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tt0807758 | Partner | Prem (Salman Khan) is a Love Guru who solves the love issues of his clients. He meets Bhaskar Diwakar Chaudhary (Govinda) who comes to Prem for help in his love life. Bhaskar loves his boss Priya Jaisingh (Katrina Kaif) but is unable to express his love to her as she is the daughter of a wealthy businessman. Prem initially refuses to help Bhaskar and goes to Phuket, Thailand. Bhaskar follows him there and convinces him to help.
After returning from Thailand, Prem meets Naina (Lara Dutta), a photo journalist who was running from some gangsters led by Chhota Don (Rajpal Yadav), who mimicks Shahrukh Khan in Don. Prem saves her and falls in love with her. Meanwhile, he starts teaching Bhaskar how to impress Priya. But Bhaskar uses his own simplicity and nonsense acts to impress Priya. Priya finally falls in love with Bhaskar but does not disclose it to him.
But in the mean time Prem also comes to know that Naina is married and has a kid named Rohan (Ali Haji) and to impress Naina he takes care of him.
Prem comes to know from Bhaskar that Priya is getting married to someone according to her father's will. They both come to Priya's wedding ceremony with Rohan, but find Naina there and convinces her to marry Prem and Priya's father is convinced by Bhaskar's acts. Priya now gets ready to marry Bhaskar.
Meanwhile, a spoiled brat named Neil (Rajat Bedi) comes to Prem for love help and he asks Prem to convince a girl to have a one-night stand. Prem gets angry with Neil and tells him that he does not help people with such bad intentions. Neil somehow manages to get his one-night stand and then ditches her, telling her the love guru gave him advice to do so. Unfortunately, the girl turns out to be Naina's friend Nikki. Naina then sets out to expose the Love Guru and finds out that it is Prem. Naina hates Prem for what she thought he did to her friend and publishes a front page article claiming that Prem can set anyone up with the girl they want using the Priya/Bhaskar relationship as an example.
Prem thinks that Bhaskar may commit suicide without Priya and goes to her to tell her what really happened. Priya realizes that all the things she liked about Bhaskar are what Prem wanted Bhaskar to hide from her and Priya is ready to take Bhaskar back. Prem makes up with Naina by making her hear the truth about him not helping Neil, and they get back together. On both couples' honeymoon night, Bhaskar again asks Prem for help but this time they both get mingled with their respective wives. | humor | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0092133 | Under the Cherry Moon | At the Venus de Milo nightclub in Nice on the French Riviera, gigolo Christopher Tracy (Prince) raises a glass for a toast and plays piano for the patrons. A voiceover says he lived for money, entertaining rich women of all types, but died for just one woman after learning the true meaning of love. As he plays, a mysterious woman in white appears and sits at a specially placed chair to listen to him play. At a nearby table sits his partner Tricky (Jerome Benton), who has a server pass Christopher napkins with notes on how to win her over, and reminders that they need money. With suggestive eye contact and body language they silently size each other up until she sends over a drink for him and leaves a sizeable wad of money on the table as she leaves, confirming their assignation for the evening.The following morning Christopher has discreetly left a note on the pillow of the woman in white and gone to a private hillside grotto where he keeps a piano and writes poetry and music. Back in Nice, he doles out money to some passing kids and helps a woman select flowers in the market before returning to his apartment. Tricky is making out with the landlady, Katy (Emmanuelle Sallet), who is demanding payment on two months of back rent under threat of turning them out on the streets. After joking and stalling, Christopher gives up a wallet full of money as he heads to their room for a bath. He tells Tricky that Mrs. Wellington (Francesca Annis), the woman in white, is divorced and worth three million dollars. The goal of getting rich through marriage is part of their profession of fleecing people, but Christopher wants a bigger payload. Tricky points out a newspaper headline that Mary Sharon (Kristin Scott Thomas), daughter of a billionaire shipping magnate, has just turned 21 and will receive a trust fund worth $50 million dollars. Christopher says he would consider marrying her for that amount of money. Mrs. Wellington calls and asks Christopher for some seductive poetry on the phone, so he slips into the bathtub and woos her, then laughs with Tricky after they hang up.At the party for Mary Sharon, her father Isaac (Steven Berkoff) has pulled out all the stops, with circus animals and fire breathers, and a guest list of the richest folks on the Gold Coast, but he is absent from the event. A band of observers known as the Jaded Three (Victor Spinetti, Myriam Tadesse, Moune De Vivier) follow the circus parade through the grounds as they gossip about Isaac. Muriel Sharon (Alexandra Stewart) is waiting with the others for Mary, who suddenly shows up in nothing but a sheet, opens it for the assembled guests and asks if they like her birthday suit. She then takes over the drum kit, and the band joins her in an impromptu performance. She sees Christopher, who turns on the charm, but she is not impressed and goes to change into a gown for her party, asking her three friends (Pamela Ludwig, Barbara Stall, Karen Geerlings) to watch over the two party crashers.When she returns her friends fill her in on Christopher, saying he made the rounds twice to check out all the women, and Tricky is also at work. Mrs. Wellington gives Mary a present. Tricky introduces himself and she blows him off as she heads to the fountain away from the crowd. She tosses the present behind her shoulder and Christopher catches it. She tries to put him off with rude retorts as he opens the box for her and finds a deck of tarot cards. When Mary realizes the appearance of Mrs. Wellington has set him on edge, she takes him over to introduce him to Muriel, who is talking with her. Muriel asks if he reads cards professionally, and he replies that he only does things for fun.Tricky gets Mary to join his conga line with the other partygoers, but her friends pull her away to take a phone call from her fiancée Jonathan, who is in New York. After she puts his off-key birthday song on the speaker phone, she sees Christopher is in the room. They exchange insulting banter, and Jonathan overhears it, thinking she is talking to him. Annoyed, she ultimately hangs up on him. Christopher gives her a free pass to the Venus de Milo, but as he rejoins Tricky she orders the bouncers to throw them out. Mrs. Wellington is leaving the party so Christopher joins her. At her home the answering machine picks up a live call from Isaac, who says he will be back home in the morning, giving her and Christopher another night of fun. He plays piano during the message and misses that Isaac said he plans to visit at 7:00 the next night.In the morning Mary has come up with a retort for a remark Christopher aimed at her before being ejected from the party, finally heads to the club and interrupts his playing to deliver it. He asks if she had worked all night to come up with the line. Chastened, she tells him Mrs. Wellington passed her word that she wants Christopher at her house at 7:00 that evening.Tricky dances with Mary and treats her with politeness and respect, making her feel more comfortable. He says he wants a special woman to add new perspective in his life. She invites them to another venue called Le Pavilion to see if they blend into the finer side of life. Christopher cuts in and takes her onto the terrace. They dance and continue to exchange insults until it wears thin and they ask what each wants from the other. Christopher tries to entice her, but has to leave or he will be late to his date with Mrs. Wellington. Pulling up at her home with champagne and glasses, he sees an impressive car parked there. Sitting in the driver seat, he finds the license and sees the car belongs to Isaac. Realizing Mary is using him to get at her father and his own affair with Mrs. Wellington, he yells taunts at the house and pulls away, leaving the champagne behind as the two rush out in disheveled clothes.As the pair dress for the evening, Christopher says Mary knows who she is but not what she wants, and Tricky thinks she will want to marry him instead. She is not accustomed to their way of life, however, and they mull over how to show it to her. At home Mary says she wants to joyride in the boat, and her father objects. She is testing her independence and they argue over the trust, which Isaac has modified to include the condition that Mary wed Jonathan. Christopher teases Tricky, saying Isaac and Muriel would not approve of their union and the police would arrest him, while he would sit by and deny he knows him. They stare each other down and Tricky breaks eye contact first, making Christopher laugh.At the venue Tricky insists Mary likes him better and will dance to his tune, and Christopher gets an idea to bring her down to their world. Inside the restaurant Christopher taunts Mary that she is not familiar with the kind of life in their native Miami. He writes down the words "wrecka stow" on a napkin. They prod her to repeat the words loudly, but she cannot fathom the phrase. He and Tricky laugh raucously, and their behavior disturbs the patrons. Christopher finally asks Mary where one would go to buy a Sam Cooke album, and she realizes she is looking at a phonetic urban pronunciation for a record store.The staff clear a space on the floor for dancing, and Tricky hauls a huge boom box to the stage to play their own music, which the patrons gamely dance to. The maître d' has phoned Isaac, who shows up with his bodyguard Lou (Guy Cuevas) and his retinue. They break the boom box and put an end to the evening. Mary says she wanted to do something special for once, but when he says they are going home, she obediently follows him out. Isaac asks Lou to get information about Christopher and Tricky.At the apartment, Tricky confesses that he likes Mary, but Christopher tells him to just keep handling the money in the partnership. Mary calls Christopher, unable to get to sleep, and vaguely suggests that she wants him, so he and Tricky proceed to the house and set up a ladder to a second floor balcony so Christopher can seduce her. He tells Tricky to whistle four times if they need to abort the mission, then enters the bedroom pretending to be a pizza delivery man. He whispers that he will take care of everything, and she replies in a strange voice that she takes medication to sleep. Outside, Tricky spots Mary, whose bedroom is actually on the third floor. He smiles and is about to leave his partner in the predicament when he spots men patrolling the grounds. Unable to whistle through a dry mouth, Tricky climbs the ladder and pitches stones at Christopher to distract him and tell him he is actually with Muriel, and they manage to escape. Isaac comes to bed, and a now seductive Muriel, warmed up by Christopher, takes control of her own satisfaction.The next day Mary visits the two at their apartment and shows them a consolation gift of money from her father for missing her birthday party. They go on a shopping spree. Christopher buys a car from the Jaded Three to give to Mary, while she and Tricky buy pricey clothes and watches. Christopher whispers to her to meet him at the hippodrome after sunset before she goes off for more shopping with Tricky.Later Christopher tells Tricky he wants to leave the business and become an honest man. At a small café they discuss the power of love, and Christopher feels that two people who truly loved each other could never be separated. Tricky tries to stress that they are engaged in business and need to get enough money to return to Miami before Isaac gets them. They do not see Lou watching them, and the place clears out quickly when Tricky sees bats on the ceiling. Later they dress for the evening, and Christopher says he will meet Tricky at the club in two hours, as he must do something before picking up Mary. He waits at the hippodrome for Mary, who drives up in her new car. They race, finally kiss and spend the evening together, and a furious Tricky leaves the club when he realizes he has been stood up.In the car after they share a laugh, Christopher asks Mary why Isaac is so cruel. Still programmed by the class structure she has been raised on, she says he is considered a peasant. He makes remarks about their relationship compared to how she would act with Jonathan, she gets angry and tells him to shut up. He pretends to be indignant and says he is calling her father. He calls Mrs. Wellington from a nearby phone booth, knowing Isaac is there, and pretends to be Lou to speak with him. When he answers the phone, Christopher taunts Isaac by saying that he loves Mary and she will come around to loving him, threatening to tell Muriel if Isaac attempts to separate them. Mary cuts the call short and tells Christopher that her father has the chief of police in his pocket, but he says he can destroy Isaac, and they make out in the booth while Lou, in a concealed car nearby, keeps a watch on them.The next morning Isaac yells at Mary when she finally arrives at home after being out all night. She ignores him until he grabs her arm and rants about how her marriage to Jonathan will increase the net worth for both families, and she realizes he is pawning her off to Jonathan in his greed for more money. At the apartment, Christopher comes home to a drunken Tricky, who yells at him for breaking all the rules they made in their partnership. Tricky says Christopher is jealous because he can steal Mary, and insults him. Christopher leaves to find Mary waiting at the front door for him, hoping they can get away for a while. He takes her in a small motorboat to the grotto, where they make love. Isaac calls Sam (Sam Karmann) to help him deal with the problem.As they drive back to the club, Mary points out to Christopher that a limo sent by her father is following them. Tricky comes out of the bar, where Katy has been trying to smooth things over and curb his drinking, but Tricky brings up the first conversation Christopher had with him, in which he said he would consider marrying Mary for $50 million dollars. Feeling she has been used all along, Mary leaves in the limo. At home Mary confronts Muriel, saying she is hurt by the hypocrisy on which they raised her. Muriel tells her daughter she feels hurt as well. Mary wants to leave for New York immediately.Christopher has entered the club and downed several drinks. An older woman, a former client, accosts him, saying she misses him. Realizing his lifestyle has gotten him nowhere, he runs off and winds up at Mrs. Wellingtons home. She hands him a check from Isaac for $100 thousand dollars to keep him away from Mary, but he writes a classic obscenity on it, hands it back and is ready to leave when she tells him Mary is leaving at midnight on the family plane for New York. As he pulls off, she wishes him good luck.At the airport, Christopher pleads with Mary for five minutes so he can talk to her, determined to seal their love for each other. He drives away with her and parks the car so they can talk in private, while Isaac arrives at the airport and insists that Mary was abducted against her will. Mary says she does not know him anymore, so Christopher gets into the back seat and puts on dark sunglasses, saying nothing while she unloads her frustrations on him, at one point calling him a whore, which visibly affects him. When she says she hates him, he replies he loves her, and after some give and take, she realizes she does love him, and as they kiss he offers a chance to go away together forever.Tricky returns to the apartment, rehearsing his speech to Christopher so they can mend their partnership, but finds Lou and the others there. They rough him up when he refuses to reveal where Christopher is, and knock him out. Isaac receives a call that investigators found the car Christopher drives parked at the harbor. Mary awakens in the grotto to find a poem Christopher has written about being an honest man, noting that, even in death, they would always be together. At the apartment Isaac calls Lou to send the men to the harbor, and Tricky comes to in time to escape with Katy.Christopher meets up with Tricky at the harbor, and Tricky promises to be the best man if the wedding comes off. He and Katy deal with Lou and the men as they close in. Isaac arrives with the harbor patrol on the water, and Christopher heads out in the motorboat to get Mary. She races down from the grotto when she hears the commotion, and a marksman on the boat is told to shoot Christopher. Mary pleads with him to run away, but he gets off the boat onto the dock, saying he will not go without her, and a shot is fired. As a distraught Tricky falls to his knees in prayer, Mary goes to the dock and cradles Christopher, who smiles and dies in her arms. When Isaac arrives to take Mary home, she says she is going with Christopher and accompanies the patrol boat, leaving Isaac alone on the dock.Time passes, and Tricky has returned to Miami in style, driving a Rolls Royce. He has become an apartment manager. Katy brings a letter that has arrived from Mary, who is now his investor. She has stayed single, and notes Christopher was right. She will come to Miami soon to visit, and says for Tricky to give Katy a hug for her. She is ready for her hug, but the tables have turned and a smiling Tricky reminds his tenant that her rent is late and he will throw her out onto the Miami streets. Though Christopher is gone, life will go on for his friends. | cult, psychedelic, romantic | train | imdb | An example is the scene in which Tracy and Tricky (Prince and Jerome Benton) meet Tracy's refined love interest at a posh restaurant and grill her: "Where do you go if you want to get a Sam Cooke album?" Tricky holds up a sign reading "Wrecka Stow" and finally, writhing in discomfort, she gets it and reluctantly answers, "the record store." Believe it or not, the film is well put together, each scene memorable in its own way and a climax that might make you cry.
I've never seen a film quite like it, because (like all cult movies), it takes place in a desirable alternate world - one in which gender and race boundaries are blurred..
WHAT did you say??!?!?!" or they'll laugh like anything and crow, "UNDER THE CHERRY MOON!!!!!!!" with huge enthusiasm.I wasn't able to see this when it first came out because I was a teenager at the time and my parents would have KILLED me if I had sneaked out to watch a Prince movie!
It's hilarious, MUCH lighter than "Purple Rain" was and frothing over with delight.Prince as "Christopher" and Jerome Benton ("Tricky") keep threatening to crack up as they deliberately bounce their way through their cartoonish antics, but it's deliberate: they look like they're having a blast.
Jerome likes her too, and neither of the two of them know how to handle to situation as originally planned.Prince proves that he does indeed have a sense of humour as he writes lots of cartoonish gags in for comedy relief, such as Mary's mother who keeps getting freaked out by what her daughter is doing and subsequently keeps fainting each time (those around her always catch her--obviously they're accustomed to this happening ;) ).
Or when Mary shows up at the two cons' home with a sack of money that's been given to her as a birthday present while saying she thought that a "couple of old pros" like them might have ideas of what to do with it because she's supposedly stumped ("Hey, Tricky!
I'll bet you'll end up laughing just as hard as we did all through watching it while thinking to yourself, "I never knew Prince could write a COMEDY!" And he can.
Sure, you'll have to like prince at least a bit 'cos you'll getting a lot of him (being the director, actor and composer) but once you can forgive his little faults (which I think is *not* the extreme vanity stuff cos I think that was done so over the top on purpose for fun) you'll be entertained for sure and Prince/Jerome Benton make a great comedy duo as Christopher Tracy and 'Tricky'.
I'm sure they expected a movie in the vein of Purple Rain, but they missed the point.
Under the Cherry moon is at it's heart a light-hearted musical comedy that's as visually pleasing and funny as any of the musicals so popular during the golden ages 1930 to the Forties.
I know a lot of people I talk to didn't like this film, but I thought it was great!
In 'Cherry Moon', Prince and Jerome Benton were hilarious together!
There is emotion and a poignant point behind each scene.If you watch it and see it deeper than the average person simply looking for a way to waste an hour an a half you'll find a movie that actually makes you feel for the characters as if they were your friends...
Under the Cherry Moon is the finest movie Prince ever directed (and if you've seen the abysmal Graffiti Bridge, you know what I mean), and the fact that he took over from Mary Lambert (who went on to direct the ludicrously bad Pet Sematary)at the last minute, further proves my point.
Merrily they go along until Christopher (Prince) lays eyes on Kristin Scott-Thomas and goes completely ga-ga, forgetting altogether the pair's objective of swindling her out of her fortune.
Under the Cherry Moon (1986)** (out of 4) Christopher (Prince) and Tricky (Jerome Benton) are brothers working Miami Beach where they seduce women for their money.
Tricky soon finds himself falling in love but the girl's rich father isn't going to go for their relationship.UNDER THE CHERRY MOON was released to very little noise and it was pretty much forgotten the minute it hit theaters.
As far as Prince goes, his acting had certainly gotten a little better since PURPLE RAIN.
Benton is decent in his supporting role but I thought Kristin Scott Thomas and Steven Berkoff were quite good.I'm going to guess that Prince wanted to do some sort of romantic drama that had the flare of the 1930s.
The biggest problem with the movie is that the story itself is just way too predictable and I'd argue that there's really not any drama and the ending certainly doesn't hit like I'm sure Prince wanted it to.
"Purple Rain" solidified Prince as a rock star and big ticket actor.However, the public were thrown off with his attempt at musicalcomedy with "Under the Cherry Moon".
"Under the Cherry Moon" isthe story of Christopher Tracy (Prince) and Tricky (Jerome Bentonof The Time,) two gigolos.
"Under theCherry Moon" was filmed in color and converted into black andwhite, giving it a cool and stylish look.
A very bad movie, even if you love Prince.
Possibly George Lucas might have been able to do a worse job directing this.Cinematography= B There are a number of sweet shots in this film.Costumes = A I want to own every outfit I saw Prince wearing this film!Script = F Dumb, dumb dumb.
All the main characters (except the older woman prince wants for her money at the beginning) do a good job.
Let me start by clarifying the following:1 I have the misfortune to have lived through that decade of style disasters known as the 80's.2 I bought one or two prince albums; Purple Rain, Batman, etc3 I thought the previous movie, Purple rain was OK, if a tad extravagantHowever, I've read other reviewers on this site state that this is a "classic"If it is a "classic", it is only in the same way that "Plan 9 from Outer Space" now shares a similar classification.Am I saying that this is a turkey?
I like many albums Prince made, and even a movie he starred in (Purple Rain).
It's based upon my strong dislike of this movie.My guess is that only massive fans of Prince (who are also most likely quite young) would deem this to be a good movie.
I grew up watching Black and White romances with utterly charming leading men and hopelessly beautiful women who fall in love in a space and time that doesn't exist in the real world.
Although a tad bit inept as a film-maker, Prince more than adequately conveys mood, sensuality, humor, glamour, and plain fun in this HIGHLY stylized B&W movie.
we should get Prince!" I have known rabid die hard Prince fans, people who actually think Prince has legitimate worth and value, and even these fans cannot watch all of Under The Cherry Moon.
The average threshold for pain is forty minutes of viewing before the viewer stops the movie, if you can make through to the end legend has it Prince himself will materialize out of thin air to congratulate you personally..
Prince shows some visual flair with his direction and the music, the last recorded by the Revolution, is wonderful and fits the out of time, Riviera set story perfectly.
Quite what people thought when it was first released - especially if they were expecting Purple Rain 2 - is anyone's guess but judge it on its own merits - not all of it's laughs are intentional but it's a fun film with a positive message..
Prince is absolutely a brilliant artist, but it takes more than liking his music to like this movie.
This is one of the most quotable movies of all time (though sadly you can't quote it because few people have seen the film), and Prince and Jerome both have impeccable comedic timing.
Being a great admirer of Prince, I was not impressed with this movie.
The performances by the supporting cast was just not there, considering all of the wonderful talent that was in the movie.Prince is a great talent.
Christopher starts to fall for his target.I don't know if Prince is making a comedy, a spoof, or a whatever.
This movie is not just a reminder of someone who was at the very peak of his powers, Prince, but also of a time when it seemed the Minneapolis maestro could not set a foot wrong.
Then of course came the dreadful reviews, and that legacy has unfortunately stuck- even two decades on...So let's redress the balance here!I was lucky enough to see Prince and the Revolution live in London the same summer as this movie was released (1986), and the humour, naughtiness, and rapport was the same on stage as is seen in the movie; especially between Prince and Jerome Benton.Couple of interesting trivia facts: "Tricky" (Jerome Benton's character) was also the subject of a song by Prince offshoots The Time- a wonderful wacky solid funk track that again illustrates the humour here.Additionally the movie was originally shot in colour- only changed to black and white (on a whim?...only P.R.N. can answer that), which I'm sure would have looked absolutely amazing- time for a colourful re-release Warners?.
CHERRY MOON allows Prince to actually be hilarious and extremely beautiful on screen.
CHERRY MOON will not to be many viewers tastes; the vanity apparent and the High Society depicted will grate to the point of irritation...but if you see it as a party film with exceptional visual and musical talent well on display, it's delightful and delicious.
If you are a fan of Prince then you have probably already seen this film.If you're not a fan (and why not?
We are talking about 1986 with Prince being in the rich vein of musical form that started with '1999' and via 'Purple Rain', 'Around the World in a Day', 'Parade' on to 'Sign of the Times'.Songs like 'Girls & Boys' & 'Kiss' feature in the movie amongst others and this is where it appeals.Just think of this movie as a collection of music videos interspersed with some moodily shot views of the French Riviera - and it won't dissapoint.
To be fair, that is a bit harsh as there are some funny and entertaining parts (Prince and Tricky chasing the girls is good fodder, as is their trying to teach the pretty white rich girl to talk street - Wrecka Stoor).But for Prince fans, the music is all that matters so this is just fine thank you very much..
This is Under the Cherry Moon - Prince's absolute flop on all cylinders, empty and useless barrage over dead desert and a total waste of anybody's time.
I like Prince and understand what he was trying to achieve' This is not as good as purple rain, but a close second musically..
Read the outline of this movie and rented it - I don't know anything about Prince, his films or his music,and he was a total surprise.
I felt that Tricky has more charisma than Christopher, and he said that he liked Mary more than his friend, so why did he end up with the landlady?
That makes this movie worded, and to watch over, enjoyable for several times (especialy with the Tricky things).
It is a beautiful film to watch over if you mist it in the 80's and was did do (and liked) his 'Purple Rain'.
Completely underrated - holds up to repeated viewings - shows us a world devoid of racism, full of fire and music and dreams- in many ways sums up Prince's magical world view almost as well as his brilliant timeless music does - the very fact that "Sometimes it Snows in April" was not nominated for Best Song (let alone win) at that year's Oscars is a crime.
The comedic banter between Prince and his fellow playboy 'Tricky' keep this movie moving along between scenes.
The artful black-and-white shooting is very pleasant to the eye.This is my favorite Prince movie...and one of my favorite album's of his..
the story is light, with fun and romance, the music is AWESOME, maybe the best prince album, the characters well presented, the cast is superb and most of the acting is convincing.
Although 'Under the Cherry Moon' could not possibly be enjoyed by anyone that doesn't like Prince, for me, it brings back some memories of a time before I knew what hatred and depression was.
I remember once viewing this film the day I got twice in a row because I loved how Prince and Jerome Benton got along in the film.
The fact that it's in black and white makes it look fresh, yet classic - which fits the film since it is to take place in France.
It's not just Prince's performance that kept me seeing it over and over, It's the mood of the movie, the pictures and of course the music.
The movie was created when Prince wrote his best songs.
(imo) Who ever thought that Kristin Scott-Thomas would be a big Movie-Star one day.
But that's only a perspective, Prince not only challenges that perspective but defies it by being himself -- comedic, crass, sexual, even borderline offensive in his role.Critics call UNDER THE CHERRY MOON awful, amateurish, a 'disaster' and all sorts of other names.
This one, in my opinion, being the most "Prince".Before he made this movie and after, he couldn't care less what you thought about it.
You get predictable treasures with a Prince movie: barrels of fun, colourful characters (even in black and white), great music, and an ego the size of Montmartre - and Under the Cherry Moon is the richest trove of the lot..
I watched "Under the Cherry Moon" last night for the first ever time, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I guess at the time most people wanted Prince to come out with another "Purple Rain" type movie.
Prince is a great physical comedian in this movie, I was surprised just how much as was laughing throughout it at his and Jerome Benton's antics.
Prince did a very good job directing this at the age of 27 (which I also wasn't expecting) and uses the songs off his "Parade" LP to excellent effect at the right moments and the right scenes.
Love the scene where Prince is trying to make it up with Scott-Thomas, and he does this by sitting in total silence at the back of his car with his shades on.
Shame, Jerome and Prince could've ended up being the modern-day screwball farce pair, if they'd made more films together..
Under the Cherry Moon is a simple yet great movie.
It was funny, romantic, and it made everyone who did not like prince say, "that was pretty good".
I would recomend this movie to everyone, not just Prince fans.
Simply the best movie ever made, second only to The English Patient and of course Purple Rain.Even if you hate Prince, you'll find him incredibly funny and sexy in this movie!
The music set the movie to feel light hearted even while covering such a serious problem.
A lot of people don't seem to like this movie.
Even today, people don't see this movie for the gem it truly is...& it's quite a shame, really."Under The Cherry Moon" is one of my favorite movies, much less my favorite Prince movies.
(But I won't give any away--YOU have to see them yourself.) The only thing I found disappointing about this movie was that Prince's character Christopher was killed at the end.
Of course, Prince's best movie was the concert picture, "Sign O' The Times".
Under The Cherry Moon, by contrast, made just $3.2 million in its first week and went downhill from thereon.Never as bad as the reviews would have you believe, Prince is actually quite personable in his role as Christopher Tracy and pulls off, to my mind, a competent performance.
He's especially good when playing opposite Jerome Benton, one of his Time proteges, and, for the purposes of this film at least, a member of The Revolution.
As a result, I'm glad I saw the movie, though I probably wouldn't watch it a second time.
One of the last shots in this movie is a note written by Christopher Tracy (Prince) which reads "without love, there is no death".
Prince & Jerome Benton are actually quite funny.
The worst part about this movie is the way Prince dresses in most of it.
Prince overacts towards the end of the film.
Jerome (Tricky) is a compliment to Prince and you can tell they had too much fun making this movie.
Sure there are some corny lines and comedy thrown in to a serious movie, but that's Prince.
Do you enjoy movies containing soundtracks of musical excellent, of course subjective to your musical taste, Under the Cherry Moon should apply again.
However if you want a strong narrative and solid characterisation then lower your expectations as Under the Cherry Moon delivers poorly.As two Gigolo's swindling their way through Paris, Christopher (Prince) and Tricky (Jerome Benton) are searching for the perfect payoff.
A final positive was Under the Cherry Moon's soundtrack provided by Prince & the Revolution containing songs of their 1986 album Parade.
***POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING.*** I first saw this film when I was around 13 or 14, during my Big Prince Fandom Phase (I still consider myself a fan, and I love his music, but I am nowhere near as obsessive about it as I used to be.) People have called this movie "surreal." I would say that this is an understatement, but in a *good* way.
As much as Prince and Tricky's bantering, the black-and-white cinematography makes this film the truly unique viewing experience that it is.
Despite this, I feel that Under The Cherry Moon should be appreciated for what Prince was trying to do with it. |
tt0071230 | Blazing Saddles | In the American Old West of 1874, construction on a new railroad led by Lyle (Burton Gilliam) runs into quicksand. The route has to be changed, which will require it to go through Rock Ridge, a frontier town where everyone has the last name of "Johnson" (including a "Howard Johnson", a "Dr. Samuel Johnson", a "Van Johnson" and an "Olson N. Johnson"). The conniving State Attorney General Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) wants to buy the land along the new railroad route cheaply by driving out the townspeople. He sends a gang of thugs, led by his flunky assistant Taggart (Slim Pickens), to scare them away, prompting the townsfolk to demand that Governor William J. Le Petomane (Mel Brooks) appoint a new sheriff. The Attorney General persuades the dim-witted Le Petomane to select Bart (Cleavon Little), a black railroad worker who was about to be hanged. (Bart had hit Taggart in the head with a shovel after Taggart ignored him and his black friend sinking in quicksand, deciding to save their handcar instead.) Lamarr believes a black lawman will so offend the townspeople that they will either abandon Rock Ridge or lynch the new sheriff, with either result paving the way for him to take over the town.With his quick wits and the assistance of drunken gunslinger Jim (Gene Wilder), also known as "The Waco Kid" ("I must have killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille"), Bart works to overcome the townsfolk's hostile reception. He defeats and befriends Mongo (Alex Karras), an immensely strong, slow-thinking (but surprisingly philosophical) henchman sent by Taggart and Lyle to kill Bart, and then beats German seductress-for-hire Lili von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn) at her own game. Lamarr is furious that his plans keep failing and decides to destroy Rock Ridge with a newly recruited and diverse army of thugs (which Lamarr characterized as ideally consisting of "rustlers, cutthroats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperadoes, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, half-wits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass kickers, shit kickers and Methodists").Bart now has 24 hours to come up with a "brilliant plan to save our town". He gathers the town, along with the railroad workers, 3 miles east of Rock Ridge to build a fake town as a diversion. The workers labor all night to complete their task. The sun rises on a fake town that's a perfect replica, down to the orange roof on Howard Johnson's outhouse. Bart realizes the town has no people in it, so it won't fool Lamarr's villains. Bart orders the townspeople to make "exact replicas of themselves," and leaves with Jim and Mongo to execute a plan that will slow the villains "to a crawl". The three construct a tollbooth labeled "Le Petomane Thruway", requiring Taggart's crew to pay 10¢ each to pass on their horses. ("Now what will that asshole think of next?" snaps Taggart.) Since no one in the raiding party has any change, Taggart sends someone back to town to "get a shitload of dimes".Once through the tollbooth, Lamarr's villains attack the fake town populated with dummies, which Bart boobytrapped with several dynamite bombs. Bart tries setting off the bombs but is unsuccessful as the detonator does not work. Jim is given the task of exploding the bombs, and fires his pistol at them. After the bombs explode, launching villains skyward, the Rock Ridgers attack the villains.The resulting fight between the townsfolk and Lamarr's army of thugs breaks the fourth wall, literally. The fight spills out from the Warner Bros. film lot into a neighboring musical set being directed by Buddy Bizarre (Dom DeLuise), then into the studio commissary, where a pie fight ensues. Taggart is knocked out when Mongo smashes his head on a cash register, and the fight finally pours out into the surrounding streets (specifically, Olive Avenue in Burbank). The citizens of Rock Ridge chase the villains back to town to destroy them, but Lamarr takes a taxi ". . . off this picture." He arrives at Grauman's Chinese Theatre to watch the "premiere" of Blazing Saddles. Unfortunately, he sees on the movie screen that Bart has arrived outside the theatre. Bart ends up killing Lamarr by shooting him in the groin. Bart and Jim then go into the theatre to watch the end of the film. The film ends with Bart leaving Rock Ridge, much to the sadness, of the townspeople and the railroad workers, for his work there is done. He intends to fight injustice in other parts of the world, which the townspeople and the railroad workers dismiss as "bullshit", and Bart admits it's simply getting dull around there. As he rides off, he finds Jim (who still has the popcorn that he bought at the theatre), and the two decide to go off to "nowhere special." They then hand in their horses and ride off (in a limousine) into the sunset | comedy, cult, flashback, good versus evil, absurd, satire, comic, entertaining | train | imdb | null |
tt2226417 | Insidious: Chapter 2 | In flashback, we see Josh (Patrick Wilson) Lambert, as a kid, is having trouble with the old lady with blood red lipstick, who killed Elise at the end of the first film. Elise and a man named Carl, are summoned to help with the problem, because Josh's mother, Lorraine, is worried. In time, they find out he's a special ability of astral projection during his sleep. Elsie asks if she can interview Josh, and as we see Josh through the viewfinder of an old VHS camera, Elsie begins asking Josh questions, whose answers make her tremble. Next, Elsie asks Josh to play a game of 'hot & cold' with Elise, and they find him talking to someone and a door opens, without any visible means.We're in the present day.Renai is speaking with a police detective (Michael Beach) about the death of Elise, and the detective says he will get in touch with her as to whether-or-not the marks on Elise were by Josh's hands. The Lambert family moves in with Lorraine, to try and get away from the things which they experienced in the first film.But as soon as they get there, things are begin again to happen.They first begin with Renai, hearing the piano playing and the baby chair making noises, and moving back-and-forth. Soon, feeling things are still not right, Lorraine walks in on a sleeping Dalton, who (though sleeping) tells Lorraine someone's behind her. Lorraine goes into the bathroom, and is locked in, and sees a lady.When the door opens, Josh's behind the door and says everything is okay.With such things happening, everyone is on edge, and while Josh is taking the kids to school, Renai gets jumpy. She sets things up with the baby (baby speakers) and she then sees a woman on the couch in Victorian dress.The lady gets up and Renai hears her talking to the baby through the speakers, in a malevolent tone. Renai runs up the stairs to the room only for the door to slam shut on her face and lock. Renai hears the lady talking to the baby, and hears the lady smack the baby while it cries. The door opens, and the baby's missing.Renai runs downsstairs and the lady catches her off-guard, and screams; "HOW DARE YOU!!" and smacks her so hard she's knocked out.Meanwhile, Lorraine's troubled by the strange sightings, and the way Josh has been behaving, and decides to visit Specks and Tucker (the 2 paranormal investigators who worked with Elise when she was alive in the previous film), to try and see if there's a way to uncover what the cause of the strange goings-ons could be.Specks and Tucker are unable to help her, but when Lorraine says, "if only Elise was still here," they remember who to contact: Carl, the spirit medium from 1986.Carl appears at Elise's house, and apologises for not contacting them sooner, out of fear of what he saw back then.He listens to Lorraine's story, and decides to contact Elise on the other side with the usage of word dice to allow Elise to reply to their questions. Lorraine, Specs and Tucker sit around a table, as Carl begins to ask Elise questions. He rolls the word dice and asks Elise if she is there, and 3 dice placed together spell "yes". He then asks Elise "who killed you?", rolls the dice and gets the reply; 'she did.' Carl asks; 'where is she?, rolls the dice and get a reply; 'hiding.' They ask where, and the die spell out; 'Our Lady of Angels,' a now-abandoned hospital which Lorraine used to work at, and where Lorraine said the ordeal with Josh had begun.Back at Lorraine's home, Josh returns home, and finds Renai on the floor unconscious, a visually troubled Josh can be seen trying to pick up Renai from the floor, but his personality abruptly changes, and he begins to sniff Renai's skin and hair.Renai regains consciousness, saying their baby has been stolen, but Josh calms her, and shows their daughter is in the crib, asleep. Renai attempts to convince Josh that something's attacking them again, and they must move away because of what happened. A stubborn Josh denies her request and says the problems would disappear if they ignore them.Just then, both Renai and Josh hear the piano playing, and they go together to find the cause of the sound, but there's no one present at the piano. Renai realises the tune being played on the piano is the one she wrote for Josh, but when she tells this to Josh this, he shows no memory of this.Due to rising suspicion from Renai about Josh's well-being, Josh rushes Renai out of the room, telling her not to worry and as Josh looks back into the room he smiles and says 'your home is the shadows, now.' As he leaves, the real Josh in astral-projection form, is sitting at the piano - in the shadows, and bangs the keys, and screams, 'Help!'The next morning, Dalton speaks to his mother Renai about his reappearing nightmares involving the dead and the old woman, but more importantly, he's greatly troubled by what he has seen in his father. The night Renai confronts Josh about seeing the woman in their house, Dalton manages to see from a corner of a hallway in the house, his father Josh scolding himself profusely, and speaking to another individual, and saying the other individual must leave and go away. Dalton, clearly aware of the fact that nobody else was with his father when he was speaking, and tells Renai the next morning that the physical Josh Lambert is not occupied by the soul of his father; the true Josh Lambert.Lorraine, Specs, Tucker, and Carl go to the abandoned Our Lady of Angels hospital, and Carl helps them find the right room. Lorraine remembers the room was an ICU unit she worked in, and where it all began.Back in 1986, Lorraine and Josh walked into the room, and they see a patient named Parker Crane who's asleep. Josh looks away, to the machines, and suddenly Parker attacks him, as the nurses hold him down and Lorraine and her son quickly leave. Later, Lorraine getting on an elevator, and Parker gets on, as well. She tries to make small talk - saying he should be in bed, not roaming the halls, but, he does not respond. They arrive on the main floor, and Parker heads silently off towards the left, as Lorraine heads for the lobby, and goes to the receptionist and asks her why Parker Cranes' up and walking. The receptionist tells Lorraine Parker Crane had jumped off of the building that morning, and died.Back in the present, Lorraine, Specs, Tucker, and Carl go find the records on Parker Crane, and find out where his house was. They find it abandoned. Specs and Tucker go up to Parker's room and find a little girl who tells them to go before her mother finds them and she has to kill them. Carl goes back down stairs and uses his dice, and is soon joined by Lorraine. They realise the person who'd been communicating with them through the dice wasn't Elise, but Parker Crane's mother, who called herself 'Mater Mortis,' in Latin; 'mother death'.Just then, the crystal chandelier - which was being slowly unscrewed, crashes down, narrowly missing killing them.They enter another room - one hidden behind a bookcase, only to find people sitting in rows under cloths, and a chestful of newspaper articles on a serial killer who wore a black wedding dress. They find the black wedding dress on a mannequin. Carl puts his hand on the dress to find out what went on with it, and sees a man putting on women's makeup as a woman sits - tied-up behind him and screams, who he murders.They figure out Parker was the serial killer - 'The Black Bride' - who put on the black wedding dress and killed young woman, under his mother's direction, which explains who the people are under the cloths;his victims.With this information, they understand what they're really dealing with, and head home to tranquillise Josh (who's inhabited by Parker Crane's spirit), in order to get into him out of Josh.But things go wrong, and Carl is killed whilst Specs gets knocked unconscious, and 'Josh' stabs Tucker with the hypodermic syringe, rendering him unconscious.Now in the Further/Shadows, Carl finds Josh and they figure they need to get Josh back in his body, so they try to find Elise. They go to Josh's old house (from Insidious 1), where they see the long-haired man from the first film pacing back-and-forth (just as RenaI saw in the first film) and all-of-the-sudden, he's inside the window - behind the curtain, in the babies room where RenaI sees him, and screams.Just as he's going to try to take and kill the baby, Elise pops out and kills the demon, by pushing it through the window.Elise tells Josh and Carl they must go back to the place where Parker and his mother once lived, in order to try to end it, for once and for all.In present time, (Carl inhabiting) 'Josh' sends a text to Renai, saying it's safe to go to the house. They drive over, and are attacked by 'Josh.' Dalton comes and hits him long enough for Renai and the 2 boys to run into the basement and hide. Dalton then goes asleep to try and help rescue Josh's soul.In the Further, they arrive at Lorraine's house where they find the way to the old lady's house, and enter. They find Parker on the bed, dressed as a girl. Parker's yelling - saying his name's Parker. His mother walks in with a drawing Parker made, and yells at him yells, 'DID YOU DO THIS?!?'He denies at first, then says 'yes.' She yells; 'HOW DARE YOU,' and smacks him, because she says his name isn't Parker - that's what his father named him. His 'real' name is 'Marilyn.'Just then, the mother looks over, and becomes aware of Carl and Josh watching, and she screams at them and Elise and Carl are hurtled backwards out of the room and the door slams violently shut, with Josh still inside.Parker's mother faces Josh, and makes all the people whom Parker killed, appear in the room under white sheets. They proceed to taunt Josh.In realtime, Josh's just about into the basement to attack Renai and the boys. He breaks in past their barriers, and pushes Renai down to kill her. He's momentarily distracted when he sees Dalton asleep. As he raises a hammer to kill Dalton, Dalton, Josh, and Elise in the Further are being assisted by Parker who is the only one who can open his childhood bedroom door which Mrs. Crane had slammed shut. Once he does this, Elise beats Mrs. Crane with a rocking horse and destroys her memories, once and for all. As Parker destroys all memories of his mother. Elise tells Carl and Josh they must leave, as this existence is quickly crumbling, and tells Carl she felt his heartbeat, and he's still alive.Josh and Carl run out of the room, as it's disintegrating, leaving Elsie. They leave the Further, and in the darkness, they fight off attacking spirits, who are anxious to leave the Shadows for our world. As they fight the spirits, they find Dalton, and make their way back into the real world,In present time, they all wake up in their normal bodies with their own spirits. In the next scene, they are all seated in Josh's living room before Carl who tells him that he can now hypnotise them, just as Elise did to young Josh back in 1986, and make them forget how to astral project, preventing them from going back to the Further in their dreams and inadvertently bringing spirits back with them.They close their eyes; the camera zooms in on Josh's face, serene and beginning to forget.- Epilogue -Instead of the usual fade to black, the screen slowly brightens to a blinding white and then we see a sky filled with clouds. The camera pans down from the sky to a different house where Specs and Tucker knock on the door and are greeted by a family. Specs tells the man to please hear him out; Specs and Tucker are there to deliver a message to their relative, Allison. Allison is the sole survivor of the Bride in Black's killing spree, the only one who got away and gave a description to the police for the story in the newspaper that was found earlier in Parker Crane's dilapidated house.At the door, the family's little girl asks them, "Who's the woman behind you?" Specs and Turner turn around and see no one. Next, we see through the little girl's eyes, and Elise is standing behind them. She smiles at the little girl and puts her finger to her mouth, saying "shhhh". She walks past them into the house where a young woman sits unresponsive in a wheelchair. In the background, we can hear the parents of the little girl telling Specs and Turner that they have been having problems with unseen, malevolent entities in their home. Elise crouches in front of Allison, smiles kindly, and begins talking to her, trying to help draw her out of the Further. She hears something above them, looks up, sees the light fixtures swaying - and something else - and her smile disappears. Then we hear a creaking, grotesque, guttural noise in the shadowy corner of the room behind Allison. The camera pans up; we see nothing - yet - behind her; but Elise does, and the expression on her face is one of abject terror, as she exclaims, trembling; 'Oh, my god!' | paranormal, horror, murder, flashback | train | imdb | Overall, Chapter 2 makes several improvements on the first, and while, depending on your tastes, this sequel may or may not be as scary as the first, I think it's tough to deny that this is a all-around better, more entertaining movie.
There are some moments that may make you jump a little, thanks to some good camera work, but this movie is more like "Seven" than say, "The Conjuring".
Writer Leigh Whannell stated at the Toronto Film Festival that when he wrote the film he had a list of horror movie clichés posted above him, so he could avoid using them ; he said the first one was to make sure the family moved into a new house once the haunting started .
James Wan is one of the best directors of recent times and he makes his stand by offering two awesome horror movies this year.
I loved the first film, and this is easily the best horror sequel I have ever seen.The storyline was fantastic, the slightly ambiguous ending of the first film was brought to light nicely, and a deeper more complex meaning behind the haunting was revealed.
The roles were believable, and the characters were portrayed nicely.The main thing that makes this film (and the first) so good is that it is actually scary.
The low key nature of the scares make them all the more believable.Overall this is a fantastic horror film, and matching the excellent original, if you haven't seen Insidious, see it so that you can see this!
Hershey too ), The Omen, Scanners, The Thing, Rec, The Haunting, Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, it has absolutely nothing to offer : no characters, no atmosphere at all ( fumes ARE NOT atmosphere ), very bad storytelling, mediocre acting, a very messy story, and terrible wanna be fun moments that have nothing to do in a movie supposed to scare you.
The scares seemed forced at times due to the fact that they probably tried too hard to make the sequel as good, if not, better than the original, but it was definitely still suspenseful.Overall 8/10.
I am a big fan of horror movies especially ones that have a good story and have a couple of genuine horrifying and startling scenes.
Complete waste of time unless you are in the mood for an absurd,laughable 'horror' film that will put you to sleep when you aren't rolling on the floor laughing at the family being slapped around by the cheap-looking ghost..
If you asked your local theater for tickets to the new James Wan directed, Patrick Wilson horror movie, I hope they directed you to The Conjuring.
All I can say is more of the same, they used exactly the same scare tactics and even used some of the same jump moments (without giving away spoilers) it doesn't work the 2nd time round.I strongly recommend not watching this as the story is rubbish, the acting just about bearable and the jumps didn't work for me.
Insidious 1 was decent and I made it through the entire movie because I was engaged with the story more so than the cheesy cheap scares(that we've all seen a million times and are actually exhausting to watch).
Insidious Chapter 2.I really liked Insidious Chapter 1, it was a really good horror movie after a long time in my opinion.
When I heard they were making a second part (no surprise there as part 1 ending suggested it clearly), I had some doubts because sequels of Horror movies ALWAYS suck.
bad movie.Paid 25 dollars plus popcorn and drinks for my girlfriend and I at the cinema for a t.v. movie that we wouldn't watch on t.v.story didn't make sense.B grade actors,C grade effects,I actually laughed out loud when I saw the first appearance of a so called ghost ..
Where the first one had good scares, this one is just some more of that PG13 Hollywood mainstream horror.This is basically a lazy continuation of the first, with no real motive or at least a failed attempt at building from the original and recreating a piece that is as challenging and that keeps the same quality formula while expanding on other possible notions of the Insidious realm.
If you really feel like you have to do a ghost movie, than try to be a bit innovative and present something the audience hasn't seen or doesn't expect.The audience laughed most of the time, because of the predictable and stupid dialogs.I am shocked to see, that the same director gets to do Fast and Furious 7, since the last two actually got better I'm afraid that he kills the series.It's incredible, I mean he did "Saw".
Doesn't help this was released soon after some half decent horror films like the conjuring and Sinister, This film offers more surreal and at times comedic scenes then actual scares..
I love the two actors, Patrick and Rose, but the script here is so terrible, even they cannot make it believable, good, funny, scary, any of the things they were going for.This is like WHAT NOT TO DO IN A SCRIPT - exposition everywhere, incoherent story line and scares that don't come close to the first one (which wasn't great, but was good).Whoever job it was at quality control central, making sure the dialogue was believable, the directing was passable, had certainly taken one too many Quaaludes.Avoid at all costs..
Despite some clever plotting, interweaving the film's second half with events from the original, it simply lacks tension and falls short on scares.The opening prologue set almost 30 years prior, gives us a shadowy realm called the Further.
And lastly, the music was done by the same person who did the first, and that gave the movie the same scary, ominous, uneasy feelings.Overall I would say that if you liked the first one, this picks up right where the last one ended and it might not be "worth seeing" but you could spend your money in worse ways.
This genre mashing does not work at all for what is for all intents and purposes a "proper" horror movie.While the film starts off relatively confidently (The old guy's acting leaves a lot to be desired in the first scene, and is the first clue that this is not going to be a great film), things deteriorate quite quickly, and while some scenes and sets are "just right", just as many feel very fake and the camera work and grading feels borderline amateur.
It's surprising given the quality of Wan's other work but it feels like the producers have insisted on certain scenes/moments being delivered before they are really ready to go.The whole thing is full of plot holes and although the third act attempts to explain some mysteries from earlier in the film, for the most part there are far more moments that are ignored and make no sense at all.This is a terrible film.
There's Patrick Wilson doing his best "Shining" bit, a couple of different ghosts that need a back story for some reason, a weird choice to turn one of the spooks from the first film into "Norman Bates," time-travelling?
Even though its happened to them before though, they still feel the need to go and investigate the said mysterious noises.Needless to say you will be completely lost if you haven't seen the first film, which you should be watching anyway seeing as its a million times better than this.
If you can get past the fact that this family has knowingly moved into an equally haunted house to get over what happened in the first film, you will still be disappointed with the all-over-the-place feel, confusing plot, and lack of scares.
Insidious: Chapter 2 starts up almost right after the original Insidious ended with Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) Lambert reunited with their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) after his spirit was held prisoner by a demon in an afterlife dimension called 'The Further'.
The first part of the series was better at delivering horror even though it were nothing more but sudden scares One of the only good things about Insidious: Chapter 2 and the past installment is the music, which is reminiscent of glorious horror films such as The Shining or Psycho.
Plot - The famed horror team of director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell reunite with the original cast of Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye and Ty Simpkins in INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2, a terrifying sequel to the acclaimed horror film, which follows the haunted Lambert family as they seek to uncover the mysterious childhood secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world.
Insidious 1 was a very scary but weak in plot horror movie that in the end was satisfying, although nothing special to watch.
If you like horror movies that have some kind of good backstory and aren't just "Jump Scare, Jump Scare, Jump Scare" Insidious Chapter 2 is for you.
The script also works as a continuation, but perhaps because the mystery has dwindled; it only manages to be an average horror without the same chill its predecessor has.Story follows the events of Insidious where Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) returned with his son from the Further, an astral realm.
Check out my reviews on www.themovieboy77.comStaring: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, Barbara Hershey, Steve Coulter, Angus Sampson and Leigh Whannell.Directed by: James WanInsidious: Chapter 2 takes place a short time after the incidents in the first film.
This time, there are a lot more twists and turns.The opening scene explains some more information of Josh's origins with the afterlife when he was a child, and things start to make more sense as the film goes along.
The origins of the black veld bride are explained and you start to feel that the family is in danger as they try to solve the mystery to stop the haunting.The films scares are effective.
The film has a "haunted house" feel to it, which is an aspect I love about horror movies.
The only summation I could come up with especially with the vastly superior Conjuring and this film coming out so close together is that he spent all of his time executing that first movie and when approached about a sequel to Insidious he said awesome I have a great idea for that flick and than just kinda lost interest.
The Conjuring is superior in the fact that it remains haunting even after you watch it, while Insidious 2 truly adds to the over-arching storyline of the first movie, and allows you to appreciate the two films as a series since they intermingle.
The film starts immediately where the first film left off after their showdown with the evil entities that possessed their son, the Lamberts hope that their lives will return to normal however this is not the end as the hauntings continue so they enlist Elise Rainiers assistants Specs and Tucker to help them investigate not only that but Elises old former colleague and assistant Carl from when she was a young woman comes to help too.This Movie Jumps Between the past and the present showing that they are both connected a lot of interesting twists and turns come out of this.It has very good cinematography with many interesting shots.
Again no music but the sudden loud noises and jump scares, the sudden sounds are still used very smartly and effectively.Not as scary as the first film but has the same consistent eerie tone throughout & wraps the Lambert family story nicely.
Is this a comedy or a horror film?The constant back and forth with the storylines was giving me whiplash.The little kid who portrayed Patrick Wilson as a boy in the first movie was not the same one in this one.
There are big drawbacks but there are good things here too.First and foremost, 'Insidious' llooks great, especially for horror films released in recent years (too many of which have looked like they were made on the schlocky cheap).
Some of the film is on the dull side, while the second half gets far too camp and histrionic, towards the end things get so over-the-top and senseless that one is laughing rather than feeling scared.Moreover, 'Insidious: Chapter 2' fails to make sense and gets muddled in the latter stages, with an ending that's rushed, convoluted, silly and clichéd.
The scares are very similar to the first movie (and other horror films), which makes them pretty predictable.
James Wan once again succeeds in establishing an unnerving atmosphere and employs both camera & sound to good effect but it lacks the freshness of the original, its storyline is predictable, and the surprises are few & far in between, not to mention that its moments of tension don't linger for long unlike before, thus diminishing their impact by an extent.Picking up right where the first film left off, the story of Insidious: Chapter 2 follows the Lambert family as they relocate to a different house while police investigates everything that transpired at their previous residency.
Soon, the family comes to realise that whatever was haunting them back in their old house has followed them to the new place, and with Josh exhibiting strange behaviour, the ladies take it upon themselves to get to the truth of all this & end it for once n all.Directed by James Wan (best known for Saw & The Conjuring), Insidious: Chapter 2 begins with a prologue that covers the part that was only hinted in the previous chapter while also playing a key role later in the story.
The tone is darker than the last time and suspense builds up quickly too but the story just isn't engaging enough on an emotional level.The look n feel of the first film is skilfully duplicated but just like before, all the scenes taking place in purgatory realm are facepalm-inducing.
Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, Barbara Hershey & Ty Simpkins return to reprise their previous roles but their performances aren't any better than the last time plus the characters remain just as uninteresting as before.On an overall scale, Insidious: Chapter 2 works in bits n pieces and is able to use its setting & eerie atmosphere to desired effect at times but it is so predictable & lacking in surprises that just sitting through this sequel is a tedious job in itself.
As far as sequels go, it holds up very well in comparison to its original, they are both simple horrors that want to do nothing more than thrill, although I actually enjoyed this movie more, mainly because Rosa Byrne and Patrick Wilson get to shine a lot more, adding extra layers to these characters that I found much more effective than the first.
-Insidious: Chapter 2 is a 2013 American supernatural horror film directed by James Wan. It is a sequel to Insidious and the second installment in the Insidious film series.
Foundas further wrote that "where so many sequels seem like mere remakes of their predecessors, with bigger budgets and less imagination, Insidious: Chapter 2 feels like a genuine continuation of characters we enjoyed getting to know the first time around, and wouldn't at all mind returning to again." -- "After the pleasurable free fall into old-fashioned nightmare artistry that was last summer's The Conjuring, this busy-yet-dull sequel feels like Wan robotically flexing his manipulation of fright-film signposts, an exercise more silly than sinister." --- "Setting aside the movie's tediously lame dialogue, self-conscious performances and frequently predictable scares, the narrative's compulsively shifting chronology intermittently manages to engage, although it does little to obscure the distracting shortcomings of both plot and character development..
So, I was understandably reluctant to put myself through another 90 minutes derivative of better horror movies I have already seen ('Amityville', 'Poltergeist' – the originals, of course), and yet, I have to say that I found 'Insidious: Chapter 2' a far superior film.
Far from a classic, just short of being good
but certainly watchable, and even creepy in a couple of places.The plot follows on from the events of the first 'Insidious' (as indeed the end of the first movie sets up) and has the Lambert family once again troubled by malevolent entities.
Now a a sequel would be hard work- but this movie came out a few months after the conjuring- a film even scarier than the first insidious that is just as good if not better.
Some of the pacing and story elements, along with a lot of dialogue from some character, do get annoying or downright tedious at times, but overall, Chapter 2 is worth watching if you enjoyed the first Insidious.
Yet "Insidious: Chapter 2″ (2013) still manages to be a good horror movie.
(He's also the screenwriter for both films.)This was a good horror movie.
Insidious: Chapter 2 delivers a few decent scares in its first act, but unfortunately the rest of the film is a strangely awful comedy..
Summary: Insidious: Chapter 2 delivers a few decent scares in its first act, but unfortunately the rest of the film is a strangely awful comedy.
40/100 (C-)Insidious: Chapter 2 is directed by James Wan. It was one of my most anticipated horror films of 2013.
Moving on, it has a good camera work, Wan gives us some creepy shots, and at times it looks like a James Wan film!
I don't even recommend it for fans of the first Insidious starving for horror, because chapter two is literally a comedy film, a very bad one.
After surprising and/or scaring many with his first entry, horror director James Wan returns to conclude where viewers ended with Insidious (2010).
It just seemed like they photocopied the first film's script, added a couple of 'flashback scenes' and turned it out as a new movie.To be honest, there's nothing wrong with Insidious 2. |
tt0374339 | Mou gaan dou III: Jung gik mou gaan | Infernal Affairs III uses parallel storytelling, flashing between the past and the present.Five months before Yan's deathYan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) seeks to uncover the link between Triad boss Sam (Eric Tsang) and the mysterious mainland triad boss Shen (Chen Daoming). Since Sam's ascension to the seat of triad lord was due to Ngai's (Francis Ng) death (see second film), Sam is suspicious of all those who followed him in the past. He tests Yan's loyalty by asking him to smash an ashtray on Shen's follower during a negotiation, resulting in Yan being arrested by Inspector Yeung (Leon Lai Ming). After being released, Shen smashes a bottle of liquor on Yan's head and called truce between his gang and Sam's gang.At the same time, Yan is prosecuted by the police for violent behavior. His superior Wong (Anthony Wong Chau Sung) manages to persuade the court to allow Yan to go and see a psychologist instead of being sentenced to prison. Thus we are shown how he met Dr. Lee (Kelly Chen) regularly for psychological therapy. The two subsequently begins a romantic relationship.Later, Sam asks Yan to deliver illegal arms to Shen but he himself and other members of the gang did not turn up. Yan delivers the cargo but Shen's gang discovers it is just empty boxes and both gangs begins firing gunshots at each other. Shen and Yan shoot each other in the battle, but both aim at the limbs. Shen thus discovers that Yan is a cop just as Yeung arrives at the scene. Yeung then tells Yan that Shen is not Shen (but actually an undercover cop from the mainland). Yeung also tells Yan that it was due to Yan leaving the police cadets that he gained top honours, thus revealing that Yeung knew Yan is a cop. The three shake hands and wait for the mayhem to die down before returning to their bases.Ten months after the events of Infernal AffairsFormer Triad mole turned top cop Lau Kin Ming (Andy Lau) has been demoted to administrative duty pending the investigation of his involvement in the death of Yan and Billy (Gordon Lam Ka Tung). In a flashback, we see a version of events that transpired through the lie Lau tells the police; Billy was the mole who wanted to kill Yan and Lau was there to arrest him when he shot Yan in the head, leading to Lau shooting Billy.After months of investigation, he is transferred back to Internal Affairs. He struggles to whitewash his past and keep his cover, while finding out a fellow Security Division Inspector (Yeung) has ties with Shen, the alleged mainland triad boss who had connections to Sam. He tries to determine whether Yeung is another former mole out to execute anyone who could give him away. A battle of wits develops between Ming and Yeung as each tries to learn the other's secret.Meanwhile, Ming's sense of identity collapses as he begins to lose track of reality, wrestling with his deep guilt in Yan's murder. He has trouble sleeping and is continuously using sleeping pills and is in the middle of going through a divorce with Mary (Sammi Cheng) due to her knowledge of his secret.Ming sets up security cameras all over the Security Division floor and Yeung's office in order to spy on him. He also steals and hacks into Dr. Lee's computer and finds Yan's file. He learns about Yan and his psychological trauma soon deteriorates to the point where he begins to think he is Yan. He even makes it his own personal mission to apprehend "Lau Kin Ming" and to catch Yeung on behalf of Inspector Wong. After seeing an incident where he holds out his gun and talking to an imaginary person, Lee brought Ming back to her office and hypnotises him. Under hypnosis Ming reveals to a shocked Lee that he is Sam Hon's mole.Ming continues to suspect Yeung is related to the mainland Chinese gang and Sam. He breaks into Yeung's office and steal tapes from his safe, using his spy cameras to determine the code. He thinks he hears tapes of Yeung relating information to Sam and he leads his team to the Security Division to arrest Yeung, just as Shen arrives. As Ming plays the tape, a conversation between himself and Sam from the movie theatre scene in Infernal Affairs is played and his second-in-command tries to arrest him instead. Ming suffers a psychotic break, asks for a chance to be a good man, but Yeung declares that "I am a policeman." the same way Yan did. Ming finally breaks and yells out "I am also a policeman!" and fires at Yeung's forehead, killing him. Ming is then shot by Shen who snuck a gun behind his back in case a fight would break out and he falls on the floor. Ming then attempts suicide by shooting himself in the neck, but fails.Present DayA series of flashbacks play, revealing that Yeung and Shen, upon the death of their friend Yan, wanted to avenge him by finding out who the mole was. Shen suspected Ming and set up a ploy to lure him to them. Yeung broke into Ming's office and found the tapes of Ming's conversations with Sam, proving Shen right. Yeung subsequently put the tapes inside his safe.Yeung is buried next to Yan in the police cemetery. Shen and Lee pay their visits. Shen said to Lee: "Events change men, but men do not change events. But these two men are extraordinary because they changed events."Ming ends up crippled and catatonic, lost inside his own mind, haunted by the spirit of Mary Hon (Carina Lau) and locked in his own personal "Continuous Hell". His divorced wife Mary visits and tells him, "Our baby can say "papa" now." As the picture fades into the next scene, the camera pans down onto Ming's finger, which is tapping out in Morse Code, "H-E-L..." (and then the start of another 'L' as the picture dims).But right before the movie ends, it returns to one final flashback of after the incident with the failed cargo trade between Yan and Shen. Yan reports his findings to Inspector Wong on the phone as he's walking through the busy streets of Hong Kong. He enters an electronics and music store, where he finds a bag of cocaine in one of the speakers. Suddenly, Ming (Andy Lau) comes in and wants to buy an audio system... | violence, flashback | train | imdb | Infernal Affairs 3 builds cleverly on the plotline of the first movie, but with its complex story and frequent switches between past and present, is likely to seriously confuse anyone who comes to it without having seen Part 1 first to understand the two main characters.
With frequent flashbacks, the film focuses on extending the story of Triad mole Ming (Andy Lau), warping up the tension as the stresses of his double life become intolerable.
What this film does is overlay the previous stories with an additional layer of romanticism and complexity; but there's a certain lack of focus to the plot, with almost all of our favourite characters already dead by the end of the second film (although, in flashback, there's a rebirth for the great Tony Leung, absent from part two).
Why didn't it come out.We got to see quite a bit of Tony Leung in this film, and that is always a good thing.It was very distracting the way the film jumped back and forth through time.
It was trying to tie up the loose ends, but it was disconcerting.It could have been an outstanding film, but it'll just have to be great to see the actors and enjoy their performance..
Where Scorsese's recent version of Infernal Affairs all the loose ends pretty much got tied up during the film whereas with the original we were left with an open (but much more emotionally impacting) conclusion.
Personally I thought the first film was an enjoyable cop thriller but I didn't think it was brilliant or developed characters that well but the tension was great.
Leung is good again but his scenes don't seem as relevant or as interesting within this film again it is probably to do with the lack of emotional buy-in I felt with his character; his performance is natural and engaging though.
Again I didn't think much of the use of Chen but Wong and Tsang are both solid in their small returns.Overall then an effective and enjoyable film if you love the series and the characters; an interesting one if you have seen the first two films and a pointless one if you are looking to join in at the last minute.
Tying up the loose ends of the series, the film isn't tense enough or emotionally impacting enough to be worth a look unless you are really already into the characters but it is an interesting way to bring things to an end with restraint and tragedy rather than excess..
Having now watched the entire INFERNAL AFFAIRS trilogy, I've concluded that only the original film was necessary.
The first sequel took the form of a prequel, an entirely extraneous piece of back story that adding nothing to the original and would have worked better as a stand alone movie.
This, the second sequel, is even worse, a muddled attempt at tying together both prequel and sequel, adding in lots of entirely superfluous stuff and additional characters that are all entirely necessary.Tony Leung returns to the movie series, but his scenes amount to nothing more than padding; his character was so carefully delineated in the first movie, there's entirely nothing to add.
But it's still rather unnecessary, and would have been much better had it been tied up at the end of the first film, as Scorsese did when he remade the series as THE DEPARTED.Overall, INFERNAL AFFAIRS 3 feels confused and muddled.
While in the U.S. the 3rd movie of anything is suppose to be the large-scale, big-budget, battle-destruction-galore ending to a series, Infernal Affairs 3 shamelessly does the opposite and delivers an introspective look devoid of any "battle" scene at all.
Now that IA has become somewhat of a cult following (ironically the story is not meant to go any further) it seems fitting that we are delivered a film as if the cutting-room floor pieces were placed together from the previous two movies and sequenced for the conclusion.The story attempts to elaborate the most important details of the series and not presenting them in sequence, only a handful of present scenes exist which each are periodically given a large delve into the past.
