores and I've seen many of them.
The main character is the punk from I Robot and the Project Green Light movie that did not even make the theaters (Thats what you get when you team up with Matt Damon and Beniffer) I love golf and the story is great as everyone knows.
He touches on the class warfare of the time and the family and personal demons that haunt both 20 year old Francis Ouimet (played right down the middle by Shia LaBeouf) and the great Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillone captures the quiet dignity of the champ).
Toss in a pure Disney character in Ouimet's caddie, Eddie (played for all its worth by the interesting looking and full of rhymes Josh Flitter), and you have a mediocre, pleasant film that is going to please most audiences, but will be forgotten the next day.Just for fun, it should be noted that Bill Paxton's real life son plays young Harry Vardon at the beginning of the film and an almost unrecognizable Elias Kotsas plays Francis' father.
Period.------------------------------------------------------------------not only one of the best sports movies of all time, imo, but also one of the finest movies I've watched in years..Disney does make very good films.
Period.------------------------------------------------------------------not only one of the best sports movies of all time, imo, but also one of the finest movies I've watched in years..Disney does make very good films.
However, if one has ever been present at a tournament which is match play, you know that the suspense & tension is such that you can cut it with a knife.My main issue with the film is that, while it spent quite a lot of time dealing with Francis Ouimet's social inferiority in 1913 society, it didn't fully tell the story.
Disney tells a wonderful underdog saga with "The Greatest Game Ever Played," the true story of Francis Ouimet, the father of amateur golf, directed by Bill Paxton, starring Shia LaBeouf, Stephen Dillane, Marnie McPhail, Elias Koteas, Josh Flitter, and Stephen Marcus.The Massachusetts-born Ouimet was the child of a Canadian father and Irish mother, who grew up across the street from a country club, where he started caddying at the age of 11.
Ouimet's upset win popularized amateur golf in the United States.Ouimet's caddie was a ten-year-old boy, Eddie Lowery, whose brother couldn't caddie because he was caught by a truant officer.Bill Paxton has done a great job directing this rousing film, giving the viewer the feeling that his is there on the course, watching the various shots as they travel across the green.The performances are excellent, with LaLaBeouf doing an amazing job as Ouimet, who puts up with prejudice and hardship to live his dream.
It was the greatest, not simply because an unknown 19 year old amateur, Francis Ouimet upset one of the greatest golfers who ever lived, Harry Vardon, (And another very fine golfer, Ted Ray as well), but because it marked a turning point in the history of golf in America, helping to make the game popular among all Americans.
Shia LaBeouf has impressed me before with his acting ability, but I can honestly say that I very much look forward to his next efforts...his portrayal of Francis Ouimet, a 20 year old caddy who ignores his father's insistence that golf is not his place in life and enters the 1913 US Open tournament in his hometown...the beginning of the movie does drag a bit, but it's necessary to set up the underdog subplot that Shia works so well...the entire cast is well-chosen and they work very well together in a story that, based on the actual event, has an ending everyone can discover before seeing the movie...but even knowing that information doesn't spoil the fun...Josh Flitter is delightful as Eddie Lowery, Francis' caddy, who keeps him grounded and loose while at the same time proving to be an invaluable part of Francis' effort...Stephen Delane is outstanding as Harry Vardon, the legendary British golfer who Francis idolizes yet does not fear...and who knows the background Francis comes from as he, too, had humble beginnings...Bill Paxton takes a formulaic movie and makes it worthwhile...bravo Mr. Paxton, and bravo to the cast...from the imagery to the story to the people who bring it alive, this is a movie to get, enjoy, and revel in...it's nice to have movies like this that we can feel good watching.... |
tt0112738 | Criminal | After witnessing the unfortunate death of a woman, who was unable to afford hospital treatment, Dr. Ajay Kumar (Akkineni Nagarjuna) cancels his U.S. immigration and instead sets out to work a plan to open a hospital that will be accessible to people who cannot afford treatment in regular hospitals, called "Amma Hospital". This draws quite an attention, and he becomes popular, especially with two young women, Swetha (Manisha Koirala) and Sub-Inspector Ramya (Ramya Krishna). He falls in love with Swetha and both get married, breaking Ramya's heart in the process. Shortly thereafter much to their delight, Swetha becomes pregnant.
When Swetha discovers a frightening organ-smuggling operation in her hospital while going through a friend's diagnostic report, she calls Ramya. Ramya calls the police for help as Swetha is being attacked, and names the attacker as "Ajay". Swetha eventually succumbs to the attack. The police arrive to find her dead body and arrest Ajay for murder. It seems that Ajay's motive for killing Swetha was money, as Swetha was a wealthy heiress. Ajay is convicted and sentenced to death. While being transported to prison, the police van meets with an accident and Ajay escapes. The police launch a manhunt for him but are unable to catch him. Ajay secretly meets with Ramya and tells her that he did not kill Swetha, and he wants her help to catch the real killer. The film ends with Ajay catching the real killer and finding out that he was hired by Ajay's friend Dr. Pratap (Sarath Babu), the man responsible for the organ smuggling operation. | romantic, murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0101583 | Ranma ½: Chûgoku Nekonron daikessen! Okite yaburi no gekitô hen | On a training journey in the Bayankala Mountain Range in the Qinghai Province of China, Ranma Saotome and his father Genma fall into the cursed springs at Jusenkyo (呪泉郷). When someone falls into a cursed spring, they take the physical form of whatever drowned there hundreds or thousands of years ago whenever they come into contact with cold water. The curse will revert when exposed to hot water until their next cold water exposure. Genma falls into the spring of a drowned panda while Ranma falls into the spring of a drowned girl.
Upon returning to Japan, the pair settle in Nerima, Tokyo at the dojo of Genma's old friend Soun Tendo, a fellow practitioner of Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū (無差別格闘流) or "Anything-Goes School" of martial arts which Genma passed on to Ranma. Genma and Soun agreed years ago that their children would marry and carry on the Tendo Dojo. Soun has three teenaged daughters: the polite and easygoing Kasumi, the greedy and indifferent Nabiki and the short-tempered, martial arts practicing Akane. Akane, who is Ranma's age, is appointed for bridal duty by her sisters with the reasoning that Akane dislikes men and since Ranma is only a man half of the time, they are perfect together. Both Ranma and Akane refuse the engagement initially, having not been consulted on the decision, but they are generally treated as betrothed and end up helping or saving each other on some occasions. They are frequently found in each other's company and are constantly arguing in their trademark awkward love-hate manner that is a franchise focus.
Ranma goes to school with Akane at Furinkan High School (風林館高校, Fūrinkan Kōkō), where he meets his recurring opponent Tatewaki Kuno, the conceited kendo team captain who aggressively pursues Akane, but also falls in love with Ranma's female form without ever discovering his curse (despite most other characters knowing it). Nerima serves as a backdrop for more martial arts mayhem with the introduction of Ranma's regular rivals, such as the eternally lost Ryoga Hibiki who traveled halfway across Japan getting from the front of his house to the back, where Ranma spent three days waiting for him. Ryoga, seeking revenge on Ranma, followed him to Jusenkyo where he ultimately falls into the Spring of Drown Piglet. Now when splashed with cold water he takes the form of a little black pig. Not knowing this, Akane takes the piglet as a pet and names it P-chan, but Ranma knows and hates him for keeping this secret and taking advantage of the situation. Another rival is the nearsighted Mousse, who also falls into a cursed spring and becomes a duck when he gets wet, and finally, there is Ranma's impish grandmaster, Happosai, who spends his time stealing the underwear of schoolgirls.
Ranma's prospective paramours include the martial arts rhythmic gymnastics champion Kodachi Kuno, and his second fiancée and childhood friend Ukyo Kuonji the okonomiyaki vendor, along with the Chinese Amazon Shampoo, supported by her great-grandmother Cologne. As the series progresses, the school becomes more eccentric with the return of the demented, Hawaii-obsessed Principal Kuno and the placement of the power-leeching alternating child/adult Hinako Ninomiya as Ranma's English teacher. Ranma's indecision to choose his true love causes chaos in his romantic and school life. | violence | train | wikipedia | Its Ranma 1/2...
in specialized Movie format!.
In a case of sheer irony, Ranma 1/2 (specifically this movie) often suffers the indignation where most of the insults and bad reviews come from the Ranma 1/2 fans themselves.
Of course it can't compete with Takahashi's brilliant manga, and the 1st TV season is the best Anime adaptation of the series.
Just leave this movie alone - its great.Now I have one question...
WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY does everybody think "Movie 2: Nihao My Concubine" to be a better film?
Sorry, but my money is on this, the first film.
Sure, the plot is hackneyed; how many times exactly have we seen "guy saves girl" in animated films?
But, heck, if Ranma was a serious psychological drama, that would be a problem.
Too bad it isn't, and so long as it features Happosai getting whacked around, Kuno getting clobbered, and Genma's "sign language," I'm just peachy.
As for other reasons its better than the second...
Its a lot longer, it flows more like a feature film should, the pace is infinitely faster, there are more gags and they're a lot funnier, and fanservice is dead-zero.
ZILCH.
So go ahead and watch "Silicon Beach" with Ranma-chan bouncing every five seconds (ever wonder why female Ranma fans dislike it?).Synopsis...
oh, shoot, just consider it as more of like a bunch of fun and cool stuff that just happens.
You'll be a lot better off than the fans who were expecting a visual tour-de-force that questions the existence of humanity, it seems....
Below average Takahashi adaption.
Have you noticed, how every first theatrical animation of a series has to a) have every character appear at least for a split second and b) present a story that would like to be overwhelming (but is actually very poor) and tries to adapt the complete content of the original comic character development as if there was no intent of making another one ?
And then the creators loosen up in the making of the sequel which then turns out much better ?
This is a perfect example.
The seriousness and the somewhat heroic-like behaviour of the protagonists just don't allow the typical "Ha-ha-Ranma-no-baka" feeling, especially towards the end.
Sure, there are some laughs, but hardly anything new for the devoted Ranma-lovers.
You don't have to be a Ranma-Fanatic to enjoy this movie, but being one doesn't help either..
absolutely hilarious!.
i recently saw this and it was so funny!
the story was your typical save akane routine, but in the beginning, it shows all of the characters in the past chase after ranma and haposai.
a great opening.
the animation is very traditional, the characters are funny as hell, especially panda, and ranma soups up his incredible fighting moves.
see this one for hilarious laughs and good times..
What's the point?.
I kinda like Ranma...
but the whole thing drags out waaaaaaaaay to much.
whenever they run out of material, hey, let's add another character in love with Ranma and have a old one beat him up, or hey, let's add another character in love with Akane and have him beat Ranma up!
This movie isn't funny.
The Ranma jokes are old, old, old.
We've seen it all before.
Akane kidnapped, Ranma duels with the guy who did it, and whoever wins gets Akane.
Yawn.
Some pretty cool fights near the end though.
We actually get to see Ranma bleed!But after seing this movie, I just kinda feel: "what was the point?" There was nothing in here that was even remotely new, so what about this story was considered special enough to make a movie out of?/Auryn.
Here's my little movie summary.
I figure since no one's written on this yet, let me be the first.
And this is from a fan, not a film critic, so hey.
Well, it's Ranma, and for those of you who love Ranma, you must think this movie's like the toast of the town whatever phrases y'all use].
But, looking at it objectively, it's a horrid story.
I am of the unfortunate few who don't understand Japanese and have to wait for english dubbed releases of movies, but when you get right down to it, this movie wasn't a great piece of writing.
The beginning opens with I think just about every Ranma TV-show character ever made, but then they all vanish so you can get to the real story, which is your standard, "Girl gets kidnapped, it's up to Guy/Girl to rescue her!" It contains a few choice moments (prince Kirin eating meat!) but other than that, it's a pretty lame movie.But to fans it's great!I voted it a 4 because the second Ranma movie is better by leaps.
[Not bounds, just leaps].
This movie does the "Ranma 1/2" name proudly.
The following may contain some spoilers...be advised.I have recently completed watching every season of the Ranma 1/2 anime, including the movies, OAV's and all of the Manga.I enjoyed this movie to a point.
One aspect I found as a let down, there really isn't any real comedy in this one.
While there are points at comedy, Suon & Genma provide some, and the "chase scene" (Our group trying to chase Kirin's Blimp with a small dingy, as an example).
I won't give way the main plot, which is a sort of a comic device of why Happôsai did what he did.
Yet in all it seems the movie tries to take a serious look..with a serious plot, something that was rarely done in the series.
Which is probably why most "Ranma 1/2" fans don't like it all that much.On it's own, the story holds up.
If you have not seen any of the anime after Season 3, you may just enjoy this one.
If you have seen Seasons 4-7, you will find a lot of what this movie is about is just part of a rehashed storyline that was over done in the anime.
One aspect that most "Ranma 1/2" fans have a problem with was the "Akane as the damsel-in-distress" story plots.
To many this was over done, and at one point, while Akane still has a fiery temper and can hold her own in a fight, she is shown in more ways to be less of a fighter...or needs help...or simply waits for Ranma to show up.
Something she blatantly states to Kirin almost word for word after she is kidnapped and told she will be his bride.However, we do see Ranma starting to come out of his shell about his feelings for Akane.
Backed up by Kirin's last words to Ranma before he leaves.It's not the best of the series.
But it can hold it's own.The opening sequence is a nice touch, featuring all, or nearly all, of the reoccurring characters from the series.
Another nice touch was the background cell paintings.
If you watch the series, then this movie...you can immediately see a difference in the background.
It is much more detailed, especially the Tendo home, and along the streets as Female Ranma chases Happôsai.
It gives the area in which the characters live much more depth and a nice rich color..
Severely Underpar.
Who can forget that opening scene...
I know I can't, Ten whole minutes of nothing happening, and in an inexplicable moment, the aura of an elephant fills joins the chase and beats everyone up.
Unfortunately we don't get to see her actually preform this type of manuver again, and on a whole, she does nothing else; besides settle 1 fight by flirting.Then on, there are more overly drawn out scenes and futile attempts at humor.
For instance, Akane serves her 'home cooking' to the prince, who has only eaten pickles and rice since birth because of a condition that only allows his metabolism to handle pickels and rice.
(Naturally, the pickels end up getting dumped out).
The thing is, this scene is only 'referenced' to, but has no part of the overall story, and end run, really isn't that funny.In the end, Ranma only faces two (I believe) of the seven opponents...
the rest beat him up and are distracted or knocked out by the others.
Heck, I thought Ranma was this egotistical fool who wouldn't accept defeat...
sure looked like he was defeated a lot.Heck, the 'final' boss was easier on Ranma then the other seven, having an impenitrable "chopstick" defense, Ranma brings forth a gyser and broke through by hurtling globlets of water at him. |
tt1459013 | Uninhabited | Marine biology student Beth and Harry are a young couple seeking a distinctive holiday trip, and they spend ten days on a deserted and idyllic coral island on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, recording many of their adventures with a camcorder. The first two days manifest that they are not alone and the island has a disturbing history. Haunted by a presence, they find an abandoned grave next to an old shack, the latter which has an old drawing and seven tally marks inside on the wall. When Beth and Harry sift through their camera, they discover they were filmed sleeping. Alarmed, Beth wants to leave, but Harry intends to stay, believing kids are playing pranks. They sight fishermen on a boat with guns and later realize that the grave has been remodeled, now decorated with red coral, with a wooden cross embedded at the head of the grave that reads "Coral" on it.
The following day, Beth and Harry find severed sea cucumbers (trepang) hanging from a nearby line. By this episode, they realize they are in trouble and their phone, which they plan to use to call for rescue, goes missing. Searching for the phone, they come across Spiro (Billy Milionis) and Elias (Terry Siourounis), the two lunatic Greek fishermen they had seen the day before. This leads to Beth and Harry being tied up after snooping around their space and boat, accusing them of stealing their phone. Beth is sexually molested, but a female ghost appears and injures one man, as the fishermen flee from the island on their boat, and Harry and Beth manage to free themselves.
The next day, Beth reads an old journal left behind in the shack. She learns the ghost is a girl named Coral (Tasia Zalar), a young island girl who worked for a company, harvesting sea cucumbers in the 1920s. Treading on a venomous stone fish, she became an object of ridicule and was raped by seven men from the company. Ever since her death, her soul seeks vengeance against all men who visit the island. Beth is wrapped up in the story that Harry initially believes to be a hoax, and Beth admits she would do the same as Coral if she was the victim. Realizing they're in grave danger, the next day they plan to create a bonfire in the hopes a rescue team finds them. However, a ringing phone brings Harry alone to the shack and he encounters Coral, who kills him with a knife and hangs his naked body in a tree above her grave. As night falls, Beth finds his hanging corpse dripping blood onto the grave and faints.
The next morning, Beth recovers to find all trace of Harry's body gone—but one of the graves near the campsite has been filled in. While lighting the bonfire, she sees Coral standing on the reef. She runs in the water towards her, only to step on a stone fish, sending the painful poison running through her legs, as she manages to return to shore. On the tenth day, Jackson comes back to pick up the couple he dropped off, but no one is seen. He goes to enter the shack finding the journal resting on a chair. A menacing Beth confronts and presumably kills him. One of the final scenes show Beth's grave next to Coral's, appearing as if they joined forces. | revenge, horror | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0042478 | The Franchise Affair | Robert Blair, a local solicitor, is called on to defend two women, Marion Sharpe and her mother, who are accused of kidnapping and beating a fifteen-year-old war orphan named Betty Kane. Set in Milford, the novel opens with the Sharpes about to be interviewed by local police and Scotland Yard, represented by Inspector Alan Grant (who is the protagonist of five other Tey novels). Marion calls Blair and, although his firm does not do criminal cases, he agrees to come out to their home, "The Franchise", to look out for their interests during the questioning.
Betty's account is that during the Easter holidays, she went to stay with her aunt and uncle, the Tilsits, near Larborough. After a week, she wrote to her adoptive parents, the Wynns, to say she was enjoying herself and would spend another three weeks with the Tilsits. Then one evening, waiting for a bus, the Sharpe women approached her in their car and offered her a lift. They took her to the Franchise, demanded that she become a domestic worker, and, upon her refusal, imprisoned her in the attic. Betty alleges that they starved and beat her until she escaped.
When Blair meets Marion and Mrs. Sharpe, who are sensible and forthright, he believes them innocent, and he distrusts Betty. Yet Betty does have bruises from a beating, and she describes items and rooms inside the Franchise accurately.
Later in the week, a newspaper runs a long story from Betty's side, based on an interview with her vengeful brother, Leslie. Robert Blair now finds that the townspeople of Milford are mostly against the Sharpes. An exception is Stanley Peters, a local car mechanic and friend of Blair, who says that Betty reminds him of an ex-girlfriend who was promiscuous and deceitful.
As interest in the case builds over a few weeks, locals engage in overt hostility against the Sharpes: public snubbing, then graffiti on their walls, then smashing of the windows; the vandalism culminates when the Franchise is destroyed by arson. Stanley has become a friend and ally to the Sharpes, serving as a night guard for them, and then providing them shelter when their home is burned down.
Blair is assisted in his search for clues against Betty Kane by his cousin, Nevil Bennet, who also works at the law firm, and his friend Kevin Macdermott, a flamboyant London barrister.
The clues that they chiefly uncover are in the manner of character evidence, and Tey supplies a colourful variety. Examples include the facts that Betty has an eidetic memory; when Betty returns home after the alleged kidnapping, the only item she has with her is lipstick; she tells the Wynns about her abduction not right away, but in various details over a few days; Betty's mother was promiscuous, "a bad mother and a bad wife", according to a neighbour; Mrs. Tilsit, the aunt, tells Blair that Betty spent most of her holiday time not with her aunt and uncle, but in unsupervised freedom: going to the cinema, using buses, and eating lunch away from home; Betty had befriended a teenage girl who had once worked for the Sharpes as a cleaner, whom Betty had bullied. She is described by a couple of people as demure and looking as though "butter wouldn't melt in her mouth"; one of them, a restaurant waiter, tells Blair that Betty came in for tea several times, looking wholesome: "And then one day she picked up the man at the next table. You could have knocked me over with a feather."
Robert Blair, who has been a lifelong bachelor living with his woolly-minded Aunt Lin, becomes strongly attracted to Marion Sharpe, who is described as gypsy-ish (because of her dark hair, browned skin, and habit of wearing colourful scarves). Marion, who likes Blair, is however determined to remain single and stay with her sharp-tongued mother, who is her best friend. Nevil, although engaged, also finds Marion attractive; an aspiring poet, he describes her as "all compact of fire and metal. ... People don't marry women like Marion Sharpe, any more than they marry winds and clouds. Any more than they marry Joan of Arc."
The book maintains the suspense of the Sharpes' guilt or innocence for the first half, and then, when the reader feels certain they are innocent (though all the evidence points to them) the tension comes from how they will avoid being wrongfully incarcerated. Things go right down to the wire, with a lot of detailed investigative work paying off in a satisfying fashion at the trial. | melodrama | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0049966 | Written on the Wind | Self-destructive, alcoholic nymphomaniac Marylee (Dorothy Malone) and her insecure, alcoholic playboy brother Kyle (Robert Stack) are the children of Texas oil baron Jasper Hadley (Robert Keith). Spoiled by their inherited wealth and crippled by their personal demons, neither is able to sustain a personal relationship.
Problems ensue after Kyle's impulsive marriage to New York City executive secretary Lucy Moore (Lauren Bacall), who becomes a steadying influence to his life through the first few months after they meet. Kyle resumes drinking after being unsuccessful in fathering a baby. He turns against his childhood friend, Marylee's long-time infatuation, Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson), a geologist for the oil company. Kyle's anger and depression grow after the death of his father, who admires Mitch but is disgusted with the behavior of his two heirs.
Mitch is secretly in love with Lucy. He keeps these feelings private until Kyle, having been diagnosed with a low sperm count, physically assaults Lucy when she announces her pregnancy, wrongly assuming it to be the result of adultery with Mitch. Lucy's fall results in a miscarriage. Mitch vows to leave town with her as soon as she's well enough to travel. On his return, a drunken Kyle recovers a hidden pistol and intends to shoot Mitch. Marylee struggles with her brother for the weapon, but it accidentally fires, killing him.
Repeatedly spurned by the man she claims to love, a spiteful Marylee threatens to implicate Mitch in Kyle's death. At the inquest, she first testifies that he killed her sibling. But she tearfully redeems herself at the last second by admitting the truth. Mitch and Lucy depart, leaving Marylee to mourn the death of her brother and run the company alone. | melodrama, revenge, psychedelic, romantic, flashback | train | wikipedia | Mesmerizing to watch even as it resorts to the "lowest -common- denominator" melodrama, WRITTEN ON THE WIND is ultimately the work of one man, the incredibly gifted director Douglas Sirk, an émigré from pre -World War 2 Weimar Germany who left his European theater heritage behind to pursue a career in Hollywood.An extremely erudite man, Sirk made a name for himself in the 1950's as Universal Studios' reliable director of lavish soap operas, most notably with Ross Hunter's productions of MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION , ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS and IMITATION OF LIFE .
Both brother and sister, as venal and unlikeable as they are, are presented as victims of their past, giving them a human quality that makes them seem less monstrous ( and far more interesting than the 'good" side of the family, mainly Bacall and the impossibly handsome Rock Hudson , young Hadley's old boyhood friend and business associate, a surrogate son to the old man and Malone' s unattainable object of desire.
It is ironic that during the '50s, when Douglas Sirk was at his most successful in terms of audience appeal, he was virtually ignored by the critics
He is now seen, however, as a director of formidable intellect who achieved his best work in melodrama
"Written on the Wind" is about the downfall of a Texan oil dynasty surrounded by worthless reputation, alcoholism, and nymphomania
It is about the twisted, fatal connections between sex, power, and money...Stack draws a compelling portrait of a tormented drunken destroyed by frustration, arrogance, jealousy, insanity, and some deep insecurities
Dorothy Malone succeeds as an attractive woman with an excessive sexual appetites, degrading herself for Hudson and to other fellows in town
Her best line: "I'm filthy." In one frantic scene, we see her shaking, quivering and sweating to a provocative mambo
In another weeping alone over a model oil-derrick at her father's desksymbol of excessive wealth and masculine tyranny
The frenetic atmosphere is both made palatable and intensified by Sirk's magnificent use of colors, lights, and careful use of mirrors.
Robert Stack never really got over losing a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as Kyle in "Written on the Wind" to Anthony Quinn's 12-minute performance in "Lust for Life." Stack plays the deeply disturbed, alcoholic son of an oil tycoon.
Their story plays out in glorious color under the able direction of Douglas Sirk, who really dominated the melodrama field with some incredible films, including "Imitation of Life," "All that Heaven Allows," "Magnificent Obsession," and many others.Make no mistake - this is a potboiler, and Stack and Dorothy Malone make the most of their roles, Malone winning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
When Robert Stack flies the plane and `tempts' Lauren Bacall with all sorts of mundane comforts of the world below them (obvious Faustian echoes) we are strangely fascinated with him too, as we are when the devilish nymphomaniac little sister painfully evokes her past with Mitch alone by the river.In the Sirk's universe the studio often-imposed `happy ends' have no negative impact.
One wouldn't think at first of similarities between Welles and Sirk's films but there are a good many, starting with the petrol business as the origin of the family's fortune and ending in the fact that Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson), as Charles Foster Kane, was adopted by a tutor, having his own father alive.
Although Lauren Bacall and Rock Hudson as staid camp followers of a wealthy Texas family are the "stars", it's the perverse characters played by Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone who make the film such a vivid nightmare of the Eisenhower era of outdoor barbecues and post-war wealth.
This is due in part to the very strong performances, particularly Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone as Kyle and Marylee Hadley, the filthy-rich but morally empty children of an oil tycoon who traipse about looking for thrills and challenges.
Texas millionaire Robert Stack, into oil and the ladies, meets attractive executive secretary Lauren Bacall from New York--via best friend Rock Hudson, who already has eyes for her--and finds himself immediately proposing marriage; Hudson feels rightfully snubbed yet keeps up a brave front, but the Texan's rowdy sister (Dorothy Malone) gives the new lady a rude awakening to the lifestyles of the rich and ruthless.
Unlike Boucicault, I would never doubt Sirk's talent, as his films reveal him as a true, visionary artist who was able to transform soap operatic stories into sublime motion pictures.His best, I believe, is Written on the Wind.
The characters in this film do just about everything.As immensely entertaining as this story is, the reason people remember it (besides Robert Stack's wonderful performance as a raging drunk) is Sirk's masterful direction.
I am just not a fan of soap operas, and this is so "soapy" you could fill a tub big enough to wash (you fill in the blank.) I have no problem with the four main actors of this film - Robert Stack, Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall and Dorothy Malone - having enjoyed all of them in other movies/TV shows.
And another thing is that players give some of their best performances away from their home studio.Rock Hudson got such accolades for his performance in the Texas based film Giant that Universal executives must have thought, let's quick get him into another modern Texas setting.Similarly Robert Stack got great reviews for The High and the Mighty as the pilot who was cracking under the strain of flying a damaged aircraft that it was natural to give him another crack up role.Both of these ends were achieved in Written on the Wind.
Brother and sister Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone are the spoiled, troubled heirs to the Hadly oil fortune; boyhood chum Rock Hudson and new bride Lauren Bacall are the sane outsiders who try to keep the lid on the roiling cauldron.
Douglas Sirk was a filmmaking genius and he gets performances out of Rock Hudson, Dorothy Malone (Oscar winner), Robert Stack (Oscar nominated), and Lauren Bacall that words cannot describe.
Roger Ebert gives Douglas Sirk's "Written on the Wind" laudatory props for being subversive, ironic, a commentary on 50s materialism, ahead of its time, the forerunner to TV soaps like "Dynasty" and "Dallas," and god knows what else.But watch it.I love Sirk's "All That Heaven Allows" (truly brilliant, and brilliantly executed, for its genre) and "Imitation of Life" (the ULTIMATE in the lush romantic melodrama genre and a tearjerker that EARNS its tears, thanks largely to the performances of Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner).By comparison, "Written on the Wind" is an insult on virtually every level.
"TEMPTATION!"The camera has to cut away from brief shots of Malone in her pink peignoir swirling across the lens because Malone simply isn't capable of being genuinely "sexy" on screen, though she labors mightily.Ostensibly her "best" performance was in "Man of a Thousand Faces." Even there Malone was an amateur among professionals, but her role was more sympathetic and better written.In "WOTW," in her big courtroom scene with her glycerin tears, she's still doing the slo-mo fork-lift facial up-and-down sultry shtick we've seen since reel one.Then Hudson and Bacall drive off into the sunset, or something, accompanied by the Four Aces -- the FOUR ACES!
She and Gloria Grahame played the same sort of tramps--and for her efforts here in a very manipulative role, Malone won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.The film she's in is not quite up to Oscar standards, but it is a strong enough melodrama under Douglas Sirk's capable hands.
There's an almost noirish look to the explosive opening scene and it sets the tone for the rest of the sudsy fireworks in a story that has ROCK HUDSON, LAUREN BACALL, ROBERT STACK and DOROTHY MALONE as its headliners.Domestic squabbles among the inhabitants of a wealthy family with an oil background are the primary focus of the drama, with the accent on the strong supporting players, Stack and Malone.
I have had Dorthy Malone in my spank bank most of my life ,maybe this was the film that impressed me.Loren Bacall sure did have some chops in this film and probably out-acted Malone but Malones's part made a more sensational impact so she got the Oscar for best supporting role.Was Loren's part considered a leading role?Old man Hadley character was was probably a pretty common picture of tycoons of his era in that he was a regular guy who made it big in an emerging industry but in building a whole town he had forgotten his children to have his wife bring them up.In time,being widowed he realized that they were all he really had and they were spoiled rotten,looking for attention,so rather than try to relate to his children he blew his head off.An ancient morality tale.But seriously,what were those sports cars?.
On 24 October 1955, the hard-work geologist of the Hadley Oil Company Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson) meets the executive secretary Lucy Moore (Lauren Bacall) in the office of her boss Bill Ryan in New York and invites her to go to a conference with the alcoholic playboy and son of a tycoon Kyle Hadley (Robert Stack).
The Bacall character meets Kyle's sister, Mary Lee, a tramp if ever there were, played to the fullest by Dorothy Malone, who was voted best supporting actress.Rock Hudson plays Mitch, the faithful friend.A year of wedded bliss for Kyle and his bride ends when Kyle is told by the doctor that he can't have children.
Her Oscar was well deserved.Surprisingly, Robert Stack, brilliant as Kyle Hadley, was nominated for best supporting actor and lost in an upset victory by Anthony Quinn, as Paul Gauguin, in Lust for Life.Douglas Sirk was the master of soap opera films of the 1950s.
Rich Texas oil family, its slutty daughter Marylee (Dorothy Malone) and wastrel son Kyle (Robert Stack) who suffers from, as the family doctor puts it, "let's call it a 'weakness'" crumbles before your very eyes, as the good, noble, humbly born folk inherit the earth.White trash petroleum geologist Rock Hudson gets sucked into this family like an innocent bird into a plane's exhaust system.Gorgeous working girl Lauren Bacall volunteers to marry into the family, partly out of pity for Kyle, partly because she wants the goodies he can throw at her, like a drawer full of sequined purses and a closet full of designer gowns -- Kyle displays this to her as a courtship gesture.
Most certainly a crazed soap opera, "Written on the Wind" rises above that due to its stunning performances (Stack and Malone do the best work of their lives and Hudson was only better in "Giant") that ignite a wicked screenplay and highly impressive direction from Douglas Sirk (who had an otherwise very ho-hum career of making films).
It's no complaint of course, Rock Hudson was a great actor for these sort of roles and actually the worst movies they did together were their non-melodramatic ones.I would actually assume that the story for this movie on paper looked extremely bland and average but Douglas Sirk simply managed to really spiced things up with his directing skills and made the movie a perfectly watchable one.Can't say I was always too happy about its pacing.
Things are not helped by Kyle's equally wild, promiscuous sister Marylee (Dorothy Malone) and her unrequited love to Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson), a long-time trusted friend of Kyle.Director Sirk's shamelessly melodramatic style is evident right from the very first scene where the drunken and highly upset Kyle arrives to his home on a windy autumn night.
And, you can't be bored in a courtroom scene when Malone's hat repeatedly slices the movie screen.********* Written on the Wind (12/12/56) Douglas Sirk ~ Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone.
Alcoholic playboy Kyle Hadley (Robert Stack) marries the woman (Lauren Bacall) secretly loved by his poor but hard-working best friend (Rock Hudson), who in turn is pursued by Kyle's nymphomaniac sister (Dorothy Malone).I love that the Criterion disc says it is presented in "lurid Technocolor".
The main characters are: A rigid patriarch his alcoholic son Kyle (Robert Stack) (never loved by the disappointed father) his frustrated and nymphomaniac daughter Marylee (Dorothy Malone)Lucy (Lauren Bacall) - a woman of principles, formerly a secretary and now married to Kyle Mitch (Rock Hudson) - brought up together with Kyle and loved by the patriarch.
In her autobiography,Laureen Bacall reveals that Bogie told her that she should not make such dud movies as this one or something like that.At the time,Douglas Sirk was labeled "weepies for women",actually,he was restored to favor,at least in Europa,after he stopped directing.And when he filmed "written on the wind" ,Sirk had only three movies to make:"tarnished Angels","A time to love and a time to die",his masterpiece,IMHO,and finally" Imitation of life"(1960).Then there was silence.
Actually Bacall and Hudson characters do not interest Sirk.They are too straight,too virtuous.Dorothy Malone -who was some kind of substitute for his former German star Zarah Leander-and her brother Robert Stack provide the main interest of the plot.A plot constructed continuously ,most of the movie being a long flashback.The instability of the brother and the sister ,from a family of rich Texan oil owners,is brought to the fore by garish clothes,and rutilant cars that go at top speed in a derricks landscape.
Actors Robert Stack, Lauren Bacall, Rock Hudson and Dorothy Malone dig, like literal famished prospectors, into their roles with absolute relish and gusto..
Douglas Sirk's melodrama, Written On The Wind (1956), tells the story of Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson), a geologist for the Texan-owned Hadley Oil Company.
Made in the high point of Douglas Sirk's career, WRITTEN ON THE WIND now is deemed as a quintessential melodrama which fully embodies Sirk's artistic flair, he is not ashamed to induce the most obvious feelings in the most flashy way, from a character's normal protection colour (which is often identified by his sublime colour scheme), under a straightforward story-line and minimalist core cast.The story majorly concerns a quartet of characters ensnared in their own desire and conscience, perplexity and indecision, frustration and cowardice, self-love and jealousy: Kyle (Stack) and Marylee Hadley (Malone) are the children of a Texas oil baron, grow up together with their childhood friend Mitch Wayne (Hudson), whom Marylee has developed an unrequited infatuation with.
There is also something graphic in the way that both Robert Keith, who plays the patriarch Jasper Hadley, and later on his own daughter, the evil Marylee, caress the oil derrick that adorns the elder man's desk, a sort of phallic object d'art.Douglas Sirk probably wanted his cast to give over the top performances, which makes sense in the way Dorothy Malone portrays the nymphomaniac Marylee, and to a certain degree, Robert Stack, who overacts as Kyle, the tormented heir of the story.
Kyle Hadley(Robert Stack)and Mitch Wayne(Rock Hudson) are boyhood friends with different looks on life.
The self-destructive brother and sister (Robert Stack, reeling his way through the film in a drunken stupor, and Dorothy Malone, playing a vampish poor little rich girl totally over the top) end up the losers and Hudson gets Bacall - who is rather wooden in this part which does not have enough character or wit to get her going.
Her scenes in the courtroom make it clear to us that not only is her brother Kyle (Robert Stack in an Oscar-nominated performance) a sad waste of a life, but they all are living a nothing existence-- except those who manage to get away (which is what Lauren Bacall and Rock Hudson must do in the last shots).