IA 3 explores what happened leading up to many scenes in the first Infernal Affairs which is really pretty neat for anyone who watches movies and seen the first.
As a result its a jumble and mix of scenes giving you dates of when they occur (sometimes eliciting humor) and glimpsing every single character in the series as if they were the past but really filmed new for the movie.
And in this way follows Yan and Ming's characters as they progress to their fates.But it seems perhaps that by doing so, the movie is simply what was left out in the first film and anyone new to the series will obviously not understand the significance of what is going on other than the artsy cinematography of white-washed cool hues, steady camera work, and continual sponsorship of devices and products.
The last installment in the Infernal Affairs trilogy is surprisingly slow moving, but still has the high production values and intricate story of the first two, although as a whole it is slightly less engaging than the preceding films.
There have been a lot of comparisons between this trilogy and The Godfather films, and the similarities in story-telling structure and the overall arc of the sequels are definitely there, although I have to admit that I think the Godfathers exist on an entirely different level as these films.
The Infernal Affairs films are good, but they're not THAT good.There is a lot of work in bringing together the stories of the first two films and it definitely adds to them, but I found this one to be too slow moving, although the pace picked up by the third act and the final scene is definitely impressive.On the other hand, the trilogy ends on a serious downer - "Ksitigarbha Sutra - 'People of the like shall be cast into the Avinci Hell and will continue to suffer from Kalpas to Kalpas with no means of escape.'I may as well just admit that I don't know the meaning or source of this quote, but it sure seems like a depressing note to end the trilogy on.
Nevertheless, despite being just a little bit of a let-down (like countless trilogy finales), Internal Affairs 3 is a necessary closure, and Asian cinema fans are sure to eat it up..
To be honest it's a bit of a mess but here's a brief summary while I can still remember it (summary haters, and those that don't wish to know about the plot, take some bad guys out while I write the next paragraph).Lau Kin Ming has now been cleared of any wrongdoing in the death of the undercover cop, Chan Wing Yan. He can now concentrate on finding other moles in the Police force.
Performance wise; Tony Leung Chiu Wai was pretty good as Chan Wing Yan, as was Andy Lau as Lau Kin Ming.
Of the rest, Leon Lai did a decent job as the enigmatic SP Yeung Kam Wing and Daoming Chen was pretty good as Shen Chen.The first two films were really good and so I found it hard to believe this one could be so bad.
This time around, we have the returning Tony Leung, Andy Lau, and the new comer Leon Lai to light up the screen for Infernal Affairs III.
I like the first one better, at least it has some good story telling there, not necessarily original: undercover cop, mole, I don't think it's all that original, but you don't necessarily to be original to be good.
this final installment in the series is for me,i think the best of the trilogy.it it a bit confusing,as it does jump back in forth in time.but i think on repeated viewing it will become much clearer.forgetting that though,for sheer tension,it can't be beat.i was on the edge of my seat the whole time.this one focus4es less on the action and more on the character ans the story,as it should,since it ties everything(mostly) up in the end.there even a humorous bit that works very well.its' a great end to the trilogy.i will probably watch the all three movies again and see what i missed the first time around.for me,Mou gaan dou III: Jung gik mou gaan,AKA Infernal Affairs III is an 8/10.
excerpt, more at my location - The first movie in the Infernal Affairs trilogy was so good, it helped win Martin Scorsese his long-awaited Oscar for another film.
Andrew Lau and Alan Mak visit the well one last time - has it, by now, run dry?At the conclusion of the film, which takes the viewer right up to the opening of a memorable early scene from the original movie, the viewer is in no doubt that a thrilling, memorable landmark trilogy has come to a close..
Someone used a food analogy previously - I would say this is the dessert and its best savoured slowly to end what has been a great meal.I thought IFII was greatly influenced by the first and second Godfather film and in a way IFIII has common elements to the second and third - flicking through time to see how the story has emerged and tying up the loose ends with style.Without spoiling the plot this film shows how Yans rise through the Triads isn't as smooth as it appears to have been in the previous two films and also shows a darker side of Sam, Wong and (if possible) Ming.
At the end of IA One, the death of good guy Chan Wing-yan (`Yan') and the prospering of bad guy Lau Kin-ming (`Ming') caused a few raised eyebrows in the Hong Kong audience.
MINOR SPOILERSOne has to see the first "Infernal Affairs" before seeing this movie otherwise it would just be too confusing.This sequel to "IA" is about Ming, the undercover triad member who becomes a cop to infiltrate the police force.
Throughout the movie, Ming's state of mind is disintegrating into fear and paranoia because he feels guilty for causing the death of Yan, who is the undercover cop sent to infiltrate the mob (triad).
Ming tries so hard to make up for what he has done, his bad past (spying on the police) and for Yan, whom he still feels a special bond.Ming is losing his mind, that poor fool, and hard as he tries to redeem himself, well, it's not gonna happen.There are a lot of flashbacks in this movie, which I warn the viewer, is a little confusing at first.
Tony Leung as Yan is sympathetic, amusing and he has some rare funny scenes with the psychologist.The rest of the actors in this movie give outstanding performances.
I did like the cat and mouse game between Lau Kin-ming (the mole from the previous one) and Superintendent Yeung Kam-wing whole plays Lau's rival as his equal.
The first installment gave us edge-of-the-seat thrills with its chess-game intriguesThe second, a prequel, was just as interesting with its fast-paced Godfather 2-type background to the 1991 triad wars which saw the rise of the vicious Hau (Francis Ng), the coup de grace by Sam (Eric Tsang) and the planting of the moles in the police and within Sam's circle.Number 3 deals mainly with the fading fortunes of Lau Kin Ming (Andy Lau) in 2004 when after the murder of undercover cop Chan Wing Yan (Tony Leung), he is under police investigation and relegated to the sidelines.
The rising star of the police force now is Yeung Kam Wing (Leon Lai) and Kin Ming suspects something amiss.
Determined to turn over a new leaf, Kin Ming plans to nail his 'rival' while keeping his own 'identity' from being exposed.This 'forward' plot does not have much drama (or melodrama) but we have a number of flashbacks which recall how Wing Yan tries his best to win Sam's trust, including setting up a smuggling network with Shen and breaking the law time and again...If we had lots of twists and shocks in the first two installments, the 'action' in this 'conclusion' is rather 'laid back' - it is mainly about the links of psychiatrist Dr Lee (Kelly Chen) with Wing Yan and later Kin Ming.Directors Alan Mak and Andrew Lau seem to be scrapping the bottom of the barrel and coming out with bits and pieces of their former glory.
The show was so confusing, I had to switch the subtitles to Chinese instead of English to understand.Set 10 months after Chan Wing Yan's death, Lau Kin Ming is relegated to mundane administrative work until the Internal Affairs department had finished investigating SP Yeung's involvement Sergent Chun's death.
It turns out Chun was Sam's mole and someone had sent a box of tapes to Yeung of the various people supplying intelligence to Sam.What follows is a series of very confusing events: Yeung seeming to trade intelligence with Sam, Shen's involvement in business with Sam in China, Yeung's friendship with Yan...and all of it accompanied by very cool music to add to the suspense.Ming decides to investigate Yeung.
One cannot watch independently as one has to know fully well what happened in the first film unlike installment movies like Superman,Spiderman or Mission Impossible.
Indeed,one should have a clear understanding of the story of Infernal Affairs unlike Infernal Affairs II,a film that could possible stand on its own.The acting was still excellent in the film.Andy Lau and Tony Leung provides honesty to their portrayal of Ming and Yan respectively.Eric Tsang and Francis Wong delivered as they reprise their role as Sam and Inspector Wong respectively.But special mention should be given to Leon Lai,who portrayed the enigmatic police officer,Yeung.
Although the first movie was flawless,this third installment of Infernal Affairs was somewhat slow especially in telling the story of Ming after Yan was killed.
We follow Chan Wing-yan in his undercover role working for Sam in the run up to a major deal and we also observe Inspector Lau as he works to make sure nobody can connect him with Sam, his erstwhile employer, so he can become an honest police officer.
Doctor Lee takes a much greater role in this film as Chan Wing-yan is ordered to see her after assaulting a Triad member in a restaurant and Lau sees her to learn more about Chan Wing-yan's activities.While I think this was probably the weakest of the three films it was still pretty good and anybody who enjoyed the first two films really should watch this as it neatly wraps up the story.
Having missed the second film Tony Leung and Andy Lau are back as Chan Wing-yan and Lau and once again they put in fine performances; other notable stars are Leon Lai as Yeung and Kelly Chen as Doctor Lee the psychiatrist.
Although this is a sequel to Part 1, much of the story takes place before inspectors Chan dies, so you'll see him still alive for most of the movie, as does Sam and SP Wong.
In the end you see him tapping "Hell" in Morse code (which for some reason he was keen to study in previous parts), probably recognizing that there's hell to pay for all he's done.Good of this movie was the part of SP Yueng played by Leon Lai. He was just great in this role.Part 3 is made with same craftsmanship of the first two that put this series on the map.
This second sequel, however, in fact requires some thought as the story unfolded.*** Spoilers Ahead ***I will try to reveal as little as possible, since my own enjoyment was partially ruined by having read a review which gave the plot away.On the surface level, the story weaves together the past and present, showing the fall of the main character.
While the use of Leon Lai may be so, his character is IMO an outsider necessary to unravel the mess that plagues the police department, namely the many moles inserted by Han. The introduction of a mainland Chinese element ties in nicely with the second sequel, again highlighting the fact that the affairs of Hong Kong is no longer merely its own.
And, in having watched all three films in the series, I must commend the writers/directors on how Han's character has been fully developed, and I would say his is the most fleshed out of all, barring perhaps Chan Wing Yan.I would even go so far as to argue that the plot is a cut above any other Hong Kong director/writer has produced so far, both in terms of the plot consistency and its style.
The plot of this story, if you can even call it that, was based around the desire to feature Inspector Lau Kin Ming's (Andy Lau)and Dr. Lee Sum Yee (Kelly Chen) as much as possible.
Watching Ming's character fall from grace was all good and well, but the movie left giant plot holes.
Why would Chan Wing Yan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) be willing to keep working for Hon Sam (Eric Tsang) if he was purposely set up by him?
The fact that Ming (Andy Lau) becomes schizophrenic only adds to the confusing, showing the viewer visual hallucinations when it is already quite clear that the audience already knows he has gone crazy.
3) If we assume Inspector/SP Yeung Kam Wing (Leon Lai) is a mole then why does he try to set up Sam?
And why does he not kill Chan Wing Yan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) when he knows he is a undercover cop.
But if SP Yeung (Leon Lai) was clean we need to ask why didn't Chan Wing Yan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) turn to them to clear his name in IF1?
2) In IF1 we assume that the little girl at his funeral is Chan Wing Yan's (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) daughter. |
tt0875034 | Nine | Nine tells the story of Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis), a world famous film director as he confronts an epic mid-life crisis with both creative and personal problems. He must balance the many women of his life, including his wife (Marion Cotillard), his mistress (Penélope Cruz), his film star muse (Nicole Kidman), his confidant and costume designer (Judi Dench), an American fashion journalist (Kate Hudson), the whore from his youth (Fergie) and his mother (Sophia Loren).Guido Contini is a gifted Italian filmmaker who, at the age of fifty, has developed writer's block and urges all the women in his life, alive and dead, to help him with it - his mind wanders to his unfinished set, where dozens of dancers and the films leading ladies appear first Claudia Jenssen, his leading lady; then his wife Luisa; his mistress Carla; his costume designer and confidant Lilli; his beloved Mamma; Stephanie, an American fashion journalist from Vogue; and finally Saraghina, a prostitute from his childhood; ("Overture Delle Donne"). It is 1965, and at the famous Cinecittà movie studios, in Rome, 'everyone has questions for Signor Contini.'
At a press conference at the Hotel Excelsior on the Via Veneto, hes charming and colorful, avoiding any clear answer on his new movie - his ninth with producer, Dante, - tentatively entitled "Italia". Here he meets Stephanie, a Vogue fashion journalist, with whom he begins a flirtation. Escaping the biting probes of the reporters, he creates an elaborate fantasy, which becomes ("Guidos Song") where he explains that he wishes he was young and energetic once again, since his talent was better then.
He escapes the press conference, the reporters and his producer and arrives at the Bellavista Spa Hotel. While being examined by the doctor, he receives a call from Carla, his mistress ("A Call from the Vatican"). She describes her desire for him, as he excitedly listens on the other end. She arrives at the spa, expecting to share his suite, but is upset to find that shes staying in a shabby pensione by the train station. Meanwhile, Guido learns that a Cardinal is also staying at his hotel and tells the cardinals assistant to arrange a meeting.
However, Dante soon arrives at the spa and escorts Contini to a banquet hall where the entire production team is assembled to help him prepare for his film. He sees Lilli, his costume designer, and begs for inspiration, while criticizing the costume shes in the middle of making as not being something an Italian woman would wear. She reminds him of Luisas birthday the previous day and disagrees, saying that it reminds her of Folies Bergères, a Parisian music hall that featured showgirls, where she 'learnt her art' ("Folies Bergères").
The Cardinal agrees to meet him and advises him to lead a more moral life and look to his youth for inspiration. Guidos thoughts lead him to remembering Saraghina, a prostitute whom he and his friends paid to teach them the art of love and sex ("Be Italian"). Young Guido is caught by his school teachers/priests and whipped by his principal. He awakens on top of Carla, in a fit of anxiety and abruptly leaves to meet his production team for dinner. She wants to come, but he vehemently refuses, reminding her that they dont want to hurt either of their spouses.
At dinner, hes happily surprised to see Luisa, who has come at Lillis request. He embraces her and wishes her a happy birthday, promising that when she returns home, the house will be filled with flowers. She sits, and the young priest from earlier, who recognizes her as one of Guidos earlier actresses, joins the table. In song, Luisa explains how shes become a different woman to be Guidos wife, abandoning her acting career to be at his side ("My Husband Makes Movies"). She then notices Carla entering the restaurant and immediately leaves, saying she feels tired. Guido doesnt understand why and follows her, asking whats happened. She ignores him and when he returns to the restaurant and sees Carla, he finally understands. He demands that Carla go back to the pensione, and she leaves, heartbroken.
When Guido goes to the suite to try to smooth things over, Luisa refuses to listen. He goes to the lobby and meets Stephanie, who has tracked him down. Guido and Stephanie continue to flirt, and she describes her love for his movies and how fashionable he makes everything seem ("Cinema Italiano"). She leaves her room key in his pocket. While in her room, watching her undress, he realizes how much he cares for his wife and leaves. He returns to the suite and promises that hes done with cheating. Luisa embraces him, but hes called away to help Carla, whos overdosed on pills. The doctor comments how reckless and immoral Guido is, which Guido doesnt contest. He stays with Carla until her husband arrives. He returns to the hotel to find that Luisa has left and the crew has returned to Rome to begin filming.
His mother returns to him to advise him to repair his life ("Guarda La Luna"). He calls Luisa from the studio to beg her to come to the screen testing that evening. She hangs up without response. He arrives at the set to film shots of Claudia in her costumes. She does a few takes, but leaves, saying shell return when she reads the script. Guido agrees that thats fair and drives her away. Theyre followed by paparazzi, but he manages to lose them. Claudia realizes that there is no script and they take a walk. She asks him what he wants the film to be about and his description closely resembles his own ordeal: a man lost and in love with so many women. When they stop to rest, she tells him that she loves him but he is unable to love her ("Unusual Way"). Claudia tells him he doesn't see the real her, only the movie star he has created for the masses. She leaves.
He returns to review screen tests of new actresses and keeps looking to the back to see if Luisa has arrived. Hes relieved when she finally does. She watches and is heartbroken to see him say something in a clip to an actress that hed said to her when they first met. When everyone leaves, she explains to him that hes reminded her that shes not special, just another link in the chain and leaves him ("Take It All").
He finally comes to terms with his mental block ("I Cant Make This Movie"), realizing that hes lost everything: his wife, his muse, his talent, and has nothing to make the movie. He apologizes to the staff that there was never a movie, just an idea, and has the set destroyed before leaving Rome.
Two years later, Guido is in a café in Anguillara looking at an advertisement for a play starring Luisa. He waits outside the theatre that night, and watches her leave with a man. He walks with Lilli a few days later and tries to find more information about her. Lilli tells him that shes not going be to be the middle-man for them, implying that Luisa asks for him as well. She asks if he will ever make a movie again. He says that he wont because he wouldnt know what to make, except a movie about a man trying to win back his wife. Lilli says that thats a good start and the costumes wont be too bad either.
Guido returns to his element, passionate about a story once more. As he speaks with his actors about the scene, his nine-year-old self (Giuseppe Spitaleri) gathers the cast of Guidos life together. As Guido takes his place in the directors chair, the cast of Guido's life assemble on the scaffolding behind him, culminating with the arrival of his mother and nine-year-old Guido running to sit on the older Guidos lap ("Finale"). Luisa arrives without being seen and watches in that background, happy to see Guido back to his old self. She smiles as he is raised on a crane and calls, Action!
[edit] | pornographic, romantic, flashback | train | imdb | And the performance objective is relied upon Daniel Day Lewis who carries it off easily with the help of a great supporting cast like Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard and Judi Dench.
His late mother (Sofia Loren), his wife Marion Cotillard, his mistress (Penelope Cruz), his costume designer and closest friend (Judi Dench), a fashion reporter (Kate Hudson), a childhood temptress Saraghina (Stacey "Fergie" Ferguson) and his leading lady (Nicole Kidman).Contini tries to escape the pressure looming overhead by the media, his producers, and his cast and crew.
The film can be reviewed in two aspects though, its performances and its story, so I'll dissect those.Performances: Let me first say that no actress delivered any less than they possibly could, and you could tell that the cast had worked their butts off during production.The Great- Marion Cotillard in particular delivered what is sure to be one of the most understated performances in recent memory, as well as delivering the two most powerful and emotional numbers in the show.
Most importantly, these three worked so well because they were interlinked in each other's story, and as a result their plot lines flowed well into each other.The OK- DDL and Sophia Loren were fine in their parts, simply filling out their roles and not seriously improving on or dragging down the movie in any way.The Misused- Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, and Fergie were all criminally misused, although fantastic when on the screen.
All three had stories that didn't synch with the movie, whether they be Kidman (who honestly needed a more fleshed out role that came in contact w/ other characters other than just Guido), Hudson (whose number really felt like it would have made more sense in the beginning of the movie), or Fergie ("Be Italian" felt shoehorned in and disconnected, and would have been a perfect opener or closing number).
Daniel Day-Lewis was very believable in his role as the immature child trapped inside the older man's body named Guido, as his life spins out of control as reality finally begins to catch up with him.The main problem that critics had with this movie was that it wasn't like Fredrico Fellini's 8 1/2 on which nine was based but they shouldn't be comparing the two.
The female cast includes his wife (Marion Cotillard), his mistress (Penelope Cruz), his costume designer (Judi Dench), the woman from his childhood (Fergie), an American fashion designer (Kate Hudson), his muse (Nicole Kidman) and his mother (Sophia Loren).
Dench brings comic relief, having more scenes than any other of the actresses in the film, but also brings depth, playing a kind of a psychiatrist to the lead character, and also bringing a fantastic voice, for her musical number, which contains many chorus girls in feather boas, you think you're watching The Rockettes or something out of A Chorus Line, but for the song, it certainly works.
Rob Marshall, having directed Chicago and Memoirs of a Geisha knows a thing or two about grand-scale production musical numbers and high-octane drama, and he brings it all to this film, although some of the songs are cut in a way that feels chaotic and rushed, but I think it doesn't hurt the movie at all.
The female cast includes his wife (Marion Cotillard), his mistress (Penelope Cruz), his costume designer (Judi Dench), a prostitute from his childhood (Fergie), an American fashion designer (Kate Hudson), his muse (Nicole Kidman), and his mother (Sophia Loren).
The film stars a studded-cast of A-list celebrities including Academy Award Winners Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren, Oscar Nominee Kate Hudson, and Stacy Ferguson a.k.a. Fergie.
She has charisma in her speaking scenes and sort of upstages Day-Lewis much of the time, she eventually falls victim to a bland, insipid account.Sophia Loren, the beautiful veteran Italian actress plays Mamma as in Guido's Mom, and gives a presence of royalty that the film lacks.
Evaluate it on its on merits and not if it is "faithful" to a movie it is based upon.Secondly, if you don't like musicals, (especially stage musicals) or stunningly beautiful and sexy women, then maybe this will not be your cup of tea, and neither will your review be very helpful.That said, this movie was VERY stylishly filmed and edited, the music was GREAT, a la "broadway cabaret" (NOT "berlin" syle), the acting was dramatic and believable (from Daniel Day-Lewis and Dame Judy Dench, I expect no less) the women were awesome, the dancing and choreography was top notch.
It's well staged (no pun intended) and choreographed, and it doesn't feel claustrophobic, as so many movies adapted from plays do.Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a legendary film director whose most recent movies have been flops, and he's in the middle of a crisis on his latest, titled Italia: he has no script and no idea on how to proceed.As he struggles to keep the movie afloat - and while production begins - Guido must also juggle the affections and attentions of the various women in his life, from his mother (Sophia Loren) to his lover (Penelope Cruz) to his wife (Marion Cotillard) to his muse/leading lady (Nicole Kidman) to a reporter (Kate Hudson) to a long-ago crush (Stacey Ferguson) to his confidant (Dame Judi Dench).
If you can accept that this isn't meant to be a linear plot like Chicago (i.e., murderess gets her due), it's a lot easier to swallow the film itself.And amid all of the flash and glamour of the musical numbers is another treasure of a performance from Day-Lewis, who seemingly doesn't know how to be a bad actor.
That's particularly challenging given that most of the numbers - which serve as reflections of the characters' thoughts and feelings and the movie's themes - are done largely on surrealistic soundstages, as opposed to the on-location filming of the non-musical portions of the movie.No surprise, Day-Lewis is superb as the dashing but world-weary director (truly as much a celebrity as an artist), perfectly capturing the angst, frustration and conflict taking place deep within the soul of a creator who still has so much to say - despite his protestations to the contrary - but not the slightest clue of how to say it.
Interestingly, by tamping down some of Fellini's cinematic "distancing devices" and icy-cool tone, the movie actually allows us to relate with Guido on a more personal level and to care more deeply about his plight.Marion Cotillard replaces Anouk Aimee as Guido's devoted but long-suffering wife who knows about her husband's infidelity and who suspects he has become a filmmaker as a means both of avoiding having to deal with real life and of achieving personal forgiveness and redemption for himself; Penelope Cruz stars as Guido's flighty mistress, whose sudden appearance at the spa throws Guido's world into a tizzy; and Sophia Loren puts in an occasional appearance as Guido's recently deceased mother who gives him words of advice and comfort from beyond the grave.
Fergie's "Be Italian", Marion Cotillard's beauty and expressiveness, Judi Dench's lines and Day-Lewis make up for the previously mentioned flaws, though.Thus, if you feel like watching a musical, watch "Chicago".
According to critics, everything.Well, this movie is not perfect and it has flaws (especially in the screenplay and the directing), but it's far from being the cinematic crap many critics claimed.Visually contains some stunning elements like Dion Beebe's remarkable cinematography or Collen Atwood's gorgeous costume design and the recreation of 1960's Rome is simply astonishing.As i mentioned before the flaws of the movie come with Rob Marshall's flat direction in some parts of the movie and the screenplay that has several plot holes (like Hudson's character, who absolutely has no business in this movie) and can't integrate perfectly some of the musical numbers to the main plot and the fact that Guido is a character that some people see as hard to sympathize since some of his actions can be seen as misogynists.The MVP is the cast: all of them shine with what's given to them, Day-Lewis (who's often called as a miscast) captures perfectly the spirit of a filmmaker in trouble.
Before wasting your time+money, I'll break down the components of this cinegraphic nightmare: If you badly misinterpret and try to remake scenes from Fellini's La Dolce Vita and 8-1/2, with Bob Fosse's "All That Jazz", then miscast an intense, humorless British actor (Daniel Day Lewis) as a Marcello Mastrianni type character, sprinkle in lots of undeveloped 2-dimensional characters like in an overly-Botoxed expressionless Nicole Kidman (as his muse) chubby scuinty-eyed, talentless Kate Hudson as a flirty fashionista,...Kate Hudson (?!) had absolutely NO business even being in this movie.
They are played by Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Judi Dench, Fergie, Sophia Loren and Marion Cotilard.A movie about writers block does not make for great entertainment.
The one thing that saves the movie are the performances of the impressive all star cast: Irish actor Daniel Day-Lewis tries hard to "be Italian", Marion Cotillard is excellent in the role of his wife, as well as Penelope Cruz as his mistress.
His one escape; women such as his mistress (Penelope Cruz) and leading lady (Nicole Kidman), both of whom he is having affairs with to the chagrin of his wife (Marion Cotillard).Actresses flood this movie (Kate Hudson, Fergie, Judy Dench, and Sophia Loren also star), each getting a brief cameo and a song apiece, but it is only Cotillard who manages any emotional pull, playing the long-tortured wife.
For most, Fergie's "Be Italian" number is what they remember from this film, but for me it was Kate Hudson's "Cinema Italiano." Hudson demonstrates commitment to this sequence that is as professional as many seasoned musical performers, particularly her fluid dancing.Marion Cotillard plays the "angel" amid all these whores, and while it's not an enviable role, she absolutely shines with ambivalence of being married to a rogue.
The wife, Luisa, is estranged (Marion Cotillard), the mistress, Carla, goes crazy (Penelope Cruz), he exchanges banter with confidante, Lilli (the regal Dame Judi Dench), his superstar muse loses patience (Nicole Kidman), dead ma haunts around aimlessly (Sophia Loren), old mutton hooker sexes things up (Fergie) and new mutton Journo sexes things up (Kate Hudson) ...Now, I must make it clear I have not seen the original source material, Fellini's '8 1/2', nor have I seen the Broadway stage version, so this review is through the eyes of a Guido Virgin...and I know some are precious about this beloved character.
Uninspired, he heads to a resort where he mulls over his current loves: his wife (Marion Cotilard); his mistress (Penélope Cruz); his muse (Nicole Kidman); and a journalist (Kate Hudson), all of whom sing a little ditty about Guido.Based on a stage play inspired by the film 8 1/2, Nine is a shoddy substitute for Federico Fellini's atypical autobiography: the story is fractured, the songs are forgettable and the film-making is flawed.
For the seven women of his life – Lilli as mentioned, estranged wife Luisa (Marion Cotillard), mistress and actress Carla (Penelope Cruz), Saraghina (Fergie), mother (Sophia Loren), reporter Stephanie (Kate Hudson) and his actress-muse-international star Claudia (Nicole Kidman), each were dedicated a number in which we learn an episode of Guido's life from the past and present, which will shape the course of his immediate future.
And given Rob Marshall's experience with musical adaptations on film, he does his best with these segments, each bringing out the personality of the women, and adding plenty of colour through lavish costumes and set designs.Daniel Day-Lewis continues to impress, no less of course, with his Italian faux-pas accent, as do the rest of the cast who play the various Italian characters here, and how he handles his character's tremendous weight that comes crashing down upon him, having to continuously run away from his problems, only to compound issues, especially when he's trying to reconcile with his wife.
Marion Cotillard hasn't impressed me much since her La Vie En Rose, and here she more than makes up for it with a powerful performance as the neglected wife still holding onto a sliver of hope to make up with Guido, only to find disappointment each time when she thought they could be on to something.Some of the actresses had really bit roles, like Fergie though she had an extended song sequence to perform in, Penelope Cruz as usual looked extremely sultry as the tragic mistress (with a dirty killer line!) and Nicole Kidman was just plain luminous in her role here (with a Bardot quality) that it's hard to imagine she did this role just 4 weeks after delivery.
Caught between the many women in his life: his wife ( Marion Cotillard), his mistress ( Penelope Cruz), a journalist( Kate Hudson), his muse(Nicole Kidman), a prostitute(Fergie) and even his mother(Sophia Lauren), he lacks inspiration and fails to come up with a script for his next movie.
With Daniel Day Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Fergie, Sophia Loren, Ricky Tognazzi.
The difference here is that Fellini's film is unbelievably deep and artistic, with an incomparable characterization and prodding of human concerns while the Broadway musical is simply the storyline with little or no focus on its characters and excelling only on the musical aspect.In the film, Guido (Daniel Day-Lewis) goes about making a film which doesn't even have a script and, struggling to find a decent plot, consults a variety of women which have made a great impact in his life, including: Claudia (Nicole Kidman) a celebrated international star and Guido's muse; Luisa (Marion Cotillard) his supportive wife; Carla (Penélope Cruz) his obsessive lover; Lilli (Judi Dench) his best friend and costume designer to all his films; Stephanie (Kate Hudson) an American reporter who adores the ground he walks on; Saraghina (Fergie) an exhibitionist coquette whom he meets during his childhood; and, most importantly, his mother (Sophia Loren) whom he worships above all women but who is, unfortunately, deceased.You look at the cast and you can't help your mouth going agape at the amount of talent the film has brought together: all the women are beyond famous, five are Academy Award-winners (Kidman, Cotillard, Cruz, Dench and Loren), one is the queen of rom-coms (Hudson) and one is a Grammy-winner recording artist (Fergie, from the Black Eyed Peas).
Director Federico Fellini (1920-1993) was an authentic artist...something which is not precisely a compliment.His movies (at least the ones I have seen) seem to be based on impulse and whim, at the same time they have very few method and discipline.Some people admire that, but honestly, I am not one of them.The film 8½ may be his most personal work, because it seems as a celebration/apology/explanation of his creative processes, contemplated in the context of his imagination (or subconscious?), where at the same time he examines the influence that many women had in his life.46 years later, the movie Nine added ostentatious and over-designed musical numbers interpreted by famous actresses in their underwear to that combination.Well, to be fair, I have to say that in the 80's, composers Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston adapted 8½ to a musical in Broadway.And what Nine does is taking that musical to the big screen with the direction of Rob Marshall (whose previous incursion in the musical genre was with the highly overrated Chicago), and the result is a boring and very mediocre film.I found Nine to be excessively pretentious, and with tedious songs.What is more, I found the performance from the great Daniel Day-Lewis to be feigned and bland.Among the few elements I liked in this film are some performances from the female cast, where the members who stand out are Kate Hudson and Marion Cotillard.I think that a musical film has the obligation of having good songs and an at least functional story to work as a support from the songs.Nine fails in both fields, so I cannot recommend this tedious movie.If you wanna see an excellent musical film, I recommend you Moulin Rouge or Fame (1980)..
After seeing "Chicago" and absolutely loving it,i immediately started searching for Rob Marshall's other work.And then i stumbled upon "Nine".From the trailer it seemed quite promising,it looked great and the cast was really surprising.I'd never had thought i'd see Daniel Day-Lewis do a musical.He plays Guido Contini,this Italian movie director who is experiencing a writers/creative block.The movie follows his life and love interests.Gudio Contini wasn't really a likeable character nor did i really care what will happen to him.
The movie version of the musical "Nine" (based on Fellini's 8-1/2) was released in 2009 with a wonderful cast that included Daniel Day-Lewis as Guido, Marion Cotillard as his wife Luisa, Penelope Cruz as his mistress Carla, Kate Hudson as a reporter, Judy Dench as his costumer, Nicole Kidman as his muse Claudia, Fergie as a woman on the beach, and Sophia Loren as his mother.I am at a disadvantage because I didn't see the musical, but quite a bit was cut from the score, which is a shame.
The rest of the "all star" cast doesn't fair much better: Sophia Loren looks like an extra-terrestrial (no doubt from having one face-stretch too many), Daniel Day-Lewis is forgettable and is upstaged by his car (which, seriously, is the only interesting showpiece in the entire film), Nicole Kidman does practically nothing, Judy Dench is in her typical mother-hen role, and Fergie (who is apparently not the ex-member of the British Royal Family but a member of the Black Eyed Peas) I can't remember seeing.
The rest of the "all star" cast doesn't fair much better: Sophia Loren looks like an extra-terrestrial (no doubt from having one face-stretch too many), Daniel Day-Lewis is forgettable and is upstaged by his car (which, seriously, is the only interesting showpiece in the entire film), Nicole Kidman does practically nothing, Judy Dench is in her typical mother-hen role, and Fergie (who is apparently not the ex-member of the British Royal Family but a member of the Black Eyed Peas) I can't remember seeing. |
tt1431181 | Another Year | Tom Hepple, a geologist, and Gerri Hepple, a counsellor, are an older married couple who have a comfortable, loving relationship. The film observes them over the course of the four seasons of a year, surrounded by family and friends who mostly suffer some degree of unhappiness. Gerri's friend and colleague, Mary, works as a receptionist at the health centre. She is a middle-aged divorcee seeking a new relationship, and despite telling everyone she is happy, appears desperate and depressed. She often seems to drink too much. The Hepples' only child, Joe, is 30 and unmarried and works as a solicitor giving advice on housing.
In the summer, the Hepples are visited by Ken, Tom's old friend from his student days. Ken is overweight, eats, smokes and drinks compulsively and seems very unhappy. Tom and Gerri host a barbecue in Ken's honour. Mary drives her newly bought car to the party, but gets lost and arrives late. Having had some wine, she flirts with Joe, whom she has known since he was a child. He remains friendly but does not reciprocate the flirtation. After the party, Mary reluctantly gives Ken a lift to the train station. He makes a clumsy romantic advance and Mary irritably rejects him.
Months later, in the autumn, Mary is once again at Tom and Gerri's home. Joe arrives with a new girlfriend, Katie. Mary appears rude and hostile towards Katie, which is not appreciated by Tom and Gerri. This creates a rift between Gerri and Mary.
In the winter, Tom, Gerri, and Joe attend the funeral for the wife of Tom's brother, Ronnie. Towards the end of the service, Ronnie's estranged son, Carl, arrives, and angrily asks why the ceremony was not delayed for him. At the reception at Ronnie's house, Carl becomes aggressive and walks out. Tom and Gerri invite Ronnie back to London to stay with them for a while and Ronnie agrees.
While Tom and Gerri are at their garden allotment Mary arrives unannounced at their home and persuades Ronnie to let her in. Her car has just been written off and she is upset. The two have a cup of tea and a desultory chat before Mary takes a nap on the settee. When Tom and Gerri return they are unhappy to find Mary at their house. Gerri explains to Mary that she feels let down by her earlier behaviour towards Katie. Mary apologises and weeps. Gerri gradually extends a degree of warmth to Mary, suggesting that she should seek professional help and inviting her to stay for dinner, and the two women set the table. Joe and Katie arrive, their relationship still appearing strong and happy. The Hepples enjoy dinner together. Mary eats with them but appears lost and uncertain. | romantic, boring, depressing | train | wikipedia | Their friends and family, by contrast, all struggle to some extent with unhappiness, and a sense that their best years may be behind them.The film is a story of ageing; the small events that can make life either comforting or unbearable; and the refuge that companionship can offer.Rut Sheen's role as Gerri is superb.
Jim Broadbent's Tom is charming and self-effacing, confident in his own happiness yet nonplussed at the failure of his friend Ken – Peter Wight – to come to terms with growing old.The film dwells on the small, predominantly non-verbal signals that reveal emotional and social insecurity.
The cyclical nature of the structure suggests that there is no real remedy for those left unloved and lonely at the film's conclusion.From the opening scene, where a woman silently struggles to recollect the happiest moment in her life, to the point when the dialogue slowly fades away to leave Mary isolated and forlorn, we cannot help but be both enchanted and dismayed by the emotional honesty of Mike Leigh's characters.
Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen), the couple at the centre of Mike Leigh's latest existential piece, couldn't be more unlike the cartoon characters who share their names.
I wouldn't complain if my marriage looked like theirs when I'm in my 50s.When he isn't working as a geologist and she isn't counselling people, they spend their time providing solace to those who need it – Ken (Peter Wight), a straight-talking, John Smiths-drinking Yorkshireman; Ronnie (David Bradley), Tom's laconic brother whose wife has just died; and most of all Mary (Lesley Manville), a jittery colleague of Gerri's in the middle of a mid-life crisis.
With the UK attempting to educate 50% of the secondary school student population to university level, a socially engineered bifurcation to haves and have-nots is being created once again.All of the characters in the film are from working class backgrounds and yet the fortunes that life has graced them with are distinctly uneven, they have gone in different directions, absent any idea of a shared experience that may have been the rock of previous generations of Britons.
Mary for example was never allowed to help with anything, though this does not excuse her, at times, appalling behaviour (depression makes people selfish, however I feel it necessary to point out as well that someone who is drowning in a river and calling for a life ring, is also being "selfish" in the same way, and I think metaphorically the position is very similar).Dour joyless watching, maybe one for the Cabinet to watch, after the example of the film La Haine, which concentrated on French malaise and was screened in front of the French cabinet at the instigation of Prime Minister Alain Juppé..
Lesley Manville's agonised performance as Mary, aching with envy at the solidity and comfort of her best friend's solid marriage, must be a shoo-in for awards next year, but Ruth Sheen is also 100% believable as the endlessly patient, almost 'saintly' Gerri.
Lesley Manville as Mary truly deserves the Best Actor Oscar for her perfectly nuanced, scary and convincing portrayal of a woman on the brink of personal desperation due to her many life mistakes and to her extremely fragile emotional nature that served to spiral her further and further down toward mental illness with every romantic disappointment and life mistake she made.
An astounding performance, and so touching, as you felt every pain Mary felt due to Lesley's spot-on interpretation of her character's neediness and weaknesses and what they cost her.This film tells a story(by the 4 seasons)of a year in the lives of a UK couple and their friends.
a woman too attractive to always be alone but always is alone after every failed attempt at a relationship, always suffering badly from each failure to find what she wants so badly.Not much of an intricate plot here, as in all Mike Leigh films, but the story was such an absorbing and typical Mike Leigh take on the day-to-day happenings in the ordinary and everyday lives of a normal UK couple and some at-risk friends.
Wonderful portrayals, both.See this film for engaging personal interaction and for the best acting performance of 2010, but be prepared for your own uncomfortable and awkward feelings throughout due to Mary's many sufferings and how her endless tales of them affected her(long-suffering)friends.
The foundation of the film, as well as the foundation for most of the other characters in the film, is the happily married couple of Tom and Gerri, played by the terrific Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen.
She is single, not getting any younger, desperately trying to avoid loneliness (too often with a bottle), masking her fear through fake excitement, and latched onto the security blanket offered by Tom and Gerri's friendship.When family friend Ken (Peter Wight) makes a move on Mary, she shuns him because of his lack of perfection.
In Mike Leigh's new slice of life, Another Year, a married couple who have managed to remain blissfully happy into their crumbling autumn days are surrounded over the course of the four seasons of one seemingly average year by friends, colleagues, and family, many of whom appear to suffer some degree of unhappiness or at least confusion.
As it's a Mike Leigh film, all the actors will all have been living "in character" for maybe six months before breezing through, stirring up the plot with their back story and emotional infrastructure.Lesley Manville, as Mary, the lonely and unstable girl of a certain age - 40, going on 17, really steals this in the final part, which gets even more intense than the rest of it.
Mike Leighs wonderfully ironic yet sweet look at life takes a little twist in this super ensemble movie which centers around Tom and Gerri and shows us these characters mainly as reflected by their friends and kin.
Since we learn almost nothing about these people (and they certainly seem to learn nothing about themselves), it is, worst sin of all, boring.The emotional center/hole of this film is Gerri, the counselor, whose inadequacy/ ineffectiveness is highlighted by an early scene with a potential patient, the actress Emelda Staunton, a working class person who presents with depression.
It becomes apparent that Mary has had a series of spectacularly inappropriate failed romantic relationships (including one with a married man) and during the movie, an attempt at relationships with Gerri's son, 20 or so years her junior, and Tom's brother whose wife has just died.
This serves to emphasize the distance the film has from the actual characters.Over and over again, Tom or Gerri ask "how are you" when it is completely obvious that the person to whom this is addressed is collapsing.All in all, a series of poorly connected people with no insights or resolution.
So when, at the end of this movie, the therapist Gerri tells the disturbed Mary, who thought she was a friend of 20 years duration, to see a therapist, I had a different reaction to this movie than many others.This movie, about the happy middle-class couple Tom and Gerri, is more a cautionary tale that "friends" are not the same as family, and that therapy and friendship evidently cannot mix.
Gerri, who is supposed to be warm and nurturing, is cold to Mary, as cold as she was in her counseling session with Imelda Staunton which starts the movie.At the same time, Tom's brother, Ronnie, who has been widowed, has not been seen at all during the prior year and has not even been mentioned.
Since it's one of the absolute best movies of 2010, the answer is a sweet and swift "YES!" The film spans over the course of one year in the life of a happy, and healthy elderly couple, Tom and Gerri.
The two of them have a son named Joe, and over the time frame of the film, try to spread their own cheer to their less than cheery friends, such as the distraught Ken, Tom's under spoken and passive brother Ronnie, and their alcoholic, and also quite conflicted friend Mary.First praise goes to the cast, featuring a huge group of characters, and none of them feel wasted.
Other cast members who do a convincing job include David Bradley, Peter Wight, and the miracle that is Lesley Manville, who steals every scene she's in, gripping us with her enigmatic exterior, until delivering a punch to the gut in the film's final 20 minutes that broke yours truly down to a teary mess.But the real star of Another Year is Mike Leigh.
Mike Leigh's 'Another Year' at first feels like a very smug movie: a likable, affluent couple pass their time together over the course of a year, often in the company of variously inadequate friends who alternately entertain them and require their support.
What makes the film a success is the sheer skill with which director and cast pull off the individual encounters: Leigh famously prepares for writing the final drafts of his scripts through improvisation, and this film in particular feels like an assembly of scenes emerging from a workshop, but there's no denying they're beautifully done, drawing you into the misery of the characters even where you knew exactly what was coming.
Isolation and loneliness have often hit people late in life, but Leigh is showing how the collapse of any public life in the provinces is making this unfortunate situation more likely for more people.It would be easy, and wrong, to see Tom and Gerri – yes, this awful gag is deliberately played upon from time to time – as a smug couple lording it over their unfortunate friends.
A seemingly simple tale of a year in a number of people's lives, the film plumbs the inner soul of all the characters, especially that of Mary played by the astonishing Leslie Manville.
Her performance as the tragically depressed Mary will stay with you for days and will easily erase the memory of the over the top dying swan of this years Best Actress winner.) As with all Mike Leigh films, Another year is not for everyone, but if you are a serious lover of film you must not miss this wonderful production.
The film is focused around the happily married couple Tom and Gerri played by Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen.
It stars Lesley Manville as Mary and Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen as Tom and Gerri, a relatively old married couple.To be honest, I didn't find any theme in this movie, and it lacked a plot.
It follows Tom and Gerri's family and friends' lives throughout a year, without being even remotely interesting.To like this movie, you have to be into long and slow movies without much action, and it appeals more to old people than teenagers.This movie wasn't my cup of tea at all.
Tom and Geri are completely unable to deal with her and end up just shutting her out of their lives.I don't know if it's intentional or not but this film depicts all the horror of middle- class English life: cold and uncommunicative people who only seem nice but are really nasty to one another underneath, horrified at the slightest manifestation of emotion (be it love or anger), always wanting to dilute every experience and take the sting out of every situation.The idea of the "year" is supposed to be conveyed by the four seasons, depicted as the four seasons in the allottment tended by Tom and Geri.
It's clear that Mike Leigh had something interesting he wanted to say with the film - something critical about English society- but he slips into making it a soft-focus poem about the happy, basically stupid life of Tom and Geri with their allottment and their cups of tea.
I loved this film -- another excellent character study from Mike Leigh and a solid, "quiet" standout film that should have been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar instead of 99% of the ones that are on this year's ballot (exception granted to The King's Speech).If you like noisy, action-packed films, then don't go, and please don't post a one-star review of how "boring" this film is.
Unlike most Hollywood films that mainly depict the lives of quirky young, well-to-do suburbanites, Mike Leigh's Another Year, shows a mature, apparently well-matched, and devoted couple that has been together for 35 years and their efforts to offer solace to their not so fortunate friends.
Leigh's Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen) show begins when Gerri, a medical counselor, attempts to minister to Janet, a sleep-deprived, depressed older woman (Imelda Staunton) without any emotional response."On a scale of 1 to 10", she asks the patient, "How would you rate your happiness?" The answer not surprisingly is a "One", but Janet refuses to discuss her personal life any further and Gerri is left in a state of frustration.
Like many people who believe that happiness lies in accumulating things, Mary buys a used car and this makes her happy, at least for a few days, until the car acts up, she gets lost a few times, and collects parking tickets.Things go downhill from there when the wife of Tom's uncommunicative brother Ronnie (David Bradley) dies suddenly.
We follow four seasons in the lives of the middle-aged married couple Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen), their 30-year-old bachelor son Joe and Gerri single colleague Mary (Lesley Manville).
Another Year is among his most tranquil films, a reflection of life passing, and Tom and Gerri are among his most understanding, quiet characters - they listen, understand, and make peace when things are turbulent.
The story of a year in the life of the two main protagonists isn't especially interesting but then again other Leigh films like High Hopes and Naked have very little happening in the way of actual plot.
My favourite Leigh work is Career Girls, Meantime, High Hopes, Life is Sweet and the TV movie Nuts in May, however Another Year lacks the black humour of those films hence why i only gave it 7/10.
First one is Mary (Leslie Manville) is a middle-aged divorcée receptionist, heavy alcoholic desperate seeking a new relationship – and eye Tom and Gerri's son Joe (Oliver Maltman) who is much younger - around 30 years old.
Tom and Gerri have a simple happy life but people around them seem to have problems.Mike Leigh produces a not-very-dramatic relationship at the center of this movie.
In his most recent work, he brings together practically all of his directing powers, culminating in a very serious, and sometimes charming, story focusing on a loving couple and the various sorts they have remained friends with over the years.Like so many of the greatest directors, Leigh has established a strong rapport with a small collection of actors, resulting in very strong performances every time out.
The characterization of especially the married couple Tom, Gerri and Gerri's friend Mary is so powerful that in few seconds you forget that it's a movie as it seems like a camera on someone life.
Mike Leigh's films have been constantly sterling all these years, I have only watched three so far NAKED (1993, a 6/10), VERA DRAKE (2004, a 9/10) and SECRETS & LIES (1996, a 8/10), in ANOTHER YEAR, Leigh conspires a more conventional route rotates around a cozily married old couple, Tom & Gerri, and their 4-seasoned episodes with the closest people to their life.
Tom and Gerri has a good life and are often visited by their successful thirty-year-old son Joe, but they also have a close friend named Mary who is not at all content with her single life.Acutely and precisely directed by English filmmaker Mike Leigh, this finely paced and dialog-driven character piece portrays an involving and intimate story about interpersonal relations, family relations, coming-of-age, loneliness, friendship, marriage and love during four seasons in London, England.
While notable for it's naturalistic urban milieu depictions, ardent production design by Simon Beresford, cinematography by British cinematographer Dick Pope, his seventh collaboration with Mike Leigh, and a subtle score by English composer Gary Yershon, this existentialistic, humane and poignantly atmospheric slice of life conveys a charmingly humorous and unsentimental tale.This incisively written independent film which depicts several studies of character, is impelled and reinforced by it's stringent narrative structure, the heartfelt, understated and remarkable acting performances by English actor Jim Broadbent, English actress Ruth Sheen, English actress Lesley Manville and some fine acting performances from a great supporting cast.
Director: Mike LeighStarring: Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville, Peter Wight, Oliver Maltman, Karina FernandezWe are following the happily married couple Tom and Gerri through a whole year.
The film is a British comedy / drama that revolves around a happily married couple who are visited throughout the year by their family and friends who are not so happy, for the most part.
Although Leigh did receive an Oscar nomination for original screenplay he's admitted (as with all his movies) the actors improvised for sometime (getting into character with each other) prior to filming which grew into the final script.Broadbent plays Tom and Sheen plays Gerri, a married couple who's been together for quite some time.
Watching a Mike Leigh movie is a bit like eavesdropping on the lives and conversations of people we may not know personally but whom we sure do recognize, since we see so much of ourselves reflected in them.
At the core of the film, however, lie Gerri (Ruth Sheen) and Tom (Jim Broadbent), a happily married couple who somehow seem to have come to terms with the realities of life and aging and, thus, serve as pillars of moral strength and emotional stability that others can lean on in times of stress.
The movie another year is directed by Mike Leigh is a typical brutish film.
It's a film about a cinematic rarity--a happily married couple.Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Mary (Lesley Manville) are a happy and contented couple who are comfortable in their life and their marriage. |
tt0100685 | State of Grace | Terry Noonan (Penn) returns to Hell's Kitchen in New York City after a 10-year absence, where his unpredictable childhood friend Jackie Flannery (Oldman) is involved in an Irish crime organization (based on The Westies) run by his older brother Frank/Frankie (Harris). Terry also rekindles an old relationship with Jackie's sister Kathleen (Wright).
Terry is actually working as an undercover cop, and confesses it to Kathleen, who is reluctant to have anything to do with him after being told by her brother Frank that he is now a member of his gang for killing two people, although he explains it was staged with his undercover boss Nick (Turturro), firing only blanks.
Jackie is drinking in a bar one night when three members of a rival Italian gang enter. He snaps, and ends up killing all three for intruding on his gang's territory; he also suspects their involvement in the killing of his friend, Stevie (Reilly). Soon Frank is summoned to a meeting by the Italian Mafia boss Borelli and is instructed to kill his brother Jackie, who has become a "thorn" in "our side". Frank has told Jackie to lie in wait in case the meeting goes wrong and becomes a hit, and only manages to avert a war by hugging the Italian leader outside the restaurant in full view of his gang, causing them to retreat.
Frank arranges for Jackie to collect $25,000 after lying to him that the Italians are actually supporting them and that this is their reward, telling him to go to Battery Park. Terry tags along as Jackie's secret backup, finding that the location has been changed to Pier 84. As they wait at Pier 84, Frank arrives with his top enforcer Pat Nicholson (Call) just as Terry has stepped away to frantically phone his handlers to inform them that they have been sent to the wrong location. Frank fatally shoots and kills Jackie in cold blood. The police finally arrive and Terry tells Nick that he is quitting as an undercover operative.
At Jackie's funeral, Terry reveals to Frank that he was at Pier 84, and also hands him his police badge. Hours later, while Kathleen is watching the St. Patrick's Day parade alone, Terry goes to the bar where Frank and his gang are waiting. In a deadly shootout, Frank and all of his men are killed. Having been shot three times, Terry slumps to the floor before the film fades to black. | violence, neo noir, murder | train | wikipedia | Three actors were given that opportunity in State of Grace: Ed Harris, Gary Oldman and Sean Penn.
Oldman completely and utterly loses himself in the role of Jackie Flannery, a small-time Irish gangster that happens to be the younger, impulsive, reckless brother of the head boss of the Irish mob in Hell's Kitchen, Frank Flannery.
Every time it looks like the deal will go through, some member of Frank's gang does something stupid to insult the Italians, and each time this happens Frank is called upon (by the Italians) to do their retribution upon his own people.In the midst of this very dangerous situation enters Terry Noonan (Sean Penn), Jackie's best friend from childhood who is now a cop and undercover with the directive to do no less than take down Frank's entire gang.
However, it doesn't take long before Terry's rekindled relationship with his old friends and his new loyalties to another party become at odds with one another, and our hero soon finds himself torn between the two.State of Grace has all the violence, foul language and hot-headed characters that are part and parcel of this sort of film; but at its core is a very well worked plot, bolstered by some great characterisation.
He is supported by the underrated Ed Harris, who grows on me more and more every time I see him, in the film's most level-headed role - but the real star of the show is Gary Oldman.
Aside from being a great, dark film, with a substantial plot line and a GIANT cast (Oldman, Penn, and Harris), this is an Oldman performance not to be believed.
And, as usual, he gives a performance to be equalled by none.Sean Penn is marvelous, too, and Harris portrays evil incarnate.This film should be re-evaluated, and Gary Oldman should have received the Oscar for it.
(And this is not to shortshrift the incredible work offered by Penn, Harris, Wright, Reilly and the rest of this film's ensemble.) It's disgraceful that Hollywood can't think of anything better to do with this brilliant and courageous actor these days than 'villain roles' in big-budget comic books like LOST IN SPACE, but when he's working with material commensurate to his skill, he's without peer.
"State Of Grace" is a film loosely based on the story of the "Westies", the New York Hells Kitchen Irish mob that thrived during the 70s and early 80s.
Music is by Ennio Morricone and cinematography by Jordan Cronenweth.Terry Noonan (Penn) returns to Hells Kitchen after a number of years away and finds his best pal, Jackie Flannery (Oldman), is a major player in the Irish/American mob being run by his elder brother, Frankie Flannery (Harris).
You don't need to be a film genius to realise the gangster thriller is as old as cinema itself, although by the Seventies, it was looking a little ragged around the edges.The Godfather revitalised the genre and then things grew quiet again in the land of wise talking hoods and their molls.Hollywood has always been a place where trends mean a host of movies with the same theme all opening within a few months of each other.
After body swap comedies and underwater thrillers in the late Eighties, the turn of the Nineties saw the turn of the post modern gangster drama.So we had a third helping of The Godfather, Goodfellas, Billy Bathgate, Mobsters, the sublime Miller's Crossing and one of the best of the bunch - State of Grace.The drama centres on a band of low-level Irish-American hoods who operate in the Hell's Kitchen area of New York City.
Yes, really.Before Oldman started making big budget confections such as Lost in Space, The Fifth Element and Air Force One, he really proved himself in roles such as this.A self-confessed alcoholic, he never let the booze get in the way of delivering a knockout performance - although by the time he made the dreadful Scarlet Letter, Gary decided to give the sauce a rest and concentrate on his acting.One of the reasons that Oldman is one of the most sought after actors in the world is his utterly manic style mixed with a conviction that can chill you to the bone.Although his performance here isn't quite as focused as corrupt DEA officer, Norman Stansfield in Leon, there's still enough menace in Flannery to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand to attention.For example: There's a scene in which Flannery takes Noonan along one night when he burns down a construction office on a site that will soon be a yuppie apartment building.
This is not just a film for the lads.Ennio Morricone's haunting score perfectly accentuates Phil Joanou's direction and as the title suggests, there is a state of grace to the drama which makes it one of the most under rated big screen gems of the last decade.Written by Dennis McIntyre (his only screenplay sadly) and photographed by the legendary Jordan Cronenweth of Blade Runner fame, this dark fairytale of New York will haunt many for weeks to come..
And there is hot romance, partial nudity, deep betrayal, lethal weapons of all types and sizes, highly manic and inappropriate anti-social behavior, dark shadows, old rooftops, bad language, slow motion gun fights, fierce fist fights, yucky dead bodies, severed body parts, things blowing up, screeching tires, dingy subways, lots of alcohol, several funerals, a grand parade - what's not to like here?If you liked Mystic River, Reservoir Dogs, Goodfellas, Godfather I & II, and various cop & robber shows on TV over the past 50 plus years you'll love seeing this realistic portrayal of a little self-destructive crime family that could be operating in any ethnic neighborhood in any larger city at anytime in history..
Overshadowed by the flashier Goodfellas on its release, this dark, brooding and deeply-satisfying thriller draws heavily on Shakespearean tragedy, Catholicism and the troubles, as well as more conventional gangster thriller narrative to deliver a giant film that will in time hopefully be considered as the masterpiece it is.It is superbly made, lit and edited, and Joanou elicits magnificent performances from the entire cast but especially his three leads - this is Oldman's best work by some considerable margin.
It gets 7.1/10 on IMDB and only now the DVD has finally been released.This action/thriller features Gary Oldman, Ed Harris and Sean Penn in top shape.
Aside from Mr. Oldman the film contains many other fine performances from great actors such as Ed Harris, Sean Pean, Robin Wright, Burgess Meredith, John C.
Boy, does he ever get a chance to show the acting chops in THIS one.5) A fantastic supporting cast including John Turturro, John C Reilly, Burgess Meredith, and Robin Wright Penn who plays Penn's ex-squeeze and new love...and who in real life actually closed the deal and married Sean.
Also Sean Penn, Robin Wright and Ed Harris do quite well all things considered.However this film is very predictable, and if you put two or three gangster movies that you have seen together in your lifetime, you could probably pull this one out note for note.
Gary Oldman is definitely a great actor for this type of characters; he was the one i liked most; good friend, good and risky mafia boy and good brother, and with some alcohol problems, he performed this character with perfect domination of the role.
Sean Penn was great and he feels totally as one of the people of the real Irish mafia!; dark scenes, a great casting and realism is what this good movie have to offer.
But fortunately the movie restore it's pace and conclude in a excellent and thrilling way.ABOUT THE FILM: Sean Penn is Terry Noonan a guy involved with some obscure business and people who after an incident with drugs, returns to New York where he join his old gang of Irish in New York after ten years, he met with his old great friend Jackie Flannery (Gary Oldman) and his ex girlfriend Kathleen Flannery (Robin Wright), the Flannery brothers are a Irish family that dominate the mafia business in the area and are leaded by Frankie Flannery (Ed Harris).
that should give you some kind of indication of its impact.There is nothing here that hasn't been done elsewhere, and better (The "Godfather" trilogy, "Miller's Crossing"); Oldman is exceptional, but he's just left drifting amidst the movie's numerous dramatic and stylistic cliches.Sole interesting element in the film, other than the aforementioned performance, is its portrayal of the Irish consortium as a kind of working-class mob (as compared to the Italians)- but there's simply not enough detail to keep the film interesting.(Note: composer Morricone claimed that his music for the film went unnoticed, so he basically recycled it for "Bugsy" a year later- and was nominated for an Oscar.).
With a superb soundtrack, and great acting from Sean Penn, Gary Oldman and Ed Harris, it was criminally overlooked on its cinema release.
The atmosphere of street life is well captured and in Oldman, Sean Penn and Ed Harris (as the big boss) you have top quality actors that can do this kind of stuff in their sleep.The end is a spaghetti-western style let down.
Someone will have to pay.A new wrinkle, no DeNiro, no Keitel, we have 3 rather than 2, but they are 3 great ones: Ed Harris, Gary Oldman, Sean Penn.
Starring Sean Penn, Gary Oldman, Ed Harris and Robin Wright, this film is a masterpiece that was overshadowed at the time of its release to what would end up becoming the best mob film ever made, Goodfellas.
State of Grace showcases powerful performances from Penn and Oldman along with Harris delivering one of the most interesting mob characters of all time with Frankie Flannery.
Gary Oldman's performance as the volatile Jackie Flannery is some of the best work Oldman has done which makes it a bit frustrating considering this film could have scored him an Oscar nomination if it was released at a better time.
Seriously engaging and gripping drama about a Boston cop (Sean Penn), who goes undercover and comes home (to H---'s Kitchen) after a long absence to visit his friends (Ed Harris, Gary Oldman) who are now in the Irish Mob. The film is extremely (and emotionally) violent at times and yet, it has a few opportunities to show some heart.
As it is, it's just damn good.A superb tale of friendship, loyalty and trust, Sean Penn and Gary Oldman are both absolutely fantastic, giving, for my money,the best performances of their careers.
Obviously, Gary Oldman in psycho mode is always worth the price of admission, but "State of Grace" also has Sean Penn going through the emotional wringer, and Robin Wright, Ed Harris, and an early role from John C.
Sean Penn, Gary Oldman and Ed Harris deliver the star power in this highly underrated gangster crime flick that was shot on location in New York City, and was inspired by the real-life Hell's Kitchen gang The Westies.
Sean Penn and Gary Oldman deliver unforgettable performances in this compelling gangster drama.
During his stay he starts to question himself and where his loyalty's actually lie.State of Grace doesn't quite deserve the rank of masterpiece like some other movies in the genre (such as The Godfather or Goodfellas) but its a damn good movie which benefits greatly from slick pacing, a compelling story, three dimensional main characters, and some really excellent acting.
I'll start with the positive, which is a great cast led by Sean Penn, and supported by Gary Oldman, Ed Harris, and John C.
An Excellent,Powerful,Underrated Gangster Film/Crime Drama With Brilliant Performances By Sean Penn,Ed Harris And Gary Oldman..
All of those elements make State Of Grace an incredible film that is Gangster/Mob movies at it's best.Set in the Hell's Kitchen,Manhattan section of New York City,State Of Grace tells the story of Terry Noonan(Sean Penn),a guy that returns to Hell's Kitchen after a ten year absence and gets back together with old friend Jackie Flannery(Gary Oldman)and soon gets into the Irish Mob ran by Jackie's brother Frankie Flannery(Ed Harris)while falling for Frankie and Jackie's little sister Kathleen(Robin Wright).
Unknown to the Flannery's,Terry is secretly an undercover cop investigating Frankie and his crew and Terry has to deal with violence,loyalty and betrayal.Released in 1990,State Of Grace is a brilliant and powerful Gangster Film that received rave reviews from movie critics but suffered from bad timing having been released right around the same time as Martin Scorsese's excellent Gangster classic Gooodfellas which led to State Of Grace being a failure at the Box Office and being overlooked by audiences.
The main characters in State Of Grace is one of the things that drives the film and keeps you glued to the screen whether it's Terry,Frankie,Jackie or Kathleen because with all them there is an emotional conflict that hangs over each one of them dealing with love,tragedy and guilt as well and even though you might not always like them or the things they do but the characters have an interesting quality that makes you want to know more about them.
The ending of State Of Grace is amazing,powerful and in my opinion one of the best endings I have seen in a Gangster film and so great you will never look at the St. Patrick's Day Parade the same way again.
Gary Oldman is brilliant,unforgettable and gives the film's best performance as Jackie Flannery,Terry's best friend and Frankie's hot headed Brother.
A great score by Morricone.In final word,if you love Gangster Films,Mob Movies or Crime Dramas,I highly suggest you see State Of Grace,an excellent,underrated and powerful Gangster Film/Crime Drama that is the Gangster films and Crime Dramas at their best.
Sean penn is excellent as undercover cop noonan and Ed Harris is another revelation as the colder than ice boss.If you like mob movies, crime thrillers, heck just watch this movie.
A truly first class job by Director Phil Joanua and leading men Sean Penn as Terry Noonan and Gary Oldman as Jackie Flannery.
You've got to give the best credit to the casting - Sean Penn, Gary Oldman, Robin Wright-Penn, Ed Harris, Nick Turturro - whoever did this piece of work was really ahead of their time.
Well, Ed Harris and Gary Oldman both do that in this fine film, which is a good alternative to the never ending heap of Italian mob movies that are released.
Oldman delivers one of his best screen performances as Jackie Flannery, a Hell's Kitchen thug, whose brother (Harris) is the boss of the local Irish mob (the characters are loosely based on people in The Westies, an Irish crime syndicate).
Sean Penn delivers a strong performance here, as does Ed Harris and Gary Oldman.
The cast of the film is one of the best ever seen, Sean Penn , Gary oldman, Ed Harris, Robin wright.any of them deserved to have been nominated for an Oscar, the movie deserved a nomination to best picture.
Sean Penn performance is masterful as always, his character returns home after ten years but now he has a mission, he is an undercover cop,soon he lost control of the situation when he is force to betray his friends, you can feel that in any second terry is going to going down..the scene which terry sit on the Kate's bed and reveal all his feelings to her ,is one of the best scenes in all movie history, you can really feel the desperation of terry, and the real reason that why he returned is because he wants to recover what he lost when he left..Gary Oldman performances is the best of his career, he is perfect, is impossible not love Jackie flannery.
Ed Harris is great as Frankie,his scenes with Sean Penn are full of tension, you never know what this guy is capable of to maintain his power...Phil Joanou at least on this film becomes in a master on movie making...Is a story of betray, love all surrounded by the streets of New York.
The first time i saw this movie, i missed the opening scene where sean penn meets with his contact before going undercover, so i didnt know noonan was a cop until he confessed it.
The Rooftop scene with Oldman, and Terry seeing Kathleen for the first time really communicated the feeling of Terry being home after a long time, and truly being HOME.Sean Penn and Robin Wright did a great job of portraying characters torn apart inside by conflicting feelings and loyalties.
In contrast Gary Oldmans character is also torn up in side, but he has no conflict, he is happy going right over the edge.Worth seeing for any gangster film fan if for no other reason than because it is one of the few that deals with the Irish Mob.
This movie is the rare instance where you will find actors like Gary Oldman, Sean Penn, Robin Wright, John C.
i thought the strong, brutal and belivable performances by, sean penn, gary oldman, ed harris and robin wright were terrific.
this movie is set in New York, the Irish mob in hell's kitchen, where penn and oldman play gangster criminals who try to get more out of thmselves.
This is a very good film, with terrific performance from Sean Penn and Ed Harris.
And I think that the acting in this film is brilliant, you've got Sean Penn, Gary Oldman, and Ed Harris in their greatest performances ever!!
This film has one of the best star casts of the 90s - Sean Penn, Gary Oldman and Ed Harris in the same movie as lead actors.
Ed Harris and Gary Oldman play gangster brothers while Sean Penn is their friend who comes back to the neighborhood (though he is actually an undercover cop).
Morricone's score is brooding and melancholic and used to great effect in the final shootout.The film glorifies the Irish and their drinking and their madness and their rivalry with Italians and the writer also throws in some catholic guilt.At one point in the movie Sean Penn's character tells Robin Wright - "You believe... |
tt0116514 | Hellraiser: Bloodline | In 2127, Dr. Paul Merchant, an engineer, seals himself in a room aboard The Minos, a space station that he designed. As armed guards attempt to break through the door, Merchant manipulates a robot into solving the Lament Configuration, destroying the robot in the process. The guards break through the door and apprehend Merchant, who agrees to explain his motivations to their leader, Rimmer.
The film flashes back to Paris, France, 1796. Dr. Merchant's ancestor, Phillip LeMarchand, a French toymaker, makes the Lament Configuration on commission from the libertine aristocrat Duc de L'Isle. Unbeknownst to LeMarchand, L'Isle's specifications for the box make it a portal to Hell. Upon delivering the box to L'Isle, LeMarchand watches as he and his assistant Jacques sacrifice a peasant girl and use her blood to summon a demon, Angelique, through the box. LeMarchand runs home in terror, where he begins working on blueprints for a second box which will neutralize the effects of the first. Returning to L'Isle's mansion to steal the box, LeMarchand discovers that Jacques has killed L'Isle and taken control over Angelique, who agrees to be his slave so long as he does not impede the wishes of Hell. The pair kill LeMarchand, and Jacques informs him that his bloodline is now cursed for helping to open a portal to Hell.
In 1996, LeMarchand's descendant, John Merchant, has built a skyscraper in Manhattan that resembles the Lament Configuration. Seeing an article on the building in a magazine, Angelique asks Jacques to take her to America so that she can confront him. When Jacques denies her request, Angelique kills him, as Merchant poses a threat to Hell. Angelique travels to America, where she fails to seduce Merchant. Discovering the Lament Configuration in the building's foundation, Angelique tricks a security guard into solving it, which summons Pinhead. The two immediately clash, as Pinhead represents a shift in the ideologies of Hell, which she left behind two hundred years ago: while Angelique believes in corrupting people through temptation, Pinhead is fanatically devoted to pain and suffering. Despite their conflicting views, the pair forge an uneasy alliance to kill Merchant before he can complete The Elysium Configuration, an anti-Lament Configuration that creates perpetual light and would serve to permanently close all gateways to Hell.
Angelique and Pinhead initially collaborate to corrupt Merchant, but Pinhead grows tired of Angelique's seductive techniques and threatens to kill Merchant's wife and child. Having grown accustomed to a decadent life on Earth, Angelique wants no part of Hell's new fanatical austerity, and she intends to force Merchant to activate the Elysium Configuration and destroy Hell, thus freeing her from its imperatives. However, Merchant's flawed prototype fails. Pinhead kills Merchant, but his wife opens Angelique's Lament Configuration, sending Pinhead and Angelique back to Hell.
In 2127, Rimmer disbelieves Dr. Merchant's story and has him locked away. However, Pinhead and his followers—now including an enslaved Angelique—have already been freed after Merchant opened the box. Upon learning of Dr. Merchant's intentions, they kill the entire crew of the ship, save for Rimmer and Paul, who escape. Paul reveals that the Minos is, in fact, the final, perfected form of the Elysium Configuration, and that by activating it, he can kill Pinhead and permanently seal the gateway to Hell.
Paul distracts Pinhead with a hologram while he boards an escape pod with Rimmer. Once clear of the station, he activates the Elysium Configuration. A series of powerful lasers and mirrors create a field of perpetual light, while the station transforms and folds around the light to create a massive box. The light is trapped within the box, killing Pinhead and his followers, thus ending Pinhead's existence, this time, permanently. | gothic, violence, horror, flashback, good versus evil, sadist | train | wikipedia | So the space thing is not so bad.As I mentioned in my review for "Hellraiser 3", I dislike how writer Peter Atkins introduced new cenobites.
Seeing this undeservedly LOW score here made me feel that I really had to 'say' something.First off, YES, I am indeed a BIG fan of the first three films; before these just recently came out on glorious Blu-ray, years ago, I even sprang for the UK Puzzle Box set of the first three films (mainly because at the time UNCUT versions were not available here in the States and also for the full commentaries and the bonus DVD that came with it : ) Now, I know it is hard to believe, but I just NOW for the very first time saw this one, part 4; the reason being is that from some casual stuff I had read, I was under the impression that pretty much all the other 'HELLRAISER' films were not very good.
The movement back and forth from the distant future to the distant past was also a bit detrimental at times to the tension of the story, but luckily the film did present a few cool new cenobites (one that was satisfactorily created out of a couple of idiot security guards), and Bloodline also displayed probably one of Pinhead's best performances ever.
Yes, all lame horror franchises eventually go to space to die, where they re-enact the second Aliens Movie.the plot line here is that an eccentric scientist has hijacked a space station of his own design, and relates to the authorities that in fact, his ancestor created the puzzle box that releases the Cenobites, and that they have spent the last few hundred years tormenting his family.There are three stories within the movie, on in 18th century France, another in Modern America, and the last in space.
For Hellraiser fan, like me, this is the movie I wanted to see, where did the box come from, how did it first exists and it goes right into the future for the end for pinhead.
I don't see where all the hate is coming from on this movie.I first saw it when i was about 15, and it was a great horror flick, I never heard there were other Hellraiser movies to be honest, and after watching this, I was slightly creeped out by Pinheads dialogue, his lines in this movie gave me goosebumps, to the fact on the creepy and messed up scene of the creation of the "twin" cenobites from the 2 security guards which gave me a little more gore and mutilation than i asked for.
The make-up and gore was nothing to make it seem fake, I actually didn't notice anything odd about it, it seemed very well done for this direct to video release.Some people are against this movie that its getting to the point where Pinhead is in space, I did notice this, however still after watching the first 3 movies, i didn't think it was that bad.
It shows the fate of Pinhead seeing that this is far into the future.All in all, it was a good horror movie, but if you're easily offended by mutilation in a twisted sick and grotesque degrading way by means of chains and machinery coming out of nowhere, then this might not be for you.
but i found bloodline to be very exciting and enjoyable, the films plot is original and helps to shape the series, Doug Bradley as the greatest horror movie creation pinhead is again on tip top form, his speeches may bore some but for most fans they bring the character to life and give him more added menace, in my own humble opinion rarely have sequels to horror movies been almost or better than the original, Elm streets and Halloween to name a few, but in the case of Hellraiser this has happened, in fact many feel the 3 sequels surpass the original i am in agreement with this, this film keeps up with the gore and horror of its predecessors and still manages to make you sit on the edge of your seat, i would highly recommend the Hellraiser series to all horror fans who have not yet see them, even if you are not a fan of the genre i would still urge you to give them a try you may be very surprised.
The one time there's some cenobite-forming action, it's completely predictable (beforehand the future victims say stuff like "Let's stick together" and "Somebody's messin' with our heads").The first two Hellraisers are good, solid horror films, and the third one is passable, a credible effort if not a successful one.
This is a boring piece of crap, more suited to being a Sci Fi Channel original movie than a theatrical-release sequel to a beloved Horror series.Pinhead is dead..
it's easy to write off Hellraiser: Bloodline as "the one set in space," but the reality is that only 1/3 of the film takes place in the future.
Given the low budget and messy production, it's no minor miracle that it works as well as it does.Hellraiser Bloodline tells both the beginning and ending of the story Clive Barker unleashed on the big screen in 1987.
Not only do we find out how the puzzle box was created, as well as by whom and for what initial purpose, but we also get a front row seat for its destruction, providing a sense of closure to the franchise.other sequels followed, but by jumping so far into the future for the outer space-set finale, Dimension Films was able to make the rare franchise sequel that actually feels like the end of the franchise.
In many ways, it's sort of the last Hellraiser sequel that matters.Ambition and a respectable amount of imagination are also on display in Hellraiser: Bloodline's standout makeup effects, particularly when it comes to the birth of a siamese Cenobite that Pinhead creates by literally twisting two twin brothers together.
What is meant by being by far the best of the 'Hellraiser' films is that it is the only one to be above very good, the nine sequels were very variable (leaning towards the disappointing) and the latter films particularly are suggestive of the franchise having run its course.From personal opinion, while a bit of a disappointment 'Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth' is still watchable and one of the better sequels in the series.
The dialogue is toe-curling again like in the previous film and further manages to be convoluted, Pinhead's dialogue also being too rambling, and didn't really see any need for some of the gore, which didn't unnerve that much and came over as cheap and gratuitous instead.Furthermore, the story is a mess.
The second movie taking place directly after Hellraiser III where the building we see in the end is the setting of a sort of Ghostbusters copy where the building is architected to summon demons and the the ancestor of L'Merchant lives there with his family.
So I put off watching this one as the thought of Pinhead in Space kinda made me feel nauseous, especially after Jason X - sometimes you shouldn't trust your gut or your precognitive intuition; because I missed probably the best Hellraiser film.
What is so good is the intrinsicalities within the story that leads to a believable final act, tying all four films together to give a credible ending to the saga.At one point in the late '80's and '90's horror was going orbital.
Then when she meets Pinhead, taking a place by his side, she's nearly as fear-inducing as he.For the most part, the special effects are on par with the previous movies, though the CGI has gotten better it still looks dated.
But 5 years earlier Kevin Yagher had to direct pinhead in space, the most hated entry in the franchise were Doug Bradley plays pinhead.The story takes place in 3 era's, the important one is in space and they are all connected due a bloodline.
Written by Peter Atkins, with Clive Barker serving as executive producer, Bloodline is the century- spanning origin story of the puzzle box that featured throughout all the Hellraiser films up until this point - and the sequels which followed.Director Kevin Yagher disowned the film when the studio began re-editing it, ordering re-writes and re- shoots, and generally preventing him from realising his grand vision.
Chappelle had previously directed the equally misguided- but- strangely-fascinating Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.Again, as with the prior films, there is a strong sense of continuity present in Bloodline, and kudos must go to writer Peter Atkins, a veteran of the series at this stage, who, with the character of Angelique, creates what actually feels like a bona fide Clive Barker character.
Bloodline gets one thing right at least; it feels like a Clive Barker film.
Both the Leprechaun and Friday the 13th series's would follow suit in the years to come, but Bloodline at least makes sense of the setting and smartly works it into the plot rather than haphazardly building some ten-cent story around the idea of "Horror figure in space." It's never as goofy as it sounds, but as the fourth picture in the series, it's a misunderstood genre masterpiece.
Bloodline is good enough to satisfy fans while bringing to light some of the history that's heretofore gone unseen and unknown in the diabolical world of Pinhead and the grossly disfigured Cenobites.Hellraiser: Bloodline sees the franchise come full circle.
Though the film got hacked up and reduced the plot to a mess (as only Dimension and Joe Chappelle could do it!), the multiple story lines stretched over three time periods makes for an interesting take on the Hellraiser mythos.
It also features some slick gore and makeup gags, which comes as no surprise considering Kevin Yagher was at the helm (before he was unceremoniously dumped in post-production); A three part anthology spanning five centuries, it explores the origin of the puzzle boxes and the family that created them.The movie worked as an excellent slipcase for the entire series.
The story Merchant tells is how the Cenobites were first released and how they connect to his family ties.The fact that Atkins went in even further than before to explain the back story to Pinhead and his origins is again commendable, but sadly this new information totally contradicts the three films before it.
Much of these tracks use the same string build up, choral echoes and percussion but its the deviations that make it more appealing to listen to than recycled tracks.It still doesn't anywhere match the first two original movies and most will probably find it equal to that of the Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) quality, but even for the production troubles that it had and nonsensical story telling, it can be a more entertaining watch.
The director of the film, it turns out, is Kevin Yagher, the go-to guy for creature effects on such franchises as "Child's Play" and "A Nightmare On Elm Street." It seems he was at odds with Dimension (the studio that produced the film) and when they decided to go behind his back and re-shoot some stuff with director Joe Chapelle ("Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers") in tow, he walking away, burdening this film with the Smithee trademark.Truth be told, there's an interesting story beneath all the issues this film has, mainly a back-story that tells the creation of the puzzle box, and the war raging between Hell and the bloodline of the creator of the puzzle that spans from the 18th century to modern day (well, 1996, mind you) and all the way to the final frontier of space.
The Joe Chapelle scenes, while directed well, stick out like a sore thumb and are a serious detriment to an otherwise solid sequel.All in all, for a film that was directed by Alan Smithee, "Hellraiser: Bloodline" is a worthy affair.
Rarely seen a movie that deviates so much from the original premise and still remains (more or less) acceptable
Bloodline is a rather short (which is a good thing in this case) escapade that focuses on the mysterious Hellraiser box.
Rarely seen a movie that deviates so much from the original premise and still remains (more or less) acceptable
Bloodline is a rather short (which is a good thing in this case) escapade that focuses on the mysterious Hellraiser box.
Yagher has yet to direct another film.Not nearly as bad as you'd expect a fourth entry in a horror franchise to be, "Hellraiser: Bloodline" is worth checking out if you're a horror fan.
The character of Pinhead had basically became the new villain for the Hellraiser series by now.The first film he had a bit part,the villain was Frank,Pinhead was just brought in to send him to hell.Perhaps it was the way Doug Bradley udder-ed "We have such sights to show you" or perhaps it was the great make-up job,but people fell in love with Pinhead.In Hellbound,we find out who Pinhead really was,and a bit of about the demon he is now.I admire Hellraiser III for taking an all most Freddy Krueger like approach,but it couldn't reach one or two.By Bloodline,most of the story wore thin.Bloodline tells the story about how the box was made,and about the cursed family.Pinhead should have had a lesser role here,it's not his story,he plays a part in it though.Angelique is basically the main villain,but when she gets out of line Pinhead turns her into a cenobite.The film has some interesting elements,but is flawed overall.5/10.
I was looking forward to Bloodline,once i watched it,i realised it WAS the worst of the series.Although not such a bad movie in general,Pinhead was least active in this film,but was taken over by the Angelique mole.I think this movie would have succeeded if Angelique was OUT...and Pin was back in it,he did nothing here!A lot of good special effects,but not worth it,some disgusting scenes which i seriously didn't enjoy.Like those 2 cops heads twist together,that was awful,but i think i've seen worse,anyways a disappointment to a series going well,try it if you think you have un-finished business about the series.5 out of 10 C-.
The way the story was told, with Dr Merchant telling his family history to a captor, worked well and gave the box an interesting story from its creation by an innocent man; its evil first use; the way it effected his family and ultimately giving a good reason for it to be set in space.
Most of the hellraiser films are'nt so good, they're mainly about bringing on gore and chains, But bloodline was interesting.
If you've seen the previous Hellraiser movies, then you'll know they're not exactly feel-good films.
Its not a bad idea and with makeup whiz Kevin Yagher (who was the Alan Smithee of the film) has some impressive gore FX, but it can't save from the poorly written script, wooden acting (with the exception of a wasted Doug Bradley who doesn't get to have as much fun playing Pinhead, but makes the best of it), and a very slow moving pace.
And Hellraiser Bloodline doesn't exactly deliver a cult-horror film; instead it delivers an interesting, reasonably complex film that works best if seen as a stand-alone story, rather than a popular horror film sequel.This fourth movie focuses less on the sadism elements of the original films, and plays around with ultimately more interesting ideas...
In Bloodline, the fourth film in the popular Hellraiser series, the cenobites go where no horror movie icons have gone before: into space (although both Leprechaun and Jason have followed since).
Having failed to unleash Hell on Earth in Part III, Pinhead and chums attempt to deliver sweet suffering and torment to the occupants of a space station, after being summoned to the facility by its designer, Paul Merchant, who intends to destroy the evil creatures once and for all.Although the film starts and finishes in the future, most of Bloodline's story takes place in the past, as Merchant recounts his family's history, detailing how a distant ancestor, French toymaker Phillip L'Merchant, was tricked into making the first lament configuration, and also how subsequent generations have suffered for his mistake.The result of a very troubled productionone which resulted in director Kevin Yagher opting to use the infamous Alan Smithee pseudonymBloodlines sometimes feels rather disjointed and a little confusing.
However, despite this, the film isn't as bad as one might expect and still offers plenty to enjoy: the origin of the pesky puzzle box fleshes out the whole Hellraiser mythos nicely, there is plenty of the nasty splatter that fans have come to expect from the series (including the bloody creation of a brand new cenobite made from a pair of identical twins!), and the film's fun finalé sees a surprised Pinhead getting his just desserts by way of the biggest puzzle box in the galaxy.A long way from the greatness of Barker's original, but better than part two, and no worse than three, Bloodlines gets a reasonable rating of 6/10 from me..
But even by that low standard this is a terrible film.Essentially an anthology movie, this fourth installment in the Hellraiser saga tries to be an origins story and a wind-up to the entire series at the same time.
While things never looked good for the film, Part IV of Miramax's cult franchise isn't actually quite as bad as you would expect.In 2127, engineer Dr. Paul Merchant (Bruce Ramsay) uses a robot to solve the Lament Configuration puzzle box on board space station The Minos.
Again though, the story does come off pretty darn bland and just doesn't seem like a "Hellraiser" movie most of the way through.3.8/10. |
tt0478216 | Nightmare Man | Ellen believes there is a supernatural creature trying to kill her named the "Nightmare Man". However, her husband and doctors believe she is a paranoid schizophrenic.
On the way to a psychiatric ward, the Morris' car breaks down. When her husband goes to get gas, Ellen stays behind and is attacked by the mysterious, horrifying enemy, the Nightmare Man. Escaping into the nearby woods, Ellen stumbles upon a country house where two young couples are spending the weekend. They do not know if the killer is real or just a figment of Ellen's tortured mind nor if the killer is outside or already inside the house.
As people start dying, nobody knows whom they can trust. Near the end of the film, the killer is revealed to be a hitman hired by Ellen's husband to kill Ellen before she discovers his affairs. Ellen reveals she is possessed by the real Nightmare Man, a demon who enters a female body first by getting them to wear his mask, then he rapes them. As the Nightmare Man, she kills the hitman and her husband. She sets her sights on Mia, the survivor, who kills Ellen, but is stripped and raped by the Nightmare Man's spirit. She is left in an institution, where the doctor decides to take her off her medication, which are the only things that keep the demon asleep. | paranormal, insanity, violence | train | wikipedia | Anyhow, Rolf seems to have a much lower budget on this one than on The Hazing, be he economises well and the make up and effects are good and it works to the films benefit that they are sparingly used until the climax.Story concerns an unstable young woman who uses a wacko ancient fertility mask to try and improve her sex life with her husband only to end up having horrific visions of a spirit contained within the mask.
Shepis is a good actress who seems naturally uninhibited and doesn't look down upon B-movie roles and just has fun with it.
The rest of cast are variable with the lead actress overplaying at times but improving as the film goes on and her responses look more appropriate.I digress, sorry, violence and weirdness abound as the "nightmare man " descends upon the cottage, and the newly arrived guest ain't feeling herself.
The script is flimsy at times, the dialog is openly bad at times, the characters act accordingly most of the time (few moments you'll ask yourself "is that REALLY the most reasonable reaction" but those moments are uncommon) but overall...I really liked it.
I will be seeking out Kanefsky's other films for that alone.The acting is much better than I expected, Blythe Metz is a bit inconsistent, but when she's on she's really good.
James Ferris is the best of the male actors, but I did like Jack Sway as Ed and Luciano Szafir with the exception of his accent getting in the way a little.Overall, I do recommend this movie for those that like low-budget horror.
I've seen some pretty crap movies, too, but I stick around and watch them, and then laugh later.I can only say that this movie was so horrible (perhaps the reason it made it into the Horrorfest line up, because it was so terrible as to be horrifying?), that I was insulted by it.
Heralding back to the days of cheesy 80's horror, this was by far even worse than those amusing flicks.Bad acting, horrible effects and makeup, terrible filming, irritating music...did I mention the bad acting?
My wife and I spent over $20 on this one movie to end up walking out, it was atrocious.To the people in charge of selecting the Horrorfest lineup...please bother to pick something a bit more worth our time and money.
However, I was kind of hoping for something more in the lines of say an Evil Dead movie rather than a typical slasher film with a twist here and there.
The script is terrible, the characters are morons, the acting is mostly bad (especially the Spanish husband of the main character - I have no idea why anyone would put him in front of a camera), there are several really bad continuity errors (like the cut on the woman's leg that magically disappears), the make-up is cheesy, and there really aren't any scares.
Not Gonna Lie, This Was Bad. I had heard some good things about this Horrorfest film so I decided to give it a shot.
Though, they're usually pretty bad, to be honest.The acting was okay, I guess but Tiffany Shepis' character was so extremely annoying that her performance alone could have ruined the whole movie.
After receiving a wrong mask, Ellen insists that the demon Nightmare Man is attacking her and she needs pills to keep him under control inside her, but the doctors diagnose her as paranoid schizophrenic.
Ellen is attacked by the Nightmare Man but she escapes through the woods, reaching the house of Mia (Tiffany Shepis) that is receiving her boyfriend Ed (Jack Sway) and the friends Trinity (Hanna Putnam) and her fiancé Jack (James Ferris).
Sooner they discover that the deadly Nightmare Man is outside threatening their lives and they realize that Ellen was telling the truth."Nightmare Man" is a good low-budget slash movie with many twists in the story.
this movie some how gained enough notoriety to be in "Horror fest," and i'm confident that it couldn't get a passing grade in an undergrad, beginning-film-making course.
This movie was my first experience with "Horror fest" ever, and because of it, I feel an overwhelming obligation to myself to never watch another "Horror fest" film again."Nightmare Man," you've tickled my gag reflex like no other movie before.
I really wanted to see this film for the Tiffany Shepis acting (and nudity) as well as the Rolfe Kanefsky writing and directing.
I've heard it compared to "The Exorcist" (which is an amazing stretch), and there is one subtle and one not to subtle reference to Kanefsky's earlier film "There's Nothing Out There".What is bothersome about Rolfe's movies is how he has big ideas but small budgets.
His writing is much better than the average horror writer's and his directing is quite exquisite (as my friend Hannah keenly pointed out, he has that 1980s sense of where to put the camera while chasing a girl through the woods).
Maybe I needed a beer (Regal Cinemas is lacking in the booze department).Of the four films I've seen so far this year, I'm ranking "Nightmare Man" my second favorite (behind "Tooth and Nail").
Well, I've seen some movies from "After Dark Horrorfest" and over all, they've been pretty good.
Personally, I love low budget movies and they can be pretty amusing and it's okay if the effects aren't the best, but hey..
this was a pretty decent little low budget horror flick,, reminds you of the b movies of the 70's and 80's.
the car breaks down , husband leaves to get gas, doesn't return,, this is where the fun starts,, Nightmare Man comes after her, and she manager to get to a cabin with a bunch of other people who have their own little issues.
It takes its form from a fertility mask and when she's left alone by her husband when they run out of gas the demon comes after her and chases her to a house in the woods.Awful just really awful.
You know a movie is bad when all I can say nice about it is that the women look good and some of them disrobe.
This movie is worth a watch.I think this movie is one of the best from the horrorfest in terms of some good thrills and scares.I particularly liked the beautiful Blythe Metz.
I suppose this movie got her a big break what she might have been looking for, hope to watch more of her...The other actors were fine...I would rate the movie as follows; Scares - 7 Gore - 5 Acting - 5 Nudity - 6 Innovative Concept - 8 Overall - 7The Director did a reasonably good job.
When she puts it on, she believes herself to be possessed by a demon spirit that she keeps seeing, and she calls it the Nightmare Man. Now her husband is taking her to a clinic to help her get over her condition, and their car runs out of gas, and he takes off to find gas, but she starts seeing the Nightmare Man, and runs into the woods being chased and comes across a cottage where two sexy couples are having a party.
BUT, is it really a demon, and what about the husband returning with the gas, he is on his way to the cottage, is he really the Nightmare Man trying to scare his Wife.
Really, the only reason I rate this film so high (and 4 out of 10 isn't exactly a good rating) is because of the fine buttocks and overall body of Tiffany Shepis.
It takes forever before anyone gets killed, and all the annoying exposition spells out the whole movie, well except for the plot twist in the third act.By far the worst actor is the husband of the crazy women.
The way he gets killed is great, and I hope to never see him in another movie ever again.There is an attempt at an actual plot in Nightmare Man, and thats kind of refreshing for these types of horror movies, but then again, it really isn't that great - the special effects are at about the level they had in 1985.
Smoother and much more competent than Argento though...I'm glad to have found this new director of Horror films (new to me, that is) and I very much look forward to seeing more of his work as time goes on.
It was basically an eighties slasher; except it was (slightly) more intelligent than the usual fodder as rather than just having the characters at the isolated retreat where the film takes place being picked off one by one; there was a bit of psychological horror thrown in as the psychopath was a part of the lead character's nightmares.
The plot focuses on Ellen; a woman who gets a fertility mask from Africa that, rather than fertilize her husband, fertilizes her head with the 'Nightmare Man' - a vicious psycho in a mask.
The husband is driving the wife to the nut house one day when the car breaks down and the Nightmare Man comes after her...As a film in its own right, Nightmare Man is pretty poor.
I liked the twist in the movie when i found out that Ellen's husband was behind the whole idea.
Nightmare Man starts as Bill (Luciano Szafir) is driving his wife Ellen (Blythe Metz) cross country to a mental institute, apparently Ellen thinks she's possessed by some sort of demon from an Afican tribal wood carved face mask, obviously she isn't & that's why she's on her way to a loony bin.
It turns out though Ellen may not be as mad as originally anticipated as the Nightmare Man (Aaron Sherry) becomes a living reality that wants to kill her, she runs away into some wood where she stumbles upon a log cabin with four friends inside who all become potential victims for the Nightmare Man...Written, produced & directed by Rolfe Kanefsky this low budget teen slasher isn't quite as bad as I had feared & isn't too bad if you have low enough expectations.
To be positive at least it moves along at a nice enough pace, there might have been a couple more murders but I wasn't bored with it, the character's are actually a lot better than I thought with reasonable decision making like actively trying to stick together & deciding not to go out in the woods alone or split up which is a nice change & generally speaking I thought it was a painless if undemanding & forgettable enough way to pass 90 odd minutes.
The other thing that I liked about this film is Tiffany Shepis who I have seen in several other low budget horror films but didn't particularly know her in the sense if I saw a picture of her I wouldn't recognise her, here though she's probably the best thing about Nightmare Man as she runs around in her extremely mini skirt & boots holding a huge hunting rifle spouting mildly amusing one-liners, hey I'm easily pleased OK?Director Kanefsky does alright on a low budget but it's not stylish & it all rather flat & bland.
I've just realised that I've seen every horror film Kanefsky has directed to this point (lucky me, not), The Hazing (2004) which is pretty good, Corpses (2004) which is not so good, Jacqueline Hyde (2006) which is terrible & this which is OK.
There's not much gore here, an arrow fired into someones mouth, a knife stuck under someones chin & a bit of blood splatter & not much else.Withn a supposed budget of about $250,000 this is as well made as you could expect, it's certainly glossier & nicer looking than many low budget straight-to-video/DVD horror film crap that's out there.
As I said Tiffany Shepis is the best thing about Nightmare Man, she's a really hot looking chick with a great body & she actually gives a decent performance here which I'm sure no one was expecting to hear.
The rest of the cast do OK & all of the girls find themselves in some degree of undress at one point or another.Nightmare Man isn't anything particularly special, in fact it's nothing more than OK but even that's still a hell of a lot better than I was expecting.
After ordering an African mask (from Italy?) that promises increased fertility, Ellen (Blythe Metz) begins to experience demonic visions of a 'Nightmare Man' attacking her.
It wasn't COMPLETELY bad: The Nightmare Man was pretty cool-looking, even though he looked like Howie Mandel in Little Monsters ("Got 'em, got 'em, need 'em, got 'em").
All these years later, Nightmare Man had nice opening credits, and the rest the same old thing of girls naked or wearing nothing much and no scares at all.
Bad lighting, extreme acting, lazy dialogue and plot -- man, did that first chase through the woods go on forever, with so many chances for Ellen to get caught.
She cries out to her husband, William(Luciano Szafir)that a "Nightmare Man", this type of evil(..or perhaps even a demonic force)within her that won't cease since receiving a hideous tribal mask(..she was supposed to get a "god of fertility" mask, but was sent the wrong one)in the mail.
On the way to that hospital, their car runs out of gas, William tells Ellen to stay in the car as he goes after some more, and she is "confronted" by the Nightmare man.
The film alternates between a revealing game of "Erotic Truth or Dare" with the cabin gang and poor Ellen fending off the Nightmare man as he playfully exposes his knife to her.
The final portion of the film REALLY gets wacky as we find out who the REAL Nightmare man is, veering into "Night of the Demons" territory.The film is a bit this and a bit that:psychological thriller(Is Ellen crazy?Is there truth to what she is saying?), slasher flick(the Nightmare man outside the cabin picking off members inside one by one when he gets a chance), and demonic horror comedy(..when the evil takes control and runs rampant).
The first part of the film singularly focuses on Ellen, in a car terrified at out her wits, as she hears noises and the viewer sees a masked man running outside..we are part of this nightmare, whether it be real or imagined.
You could tell that he was putting 00001% into what he was trying to portray as a foreign and caring husband.For a low budget movie, the manipulation of the sets was very well done.
With a very low money pile, this movie succeeds in set, camera work and lighting.I will admit, the scares make up, in part, for the bad acting and the very stale plot.
Nightmare Man almost spoofs on itself in a way, but despite the amusing deaths and dialogue, it's still just dark and creepy enough to give a decent scare for some.I definitely recommend this movie to anybody who is a fan of good movies on low budgets, or to those of us who appreciate the B-movie genre.
~Spoiler~Rolfe Kanefsky makes bad horror movies, but at least they are usually fun.
It's about a couple who receive a foreign fertility mask that the wife thinks is haunted by the titular Nightmare Man. She becomes increasingly paranoid that the creature is going to kill her and the husband eventually has no other choice but to commit her.
While the husband heads out on foot for the gas station, the wife is attacked by the Nightmare Man. She has many narrow escapes before reaching a secluded home where we meet more cannon fodder characters for the slasher to maim and kill.
I thought that since this was a Horrorfest film, that the production values might look better than Kanefsky's other flicks.
However, I wasn't totally satisfied.Acting in horror films doesn't have to be at Oscar caliber but it has to be believable and for me the only believable people here were Tiffany Shepis and maybe James Ferris.
But music in movies has to help the story - it certainly didn't here.The plot was good, and that twist at the end with the demon actually coming out was great.
This movie starts off featuring Ellen, a woman who receives an African mask of a fertility deity she ordered to help her and her husband with their sex life, only it looks nothing like what she expected—a all-too- classic devil/demon looking face, which she insists leads to an actual demon taking over her body and mind (and haunting her dreams).
It pursues her to a house where four young adults are having a small party, and people start dying.There's so much I wasn't expecting from this film (due to the level of professional cinema making I've come to expect from the movies distributed by After Dark) that I was already disappointed three minutes in.
So, if you're really in the mood to watch something that's so bad that's it becomes all too easy to make fun of it during the entire ride, you could give "Nightmare Man" a try.
"Nightmare Man" is an enjoyable, if slightly flawed entry.**SPOILERS**After receiving a new fertility mask, Ellen Morris, (Blythe Metz) suddenly starts having strange nightmares and visions, which her husband William, (Luciano Szafir) immediately writes off.
When it starts getting worse, she begins to feel like she's being stalking by a figure known as The Nightmare Man, who is represented by their mask.
The movie opens with her receiving the mask before getting the effects of that, and within a matter of six minutes in, the film is ready to have her dropped of at the asylum.
Otherwise, this one wasn't bad at all.The Final Verdict: A lot of good points mixed in with some minor flaws really helps this one out, making it a highly enjoyable and entertaining film.
Perhaps I'm jaded and have seen too many horror films, but I wasn't scared by this one at all. |
tt0237572 | The Pledge | Retired police detective Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson) is seen mumbling to himself, apparently drunk, sitting on a bench outside a disused gas station. The scene then shifts to events in the recent past. The Department has thrown him a retirement party, and the police captain gives Jerry a fishing trip in Mexico as a gift. The party is interrupted by the discovery of a murdered child, Ginny. Jerry decides to go with another detective, Stan Krolak, to the scene of the crime.
Jerry delivers the bad news to the child's parents, and the mother makes Jerry swear on a cross that he will find the killer. A suspect is found the next day. Stan goes in to interview the suspect, Toby Jay Wadenah, a Native American man with mental retardation. During the interview, the man eventually confesses but steals a gun from one of the deputies and commits suicide. To the other detectives, the case is over, but Jerry does not think that Wadenah was the killer. Jerry is adamant about his pledge to find the killer, and does not go on the fishing trip. Instead, he visits the victim's grandmother, who tells him of the many stories that Ginny told. A later visit to one of her friends reveals that Ginny had a friend she called "The Giant". Jerry sees a picture Ginny drew of "The Giant", but it does not resemble Wadenah, and includes a black station wagon. He takes the drawing with him.
Jerry goes to Stan and asks him to reopen the case. Stan refuses but gets Jerry more information about similar cases in the area. Jerry's investigations reveal three unsolved and similar cases that Wadenah could not have committed. Jerry presents his research and Ginny's drawing to Captain Pollack and Stan, who are doubtful.
While fishing, Jerry notices a gas station that is located near the center of the similar cases. After buying the gas station, Jerry moves into the house behind it, meets local bartender Lori, and slowly becomes a father figure to her daughter Chrissy.
Soon, Chrissy becomes friends with a local pastor, Gary Jackson. Jerry is uncomfortable about this and begins to think Jackson is the killer. Chrissy is shown meeting a man driving a black car with a toy hedgehog hanging on the rear mirror, hedgehogs being another aspect of Ginny's drawing that Jerry believes to be a clue. Chrissy explains to Jerry that she met a wizard who gave her hedgehog candies and told her not to tell her parents they met. She figured it was OK to tell Jerry, since he is not her father. Jerry realizes this is the killer and, using Chrissy as bait, stages an operation, with Stan's help, to catch him.
A car is shown driving with a toy hedgehog hanging from the rear-view mirror. The woman who owned the chocolate shop is shown searching for "Oliver", implying that he is the killer. After hours of waiting, Stan and the other police leave. They tell Lori what happened, and she confronts Jerry angrily about putting her daughter in danger. The car that was shown approaching is seen destroyed in a fiery collision with a freight truck.
In the final scene, reprising the first, Jerry sits on a bench in front of the ruined gas station, apparently drunk, mumbling to himself that the killer is still out there. | insanity, mystery, murder, sentimental | train | wikipedia | But if you're into seeing an intense character study bolstered by impressive acting and clever directing (kudos, Sean Penn), you've come to the right place.I read one IMDB review calling this film Nicholson's worst ever.
I had rather low expectations for The Pledge - even though I've admired Penn as an actor (Dead Man Walking, Racing With The Moon, etc.) I really didn't care much for his writing/directing attempts (Indian Runner and The Crossing Guard) so I finally got around to watching this on cable and I was not prepared for how intriguing, intelligent and emotionally powerful the movie was.
People need to turn off their brains and escape every now and then (Unfortunately for big budget movies - its more NOW and very rarely THEN)> So that is why I really enjoyed the slow pace and the ambiguity of the plot - it left things out there for you to find, to discover, to ponder.
And what a supporting cast - in addition to Nicholson (at his most subtle, something he doesn't always do), there's Harry Dean Stanton, Benecio Del Toro, Tom Noonan, Vanessa Redgrave, Robin Wright Penn, the list goes on and on with the best charactor actors around.
In 1998, Penn Portrayed a Sergeant in Terrence Malick's acclaimed war drama "The Thin Red Line," and a drug addicted Hollywood casting agent in "Hurlyburly." In 1997, he portrayed Michael Douglas' estranged brother in David Fincher's mystery thriller "The Game," and a down-on-his-luck drifter in Oliver Stone's gritty film noir "U-Turn." He delivered his most powerful performance in 1995 as a man on death row in "Dead Man Walking." Now, with "The Pledge" he is harrowing and intense, even though the script is often slow moving and monotonous.
I personally desired more material involving the investigation instead of the development of the relationship between him and Robin Wright Penn's character, but that is not what the movie intended for us to watch.
I'd rather feel good at the end of the film, but I really liked this movie in a strange kind of way.
A key character - a minister - is made to look evil (typical film-world bias).The rest of the film has a lot to offer: a great performance by Jack Nicholson; a very nice music score; good cinematography; interesting characters and a different, almost-shocking twist at the end.The best part of the film is Nicholson.
On the second viewing, I appreciated the music even more - a great soundtrack!If you are looking for a crime film that is different, check this out, but don't blame me if you don't like the ending..
Acting was good throughout the movie, Jack Nicholson did a good job, I especially liked Benicio Del Toro's part, even though it was not too long.
Yes, the murder is the base of the film, however, it is Nicholson's character and the reality of the human mind's willingness to go to extensive lengths to find answers and closure that this movie really pursues.
Jack Nicholson gives a tired, tortured performance as burnt out police detective Jerry Black, who gets a murder case of the worst kind in his last week before retirement.
Now retired police detective Jerry Black lives completely within the law.In splendid character he very successfully uncovers the illegal acts of a deeply dark child killer.
I was thinking to myself "Any time now, the real meat of the plot's going to kick in." Eventually, things looked like they were going to get interesting, a great story was about to come together by the looks of it.
This was nothing special, and a poor follow-up to his Oscar-winning performance in "As Good As It Gets" which is one of his best roles in years.The only consolation I can get is that I didn't waste any money on this: I got it free with "The Shining": truly a fantastic Jack Nicholson movie..
The ¨Pledge¨ is an awesome movie with tension , thriller , chills and extraordinary performances with special mention to starring Jack Nicholson who does a superb acting .
This haunting movie based on a Fredrich Durrenmatt novel concerns about a detective ( an obstinate Jack Nicholson in similar role played by Heinz Ruhmann ) who on the day of his retirement becomes involved in the case of a little girl's killing .
In order to search the killer , the police buys a gas station to Floyd ( Harry Dean Stanton ) and takes employee a separated woman ( a sweet Robin Wright who married Sean Penn ) with a daughter, being his intention of use them as bait for the cruel murderous .
Jack Nicholson is the main character of this movie and I thought is acting was top notch.
someone wrote:"The first hour was excellently paced, but then the film changed tack and meandered around Nicholson's confusing character, steering right away from the plot.
By the end I was well and truly bewildered as to the identity of the killer and the whole point of this film."The point, I believe, was Nicholson's character's descent into madness....
Sean Penn must have an enormous emotional depth to have come up with this deceptively simple tale of retiring detective Nicholson who in his last few hours on the force, is assigned to a brutal murder/sex assault case involving a little girl.
There's such a preponderance of pre-juvenile crap that is churned out as if on an assembly line that a thoughtful, intelligent movie should be positively revered.The scene at the end of the film, wherein Jack is seen scratching his ankle and then talking/emoting to himself, struck me as being familiar upon first viewing.
the question of the morality in placing another little girl in potential jeopardy, and you have a film reminiscent of the depth of the Nicholson/Rafelson collaborations of the 1970s.Those who don't wish to be so challenged by following a fully realized character and his motivations can always choose to sit back and receive the usual pablum.
Sean Penntakes what could have been one of Jack Nicholson's best performances and screws it up with the worst ending to a movie...
In my opinion, it's both.On the day of his retirement, Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson) makes a promise to a grieving mother (Patricia Clarkson): he will find the person who brutally raped and murdered her young daughter.
Jerry isn't convinced, and as much as he tries, he can't let go of the case.The trailer makes "The Pledge" seem like a generic murder mystery/thriller, but that assumption does the film a great disservice.
Director Sean Penn takes the film at a slow, deliberate pace; there's really not much action (despite what the ratings say, this isn't a particularly violent movie).
Present in every scene, Jack Nicholson dominates the film with another great performance.
It sets the scene well, and while Jerry Black isn't the most interesting character, Nicholson's performance is spot-on, and he's a delight to watch."The Pledge" is a good film, but don't expect a lot of action with this one.
If you love stories where young people learn from old people, you may prefer other kind of films rather than this one.I watched the original version of this movie when I was a child ("Es geschah am hellichten Tag" -- 1958), and I remember it as a very nice experience.
Jerry makes a point of getting fingerprints from the girl's jacket, but yet there's no mention of trying to match this to Del Toro's character, surely that would have been an easy way to see if he was the real killer?
There are too many other things to mention.For someone that enjoys slow paced, character built films this is a long way down my list and I'm amazed so many people liked it..
There is never a moment where this lacks, and in my honest opinion it makes the film all the more captivating.In some ways there are different stories tied into this one motion picture; There is Jerry, a retired cop working on a case, then there is Jerry, an overwhelmed man adopted into a beautiful family of which he feels is his responsibility to protect.
Jack Nicholson makes one of his best performances - and he is not playing his usual routine character.There is a harsh moral to the story, which cannot be spoken more of, unless the movie gets spoiled.Sean Penn is not only a great actor, he is as we can see here a fabulous director.
A modern-day retired police chief (Jack Nicholson) cannot let go of an unsolved serial murder case...and the pledge he made to a victim's mother that he would find the killer no matter what.
Sean Penn may be a good director, I don't know, but he certainly hasn't shown me anything with this film.Jack plays Detective Jerry Black who is retiring and is at a retirement party thrown by the department.
I watched it because of Jack Nicholson, who did in fact provide the movie's only redeeming trait of a riveting performance, but nonetheless I felt like I had wasted 2 hours when it was over.
In fact, we have got in front of us the rare case of an American version whose spirit is more European than the original.And yet it seems at first as if everything might amount to a positive, Hollywood-like ending including a special message for the American soul, one which could even be applied to current world events and which could read like this: "We must defeat and destroy the devil at all costs, even if innocent blood has to be spilled!"The devil as a symbolization of all evil is indeed mentioned in the film, and therefore script and camera work are at pains not to show any picture of the human who committed the abominable murders of the little girls.
He is like an abstract undeterminable force hidden away somewhere in our world, but which can burst out at any time and at any possible location in order to pursue his destructive purposes.At the end of the film, however, it is not the retired police inspector Jerry Black who catches the devil, but pure coincidence: When he is driving to a meeting with the little girl that has been set up as a lure, the murderer has a fatal accident, being gruesomely burnt to death after colliding with an oncoming truck-trailer.
It almost held me despite these, but in the end I wondered if I might have wasted my energies.I did have some fun thinking about what Jack Nicholson might really do while trying to tell a child a bedtime story.
He is just so perfect at all times, one totally forgets that it's him acting, that it's not really the story of a cop going into retirement.filming: pretty good quality, some beautiful images.
IF I KNEW SEAN PENN, and NICHOLSON, personally, and if I had lots of money, I'd ask them to please IMMEDIATELY start the filming of another story by Duerrenmatt with an ageing cop: SUSPICION.
Sean Penn and Jack Nicolson are reunited for the first time since the terribly boring `The Crossing Guard', yet even though I really didn't like the aforementioned I had heard that this film was very good so decided to watch anyway.Attention to detail gets an `A' and in some parts it is very suspenseful, although after 2 hours of building the conclusion left me cheated, I really wanted to see more and the end left me with a bitter taste in my mouth.Nicholson is good as the tired ex cop, who made a pledge to the mother of a murdered little girl, Aaron Eckhardt does well as the detective in charge of the case, while Robin Wright Penn, even made to look plain and unattractive, still has something quite sexual about her.Bottom line:- Watchable and a darn site better than `The Crossing Guard'.
"The Pledge" starring Jack Nicholson and Robin Wright Penn and directed by her husband Sean Penn, is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.
The weak storyline is as follows: an aging cop named Jerry Black (Nicholson, in one of his worst movies) is retiring from the force.
A really splendid cast with the likes of Helen Mirren, Vanessa Redgrave, Harry Dean Stanton, Aaron Eckhart, Benicio Del Toro (whose all-too-brief performance saved the film from utter bombdom) and others whose talent and on-screen power should of enhanced this movie in some way instead came on screen and left without contributing.
The first hour was excellently paced, but then the film changed tack and meandered around Nicholson's confusing character, steering right away from the plot.
The story is a really good one, the direction and production by Sean Penn is fantastic the acting is outstanding (it's Jack Nicholson for heavens sakes!) but it just does nothing.
I truly underrated this film when I first watched it years ago, Nicholson has had duch a career is reknowned for the many memorable performances, but I feel this is one that has been been missed from his great ones.
*For anybody interested that's seen the movie*Nicholson has been in a few great films with low-key endings.
Spot the odd one out..........there isnt one, each film is a masterpiece.Sean Penn has surpassed himself with this slow paced, thoughtful study of a man and his mind.
This movie is very good, I fail to understand why Jack Nicholson is uncredited and officially he is only a supporting actor in The Pledge but he is the main attraction.
In the first half hour or so, it seems to be a cool and exciting thriller police drama like it has been seen lots of times before but still well made so it makes you want to see more.But then focus shifts and the movie is all of a sudden about the retirement crisis of Jack Nicholsons character.
It's truly apalling to see images of murdered little girls used gratuitously as a suspense-creating device - it's this sort of film school-like technique which can never substitute for more usual (and, I suppose for Mr. Penn, mundane) methods, such as decent screenwriting and visual storytelling.Cut to a flock of birds flying across a lake.Cut to a nine-year old girl's face covered in blood, her red dress torn from sexual violence.Cut to Jack Nicholson, alone, casting his fishing line...Who lets Sean Penn make films anyway?
When brash cop Stan Krolak (Aaron Eckhart) gets a mentally weak Indian (Benicio Del Toro) to confess, Jerry isn't so sure and continues to investigate despite nobody believes him.It's obvious that director Sean Penn called in a lot of people.
Every character is played by great actors no matter how small the roles.This movie takes its time.
He is absolutely fantastic in his roles.This movie has a usual intrigue, but there are some "details" that make it unique: the actors, the image and the end.Keeping a promise (that he will find the killer of a girl) means for the old policeman to give up on his job and his life.
The beautifully rustic countryside near Reno, Nevada is the setting for "The Pledge", a modern day story about a just-retired policeman, Jerry Black (Jack Nicholson), who makes a solemn promise to a child's parents that he will find the killer of their little girl.
But getting to that clever ending is mighty slow going."The Pledge" is a good film to watch for its attention to detail both in character development and in production design.
Jack Nicholson is one of my favorite actors and the previews for this movie looked really great.
I won't write it here, but when the movie was over I was feeling cheated and unsatisfied.Sean Penn's direction is good (in some parts great, especially in the scene in which Detective Black told the murdered girl's parents the bad news), but at times it seemed like he over-directed.
Jack Nicholson was good, but the subtley he used in playing that character would've worked better if the movie wasn't so BORING in the first place.
Believing that a vicious child killer is still on the loose, a retiring police detective takes residence in the area where he suspects the murderer lives and conducts his own private investigations in this Sean Penn directed crime thriller starring Jack Nicholson.
A little girl is viciously murdered, and Jack Nicholson makes a pledge to her mother to find the killer.
Nicholson, an ageing cop on his retirement day, brings what you would expect to such a role in an averagely written and directed film, that does go on more than a bit.If you want to see just an acting performance, do make an effort to watch it.
Sean Penn's direction, Jack Nicholson's wonderful,weary performance and the great Nevada locations would be enough on their own to lift this detective yarn into the higher echelons of the genre.
It's a great film, genuinely disturbing.It looks good, it's acted well and perfectly cast.Nicholson in a 'senior' role is terrific.
A beautifully shot film that featured an excellent performance from Jack Nicholson, but otherwise was poorly written, a little too long, and had a very very slow pace.
Generally, I see nothing wrong with that, but he deserved a better fate.An exceptional movie, a fine character study by Sean Penn, and a tremendous performance by Jack Nicholson..
All I can speculate is that there are two different kinds of people...those that look a little deeper & appreciate a good story with wonderful acting and those that need a lot of special effects or the "happy ending" that you get with most mainstream movies.
This film is Jack Nicholson at his very best.
If you're into loose ends and/or can't pass up a Jack Nicholson film, you'll get your money's worth..
into loose ends and/or can't pass up a Jack Nicholson film, you'll get your
This great cast of actors is lead by Jack Nicholson, a Sean Penn veteran. |
tt0088272 | Tightrope | The film opens with a young woman, Melanie Silber (Jamie Rose), walking home late one night in New Orleans down a deserted street. A sound startles her and she drops her packages. A man approaches her. She relaxes when she sees he is wearing a police uniform. He watches her enter her house, then the camera pans down and we see the man isn't wearing regulation police boots, but sneakers.The next day Silber's body is found naked across her bed. She has been raped and strangled. It looks like one in a series of murders so it is passed to a task force headed by Detective Wes Block (Clint Eastwood). Block is recovering from a recent divorce and is trying to put his life back together while caring for his two daughters: 11 year-old Amanda (Alison Eastwood) and 9 year-old Penny (Jenny Beck).Block's partner, Det. Molinari (Dan Hedaya) notes that while the girl was apparently attacked at about 9:15PM, she wasnt killed until after mid-night and wonders about the delay. Block notes that the killer left a half-eaten brownie and an empty coffee cup and comments that the killer was taking his time because he was enjoying what he was doing to the victim.The lab reports that the killer wore sneakers and left traces of barley and tiny glass fragments behind. His blood type is "O." Marks on her wrists suggest that the Silber was handcuffed.Back at the office Block's boss, (Bill Holliday) is annoyed at him for the lack of progress on these cases. Block is also being pursued by rape prevention worker Beryl Thibodeaux (Geneviève Bujold) who wants to talk to him about the case. She finally catches up with him, but he doesn't want to divulge any information to her that might compromise the investigation. She tells him they should put up posters warning women of the danger, but Block states that would only terrify the city's female population. Thibodeaux replies that given the circumstances, maybe they should be terrified.The victim was prostitute and Block goes to interview a Sarita (Regina Richardson) a woman Silber sometimes partnered with. Sarita tells Block that the Silber had a client who was into handcuffs, but she doesnt know his name. When the interview is finished she slips off Block's tie. Block playfully wraps it around her neck as she prepares to make love to him orally. When Block finally leaves he forgets his tie.The next development in the case occurs when prostitute Jamie Cory (Randi Brooks) goes to meet a client at a rented room with a hot tub. The next day her strangled body is found in the bottom of the tub. Block notices a recent tattoo with the words "Looking for Love" and a red heart. He tracks down the tattoo artist and interviews him while the man works on a new tattoo on the inner thigh of a pretty young blond named Becky Jacklin (Rebecca Perle). Sucking on a popsicle, she flirts with Block while the artist is out of the room.The artist denies knowing anything about the murder, so that night Block visits a seedy nightclub where Cory occasionally worked as a bikini-clad baby-oil wrestler. The referee (Donald Barber) greets Block and recommends he talk to the blond currently on the mat if he wants more information about Cory. Block is surprised when he sees that the girl is Jacklin.When she is done work they go back to her apartment where he interviews Jacklin about Cory. She tells him that she knows Cory had a client that liked to use handcuffs on her. She thinks he was a cop and coos, "Maybe it was you?" Later we see Block and Jacklin laying together on the bed after making love. As the camera pans up their naked bodies we see that Jacklin is attached to the head of the bed with Block's handcuffs. Later as they leave the apartment Jacklin tosses away one of her ever present popsicle sticks. We see it picked up by the man wearing sneakers.The next day Amanda is making breakfast. Before her father comes into the room, her curiosity temps her to open an envelope he was carrying. Inside she finds explicit photos of the murdered women. She stuffs the pictures back inside before he can see what she has done. During breakfast she asks her father why he stays out late every night. He replies he is working on solving the murders and that there are some people he can only talk to at night, because they work at night.Block has a change of heart and visits Thibodeaux at the Rape Prevention Center. He gives her some details about the suspect so she can disseminate it to potential victims.When Block gets home that night he can see that Amanda and Penny are upset. Their mother has called to tell them she is getting remarried. Later Block leaves them in the care of a babysitter, Mrs. Holstein (Margie O'Dair) and decides to checkout a seedy bathhouse were people go for anonymous relations. He shows Cory's picture to one woman there, Judy Harper (Margaret Howell). She does not recognize the victim, but invites Block into the room and they have make love. Block does not realize it, but the killer has been trailing him and sees the two of them together.Late that night Amanda leaves her room and finds her father is back home on the sofa. He has drunk himself to sleep holding a wedding picture of himself and his ex-wife. Amanda climbs up on top of Block, tenderly puts her arms around him and falls asleep.The next morning a woman's strangled body is found in the river. When Block arrives at the scene he is shocked to find it is Harper.Block goes by Thibodeaux's gym and sees her there. They talk about the case and he then asks her out to lunch. It is clear a relationship is starting to develop.A fetish doll with an attached riddle arrives at police headquarters. Block thinks it is from the killer. The message also had an invitation for him to visit "Sams." Sams is an club where the killer has arranged for Block to have a S&M session with a girl (Rebecca Clemons). She hands him a whip. He asks what it is for and she replies, "To use on me." Block declines the invitation and she gives him a black rose telling him that she does not know the name of the man who paid her, but her instructions were to send Block on to a local gay bar.At the bar Block meets a gay prostitute (Robert Harvey) wearing a similar black rose. Block declines his services and sends him across the street to a warehouse where he was supposed to meet the man who was paying him. Block follows hoping to catch the killer, but when he arrives he finds the prostitute strangled and hanging from one of the mardi gras floats housed there.Back at headquarters Block solves the riddle and discovers one of Jacklin's broken popsicle sticks inside the doll. Meanwhile she has been kidnapped and her roommate discovers her missing. Soon after Jacklin is found strangled, lying in a fountain. Nearby the tie Block left behind is found around one of the fountain's statues.Disturbed, Block calls Thibodeaux. Together they take Block's daughters out in costume to a street celebration. As the girls watch some street performers, Block talks with Thibodeaux about the case and his misgivings about the direction of his life. Penny buys a balloon from a clown/balloon vender and the camera pans down to show us he is wearing the killer's sneakers. The balloon he gives her is tied with the same type of red ribbon he used to strangle the women, perhaps as a threat to Block, but Penny accidently let's the balloon go and it drifts off before the detective can see it.That night after the girls go to bed, Thibodeaux asks if Block likes to use handcuffs on his dates because is scared of strong women. He admits this may be true. Thibodeaux offers to let him use them on her, but he decides not to and they go to bed. That night he has a dream of Thibodeaux being attacked by a man wearing a ski mask. When the mask is pulled off, Block's face is underneath. He wakes up in a cold sweat.The next day the lab finds the same barley and glass traces found in Silber's apartment on some of the money paid to Cory. Since the serial numbers can be traced to cash sent to the payroll office of "Dixie Brewery" it seems likely that the killer works there. Block and Molinari pay the president of the Brewery (Don Lutenbacher) a visit. He informs them that there are over 1,000 men working at the Brewery. Block suggests the try to eliminate some of the possibilities based on schedule and blood type.While Block did not see the killer at the Brewery, the killer saw him. That night when Block gets home from work he finds the house in disarray and the babysitter missing. Rushing to the girls' room he finds Penny there, but Amanda gone. He instructs Penny to hide in the closet until he comes back. When she opens the door one of the household dogs who was sleeping in there jumps out.Block finds Amanda lying deadly still on his own bed. Fearing the worst he turns her over. She is alive, but has been handcuffed and gagged. Not even taking the time to remove the cuffs, he carries her back to the girls' closet to hide with Penny, then starts searching the house. He finds all the household dogs (except the one Penny let loose) killed. Mrs. Holstein has also been murdered and stuffed in the dryer. The killer sneaks up on Block and tires to strangle him, but Block is saved when the last dog alive attacks the killer, distracting him.In the closet the girls quake with fear as they hear two gunshots. A minute later the door opens and they see a figure with a red ribbon dangling from one hand, as if prepared to strangle them. When the figure bends down, however, they see that it is their father and they jump into his arms.The police arrive, but the killer has escaped. Amanda only has minor injuries, but is taken to the hospital for observation.The next day Block notices a clipping from a former case: a cop who raped two teenagers. Acting on a hunch he asks Molinari to check to see if the perpetrator, Leander Rolfe (Marco St. John) might work at Dixie. Not only does Rolfe work at Dixie, but he got out of prison just before the first murder occurred. He also has a beef with Block since Block originally arrested him more than a decade ago. That night Block and Molinari stake out Rolfe's apartment.Penny is safe as she is staying overnight with Amanda at the hospital, but Block arranges for protection for Thibodeaux: two policemen outside her house and one in the living room. When Block can't get them on the radio, however, he races over to her house. The cops are dead and he arrives just in time to prevent Thibodeaux from being strangled by the killer, Rolfe.Block chases Rolfe through a cemetery while the rest of the police force try to catch up with them. The chase then moves to a railroad yard where Block and Rolfe play cat and mouse among the moving trains. They finally wind up wrestling lying across a track as a freight train approaches. Block rolls off the track at the last second and finds his throat still gripped by Rolfe's hand, which has been severed at the arm from the rest of his body by the train's wheels.The rest of the force arrives and starts to look for Rolfe's body which was apparently dragged away by the train. Meanwhile Block starts walking up the tracks to where a police car pulls up and Thibodeaux jumps out. They embrace and the picture ends. | suspenseful, neo noir, murder, violence, cult, revenge | train | imdb | Here is a very, very tense thriller about a New Orleans cop (Clint Eastwood) finding a serial killer.....and vice-versa.This is a very dark (literally) film with a big film-noir look and feel.
Directed by Clint's protégé Richard Tuggle (who wrote the screenplay to the earlier Siegel-Eastwood classic ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ (1979), the film's first half is uncertain and suffers from clichéd (albeit well staged and visualised) New Orleans locations - shady whorehouse dives, red light tinged bars and over officious police procedural rooms and locker-room banter.The plot itself is functional but nothing special: a serial killer with a penchant for young, pretty blondes, is terrorising the city by disposing of prostitutes by strangling them and dumping the bodies all over the city.
The twist in TIGHTROPE is that the killer is also dogging the footsteps of kinky cop Detective Wes Block (Eastwood), a lonely divorcée with two young children.
Block eases off the shackles of a tough day job by frequenting the very same sleazy dives that his thoroughly unpleasant nemesis does.A predictable game of cat and mouse ensues, but the film's stock film noir origins are transcended by Eastwood's continual playing with his own star status and by a very interesting exploration of his character's private obsessions and genuinely touching relationship with his two young daughters.
Special mention here for real-life daughter Alison Eastwood, quite superb as the older and more perceptive girl, who clearly suspects her troubled father is up to more than just "looking for something" on his late night travels through New Orleans's seamier districts.The more conventional opening section of TIGHTROPE is distinctly misleading, largely because about half way through, the film's most interesting character (played by the truly excellent GENEVIEVE BUJOLD) comes much more to the fore.
As the feisty and fiercely intelligent Rape Crisis Center head Beryl Thibodeaux (nice use of Bujold's French-Canadian heritage here for a movie set in New Orleans!) Bujold's sharp dialogue exchanges with ultra macho Detective Wes Block-Clint Eastwood are a constant joy, and, of course, edge us deeper into film noir territory as Block's kinky sexual practise and failed marriage become the focus of the investigation.Tuggle does a generally excellent job of keeping the material visually interesting, although he pays less attention to the minor characters, wasting a great character actor like Dan Hedaya for the role of Block's sidekick on the investigation.
The killer has a penchant for strangling his victims with ribbons which I guess is another meaning for "tight rope".Eastwood's character is very well fleshed out and his desire to provide a safe and normal home life for his daughters and later to establish a relationship with a rape defence adviser he is attracted to, is very believable.
I do not think I give anything away in saying this, since the clunking villain is seen stalking Eastwood from quite early on, hovering behind him or looking in the skylight, so much so that you feel like shouting "He's behind you!" in a pantomime sort of way.Other details do not ring true, such as Eastwood telling a young male hooker to go to a warehouse to be paid by the killer then going there himself to find (surprise!
His real life daughter Allison plays his daughter in this movie and does a fine job, just like his son Kyle did in Honkeytonk Man. Genevieve Bujold gives a wonderful performance as the rape counselor that he falls for.
She was in my favorite Disney film The Last Flight Of Noah's Ark. Eastwood usually directs himself on screen, but in this case Richard Tuggle (who worked with Clint in Escape From Alcatraz) does a commendable job with the direction and the screenplay.
The ending of the film is like Dirty Harry where he finally gets the bad guy, I guess they cop out in the end, but Eastwood showed a lot of daring and guts when he took on this challenging role and he really rose to the occasion in my view.
he's trying real hard to be a good father, as well as a good cop, that is until this killer comes along and threatens all he's been fighting for to preserve.Here we get to know a guy who's extremely vulnerable, hurt, un-self confident, haunted and whose relationship with women remains ambiguous, based on control, kind of as if he was afraid of them, of what they could do to him, seeing them as a threat ...
Clint Eastwood plays New Orleans policeman Wes Block, who is investigating a series of brutal attacks and murders on women.
He then befriends a rape counselor(played by Genevieve Bujold) who tries to understand Block's feelings, as she helps him understand the killer, so he can stop him.Unusual story for Clint doesn't really work, since his character is somewhat unsympathetic, though he is a father of two daughters, some aspects of the story are just sleazy, and the mystery angle is undistinguished and ultimately anti-climatic.
Clint Eastwood plays a stoic cop who's divorced and can't take his daughters to the New Orleans Saints game because he keeps getting a beep about a new murder case.
Unlike the "Dirty Harry" pictures or "The Gauntlet", in which Eastwood only suggested the existence of human weakness, here that weakness is interwoven with the plot (in which the psychopath knows and manipulates the detective's weakness for deviant sex), heightening the tension.What makes the film all the more impressive is that it doesn't dwell exclusively on the deviant side of Eastwood's personality.
Taut and disturbing psychological thriller with Clint in a challenging variation on Dirty Harry-like character, Wes Block, a recently divorced New Orleans cop investigating a serial killer with some parallel sexual inclinations that makes him examine his own perversions.
Music is by Lennie Niehaus and cinematography by Bruce Surtees.New Orleans and Detective Wes Block is plunged into a hunt for a rapist serial killer that brings out his own deviant peccadilloes.One of Eastwood's best movies also happens to be one of his most under appreciated, the actor challenging himself to explore a darker characterisation than the iconographic ones he was most famed for.
He's afraid of affection, to be touched in a gentle manner by a member of the opposite sex, preferring to indulge in seamy sex by way of prostitutes who frequent the dark abodes of Orleans' French Quarter.If you knew what's ahead
Enter the doppelganger effect, as a mysterious serial killer is at large murdering the ladies of the night that Wes takes his pleasure with, the guilt factor hanging heavy on his haunted shoulders.
As Wes tries to bring down the killer, he is battling to realign his mindset about the female sex, his daughters and also Beryl Thibodeaux (Bujold), the latter the rape counsellor who was once his sparring adversary, but is now a potential lover if Wes can put everything back on an even keel.Tuggle, Eastwood and Surtees bring plenty of film noir touches to their picture.
This was produced by the same outfit that did the Dirty Harry movies, but Clint is playing a slightly different character here.Set in New Orleans instead of San Francisco, Clinton plays homicide detective Wes Block, who is investigating the murders of prostitutes.
In Tightrope playing New Orleans detective Wes Block that lack is more than made up for.Clint's a family man in this one raising two small girls one of them played by his real life daughter Alyson on his own.
In fact the final struggle between Eastwood and the perpetrator ends quite unforgettably.Clint's leading lady is Genevieve Bujold who plays a rape crisis counselor who believes in a pro-active type of counseling with her victims.
How often have we seen the good guy and the bad guy mano a mano, and one of them has a pistol, and the second guy grabs the first guy's wrist and manages to keep the pistol from being pointed in his direction, and then the gun is knocked out of the first guy's hand and there's an insert of it skittering across the floor, to be followed after a few more tumbles by a shot the Western version of which Vladimir Nabokov referred to as "the pinned hand groping for the Bowie knife." It's night time and Block is searching his house for a hidden murderer, creeping through dark rooms, boards creaking underfoot, danger around every corner -- and he does not TURN ON THE LIGHTS.
Here Clint plays Wes Block, a New Orleans detective investigating the case of a sexual predator.
He co-stars with his real life daughter Alison, and Jennifer Beck, as his kids, the typically excellent Dan Hedaya as his partner, and Genevieve Bujold as a tough talking counsellor at a rape centre, who naturally places herself in harms' way by becoming involved with Wes.Where the film is its strongest is in its depiction of N.O., capturing the night life in an American city known for its atmosphere.Not a great film by any means, but worth a look for Clint fans.Seven out of 10..
His character in "Tightrope", Wes Block, is quite different not only from Harry but also from Walt Coogan, Eastwood's "cool dude" cop in "Coogan's Bluff" or from Ben Shockley, the washed-up alcoholic he played in "The Gauntlet".