Hudson who was a better actor then given credit for plays the childhood & best friend of Stack's, and the stalked love interest of Malone's who moans & groans over Rock through most of the film.
Douglas Sirk, the King of 1950's melodrama, hit another bullseye with 1957's Written on the Wind, a soapy but extremely entertaining film that still works, despite some dated elements.The film stars Robert Stack as Kyle Hadley, a wealthy alcoholic playboy who instantly falls for a secretary at his father's company (Lauren Bacall), who has also caught the eye of Kyle's best friend Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson), who is also the lifelong obsession of Kyle's trampy sister, MaryLee (Dorothy Malone).Based on a novel by Robert Wilder, George Zuckerman's screenplay makes all the moves expected from melodrama in the 1950's...we have best friends torn apart by a woman, a man who thinks he can buy a woman's affections and learning that all the money in the world is ineffective next to a wedding ring and that obsession can drive people to destroying people they care about.The primary quadrangle that makes up this story is constructed in a way that we know immediately there's no way things aren't going to get messy, but the slow reveal of how the destruction commences keeps us guessing and throws in a couple of curves we didn't see coming that during 1957, probably had some censors squirming, but probably attracted audience in droves as word of mouth spread.There are some really interesting casting choices made here...Robert Stack probably had the most significant role of his movie career as the self-destructive Kyle and he makes the most of it, forcing Rock Hudson to underplay his role in order to make Stack's performance viable.
Sirk uses a clever flashback structure to take us into his world...Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone are magnificent as the two Hadley "kids", Kyle and Marylee.
When young Marylee Hadley (Dorothy Malone) is in trouble with a man, her brother Kyle (Robert Stack) along with his best friend Mitch come to rescue her.
But the movie tells a different story, the movie stars Rock Hudson as Mitch Wayne a man who happens to be lifelong best friends with an alcoholic playboy named Kyle Hadley (played by Robert Stack in an Oscar nominated performance) who is dating a woman named Lucy Moore (played by Lauren Bacall) who Kyle then gets married to and doesn't know that Lucy is secretly in love with Mitch, as well as Marylee Hadley (played by Dorothy Malone in an Oscar winning performance) who is Kyle's nymphomaniac sister who is sexually attracted to Mitch. |
tt0060482 | Dacii | In a pre-credit sequence, a massive Roman army arrives at the gates of a Dacian town. The Roman envoy asks them to open the gates, promising them life and liberty. The guard on watch asks who is making this demand, and gets the reply "the masters of the world". He responds "You will be when we will die".
After the credits we see a Roman army commanded by General Fuscus (Georges Marchal) arrayed at the Danube waiting for the right moment to attack Dacia. Fuscus and Roman senator Attius plot to kill the decadent emperor Domitian, who has just arrived to take command. Attius's son Severus (Pierre Brice) is a subordinate commander under Fuscus. News arrives that the Marcomanni have risen in rebellion. Domitian decides to make a deal with the Dacians so he can use the army to suppress the rebellion. Attius is sent across the Danube with Severus and a small contingent of legionaries to negotiate. But as soon as he enters Dacian territory Attius is killed by a Dacian sentry. Severus returns to camp with his father's body, and Domitian orders an attack.
In Dacia Cotyso (Alexander Herescu) and Meda (Marie-José Nat), children of King Decebalus (Amza Pellea), are hunting in the Carpathian Mountains. When news arrives that Attius has been killed Decebalus makes the mysterious remark that he was "the only Roman who was not supposed to die". Decebalus reveals that Attius was really a Dacian called Zoltes, sent to Rome 40 years ago as part of a plan to promote Dacian interests. He had been supplied liberally with gold annually so that he could become influential in Roman politics and keep Decebalus informed of events in the capital. When he died he had been carrying a letter to Decebalus informing him of Roman plans and dispositions.
Decebalus orders an evacuation of the border province accompanied by delaying operations against the Romans. He sends a symbolic message to Domitian: a caged mouse, frog, bird, a knife and a quiver of arrows. The message is misinterpreted by the Romans as a sign of Dacian submission to Rome (the animals signifying the land, waters and air, all being handed over with the weapons). Severus is deputed to travel to the Dacian capital to receive Decebalus' surrender. When he gets there, Decebalus reveals to him the truth about his father Attius. He also tells him that the true meaning of the message was that the Dacians would fight to the end against invaders.
The Dacians prepare for war. According to ancestral custom, the bravest young warrior must be sacrificed to the Dacian god Zalmoxis to win his favour. Since the king's son Cotyso won a contest of athletic and martial skill, he has been given the honour of being sent to Zalmoxis. Cotyso accepts that he must die and is sacrificed by being thrown onto spears. Decebalus says that the god will now be with them in their battles.
After Severus reports back, an angry Domitian sends Fuscus to crush the Dacians. Severus is ordered by Fuscus to lead the vanguard into an attack on the Dacians in a valley, but they are drawn into an ambush. Severus is badly injured. Believing him dead, Fuscus blames the disaster on Severus. Meanwhile, a wounded and delirious Severus is wandering through the mountains. He is found by Decebalus' daughter Meda, who takes him to her cabin. They fall in love. When Decebalus finds out, he asks Severus to convince Domitian to negotiate, but Severus says that he must do his duty as a Roman officer. Decebalus lets him go. Back at the camp, Severus argues violently with Fuscus. Fuscus says he intends to overthrow Domitian, offering Severus the position of governor of Dacia, but the latter refuses. The two generals fight each other, and Severus kills Fuscus. Witnessing the fight, Domitian gives Severus command of the army and tells him to attack the Dacians. Decebalus, meanwhile has assembled his own army. The two armies confront each other across the battlefield. Decebalus and Severus meet between the armies and engage in single combat. Severus is killed. As he dies he says "this is all I could do for you". The two armies then march towards each other into battle. | historical | train | wikipedia | One of the greatest historical movies of all times!.
Unlike many Hollywood movies of the same period (Cleopatra, Ben-Hur, Fall of the Roman Empire, etc) this one is almost perfect in the historical accuracy sence.
They used the latest archeological data available at the time (Trajan's column) to show Roman legions in their glory.
Cinematography is great.
I've heard they used something like 5,000 extras to create battle scenes.
Unlike its sequel (Collona), this movie is a masterpiece for everyone who likes cinema and ancient history.
I think that if it would be released in the USA it would be nominated for Oscar.
Its a shame that this video is hard to find and is not available in major stores..
This is really a very impressive movie, one of my favourites.
This is really a very impressive movie, one of my favourites.
And what is its major advantage?
It's a deep and natural empathy for the ancient past without any need to add some artifical tricks.
Music score perfectly matches with all scenes.
Landscape views with marching or fighting legions are superb.
Unfortunately, at least VHS record is very hard to find and DVD doesn't exist so far.
There should be no doubts that this movie, as well as some other similar releases, deserve a better international recognition of fans and connoisseurs..
a masterpiece on Romanian history.
Nicolaecu's movie is one of the greatest Romanian films ever made.
The leading role of the king belongs to Amza Pellea, who wonderfully combines the force of the ancestors and the art of giving life to such a character.
The genuine landscapes bring the viewer into a prodigious world of mystery and ancient beliefs which are now violently invaded by the roman conquerors.
The co-production benefits not only from the performance of the actors, the settings or the daring achievement in directing of Nicolaescu, but also from the unique, yet true story.
This is what i call a good movie, but this is the comment of a novice in matters of movie critics.
For those who enjoy spending precious time on movies, this is worth watching..
On "Dacii" and "Columna".
I wish people were less "detached" and less bored sometimes, to appreciate valuable movies for what they really are - valuable movies.
As I am about to finish watching "Columna" on TV here in Bucharest, I'm thinking how lucky we are to have this fascinating history.
To us, both "Dacii" and "Columna" are excellent and make very valid points as to how ancient Dacia was conquered by the Romans.
I am sorry that these movies (as many other Romanian historical movies) are not easy to find in the West, as the viewer comments on here seem to indicate.
(I'd initially come on here to see where they could be found, to recommend them to a friend in the West).
I think they would also prove useful, providing a wealth of information and "insight" for anyone wanting to learn more about this part of the world..
Great historical movie.
Best fight scenes , huge masses of soldiers , very credible movie.I saw that movie when I was a child and I was very impressed .
I saw again when I grew up and still impressed.
I was fascinated by the story of fighting between Dacia and Rome and when I saw this movie the stories became reality.
Great performance for the unforgettable actor Amza Pellea as Decebal (the king of dacians) and the best movie of Sergiu Nicolaescu.
This is a super-production in the spirit of '60 movies (Spartacus , Battle for Rome).
A movie with great Romanian and international actors.
The movie is better than The Gladiator or other actual historical movies..
Roman Legions invade Dacia.
"The Dacians" (Dacii) follows a very decent plot for a sword-and-sandal genre.
Roman legions invade Dacia ready to become "The Masters of the World." But this Roman world is not united, but filled with intrigues and back stabbing among the Emperor and the general.
"Sufro," (I suffer it) proclaims the Emperor while hiding his satisfaction.
On the Dacian side, patriotism (300 Spartans style) fills their souls.
"Why the Dacian smile when they die?" asks the Roman commander.The photography of the Romanian country side and the Roman Legions on the march is excellent.
The soundtrack is superb when the Roman legions are advancing.
To add to the spectacle 5,000 extras fill the landscape.Thanks to a Web site that sells Romanian movies in the NTSC format, I could watch this little jewel again.
The follow up ("Column" or "The Trajan Column")seems to be unavailable..
Attractive sword and sandals film from Romania.
Attractive Romanian film (actually a Romanian-French co production filmed in Romania) belonging to the swords and sandals genre and telling the story of how the Dacians confronted and resisted the Roman Empire at around 100 AD.
Great action scenes, attractive outdoor locations (in pastoral like locations) are a plus.
This was made in 1967, when many films of this sort were made in the West (the so called Peplum, including Spartacus, Cleopatra and countless Italian movies), yet this particular film seems to be little known outside Romania.
It is a well made, entertaining film with fine color photography.
Since the Dacians are believed to be the ancestors of the Romanians, I suppose part of the purpose of the film was to raise nationalist consciousness, but this is thankfully not too heavy..
THE DACIANS (Sergiu Nicolaescu, 1967) ***.
A Romanian film – better-known, if at all, by its original title DACII – about the Roman (i.e. Italian) Empire is an absolute rarity, but I was instantly drawn to it from the evocative stills I saw on the Internet.
The fact that it featured a couple of French stars in Pierre (MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN {1960}) Brice and Luis Bunuel/peplum regular Georges Marchal, then, was merely the icing on the cake; however, it did feel odd hearing them speak in a completely foreign tongue!
For all its obvious naivete' (being, at best, a semi-professional enterprise and actually only the director's first feature-length effort!), the end result proves reasonably impressive – primarily on the visual front (with location photography that is indeed spectacular and the battle sequences themselves emerging as not only surprisingly elaborate but rather brutal as well!).That said, the plot offers its own interest – with even some novelty value in store: the titular people are engaged in war against the Romans (rulers of all the known world at that time).
Being Pagans, to determine whether the odds are in their favor or not, it is required that the King sacrifice his first-born i.e. a son who is literally dumped upon an upturned fork and bleeding to death!
This turn-of-events naturally sours the relationship between the potentate and his daughter, who leaves the castle grounds to settle in the country.
The Romans, too, have their problems: Emperor Domitien is perhaps the most condescending ever portrayed; his adviser is adamantly against invasion (believing the Dacians can be persuaded to lay down their arms without the need for carnage); their ageing if still athletic champion warrior (Marchal) is suffering from temporary blindness due to an old wound; while another 'star' officer (Brice, actually the afore-mentioned bureaucrat's son) is wounded during an initial skirmish, cured for by the Dacian king's daughter (needless to say, they end up falling in love), and ultimately revealed to be a native of the very land he is intent on conquering for the glory of Rome!
A sort of follow-up, made by other hands, was 1968's COLUMNA aka THE COLUMN which similarly featured 'recognizable' names for the international market (though their overseas exposure was extremely limited in the long run!): Briton Richard Johnson and Italians Antonella Lualdi (from Vittorio Cottafavi's THE HUNDRED HORSEMEN {1964}) and Franco Interlenghi.
Actually, THE DACIANS reminded me of Robert Siodmak's two-parter STRUGGLE FOR ROME (1968) – a German epic that was only released abroad in heavily-truncated form as THE LAST ROMAN..
Sergiu Nicolaescu's movies are available on DVD since July 11, 2008.
The newspaper "Adevarul" (the Truth) releases on DVD the "Historical" series of movies made by Sergiu Nicolaescu in the '60s, '70s and '80s.
This contains the movies "Dacii" (the dacians), "Mircea", "Mihai Viteazul", "Nemuritorii" (the Imortals), "Capcana mercenarilor" (the mercenaries' trap), "Pentru patrie" (for the country).
They are restored from film rolls from the National Film Archive (or national television archive), but quality is limited to VHS resolution.
Given the film and audio technology level in 1967 the soundtrack is mono with subtitles in English and french.
Colors are restored, but some scratches are visible throughout the movie, given its 41 years of age.
Visual or audio effects were no concern for Nicolaescu, since its movies are based on historical facts transcending time and people.
Fight scenes are real, using 5000 plus extras synchronized and filmed with multiple cameras, since no more than two takes were possible in one day at that scale.
I don't know if the movies will be available outside the country, since are distributed only with the paper.
http://www.filmeleadevarul.ro/istorice/category/filme/dacii/.
Mediocre Peplum.
"Dacii" is a mediocre contribution to the peplum (aka, sword-and-sandal) genre.
Massive sets and a cast of (literally) thousands do not compensate for an awkward script, unimaginative direction, and (with some exceptions) wooden acting."Dacii" was a French-Romanian co-production, with the Romanians very much the senior partner, investing an enormous amount of money and resources in the project.
In Communist Romania, as in all Communist countries, film production and distribution were government monopolies, and cinema was conceived primarily not as art or entertainment, but as propaganda.
"Dacii" was the visual consecration of the Romanian Communists' rapid and paradoxical evolution from servile Moscow clients to maverick National Bolshevists.
It would be followed by a whole string of historical films (known collectively in Romania as "The National Epic"), whose purpose was to construct a visual national mythology which would ultimately legitimise the Communist Party and its leader, the notorious Nicolae Ceausescu, as the modern incarnation of Romania's past mythical heroes.The script is mostly static, rich in speeches and solemnities, but poor in action and weakly developed.
The direction is rigid and conventional, lacking in rhythm or inspiration, unable to bring real interest even in the scenes involving a huge cast (eg, the siege of Argidava).
Nicolaescu is clearly not up to the level of a Bondarchuk (or even an Aleksander Ford in "Krzyżacy").No peplum would be complete without the dubbed foreign stars; in this instance, they are three nowadays almost forgotten French actors.
Georges Marchal was a French star of the early 1950s and a peplum veteran, but here he delivers a stiff and unconvincing performance as Fuscus.
Marie-José Nat as Meda has neither the sheer physical beauty, nor the screen presence or acting skills that would have allowed her to make something of a part which offered little to begin with.
Pierre Brice (better known for his portrayal of an Apache chieftain in numerous Karl May-inspired movies) is conventionally heroic as Severus.More notable are three Romanian performances.
Amza Pellea as Decebalus displays remarkable skill, imbuing living depth to what seems to have been designed as a vehicle for nationalistic blather.
Emil Botta is impressive in the small but significant part of the High Priest.
And György Kovács is simply superb as Domitianus, managing to be effete and sinister without descending into outright camp."Dacii" is, of course, rife with anachronisms, anomalies, and inanities (eg, the Roman cavalry charging...
a Dacian fortress!).
But all these, as well as the defects outlined above, must be put into perspective.
From "Cromwell" to "Braveheart" and beyond, anachronisms and inanities abound in historical epics of much greater pretension and reputation.
Weak scripts, stiff direction and poor acting are par for the course in the peplum genre.
"Dacii" was director Sergiu Nicolaescu's first feature film; the fact that he managed, on his first outing, to bring to completion such a complex project is perhaps more noteworthy than his failure to make it interesting.What the Western viewer may perhaps fail to appreciate is that the film is loaded with Romanian nationalistic tropes and symbols.
For instance, the scene of the human sacrifice is awkwardly framed with the so-called "Sfinx of Bucegi", a natural rock formation which, when viewed from a certain angle, looks like a human head.
Photographs of this view of the "Sfinx" (which would re-occur in other episodes of the "The National Epic") were ubiquitous in Romanian media (and especially school text books), and thus instantly recognisable by the intended audience.
Another example is the helmet worn by Decebalus in the final battle.
This is a replica of the Helmet of Cotofenesti, shown erroneously with a flat top.
The original helmet was ceremonial (not worn in battle), may not even have been Dacian, preceded Decebalus by about 500 years, and had a rounded or conical top; but a reconstruction with a wrong top was, again, ubiquitous in Romanian text books.(Note for the history buff: Don't waste your time looking for the "falx dacica" in action in this movie -- it is most notable by its absence.)"Dacii" was an instant success in Romania, where it remains to this day among the most popular native movies.
But abroad, where its nationalist appeal was lost (as in France, where it was released in a slightly modified form as "Les Guerriers") it sank like a stone.
It was never released in the US.A bit of trivia: The massive sets and thousands of extras (courtesy of the Romanian Army) were re-used by Robert Siodmak in his last film, "Kampf um Rom".
Nicolaescu, "Dacii"'s director, served as one of Siodmak's 2nd unit directors..
Wonderful.
Great effort is put into this movie They even bothered to make like a 4 second flaming ballista barrage and the ridiculous amount of rods that the emperor's lictors would carry this movie also includes some great cultural situationsa legion is condemned to decimation and a strange pagan ritual follows into a wild party and moreI recommend it especially anyone fond of ancient histories.
surprising.
surprising is a strange word for define it.but it is the reasonable one.
because, it is part of a political context and it has the art to escape from it.
because it gives a clear and almost touching picture of life style, laws and roots of a lost word with admirable historical accuracy.
because it has the right actors and the performance of Amza Pellea is real admirable.
a film about a clash, between an empire and a kingdom .
and the levels of a civilization who escapes from idyllic formulas.
"Dacii" remains surprising because it crashes the expectations.
it is not exactly a propaganda tool and it is not a demonstration of party vision.
maybe, it could be perceived as a good history lesson.
in fact, a film about a land and his people..
~*-True Romanian History-*~.
I first learned about Daciens in primary school, a few years ago and since then I am interested in everything about the Dacians, I like to believe I am rather Dacian then Roman.
I am 17 now and to my surprise many people my age are interested in old Romanian movies and older people also.I watched this film today for the first time, I've always heard my father talking about Sergiu Nicolaescu and their greatness, I just wasn't really interested in any sort of Romanian movies until now.
"Dacii" impressed me so much, I think it equals "Spartacus" and "Cleopatra".
I've always been proud of my heritage, like all Romanians I believe and I've been reading everything I can find about it.
It's such a pity our history is not world-wide known, many people could be amazed.I am ashamed because I waited so much until watching this movie, it's a true masterpiece, if it would have been released "World-Wide" I think it would have been a block-buster.Amza Pellea was indeed Oscar-worthy with his performance as Decebal, a well-respected Dacian King.
Mr Pellea is a renown actor here, in Romania.
It's such a shame the movie didn't premiered in other countries at the time.History tells us that Decebal committed suicide, he did that rather then seeing his loved country in the hands of strangers.
The truth is Dacia lost a battle, but the Romans never got to rule this lands, there have always been people fighting for freedom..
Holds its own against the Italian epics.
THE DACIANS is a well-mounted late-stage peplum movie made in Romania, of all places.
It has a surprisingly handsome budget and plenty of action to see the plot through.
The story has the Romans playing the antagonists and the Dacians the heroes of the hour, trying to defend their kingdom against superior forces.
Although there are no token names in the cast, the quality of the action speaks for itself here.
There are hundreds of extras and some excellent epic-feeling action set-pieces, with a siege taking pride of place.
This is a little-known film that nonetheless holds its own against the bigger-budgeted Italian epics. |
tt0247303 | Down | The film takes place at the Millennium building in New York City, which has 102 floors and 73 elevators. One evening, lightning strikes the building, which causes the three main express elevators to begin acting strangely, resulting in a guard's flashlight being crushed. The next day, a group of pregnant women are held up between floors 20 and 21. The elevator overheats rapidly, causing two women to give birth and hospitalizing the rest. Reporter Jennifer Evans (Naomi Watts) is called to write a report on the incident. After an investigation by METEOR elevator company technicians Jeff (Eric Thal) and Mark Newman (James Marshall), they determine that nothing is wrong with the elevators, a large part being Jeff's inability to actually admit there is something wrong (he states throughout his scenes that the computer controlling the elevators has absolutely no defects).
A short time later, a blind man and his guide dog disappear in the building. The two guards from the beginning of the film discover the dog's corpse hanging from its collar on a shaft support. The discovering guard's head is caught between the elevator doors. He is decapitated a short while later, his partner too horrified to help him. Once again, the METEOR executives find nothing wrong with the elevators. Evans interviews Newman, who sarcastically states "Nine people out of ten make it out of an elevator alive." Evans places this in her report, causing a large controversy over his statement by his boss, Mitchell (Ron Perlman) and the police. During the same day, a roller skater is sucked into an elevator in the parking garage and shot from the 86th floor of the building to his death. The roller skater's death is explained to media as suicide.
Evans visits Newman and shows him a tape of the roller skater's death. She points out the time it normally takes for the elevator to go up 87 floors would take about 40 seconds to a minute. However, the elevator ascended the floors in less than two seconds, thus noting that there is definitely something wrong. When they try to show the tape to Jeff, he refuses to watch it and leaves abruptly. Instead, they go to Evans' office and look up a man named Gunther Steinberg (Michael Ironside), who had been experimenting with organic reproducing computer chips using dolphin brains. However, the project had gone disastrously wrong and Steinberg was fired. Later the next morning Milligan (Edward Herrmann), who remains suspicious of the elevators throughout the film, discovers Jeff's corpse in an elevator shaft. When Jennifer and Mark arrive, they are shocked to hear that the police have concocted a story that has Jeff being a terrorist and being behind the incidents and assure the public that the threat is over. Later during the day, an elevator cab flies to top floor at such a speed that the floor flies off and all the people in it are killed. This event reaches the President and is seen as an act of terrorism.
A terrorism unit is assembled at the building to get any further terrorists out of the building. Meanwhile, Jennifer and Mark discover a recent suicide could be linked to the incidents, as his extremely superstitious widow believes his soul has returned to punish others. Jennifer and Mark enter the building to discover and stop the threat once and for all. During the entry, Jennifer is taken into custody posing as a METEOR executive. During her first attempt to prove this fraud, she receives a phone call from a friend to explains that while Steinberg's time working on the "fucking chips" as they are called in the movie, has been revoked, Steinberg continued to work on the project except not with dolphin brains. Eventually, Mitchell abandons Steinberg for fear of his own reputation being ruined. Mark manages to get into the Millennium Building and discovers a large bio-chip in the form of a brain in an elevator shaft. It is assumed that this brain is alive and controlling the elevators. He attempts to destroy using a screwdriver, but this attempt fails when it sends a flaming elevator down to kill him. Mark barely escapes while the elevator kills a SWAT officer who was barely out of the elevator shaft before he was sliced in half from his waist down with the upper half of his body sliding across the floor. Marshall gets a hold of a stinger missile launcher and is about to destroy the organ when Steinberg intervenes, threatening him. Jennifer appears, having escaped custody and frees Marshall. As Mark tries to destroy the organ a third time, the police enter, giving Steinberg the opportunity to hold Jennifer hostage. Jennifer manages to escape thanks to Steinberg being unable to recognize one of his superiors. Steinberg is grabbed by the elevator shaft cables and pulled in, along with Mark. At the last second, Jennifer kicks the stinger launcher to Mark, who proceeds to destroy the organ. Steinberg's mutilated corpse falls seconds later.
Some time later, Mark and Jennifer leave a hospital where they find themselves trapped in an elevator. However, it proves to be a ruse for Mark to make a romantic overture toward Jennifer. The film then cuts out to Aerosmith's song "Love in an Elevator". | suspenseful, haunting | train | wikipedia | Down (AKA The Shaft), director Dick Maas' 2001 remake of his own 1983 Dutch horror De Lift, opens with the camera gliding gracefully over the NY skyline to eventually come to rest on 'The Millennium Building' where two night watchmen use an observation telescope to spy on big-breasted hookers at work in a neighbouring skyscraper; it's a superbly executed and wonderfully trashy opening that should make it crystal clear that Maas knows exactly what he is doing—making a highly entertaining, campy schlock/horror that shouldn't be taken seriously—and yet there are still those who seem to have missed the joke.Oh well, it's their loss, because when viewed as intended, Down proves to be a lot of fun, packed as it is with outrageously silly deaths, delightfully daft dialogue, and knowingly clichéd characters—precisely the kind of stuff I would expect to see in a horror film about a murderous 'living' elevator controlled by a malevolent state-of-the-art computer chip enhanced by living brain tissue.An excellent cast clearly have a blast in their two-dimensional stock roles, with a gorgeous pre-A-list Naomi Watts as a feisty newspaper reporter, James Marshall as a cocky elevator engineer, Ron 'Hellboy' Perlman as the shady owner of the elevator company, Dan Hedaya as a grizzled NY detective, and Michael 'Scanners' Ironside as a loathsome scientist hellbent on perfecting his pet project, whatever the cost.
Maas keeps the action moving along at a brisk pace, handling the special effects set-pieces, wry humour, and gruesome shocks with confidence, even going so far as to kill off women, children, and animals along the way.And if all that isn't enough to pique your interest, let's not forget about the eerily prophetic scene in which characters discuss the possible use of a plane in a terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre; with 9/11 just around the corner, it stands out as a genuinely chilling moment in an otherwise intentionally ridiculous and wonderfully OTT piece of nonsense.7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb..
Dutch director Dick Maas has essentially remade his own 1983 film De Lift with 2001's The Shaft (originally entitled Down), about an evil elevator system that suddenly begins killing people in a fancy-schmancy skyscraper.
Artisan has shamelessly redesigned the cover art to resemble The Ring, and to highlight the presence of star Naomi Watts, though who that kid on the cover is supposed to be is really anyone's guess, because he is certainly not in the movie I watched.In between the dull investigative drivel, Maas delivers a few fun horror moments, including a spectacular elevator door decapitation and a fun bird's-eye P.O.V. of a character's leap off the observation deck.
To Maas's credit, he has somehow managed to fill the film with a decent blend of familiar faces in supporting roles, including Edward Herrmann (the building manager), Dan Hedaya (a police lieutenant), Ron Perlman (the elevator repair company boss) and venerable bad guy Michael Ironside.There are brief moments of great fun in the murderous elevator flick, The Shaft, but too much time is spent talking and the dramatic payoff is a real eye-roller, even in B-movie horror terms.
Kicking off the scene with the sounds of Aerosmith's Love in an Elevator, an extravagant race takes place between two incredibly skilled risk takers through New York traffic and into the basement parking garage of the Millennium Building.
Before Naomi Watts became a big star from her excellent performances in excellent films like "Huckabees", "Mulholland Drive", and "21 Grams"; she was delivering excellent performances in a lot of garbage movies like "The Shaft" aka "Down".
And while her performance here does not save the movie, it does elevate (bad pun intended) it to a viewable level.The only other reason to watch this thing is to see yet another example of the film-making phenomenon that big is not only not better, but much worse.
Despite this movie being his debut, many of Maas's personal trademarks are also already in place: quick pacing, sadistic gore effects modified by edgy humor, mild satire on bourgeois preoccupations, and broadly etched supporting characters".Apparently the title "Elevator" was already taken and "Lift" was too European for the remake he was left with two very stupid titles with which the distributors have been experimenting since 2001.In the 1983 version, the elevator of an Amsterdam flat (another European term) misbehaves badly.
This time someone gave Maas a lot of money and he pumped up the production; moving it to New York, adding tons of unnecessary effects, making the elevator absurdly powerful, and geometrically increasing the size of the cast.
The new elevator is like a cross between a James Bond story and a poor 1950's science fiction film.Not surprisingly the human interest wheels fall off immediately.
If you ignore your strong impulse to bail and just keep watching you will see decent performances from Watts and the from various character actors who populate the cast.Unfortunately for Mass, he choose New York City for this 2001 movie and deviated from the original by throwing in some misdirection about terrorists being behind the elevator accidents.
The pacing is the real villain in this flick, as it drags on with useless characters and stupid tangents when elevators killing people really should have been the sole focus of the movie.
It's a real no brainer that passes the time quite nicely and while artistically his original "De Lift" is a better movie, I found this one to be more entertaining.
Writer-director Dick Maas (remaking his 1983 Dutch original, "The Lift") has a knack for framing scenes, building suspense, and keeping his camera firmly in the moment.
After an elevator in the Millennium knocks off a bunch of victims in extravagant fashion, the plot devolves into a drawn out (and ultimately unsuccessful) search for The Truth--suddenly elevator repairman James Marshall (imagine a cut-rate Brad Pitt) and fetching reporter Naomi Watts (pre-"Mulholland Drive") are standing in for Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe, turning this into "El.A. Confidential." And in the final act, Maas spins the film into the outer limits of absurdity with a Michael Bay extravaganza of stunts and explosions, throwing in some references to Osama bin Laden and terrorism (pre-9/11!) for good measure.
I like keep an open mind and give far-fetched plots a chance, I can see the potential in the idea, but this movie screws it all up.Several elevator accidents in the land mark, The Millennium Building, keeps people worried and a repairman puzzled.
What saves this movie (at least in its first hour) is its sense of (black) humor.Although it's sometimes a bit over the top (the nursery school scene is sheer bad taste:it would have taken John Waters to treat it successfully),there are plenty of funny scenes if you do not take them seriously:I particularly dig the "Bergman" lines.Unfortunately,the last thirty minutes take us back to "the invincible super hero who single-handedly fights evil ".But he was a marine,we are told.Some kind of remake of the director's "de lift" (early eighties)with a more comfortable budget.It's pretty good entertainment but you'd better choose Dick Maas's "Amsterdamned" instead..
I later saw the blind man and his dog fall to their deaths in the shaft, the other get decapitated by the elevator, the skater going in and out of the elevator with the White Light (which made me believe some supernatural force was controlling the elevator), the little girl playing with the doors and WORSE - the many people that fell through the elevator's floor.
This unknown Dutch director / writer wrote a story that tries to be funny; begins as if it were a horror, thriller or mystery movie; then, it seems to be a sci-fi but suddenly it becomes an action movie, with soldiers, policemen and lots of guns and explosions; ending with a romance between the characters of James Marshall and Naomi Watts.
Oh, by the way: Mr Dick Maas, please, for the sake of all movie-loving people think about opting for a new career.
Having said that, if they had spent the minuscule amount of money they had put into the sfx into getting a decent scriptwriter/s, then this might have been a watchable film.The dialogue is awful enough to make good actors such as Ms Watts and Ron Pearlman look like nothing more than animatronic simulcra in search of a personality, and in general, the whole thing tries to come across as a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster to no avail.I want the 90 minutes of my life back that were thoroughly wasted on this crappy excuse for a film.
New York's giant Millennium Building seems to be targeted by terrorists who are fixing it's express elevators where they end up malfunctioning and killing dozens of people.
Like in "Q" the movie keeps you interested and watching it when it explodes with the almost unimaginable violence every time anyone goes near or on the killer elevators.
The ending goes on and on with Mark and Jeniffer, Naomi Watts, a local news reporter attempting to get into the shut down Millennium Building to get to the heart of what is causing the elevators to act in such a deadly way, and put it to an end once in for all.
Terrible dialogue and plotting, and a story that...well, you just wonder why anyone put the amount of money into this movie it obviously took to produce it.Several named actors (Dan Hedeya, Ron Pearlman, Edward Herman) try manfully in their scenes to make the wordy dialogue work, as does a then little known Naomi Watts.
The style of filming is old fashioned and it looks like Mr Maas stood still for the last 2 decades.No cigar.Tim. Bad in every way, except still fun to watch.
You know what it's like when you see a movie that's pretty bad in every particular kind of way, except that it has a certain charm, an elan, a flare?
The pop corn, James Marshall as hero, Ron Perlman in an ambiguous role, a hanged dog and the love story are good pieces for a mix of comedy - action- horror who gives no memory to the viewer after its end..
And honestly, I pretty much got what I expected from Down.Essentially, this is a movie about an elevator killing people.
The horrific and entertaining methods by which the victims die are what keeps Down from getting bogged down in the inevitable investigation the main characters (Naomi Watts as a scrappy reporter and James Marshall as an elevator mechanic) make into what's going on and how to stop it.
Called in to investigate an accident, elevator repair specialists and a reporter catch on that something isn't right, and as more accidents continue to plague the building they do some investigating on the story where they piece together what went wrong and save the people trapped inside.There wasn't all that much to like about it, but what was there was enough to like.
It's not the least bit scary, but it's worth a watch simply for the fact that it's a movie about a damn elevator that kills people lol.
This also known as shaft 2001 this is a remake of the the de lift movieFor this movie to half's, I liked the fact did lost stuff very different then the original And I liked how they kept some of original scenesI liked the first half of the movie was really fun to watch, I liked opening scenes a lot better then de lift from 1983 And really when the lift kill people, I thought that scenes were lift floor open and people fall,I thought that was great scenes But they had to go ruin it by the whole terrorist thing, I think That was really bad idea to add that into this story But I did enjoy the scenes, m when the lift came to endI think this movie was a bit more fun so I going to give it 6 out 10.
It takes a "goof off but great in a crisis" (is there any other kind of goof off in movies?) elevator repair man (James Marshall) and a spunky female reporter (is there any other kind of female reporter in movies?) (Naomi Watts) to prove that the cause is something other than faulty circuits or sabotage and more along the lines of thinking, man made evil.This is a slow moving film with stock characters, average performances from the leads, and some good actors (Edward Herman, Michael Ironside, Ron Perlman) in small roles.
Fortunately the film knows that it's plot is ludicrous to say the least, and decides to play it out with tongue firmly placed in cheek, making the movie run at a good clip.
I rented the DVD from a Blockbuster, deceived by the plot summary in the back of the case: "Mysterious deaths are happening in an elevator, so an investigator tries to find what is going on" or something like that; "sounds interesting", I thought.
We also get some interesting views from the top floors of the skyscrapers looking into apartment windows.Naomi Watts and James Marshall eventually join together to find the cause of these death, and wouldn't you know it, a mad scientist is involved.
After the attack, it's not likely a film of this sort would have been allowed to rattle the nerves of the already nervous New York City dwellers who witnessed an attack on their landmark buildings.RON PERLMAN, EDWARD HERRMANN and MICHAEL IRONSIDE are unable to give much gravitas to the absurd story, but there are several chilling scenes involving the elevator shaft that makes the whole thing at least worth a watch and some gruesome deaths by elevator.Strictly a below average horror film, enlivened by some good staging of key scenes but crying out for better plotting and dialog.
For the most part Dick Maas's "Down" (alternately called "The Shaft") is your typical horror movie, with some people trying to stop a supremely evil force.
Libyans!" to policemen escorting her who do believe there is a terrorist threat.After having investigated the problem elevator Jeff says, "it's like airplanes going down and no one ever finds out why." This is the first of a number of weird ways this film seems to reference 9/11 though apparently predating it (much more so later).
Says one of them, "chaos, the whole city, the whole country in total turmoil?"As the building is surrounded by the NYC Police Emergency Service, some of whom are unloading weapons from a truck, we have this exchange: "Stingers?" "Terrorists have airplanes too." "Ah, you don't believe that (excrement) now, do you?" "The President does!"A moment later, they continue: "I think this whole thing is blown out of proportion." "Well, they almost got the Twin Towers ten years ago." And shortly thereafter, "if you see Bin Laden, say hello!"End credits have thanks to the New York City Mayor's Office for Film, Theater and Broadcasting, and to the New York City Police Department Movie Unit..