It is one of the unwritten rules of Hollywood that in any police procedural involving a serial killer the villain must have a personal grudge against the detective, or take a sadistic pleasure in playing psychological mind-games with him, or both).The film is perhaps overlong, and the plot is occasionally obscure, making it difficult to work out exactly what is going on.
Continuing my plan to watch every Clint Eastwood movie in order I come to Tightrope (1984)Plot In A Paragraph: Wes Block (Eastwood) a New Orleans detective, is leading an investigation into a killer who is raping and murdering women.
Wes Block is one of Eastwood's most fascinating characters, he is a man of many faces: caring father, hard as nails detective and a sexual deviant.
And, unlike Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry films, this leading man is one kinky cop!
A divorced detective in New Orleans (Clint Eastwood) juggles raising two daughters, pursing a serial rapist/killer, cultivating a romantic relationship (Geneviève Bujold) and dealing with his own dark side, which he realizes is too close for comfort to the killer."Tightrope" (1984) is another Eastwood detective flick, but it's not as entertaining and compelling as his Dirty Harry films or "The Gauntlet" (1977).
This may bring to mind the original "Dirty Harry" (1971), but the subdued tone is closer to "Blood Work" (2002).The title refers to a person walking the tightrope between his/her good side and bad side.The movie runs 1 hour, 54 minutes and was shot entirely in New Orleans.GRADE: C+/B-.
Clint stars as a hard-nosed detective (does he play any other kind?) trying to figure out who's behind a string of murders in New Orleans.
Clint stars as a hard-nosed detective (does he play any other kind?) trying to figure out who's behind a string of murders in New Orleans.
Eastwood plays Wesley Block, a detective in New Orleans who uncovers the murders of prostitutes.
Clint Eastwood stars as Wes Block a police officer who hunts a serial killer who targets prostitutes who he handcuffs.
Police detective Wes Block (Clint Eastwood) investigates the murder of a young woman.
There is a killer on the loose , preying on various hookers in the red light district of New Orleans and Wes Block is on the case.Tightrope is a very interesting and psychological movie that explores many sides of the Wes Block character .Genevieve Bujold is a woman who runs a rape crisis center and Clint 's love interest.
It's a forgotten or perhaps not known very well Eastwood gem, not a dirty harry shoot em up though, a more dark, personal film involving Clints life orientating between father to his girls and his seedy sexual desires in the night of New Orleans, to his non stop crusade to bring a dark and mysterious stalker to justice.
I will give a brief view of the plot-serial killer,nude women,swearing,smartass one liners,Clint Eastwood blah blah blah.Thats all you need to know because you have seen it all before with Dirty Harry.The movie is set in the 1980s but looks like the 1970s and is very boring; you wait in vain for something to happen.Clints relationship with his kids is a joke-at one point he wishes them goodnight with his trademark "well do ya punk?" scowl!
The movie features Clint Eastwood as New Orleans homicide investigator Wes Block, who is poles apart from Dirty Harry Callahan.
Tightrope takes place in New Orleans, where Eastwood plays a detective who is on a murder case, when a dead woman is found in her apartment.
What Tightrope has that really makes it look like a thriller is the scenes involving Eastwood alone and in the dark looking for the killer.
Tightrope (1984)*** (out of 4) Intense, sleazy and rather creepy thriller has Clint Eastwood playing New Orleans Detective Wes Block who is investigating a string of murders that appear to have been committed by the same man.
There's a portion of the film where a rape-victim worker (Geneveve Hegaya) asks if working this sex/rape cases has made his opinion change on women and the screenplay does a nice job mixing this in and we also have a subplot dealing with Block's relationship with his two daughters and especially the oldest (played by Alison Eastwood).
Along the way, Clint comes to the unpleasant realisation that he has more in common with the killer than he at first realises, and indeed the actor plays one of his sleaziest roles to date while at the same time remaining the usual just, commendable hero type he plays in virtually every film.Like de Palma's BODY DOUBLE, this '80s movie feels saturated with grim and grimy sex, a world in which most guys are perverts and women exist to be used at their will.
He tries to mix around maybe too much in his way of making a dark psychological thriller for his star, Clint Eastwood, but there's at least some very interesting set-ups he puts together in the middle of all the constant "crime scene" scenes (and there are MANY in this film, probably too much unless a fan of CSI).
Wes Block (Clint Eastwood) is a New Orleans Homicide detective who's investigating a series of sex murders involving prostitutes and the further he delves into this seedy world.
This is when the killer starts to play around with Wes and he starts to believe he is his own chief suspect in these murders.Totally different territory for Eastwood in this very slow and sordidly, dark thriller.
Clint Eastwood plays the typical tough cop this time around in New Orleans but has secrets.
TIGHTROPE may add a new dimension to the typical Clint Eastwood character, but it is anything but beneficial.A girl from the red light district is murdered.
Suspense builds around the prospects of Eastwood's daughter being kidnapped by the killer.A not particularly memorable film, but it got him to New Orleans..
Suspense builds around the prospects of Eastwood's daughter being kidnapped by the killer.A not particularly memorable film, but it got him to New Orleans..
They should have examined more the relationship between Block and the killer who he arrested years before for 2 rapes as stated in the later part of the movie.Good acting by Alison Eastwood.
The killer is not only likely to be a former cop familiar with police procedure, but he also knows Wes Block.Clint Eastwood gives a very fine performance as a man troubled on many fronts and trying to come to grips with it all.
In the case of New Orleans detective Wes Block (Clint Eastwood), his experience of having been deserted by his wife, left him feeling threatened by women and needing to regain some control.
Gradually their friendship develops and they get to know each other better.The serial killer leaves some evidence behind at a crime scene which indicates that he probably works in a brewery but when this lead is pursued, Beryl and Block's daughters' lives are put in jeopardy before the culprit's reign of terror is finally brought to an end.Block's inherent duality and the journey that he travels as he (through his relationship with Beryl), overcomes his need to use handcuffs, makes him an interesting character and Clint Eastwood's remarkably subtle performance is both impressive and vital to the success of the movie.
***SPOILERS*** Interesting psychological film-noir thriller with Clint Eastwood playing New Orleans police detective Wes Block who's attraction for what's weird and strange in women that he occasionally picks up in the city's red light district, to have a romp in the hey with.
So, film starts with rape and murder of a girl and Clint Eastwood is in charge of the case.
Another major success of the film is the location, New Orleans beats not with life, but with death as the Mardi Gras takes a back seat and Tuggle explores the dark and seamy nightlife of this soulful and mysterious town.A must see for Eastwood fans and people who like strange movies alike.Overall rating: 7 out of 10..
Wes Block (Clint Eastwood) is the detective investigating.
Eastwood plays Wes Block, a homicide detective on the case who finds he may have a lot in common with this killer.
Troubled divorced Detective Wes Block (a bold and impressive performance by Clint Eastwood) investigates a brutal series of hooker murders in New Orleans.
If you're in the mood to watch something dark and suspenseful, I'd suggest checking out "Tightrope" starring Clint Eastwood and real life daughter, Alison.I just watched it for the first time tonight on Netflix instant stream and I was really into it.I consider myself to be a big fan of Clint Eastwood, and I think this is one of his best films.What's interesting about Clint's character in this movie is he has two completely different sides to him: The loving father and the wayward detective with a penchant for prostitutes. |
tt0105682 | Un coeur en hiver | "Un Coeur en Hiver" translates as "A Heart in Winter". The three main characters are: the enigmatic violin craftsman (luthier) Stéphane (Daniel Auteuil); the charismatic violin shop owner Maxime (André Dussollier); and the impossibly beautiful violinist Camille (Emmanuelle Béart). Stéphane and Maxime are men perhaps in their early forties. Camille is a women in her late twenties. The age difference is significant if not unseamly.The overriding questions the movie poses are "Whose heart is 'in winter'?" and "Why?"Stéphane is so unemotional that it is easy to assume that the title refers to him. See the end for a spolier that explains why his heart is this way.In the typical French style, the plot/dialogue is fairly minimalist, leaving long stretches during which the viewer can ponder the existential questions it poses. The fact that it is in French with English subtitles makes it harder for the English viewer to catch all the subtleties, while simultaneously heightening the sense of being unconnected, especially to Stéphane.The plot is almost non-existent. Stéphane works for Maxime in his high-end violin repair shop. Camille is a concert violinist who Maxime woos both as a customer and a love interest. Stéphane watches Maxime and Camille become a couple, with implied jealousy. In a series of interactions over the tuning/repair of the violin, we see Camille's interest in Stéphane grow. Maxime and Stéphane seem to be polar opposites. Maxime is a charismatic bon vivant businessman, and Stéphane seems to be a painfully shy, meticulous craftsman.In a typical formula movie, the plot would go as follows: Girl falls for handsome/rich/athletic/shallow alpha man. Girls meets shy/kind/thoughtful underdog loser. Girl learns to love underdog who vanquishes the alpha male in a final showdown by using his wit to defeat brawn.In this movie, girl (Camille) falls for handsome bon vivant (Maxime). Girl then meets shy underdog (Stéphane). Girl learns to love the underdog. So far, perfectly understandable to American audiences. Then, against formula, Stéphane does not return Camille's affections. He leads her on, then eventually rejects her, breaking her heart.Maxime, knowing that Camille is devastated and would have preferred to leave him for Stéphane (if Stéphane was interested), has a decision to make. Does he reject Camille who has betrayed him? No, instead Maxime is outraged not with Camille but with Stéphane. He curses Stéphane and slaps him in the face, not for stealing his lover but for rejecting her.In the end, Camille returns to Maxime. Maxime accepts this because he loves Camille and is willing to be her second choice. Camille accepts this because her only choices are unrequited love for Stéphane, or being alone. Instead she choses the comfort/respect of a perhaps loveless relationship with Maxime.And what of Stéphane? What has he chosen and why?Except for a short interlude earlier in the move where we see Stéphane visit an old friend/mentor and play briefly with a child, the reader of this review now knows as much as anyone who has seen the movie. This leaves viewers largely intrigued but perplexed, so I'll lay it out for you.Maxime comes across as a good guy even though he left his wife for Camille. Camille is beautiful, young, talented, intelligent, kind, etc. You can't fault Maxime for falling in love with Camille, although perhaps in a French society used to mistresses, he is seen as a cad for leaving his wife. Is his heart "in winter" because he coldly left his wife, or because he knows Camille will never truly love him? No, his heart is warm and generous. He does not abandon Camille even though she has betrayed him. He loves her. If his heart was cold/calculating at the beginning of the movie, he certainly has learned his lesson. His heart is broken, but no longer cold.Camille in the end is "damaged goods." She seems genuinely unaware of the possibility that a man, any man, would reject her. She retreats to Maxime's comforting hug as a child would retreat to her father. Her heart, so vital at the outset of the movie is now broken and cold, perhaps forever. Perhaps she will find eventual love with Maxime, but they have a long, difficult road ahead, and it is unclear if she will ever heal or ever love Maxime. He seems content to wait an eternity, frozen in time if not in temperature.And now we come back to Stéphane. He was aloof and enigmatic at the beginning of the movie. He was calculating and manipulative in the middle. And at the end, he is portrayed as being unbelievably cruel or cold. People assume that any man who could ignore Camille (Emmanuelle Béart) is incapable of love. She is truly a breath-taking beauty. So why is Stéphane's heart "in winter"? It is not in winter because he is unable to love Camille, and viewers who missed this need to go back and watch the entire movie.SPOILER ALERT:Stéphane is in love with Maxime (yes, gay).At the beginning of the movie, he is pining for Maxime who is married and sees Stéphane as solely a platonic friend. Stéphane accepts that Maxime is married and won't leave his wife. When Maxime leaves his wife for Camille, Stéphane is heartbroken, knowing he will likely never be able to love Maxime openly. It isn't even entirely clear if Maxime is aware of Stéphane's love for him. He is aware of it intellectually, but clearly doesn't understand/appreciate a homosexual man's love for another man. (In this way, it is mirrored by Camille not understanding how Stéphane, or any man, could fail to love her.)Stéphane clearly decides that he cannot bear to see Maxime with Camille. He sets out to tear them apart. Stéphane treats Camille as if she is totally disposable, because he only wants to hurt Maxime. This is indeed very cold to Camille, and she is completeely unaware of Stéphane's game. Even Maxime seems to think that Stéphane is in love with Camille. Only in the end when Stéphane rejects Camille does Maxime understand both the cruel manipulation by Stéphane, and the pain that Stéphane must be in. Maxime lashes out at Stéphane for breaking Camille's heart, but in so doing has to recognize that he too broke Stéphane's heart.And there you have it, the inexplicable explained.For evidence that my hypothesis is correct, and that Maxime is neither unaware nor innocent, listen carefully at the beginning of the movie (narrated by Maxime). He says, in essence, that he leads Stéphane on enough to keep this master craftsman working in his violin shop rather than opening his own business. Maxime knows that Stéphane loves him, but being heterosexual, he shows no real understanding of what that means.And with this in mind, it begins to all make sense. Now we understand why Stéphane seduces Camille but rejects her. As any heterosexual male will attest, if you are not gay, you would fall for Camille (Emmanuelle Béart) in an instant. Instead, Stéphane is really after Maxime, and sees Camille as either a rival or an inanimate object (like a beautiful china doll). Stéphane fails to appreciate that Camille is a living person whose heart he will break. His heart is too cold to think of anything but exacting revenge on Maxime.As further proof, there is a subtle parallel thread in which Camille's music coach (a female) is in love with Camille, but Camille just glosses over the issue neither confronting nor rejecting a person she views only professionally/platonically.For the record, I'm straight, so I'm not just reading these themes into the movie for my own sake. I asked a friend who's gay whether he agreed with my take on the movie, and he thought I was crazy.Now go re-watch the movie, and judge for yourself.I'm pretty sure I'm 100% right. No other interpretation is even remotely sensible. | romantic | train | imdb | Brother, can you spare a heart?In Un Coeur en Hiver, the late Claude Sautet looks into the heart of Stephane, a master violin craftsman (Daniel Auteuil), and finds only ice.
While the lovely sonatas and trios of Maurice Ravel form a haunting background, there is a lifeless quality to Stephane and ennui is a palpable presence throughout.Stephane seems ready to leap into a passionate relationship with a beautiful young violinist, Camille (Emmanuelle Beart) after Maxim, his partner for many years (also in love with Camille), introduces her to Stephane.
For the most part, emotions are conveyed through glances, expressions, and silences rather than dialogue.The scene where Camille finally explodes out of frustration over Stephane's emotional distance, however, is powerful, yet is not enough to shake the reluctant lover from his hiding place.
I could really feel Camille's frustration in trying to pluck fruit from a barren tree.Auteuil's outstanding performance makes him a likable figure, a really sweet guy but a very sad one.
I felt repeatedly like shaking him from his lethargy and exposing him to joy and the rhythmic beauty of life, perhaps adding a little Mozart to his Ravel.At the end, however, there is some character development.
She and Auteuil (Stephane) employ that subtle 'facial' acting, so popular in French cinema.
Sometimes you have to wonder if the story is really a kind of allegory, with the characters as symbols, their full significance yet to be revealed.Look out for what appears to be an important scene featuring Stephane's parents, towards the end of the film.
And how much more interesting it makes this intriguing story!Oh - and the music is a substantial part of the film - not just 'background', which is a good thing..
The main character of this film, Stephan--played by Daniel Auteuil--is brilliant.
He is a good looking and quiet man who knows what he wants and is secure in this: solitude--regardless of the amorous advances of Camille, the beautiful and brilliant young violinist who winds up dating his business partner Maxime, and whom he could seduce very easily.
This movie manages to remind us this in the context of a difficult love story accompanied by one of the most beautiful scores ever.The whole movie seems to have been written and built around this sad, unusual and beautiful music by Ravel (piano sonata for trio).If you are an intelligent person you'll love the poetry and soft touch of this movie..
For me however, the scene in which the character played by Ms. Beart is rehearsing Ravel with her quartet and the character of Mr. Auteuil stares her down as only a man from France can do; with a heady combination of lust, reluctance, and sobriety- that scene takes 'psychodrama' to a new level.
This is a haunting film...in its visual beauty, in its performances and certainly in the sensitive direction of Claude Sautet.
One of the many qualities to admire in this film is that what the characters do not say is more important that what they do, and rather than being vague and ambiguous, which is a polite way of often saying muddled and obscure in movies, everything is confidently conveyed through expressions and actions.
The music is brilliantly chosen, and the camera draws things out of the frame naturally...Auteil touching Beart for the first time when crossing the road, the wonderful coffee shop scene, that slap from Maxim.
a beautiful, beautiful movie without sentimentality, but with great music and wonderful depths of feeling by the actors.
a beautiful, beautiful movie without sentimentality, but with great music and wonderful depths of feeling by the actors.
not too much i can say, either you'll love it or you'll be frustrated.there is no use telling the story.if you love it you will know why, probably because it strikes a chord in you and you can relate to one of the characters or situations.if you hate it, well, i can think about worse ways to spend 90 minutes.
I loved it and I watch it over and over.Auteuil and Beart really shine, and the film is neatly done.
An art film in the best sense of the word.What most influenced me was Auteuil's character.
I saw this movie over ten years ago but I still remember it as a beautiful, sensitive, moving film.
I highly recommend it for those who would like to see Emmannuelle Beart at her peak of beauty and to listen to the tender, yearning music of Ravel..
It's a love triangle of sorts between two friends, a bachelor Maxime and his quiet friend Stephane who are business partners running a violin repair shop.
Maxime begins a relationship with the beautiful violinist Camille, who soon becomes attracted to Stefane, who does not overtly return her advances.
He loves music and handles his violins (which can be argued are shaped like an ideal female body, revealing Stephane's asexuality) the way Maxime and other "normal" men handle women.
Director Claude Sautet has a gift with letting human drama unfold, and he carefully studies the behavior of his characters, who come alive without force or question, so much that the audience feels like a you're listening on close friends fighting.
Then a real-life couple, Emmanuel Beart and Daniel Auteuil are stunning (such a great, unique romance for a real-life couple--you couldn't ever imagine Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie ever tackling this together), hitting all the right notes (pun intended) with the precision and understanding of great actors, and even better human beings.
Brilliant dialogs, wonderful acting, moving music, a perfect mix of sobriety, passion, psychological violence and reserve.At the heart of the movie, the character of Stephane is an enigma for the other characters and for the viewer.
It is worth noting that, although he wrote completely original stories, Sautet used to use real life, identifiable individuals as models for his characters.I've seen Un coeur en hiver many times, but still each time I discover something new.
As wonderful as it is to watch the trio of Auteuil, Dussollier and Beart, you can sometimes enjoy this movie with your eyes closed.
Even if you don't care to watch the movie again, which should not be the case if you appreciate the intelligence and artistry of French cinema, check out the soundtrack.
And Daniel Auteuil, what can I say, his acting is so understated and expressive that you take his character to heart in spite of his seemingly heartless actions towards Camille..
Thus love in this film is like holding a violin bow without knowing that is made of stainless steel.
After having now watched 'Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud' and this film, i will certainly go back and make a reassessment.'Un coeur en hiver' is, however, nothing short of a masterpiece -- a showcase for acting talent and directorial mastery.
Whether you love or loath classical music is largely irrelevant here -- it's the passion and commitment in the delivery that counts and Béart is magnetic.Claude Sautet won the trophy for best director in France's 1993 César awards for this.
In fact the lovers, she, a young, gifted violinist played by the strange but beautiful Emmanuelle Beart, and he, a cynical genius of violin repair (!) played by the enigmatic Daniel Auteuil, never even kiss!
Strong performances by the leads and seamless, invisible direction make this a four star film and a modern classic.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!).
The movie strikes by its beautiful music and by superb acting of Beart and Auteuil.
This is something remarkable on this movie, that we never know if Stephane is really good in hiding his feelings, or simply doesn't have them to the extent that he is supposed to.
Another thing I love about this movie is the "undefined" relationship between the 3 main characters.
He could have easily force it one way or another, make Camille chose (how many time we saw this in movies...) or confronting Stephane, but these are all clichés that you won't find it here.
This film brings us into the life of Stephane --- a man who has never discovered love only due to the fact that he never realised he had a heart.The ending has several interpretations, however it may not satisfy those who enjoy the happy-ending type story.I've read some reviews saying the movie was incredibly boring.
After watching my favourite film of last year "Jean De Florette and Manon Des Sources" I thought I should check out this love story that has two of the main protagonists of that film.Emmanuelle Beart and Daniel Autueil star in this film about a love triangle of intricate characters.
Fairly straightforward stuff, but the beauty of the cinematography, set against a violin score of the highest quality really makes this a tremendous film, lest I forget the great performances of Auteuil and Beart the latter of whom really convinces as an up and coming professional violinist.The tension between the three main characters is really well created, bringing us to a feverish state with the last act beckoning.
The complex character of Stephane is really intriguing to see develop, although when the final act does arrive it would've been far more satisfying to see him show at least some visual emotion, since we have had to interpret Auteuil's subtle glances and facial expressions all the way through the film.It actually brings a fairly frustrating climax to the film, although one can't complain.
It's a refreshing film to watch and is satisfying in the sense that you know that this 40 something year old man isn't going to change in an instant, no matter how beautiful the love interest (and yes, she is indeed beautiful).
The ending makes sense, even if we want it to be different.All in all, a love story I can highly recommend.
In this film, Daniel is after Emmanuelle Beart's character.
This film is a great example of how good acting, solid directing, and decent writing can allow the audience to understand the characters with greater depth including their flaws and attributes.
The only things worth watching and hearing in this French film are Emmanuelle Beart's face and some of Ravel's violin music, respectively.Otherwise, this is an incredibly boring movie; a very long, drawn out soap opera.
(The novel is even mentioned in the film.) Stephan is a modern-day version of Pechorin." Now Pechorin is a complex Byronesque character that has ambiguous but plausible reasons for his apparent "winter" heart.
"Winter Heart" is a character study which examines what happens when a beautiful violinist falls in love with a violin maker who is devoid of the passion and emotion which is so much a part of French film and life in general.
This one will remind you of of your heart, love you felt for once and the all the feelings that come with you when you listen music that promises to bring all that back.
And that's where this french film shines not just because it is written craft-fully that we are invested emotionally but also performed delicately and delicately by the actors esp., Emmanuelle Béart, Daniel Auteuil, André Dussollier, Elizabeth Bourgine that makes us know with what vibes it went in and came out.
Story, i think i should not tell since synopsis, is given but what i want to say at last, is that once you are entering the film and its story, don't leave it thinking, it to be melodramatic instead see the magic music, emotions and reactions play when they all come together with that sense of making your memories of how you'll feel great about this film..
But his heart seems to be as cold as her playing is passionate.The film contains only excerpts of Ravel compositions, but the soundtrack album includes them in their entirety, performed by Jean-Jacques Kantorow (violin), Philippe Muller (cello) and Jacques Rouvier (piano).
The end.The French are usually quite good at making films about nothing.
Before I say anything else, I must point out that I love Daniel Auteuil and have seen many of his films.
I am a fan of both Daniel Auteuil and Emmanuelle Beart (who, I believe, are married in real life), and their performances in this film are strong and are not what disappointed me.
I believe that this film was intended to be a psychological drama about the love between Auteuil's and Beart's characters.
We (and they) end up in exactly the same place, leaving the viewer asking in the final scene, "That was it??" The ramifications of their relationship, if you can call it that, do not even compel these characters to make changes in their own lives.Maybe being an American has made me accustomed to films where there is a happy ending and the romance wins out in the end.
But this movie, if a depiction of what happens in real life and not just American films where the guy gets the girl in the end, is deeply disturbing and a sad commentary on the nature of the human condition.
Plenty of romances I watch I doubt the chemistry between a couple, but here I felt comfortable and aware of these character's emotions and problems.The film is about a violinist who falls entrancedly in love with her boyfriend's seemingly empty partner in terms of emotion and love.
Normally IMDb ratings are an excellent guide, and I rented this movie on the basis of its high rating, but in this case it was totally misleading.This has to be the most boring, lifeless, dreary film I've ever seen.
The premise is good enough: two men run a violin repair shop, one is having an affair with a lovely young violinist, but then she develops a relationship with the other one.Problem is, not one of these characters (nor any of the subordinate ones) have anything interesting or attractive or charming or in any way endearing about them.
There are so many ways to interpret the ending, again demonstrating Sautet's brilliant directing and the nuances in Beart's and Auteuil's performances.
You would absolutely never find a "love" story quite like this one in the U.S. This was made by a true craftsman.At times it felt like there were 2 movies going on at once.
Not many movies can draw a parallel between music and love with such delicate refinement as Sautet's Un Coeur en Hiver.
The film revolves around an unspoken unrequited love between Stephane (Auteuil), a violin craftsman, and the beautiful Camille (Béart), a violin virtuoso and also his patron's lover.
A character that holds a violin as if it were the most fragile item in the world, and yet does not hesitate to shatter a woman's heart by simply saying, "I have decided to seduce you without loving you." But in the end, as he himself realizes, he is only destroying himself.
This movie makes me fall in love with French cinema all over again..
Beart's character's inability to accept this, her outrageous scene at the restaurant, her coldness toward him when he seeks to mend fences after her outrage - all make me dislike her.**** SPOILERS *****I find deeply disturbing the movie's showing of Auteil's willingness to engage in a mercy killing as the sign of his love for someone.
The characters, the music and the atmosphere that Sautet has created are beautiful and also fragile-just like in real life.
That's one good thing I can say about him.After watching the movie, I was left wondering what Camille's true motives were.
I have to question a man's motives when he acts as Maxime did, especially when the woman he supposedly loves is as beautiful as Camille, and seemingly as illusive.By the end, the three main characters have proved themselves to be quite unappealing, only Brice and the shopkeeper friend of Stephane having provided any real warmth to the story.
The title, which translates literally as A Heart In Winter or more colloquially as A Frozen Heart, suggests that Stephane (Auteuil) is the central character but Manu Beart as Camille has stolen most of the notices I've read on this Board but I would argue that perhaps fittingly for a film set against the world of classical music this is an exquisite chamber work that segues effortlessly between trio, quartet and quintet.
It's true that without the icy remoteness of Stephane his relationships with business partner Maxim (Dussollier), Maxim's lover and virtuoso violinist Camille (Beart), beautifully observed platonic friendship with bookshop owner Helene (Bourgine) and lastly Camiile's agent Regine (Catillon) would take an entirely different hue and open the way to several other kinds of plot development but each of the five I have mentioned are both well written and well rounded in performance.
One of the best French films of all time.
It's two people at the top of their game, a virtuoso violinist and her equivalent in the luthier business.This film is like instrumental music.
There are so many interpretations and they're all equally right.A top violinist, Camille, falls in love with her luthier, Stephane, despite her having a boyfriend in his businessman of a partner, Maxime?
If we were to place things on a spectrum with real life (let's say 0) on one end and pure fantasy like Avatar on the other (let's give it a 5), most modern films would be closer to fantasy than reality.
Or if you want to see an AWESOME movie with both Daniel Auteuil and Emanuelle Beart, rent <Manon des Sources>.
I am also not sure if by seducing Camille, Stephane was trying to push himself to see if he could really move on and fall in love with a woman.
The problem I had with this film is with the central character Stephane whose reserved and detached nature gets old and annoying after a while. |
tt0089173 | Friday the 13th: A New Beginning | A young Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman) stumbles upon a graveyard while walking through the woods on a rainy night, where he witnesses two grave robbers digging up the corpse of Jason Voorhees. Jason rises from the grave and murders the two graverobbers before advancing towards Tommy.Awakening from his nightmare, fifteen-year-old Tommy is delivered to Pinehurst; a halfway house in which he can hope to acclimate to a normal life. The director Pam introduces Tommy to the head doctor Matt, and up in his assigned room, he meets Reggie, a boy who is visiting his grandfather George who works in the kitchen. Other teens introduced are Robin, goth Violet, shy Jake, attitude-ridden Vic and compulsive eater Joey. The sheriff brings two more residents, nymphomaniac couple Tina and Eddie, after catching them having sex on the neighbor Ethel Hubbard's lawn. The Hubbards show up moments later and threaten to have the "loony bin" closed down. Afterward, Vic and Joey get in a minor altercation, which results in Vic slaughtering Joey with an axe and he is subsequently arrested. Attending ambulance drivers Duke and Roy Burns discover the body. Roy is devastated and angered by Duke's light attitude regarding the murder. That night, two teens, Pete and Vinnie, are stranded by the road. They are soon killed when an unseen killer shoves a road flare into Vinnie's mouth, then slashes Pete's throat with a machete. The following night, hospital orderly Billy and his girlfriend Lana are killed with an double-bit axe. Panic begins to ensue, but the mayor refuses the sheriff's claim that somehow Jason Voorhees has returned. Meanwhile, Tommy experiences hallucinations of Jason (in his regular hockey mask) when he takes his medicine while Tina and Eddie run off to have sex.Ethel's temporary farmhand is murdered watching the teens have sex, then Tina's eyes are gouged out by a pair of long-handle garden shears while Eddie is away for a moment. He returns to discover her, and is killed when his skull is crushed against a tree with a belt. At the house, George gives Reggie permission to visit his visiting brother Demon, and Matt convinces Pam to take Tommy with them. While there, Junior instigates a fight with Tommy, and he runs off when Pam tries to stop it. After Reggie and Pam leave, Demon and his girlfriend Nita are killed as well. Pam returns Reggie to the house and they say that Matt and George left to find Tina and Eddie who hadn't returned and Pam leaves to find everyone. At the Hubbard farm, Junior is decapitated riding his bike angrily in the yard while Ethel is killed with a cleaver into her face. While watching ''A Place in the Sun'' on TV, Jake confesses his attraction to Robin who laughs at him and he storms off, only to be killed by a cleaver to his face. Later, Robin goes to bed and discovers Jake's body before she is brutally stabbed from under her bed. The killer moves into Violet's room and stabs her while she is dancing to music. Reggie awakens and discovers their bodies in Tommy's room before running into Pam. Jason bursts into the house and chases them out into the rain, after discovering Duke's dead body they double back and Pam finds Matt, dead with a spike through his skull. She returns to the house and George, whose eyes had been gouged out, is thrown through a window at her. She rushes toward the barn, chased by Jason, but he is struck by a tractor driven by Reggie. They run into the barn and hide as Jason comes to find them. Tommy comes shortly after and believes Jason to be a hallucination until he is attacked by him. Together, they manage to have Jason into falling out of the loft window and he is killed on a harrow below. In the process, it is revealed that it was actually Roy Burns all along.At the hospital, the sheriff tells Pam that Joey was Roy's son, and after seeing him slaughtered adopted Jason's M.O. to kill everyone at the house. She goes to Tommy's room who awakens and stabs her with a hidden machete before Tommy awakens to a hallucination of Jason. Facing his fears, he makes Jason's illusion disappear. He hears Pam approaching and throws his bed through the window to make it look like he's escaped. When she rushes in, he appears from behind the door, wearing Roy's hockey mask and holding a knife as the screen goes to black. | boring, grindhouse film, murder, cult, horror, violence, alternate reality, insanity, revenge, sadist | train | imdb | Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is very underrated and a really good horror film.
I have enjoy this film and however I feel now it is better then Friday the 13th Part 2 because the killer wasn't so clumsy and the chainsaw worked in this movie.
I love the singing on the crapper part, the mod chick doing the robot, the "just wanna earn a meal" guy, Crazy Ethel and Junior, Billy and Llana, that kid from Diff'rent Strokes, the stupid arse ending, and the excessive nudity.It's a time capsule of sorts, it captures all the bad 80's slasher films in a hour and a half.
There are a few "Friday" fans out there that can actually enjoy this film for what it is instead of complaining about what it's not.Yes, the plot is a big departure from the previous films, but once you get over it, it's a pretty fun '80s slasher film with plenty of creative kills and some great chase sequences.The acting is surprisingly solid for a series' fifth entry as well.
I really never understood the complaints about the acting in these films, as to me it's always been passable and certainly above most of the slasher rip-offs the decade was littered with.This time, the action takes place at a halfway house in the sticks where Tommy Jarvis, survivor of the previous bloodbath, comes to stay after an undetermined amount of time in a mental hospital.
This can be good or bad, depending on what you prefer: a fun slasher sequel like part 3, this is not.The final 20 minutes really get the action going as well.
But then when it comes to a choice of the best sequel, I say that Friday the 13th part 5 is the joint best sequel of the series.Part 4 the so called final chapter is equally as good.I take a look at other peoples comments about this film and it seems to me that I am one of the only people who likes this film.It has everything that the other sequels failed to capture.
It had real suspense, as to who the killer was, I mean we all know it was not Jason, he "was" dead.It had a lot of different death scenes,and it was all in all a good film.
I do not understand why Tommy is in a mental Institute, I mean he is still freaked out by the murder of his mother and friends at the hands of Jason Voorhees.So if you want to find out who killer is and why he did it, then rent out this film or if you`re a horror fan like me, buy it and add it to your horror collection.I give this movie a 8 out of 10.Because of the Crazy "new beginning".
For those curious--14 men are killed and 6 women.This has all the same problems as earlier movies and then some--there are continuity errors left and right; some truly terrible acting (Melanie Kinnaman as Pam was the worst); bad dialogue; Jason being able to seemingly teleport to magically appear wherever he wants; gratuitous female nudity; two extremely annoying hillbillies and characters so stupid you want them dead!
The sequence where Shepherd single-handedly knocks the hillbilly cold is a highlight.A lot of fans hate this--it's dismissed as "the film without Jason" and considered (along with part 3) as the worst of the series.
Years after Tommy Jarvis (John Sheperd) killed Jason Voorhees for good, he has been sent to mental facility to one other home where he is now placed in a halfway house for troubled teens as he tries to get rid of the painful memories of Jason.
This movie was originally considered a new beginning after Jason died in the last movie and the makers wanted to make the series into something different with a new killer in each installment which is kind of similar to "Halloween III: Season of the Witch" in concept of a different horror movie in each installment.
This part of the series co-stars a cameo by Corey Feldman and even has Miguel Nuenz Jr. of "Return of the Living Dead" fame which should surprise fans of the horror genre.There's a lot of graphic killings in this one as it has a body count of 20 dead people with some good kills of skull-crushings, implements, stabbings and that kind of thing.
"Friday the 13th:A New Beginning" isn't as bad as those above me keep saying it is.I'm not entirely sure why so many people hate this entry-OK so Jason wasn't there,but there's plenty of violence to satisfy b-horror movie fans and nobody acts any worse than before.Of course this one isn't as good as the previous ones,mainly because it lacks the first four films mean spirited edge,but it is still a pretty enjoyable slasher flick.There's also no real blood or gore as most of the killings appear to take place simply off-camera,but I don't mind that.If I want to be sickened by extreme gore I'll watch again "Guinea Pig:Flowers of Flesh and Blood" instead of this,but if I want to see an enjoyable slasher with plenty of nudity I'll choose this one.The plot is simple:the traumatized Tommy Jarvis(John Shepherd),who killed Jason in the previous entry arrives at the Pinehurst home for disturbed teens run by Matt(Richard Young)and Pam(Melanie Kinnaman),soon befriending a good-natured young boy named Reggie(Shavar Ross),whose grandfather works as the institution's cook.Not long after his arrival,Tommy sees an angry patient named Vic(Mark Venturini)hack a fat teen(Dominick Brascia,the same guy who directed forgotten 80's slasher "Evil Laugh")to death with an axe.Over twenty more murders follow,but who is the killer?
Not a single moment induces suspense at all, I doubt seriously the director knew at all how to direct (this is his last effort listed, not surprisingly), it's got none of the Friday spirit, it's horribly acted, incredibly predictable but yes, it does have a surprise ending, THAT SUCKS.Granted, these Friday films are no masterpieces of cinema, but at least they entertain.
The "Friday the 13th" series is no ground-breaker, but this one isn't even as good as one of its innumerable rip-offs."A New Beginning" basically tells how the tormented teen Tommy (grown up from "The Final (uh-huh) Chapter") is shipped off to a place where other mentally challenged teens are staying to rest and relax...in a camp in the middle of the woods.
Yes, this is the installment in the interminable "Friday the 13th" series that thought it would be a good idea to do without its only reason for existence...the hockey-masked Jason.
Compared to the other films in the series, this is practically "War and Peace," what with the murder mystery story and the Tommy Jarvis plot line, which attempts to add a sense of continuity to the middle batch of movies (o.k. so Part 6 picks up Tommy's storyline in a completely different place and with a different actor, but for a series like this that's the best you can hope for in the way of consistency).Grade: C.
Ugh. This isn't a bad movie,it's just that some,or most of the dialoge is bad and makes my eyes roll.Yes,some of the death scenes are creative.Yes,there are some funny moments.And yes,there's one dude in the movie that looks like Michael Jackson before his skin turned white.So you're probably asking yourself: Is this a good movie?
The main offense was that the series tried to establish Tommy Jarvis as the new villain, taking over killing duties from Jason.
The story picks-up from the previous film with Jason coming back to life and then possessing Corey Feldman's character, Tommy Jarvis.
Out of all the sequels to the Friday the 13th series this one tried hardest to be different and yet get closer to what Friday originally was.This continues the story of Tommy Jarvis a survivor of the last film.
the killer in this movie does just as good of a job at killing people as jason did in the previous friday the 13th movies.
the movie is about tommy jarvis.the kid that knocked-off jason in the last friday.
Good part of the series ends to this movie and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre like but even worse splatter series with zombie Jason starts from next.
She's fully clothed the entire picture (although she has a wet-shirt moment) proving that a woman doesn't have to flaunt her beauty cheaply to get attention or instill awe.***SPOILER ALERT*** (Don't read this paragraph if you haven't seen the film) Aside from being entertaining like most of the installments, it should be pointed out that Part V does something better than any other film in the series -- it shows the long term negative EFFECT Jason (and his mother) can have on people.
It goes without saying that if you find overkill cussing offensive you might want to skip this one.BOTTOM LINE: "A New Beginning" is just a fun and entertaining deep woods horror flick with numerous highlights noted above.As to the criticisms regarding the absence of a certain character, again, the film does a good job of showing what can ultimately happen to those severely traumatized by Jason.
One problem though - Jason is dead and buried (or cremated as the mayor says).After the 4th film, I seriously thought they were going to have Tommy Jarvis become the next killer of the series, maybe take over for Jason.
Ok Ok there are some good gory deaths here and there, and the body count is the highest of the whole series so far...but this movie like most of the ones before had the usual doses of bad acting, non-sense dialogue and a plot pretty much driven by the death scenes and big body count, although the story here seems to be slightly thought up.
This is actually quite a nice idea, but is always a sub-plot as the film concentrates on killing so many of the cast, leaving little if any time to continue Tommy's tale.Once again, you can tell who's going to die and who's not.
The Underrated One. Those who have seen the original series of Friday the 13th movies (Parts 1 to 4) know that before Jason was the mindless unstoppable zombie of the recent movies, he was a human that apparently was killed by Tommy Jarvis in Part 4, "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter"."Friday the 13th: A New Beginning", the fifth movie in the series is a different take on the "Friday" franchise turning it into some kind of mix between a slasher and a "whodunit?" mystery.Tommy Jarvis (played by John Shepherd) is taken to a foster home in the woods after being released from the mental institution where he recovered from the trauma of having his family killed in the events of "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter".
The unbearable acting (especially with the redneck family and poor Joey), the cliché and overdone death scenes, all the unnecessary characters, and the lack of Camp Crystal Lake combine to make this the ultimate Friday the 13th travesty.Camp Crystal Lake is replaced with a mental hospital deep in the woods, and we are forced to watch really boring and unimaginative death scenes (except for one involving a redneck and a motorcycle).For the sake of the series, see this movie, regardless of how terrible it is, but only see it after you've seen part 4.In a nutshell, it's bad, but you gotta see it anyway, if for no other reason than to know what happened between 4 and 6.
It has got a chilling atmosphere and I LOVE JULIETTE CUMMINS (the redheaded patient) I do not understand why so many of our fellow Friday fans, hate this sequel just because Jason is absent, as if it wasn't getting boring, the same indestructable killing machine movie after movie, he started to look to much like a Freddy Kreuger.
I got a little confused after seeing her dance before she got hacked.4) Was chili served on the set every day, because everyone in the movie decided to take a dump at some point.Friday 5 is somewhat different than the rest...not just because it didn't really have Jason (well, sorta), but because it didn't really make any sense, even by Friday the 13th standards...Overall, still a great late-night feature and definitely not as bad as others claim.
When "Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter" came out in the spring of 1984, the producers behind these movies said that it would be the last film in the series (hence the title).
Even though this sequel leaves you wondering if the killer is really Jason or Not, It still has all the same feel, fun, and grue as any other Friday The 13th movie!
I would recommend this movie to any true FRIDAY THE 13th Fan...whether or not you don't know if Jason is the killer until the end is just another fun reason to enjoy this great flick!!!.
Well, here's my two cents.In this entry, Tommy, the kid who "killed" Jason in the last film, is sent to a psychiatric facility which for some reason is right next to Crystal Lake.
In between the ill-conceived but imaginative twist ending, over-the-top gore, excessive body count, and the cartoonish characters, it doesn't exactly feel like a "Friday the 13th" movie.
It's under the delusion that it's a horror film, so it thinks it's automatically becomes scarier if something bloody isn't shown, so right when something halfway interesting does happen, we're deprived of the good part: the gore.God, this movie sucks.
While for many films dating yourself is bad, I think horror actually gets better when the viewer is aware the movie is from the 1980s or 1970s.
I'm actually referring to these trends: vehicles that only seem to work for a half mile or less, B&W films being the preferred movies to view, bad hygiene after using the restroom/forest and enormously bad dancing (even by 80's standards.) While I read a lot on how this movie got bashed from paid critics, that is if one could look past the usual array of awful acting, scenes set up specifically for sexual intercourse/slaughter or stereotypes and clichés galore, I liked the idea that the previous installment, 'The Final Chapter' really was the final Jason chapter (yes, just up to this point) and they actually put effort into attempting a change.
Still haunted by the memory of Jason, a teen sent to a reform camp on Crystal Lake has his worst fears come true when a masked madman begins killing off his fellow participants and must overcome them to stop the killings.This here was quite the decent slasher film even if it's quite a troubling franchise effort.
All of those elements make Friday The 13th:A New Beginning while not one of the best films in the Friday The 13th a solid entry in the franchise.Friday The 13th:A New Beginning tells the story of a teenage Tommy Jarvis(John Shepard)still haunted and mentally disturbed by his encounter when he killed Jason Voorhees in The Final Chapter is sent to a halfway house with other trouble teenagers.
While at the house some one is murdering and killing people in a similar way Jason used to Tommy and others have to learn how to survive.Stuck between the gory and bloody darkness of the excellent Friday The 13:The Final Chapter(1984)and the entertaining high octane thrills of the brilliant Friday The 13th Part VI:Jason Lives(1986)is Friday The 13th:A New Beginning,one of the most infamous films in the Friday The 13th series(along with Jason Takes Manhattan,Jason Goes To Hell and Jason X)that has divided fans over the years some love it and some hate it but at the same time has found an audience since it's 1985 release.
It's easy to see why most Friday fans wouldn't like this one with no Jason in the movie(except in Tommy's dreams and hallucinations)and the film trying to take the series into a new direction and it works and some times it doesn't.
Nice effects,Becker.In final word,if you love the Friday The 13th franchise,Slasher Films or Horror Movies in general,I suggest you see Friday The 13:A New Beginning,a flawed but entertaining and interesting sequel that is worth your time.
they both were killed by Jason, they didn't deserve to die.I like Violet a lot, she is the one I like most of all Friday the 13th movies.
It ain't the in the series.After killing JASON in Friday THE 13TH:THE FINAL CHAPTER, Tommy Jarvis(John Shepherd) has went crazy.
It's not as bad as people make out, it provides everything a good slasher/horror picture needs i.e. killing, naked women and in this case a hockey mask wearing psycho.The direction is good and it remains faithful to the original story lines of the first four movies by having characters such as Tommy Jarvis.This film holds the record for the amount of kills in a Friday the 13th film 23 (i think), so anybody saying this film is lame as not been watching well enough.A cool film that should be enjoyed for what it is.
Well, I will just get straight to the point, a fat-candybar eating kid gets axed to death by another member of the house and the murdered kid's dad ends up dressing like Jason and starts killing people.
But it just seems like these sequels are just not even trying to give any kind of story, only a reason to pull Jason out and give some good slice and dice kills for the fans, but if you're one of those fans, I'm sure that A New Beginning will not disappoint you.So Tommy, who is played by a very young Corey Feldman, witnesses a horrible murder when he is a child.
But you'll see what I mean when you watch this movie.Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is so far one of the worst sequels in the Friday the 13th series that I have seen. |
tt0347048 | Gegen die Wand | The movie starts off with a Turkish singing group at the edge of the water in what appears to be Istanbul. After a story telling song from the group the movie goes into a night club where a band has just finished playing. It is here where we first meet our main character Cahit Tomruk (Birol Unel). Cahit is picking up all the bottles on the floor at the club, that is his job. After Cahit is done working he goes to a local bar and gets thrown out because he starts fighting with another man after this man calls him names. The bartender knows Cahit by name and after he's done throwing him out he tells Cahit to go home. Belligerently drunk Cahit drives home and contemplates his life. After driving out of a tunnel Cahit sees a wall and decides to hit the gas and slams right into it. The next shot of Cahit is of him going to a psychologist for a check up; Cahit is in a neck brace. While sitting in the waiting room Cahit notices a beautiful girl (Sibel Kekilli) looking at him, when they call his name to go in the girl perks up. Inside Cahit and the doctor talk about his suicide attempt. Cahit ends up leaving in a bad mood and as soon as walks out of the office the girl approaches him and asks him to marry her, Cahit looks at her strange and tells her to fuck off. Later Cahit sees the girl and her family at the dining facilities; it appears that Cahit is in some sort of rehabilitation center. The girls family, especially her brother (Cem Akin) and father (Demir Gokgol), are angry at her for her attempted suicide, apparently it is not her first. Her brother warns her not to do anything stupid again because if anything happens to their father, he'll kill her. Her mother (Aysel Iscan) consoles her. Later on a walk the girl catches up with Cahit and introduces herself as Sibel. Sibel gets Cahit to escape from the center and go to a nearby bar. At the bar Sibel and Cahit talk about why one another were at the center, Sibel tells Cahit of how her brother once broke her nose when he caught her holding a boys hand. Sibel asks Cahit to marry her again and he tells her she's fucked up in the head. Sibel gets angry and breaks a wine bottle and cuts herself across the arm, Cahit gets up and immediately ties something around her arm and takes her out of the bar with him. They end up catching a bus to the hospital, on the ride they discuss why Sibel wants to get married. Sibel wants to get married because it is the only way to escape her family and they will only let her marry a Turkish man. She tells Cahit that their "marriage" will be more like a roommate relationship; she'll cover any and every expense. Cahit is fighting it the whole time but you can see him start to contemplate it. The bus driver hearing of their plan pulls over and kicks both of them out. Next the same Turkish band and scene from the beginning of the movie comes back and sings another song. After, Cahit is shown by himself in the dump that is his apartment. Next Cahit is shown talking to his best friend Guven (Guven Kirac) about the whole marriage idea. Guven thinks it is the worst idea ever and warns Cahit not to do it. Cahit is then shown clean shaven and dressed up in his best suit and Guven is pretending to be his uncle when they go meet with Sibel's family. While meeting with Sibel's family Cahit is grilled by both Yilmaz (the brother) and Yunus (the father). Guven does his best to deflect their aggressive behavior. In the kitchen Sibel and her mother talk about Cahit, Sibel's mother has a little trouble with their age difference and Cahit's demeanor. Sibel's father finally gives his blessing. Soon after the wedding is underway. Sibel is shown picking up her cousin, Selma(Meltum Cumbul), from the airport. She will be the maid of honor. Cahit and Sibel go to city hall with Guven and Selma as their witnesses and get married. While signing the license it is discovered that Cahit is a widower, much to Sibel's surprise. They are shown arguing about it as they leave city hall. Next they arrive in a hall and have a big Turkish wedding reception. When they get back to Cahit's apartment and his taking her across the threshold, Sibel's asks Cahit what his wife's name was. This infuriates Cahit because he told her not to bring it up again and he throws Sibel out and leaves her on the steps. After a while Sibel gets up and goes to the bar that's around the corner, she ends up talking the barkeeper into taking her home for the night and "steal the bride." The next day when walking back to Cahit's place she contemplates leaving with her cousin to Istanbul but ultimately decides to stay with Cahit. She turns his apartment into a livable place. Next Cahit is shown at a bar and starts talking to his friend Maren (Catrin Striebeck) and ends up sleeping with her. After the sex he asks Maren if she can give a job to his roommate Sibel in her hair salon. Sibel is hired by Maren as a hair stylist. One night Sibel talks Cahit into taking her to a club. At the club Sibel meets a guy and goes home with him, she even tells Cahit she's going go get laid and to not wait up for her. Cahit goes home bitter, and gets drunk and passes out. In the morning he goes to her room and lays on her bed and smells her pillow, it seems that Cahit is starting to like Sibel. The next scene is more of the Turkish band. Next it shows Sibel and Cahit go to Sibel's cousin's house(not Selma's) to hang out with her cousins and brother. The women sit around and gossip while the men play some sort of dominoes. During the domino game some cousins get heated with Cahit because of the things he says, mostly about how they should be sleeping with their own wives instead of going out and finding whores. Sibel and Cahit leave and Yilmaz (Sibel's brother) comes out and calls Cahit. Yilmaz confronts Cahit on not being the manager at the club but the bottle picker upper. Yilmaz asks why he lied and Cahit replies that he had to in order to be able to marry Sibel, and he only lied because he really loves her. After the cousins house Sibel and Cahit go to a local bar where Cahit gets so drunk he passes out and Sibel leaves with another man. Maren comes and takes Cahit home with her and they have sex. The next night Sibel prepares a nice home cooked meal for Cahit. During dinner Sibel talks of how her mother has been hassling her about grandchildren, Cahit tells Sibel they should make her mother some(half jokingly). Sibel takes it as a joke and tells Cahit she'll just tell her mother he is impotent plus it will be a good reason for a divorce. Cahit gets mad and they both go their separate ways for the night. Later that night Cahit goes to the club Sibel said she was going to be at. Cahit has a little trouble with the bouncer who refuses to let him in until Sibel comes out and brings Cahit in. In the club a group of guys beat up Cahit when he tries to stop one of them from hitting on Sibel. Sibel cleans up Cahit outside of the club and they go home. At home the two start getting intimate, but right before they begin to have sex Sibel stops Cahit because if they do have sex the marriage will have been consummated, and they really will be man and wife. The next day at the work Cahit tells Guven that he really is in love, this upsets Guven. Cahit even gets up on stage and dances with the band he's so happy. At Sibel's work she and Maren talk about Cahit's first wife, Katherine. It gets out that Maren and Cahit have sex, this really upsets Sibel and she storms out. Sibel goes to a fair by herself and rides some rides, while walking she buys a giant cookie that says "I love you" on it; she takes it home and places it on Cahit's pillow. At the same time Cahit is at a bar getting smack talked by Nico(Stefan Gebelhoff), one of Sibel's former lovers who just found out she was married and is upset about it. Cahit just sits there and takes it in silence until finally he turns around and just cracks Nico with a glass ashtray, it kills Nico. Right as Cahit hovers over Nico to check if he is alive, Sibel walks in. Sibel then runs home and cuts herself length ways down her arm. The next day it is in the papers that Cahit killed Nico because his wife had slept with him, it also comes out that Nico wasnt the only one. Sibel's father sees the paper and begins to burn all of Sibel's pictures, he disowns her. When Sibel walks out of the hospital her brother is waiting for her outside, she sees him and begins to run away. She eventually runs all the way to Guven's house and hides out there for a while. Next Sibel visits Cahit in jail and promises to wait for him. Next scene the band in Istanbul sings another song. Next Sibel is shown on a flight to Istanbul, now with much shorter hair. Selma gets her a job as a cleaning lady at the hotel she manages. Sibel hates it, waking up early, cleaning, and the same routine over and over. One night Sibel decides to diverge from her usual walk home and goes to a bar. She asks the bartender where she can get some drugs, he asks what kind and she says whatever. The bartender takes Sibel home and gives her opium. He talks her into moving in with him. She tells Selma about her moving and Selma tries to stop her. Sibel yells at Selma and accuses Selma of trying to make her like her, and says the reason her husband left is because she is working all the time, Selma slaps Sibel for saying such. Sibel moves in with the bartender and works at the bar and starts to party like crazy. One night she party's so hard that she passes out on the bar floor, after everyone has left the bar the bartender rapes an unconscious Sibel. A little later he kicks her out and on her way home she gets beat up by some guys who harassed her. She continues to keep getting up after each beating and talking back until finally one of the guys stabs her and they all run away and leave her for dead. Soon after a taxi pulls up and sees Sibel lying there, he picks her up and presumably takes her to the hospital. Next Band and Scene again, except now it is noticeable that time is passing in the scene. In the beginning it looked like morning while now it shows dusk. After that Cahit is shown to get out of jail, Guven picks him up. Cahit tells Guven he plans to go to Istanbul to be with Sibel. Guven tries to talk him out of it; to forget her. Cahit says she is the only reason he is still alive. Guven gives him a bunch of money he has saved up so Cahit can go to Istanbul. Cahit goes to Istanbul to Selma's hotel, which it looks like she now owns. Selma tells Cahit that Sibel has a boyfriend and a child and she's happy so to leave her alone. Cahit waits at a little hotel and finally one day Sibel calls him, she arranges to come to his hotel and see him. She spends a couple days with him and they consummate the marriage, again and again... and again. They plan to go to Mersin, the city of Cahit's birth. Cahit tells Sibel he has bought her and her daughter tickets to go, she agrees. The day comes and Sibel stands up Cahit. She is shown at her home with her baby and boyfriend. Cahit decides to get on the bus and go alone. The movie ends with the group singing a song against the Istanbul scene. | dark, murder, cult, violence, atmospheric, romantic | train | imdb | Cahit Tomruk (the sublimely attitudinizing Birol Ünel) is a purposeless rock 'n' roll loving boozer with a dead-end job collecting bottles at a club, and Sibel Güner (the wiry, intense Sibel Kikulli) is a young woman with conservative Turkish parents who wants to escape family pressures.Both are total drama queens and both are German-born Turks.
"Head On (Gegen die Wand)" is a completely original love story and shames conventional Hollywood romantic comedies with its fresh take on love and loss as rich as Rhett and Scarlett.The closest I can think of a dysfunctional couple meeting so oddly cute and playing out an unusual relationship is in Christopher Fry's "The Lady's Not for Burning" which shares self-destructive lovers.
The German literal title of "Against the Wall" is more resonant of how they feel, but the American distributors probably thought that had too much political implication.The completely self-involved he and she here are innately off-kilter because writer/director Faith Akin sets them within a diverse Turkish immigrant community of Germany, so that their personalities are circumscribed by cultural expectations and restrictions, she chafing against binds on women and he lost in the nihilistic punk rock underground.The rocky journey of how they find their own individuality within their sexual and emotional needs and ethnic identity and what each means to the other is an unpredictable thrill ride as each unexpected action leads to tears, laughter, poignancy and regret of bad timing.
Evidently, deleted scenes that are available on the European DVD help to expand on the hints as to what her closing motivations are.Dependant on the English subtitles, I'm sure I lost some significances as I wasn't sure when characters were speaking Turkish or German, let alone able to discern their fluency in either, with the added fillip of recognition of globalization with a sudden concluding discussion in Istanbul in English of their future.The chapter introductions by an ethnic band playing a traditional sad love song adds to the timeliness of the tale that is reminiscent of old folk ballads of tragic love stories.
In St. Pauli, Hamburg, the alcoholic, drugged and hopeless German with Turkish roots Cahit Tomruk (Birol Ünen) lives like a pig in a small dirty apartment and survives collecting empty bottles in the night-club "Der Fabrik".
Cahit accepts, but while living with Sibel, he falls in love for her, until a tragedy happens.I saw "Gegen die Wand" yesterday and I am still very impressive with this powerful German movie.
In supporting roles there is Güven Kirac, who is one of my favorite actors in Turkish cinema and Meltem Cumbul who provides good acting.By the way despite of all the tragedy there is also ethnic humor in this film which goes hand-in-hand with the story.
Some people think this movie is about a culture immigrants (German, Turkish) But that is not the emphasis, the emphasis is about how low one can go, where does one hit the bottom, and a love intertwined in such a spiral.
In Turkey, we have no chance to get that approach he has, from our local directors because of legal, social and market dominated factors in local Turkish cinema.Besides movie tells a love story happened in an environment between, behind, among and surrounded by the WALLs. Sibel marries with an alienated looser man Cahit to break down the WALLs. But she forgot to plan about love.
Love damages both of their lives in an unfortunate realistic way.As a result, Gegen die Wand - Head-on - Duvara Karþý is a must see SINCERE movie by a Turkish director from German cinema..
She is hemmed in by traditional Turkish mores and we are shown how wives end up in that culture--honored in gesture, completely devalued in practice.Unel in his moody majestic splendor is reminiscent of the great Klaus Kinski in Aguirre, Wrath of God. We watch him cop out over and over from facing anything like commitment to life or people.
But his relationship with Sibel, born in nihilism and total scorn for convention, prods to life whatever remaining feelings he still possesses.What I love about this film is that it has real solid characters who are people that you care a lot about; it has education about the Turkish community in Germany and by implication about Muslims in Europe; it always shows and does not tell; it has wit and provocation and is multidimensional and makes you realize there are some things worth fighting for.My friend commented after seeing it that a quick comparison of this film with most Hollywood product shows just what pap we are accepting from LA.
'Gegen die Wand' in German, 'Duvara karsi' in Turkish, or 'HEAD-ON' in English is an explosive drama written and directed by Faith Akin, a movie that may be tough to watch, but a movie that has enormous impact.
While other films have successfully addressed the particular problems that the immigrant Turkish community in Germany face, few have come as close to examining all sides of the on-going issues of displacement and the effects of familial dispersal in the face of a new culture.Cahit (Birol Ünel) is a thirty-something lost soul, drinking and snorting himself into oblivion over the loss of his beloved wife.
He lives in a slum, spends all his time in sleazy bars getting beaten up for inappropriate behavior until one night he drunkenly drives into a wall (?suicidal?) and ends up in a hospital where he 'meets' Sibel (Sibel Kekilli), a young woman who has again attempted suicide as an escape from her strict family's prevention of her having a life.
Once alone, Cahit is confronted with the reality that Sibel is the only path to salvation for his tragic life and the story proceeds - or rather speed drives - its way to a heartrending finish.The characters in the film are generally unlikable sorts, especially Cahit, but each actor does so well allowing us to observe the dreary world that faces immigrants in a fractured society that we end up having an amazing amount of compassion for their character creations.
The actors turned in powerful performances and I find myself, the day after I saw the film, still thinking about the plot but mostly remembering the expressions on the actors' faces.The movie did seem a little too long, but in trying to think of scenes to cut, I realized that nothing in particular felt superfluous or irrelevant to the storyline or character development.Finally, I didn't like the end!
I don't think anyone shall have a single bad thing to say about this movie, that would be plainly ridiculous.A love story, a profound depiction of social issues regarding the "German Turks", a virtual cultural journey.
The title actually better translated as "Against the wall" and, seems to me, expresses feelings of the director Faith Akin regarding fate of his Turkish compatriots transplanted from Turkey to Germany, very much dissimilar countries divided by culture, traditions and way of life.
Hopefully, the "Head On" will chip off a piece of the wall that isolates main characters and permit better their social integration into German-Turkish-Human society.Faith Akin produced credible and potent work of art which will endure.
An alcoholic, self-destructive Turk living in Germany agrees to marry young, borderline crazy, free spirited Turkish girl looking to get away from her grasping, tradition bound family.
I don't know any Turkish people and was curious about this aspect in the film.The two leading actors were excellent and you could really sympathise with them at times.The rape scene was unexpected but tastefully shot and you really were quite horrified with Sibels treatment at the hands of these men..
Director shows perfectly the German-Turk un-cultured / mix cultured persons life style and what 3rd generation Turkish youth looks like in Germany.
And the city is so proudly represented here - the wonderful seedy world of the bars and clubs and all-night Turkish food joints of Altona and St. Pauli, the poetry of crushed beer cans.Watching this film is like listening to a great Tom Waits album...it has all the gleeful lewd humor and bitter tears and truth.And yes, Birol Unel's performance is as moving as acting gets.There is no way to overstate how good this film is..
He earns his living picking up post-concert beer bottles in a Hamburg club.Sibel Güner (Sibel Kekilli) is a twenty-one year old high school dropout whose attitude toward life is best summed up by the Cyndi Lauper hit, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." Never mind that Sibel tries to kill herself; what she wants is "to live." Both Cahit and Sibel are Germans of Turkish descent who meet in the psych ward after separate failed suicide attempts.
It was not like anything else I could call a real love story.Cahit (Birol Ünel)and Sibel (Sibel Kekilli), both in an institution for attempting suicide.
I starts out in a great pace and continues to hold this pace throughout the rest of the movie until the end, where it slows down I bit much to down after my opinion.The story is about two persons Sibel and Cahit.
The setting of this story is a city in Germany, where Turkish people make almost the half of the population.Gegen die Wand is not the best movie I've seen, but it's a definite must see, even though I would agree the picture and sound quality is not perfect.
In a way made for each other and we explore their journey.In St. Pauli, Hamburg, the alcoholic, drugged and hopeless German with Turkish roots Cahit Tomruk (Birol Ünen) lives like a pig in a small dirty apartment and survives collecting empty bottles in the night-club "Der Fabrik".
Cahit accepts, but while living with Sibel, he falls in love for her until something unforeseen happens.The movie is based on Turkish immigrants in Germany with their rather orthodox cultural background colliding with the liberal German society.
There is so much passion in this movie, probably because the director, a German-Turkish himself, understands and loves his characters through the scripts's words and the multiple close-ups.
Writer/director Faith Akin does not provide us with easy reference points for how to deal with these characters, and it is that very complexity and ambiguity that makes their story fascinating.Birol Unel is excellent as Cahit, the man who has hit such a low place at the beginning of the film that anything is bound to look like up from there.
It's European movie-making at its very best.But "Gegen die wand" is so much more than just a 'love-story'.
Especially Sibel Kekilli is a real young new discovery.The movie also shows some controversial and uneasy subjects, mainly regarding Turkish immigrants who are living in Europe.
While notable for it's naturalistic milieu depictions, fine cinematography by Swiss cinematographer Rainer Klausmann and production design by production designer Tamo Kunz, this character-driven and narrative-driven story about cultural clash, grief, interpersonal relations, identity and love, depicts two intertwining and internal studies of character and contains a great score by German composer Alexander Hache and American musician Maceo Parker.This valiant, heartfelt and afflicting drama from the early 2000s which is set in Turkey and Germany and where a marriage creates a life-altering human connection, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, efficient continuity, use of music which emphasizes its poignant atmosphere and the unflinching and expressive acting performances by German actor of Turkish descent Birol Ünel and German actress of Turkish descent Sibel Kekilli in her debut feature film role.
A very exciting and touching movie concerning how people are working on creating a life free from the ties of ritual culture.But they find it very hard to get loose, and must accept that there are rules in the society one must follow to have a fair life.The idealistic belief in absolute freedom without any network is not realistic, even great and romantic life can't survive the conditions of material life.The plot goes about a young women of Turkish descent who wants to get out of the grip of her family's traditions so that she can live her life her way and make experiments with sexual experiences without interfering from the family.For the purpose she find a man of of Turkish descent and persuade him to marry her so she can get away from the demands of her family.The couple make a deal - but it doesn't't last for several reasons.See it its worth while.HC Denmark.
However, for the discerning viewers it wasn't difficult to notice the resemblances of the cinematography techniques between the Argentine-born French director Gaspar Noé's in his shocking and controversial movie `Irreversible' and Fatih Akýn's `Head On', particularly by his imitation of Noé's flashing stroboscopic lights effects, violent and speeding camera movements, ear-piercing, screeching sound effects and the notorious scene in his movie.Sibel Kekilli, the leading actress, who has contributed to the publicity of the movie by her recently revealed porn star history as well as casted a shadow over the movies overall success of winning the Berlin International Film Festival's Golden Bear Trophy.Birol Unel who played Cahit, a loser, a drunkard, a doper living in a two-bit life, riding on the fast lane has reminded me of the edgy, convincing and charismatic performances of the great actor Willem Dafoe and for my opinion Unel was the true savior with his powerful acting performance.There were also some minor holes in the plot, like unrealistic portrayal of the Sibel's family's oppression and fundamentalism to justify her despair, especially the mother figure shakes the integrity of the plot.Head On's mesmerizing scores, ranging from the punk-rock, jazz and the new age to the eastern vocal ethnic elegies and the oriental tunes of the Turkish traditional music, from such artists like the British Depeche Mode with their many German and Turkish counterparts, not only underlined the culture clash between the East and the West, but made this movie a true feast for our ears.Needless to say, despite of its flaws, this movie still shines as a masterpiece of Turkish Cinema with its unique universal storytelling of Fatih Akin, who has all the inventories of the prominent directors of the Western Cinema, but undoubtedly this movie proved us that he had even more..
But straitlaced families are just part of the problem; Cahit and Sibel must also counterbalance ancestral roots with their new life in a western democracy.The film starts with a very surreal opening with a band performing a song about unrequited love on the beach in a foreign land.
In the beginning of the movie, Cahit is a wreck and although it would be simplistic to say that love "saves" him, it is certain that the collision of his life with Sibel's is cataclysmic.the movie's real power lies with the fact that the characters are truly multidimensional and complex, they experience conflicting emotions and desires and ultimately it is their incapacity to understand what is happening to them which leads to their downfall.
They are so used to suffering and struggling and to using people and being used that when suddenly they fall in love, they can't even recognise what is happening to them until it is too late.I don't think you need to be Turkish, or an immigrant, to feel deep empathy with Sibel and Cahit.
Gegen die Wand (2004) answers,corresponds in the highest degree to my expectations from a movie.This is how art,stripped of ballast and of concessions,can look.It is encouraging that movies so accomplished are made nowadays.Gegen die Wand (2004) has a chorus that frames the action's peaks.What is the director's rapport with the Turkish music that he uses?If it is not a naive use,it is not an ironical one,either.I would say that it is an affectionate rapport,a recourse to a simple,cherished and effective artistic shape;I think this is how Faith Akin uses the Turkish folk music:as a shape of the heart,a shape refined by time;so,his approach is cultured and affectionate and on a highly refined level.It is a great creator's approach of the great culture that he belongs to.Cahit is a Turkish guy and German citizen that earns his living by picking garbage;he was born in Turkey,but works in Germany,as a German citizen,and is not very interested in his Turkish compatriots,on the contrary,he resents all the ethnic stuff;as he tries to end his life,Cahit meets in the clinic a beautiful and very young Turkish girl that asks his hand.What follows is one of the most thrilling love stories.Faith Akin seizes the richness and the infinity of the life's poetry.He reaches the level of a perennial realism and of an astounding concreteness,within the parameters of a highly differentiated style.The photography is of a lavish beauty.There are sex and violence.Birol Ünel is one of the most interesting actors of today.He has the intelligence and charm and that note of cool that Rourke had in the '80s;his range as an actor is very wide,and he constantly offers an intensity of acting seldom seen in the movies.This joy of acting,this keen intelligence,this incisive force are what Birol Ünel brings in Faith Akin's film.There are few movies that I swallow with such an appetite.Perennial realism,the huge fascination of life,exceptional actors (Birol Ünel, Sibel Kekilli,Catrin Striebeck,Meltem Cumbul).The content is so abundant and overwhelming.A first-class example of artistic dignity and integrity..
Especially the two magnificent leads, Birol Ünel and newcomer Sibel Kekilli, shine in the portrayal of a slowly developing romance between a fortysomething alcoholic and a free-spirited 20-year-old woman who engage in a fake marriage in order to help her escape from her Turkish family and live a `German' life (Meaning: Being able to go out whenever she wants, having sex with different men, doing drugs,.).
A Turkish girl, Sibel wants to live like German people want and her family doesn't accept such kind of a life.
Meltem Cumbullu and Birol Unel fits in with their roles perfectly but I didn't say same things about Sibel's family.Lastly, One more interesting Faith Akin film that starts in Germany and finishes in Turkey...23 wins & 11 nominations already shows the success of it. |
tt0457297 | The Butterfly Effect 2 | Julie Miller (Erica Durance) and her boyfriend, Nick Larson (Eric Lively), are celebrating Julie's 24th birthday on a camping trip with another couple, Trevor Eastman (Dustin Milligan) and Amanda (Gina Holden). Nick and Julie walk away from the campsite for a bit of privacy, and she begins to tell him something important but he interrupts her with her birthday present. They begin to discuss their future together, with Nick telling her that his job will make him successful enough for the both of them, and he asks her not to move to New York to pursue her photography. Nick is called away by work before Julie can tell him her important news. He says that he has to go to the meeting, even though it is Sunday, because he is up against co-worker Dave Bristol (David Lewis) for a promotion. The four friends have to cut their trip short and drive back to the city in Nick's SUV. Julie is taking photographs while Nick is driving. When she unbuckles her seatbelt to snap a picture of Trevor and Amanda kissing in the backseat, the tire suddenly blows out and the SUV spins out of control, finally stalling in the middle of the road where a semi-truck smashes into them.Nick lies in a hospital bed unconscious, having flashbacks of the accident, when he appears to start seizing. At his side is his mother, who informs the nurse that he is having one of his nightmares, an occasional occurrence since childhood. He awakens to learn the others did not survive the crash.Back home, Nick grieves over memories of Julie's birthday, and he brings the birthday necklace he gave her to the scene of the accident (where a roadside memorial has been built). Later while looking at a photograph of himself and Julie, everything in the room begins to shudder and shake, while the people and the dog in the photograph begin moving. This effect is similar to the pre-timetravel effect in the first movie, but Nick drops the framed picture on the floor where it shatters and he does not travel through time.One year later, Nick is shown back at his job with Bristol as his supervisor (he obviously got the aforementioned promotion over Dave). Bristol treats Nick with no respectpretending he can't find the work that Nick stayed late the previous night to finish and making him redo the work, moving an important meeting where Nick is to present a sales pitch without telling Nick until the last moment, and snapping at Nick about his supposed messy desk. While presenting the sales pitch to investors for his company's "nextgen software for handhelds", Nick begins to get another slight episode of his environment becoming unstable and rattling after seeing an old photograph which includes Trevor. This ruins his sales pitch and he is called in to meet with the company's boss, Ron (Andrew Airlie), and given a week's suspension.Back home, Nick is looking at photographs from Julie's 24th birthday when he comes across a picture of him driving everyone home. He transports back to the moments just before the tire blew. He yells at Julie to buckle-up, and the tire blows as before, but this time they manage to avoid the semi-truck, running into a tree instead.Nick awakens on the floor in a new shirt. Julie is now living with him, and he is pleasantly surprised to see her. It is her 25th birthday and they go out to dinner where he tells her that he remembers the past year differently. Trevor and Amanda arrive, and Nick gives them both a hug, pleased to see them. He learns that they are going to marry, and he is Trevor's best man, in charge of the bachelor party.The next day at work, Nick is researching on-line, trying to determine why he doesn't remember the last year in the same manner as everyone else. He prints out an article about a mental hospital patient with a syndrome that appears to be similar to what he has been experiencing. The patient is Jason Treborn, Evan Treborn's (Ashton Kutcher) father in the first movie.At a staff meeting, he learns that Trevor has been fired. When Nick accuses his supervisor of using Trevor as a scapegoat for a sales deal that fell through, he too is fired. Julie is angry with him, reminding him that she could have moved to New York if not for him. Now she has a minimum wage job, and she refers to what they lost from the accident. Nick tells her he understands now what is important in life: that they both are together.Later, Nick sees a Christmas photograph of him, his friends, and his supervisor, Dave, on the fridge. He takes a closer look at the photo while venting some frustration. An episode (his environment becoming unstable and rattling) is triggered, and suddenly he has gone into the photo's scene and he is at the party. Nick sees Dave, fakes tripping so he is able to spill wine on him, and then goes to Dave's file cabinet and steals the file of a specific investor (earlier Nick mentioned Dave got his promotion off the work Nick did).Nick is suddenly in an alternate timeline where he is now the vice-president of the company. He phones Julie, getting her answering machine, with her message revealing she owns a local photography studio. Nick leaves her a message to meet him that night after he finishes a sale pitch meeting. Nick gives a successful pitch at the meeting, and he learns he is having an affair with the boss' daughter when she follows him into the men's toilets. She uses Nick's handheld to take a photograph of him kissing her.When Nick gets back to his place, Trevor is waiting to tell him that a deal with a shady investor named Malcolm is in trouble. Nick tells his friend he will fix things, and then asks about Julie. Trevor replies that he has not kept in touch with her since Nick broke up with her a few months back.Nick learns the next day at work that the sales pitch to the investor the previous night did not go through. He relays to Ron, his boss, that Malcolm wants his investment money back. His boss informs him the company is broke, and it is Nick's fault. Nick was unable to get a crucial investor several months ago, the one from the file he stole at Christmas from Dave (who was able to secure the investment in a previous timeline). Nick continues his attempts to contact Julie.Nick and Trevor are at Malcolm's nightclub to discuss matters with him when Nick spots Julie taking photographs of the fashion show. She wants nothing to do with him and has a new boyfriend. Nick tells Malcolm he is unable to return the money, and Malcolm has Trevor killed. Nick runs out of the room being shot at, when a stray bullet hits Julie and she dies. Nick attempts to escape using the photo taken earlier by the boss' daughter, but he fails and is knocked out and captured. Nick wakes up and finds he is being given fellatio, only to discover that it is Malcolm's gay business partner.Nick escapes trouble and goes back in time where he confesses everything to his mom. She tells him his father also tried to control things and committed suicide in the end. Nick meets with Amanda who has with her a photograph from Julie's 24th birthday, which he had asked her to bring.Nick transports to the scenes from the start of the movie. He tells Julie she should move to New York and breaks up with her. Julie tells him she is having his baby, but he remains with his back to her and doesn't respond. Upset, Julie takes his SUV and speeds down the road. Nick then steals a jeep from another camping couple. Nick chases after her in the jeep and pulls alongside her (in the wrong lane) to urge her to stop the SUV. When an oncoming vehicle approaches in the lane, Nick drives off the road and over the edge of the cliff, presumably dying.One year later. Julie lives in New York with her son, Nick junior. Nick junior has a slight episode of his environment becoming unstable and rattling while looking at the 24th birthday photograph of his parents and their friends, which is left in a changed state. | flashback | train | imdb | The acting is frigid, there is little character development, and predictably leads the viewer to little enjoyment, and lots of confusion.It would appear the director of this film has not even seen the first one, considering the frequent mistakes, and plot jumps.Save your money, skip this one.
The main character's abilities were explained in a sort of way that it was slightly believable and the movie was full of twists and turns that culminated in a satisfying and realistic ending.
Everything has been dumbed down , gaps in the storyline are almost insulting if you're a fan of the previous film and the amount of sex infused in this movie is unjustified for this storyline , it isn't placed to create an atmosphere like in Lord of War per say , it just seems thrown in because the director was clueless.
There are no moment when your skin tingles , you are spoon fed the entire story , everything is very linear in a movie where the time-lines are supposed to be altered and the ending made me feel i needed a drink.
Im guessing your looking at this based on the first which in my opinion rated a good 7-8 / 10, based on the originality, unknowns and the constant plot changes leaving you absolutely in the dark as to what was gonna happen next.
I got to watch this movie "The Butterfly Effect 2" in the theater last month.
Bad acting, bad story, bad special effects, bad audio, bad everything.I mean, how did they dare to spoil such an incredible movie like the Butterfly Effect, with this thing?
I just spend 20 bucks buying the DVD, cursing at myself for wasting that kind of money in this so called movie, which doesn't even deserve the title.It was so disappointing, boring and ridiculous that I couldn't even finish watching it.
Actually, they should sue him and the company that had the guts to destroy a great story, and a great film.I hope the audience realizes this, and help The Butterfly Effect 2 become the greatest failure in movie history, for it deserves it..
Watching it I thought it had a lot of potential, and could very easily have a better story than the original, but then it starts unreasonably accelerating.The movie was 75 minutes long.
One year later, Nick finds that he can travel in time and tries to fix the past, with tragic consequences for the future."Butterfly Effect 2" is a very unpleasant movie, with a terrible and flawed screenplay.
The story really does not work and seeing this film is pure waste of time, and in the end it is better off watching the original "Butterfly Effect" again.
this movie doesn't deserve to be called 'the butterfly effect 2', heck it doesn't even deserve to be called a movie.TBE1 and TBE2 are on the opposite side of the chart from one another, while i looked for numbers bigger than 10 to vote for 'the butterfly effect 1', i don't even know why i'm bothering to write a comment for this so called movie.what i think Bress and Gruber should do is to sue this guy whatever his name is for making such a 'sequel' to their great movie.
If you don't watch movies that go straight to DVD than you should give this one a chance...it's actually really good.
I agree that sex scenes were not necessary(as some guys mentioned) but i feel that if the scenario was developed more, child reference wouldn't be needed.I liked the point where Nick is searching for information about his "illness" and he finds a picture of a BE1 character(I think Evan's father).I think it would be interesting to see such references to the original Butterfly effect in a possible new one..
While I wish the movie was going to be released in theaters, this way is good too because I can just buy it on DVD and watch it whenever I want.
The film explores the jumping of realities a lot more then the original, and the situations and reasons why the main character needs to go back and change things are more interesting.
I love time travel movies, so if this was ANYTHING like the first one, at a minimum I figured I would get a moderate amount of enjoyment out of it.All I got was a moderate amount of homicidal thoughts after this.
This movie copy the same idea of the "The Butterfly Effect 1" but with a very poor story/script.
The "The Butterfly Effect 1" really let me think something about time and space but this movie is just telling us a selfish man's crazy dream.
I was expecting a horrible movie after all the bad reviews on this film, not to mention the low rating.
But I actually enjoyed the second Butterfly Effect.This time we have a boyfriend, Nick and his girlfriend, Julie, their friends and they are on a trip.
But he ends up making things worse for his relationship and friendships.The Butterfly Effect 2, even though it's not Oscar material, I felt that it was a decent film, a lot better than most that I've seen.
I wanted to see why this was the case, and did not believe that it would be so awful (probably because the Butterfly Effect is my all time favorite movie).
However, there's a single detail in which this movie is better than the original BUTTERFLY EFFECT: the modifications of the past, which deliver into alternative futures, are done in a much shorter period of time.
Because, as I said in my comment to the first movie, I think our lives are a constant of important and decisive moments which can, each one of them, change our future; so, in general, a single adjustment in a distant past is not so determinative to the present time as if it was done in a near past.But it's the only detail in which this movie is better than the original, in all the rest it isn't..
The acting was poor (on par with a B movie), and the plot was just plain and ordinary.The actors were all from Canadian Sci-Fi shows and I have seen them do better in them.
It does have lots of terrible acting, awful effects ranging from an obviously fake scar to editing effects that don't add to the movie, overly predictable writing which enables you to guess most things before they happen and so many dull moments that last for so long it's a wonder if anything made it to the cutting room floor.
Come on, when you can travel back in time and change things the way you want you can almost do anything in a movie without further explanation !
This time around the story was basically the same with the main character trying to save the woman whom he loves and just messes up his and others lives repeatedly.
I wasn't expecting a film of the same calibre as the first but this was about as bad as a film gets - tedious, boring and doesn't follow any of the aspects of the first - there seems no point in him bringing his dull friends back to life as he is out for himself and what good is that from a main character - he has no likable traits and also there is no explanation behind why he can go back in time and when he does - even for the first time he doesn't seem surprised at what he just did - he just looks around for 2 seconds and then kind of goes like oh OK I've gone back in time....
Way too many needless sex scenes, the acting was the worst, plot was the same as the just as bad first one and the main character is an idiot through the entire film..
I wish I could go back in time and tell myself not to watch this movie because I wasted 90 minutes of my life on it..
The Butterfly Effect 2 isn't really a sequel: besides using the same basic concept—a young man discovers that he can change the past, albeit with disastrous consequences—it is entirely unconnected with the original movie.
This time around, the unfortunate sap who alters history to his detriment is young businessman Nick Larson (Eric Lively): after inadvertently twisting time to prevent the death of his girlfriend Julie (Smallville hottie Erica Durance), Nick tries to use his new found ability to change his life for the better, but only ends up making matters much worse.As the Final Destination series has proved, the same premise can be used time and time again and still result in a hugely entertaining film.
And with the central character becoming less and less likable with each new time-line, the film actually makes one long for the involvement of Ashton Kutcher (did I really just type that?)..
I *did* see the original "The Butterfly Effect" years ago, but so much time has passed since then that I hardly remember much about it, except that I thought it was mediocre.
But if you are in the same boat, or simply didn't see the original movie at all, no problem - this sequel, while having the same basic idea as the original, takes place with entirely new characters.There are a number of problems with this sequel I could go on for some time describing, from the cheap made for TV-like feel to the fact that the hero's special talent is not really explained.
After watching The Butterfly Effect (2004) I was hoping to see a seconded part to the movie.
I did not find it (2) quite as exciting as the first one but it was a good film never-the-less.If you understand The Butterfly Effect (2004) then you can follow part two fairly easy.
As long as you know what "The Butterfly Effect" is then you will have a basic understanding of what is going on in part 2 of the movie.
My expectation was high when I hired the Butterfly Effect 2 as it is the sequel of a very well-made movie about time travel.The original movie was very entertaining and thought-provoking.
There are times when the film looks like becoming a soft porn movie.
One could immediately reason that the sequel to a movie that I enjoyed can only get as bad as it got because some manager decided to cash in on the success of Butterfly Effect.
Of course you can't expect just as good but at least similar..I hate this so bad, not just the movie but the whole concept of -"Let's make a crappy sequel to a good movie so people will watch it and we'll get rich!"Im just waiting for "Friday the 13th: part 21" and "Nightmare on elm street 24" and heck, why not "Spiderman 7" while we're at it.Series should know when to end as well..
The Butterfly Effect 2 is an insult to the first of this sequel.When I wasn't being bombarded by overt sexual symbols, I was mentally noting the discrepancies in the plot relative to the first movie.
I mean, one simply does not have the right to ruin our expectations and warp the Butterfly Effect title in our minds just for some quick cash.A relatively short film with universally awful scenario, casting, special effects, audio and acting.
it just was amazing to me to know that such a really great movie like butterfly effect can be destroyed with one swoop on a sequel..
I don't want to give anything away but if you liked the first Butterfly Effect, this is a must-watch.
The only reason I think its getting bad ratings is simply because the people who watched it were expecting it to be up to par with the first movie.
"The Butterfly Effect" is one of my favorite movies of all time.
"The Butterfly Effect 2", which I cringe every time I write, is the sequel to the original movie (but in my brain - a.k.a. my perfect place - it doesn't even exist.
Nothing too fancy, nothing too horrible or out of place, it was just OK.I really wanted to like this sequel, I really did, out of my love for the first movie (and Erica Durance!
One year later, Nick finds that he can travel in time and tries to fix the past, with tragic consequences for the future.I loved the first movie a lot.
i actually thought this movie was better than the first one.it's not as dark as the first one.the main character was shallow and his motivation for altering his past or present starts out with good intentions but ends up being for selfish gain.so the main character isn't really likable.in fact,he's a bit of a wretch.but the movie does show the ramifications involved when history or the present is altered.one major bonus is the addition of Erica Durance(TV's Smallville)as the main character"s girlfriend.she is certainly quite beautiful,but she can also act.still i can't put my finger on why i like this movie better than the first.i guess it's just one of those mysteries.the only thing i can come up with is that this movie is better paced(and more compelling),whereas i found thew first one boring at times.i give "The Butterfly Effect 2 a 7/10.
I know for years that there is a sequel to "The Butterfly Effect", but never had the courage to watch it.
I really like this The Butterfly Effect (2004) I think that great movie, really well made.I did not even know this movie was made it until i find out about The Butterfly effect 3 two years ago, I was like what, when did they make the second after that seen all the review mostly bad ones.I was not going to watch this movie at all but two days ago I saw this movie for 75P, I could not say no to that.This movie is about guy who was in a car crash that killed his pregnant girl friend and two of his other friends and after he came out of his coma.He can now look old pictures and come back in time when the picture was taken and change is life for the better, but he just makes is life worse.The ending was so predictable, how can no one see that coming!The acting in this movie was descent for a sequel that went Straight to DVD 3 out of 10.
Perhaps I had an advantage in not viewing the 2003 picture and therefore no chance to compare it unfavorably.The film is science fiction/fantasy and there is no need to have seen the original as this story stands on its' own so to speak.In any event this movie is quite good and centers on a group of 4 friends and what happens when one of them can change the past and hence the future.
I loved the first one, and I had little expectations for this one, I thought "OK, surprise me", but at the end of the movie I realized I lost around 90 or 100 minutes of my life (a blackout here would have been great for me)The movie: 1) Forget the concept of blackouts, there are no blackouts here, the main character simply concentrates in a picture, everything shakes around him (a dumb visual effect) and he just travels in time.
Does not add anything to the movie, it's not even romantic (like in the original where he always tries to save her) 6) Whoever wrote the story does not seem to have seen "the butterfly effect".
That is the whole movie.If you like the genre, I recommend renting Donnie Darko or watching the original Buttetfly Effect.
So I go to blockbuster and they're having a sale buy 2 get 2 free, I couldn't find many good movies so I ended up getting The Butterfly Effect 2 as one of my free ones.
IF they wanted to make a good sequel they should have actually made a prequel detailing Evan's Father's Experiences with the Butterfly Effect.
The first one was really well-wrote and acted.Here, the story repeats when Nick Larson (Eric Lively, poor) lost the girlfriend (Erica Durance, the Lois Lane from "Smallville") and a couple of friends in an accident and goes back to past to try to fix everything that happens on his life without destroy the future.The worst fault is the slowness of the script, being long in each alternative reality.
This movie is far more entertaining and a far lighter watch than the original
and that is a good thing.
😋. I have watched a Tom of time travel movies and this was actually not among the worst.
Sure I'm well over a decade behind on catching up on the Butterfly Effect trilogy, and whew, it's a good thing I did, so I won't have to waste time on watching part 3.
Once again no explanation is given as to why Nick can time travel & it's more of an issue here than the original since the plot & character's are weaker here.At 90 odd minutes The Butterfly Effect 2 isn't a particularly long film but it does feel that way as it does tend to drag.
The Butterfly effect 2 was totally pointless, this movie is just so stupid because the story has no meaning because it is totally boring.
Bad acting, bad storyline, disgusting sex scenes,total waste of time, I will just pretend that there was one Butterfly Effect movie, not two..
Take a good and original idea like The Butterfly Effect that a person can travel into their own past life and change their present.The original was such a new concept it was a welcome breath of fresh air.
I was so happy that a sequel was coming out to a pretty good movie, the butterfly effect.
but i don't find acting very cheap,because of smallvile,i like Erica Durance,Eric Lively was good too,but he is not Ashton kutcher,but the film is same.. |
tt0374887 | Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. | As the sun rises over the city of Mumbai, an ordinary day begins. A jogger suddenly finds himself being stalked by a dangerously armed hoodlum and runs into a taxi driver, whom he begs to save him. The taxi driver drives him to a building... and traps him there! The jogger discovers that it was all a set up by the taxi-driver, the dreaded gangster Munnabhai, and the hood, Munna's sidekick "Circuit" Sarkeshwar, had been chasing him to lead him right into Munna's clutches. It's all in a day's work for Munna, until he receives a message from his parents. Then, commotion runs riot as Munna and his gang dress themselves up as doctors and remodel their headquarters to resemble a hospital ("Subhah Ho Gaye Mamu")...Every year, Hari Prasad Sharma and his wife Parvati leave their home village and go to Mumbai to visit their son Murli. They are extremely proud of their son, who has fulfilled their expectations and become a doctor running his own hospital, named the Hari Prasad Sharma Charitable Hospital... or so they believe. Murli had instead become the gangster Munnabhai, but he cannot bear to shatter his parents' dreams, and so whenever they come to visit he sets up this medical masquerade; he dresses up his building as the Hari Prasad Sharma Charitable Hospital and all his gang act as doctors or patients. Therefore, this occasion is no different; everything is set up and everyone acts their part, and with a few criminal interruptions, everything goes smoothly.Munna's parents have arrived this time for a purpose: they wish to find a girl to marry their son. While on a walk in a Mumbai park, Hari Sharma bumps into an old friend, Dr. Asthana, who used to work in their village but now works to the city. The two exchange friendly words and talk about their children; when Hari hears that Asthana's daughter is also a doctor, he decides to have his son marry this girl. Munna, remembering that Asthana's daughter was his childhood pal Chinky, attempts to meet her and explain everything; unfortunately, Dr. Asthana discovers Murli's secret identity and angrily reveals it to Hari and Parvati, insulting them as well. Hari is particularly hard-hit that his son lied to him; he and his wife cut his visit short and leave for home.That night, Munna and Circuit sit sadly in front of their home. Munna, a little drunk, resolves to truly fulfill his father's dream by becoming a doctor. Circuit tells him to sleep the fiasco off, but the next morning Munna's band arrives at the Imperial Institute, the best medical school in Mumbai, to make enquiries. They learn from Dr. Rustom Pavri that to get into the Institiute, he must write and pass an entrance examination, with a mark above 90%. Munna repays Dr. Pavri for this helpful advice by kidnapping Dr. Pavris Poppa, and blackmailing him into assuming Munna's identity and taking the entrance examination. Thus, Munna passes the examination with flying colors, and is joyfully is on his way to fulfilling his fathers dream ("M Bole To").On Munna's first day at the Institute, he immediately causes a stir. He frightens a doctor into treating a young man who had attempted suicide (the doctor had initially refused as the youth's mother hadnt filled out the necessary administrative forms); his class mistakes him for their teacher; he moves into a college room and takes it over completely; he scares the senior students when they attempt to rag him; and on top of that, he discovers that the Institute's Dean is none other than Dr. Asthana! Later on, though, he meets Dr. Suman, who unbeknownst to him is his old friend Chinky.As time progresses, Munna's antics make him popular with his students. He arranges with Circuit to bring an extra body to the Institute for dissection purposes (a concept which fails, as Circuit picks up a Chinese tourist and Munna himself is unable to dissect the body); he meets the suicidal patient he saved earlier and cheers him up with a song (); he hugs a old bitter and underappreciated janitor, cheering the fellow up significantly; and he yells at a doctor for treating Anand Banerjee, a comatose patient, like a corpse, and takes Anand into his own personal care. Although these antics slowly endear Dr. Suman to him, they slowly drive her father mad; as Dr. Asthana places a great emphasis on his students to maintain a formal relationship with the patient, he considers Munna a troublemaker and seeks to eject him. He sets up the most difficult examination in the Institute's history to prove Munna unqualified and get rid of him... which leads Munna to send Circuit to pay a visit to Dr. Pavri's Poppa once again!Having overcome that hurdle, Munna tries to contact Chinky again. This time, Dr. Asthana and Suman try a different method: they send a moll to act as Chinky, and to act in such a foul manner that Munna will be discouraged from marrying her, and so discontinue the medical course. The idea works, Munna is no longer interested in Chinky; but to Dr. Asthana's chagrin he falls in love with Dr. Suman! Later, Munna meets Dr. Suman's patient Zaheer, a depressed young man who has been diagnosed with stomach cancer. Munna later sends Circuit with some girls to entertain Zaheer, cheering him up significantly. This is the last straw for Dr. Asthana, and he attempts to pass Munna off with a degree and get him out. Although he had cheated before, Munna refuses this backhand approach; he eventually manages to stay on by throwing himself over a ledge and severely injuring himself, thereby confining him to the Institute's hospital. Later, Poppa is admitted to the Institute, where even his son is unable to save him; but Munna and Circuit are able to bring life back into Poppa with a board game!Munna is busy memorizing the answers for Dr. Asthana's quiz, kindly provided by Dr. Pavri in gratitude for saving his father, when Dr. Suman brings distressing news: Zaheer is in a terminal condition and wishes to see him. With his last breath, Zaheer begs Munna to save him, eventually dying in Munnas arms. The incident shakes Munna so much that he can't get through Dr. Asthana's quiz. Disgraced by Dr. Asthana a second time, he leaves the Institute. Then the whole Institute is shaken as Anand Banerjee, whom had been given up as a lost cause, attempts to follow Munna and bring him back. Encouraged by this, Dr. Suman publicly rebukes her father for chasing away a man who only tried to make the patients happier and more cheerful.That night, Munna and Circuit drown their sorrows in alcohol, but when they reach home they find a surprise: Munna's parents wait for them at their headquarters with open arms. The Sharmas have been told of their son's exploits, and Hari Prasad Sharma forgives his son everything, being now extremely proud of his son for having changed so many lives for the better. Dr. Suman then reveals herself to be Chinky, and falls into Munna's arms.The film ends with a series of photographs describing the fate of the characters: Munna and Chinky got married and had children; they run a hospital in Munnas village, where they prescribe medicine, as well as lots of laughs and hugs. Circuit, too, married, and had a son, aptly named Short Circuit. Dr. Asthana retired from the Institute, leaving Dr. Pavri in charge, and runs Munnas hospital, finally having become informal and good-humoured. Munna finally achieved his dream of an MBBS (Married with Bouncing Babies and Smiles) after all. The photos are shown by Anand, now fully restored to health, as he narrates the story to a group of children. | cult, avant garde | train | imdb | He has always been good in comedy, and his movies make you laugh without having to take help of double meaning dialogues or crossing the line into bitchiness.
All the characters, be it "Circuit" (Arshad Warsi) or the "Dean", or Sunil Dutt, have been portrayed well enough in the movie.
Some of the scenes, like the one where Sanjay Dutt "rags" the seniors make you laugh out from the heart, because this is something which every fresher in the college dreams of.
I think, the movie deserves full points for direction, story, acting, nice title....
Even the sweeper or peon acted far better than the lead-actors of other Indian movies.Don't go on anything, watch it and decide yourselves.
Sanjay Dutt gives another mind-blowing performance.Rajkumar Hirani is the new kid on the Block, but it doesn't show, one of would think he's a veteran filmmaker by the way he has directed his debut venture.
Inspired by the Hollywood movie 'Patch Adam', 'Munnabhai M.B.B.S.' tells the comedic story of a thug who wants to become a doctor.
It is indeed an entertaining film with the famously lovable characters like Munnabhai and Circuit.
Rajkumar Hirani may have taken the idea of an older outsider wanting to become a doctor from 'Patch Adams' but in essence 'Munnabhai M.B.B.S.' is its own film and it is the performances and comedy that make it worth the watch because most the dramatic moments are a little over the top.
While the dialogue in the comedic scenes are witty and hilarious, the ones in the dramatic scenes are a mess.Sanjay Dutt totally nails Munnabhai.
However, it is Arshad Warsi who steals the show in a breakthrough performance as one of the most memorable film characters of recent time, Circuit.Most of the songs are well balanced and are good additions to the film.
One would have expected more from the second Munnabhai film which I found boring but why should that prevent the pleasure that comes from this movie?.
It has been added to my version of the Indian classics.Parinda,Lamhe,1942 A Love Story,Dil Chahta Hai,Kaante,Shool,Satya,and now Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.(Forgive me if I am forgetting some great movies).I myself am a student of medicine and though its so unrealistic and atmosphere and so melodramatic a storyline but for once I don't care if it is.The dialogues have been written by some wizard.It was really good to see V.V.Chopras name in the writing credits.Sanjay Dutt was at his killer best and the rest were there to supplement him.And they supported big time from Arshad Warsi to Boman Irani to Gracy Singh.I Don't know whether I would cry and laugh both the same time ever again in my lifetime..
When I went to watch the movie I was not so sure on how well the director could handle a comedy ( He is not exactly known for that!), BUT 10 minutes into the show and all my doubts were dispelled!
This is a superb comedy, and you should watch it for Arshad Warsi's acting, if not anything else.
A shattered and disappointed father, Hari Prasad Sharma leaves Munnaa in anger.A Munna full of shame is now destined to become a real doctor and so begins a tale of laughter, emotions and important lessons in life.When i initially saw the promos of this movie, I wasn't really interested.
The sequences in the hospital only get funnier.The film is a comedy but does not shy of trying to touch your emotions and it succeeds big time.
It was a pleasure watching Sunil Dutt with Sanju.Baman Irani is a great talent and I'm sure he would agree with me that this movie boosted his acting career.
Sunil Dutt was the original funny man of the Indian Cinema (Padosan)even though he did not mean to be, he had a vacant,stupid look that came across better than his romantic roles that he had to endure in countless movies.
Now we have his prodigal son Sanjay Dutt who has a physique for a gangster and a facade that is as vacant as his father which makes him perfect for a comic role (The Burt Reynolds of Bollwood).
The story is poignant and moralistic where the audience comes out with a message instead of glossy eyed teeny- boppers watching the recent string of bubble gum movies like KKHH, DDLJ, KHNH, most of them starring mediocre actors albeit saved by catchy music.
There is superb acting by the main characters Sanjay Dutt, Boman Irani, Gracy Singh as well as almost all the supporting cast.
This movie is an ideology, a thought, an idea, a discussion, a help, a concept, a psychological analysis, in all the reason to start religions.It plays on an idea....."It doesn't matter what you are or what you do, the only thing that matters is what you feel inside, what you are inside".....Patch Adams is a man who see vagina as a fact and just remains with it without attractive or repulsive thoughts......
The music is quite good Performsnce wise-Sanjay Dutt is truly a star.He is just so excellent.Arshad Warsi playing the role of Circuit is stupendous.His comic timing is superb.Boman Irani is very good playing the role of Dr Asthana.Jimmy Shergill is also good.Sunil Dutt though he has a very small appearance he touches your heart.Note the the scene of jaadu ki jhappi and that will surely make you cry.Gracy Singh is lovable as Dr Suman aka Chinki.Overall Munnabhai M.B.B.S is fantastic.
Munnabhai is a must watch movie,it has almost all the aspect which is expected from a Hindi commercial movie ,like, family value,comedy,romance and sentiments.This movie says about positive aspect of a Bhai,whom people considered to be a bad gay.This film is also about necessary of love and affection when we are doing a medical profession.This film also depicts the aspect about fathers expectation about his child.One of the beautiful thing about the movie is that chemistry between Sunil Dutt and Sajay Datt.This movie has improved the reputation of Vidhu Vinod Chopra and it also bring money to him.Narration of the story was very simple and attracting.Overall it is heart touching movie with lots of Comedy and Entertainment.So I love this movie..
terrific performance by Sanjay Dutt and I think Arshad Warsi is underrated like Saif Ali Khan.Gracy singh looked really beautiful and as always she has not much to do in the movie.
Asthana(I don't know his real name but he is really good).Overall movie is good and worth watching more then once but surely next time your one finger will be mostly on fast forward..
Munna Bhai MBBS is a typical feel-good movie added with some clever jokes.
The songs are primarily for diversion and to make you feel that the movie is long enough for Bollywood entry.The speech Sunil Dutt gives to the guy caught stealing from him is impressive.
After a long time got to see a superb comedy with full of emotions...great to watch sanjay and arshad warsi gave a superb face expression...and mamu..he was fantastic...altogether a nice masala comedy movie...worth watching..will rate it 8.5/10.
Does not make any sense for you to watch the movie dubbed in any other language ( as the comedy and timing goes well with the native language) because it is in TOP 250 list and then write a review that would be titled as "Spoiled My day " .
Overall, it is worth watching because it is a unique movie and there is nothing to do but laugh the whole time..
the film is about a gangster who wanted to become a doctor to take revenge on the dean of the Mumbai medical college for humiliating his father in front of him..
The film is combination of great comic timing by Sanjay Dutt playing the character Munna Bhai and a little romance and some emotional moments.
Circuit played by Arshad Warsi done an amazing work.The music is good.
This movie is truly a super-hit comedy I ever saw brilliant acting I like the songs they are worth listening Good story-line This is Sanjay s best movie he was good as the Main character arshad was funny Jimmy was excellent in his role he put lot of justice in his performance Other were brilliant and mesmerizing My rating 10/10 or 5 starsEnjoy this for Sanjay and jimmy.
Acting - Great acting by Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi (circuit) did a great job.
Especially the ones said by Circuit and Munna's Father.I've never seen a Bollywood film as good as this.
Sanjay dutt is pertaining to be a doctor, one of the greatest comedy i ever have seen..
One of the greatest comedy i ever have seen by Sanjay dutt(Munna) and Circuit.
Munna's character is having very good sense of humour, he generally offers hug to everyone, that's has become a very good dose for patients.In the end when Sanjay's parents gets to know about reality then they had proud on their son.I will give 8 rating to this movie and will say "Must watch" ..
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. is an entertaining movie full of Indian styled entertainment which especially consists Mumbai's local language which is popular amongst today's youngsters.
Munna wants to fulfill his father's dream of watching his son to be a doctor whether he's actually a punk.
Yeh comedy entertainment movie h Storyline: Munna Bhai (Sanjay Dutt) and his gang are the typical 'Bhai's in Mumbai who claims to be a social worker helping out people in recovery (through kidnapping, haath-pair todna) etc and has lied to his father that he is a doctor.
Storyline: Munna Bhai (Sanjay Dutt) and his gang are the typical 'Bhai's in Mumbai who claims to be a social worker helping out people in recovery (through kidnapping, Heath-pair Dona) etc and has lied to his father that he is a doctor.
It will show them all have talent in them but they do not have power to show it so this movie will give them new path also sanjay dutt has play a very good role in this film, no body can suit this role other than him.
This film is really great ever seen movie.
Munna's father, Hari Prasad Sharma , an upright, moralistic man, believes that his son is actually a doctor running a charity hospital.
And, oddly, he begins calling everyone 'dude' and talking like a surfer."Munna Bhai MBBS" is a film that has way too much in it.
IMDb says it's a remake of "Patch Adams"....and much of the movie is also like that.
also comes at a time when there was a serious dearth of good writing in films.+ Sanjay Dutt: He reinvents himself playing a gangster with a good heart.
Brilliant music.+ Supporting cast: Arshad Warsi gets to redeem himself as Munna's sidekick and takes the film to a whole new level.
It also brought together a cast of actors that were down on their lucks at that point of their careers.Munnabhai M.B.B.S. tells the story of a gangster, Munna, who has also lied to his father that he is a doctor in the city.
They make it look so real and believable that is is difficult not to fall for their characters.Sanjay Dutt rules the screen as Munnabhai.
He even surpasses his performance in Vaastav with his role as the gangster with a heart.Munnabhai is a special film.
Storyline: Munna Bhai (Sanjay Dutt) and his gang are the typical 'Bhai's in Mumbai who claims to be a social worker helping out people in recovery (through kidnapping, haath-pair todna) etc and has lied to his father that he is a doctor.
A comedy of troubles starts when the 'cool' don confronts strict Asthana.Comment: Although the story is quite similar to Hollywood's 'Patch Adams', the movie can make u laugh non-stop except for some serious scenes that are very few in that movie.
A comedy of troubles starts when the 'cool' don confronts strict Asthana.Comment: Although the story is quite similar to Hollywood's 'Patch Adams', the movie can make u laugh non-stop except for some serious scenes that are very few in that movie.
A comedy of troubles starts when the 'cool' don confronts strict Asthana.Comment: Although the story is quite similar to Hollywood's 'Patch Adams', the movie can make u laugh non-stop except for some serious scenes that are very few in that movie.
The tapori style of Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi is just too good.
The tapori style of Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi is just too good.
The tapori style of Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi is just too good.
An excellent tapori-comedy movie after a long time.
The plot line revolves around Munna Bhai(Sanjay Dutt) and his sidekick - Circuit (Arshad Warsi).
Murli Prasad Sharma (Sanjay Dutt) becomes a bhai after coming to Mumbai.
Songs weren't that great except I really liked the "Subah Ho Gayi Mamu".Sanjay Dutt does justification to his role as the Bhai.
With a poll coming up on IMDb's Classic Film board for the best titles of 2003,I started searching around for Bollywood movies that I could watch for the poll.Taking a look at the top grossing Bollywood films for 2003,I was delighted to spot a flick which I had seen the first half of at a friends house a few years ago,which led to me quickly booking an appointment with Dr.Munna Bhai.The plot:Finding out that his mum and dad are coming down to pay him an early visit,underworld gangster Munna Bhai orders his gang to completely change the appearance of his mansion,in order to keep his underworld life hidden from his parents.With no time to spare,Munna Bhai and his fellow friend/gangster decide to pretend to be dr's,so that Bhai's family can be happy at him having a 'traditional' job.Keeping everything under wraps,Bhai is caught by surprise,when his mum and dad reveal that they are going to arrange for him to get married to a former school friend of his nicknamed 'Chinki.'Keeping his underworld links under wraps,Bhai's parents run into the head doctor (Dr.J.C. Asthana) of a leading medical university.Talking about how proud they are of their son,Asthana destroys any sense of pride that Bhai's family have,by revealing that Bhail is actually a major gangster.Sickened by the sadness that his parents feel,Bhai decides that the only way he can bring happiness back to his parent's lives is to enter medical school with his gangster buddies by his side.View on the film:Running at 2 and a half hours,the screenplay by co-writer/ (along with Lajan Joseph,Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Abbas Tyrewala)editor/director Rajkumar Hirani moves at a lightning fast pace,with the writers jam packing the movie with hilariously sharp one dialogue and quick-paced slap-stick which is smartly always rooted to the characters current situations which helps the jokes to never feel disconnected from the drama taking place.Making sure to never become sickly sweet,and backed by a wonderful score from Anu Malik, (with almost all of the songs thankfully being subtitled)the writers wisely use the running time to gradually give the film a real heart,as Munna Bhai discovers the skills that he used to keep his gang together,can be put to better use for people who are in desperate need.Returning to the screen for the first time in 16 years,Sunil Dutt gives a very good performance as Munna Bhai's dad,with Dutt showing a real sorrow towards his real life son,as he discovers the lies that he has been told.Meeting up with his dad on screen,Sanjay Dutt gives an excellent performance as Munna Bhai,with Dutt delivering each one liner with a real relish,whilst also making sure that the comedy moments never get away from Bhai's aim of making his mum and dad proud.Despite there being a 20 year gap,Gracy Singh gives a charming performance as 'Chinki',with Singh showing a real sincerity as Chinki finds herself being taken by Bhai's charms,whilst Arshad Warsi shows a real comedic bite as Bhai's loyal sidekick Circuit,and Boman Irani (covered in expertly done make up effects) gives a tremendously ruthless performance,as the Dr who is determined to make Munna Bhai fail at the school..
MunnaBhai MBBS- The film is a tragic-comic tale of Munna's antics in the process of becoming a doctor and thereby laying bare the way the medical fraternity functions.
Emotions play an important role in this film and while the first half is a laugh riot - primarily because of Munna, Circuit and Dr Asthana - the second half has some weepy moments.
Complimenting his performance are two key actors - Boman Irani as Dr Asthana who is a hoot with his act of 'laughter therapy' and Arshad Warsi as Munna's trusted aide who can do anything for his bhai.
MUNNABHAI M.B.B.S. is worth watching movie.
If VAASTAV was a turning point in Sanjay Dutt's fluctuating career, another film that will make people sit up and notice his talent is MUNNABHAI M.B.B.S. Known as an 'action man' all through his career, the actor proves with this performance.
The sequences between Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi all through the film are thoroughly entertaining.
The sequences between Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi all through the film are thoroughly entertaining.
Besides this song, the film ought to be trimmed by at least 10 minutes to make the goings-on crisper.Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. is a Indian comedy drama .
it is a 2003 Indian Bollywood comedy drama film its Direted by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra.
The story involves protagonist Munna Bhai (Sanjay Dutt), a goon , going to medical school.
He is helped by his sidekick Circuit (Arshad Warsi) Jimmy Shergill, Gracy Singh , Boman Irani and Sunil Dutt It went on to Win the 2004 National Film Award for Best Popular Film, and several Film Fare Awards, Including The Critics Award for Best Movie and Best Screenplay.
Munnabhai MBBS was an acid test: The promos were not too attractive Sanjay Dutt and lighthearted films - no chance, Arshad Warsi was going through bad phase, new director Rajkumar Hirani but the film proved all wrong The film is a lighthearted film with emotions, comedy and all yet it's different then run of the mill. |
tt0111282 | Stargate | Egyptologist and linguist Daniel Jackson, Ph.D. is invited by Catherine Langford to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs on cover stones that her father had unearthed in Giza, Egypt in 1928. Jackson is taken to a U.S. Air Force installation, and told the project is classified information by its commander Special Operations Colonel Jack O'Neil. Jackson determines that the hieroglyphs refer to a "stargate" which uses constellations as spatial coordinates. On this revelation, Jackson is shown that the base has this Stargate, also discovered by Langford's father. They use Jackson's coordinates to align the Stargate's metal ring with markings along its outside, and once all seven are locked in, a wormhole opens, connecting the Stargate with a distant planet. Jackson joins O'Neil and other soldiers as they pass through the wormhole, though expresses concern at a nuclear bomb they brought as a last resort.
On the arid desert planet, they find themselves in a pyramid-like structure. Jackson locates the Stargate and its controls, but lacks the coordinates to return home. O'Neil orders some men to stay behind to guard the Stargate. Nearby, they discover a tribe of humans working to mine a strange mineral from the planet. Jackson is able to communicate with them as they speak a variation of Ancient Egyptian, and finds the tribe sees them as emissaries of their god Ra (Jaye Davidson). The tribe's chieftain Kasuf presents Jackson with his daughter Sha'uri as a gift, and though Jackson initially refuses her, he becomes romantically attached to her. O'Neil befriends the teenaged boy Skaara and his friends, in part because Skaara reminds him of his long-deceased son. Through hidden markings and discussions with the tribe, Jackson learns that Ra is an alien being who had come to Earth during the Ancient Egyptian period, looking to possess human bodies to extend his own life. Ra enslaved these humans and brought some to this planet through the Stargate to mine the mineral that is used in the alien technology. The humans on Earth revolted, overthrew Ra's overseers, and buried the Stargate to prevent its use. Ra forbade the humans in the tribe from becoming literate, fearing another revolt. During this investigation, Jackson comes across a cartouche containing six of the seven symbols for the Stargate, but the seventh has been broken off.
That night, Ra's ship lands atop the pyramid structure, and O'Neil's men there are captured or killed by Ra's soldiers. When Jackson, O'Neil, and the other men return, they end up in a firefight against Ra's soldiers. Jackson is killed and the others captured. Ra places Jackson's body in a sarcophagus-like device that regenerates him. Ra then explains to Jackson that he has found the nuclear bomb the humans brought and has used his alien technology to increase its explosive power a hundred-fold, and threatens to send it back through the Stargate. Ra orders the human tribe to watch as he prepares to execute Jackson and the others to demonstrate his power, but Skaara and his friends create a diversion that allows Jackson, O'Neil, and the others to escape. They flee to nearby caves to hide from Ra. Skaara and his friends celebrate, and Skaara draws out a sign of victory in a wall, which Jackson recognizes as the final symbol.
O'Neil and his men aid Skaara in overthrowing the remaining overseers, and then launch an attack on Ra. Ra sends out fighter ships against the humans while he orders his ship to take off. The humans outside are forced to surrender to the fighter ships' pilots when they run out of ammo, but the rest of the tribe, having finally learned of their false gods, rebel against the pilots and overthrow them. Sha'uri is killed, but Jackson takes her body and sneaks aboard Ra's ship, using a teleportation system, leaving O'Neil to fight Ra's lead soldier. After Jackson places Sha'uri in the regeneration device. Ra discovers them, but O'Neil activates the teleportation system, killing Ra's lead soldier, and allowing Jackson and Sha'uri to escape. O'Neil realizes that Ra had rigged the bomb to prevent him from disarming it. O'Neil and Jackson decide to use the teleportation system to transport the bomb to Ra's ship. The ensuing blast destroys the ship in space. With the humans freed, the remaining team prepares to return to Earth, but Jackson tells O'Neil he plans to stay behind with Sha'uri and the others. O'Neil acknowledges Jackson's request and, with the others, enters the Stargate to return home.
=== Director's cut ===
The director's cut had several scenes which were cut from the theatrical release. The first such scene took place immediately after the excavation of the Stargate in 1928 and showed petrified Horus guards near the cover stones; the producers had tried to introduce the idea that beings had attempted to come through the Stargate after its burial, but they cut the scene for time concerns. | violence, cult, suspenseful, action, atmospheric | train | wikipedia | With a capable cast, solid script and excellent set design, this is a big-budget adventure for viewers looking for pure escapist fun.The ever reliable Kurt Russell plays the square-jawed, world weary Jack O'Neil, who is responsible for leading the military mission to another world.
At the time, this was a different type of role for Spader and he handles the humorous content of his scenes with great success.There's also an appearance by "The Crying Game"'s Jaye Davidson as the evil baddie, Ra. Although Davidson's role is quite small, he brings an other-worldly presence to his part.The score by David Arnold is excellent.A great idea for a movie, I can't help but think the concept would have made a successful television series....
The somebody they sent for is archaeologist/linguist James Spader who deciphers some ancient Egyptian writing and poof, the gate is upright and operational.At that point the military takes over led by a hardnosed professional played by Kurt Russell.
He's going through that gate with a team of special forces and with James Spader presumably so they can communicate with whatever life is out there.Stargate is a teleportation device and the team travels through time and space and ends up across the galaxy on a primitive planet where the people worship a being called Ra played by Jaye Davidson.
Stargate the movie :- superb atmosphreric music, great special effects, excellent cast, intriguing story but - not surprised it launched a successful TV series which has run and run.
Some people wouldn't had minded that by the way.Even though the story itself is not that much special, it still has a great and original as well as an intriguing concept, that somehow knows to connect an alien world to ancient Egypt and their Gods.
Also greatly cast was Jaye Davidson as Ra. He's a true memorable villain and it makes you realize what a great shame it is that Jaye Davidson has never acted in many movies, simply just because he never really enjoyed acting much, despite having also received an Oscar nomination for his debut role in "The Crying Game".Truly a recommendable science-fiction classic from the '90's.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
If that's what you think STARGATE is going to be about you'll be as disappointed as I was first time I saw itOf the cast Kurt Russell and his special forces group are slightly wooden but I won't criticise the cast since these type of characters always lack flair in these genre movies .
Thankfully Emmerich doesn't go overboard on the CGI while he also had the good sense ( Say it again ) to cast Jaye Davidson as RaBy no means a classic SF movie STARGATE is solid entertainment and is rather more enjoyable on second viewing.
Joining the group going through the portal, Daniel finds a world like Egypt, full of peaceful people worshiping the sungod Ra. Things go great for a while until, that is, Ra shows up.Having now spawned two TV spin off series (neither of which I have ever bothered with) I suppose this film might have gained a bit of respect looking back on it as the starting point for a relatively successful franchise, but this does not mean that the film has suddenly become a wonderful piece of action sci-fi cause it ain't!
The action is OK but without a decent plot to engage the audience it is really nothing but noisy special effects effects that, may I say, have not dated well at all in the past decade.The cast try hard but even James Spader struggles to buy into the idea of him as an action star; he appears to be laughing at the script at times in the early scenes!
STARGATE should be the perfect movie for me: an interesting premise, grounded in real-life theory (I've been reading Graham Hancock's FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS recently, and am familiar with Von Daniken's writings) and made with a high enough budget to do the special effects justice.And watching it, it's hard to fault the production.
Stargate is, as far as I'm concerned, better than the original TV series, which I've watched a couple of time without really getting interested, but then I'm not a fan.The good.
If you are going down to the video store, consider reaching for something else like Independence Day (made by the same people, full of flaws, but a roller coaster ride and lots of fun), Contact (similar space travel scenes to Stargate, but much more intelligently carried out) or even The Mummy, which is about as inaccurate on Ancient Egypt (why do they have pyramids in Thebes...???) but it has more laughs and action on the way..
Th effects might not live up to today's standard but much better than other 90s movie and the concept and this whole idea behind the Stargate is interested and explored more deeply in the shows.The villain Ra (Jaye Davidson) also show a lot of promise early in the movie but unfortunately he can't live up to promise and was kind of an lackluster villain in the end.
On Abydos they meet Skaara, Sha'uri and Kasuf, these character has to band together and fight against both time and Ra. The movie isn't fantastic by no means but it's a great starting point for the three series that continue after the movie.Roland Emmerich is not a great director but somehow he didn't screw this one up, sure the first Independence Day is also fine but his other movies have been mediocre at best.
The reason I had not watched it earlier were my doubts - I'm not a fan of sci-fi movies and aliens and least but not last of Roland Emmerich (since watching The Day After Tomorrow, which I didn't like at all) so I was quite certain I would be disappointed...THOUGH, this disappointment never came.
Not to mention the acting qualities of both the actors.The ambient: Ancient Egypt, Anubis soldiers, sand and pyramids, aliens, the people in the village, strange animals, all mixed with modern- day soldiers who are entering in this ancient and fascinating world with doubts and in disbelief unawares and wary of what might be expecting them.The story: There are no plot holes, everything is explained to an observing viewer.
A pity Jaye had chosen to leave his acting career, because as many already have said, he could have made a great deal of another great movies with his talent.The costumes: exquisite ones, especially those of the ancient Egypt gods as Anubis and Horus and the main villain.To conclude, it's a movie definitely worth watching, with character development,intriguing plot, lovable characters and great ambient to put the story/theory in.
The FX is awful, that acting even worse--Kurt Russell gives the most dominant, WOODEN performance of his career and James Spader makes me want to get an insulin injection--He's so sugary little boy cute when I wanted a solid plot, or one plot twist and---Oh I forgot what I else wanted other than I wanted the film to end and I had such high hopes walking in!
and it focus on ancient religion and believes of help from other beings.The story of the rings being used as gate way travel to distant worlds is pretty Awesome, and the film is also very smart on how they achieve communication between all the different species by having them all have some ancient language in common as they all have ancient gods who they fear or believe in.This is an incredibly awesome film, with some really cool action scenes, very well written dialogue and really great acting from Kurt Russell and James Spader.
Any book showing sci-fi history talks about Independence Day or Armageddon or even Attack of the Killing Tomatoes, but they don't even leave a line for this picture.I think Stargate is the best sci-fi adventure or space opera since Star Wars, because it's overwhelming, all it's elements are extremely creative, each new discovery of the characters in the world they find is astonishing, the characters have personal dramas to overcome.
It's an epic where my favorite items, ancient history, particularly from ancient Egypt, and science, particularly space science, are combined with a major story of emancipation by the people against dictatorship and God, where the people question the existence of God and decide to make a revolution.Despite all the horrors Roland Emmerich has done like ID4, Godzilla or The Patriot, Stargate remains an amazing picture, with a classical direction, all the elements well accomplished, extremely serious developments and without stupid jokes or comedy.
Often taken as pure entertainment and not to be seen again, for me, Stargate, which I've seen more than three dozen times, has become a cult movie, but unlike other cult movies I love, such as Blade Runner, 12 Monkeys, Brazil or Gattaca, this film produced by Mario Kassar and created by the minds of Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin is different because almost no one likes it and no one talks about it.
Ra, when we finally meet him, is a sight to behold; never has such a feminine young man been so imposing.The sets, costumes and effects perfectly capture the feel of the film; Abydos (the planet at the other end of the Stargate) might look like Egypt, but there's something about it that makes it much more distant than another continent.The only thing which really mars the film are its occasional descents into kitsch, including one of the death scenes later in the film, reduced to silliness by careless use of extreme cliche.
While these moments are, thankfully, fairly well spaced, some of the dialogue also contributes, as do a couple of plot holes.But still, Stargate is good solid fun with a bit more thought behind it than usual, and it's a great foundation for the television series that followed - and improved - on the film..
Then the t.v. series came along,which without even seeing an episode,i hated.However,after seeing some of the first and second seasons,it eventually grew on me and now i never miss an episode.BUT,i still think a sequel could be made with the original cast members and director Roland Emmerich at the helm.It may seem pointless since the t.v. series has covered many stories that could have been the basis for a sequel,but i think it would be interesting to have a new movie pick up where the original left off and start again as if there were no t.v. series,almost like an alternate reality from one of the later first season episodes.Does anyone else out there want a sequel or is it just wishful thinking on my part?.
Stargate was a new idea with a fabulous new way to travel between worlds or maybe even time, it is not clear until the end of the story exactly what was happening and that is a great thing about it, it is not predictable at all.
Those flaws didn't really bother me at all and I think that this is Roland Emmerich's best film next to Independence Day and The Patriot.The acting on the whole is pretty good especially Kurt Russell and James Spader who had great chemistry together throughout the film.
It also has some good dialog especially it's nice moments with the main character and the villain who is quite menacing.Stargate does have a hokey concept, but I don't understand why some people hated it because I think that this is an interesting film and I simply understood that it got a cult following over the years.
Sure, Spader played a great nerd and Russell was good as depressed individual (at first), but having a boatload of characters with different accents is much more fun to listen and watch on screen.
But this is never explained.In the final analysis, Stargate is a simple "humans beat up on aliens" movie, no different from the director's later film, Indepdendence Day. Ironic that it should spawn a thoughtful series which has surpassed the original.
It's interesting to come to Stargate about 22 years after it first came out without having seen it before; I didn't have the nostalgia for it that people I know have or had (my wife at one point in her very young life called it her favorite film), and it also comes after seeing everything else that Roland Emmerich (with occasional collaborator Dean Devlin) put out since.
But the story moves at a great pace, despite its wacked and dopey moving parts, and Spader and Russell ground it as two characters you can care about in a sea of people who are walking-talking tropes and types (oh, there's also the element of Aliens with it being a military group dispatched to check out this alien land and the violence they come up against), and things like culture-clash and language/communication barriers and villains with amazing Egyptian masks and sets and all sorts of things.Stargate has parts that work really well in a sea of things that flat-out don't.
I have always had a sneaking liking for ancient Egypt, how the managed to build the pyramids without modern day technology is astounding, add this to my love for Science Fiction putting to two together is bound to intrigue me.IMO The characters in the TV Show SG1, were portrayed better than in the film, which lets it down.
It was a movie panned by critics; it was the first movie to launch an official website and one of the many films featuring the bad-ass Kurt Russell playing a character that would later be a cult character in both movie and TV history (a show was made in 1997).Stargate is a time travel movie about a doomed archaeologist (James Spader) who gets a call from an old lady that tells him about this discovery where a portal can take communicate with other dimensions.
O'Neill and Jackson go in with a group of marines and discover that they're part of the other dimension where it resembles Egypt with a god by the name of Ra who comes to hurt the civilians where it's just a matter of time before the expedition team becomes extinct if not finding their way home.The film itself is a bad-ass movie where science fiction fans and those who follow Egyptian history will be surprise that mixing certain elements can make people watch a flick without being disappointed..
Does the military really send suicidal people on secret missions, even for the purpose of killing themselves along with destroying a prized possession?Let's go down the list of a few cliches in this movie: (1) the "loser" scientist who's hired for a special mission (Notice how when everyone walks out of his lecture, the one person who is interested hides and waits in the car outside, mysteriously, instead of just walking right up to him?), (2) a suicidal soldier in need of redemption, (3) a group of scientists talking a bunch of mumbo-jumbo about writings that they obviously know nothing about, (4) the love story between two unlikely people, who can barely communicate with each other, (5) a piece of jewelry with sentimental value, (6) a bomb with a read digital readout, (7) the action climax where all the good guys beat up the bad guys, and (8) the old line "Tastes like chicken".The filmmakers obviously wanted (and have pretty much stated so) this film to be confused with great classics like "Lawrence of Arabia", simply because of the desert setting, I guess.
It was made to be a hit, in fact, it should have been a far bigger hit than it turned out to be.I mean, just the concept makes me want to watch it all over again...It's the same concept as "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" except they remembered that Indiana Jones has no place in the world of Aliens.In fact I would have even loved the TV show if, you know, all the Alien worlds they visited didn't look a lot like Canada.All you have here is a really fun action adventure sci-fi movie that doesn't try to make any statements.
Thus speaks Stargate.The movie starts off great with the whole thing collapsing under its own weight of misunderstanding the concept and turning it into a good looking but incredibly inept military exercise with dull action scenes and unbelievably uninteresting cultural exchanges.The Alien look is outstanding as are the sets, but it shamelessly uses a deep concept and ridicules its insights.
I'd like to see James Spader in the series Stargate SG-1, or any other type science fiction programs, and or movies coming up.I think he is a convincing actor, and very entertaining!
Or maybe you will just have an enjoyable time watching this amazing Sci Fi fantasy action film of amazing Egyptian costumes and characters and sets which bring this fantastic story to life..
From the spaceship to the gliders, everything has a touch of old Egyptian myth mixed with advanced alien know-how.With a combination of good dialog, an interesting plot, a creative way to expound upon ancient mythologies, mostly engaging characters and good special effects, "Stargate" is a very entertaining film.
Stargate is nothing but a good, old-fashioned action film that offers a fun time.
Stargate is a great movie!Although not Kurt Russell`s best but he performs good enough.James Spader was good and Viveca Lindfors was very good.Jaye Davidson was very surprising with the role!The film has a great score by David Arnold.The story about Ra and what he really is,is a scary one and what he arrived in is so neat.The film is very good and is action packed and is a must see!.
Oh my God, does good triumph over evil, you will have to watch this movie to find out.While there is some action, it is really the Science Fiction idea that makes this story work.