Last night saw a film called "The Shaft" (Dutch title "Down") The movie stars Naiomi Watts a and Michael Ironside.The plot: An elevator in a NYC skyscraper is killing people, and its up to NAiomi and an elevator repairman to figure out why.Its kinda slow in the beginning, but it does have some good gore.
With such a bad premise, one can certainly imagine how the half-baked plot plays out.It's hard to think of one good thing about this movie.
In a way it was a throwback to the 80's with cheesy dialog, characters, and implausible situations.Good old New York City has a very nice building called The Millennium Building, one of the most impressive views of the city and killer elevators...LITERALLY.
I'll will help produce it." Unless that dialog was followed by "I am also very drunk and high on crack and have only seen half this movie."Here's the story- haunted elevator shaft and weird things happen in the elevator and around the building.
The story is bad, the acting is bad and the movie should be listed as a comedy because with the storyline in the movie, it is very hard to take it seriously as a horror film.I do not recommend anybody to watch this because its awful..
I mean I love Horror films but a killer elevator sounded like a stretch but when I first saw the DVD box art I knew I had to see it.
Sure there were trying to cash in on Naomi Watts' success with The Ring and I won't even pretend The Shaft (Down) was anywhere near the ball park of The Ring but it turned out to be funny and entertaining and a little campy but with surprisingly good special effects, decent acting, and a unique original story line.
The bad language is overblown and probably because Maas felt that is what the American horror film is all about and he's not entirely wrong but the amount of times they swear is phenomenal.Let's talk Miss Naomi Watts.
James Marshall and Naomi Watts rock as the leads, and the supporting cast includes lots of great cult actors like Micheal Ironside and Ron Perlman, really bolstering the film with their performances.It's pretty far-fetched and very silly, but it does so in an appealing fashion.
But, it's still far too long with just awful acting, namely the lead: Marshall as no-good-trying-better elevator repairman, Mark Newman.
but everything in "the shaft" clicked along well enough--played by the horror movie rules, and didn't distract me with silly scenes where a person might say, "oh, no way....." and i say this buying into an elevator itself being a crazy killer.
I would of gone to see it.I'm never going to stop using elevators unless the building I'm in is on fire or I have to go up less than 4 flights of stairs.I'm going 2 watch this movie again soon. |
tt0289851 | Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura | === Setting ===
Arcanum is the name of the fantasy world in which the game unfolds. It consists of a continental mainland and three islands. The world is inhabited by various races resembling those from the works of Tolkien, including humans, elves and half-elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, orcs, ogres, and various wildlife. Players can choose from humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, and human hybrid races, including half-elves, half-orcs and half-ogres as playable races. The continent is divided between several different political entities. The Unified Kingdom is rapidly industrializing. Its two largest cities are Tarant and Ashbury, and it is the most technologically advanced kingdom. The Kingdom of Cumbria is a deteriorated kingdom, consisting of Dernholm and Black Root, and ruled by an old conservative king. The Kingdom of Arland, extending from Caladon to Roseborough, is a small but thriving monarchy west of the Stonewall range. The Glimmering Forest, the largest in Arcanum, is home to the elven city of Qintarra and the dark elven city of T'sen-Ang, and has been untouched by the technological advancements of the time. The Stonewall and Grey Mountain Ranges are home to the remaining dwarven clans: the Black Mountain Clan, the Stonecutter Clan, the Wheel Clan, and the Iron Clan. Many other minor settlements also exist, as well as containing ruins of past civilizations. The biggest of these is the ruins of Vendigroth, the most advanced city on Arcanum, which met a sudden and mysterious end.
An important in-game dynamic is the dichotomy of magic and technology in the world. Technology is explained to function by using physical law to produce a desired result, e.g., a bolt of electricity from a Tesla Gun would arc through the most conductive path to its target, with some plated armors being more prone to electrical damage than others. Magic, on the other hand, is explained to manipulate physical law to make a lightning spell follow the shortest path to the target, instead of the natural path. The two are incompatible to the point that they overwhelm each other. Technological devices will become ineffective or even permanently inoperative in the presence of powerful magic and vice versa. Much of the population has chosen to embrace technology for its efficiency, accessibility, and permanent results. The elves, dark elves, and some humans continue to practice magic exclusively. This also affects interactions between different characters, as spells cast on technologists or firearms used against mages have a failure rate.
Orcs and ogres are looked down upon as savage, feral peoples by Arcanum's civilized folk, who own virtually all the industry of the major population centers. There is a great enmity between elves and dwarfs, the former being naturally inclined towards magically-defined society, the latter being forerunners of the technology race—and many elves blame the dwarfs for the rise of human technology and concomitant waning of elfish political power. Scientists are unwelcome in magical societies like Qintarra or Tulla but will be respected if they are righteous and good folk. Conversely, a mage would be admitted onto a steam train only on the provision that he take a third-class seat on the last caboose, so as not to cause interference with the engine (despite there being no in-game mechanic by which even the powerful mages can affect it). Powerful mages may be denied transport altogether.
=== Plot ===
Arcanum begins with a cut scene of the IFS Zephyr, a luxury zeppelin, on her maiden voyage from Caladon to Tarant. Two monoplanes, piloted by Half-Ogre bandits, close in on the craft and commence attack runs, succeeding in shooting it down. An old gnome who is a passenger aboard the Zephyr is now in his death throes under charred debris and tells the player to bring a silver ring to "the boy," and promptly dies. Being the only survivor of the crash, the main character is proclaimed as "The Living One," a holy reincarnate, by the only witness to the crash, Virgil. The story follows the player's path as he searches for the origin of the ring. Over the course of the game, the player uncovers more about the history of the continent, the motivation of the assassins who are trying to kill him, and the identity of the one threatening to end all life in the land.
Arcanum is an example of a non-linear role-playing game. At various points throughout the game, players may take the story in different directions, sometimes permanently removing different paths of action. The game's central quest ultimately develops according to how players navigate its dichotomies, the most apparent being that of magic and technology. Many of the game's side quests allow for more than one solution depending on the player character's specializations and certain portions of the main quest can be solved more easily through dialogue than through combat. The game's magic/technology and good/evil alignments also influence what followers a character can attract throughout the game or how other NPCs will react to the player. | fantasy, sci-fi | train | wikipedia | It's unique setting makes for satisfying roleplay.. Arcanum's charm lies in its unique 1885 setting. In comparison with RPGs such as Baldur's Gate, Planescape : Torment, Icewind Dale, or even Fallout, it offers sense of realism in its portrayal of a colourful people of humans, elves, dwarves, orcs and ogres co-existing in the very beginning of a modern era. Steam engines and newfangled revovlers are the craze, phasing out old-school magicks.The depiction of magick, swords and shields as old-fashioned and unpredictable, in contrast with modern steamworks and guns as the heralders of a new era, is attractive and makes for immersive role-playing that is believable and fantastic at the same time.As far as your character is concerned, he/she can be anything he wants - a madcap inventor, femme fatale, wise mage, sharpshooting rogue, even a dumb brute whose entire vocabulary consists of monosyllabic words. And the NPCs (non-player characters) you'll meet are not your typical bewildering array of nymphs, giants, stone monsters, annoying insects, bugs and monsters of every shape and size. The bulk of them will be just like you, with distinct personalities - shopkeepers, aristocrats, factory workers, politicians, gangsters, and the like.The story starts of with a bang as your chracter meets a mysterious ally who seems to think of you as an elven god reincarnated. As it goes on the element of suspense is tastefullly executed as you gradually uncover more and more of the mysterious happenings in Arcanum. However, the story is anything but linear, and players will be given every oppurtunity to interact with the world around them. They can rob unsespecting shopkeepers, pick fights with the local Mafia, visit the library, or simply explore the country for some adventure.Arcanum's Achilles' Heel lies in the fact that experience is only gained either by completing quests or by the amount of damage done to an enemy. This makes playing a dumb, unintelligent, sword-wielding, all-out-melee, ogre the easiest way by far to finish the game. Coupled with the fact that weapon combat in Arcanum is decidedly unattractively animated, most casual gamers will be put off by this.Other weak aspects to the game would include a case of too-many-spells-spoil-the-broth, as some spell schools simply don't cut it compared to the others; the lack of powerful spellcasting foes; the ease with which thieves can rob stores, and mid-level graphics.For role-playing fans, however, the unique setting and non-linear gameplay will more than make up for its drawbacks.. Arcanum, dying classic. This game's most important feature is its impressive character creation abilities. As a tool in every RPG game, this has seen constant development and interesting new looks in most every game that it is used in. Arcanum, in my opinion, has yet to be beaten by another game in its superb consideration of nearly all types of players and catering to them all without a specific class system.Also, an interesting and genuinely intriguing tool that the game's developers inserted into the game was the rising conflict between Magics of the past and the rising Technologies in the world of Arcanum. Escelating into a miniature Cold War, Magic wielders would sabotage the trains in cities while the followers of technology would use these conflicts as an excuse to limit all magic users' freedoms with their powers. This, I found, led into an intriguing study of what "magic" means to people, even in the world outside of the game, and what technology meant to people, likewise in and out of the game.Being a plot driven game with extreme freedoms, Arcanum might have been a little before its time and now has been mostly forgotten with its parent company declaring its bankruptcy and closure. A classic, nearly perfect example of the ideal for RPG games of the late 90's, the style in which Arcanum was made was both practical and brilliantly presented; a true classic of its time. |
tt0267913 | Scooby-Doo | The members of Mystery, Inc. solve the case of the Luna Ghost at the Wow-O-Toy Factory. However, long-time friction between Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, and Velma Dinkley finally boils over and the gang break up, leaving Shaggy Rogers and his dog Scooby-Doo heartbroken. Two years on, Shaggy and Scooby are invited to solve a mystery on the popular resort Spooky Island, owned by Emil Mondavarious. At the airport, the five members of Mystery, Inc. unexpectedly reunite. Fred has become a popular celebrity, Velma works for NASA, and Daphne has undertaken martial arts to avoid being kidnapped again. However, while Shaggy and Scooby are thrilled with the reunion, the other three refuse to work with each other.
On the flight over, Shaggy falls in love with a girl named Mary Jane, who loves Scooby Snacks, but is allergic to dogs. Upon arriving at the island, the gang meet Mondavarious, who claims the visiting tourists have been cursed into a brainwashed state. Velma attends a ritualistic performance hosted by N’Goo Tuana and his henchman, Zarkos, a famous luchador. N’Goo claims the island was once ruled by ancient demons til Mondavarious built the resort, and they plot their revenge.
Due to a misunderstanding when talking to a local voodoo priest, Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby venture into the resort’s ghost ride, meeting Fred and Velma inside, where they split up to look for clues. Fred and Velma come across a strange school designed to educate inhuman creatures about human culture, while Daphne discovers a pyramid-shaped artifact called the Daemon Ritus. The gang flee to the hotel, but an army of demons attack, kidnapping Fred, Velma, Mondavarious and other tourists, while Scooby, Shaggy, Daphne, and Mary Jane escape.
The next day, Daphne is captured by Zarkos, while Shaggy and Scooby learn the tourists are possessed by the demons. They run into Mary Jane, but Scooby realises she is possessed too. Shaggy and Scooby argue, but the latter falls down a hole into an underground chamber, where Shaggy finds a vat of protoplasmic soul of everyone captured. Shaggy frees Velma, Fred, and Daphne’s souls. Velma discovers the demons can be destroyed by sunlight, but Fred and Daphne become trapped in the wrong bodies until the Daemon Ritus corrects it. The gang come across the voodoo priest, who explains the demons’ ritual will allow them to rule the world for the next ten-thousand years when a pure soul is offered as a sacrifice, namely Scooby. Mondavarious is revealed to be the leader of the demons.
The gang plot a trap to defeat the demon cult, but it fails, and Mondavarious sucks out Scooby’s soul using the Daemon Ritus. Shaggy tackles Mondavarious, revealing he is a robot, piloted by Scooby’s estranged nephew Scrappy-Doo, abandoned by the gang years ago due to his egotism. Using the absorbed souls of the tourists, Scrappy transforms into a monster and tries to kill the gang.
Daphne battles Zarkos, kicking him into the ritual chamber where the demons are exposed to sunlight and die. Shaggy rips the Daemon Ritus from Scrappy’s body, freeing the souls. The real Mondavarious emerges from a prison cell, claiming Scrappy replaced him two years ago for his plan. Scrappy, N’Goo, and Zarkos are arrested, while the reunited gang are asked to solve another mystery. | psychedelic, horror, cult, romantic | train | wikipedia | I've always been a big fan of horror films and when I was too young to watch them, SCOOBY was my favourite cartoon because it had cool heroes and I could see all sorts of monsters in it.
Just to say that I wasn't very excited at the perspective of seeing my cult cartoon turned into an unnamable stuff as the first pictures in the magazines announced a visually ridiculous movie with probably (like most of the other TV series adaptations) a boring and incoherent script.When I left the theater, I was in love with this movie.
Even if the team's composed of five characters, they're all treated with the same importance, and that's rare enough to be underscored.Matthew LILLARD IS Shaggy: he reproduces perfectly the attitude of the animated character and his capacity to make you believe in the virtual Scooby is very impressive: when he's with him, you feel like if the dog was really on the set.
I wasn't in favor of the use of martial arts through the character of Daphne but finally, kung fu fits in the universe of SCOOBY DOO as it's used with parsimony to bring a few more good gags.As a conclusion, I would say that SCOOBY DOO's a terrific movie: it's fun, fast and very well acted.I found in it everything that made me love the cartoon and even more.
Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy all feel like their cartoon counterparts adding to the effectiveness of the movie.
It works mostly because the entire cast plays it straight.Sarah Michelle Gellar looks nothing like Daphne in the cartoon, but she is good.
Great special effect and the movie moves quickly.My only real complaint--did we really need a burping/breaking wind contest between Scooby and Shaggy?A very good family movie--I liked it a lot.
Story: The gangs got invited to the themes park of Spooky Island to solve the mysteries, as it seem that who ever visit the island go back home in a very odd behavior.Though it kind of pretty weird watching it at first, you will used to it and somehow I did quite find it pretty enjoyable and it did stick pretty good to the cartoon story, that the reason I like it.The cast was alright, actually it better than expected, Velma look-a-like the most.
As Scooby Doo ,Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) along with the remaining group (Sara Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prince Jr , Linda Cardellini) are back to solve a case that takes place at an eerie island where occurs weird events including some monsters with nefarious purposes .
It's followed by a second part in similar style , cast and realization , titled ¨Scooby Doo unleashed¨ with lots of fun and as amused as the first , and will be best appreciated by preteen enthusiasts of the cartoon movies ..
I'm 25-years-old and yet I'm so taken by the concept of Scooby Doo. I mean, I've been ready for this movie for a long time.
There are a few adult jokes, but this is a family movie and if you put too much into adult themes, complex story lines, and character development, you would definitely disappoint the real Scooby fans, who will continue to watch the movies and cartoons long after this movie has had its run.If I take out my bias of Scooby, I must admit that I don't think this movie would stand on its own.
It also seems odd with their appearance in the film that Sugar Ray didn't write an original song, instead recycling a song off of a 9 month old album (though the song was probably new when they began filming, but still...).It's really sad that a generation of kids are being exposed to THIS variation of Scooby, rather than any of the classic cartoons - even Scooby and Scrappy-Doo (the most deplorable of all the series) was better than this.
Potentially Scooby Doo was & could still be, a very good film, but it was let down solely by the plot.Unlike others I thought the casting was good & there were some good performance, Shaggy particularly & some good scenes & funny moments.Unfortunately, the storyline was one, largely alien to Scooby Doo, the cartoon & it's viewers.
There was no real mystery in here at all & nothing to keep the viewer guessing.The farting & burping scene seemed merely to appease the 3 year olds in the audience, the characterisations seemed a little too different to the originals & I wasn't convinced by 'Scrappy as Villain', but there was enough in the film to still make it a fairly good effort all round.A low 5/10.
Kids go to these movies expecting to see a big screen version of the cartoons they like and instead are presented with sticky adult material.
This film version opens with a similar scene of a " Ghost " having his masked pulled off only to reveal it's a man screaming " If it wasn't for those pesky kids I would have got away with it " so thankfully we're not going to be watching a feature film whose only connection with its source material is the title , something like WILD WILD WEST , STARSKY AND HUTCH and THE CHARLIES ANGELS movies all suffer from this As for the cast Freddie Prinze Jr and Matthew Lillard make fairly good jobs in their respective roles as Fred and Shaggy , though Sarah Michelle Geller is slightly to hard faced to be truly convincing as Daphene , possibly the sexiest cartoon character in history .
My children own the first season of the original Scooby Doo and they loved recognizing the cartoon villains in this movie.
I believe the secret to enjoying this incarnation of Scooby Doo is to ask yourself just one question: Have you ever watched more than one entire episode of the cartoon series?
Apologies if you are hopping, surfing or whatever the word is for reading this page to give this a glorious 2 thumbs up or a 10/10 mark this review is not for you!However if like me the bile that has built up inside you, days after the accursed event has reached boiling point and you feel that you must reach out to the world and cry "SCOOOOOBYYY DON'T" then this might be slightly more your cup of tea.First I would just like to point out that this film has NO FUN in it whatso ever.It is unfunny, horribly acted, bad plot and just about the only good thing that happened was that it ended.
Oh and that it was half as long as Lord of the Rings.In fact the only fun that might be even dared to be thought up in conjunction with this unspeakable waste of life is tricking your mate into wasting however long (S)he can stand to remain inside a dark,dank grottoesque hellhole surrounded by hordes of no-longer screaming pre pubescent little horrors, who bored out of their witt's end rely on drinking far too much cola in order that they can leave whichever (soon to be ex best mate's great party idea it was to take his friends to see a once proud and noble cartoon, the stalwart of the cartoon network portrayed like a picasso, lude crude and nothing like the original) that they may spend a blessed few minutes relieving themselves before the ordeal starts againAfter some father/Mother dragged a kid to see this epic of rectal proportions I can fully understand the idea of parental divorce.Thank you for reading and may your life be blessed with the hope that you may never encounter such a villainous waste of £5.50.I am off to ritually cleanse myself by watching Battlefield Earth and Tomb Raider so that my memories may no longer be tainted by such things as Sara Michelle Gellar trying to be anything other than Buffy..
When I was a little kid, I was a big fan of Scooby Doo, from the original cartoon, to the What's New Scooby Too show, to some of the animated movies.
And two installments to the franchise that I practically binge watched as a little fella were these two live-action CGI hybrid Scooby Doo movies directed by Raja Gosnell and written by James Gunn (now famous for Guardians of the Galaxy 1 & 2).
The characters from the show are decent enough, and Matthew Lillard, Linda Cardellini and Neil Fanning do really good jobs impersonating Shaggy, Velma and Scooby...can't say the same for Freddie Prinze jr.
Originally, the idea was to make a film with a much darker tone, essentially poking fun at the original cartoon series, much like the Brady Bunch Movie and was set to receive a PG-13 rating from the MPAA.Shaggy was set to be a stoner, Velma and Daphne had a side relationship and there were many references to drugs.
Several rumors about these aspects in the original cartoon series were passed around by fans of the show and were to be incorporated into the live-action film.The plot revolves around the Mystery Incorporated, a group of four young adults: Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley and Norville "Shaggy" Rodgers and a dog named Scooby-Doo who solves mysteries.
After a two-year disbandment, the group reunites to investigate a mystery on a popular horror resort called Spooky Island.The movie was not well received by critics, but it was enough to spawn a sequel released in 2004, and a telefilm prequel, aired on Cartoon Network on September 13, 2009.This movie is a really great film and critics did take this the wrong way, but they did like some of the things done right and some of the fans really liked this movie.The story is amazing and to the script writer's credit James Gunn, who directed Marvel's GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and the film does stay true to the TV show.
The production and costume designs are really cool also and is fantastic.This film is just spectacular and overall, I love SCOOBY-DOO and it gets a 7 out of 10, because I really give this film an amazing rating.The DVD features on this film is amazing and you have an audio commentary by the director and producers, a commentary with the cast, a two-player game that is very challenging, deleted scenes with optional commentary and those deleted scenes should have been in the movie, the behind-the-scenes documentary is really amazing and fantastic and I think it gives you a damn good look into the making of a movie that I enjoy.
Adults be foreworn, this is not a funny movie and not that well done, fun time but definitely not good whatsoever.The cast of the movie seem to have a great time and the characters do work well, only problem is it isn't acted well and stars such as Freddie Prinze Jr and Sarah Michelle Gellar don't contribute enough or much at all to the cause.
If you watch this or have watched it then the costumes are one of the main memorable things, they are truly ridiculous and although yes the same as the cartoon clothes, just look insane in real life.I said before about kids enjoying it and they should, the jokes are crude in a child's kind of way and the characters are fun I would think for maybe a 5 year old.
Seeing Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne and Velma on a live adapted motion picture is a real treat.After the Mystery Inc. gang have gone their separate ways for two years, they each were invited to go to the whimsical resort Spooky Island, run by Mr. Emile Mondavarious (Rowan Atkinson).
After they arrive, the discover that the resort affects young visitors in very strange and ghoulish ways, so it is up to Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby to realize they must reunite to solve the mystery.This is an adventurous movie from start to finish, with a predictable, but fun-filled story.
Scooby is filmed in CGI, but voiced by Neil Fanning, and Freddy Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard and Linda Cardellini each did a creative job in portraying Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy, and each matched the original cartoon voices very well, especially Lillard's Shaggy and Cardellini's Velma.
Fred and Daphne are my favorite characters in the movie; Prinze and Gellar did great in their roles and it is just interesting seeing them go from portraying characters in teenage comedies, horror/slasher movies and Buffy the Vampire Slayer to a cartoon-based film.The special and visual effects were colorful and the island resort was a little too flashy, looking like it was ripped out of a comic book.
Fortunately, I didn't think Scooby-Doo was bad; it is a movie that is great for the entire family and just to enjoy.
I have been watching Scooby-Doo for over 12 years and i am a big fan of the series and every animated movie.
When this movie came out i was so excited that Scooby-Doo will be at the big screen for the first time.
Therefore, I would say that it is an overall great movie for kids of any age that love Scooby-Doo or just enjoy watching an entertaining funny movie..
That's why i went to see this movie at screen at its release and that I have a good time watching it again on DVD.For me, this Scooby franchise is among the best adaptation ever because i find all the original ingredients: spooks, colors and laughs!
The CG Scooby I think works quite well as making the Great Dane look real might have made it just a little too difficult to suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy the movie at all.
If you are inclined to see Scooby Doo, don't let any negative reviews turn you off to it.The cartoon series was never deep, but this movie does add some depth to the characters by exploring their relationships (as much as possible in what is essentially an action/comedy).
Shaggy's character in particular has a lot of heart, which holds the movie together very well.I honestly do not know what a six-year old would think of this movie, but I would recommend it to other Gen X'ers who grew up watching the cartoon when they came home from elementary school every day.
I loved the cartoon as a kid (until Scrappy came on the scene) and have been looking forward to this film for a long time.
Theres no plot, in fact theres no humour, no drama and absolutely no reason for this films existence except to drive revenues to the studios.From Scrappy-Doo urinating all over Daphne to Scooby and Shaggy having a farting competition (oh, yeah - dog DOO doo really is funny for 4 year olds NOT) this movie is so bad I rated it worse than Manos, the Hands of Fate (which I had to be tied down to a chair, and toothpicks affixed to my eyes to watch).Be afraid - be very afraid.
I know a movie like Scooby-Doo is going to be geared towards children.
Scooby-Doo was a film from my childhood that I loved and watched numerous times.
In fact it strives to be the cartoon and, honestly, the cartoon does Scooby better.People didn't pay money to watch a live-action movie that tried so hard to be cartoonie that it forgot Scooby had a fairly serious tone to play the comedy off of.Instead it is zany where it should be serious and because of that the jokes never really land.Like when I was a little kid, I watch Scooby Doo because it's fun and its funny.
If you are a child, then this movie will be entertaining, especially if you love the Scooby Doo cartoons.And this movie is of course aimed for a young audience.
Scooby-Doo is still one of my favorite cartoons and when I first watch the live action movie on HBO it just had to seen to believe.
But still I actually entertain from this movie.The plot of the film is that the Mystery Gang Scobby-Doo, Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr), Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Shaggy (Matthew Lillard), and Velma (Linda Cardellini) are invited to a island theme park by Mondavarious (Rowan Atkinson) however things are not what they appear to be.
Being a fan of the original cartoon I went to see this live-action version of "Scooby-Doo" in the theater in June, 2002 (Was it that long ago?).
I've always loved Scooby Doo. Read all the books, watched him on cartoons almost every morning.
I felt that Matthew Lillard and Scooby were the best in this movie as they played their character to almost the exact.
I think overall I am glad they did start the Scooby doo series non cartoon so I do overall appreciate that which is why I didn't give it too low of a rating because it still was a fun movie..
Scooby-Doo is a pretty good movie but it's not the greatest in the world.
The animated gang, Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne and yes even Velma have already made movies.
I believe more focus on this with the Scooby-Doo movie would have raised this review another notch.Overall, I felt cheap after watching this film.
Actually I enjoyed the movie, and as a kid I was a fan of the series, with the exception of the Scrappy-Doo episodes, which is when I stopped watching the series.
However, as I watched "Scooby-Doo" the movie, I knew there was something missing.
I guess I shouldn't have been too disappointed about this movie (considering how difficult it must have been to remake a 33-year-old cartoon show as a major Hollywood film), but so much more could have been done.Some other notes about "Scooby-Doo":-the best part of the movie was easily Matthew Lillard.
I've been waiting long to see Scooby Doo, I'm a big fan of the cartoon, and used to watch it religiously when I was little.
My favorite character was Daphne, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, i think she did a great job, she looked so beautiful and at the same time she was hilarious. |
tt0134380 | Butter | Destiny (Shahidi) is a ten-year-old foster child in Iowa who gets placed with Ethan (Corddry) and Jill Emmet (Silverstone). While visiting the Iowa State Fair by herself, she wanders into the exhibit of the winning butter sculpture, a life-sized Last Supper, and skillfully finishes the Holy Grail cup, which impresses the sculpture's creator, Bob Pickler (Burrell).
Bob had won the fair's butter-sculpture contest for the past 15 years straight; because of his dominance, he is asked to abstain from future competitions to give others a chance. Bob's wife Laura (Garner), overly competitive and socially ambitious, goes to the home of the competition's organizer to protest. Bob goes to a strip club and solicits stripper Brooke (Wilde) for sex in his minivan. Laura discovers them and T-bones the van with her SUV.
Laura decides to enter the county's preliminary sculpture competition herself because of the social status that comes with winning. Destiny decides to enter as well, as does Brooke, who just wants to harass the Picklers because Bob owes her $600. Despite practice, Laura comes in second to Destiny.
When Brooke appears at the Picklers' seeking her money, Bob's daughter Kaitlin (Greene) admits her and takes her up to her room. After talking a bit, Kaitlin challenges Brooke to a game of truth-or-dare which escalates to them having sex. Kaitlin is drawn to Brooke's alternative style and attitude; Brooke just wants the money (she ups the amount to $1200) and Kaitlin says she can get it. While this is going on, Kaitlin's stepmom Laura is hooking up with Boyd Bolton (Jackman), an old high-school boyfriend who is now a used-car salesman. She's seducing him to get him to falsely testify to county officials that Ethan paid him to help Destiny in the competition. Laura suggests a rematch at the state fair. Destiny agrees; everyone else is disgruntled.
Brooke gets her money from infatuated Kaitlin, meets Destiny after school, and takes her to the mall to buy her a $1,200 set of chef's knives to help her in the rematch with Laura. When Destiny gets home, a social worker informs her that her biological mother has died.
At the state fair, Laura carves a replica of John F. Kennedy's car immediately after his assassination complete with the president's blown-up skull and Jackie Kennedy and Clint Hill crawling onto the trunk; Destiny creates her biological mother holding her infant self in a rocking chair. That night before the judging, Boyd sneaks into the butter-sculpture room and defaces Destiny's sculpture with a blowtorch. Destiny, disappointed and expecting to lose now, encounters Laura in the restroom and offers the forgiveness of her handshake. Laura tells Destiny that winning the butter-sculpting contest means more to her than the little girl can comprehend. Laura feels she has little opportunity to distinguish herself otherwise, while Destiny has talent and her entire life to realize her own potential. Despite the damage, Destiny's sculpture wins. The sabotage of the piece is recognized as "higher art", as the judges believe the melted face lends the butter sculpture a greater depth. Destiny goes on to win in the state competition, where judges give a positive critique on her piece, deeming it an "angst-ridden exploration of post-natal abandonment." Upon her victory, Destiny assures Laura that the butter-carving contest is "not all that you have". Laura kneels down to Destiny and hugs her, understanding that she must move on to greater triumphs that are her own.
Later, Destiny is officially adopted by the Emmets and Laura is running for Governor of Iowa, claiming that God appeared to her and advised her to run. | murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0041785 | Rebel Rabbit | Bugs notices high bounties on various animals. There is a $50 bounty (about $500 today) on foxes, $75 (about $750 today) on bears, but then is offended by the two-cent bounty (about $0.20 today) on rabbits. Bugs has himself mailed to Washington, D.C., where a supercilious game commissioner explains that the bounty is so low because, while foxes and bears are "obnoxious" animals who damage property, "rabbits are perfectly harmless". Bugs vows to prove that he can do just as bad and storms out, slamming the game commissioner's door so hard that the glass in it shatters.
Bugs begins his campaign by attacking a guard in the leg with his own billy club. From there, he pulls stunts like renaming Barney Baruch's private bench as "Bugs Bunny" and then paints barbershop-pole stripes on the Washington Monument while painting "Bugs Bunny Wuz Here". Bugs then travels around where he rewiring the lights in Times Square to read "BUGS BUNNY WUZ HERE".
Different newspapers comment about Bugs' actions as he first shuts down Niagara Falls where it reveals some barrels underneath it. Bugs then sells the entire island of Manhattan back to the Native Americans and is shown walking through it wearing a feathered headband and smoking a peace pipe asiding to the audience that "they wouldn't take it back unless I threw in a set of dishes". Afterwards, Bugs saws Florida off from the rest of the country where he quotes "South America, take it away!" Bugs then wonders what other kind of devilry he can commit. Bugs heads to Panama and swipes all the locks off the Panama Canal, which are represented as actual locks as he quotes "I got 'em! I got 'em!" Bugs then heads to Arizona where he fills up the Grand Canyon. Bugs then concludes his campaign by literally tying up railroad tracks.
An angry Senator Claghorn–esque Congressman speaks before the United States Congress and demands that they take action against Bugs, but is interrupted by Bugs who emerges from the congressman's hat, slaps him, and gives him a mocking kiss. The cartoon then shows live-action footage of the entire War Department mobilizing against Bugs. Tanks come rumbling out of their garages, soldiers pour out of barracks, and bugles blow as the news of this is shown. Bugs, now satisfied with the $1 million bounty (about $10,100,000 today) on his head (although the bounty is for him specifically, not rabbits in general), is snapped out of a Tarzan yell by the whole US Army coming after him. Bugs then dives into a fox hole as artillery shells surround the foxhole. Bugs then quotes "Could it be that I carried this thing too far?" just as the missiles explode. It then cuts to Alcatraz Island where Bugs is in his jail cell as he quotes "Ehhh, could be..." | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | A great cartoon classic for Bugs!.
Maybe the best cartoon Bugs has ever had- he goes too far, and ends up in a heap of trouble, all because the bounty for a rabbit had been set at 2 cents...Bugs' bounty becomes 1,000,000 dollars..a classic- one of if not the best ever!a classic that until a recent DVD release had not seen the light of day release wise unless you counted laser discs..
thanks Warner bros.
for finally letting many see this classic cartoon!
I'd rank it very highly, and would recommend this short to anyone who considers themselves to be fans of bugs and looney tunes..
a classic, and well worth the effort to see.
Released April of 1949.
Yes, Bugs Gets A Little Carried Away!.
Game Commission has set a $50 bounty for each fox that is caught.
Bugs, and we viewers, know that because it's on a poster nailed to a tree where Bugs Bunny lives.
On the next tree is a similar sign offering $75 for a bear.
A third and final sign has a rabbit's bounty at two cents!
Bugs is furious.
"That is an insult!
They can't get away with it.
Rabbits is worth more than mangy old foxes and bears and stuff," he says.
"It's discrimination.
I'm a taxpayer.
I've got my rights."He goes to the post office and mails himself to Washington.
He is told rabbits are furry, harmless creatures, unlike the others, and that's why their bounty is so low.
Bugs winds up having to prove how rabbits can be "as obnoxious as anybody." For Bugs, that is not a hard assignment.Bugs goes on vandalizing spree in Washington and New York City.
Normally, I might agree this is a horrible message - that vandalism pays - but it gets so ludicrous that you can't take the slightest thing seriously in here.
I mean, Bugs Bunny shutting off Niagara Falls and filling in the Grand Canyon?
Yes, it gets a little wild...all so Bugs can get a little respect.
And, justice does prevail in the end in a very funny final minute that includes real-life footage.Bugs sums it all up with a humorous line: "Could it be that I carried this thing too far?"Yeah.
This outrageous cartoon can be seen on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume three DVD..
Not quite a classic, but still extremely good.
As a huge Looney Tunes fan, I have always thoroughly enjoyed Rebel Rabbit.
Maybe it is not quite one of Bugs' or Looney Tunes' best, but it is one of my favourite Robert McKimson shorts.
I do agree about the park bench gag, I have never really found that particular gag funny.
Every other gag works though, with the ending especially memorable.
The dialogue is also very fresh and witty, so on the humour side Rebel Rabbit scores with no problem.
The animation is wonderful, the colours and character designs are classic McKimson and look beautiful, while the music is characterful energy personified.
The story is engaging at the very least, and very crisply paced so there is rarely, if any, a dull moment.
Bugs is on great form, he has been more likable before but his humour and personality do really shine here as you'd expect.
Mel Blanc's voice work is right on the money, I've rarely heard Blanc put a foot wrong and Rebel Rabbit is no exception.
Overall, not a classic for me, but still highly recommended with no hesitation.
9/10 Bethany Cox. Hilarious McKimson cartoon.
'Rebel Rabbit' is one of the funnier Bugs Bunny cartoons, with an exciting and unusual climax.
This toon is a splendid example of the work of Robert McKimson, the most underrated figure in American animation.
McKimson's cartoons are always bright, visually attractive and (oh, yeah) funny ...
far more so than the repetitive, predictable and pretentious offerings of the grossly overrated Chuck Jones.
Some of McKimson's best cartoons, including 'Rebel Rabbit', are downright hilarious.SLIGHT SPOILERS.
In this toon, Bugs decides he's been taken for granted when a wildlife commissioner tells him that 'rabbits are timorous creatures'.
Bugs straight away becomes a public enemy, launching a one-rabbit crime wave.
The climax is very funny and also visually distinctive, as live-action combat footage is intercut with animation to show the human race putting aside its petty squabbles to exterminate Bugs Bunny.
The fadeout line is hilarious.Many of the old Warners cartoons had topical references that are now incomprehensible to the kids who watch these things on television.
In 'Rebel Rabbit', Bugs has an encounter with a blowhard Southern politician who is clearly meant to be Senator Claghorn, the character from Fred Allen's radio show.
During Bugs's crime wave, he saws off the entire state of Florida from the U.S. coast line, and then -- as the state floats out to sea -- Bugs cheerily urges 'South America, take it away.' In 1949, when this cartoon was made, that line was the title of a hit song performed by Betty Garrett in the musical 'Call Me Mister'.Most blatantly topical is the cartoon's one unfunny sequence, when Bugs vandalises a park bench that bears the peculiar sign 'Reserved for Barney Baruch'.