I've been watching Stargate-SG1 for about a year now, and It is above excellent, the best sci-fi out there, but it and the movie have major, MAJOR differences. |
tt0139156 | The Dig | On a deep space tracking station in Borneo, a moving object is discovered in space. Computer programs identify it as an asteroid that will impact on Earth within three weeks. Some time later, a Space Shuttle is launched. A news broadcast explains that the asteroid has been nicknamed Attila, after the historical war leader of the Huns who destroyed the Roman Empire. The probability that the asteroid will hit Earth is 99 %, so NASA has hastily set up a rescue mission. A press conference broadcasted the day before is shown. Shuttle Commander Boston Low (voice of Robert Patrick) stresses that the Space Shuttle is not designed for missions such as this one, but since the fate of mankind is at stake, it will have to do. He introduces the flight team: Ludger Brink (Steve Blum) is a German geologist. His role is to determine where to put explosive charges on the asteroid, in order to move it out of its trajectory without destroying it; if it breaks up, pieces of the asteroid will certainly hit Earth, with devastating effects. Maggie Robbins (Mari Weiss) is a famous reporter, on board to help with the placement of the explosive charges, and to write all about the mission afterwards (although her inclusion seems primarily pr-related). She is well-known for her independence and unwillingness to compromise, but during the mission, she promises to obey Commander Low as any good team member. Journalists remark that Brink is also an archaeologist, and Maggie has a talent in learning new languages; Low responds that they were selected because they are resourceful and creative thinkers, while he is there to keep everyone safe. The other two team members, Cora Miles and Ken Borden, will stay inside the shuttle and assist from there.The Space Shuttle travels to space and stops close to Attila. Low, Robbins and Brink disembark and proceed with the mission. Cora deploys her device, called the Pig, which serves as a floating tool case and scanning equipment. Using a shovel and a zero-G drill from the Pig, the team places two nuclear charges on the designated sites on Attila's surface. When ready, the team returns to the shuttle which takes off to a safe distance, while Ken detonates the charges. Two large explosions are seen on the asteroid's surface. When the situation is stable again, the landing team disembarks to take another look. They find that the explosions have opened up an ancient tunnel into the insides of the asteroid. They send the Pig down to light the way, and find out that the tunnel contains several strange projections and a metallic plate, proving beyond a doubt that there was intelligent life where Attila came from. Robbins immediately wants to notify Houston, but Low overrules her, stating that he got secret orders to investigate the asteroid for any signs of intelligent alien life, and intends to investigate it thoroughly before sending a report. With the drill, Low discovers three more metallic plates below the projections in the wall. When pushing the plates, they disappear through shafts in the wall. One of those shafts leads to the core of the asteroid, which is completely hollow. Unable to communicate from inside, the team decides to investigate further, and discovers the metal plates on the far side of the hollow asteroid, next to a strange pedestal with an indentation that fits the plates. Upon arranging the plates in the indentation, the plates start glowing, turn around and assume a different configuration. Strange beams emanate from the plates, forming a crystalline structure that engulfs the entire cave, and the asteroid suddenly starts to move away. It morphs into a transparent diamond shape, and in a flash, it leaves the solar system, emerging inside a completely different part of space. There, it heads to a blue planet, and lands inside a large stone island structure in the middle of an ocean, designed to receive it, before it dissolves completely.Boston, Maggie and Ludger awaken, and quickly deduce that they must have travelled faster than light, and are somewhere very far from their own solar system. The sky over their heads has not one but two moons. The surroundings appear to consist of a large pentagonal desert, bordered by very high and steep walls, almost vertical. Next to them, in the centre of the desert, there is a small stone platform, also pentagonal. The air appears to be breathable, so they take off their space suits. Boston wants to explore the area and requests the team to follow him, but Brink protests; since the area is an archaeological dig, he should be the obvious leader. Maggie, however, prefers Boston as leader since he has experience with survival, which seems to be their main objective at the moment; Brink begrudgingly agrees.They investigate the vast area and find a shipyard full of broken spaceships, presumably from other civilizations that have also gotten stranded there. One of the ships has its hold torn open. Boston sees a wire hanging, and pulls it down. Immediately, a strange blue light comes swirling down; it displays several shapes, including geometrical figures, and then vanishes. Before it disappears, and without anyone noticing, it drops a yellow decorative wand with 5 small floating geometric shapes that seem to be held in place by an unseen force. Boston takes it, and also finds a chest with a blue orb in it. The next site they find consists as a pile of dirt with several tusks mounted on it. Rodent-like creatures have made a home of it. Boston takes a tusk. Brink guesses that the site is a grave, and is very dismayed when Boston intends to start digging into it. However, Boston is only concerned with survival right now, and the grave may provide him with something useful. Brink´s prospect of getting criticized for destroying an archaeological site during the first alien encounter is the least of his worries now. Digging yields a pile of bones and a jawbone with very sharp teeth, which may come in handy.The last area is near the wall, which has images carved into it. The blue orb seems to act as a tracking device; it points in the direction of a heap of sand, in which they find a small bracelet. Since there is no more to explore in the desert, they return to the stone platform. There, the blue light returns. It forms a flame that hovers over a small hole in the sand, before disappearing again. Maggie suggests that these apparitions may be the aliens themselves, but Brink and Boston wonder if it could be some kind of technology, or a warning system. They even suggest it might be alien ghosts, and that they are in some form of afterlife. Boston wants to investigate the hole that the light was hovering over. He starts to dig to make it bigger, but finds that the sand is soft and he is sinking. They deduce that the area underneath must be hollow. Since Brink has experience as an archaeologist, he offers to open it up. However, after moving several shovels of sand, Brink reaches a hollow point, and the ground collapses under him. Brink cannot hold on and falls several feet down below. The rubble forms a ramp that Boston and Maggie use to climb down, but they find Brink dead on the bottom.Maggie concludes that it is too unsafe to proceed with the two of them, and that they should split up, having a better change to survive and discover things on their own. Boston protests, but Maggie informs him that it is no longer a mission, so he no longer has command; they will both go their separate ways and call each other on their intercoms when there is something to report. Boston goes off on his own and finds that he is in a heavily decayed circular nexus, with plants, seemingly connected to each other, growing through cracks in the stones. There are five differently colored doors here, four with a panel besides them. One door is standing next to an alcove, exactly like the one they found inside Attila where the metal plates were fitted. Boston finds a metal plate not unlike the one found in Attila, and another rod, purple with four different geometrical shapes on it. There is also a ramp that leads to an area below the nexus. Boston finds a large platform there, hanging over a huge pit. Down there is a vast piece of machinery, and a system of lenses that focus beams of energy toward a central triangle; one of the lenses has fallen out, causing the beam to scatter away. Boston quickly finds out how to operate a repair system connected to the platform, and repairs the lens. In an instant, the power of the entire site is back on-line.Back inside the nexus, Boston finds that energy is flowing through conduits, and that the doors are powered. The new rod he found seems to be a code key: its four shapes form a sequence of three-dimensional symbols that should be entered on the panel of the door with the corresponding color. Boston manages to open the first door, and finds a platform on the other side. Maggie calls in, and announces that she has discovered something too: a large room with alien devices that still work. She got there through a tunnel that immediately collapsed, which would have killed anyone coming after her, which convinces Boston that splitting up may not have been such a bad idea after all. They promise to stay in touch. A call button on Boston's platform calls a sophisticated tram, shaped like a giant blue orb. Entering it activates the tram, which rolls down a long crystalline underwater tunnel. Boston ends up on a platform on an enormous stone spire island that rises from the ocean. He can see that there are a total of five spires around the large central island he came from. Inside the spire, there is a stone sliding door which he cannot open. Outside, near the spire's base, there is a small shore where he can see an underwater cave. A turtle-like creature emerges from the water, but it is immediately eaten by an enormous carnivorous eel, so Boston decides not to go into the water. He ascends some steps leading up the spire, and finds a strange device with a lens attached to it. Another blue light appears, this time bouncing off the lens. Boston activates a button on the device, and finds out that it creates a solid bridge, made out of light. The bridge meets up with a large crystal form hanging in mid-air, high above the central island; apparently, it is formed from energy that flows straight up from the stone pentagonal platform in the desert below, that has started radiating energy since the power was restored.Entering a doorway on the spire leads Boston into an area with four large displays, which he nicknames the Museum. Boston finds two strange green-glowing crystals, a stone tablet in an alien language, and another engraved rod. The displays show Boston reliefs that morph into each other, and depict several stories. The first one shows a large crystal space ship landing on the central island, with the resident aliens greeting the newcomers and taking them to some kind of machine. Another shows a secret area below a tomb. The third shows a dead alien revived through the contents of one of the green crystals; and the last depicts some sort of canister which acts as an explosive when it comes into contact with water. Boston takes another doorway out, and finds Maggie among several glass-like cubes. She has designated this area the Library; the consoles there show all kinds of symbols, and Maggie theorizes it was designed for visitors to learn the native alien language. She opts to stay and learn more, as Boston takes the tram back to the nexus.Back in the nexus, Boston uses the code from the newly found rod on the door with the corresponding color. He finds another tram platform, but there is no response when he pushes the call button there. Going back, Boston sees Brink's dead body, and remembers what he saw in the museum display. Even though the crystals he found were not designed for humans, he decides it is worth a try. He opens one of the green crystals and pours its contents on Brink. Brink's body immediately absorbs the fluid; green energy starts to flow into his body, and Brink regains consciousness. With seemingly no ill effects, Brink gets up and is initially doubtful of his death, but Boston assures him he was really gone for some time. Hearing about being resurrected by the so-called life crystals, he theorizes that human cells must be very similar to the aliens' for the crystals to have the same effect. He shows great interest in finding more crystals, since they make him feel more alive and mentally stronger than before he was dead. Boston calls Maggie, who does not believe the resurrection story at first either, until she hears Brink's voice. She expects that the crystals will change everything back on Earth, but, to return there, she will need to continue her research in the library. Boston takes Brink with him to the tram, and they travel back to the Museum spire. On the platform, Brink helps Boston open the sliding door. Inside is a room with a large basin, filled with life crystals. Suddenly, the blue apparition appears again; it hovers inside the basin among the crystals, then forms the shape of a skull before dissolving. Brink is certain: the crystals are the secret to life, and the aliens want to share them by pointing the way. Boston is less convinced, and points out that the skull apparition indicates danger; there could be side effects to the crystals, and even if they are the antidote to death, it is suspicious that there are no more aliens around. Brink dismisses this idea, since the crystals make him feel amazing, and he suggests the aliens simply moved on to another plane of existence. Boston interjects that they may all be dead from the crystals, but Brink simply scoffs at the notion, implying he is now feeling intellectually superior to Boston. He takes several crystals for personal use; Boston takes some as well, for study, but Brink predicts that Boston will use them on himself at one point as well.Next to the basin, Boston finds a canister like the one he saw in the museum display. They go outside to the shore, where another turtle-like creature is eaten by the giant eel. The eel spits its bones and shell out on the ground. When the eel returns to the water, Boston finds that Brink has bailed on him, and does not respond over the communicator. Boston warns Maggie through the communicator about Brink's strange behaviour and disappearance, suggesting the crystals may have some kind of addictive power. Through a fossil nearby, Boston is able to piece the dead turtle's bones back together. He adds the explosive canister, and uses one of the life crystals on the creature. It comes back to life, same as Brink, and it gets eaten immediately by the giant eel. But as soon as the giant returns into the water, a loud explosion is heard. With the monster dead, Boston takes a dive and swims to the underwater cave. He finds a second metal plate, and another coloured engraved rod. Returning back to the nexus, Boston uses the new rod to open yet another door. The tram there takes him to another spire with a path leading up. He finds himself on a vista with a waterfall, containing another light bridge, which he activates. A nearby cavern contains an alcove with a glowing blue rod in it, and a crack in the rock with a glow inside. Another path leads him onto a platform with a door on the other end. However, one of the rodent-like creatures there picks away a machine part from a nearby panel, which immediately closes the door. Boston fabricates a primitive trap from some nearby objects, and chases the critter inside of it. He puts the small bracelet he found earlier on the critter, and releases it. He uses the tracking device to locate the critter's nest inside a nearby cave. Digging on the spot produces the machine part, with which he opens the door.Inside is a small room shaped like a crystal, not unlike the spaceship that brought them here, with a light on the ceiling. There is another metal plate, and two electrically charged staffs, a blue one and a gold one. Pointing them at the ceiling reveals a hologram of a planetarium, depicting the planet and its two moons. The rods have the effect of moving both moons along their orbit around the planet. It appears that this also moves the real moons around the planet. However, at that moment, the rodent steals the machine part again, trapping Boston inside the Planetarium. Fortunately, the door can also be operated from Boston's side. He returns to the nexus.From the nexus, Boston takes a dark tunnel outward, and finds himself in a crystalline cave which is located underwater. From there, he can see the underwater tram tunnels leading to the five spire islands. There are five crystals on a pedestal in the middle of the room; one of the crystals is lifeless, the others glow with a blue colour. With the blue rod found on the previous spire, Boston activates a control system for the crystals, with which he re-energizes the lifeless crystal; immediately, the previously deactivated tram is active again, and Boston takes it to its respective spire. Halfway up the spire, there is another engraved rod, and a half-buried passageway. With the shovel, Boston opens it and finds a small room inside, with a triangle on the floor. He remembers it from on of the Museum displays, and wonders if it is a burial chamber. All the way up the spire, there is a platform where Boston finally finds Brink. The reunion is not a happy one, though; Brink is extremely curt and completely occupied with working on an old alien relic, refusing to explain his sudden absence. He admits to having used several more life crystals, and the effect on his health and mind have increased with each use. He dismisses Boston's worries and refuses to explain what he is currently doing, only stating that it is important and that he is operating beyond normal human intelligence now. Boston sees no use in further conversation and returns to the nexus, where he uses the rod on the last-to-final door. However, despite entering the right code, the door does not open. He notices that a rock from the ceiling has cracked open a nearby energy conduit in the floor, and the door is simply not receiving power. He pries the panel off with the tusk, and connects the mechanism inside to the open conduit, using the electric wire, powering up the door. He finds a heavily decayed tram platform there, and takes the tram to another spire.This spire has an intraicate network of tunnels in its interior. These connect several large caverns and two beaches at the base. The beach nearest to the tram has a set of faintly glowing panels set in the rocks; the outer beach appears to have no special features. Further ahead is a dark connecting cave which apparently serves as a nest to certain local animals. There is a large cave with a waterfall; at the top, there is a grate where water from the fall can be diverted to. Another large cave leads to an overgrown cave, with a panel consisting of four symbols, the same ones as the engraved rods and door panels in the nexus. Entering the codes from each engraved rod produces a holographic picture of an area on the corresponding spire. The code from the tomb spire shows that the triangle in the burial chamber provides access to an area underneath, just as Boston suspected. He finds another light bridge, but it is broken; through a panel on the device, Boston repairs it and activates the bridge.The Crystal Form where the light bridges meet is starting to take shape with each light bridge that is activated; Boston can faintly see a doorway, but it is still not solid. He walks via the bridges to the tomb spire. There is a picture on the wall nearby, showing the smaller moon eclipsing the larger one, with the light of the two moons shining through a hole in one spire onto another spire. Boston remembers he also saw a Museum display showing him the hidden tomb getting activated when the smaller moon eclipses the larger moon through the hole. He walks to the planetarium spire, and positions the planet's moons so that they align just as on the wall picture. Back inside the tomb, there is a stone with the symbol of the eclipsing moons on them; standing on the stone opens a shutter in the ceiling. Boston jams the stone with a iron rod, and light from the moons outside shines through a lens in the shutter, activating the triangle on the floor. It retracts in the floor, and returns with a giant ferocious-looking creature on it; however, the creature is made of sand and crumbles into dust. Boston mounts the triangular platform, and it descends into a large hallway underneath.There is a door at the end with two large skeletons next to it. As soon as Boston comes near, there is a rumble, and a life crystal falls from a hole onto one skeleton, reviving it. It appears to be a large, snarling alien dog-like creature, which will not allow Boston to come any nearer. But Boston thinks of a solution: he throws a life crystal onto the other skeleton, which revives the second guard dog. Both creatures fight until they get squashed under a heavy rock. The door opens when Boston touches the plate next to it with the yellow rod, the first one he found. Beyond the door is a long and high stone walkway that stands amidst the ocean; at the end is a translucent pyramid with the remains of a large creature in it. Boston contacts Maggie on the communicator to tell about his discovery, believing that this is the place where the apparitions were trying to lead them to. Maggie, however, voices some concern; the disposition of the blue ghosts is still unclear, and there is no guarantee that the creature in the pyramid has good intentions. Boston decides to find out. He touches the pyramid with the yellow rod, which instantly vanishes. He uses a life crystal on the creature, which is resurrected and is of intimidating height. Although the creature appears intelligent and friendly, it speaks in an alien language that Boston cannot understand. After several fruitless attempt at conversation, he gives up, and the alien seals itself again in the pyramid.Boston contacts Maggie about the alien, just when Maggie indicates that she can now understand and read the alien language. However, she is approached from behind by a massive four-legged insect, and contact is suddenly lost. Boston quickly goes to the Library, to find Maggie missing, with no sign of struggle. As Brink does not respond to Boston's call for help, he goes to him personally, but Brink shows only hostility towards Boston's presence. He refuses to help with finding Maggie and maintains that his current work takes precedence. He is also fiercely protective of a stash of life crystals he has placed nearby. Boston leaves and searches the spire islands, finally finding Maggie back in the nesting area inside the map room spire. She is tangled in a web, next to a grate, guarded by the four-legged monster. The creature blocks Boston's way when he tries to get through the door to the waterfall, so he has no choice but to go and get help. He returns to the tomb spire, and notices that Brink is standing close to a cave where some bat-like creatures have made a home on the ceiling. With the flashlight, he awakens the bats. They fly out and swarm to Brink, who runs away in panic and disgust. Boston quickly goes to the platform and steals Brink's crystals. Brink returns and angrily demands them back, but Boston assures him that he will only get the crystals back if he helps rescuing Maggie, so Brink has no choice but to obey.They go to the nest, and Brink creates a diversion, luring away the creature with his flashlight so Boston can slip by. Boston proceeds to the source of the waterfall, and diverts the stream of the waterfall into a large grate; this causes the grate next to Maggie to start leaking water. Boston then has Brink lure the creature towards the grate, and when Maggie opens it, the monster is flushed away. With Maggie released safely from the web, Brink immediately demands his crystals back. Boston tries to reason with Brink and persuade him to team up again, but Brink violently attacks, punching Boston to the ground, and threatening Maggie not to interfere. He takes all of Boston's crystals and quickly runs away. Realizing that Brink is beyond help at the moment, Maggie tells Boston she read some texts in the Library that suggest that the aliens have left their world for another, and she gets the feeling that the ghostly apparitions are trapped there, and need their help. Boston suggests asking the dead alien again. They go to the tomb and revive him, with Maggie translating his words.The alien (James Garrett) explains that he was once hailed by his people as a brilliant inventor, the one who had unlocked the secrets of the universe. His society had become obsessed with eternal life, to which he created the life crystals. However, the crystals restore only the body, but make the user a slave to its effects. They bring back life, but take away all that is worth living for. However, spaceships had already been sent out in all directions of the galaxies, in order to invite other species to this wonder, before his people realized their horrible effects. Out of guilt over bringing such misfortune over his people, the inventor chose to have himself sealed with no memory or name to live after him. He became the guardian of his forsaken place forever, sworn to warn all visitors about the dangers of the crystals. His tomb was hidden carefully so only the most dangerous and persistent visitors would ever find it. Millions of years have passed since then; many pets and companions followed their own evolutionary paths, some were created, like the one that kidnapped Maggie. His body is now so ancient that the life crystals can only resurrect him for only a few minutes, and soon will cease to revive him at all. He refers to them as the second worst mistake he made.Maggie inquires about the ghostly apparitions. The inventor explains that in their quest for eternal life, his people opened the way to Spacetime Six, the place where the three dimensions of space meet with the three dimensions of time. The lightbridges were originally designed to open the Eye, the gateway to Spacetime Six. It showed them beauty beyond belief; however, it was just a non-corporeal existence, where they would live forever, but it was not true life, as they could not build anything there. The blue ghosts are his people, who can only disturb the energy in the air and make themselves visible for just a few seconds. Leaving Spacetime Six requires enormous strength of will, something which none of his people has been able to accomplish, since they no longer have the physical memory of Spacetime Four, the normal world. The ghosts have led the humans to the inventor, in the idle hope that they may perhaps be able to open the Eye and lead them out of Spacetime Six. Only his people can create a star port to send the humans back to Earth, but they are forever stuck, and the inventor fears that Maggie and Boston will only get lost themselves in Spacetime Six, so he urges them to give up. Maggie shows the stone tablet that Boston found in the Museum, which speaks of something hidden. The inventor merely mentions that it was a first achievement to his greatest error, the one that condemned all his people.The inventor locks himself away again in his pyramid tomb. Maggie explains that the stone Museum tablet speaks of a hidden object on the other side of the hole, with instructions on how to reveal it. Boston takes Maggie to the beach on the map spire with the glowing lights embedded in the rocks. Maggie recognizes it from the stone tablet description, and with instructions from the tablet, she activates the rock panel, and a stone island appears in the sea out of nothing. There is an opening on the island that leads to a cave, where the last metal plate is suspended in mid-air. Hoping that aligning the plates on the alcove in the nexus will open up the way home, they contemplate leaving Brink, but they decide that they will have to take him with them. On their way to him, there is a powerful earthquake. They are immediately contacted by Brink; he has gotten his hand stuck in a crevice in a rock. From his description of the surroundings, they deduce it must be the Planetarium spire.They find Brink, who was reaching for a life crystal inside the crevice, when the rock suddenly shifted and trapped his hand, closing of his blood circulation. Brink urges Boston to help him, even by cutting off his hand if necessary. Maggie protests, but both Boston and Brink realize that Brink will either die of gangrene or starvation if they do not free him. Boston still has the jaw bone he collected from the grave earlier, and uses it on Brink's hand. With no anaesthetic, the procedure is agonizing for Brink, but he endures it without fainting. He immediately grabs a life crystal and breaks it on his bloody stump, sealing the wound, and immediately states his intention to find more life crystals, but Boston tells him about the last metal plate he found, and that it may open the way home. Brink has his doubts, but decides to come along under one condition: if the metal plates do not open a way home, both Maggie and Boston will have to leave him alone. They agree and return to the nexus.Boston aligns the four plates. The plates start to float and rearrange into another shape, exactly like back on Attila. There is a rumble and the final door in the nexus opens. Brink is disappointed with the result and walks away, reaffirming that they will have to leave him alone from now on. Thinking him definitely insane, Maggie and Boston enter the door and find another tram platform. They take the tram to the final spire. A large piece of machinery is inside, something which Boston recognizes from one of the museum display as one of the inventor's finest achievements, even though he has no idea what it does. The machine consists of strange devices and consoles. There is a large control panel at the base, with two slots for life crystals, but also a missing button. Outside, they activate the final light bridge. The Central Eye definitely shows a doorway now, but it is still not solid. With no idea how to activate the large machine, they return to the inventor to ask him for help.The inventor explains that the small island that contained the final metal plate was a test. He moved it out of reality, but only a little bit. Which each time it came back, the island lost substance. The aliens hoped that they could use this technology to take their world with them into Spacetime Six, where time is infinite in all directions, but found out that this was impossible, since objects do not move along a single line there, and cannot be predicted or controlled.Maggie asks about the machine in the cathedral spire; the inventor explains it is the device that can open the Eye to Spacetime Six. His people went there, but he believes they cannot return since they no longer have the strength to leave. Maggie believes that one can return from there if one's tie to reality is strong enough. The inventor responds that his people, the strongest race known, could not resist the temptation to let go of reality there, and scoffs at the idea that the humans could achieve what his people were unable to. However, on Maggie's insistence, he is willing to show them the way to the missing machine part. He makes a hand gesture and summons another engraved rod, telling them that the code on the rod will show them a map of the location of the hidden machine part.They leave for the final time and enter the rod code in the map room console. A picture of a small beach is displayed; Boston recognises it as the beach on the far side of the map spire. They find a piece of engraved rock there which contains the part. They return to the cathedral spire, picking up some life crystals from the museum spire on the way, but before they can place the machine part, a grim-looking Brink shows up and angrily demands all of their life crystals. He says he needs them for his machine and will do whatever is necessary for his science breakthrough. Boston offers him a few life crystals, but Brink takes them all, still angry and distrustful about Boston stealing his crystals earlier, and makes some more death threats to a unmoved Boston, should he get in his way again; Brink leaves as he mentions that he is about to make the biggest scientific discovery in history. Boston places the machine part, but finds that it does nothing without two life crystals placed on the console as well. They go to the life crystal basin on the museum spire, only to find that Brink has completely depleted it.They go to Brink, who is now completely paranoid. He angrily warns them to stay away from his life crystal machine. Frustrated, he tells them that the machine is not working. He has also translated the alien language and read all instructions, but the machine is still missing a vital part. He fears that Boston has come back to steal back his life crystals, and becomes verbally aggressive again. Boston tries to appease him by showing the machine part, suggesting it may operate on both machines. Boston thinks the inventor hid the part on purpose, since it activates the two machines he considers most dangerous. Brink is still dismissive of Boston's claims that the crystals have dangerous addictive effects; he warns them that the real danger may lie in activating the Eye, as the alien had also claimed. Boston decides to make a deal with Brink: they will activate his life crystal machine and divide the crystals it produces equally between them. With little reason to trust Boston, Brink agrees under the condition that he can divide the crystals. Boston places the part in the machine, but it produces only two life crystals. Since Boston needs both crystals for the cathedral, he states that it is no more than fair that he gets them, with the hundreds of crystals Brink has already collected from the islands. Boston takes the machine part over Brink's furious insults, promising him that he can get the part when they are done with it. As the machine powers down. Brink becomes enraged, and threatens to kill Boston, and Maggie, if she interferes. He pushes Boston to the ground, and attacks Maggie when she tries to intervene. Brink picks up a stone with the intent to crush Boston under it; however, he has trouble holding it with only one hand. He finally loses his balance and falls off the platform screaming, to his death on the cliffs below.Boston feels immense guilt over Brinks death, but Maggie assures him that the Brink they knew died when he fell to his death the first time. Boston has become doubtful about activating the Eye; Maggie tells him that this place is worse than death, and they have to try and leave it, even if it may kill them.They return to the cathedral and place the machine part and two life crystals in the console. The large machine starts humming. Boston asks Maggie if she has any clue what the machine will do, but Maggie has only been able to read partial instructions in the short time she had. However, she has no doubt that the machine is dangerous, and the inventor had also warned that the costs could be high: this may mean that the machine needs more than life crystals; it may drain the life from whoever uses it, or kill whoever is not using it. But it could very well do nothing. They make a final promise to each other: if one lives and the other dies, none will make an attempt to revive the other with life crystals, seeing what they did to Brink. Boston asks Maggie one last time if the instructions specified anything about the danger to the one operating the machine; Maggie says she honestly does not know.Maggie taps several of the consoles, and the machine starts to build up a huge amount of energy. She notices that there is a shutter that traps the energy, which will have to be opened. She pulls it open, but gets hit by a wave of releasing energy. The energy beam reflects towards the Eye and creates a doorway inside. Boston runs towards Maggie, realizing that she knew that operating the machine could kill her, and kept it silent. Dying, she assures Boston that her death was worth activating the Eye. She urges him to go home. Boston grieves for a while, but respects Maggies wish, and proceeds.(In an alternative course of events, Boston uses a life crystal on Maggie. Maggie wakes up, and is horrified, reminding him of the promise he broke. She runs to the top of the spire, chased by a desperate Boston, and throws herself off the cliff screaming, forcing Boston to mourn her again.)Boston walks towards the Eye. The portal opens, but another ferocious guard-dog comes out and chases Boston back to the spire; another one of the inventor's safety measures. Boston quickly deactivates the light bridge, causing the creature to fall down into the ocean. Although hesitant, Boston convinces himself that he will be able to get the aliens back from Spacetime Six and that they will send him home. He reactivates the bridge, and enters the door. Inside is the portal, a large glowing sphere. He touches it and is immediately absorbed inside.Boston sees beautiful globes with other worlds, and reminds himself how easily he could get lost amidst so much beauty. He decides to venture no further. Immediately, several aliens materialize before him. Their leader (Steve Blum) tells him that he is as strong as they had hoped. He explains that in Spacetime Six, all minds can communicate perfectly, and need no spoken language. The aliens find portals to their planet again, to reality, and start materializing on their world, where they will die one day, but where they will have a life before that. Boston says he can see every past and future, and asks which one is real. The leader does not answer, but asks Boston to take him home. They return to the planet, and the leader tells Boston they are in his debt for restoring them to their bodies again. Boston says that all he wants is go home and tell his people how his friends have died. The leader suggests that they tell the story themselves; he knows all the other paths through time and space. He goes back in and returns with both Maggie and Brink. Brink says they were lost and the alien found them. Maggie smiles and hugs Boston, thanking him for not reviving her, and finding another way to bring her back from death. (In the alternative event, Maggie angrily slaps Boston for reviving her. He apologizes and says he simply did not want to go on without her. Maggie reminds him that the life crystals could never truly bring her back, but now she is happy to be alive again). Brink has aged considerably, but he is free of the madness of the crystals. Boston thanks the alien, but he thanks Boston in return; they once revered a great inventor for opening the door to unchanging eternity, but Boston opened the passageway back into true life. His people are already preparing a crystal starship to take them home. He extends an invitation to anyone on Earth who wishes to come. Humans are a young people, strong and full of hope and passion, and he thinks both species can learn a lot from each other, and will be friends forever. Maggie voices some concern, since not all humans are as nice as they are. The alien tells them not to worry, as all young species are like that: those who will try to fight the aliens will be no match for them. The alien tells them to go home and tell the people what they have accomplished, the perfect job for Maggie.Maggie and Brink enter the crystal spaceship. Boston shows the alien how humans shake hands, and enters as well. The crystal takes off from the central island, and begins its way back to Earth. | insanity | train | imdb | null |
tt0078224 | Sella d'argento | South Texas Border, the 1850s. A poor man and his young son arrive exhausted at a small outpost. There, the man confronts Luke Fletcher (Donald O'Brien), a sneering crook in the employ of a rich and powerful landowner called Barret. The man tells Fletcher that Barret has swindled him and his son out of money for some non-existent land. The bitter altercation ends with the man shot dead right in front of his son. As the killer laughs sadistically, the little boy picks up his father's gun and shoots Fletcher dead. Impassively, the boy mounts Fletcher's horse, claiming it along with its ornate silver-trimmed saddle, and rides off.Several years later, the young boy has grown up into a rugged bounty hunter named Roy Blood (Giuliano Gemma) who rides into the Texan town of Cerriotts on his silver-saddled horse, accompanied by Two-Strike Snake (Geoffrey Lewis), an amusing but treacherous man he recently met. Snake tells Roy that many have heard the story of the Silver Saddle, and its owner, the boy who avenged his father. He also knows that Roy Blood seems to leave a trail of dead men in his wake. This is why he wants to tag along: Snake collects items of value from the frequent corpses encountered at every turn in the Wild West. Roy's arrival is also noted by Turner, a mysterious blond-haird cowboy (Gianni De Luigi).Roy meets with Shiba (Licinia Lentini), a well-to-do madam of the town's local whorehouse, who is also an old flame who wants more. She tells Roy that a man called Shep is extorting money from her, for a Mexican named Grenache (Aldo Sambrell). Her business will be ruined unless she pays up the following day. Roy obligingly shoots Shep and some of his cronies. Once again Snake turns up, shadowing Roy for spoils. The blond cowboy appears and makes a deal with Snake who offers it to Roy: $2,000 for a hit on one Thomas Barret, to be executed in a graveyard out of town. Roy is suspicious, but accepts the murder contract when he hears the name of Barret.At the graveyard, Roy is crouching with a rifle aiming at carriage that rolls up as arranged. Instead of the old man Roy was hoping to shoot, a young boy (Sven Valsecchi) emerges, carrying a funeral wreath. As the child approaches, several men emerge to shoot him. Roy's impulse is to save the boy's life. Roy shoots the would-be assassins and rides off with the boy. He discovers that he has rescued Thomas Barret Junior, the son of Richard Barret who swindled the young Roy's father years ago. Thomas tells Roy that his father, Richard Barret, has been dead for several years and he is currently being looked by his uncle, Thomas Barret Senior (Ettore Manni) whom he is named after. Angered at being cheated out of his revenge, Roy rides off in disgust, leaving the boy stranded in the hills with just a knife and blanket for protection.At the Barret estate, young Thomas' older sister, the beautiful Margaret (Cinzia Monreale), is distraught over her little brother's dissappearance. Thomas Senior discusses the search with Turner his estate manager; the mysterious blond cowboy. Turner announces that he knows the idenity of the kidnapper: Roy Blood. Immediately, a $5,000 reward is offered for Roy's head. Meanwhile, Snake offers a proposition for Roy. He has kidnapped young Tom, after Roy left the boy behind. He plans to ask for a huge ransom. Roy hears that it was Turner who had set up the graveyard hit as a device to kill the boy and Roy Blood, and blaming the outlaw for the killing.Roy hides out in Shiba's whorehouse, where she looks after Thomas Jr. Using sexual subterfuge, Shiba helps Roy discover the story of the Barret family. After Richard Barret died, the only ones who remained rich were the children, Thomas and Margaret. Thomas Sr. gambled away his part of the Barret fortune. If anything happened to Tom Jr. Margaret inherits everything. Plus, Turner has his eye on Margaret for whomever marries her stands to inherit the whole fortune.When Tom Jr. is spotted by Turner at the whorehouse, Roy whisks him off to the San Jacinto monastery several miles away. The Padre of the monastery totes a gun and promises to protect the boy for Roy while he goes back out to find Turner and his men. After a tense shootout at an abandoned farm, Roy gets the better of the evil Turner, who dies in a trough of stale water. Just as things seem resolved, Garrinchas bandits attack the monastery and grab the boy, murdering all the monks. The local sheriff (Phillppe Hersent) arrests Roy Blood, thinking that he's an accomplice of Garrincha. A huge ransom of $10,000 is made for the save return of Tom Jr. Thomas Sr. goes against the advice of the law and dispatches a rider with the money. But the courier is murdered by Garrincha after handing over the cash at the bandits settlement.Meanwhile, Margaret helps Roy escape from jail, and he teams up with Snake to track down Garrincha. The find the Garrincha hideout thanks to Tom Junior's ingenuity: he flies a kite to alert help. They arrive to find Garrincha flogging the boy after he discovers the signal kite. Roy and Snake shoot it out with Garrinchas men and the rescue is successful, but Snake dies after Garrincha shoots him, before being shot himself by Roy.Back at the Barret ranch, Roy returns with Tom Jr. where he exposes the final betrayal. Thomas Senior has been in league with Turner, planning to dispose of both his nephew and Margaret so he can have the whole estate for himself. The kidnapping stunt with Garrincha was part of the plan to avert suspicion from him. He'd also planned to kill Turner once he married Margaret as the final plan enacted. Roy shoots the treacherous uncle with one of his ornamental guns. As the lone outlaw returns to the plains, he is joined by Thomas Junior, riding alongside him on a pony. | western, violence, sadist | train | imdb | null |
tt1951261 | The Hangover Part III | Two years after the events in Bangkok, Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong) escapes from a maximum security prison, using a riot as cover. Meanwhile, in the United States, Alan Garner (Zach Galifianakis) causes a 20-car freeway pileup after he purchases a giraffe and accidentally decapitates it on a low overpass. Alan's father Sid (Jeffrey Tambor), angry with Alan for his immature antics and never owning up to his mistakes, dies of a heart attack in the middle of a lecture. After the funeral, Alan's brother-in-law Doug Billings (Justin Bartha) informs friends Phil Wenneck (Bradley Cooper) and Stu Price (Ed Helms) that Alan has been off his ADHD medication and is out of control. The group attends an intervention in which Alan agrees to visit a rehabilitation facility in Arizona where he can seek treatment, as long as "the Wolfpack" takes him there. On the way to Arizona, Phil's minivan is rammed off the road by a rental truck and the group is taken hostage. They are later confronted by mob boss Marshall (John Goodman) and "Black Doug" (Mike Epps), his head enforcer.
He tells them that a few weeks after their shenanigans Chow hijacked half of a $42 million gold heist and, seeing how Alan has been the only one to communicate with Chow during his imprisonment, deduced that the Wolfpack could locate him and retrieve the gold. Marshall kidnaps Doug and gives the others three days to find Chow, or else Doug will be killed. Alan sets up a meeting with Chow in Tijuana, Mexico, where Stu and Phil will hide and attempt to drug him. However, Alan seemingly, accidentally (but really on purpose) reveals their location and Chow forces them to confess that they are working for Marshall. Chow explains his plan to retrieve the stolen gold from the basement of a Mexican villa he previously owned. Stu, Alan and Phil break into the house and successfully retrieve the gold, but Chow double-crosses them by locking them in the basement, rearming the security system and escaping in Phil's minivan. They are arrested but mysteriously released from the police station. They are picked up by a limousine and taken back to the villa, where they meet up with Marshall.
They learn that Chow had lied to them; the villa was never his. In fact, it was Marshall's own villa and the gold they stole was the other half Chow didn't get from Marshall. Marshall forgives them for their mistake but kills "Black Doug" for his incompetence and reminds them of their now two-day deadline. The group tracks Phil's phone, which was left in the minivan, outside a pawn shop in Las Vegas. The pawnshop owner, Cassie (Melissa McCarthy), tells them that Chow traded a gold brick for $18,000, far less than its usual sell rate of $400,000. Using Stu's former lover Jade (Heather Graham) as their contact, they learn that Chow is barricaded in the penthouse suite of Caesars Palace. Phil and Alan sneak into his suite from the roof, but Chow escapes, jumping from the balcony and parachuting down to the strip. Stu catches up to Chow and locks him in the trunk of the limo that Marshall lent to them. They take the gold and meet with Marshall, who releases Doug back to the group. Although Marshall initially promised not to harm Chow, he shoots through the trunk of the car, presumably killing him. However, Alan had given Chow the means to escape from the trunk through a backseat compartment just moments earlier.
Chow emerges from the limo and kills Marshall, allowing the Wolfpack to live because Alan saved his life. He offers Alan a bar of gold as a gift, but Alan turns him down and trolls Chow by pretending to end their friendship because of Chow's unhealthy influence on the group (but pulls a fast one on Chow when he takes his hand back from a handshake) and Chow tells Alan he is "...cold as ice". As Chow sadly watches them leave, they go to retrieve Phil's minivan from the pawnshop and Alan makes a date with Cassie. Six months later, the two marry. Vowing to stop with his antics, Alan regretfully resigns from the Wolfpack but would still like for the gang to hang out on occasion. As the four walk to the ceremony, a montage of clips from the previous films play.
In a mid-credits scene after the wedding, Alan, Cassie, Stu, and Phil appear to have staged another wild party that they cannot remember. Stu emerges from the bathroom wearing panties with breast implants and Alan remembers that the wedding cake was a gift from Chow; who emerges from the next room naked, laughing, holding a bottle of whiskey and wielding a katana. Crystal the capuchine monkey then jumps on Stu before the scene cuts to black. | comedy, murder, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0203119 | Sexy Beast | Ex-con and expert safe-cracker Gary "Gal" Dove (Ray Winstone) completed his prison time and has happily retired to a Spanish villa with his beloved ex–porn star wife DeeDee (Amanda Redman). He shares the company of long-time best friend Aitch (Cavan Kendall) and his wife Jackie (Julianne White). Two scenes foreshadow an end to his peace: a huge boulder nearly hits him and lands in the pool, damaging its tile double-heart insignia. After a hunt where he and his friends fail to bag a rabbit, Gal has a dream of a man with a terrifying rabbit's head pointing a shotgun at him.
The arrival of sociopathic old criminal associate, Don Logan (Ben Kingsley), intent on enlisting Gal in a bank heist back in London shatters his serenity. Teddy Bass (Ian McShane), a powerful crime lord, learned about the bank's vault from Harry (James Fox), the bank's chairman whom he met at an orgy. Gal politely but firmly declines Logan's many progressively threatening then violent demands he join. After Gal suggests Logan's real reason is his obsessive infatuation with Jackie, Logan grows furious then demands to be taken to the airport. On the plane, Logan refuses to put out his cigarette prior to take-off and is ejected. A seething Logan returns to Gal's home screaming obscenities, threatens to kill Gal then smashes a glass beer bottle against Gal's head. The scene cuts with DeeDee aiming a shotgun at Don who merely looks at her with hate.
The scene shifts to Gal having returned to London. When asked by Bass about Logan's whereabouts, Gal feigns ignorance and claims Logan had called him "from Heathrow." In the morning, over breakfast, Gal has another vision of the man with the terrifying rabbit's head approaching and pointing a shotgun at him. He then sees Bass who sits, smiles, and questions him further. Gal continues to insist that Don claimed to call him from Heathrow.
During the heist, Bass' crew use surface-supplied diving gear to drill into Harry's bank vault from a pool in a neighbouring bath house. As he drills, Gal recalls in his mind what happened at his home: DeeDee shoots Logan with a shotgun, incapacitating him. Jackie and Gal join in beating him. Aitch remains too scared to act despite pleas from DeeDee, Gal, and Jackie. A still alive Don looks at Aitch and announces, "I fucked her," meaning Jackie. Aitch picks up a television set, announces, "Yeah, well. Now I've fucked you!" and brings it down on Don's head.
Breaking through the wall, the water from the pool floods the vault and shorts its security system. While helping to empty the vault's safe deposit boxes, Gal secretly pockets a pair of large ruby earrings encrusted with diamonds. After the job is successfully completed Bass insists on driving Gal to the airport. Along the way, stops by Harry's home. Inside, Bass kills Harry in cold blood and immediately and pointedly questions Gal again about Logan. Bass reveals that he knows Don got off the plane while still in Spain. Gal merely responds, "I'm not into this any more." Back in the car, Bass suggests he knows what happened to Logan, saying first, "If I cared, Gal. If I fucking cared. If I gave a solitary fuck about Don Logan!..." then "Spain, eh? I must drop in sometime. Pay my respects." He pays Gal £10 for his services--giving Gal a £20 note and demanding change--then tells him to get out of the car and drives away.
In the final scene, back in Spain, Gal is again home surrounded by his friends. DeeDee is seen wearing the ruby-diamond earrings that he stole. Gal hears Don's voice tell him that he knew Gal would do the job. In his mind, Gal responds that Don is dead now and can finally shut up. The scene zooms into the double-heart insignia at the bottom of their pool to reveal a coffin. The man with the scary rabbit's head kicks open the coffin to reveal a smoking Don. Don looks at him and exhales his smoke with contempt. | cult, comedy, murder, violence, flashback | train | wikipedia | In `Sexy Beast,' Ben Kingsley delivers a bone-chilling performance as the man everyone loves to hate, a role for which he earned not only universal critical acclaim but a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination as well.
Cleverly, writers Louis Mellis and David Scinto have paved the way for this entrance by introducing Logan ahead of time in a series of conversations in which just the mere mention of his name sets off portentous reverberations amongst the people discussing him.Chief among those people is the film's protagonist, Gal, Logan's `retired' ex-partner in crime, who wants nothing more than to be allowed to enjoy life undisturbed in his seaside Spanish villa with his swimming pool and the wife he loves so dearly.
This technique of telegraphing information ahead of time contributes immensely to heightening the suspenseful quality of the film.`Sexy Beast' provides superb performances, a nasty sense of humor and a fascinating glimpse into the dark side of human nature..
Ben also wins the award for Best (and most frequent and creative) Usage of the "c" word, which plays a major part in this outrageously deranged and always thoroughly entertaining (even at its bloodiest) full-frontal bombast of a film.The plot couldn't be any simpler: retired gangster Gal (yes, that's his name) is happy lounging around the pool at his Spanish villa with the woman of his dreams and a drink in his hand.
Suffice to say, the brilliant performances (Ray Winstone and Ian McShane in particular) and the amazingly slick editing make every second of Sexy Beast a kinetic foray into surrealism and a tour de force of epic proportions for Kingsley.
Well, I have really begun to like this film a lot, equally, if not more, than "Snatch."The more I see "Sexy Beast," the more fascinating it gets, and it was pretty interesting the first time!
It also is a good idea to play this with the English subtitles on, unless you can understand the strong British accents, and can interpret the slang words.Ben Kingsley, as sociopath "Don Logan," is unbelievably intense and almost has my jaw dropping when watching him in here.
The film was directed by Jonathen Glazer, who was responsible for most of the recent amazing Guinness beer adverts.Ray Winstone is Gal, a retired criminal enjoying retirement in Spain with friends and the woman he loves.
Ray Winstone puts in another loveable badboy performance that he does so well, but the film is dominated by Kingsley who steals every scene he is in and creates one of the most menacing screen villains in recent memory.
The characters are so interesting, while we hate Logan, we sympathize with his counterfeit Gal who is a retired gangster trying to live a straight life with his family and loyal friends.
Continuing where 'Performance' left off (it even features James Fox) this movie has stand-out performances from all of it's cast, with Ben Kingsley (as Don Logan) producing the scariest bad-guy in cinema since Dennis Hopper's 'Frank'.
Ian McShane does a lot to bury his lightweight 'Lovejoy' persona with an excellent, menacing performance that contrasts well against Winstone's thin bravado, but the honours here have to go to Kingsley who is simply stunning, turning in a masterclass performance and proving (once again) that he is a top-drawer actor with every aspect of his character (posture; accent; attitude) finally honed and utterly (appallingly) convincing.Kingsley's scenes set the movie alight (like the stunning airport sequence, and of course the return to the villa) and it would be interesting to know just how much of the dialogue comes from the excellent script and how much (if any) was improvised.
All the performances are incredible, most notably Ray Winstone, Amanda Redman and Lovejoy himself, Ian McShane, but as everyone points out, Kingsley just steals the show even when he is not onscreen.
As i've seen ben kingsley in other movies and not though he was as good,and Ray Winston was not his usual character all the way through.
It also allows Winstone to exercise his range more than usual and he does not come up short.The film inevitably flags when Don is absent, but to the filmmakers credit the pacing of the final third is briskly done, an awareness that McShane and Fox could not outshine Don.Overall, it's partly a heist story, but mostly a love story, one man's attempt to cover for and get back to the woman he loves.The director's music video roots are for the most part used well in surreal dream sequences with a mutated rabbit, though personally I could have done without the final underground shot that seemed to detract from the overall oppressive tone.
Retired to the Costa del Chill Out, retired thief Gary 'Gal' Dove (Winstone) finds his tranquil existence shattered when menacing gangster Don Logan (Kingsley) arrives on the scene demanding Gal goes back to London to do another job.
The first half of film is the best, set at Gal's Spanish villa, Glazer neatly frames the characters (Gal lives with his wife and his two friends from England live nearby) as they bicker and cower in the shadow of Logan, who wouldn't be beyond sending them all to hell if he doesn't get his way.
Kingsley is really scary as the psychopath, particularly in the way he speaks, which is chillingly authentic.The one thing this film portrays very well is the climate of fear which surrounds anyone in 'the life' Dove and his friends arte like startled bunny rabbits faced with Logan.
I first thing I noticed about SEXY BEAST was that Ray Winstone`s character is called Gal .
But my abiding memory of SEXY BEAST is the character interaction between Gal and Don Logan , it`s like something out of THE FAST SHOW , can`t you just imagine Simon Day or Paul Whitehouse playing a retired gangster working in a hotel as a waiter ?
Ben Kingsley is excellent as Logan , a role for which he received an Oscar nod , but perhaps the best performance - Certainly the most understated - is Ian McShane as Teddy Bass .But for the most part I found SEXY BEAST ( Why`s the film called that ?) to be disappointing .
The reviewer who said Kingsley was the best thing in it and the story was weak must have seen a different film.No one has to say anything about Kingsley's always fabulous work but I was blown away by the authenticity and charisma that Ray Winston as Gary (Gal) Dove and Amanda Redman as DeeDee Dove exuded.
Stuttering like a child, Kingsley's voice is calm one minute and instantly becomes an evil entity in what began as a calm film about a man made good from a life of crime.
This is a movie about a man who wants a life (Gal, played with commendable understatement by Ray Winstone) and another man who doesn't have one (Ben Kingsley as the out-of-control psychopath Don Logan) and so wants to inflict his misery on everyone around him.
I've never seen such fear from other characters, so simply and rawly depicted as when Gal and his wife Deedee (Amanda Redman, again, very well-acted as a good time girl who has probably had some bad things happen to her, but who seems to have found happiness with her husband) walk into a restaurant for what they expected to be a pleasant casual meal with his good friend and cohort in their former lives as crooks, Ted (Ian McShane, playing a tough who is really really afraid of Don) and his wife.
It's neither funny nor compelling, and unless you missed any of the movies it copies from, you'll find it totally unoriginal and daft.Ben Kingsley as a mean crime guy and post-crime lacky Gal is played by Ray Winstone.
The film is called " Sexy Beast" is straight out of the gangster era of the nineteen sixties and Ben Kingsley plays a vicious Gangster recruited to plan a covert robbery against a 'Modern Fortress' of a safe.
This is a spectacular piece of British cinema only made better by the lack of Hugh Grant and Richard Curtis.Ben Kingsley portrayal of a nasty bastard is amazing his delivery is to the point and scary, His character has a slight smile and staring eyes that drill into you and talking himself into a frenzy makes him even more horrible to cope with.What is shown in this film is very quick editing combined with sound continuity so the cuts are invisible and unintrusive, strong use of colour, using a low key to make even the sun of Spain seem dark and a style unseen before, the lack of cliché ridden cockney slang makes this film even more credible.When the film first starts we get a dream like underwater shot which you are not expecting, a metaphor for 'living the dream' possibly, but throughout the film the increasing amount of surrealism adds another layer to this almost perfect British gangster film..
Don't do the same as me and mistake this for just another Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels: although the film features exaggerated Cockney characters, sharp dialogue, snappy direction, and the occasional brutal outburst of violence, its unique pace, offbeat style and surreal asides (that rabbit demon is bloody freaky!) make it a far sexier beast than anything Guy Ritchie has to offer.Surprisingly, for much of its running time, the film is an intense character study, one that relies on talk over action; well over half the film passes without a gunshot fired or punch thrown, but it is riveting stuff nonetheless.
This is largely thanks to flawless performances by its superb cast (not least from Ben Kingsley as psychopath Don Logan, who steals virtually every scene he is in with his utterly menacing manner and ripe discourse), although the film also benefits immensely from director Jonathan Glazer's bold aesthetic, his imagery as colourful as his characters' language and as striking as Deedee's eyes..
Sir Sir Ben kingsley i think this is the right respect for the person of this potential , I haven't seen such energetic performance by any actor ever.The real villain , the real evil , the real beast,the character he portrays provides justice to all these words.However the movie without Sir kingsley is very very common but Sir kingsley makes this movie special with his thrilling performance.Gal , dirty deede , Aitch , jacky all are the characters who cant say a word in front of Don Logan.
I went to see Sexy Beast expecting something really special, based on the multitude of fawning reviews for the film and Ben Kingsley's performance.
This isn't an unwatchable film by any means, but let's call it what it is: a very uneven effort by a first time director featuring some veteran actors doing the best they can, a couple of good ideas and well done scenes, and some occasionally interesting dialogue.
After hearing several positive reviews (and even after reading many more after watching the movie), I really am shocked to see how many people actually liked this movie.It seems that everyone is just head-over-heels in love with Ben Kingsley (irritating "gangster" Don Logan) and his performance when really I found him to be annoying to the point of MAKING ME WALK OUT OF THE MOVIE (1st attempt to watch it, at home).
Now, Ray Winstone (retired thief Gary 'Gal' Dove) on the other hand, did a great job in his part of this movie, though I think that the script itself kinda let Ray down in that his character could have been more slick, expressed himself more about his reasons for not coming out of retirement, shown his skills more when the time for the heist actually came.
Forget flashy explosions or any of that, even just some more exciting shots (which director Jonathan Glazer is clearly capable of, having included some excellent cinematography) or some sense of the tension and danger involved.Ultimately I felt that this movie was a serious letdown, partially because of Ben Kingsley's character all by himself, and partly because all the characters seemed a little watered down compared to what they could have been.
The score is amazing, it really helps to characterize Kingsley's character throughout the film as well as Winstone's at the beginning (GREAT opening sequence).
Ben Kingsley does give a good performance, but unfortunately I felt like I was the one who was being yelled at during the movie.
This film was a bit of a let down and did not live up to myexpectations at all.The opening sequence, though one of the few truly funny scenesin the film, is awkwardly shot and cut, and a little less "snappy"than I expected from a film reviewed as a "hilarious Britishcomedy."Is there humor is seeing Ghandi (Ben Kingsley) as a blue collarEnglish gangster that is, in my book, anything but intimidating?
Sexy Beast works as a well scored artistic piece; it works as the simplest story ever told and it works as a powerhouse of Academy Award nominated acting from certain individuals.When Guy Ritchie exploded onto the scene with his debut feature Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, he (perhaps accidentally) changed the general aesthetic of the British gangster genre.
Sexy Beast is smart like that; it pays homage to the gangster films of 1980s in the sense it is quite artistic with slow-motion sequences of BBQs firing up and distilled colours during Gal's dream sequences of an Uzi wielding man-sized rabbit.The film gives us these artistic sequences, before hitting us with the mob message-boy of Logan whose first line of dialogue in the film is a statement of the situation complete with obscenity rather than a mere greeting upon arrival, immediately placing him amongst the audiences' bad books.
sit around a dinning table before allowing us to breath with the mid-shots in the kitchen; Logan's back-story with another character and the general use of music, special effects and shot choice all work together and produce a British gangster film worthy of any top ten cannon of the genre, and that counts for all time..
Ray Winstone turns in an unbelievably controlled performance as the hopelessly romantic Gal Dove and Ben Kingsley and Ian McShane just chew the scenery to bits as two of the best screen villains since Darth Vader.I would recommend turning the subtitles on for your first viewing as a lot of the dialogue, particular that of the character Aitch, is difficult to decipher through the thick accents.I could go on and on about this movie to freakish detail but will leave it up to you, dear viewer, to investigate.
I've never been disappointed with a Ben Kingsley vehicle yet, but this film really blew me away.The actors worked with an excellent script, and all the performances were utterly believable.
Ray Winstone, as Gal, plays such a likable character that I was riveted, watching his story unfold.The plot has some wonderful twists and turns, which leave the ending a complete surprise.
Kingsley dominates this fine cast, but great performances are put in by Winstone, as Gal and Amanda Redman as DeeDee, standing up to the ruthless Logan.
See "Death and the Maiden" first, a better Ben Kingsley film.I'll give Sexy Beast a so-so 5 out of 10..
The old gang he ran with back in the day wants him to pull off another job, so they send Don Logan (Ben Kingsley) from London to encourage the relaxed former bad guy.
Ray Winston and Ian McShane are in top form and Ben Kingsley's performance is like a boulder bouncing down off a cliff and landing in your swimming pool..
Frenzied, violent criminal associate Don Logan (Ben KIngsley) negotiates, and ultimately terrorizes, a happily retired safecracker Gary "Gal" Dove (Ray Winstone) for one last bank robbery.
Does he accept?Jonathan Glazer blazes his way through this stylish, surrealistic gangster movie even though most of the film takes place at Gal's villa.
Although Ben Kingsley and Ray Winstone provide stellar character portrayals, the film leaves a bad aftertaste.
18 years ago I think I thought of it as another flashy, profane, British gangster movie with an astonishing performance by Ben Kingsley.
The twilight zone of British gangster films, and Ben Kingsley's finest hour.
But maybe for most people, the main draw here is the acting performances - Ray Winstone plays a typical character for him but one with a lot less aggression and much more inner fear, Ben Kingsley turns up and chews the scenery as the overbearing criminal Don Logan, while Ian McShane was, for me, even more intimidating as the top crime boss back in the UK, a character full of quiet, intense menace.
Sexy Beast is another great example of that.Ray Winstone may play the same character in every movie that his in.
Ray Winstone is a good actor and I do like him has a person and I'm happy that he's in a movie that shows his talent.
Great work Winstone.Ben Kingsley in this movie probably pulls off his best performance that I've seen him in.
Heavy Accents Aside, it is Refreshing, and Hard-Boiled with Steaming Streaming Dialog and a Black-Comedy Edge with Profane Pronouncements and a Sizzling Performance by Ben Kingsley and the Other Cast Members do Great Work, Especially Ray Winstone and Ian McShane.It has Style to Burn and is a Clever Composite of Character Dimension that is Slightly Unusual.
Much is talked about Ben Kingsley's casting as thuggish gangster Don Logan that people forget the other actors with roots in crime or gangster films.James Fox played ruthless Chas in Performance, Ian McShane appeared in Villain and Dirty Money and Ray Winstone has been playing villains of some sort since he was teenager such as films like Scum.Winstone plays Gal a retired safe-cracker living out in Spain with his wife and other ex-con friends. |
tt0068713 | Horror Express | In 1906, Saxton (Lee), a renowned British anthropologist, is returning to Europe by the Trans-Siberian Express from China to Moscow. With him is a crate containing the frozen remains of a primitive humanoid creature that he discovered in a cave in Manchuria. He hopes it is a missing link in human evolution. Doctor Wells (Peter Cushing), Saxton's friendly rival and Royal Geological Society colleague, is also on board but traveling separately. Before the train departs Shanghai, a thief is found dead on the platform. His eyes are completely white, without irises or pupils, and a bystander initially mistakes him for a blind man. A monk named Father Pujardov (Alberto de Mendoza), the spiritual advisor to the Polish Count Marion Petrovski (George Rigaud) and Countess Irina Petrovski (Silvia Tortosa), who are also waiting to board the train, proclaims the contents of the crate to be evil. Saxton furiously dismisses this as superstition. Saxton's eagerness to keep his scientific find secret arouses the suspicion of Wells, who bribes a porter to investigate the crate. The porter is killed by the ape-like creature (Juan Olaguivel) within. It then escapes the crate by picking the lock.
The creature finds more victims as it roams the moving train. Each victim is found with the same opaque, white eyes. An autopsy suggests that the brains of the victims are being drained of memories and knowledge. When the creature is gunned down by police Inspector Mirov (Julio Peña), the threat seems to have been vanquished. Saxton and Wells discover that images are retained in a liquid found inside the eyeball of the corpse, which reveal a prehistoric Earth and a view of the planet seen from space. They deduce that the real threat is somehow a formless extraterrestrial that inhabited the body of the creature and now resides within the inspector. Father Pujardov, sensing the greater presence inside the inspector and believing it to be that of Satan, renounces his faith to pledge allegiance to the mysterious entity.
News of the murders is wired to the Russian authorities. An intimidating Cossack officer, Captain Kazan (Telly Savalas), boards the train with a handful of his men. Kazan believes the train is transporting rebels; he is only convinced of the alien's existence when Saxton switches off the lights and Mirov's eyes glow, revealing him to be the creature's host. The creature has absorbed the memories of Wells' assistant, an engineer, and others. It seeks the Polish count's metallurgical knowledge in order to build a vessel to escape Earth. Kazan fatally shoots Mirov, and the alien transfers itself to the deranged Pujardov.
The passengers flee to the freight car while Pujardov murders Kazan, his men, and the count, draining all of their minds. Saxton rescues the countess and holds Pujardov at gunpoint. Saxton, having discovered that bright light prevents the entity from draining minds or transferring to another body, forces Pujardov into a brightly lit area. The creature/Pujardov explains that it is a collective form of energy from another galaxy. Trapped on Earth in the distant past after being left behind in an accident, it survived for millions of years in the bodies of protozoa, fish, and other animals. It cannot live outside a living being longer than a few moments. The creature begs to be spared, tempting Saxton with its advanced knowledge of technology and cures for diseases. While Saxton is distracted by the offer, the creature resurrects the count's corpse, which attacks Saxton.
Saxton and the countess flee from the creature, but it now resurrects all of its victims as zombies. Battling their way through the train, Saxton and the countess eventually reach the caboose where the other survivors have taken refuge. Once there, Saxton and Wells work desperately to uncouple themselves from the rest of the train. The Russian government sends a telegram to a dispatch station ahead, instructing them to destroy the train by sending it down a dead-end spur. Speculating that it must be war, the station staff switch the points.
The creature takes control of the train as it enters the spur. Saxton and Wells manage to separate the last car from the rest of the train. The creature tries to find the brakes to try and stop the train, but fails to even get it to slow down. The train rams through the barrier and plunges down the cliff and is destroyed as soon as it hits the bottom. The caboose rolls precariously to the end of the track before stopping, inches away from the edge of the cliff. The survivors quickly leave the caboose, while Saxton, Wells, and the countess gaze over the ravine and witness an inferno consuming the train and its unearthly inhabitants. | plot twist, gothic, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0031491 | Intermezzo: A Love Story | Renowned violinist Holger Brandt (Leslie Howard) finishes the final concert of his tour to ardent applause. He informs the fervid New York audience that this was the last performance of his accompanist, friend and mentor, Thomas Stenborg (John Halliday), who will now retire from touring. Holger himself will embark upon another tour after a few months' rest. He is in search of a new accompanist.Holger and Thomas return to Stockholm, where they are fondly welcomed by their respective spouses. Holger's wife, Margit (Edna Best), has been bringing up their two children, Eric (Douglas Scott) and Ann-Marie (Ann E. Todd), on her own for the past few years. Eric is now a teenager, while Ann-Marie is six. Ann-Marie has become a gifted pianist in Holger's absence under the tutelage of Miss Anita Hoffman (Ingrid Bergman), a young musician of exceptional promise. Anita is Thomas's prized pupil and is studying towards the prestigious Jenny Lind scholarship offered by a music academy in Paris.Holger is at first uninterested in Anita. However, he is forced to notice her when she plays the piano brilliantly at Ann-Marie's birthday party. Holger joins her on his violin and is stunned by their electrifying synchrony. He offers her to be his accompanist on tour but she declines, citing her need to study for the scholarship.Holger and Anita gradually fall in love. Initially, Anita feels guilty about the affair and attempts to break off her relationship with Holger by leaving Stockholm. However, Holger confesses his true feelings about Anita to Margit. This results in a separation which leaves him free to commence the next tour with Anita as his accompanist.Holger and Anita perform together to immense acclaim. At the end of the tour, they go on vacation to a picturesque seaside town in France. Anita receives a letter from her former mentor, Thomas, informing her that she has won the Jenny Lind scholarship. However, she burns the letter rather than allow her career to stand in the way of her relationship with Holger. Holger is deeply in love with Anita but she notices that he occasionally longs for the family he has left behind. He befriends a little girl named Marianne (Maria Flynn), who reminds him of his daughter Ann-Marie.Thomas Stenborg visits the couple as their mutual friend. He informs Holger that Margit is seeking divorce and urges him to sign the papers immediately to enable both of them to move on. Holger is reluctant to take this final step to uproot himself from the past. Thomas also speaks to Anita separately. He expresses his disappointment that she is neglecting her promising career and asks if she truly believes that Holger can forget his family. Anita sadly realises that she and Holger cannot build a life together based on the unhappiness of others. She has been no more than an "intermezzo" in his life. She leaves the next day, presumably to Paris to accept her scholarship, leaving a letter to Holger that urges him to return home.Holger is devastated but is too proud to return to Stockholm now that Anita has left him. He finally decides to return for a day when he learns that Thomas has promised Ann-Marie that her father will return by spring. Knowing that Ann-Marie wants a camera, Holger buys a camera for her as a present and goes to visit her at school. Ann-Marie is so delighted to see her father across the street that she runs into the middle of the road and is hit by a cab. Holger rushes her home to Margit and sits awake in the drawing room overnight while the doctor and Margit tend to Ann-Marie in an upstairs room. He reconciles with his son, Eric, after admitting to Eric that he has erred gravely and asking for his forgiveness.The next morning, the doctor informs a haggard-looking Holger that his daughter will make a full recovery with time and rest. Holger is immensely relieved but believing that he has lost his place in the family, makes for the door. Before he can leave, Margit calls out to him and welcomes him home. Holger turns around towards her and closes the door behind him as he walks back into their home. | melodrama | train | imdb | After a successful tour ended in New York, the famous violinist Holger Brandt (Leslie Howard) returns to his home in Stockholm.
In the birthday party of his beloved daughter Ann Marie (Ann Todd), he feels attracted by and plays with her piano teacher, Anita Hoffman (Ingrid Bergman), who is waiting for a music scholarship in Paris.
A car accident changes the destiny of the Brandt family.The debut of Ingrid Bergman in an English spoken film may be dated in 2006, but it is still a wonderful romance about a man in a middle age crisis, with a stabilized marriage, who sparks with the love of a talented gorgeous woman that worships him.
The performances of Ingrid Bergman, Leslie Howard and Ann Todd are fantastic, and Ingrid looks like a pianist in the sequence in the birthday party.
Concert violinist Holger Brandt, Leslie Howard (Gone with the Wind), spends much of his life on tours, and loses perspective of his family ties.
He has an adorable family: wife, Greta Stenborg, Enid Bennett (Strike Up the Band), a daughter and one son, and also a cute dog (which he had never seen before).His daughter is studying piano and the piano teacher is Anita Hoffman, played by beautiful, Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca) in her first English speaking role.
As soon as she recovers, he starts to leave and his wife asks him to stay home.Favorite Quote :" I wonder if anyone has built happiness on the unhappiness of others." Favorite Scenes: Daughter playing a duet with dad, has small hands almost do not make an octave on the piano.
Off the cuff, here are seven reasons why:1) There IS a good message here: that a married person having a fling with a pretty young woman might be an exciting prospect but in the end, "you reap what you sow" and if either of the two parties has a conscience, the illicit romance will be doomed, especially if there are kids involved.2 ) For male viewers, Ingrid Bergman, making her English-speaking debut, is a real feast for the eyes.
4) At 70 minutes, the film flies by, which also makes it easier to watch and enjoy multiple times.5) Leslie Howard and John Halliday also were excellent in here as the two male leads.
I thought Halliday, in particular, had some great words of wisdom.6) For those who appreciate how difficult it is to forgive people, this ending contained another nice message.7) Classical music lovers will very much appreciate the soundtrack to this film..
"Intermezzo" is a beautifully photographed, bittersweet story about a the love affair between a concert violinist (Leslie Howard) and a pianist (Ingrid Bergman).
Her natural beauty and freshness is shown to wonderful advantage here, as is her sensitive acting in the role of Anita Hoffman.Howard plays Holger Brandt, a married man with two children who leaves his wife and family when his affair with Bergman becomes too intense.
While vacationing, he becomes attached to a little girl who obviously reminds him of his daughter (Ann Todd), whom he adores, and Anita wonders if their illicit affair can ever bring them happiness.The film is rich in subtext and metaphors.
Even the title of his daughter's favorite piece that he plays, "Intermezzo" takes on a special meaning.Few actors have cut the romantic, ethereal figure that Leslie Howard did during his film career.
The picture deals with a young pianist (Ingrid Bergman) who acts as piano teacher of a child (Ann Todd) whose father( Leslie Howard) , happily married (Edna Best) , is a violinist .
The movie has romance , tearjerker , drama, tragedy, a love story and is very entertaining .The film is a remake in Hollywood style of a Swedish film directed by Gustaf Molander in 1936 and equally interpreted by Ingrid Bergman ; here plays his first US role , in fact , is best known as Bergman's American debut and became her in world star .
This remake of the Swedish film of the same name is worth a look because it's the first time American audiences got a chance to see Ingrid Bergman.
Gregory Ratoff, the director, utilizes well the short time of the movie to present the melodrama in an appealing way.From the beginning, we realize the attraction Holger feels for Anita is doomed.
Holger has a loving wife as well as two children that clearly adore their distant father.Basically, Holger is a decent man who sees in Anita something that he doesn't have at home, which seems to happen whenever a fresh and beautiful woman arrives at the scene and the marriage is shaky.Leslie Howard was an amazing actor.
Ingrid Bergman brought a freshness to Anita that is hard to imagine another actress playing her.
Also, Cecil Kellaway plays Charles, Holger's manager.This is a movie to watch because of the impressive debut of Ingrid Bergman, also because the glorious music..
(Some Spoilers) Touching 1939 tear-jerker that introduced to the movie going public here in the USA the beautiful and stalely 23 year-old Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman as Anita Hoffman.
Todd, the daughter of famed concert violinist Holger Brandt, Leslie Howard.After being a smashing success in America ending his concert tour at Carnegi Hall in New York City Holger tell his star struck admirers that he's leaving for his home in Sweden together his mentor and fellow musician Thomas Stenborg, John Holliday, to be with his family and get a long and well deserved rest from his grueling string of public performances.