Why would a park bench be reserved for one particular person?
In fact, this refers to Bernard Baruch, Franklin Roosevelt's financial consultant who gave press conferences in the park while he sat on a bench and fed pigeons.
This unfunny gag could be scissored from the cartoon with no loss.I'll rate 'Rebel Rabbit' 10 out of 10.
Hurrah for Robert McKimson!
What a shame that he didn't live long enough to correct some of the (shall we say) erroneous statements made by Chuck Jones..
An extremely good Bugs Bunny!!
I really enjoyed this original, hilarious, clever, America-spoofing episode!
I enjoyed it for the reasons above (this episode does not spoof America in an insulting way, just really pokes at the things America loves and is proud of) and I also enjoyed it for Bugs Bunny's over-dramatic character, the animation, the plot idea and the way it is carried out.
If there was one thing that I slightly did not enjoy about the episode, it is the fact that Bugs Bunny does very horrible things in this cartoon, which surely he would dislike if someone else did them, but I guess he had just gone psychotic in this episode.Anyway, in "Rebel Rabbit", we see Bugs Bunny in the woods reading fox and bear hunting posters, which say that $50 will be awarded for a dead fox and $75 will be given for a dead bear.
When Bugs Bunny comes to a rabbit poster, saying that 2 cents will be given for a dead rabbit, the bunny is FURIOUS, saying that he is "worth more" and goes all the way to Washington to complain.
Will Bugs Bunny earn his revenge..?
I highly recommend this episode to any Looney Tunes watcher, anyone who likes Bugs Bunny and to anyone who loves crazy, screwball ideas in a Looney Tunes cartoon.
Enjoy "Rebel Rabbit"!
:-)P.S Included in this cartoon are some full-blown (and crazily over the top for the cartoon) military scenes, including tanks, men on horses and aeroplanes.
It does not need to be taken seriously (unlike some of the war references in Looney Tunes episodes such as "Scrap Happy Daffy" and "Daffy Duck Commando") and is a pretty good addition to the cartoon..
Live Action Military Scenes.
I loved the live action military scenes in this cartoon!
I believe they were from film footage of the Louisiana Maneuvers of September 1941.
The tanks coming out of the garages are variants of the M2 Medium Tank, the forerunner of the M3 Lee. Also, there is a shot of an M3 Stuart light infantry tank without its main 37mm gun.
Furthermore, there are clips showing M3 Scout Cars and horse mounted cavalry.
All these were present at the Louisiana Maneuvers.The aircraft shown are possibly Douglas Devastators from the U.S.S. Lexington's air group.
I believe this to be so because of the canopy and shape of the fuselage on each aircraft.
However, they might be Douglas Dauntless dive bombers or the USAAC's variant of the same plane..
Outrageous and original premise makes 'Rebel Rabbit' one of Robert McKimson's best cartoons.
Robert McKimson's 'Rebel Rabbit' is an extremely original cartoon that casts Bugs Bunny as an egotistical anarchist to terrifying effect.
Outraged that the bounty for hunted rabbits is only two cents each, Bugs visits Washington and demands it be raised.
When his request is refused, he sets about proving that rabbit's are more dangerous than people think by causing chaos up and down the country until the bounty on his head reaches a million dollars.
'Rebel Rabbit' is one of McKimson's finest cartoons.
Beginning with a novel premise, McKimson takes his time by having Bugs deal with all the administrative side of things first.
When this approach fails, the cartoon goes crazy as Bugs lets himself off the leash.
From hereon in, all bets are off as Bugs commits senseless acts of assault, vandalism and general indecency.
McKimson heightens the anything-can-happen atmosphere by interspersing the animated antics with live action footage.
Bugs's nationwide rampage is a thrill to behold and the unexpected result makes for a very satisfying climax.
All in all, 'Rebel Rabbit' is a fascinating and fun character experiment that comes highly recommended..
One of the best in the rabbit's career..
This is an excellent cartoon.
While by their nature, cartoons are a visual medium and sight gags are a major part of most Warner Brothers shorts, Bugs Bunny is probably the most verbally oriented character they created and the best gags here are verbal in nature, rather than visual.
This should be out on video and/or DVD.
Hopefully, the much anticipated, long-overdue release on DVD will happen soon.
It is much deserved.
Well worth watching.
Most highly recommended..
Every Liberal's dream: Cutting free Florida.
Bugs Bunny peeved over rabbit pelts being only worth 2 cents each(on account of the sheer volume of the rabbit population), while Bear and foxes go for considerably much more, goes to Washington where a flamboyantly gay Games commissioner feeds him some bull about rabbits being all cuddly and friendly (this was the pre-Quest for the Holy Grail days mine you).
So Bugs goes around America vandalizing and terrorizing, including (in what is every Liberal's fantasy) giving New York back to the Indians and cutting off Florida from the USA.
This is McKimson's best short ever, that side it still isn't that good and is quite a bit overrated.
This animated short can be found on Disk 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 3.My Grade: B-.
someone should separate Florida from the rest of the country.
When I saw the title and first minute of "Rebel Rabbit", I sort of assumed that it would be a Robin Hood-style story.
Boy was I wrong!
It portrays Bugs Bunny getting insulted when he finds that the government has placed exorbitant bounties on foxes and bears, but only 2 cents on rabbits (after all, rabbits are such cute little creatures).
So, the carrot-chomping rascal proceeds to make a complete mess of the United States.
The final scene reminded me of the Peter Sellers-Ringo Starr movie "The Magic Christian", how they ridiculously brought in the most elaborate weaponry to deal with so simple an animal (then again, Bugs isn't so simple to catch).I especially agreed with one scene: Bugs cuts Florida off from the rest of the country.
Considering that the Sunshine State is home to the rich Cubans who fled when Fidel Castro's army took over in Cuba, we should break that state off from the rest of the country and send it down to Cuba so that the current government there can prosecute Fulgencio Batista's henchmen.But I digress.
The point is, this is a really funny cartoon.
That southern senator was obviously Mel Blanc doing Foghorn Leghorn's voice.
Really neat..
Unusual, but not particularly good.
"Rebel Rabbit" is an American cartoon from 1949, so almost 70 years old and it runs the same slightly under 7 minutes as they usually do.
This is another Warner Bros.
production, not one of their most or least known and this one stars Bugs Bunny once again and he unites McKimson, Foster and Blanc of course, 3 of the company's most successful and most prolific.
So what do I mean when I call this unusual?
Well, first of all the live action parts of course that came out of nowhere and added almost nothing for me comedy-wise.
But it is also not too often that you see Bugs not go against one of his usual antagonists like Elmer, Sam or Daffy even, but basically against the entire United States and that's a battle not even Bugs can win, no matter how hard he tries.
Most of the comedy here comes from the damage that has been done to American soil irreparably and honestly, it is not too creative or funny.
I guess Blanc's voice acting is fine once again, but honestly that and the animation may be the only components that fit the description I'd say.
All in all, this is nowhere near Warner Bros' best or most entertaining.
I have to give it a thumbs-down.
Not recommended..
Gray Lives Matter .
. protesting agitator Bugs Bunny proclaims, embarking upon a nation-wide campaign of Vandalism, Sabotage, and Terrorism in the Looney Tune animated short, REBEL RABBIT.
Miffed at seeing the bounty on rabbit scalps set at a measly TWO CENTS (compared to $75 for bear and $50 for fox), Bugs mails himself to Washington, DC (1st Class, of course) to confront the U.S. Game Commissioner.
The latter proceeds to patronize America's Favorite Hare, provoking Bugs' rampage.
On the plus side, he cuts Florida loose (Pre-Empting W.'s appointment to the White House five decades later), fills in the Grand Canyon (where tourists fall to their deaths every year), and persuades the Native Americans to take back Manhattan (cancelling out the S&L crisis, the Bernie Madoff Pyramid Scheme, the Tech Bubble, the Derivatives Scandal, the Crash of 2008, and countless other ills).
Among the not-so-bright developments, Bugs destroys the American Railroad System, the Panama Canal, and mars the National Mall by candy-striping the Washington Monument.
But at least this dumb bunny proves that Grey Lives Matter..
Could it be that Bugs carried this thing too far?.
Directed by Bob McKimson, "Rebel Rabbit" stars a pudgy Bugs Bunny, whose wise-guy disposition throughout the film is very amusing.
Only one thing bothers him: the U.S. Game Commission is willing to dish out $50 for every fox hide and $75 for every bear hide, but rabbits, being the timid creatures that they are, are only worth two cents!
For Bugs, this is quite an insult, so he decides to cause all kinds of havoc throughout North America (particularly by defacing many historical landmarks) in order to prove once and for all that rabbits can do more damage, and are worth much more for the bounty hunters, than any other animal.My favorite moments from "Rebel Rabbit" include the following.
When Bugs mails himself to Washington, he is rather appalled at the postmaster's unsanitary act of licking a stamp and sticking it on Bugs' body.
Amidst all the wild damage that Bugs performs in order to increase the worth of his bounty, perhaps the funniest is his act of literally sawing off Florida from the rest of the United States and allowing it to set sail towards South America!
Back in Washington, Senator Claghorn (based on a real-life radio personality, and a precursor to Foghorn Leghorn) demands a price on Bugs, with Bugs himself stealing the senator's line "That's a joke, son!" And at the end, Bugs finally stirs up so much trouble that the United States Army has no choice but to come after him; Bugs is surrounded by bombs and bullets as we see some exciting live-action footage of horsemen, tanks, jeeps, and fighter planes.Bugs Bunny becomes a scourge all across the continent of North America, but at least this "Rebel Rabbit" accomplished what he hoped: he increased his bounty to one million dollars! |
tt0412704 | Far Cry | Jason Brody is on vacation with a group of friends in the Rook Islands, celebrating his younger brother Riley getting a pilot license. However, on a skydiving trip, they land on a pirate-infested island and are kidnapped by a pirate lord named Vaas, who plans to extort ransom money from their parents, and then sell them into slavery. With the help of his older brother Grant, Jason breaks out of captivity, but Grant is killed by Vaas in the escape. Jason is rescued by Dennis, who is part of the Rakyat (the island natives who suffer due to the activities of the pirates). Dennis recognizes Jason's potential as a warrior, and gives him the Tatau, the tattoos of a Rakyat warrior. Jason then helps the Rakyat in a number of missions and ends up finding one of his friends, Daisy, at the house of Dr. Earnhardt. Impressed with Jason's prowess, the Rakyat allow him to be the second outsider to enter their sacred temple (Dennis was the first being born in Liberia) and their leader Citra initiates him into the tribe, after Jason finds and returns the Silver Dragon knife, a Rakyat relic, having seen it in a previous dream. He runs a series of missions during which he rescues his captive friends Keith, Oliver and Jason's girlfriend Liza while simultaneously helping the Rakyat retake their island, helped at times by Dr. Earnhardt and Willis Huntley, a CIA agent. After a few run-ins with Vaas, Jason discovers that he is employed by Hoyt Volker, a slave trader and drug lord, and that Vaas is Citra's brother. Throughout the adventure, Jason matures into a fearsome warrior and is revered by the Rakyat, begins to enjoy all the killing, and grows more distant from his friends, especially after receiving information that Riley is dead. After Citra asks him to stay in the island, Jason returns to Dr. Earnhardt's house (where his friends are hiding and preparing their escape by boat), and tells them that he is staying, completely distant from his friends and family, leaving them disturbed. Meanwhile, Jason has an affair with Citra after she drugs him and has sex with him while he is in a hallucination.
After bidding goodbye to his friends, Jason goes to the pirates base where Vaas is. Believing that Jason was dead after a confrontation between the two, Vaas is celebrating Jason's death, although it transpires he was actually waiting for him. After Jason kills numerous pirates and reaches a warehouse, he and Vaas fight, but Jason enters a delusional state, fighting multiple duplicates of Vaas in his dream. He reaches a final Vaas, and after a brief struggle, he impales him through the chest with the Dragon Knife and collapses right besides him. He wakes up to Citra in the Rakyat's temple, and promises her that he will kill Hoyt for her. After Huntley helps him get into Hoyt's island, Jason infiltrates Hoyt's personal army with the help of Sam Becker, Huntley's fellow operative. During this time, Jason discovers that Riley is alive, but a prisoner of Hoyt. Jason works his way into Hoyt's confidence, until Hoyt eventually invites him and Sam to a poker night. After making a plan to kill Hoyt, Sam and Jason sit down at the poker game, but Hoyt stabs Sam in the throat and kills him, knowing the two are traitors. After Jason gets one of his fingers cut by Hoyt, the two have a knife fight, with Jason emerging victorious and killing Hoyt. Jason then goes to rescue Riley; he receives a call from Liza, but the signal is cut before she can say anything. Jason rescues Riley and the two escape by helicopter.
The two then fly to Earnhardt's house, but find it burning and the doctor dying on the ground. With his last words, he tells them that the house was attacked by the Rakyat, and that they have captured Jason's friends. Jason and Riley arrive at the Rakyat Temple. Jason asks Citra why his friends were captured, but she sprays him unconscious with a sleep powder and captures Riley. Citra has fallen in love with Jason, believing him to be a powerful warrior of Rakyat legend, and that she will free him. He starts dreaming of walking a fiery path with the Dragon Knife, and having Liza as a monster in his dream. He wakes up holding Liza at knife point with the Dragon Knife, and is given the choice either to kill his friends or to spare them.
=== Endings ===
If Jason kills his friends, he stays on the island and has sex with Citra in a ritual. However, Citra then stabs Jason in the chest. As he dies, Citra tells him that his child will lead the Rakyat to glory and that he "won".
If Jason spares his friends, he prepares to leave the island, telling the Rakyat and Citra that he is done with killing. As Citra begs him to stay and proclaims her love for him, Dennis is outraged for what he considers a betrayal by Jason and tries to stab him, but Citra jumps in front of Jason and is stabbed. Citra once again proclaims her love for Jason before dying in his arms, as a horrified Dennis breaks down over what he has done. Jason and his friends then leave the island by boat, with Jason narrating that despite becoming a monster from all the killing, he still believes that in some place in his heart he is still better than this. The game ends with a still image of the boat and the Dragon Knife in the beach while the credits roll. | violence | train | wikipedia | One of the best FPS games in the past five years..
Farcry has got it all, monsters, mayhem, and personality.
Unlike the usual mute superhero Jack Carver talks, and has plenty of sarcasm to dish out.
But what makes this game stand out from the others is the setting.
Most FPS games are either based on real life warfare or grim and gloomy sci fi.
A case in point is Doom III, where you get to spend 12 hours wandering around dark corridors.
Farcry is set on a series of tropical islands, and it's amazing simply how beautiful it all is, brightly colored and radiant, except that people are shooting at you.
Later on you get the dark and scary stuff, but it doesn't take up the entire game.Farcry also mixes very well military combat with monsters.
The mercenaries are only slightly predictable, usually when a scene stretches on too and long and they start looping voice commands or actions, and the trigens are downright scary to face off against.
This was also I think the first game to introduce a realistic looking water, which now is a requirement for every new game.Playing the game will take up the better part of a week, and that's before you start tinkering.
There's a few different rendering modes to use, and Nvidia 68X0 series cards can enable a primitive form of HDR lighting, which makes things substantially different.
It may not be obvious at first, but most levels have a few different ways they can be played, whether you prefer stealth, sniping, or up-front and personal combat.
The only flaw Farcry has to me is it's already starting to age.
Half-Life 2 brought us synchronized lips and facial expressions, and some things like twisted metal pipes look very blocky, being made out of low-poly count shapes.
Still, I can't wait for a sequel..
Great if not superb 3D perfect.
For the purposes of this review Farcry 1 was re-installed just to check 3D capability.
Absolutely perfect 3D.
That doesn't mean the game looks great because as one can imagine the game is now quite long in the tooth so the graphics are rather dated.
All that aside this game is really a blast, many hours of gameplay with quite a nice degree of variation between locations.
There are a couple of problems in that you cannot save a game anywhere.
Its the old 'Get past a certain point and wait for an automatic save' type system which can certainly put a person off especially at the end where you are on a ship that is sinking.
getting past that point was very hard but definitely doable.
This game is definitely worth playing even though it is quite old now.
The dated graphics do not take away from the experience enough to warrant playing something else.
For any 3D game review requests please email me at ratcat@live.com 9 out of 10 rubber chickens..
Trouble in paradise.
Far Cry is one of the most overrated games in 2004.
Some people say that this game is the best FPS game after legendary Half Life from 1998.
I disagree.
Far Cry is just an average FPS game with boring story, stereotypical characters and annoying game play.Now, the game really looks fantastic.
Most of the game takes place on tropical islands in South Pacific and the islands are just beautiful to watch, the sea, waterfalls and jungles look really good and breathtaking, but good graphics doesn't bring good game.
The story is boring and typical even for the worst FPS games: we have one guy with a lot of guns against the army of bad guys and (of course) genetic mutants.
Most of the time you are just walking from one island to another, shooting and killing everyone you meet without having a clue what's going on.
The enemies are ten times stronger than you, they can see you from a mile away, hear one little sound and they put the entire place on full alert, knowing exactly where you are, I even heard that they can see you threw the walls and rocks which is really stupid and unrealistic.
There is no strategy while approaching to the enemy, all the time you are just shooting at them.
And sometimes you'll have to shoot at them in different directions, because they can attack you from the air, water and jungle at the same time.
The game become very boring after a few hours, because it's all the same; you come to the island, start shooting at the enemy, enter a base or laboratory, shoot new bunch of enemies, push the button or something like that and in the end shoot some more enemies.
Maybe it's fun and challenging game for young players, but for me (I like the games with story and challenge, not "shoot to kill" games) it was just a waste of time.
There are some cool things in the game, you can switch walking on foot and driving with jeeps, boats,...
but that's not enough for a good game.Far Cry is overall an average FPS game with bad story and terrible voice acting, annoying game play and after a few hours it become boring and predictable.
Trouble in paradise for teenagers..
Best FPS for a long time(possible mini-spoiler).
The scope and relatively non-linear game play have made this my favourite game.
Half-life 2 is good but long load times and often slow frame rates made me prefer Far Cry with its short and infrequent loads and huge levels with superb rendering distances.The AI in Far Cry was outstanding, and makes you think about how to approach, as you cant run in guns blazing, sometimes, you have to go metal gear solid to get past.
However, even on easy it is a difficult game in some points, and with no quick save, only save points, it makes it more difficult but a worthy challenge.10/10 All aspects of Far Cry were brilliant, superb story that draws you in, scenery that makes you no_clip just to see the land from far away and enemies that are genuinely difficult..
The best FPS I've played in years.....
Not that I've played a lot since the days of Doom 2, but recently getting a decent PC upgrade inspired me to check out the latest offerings in order to test what my system was capable of.Far Cry is a rare game.
Although a simple FPS on the face of it, there is a lot more depth to the gameplay than, say, Doom 3.
True, you can just run around shooting like a lunatic, but that'll only get you killed before too long.
And not too long, either.
The mercenaries you face on most parts of the island are fully capable of outflanking you and possess the sharpest eyes anywhere!
Simply blatting away with the M4(M16?) will quickly attract hordes of bad guys to your location.
Of course, strategy-wise, sometimes you want them to come to you....The level design is also well done.
Plenty of variation in elevation and foliage cover and usually more than a few ways of accomplishing each level.
Part of the fun (for me at least) was going back over levels again later and trying different approaches to see how things worked out differently.
Some levels reward gung-ho Rambo-style assaults.
Others require careful sneaking and positioning to work to best advantage.
Some levels take a number of attempts before you figure out what is the best way to approach them.Also, some levels lend themselves to "out of the box" thinking.
For instance, one level has you clearing out a small dock area in order to rendesvous with your informant.
By far the best way I found to do this was to drive (yes, you can drive a number of vehicles in Far Cry!) your jeep right down at the dock , up the ramp and into the dockside warehouse, firing as you go (the jeeps are all equipped with machine guns) right through to the water side, then leap out and use the mini-gun on the dock-side to mow down the hapless mercenaries standing about open-mouthed on the dock.As I mentioned, there are a number of vehicles available, from jeeps and trucks, to boats and even a hang-glider or two!
And you can happily run down the mercs and blow up gas cyclinders and fuel tanks as you go.The game is good, and one that I'm happy to revisit for a bit of gunplay now and again.
But there are a number of things that are not good.Firstly, there is no manual "save game" option.
The game saves automatically at certain, pre-defined points.
If you get killed before you reach one of these, there are few options except to replay the previous areas again, which, in some instances, can be a considerable amount of effort.
Luckily there is a workaround for this available on the internet.Secondly, the monsters are more than a little bit lame and rely on the "can take hundreds of rounds of ammunition to kill" mentality.
This is particularly evident with the merc leader, who corners you on a sinking ship at one point with a helicopter gunship.
To say it takes a lot of ammunition to see him off is an understatement and I suggest you resort to cheat codes in order to get past what is otherwise a very tedious moment in the game.But otherwise this is one of the best games I've seen in a LONG while.
The AI, combined with a good story and excellent levels, day and night levels, indoor and outdoor settings etc.
all combine to make this a great gaming experience.Recommended..
Cheesy,and fun.
Welp basic plot villian wants to crest bio monsters calls trigen the friend is a twist villian,some spy mission with badassnes with some good exploration así is funny shoot every enemy get a hot and sexy spy to help you and save the world against terrorist and trigen mutants.If you like cheesy and pioneered far cry this game is for you.
Fun fun fun.....
Forget the plot this was fun.
Well I thought so anyway.The game was a ton of fun.
Lots of exploring and fun things to do but aside from that there's not much that kept me coming back.
I do love the locations and the look and feel of the game.The way all the islands look and how you move about is simply fantastic.
But that I'm afraid is window dressing.
All you seem to do is explore from place to place, shoot anything that moves that isn't already shooting at you, and that's about it.
Then the game ends when you finish the last level in the Volcano.Some of the atmosphere is also good.
One scene in particular when you are in a tunnel like area and these monsters called Trigens jump out at you.
That does kinda scare me sometimes when playing this, and it's not that often a game or such can do that.There are some frustrating parts in there for me too like one part where you venture into what looks like a kitchen area with mercenaries in it.
They'll shoot you but you can take them out, then from in the back of the room out a toilet door hordes of these monsters jump out at you making it a little hard to kill them all and escape unhurt.But I had to keep returning to this spot and kept trying, and eventually did beat that level.Overall can't say I didn't have fun but would have liked it had they given the game a bit more story and that would have helped make the islands feel that much more real. |
tt0036341 | The Seventh Victim | The film opens with the quote from John Donne: "I run to death, and death meets me as fast / and all my pleasures are like yesterday."
Mary Gibson (Kim Hunter), a young woman at Highcliffe Academy, a Catholic boarding school, learns that her older sister and only relative, Jacqueline Gibson (Jean Brooks), has gone missing and has not paid Mary's tuition in months. The school officials tell Mary she can remain enrolled only if she works for the school. Mary decides to leave school to find her sister, who owns La Sagesse, a cosmetics company in New York City.
Upon arriving in New York, Mary finds that Jacqueline sold her cosmetics business eight months earlier. Jacqueline's close friend and former employee, Frances Fallon (Isabel Jewell), claims to have seen Jacqueline the week before, and suggests that Mary visit Dante's, an Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village. Mary locates the restaurant, and discovers that Jacqueline has rented a room above the store, without having moved in. Mary convinces the owners to let her see the room, which she finds empty aside from a wooden chair and above it a noose hanging from the ceiling. This makes Mary more anxious and determined to find her sister.
Mary's investigation leads her to Jacqueline's secret husband, Gregory Ward (Hugh Beaumont); a failed poet, Jason Hoag (Erford Gage); and a mysterious psychiatrist, Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway). Jacqueline had been Judd's patient, seeking treatment for depression stemming from her membership in a Satanic cult called the Palladists. She was lured into joining the cult by her former co-workers. Mary enlists a private detective, Irving August (Lou Lubin), but he is stabbed to death while investigating at the La Sagesse headquarters. Judd eventually helps Mary locate Jacqueline, who has gone into hiding. Gregory Ward falls in love with Mary. Jacqueline is later kidnapped by the cult members and condemned to death for revealing the cult. She would be the seventh person so condemned since the founding of the cult (hence the film's title).
The cult members, squeamish about committing acts of violence, decide that Jacqueline, who is suicidal, should kill herself. When she refuses, they let her leave, but send an assassin to follow her. The assassin chases her through the darkened streets with a switchblade, but she eludes him and returns to her apartment above Dante's. She briefly encounters her neighbor, Mimi (Elizabeth Russell), a young woman with a terminal illness. Mimi confesses to Jacqueline that she's afraid to die, and plans to have one last night out on the town. Jacqueline enters her own apartment and hangs herself. The thud of the chair falling over is heard, but the sick woman does not recognize the sound as she leaves for the evening. | romantic, avant garde, murder, cult | train | wikipedia | The scenes depicting her sister's frantic run through the streets to escape a pursuer will remind others of the opening of Lewton's other little shown film The Leopard Man. Viewing this film further reinforces my belief that an intelligent film patron does not need to be clubbed over the head by excessive gore and violence to be truly scared by a film if the story is intriguing and the execution is as good as in The Seventh Victim..
Even so, seeing this movie under the worst possible circumstances, I was nonetheless hypnotized by its eerie, morbid, downright shocking handling of a fairly typical thriller premise: A young girl (the luminous Kim Hunter, in her first film) is informed by the staff of the Catholic girls' school she attends that her sister, who lives in New York City and owns a thriving women's fragrance emporium, has not paid her tuition bills for several months and has apparently vanished.
A trustful, kind-hearted innocent girl suddenly thrust into a series of increasingly frightening situations populated by a huge cast of supporting characters (and nobody is quite what meets the eye), Ms. Hunter and the viewer are sent down a series of dark alleys that eventually culminate in the most terrifying, nerve-needling, shocking ending of any film I have ever seen.
I now live in New York and have scoured the West Village for the locations of the scenes in "The Seventh Victim" (which, of course, was shot on the RKO Greenwich Village backlot--but is a perfect replica of the deceptively beautiful West Village as it appears even today: cobblestoned streets, majestic townhouses converted into brownstone apartments, cozy, family-run Italian restaurants, and the most colorful, fascinating, complex and entrancing people you'll neet anywhere in the entire world.
Hitchcock obviously saw this film and used its terrifying shower scene for the centerpiece of "Psycho." To this day, this modest, unpretentious, off-beat chiller remains relatively unknown (except for film-buffs), yet when I showed it to my guests at a dinner party a few years ago, they gradually fell under its creepily hypnotic spell, and, towards the end, when Ms. Hunter's sister is stalked by an unknown killer on the darkened Village streets, a quick camera shot of the stalker reaching into his pocket and pulling out a switchblade made three of my guests scream, How "The Seventh Victim" ever got past the censors in 1943 I'll never know I've read that the film had a strong lesbian undertone that drove the members of the Hays Office into cardiac arrest.
Coming as it does from producer Val Lewton, one shouldn't be surprised that The Seventh Victim is a hauntingly poetic creeper of a movie, no shocks or out and out horror here, just a genuine sense of dread and a pervading sense of doom.
It would seem that although originally intended as a longer mainstream picture, a difference of opinion between Lewton and the studio (thought to be about the hiring of first time director Mark Robson) meant it was cut to a B movie standard.The Palladists.What remains, though, isn't at all bad, in fact it's unique.
THE SEVENTH VICTIM is one of the best films produced by Val Lewton, famous for his wartime series of low budgeted, but brillantly spooky thrillers.
Some stories, of course, are more interesting than others ("The Body Snatchers" was, I thought, by far the best) but this one - supposedly "Lewton's masterpiece," according to one national critic - I found was generally typical of the rest."Typical" for the following reasons:1 - Great cinematography, film-noir-like with dramatic light and shadows, super black-and-white images that are a treat to see.
I've now seen five of Val Lewton's films: "Cat People", "The Curse of the Cat People", "I Walked with a Zombie", "The Body Snatcher", and finally "The Seventh Victim".One thing that has stood out in all the films is how well the female roles are developed (including the supporting roles in "The Body Snatcher", which has more emphasis on the male characters).
When her private investigator is killed, Mary later sees his body being carried by two men on a train and suggests to her that something strange may be up; with the help of unemployed poet Jason Hoag she then starts to find connections between Jacqueline's disappearance and some form of strange cult.I had no idea what this film was about but, having been seeing a lot of the Falcon movies recently, I decided to watch it due to Conway's involvement and was pleased to find that was much more than just that to make this film worth seeing.
It has a dark, creepy glory that defies budget and expectation.The Lewton films famously played on psychology rather than explicit shock, and this has several scenes that deserve classic status, most memorably: a detective having to walk down a spectacularly dark hallway, and a woman sitting in a room full of people urging her to commit suicide.
One of the Best Horror Films You Never Heard Of. A young woman (Kim Hunter) in search of her missing sister (Jean Brooks) uncovers a Satanic cult in New York's Greenwich Village, and finds that they may have something to do with her sibling's random disappearance.Purported homosexual undercurrents run through the film and it has a generally dreadful story without the happiness that should accompany a film of its era.
If you want to watch an absorbing thriller, strictly 1940s style with the power of suggestion filling in for graphic horror, THE SEVENTH VICTIM will keep you entertained with its story of a naive girl searching for her sister in New York's Greenwich Village, only to find that she is being held captive by a Satanic cult.That's the basic premise and it holds together quite well under Mark Robson's taut direction.
Horror fanatics discuss Val Lewton like he's a sort of shadow obsessed God. The producer of low-budget, WWII era horror films renowned for their innovative use of lighting to create a supernaturally spooky tone, projects like Cat People and The Leopard Man aren't lumped together with the schlocky frankness of Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman or The Mummy.
She is involved in something hideous, something unspeakable; and after committing a crime, she may have to pay for it with her life.For a film with satanists as its antagonists, The Seventh Victim is a surprisingly mature movie, where the foes are not fire-breathing devils but rather people you could pass by on the street without even noticing something strange.
Relying on the power of allusion, insinuation, and the visual presentation of rich, black mattes, The Seventh Victim's singular story and guileless treatment of verboten subject matter sets it apart from modern movies when compared to current methods of creating horror.When Mary Gibson (Hunter) ventures to Manhattan in search of her missing sister Jacquelin (Brooks), she enters a foreboding world of corruption, poison, mental illness, knife-wielding assassins, murder and suicide.
All of this is pretty racy for 1943, making The Seventh Victim a unique, precursor to the noir genre.Notes: The character of Dr. Judd appears again in Val Lewton's Cat People.
One of the lesser-known entries from producer Val Lewton, THE SEVENTH VICTIM has many fascinating elements, is well-acted by an interesting cast (including young Kim Hunter, in her screen debut), and creates an eerie and disquieting feeling.
As with the first three entries (after which a change of director was ordered by RKO - but, then, he had to fight for first-timer Mark Robson!), the film basically revolves around a number of highly-charged and brilliantly-handled suspense sequences: the walk down the dark corridor of the cosmetics shop (the firm is pretentiously named "La Sagesse", meaning Wisdom) where an opportunistic but sympathetic pint-sized detective meets his doom; a Hitchcockian scene aboard a train; the shower sequence in which a member of the devil cult bursts in on lead Kim Hunter, warning her not to get involved any further (though entirely different in development, this could well be the cinematic fore-runner of the legendary scene in PSYCHO [1960]!); yet another walk across a dark alley with a threat to one of the characters which could come at any moment and from any corner.The film is undercast, but effectively so: Kim Hunter is impressive in her debut performance; her two suitors, however, are rather too fey - though the poet character is, at least, intriguing (if giving rise to a decidedly over-literate script, already peppered with Lewton's typically pretentious quotations!); Tom Conway actually reprises his role from CAT PEOPLE (1942), making it one of cinema's first examples of a prequel - since his character died in the earlier movie!; Jean Brooks - writer/director Richard Brooks' wife - was a somewhat vapid heroine in THE LEOPARD MAN (1943), but this quality (accentuated by her dark wig, which is every bit as iconic as the one sported by Louise Brooks in PANDORA'S BOX [1928] and must have inspired Uma Thurman's look in Tarantino's would-be seminal PULP FICTION [1994]) actually fitted like a glove her enigmatic and nihilistic character here!
Haberman also mentions the efforts of British film-makers to watch THE SEVENTH VICTIM in wartime (American films of this era only reached foreign shores after the end of WWII!) - among them the Boulting Brothers, Carol Reed and Michael Powell (the last, according to DVD Savant but which I can well believe, since Kim Hunter was cast in the added subplot for the alternate U.S. version of The Archers' A CANTERBURY TALE [1944]!) - and a hilarious anecdote of scenarist De Witt Bodeen (the script was co-written with Charles O'Neal, father of actor Ryan!) attending a real devil-worship meeting in which harmless-looking old ladies cast terrible spells on Hitler while nonchalantly sipping tea!!
The story concerns young Mary Gibson (Kim Hunter, in her film debut) who leaves her boarding school to search for her older and strangely missing sister Jacqueline (Jean Brooks)--only to find herself unexpected ensnared by a satanic cult operating in New York's Greenwich Village.Although the story line is a bit choppy, director Mark Robson guides it with a sure hand.
Hunter, Brooks, and an exceptional supporting cast including Lewton favorites Tom Conway and Elizabeth Russell give the low-key but effective performances one associates with a Lewton film; the story offers a number of unexpected twists; and the cinematography is the light-and-shadow trademark of a Lewton production at its best.But most disconcerting--and the film's greatest asset--is the cult itself, which consists of people you might have met on any 1943 sidewalk.
****SPOILERS**** Being told that her older sister Jacqueline Gibson, Jean Brooks, has gone missing in the big city of New York young Mary, Kim Hunter, leaves her school/dorm in Highcliff and travels to New York's Greenwich Village to find her.
It was also Irving August's murder that may well have the police suspect her of being a member and thus draw attention towards to secret Devil Cult.Even though the movie has almost no violence at all in it, only Irving August is killed and that happens off screen, director Mark Robson together with film-noir horror master Val Lawton's use of shadows and sounds makes the movie far more horrifying then any special effects, back then in 1943, could have.
With shadows and darkness making the sets truly eerie and the deaths were pretty subtle- as they happen off screen.The performances are nothing special by Jean Brooks, Kim Hunter, Tom Conway and Hugh Beaumont, but just right.The story is a pretty intriguing one, involving Satanists
though they're not that sinister like I hope they would be and it does seem to lose it's way just after the half-way mark- but then it picks up for the last intriguing 10 minutes, with a very haunting climax.Certain images just seem to stay in your mind, with each scene having something very notable, making the imagery a key factor of the film.
Mark Robson directed this bleak yet fascinating horror film that stars Kim Hunter as Mary Gibson, who leaves her private school to search for her older sister Jacqueline(played by Jean Brooks) in New York City, where she meets her husband(played by Hugh Beaumont) who is also concerned about her.
But when her sister is sought for murder Mary must find her with the help of Jacqueline's hubby before things go bad.This noir (with a bit of a horror twist) comes to you straight from legendary producer Val Lewton.
While it's construction is simple, there is a somewhat-complex love pyramid going on, and it has a stylish cult atmosphere.We start off with Mary, as she leaves her girl school existence, in search of her sister- Jacqueline- who has apparently disappeared.She heads into the big city, where she follows a number of leads, with hopes of tracking her sister down.
Lewton and director Mark Robson (this was the first of the five features that Robson directed for Lewton) do a fine job of keeping our innocent heroine, and the viewer, in the dark for a fair amount of the running time, and create a memorably enigmatic character in Jacqueline Gibson.Kim Hunter debuts as Mary Gibson, a schoolgirl who learns that her sister Jacqueline has gone missing.
So she travels to Greenwich Village in search of her, meeting various characters along the way, including lawyer Gregory Ward (Hugh Beaumont), who initially doesn't play it quite straight with her, published poet Jason Hoag (Erford Gage), psychiatrist Louis Judd (Tom Conway), and beauty shop proprietress Mrs. Redi (Mary Newton)."The Seventh Victim" gets very philosophical, and poignant, in the end, with two opposing sides engaging in a rather civil disagreement.
Jean Brooks as lost soul Jacqueline is excellent once the focus of the story finally shifts to her.Although this entry in Lewtons' filmography underperformed at the box office compared to hits like "Cat People", and wasn't well received at the time, it's very well done and certainly deserving of another look from film fans.Eight out of 10..
Kim Hunter is very good in her starting role, as well is Tom Conway which also appears in Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie.I recommend this film, especially for those interested in Val Lewton's work.
An unusual story involves a young woman's search for her missing sister, who formed an affiliation with a group of pacifist Satanists (?!) and gave away her beauty parlor just before disappearing.Hunter is very effective here in her film debut.
"The Seventh Victim" includes some interesting literary allusions and references, and it provides a parade of actors who are fun to identify for modern viewers, but otherwise it is not worth viewing.The story is about a young woman, Mary (Kim Hunter), who goes to New York City to find her sister, Jacqueline (Jean Brooks).
A girl (Kim Hunter in her film debut) searches for her missing sister in New York City and stumbles across cult of devil-worshippers.
Seventh Victim, The (1943) *** (out of 4) Val Lewton thriller about a woman (Kim Hunter) who goes searching for her missing sister and tracks her down to a group of devil worshipers.
"The Seventh Victim" follows Mary Gibson (Kim Hunter, who would later win an Oscar for her performance in "A Streetcar Name Desire" with Marlon Brando), a naive and kind orphaned young woman who receives notice that her older sister, Jacqueline (Jean Brooks) has vanished.
As time begins to race, Mary must find her sister and save her from whatever impending doom awaits her.Truly ahead of its time, "The Seventh Victim" is a little-known-of horror film that emerged from RKO Radio Pictures in the 1940s, and was horror filmmaker Val Lewton's first production.
"Psycho" :the scene when Kim Hunter is having a shower predates that of Leigh by more than fifteen years: the ominous shadow behind the curtain,her threatening words."Rosemary's baby" : it's quite possible Ira Levin was influenced by this film when he wrote his book.Both Polanski's movie and "the seventh victim" deal with everyday life terror ,there's apparently nothing supernatural,it is a normal world where unusual details occasionally surface.Most amazing thing,all the characters are interesting,not at all the cardboard ones you can meet in 95% of today's fantasy and horror flicks.A poet ,an one-armed woman who plays the piano,a circle of respectable devil worshipers , a woman who seems to have gone nuts,because of them,or because she already had this great fascination for death (this scene when Hunter opens her sister's bedroom door and sees the noose above a chair gives the jitters.) I cannot find a single weak sequence in this movie .It may last only seventy minutes ,its density is extraordinary: the detective's death and the unusually inventive use of the subway;the sister's reappearance ,almost zombie-like;the shower;the worshipers,trying to make their victim commit suicide;the two men setting their faith in Christ and his commandments against the "what is good?
And surely one of the scariest.Not as immediately horrifying as either CAT PEOPLE or I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, this movie contains a couple of the most unsettling scenes in the history of horror films.Let's start with the room that Jacqueline Gibson (Jean Brooks) keeps in a boarding house - you know, the one with the chair and the noose.
As a number of reviewers have already observed, there was a lot cut out of this film leaving plenty of loose ends, but "The Seventh Victim" is still hard to beat for sheer atmosphere and sense of impending doom.When Mary Gibson, played by Kim Hunter, is forced to leave the exclusive girl's school she is attending after her sister Jacqueline disappears and stops sending money, she heads to New York to find her.
The film only gets darker and stranger from this point on.During her search, Mary meets Dr. Judd, the mysterious psychiatrist from "The Cat People", played by Tom Conway, and Hugh Beaumont as Gregory Ward, Jacqueline's husband she knew nothing about.
"The Seventh Victim" stars Kim Hunter as Mary Gibson, a young woman who embarks upon a quest to find her missing sister.
The Seventh Victim is the story of Mary Gibson (Kim Hunter), a young woman who leaves her school in search of her older sister, Jacqueline (Jean Brooks).
A very young Kim Hunter (in her very first film role) plays the part of Mary, a school girl who learns that her older sister and provider, Jacqueline, has disappeared. |
tt1345450 | Blue Gender: The Warrior | In the year 2009, Yuji Kaido is an average young adult male diagnosed with a serious disease (the "B-cells") and is put into cryogenic stasis until a cure is found. Twenty-two years later, he is awakened in the midst of a raging battle between armored soldiers and insectoid beings called the "Blue" which have overrun the Earth.
The group of soldiers are from an orbiting space colony collectively called Second Earth and were ordered to recover "sleepers" around the Earth. Among them is the soldier Marlene Angel, who at first appears to be heartless toward others. On the journey to the space colony, Second Earth,Yuji meets many of the humans that were left behind during the evacuation due to limited resources. Standing orders for Marlene and the other troops are to consider any human survivors on the surface to be already dead, which greatly troubles Yuji.
On their journey all of the soldiers are killed, except for Marlene, causing Yuji to fall into a deep depression as he recognizes the destruction around him and his own inability to save those he cares about. During their travel to Baikonur space base through the mountains, Yuji and Marlene start to develop a bond that softens her sharp edges. Eventually, in Russia, Yuji and Marlene come across another group of soldiers and devise a battle plan to get back to Second Earth. During the operation to escape, Marlene is the last remaining pilot and completely overrun by the Blue. Just when Marlene is about to self-detonate her Armor Shrike, Yuji arrives. Determined not to leave her behind, he comes to her rescue with a team of supporters (service robots). Marlene is overwhelmed at Yuji's efforts to save her. This is a turning point for Marlene and her feelings for Yuji are quite clear for the rest of the series. During the shuttle flight to Second Earth, Marlene and Yuji expose their emotions for each other. Marlene and Yuji's scene is abruptly interrupted as a mutated Blue which hid in the shuttle attacks Yuji, critically injuring him.
Upon arrival, Marlene and Yuji are separated, and Marlene is sent back into training at the education station. Not knowing what happened after he was attacked, Marlene rebels and is bent on finding Yuji. When she does, she finds he has healed and is being trained to use a new specialized "sleeper"-specific Armor Shrike (AS) called the "Double Edge", a battlesuit that is much stronger than the originals used in war against the Blue. It is discovered the illness that Yuji is afflicted with is the key to help destroying the Blue and taking back the planet. He, and other "Sleepers", have "B-cells" which are also the genetic makeup of the Blue.
After intensive training, Yuji and Marlene return to Earth with two other Sleepers named Tony Frost and Alicia Whistle. Tony is an inexperienced AS pilot, but his B-cells are very adept, giving him great AS skills. Alicia is only a young teenager with no combat experience and not much sense of what is going on around her. They and the other forces of Second Earth battle the Blue. They are successful at destroying a few of the largest nests before they head back to Second Earth. However, the battles begin to have a negative effect on Yuji, who has very little regard for human life and is completely obsessed with being better than Tony at killing the Blue. Yuji's actions deeply concern Marlene and she begins to realize something is wrong.
Shortly after returning to Second Earth, the High Council orders the Sleepers on a second offensive against the Blue. Marlene is separated from Yuji once again, but in his current state he does not seem to care. As the Sleepers are carrying out their mission, a battle on Second Earth between two factions is waged. Seno, the head of Second Earth's science division, leads the "Ark" rebellion taking control of the military, lunar resource, and education stations of Second Earth. The High Council escapes to and retains control of the medical station. Marlene learns about the nature of the illness that put Yuji in stasis, the source of his abilities, and the source of the Blue Insectoids. They are a defense mechanism enacted by the Earth to purge the existence of humanity, and the B-cells that exist in the Sleepers could become a potential threat to humanity as well.
After the Ark successfully takes over Second Earth from the ignorant High Council, Marlene heads down to Earth in search of Yuji. When she finds him his B-cells are already beginning to activate, and he begins to go berserk as a killing machine. After struggling and fighting with him, Marlene is finally able to get through to Yuji and helps him overcome his madness by showing her human emotions and feelings for him (this is ironic because in the beginning of the series Marlene is the brutal military soldier and it is Yuji who uses his emotions to help Marlene realize her human sensitivity). Meanwhile, Tony and an unknowing Alicia have also abandoned the remaining ground forces. The troops fend off waves of Blue before escaping with the few remaining survivors. Tony and a now brainwashed Alicia also eventually return to Second Earth, but bring with them several Blue when they board the medical station.
When Yuji and Marlene return to Second Earth, they find that Tony plans to ram the medical station into the military station, which would therefore destroy the heart of Second Earth. He sees this as the "Grand Will of the Earth", in which he will become a "messiah" and cleanse the planet of humanity forever. However, Yuji, Marlene, and a group of other soldiers infiltrate the station, and manage to free Alicia's mind after injuring her. Later, Yuji and Marlene confront and eliminate Tony, while Rick (a close friend and partner to Yuji and Marlene) is slaughtered by a Blue. Alicia ventures back to Tony to die with him as the military destroys the medical station.
After the decision by Seno's junta to abandon Earth, Yuji becomes depressed and contemplates his existence, wondering what he has been fighting for, why he was woken, why he cannot save his friends (Joey near the beginning, Tony from his madness, and Alicia from Tony's brainwashing), and what is truly Earth's will. However, Marlene again is able to get through to Yuji; the two realize they need each other, and finally become lovers.
Yuji decides to return to Earth to once and find out what Earth's will is. After learning from Seno about a new migration pattern of the Blue, Yuji and Marlene take a group of volunteers and head to an area where a massive nest is located. There they find a group of humans surviving in the area. The nest seems impenetrable at first, but they eventually find an entrance with the help of the local people.
The entrance leads to a tunnel where the walls, ceiling, and floor of the cavern are composed of fossil-like Blue. The team finally comes upon a crystal formation in a massive cavern. A huge Blue is birthed from the gel substance sitting atop the formation, and kills everyone except for Yuji and Marlene. Yuji kills it and comes to the conclusion that the sphere will hold the answers he seeks. He sends Marlene, who is pregnant with their child, away to the surface to wait for him. He then gets a vision and can see what the Earth itself can see. Yuji comes to understand how mankind can live alongside the B-cells, and returns to Marlene.
Meanwhile, Second Earth's military station's citizens revolt against Seno. The station's personnel abandon the station for Earth via shuttles. Eventually a firefight erupts over the last remaining overcrowded shuttle, and the station is destroyed by a massive explosion. All around the world from former Blue Nests, long strings of coalescing energy ascend into Earth's atmosphere and form a ring. Marlene and Yuji watch this, realizing Earth is now a safe place to be, and look forward to the rest of their lives together as the sun sets. A final view of the Earth from space is shown with a slightly garbled narration, presumably by the Earth, stating, "Welcome to your next journey". | violence | train | wikipedia | Do yourself a favor and watch the series instead.. Just finished watching the box set of the original TV series, followed by this movie. This movie uses clips from the original show, and new scenes to present almost the same story in a somewhat different manner. I did some brief math and compared to the show, this movie moves at an Olympic Sprinter's pace. The first 60 of this 98 minute movie is used to give a very spark-notes like version of the first half of the show. There were characters, scenes and situations entirely cut. This leads to almost a hyper-active feeling because speaking moments are rapidly cut with action scenes cut with a moment that should be character building but they are already cutting to the next action scene. The next 38 minutes of this movie are where this movie differs from the series. The last half of the series is almost completely rewritten basically erasing many characters/plot points/events that would appear, and reversing the motivations of one of the most important characters. The events of the original last two episodes are used to set up a finale that, after this wild ride, feels only sub-par at best. In conclusion, I wouldn't recommend this movie. It's much too quickly paced, there is little characterization, events seem to happen that you might only understand if you watch the series, and many scenes (except the ones where they fight their way out with robots) have underwhelming conclusions. I wouldn't recommend getting this unless you are a completionist, otherwise, skip it. |
tt0280438 | Ash Wednesday | Hell's Kitchen on Ash Wednesday, 1983; rumors are flying that Francis Sullivan's (Edward Burns) younger brother Sean (Elijah Wood), dead for three years, has reappeared. If he wasn't killed by rivals, then old scores still need settling, putting both Francis and Sean in danger. An upstart is pressuring the local mob boss, who's Francis's protector; Sean's wife, Grace (Rosario Dawson), believes she's a widow and has gotten on with her life, but Sean has come back for her. The parish priest, part of the initial deception, is frightened. Bad guys with guns are closing in. Can Francis get Sean and his wife out of the city, avoid a war between rival factions, and hold onto new-found morality? Will the cross of ashes on his forehead protect him?
Francis helps Sean reunite with Grace and his son, Sean Jr., and they head out of the city together in the back of a van, but Francis stays behind to stop Moran (Oliver Platt). The film closes with Francis wiping the cross of ashes from his forehead. When he steps outside of the pub minutes later, he is shot down. He dies and the sniper leaves the scene before the police arrives. | revenge, murder, violence, flashback | train | wikipedia | But I do know that most of you will enjoy this approximately 90 minutes of suspenseful entertainment, will recommend viewing to your friends and may watch this film a second and third time.
The story concerns one day, Ash Wednesday, and the events that happen on that day to two Irish-American brothers, Francis (Burns) and Sean (Elijah Wood).
There he's spotted by several people, including an ex-girlfriend of Francis' who wants to get even with Sean's brother for dumping her.In the Catholic church and in several other religions, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, the period of time preceding Easter.
A couple more scenes of Ed Burns walking around the streets with that boring musical theme and I may have given up on this film.Elijah Wood was totally miscast.
A 6.5 - 7.0 rating is generous but I like Ed Burns, stories about Irish street hoods and a plus when it's Hells Kitchen in NYC instead of the Southies.
In "Ash Wednesday", Burns spins a yarn about a Hell's Kitchen bar owner with a checkered past (Burns) whose younger brother (Wood), who's supposed to be dead, has been seen in the neighborhood (duh) giving rise to inquires from all corners while igniting the plot.
Burns and Elijah Wood play Irish catholic brothers- Francis & Sean Sullivan.
Burns and Elijah Wood play Irish catholic brothers- Francis & Sean Sullivan.
The film is set in one entire Ash Wednesday in New York's Hells Kitchen during the early 80's.
The film is set in one entire Ash Wednesday in New York's Hells Kitchen during the early 80's.
The photography was excellent, the direction was good, and the casting was inspired in some cases: Malachi McCourt (younger brother of Frank McCourt, of Angela's Ashes fame) as Whitey, and James Handy as the parish priest were both noteworthy, in relatively small parts, but that same casting was monumentally awful in the case of Elijah Wood
If ever an actor was born not to play his part, he is that man
This was even worse than his miscast in 'Green Street', which was so bad it was almost watchable
I thought Rosario Dawson was good in a diluted, under-used sort of way, and looked most delicious in heavy makeup (this is set in the early 80's, remember), and even the man himself, Edward Byrne was believable in places (BTW, note to others-always refer to him as 'Edward'-Ed Byrne is an Irish comedian, which when reviewing this film could get very confusing)
The only really obvious fault here was the woeful waste of Oliver Platt-if you can book talent like him, then you really should use him!..I had no problem with the linearity of the plot-after all, the whole film takes place over less than 24 hours, so keeping it simple was probably the best thing to do-and if you watched shaking your head in disbelief at the asinine stupidity of some of the characters, watch 'State of Grace'-an infinitely better film, also set in the criminal underbelly of Hell's Kitchen, the consensus is that these are stupid people doing stupid things
Now the bad bit-and it's simply so bad it lets down the whole film, taking it from what could have been a decent pot-boiler into a risible farce-it's the dialogue-Edward Byrne is credited as the only writer, and it soon becomes obvious that this is simply not his field.
It's not the swearing (although God knows, there's enough of it), it's the complete lack of subtlety, double-entendres, jokes & banter-all the things that make up daily conversations
When it's missing, you really notice it
The only really believable conversations are those that Pat McNamara (the barman, Murph) has with his customers-and those may seem more realistic simply because they were ad-libbed
Michael Leydon Campbell as Jimmy Burke was funny, but his were just comments and interjections-no-one really engaged with him
The rest is just too awful for words (pun intended)
And this makes the thing difficult to watch-you'll end up shouting at the screen , losing your temper, and not enjoying the film
It's a shame, because it should have been such an easy thing to fix
So, I'm afraid my advice is this
If you see 'Ash Wednesday' advertised in your listings, and you've never seen it-give it a go by all means, but don't say I didn't warn you-personally, I'll be watching 'State of Grace' or 'Road to Perdition' instead.
Leading character Edward Burns who directed as well keeps the ash cross on his forehead until almost the end of the film.
Now Wood is back to get his wife Rosario Dawson who has thought her husband was dead, part of the plan to make the death story believable.Burns is well out of the rackets, but in his effort to protect his brother he's being dragged back in.
Wood doesn't make it easy for him either.Ash Wednesday is a nice if cheaply made film about family loyalty and sacrifice in a working class Irish American family.
No comparison to him and Bing Crosby as Father O'Malley in another film which also was set in Hell's Kitchen when it really was Irish working class.Burns and Wood have good chemistry as brothers.
Also, great acting performances and/or screen presence by James Handy (priest), Oliver Platt, Malachy McCourt, Rosario Dawson, Ed Burns, John Coleman and Gregg Bello.A few drawbacks from not giving the movie a top rating: I thought Elijah Wood was miscast (although on 2nd and 3rd viewing I could accept him—and even got to like his performance—but it's the initial impression that usually makes or breaks it for a viewer).
I believe Ed Burns' character figures that is the best way to end a lot of things - people looking for his brother, his own 'fall off the wagon' of going straight, and the affair with his brother's wife that he knew was a low thing to do, given the fact that she didn't know her husband was still alive.
The movie features a great portrayal of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, and it lets the neighborhood serve as a vivid background without making it such a focal point that it compromises the characters.
I think the movie's only weakness is Elijah Wood, wh delivers his lines like the third best actor in the average high school play.
Its nice to a see a person leaving to go meet a character everyone in the audience thinks is going to really reveal the climax of the movie and then get swept away in the "real life like" sidetracks that run us through everyday.
Without giving away any of the story here, Id like to say i applaud Burns' obvious conviction to the movie, at times it seems as if he doesnt care if the viewer is comfortable with unfolding events or not.
A good suspense mob movie is supposed to do just that, like that first time you watched "Goodfellas" and went crazy when Loraine Bracco and Deniro go for that walk that she realizes will certainly end her life.
Ash Wednesday is a story set in 1980's Hell's Kitchen, where two brothers, Sean (Elijah Wood) and Frances Sullivan (Ed Burns), are involved in the seedy Irish gangs that permeate the neighborhood.
While the overall appearance of the film is quite beautiful and symbolic (sometimes, too much so), there is not much to say for the rest of it.It seems as if the only character Ed Burns can play is himself and that the only schpiel that Elijah Wood can actually pull off believably is that of tortured innocence a la "Frodo" in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
To be fair, Wood is horribly mis-cast in this film, as even I find it difficult to believe that wide-eyed Wood is supposed to be a 22-year old murderer who grew up on the tough streets of Hell's Kitchen and is married to a much older-looking Rosario Dawson, saddled with a toddler.There are plot holes in this film that are big enough for a tornado to whip through them.
Hell, just going out in the neighborhood when he is supposed to be dead is idiotic).As for the rest of the characters of the film...I just don't understand.
And let's not get into the nemesis of the brothers, the "bad guy" that the audience is clearly supposed to boo - he had all the evil intensity of a paper bag.The camera work in this film, while innovative in some areas, also robs us of emotional involvement in a story that clearly depends on it.
If you are a fan of Elijah or Edward, like mob stories, Irish stories, New York stories, brother stories, or well told stories you will love this movie..
I went to an advance screening of "Ash Wednesday" at the Tribeca Film Festival, basically to see Elijah Wood in his first adult role.
That I did, but I was also totally awe-struck by the genius of Ed Burns--I'm now a convert.This movie is predominantly set on Ash Wednesday, 1983 (with a brief prologue set on the same day in 1980) in Hell's Kitchen.
It concerns two brothers, Francis (Burns) and Sean (Wood), sons of the late enforcer for the local leader of the Irish mafia, and how the violence of the past continues to replicate itself indefinitely.What I think Ed does most brilliantly (as actor, director, co-producer and writer) is recreate for the viewer the feeling of impending doom that the brothers have lived with for the last 3 years--always expecting (and never expecting) the bullet that seems bound to come.The film is dark and gritty and stylish (but never glossy) and totally captivating.
There's no sympathy for any of the characters - they're vicious murderers who are, at times, so stupid that it's a miracle they've survived to adulthood (i.e. making your great escape leaving your wallet behind or dressing in the coat & hat of the person every thug in Hell's Kitchen is looking to kill).
The rest of the performers were well-cast and did a spectacular job.It was a very freakish movie, filmed with a very gritty sensibility on the part of the director, Edward Burns.
I'm sorry to say it, but It looked like Edward Burns (also the writer) didn't take the needed time to go over his scrip and work out the screw-ups and enrich the plot a bit more.
This must have been the movie that taught Eddie Burns the lesson that casting is the most important part of getting a good performance out of your actors and making your story believable.
Ed Burns owns the Francis part and watching Elijah Wood play his younger brother is like watching a kid off the monkey bars trying to stand up to a high school bully.
The prospect of this matchup is like watching Dudley Moore and J-Lo dating.All of the other good stuff that is going on: Period piece of Hell's Kitchen, etc., is overshadowed by the bad casting decision of having Elijah Wood be Burn's brother.
Long, dull film with Edward Burns trying to go straight in 1980s Hell's Kitchen.
To make matters worse, his brother (Elijah Wood) is supposed dead after killing three men even thought his bitter former girlfriend (Julie Hale) claims to have seen him in a local bar.
Of course Wood has been hiding in Texas but is such an idiot he comes back to New York and immediately hits the bars, thus starting a whole new round of killings.The film has no life at all despite a good music score.
Edward Burns is at his brooding best and it's great to see Elijah Wood not playing Frodo!
I can only think that Edward Burns is a personal friend of Elijah Wood, thus the miscasting.
Initially i wanted to watch this movie because i am a fan of Elijah Wood and Edward Burns, the movie itself was pretty much predictable and at times i found it to be rather boring.
You know that because everyone is running around with an ash cross on their foreheads.The movie takes place on that single day in hell's Kitchen.
Writer, actor, and director Edward Burns plays Francis, a reformed gangster, who spends most of the first part of the movie chasing down a rumor that his brother Sean (Elijah Wood) is still alive.I thought I was watching Scarface.
Meanwhile in Francis' flat, Sean regrets going out for a drink after laying low for three years as the rumours start to take hold.I could have written the plot summary to help this film out but I'm not sure why I owe it that so instead I have delivered it as it stands lack of internal logic, holes and all.
Dawson was the main reason I came to this film (sorry, but I would watch her in anything pretty much), but she isn't given much to do, although to her credit she tries to find the feelings that Burns' script doesn't give her.
Burns (or rather cinematographer Fines) gives the film a great look but nothing else is really there the story only gets you so far and the characters are superficial and don't really have much in the way of development.
The camera angles and editing were engaging as well.The casting of Elijah Wood as Sean Sullivan did not feel right for the character.
This guy is a great actor-director-screen writer and has made many memorable movies, which keep bouncing around in my imagination like The Brothers Mc Mullen, No Looking Back, and She's The One.
I'm a fan of Edward Burns movies and I like Elijah Wood, so I went into this viewing expecting to enjoy.
In the end (and especially in the final scene) the bad qualities win and the movie leaves you deeply unsatisfied.Fran (Edward Burns) lives above a bar in Hell's Kitchen.
But the fascination didn't last long, especially once you realize that Burns will spend a lot of time of the movie running around town talking to people.
My only guess is that they must not "get" this film.I just watched Ed Burn's 2002 Ash Wednesday on the IFC Channel for the first time.
Prior to this viewing I had seen all of the previous and subsequent films that Mr. Burn had written, directed or starred in, and, quite frankly, even though I enjoy his work, I recognize that his movies would be of rather limited appeal to the general audience.
All in all a very satisfying movie, possibly a great one.Elijah Wood is a perfect cast for the younger brother innocent of his father's & older brother's deadly exploits, and who, in an attempt to save his older brother from the three men sent to kill him, sets up the scenario for the action of the film.
Oliver Platt and Malachy McCourt were great as the local gangsters that Francis Sullivan (Ed Burns) must appease, and each and every other actor in this film is put to good use.
A competent cast including Edward Burns, Elijah WOod and Rosario Dawson not to mention other smaller named yet equally impressive actors also cemented the impression that this would be a good film but at the conclusion of the film and its ridiculously predictable ending, i was left thinking that this was a potentially brilliant film but it just didn't quite cut it.An edward burns directed feature, "ash Wednesday" is based in 1980's Hell's Kitchen New York in which Francis (played quite solidly by Ed Burns) is a reformed man; reformed from the ways of murder and crime that is so common in his neighbourhood.
slowly but surely, through the weaving of time and the painstakingly slow emergence of dialogue, we are presented with the story of his little brother, Sean (Elijah Wood) who had somehow (not wishing to reveal here) plunged himself into a deadly situation where the local thugs of the neighbourhood wished him to be dead.
with sean's old wife being thrown into the mix and an incredibly weak allusion to the mafia and the mob, edward burns has really created a film without much substance whatsoever.elijah wood is seriously miscast as Ed Burn's little brother, Sean, and is completely unbelievable as a married man, especially betrothed to the likes of rosario dawson who could more believably be cast as his mother.
no disrespect to Mr Burns because it is quite evident that there was an attempt at portraying the love of these brothers, but when the likes of Good Will Hunting and Raging Bull have set the standards of showing the frailties of human nature, "ash Wednesday" was far from developing interest the way that it had the potential to do.however, excellent acting from a talented young cast as well as other supporting actors ensured a credible film but an underdeveloped one nonetheless.
good acting lifted it up, but the miscasting of Elijah Wood (as talented as he is) as Sean heaved whatever credibility the film had out the window.
however, i have no doubt we'll be seeing better things out of Mr Burns and, on that note, I look forward to watching his next film..
That's it?!" A good idea, but not for an ending to a movie like this.I would like to see better movies from Burns in the future, as he is not a bad writer/actor/director, but maybe not another movie like this.
Edward Burns' start in films with "The Brothers McMullan", heralded good things for this New York based director, who likes to depict his Irish background in his pictures.
The movie starts on ash Wednesday when Sean kills 3 local men who are about to kill his brother, Francis.
This movie is similar to most of Burns' films in both subject matter and directing.
most of the problems w/ the horrible script have been addressed already (my favorite is that elijah wood's character brutally murders three men and then is 'shocked' and 'surprised' when told that his father and brother killed people - yeah, ok). |
tt4328756 | Ebar Shabor | A police detective Shabor Dasgupta (Saswata Chatterjee) is entrusted with the daunting task of solving the mystery surrounding the murder of Mitali Ghosh (Swastika Mukherjee), a woman with a messy past, who was killed on the night she had thrown a party for friends and family. The task is daunting for Shabor because of the number of people involved. Mitali was once married to Mithu Mitra (Abir Chatterjee), who she divorced before settling overseas. Though she soon realized how much she loved him, her ego kept her from coming back to him. Heartbroken, Mithu found love in Mitali's cousin Joyeeta (Payel Sarkar). Also involved was Mitali's childhood friend and secret admirer Samiran (Rahul Banerjee), who has relationships with several women, including a school's physical education teacher, Julekha Sharma (June Malia), and another girl, Khonika (Debolina Dutta). Shabor starts investigation with his assistany Nandalal. As Shabor probes deeper, he learns many disturbing secrets about the Ghosh family, including the fact that Mitali had once eloped with a boy from her locality Pantu Haldar (Ritwick Chakraborty). She had married and left him within six months, ruining his future in the process. Another character, Doel, also comes into the picture. The detective now has to deal with the complex relationship problems that run deep root in the family and the mystery gets more and more complicated. | murder | train | wikipedia | Watch it, watch it again. You'll love it every time.. Kolkata police detective Shabor Dasgupta (Saswata) sets out to solve the murder case of Mitali Ghosh (Swastika), a woman with a messy past. Her ex-husband Mithu Mitra (Abir), ex-flame Pantu Haldar (Ritwick) and friend Samiran (Rahul) are the prime suspects and so is her cousin Joyeeta (Paayel). His investigation reveals a complex web of relationships gone sour that gives almost everyone a good motive.Ebar Shabor is the kind of film that leaves a lingering aftertaste — the kind that makes you crave for a repeat watch. And that, when you already know who the murderer is! What better benchmark can a film set? The reason behind this is, of course, the fact that the film is as much a murder mystery as it is a close look at the inner working of relationships, especially the romantic kind. Every character, every individual track is sure to find resonance among the audience and in that lies the film's true beauty. Add to that an extremely balanced mix of mystery, emotions and comedy and you get a film that makes you identify with every situation, every twist and even feel the emotions that lead to the murder. In short, you feel just what detective Shabor Dasgupta does, as he navigates the trail of soured relationships and scorned hearts left behind by Mitali (Swastika) and her father Barun Ghosh (Deepankar De).In Shabor's eyes, everyone — be it Mitali's ex-husband Mithu, her teenage flame Pantu, her childhood friend and secret admirer Samiran or her lovelorn cousin Joyeeta — is a suspect. And, somehow, such is the smoothness of the narrative that at no point would one want to take pride in guessing who Mitali's killer is. The tendency is to let Shabor do the dirty work and just sit back and enjoy his simple, yet precise methods. Saswata certainly scores an A-plus as the stoic detective — be it for his subtle display of emotions when strong feelings flow, his confident strides and perfect body language, or for the fantastic chemistry he shares with his assistant, Nandalal (Subhrajit). His comic timing, too, is unwavering, as he taunts Nandalal about his weak general knowledge and English. Even Subhrajit scores as the inexperienced assistant, who has a hard time speaking his share of English, given his education at 'Jagabondhu School'.As for the other members of the cast, Abir is fantastic as the calm, good-hearted Mithu and looks perfect as the low-profile bank employee. Moreover, his chemistry with Paayel stands good till the very last scene. Paayel, too, plays the role of a young and emotional girl perfectly, displaying her inner turmoil and feelings to just the right degree. In fact, director Arindam Sil deserves credit for keeping the emotions so real in the entire film. At no point does any character get melodramatic or loud, and everyone is just as real as they can be. Ritwick, especially, is fantastic as the neighbourhood boy who had a six-month 'marriage' with Mitali after the two eloped from college. His carefree mannerism, his fluid street-smart eloquence and his who-gives-a-damn-if- Mitali's-dead attitude infuses life into Pantu's character and defines the limping, bidi-smoking neighbourhood mechanic. Samiran (Rahul), on the other hand, provides comic relief every now and then, albeit subtly. There's no melodrama or overacting involved. And he scores high even when he jerks the earpiece away when his father shouts at him over phone, fumbles while talking about the two women in his life or reveals his fear of ghosts. As for the two women in Samiran's life, Khonika (Debolina) is good as his divorcée girlfriend, who gives Shabor a vital lead, and Julekha Sharma (June) is great as a woman who remains an enigma for a better part of the film. June, especially, plays the two sides to her character perfectly. Even Deepankar De is convincing as the rich old-school widower. But how can we not mention Swastika, who infuses life into the role of a repentant rebel. She, too, keeps her emotions low-key, but in that, she scores high. As for the music, Bickram Ghosh has done a commendable job, complementing, as he did, the exciting tempo of the film. Except one or two rare occasions, the background score blended in perfectly with the narrative.But ultimately, Ebar Shabor is the director's baby — right from the animated opening credits, the spot-on camera work by DoP Shirsha Ray, the unnervingly real chase sequences, the subtle interplay of sadness and humour to the rush of emotions in the last 10 minutes. It's a film that's as real as life itself. Watch it, watch it again. You'll love it every time.. A smart film featuring Bengal's contemporary best. Ebar Shabor is a sleek film. It is a murder mystery with its fair share of chases, skeletons in the cupboard and shady characters with more facets to them than initially visible. Saswata Chatterjee and Ritwik Chakraborty, perhaps the two best and in-form actors in Bengali cinema at present, deliver two very good performances and are ably supported by the rest of the cast, notably June Malia. The protagonist sleuth, Shabor, is part of the official force, in contrast with the more popular freelancing detectives in Bengali cinema (and literature). This takes way some drama perhaps but enhances the authenticity. There are too many characters in the plot for each to be fully developed in the limited time available, which is a pity as the characters are colourful but we get no more than glimpses into some of them. The sequences of Shabor ruminating in the company of his colleague are some of the best shot, along with the dramatic chases. To conclude: an entertaining movie, with some accomplished performances.. Who cares whodunnit. A fine example of something aspiring to greatness, but ultimately let-down by the narrative of its subject-matter itself. This one needed its writing fixed before it became a screenplay.Here's looking at both this movie's strengths (there are a few) and weaknesses (there are many):Swastika Mukherjee, Payel Sarkar, Debolina Dutta. 3 goddesses, uniquely characterized, the 3 strong women who prop up this otherwise muddled movie, with both the strength of their characterization, their looks and corresponding performances. These are ladies who know what they want, and how to get it, and heaven help those who stand in their way. Mukherjee especially, saddled with a character that is not all that supported by the written word here, does well to keep us guessing, and each interpretation of her character is revelatory. Looking forward to 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!' next month. Calling these women bold, would be an understatement. I'm sure they challenged the moral brigade as well.Abir Chatterjee, who's played both Felu (da) and Byomkesh (da?) in their recent incarnations, takes a lesser role here, and is ever- present on the sidelines as the prime suspect in the murder of one of the leads. I thought what he did here was bold, if not particularly illuminative, considering the fairly simple plot and its eventual disappointing denouement.Saswatha Chatterjee. I'm sure he's a good actor. Let down completely by the script, his character comes across as tired (possibly on purpose) but also cocky, arrogant and pretentious, who doesn't think twice about forcing his assumptions, wrong though they might be, down characters' throats, preying on the weak - not all intended, I'm sure. The guy who plays his sidekick is just a prop, does not matter to the tale at all, and could have been done without. Anyone expecting a Watson to Saswatha's non-Sherlock will not find what they were seeking in that department here.Dipankar Dey plays a stronger character than the one he played in 'Badshahi Angti', but doesn't have much screen-time, though his arc turns out to be the one that's almost important.June Malia, on the other hand, in spite of appearing caricaturish with her character's twists-and-turns, doesn't manage to convince in one of her holier-than-thou acts due to everything that came before. Performance-wise, it sure is louder-than-average, but the characterization also does her a disservice.Much is being written about the 'real' chase sequences. The one that comes after is essentially a re-tread of the shoddy one filmed earlier, with a different criminal'. They're really, really poor, with Saswatha made to pose for the camera (a still? in this day and age?) whenever there's a pause, and that's really grating. '..Angti' might have done better in that department.The way the narrative is peeled, layer-after-layer, in flashbacks, also gets tired after the 2nd time. Interspersing it with the narrative of a character who happens to be dead is not explained at all, and jars with the rest of the narrative. I still am unable to understand all the positive allusions made to the foot-chases across the flick, which is gone too soon before one notices how shoddily it has been conceptualized and executed.The score by Bickram Ghosh, on the other hand, and some of the cinematography, along with the realistic location and prod design, are what prop up the flick on the whole, along with the intent of Sil to try and make this as slick as possible. On the whole, it sure is slicker than 'Badshahi Angti', but falls miles below 'Open Tee Bioscope' (in spite of the fact that the latter doesn't belong to the 'mystery' genre, like this one does). Some of the punch-lines belong in a mainstream flick. In spite of that, they did bring the house down, and perhaps there is something to be said for that. To me, they stood out like sore thumbs since the narrative itself did not grab my attention.One (more) big flaw that stood out: Both the lead, and the murder victim, have to evoke some empathy in the audience's mind. There's no build-up to that at all, even from the multiple flashbacks that change our perception (and the lead detective's) of what transpired. Also, there is less detection and more flashing back going-on: not really a testament to the detection process. This was something this flick had in common with 'Yennai Arindhaal' a few weeks earlier, where an investigation made progress only when the lead beat up supporting characters and elicited confessions from them, and not by analysis of available data and using those to make conclusions - kinda vital in this genre of movie/screenplay.All in all, can be watched on the big screen for the 3 goddesses and the technical values, but disappointing overall.. Ebar no more. In a Quora post, somebody asked me that which film industry has degraded the most and the instant answer that came to my mind is the Bengali film industry. Being a Bengali, it is sad that I've to say this. I try to find the good things but the Bengali film industry has such a huge rift between commercial and art-house films, that the directors or producers have clearly lost all perspective. Commercial cinema makers don't care so they just make movies for the lowest common denominator. Art-house movie-makers apparently have a social circle of their own. They pat their own backs about what they have made and they don't care about the real flaws in their movies. It is a continuous loop which keeps repeating every year and nobody seems to bring any change to it.DIRECTION - There is a single most fundamental flaw in Arindam Sil's direction is over-stretching ever single scene. Arindam underestimates the audience very, very much due to which he has to extend every scene showcasing a certain character's attributes. That reduces the suspense, and when the suspense from a detective movie is gone then you clearly lose interest. This has happened again and again starting from Buno Hansh to Har Har Byomkesh and now Ebar Shabor. There is no tension, is what I am trying to say. It's a detective movie and everything feels like a drag. The audience is being dragged along with the character, the side-characters are being dragged by unnecessary scenes and the music is just poking you irritatingly. I have seen Indie movies and movies made by graduate students with more maturity in their movies. Everything was so rubbed in my face that I felt like screaming," HEY! I get it". There is even an interval without a cliff-hanger. Can you believe it? The purpose of the interval is that you're interested that what is going to happen in the next half. It just comes to a halt without any rhyme or reason. Har Har Byomkesh managed to kept me interested because it has a story which was written by one of the most acclaimed writers. Here Arindam Sil tries to give a similar feel and that brings me to the screenplay.SCREENPLAY - The screenplay was just too pretentious. The screenplay was so busy trying to glorify Shabor Dasgupta that there wasn't any room for character development. Shabor doesn't have any character arc. He begins a prick and ends a prick. The movie doesn't take time to show us his perspective. Instead it takes time to show the daily life of every other character and even that doesn't lead to anything, at all. Even a single joke that revolves around the educational background of Shabor's assistant is used a total of 7 times. Every single scene had so much in it. There is a sleazy character and there is no effort to support that with witty dialogue-writing. Instead, the whole scene is littered with pictures of naked women and magazines with naked women. There is a poor guy, he is the ex-lover of the victim. How do you show it? Make him smoke a lot of beedi which shows he has no money and make him blurt out expletives. You see what I am saying? There is no subtext or subtle story-telling. Everything is rammed down your throat. Hell, the opening scene had absolutely no significance at all. There was a long narration where something was mentioned that the man killed himself out of depression. That's it. It began in such a way that I was convinced that had something to do with the story. I have no idea that if it was intentional or not but it kept bugging me until that narration began and I was frustrated to know that that opening scene had no significance. Now, when you have such a screenplay there is a mighty tool which can help it feel tight. That is editing. That brings me to the most disturbing aspect of the movie.EDITING - Let me start with this. A guy is getting onto a bike. A man is getting off the seat so that the owner can sit on the bike. That's it. That scene has 5 cuts. Before the interval, Shabor meets Mitali's sister and that scene has 4 cuts. Just to establish the surprise. Reason? No reason. The chase scene is sometimes sped up and again slowed down because it has no substance. There are no consequences and in order to cover it up, bucketfuls of editing is done to make it look snappy. The music. What was going on with the music? It sounded like somebody just slammed his/her head on a keyboard and slapped it in the respective scenes. The music didn't compliment the scene or convey the emotion. It was that random. Coming to the camera-work and I am putting it in this section because I don't want to dedicate another section for that. The camera-work is horrendous which makes the editing even more difficult. Different types of camera are used to show one single scene, ranging from a cheap camera to a go-pro to a standard camera. Now when the camera shoots back to another part of the frame, the change in the type of camera becomes obvious and that just put me out of the seriousness of the scene every time.ACTING - The only performance that is even worth mentioning is Ritwick Chakraborty. He brought out the character right from the get go. Others were just themselves. At this day and age we know what a detective looks like and Saswata's Shabor doesn't look anything like one. June, Debolina and Dipankar Dey are way over the top. Abir, Payel and Swastika were basically playing themselves and that's that. |
tt0102045 | The Hitman | Seattle cop Cliff Garret (Chuck Norris) is severely wounded in a drug bust gone bad—shot by his corrupt partner Ronny “Del” Delany (Michael Parks).