Back home with his loving wife Margit, Edna Best, and his two beautiful children Ann Marie and Eric, Douglas Scott, everything is wonderful for the Brandt family.
Thats until Holger lays his eyes on Ann Marie's piano teacher, and also Thomas' music student, the stunning Anita Hoffman and it's love at first sight, or at first sound.
In no time at all Holger and Anita fall in love and both leave together for Europe as a duet, him playing the violin and Anita the piano, on the concert circuit.
The good news is that Anita has been awarded a scholarship to a major music academy and the bad news is that he has the divorce papers from Margit's lawyer for Holger to sign, which he doesn't.
At the same time Anita tearfully leaves poor Holger all by himself by going back to Sweden to the music academy to accept her scholarship.Holger soon becomes a man without a country, or family, as he bums around Europe afraid to go back home to face his family that he so selfishly destroyed by having an affair with Anita.
Completely destroyed by his actions with his wife and son not even speaking to him and little Ann Marie on the brink of death or ending up crippled for life Holger, now for the first time, sees what a heel he was.
That he so foolishly threw away in the pursuit of his love, forbidden as it was, for Anita.The movies contrived ending is a bit far-fetched but it's just how you would want it to end.Leslie Howard is perfect as Holger the tortured soul who was torn between the beautiful piano teacher Anita and his loving wife Margit.
As we all know Ingrid Bergman learned it quite well indeed.Intermezzo is the story of a world famous concert violinist played by Leslie Howard who comes home from a world tour with his piano accompanist John Halliday to wife Edna Best and children Ann Todd and Douglas Scott.
At a party Bergman plays and Howard picks up the violin to accompany her.That's it for him, the beautiful music they make together kindles a romance.
Except of course for Best and the kids.This version of Intermezzo is a faithful remake of the original Swedish film and the reviews that Ingrid Bergman garnered insured her American stardom.
Selznick with both of them also involved with Gone With The Wind.The theme from Intermezzo is most often done as an instrumental, but words were actually written for it and Tony Martin made a hit record of it at the time film was out in theater.Seen today Intermezzo and its romantic story hold up well today.
Intermezzo got two Oscar nominations for black and white cinematography and film editing, but this was the year of Gone With The Wind.You didn't think David O.
Small-Scale Love Story Offers Fresh-Faced Bergman in Her American Debut.
Selznick gloss is all over this minor 1939 soap opera, most noteworthy as the American film debut of 24-year old Ingrid Bergman.
Her fresh-faced beauty and natural manner are intoxicating as she plays Anita Hoffman, first a piano teacher to the young daughter of renowned violinist Holger Brandt and then his accompanist on a world tour.
It's a brief movie, only seventy minutes long, directed by Gregory Ratoff (more famous as the ulcer-ridden producer Max in "All About Eve") focusing on the illicit affair that develops between Anita and Holger.Much of the story has to do with the guilt they both experience in terms of the familial repercussions, and the ending reflects as much.
A role away from his Ashley Wilkes in "Gone With the Wind", obviously the more important Selznick movie in production a the time, Leslie Howard plays Holger in his familiar erudite manner.
Beyond Bergman, the most accomplished aspects of the film are Gregg Toland's lush cinematography, Lyle Wheeler's art direction (making Monterey, California look very much like the Italian Riviera) and Max Steiner's romantic music (oddly uncredited).
My main problem with the movie is that there is no chemistry between Leslie Howard and Ingrid Bergman.
At the start, Bergman is giving piano lessons to Leslie's daughter and when he finds out she's really talented herself, they begin to have an affair.
Leslie Howard does a good job and Ingrid Bergman is gorgeous..
This is a nice little film about Holger (Leslie Howard), a married concert violinist who falls in love with Anita, his daughter's young piano teacher (Ingrid Bergman, in her US debut).The two go on tour together and true to the old lyric: "music leads the way to romance", the two musicians begin an affair.
A world famous violinist Holgar Brandt (Leslie Howard) falls in love with his child's piano teacher, Anita Hoffman (Ingrid Bergman).
When he asks Anita to join him on a world tour things start to unravel.Bergman's first English language film (she had done previous ones in Denmark).
The acting is all good but Bergman and Howard especially are superb in their roles.
Leslie Howard who has been brilliant in nearly al his films (esp The Petrified Forest, Of Human Bondage, Pygmallion, Teh Scarlette Pimprenel and of course GWTW) realy gave a stiff, false performance in this 1939 movie that he himself co-produced with David o' Selznick of the Gone With The Wind (1939) -- I'm thinking that both their creative juices were at a major low --- this movie was so insincere and contrived and lacks any universal appeal that makes movies "classics".
It's a remake of the same name Swedish film made three years earlier, in which Ingrid Bergman played the same role.
Remarkable only for Ingrid Bergman's first starring role in an American film....
Here, at least, the story is told in a simple and brief style, the production itself is a handsome one, and although the performances are competent enough only one performer really stands out as "the new star"--and that, of course, is INGRID BERGMAN making her film debut under David O.
Edna Best does nicely as his understanding wife and all of the supporting roles are played in a competent manner.But except for this being a star vehicle to present Bergman to American audiences, there is nothing special about INTERMEZZO.
Holger Brandt is a famous Classical violinist who falls in love with Anita Hoffman, his daughter's attractive young piano teacher.
Holger leaves his wife and family for Anita, and they tour Europe together, with her acting as his accompanist.
There is no attempt to suggest any marital discord which might have contributed to Brandt's infidelity; adultery is simply presented as "one of those things that happen", like an accident.This is not Ingrid Bergman's greatest film, but her vibrant, lively personality shines through and she does enough to show why she was to go on to become a major Hollywood star.
Apart from Bergman, the two leading roles are played by British actors, Leslie Howard and Edna Best.
I am a sucker for a love story, but this one just didn't move me.First, I find Leslie Howard rather lacking as a leading man.
Howard's wife is played by Edna Best, who looks and acts quite bland and comely.
I would think that would have been difficult to light.Even though there is an obvious moral failing in the adulterous affair, there are good lessons such as when Halliday's character tells Bergman "I wonder if anyone has built happiness on the unhappiness of others".
This movie about the world renowned violinist and his daughters piano teacher is beautiful.
Leslie Howard did an amazing job and Ingrid Bergman looked lovely.
Leslie Howard stars as Holger Brandt, a world renowned violinist who returns home from a long standing tour to reunite with his family and in the process meets Anita, played by Ingrid Bergman in her first American role as his daughter's piano teacher.Nothing much happens up to the build up of Holger and Anita's relationship.
All done sufficiently by Ingrid Bergman who captured the senses of a naive woman swept and confused by love.The ending of their affair only intensifies the moralist theme of Intermezzo which quickly sinks to melodramatic depths once Holger returns home.
This is a movie you Want to like not least because it marked the English-speaking debut of Ingrid Bergman who was just as gorgeous at 24 as she remained until her death - trivia buffs may like to know that she played a classical pianist both in this, her first English-speaking film and Autumn Sonata her last film on the big screen which was, of course, shot in Swedish, her native language.
With only seventy minutes to play with Gregory Ratoff is prodigal with time; the film opens with violin maestro Howard playing a farewell gig at Carnegie Hall; he then TELLS his audience that he is returning home to Sweden; he is then SHOWN on board ship to Sweden in a scene that adds little to the story and then he Arrives in Sweden.
It's ironic that Bergman made her to all intents and purposes film debut as an adulteress who would play the part for real a decade later when she co-starred with Roberto Rossellini in Life Imitating Art. Perhaps in an effort to sugar the pill the adulterers are depicted as cultured, cultivated people, classical musicians in fact as if that somehow lessens the pain of those left behind and almost adding insult to injury they throw in a scene where Howard's young daughter (Ann E Todd) is so happy to see him when he makes a fleeting visit home that she dashes in front of a car and is badly injured.
The film stars Leslie Howard, Ingrid Bergman, Ann Todd and Edna Best.This beautiful love story features the Ingrid Bergman in her first English speaking role.Renowned violinist Holgar Brandt(Leslie Howard)returns home from a tour.
He is warmly welcomed back by his loving wife Margit(Edna Best)and young daughter Ann Marie(Ann Todd).
He meets his daughters piano teacher Anita (Ingrid Bergman)and the two fall in love.
As time goes on they begin an affair and Anita leaves her employment with the family and becomes Han's piano accompanist on his tours.
Holger soon begins to miss his wife and daughter and comes to realise the pain he is causing them.You feel for Holger and Anita because they genuinely do love one another but they both know their affair is wrong and Anita tries to find the strength to end it, even though it is very painful for her to do so.Ingrid is excellent in her American debut, she conveys her characters feelings so well through her expressions, her eyes especially show so much to the audience.
Howard is very good as a rather self centred man, his music is his greatest passion and he falls for Anita partly because she shares his love and talent for music, Holger would be difficult to like if it were not for his love of his daughter, it's obvious he cares for her and that is a redeeming quality.Edna Best is very good as the long suffering wife, confused as to why her husband seems to have stopped loving her and who finds herself unable to forget him or hate him even when he has the affair.The film looks beautiful thanks to Gregg Toland's exquisite photography.
Classical music lovers will enjoy the soundtrack and both Howard and Bergman are quite convincing in the scenes where they have to play musical instruments..
I love how Leslie plays the role so nonchalantly in the beginning, then all that changes when Ingrid's character performs at the birthday party.
Anyways, if he didn't come back Ann Marie would have never had the run in with the car, and the whole family still doesn't like him as much after Anita.
He has the honour of directing the very beautiful Ingrid Bergman in her first Hollywood role.
Did I just see "that" or was I dreaming?" There is a very brief moment in Intermezzo: A Love Story which happens with Ms. Bergman, while she is in a shot all off her own, while looking down at her Lover, it took me by surprise and was, in a way, quite shocking and breath taking, you'll know what I mean after you have seen it.
Overall, Intermezzo: A Love Story is a beautifully shot movie that conveys the struggle of Marriage and how to keep the Family values together, while in the face of temptation. |
tt1527788 | Ajeossi | Cha Tae-sik leads a quiet life running a pawnshop. His only friend is a little girl, So-mi, who lives next door. So-mi's mother, Hyo-jeong, is a heroin addict who steals drugs from a feared organized crime group. She pawns her camera bag to Tae-sik; he does not realize it has the stolen drugs inside. Crime lord Oh Myung-gyu sends his subordinates, brothers Man-Seok and Jong-seok to retrieve the drugs; Jong-seok and his henchman Lum Ramrowan torture Hyo-jeong to find the drugs' location, then kidnap her and So-mi. Two gangsters, Du-chi and "Bear" go to Tae-sik pawn shop, but Tae-sik easily overpowers them. When he finds that Hyo-jeong and So-mi have been kidnapped, he gives them the bag, and Ramrowan kills Bear to set him up as the fall guy.
Realizing that Tae-sik may serve better as a mule, the gang brothers force Tae-sik to perform a delivery to Oh Myung-gyu, who they have set up. Police arrest Tae-sik and discover Hyo-jeong's body, with her organs harvested, in the back of the car he used to make the delivery. Tae-sik escapes from the police station to search for So-mi, and during his escape, the police are bewildered at Tae-sik's display of power, combat techniques, and agility. On further investigation, they discover that Tae-sik was a former covert operator for the South Korean Army Intelligence, with numerous commendations, but he retired after he was wounded and his pregnant wife was murdered by an assassin.
Tae-sik tracks Du-chi to a nightclub, beats up two of Du-chi's guards, and stabs Du-chi with his own knife. As he asks where the brothers are. Ramrowan walks in and shoots at Tae-sik, killing Du-chi in the crossfire. The two fight to a standstill, and Tae-sik suffers a bullet wound. Tae-sik chases after Ramrowan and the brothers as they flee, but he is too late; Tae-sik barely escapes from undercover cops. Critically wounded after his encounter with Ramrowan, Tae-sik finds his former partner, who performs an impromptu surgery. Tae-sik then acquires a gun from him and continues on his journey.
Tae-sik finds and frees several child slaves in a drug manufacturing plant, in the process killing off the younger of the brothers, Jong-seok. He tracks down the elder brother, Man-seok, at the gang's condo, where a dozen gang members and Ramrowan are also waiting. Man-seok says that he has had So-Mi killed and shows Tae-sik a container that has what he says are her eyes. He demands to know what happened to his younger brother, and, in a rage, Tae-sik kills the gang members, including Ramrowan and Man-seok.
As Tae-sik prepares to commit suicide out of grief, a scared and dirty So-mi emerges from the darkness. She had been saved by Ramrowan, who took pity on her because she had been kind to him. It is then revealed that the eyes in the container belonged to the gangsters' surgeon, who had been killed off-camera by Ramrowan. The police allow Tae-sik and So-mi to ride together after they arrest him, and, while she sleeps, Tae-sik asks if they can be dropped off at a small convenience store. Tae-sik buys a backpack along with other school supplies. He tells her that she's going to be on her own now, as the police have to take him away. Before he goes, he asks her for a hug and breaks down in tears as they embrace. | mystery, neo noir, murder, violence, action, tragedy, revenge | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0079855 | Savage Weekend | Marie Pettis (Marilyn Hamlin) has recently divorced her politician husband named Greg, who had been involved in a scandal in New York City. To decompress, she leaves for a weekend trip in upstate New York with her new stockbroker boyfriend Robert (Jim Doerr), her sister Shirley (Caitlin O'Heaney), and their openly gay friend Nicky (Christopher Allport). They arrive to the country late in the evening, and stop in a small town. Robert, Marie, and Shirley pick up groceries at a market, where Shirley finds a sinister face mask that she decides to buy as a joke. Meanwhile, Nicky goes to the bar across the street for a drink, and is harassed by two homophobic men whom he beats up.
They arrive at the remote farmhouse Robert has recently purchased from Otis (William Sanderson), a local man whose father has died, and whom Robert has hired to build a large schooner, a project which is being housed in a barn on the property. Jay Alsop, an engineer and friend of Robert's, arrives to oversee the boat's progress. A lumberman providing the wood for the boat, Mac Macauley (David Gale), tells Marie of a local rumor involving a young woman who was assaulted by the unhinged Otis, and hints that he may have been responsible for a murder.
Jay develops a sexual interest in Shirley, while meanwhile Marie finds herself attracted to Mac. The following day, Jay goes down to the barn to check on Otis's progress on the boat; there, he is strangled by a killer donning the mask Shirley bought the day before, his body hung from the rafters so as to appear as a suicide. That night, the rest of the group dresses up for a formal dinner at the house. After dinner, Marie and Robert go for a walk on the property. Meanwhile, Shirley puts on a tango record and performs a striptease for Nicky. The two dance together on the house's second floor, and jokingly apply makeup to each other's faces. Marie and Robert discover Jay's body in the barn, and rush back to the house.
The killer attacks Nicky upstairs, stabbing him through the head with a large sewing needle. Shirley is chased into the basement, where the killer ties her to a table saw and attempts to kill her with it, but cannot get power to the tool. When they arrive at the house, Robert and Marie are confronted by the killer. Robert discovers Nicky's body upstairs, and is thrown to his death out of the second story window. The killer then returns to the ground floor, where he reveals himself to be Greg. He tells Marie that he plans on taking her out into the lake and committing a murder-suicide.
The next morning, Mac arrives at the house, and finds it empty. As he goes to investigate the basement, he turns on a light switch which activates the table saw, inadvertently killing Shirley, who has been tied to the table all night. Mac flees the house, where he encounters Greg attempting to bring Marie to the lake to kill her. Greg and Mac begin fighting and tackle one another to the ground. Otis arrives upon the scene, and kills Greg with a chainsaw. The film ends with Otis riding his bicycle to the local graveyard where he visits his father's grave. | violence, cult, murder, plot twist, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt4145324 | Bound | Michelle Mulan (Charisma Carpenter) is a 40-year-old real estate broker who has recently been promoted as a chairperson to a failing firm, even though she is fully qualified, she had only been promoted because of her father Walter's (Daniel Baldwin), status as chairman. While other chairmen want to sell the firm, she sees more advantage in merging with a larger company. Despite having a boyfriend, George (Mark McClain Wilson), Michelle does cheat on him to satiate her sexual desires.Also a single mother, Michelle struggles to get her troubled teenage daughter, Dara (Morgan Obenreder), on the right track and takes her to a dinner. There, a man at years 15 years her junior becomes enamored with her. After dropping Dara off at home, Michelle goes back to the restaurant and finds the man who introduces himself as Ryan (Bryce Draper), who tries to seduce her. Michelle manages to ward him off.Still taking his phone number, Michelle initially decides not to meet him, but after getting a meeting enabling the merger, decides to do so. After rejecting a marriage proposal from George, Michelle goes out with Ryan. On their date, he takes her back to his loft introduces her to the world of B&D and S&M after which Michelle cheats on George with Ryan. After breaking up with George, Michelle begins to date Ryan and easily gives in to his dominating personality.Falling in love, Michelle begins to call Ryan her 'master' and refers to herself as a 'messy whore'. At a benefit dinner, Ryan begins to insult Michelle's client and operate a vibrator egg she is wearing while she is with the client. Despite this, she manages to get the client to consider a merger. While trying to get Dara on the right track, Michelle also decides to learn more about being dominated and very quickly finds that she enjoys submitting to Ryan's will.After learning that Ryan served time in prison for auto thief from her father, Michelle continues to try and negotiate a deal with the client to save the firm. Michelle refuses to continue seeing Ryan and gives herself in to him completely while also learning more and more about the submissive lifestyle. Along the way, however, she also learns how to become a dominant. She begins to frequent the S&M bondage club that Ryan frequents and partakes in the "action" at the club.Unknown to her, Ryan also seduced Dara and made her a submissive. Michelle comes home from the bondage club one evening and sees Ryan having sex with a tied-up Dara in Michelle's own bed. Seeing this, she finally overthrows Ryan's bonds and uses her new-found sexual prowess to take control of her life. She throws Ryan off her daughter and out of her house. Michelle then apologizes to Dara for not being there for her.The next day, Michelle is assaulted by Ryan outside of her office building, but manages to use a camera to knock him unconscious. She proceeds to take him to a private dungeon in an abandoned garage and bind him, turning him into the submissive. After torturing Ryan, Michelle turns him over to the police for having sex with her underage daughter.In the final scenes, with her newfound confidence, Michelle seals the deal with her firm, impressing Walter. Then, Michelle uses her sexual powers against her client.... while also making him her submissive. | pornographic | train | imdb | Cordelia with boandage.
This is a lame attempt to make a low budget 50 shades of Grey.But all it does, is remind you of those god awful movies,those so called erotic thrillers, that came in the wake of basic instinct's success, but was really just glorified softcore porn.
But the difference is those were made with younger former scream queens,B-C movie actresses who weren't afraid to go full frontal.
Something charisma doesn't seem willing to do.
Which would be fine,if she didn't accept scripts that would need full frontal for her role to work,or at get some attention.
The producers seem to hope that Charismas tits are gonna save this movie,which they can't.
the script is to boring and her character uninteresting.
Who ever directed this should be shot,or go back to film school.When Charisma undresses,they focus on her face.And I mean REALLY focus on her face.They zoom so close you can see the wrinkles around the eyes.
The story is lame and Charisma can't manage to show an emotion to anything that happens around here.
Sadly her face seem to only have 2 expression, pleasure and anger.Those are the only two emotions she manage to express fully,with her face.I'm pretty sure her phone hasn't been ringing off the hook since she left Buffy and Angel,but this is just sad..
Think Lifetime Network movie standards ...
with snippets of nudity.
IMDb readers of the present and future may well look at the low rating --2 -- and think that this reviewer is perhaps being harsh...?
However, in fairness, I will note that, if you take the time to research the IMDb reviews of other productions where Jared Cohn has acted as both writer and director, you will discover even lower ratings than that number associated with his work.The story deals with the "older" daughter of a successful businessman who gets involved with a sexual partner who attempts to bring out aspects of her sexuality (BDSM) with which she, presumably, was not already familiar.Brought to you by the same team that gave you BIKINI SPRING BREAK (among others) and starring the irrepressible Daniel Baldwin (whom, one reviewer noted, seemed to be reading his lines off cue cards he had never seen before), the most interesting thing about the film is the casting of Charisma Carpenter in the lead.For those visiting from another planet, TV is the 90s was dominated by the emergence of a young auteur named Joss Whedon (yes, the same Joss Whedon who gave new life to the Marvel library in his Avengers I script).Whedon, by the end of that decade, had not one but two breakout hits on his hands, each handled by a different network -- (Buffy and Angel)-- and each prominently featured Capenter.In other words, you could not miss her even if you wanted to.
And no one wanted to.
She was perky, fun, gorgeous, and memorable.The prevailing view is that Carpenter's career since those days has been somewhat problematic, and an argument can be made that this effort is yet another attempt to recapture her glory days and reconnect with former fans.As for the production itself, it features the standard levels of quality that Cohn and his company, Asylum, are known for -- perfectly lit sets starring exceptionally good looking people in static (low movement) environments with lots of head and shoulders framing.Where the director wants the audience to really "get" that something important is happening on-screen, he will attempt to do this via a change in the lighting, as opposed to the more traditional ways (such as through the dialog or the acting).That technique, in real life, is just as effective as it sounds.Really and truly, for Carpenter fans only..
A Retro Taste of 90's Cable After Dark Erotic Movies.
With all the hype over Fifty Shades of Gray, it's only natural that there would be several copycat type films tossed out to make a buck off of that market base.
However, fans of 1990's late night erotic television can tell you that Fifty Shades is nothing new or in my opinion, all that great.
Erotic-psychological fare has long been a staple of HBO and Showtime's After Dark rotation, with actresses such as Shannon Whirry, Julie Strain and Shannon Tweed kicking teenage males hormones into overdrive.Bound, starring Charisma Carpenter (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel) is more in that HBO-Showtime mode than the Fifty Shades of Gray mode.
In fact, it's not that bad a film, thanks in large part to the writers deciding to actually place a plot into the movie instead of depending on the sexual nature of the movie to draw viewers.
But don't get me wrong, there is a definite erotic flavor to this film and the delectable and capable Charisma Carpenter looks most appealing dressed and undressed as the story's hero.Carpenter, known for playing the bossy, assertive prom queen Cordelia Chase in the Buffy-Angel television series displays impressive range as Michelle Mulan, a mundane business woman simply dredging through her comfortable, orderly life which consists of her boyfriend, George (Mark McClain Wilson) who is a bore (in and out of the bedroom) and Dara(Morgan Obenreder), her whip of a teenage daughter who she has no control over.
Michelle works at her father's (William Baldwin) real estate brokerage firm, which is on the verge of bankruptcy.
Michelle however, believes that the firm can be saved via a merger.
Unfortunately, the all-male board view mousy Michelle as nothing more than "daddy's little girl" and her advice and plans for a merger fall on deaf ears.
She is even insulted by one of the board members in front of her father, but lacks the fortitude to defend herself and her ideas.While having dinner at a restaurant with Dara, Michelle finds herself attracted to a handsome, yet shadowy man at the bar.
After leaving the restaurant, she receives a call that she forgot to sign the credit card receipt.
She returns to the restaurant where she encounters the man at the bar whose name she finds out is Ryan.
Unsure of herself, yet helplessly intrigued, Michelle begins to fall under Ryan's Svengali-like charms.
Eventually, he takes her completely out of her orderly world and has her smoking joints, drinking during the day and having a sexual rendezvous' in her father's office at the firm.
But that's just the beginning.
Ryan takes her to a secret S&M club.
Michelle becomes intoxicated by her surroundings, fearful, but very much aroused.
Soon she finds herself as Ryan's sex slave, submitting to his darkest desires.Initially, Michelle is excited and intrigued about this new stage developing in her life.
However, she soon finds out the truth about Ryan, and the high price that comes with his erotic influence, one that put both her family and career in danger.The film works because it allows Michelle's character's arch to play out fully.
Carpenter is convincing as the woman with everything, but nothing.
She is smart, but vulnerable, beautiful but filled with self-doubt.
When she begins to lose many of her sexual inhibitions, it is wonderfully shown through Michelle's slow, but effective grasp on a woman with an identity crisis who gradually learns who she is and what she really wants.
Carpenter's transformation at the end is believable as the writers give us a reason (her daughter, her career) why she makes the 180-degree turn and is able to stand up against Ryan and his manipulative ways.
Director and writer Jared Cohn does a good job of allowing Carpenter's subtle reactions to her new world to play out.
He doesn't try and force-feed us her transformation, instead we see Carpenter debating her choices and then agonizing over her mistakes in a believable manner that leads to a satisfactory end.The film is visually stimulating, and the S&M scenes come off as both erotic as well as tasteful.
Cinematographer Laura Beth Love gives the viewer a rich variety of colors and angles which move the story along, never lingering long enough to create an uncomfortable feeling over the erotic scenes.
Carpenter is also filmed beautifully as we see her more dowdy early in the film, and as she gains back control of her life, her appearance softens and becomes more powerful.If the first erotic thriller you have ever watched was Fifty Shades of Gray, this film might go over your head.
However, for fans of the old HBO-Showtime, After Dark films, this is a well-directed, well acted and beautifully filmed movie that is worth a couple of hours..
Cheap Mockbuster of "50 Shades" with 45 year old star.
There are two reasons people might see this film.1.They are longtime fans of Charisma Carpenter.
2.They want some softcore porn.Chances are a lot of them are looking for both.This is nothing more than a cheaply made direct to video rip off of "50 Shades of Grey", what is known as a "Mockbuster" where producers rip off the plot and characters from a successful film and create a cheap fast version to profit from.Besides being terribly written, directed and acted, it's a sad fact that age 45 (at the time of filming) Ms. Carpenter's sexual wiles are not exactly holding up.The result is a middle aged woman trying to play the young sexpot, and it's somewhat uncomfortable to watch.I'm not sure what kind of age they were attempting to make her character, but since Daniel Baldwin plays her father and is only 10 years older than her in real life, that added an additional pathetic element to the whole debacle.If you want to see Charisma Carpenter topless, do a google image search and save yourself from enduring this dreck..
Don't Let the Naysayers Talk You Out of Seeing Bound.
Michelle (Charisma Carpenter) is a harried real estate agent with a lousy sex life.
When she's attracted to a sexy stranger into BDSM, Ryan (Bryce Draper), she finds her sexual fulfillment is dangerously imperiling her job and her father's (Daniel Baldwin) company...I just picked up Bound out of idle curiosity.
When I decided to do a little research about the company that produced this film, The Asylum, I was rather perturbed that they specialize in a specialized sort of copycat films called knockoffs called "mockbusters".Imagine my surprise when this movie, a "mock" of Fifty Shades of Gray, showed not only a titillating amount of skin (mostly Ms. Carpenter's) but some semblance of an actual PLOT (with a lovely denouement) and some very earnest acting!
I believe that by keeping my expectations low, I was pleasantly surprise by how good this effective a film actually is.
By all means, if you're looking for a little erotic movie to watch one evening with someone, I'd highly recommend Bound.I'd give this movie **1/2 stars on Leonard Maltin's **** scale.
Not to be compared to 50 shades.
Many of the previous reviewers have compared this movie with 50 Shades of Grey and it shouldn't be.
While it has some things in common with that movie, it is a completely different story.
This is the story of a woman who all her life has done exactly what is expected of her.
But after being introduced to BDSM, she finds that it helps her to become a stronger person..
50 shades of awful.
This was just about as bad as it gets for a BDSM related movie.
I'm not sure how the script or the director got this in front of a camera but they are better salesman than they are movie makers.Producers of these types of films, including those from 50 shades, really need to get to understand the BDSM lifestyle a little more.
They make a complete mockery of the experience and get lost in the whole whips and chains of it all.
They have the ability to create something more erotic and powerful than any movie ever made but turn it into steaming piles of whatever this movie was.Lastly, as a BDSM enthusiast, I thought the portrayal of the main male character was pathetic.
Turning him into an abusive statutory rapist?, well done.
You managed to make the movie's plot match the performance of its 'actors'.The 1 star is for Charisma Carpenters looks alone..
50 Shades of Hype Answered with Action Movie.
So much Cinema is Psychotherapy ~ especially in America, where the puritan streak meets with capitalism every nanosecond, where the human stain of sexism and racism runs through every frame.
Let's face it folks, this is a comic book/look at the zillions spent on promoting the utter dross that is 50 shades ( yes, they are doing 50 Shades 2 ~ the marketing masterpiece ).I needed a little light relief and as a big fan of Charisma Carpenter from the Buffy/Angel years, I was willing to spend $1.95 Australian ~ American cousins can 'do the math', to have a look at her as she is now.
Cordelia was always a sexpot, so it makes sense for grown up 'Cordy' to be revisited.I laughed, did not take it seriously and was as pleased as punch when Supermichelle got to sock it to the villain of the piece.
Some message board mentioned 'Venus in Furs' ~ an admirable compare & contrast study.
If anyone is really interested ~ do a triple feature, in any order, of this title, 50 Shades & Roman Polanski's ' Venus in Fur'.
Then write a short poem, thesis, review or what you will..
PRIDE COMES BEFORE A FALL.
This appears to be the Asylum knock-off of the film "Addicted" which wasn't much better.
Michelle (Charisma Carpenter) is the CFO of her dad's (Daniel Baldwin) real estate investment firm.
The company is a sinking ship and the board wants to sell.
Michelle thinks they can merger, but has to put together a plan.
Michelle is too engrossed in her sex life with Ryan Black (Bryce Draper) a drug dealer and car thief.
He is into bondage and Michelle becomes "bound" to him and sex.
Hence the clever title.
She also has a daughter (Morgan Obenreder) who is ready for college.This is a great film for fans of soft core porno and Charisma Carpenter.
The plot was stagnant and the action centered around sex.
The acting and dialogue were soft core quality, i.e. not good.
Dad gives his daughter sage advice, "Your professional life should never involve a condom." It was so sad at times, it was funny.Guide: F-bomb, sex, nudity (Charisma Carpenter + background girls) |
tt1087842 | Eden Log | A quote appears on the screen: "So the Lord God banished him from the garden of Eden to serve the ground from which he had been taken" (Genesis 3:23).The sound of water dripping, and a man gasping; flashing images are shown of a man waking up in a muddy waterhole in a dark cave. We learn later that his name is Tolbiac (Clovis Cornillac). He stumbles to his feet, half-naked and covered in mud. A flashing flashlight reveals a desiccated body nearby. Tolbiac fixes the flashlight and pulls it from the corpse's grasp. He starts climbing up out of the cave.He climbs out into an industrial-looking room with fences, lighting and fans. He hears grunting coming from somewhere, and he tries to push open a turnstile gate but to no avail.A series of recordings start up behind him. A group of young women speak in different languages and he turns to one who says "Welcome". She continues, "Whatever your origins may be, it is here where your arduous journey ends. Sacrificing what is most important to you, your consented efforts make you a natural candidate for citizenship in our society. Eden Log offers you its passport." The recordings end. It is clear that Tolbiac is at the start of the system that new migrant workers must pass through.Tolbiac goes back to the turnstile gate and pushes past it with effort. He sees a series of illustrations on the wall behind some netting. The show what looks like the root systems of a tree, with people passing beneath it from one chamber to another. In the next illustration the chamber is half filled and feeding the tree roots, then a full chamber points towards happy faces and lastly an elevator system showing people going up to the surface returning wearing body suits.Tolbiac, still confused and disoriented, wanders into the next room and sees plastic tubes laced around tree roots. He pushes one of the tubes into the roots, it lights up and he hears a piece of machinery activate and the fans start to turn.He goes back through the turnstile to the female recordings who have started up again. They recite, "...capable of entering into the cycle, Eden Log counts you amongst its own. The contract is fair. It is thanks to your work below that you will be able to construct your paradise above. Look after the plant and it will look after you. After this exchange you will be called to join us. Without any other authority than your own will. Without any other reward than the call of your new life. The call..." The lights and the recordings power down.Tolbiac finds himself at the plant roots as they are lit from below. He drinks from the water surrounding them, then wanders through the vast room of the tree roots. He pulls a jacket from the rubble and puts it on.The wind whistles through the underground area, and Tolbiac's breathing is laboured as he pushes forward. He hears something growling ominously in the shadows. He moves on and finds a man trapped in the wall.The man asks Tolbiac who he is. Tolbiac speaks for the first time and says, "I don't know". The man screams in pain as something tightens within. "Stay away!" he screams, "You will waken it." Tolbiac asks him where they are. The man says he doesn't know how Tolbiac has survived til now, but implores him to get away. Tolbiac asks him how to get out. The man says there is nowhere to go, there is nothing "up there". He says it is all over, and that "I opened everybody's eyes: the whole world will know thanks to me how much we need to pay". He says there is no way out.The growl returns, and the trapped man says that it is already too late. The end has arrived "the end of the man you were". The man recommends he kill himself quickly rather than face the creature who made the noise. He says there is no escape. "I was the architect of this Log. There is no way out, but don't worry, you won't suffer any more." Tolbiac runs away and passes out.He wakes up in a tunnel and crawls out into an opaque cube that shuts closed on him. It moves upwards until a motionless human shadow appears in a similar opaque box next to him. He calls out and swings his cube until it crashes to the ground.We see he is on level -4. He heads towards a laboratory that has been destroyed and finds a technician dead on the ground. He presses some buttons on a control panel and the system grants him access to the scientific data. A recording begins. "Open your level," demands a neutral female voice. "Out of the question!" retorts a male voice. "First tell me what all that means." "Calm down, you're not qualified for security. Just open the RENZO to our surveillance." The male technician says that the protocol is clear: access to the RENZO is reserved only for technicians. We see the technician on the screen and recognise the face of the technician dead on the ground. The Councilwoman's voice warns that the technician's "irresponsible attitude" means he is in breach of his contract because this is an emergency. The technician pleads that "the Plantation" is supposed to be self-managing, and that surveillance should stop at level 0. He says that a war is occurring below. The Councilwoman says "You have no right to prevent workers from returning up there and answering the call." The technician says that it is out of the question that the RENZO be used for repressive ends. He says that if they receive no information about the condition of workers on the surface, no-one will be allowed to use the elevators anymore. He says that if the security tries to enter the lab, he will alert the world above to what is happening below and the fate of the immigrant population of Eden Log. In the recording, security bursts into the room and the technician is presumably killed. The security guard talks to the Councilwoman. She says that the elevators are still blocked on the levels. The guard replies that the plantation is completely chocked up, the workers are in a terminal state and have become feral. "It makes the intruder that much harder to localise". The Councilwoman says that the images are being broadcast throughout the RENZO and that this explains the technicians blocking access. She urges the guard to recover the data from the labs and that the rest is left to his discretion. "Secrecy alone counts...the signals that are broadcast remain a danger for the whole system...the exterior is not yet ready to accept the secret". The guard says that is is impossible to locate the technician on level -3. "His knowledge of the system is a serious handicap." The first guard tells the second guard that they have to find the architect in the plantation below and that nothing must leave the galleries anymore: no signals, no people." The recording ends.Tolbiac reaches towards a panel upon which the dead technician is resting his hand, and takes out a memory chip. "Memory disconnected," the system advises. Tolbiac removes the technician's hand and replaces it with his own and the system confirms that he does not have access to scientific data.Tolbiac exits the lab and climbs up a ladder. He walks through a tunnel and hears two guard voices emanating from the tunnels. The name Eden Log appears on the floor as the sand is whisked away by the wind. As they walk past, Tolbiac hides from two guards who are completely covered up, dressed in full gear. The guards are frustrated and say, "I'm so sick and tired of walking around. I'll be so glad when we get our hands on that asshole so we can go back up."Tolbiac waits for them to pass then explores the industrial looking room they exited from. He sees more illustrations on the walls and a sign saying that he is on Level -3. There are tree roots growing around the lab and a pulley system is triggered. He quickly climbs onto the roof of the room and sees the guards enter below. They are given security access to the system which loads maps for them.They are frustrated and don't understand how their quarry can move through levels without dropping breadcrumbs. "How are we supposed to find a runaway in a maze he designed himself?" It is clear they are still looking for the architect. Tolbiac diverts an evacuation pipe to confuse the guards, allowing him to escape. He runs past a human hybrid creature on a chain who growls at him, and climbs up into a tunnel. The guards set the creature free to chase Tolbiac, but he fights it off.He emerges onto level -2 and hears a strangely melodious industrial noise reverberating throughout the level. A creature attacks him suddenly. Tolbiac is saved from the creature by a technician in a white suit who blinds them with a blinding light and noise and captures him in a net. When he wakes up, he is inside the rope net.The technician is hanging from the ceiling on some kind of cable. The technician apologises for the music, saying that it is the only thing that seems to calm the creatures down. She says that she doesn't know how much longer "all this" can hold together. She asks if he can understand her, and urges him not to stay too close to the walls. She says that up til that moment she thought she was the only one in that situation and that she had managed fairly well. "If you can't even talk any more, it means your mutation has already begun and I won't be able to keep you, because this is the only place around here that's a little protected." The sounds of the creatures can be heard all around.She gives him some food, which Tolbiac wolfs down hungrily. She notices that he is wearing a guard's harness. "What's a worker doing with that?" she asks, with concern. She says that she will send him back but before that she will conduct a little experiment. "Let me go," demands Tolbiac. "If you can talk, that means you're not totally lost!" she exclaims.He asks her where he is and what the cages mean. She says that the people in the system maintained the plantation: harvesting below and collecting above. She says that they are in the plant's RENZO. The plant's maintenance is taken care of by the technicians of the RENZO. Each floor handles a specific job. She says that she is a RENZO's botanist and doesn't understand everything either. He says he needs to get out and she releases him.The botanist explains further: "The workers, they came up that way. Drawn by the plant I guess. The plant fed them but there was no control and the dose was too strong. That made them rot." She had been hiding, waiting for the creatures' hunger to drive them to kill each other. She can't understand how Tolbiac was able to escape form the plant's effects. Tolbiac looks over at the roots in the lab. The botanist explains that the plant's sap has infinite energetic properties and that they are just at the beginning of being able to exploit all of them.She asks to run a test on him and says he has nothing to fear. "If you're healthy the plant will try to contaminate you, that will set off the alarm and stop the transfusion." The test begins, the mixture is released, the process begins to reverse, his bloody starts to flow into the plant. "What's happening? It can't be!" she cries. The pant begins to grow rapidly and she aborts the test. "The plant has always been sterile," she says, "Who are you?" Tolbiac convulses on the table.The creature noises from outside abate, and the botanist realises that the creatures have sensed something. The guards descend upon the lab. The botanist says that they are after her. We hear screams from the guards as they encounter the creatures. The botanist escapes through a hatch in the floor and says she cannot risk taking him with her. Tolbiac hangs from the ceiling in a harness, unable to escape and watches the guards die outside.A creature enters the room through a hatch. It appears to be able to smell him but cannot see him. He fights the creature and escapes through the hatch in the floor.Outside, he is surrounded by creatures and tries to fight them off. The creatures leave when Tolbiac starts to tremble. He stumbles into an elevator where he finds the botanist and has visions of the plant breaking through the architect. He screams in agony and his face looks monstrous. It appears as if he is contaminated. He turns to the botanist, kisses her and, in his mind, they make love. In reality he became possessed by the contamination and has actually raped her viciously. He comes back to reality and falls to the floor. He looks over at the botanist weeping in the corner and, horrified, realises what he has done.The elevator stops and he escapes through a ceiling hatch. He reaches back down for the botanist and says, "It's not me, it's not me. Come on." She is traumatised yet reaches for his hand. They rest and while the botanist sleeps, the world begins to tremble again (Tolbiac is under the effect of the mutation). He sees a creature drinking from the pool in front of them and puts his hand over the botanist's face so that she doesn't shout out. She misinterprets it as a rape attempt and bites his hand. She says that he is not like them and that she doesn't understand anything anymore. Tolbiac opens a valve and a light switches on, illuminating the Eden Log logo. They cross the river and she runs off to find a new elevator. Now they are at -1 level.Tolbiac enters another lab and finds the corpse of a man. He looks like he has been killed by the roots of the plant. The botanist returns and laments that nothing works anymore. She accesses the recording of the last technician (Sifan Shao), who says that the men digging underground and the plant provided the energy for everyone on the surface. He warns that the plant's "conditioning" was not without risk and that now it was protecting itself from "the workers of the depths". He knew that the mutation had started within him and that he had no other choice but to graft himself onto the plant. He reveals that only the suction of the plant can block the mutation, but that nothing can be done to reverse the phenomenon. He further reveals that "he knows what the society does with its sick", that they never go back down. His recording finishes with the statement that he and the other technicians refuse to maintain the lie of Eden Log.The creatures are attracted by the light and the noise of the recording and one attacks the botanist. Tolbiac saves the botanist from the creatures, but he's halfway changed himself. Tolbiac uses his newfound ferocity to kill the menacing creature with his bare hands.They continue to journey upwards, led by the botanist. At a rest stop she says that she remembers when the project first began that it was said just one tree and the exploitation of its roots could power an entire city. "And I believed them," she sighs. The continue on through a system of tunnels and up to a network of catwalks leading to the surface level.They slowly climb the huge staircase. They are now at level 0. The botanist looks up and sees a cube with a human body inside. She realises that they are connected to the machines. Suddenly creatures appear below, and above there are guards in full gear. She runs back down the stairs and is followed by Tolbiac. They leave the guards to deal with the creatures. Tolbiac angrily commands the botanist not to go back. The botanist shouts back in frustration that he doesn't understand anything: people aren't put into the cubes to cure them. The surface is not powered by the plant, it is powered by the people in the cubes.She seizes up and screams monstrously. Tolbiac looks on, emotionless and apologises. She realises that she's contaminated as well. The botanist is devastated, and says that it was Tolbiac who contaminated her. She attacks him but she leaves him alive and goes back deep inside the mine again. She throws an Eden Log chip to him as a farewell. Looking at the card, Tolbiac realises that he recognises where he is. The guards attack the creatures and one of them runs after Tolbiac, but he kills him easily.Tolbiac reaches the control panel in what seems to be the director's office. Using the botanist's authorisation card, Tolbiac watches the recordings. In the first recording of the laboratory on level -2, we see a group of workers followed by the face of the architect, muddied and blurry-eyed. He says, "Have arrived at the plantation. Request contact. It's urgent. Am not receiving you. Sending images. I hope that..." and he is cut off.A female voice identifies herself as a botanist. She notes that, as it grows, the plant has become more toxic. "The more sap we take out, the more the plant tries to protect itself." She says that warnings sent to Eden Log have not been answered. The architect from level -3 decided to go down into the RENZO to report on findings. "Here is what I have been able to recover from his images," she says. We see the architect speaking manically to the camera and realise that he was the man Tolbiac first stumbled across stuck in the wall. He says that it is his turn, it is calling him and he knows what is in store. The first creature on record appears, and guards appear, fighting all the workers.The recording ends and Tolbiac loads a new one of the technician on level -4 who declares that he will alert the world above to what is occurring should the guards enter his lab. We realise that we have seen this recording before. The technician says there is no law protecting the immigrant population. We see the technician duck under the table as the guards blast their way into the lab. They speak with the Eden Log representative. One guard relays that the plantation is completely choked up and that the residents are at a terminal stage and have become wild. He says that it is impossible to locate the technician on level -3. "His knowledge of the gallery is a serious handicap," the guard laments. The Eden Log representative commands him to recover the data from the laboratories and that the rest is left up to his discretion. She ends the message by declaring "Secrecy. Secrecy alone counts. The exterior is not yet ready to accept the secret. You remain its guardians."The first guard turns to his partner who has a bright Y on his chest and tells him that they have a new new mission: control of the laboratories and technicians. The first guard says that it is a cleanup mission. A new recording shows the guards attempting to contact the surface, but the elevator is still stuck and they receive no answer. The first guard is suddenly attacked by his partner (the man with the Y), who has become a mutant.Tolbiac realises that he was a guard. He uses his hand to access the security archives. The system says, "Welcome, Tolbiac", and a bright Y appears indicating that Tolbiac was, in fact, the first guard's partner who became contaminated and attacked the first guard, killing him.A new recording shows guard Tolbiac sending an alert. He says that the situation is critical. "Attention all guards, by order of the council, prepare to go down and silence the plantation."People begin banging on the door saying, "There's someone inside". The system voice declares the task "end of the plantation revolt" is complete. The task "elimination of the Architect" is complete. Just as the new guards arrive, the system calls out the last task. The task "access to the RENZO scientific observation laboratory" is complete.New guards arrive and greet Tolbiac, giving an order to call up reinforcements. "Mission terminated," says the system.We see a guard (presumably Tolbiac) suiting up in front of a screen showing an animation of the cycle of the plantation. It is a similar design to the one we saw at the beginning of the movie. A man (presumably a worker) tries to migrate to the city, enters from the surface, passes the turnstile gate, is fed something form the plant to make him grow. He enters a cube, dies, his lifeforce is sent up into the tree and his skeleton moves to the surface and becomes fruit of the tree. The skeleton fruit then pump energy into the city.We hear a voice saying that the uprising of the plantation workers and the resistance of the plant were unfortunate setbacks and that they are satisfied with the mission. We learn that the plantation is now the model for an entirely new enterprise and the Council demands to regain control of it and reintegrate it into the system.We see Tolbiac enter an elevator and his colleague says that the team is ready to go down. We hear the Council member congratulate Tolbiac and say that he allowed them to preserve "what is essential", to retain the secret long enough to make them force citizens to admit that they "need courage to impose these solutions on far-away populations".On level 0, Tolbiac wanders around a dark greenhouse garden and looks up at the people inside cubes hanging from the branches. The Council says that all these immigrant men and women had to rely on hope for what the city was never able to offer them. The Council says, "We need men like you: conscious of the sacrifice and abnegation that is essential to this new world."It is clear that the immigrants were offered full citizenship in exchange for working in the plantation, but then they were forcefully put inside the cubes to allow the plant to feed on them. The Council says that, sooner or later, people will have to accept that the suffering of some people so that foreign populations could be integrated in order to be able to create a new Eden.The guard Tolbiac throws off his police gear and is bare-chested once again. "At last," crows the Council, "a return to Eden." "For Everybody," declares Tolbiac, and connects himself to the plant.The plant resumes growth immediately. It grows so much and so fast that soon it can't be contained within the limits of the greenhouse, breaches the surface, and swiftly creeps across the whole city. All the lights go off in the city.The noises of the creatures can be heard in the background. Tolbiac looks out over the quiet city with stony determination as dawn breaks and a single tear falls down his face. | dark | train | imdb | null |
tt0073918 | The Yakuza | Retired detective Harry Kilmer (Robert Mitchum) is called upon by an old friend, George Tanner (Brian Keith). Tanner has been doing business with a yakuza gangster, Tono (Eiji Okada), who has kidnapped Tanner's daughter to apply pressure in a business deal involving the sale of guns. Tanner hopes that Kilmer can rescue the girl using his Japanese connections.
Kilmer and Tanner had been Marine MPs in Tokyo during the post-war occupation. Kilmer became aware of a woman, Eiko (Keiko Kishi), who was involved in the black market so that she could procure penicillin for her sick daughter. Kilmer intervened on behalf of Eiko during a skirmish, saving her life. After they'd been living together, with Kilmer repeatedly asking Eiko to marry him, her brother Ken (Ken Takakura) returned from an island where he'd been stranded as an Imperial Japanese soldier. Both outraged that she was living with his former enemy and deeply indebted to Kilmer for saving the lives of his (apparently) only remaining family, Ken disappeared into the yakuza criminal underground and refused to see or speak to his sister. Eiko, cautious to do nothing to offend Ken further, broke off contact with Kilmer. Before returning to the US, Kilmer bought Eiko a bar (with money borrowed from George Tanner) which she operates to this day, named Kilmer House in his honor. Kilmer has never stopped loving her.
Ken's debt to Kilmer, giri, is a lifelong obligation that traditionally can never be repaid. Tanner believes that Ken would therefore do anything for Kilmer, including rescuing Tanner's daughter. Traveling to Tokyo with Tanner's bodyguard Dusty (Richard Jordan), they stay at the home of another old military buddy named Oliver Wheat (Herb Edelman). Kilmer visits Eiko at the bar's closing time, seeking to find Ken. Eiko's feelings for Kilmer are clearly as strong as ever. He also becomes reacquainted with Eiko's daughter, Hanako, who is delighted to see Kilmer again. Eiko tells Kilmer that her brother can be found at his kendo school in Kyoto.
Kilmer travels by train to visit Ken at his kendo school. Ken is no longer a yakuza member, but will still help Kilmer. They find and free the girl. In so doing, Ken "takes up the sword" once again, attacking one of Tono's men to save Kilmer. This is an inexcusable intrusion by Ken in yakuza affairs. Contracts on both Ken's and Kilmer's lives are issued. Despite Tanner's protests, Kilmer insists on staying until the danger to Ken can be resolved. Eiko suggests he see Ken's brother, a high-level legal counselor to the yakuza chiefs. Goro (James Shigeta) is unable to intercede due to his impartial role in yakuza society, but suggests Ken can remove the death threat by killing Tono with a sword. The only alternative is for Kilmer to kill Tono himself, by any means (as an outsider, he is not bound to use a sword). Because Kilmer is known to Goro as an unusual gaijin who understands and accepts Japanese values, he proposes that Kilmer now has an obligation to Ken.
After an attempt on Kilmer's life at a bathhouse, he learns that his old friend Tanner has taken out the contract on him. Tanner secretly is broke and owes Tono a huge debt. Dusty discloses that Tanner and Tono are business partners. During a violent attack on Ken and Kilmer in Oliver Wheat's house, Dusty is stabbed to death with a sword and Eiko's daughter, Hanako, is shot and killed.
Seeking advice again from Ken's brother, Goro advises them that they have no choice but to assassinate Tanner and Tono. This will embarrass the partners in the eyes of the yakuza. Goro discloses that he has a "wayward son" who has joined Tono's clan and asks that Ken protect him should he be caught in the battle. In private, Goro then discloses the shocking family secret to Kilmer that Eiko is not Ken's sister but his wife, and Hanako their only child. Kilmer comprehends the true meaning of Eiko and Ken's rift, and Ken's anguish at the death of Hanako, all brought about by his repeated intercessions in their lives.
Kilmer storms into Tanner's apartment and kills him, then joins Ken for a near-suicidal attack on Tono's residence. During a prolonged battle, after Ken kills Tono in the traditional way with a katana, Goro's son attacks them and Ken kills him in self-defense. Bearing the news to his brother, Ken moves to commit Seppuku, but his brother pleads with his brother not to bring more anguish to their family. Instead, Ken performs yubitsume (the ceremonial yakuza apology by cutting off one's little finger). After Ken excuses himself, Goro compliments Kilmer on his adherence to Japanese traditions, and dedication to his family.
Before leaving Japan, Kilmer visits with Ken at home and asks to speak to him formally. While Ken prepares tea, Kilmer quietly commits yubitsume, and when Ken enters the room, waits for him to be seated. Sliding the folded handkerchief that contains his finger to Ken, he says "please accept this token of my apology" for "bringing great pain into your life, both in the past and in the present." Ken accepts, and Kilmer asks that "if you can forgive me, then you can forgive Eiko," adding, "you are greatly loved and respected by all your family." Ken professes that "no man has a greater friend than Kilmer-san," and Kilmer, overcome by emotion, says the same of Ken. Their obligations now apparently resolved, Ken takes Kilmer to the airport, and both men bow formally to each other before parting. | cult, neo noir, violence, romantic | train | wikipedia | Only Robert Mitchum could have done justice to the role of Harry Kilmer, a retired detective returning to Japan for the first time in many years to rescue his old Army friend Tanner's daughter, who has been kidnapped by the Yakuza in a dispute over a debt Tanner owes them.
Ken is a lone wolf, an ex-Yakuza who now runs a martial arts school, and though there is obviously no love lost between the two, Kilmer knows Ken carries an obligation to him for rescuing Eiko and her infant daughter in the early days of the Occupation.
Only when Kilmer begins to understand the truth of the situation is he able to act constructively.Everyone in this film, from Brian Keith to Herb Edelman to Richard Jordan (in one of his first starring roles) turns in a first-rate performance.
But it is Mitchum and Takakura Ken who make this movie.This is not an action film in the sense of later -- and far inferior -- efforts like "The Challenge" and "Black Rain", though there are scenes of intense and graphic violence.
The key ones include honor, loyalty, burden, duty, friendship, love, loss, obligation, and the differences between the men of pre and post war Japan.Although Robert Mitchum was approaching 60 when made the film, he still possessed enough of his trademark grace to be credible enough against much younger men in the action scenes.
As he's the native that used to be in the Yakuza and Mitchum is the gaijin that doesn't have to follow their honor system (although as the movie progresses, he subscribes to their codes and honor system more and more), Takakura gets to do all the skilled swordplay.
Currently the only good, somewhat true to the original theatrical print (just slightly more than 3 minutes shorter), are the 2hr long versions available on the not-so-legal (and not too good quality-wise) VCDs released in Hong Kong and Asia.I rated this film very high - and I am not any big sword-actioneers fan, but nor is this movie any kind of sword fighting flicks.
Action scenes are relatively restrained, and the story tells how Mitchum's character finally comes to understand Takakura Ken's character, and his apparently icy antagonism.
We learn a lot about the characters in the movie, from Harry and Eiko to Ken Tanaka and Harry's buddy George, but more than that we learn about Japan and its infamous and historic gangster world.
Not only is this a good 70's gangster/action flick, it is also one of the few movies about Japan ever produced in the States that does not make too many mistakes about Japanese culture.Ken Takakura puts in a great performance which is no surprise since he first became famous in Japan for acting in yakuza (gangster) movies.Anyone who has ever tried to understand or explain the concept of "giri" should see this movie!.
Probably after the wide acceptance of both the Godfather films, the American public was ready to see what organized crime looked like in another culture.La Cosa Nostra, the Mafia, all those phrases we use for Italian organized crime certainly had their rituals and traditions.
But as we learn in watching this film they have nothing on the Yakuza.Robert Mitchum plays a private detective who works both sides of the law back in the states and he's hired by crime boss Brian Keith to rescue his daughter who was kidnapped by one of the Yakuza crime families in lieu of a shipment of weapons Keith was supposed to deliver.
She's the key to getting help from a former Yakuza member in their quest.The American actors perform well here and oriental players James Shigeta and Japanese film star Takakura Ken are well cast as feuding Yakuza brothers.
You will not question why Takakura Ken is known as the Japanese Clint Eastwood after seeing The Yakuza.Director Sydney Pollack shows a real reverence and respect for the traditions of another culture.
Only the body count suggest the films actiony and possibly exploitative intentions.The film follows our main character revisiting his old-WW2 roots in Japan, half revisiting loved ones and half going on a mission to rescue his old friend's daughter, who was kidnapped by a Yakuza crime lord.
The characters are extremely thoughtful, and much of the film is based around the choices people choose to make as pertaining to what they see to be their duty and debts.We also get a very interesting look at Japanese culture and a sizable amount of gore.
Love, memory, betrayal, loyalty and repayment of debts both financial and emotional are all here - oh and Robert Mitchum and ken Takakura are great..
After several years, his friend George asks Harry to return to Japan with his bodyguard Dusty (Richard Jordan) to rescue his daughter, who was kidnapped by a Yakuza family, due to a weapon business.
In the movie, Mitchum plays a WW - II veteran, Harry Kilmer, who reluctantly returns to Japan after a gap of over two decades in order to retrieve an old friend's daughter abducted by a Yakuza outfit.Mitchum plays Kilmer with his characteristic on screen charisma.
Ken Takakura and Bob Mitchum put in grim character portrayals against the soft back drop of Eiji Okada (of Lady Snowblood fame) character, who is caught between 'n' betwixt the two men in her sad life.At the end of the day it's the fight scenes and the meaning of Japanese honour that will stay in your mind.
Even so, Pollack was much more adventurous as he was starting out – never more so than when making the eccentric, existentialist war movie CASTLE KEEP (1969; another film I caught up with fairly recently), with THE YAKUZA itself coming pretty close in terms of stretching his talent.
Pollack's direction is admirably stylish throughout the film's 112 minutes (though the Japanese version is said to be even longer and, in fact, the promotional featurette which is part of the DVD supplements does depict the shooting of a couple of scenes which aren't in the finished film as presented here!) and remarkably balances superbly choreographed action sequences with thoughtful passages – particularly concerning Mitchum's place in this environment (while typically understated, the performance by the star in this case allows emotion to seep through his bulky exterior and tough persona).
The rest of the American cast is compact but carefully chosen: Brian Keith (as an opportunistic businessman, the father of the girl abducted for his having slighted The Yakuza, as well as Mitchum's best friend and old war buddy), Richard Jordan (quite good as Keith's young underling who tags along with Mitchum to Japan, ostensibly to keep an eye on him, but who didn't count on the pull of the Orient and, more specifically, the presence of a beguiling young girl – daughter of Mitchum's old flame) and Herb Edelman (as another war veteran who has stayed on and cultivated his knowledge of weaponry, extending to a fascination for Japanese swords).
The 'native' actors are equally impressive, especially Ken Takakura (as the enigmatic but proficient ex-Yakuza drawn back into the underworld as a favor to Mitchum – the actor was apparently a fixture of this type of violent entertainment) and Eiji Okada (suitably authoritative and menacing as the unscrupulous Yakuza boss – he's best-known for playing Emmanuelle Riva's Japanese lover in Alain Resnais' landmark film Hiroshima MON AMOUR [1959] and the entomologist hero of the award-winning erotic drama WOMAN IN THE DUNES [1964]).Finally, it's worth noting that I recently acquired on VHS Kinji Fukasaku's BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY (1973) – the first of several entries in a series of films collectively known as THE YAKUZA PAPERS, though I doubt I'll have time to check it out presently.
A mystery, an action thriller, a fascinating reading of East/West cultural differences, and a moving meditation on friendship and honour, this film satisfies on a number of levels.Mitchum gives a great performance as the ex-soldier Harry Kilmer who helps an old Army buddy out of a bind, revisiting a Japan he has not seen since his stint there during the post-war Occupation.
Writer Paul Schrader followed this with his script for Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver", while Robert Towne had already written Hal Ashby's "The Last Detail" and --also in 1974-- Roman Polanski's "Chinatown": "The Yakuza" proves how good Scorsese, Ashby and Polanski were, and that Sydney Pollack was a standard filmmaker.
In the opening credits, Dave Grusin's supposedly hip score starts the distortion of a tale that, in essence, unravels as it goes through an intricately sinuous labyrinth to reflect on dignity, love, ethics, tradition, betrayal, resentment, death; and furthermore, as I previously suggested, it insinuates, perhaps inadvertently, the bad conscience of a few American citizens who witnessed the assault on Japanese culture by American politicians and military men after the end of Second World War (a subject intelligently dealt by Shohei Imamura in "Vengeance Is Mine"), not to mention the barbaric physical harm done with nuclear bombs.
Some persons have also suggested a graver cultural distortion in Pollack's romanticized vision of the Japanese gangsters (for a more reliable portrait of the seedy yakuzas, see "Minbo no onna", the film for which its director Juzo Itami supposedly lost his life), but as the time ran, I could not care less.
Much like the ex-yakuza character who aids Robert Mitchum in his struggle against the Tokyo mob in the film, The Yakuza suffers from a double-bind that pushes it in two opposite directions.
By attempting an Americanized take on a traditionally Japanese sub-genre, Pollack is unfortunately unsuccessful, but not for lack of trying.Robert Mitchum plays Harry, an aging ex-military police officer, dispatched back to Japan after 20 years to intervene on behalf of a friend who needs to settle things with the Tokyo yakuza.
In terms of Japanese film, and without outright portraying them as heroes, Pollack's take has more in common with the 60's cycle of ninkyo yakuza pictures (a popular sub-genre where the yakuzas were made out to be heroes coming to the aid of the poor and downtrodden) than the raw, gritty and nihilistic universe of his contemporary Kinji Fukasaku.Besides being a step-back in the evolution of the genre, what makes matters worse is that Paul Schrader and Robert Towne's script (perhaps unavoidably) has to sit down and explain Japanese tradition and lifestyle so that people without prior knowledge can better understand what's going on.
Bits and pieces about swords, samurais, a code of honour and zen are all mixed together in a flimsy attempt to shed light in a culture so radically different that it simply can't be explained in the course of 110 minutes.The clash between the traditional old guard and the new corporate world, a very popular theme in Japanese yakuza pictures of the time, is only marginally introduced here.
On the other hand, it has some nice set-pieces, a solid cast spearheaded by Takakura and Mitchum and a melancholic tone that works in its favour, so if you're not bothered by the commercialized approach to Japanese culture, then you'll probably enjoy it.If you have no prior knowledge of the genre, this is perhaps the best place to start.
I'll try not to be redundant to the thoughtful reviews and comments already given.I particularly liked the comment by the director, Sydney Pollack that the studio was looking for a (mindless)yakuza/action film and that he "snuck in" the moral and cultural content.For me it ranks as one of the greatest stories of ill fated impossible love, that I've seen.
Kishi Keiko also is very expressive with her eyes.Its a film that I first saw as a an impressionable young man many years ago and Ihave never forgotten its messages of honor and obligation.Whatever happened to Richard Jordan (Dusty)?
That then is the premise of this film "The Yakuza." Our hero Harry Kilmer, (Robert Mitchum) is a former American soldier who was a Military Police officer during the occupation of Japan.
Years pass and now an old friend of Kilmer, George Tanner (Brian Keith) sends for him seeking help against a Yakuza gang who has kidnapped his daughter.
An excellent piece of film culture which obligates a reviewer to grant the movie the status of Classic.
The acting is of a high standard and I am amazed that Oscar nominations were not considered at the time of it's release.The story is tense and believable.Photography first class as is the editing.It is hard to believe that this is now a thirty year old release.For sheer escapism this film takes the biscuit.Probably my favourite Robert Michum performance of all his many fine films.There seems so little appreciation of this great FILM STAR Why is this film not available on DVD for my library?.
Robert Mitchum is the hard-boiled American who goes to Japan to help secure the release of the kidnapped daughter of friend Brian Keith.
and the option for Ken Takakura, James Shigeta or Robert Mitchum is the key for understand , level by level, the seduction source of this admirable movie..
While it may have been seen as strong in its time; it has faded considerably over 30 years later.Starting with the writing, it is functional but somewhat inert and lifeless and this dryness is exemplified in a scene in a kitchen when a Japanese character tells the young American what the Yakuza are and it's a straight recitation that might have been lifted from an encyclopedia.
I was in real need of the toilet, but I never went until the movie had finished, it was that good!Apart from being superbly acted (primarily by Mitchum and Takakura), The Yakuza has an awesome dark setting to it, a very interesting and strong story line, and some good fight scenes.
As noted by others it also explores the concepts of honor and friendship.During this time period several of Hollywood's older leading men who had been real studs in the forties and fifties (Robert Mitchum, Bill Holden, Brian Keith ) were turning out some superior movies with intelligent scripts.
After his daughter is kidnapped by the Yakuza, an international businessman by the name of "George Tanner" (Brian Keith) asks an old Army buddy named "Harry Kilmer" (Robert Mitchum) for help in freeing her.
I especially liked the acting of Ken Takakura and the different cultural aspects this film brought to bear.
I am writing this as a lifelong movie fan, a great admirer of Sydney Pollack's skill at directing everything from the genres of "Jeremiah Johnson" to "Tootsie" to "Out of Africa," someone with a graduate degree in Japanese psychological anthropology from Sophia University, Tokyo, and someone who lived in Japan for 30 years.
An attempt on Mitchum's life in a Japanese bathing house is certainly quite memorable, but for a film credited as an Action movie on IMDb, the thrills and exciting moments are few and far between.
Retiring detective Robert Mitchum (as Harry Kilmer) is called by full-haired friend Brian Keith (as George Tanner) because the latter's daughter Louise has been kidnapped by "The Yakuza".
The young couple has surprising appeal and re-writes giving them more time on screen together would have been a good idea.***** The Yakuza (1974-12-21) Sydney Pollack ~ Robert Mitchum, Ken Takakura, Richard Jordan, Brian Keith.
Only towards the end of the film does Harry Kilmer (Robert Mitchum) become fully assimilated into another culture, and truly realise so much pain he has caused to Ken Tanaka (Ken Takakura), and performs the Yakuza ritual of Yubitsume, cutting off his little finger.I can't imagine a better choice for the role of Harry Kilmer than Robert Mitchum.
What I also love about the film is the touching love story between Harry and his Japanese love Eiko Tanaka (Keiko Kishi), a love of two people from different worlds made forbidden due to family ties, made all the more poignant with Mitchum being superb at portraying characters who are tough yet also tender.Hollywood has had a long fascination with the Far East, producing movies which aren't entirely very thoughtful or sensitive; The Yakuza is the more well-researched effort to say the least.
Either way, it looks cool.The Yakuza acts like a time capsule of 1970's urban Japan, just take the scene in which Harry walks through the streets of Tokyo at night to meet his old love after 20 years.