Garret dies momentarily in the emergency room, but is revived with a defibrillator. His police supervisor has the hospital conceal his survival, and Garret is given a new identity. Garret becomes hit man Danny Grogan, and he infiltrates the organization of mob boss mafioso Marco Luganni (Al Waxman).
The plan is for Grogan to bring together Luganni and his rival, French Canadian mafioso boss André LaCombe (Marcel Sabourin), so they can both be taken down together. After two years of working the plan, a gang of Iranian drug dealers looking to muscle in on everyone's territories suddenly enter the picture when they make a hit on one of Luganni's teams just as they finished making a hit on a team of LaCombe's money carriers.
Grogan plays all parties against one another while befriending a fatherless boy named Tim Murphy (Salim Grant), who lives in the apartment down the hall and is being bullied by a racist white kid in the neighborhood. Tim's mother works three jobs, so he begins spending time with Grogan. Grogan teaches Tim how to fight after seeing him bullied on the street one day. When Tim stands up to the white kid, he gets the best of him, then watches as the white kid is dragged off by his father and beaten for losing the fight. Grogan walks across the street, punches the father in the nose through a screen door, so hard that it knocks the father to the ground, then Grogan walks away.
Grogan’s past returns to haunt him in the person of Ronny Delany, who is secretly working with Luganni. Delany recognizes Grogan as Garret, and ties Tim to a chair loaded with explosives in a bid to force Grogan to cooperate. Delany sets off the chair bomb, but Grogan is unharmed and Tim survives.
Grogan turns the tables on them all. At a meeting to set terms of an alliance, Delany has Luganni's men kill LaCombe and his men. Then the Iranians and Delany kill Luganni, but Grogan arrives on the scene and kills all of them. In the end, Grogan blows up Delany while tied to a chair hanging outside a window, in retribution for what he did to Tim. | violence, revenge, humor, murder, romantic | train | wikipedia | The movie nicely combines Norris' neighbourly concern over the plight of a tenant and her son with his undercover police assignment to take down the bad guys.
If you're in the mood for a romantic film or a slow foreign flick, skip it: if you're a real man, watch it.Chuck Norris does, as usual, a very good job, but the real key to the movie is the intricate plot.
Things keep getting more and more convoluted as the movie proceeds, and the dramatic ending, while foreseeable, is action-packed.A side note: the cinematography, especially the night scenes, is masterful.
The use of darkness provides a perfect atmospheric for certain scenes.Great for a night you want to watch a kick-ass man movie..
It passes the time, but this Norris actioner provides a solidly calm performance, which is maybe his best or actually most suited.
i first rented it to watch with my girlfriend in about 1992 - she didn't like it for some reason but i was impressed with the change of character by Norris compared to his Texas Ranger, Delta Force movies.The storyline of someone left for dead only to come back a few years later to even the score with his corrupt partner who tried to kill him is a bit corny and has been done before this movie I'm sure but the coldness of Norris when he blows people away is what makes this watchable, not least when he kicks ass big style in the Iranians' club!
The Hit-man is pretty hard to find these days and could be regarded as a collectors item if you're a Chuck Norris fan..
Chuck Norris has made some good films (invasion USA)and some bad films (force of one)most of his films are good on action and The Hit-man is no exception.chuck plays cliff garret a cop who goes undercover as a hit-man for the mafia and takes on the Persian mob.whilst undercover cliff becomes friends with a young black kid who is getting bullied by a gang of kids so cliff takes him under his wing and teaches him self defence.what The Hit-man lacks in story it makes up in action.
to end the review i will just say the Hit-man is not the best film ever but it is certainly fun to watch 7 out of 10..
Michael Parks Fantastic in Yet Another Nothing Movie Few Saw. This is a damn good Chuck Norris movie.
Of course that doesn't make it a movie you could recommend to just anyone as "good," but if you look at it as part of its own sub-genre--say the Chuck Norris/Jean Claude Van Damme/Stephen Segal sub-genre--then it is pretty damn good in comparison.
The story leaves much to be desired, but this is the kind of low-budget action movie they just don't make any more: slick and goofy, crass and sentimental, moral and ultraviolent, "funny bad" and just plain funny--all at the same time.
Just as he did in the similarly obscure Charles Bronson flick "Death Wish V: The Face of Death," and in his "From Dusk Until Dawn" cameo, Parks takes charge of every scene he's in and simply walks away with the movie.
One of the best chuck norris movies.
I am a big fan of chuck norris and i find this movie very interesting.
Chuck Norris as a Hit-man for the Mafia(undercover,at least).
this is the story of a cop who has been undercover for 2 years,posing as a hit-man.Chuck Norris plays CliffGarret/Danny Grogan in the title role.
Garret is his really name,while Grogan is his undercover identity.this movie is much darker than most Norris films.Chuck gets to focus more on his dramatic acting ability than martial arts(though there is a bit of that)and handles himself quite nicely.he is very credible in his portrayal of the icy killer.the score for the film is very appropriate and adds to the atmosphere.there are great performances all around,including Al Waxman as the head of one of the criminal factions and Grogan's boss,Bruno Gerusi as one of his underlings,and Michael Parks who plays Ronald "Del" Delany,a bitter enemy of Norris's character.Ken Pogue plays Detective chambers,Garret's Boss.the production values are very decent for this film.Most of the dialogue is well written.there is of course lots of violence in this one,as in most of Chuck's films.overall a very well made,entertaining film.a strong 7/10.
"The Hit-man" has Chuck Norris in the title role, a cold-blooded killer working for the mob in Washington state.
He's really an undercover cop, of course, who has been presumed dead after being double-crossed by his vicious, foul-mouthed partner (Michael Parks).Mainly, what "The Hit-man" is about, however, is Norris beating people up, unless he can't get close enough, in which case he simply blows them away.
There is lots of gun play with automatic weapons, plenty of explosions — ranging from cars to buildings.It moves along at a quick pace and although it's never too spectacular it's my kind of low key action with Chuck beating up bad guys or blowing them to pieces.
There is something really menacing about him in this movie and he's just plain mean.If there were more fighting scenes in this movie i would have given it a higher score but Overall, The Hit-man is one of Chuck Norris' finest hours with plenty of R rated violence; it's only let down is by an annoying side story about a bullied kid but you'll even enjoy that if you're not a heartless bastard like me....
Everything in it is cool, starting with Chuck's mullet.Like in many of his films, Chuck goes around killing people, in this case a bunch of shady maffiosi and a crew of Muslims.I do not see this film being broadcast in Muslim countries as it contains quite a few very funny islamophobic jokes.One thing that I love with Chuck Norris films is that you know he is going to go around and have a nice time killing people.
Chuck's character in this go-round is an undercover cop who was supposed to have been killed by his corrupt ex-partner (Michael Parks).But, his cover (a hitter for the Italian mob in Seattle) is so deep he actively is whacking French-Canadian thugs and a new Iranian threat while trying to put away the people he works for.The twist is that Chuck's near-death experience gives his character an odd perspective on death.
And with those bad ass words, Chuck Norris goes on the war path to bring down the mobs and those who wronged him.
Directed by Aaron Norris, it starts with Chuck, who plays honorable cop Garret, meeting his partner on the docks of seedy Seattle.
Fast forward three years later and we meet a very different Norris, one who has taken up the identity of a viscous hit-man named Grogan, who's working for the city's Italian Mob. But beneath the tough exterior lies Garret, who's willing to do whatever it takes to bring Seattle's underworld down without being found out.
The movie also gives Norris a chance to expand his acting range by playing someone who is basically a good person trying to right some wrongs in the world using unsavory methods, be it his mission or helping out a young bullied kid face his fears (As a side note, Norris gets to sport a mullet which in all honesty, looks kind of cool on him).
To be sure, this is not the most accurate movie regarding real life undercover work since no police force would ever allow an officer to commit a fraction of what Norris' character does here.
For what is though, "The Hit-man" is a movie for anyone looking for some quality action entertainment and a good story.
Hit After Hit. Shot and near fatally wounded by his corrupt former partner, a police officer reemerges as a mob contract killer; he might be working undercover or he might be trying to getting to revenge, with things becoming clearer as the film progresses.
If this sounds like a confusing plot description, it is because the film is arguably too complex for its own good; the action scenes are generally well done and Chuck Norris even turns in a decent performance as he mentors a local kid and gets to utter some witty quips, but these highlights are hard to appreciate as the film pitches Norris so deep undercover that it is hard to say where his agenda lies.
There is also a thrilling sequence set in the snowbound backwoods of Canada, where half the film is set, and the final few scenes are pretty powerful, over-the-top as the actions of vengeful Norris might well be.
Originally envisioned as a vehicle for Charles Bronson this movie uses pretty much the same story you have seen in Kurosawa's "Yojimbo " , Sergio Leone's "Fistful of dollars" or Walter Hill's "Last man standing" - a guy wants two gangs to kill each other , so he tricks them in a war.
The story Chuck Norris' character tells about being harassed by a bully actually did happen to Norris while he was growing up.The cinematography is cool , the movie looks pretty atmospheric at night.
Silly and Cheap Fun. Hit-man, The (1991) ** (out of 4) Chuck Norris plays an cop who seeks vengeance for being double crossed by his former partner (Michael Parks) by going undercover in the mob and killing as many Mafia members as possible.
I guess the producers didn't want Norris playing 100% bad so they wrote in the silly subplot dealing with the little black kid but this does lead to one of the funniest scenes in the film.
The only good thing about The Hitman is that the Norris brothers (Chuck and director, Aaron) did not make a sequel!
Chuck Norris stars as a police officer who goes undercover to take out mobsters who are warring over the drug market.
They include Middle Eastern mobsters, typical Itallian mobsters and Candian(!) mobsters who all declare war on each other, which then of course causes Norris to wipe out all three of the families and settle a score with Michael Parks(The best thing about this movie.) If anything else The Hit-man is a one man show, with Norris trumping anyone who really gets in his way.
Norris is as always Norris and although the action sequences are okay, they are uneventful and the real plus comes only from watching Michael Parks overact.
Guys don't see action movies to see throats being cut in graphic detail, or people coughing up ridiculous amounts of blood; they watch it to see people blowing each other away with guns and/or explosives.
It's familiar b-grade territory we're stomping here.Non-discriminating action junkies will find a quick fix here, shotgun blasts to the knees blood 'n guts and all, but ultimately "The Hit man" will be sought and liked by devout Norris fans.
Shot in Canada to save on money, the film delivers action, but never escapes the feeling of being really low budget (read: boring) and Michael Parks can do the villain role in his sleep.
This time Chuck Norris stars as an undercover cop, presumed dead after his partner betrayed him by shooting him multiple times during a routine sting operation.
Well as Danny Grogen, Chuck's job is to align Andre Lacombe(Marcel Sabourin), the French mobster working in Vancouver, with Marco Luganni(Al Waxman)so that the police can nab them together..but Grogan's old nemesis, Del(Michael Parks)is working with the Arab mob and this will make things particularly difficult.
The film finds time to include a sub-plot where Chuck helps out a little black boy being bullied by white racists, for which he teaches him the fundamentals of defending yourself.
As you'd expect, Chuck lands a pretty loud punch to the bastard father's face(..he's your typical thuggish, foul racist white trash monster, abusive towards his son if the kid doesn't bully those supposedly inferior), breaking his nose in the process to the delight of the audience, I'm sure."The Hit-man" isn't exactly up to par with Chuck's 80's stuff, but it delivers plenty of violence and Norris does get to conduct his usual "one man army" shtick, blowing apart the legs, chests, and faces of mobsters in the warehouse climax with a small shotgun, as all three organizations buck for supremacy, falling short due to their inabilities to "share turf".
His long red hair may make you think he looks like a male version of Wendy (from Wendy's), but you'll be rooting for Chuck all the way here.A fun thing to do while watching a Chuck movie is, during a dialogue scene while the person who is not Chuck Norris is speaking, keep your eyes trained on Chuck when he's not talking.
But you know he's a sensitive guy at heart because he builds model airplanes and goes to the aquarium and gives facts about dolphins (although he should know better than to tap the glass...even when he's trying to be sensitive he can't help being a little bit aggressive).Another thing we liked about the movie was the jazzy, downbeat musical score.
Just call him Norristradamus.The Hit-man is an entertaining and audience-pleasing movie, completely in keeping with the action product of the early 90's.
I like the most the fact that Chuck Norris play more, and fights/shoots less, because he is known as a great action hero, but underrated as an actor..
This was an okay movie by Chuck Norris, probably the last sort of good film I saw him in.
Add to that an annoying plot point involving a kid and you just have to take a point or two more points off a film that if it had worked on some story elements could have been one of Chuck's best films instead once again another middle of the road film.
In it Chuck is not a hit-man, but rather a cop who is undercover working with the mob hoping to find who is behind a crime in his past.
There are some good action scenes in this one and I love the gun Chuck Norris uses as it is a nifty double barrel shotgun with the barrels being one on top of the other rather than the typical side by side.
While the mob action makes little sense, it's a good excuse for lots of gun play, semi-torture, and Norris pushing guys around while trying to play up a domestic side of his character mentoring a young fatherless boy.
Even though the film is nothing spectacular, it does contain some good stunt work and great action scenes throughout.
Bland Chuck Norris actioner..
Recently Andre Lacombe (Marcel Sabourin) the main drug dealer from Vancouver has started to move into Luganni's territory so he sends Grogan to deal with him, as the bullets fly & people start to get killed a gang of Iranian's lead by Grogan's ex-partner Del also joins the fun & Grogon senses his opportunity to bring down lots of bad guy's all at the same time...This American Canadian co-production was directed by Chuck's brother Aaron Norris & is quite frankly pretty poor stuff from start to finish.
Although bearing the infamous Cannon Group logo The Hit-man was only distributed by them & had nothing to do with Golan or Globus despite the two Israeli producers often using Chuck Norris in their own films.
The Hit-man really is a very pedestrian & bland film, virtually nothing happens, there are a grand total of two fights (one in an Iranian bar & one at the very end), some utterly forgettable shoot outs where a few people are shot, one car gets blown up & another is crushed & that is it.
Then there's the embarrassing scenes with Chuck Norris trying to be kind & caring towards a young black kid (all the kid needs now is a bushy moustache), the scenes where he teaches the little kid karate are hilariously bad.
It's utterly predictable, there's not enough decent action & some of the sentimental drama stuff is really embarrassing as Chuck Norris actually tries to act (noooooooooooooooo!).
We first Chuck in The Hit-man with a really bushy moustache but after he comes back from the dead he has a full beard & really long hair which just looks awful & very late 80's.
The acting is terrible, Norris can't & since there's not enough action for him to get stuck into it becomes very noticeable.The Hit-man is a really, really bland, dull & lifeless Chuck Norris action film with hardly any action in it.
Now I am saying that The Hit-man is bearded-Norris' best.
The Hit-man has a very unoriginal premise as a presumed dead cop (Norris) assumes a new identity and seeks vengeance against the bad guys.
Luckily, there is great action and has a great look that makes this a really fun watch.Just what makes this better than any other bearded-Norris film?
This is probably the best bit of acting that Chuck Norris ever did.
I never liked Chuck Norris movies in the (distant) past, I even tried to avoid them, if I remember correctly.
But my taste has changed over the years, and this (and other) sort(s) of cheesiness makes me want to try and catch any film that has Chuck Norris in it.
And to top things off, this one has some neat, bloody action in it as well.Chuck's mullet seems to have been updated a little to the '90s in this one, but Norris will always be Norris; a hard-ass with a heart of gold spewing one-liners that are as much silly as they are funny.
A bonus is to see Michael Parks play a nasty bad guy, although in the middle of the film he disappears for a while.
The only reason I watched it was because I thought that it might be interesting, and though the action was good, there was nothing to make it stand out above and beyond other movies.Basically Chuck Norris is a cop who is betrayed by his friend and shot. |
tt0796335 | Molière | The film begins in 1658, when the French actor and playwright returns to Paris with his theatrical troupe to perform in the theatre the king's brother has given him. Most of the film is in the form of a flashback to 1645. Following an unsuccessful run as a tragic actor, Molière is released from debtor's prison by Monsieur Jourdain (Fabrice Luchini), a wealthy commoner with social pretensions, who agrees to pay the young actor's debts if Molière teaches him to act.
Jourdain, a married man with two daughters, hopes to use this talent to ingratiate himself with Célimène (Ludivine Sagnier), a recently widowed aristocrat with whom he has become obsessed. He hopes to perform a short play he has written for the occasion. Molière, however, has been presented to the family and staff of Monsieur Jourdain as Tartuffe, a priest who is to serve as tutor for the Jourdains' younger daughter. As the story progresses Molière proceeds to fall in love with Jourdain's neglected wife, Elmire (Laura Morante). Sub-plots involve the love life of the Jourdains' older daughter, and the intrigues of the penniless and cynical aristocrat Dorante (Édouard Baer) at the expense of the gullible Jourdain.
The story is mostly fictional and many scenes follow actual scenes and text in Molière's plays including Tartuffe, Le Misanthrope, The Imaginary Invalid, and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, whose principal character is also named Jourdain. It is implied that these "actual" events in his life inspired the plays of his maturity. | romantic | train | wikipedia | While New York Times film critic A.O. Scott may rail at the "fundamentally bogus and anti-literary idea that the great writers of the past wrote what they knew", there is still a pervasive longing out there to discover the connection between an author's life and his work.
The audacious premise that great art reflects an author's life experience is promoted in films such as John Madden's Shakespeare in Love and now in Moliére, Laurent Tirard's speculative costume drama of the great French playwright.
While the suggestion that the mystery of genius lies in a secret love affair borders on the banal, these films attempt to give us a sense of who these great artists were as people and what may have been at least one source of their inspiration.Like Shakespeare in Love, Moliére uses guesswork, imagination, and creativity to fill in the blanks when the facts are not readily available.
It was there that he toured with his Illustre Theatre for 13 years before arriving in Paris convinced that tragedy was the only true theater.Of course, what is not known is what inspired him to take a comic turn, but Tirard allows us to imagine characters and situations that might have led to such great works as "Tartuffe" and "Le Bourgeois Gentlhomme" and 28 other plays which roast the upper classes as affected hypocrites and worse.
Soulfully and convincingly performed by Romain Duris, who has been known for dramatic roles such as the pianist in The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Moliére is rescued from prison by a bumbling aristocrat named Monsieur Jourdain (Fabrice Luchini).
Jourdain has written a one-act play that he wants to perform at the salon of the haughty widow, marquise Celimene (Ludivine Sagnier) with whom he is smitten.Paying Moliére's debts, he hires him to teach him the skills of an actor while tricking his graceful wife Elmire (Laura Morante) into believing that he is a priest named Mr. Tartuffe who has come only to counsel his daughter in matters of religion.
This ruse runs into problems when Tartuffe/Moliére's falls in love with Madame Jourdain; however their relationship becomes a transforming experience for the actor/playwright when she suggests that he concentrate on writing a different kind of comedy, one that probes the emotions of a drama.Complications are plentiful as the story moves from comedy to farce, to tragedy and back again with the assistance of a scheming count named Dorante (Edouard Baer) whose goal is to marry his son Thomas (Gillian Petrovsky) to Jourdain's daughter Henriette (Fanny Valette) regardless of the fact that Henriette is in love with her music teacher Valere (Gonzague Requillart).
The film wins big, and hopefully will be nominated for best French film, director and actor (Romain Duris) when the Césars roll around next spring.Molière is France's Shakespeare and his life and plays might not be familiar to most Americans.
So French director Laurent Tirard decided three years ago to make a film that would bring the work and escapades of the famed writer more accessible to audiences.
Tirard co-wrote the screenplay and assembled a top notch cast including Romain Duris (The Beat That My Heart Skipped), Fabrice Luchini (Intimate Strangers), Laura Morante (Avenue Montaigne) Edouard Baer (The Story of My Life), and the always wonderful Ludivine Sagnier (Swimming Pool).The story begins with Jean-Baptists Poquelin aka Molière (Duris) frantically trying to decide if he is to do a tragedy for his next play in front of the esteemed royal family despite the fact they desperately want a comedy.
Bits and pieces of the rest of story seem familiar to anyone who's read Molière's plays, as this film sets the stage that these events inspire Molière to be the comedy writer that he became.The film wins on many levels.
This film will remind you of "Shakespeare in Love" and "Becoming Jane." It tries to correlate the artist's experiences--about which we can only speculate--with his or her art, about which we know a great deal.
Laurent Tirard's costume comedy "Molière" finds comparison with "Shakespeare in Love" rather easily, and perhaps most dauntingly, to its legendary subject's own durable narratives.
But while there's not as much details missing from the 17th-century French playwright Moliere's (Romain Duris) life as there was in Shakespeare's, there's still ample room for a fanciful imagination and conjecture.The window is small, for Tirard and co-writer Grégoire Vigneron to present the missing weeks of Molière's life after his brief imprisonment for not paying his debts, just before he embarked with his troupe on a 13-year tour of the French provinces before his triumphant return to the theatre scene in Paris.
The driving point in this film, as it was in "Shakespeare in Love", is how great art tends to imitate life and how muses tend to stem from elaborate romances, which in this case is Molière's torrid affair with the wealthy Monsieur Jourdain's (Fabrice Luchini) wife Elmire (an enthralling Laura Morante).Tirard's first salvo and indeed the one that sustains its premise throughout the end, is his understanding that a film about Molière has to be a farce, an important element that shapes his later and most important works when romance, gender politics and the moral bankruptcy of the French aristocracy become his staples.
It would seem to be inspired by the success of "Shakespeare In Love" in terms of plot and structure, namely the trials and tribulations of the French literary icon during his struggling early years.Moliere narrates the tale, recalling his financial difficulties as the head of a bankrupt troupe of actors.
If the story becomes a bit too convoluted at times, trying to paste together a story that parallels the French playwright's most famous plays, 'Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme' and 'Tartuffe' as the basis for the missing portion of Molière's life, and drags on a bit too long at two hours, it is never less that gorgeous to look at and witty to hear.Jean-Baptiste Poquelin or Molière (Romain Duris) is an actor and playwright for a comedy troupe that tours the provinces of France, spending himself into debtor's prison.
Jourdain (Fabrice Luchini) to travel to his estate for the purpose of teaching the dilettante how to write plays and to act in order to win the affection of a wealthy young Célimène (Ludivine Sagnier) while keeping his daughter and his wife Elmire (Laura Morante) at bay.
There are many subplots that tend to distract but in the end the 'play' created by Molière's presence and interaction with all of the other characters provides the life lessons and food for material that leads Molière to be the greatest of French playwrights.The cast is superb, the visual effects are opulent, the musical score is period correct, and the cinematography finds a fine balance between the lush vistas of the countryside and estates and the grimy realism of the prison and small theaters.
This fictional and fantasist biography is a sort of "what if" Molière had meet in his youth all the characters he'll use as figures to his future plays : Jourdain, Elmire, Doriante, and had also experience the comical situations he'll re-transcript later on stage : Molière pretends to be Tartufe in order to learn to act to M.
But no mistakes here, "Molière", if you put aside the painful introduction and the final scene of the movie, isn't a reflection on art and life and their interconnection, in an "Amadeus"'s style : if it tells us Molière's life as a Molière'play, it's merely to give us a simple and shallow, but quite enjoyable comedy, far from the abyssal questions such a supposition could have arise.There's plenty of good ideas in the movie, which underline the comical side of the original idea, but never reach its full potential.
And if the actors are independently all very good, they don't really match with one another : it's like if they all were in different movies.Romain Duris is excellent in a intense (anyway, he's always too intense) and tortured Molière, but he is hardly in a comedy : his character seems too deep in comparison to the others, for they're merely comical stereotypes from Molière's plays.
So, at the end, all you have is a funny little french comedy, whereas it could have had the intensity and the deep of "Amadeus".And by the way, if you like fictions based on famous writer's life, I advise you to watch "Les larmes blanches" by Grégory Rateau if you have a chance to see it.
Molière 'Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme' and 'Tartuffe' and his own life M Jourdaine a complete foolYou do not have to be familiar with the works of Molière to enjoy this film, though it's much, much more likely you will if you have seen or read his plays.
This is hard to follow because Romain Duris (as Molière) looks pretty much the same through the 13 year course of the film.
See the film.The story plays much like a production by Molière--combined with a few facts from the playwright's life.
This movie is a true delight for Moliere's fans.A good knowledge of his plays is useful but the screenplay is strong enough to grab someone who is not particularly interested in them.The story is essentially based on "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme" (aka "the middle class gentleman" ) and "Tartuffe" with elements borrowed from "Le Misanthrope" ,"Les Femmes Savantes" ,"L'Avare " and "Les Fourberies De Scapin" .Now the lines are directly taken from the writer ,now they are written in his style .Each character represents two or three other characters:the wonderful Fabrice Lucchini is Monsieur Jourdain and Orgon,Romain Duris is Molière and Tartuffe ,Laura Morante is Elmire and Madame Jourdain and the excellent Edouard Baer ,Dorante ,Alceste and some kind of "Grand Turc" .Agatha Christie disappeared when her husband left her and as nobody knew what she did in those days they made a movie about it in the late seventies ("Agatha" ,Michael Apted).So why not Molière?In France ,some critics such as the reliable Claude Bouliq Mercier slagged off Tirard's movie ,proving that they can be prodigious snobs themselves sometimes;of course they spoke in the name of culture,of art ,of Molière -who -was one-more-time-betrayed ,they do not have any sense of humor.Molière meeting his famous characters before writing his plays (after all they were inspired by the society he lived in) is pure fiction,and should not be taken too seriously:hence the failure with the French intellectual audience who praises to the skies any sequence of Woody Allen's films .I remember a teacher who could captivate his class with "Le Misanthrope" .He often made us laugh .I remembered him when I was watching"Molière" ,particularly the so-called "scene des Petits Marquis " updated by Celimène/Dorimène .Thank you,Mr Tirard.NB :should not be mistaken for Ariane Mnouchkine's eponymous work (1978).
There's a period of a few months in 1644 when the French playwright Molière, then only 22, fell through the cracks of history, and Laurant Tirard's film 'Moliere' (co-written with Grégoire Vigneron) makes up a story to fill the gap.
According to the film, he has an adventure that leads him wisely to reorient his work in the direction of comedy after being urged to do so by a lovely woman with whom he has a brief affair after being hired as a sort of ghost writer for her husband.
He is a pretentious and very wealthy businessman who wants the young writer to pen clever material for him to pass off as his own and thereby impress a witty young woman who's the star of a salon.The wealthy businessman is the supple Fabrice Lucchini , his lovely wife is the beautiful Laura Morante, Moliere is a be-wigged Romain Duris, and the witty salon chick is Ludivine Sagnier.
Lucchini is at the center of the film and his character is more complex than Duris' playwright, who's more buffoonish most of the time than the bourgeois fool.
The underlying assumption--though I'm not sure how seriously one should take it--is that Moliere based his characters on actual people, and had to be told by a lover what genre to work in--comedy.
The entirety of this movie is focused on the relationship between Molière and Madame Jourdain, while it should have accurately portrayed the content of his plays.
The commentary by director Laurent Tirard on the making of MOLIERE raises the understanding of the art of the film from good to excellent.
In explaining the relation of scenes and characters from Moliere's plays to scenes and characters in the film, Tirard transcends the art of biography.
Molière : Director Laurent Tirard has created an excellent film about a dramatist whose name would always be synonymous with "good french"..
As far as French language is concerned, the importance of Molière seems to grow with each passing year as not only is he read in large numbers by literature conscious public in France but his plays translated into different foreign languages are also staged all over the world.
Director Laurent Tirard's film "Molière" presents a very good visual representation of what the actual 'Molière' must have looked like and under what circumstances did he live ?
It is the light tone of this film which makes it different from that of Ariane Mnouchkine which was a very formal exercise in getting closer to Molière with excessive focus on théâtre in the life of the great playwright.
French actor Romain Duris is able to do perfect justice to his role as a Molière who knew a lot about hypocrisies of aristocrats and how to deal with them.
because all is seductive - the story, the performances, a Moliere young and with a delicate mission, the humor who transforms the biopic in one of the plays of the lead character.
The story sets in the mid 17th century France, where a popular countryside writer and actor, Molière, goes to Paris to conduct one of his play.
A French-language review of "Molière" (accessible under IMDb's External Reviews) compares this movie to "Shakespeare in Love," and that's probably the easiest way to sum it up.
Instead, they fictionalize a period of a few months when the playwright in question was young, brooding, amorous, in need of money and constantly getting into scrapes.When this movie begins, Molière (Romain Duris) is a young actor who wants to play great tragic roles but finds that his comic mugging gets more applause.
Monsieur Jourdain (Fabrice Luchini), a middle-aged merchant who has written a play that he hopes will impress the witty Célimène (Ludivine Sagnier), hires Molière to help him stage it.
In other words, the movie playfully suggests that Molière didn't invent his famous characters and plots out of thin air, but stole them from experiences he'd had as a young man.This premise could leave "Molière" feeling like nothing but one big in-joke, enjoyable only if you already know a lot about the author.
Luchini, Sagnier, Morante and others do a good job of incarnating their stock characters, and Duris makes a very charismatic, humorous, passionate Molière.
The tone switches from farcical comedy to heavy drama (centered on a deathbed scene, believe it or not), and the movie makes the reductive point that everything works out happily at the end of Molière's plays because his own life didn't work out quite so neatly.
That comedy can also illuminate the human condition is the lesson that the young Moliere learns in this fictional story.The film has been called a French 'Shakespeare in Love'.
Both end on a happy note after a good deal of individual sadness.The film's historical authenticity underpins the social satire lying at the heart of Moliere plays.
Or, to put it the other way round, that the story-line is based on the later plays and characters of Moliere.Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini and Laura Morante all give fine performances as the main protagonists.
However, I expect the French, knowing Moliere's plays well, may be happy with this flashback approach as they could do what I mostly couldn't, pick out all the allusions to specific Moliere plays.In France the word comedy is used as it used to be used in England in Shakespeare's time - it didn't mean a knockabout farce or a barrel of laughs, but a story which follows certain guidelines for entertainment and likely to include some comic sequences.
This is an excellent comedy with both laughs and sharper moments.Particular accolades to Fabrice Lucchini for another fine performance because he is a favourite of mine, but also accolades to all the actors, the director, the camera people, everyone.I shall certainly be looking up Moliere's plays to discover some of the sources for myself.
Thirteen years before finding fame as a playwright, Molière (Romain Duris) is a debt ridden actor leading his own unsuccessful acting troupe.
Thrown into gaol as a result of this debts, he is saved by a rich, middle aged benefactor Monsieur Romain (Fabrice Luchini) who, desperate to attract a young widow (Ludivine Sagnier), hires Molière to teach him how to act.
While working with Monsieur Romain, Molière starts to develop feelings for Madame Romain (Laura Morante)...I really liked "Molière", even if it did not turn out to be the full blown French farce that it could have been.
Good performances from everybody, especially Fabrice Luchini as Monsieur Romain who plays, frankly, a true horse's ass.
The photography is excellent and if the direction is slow at times and always unimaginative anyone who has ever laughed at a Moliere comedy will almost certainly enjoy it despite Duris' non-performance..
But an old acquaintance gives him the inspiration to write a comedy that both entertain and touch, inspired by what he himself experienced just before he went on tour.Comments: The movie is supposedly a modern adaption and combination of Molière's own plays Tartuffe and The Bourgeois Gentleman.
He has a beautiful, intelligent wife but has desires upon an attractive and witty courtesan with whom he is enthralled.Molière is hired to coach Jourdain in presenting in a play he has composed in order to entice the courtesan. |
tt1235830 | Chico & Rita | In present-day Havana, Chico, a shoe-shiner, tunes his radio to the Radio Progreso station, which is playing old Cuban hits on a program called Melodies from Yesterday. As he listens, the station begins to play a romantic arrangement of A Taste of Me (Sabor a Mí) by Mexican composer Álvaro Carrillo (1921–69) which causes him to remember his life back in 1940s Cuba. In 1948 Havana, Chico and his best friend Ramón are struggling dandies in a low-life bar. Ramon arranges a double date for the both of them with two American tourists. They take the women to a bar where Chico falls in love with the band's beautiful lead singer, Rita. Chico attempts to talk to her, but an American tourist refuses to let Rita leave him.
Chico and Ramón go to the Tropicana Club with their lady-friends, and sneak in through the performer's entrance. While walking around, Chico sees upon Rita and her gentleman friend arguing. The Maitre d' overhears that Chico is an accomplished pianist and persuades him to substitute for the main event's missing pianist. Chico fills in, playing at first sight a new piece—Ebony Concerto by Igor Stravinsky. Chico, initially nervous, ends up performing the piece with aplomb, to the delight of the band. Rita finally agrees to ditch her date and flee with Chico on Ramón's motorcycle and sidecar, along with the Americans.
After a dangerous chase, the American man finally crashes into a car dealership, and the others escape. Rita and Chico leave the rest of the party and go to a bar where Chico introduces her to bebop music, which she takes up quickly. Afterwards they go to Chico's place and spend the rest of the night together. The next day Rita wakes up to find Chico playing a new composition on the piano, which he names "Rita". As they play and kiss, Juana, Chico's former girlfriend, walks in and picks a fight with Rita. The two women angrily leave Chico, feeling betrayed. However, Chico is still smitten with Rita and begs Ramon to convince her to perform with him for an upcoming radio contest. Ramon pays Rita to sing with Chico but after the contest, Rita leaves Chico without speaking to him. He follows her to the house of a santera, who predicts that Chico will cause her much suffering.
That night, the station announces that Chico and Rita have won a month's engagement at the Hotel Nacional. A few weeks later, Chico and Rita are having great success in their performances. Rita's beauty mesmerizes all the men, which ignites Chico's jealousy. One of the admirers, Ron, asks Rita to his table to discuss business. He offers to take Rita to New York City to make her a star, where jazz and Latin music are a burgeoning scene. However, Rita insists that the offer must include Chico. Meanwhile, Chico has been watching from a distance and becomes jealous, believing Rita wishes to leave him for Ron. Rita attempts to explain that she is fighting for both of them to go to New York together, but Chico storms off. Rita goes to his apartment and waits for Chico, but falls asleep in the courtyard. She is awakened by Chico stumbling home with Juana. Hurt, Rita agrees to go to New York with Ron, alone.
After her departure, Chico becomes depressed and he and Ramon eventually secure the means to go to New York to seek their fortunes as well. Chico and Ramón give Chano Pozo a letter of recommendation they received from his sister in Cuba. Chano is receptive and excited to meet fellow Cubans. However, he is involved in drugs and has a short temper. After discovering he was sold oregano instead of marijuana, Chano attacks the dealer, who later finds him in a bar and kills him. Chico finds work as a party musician, and Ramón as an usher at the Plaza Hotel. At one of his party gigs, Chico runs into a successful Rita again, who is hurt by the racist doubts of her fellow party goers about her upcoming film project.
Chico and Rita run away in her new car and spend the night together again. The next day, Ron locates Ramón and proposes a deal to finance his artist-agency business, as long as Ramon finds jobs to keep Chico away from Rita. Ramón complies with his end of the bargain and signs Chico with Dizzy Gillespie, who gives him a gig in Paris and a European tour. Rita becomes a big film star while Chico finds a new girlfriend in Paris. One morning, while playing "Rita" at the piano, the girlfriend's dog, Lily, comes in and sits by Chico. He decides to change the name of the song to "Lily". Back in New York, despite her wealth and success, Rita is still mistreated socially due to her skin color. While being driven to a set, the radio plays a new Jazz hit that she instantly recognizes as the piece Chico composed for her. She is moved to tears when she learns Chico renamed the song. In New York, Rita goes into a bar and sees Chico playing "Lily".
She waits for him outside the bar and demands to know who Lilly is. He teases her about the mystery female's identity, but finally reveals that he renamed the song after a dog. The two passionately kiss and make up. A paparazzo captures the kiss in a photograph that appears in the newspapers. Chico and Rita agree to marry that New Year's Eve, after Rita's debut in Las Vegas. Chico tells Ramón, who worries that their reunion will ruin his business. Ramón slips a packet of drugs into Chico's coat, which police discover during a search after a raid on his gig at the Palladium in New York. They arrest Chico, and won't let him make a phone call to Rita, who waits in vain in a Las Vegas motel. Chico is soon deported back to Cuba. Upset, Rita becomes drunk before her New Year's Eve performance, believing that Chico left her again. Despite Ron's urging to not "spoil it all now", Rita deliberately sabotages her career by denouncing the racism of the Hollywood industry and the hypocrisy of being a celebrated black artist.
Meanwhile, Chico enters Cuba right at the beginning of Castro's regime, and the new Cuban revolutionary authorities seize his passport. All venues are now forbidden to play jazz because it is "capitalist music." Disappointed with life, Chico gives up music altogether.
Sixty years later, when Chico is shining shoes for a tourist, a young man rushes to him and tells him that a famous young singer and her entourage are eagerly asking for him and his jazz music. He reluctantly agrees to meet them and for the first time in years he plays his music for an audience. The singer asks him to record a song with her and Chico agrees. It becomes a big hit and takes him on a world tour, giving him success for the second time. After the tour, Chico is allowed re-entry into the United States. He searches for Rita, starting in New York. He eventually finds Ron in a nursing home and discovers that his friend Ramón has died and learns Rita is in Las Vegas. He goes there and knocks on her door and she reveals that she has stayed for 47 years in the same motel room, working as the motel's housekeeper and waiting for him. The film ends with their reunion. | romantic, flashback | train | wikipedia | Chico & Rita follows Chico, an old and retired Cuban pianist, as he remembers his impossible love with a jazz singer called Rita and his rise and fall as a music performer.
Its animation is as nothing you have seen before and the cinematography, the lights, the angles, the music, just everything related to the technical aspect of this film is absolutely perfect.But what's best and most refreshing about this film is its old-fashioned love story.
Following a bolero-like structure, the main characters fall in love as easily as they fall apart, but they never forget each other, having an outdated loyalty that is deserving of such all-time classics as Casablanca or Gone With The Wind, and ending in the brilliant and moving bittersweet final scene.Jazz music plays a main role in the film and gets to be the third character in what we could call a love triangle between the jazz, Chico and Rita.
Real jazz performers, such as Charlie Parker or Tito Puente get enjoyable cameos in the film and, practically, all the performances in the film are very delightful and entertaining.Although the film has some minor elements that prevents it from being a masterpiece, like the appearance near the end of Estrella Morente, they are so insignificant compared to the whole of the film that Chico & Rita is still an exceptional film appealing to an extremely large audience.Chico & Rita is an animated old-fashioned musical romance with a highly original aesthetic, a both refreshing and outdated love story and sublime original and adapted music.Rating: 4.5/5..
The new animated romance Chico and Rita follows the relationship of two young Cuban musicians: Chico is a gifted piano player looking to bring the sound of Havana to New York; Rita is a beautiful singer who treads the precarious path between Latin musicians and white investors looking to cash in on the popularity of this new music.
Like all star crossed lovers, their journey is not an easy one – their musical and romantic tribulations will continue over 60 years against the striking backdrops of Havana, New York, Paris, Hollywood and Las Vegas.The real strength of the film is its ability to portray a classic love story in both an innovative, sensual and sensitive way.
The syncopated grace of Cuban Jazz combines with a disarmingly child-like animation to create a sparkling tribute to 1940s and 50s Havana culture.The film exudes real passion for both the music of the period and the locations of the film, beautifully re-crafted within the animated landscape.
Chico and Rita is a delicate reminder that genuine action and emotion can still be expressed without the pixellated glossiness of CGI.Chico and Rita really succeeds in bringing the colour and vibrancy of early 50s Havana back to life – from the delightfully evocative soundtrack, to the re-telling of a classic love story through the medium of hand-drawn animation, the film is a fitting expression of the vision and compassion of its creators.Find more reviews at www.singleadmission.co.uk.
Set in Cuba just before and the years after the revolution, it tells the story of Chico, a talented jazz pianist and Rita, a beautiful singer.
Through the story of this couple's turbulent love affair over these years, where Rita finds fame and fortune in US and Chico goes through some hard times, we also get a brief history of both Cuba and jazz music.
The animation is wonderfully evocative and colorful and as for the music; well if you are a fan of jazz or Latin American music you are going to fall in love with this movie.
Check out my review and you'll see I think it deserves its spot.Having just screened "Chico & Rita," I can tell you that the Academy did right by this film as well.
It's a journey worth taking."Chico & Rita" has a unique look, with vibrant colors that compliment a terrific soundtrack of jazz greats.
The voice work is spot-on, and the voice artists have the advantage of having a solid - though, to be honest, a wee bit clichéd - story to tell about adults for adults.I hesitate to write that, as the first thing that comes to mind when you link "adult" and "animation" is Ralph Bakshi / "Fritz the Cat." This film does have sexual content, but it is not exploitative in any way.
Chico and Rita is a nice little film with some great music, animation that really brings out all of the vivid colors, and atmosphere that takes you into it's setting.
As a big animation fan, I loved Chico and Rita, one of the most beautiful and most unique films I have seen recently.
Chico and Rita is a very musically rich film as well, with Cuban and Jazz music providing so much character to the atmosphere.
This just simply is a great movie, that deserves to be seen by more.This in short is a surprisingly good animated movie, with a sweet little story in at and a great overall style and atmosphere to it!8/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
As well there are several other CGI techniques that aren't as familiar to me: gauzy curtains with an embroidered pattern wafting in the breeze; shafts of light with an identifiable source and a direction illuminating not only themselves but also bits of the dark places where they fall; dynamic shadows that change as characters move; lighted signs whose parts change from "on" to "off" and back to "on" at different times.But on closer examination it doesn't feel like it's really just plain old traditional 2D hand drawn cel animation after all.
Also, it sounds as if (I'm not certain) the live action film was _automatically_ rotoscoped by the computer and became the "first rough draft" (the "animatic").Although neither outlines nor still characters visibly keep moving, the characters have a little bit of the "dizzy" feel of something done with Bob Sabiston's "Rotoshop" that practically defined avant-garde animation a decade ago (backgrounds are rock solid though).
After all, if it's got a crummy story, no amount of fancy animation will save it.That's part of what's good about the Academy Award-nominated "Chico and Rita".
The film is a familiar tale of lovers that just keep getting separated either by their own mistakes or by events they can't control, but set in the beautiful and refreshing backdrop of Havana (and later in New York, and Los Angeles), with Afro-Cubans as leads.
Chico Y Rita is an animation that could possibly be a film in live-action.
It is the threshold of the film with real and animation actors, because he can talk to the reference of reality produced in animation, avoiding the use of larger costumes in the execution of movements without falling into sentimentality to be a cold copy of reality - the use of subtle and comfortable camera movements used throughout the film explore the beautiful panoramic and subjectives of the characters, making intense plans as when Chico and Rita go to bed.
The animation is the romance between Chico, a pianist, and singer Rita, in the beautiful and attractive Havana of the 1940s The film revolves around separations and encounters the characters dive between artificial betrayals and music, doing stand the story going through the same physical distance, at times, keeps them apart.
The work Mariscal art direction in Chico y Rita is flawless and elegant, creating meetings before consecrated - Hollywood movie and Latin jazz - through minute documentary studies of Cuban culture of the 1940s, in graphics and colors, developing human characters and deep in scenarios, use of lighting and subjective points of view, in black and white, could possibly result in a noir film - except his account not be primarily associated with a thriller.
The characters are fascinating and the music lends a great deal of thematic significance and atmosphere to this tale of star crossed love.It's movies like this which should win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars.
CHICO & RITA is a notable achievement - an animated love-story that makes some trenchant points about the ways in which human beings were constrained during the Forties and Fifties.In the tradition of the Spanish bolero, the main plot is a picaresque tale focusing on how Chico (voiced by Eman Xor Oña) and Rita (Limara Meneses) encounter one another at a nightclub, fall in love, and then keep falling out of love until they are finally separated in New York.
The animated film Chico and Rita is a wonder to take in.
With a wonderful love story, and deceptively simple, but stunning animation, this is without a doubt one of my favorite films of 2010.Set in late 40s pre-Revolution Cuba and early 50s New York it captures through a languid sensuality the bebop era as many have tried and few have managed.
Only the good Mambo Kings and Tarvenier's Around Midnight compares, here the sense of joy and heartbreak and rhythm is amazing.The film captures so fully what the era feels like - the detailing is outstanding from the architecture to the hip swaying it's just captivating.Above all it's a timeless film about love: love for Cuba, love for Jazz, and love between its two protagonists: the pianist Chico and the beautiful Rita - honestly, films like this come along maybe once a year - it's a bittersweet film that combines music, love, and great artistry into one beautiful package..
Here is a great animated film for adults, particularly for those who enjoy or are intrigued by Afro-Cuban music that after being extremely popular in the 1940s and 1950s faded once the Cuban revolution established a Marxism regime.Inspired by stories of exile and the music left behind, this is an epic tale of star-crossed lovers, a singer and a pianist/songwriter, whose tempestuous relationship takes from Havana to NYC, from Europe to Vegas, from the 1950s to the 2000s, the film is meticulous in its recreation of streets, bars, apartments, hotels, cars, music halls, clubs, populated by its colorful characters.
This attention to detail make this animated feature true to life making the characters and their stories believable and real, unlike the silly cartoonish CGI of the Toy Story series and the contemporary deluge of animated crap polluting the screens.Then there is the soundtrack: Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Woody Herman, among others along with the Afro Cuban piano of Bebo Valdes, etc.
Chico and Rita has some observable limitations: simple animation techniques, voice acting and a slow pace which is more suited for a documentary-style film making, that can only be accompanied by simplistic storyline and characters that cannot be shown to be too multi-dimensional in order to be supported by the limitations mentioned.Due to that, it could have been given just a 6 star rating.
Now, of course, it's a play with scenery-chewing emotion and lines like, "I had to kiss you again!" and "For 47 years I've been waiting for you to walk through that door!"The Oscar-nominated Chico and Rita is both of these things, but it works so well because the music of Bebo Valdés is seamlessly woven through the story.
For lovers of classic musical traditions, it is a joy to hear.In addition to the thematic music Bebo wrote for the film, the sound track features songs ranging from the Cuban night club acts of the 1940's-50's (featuring Mexican pop classics like "Besame Mucho" and "Sabor a Mi") to the Latin-Bop (Cubop) fusion of New York, with cameo "appearances" by Woody Herman, Charlie Parker, Tito Puente, Dizzy Gillespie, Ben Webster, Nat Cole, Chano Pozo, and Thelonius Monk.
Hard to put 'Chico & Rita' is an a category and this is a testimony of the fact that animated movies, even those that are created in the 'classical' 2-D format like this one transcend nowadays genres and express more and more different emotions and messages.
'Chico & Rita' is a musical (with wonderful Cuban and jazz music), a melodrama, and a political film.
All packaged in a beautiful and colorful wrapping which makes it a pleasure to watch and listen to.I should say that the animation is not the best side of the film, and probably stills look better than the movie itself.
The torrid love story between the pianist Chico and the singer Rita, which starts in the Cuba of the last decade before the Communist take-over and continues tracking them while they try to make their way in the US of the 50s may be loosely based on the characters of two real time musicians (Bebo Valdes who actually wrote the original music in the film and Rita Montaner who was the star of the Tropicana club in Havana and then had a short but spectacular career in the US).
As there, at some point in time I lost the difference between film with actors and animation and I completely immersed in the story (and the music in this case).
I loved the animation and the music, but I just couldn't get into it, the story just wasn't engaging; I actually had to skip - I rented it on DVD (just as well I did and didn't buy it or something) - to the end.
Chico and Rita, which unexpectedly grabbed a Best Animated Feature nomination at the Oscars this same year, is an experience that pleases and pampers with seduction and effervescent charm throughout its entire runtime.
Equipped with a wonderful soundtrack of jazz music and some of the most lush animation I've seen since probably, My Dog Tulip or The Triplets of Belleville in terms of beauty and unique surrealism, it is arguably one of the most jivey and adult animated pictures in the last few years.Let's start with the animation, which is the film's most redeeming quality.
Everything is colored nicely, fleshed out astonishingly, and overall, easy on the eyes and dreamlike.The film begins with the title character, Chico, who hears a romantic ballad that transports him and us back to Cuba in 1948, where jazz music was brewing in the hearts, clubs, and radios of many.
We see how Chico met and fell in love with a woman named Rita early, but different backgrounds, aspirations, and the ugly side of show business kept elbowing them further away from each other and their relationship often went from soothing and melodic to hopeless and grim.The jazz music perfectly compliments the tonal environment the picture brings to us, in a heavenly, seductive form.
Like the earlier reviewer, once I saw on the DVD box that "Chico and Rita" featured the music of Woody Herman, Dizzy Gillespie, Theolonius Monk and Charlie Parker- in addition to the Cuban music!- I knew I had to see the film.
As Chico and Ramon search for success in New York clubs and Rita becomes a Broadway and Hollywood sensation real life stars Chano Pozo and Tito Puente make appearances.
The animation isn't afraid either to be frank and adult: a fight between Rita and Chico's old girlfriend doesn't show them pulling their punches.One of the movie's highlights is a fantastic dream sequence that salutes the musicals of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
As far as animation goes I can take or leave the entries that have appeared over the last few years but once I read that the soundtrack of Chico and Rita featured the likes of Woody Herman, Dizzy Gillespie, Theolonius Monk and Charly Parker I decided to check it out.
The music was infectious and the first thing I did after the film ended was to buy the soundtrack.The story was touching, yet I felt it was lacking a little.
The relationship never really happened and therefore, I couldn't see why Rita would have waited a lifetime for Chico when all they did was argue and fall out.Saying this however, I did enjoy the film and would love to see a few more animations made in this way..
As you may or may not know, "Chico & Rita" was nominated for Best Animated Feature for 2012--losing to the much more commercial "Puss 'n Boots".
It's a small-time production with a very unique independent feel.The film is set mostly in 1940s Cuba (but also in the US and Paris) and is the story of two folks, Chico and Rita and their very tumultuous relationship as they work their way up through the music business.
While I liked how unique the film was in style and content, I didn't care much for the story or the characters.
In many ways, it's an ordinary love story, but it's beautifully told: Even when the character's designs are pretty stylish (Even if not everyone like the aesthetic of those designs, personally I think that were done well) The sceneries and the voice acting were quite good too, but the best element from the movie is the excellent music that appears on the film, giving it a whimsical, almost dream-like atmosphere.
Even the cheesiest part of the story ended being effective due the combination of that beautiful music with the stylish animation.On the bad side, the plot is somewhat slow and even boring at some parts of the story that could have been done better (Or just being obviated, since those parts didn't add major interest to the main storyline) Too be honest, I was expecting a bit more from this movie, but even when "Chico & Rita" isn't the great masterpiece that it could have been, it is certainly a highly enjoyable animated movie for adults, that handles very well all the subtle elements from every good love-story..
To wait for Chico apparently (Rita doesn't really DO anything in the movie, things happen to her mostly).In the end, I did enjoy this movie, despite its flaws with character and story.
This Academy Award nominated animated film, "Chico & Rita" most definitely fits within that definition..
Add to the visual style a rich blend of music, the story becomes more than a tragic romance but rather a satisfying musical that features animated Woody Herman and Dizzy Gillespie to give it cred.Chico & Rita complements other Oscar nominated films of 2011 such as Hugo, Midnight in Paris, and The Artist, all a variation of Hollywood's love of its past. |
tt0030068 | Donald's Better Self | Donald is fast asleep in his bed. As he turns in his sleep, his Conscience takes a form of its own beside him. She looks exactly like Donald, but wears a white robe and a golden halo. She also has a kinder and gentler voice than Donald. The Conscience tries to get Donald up and out of bed so he won't be late for school, but Donald's Anti-Conscience appears to keep Donald in bed. He has a different voice than Donald's and has a devil form with horns. He easily convinces Donald to stay in bed, but the Conscience wins out and walks with Donald to school.
Along the way, Donald is tempted by the Anti-Conscience to skip out on school and go fishing instead. At the fishing hole, the Anti-Conscience pressures him to smoke a pipe, which causes him to get sick. Soon the Conscience arrives looking for Donald. She finds him sick, and she gets angry at the Anti-Conscience for Donald's misfortune. The Anti-Conscience soon realizes he's in trouble when he sees the Conscience behind him. "YOU! This is all your fault!" says the Conscience to the Anti-Conscience, who nervously convinces the Conscience not to hurt him. The Conscience refuses, but after the Anti-Conscience deliberately tricks her, proceeds to fight the Anti-Conscience to teach him a lesson. Donald finally learns to do the right thing and go to school rather than give in to temptation. | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0066301 | Rio Lobo | During the American Civil War, Col. Cord McNally (John Wayne) has instructions telegraphed to his close friend, Lt. Ned Forsythe (Peter Jason), in charge of the Union troops on a Union army payroll train. However, Confederates led by Capt. Pierre Cordona (Jorge Rivero) and Sgt. Tuscarora Phillips (Christopher Mitchum) hijack the train. Their plan is to listen in on the telegraph wires, grease the tracks to stop the train, disconnect the payroll wagon from the engine so it rolls back down the hill, using a hornet's nest to force the Union guards to jump off the train, then catch the train with many ropes tied to trees. In the process, Lt. Forsythe is fatally injured.
In the subsequent fighting, they trick McNally and capture him but McNally leads them into a Union camp, pushes a branch forward, and lets it swing back to knock Tuscarora off his horse, then yells out to the camp. As the Confederates flee, McNally jumps Cordona. McNally realizes that a traitor must be selling information to the Confederate States of America, in order for the hijackings to be successful. McNally questions the pair, but they give him no information and are imprisoned.
When the War ends, McNally visits them as they are being released, and asks them to tell him from whom they got their information. When Tuscarora points out that they were the ones who had killed McNally's friends yet McNally has nothing against them, McNally replies that the killing was an act of war, while the one who sold them the information was a traitor. Unfortunately they don't know the traitors' identities, having only seen them from a distance. One was a big, dark-haired, mustachioed man, and the other was very white-haired and pale. McNally then tells Cordona and Tuscarora that if they should ever come across these men again, to contact him through a friend of his, Pat Cronin (Bill Williams), who is the sheriff of Blackthorne in Texas. Tuscarora is on his way to Rio Lobo, Texas where he grew up.
Later McNally is contacted by Cronin on instructions from Cordona. When he arrives in Blackthorne, however, Cordona is sleeping in a hotel room with a woman. Shasta Delaney (Jennifer O'Neill), arrives in the hotel, wishing to report a murder that took place in Rio Lobo. Cronin explains that he cannot intervene because Rio Lobo is outside his jurisdiction. Later a posse from Rio Lobo arrives and wants to take Delaney away. She claims, however, that the leader, "Whitey" (Robert Donner), is the murderer about whom she has been talking.
When one of the posse aims a gun at Cronin, Shasta shoots Whitey under the table, and Cronin and McNally finish off the posse. As the last one is about to shoot McNally, Cordona appears at the top of the stairs and shoots the gunman. Shasta faints from the shock of killing someone. Cordona tells McNally that Whitey was one of the two men for whom McNally was looking. He goes on to tell McNally that Tuscarora had contacted him and had told him that he saw one of the men, for whom McNally is looking in Rio Lobo. He also reports that there is trouble in Rio Lobo and that Tuscarora needs help. His father and other ranchers are being bullied by a man named Ketcham, who installed his sheriff, "Blue Tom" Hendricks (Mike Henry), after Hendricks killed the previous incumbent.
McNally, Cordona, and Shasta go to Rio Lobo, where they discover graft and corruption. Hendricks arrests Tuscarora on trumped up charges. For further help, they go to Tuscarora's father, Old Man Philips (Jack Elam). When the three sneak into Ketcham's ranch, McNally learns that Ketcham is really Sergeant Major Ike Gorman (Victor French), the traitor. McNally punches him around and forces him to sign the title deeds of the ranches back to their rightful owners. Philips then wires the triggers back, forming a dead-man's trap, on his double barreled shotgun so they can order Hendricks and his men out of the jail . They take over the town jail for cover, freeing Tuscarora, while Cordona goes for the Cavalry. Meanwhile, Tuscarora's girlfriend Maria Carmen (Susana Dosamantes) and her friend Amelita (Sherry Lansing) lend assistance. For that, Hendricks slashes Amelita's face, and Amelita swears to McNally that she will kill Hendricks.
However, Ketcham's men capture Cordona. Ketcham's gang offers to trade Cardona for Ketcham. In the meantime, word spread of the trade and roughly 20 ranchers turn up to help, knowing that, if McNally fails, the town will have gained nothing from the returned deeds. During the prisoner exchange, Cordona dives from the bridge into the river where Tuscarora was hiding. McNally yells out that Ketcham is now bankrupt, having signed the deeds back, so the furious sheriff guns Ketcham down, and in turn, McNally shoots the sheriff in the leg. McNally then gets shot in his leg by one of the deputies, and is dragged back into the cantina by Philips.
After a failed attempt to blow up the cantina McNally's force was in, the remaining bandits are outflanked and outgunned by the other ranchers who have come to help. Hendricks's men realize this and they flee. Hendricks shoots at them, but he had been using his rifle as a walking cane and it had become clogged with mud, and it explodes in his face. As he stumbles to his horse, Amelita guns him down, thus keeping her word. McNally tells the ranchers that they have their town back. | revenge, cult, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | The only one worth watching was Jack Elam (who was GREAT) but he was only in the last half of the film and could have used a lot more screen time as the crazy old man.
To cut to the chase: I liked Rio Lobo.It was fashionable in 1970 to trash Rio Lobo because (a) it was the supposedly feeble, last effort of a great director, Howard Hawks, who had supposedly lost interest in the picture; (b) it was too derivative of Rio Bravo and El Dorado; (c) the Duke was too old to play the part of a cavalry colonel (to say nothing of being too big; the average cavalryman in the Civil War was 5'7" and 135 lbs.); (d) the supporting cast was pathetic; (e) the production values were poor; and (f) the movie paled in comparison to Little Big Man, which was released at the same time.
Released in 1970, Howard Hawks' "Rio Lobo" starts with a thrilling Confederate train robbery of a Union gold shipment.
BOTTOM LINE: Yes, the story is disjointed and there are a couple unconvincing scenes, but "Rio Lobo" possesses several aspects that are really good and even great, like the opening score/guitar sequence, the thrilling train robbery & Civil War parts, the likable protagonists & their camaraderie, the beautiful women and great locations.The film runs 114 minutes.GRADE: B-.
I think that most John Wayne buffs would agree that this is a remake of 2 previous picture-"Rio Bravo",and "El Dorado".We have the same characters,the same basic situations,and the same resolutions.What I found interesting is the way that the "Duke"was able to kid his image in this one.He's not just strong,tough,brave,resourceful,and quick;he's also able to show a middle-aged man whose libido might not be as urgent as it was previously.Let's face it,being a lover isn't just performance,but also being tender and"comfortable"(the word that they use in this picture.)Let's not be too hasty about the performances of O'Neill,Rivero,and Mitchum-they were young and needed experience,and they got it in this film.(And Rivero is every bit as tasty looking as O'Neill.Isn't he delectable?)Nice to see Victor French as a porcine,slimy villain,and Mike Henry manages to play against his Tarzan image as the sheriff.I found him tough enough,and certainly brutish,but I didn't see him as quite enough of a sadist to go around cutting up women.David Huddleston does a first-rate job as Dr.Jones.The real acting honors of the evening,however,do go to the redoubtable Mr.Elam.This is a scenery-chewing,rip-roaring,over-the-top performance of such eye-rolling looniness that it's a joy to behold.Watch this film for fun,and don't take it too seriously..
By the time Rio Lobo was made, the theme was getting a bit thin, but it's still grand entertainment.The first part of the film is set during the Civil War with John Wayne pursuing Confederates who are stealing army payrolls.
She pairs off with Rivero.In a small bit part is Sherry Lansing who left acting soon after Rio Lobo and really hit the big time, going into the production end of the movie business and becoming head of first 20th Century Fox and later CEO of Paramount.The two principal villains are Victor French who played the neighbor on Little House On The Prarie and Mike Henry who was one of several screen Tarzans.It's a good John Wayne western and that takes in a whole lot of territory pilgrim..
Seeing a John Wayne movie where he is the most accomplished and subtle actor on screen, the Olivier of the proceedings, is quite another, and just one of several reasons "Rio Lobo" sticks out in a bad way.Wayne plays Union Col. Cord McNally, who after the end of the American Civil War is still after the traitors who sold information about U.S. Army gold shipments that led to the death of a beloved subordinate.
How Howard Hawks, director of some of Wayne's best films like "Rio Bravo" and "Red River" as well as some choice Hollywood classics, could have made this lame oater his swansong is a question almost existential in its bleakness.Wayne's supporting actors make him seem Shakespearean by comparison.
Listening to her say simple lines like "Don't be nice to me" is grating in its banality, not to mention a dunning reminder of how competent Joanne Dru really was playing the lead hottie in the Hawks film "Red River" nearly 25 years before, when she actually managed to carry entire scenes with real dramatic purpose and charm.
Wayne's not great, but he's good enough for the lameness around him, which is enough.So are Christopher Mitchum, Susana Dosamantes, and David Huddleston as a would-be sadistic dentist who pretends to give McNally a thorough going-over while imparting some vital information toward the resolution of the plot, sending him off with a nasty novocain shot and the line: "If you'd have been a good enough actor, I wouldna used it!" Wayne was a good sport to let himself get zinged that way, but the truth be told, he's the least of the problem as far as "Rio Lobo" is concerned..
Duke along with a shotgun-toting old loony (the scene-stealing Jack Elam) are besieged and only helped by the Mexican/French ex-captain and the hot-headed Sergeant Tuscarora .Action western, snappy dialog , shoot-outs at regular intervals, and humor abounds in this magnificent film whose roles are splendidly portrayed .
Delightful supporting cast formed by several youthful costars as Chris Mitchum , Robert's son who starred Rio Bravo ; a gorgeous Jennifer O'Neill , recent his hit in Summer of 42 ; Sherry Lansing's last movie as an actress who married William Fredkin and future Paramount studio head ; Susana Dosamontes who married a magnate and gave birth the singer Paulina Rubio .
Hawks proved to be a Western expert as ¨Big sky¨, ¨The outlaw¨ and ¨Red River ¨.Rating : Good and great fun , though over lengthy and displays a number of similarities to previous ¨Rio Bravo¨ , quintaessential Hawks Western at the peak of his powers , starred by Walter Brennan , Ricky Nelson , Angie Dickinson and ¨El Dorado¨ with James Caan , Edward Ashner and Arthur Hunnicut virtual retreat of the previous role played by Walter Brennan and again by Jack Elam in ¨Rio Lobo¨in this second reworking of Rio Bravo; and of course the great John Wayne who repeats in the excellent trilogy ..
John Wayne, Jack Elam, Chris Mitchum, and, in a difficult role, Victor French carry off the acting honors, with Bill Williams shining in his brief role.The story is involved, even complicated, not to say convoluted, ranging from the War Against Southern Independence to Wild West land shenanigans.There are three very attractive women, who have much more to do than just look pretty, but, sorry to say, only one gave much of a performance.Jerry Goldsmith wrote, as usual, an impressive score, and it amplified the action fittingly.The action and story were attributed to Burton Wohl, and he co-wrote the screenplay with prolific Leigh Brackett.
Since I haven't read the original, I can't know how much was changed for the screenplay, but, as others have noted, much of the denouement was used in other films.But I give "Rio Lobo" high marks for John Wayne, the story, and Jerry Goldsmith's score.
Being the John Wayne/Howard Hawks fan that I am, I expected great things from "Rio Lobo." Unfortunately, it's one of the Duke's weakest efforts.
Loads Of Action, A Lot Of Fun. When Confederate raiders rob a shipment of gold and kill his friend, Union Colonel John Wayne vows to bring the traitors who sold the rebels the information to justice, leading to a post-war showdown with vicious carpetbagger Victor French.
Helping Wayne is Jorge Rivero, the leader of the raiders!Although Rio Lobo is not quite as legendary as other John Wayne/Howard Hawks collaborations and things aren't always up to snuff in the acting department, this is still a lot of rip-roaring fun.This has a very amusing script co-written by Leigh Brackett and some incredible action sequences supervised by Wayne's old pal, the legendary Yakima Cannut.There's great comedic guest roles for shotgun-toting, scene-stealing Jack Elam and David Huddleston as Rio Lobo's resident tooth-puller.
Jack Elam was there and also George Plimpton, who played in many movies like Good Will Hunting and Reds, and who wrote "Infamous." Jennifer O'Neill, Susana Dosamantes, and Sherry Lansing all added beauty to the film..
Considering this is Howard Hawks-directed film and John Wayne is the star, this was a huge disappointment.
Jack Elam, in his prime, was the epitome of menace on the screen, but his comic caricature here just didn't play for me.John Wayne is an American legend, international film hero, box office giant, and one of the most beloved actors of all time, yet he couldn't find a studio that would give him enough money to hire anyone better than Jennifer O'Neil, Sherry Lansing, and the beyond-dreadful Jorge Rivero?
Geniuses.There are so many far superior John Wayne films, Howard Hawks films, and Wayne-Hawks collaborations, that you are doing yourself a disservice wasting precious time watching Rio Lobo.
While hardly the most auspicious of swan songs, Hawks’ underrated final film sees a reprise of some of his favorite themes – including the siege/hostage exchange situation from RIO BRAVO (1959), a Western he had already partially remade as EL DORADO (1966); incidentally, John Wayne starred in all three titles.It opens with an elaborate gold shipment robbery from a moving train by Confederate soldiers; Wayne is a Unionist Colonel who goes after the culprits but, the war over, befriends ‘enemies’ Jorge Rivero and Chris Mitchum when they reveal the identity of a couple of Yankee traitors – one is a deputy sheriff and the other an unscrupulous landowner (Victor French).
The film shares its partnership-between-Union-and-Confederate-soldiers angle with Wayne’s earlier Western THE UNDEFEATED (1969) – but, Hawks being Hawks, it’s presented here in a far more complex (and rewarding) manner.As is usual for the director, a spirited female protagonist is thrown into the fray – in this case, Jennifer O’Neill as a traveling-show performer who falls foul of French and his dastardly sheriff (Mike Henry); of course, she becomes romantically involved with Rivero – a situation Wayne observes with bemusement.
The film also features an unusually wistful score for a genre effort courtesy of Jerry Goldsmith.All things considered, however, RIO LOBO still emerges as the least of the loose Wayne/Hawks Western trilogy: this is chiefly due to severe undercasting when compared to the earlier efforts – with, say, Rivero being no match for James Caan from EL DORADO.
The climax is exciting and well-staged, and includes the revenge on Henry by a young girl he has viciously scarred for life (played by Sherry Lansing, future head of the Fox and Paramount studios and currently Mrs. William Friedkin) – which, however, calls for O’Neill to be virtually absent from these final stages and the film to end abruptly (albeit on a running joke involving Wayne)!
Out of Paramount Pictures, Rio Lobo is directed and produced by Howard Hawks (the last film he would direct) and stars John Wayne, Jorge Rivero, Jeniffer O'Neill, Jack Elam & Christopher Mitchum.
It's the third film in a loose trilogy by Hawks & Wayne that follows Rio Bravo (1959) & El Dorado (1966).
Plot follows Wayne as Union officer Cord McNally who loses gold shipments (via the railway) to Confederate guerrillas led by Pierre Cordona (Rivero) & Tuscarora Phillips (Mitchum).
Civil War veteran John Wayne (as Cord McNally), former Confederate foe Jorge Rivero (Pierre "Frenchy" Cordona), and super-model Jennifer O'Neill (Shasta Delaney) ride into "Rio Lobo" to stir residents into action.
It only helps a little.**** Rio Lobo (12/17/70) Howard Hawks ~ John Wayne, Jorge Rivero, Jennifer O'Neill, Jack Elam.
Then, the plot shifts to a different focus, as character motivations make a dramatic U-turn, and we move from a Civil War setting to a Western setting.Except for Cord McNally (John Wayne), Pierre Cordona (Jorge Rivero), and Tuscarora (Chris Mitchum), characters in the last third of the film bear no relation to characters in the first third of the film.
Given McNally's motivation, Wayne plays the role too sweetly and amiably, hardly the tough and intense character we would expect.The best that can be said for "Rio Lobo" is that some of the daytime camera shots are quite pleasing, in that they convey images that romanticize the Old West.
Of course, nobody can do a Western like John Wayne, and he looks like he's having a great old time here.
a sad end to Hawks directorship Wayne is too old and tired and his so called co stars now there's an assumption are hopelessly inadequate and devoid of any acting ability and the reworking of his previous films Rio Bravo and Eldorado becomes painfully and very obviously thin.The beginning is good but then it peters out into a virtual scene by scene re run of Rio bravo and el Dorado, only obtain a copy to add to your Wayne collection and let it gather dust on the shelf and watch the far better Rio Bravo and El Dorado I can only think that Wayne did this movie as a favour or he needed the money for his retirement fund took the money and run.
Comfortable as ever in a genre he basically dominates anyway, John Wayne (the great "re-actor") makes every word he says and every action he takes as stalwart and as forceful as if he were taking to the screen for the first time.Much has been made of how weak the younger actors are, but considering the circumstances, they do well for themselves (even a young Lansing, who would go on to bigger and better things beyond the camera).
He also has the best line: "Don't mind if I shoot anyway, it makes me feel better."You'll no doubt recognize a lot of faces in this film, and probably be surprised to see them there (yes, THAT George Plimpton) but in a film this big and this good, it looks like everyone wanted to get into the act.And through it all, Wayne swaggers and shoots and helps save the Western way of life.
John Wayne plays Colonel Cord McNally who rides to Rio Lobo with Captain Pierre Cordona (Jorge Rivero) and Shasta Delaney (Jennifer O'Neill) to get the bad guys.Rio Lobo from 1970 was the last movie of Howard Hawks.This was a good movie to stop.
Rio lobo has everything; Action, John Wayne and beautiful women..
The third and final film in Howard Hawks's famous trilogy of westerns starring John Wayne; the first was RIO BRAVO and the second EL DORADO.
This late-stage entry in the genre is far better than I was expecting, a bright and colourful western with an interesting cast and an ageing star who still has the power to kick backside with the best of them.The opening of RIO LOBO is particularly astute, featuring a heist on a train carrying a gold shipment which is very well directed and exciting.
Wayne plays the usual stock hero and wrings maximum presence out of his part, only this time around he's supported by a mixture of old hands (Jack Elam) and new faces (Mexican star Jorge Rivero and Christopher Mitchum).The narrative slows down after the first section which is understandable given the passage of time.
Watching Rio Lobo by itself shows an slightly below average western with John Wayne carrying it through with his sheer presence.
The final film is Howard Hawks The good guys vs bad guys trilogy(as i like to call it)is set during the closing days of the civil war and involves military secrets being sold the other side,a robbery in gold,and one mans quest for vengeance and justice.First of all,this is one of the greatest westerns ever made,it got brilliant acting,perfect storyline and excellently staged,fast paced action scenes.John Wayne is again reprising his role as a Man on a Mission,and he's brilliant at it(in one scene he turns the tables on his captors which results in them being sent to a POW camp),other good performances come from Mike Henry who plays the sadistic town sheriff,Jack Elam is really funny as the bitter old man who helps the duke on his quest and David Huddleston is great as the town dentist,some of the scenes in this movie are nearly the same as El Dorado(food being brought to the sheriffs office which is under siege).The storyline is excellent as it focuses a lot on betrayal and revenge,the dukes friend is killed in a train robbery and he sets out intent on finding those responsible,the idea of military secrets falling into the wrong hands was great and it gives the movie the feel of a spy thriller.There's plenty of good old western action to enjoy,including a train robbery,a house being raided and an epic shootout to climax the film,during which many a man is shot and dynamite is tossed around and a building is blown up(it quite similar to the shootout at the end of Rio Bravo),the action is very loud and it's really exciting.This is a gem of a movie,i recommend it to all John Wayne and western fans..
On the acting side, however, Wayne is rather left to carry the film on his own, as the other main actors such as Jorge Rivero, Jennifer O'Neill and Christopher Mitchum are not particularly distinguished; in "El Dorado", by contrast, he received good support from Mitchum's better-known father Robert.
When the dentist, Dr. Ivor Jones (David Huddleston) purposely causes Cord McNally (Wayne) to yell out in pain using one of his instruments, Jones says to him - "Well if you'd been a good enough actor, I wouldn't have used it!" To his credit, Wayne actually looked stunned when he heard that.Well, like a handful of other Western fans here, I was pretty sure I saw this picture before when it was called "Rio Bravo" and "El Dorado".
If you have never seen a John Wayne 'Rio' movie, this one is as good as it gets. |
tt0058230 | The Incredible Mr. Limpet | The story begins September 1941 just before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Shy bookkeeper Henry Limpet loves fish with a passion. When his friend George Stickle enlists in the United States Navy, Limpet attempts to enlist as well, but is rejected. Feeling downcast, he wanders down to a pier near Coney Island and accidentally falls into the water. Inexplicably, he finds he has turned into a fish. Since he never resurfaces, his wife, Bessie, and George assume he has drowned.
The fish Limpet, complete with his signature pince-nez spectacles, discovers a new-found ability during some of his initial misadventures, a powerful underwater roar, his "thrum". He falls in love with a female fish he names Ladyfish, the concept of names being unknown to her, and makes friends with a misanthropic hermit crab named Crusty.
Still determined to help the Navy, Limpet finds a convoy and requests to see George. With George's help, Limpet gets himself commissioned by the Navy, complete with advancing rank and a salary, which he sends to Bessie. He helps the Navy locate Nazi U-boats by signaling with his "thrum", and plays a large part in the Allied victory in the Battle of the Atlantic. In his final mission, he is nearly killed when the Nazis develop a "thrum" seeking torpedo, and is further handicapped by the loss of his spectacles. He manages to survive using Crusty as his "navigator", and sinks a number of U-boats by redirecting the torpedoes. After the battle, he swims to Coney Island to say goodbye to Bessie (who has now fallen in love with George) and gets a replacement set of glasses. He then swims off with Ladyfish.
In the film's coda, set in the modern times of 1964, George (now a high ranking naval officer) and the Admiral are presented with a report that Mr. Limpet is still alive and working with porpoises. The two men travel out to sea to contact Mr. Limpet and offer him a commission in the United States Navy. It is unknown what became of the conversation, for the movie ends with a question mark. | flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0163187 | Runaway Bride | Maggie Carpenter (Julia Roberts) is a spirited and attractive young woman who has had a number of unsuccessful relationships. Maggie, nervous of being married, has left a trail of fiancés. She's left three men waiting for her at the altar on their wedding day (all of which are caught on tape), receiving tabloid fame and the dubious nickname "The Runaway Bride".
Meanwhile, in New York, columnist Homer Eisenhower Graham or "Ike" (Richard Gere), writes an article about her that contains several factual errors, supplied to him by a man he meets in a bar who Ike later learns was one of Maggie's former fiancés. Ike is fired for not verifying his source, but is invited to write an in-depth article about Maggie in a bid to restore his reputation. He travels to Hale, Maryland, where he finds Maggie living with her family and on her fourth attempt to become married. The fourth groom-to-be, Bob Kelly (Christopher Meloni), is a local high school football coach who uses sports analogies to help Maggie with her concerns. He constantly makes references to Maggie "focusing" on the goal-line in reference to their pending nuptials. As Ike starts going around town to meet her friends, family, and former fiancés, Maggie becomes frustrated and feels he is getting the story wrong again.
Ike begins to cooperate with Maggie on the story, Maggie being interested in getting him to publish the truth, and the two become closer to each other the more time they spend together. During his research for the story, Ike realizes that Maggie is adjusting her interests to mimic those of her fiancés in order to please them. This is signified most prominently by her choice of eggs, which changes with each fiancé. At a pre-wedding celebration for her and Bob, Ike defends Maggie from the public mockery she starts receiving from her family and guests, and Maggie walks outside due to the embarrassment. Ike then confronts Maggie outside about his realization regarding her relationships.
During the wedding rehearsal, Bob tries to quell Maggie's wedding anxieties by walking her down the aisle. Ike is standing in at the alter as the groom. After Bob gets her to the altar, Ike and Maggie share a passionate kiss and admit to each other their feelings. Bob is chagrined, becomes jealous and punches Ike in the face before he storms out of the church. In the aftermath, Ike proposes that he and Maggie get married since the wedding is arranged. At the alter, Maggie gets cold feet and flees. Ike pursues her but she hitches a ride away on a FedEx truck.
Later, we see Ike living in New York and Maggie trying to discover herself, trying different types of eggs, and putting her lighting designs up for sale in New York. She shows up unexpectedly at Ike's apartment one night where he finds her making friends with his cat, Italics. Maggie then explains that she had been running because every other guy she was engaged to was only engaged to the idea she had created for them rather than the real her, but with Ike she ran because, even though he truly understood her, she didn't understand herself. She "turns in" her running shoes just before proposing to Ike. The two are married in a private ceremony outside, on a hill, avoiding the big ceremonies that Maggie notes she never actually liked. In the end, they are shown riding away on horseback while everyone in Hale and New York (clued in via cell phone by Ike and Maggie's family) celebrates the fact that Maggie finally got married.
A post credit scene shows Maggie and Ike playing in the snow signifying that the relationship is going strong well after the wedding. | romantic, home movie | train | wikipedia | Yes, the director and the two big name stars are the same as the film's 1990 counterpart, but even though the two films have striking and almost offensive similarities, Runaway Bride has a good enough story that I refuse to believe that it relied on the success of its predecessor.
This is a very good romantic comedy, and it should not be missed simply because of a superficial comparison to Pretty Woman..
Her timing is rough, but it manages to avoid divorce lawyer, right?Drink in the backdrop of the movie, and enjoy the main characters and the strong ensemble cast in this enticingly amusing tale of love and romance redefined..
Though it seems very fast, it is completely natural for fans of "Pretty Woman," who saw these two fall in love a decade earlier.Roberts is wonderful in this movie.
I am not going to compare Runaway Bride to Pretty Woman because, quite frankly, I don't care too much for that movie either.
I am really becoming tired of coming across some 'generic' users' comments about movies such as: 'With a bigger budget, this film would certainly have been better'Runaway Bride, in my opinion, perfectly belies this too many heard statement: I wonder how many millions of dollars have been USELESSLY WASTED to make this stupid, boring and absolutely not funny movie: it is overwhelmed by clichés and extremely stupid dialogs with a thousand times overused storyline.
But, of course, many people will unfortunately still give some credit to this piece of garbage, for the only reason that the director Gary Marshall had directed 'Pretty Woman' nine years before and that he cast Richard Gere and Julia Roberts.
As if all the bad one-liners and jokes aren't enough, we're forced to sit through silly, random scenes like Maggie swinging the church bell; the whole scene where the girls dye Ike's hair; the duck-billed platypus imitation; I could go on and on!My advice to you is not to pay money to see this movie.
"Runaway Bride" is one of those films that probably looked good on paper - bankable stars like Julia Roberts and Richard Gere trying to rework their "Pretty Woman" magic in a similar plot - but is so horribly mishandled it became painful to watch.I rented it because my wife wanted to see it, and besides it was only an extra $1.00 with another 5-day rental at the local video store.
As you have already determined, lumping "10 Violent Women" and "Runaway Bride" together is a huge red flag for the discriminating moviegoer.First of all, Richard Gere's character is at best confused, but he is also conniving and mean.
I felt like I was watching a UPN sitcom instead of a movie.I wish I could find something positive about this film, but it is only a transparent attempt to sequel "Pretty Woman" and make a bundle.
It's a pity that twentieth-century writers have somehow acquired the idea that external obstacles are less interesting than internal ones: it isn't true, and in any event, internal obstacles are harder to draw convincingly.Which is why (FINALLY, I get to the point) "Runaway Bride" is a more pleasant confection than "Pretty Woman".
Maybe I was unduly swayed by the last Julia Roberts romantic comedy I saw, "I Love Trouble", which was at once thin, bloated, and flat."Runaway Bride" is none of these things.
Now considering that Pretty Woman was one of Hollywood's biggest films of the eighties, and with good reason, it was always going to be difficult to cash in on its success for a second time.
Undoubtedly, the onscreen presents of both Julia Roberts and Richard Gere is a big deal for movie fans.
I found this movie a joy to watch, not just because of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, but the fantastic supporting cast and the picturesque town in which the movie takes place.
Though we usually don't expect romantic comedy to be entirely realistic, we want to see good reason for the two main characters to fall in love.
Here's another question people, if you were Ike Graham wouldn't you be a little miffed at Maggie when you met here, common she made you get fired, and then Gere act like he's her best Friend.
It was a pretty good movie, but it wasn't a great movie.I know it's not a PRETTY WOMAN sequel, but with Garry Marshall directing Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, Hector Elizondo, and Larry Miller, I couldn't help but expect at least some of the old magic.
"Runaway Bride" reunites "Pretty Woman" stars Richard Gere and Julia Roberts with their director on that film, Garry Marshall; it does not aspire to be art, but neither is it especially warm or witty or funny.
The stars do have great chemistry, the supporting cast is colorful yet not overly-eccentric, and it's a fine bauble for anyone in the mood for a generic romantic comedy (and, true, it's probably better than "Pretty Woman", which I didn't particularly like).
Julia Roberts makes the most of her role as the title character, and Richard Gere, her co-star in Pretty Woman, is his usual charming self as the somewhat over familiar love interest, and Joan Cusack is enjoyable as Roberts's friend who gives her the odd piece of advice throughout the film.All in all, not too bad.
Julia Roberts and Richard Gere still exhibit an easy going chemistry after their blockbuster 'Pretty Woman'.
I'm normally a huge Julia Roberts fan and while I found this romantic comedy entertaining enough, it cannot compare with her fabulous earlier movie, Pretty Woman, also starring Richard Gere.
Nor did I care for it as much as her other comedy romances (most notably Notting Hill) or most of the Meg Ryan ones, especially Sleepless in Seattle.The story revolves around a lovely young woman, Maggie Carpenter, who has left a series of three would be grooms partway through their wedding ceremony.
Richard Gere is competent as the journalistic vulture, Ike. I don't fault the lack of chemistry as much as the story, which simply isn't as good as Pretty Woman.Of course romantic comedies are never exactly bastions of realism, but this tale where such a young woman has already run away from three weddings and is now embarking upon number four, really seems too far fetched even for this genre.
Most of them follow all the predictable plot points: a) boy1 meets girl b) girl already with another boy (boy2) c) Girl and Boy1 fall in love d) Something bad happens and both characters do a lot of thinking e) Girl and Boy1 end up together and everybody is happy EVEN boy2!Runaway bride is no different with the sole exception that this movie lasts just under TWO HOURS!!
Two hours is reserved for the likes of Clockwork Orange and The Shawshank Redemption not for developing the aforementioned plot for which 90 minutes is more than enough.Julia Roberts is not that good in it, I think she ran out of facial expressions a long, long time ago.
Following up on the huge romantic hit "Pretty Woman," Richard Gere, Julia Roberts and Hector Elizondo reteam to produce yet another romantic comedy called "Runaway Bride."Nobody lost a step or missed a beat as Gere, Roberts and Elizondo teamed up with newcomers Joan Cusack and Rita Wilson.
Usually Julia is like a best friend in any of her romantic comedies, but in "Runaway Bride," neither she nor any of the other characters or situations seemed even remotely realistic or three-dimensional...
I wanted to love this movie as much as I did Pretty Woman, but Garry Marshall dropped the ball.It was so obvious to me what was missing from the formula.It had a weak musical background sound track when it should have had a score that would carry your emotions to a climax.
The small-town setting was quite nice, but so many things were so unrealistic and didn't make sense: the Fed Ex truck just HAPPENED to be standing by, she gets through the Sunday school kids in a flash but he can't...Julie Roberts seems to have no charm and Richard Gere is straining through it all to be sympathetic.
A romantic comedy with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere showing their incredible acting talents.
Before I begin, I think the reason certain people have been disappointed with this film is that they LOVED "Pretty Woman".
Julia Roberts and Richard Gere have incredible chemistry, bringing back the great interaction that made Pretty Woman a believable story.
Credible supporting performances by Joan Cusack, Hector Elizondo, and Rita Wilson keeps the story moving along and adds depth in the character development of Maggie and Ike. In the end, I came out of this film feeling optimistic about my OWN chances for finding my Miss Right..
While I never cared for Pretty Woman, I always thought Richard Gere and Julia Roberts worked very well together.
"Runaway Bride", starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in their first reunion since "Pretty Woman", was a funny and romantic comedy that I liked a lot.
But other than that one plot point, I liked everything; Julia Roberts and Richard Gere and Joan Cusack (especially) were great, and perfect for their roles.
The stars (Julia Roberts and Richard Gere) and director of "Pretty Woman" team up again for another fun romantic comedy.
For example the balcony scene, and the bargaining of money to be paid..gosh it almost felt like it was the SAME movie I was watching rather then the sequel to it...None-the-less, this is better in terms of the many good punch line given to Richard Gere in this movie.
She has been the one asking the man for their hands in marriage in like three movies..namely MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING, NOTTING HILL and last but not least RUNAWAY BRIDE..
I love watching Joan Cusack on screen and this is a perfect role for her.Garry Marshall is great for this kind of film and he doesn't miss a thing in here.
He and his wonderful cast do an excellent job of keeping us entertained and humoured for 2 hours and I am glad I saw this film.Runaway Bride is sweet, romantic and it will make you want to hug your partner after the movie.
If you liked Pretty Woman you will love Runaway (Pretty) Bride!!.
It shows a great face of life, and Julia Roberts and Richard Gere are the most beautiful couple of Hollywood!
While many are expecting a fluffy "Pretty Woman" II, "Runaway Bride" holds its own as a wonderful romantic comedy.
To all TRUE "Pretty Woman" fans, be on the lookout for several connections between the two films, including actors, scenarios and even a few lines.This is certainly an enjoyable movie that everyone should enjoy..
This reunion of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere is even better than Pretty Woman®.
I liked "Pretty Woman", but "Runaway Bride" is actually better.
Fearing a lawsuit the paper fire Ike, but Ike goes to Maggie's town for her next wedding to prove that his story was essentially true in the description of her character.It must have seemed like a great idea reunite as much of the original magic from Pretty Woman and do another one it'll be great and the girls will love it!
Runaway Bride is a movie that has never gotten the respect it rightly deserves.Its a sign of the times ( a BAD sign ) that we live in an era that sweet simple love stories can be criticized but garbage like "Hannibal " and " Natural Born Killers " can be viewed as "brilliant ".A good love story can be looked at in three ways as far as success goes.One,is there a good story ?
Roberts is even more likeable in this film, as well as Gere.The story is sweet, the songs are great and the writing, directing and acting were wonderful.
the people having all three incidents on tape (there's even been talk of opening a "wedding gift museum").This has also captured the interest of New York columnist Ike Graham (Richard Here), who because of an article he wrote about Maggie, has now been fired, and is desperate for vindication.With this in mind, he travels to Hale Maryland, where Maggie is engaged, once again, to Coach Bob Kelly (Christopher Meloni) who, for his part, has total confidence in her ability to make her marry him.Ike, however, has his doubts, and can almost taste the vindication he will get out of this...Until involvement with Maggie gets him more than he bargained for, in the sense that he starts falling for her.Hector Elizondo, Joan Cusack, and Rita Wilson, are terrific in their roles, as is Christopher Meloni whose methods for keeping Maggie "focused" are hysterical, and add tremendously to the story.Garry Marshal is possibly the only director who could've done a good job with this.Romantic comedies are obviously his cup of tea since is the third one of his that I've seen that's been great.Though not as good as Pretty Woman, and certainly not the best wedding movie I've ever seen, it's fun, and entertaining, and could not possibly have been done any better than it is.The two lead actors are perfect, managing to make a story which could be dumb, believable.Originally, Review #93Posted On:
Runaway bride, which is the second romantic comedy starring Gere and Roberts, somewhat works in its own way.
Also, the chemistry between the leads isn't as obvious here as it was in pretty woman, I just didn't feel it as much in runaway bride.
Excellent romantic comedy with star-studded performances from Julia Roberts & Richard Gere!.
First of all, I thought that RUNAWAY BRIDE was an excellent romantic comedy with star-studded performances from Julia Roberts and Richard Gere!
In my opinion, they way that Ike (Richard Gere) and Maggie (Julia Roberts) met was absolutely magical.
I thought that Maggie (Julia Roberts) did indeed look like a pretty woman in the wedding dress she wore at the final wedding and that Ike looked good in the suit he wore.
Now, in conclusion, if you liked PRETTY WOMAN, see RUNAWAY BRIDE.
Following their huge romantic hit "Pretty Woman," Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, Hector Elizondo and director Garry Marshall reteam to make yet another romantic comedy called "Runaway Bride."Neither the director nor the original actors have lost a step since "Pretty Woman." Gere, Roberts and Elizondo teamed up with newcomers Joan Cusack and Rita Wilson as they never skipped a beat in their performances.
I commend the casting director and producer for putting together an excellent cast that really gelled and had chemistry that was like magic.I must say that "Runaway Bride" was much more charming than "Pretty Woman." I still enjoyed "Pretty Woman" but the updated version had a certain charm and a twist that was lacking in the first film.I can't say what the twist is without giving away too much, you'll just have to see it to find out.This was a cute film with a unique way of telling a plot that seems to have been done before on the silver screen..
I commend the casting director and producer for putting together an excellent cast that really gelled and had chemistry that was like magic.I must say that "Runaway Bride" was much more charming than "Pretty Woman." I still enjoyed "Pretty Woman" but the updated version had a certain charm and a twist that was lacking in the first film.I can't say what the twist is without giving away too much, you'll just have to see it to find out.This was a cute film with a unique way of telling a plot that seems to have been done before on the silver screen..
The eagerly anticipated re-teaming of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere with their "Pretty Woman" director Garry Marshall turns out just about exactly as you would expect.
And Hector Elizondo, who was also in "Pretty Woman" (and every other Garry Marshall film for that matter), is that rare movie commodity: an actor whose very presence adds the element of class-- it's about time we all noticed.The characters are written with honest romantic disfunction and neurosis--altering what could have easily been another superficial Hollywood love story.
There's nothing in "Runaway Bride that you haven't seen before; but romantic comedy fans (and Julia fans) won't even have to lift a finger to enjoy it.
It gives the perfect mixture of romance and comedy with out getting too mushy.Richard Gere and Julia Roberts were amazing.
I think that "Runaway Bride was a very romantic movie.
If you like a little bit of comedy this movie is also good for you.
In the movie "Runaway Bride" I found it to be well acted of course by Julia Roberts and Richard Geere.
When I say that Julia Roberts and Richard Geere held up to Preety Women I mean that movie was just as good or better.
Reuniting Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, the team that made "Pretty Woman" such a hit, was the dream of probably every producer in Hollywood.
"Runaway Bride" is as good a Gere-Roberts vehicle as "Pretty Woman" was.
I was really looking forward to seeing Julia Roberts and Richard Gere again together, and it's true, the chemistry between them is great, however the story line was a bit slow.
Julia Roberts plays in yet another romantic comedy movie, this one relying on the story of a down home type girl with a knack for leaving her own weddings.
If you like "Pretty Woman" as much as I do, this movie can do no wrong.
Will I quit asking stupid questions?As everyone on this planet knows, Runaway Bride marks the on-screen reunion of Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, who last shook the worldwide box office with the monster smash Pretty Woman.
Before I saw this movie I heard a lot of talk about the chemistry between Julia Roberts and Richard Gere...
Do we really care about Richard Gere wandering around town for an hour's worth of the movie, talking to people about Julia Roberts' character? |
tt0100944 | The Witches | During a holiday with his grandmother Helga (Mai Zetterling) in Norway, Luke Eveshim (Jasen Fisher) is told stories about "real" witches, female demons with a genocidal hatred for children, all of whom emit an odor obnoxious to witches. Helga tells him that her childhood friend was taken and cursed to spend the rest of her life trapped inside a painting. After Luke's parents are accidentally killed, Helga becomes Luke's legal guardian and they move to England. While building a treehouse, Luke is accosted by a witch, though he sees through her ruse and avoids his potential death, hiding at the top of the tree. On Luke's 9th birthday, Helga falls ill with her diabetes. Her doctor advises them to spend the summer by the sea.
They stay at a seaside resort, where Luke meets and befriends a gluttonous but friendly boy, Bruno Jenkins (Charlie Potter), while getting on the bad side of the hotel manager, Mr. Stringer (Rowan Atkinson), after his pet mice frighten a maid who is having an affair with the manager. Also staying at the hotel are a convention load of witches, masquerading as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, with the Grand High Witch (Anjelica Huston), the leader of the world's witches, attending their annual meeting.
Luke inadvertently discovers the witches while playing with his pet mice inside the ballroom, where the witches hold their meeting. The Grand High Witch unveils her latest weapon: a formula to turn children into mice, which they will use on confectionery products in sweet shops and candy stores to be opened using a money provided by the Grand High Witch. Bruno is lured into the room, having already been given chocolate laced with the formula a couple of hours earlier. He turns into a mouse and flees. Luke attempts to escape but is also captured and turned into a mouse, though he avoids being squashed. He finds Bruno and reunites with Helga who recovered while Luke was adventuring.
Luke devises a plan to kill the witches by sneaking into the Grand High Witch's room to steal a bottle of the formula. Luke manages to drop the bottle into a pot of cress soup destined for the witches' dinner tables. Mr. Jenkins (Bill Paterson) also orders the soup, though Helga stops him from consuming it at the last minute. The formula turns all the witches into mice, just after Bruno speaks up to tell his father that he is really a mouse. The staff and hotel guests join in killing the mice, unknowingly ridding England of its witches. as Helga returns Bruno to his parents. The Grand High Witch is spotted by Helga, who traps her under a water jug, enabling Mr. Stringer to dispatch her with a meat cleaver.
Luke and Helga return to their home, where they are delivered the Grand High Witch's trunk full of money and an address book of all witches in the USA. Luke (who had secretly readdressed the trunk at the resort) suggests that they might use it to eradicate the world's witches once and for all. That night, the Grand High Witch's assistant Miss Irvine (Jane Horrocks), who had quit her job and escaped the massacre, repented and reformed her herself to be a good witch. She pays a visit to the house and uses her power to return Luke to his human body and return his pet mice before leaving to repeat the process with Bruno. | good versus evil, absurd, cruelty, storytelling | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0035125 | Night Plane from Chungking | In 1942, during the Japanese invasion of China, due to the carelessness of one of the passengers, Albert Pasavy (Otto Kruger), draws attention from Japanese bombers overhead, to a bus travelling to India along a muddy road. The Japanese bomb the road, hitting a munitions truck carrying Chinese troops. The Chinese officer in charge, demands his wounded be put on the bus and brought to a secret air field. Among the stranded passengers met by U.S. pilot Nick Stanton (Robert Preston), are a beautiful Red Cross nurse, Ann Richards (Ellen Drew), and her traveling companion, Madame Wu (Soo Yong), who is on a secret diplomatic mission. There is also Countess Olga Karagin (Tamara Geva), who is caught spying.
Nick and his co-pilot, Captain Po (Victor Sen Yung), are ordered to fly the remainder of the passengers out to safety in India, but the transport aircraft is intercepted by Japanese fighter aircraft and shot down. Nick makes an emergency landing in a jungle. Over the radio, Nick learns that Olga has committed suicide but the spy was trying to get top-secret information to her superior, who is still among the passengers.
Another of the passengers, Doctor Van der Linden (Stephen Geray), goes missing, but returns with food he claims comes from a nearby monastery. The doctor leads everyone on a long hike to the monastery, only to reveal there that he is a Nazi collaborator working with the Japanese. He demands to know where Olga is, not knowing she is dead. All the survivors are captured and held at the monastery.
It is up to Nick to try to come up with a plan to escape, and convinces Van Der Linden to allow Po to repair the aircraft and to allow the hostages to be exchanged for Olga. A coded message is sent to Nick's headquarters but the Nazi soon finds out that Olga is already dead. After Pasavy betrays the others, and is coldly shot, Nick kills Van der Linden. With Japanese troops in pursuit, Major Raoul Brissac (Ernest Dorian) sacrifices his own life to save the others by pulling the pin on a grenade, killing himself along with the Japanese. Nick, Po, Ann and Madame Wu then fly to safety. Having fallen in love, Nick and Ann vow to reunite after the war. | murder | train | wikipedia | Decent wartime Programmer. NIGHT PLANE FROM CHUNGKING – 1943This one is a lower end programmer put out by the B-unit at Paramount Pictures. This flag waver was made at the height of World War Two. It headlines Robert Preston and Ellen Drew. This one starts out at night, on a muddy road with a bus load of people trying to get out of war torn China. We have the war profiteer, Otto Kruger, the White Russian Countess, Tamara Geva, the Dutch priest, Steven Geray, the Vichy French Officer, Ernst Deutsch, along with the elderly Chinese woman, Soo Yong and her American nurse escort, Ellen Drew. There is an incident on the road when Japanese bombers hit the area destroying a Chinese Army truck. The wounded are loaded up on the bus and driven to a secret Chinese airfield. The commander of the airfield, Flying Tigers type, Robert Preston is less than amused with the unwanted civilians.This annoyance abates somewhat when he sees the pretty Miss Drew. Miss Drew asks Preston if he could give her and Madame Yong a ride to India. They have important business there. Preston laughs and says only if he got orders from someone in the Chinese Government. Miss Drew smiles and has Preston's radioman send off a message. Preston now catches the Countess, Geve, making a copy of a map in his office. The map shows all the Chinese Army front line positions. Preston grabs her up and has her put under lock and key. Now a radio message comes telling him to offer all possible help to Madame Yong. She is on an important mission for the Chinese Government. He does not like it, but, orders are orders. He loads up the civilians on a small transport and they take off for India. A third of the way through the flight, the aircraft is set upon by Japanese fighters. It is only with good luck and some fancy flying that Preston and his co-pilot, Victor Sen Yung save the aircraft. After diving into the old handy cloud bank, Preston manages to land the damaged aircraft. Preston gets on the radio and calls his base. He is informed that the spy, Countess Geve has committed suicide. But not before letting slip that she had a partner. One of the passengers on the aircraft is also an Axis spy. But they have no idea which of the passengers is the suspect. The radio then dies before Preston can ask any further questions.Preston decides to keep quiet about the info and see if he can ferret out the villain. He only lets the co-pilot, Yung, in on the set-up. Preston suggests they build a raft and take the nearby river right down to India. The Dutch priest, Geray, tell all he believes there is a Buddhist temple nearby. He figures they could get help there. Preston, nixes the idea, he wants everyone close. The next morning Geray has vanished. Preston smells a rat and puts everyone to work on the raft. Several hours later Geray reappears out of the jungle. He has found the temple. He tells all there is food and that the monks have a shortwave radio. Preston likes the idea of using the radio to see if his base has any more info on the possible spy. Geray leads them all back to the temple. Needless to say, they are all soon surrounded by Japanese soldiers. The Japanese officer bows to Geray and hands him a pistol. Geray is of course the rat in sheep's clothing. He is really an officer in the German Gestapo. He has everyone tossed into some basement rooms. Geray now intends to do a spot of questioning of Chinese diplomat, Madame Soo Yong. Preston and the men hatch a plan to escape. Slimy war profiteer Kruger however is not willing to risk his life. Kruger tries to buy his way out of danger by telling Geray about the escape plot. This only gets Kruger several bullets for his trouble. Geray heads to the cells to finish off Preston and the men. Preston and company turn the tables on the Nazi swine and kill him. The men release Drew and Madame Yong and the bunch hot-foot it back to the plane. The Japanese have thoughtfully repaired all the damage to the aircraft. Everyone piles on board and the plane takes off to complete its journey. By no means is this a top flight bit of film making, but, taken for the low budget programmer it is, it fills up an hour and a bit quite passably. Robert Preston was on screen from 1938 to 1987. He is best known for THE MUSIC MAN and an Oscar nominated turn in VICTOR-VICTORIA. Miss Drew was on screen between 1936 and 1961. Her best work is most likely the two film noir she was in, JOHNNY O'CLOCK and THE CROOKED WAY. Of some note here, is the aircraft that was used in the production. The Capelis XC-12 was a one off airliner. The aircraft had numerous problems and was soon deemed un-airworthy. RKO studios bought the plane to use as a non-flying ground prop. Several small scale models of the craft were also produced for flying shots. The plane itself, and or the models, were used in, FIVE CAME BACK, THE FLYING TIGERS, KING OF THE ZOMBIES, FLYING BLIND, INVISIBLE AGENT, THE IMMORTAL SERGEANT, WINGS OVER THE PACIFIC, ACTION IN ARABIA, TARZAN's MAGIC FOUNTAIN and five or six other films.. I Just Don't See It --And You Might Not Want To. This picture is called "Night Plane from Chungking." I just don't see it. About five minutes, at most, takes place on a plane, and it's only in the last scene that night flight is shown. The cast actually spends more time on a night bus. "Escape from Chungking" might have been a better title.Another IMDb reviewer claims "Peking Express" (1951) is the second remake of "Shanghai Express" (1933). "Night Plane from Chungking" is said to be the first. Again, I just don't see it. In "Shanghai," Marlene Dietrich is a woman of the world. In "Night Plane," Ellen Drew is a virginal nurse. In "Shanghai," a noble doctor is Dietrich's love interest. In "Night Plane," a cynical pilot is Drew's love interest. In "Shanghai," when captured, the characters undergo psychological interrogation. In "Night Plane," when captured, the characters undergo only confinement. In many ways, in fact, "Barricade" (1939) is a more likely, though not credited, "Shanghai" remake.And while "Night Plane from Chungking," itself, isn't bad, it also isn't very good, being so dependent, as it is, on clichés. (Clichés, of course, are things that help us "to see it" before it even happens.) Example 1: Two people of a small party traversing China are actually Nazi spies, but, when the group's plane is forced down, we can't determine who the surviving spy is because the radio receiver -- as you might guess -- fails just before that revelation is made. Example 2: Who will survive their ordeal? Well, as in countless other pictures, you merely need to rank order the cast in importance to have your answer. (A most notable exception to this rule is provided by Hamburger Hill" [1987].) Too bad. With more time and effort, or Dana Andrews in the lead, "Night Plane from Chungking" could have been much better. |
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