They captured Japan's outdoor beauty, the sets are striking (really dig Herb Edelman's open floorplan house), and the Kyoto Convention Center is amazing.But the film's real power lies in its well-written story, which drags grizzled Robert Mitchum back to Japan only to be mixed up in the workings of the Japanese mob.
It's hard to see how a bad film could have been made out of it, but with veteran director Sydney Pollack calling the shots that was never going to happen.Robert Mitchum is the big draw, providing a lovable, grizzled lead through whose eyes we witness the dark side of Japanese culture.
Violence, obligation and a bittersweet ending...a fine movie with Robert Mitchum and Takakura Ken. Despite (or maybe because of) the gusts of mayhem which blow regularly through this film, the underlying tone of The Yakuza is of a kind of thoughtful sadness.
Even Harry Kilmer (Robert Mitchum), who honors his obligations in an American way, finally understands how to honor them in a Japanese way.
In this film, Brian Keith is an old friend of Robert Mitchum.
However, rescuing the girl isn't really a problem--the problem only just begins once this rescue mission appears to be completed.When I saw that Robert Mitchum was in a movie called "YAKUZA" I was prepared to hate it.
Here, like Zatoichi, Mitchum is in Japan fighting evil Yakuza, though it's set in modern times.
Ken Takakura and Richard Jordan are very good as man of honor and young, intelligent, feeling thug respectively.The best way to stand this movie is seeing it as a tragic comedy.
Like the highly acclaimed "The Godfather," released two years earlier, "The Yakuza" takes us into an exotic milieu dominated by honor, ritual, and violence.Mitchum is Harry Kilmer, once part of the occupation army in Japan, who had a girl friend, Eiko. |
tt0288477 | Ghost Ship | In May 1962, aboard the Italian ocean liner SS Antonia Graza, dozens of wealthy passengers dance to the song "Senza Fine" sung by Francesca, an Italian singer. A young girl, Katie Harwood, sits alone until the ship's captain offers to dance with her. Elsewhere, a hand presses a lever that unravels a thin wire cord from a spool. The spool snaps and the wire whips across the dance floor, bisecting the dancers.
Forty years later, at a bar, a boat salvage crew — Captain Sean Murphy, Maureen Epps, Greer, Dodge, Munder, and Santos — celebrate their recent success. Jack Ferriman, a Canadian weather service pilot, approaches them and says he spotted a vessel adrift in the Bering Sea. Because the ship is in international waters, it can be claimed by whoever brings it to port. The crew sets out on the Arctic Warrior, an ocean salvage tugboat. The ship is the Antonia Graza, which was believed to be lost at sea. As they prepare to tow it, they discover it contains a large quantity of gold. After a series of supernatural events, the group decides to abandon the salvage effort but take the gold, but an invisible force sabotages the Arctic Warrior. The tugboat explodes as its engine is restarted, killing Santos.
Left with no other option, the group begins repairing the Antonia Graza. Greer encounters Francesca, who seduces him into betraying the fiancée he has ashore, then leads him off a precipice to his death. Captain Murphy enters the captain's cabin and finds his ghost. The captain explains that they recovered the gold from a sinking cruise ship, the Lorelei, along with a sole survivor. Murphy is shown a picture of the survivor, whom he recognizes. He rushes to tell the others, but begins hallucinating and sees everyone as the ghost of the burned Santos, who provokes him into a murderous rage. The others think Murphy has gone mad and lock him in the drained fish tank, where Epps later finds him drowned.
Epps meets Katie's ghost, who reveals what happened on the Graza. The sole survivor of the Lorelei convinced the Graza's crew to murder the passengers for the gold. Once the passengers were killed, the crew turned on one another; soon, only a single officer was left, but he was later killed by Francesca. Another man, the mastermind behind the massacre, then killed Francesca by mystical means and branded her palm with a hook-shaped symbol using only his hands. The man is revealed as Jack Ferriman, who is actually a demonic spirit. Epps deduces that Ferriman lured the salvage team to the Graza to repair it, and decides to sink it to thwart his plan. Epps asks Dodge to keep Jack on the ship's bridge while she secretly sets explosives. When Ferriman realizes that Dodge is on to his secret, he walks towards Dodge while insulting him for not being man enough to act upon his feelings for Epps. Dodge threatens to shoot Ferriman, who simply smiles and says that murderers go to hell. Dodge shoots and Ferriman is seemingly killed.
Epps is below decks setting explosives when she is confronted by Dodge. He tells her he has killed Ferriman and that they can salvage the gold to start a life together, but Epps is made suspicious by this unexpected romantic proposal and Dodge's apparent knowledge of the deaths of the rest of the crew despite not being told of them. Realizing that his ruse has failed, "Dodge" morphs into Jack Ferriman, who has killed the real Dodge. Ferriman describes himself as a salvager of souls, a job he earned by a lifetime of sin. He plans to use the Antonia Graza and the gold as a trap to continue collecting souls. Only the souls of sinners can be readily controlled, through the mark he brands them with, and as long as the Graza is kept afloat the soul of everyone who has died aboard the ship will be dragged down when Ferriman has filled his quota and returns to hell, something which will please the "management". He offers to spare Epps's life in exchange for her not interfering but she detonates the explosives. Ferriman is blown to pieces in the explosion and Katie helps Epps escape the sinking ship. Katie is left in the debris before the souls trapped on the ship ascend to heaven.
Drifting on the open sea, Epps is found by a cruise ship and returned to land. As she is loaded into an ambulance, she sees the battered crates of gold being loaded onto the cruise ship by crewmen overseen by Ferriman, who glares at her and carries on; she screams as the ambulance doors close. | boring, murder, cult, violence, haunting, flashback, suspenseful, storytelling | train | wikipedia | Diver Maureen spotted a young girl on board is only the first of several strange things to occur and soon the crew find themselves in deeper than they planned.Opening with a scene so brutal and gory (made all the worse for me knowing it was coming) that I literally couldn't watch, this film had me hooked at the same time as having me worried that this would just be a big gore fest with nothing else to it.
The direction is good and the design/feel of the film is probably better than the material deserves nicely building up tension and atmosphere as it goes.Overall then a good genre movie.
As soon as a few plot-aspects are clarified, Ghost Ship turns into a mediocre and predictable thriller
I'm convinced that, with a slightly more intelligent script, this could have become one of the better horror-thrillers since the new Millennium.
It is a judicious choice to have replaced the threadbare topic of the haunted house by the haunted ship.If the screenplay doesn't avoid all the Hollywood conventions, neither all the clichés of the horror film, the director Steve Beck makes up for it by shrouding his movie an atmosphere of mystery as soon as the crew discovers the ship.
But no matter, "Ghost Ship" remains a nice little horror movie whose main function is to make shiver.
Ghost Ship is by no means the worst horror i have ever seen in fact some parts of this film are quite entertaining, the problem seems to be some of the poor digital computer special affect that make this film look like a bit of a B Movie.
Never before have I been so impressed by the first couple of minutes of a movie, like I have been with Ghost Ship.
Initially, I was mentally preparing myself for her to be heavily involved in the 'scares' of the movie, but was pleasantly surprised at her innocence throughout the movie, revealing later on exactly why she is the way she is.The acting is solid enough - not brilliant (with exception of Katie, who does a very good job of tensing things up again - more so than any scare tactics) and the direction is pretty good, with the focus being on the right things and the pace of the movie consistent.I do feel not enough attention was paid to the history behind the back-story of the ship's strange events (i.e. the "Lusitania" and how the gold came to be on the ghost ship itself) as well as a suspiciously obvious lack of character background for some of the characters, although the lack of it doesn't really detract from the movie itself, but makes you realize how important these details can be after watching the movie.Emotionally I swayed through the movie.
Having said that, I think the whole 'souls' thing is a bit ridiculous, because despite it tying in with the movie's concept, it seems to justify having strange occurrences on the ship, rather than having the strange occurrences justify the reason for the ghosts.
I hope that makes some sense.At the risk of looking at this too deeply for a horror flick, I think that there's more to the gold than just being 'stolen gold' - in my mind, the movie is not about the ghosts, or the gold, or the ship.
Ghost Ship is not a movie like that; in fact, it's the complete opposite of what horror films were in their peak in the 70s and 80s.
But it's a ghost ship, so various horror-related things occur to them, as they die (you guessed it) one by one.The opening scene is a great one-setting the mood (which is quickly broken) and then some gore that isn't over-the-top.
It's all aboard for spooky thrills and gory spills in Ghost Ship, a slick supernatural horror from director Steve Beck (who brought us the equally polished Thir13en Ghosts) that launches itself at full steam ahead with a particularly memorable opening scene—an entire room of cruise-ship passengers are graphically sliced in half when a metal cable whips across the dance-floor.The film then slows to a more leisurely speed to introduce Captain Sean Murphy (Gabriel Byrne) and his salvage crew (Julianna Margulies, Ron Eldard, Isaiah Washington, Alex Dimitriades and Karl Urban), who return home after six months at sea to be offered the opportunity of a lifetime by pilot Jack Ferriman (Desmond Harrington): the recovery of an Italian liner, the Antonia Graza, which mysteriously disappeared at sea forty years earlier.Once on board the ship—a rusting, abandoned hulk adrift in international waters—our plucky seafarers stumble across a fortune in gold bullion, but soon get that sinking feeling when they discover that the boat is haunted and it looks unlikely that any of them will ever set foot on dry land again.Despite almost being scuppered by a plot that takes a little too much swallowing at times, and suffering from a rather uneventful middle act, Ghost Ship is still a very entertaining popcorn horror: the cast all acquit themselves well, with Margulies proving to be a particularly capable lead; the set design, gore and digital effects are all top notch; there is some welcome nudity from hottie Francesca Rettondini, who plays a very sexy ghost; and director Beck successfully steers the film back on course for an exciting and surprisingly uplifting climax, followed by a pretty neat twist ending..
Watching this story work it's way to the point of searching for the ship, to me was an excellent visual, when the scope that Captain Murphy (Byrne) is using to track her, sort of 'skips' out then comes back on, and this extremely large vessel, is right in front of them, and they scramble to go into reverse, but only to run right into her!
But that doesn't mean of course that this can't be a good source of inspiration for a new movie.And that's exactly what the makers of "Ghost Ship" must have thought.
Before they can begin repairing and towing the ghost ship towards harbor, a series of bizarre things starts to happen to the crew and they get trapped in the ship, as the prisoners of a demonic creature...During the first hour this movie really gave me a good time.
The story is nice and even though this is yet another horror movie in a series of many, it has a more original approach to offer (a ghost ship isn't something that you see in every movie).
A salvage crew featuring the underused Gabriel Byrne (replacing Brian Cox) and the lovely Julianna Margulies set out on a mission to find a mysterious floating behemoth only to discover that it's the 40-year lost Antonia Garza, a cruise ship that vanished without a trace.Once on board the salvage crew quickly begin to realize that something sinister is going on and have doubts about the completing their mission.
As they try and figure out how they can tow it back to land and cash in on its cargo, supernatural events begin to dominate their very existence.The story is very linear and lacks real depth or complexity, but the film has a strong enough cast and direction to make it interesting and enjoyable to watch.
The special effects are a little mixed, as if the film makers ran low on budget half way through, some of them are really good where as others are pretty much 'B' movie quality.All in all 'Ghost Ship' is a missable horror movie, but it's not one to avoid.
It contains a decent plot that seems reasonable, the avoidance of an excessive use of gore, though the beginning, resembles a scene from The Cell and 13 Ghosts, is pretty startling induce the audience into watching the movie.
Classic horror like the first Halloween keep you in suspense waiting for the scare...Ghost Ship keep my curious as to what the heck was going on.
I liked this fun Popcorn Horror film way back in 2002 when i saw it at the cinema & it was an exciting time at the movies when that music started like an old 50's film & then that Amazing & bloody opening scene just wow!!!
The look of the old Abandoned Ghost Ship is amazing i wanted to explore it lol such a great setting for a supernatural story like this.
The cast are also a great especially Genre regular Desmond Harrington, he is a very underrated but excellent actor who was also excellent as the lead in the excellent backwoods hillbilly slasher Wrong Turn (2003) & the survival Thriller Exit Speed (2008) & he has a nice ordinary guy presence to him like the old school genre heroes like Tom Atkins & Robert Forster, the rest of the cast are good also like having a veteran like Gabriel Bynne & up & coming big star like Karl Urban,great casting for this type of Horror flick & all made really well on a nice budget of 20 million, so not a cheap low budget flick but a modest budget flick.
Not great movie, but it's enough solid that could have been great if it has a good script and I think this film looks like a bit of a B movie.
However, entering this movie without having really heard anything about it prior to watching allowed me to recognize it's qualities in other areas.The film is really quite well organized; the scenes aboard the ship can be quite chilling at times.
The sound effects and dark corridors in the ship are excellently done.The acting in the movie was excellent too in my opinion, there wasn't really a weak character in the plot.
This movie is utter tosh but no more than I've come to expect from the imagination-impoverished US film industry.To start, the premise is a bit of a give-away a ghost ship.
Long on visual effects and style, short on plot and characters, this big budget horror film doesn't offer much outside of solid cast and some cleverly gory moments.
"Ghost Ship" was directed by Steve Beck, who's only other directing credit is "13 Ghosts," which was similarly short of plot, but strong on visual effect and style, although this film's writer is John Pogue, who wrote the underrated "U.S. Marshals" and the also underrated "Quarantine 2: Terminal," but this script about a salvage crew (Gabriel Byrne, Ron Eldard, Isaiah Washington, Karl Urban, and Emily Browning) finding and setting out to loot the titular ghost ship killed off one-by-one in rather unmemorable fashions and amongst a lots of cheap jump-scares.
As for the story, it's extremely unengaging - it goes by at a frenzied pacing, giving us no time to absorb any atmosphere, anything making these people characters instead of body fodder, and manages to skip over some glaring questions that never get answered (like how some characters simply disappear without any explanation.) The use of thrash metal on the soundtrack during scare scenes - while cutting to new shots every two seconds or so - takes away any last chance of creating an air of terror.I guess it's not completely worthless.
Now, some several years later I notice that the cast list also has a young Emily Browning (who is actually pretty good for a child actor and you can see that she was going to go further than this floating vessel of a film), plus Karl Urban who does nothing here to show that one day he'll actually be a damn sight better than his performance in 'Ghost Ship' allows him.Ultimately, 'Ghost Ship' is one of a million other forgettable horror films which you won't remember by the time the credits roll.
(Consider, for example, that Ridley Scott's masterpiece Alien is essentially a haunted house movie, set on a spaceship.) Unfortunately, Ghost Ship shows little in the way of solid craftsmanship.
(Consider, for example, that Ridley Scott's masterpiece Alien is essentially a haunted house movie, set on a spaceship.) Unfortunately, Ghost Ship shows little in the way of solid craftsmanship.
Since the primary asset of a haunted house movie is rarely the plot, this sub-genre must rely on elements like shock tactics and suspense - two characteristics where Ghost Ship falls short.
Since the primary asset of a haunted house movie is rarely the plot, this sub-genre must rely on elements like shock tactics and suspense - two characteristics where Ghost Ship falls short.
It certainly succeeds in some of its basic principals, in that it keeps you gripped to your seat like suspense / horror movie should and has great special effects.
It was good for the gore, but totally unbelievable that a wire moving at high speed would slice right though 50 people, but would leave them standing there for a few seconds to go `Um. What just happened?' They could have done it a bit differently and still captured that same gore effect, but made it more realistic and not defy the laws of physics, biology and gravity.Too bad, could have been a great scary movie if not for the major flaws..
The movie as a whole is moderately diverting and worth a watch if you don't have anything better to do.The first five minutes is unadulterated genius--without serious competition, the most hypnotically poetic use of pure gore ever committed to film.Take or leave the rest of it, but the first little bit is breathtakingly glorious cinematic history..
Twisted but kept my attention and surprised me...I had several different scenarios that I figured was the plot line ( and this from a person who has 50 years of movie and television viewing under their belt) , yet I did not come up with the real story line (although I came close at the last 20 minutes) and did not anticipate the ending , so I rate it quite highly .
It's what makes critics and moviegoers alike so angry; when a film presents at least a little potential, but then it all gets squandered by lazy scriptwriting, bad acting and lackluster direction.Case in point: GHOST SHIP.
The first ten minutes of this film may be the best opening for a horror movie since the first installment of SCREAM.
The opening death sequence isn't that good, all the gore looks noticeably fake, unlike scenes in Saving Private Ryan, but it's ok, what I liked most about Ghost ship is the Twist, and the funky soundtrack that plays as the twist unfolds.
Produced by Dark Castle Entertainment (the same people who brought to you House on Haunted Hill and 13 Ghosts) and directed by Steve Beck (13 Ghosts), Ghost Ship is one of those horror films that will disappoint you if you have high expectations and will satisfy you if you are one of those people who expect little out of horror movies.The film begins in 1962 with a scary, ridiculous and laughable scene where a group of rich Europeans inside a pleasure cruise get cut in half by what appears to be a freak accident.
We get transported to the year 2002, where a team of sailors whose job is to salvage ships that are lost at sea (I didn't even know that profession existed) receive an invitation from a mysterious man: there is a lost ship out there, and they will get a great deal of money if they manage to find it and save it.The rest of the film seems like a cross between Titanic and Event Horizon.
And as long as there's greed, bad things will happen.Good for a horror film.
One thing is for sure that Ghost Ship would have done better if they did more good stuff to it.
You see the story was great although the writers could of at least included more ghosts like some could be rotten corpses in half or something nice with good effects.
Don't get me wrong Ghost Ship isn't a bad film; it's quite enjoyable, but it just isn't horrific.
The idea behind it is (which I won't spoil if you haven't seen it yet) frightening and well thought out, but it just doesn't come across well in the film.The movie starts off very promisingly with a downright nasty death scene involving a party of people on a cruise-liner, but then quickly nose-dives into yet another formulaic Hollywood by the numbers' Horror/Thriller.It's worth a watch but come on Hollywood, you can do a lot better than this where have all the genuine scares gone?.
Ghost Ship never pretends to be an Oscar-worthy film, and that's a very good thing.
Add to the horrid plot bad writing, cardboard characters and a cast who looks like they were forced into being in this film, and you can see why Ghost Ship failed on so many levels.
I wouldn't say this film was bad, but it could of been alot better, not alot of it made sense, usually i can work things out but this it took me a while to get it really.......It isn't film i could watch again, if you like modern B movies this is for you.....
Not as scary as House on Haunted Hill (1998), but still has enough fright for the bite...Watch it, if you are a lover of horror movies and like a decent scare....
The liner is strange and wonderful, and the whole film looks like a huge amount of effort and money went into creating the whole atmosphere with loving care.Too bad the movie itself is so dreadful.
It had some good special effects but that is all I can say positive about it..I am not a "blood and guts" fan and quit watching movies like these a long time ago..I was really hoping to see more "ghostly iamges"..
I mean, I can see what his role is just from his last name(Ferriman=Ferry Man) but I would like to see a movie explaining him and who he works for and all that.All in all Ghost Ship was a good movie. |
tt1349460 | Uncharted 2: Among Thieves | A beaten and disoriented Nathan Drake awakes in a tattered train seat. He looks around the car in confusion, then glances down to see a bullet wound in his stomach. His head rolls back as the pain hits him, and he notices that snowflakes drifting outside the window appear to be falling...sideways. Right on cue, his seat jerks and violently detaches from its mounting, hurtling him downwards through the vertical train car to hang above a dizzying drop.After an agonising climb to safety above, Nate lurches through the wreckage, recalling the events that led him to this place.Six months prior to the train crash, Nate is found at a beachfront bar where he encounters Harry Flynn: an old acquaintance and sometime partner in crime in the shadowy world of black market antiquities. The British thief has a client willing to pay a substantial sum for him to procure an item inside the Istanbul Palace Museum. Nate is skeptical: knowing of two others who died at the hands of the museum's extensive and overzealous security force, he himself barely escaped the building during a previous illicit out-of-hours visit.Flynn insists that he requires Nate's assistance to make the theft, and introduces a third conspirator: Chloe Frazer, an Australian he describes as an expert getaway driver. He explains that the commission is a clay oil lamp, a seemingly unremarkable artifact inside the museum's Travel of Marco Polo exhibit. Nate initially dismisses the item as worthless, and Flynn's benefactor a collector with more money than sense, but an oblique revelation in a document written by Marco Polo changes his mind. Polo's fleet left China with 600 passengers aboard 14 ships, loaded with treasure from the great Kublai Khan. It landed in Persia a year and a half later, diminished to one vessel and 18 survivors. Polo documented every detail of the expedition - but never disclosed the fate of the missing ships and travellers.Nate speculates that the lamp contains a hidden message from Polo, revealing the fate of his lost fleet, undoubtedly laden with treasures of incalculable worth. Finding this, the trio believe, is the true purpose of Flynn's unusual assignment.Chloe is the first to articulate what all three are thinking: "So - we're dicking this guy over, right?"Nate is awakened in his hotel room by a knock at the door, and opens it to find Chloe standing outside. The two are, unbeknownst to Flynn, intimately acquainted; though we discover that Nate ended their previous relationship, she bears him no rancor. When Chloe recognised the scope of Flynn's commission, she decided that Nate would want to be involved. She suggests that they complete the heist, find Polo's lost ships, split the treasure three ways - and then abandon Flynn to elope.Nate, Chloe and Flynn enter the sewer system beneath the Istanbul Palace Museum. Chloe departs to deactivate the floodlights illuminating the tower where the Polo exhibit is held, leaving Nate and Flynn to infiltrate the main building.After several close calls with the security personnel, the duo reaches the exhibit. With an apology to its long-dead owner, Nate smashes the ceramic lamp to find a weathered scroll, seemingly lacking any legible details, and pieces of a strange residue. Flynn is distraught, but Nate has a hunch. Identifying the substance as resin, the latter lights a piece - and the room is suffused with an eerie blue glow as it glows.In this light, the previously blank scroll is covered with Latin script and a map. Nate, translating, learns that Polo's fleet was hit by a tsunami, and carried inland to rest beside a mountain somewhere on the west coast of Borneo. As Nate translates, Polo's words attribute this misfortune to an unusual source: "It was as if the ocean itself sought to throw off the terrible cargo we carried from Sham-bah-lah - the curse of the Cintamani."Nate is astonished: "My God, Flynn - Marco Polo found Shambhala. Shangri-La. If they were carrying the Cintamani Stone, it might still be there."As Nate prepares to follow Flynn out from the tower, the former is betrayed. Left stranded in the exhibit, Nate is helpless as Flynn shoots display cases, triggering a cacophony of alarms. Claiming to simply want Nate out of the way for a time, but clearly enjoying the upper hand, Flynn chides his horrified partner: "You think I didn't know about the ships from the beginning? Any schoolboy could've figured that out. Face it, genius. You've been played."Though Nate makes a valiant attempt to escape, he is cornered and arrested by the Turkish police.3 months later we rejoin Nate in a filthy, cramped cell, and find him amusing himself with a shadow puppet recreation of Flynn's betrayal - with a carthartic twist. As the Nate puppet draws a gun and shoots the Flynn puppet in a new fantasy denouement, his show is interrupted by a shadow falling across the wall. He turns to find Victor Sullivan standing outside the bars, the latter having arrived to bail out his old friend at great expense...but is significantly less overjoyed to cast eyes on Chloe.After convincing him of her innocence, the Australian informs Nate that Flynn and his client Lazarovic have found Polo's lost ships in Borneo, though they have yet to find the Cintamani Stone. This "Buddhist holy grail", as Chloe describes it, is a perfect raw sapphire worth hundreds of millions of dollars.Because Chloe possesses insider knowledge and unrestricted access to Lazarevic's camp through her continued association with Flynn, the trio concoct a plan to snatch the treasure for themselves. Lazarevic has paid enormous sums to collect Polo's lesser-known journals, and has pursued the Cintamani Stone for many years. These documents, Chloe tells Nate, can be found in his command tent at the Borneo excavation site. She will engineer a diversion; the rest is up to Nate and Sully.In a swamp pockmarked with excavation sites, the petrified remains of Polo's fleet protruding from their open graves, Nate and Sully prime explosives laid at the camp's perimeter. Reconnoitering the command tent through binoculars, Chloe's hidden microphone providing an audio feed, they observe Goran Lazarevic - a tall, powerfully built Eastern European in black combat gear - castigate Harry Flynn for his lack of progress, then coldly execute an employee accused of theft.Sully activates the detonator, and a series of explosions rock the jungle to the south of the command tent. Lazarevic and his men pour out to investigate, allowing Nate to slip into the headquarters. While Sully watches over him with a sniper rifle, Nate ransacks the extensive collection of documents. He's impressed by what he finds: "Man, this Lazarevic guy isn't screwing around, Sully," he enthuses. "You should see all this stuff. He's got files on every expedition to find Shambhala - all the way back to the 1600s."Reading a journal written by Marco Polo, Nate learns that he truly believed the tsunami to be divine retribution for the "dreadful cargo" carried by his ships, but that he purposely left the Cintamani Stone in Shambhala. He also writes of a "golden passport", a detail that Nate doesn't understand. Lazarevic, Nate decides, is seeking to retrace Polo's journey back to Shambhala.When he learns that Lazarevic's men have failed to find a single body in the shipwrecks, Nate intuits that the missing passengers must have fled to higher ground. Escaping the returning soldiers, Nate and Sully climb the mountain that overlooks the camp.Nate and Sully meet with Chloe at the entrance to a hidden mountain cave. Inside they encounter hundreds of skeletons, with one salient detail leaping from the macabre scene: each corpse has inexplicably blackened teeth.Lighting a piece of resin and placing it in a torch, Nate discovers the shadows of past slaughters: there is blood everywhere. This, the three speculate, was the site of a massacre - and the passengers appear to have killed each other. Following a bloody trail, they reach a room in which a single skeleton clutches a lacquered box in its arms. Inside, they find a Phurba: a Tibetan ceremonial dagger. The cloth it is wrapped in is a crude map, accompanied by a short message."Between Greater India and the province of Tibet," Nate translates, "lies a field of exquisitely finished temples, hundreds of gilded spires stretching as far as the eye can see. In all these many temples, only one conceals the secret path to Shambhala - and that path shall only be revealed to the pilgrim who bears the golden passport."At the last line, Chloe raises the Phurba in acknowledgement: it must be the "golden passport". The field of temples, Sully comments, is now a city in Nepal. With their next destination settled, the group departs...but encounters Flynn accompanied by Lazarevic's soldiers. Chloe holds the protagonists at gunpoint and hurries to present Flynn with the map to conceal her subterfuge, but artfully leaves the dagger in Nate's possession. After helping her friends to escape as they are escorted back to the camp, Chloe tells Nate to meet her in Nepal.Nate arrives in a war-torn Nepalese city, and is astonished by the devastation that awaits him. Chloe comments that the region has teetered on the brink of civil war for some time; Lazarevic simply needed to fan the flames. In the ensuing chaos, he and his army are tearing the city apart with near impunity as they seek the temple documented on the map found on Borneo.After surviving fraught encounters with Lazarevic's mercenaries, Nate is reunited with Chloe. He speculates that the emblem on the ceremonial dagger will correspond to another on the temple they seek - they just need a high vantage point to scan the city. Chloe suggests a nearby hotel. After a perilous ascent to the roof of the ruined building, Nate scours the urban sprawl and finds a temple marked with the symbol of the Cintamani Stone.After a protracted battle with a helicopter gunship, Nate is briefly separated from Chloe. As he walks through the side streets he is astonished to encounter Elena Fisher, accompanied by her cameraman, Jeff. She is in the region to obtain footage of Lazarevic, who she describes as a fugitive war criminal who NATO erroneously believes to have perished in a bombing raid. She intuitively suspects that Nate is somehow caught up in these events, despite his attempts to be evasive - and then Chloe arrives, confirming her suspicions.Nate insists that they must escort Elena and Jeff to safety. Though amused by his discomfort at the meeting of the two women, Chloe is extremely reluctant. "You don't always have to play the bloody hero, you know," she remarks, a little bitterly. "Just...dance with the one who brought you, all right?"Nate is intractable: "Yeah, I get it," he says with sincerity. Then firmly: "But they're still coming with us."As Lazarevic's forces attack once again, the four fight their way across the ravaged city to arrive at the temple.In the temple courtyard, Elena questions Nate about his motives, and he offers an honest account - much to Chloe's annoyance. Elena is nonplussed: "So let me get this straight - you're competing with a pyschopathic war criminal for a mythological gemstone?"In turns amused, incredulous and resigned as she listens to Nate's explanations, Elena offers an insight into the brutal warlord's intentions: "This just doesn't add up, Nate... Lazarevic can't be after the money. He doesn't need it. You're missing something."Leaving the newcomers just inside the temple entrance, the protagonists enter the main chamber where they find a massive statue: perhaps the same wrathful deity depicted on the ceremonial dagger. Nate aligns four of its six hands into the correct position, then experiences a brainwave: the Phurba dagger is a key! Sliding its triangular blade into a slot on the statue's chest, they unlock a hidden entrance.As they enter the subterranean tunnels, Nate notices a relief of a tree on a wall, which he finds strangely incongruous. After some further exploration, Nate opens a hidden shaft leading to a domed chamber. Placing the Phurba dagger in a slot, Nate and Chloe gasps as the central floor area is revealed to be composed of thousands of tiny rods. These undulate and rise to form a relief map of a mountain range. A single beam of light from the roof above highlights a precise spot. Nate is excited: "Chloe, I know where that is!"On a map depicting a Himalayan mountain range stolen from Lazarevic's camp, Nate compares the peaks, and marks the correct spot with an X. At that moment, Chloe's radio bursts to life with the chatter of Lazarevic's approaching forces, causing her and Nate to fight their way back to the surface.In the courtyard outside, Nate finds Elena frightened but unharmed - though Jeff is bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound. Chloe stridently insists that they can do nothing for him, and that they make good their escape, but Nate is resolute. With Lazarevic's forces swarming from all directions, Nate half-carries the dying cameraman as they flee from one skirmish to another.The group reaches a dead end: an apartment where the only exit is a 15-foot drop to the alley below that Jeff could not possibly survive. Nate gently props the cameraman against an overturned table. A panicked Chloe pleads with Nate to leave him behind, to escape before it is too late... and then they hear the sound of footsteps pounding up the stairs outside.Chloe desperately levels her gun at Nate and Elena as Flynn bursts in, flanked by mercenaries. A flicker of recognition registers on Flynn's face; he finally understands Chloe's deception, but nonetheless pulls her towards him. Nate and Elena, outgunned, drop their weapons. Flynn orders that Chloe be taken away to safety. As she leaves, Lazarevic strides into the room.The villian takes the Phurba dagger from Nate's belt, regards it briefly, then hands it to his burly lieutenant. His gaze alights on Jeff. "Did you carry him all the way from the temple?" he enquires. Nate remains silent. "Shame," intones Lazarevic flatly, drawing a handgun to execute the cameraman with a single shot.Nate attempts to bargain for Elena's life: without him, he tells Lazarevic, the Serbian cannot find the entrance to Shambhala. A cursory search, however, reveals the map that Nate is carrying...with his hastily scrawled X making a mockery of his attempted negotiation. Lazarevic strides from the room with both map and Phurba dagger in his possession, leaving Flynn to kill the prisoners. As he gloats, Elena seizes an opportunity and staggers him with a full-blooded punch to the face. With Nate, she leaps from the room into the alley below, and both run for their lives...After escaping their pursuers, Nate and Elena take a moment to catch their breath. Nate reflects on Flynn's orders when Chloe was escorted away - "Take her to the train" - and surmises that Lazarevic's personal army must be heading for a nearby rail yard.On arrival, they observe Lazarevic's men loading gear into the cars of a waiting train, and Flynn hustling a reluctant Chloe on board. The sheer numbers ranged against Nate, and the sudden departure of the train, forces abrupt improvisation. Riding in a 4x4 after a timely rescue by Elena, they draw alongside the train, allowing Nate to jump on board.Steadily fighting his way over and through the speeding train, Nate overcomes incredible odds to reach Chloe's car. There, he encounters Lazarevic's right-hand man, and the two engage in a savage fistfight. After seemingly besting this brute of a man, Nate retrieves the Phurba dagger from his belt, then incautiously turns his back. The antagonist, having swifty regained his wits, grabs the exhausted Nate and begins to strangle him. A gunshot rings out - and we see Chloe, pistol raised, as the henchman falls dead to the floor.Nate stumbles towards his saviour, then notes that her gun remains trained on him. "Get off the train, Nate," she says, quietly. "I never asked for any of your bloody heroics."Chloe refuses to leave with Nate, still angry for his earlier insistence on helping Elena and Jeff, risking her life. "Well, good luck with Flynne!" he barks angrily, turning away. "You two deserve each other."Nate's ire dissolves rapidly as he turns, exasperated, to reason with his old friend and sometime flame. As he begins to speak, another shot rings out - and Drake staggers from the impact. Chloe's eyes widen with horror as blood spreads across Nate's abdomen, then Flynn steps forward from behind her, gun raised. As the malign Brit pursues the gravely wounded Nate, Chloe desperately attempts to forestall the killing shot. With soldiers arriving from the opposite direction, Nate lies propped against a seat, desperately scanning his surroundings for a means of escape. His eyes alight on a collection of propane tanks... and with nothing to lose, he fires.The explosion rocks the train, decoupling it from the cars containing Flynn, Chloe and the main body of Lazarevic's forces. The forward section continues along the tracks, while Nate's section derails. As the tumbling wreckage ploughs into a snow bank, he blacks out.Revisiting the opening scenes of the story, Nate escapes the train car and retrieves the Phurba dagger. When Lazarevic's forces arrive to search for him Nate summons every last screed of willpower to defeat them, then slumps into the snow. As his vision fades once again, he sees the silhouette of a mysterious figure striding towards him...Nate awakes on a bed in a cozy Tibetan house. Groaning as he attempts to sit upright, he instinctively reaches for the wound on his stomach - but finds it healed.Though neither Nate nor his saviour Tenzin understand each other's language, they infer meaning through gestures and tonality. The latter escorts the former through his village, framed against the spectacular backdrop of the Himalayas. Inside another house he is reunited with Elena, who throws her arms around him in relief. They are taken to meet Karl Schafer: a German in his nineties, but with the bearing of a much younger man, clothed in traditional Tibetan attire. He greets Nate warmly."It appears you and I have much in common, Mr. Drake," says Schafer. "Seventy years ago, I came here just like you - carried into the village, near death, the last survivor of my company. I was hired to lead an expedition into Tibet, to find the entrance to Shambhala. What they really wanted was the Cintamani Stone."Though Nate insists that he has no desire to continue his pursuit, Schafer is powerfully persuasive: Lazarevic must be stopped. "Some of the most fearsome rulers through history have possessed only a fraction of the Cintamani Stone," warns Schafer, "men like Tamerlane, Genghis Khan. If a mere sliver could bestow such power, what would a man become if he possessed the Stone itself?"Nate is doubtful, but Schafer insists that he accompanies Tenzin to the cave where the remains of his expedition can be found.After a perilous climb through an ice cave high in the mountains, Nate and Tenzin begin to find evidence of Schafer's expedition, but fail to discover the "proof" that the German spoke of. Nevertheless, deep inside the cave, a hideous monster - its apelike body covered in coarse hair, a skeletal visage crowned by massive curled horns - bowls Tenzin from its feet and roars, revealing a mouth full of jagged teeth. Nate fires on the creature with a Luger pistol found on the corpse of a mummified, long-dead German. Though shot several times and stabbed by Tenzin, the duo cannot kill the creature, and succeed only in driving it away.Further into the cavern, they ascend a stone staircase to reach arcane ruins presumable belonging to a long-lost civilisation. Tenzin and Nate activate massive ancient mechanisms as they travel through the imposing caverns, eventually opening a secret chamber. Inside, Nate finds several frozen bodies, with a cursory examination revealing that each one died from a gunshot wound. They are all dressed in 1930s mountaineering garb. This, Nate concludes, is the final group from Schafer's expedition.Tenzin finds a book. Its cover, warped and stained with age, depicts a tree in the shape of a T. Tenzin taps it quizzically, and Nate identifies it as the Tree of Life. Nate regards the chamber more closely, and sees the Cintamani Stone everywhere, each time held by a seemingly demonic figure somehow anointed and transformed by its power. Inside the book, images depict powerful characters holding it aloft, bathed in its aura, as they lay waste to those who oppose them.Realisation dawns: "Tenzin - Schafer did this," says Nate, urgently. "Schafer killed them. It was the only way to stop them."Bestial howls fill the cavern. Nate and Tenzin rush to escape to the surface as the unearthly creatures hunt them. As they look down to the valley below, they see Tenzin's village in flames...Back in the village, Nate meets briefly with a panicked Elena, then rushes to find Schafer and Tenzin's daughter. Aiding the villagers in their defense against Lazarevic's mercenaries as they search, Nate and Tenzin work together to first evade, then destroy a tank as it devastates the settlement. With the attack apparently repelled, an overjoyed Tenzin is reunited with his daughter. However, the reason for Lazarevic's sudden departure soon becomes clear: he has claimed the Phurba dagger and taken Schafer hostage.Nate and Elena leap into a truck to give chase; they barely escape with their lives when an explosion sends their vehicle careening over a cliff edge. Viewing the road ahead through binoculars, Nate sees Lazarevic with Schafer outside a long-abandoned cliff-side monastery.Nate and Elena continue their pursuit, tracking Lazarevic's company through the ancient monastery, while eliminating or evading those left behind to stop them. They eventually find Schafer near death, having been brutalised and abandoned by Lazarevic. "Did you find my expedition?" he rasps, struggling to breathe. "You understand what I had to do? If they had found the stone, it would have changed the course of history."Schafer tells Nate that the monastery hides the secret path to Shambhala and, with his final words, pleads with him to stop Lazarevic, then destroy the Cintamani Stone. Nate remains cynical, but is swayed by the sheer force of the German's conviction. "He believed it - that's enough for me."Nate and Elena separate, with the former pursuing the Phurba dagger, and the latter seeks the hidden entrance. On his way to the dilapidated tower where Lazarevic, Flynn and Chloe are located, he observes scenes of slaughter as the horned beasts he encountered earlier massacre Lazarevic's men.Entering the tower via a hole in the wall, he eavesdrops as Lazarevic lambasts Flynn for failing to find the entrance. Fortuitously, Flynn leaves to speak to Lazarevic as he stalks from the room, leaving Chloe with the Phurba. As soon as the coast is clear, Nate drops down to confront the Australian. Though reluctant - "How am I supposed to explain where it's gone?" - she surrenders the ceremonial blade to Nate.Nate and Elena reconvene to open a secret entrance beneath a tree in the courtyard, before entering the subterranean tunnels beneath the monastery. They arrive in a circular chamber,but, poised to open the entrance to Shambhala, find themselves helpless to resist as Lazarevic and his men pour in. Though the villian attempts to toy with Nate, engaging him to choose between rescuing Elena or Chloe, Nate boldly strides forward to open the entrance, adeptly defusing the situation.In the caverns beyond, the path lies open - and then a mechanism activates, rotating the stone bridge to prevent further passage. Nate is sent with Flynn to restore it to its previous position. The two trade barbed comments as they negotiate the hazardous tunnel, hostility dripping from every insult and riposte. After realigning the bridge, though, they are forced to fight side by side as the horned monsters attack. Armed with just pistols, they can only briefly deter the creatures from their relentless assaults... but then Lazarevic enters, and calmly kills them with powerful incendiary blasts from his shotgun.Lazarevic strides over to a horned creature and grabs its jaw, pulling its head back. All present are astonished as he rips a mask aside to reveal a human face: it is a man clad in a costume, his teeth stained black in the same manner as the skeletons encountered in Borneo. "Scarecrows," Lazarevic laughs to himself. "Guardians to frighten trespassers."As Lazarevic's men open the gates to Shambhala, they are greeted by an incredible vista. The valley is framed by snow-capped peaks, but the ancient city that lies in the basin is awash with verdant greenery.The villian is satisfied, but unmoved by the beauty he beholds. Though Flynn risks his life to rescue Chloe, threatening to withdraw his support should she die, the warlod rounds on Nate and Elena. But as Lazarevic brings his weapon to bear, his murderous focus is disturbed by a sudden rain of arrows. Shouting and whooping in an indecipherable tongue, a band of giant, heavily muscled Guardians - the men who, outside, occupied the horned suits - pepper the crowd with their primitive weapons. In the unfolding chaos, Chloe savagely elbows Flynn aside with a sharp blow to the nose, then escapes with Nate and Elena to the city below.The three push further into the ruins, where Nate discovers pockets of the blue resin encountered throughout the journey. He identifies it as sap deposited by the tree roots; when shot, it creates a blinding flash, causing nearby roots to retract.After pinpointing their destination, they fight their way to a distinct pyramidal temple in the distance.Inside the temple, they find the enormous Cintamani Stone set in a stone pillar resembling a tree. Nate immediately senses that something is wrong, and then experiences a tumbling sequence of revelations. The Stone is not sapphire, as Marco Polo believed, but amber: fossilised resin, once tree sap.Nate rushes outside, his companions trailing behind in confusion. "How could I have missed it?" he berates himself. "There's not actually a Stone - it's the resin. The sap - from the Tree of Life."And then, they see it: the tree in the courtyard below. Looking around it, they realise that it has grown rampant with age, its roots penetrating every part of the crumbling city.They observe Lazarevic approaching the Tree of Life. Nate lowers his binoculars in shock as he intuits the warlord's intention. "Oh my God - the black teeth," he exclaims. "The black teeth, on those Guardian things...and the bodies in Borneo. They ate resin, and it changed them somehow."A voice behind them causes them to spin, as Flynn emerges from concealment. He is wounded, bleeding profusely. He slides his back against a pillar to slump to a sitting position, his strength waning. Elena rushes to his aid, and attempts to reason with him... but Flynn produces a grenade, its pin removed. With a final parting quip, he allows it to drop to the ground. Nate and Chloe are merely bowled over by the blast, but Elena is badly injured.Nate fights Lazarevic's men to clear a path for Chloe to carry Elena, and the three reach a bridge leading to the exit. There, Nate insists that Chloe escape with Elena... and returns to confront Lazarevic.Nate descends into the chamber beneath the Tree of Life, the tree's roots descending as columns from above. At the center of the chamber, below the main trunk, is a pool of luminous azure sap.Beside the pool stand Lazarevic and his remaining men. The warlod cups his hands into the liquid and drinks deeply. He becomes rigid as the elixir enters his body... then relaxes. His eyes flash with a luminescent glow as Nate, astonished, watches the scars covering his face and arm spontaneously heal. Lazarevic looks thoughtful, then calls out: "Drake!"Sensing that the opportunity for a surprise attack is passing, Nate pops out from cover and fires three rounds into Lazarevic's chest, the latter flinching momentarily - then shrugging off the inconsequential injuries. Desperation is followed by a flash of inspiration, and Nate fires into the azure pool. It explodes in an eruption of blue-white flames, consuming Lazarevic and his men.Spared the force of the blast, Drake exhales in relief as he looks down at the broken corpses, but Lazarevic's limbs begin to inexplicably twist and straighten. He rises unbowed - and seemingly immortal.With Lazarevic impervious to bullets Nate survives by shooting pockets of resin, repeatedly engulfing his crazed adversary in blue flames as he is stalked through the chamber. In this protracted and vicious encounter, the warlord appears more determined to brutalise and humiliate his opponent than kill him outright. As the battle reaches its climax, the chamber ablaze as the Tree of Life enters its death throes, Lazarevic slumps bloodied but defiant to his knees. He taunts his adversary to deliver the coup de grace, but Nate declines... then backs away carefully as the furious Guardians pour into the chamber, tearing the warlord to shreds as they are consumed by the spreading fire.As the Tree of Life dies, the entire valley is convulsed by tremors as its roots retract, pulling the city apart. Nate, though bloodied and bruised, makes a desperate sprint to safety. Reunited with Chloe and Elena, the three survive a last encounter with an enraged Guardian before escaping to the monastery above.Exhausted, Nate lays Elena down gently and kneels beside her. She is pale and unconscious as the distraught Nate holds her close, while Chloe looks on with grim sympathy. The scene fades...Back in the Tibetan village, Tenzin congratulates Nate; his reply in his friend's tongue suggests that time has passed since the escape. Chloe approaches to stand with Nate, and enquires if he truly loves Elena, though it is clear she already knows the answer. Before he can reply, we see the reporter - still recovering from her injuries - walking towards them, supported by Sully.Chloe takes her leave with a word of advice: "Just do yourself a favour, cowboy - tell her," and walks away. She cannot, however, resist a parting shot. "But admit it," she calls playfully over her shoulder, "You're gonna miss this ass."After lamenting the lack of any riches to show for their escapade, Sully sets off in pursuit of Chloe, much to Nate and Elena's amusement. The two stare out over the beautiful Himalayan panorama, and share a kiss. Elena asks, on a scale of ten, how scared Nate was that she would die."Four," Nate replies."Four?" exclaims Elena. "You were at least an eight.""An eight?" queries Nate, doubtfully. "Those Guardian things were an eight."Elena is mock horrified, but curious: "What's a ten?""Clowns," confides Nate with a shrug."Clowns? Over my death?" exclaims Elena in disbelief."I-I don't like clowns," Nate admits, with a trace of shame.The scene fades to black as the two bicker playfully. | violence, humor, flashback | train | imdb | Not only because of the mind-blowing presentation Naughty Dog gave the gaming-press during the E3 event, but also because of the games' predecessor with which, despite having it's share of mistakes, they've set a pretty high standard for themselves.Well, Uncharted 2 blows that standard completely to pieces.
The formula used in part 1 has been tweaked & perfected in every aspect of the game-play, characters, plot, visuals, voice-acting, humor and the list just goes on.
(For one, the exploring/platforming/puzzling & gun-play parts are well balanced now.) From the gorgeous, epic graphics & score to the smallest audio & story details, you can just sense the love they've put into making this game..which is not just a game anymore, really.
And just in case you're wondering, you don't necessarily have to play Drake's Fortune before playing Among Thieves, although I highly recommend it.So, the conclusion is pretty simple and straight-forward; If you are a PS3 owner, go and buy this game today!.
All new characters that will make the story even more interesting and also, the music used is amazing.Uncharted has done it again, by far, the best PS3 game released in 2009.
I am sure it will be very difficult to build a better game, that's why I gave this game a 10 as I cannot even find one negative thing about it.Excellent job Naughty Dog, you did it again!.
For those of you who have a PS3 at home---Uncharted II: Among Thieves is the Action/Adventure game of a lifetime.The writing is far superior to any game ever made.
A game that once you are done you feel good about it.Of course it is only on the PS3 and it will be the best Action game of all time---I feel sorry for those who do not have a PS3 to experience it---but if you have a friend who has one, see if he/she will let you come over and experience one of the best console games of this generation.Uncharted II:Among Thieves----10/10 stars---awesome If this is made into a movie, the voice actors look the part and would be the best choices for the roles..
Uncharted 2 Among Thieves may well be the best PS3 game to date, although such a compliment will raise the skepticism of both XBOX fans and some MGS fans in your living room.I have to admit that included me, a MGS fan who considered MGS4 the end of my gaming career.
First off, Uncharted 2 might be the first "Jaw-dropping" visual experience I've had in playing a video game.
It's a proof that graphics alone can make a difference in a game and make a game shine.That's not saying the other parts of Uncharted 2 are not good.
The characters-centered presentation never gets old, just like the distinctive personalities of Nathan Drake, Elena and Chloe.
Critics said based on the trailers that it looked like Lara Croft had a sex change and that it would lack originality.When the game was actually released however the critics were silenced and the title was critically acclaimed.A sequel was inevitable and unsurprisingly was met with positivity once again, but why?Uncharted can be compared to Tomb Raider, they are hugely similiar titles but in this guys opinion Uncharted has far better plots.Uncharted 2 see's Nathan Drake and familiar faces travel the world in search of Marco Polo' lost fleet.
Once again the game is enormous in size, wonderfully written, full of likeable characters, decent puzzles and a wealth of originality.Ontop of this is flawless voice acting led by Nolan North and the husky goddess Claudia Black.Uncharted 2 delivers as successfully as the first game and as a whole is near flawless.
A Summary:Uncharted 2 is a perfect mix of action, puzzles, funny moments, and multiplayer, You play as Nathan Drake, Who is basically the personality and sense of humour of John mcClane (Die Hard), The Charm of Indiana Jones, The gun-slinging-ness of James Bond, and The Climbing talents of Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), Faith (Mirror's Edge), Ezio Auditiore (Assasin's Creed 2), and Altiar (Assasin's Creed) rolled into one.Characters:This game has LOADS of characters, some old, some new, and all brilliant, the voice acting is spot on, and you will never find friendlies running into your line of fire.Animation/Graphics:An awesome frame rate, excellently smooth 720p graphics, and Bright colours, along with the same wet engine (your clothes get saturated when you decide to take a swim) and with a new snow engine,(you get coated in snow, then it melts, and then your wet)Plus, all environments are colourful and interactive.Handy things/fun gizmos:There is a machinima mode that lets you create films with the characters (check out "Drakes Ps3" on YOUtube for a brilliant example)There is Lip-syncing, meaning what you say moves the character's mouth.26 story-mode levels, (26!!) and loads of maps online.Many varied online modes, Eg: Plunder (C.T.F with a small, heavy golden statue)There are also co-op modes, but, instead of playing the story mode, you play in segments.There is a costume select in the online mode, from Jeff to Skeletons and everything in between!There is even an Uncharted 2 Twitter account built INTO THE GAME that lets you post your progress through the game.Critisisms: Very few, I found that online, many times you can be shooting at an enemy, yet they never seem to die, there is a martyrdom-esquire perk called Revenge, (I think thats what its called) The characters online, and in the single-player costume select, don't get wet.
This happened to me once, I was demoted because I quit an online match early, going from rank 7, back to rank 1, thats quite a harsh punishment, for such a small accident.Overall:I loved this game, and I've gotten over some of the criticisms, and the game has a lot of replay value, so, if you'll excuse me, I'm getting ready for my 5th playthrough of Uncharted 2: AMONG Thieves, on crushing.
Nolan North does a great job voicing the character Nathan Drake and his dialogue is superb; very realistic.
Personally I'd love to see Nolan North play Nathan Drake in the movie.
Eventually Nate has been double crossed and what follows is one of the most amazing,intense, and thrilling story to be told in a video game.Gameplay consists of 4 things duck and cover gun-play, stealth, puzzle solving and parkour style navigation through environments (my personal favorite) I was just amazed on how much variety there was in the game play department and was just unprepared for it so much.
Now keep in mind this is all happening in real time and it's not a cut-scene.The characters in the game are developed pretty well and the voice acting is some of the best i've heard in a video game in a long time and really helps develop the story greatly when it comes to cut-scenes.
This is actually one of the video games that i wouldn't mind to sit back and watch the cut-scenes it feels like you're watching a live action movie almost.
Well the game goes here and there as Nate must maneuver through a war torn city, have a very cool train fight scene, and end up in the mountains in search of treasure.
At times I was thinking "why the heck can't they make movies this good?" Nathan is also a very funny and great video game character and it was nice to see a couple of familiar faces back from the previous game.
It's just a shame that there's not much replay value to the game as it's rather easy to finish.The adventure this time focuses on Marco Polo's mysterious voyages in the 13th century and the Tree of Life.
But beyond this I am sorry to say that Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has little to offer aside from an online multi-player mode, which I am not interested in.I still highly recommend the game and it's an essential purchase for any PS3 owner, whether you liked the first game or not.Graphics A+ Sound A+ Gameplay A Lasting Appeal B.
The original uncharted while a good game in it's own way was flawed in certain places to prevent it from becoming a classic.
It's a lot more epic with it's set pieces, the storyline is more engaging, the characters and voice acting is stronger and the overall gameplay is a lot more fun.
so when i played uncharted 2 i didn't know what to expect and i was blown away by this MASTERPIECE and these are reasons why uncharted 2 is my favorite game GRAPHICS: back in 2009 i have never seen anything like it before it's just gorgeous no more words.
GAMEPLAY: uncharted 2 is a special game because of it's multiple game play styles you have cover based shooting, platforming,hand to hand combat, puzzle solving,stealth and they are all done really well.
STORY: i honestly don't care about stories in video games but uncharted 2 story kept me waiting too see what's gonna happen next and most games don't do that for me and the voice acting is incredible.
SET PIECES: OMFG is what sums uncharted 2 unbelievably epic moments i wont spoil anything but man they blew me away so there you have it uncharted is my favorite game of all time for these reasons..
It looks substantially better than the first game, and it uses this to great use in its unforgettable set-pieces, beginning from the first time you press 'Start', and it also uses tension a whole lot.
The climbing is extremely fluid, the puzzles are good and this is the only game in the Uncharted trilogy to master the precise controls required of a game.
Improved Game Play Makes Uncharted 2 a Worthy Successor.
Besides I don't think people are playing Uncharted for the over arching story but instead the action and the funny lines Nathan Drake has to say.
I haven't played upon it's release back in 2009 and i just picked this up now in 2016 along with "Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection".
It is easy to play and is probably Naughty Dog's best game.Nathan Drake is back and this time he meets up with 2 thieves, Chloe and Finn - they are trying to recover a lost stone that was reputed to have a supernatural power that wiped out most of Marco Polo's ships which apparently is worth a fortune which after getting thrown in jail means that Drake and Elena and sometimes Chloe have to get the stone before Finn's client - a ruthless dictator because it turns out that finding the lost city around the stone would mean turning him invincible.The plot is really stock of a couple of people find and get treasure against every odd given to them.
In all honesty, I've heard they're making an Uncharted movie and if it's anything like this (which being a video game movie I'll highly doubt) then I will see it in a heartbeat..
After playing the first Uncharted and not enjoying it I wasn't looking forward to this game, shame on me.
It is highly overrated, and once again has repetitive game play, just like the original.
I never seen such a great snowy graphics in any other game till now and i hope i can see such a amazing graphics only again on uncharted 3...Whole game is like seeing a Awesome Hollywood movie...I LOVE UNCHARTED 2 !!!Story: 10, Graphics: 10, Sound: 10, Gameplay: 10, Multiplayer:9.5 (It would be more fun if it have more than 10 players battle),Overall: 10..
Through flashbacks and gameplay in those flashbacks, you wonder what on Earth happened to your character (Nathan Drake) to see him near death and abandoned at the start of the game.Graphics: Whilst the first game's graphics were pretty good, Uncharted 2 just looks so much more sumptuous, especially during the cinematic cut scenes.
Brilliant quality.Strengths of the game: * Brilliant character animation and voice acting by the cast...it comes across as a big budget Hollywood movie.* Improved combat mechanics...it's a bit like Metal Gear Solid 3's combat mechanics...not as sophisticated as that, but an improvement over the mechanics of the first game nonetheless.* Variety in game play...driving sections, leaping from moving cars sections etc.Weaknesses of the game: * You get some novel enemies in this game...the first time you fight those blue people you really are left to flounder, clueless, as to how to defeat them.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is one of the best games that I have ever played on any console.You follow Nathan Drake on an even bigger adventure then the last as you follow the trail of Marco Polo to the legendary city of Shambhala(Shangri-La).
Climbing is easier to master, the enemies are somewhat easier to kill, fighting is faster and more fun to use, the graphics look even more beautiful then before and if I really went into everything about what makes this game so great it would take awhile.
This just goes to show that the character is more than a collection of polygons and really makes you believe that he is Nathan Drake, the person, whether you think of him as charming or as annoying is up to your tastes but you will feel these ways about a person.This is a good game, a great one even, but there is just a sense of predictability to the plot that keeps it from being a ten from me but go judge it for yourselves.
This is one of the best video games I have ever played and it is so good that you'll be playing to know what happens next.The game has one of the best intros in any games we begin with Nathan Drake the Uncharted Main Protagonist as he awoke to find himself wounded only to realize that is the least of his troubles as he finds himself hanging over a cliff and he is inside a train.
Uncharted 2 really awards you for playing, sure you'll run into some bumps in the road but never the less the game will reward you.
The game play for the game has a mix of action, third person shooter, stealth, and puzzle solving and it's best to get a guide for this game because the puzzle can be really challenging and will test your gaming skills you have to be a pro to get them rightI just love the game play it really everything you could ask for in a video game like this as you also collect treasures along the way.As soon as you pop in the game you will be blown away by the phenomenal graphics.
The characters who were motion captures by the voice actors themselves really make it feel like you were watching a movie during the cut scenes and watching a play as well.
Just playing the game gives it justice for how well the game looks every thing about the graphics is a winnerThe Voice acting is also top notch as each cast member really brought their characters to life often times you'll forget you're playing a game as the cut scenes are really well done brought the story of the game to full attention, it goes to show how well cut scenes can be done if you take the time to make it feel like a reward to the player and the voice acting is so good that you would play the game just to listen to the work.
It's easy to see why Drake is a enjoyable character along with Elena Sully and Chloe who each brought something special to the game and Lazarevic is one of the most cold hearted, ruthless, pure evil and stone cold villains I have seen ever in a video game The music in the game is excellent as you get the feel the emotion in the work of each piece you hear in the game also the controls take time to get use to but once you master them you'll in for a epic time.Uncharted 2 made me a fan of the series there is so much to be said about the game that you will become one as well.With phenomenal voice acting, Excellent game play, well crafted story and epic game play you will be happy you pick up this game, I know I was this is one of the reasons to own a PlayStation 3I give Uncharted 2: Among Thieves an 9 out of 10.
this game is amazing the story you can't say nothing bad about this story the story is like a what a normal action adventure should be like in a game the best part about this game is the stealth attacks where you sneak behind enemies and kill them you can drag them off cliffs the graphics are excellent spot on can't say nothing bad about it at all the graphics are like what a action adventure setting should be like the puzzles can get dull and frustrating at times but that is OK because that's what action game should be like yes it copies Lara croft sometimes but that doesn't mean it's a bad game the controls are amazing you can get to cover in any way you want like swapping from one wall to the next there were some 1 or 2 minor glitches but other then that can't complain the music suits the game can't complain about that i haven't played online on this game but i'll give it a try the voice acting again can't complain and there is sometimes witty banter between the characters for someone to cheer up when you're depressed overall game score 9.5/10 it would have gotten 10 if they fixed the minor glitches it's not to often don't worry about that i would recommend you buy this game and try it out you won't disappointed!.
Where "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune" was a wholeheartedly engaging (and novel) gaming experience, "Among Thieves" takes everything there is to love about the original and raises the bar to staggering heights.To say this game is an improvement is a serious understatement. |
tt1260365 | On the Inside | Allen Meneric (Nick Stahl) is sent to a hospital for the criminally insane to be evaluated after he brutally murders his girlfriend’s alleged rapist. He very quickly becomes surrounded by evil psychopaths, people with seemingly mild personality disorders, sarcastic guards and indifferent doctors.
In a courtyard Allen has a chance meeting with Ben (Pruitt Taylor Vince). Ben's outgoing pleasant nature helps to initiate a friendship with Allen who is more inclined to keep to himself. Ben's state of mind, however, fluctuates and leads to endless droning, short-term memory loss, and occasional catatonic episodes as the film progresses.
Ben introduces Allen to Carl Tarses (Dash Mihok) who strikes fear into everyone he meets. He has deeply rooted emotional problems from parental abuse in his childhood. Terrorizing people gives Carl a sinister form of satisfaction. Things erupt between Carl and Allen after Carl describes some of his prior heinous acts to him.
Allen's good behavior gets him transferred to a minimum security section of the hospital where low risk males and females are able to interact. There he meets Mia (Olivia Wilde) who is both beautiful and bipolar. Mia and Allen instantly fall for each other and their budding romance causes them to smile and laugh for the first time. In a tragic twist of fate, Allen and Mia's private encounter, arranged by Mrs. Standings (Joanne Baron), a sincere and caring staff member, is violently interrupted by Tarses as he attempts to escape from the hospital. | romantic, murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1129442 | Transporter 3 | The film begins with a ship in the ocean. Two workers think that they are transporting alcohol, and want to have a little taste. They open a container and find numerous drums inside. One of the drums is knocked over. They pick it up and open it, only to get a face full of toxic waste. The captain and crew hear an alarm go off and put on gas masks. They find the two workers, dead next to the open drum. The captain has the bodies thrown over the side of the ship. Elsewhere, Malcolm (David Atrakchi) drives his car to a police checkpoint. A cop requests to see his passport, and he shows it to him. The cop sees a woman sleeping in the backseat, and Malcolm says that shes tired from partying last night. The cop lets Malcolm through the checkpoint.Frank Martin (Jason Statham) and Inspector Tarconi (François Berléand) enjoy a boring day of fishing in the ocean. They are at the spot that Tarconi used to fish with his father, and is surprised that they havent had any bites yet. Eventually, Tarconi gets a bite and Frank gets all excited, telling him to fight for the fish. Elsewhere, Malcolm gets to another police checkpoint and shows his papers to a cop. However, the cop tells Malcolm to get out of the car and bring his papers inside so that they can inspect it. He also tells him that the woman in the back needs to come inside as well. Malcolm looks nervous, and then he winds up speeding past the checkpoint. The cops chase Malcolm through the streets, but wind up crashing into a van. Tarconi, after losing the fish, gets the call about the chase and is surprised that Frank was not the driver. He tells Frank that hes going to have to cut their fishing day short, and they depart just as Frank gets a bite. At the airport, Johnson (Robert Knepper) and his men arrive in a private jet. When asked what his purpose is in the country, Johnson says that hes there for environmental protection. During this time we see Minister Leonid Vasilev (Jeroen Krabbe) talking with reporters about his plan to help save the environment. Vasilev goes into his office and finds a confidential envelope waiting on his desk. The envelope starts to ring, and he finds a cell phone inside. Johnson is on the other end of the line, and is watching Vasilev from across the street. Johnson works for a company that Vasilev refused to do business with, since they would cause harm to the environment. Johnson has been hired to convince him to reconsider, and tells him to look at the picture inside the envelope. Vasilev is shocked by what he sees, and Johnson tells him that hell be in contact with him.At night, Frank falls asleep watching a fishing show on TV at his house. He wakes up, and hears tires screeching. Suddenly, a car crashes into his house. The driver is Malcolm, and he is bloodied from the crash and having been shot. As Frank recognizes him, we see a flashback to when he was approached for a job. Frank declined, and instead gave the man Malcolms name and number to contact. The man was adamant that his boss wanted Frank because hes the best and wouldnt take no for an answer. Frank tried to leave, but became surrounded by henchmen in a room with a piano in it. They tried to make him reconsider, but Frank took off his jacket and beat the crap out of them all. Back to the present, Frank calls an ambulance to get help for Malcolm, who refuses to get out of the car. Frank sees that he has a metal device strapped around his wrist, and the paramedics show up. Malcolm, weak, tries to tell them something about the car but the paramedics load him into the ambulance and start to drive away. Frank inspects the car and then sees Valentina (Natalya Rudakova) in the backseat. He tries to get her to get out of the car so that he can help her, but she shows him that shes also wearing a metal device. Frank realizes that somethings wrong and runs after the ambulance. After a certain distance, the ambulance explodes. He goes back into his house and is immediately knocked out by someone.When Frank wakes up, he finds himself in a room wearing nothing but his underwearand a metal device around his wrist. He finds a suit in the closet and puts it on. Johnson walks in and says that he would like to hire him for a job, since Malcolm (his replacement) failed. Frank maintains that hes unavailable. Becoming annoyed with a henchman, Johnson shoots him in the forehead and then points the gun at Frank. He tells him that he has three seconds to accept the job or hell kill him. Frank has no choice but to take the job, under the condition that he drives his own car. Johnson had a feeling that he would want his car, and so he leads Frank to a garage. Johnson has had his men take out all the weapons from the car and has installed his own GPS. He also gives him a wad of cash for gas/food, and a cell phone that will only call Johnsons number. He tells Frank to think of this as more of a mission, and tells him to not disappoint. He also mentions that the metal device around his wrist is a bomb, and if he gets more than 75 feet away from the car, hell explode. Hell be released after completing the mission. Frank is about to get in when he sees that Valentina is sitting in the passenger seat. He says that he works alone, but says that hell take the girl when Johnson threatens to kill her. He gets into the car and, after loading two bags into the trunk, tells Frank to get driving. Meanwhile, Tarconi arrives at Franks house and wonders what the hell happened there. He has his cops set up a crime scene, and a cop tows away Malcolms car. However, the tow truck is blocked off by a car and the cop is shot through the windshield. The gunmen remove the GPS from Malcolms car and drive off.After getting through a police checkpoint, Frank calls Johnson and he tells him to punch in a code for the GPS. The next location he will have to go is Budapest (Hungary). Frank repeatedly tries to get Valentina to talk to him about whats going on, but she refuses. Meanwhile, Tarconi has found the tow truck and the dead cop inside. He reviews video footage from the tow truck and sees who the gunmen were. He also sees their license plate, and has his cops try to find them. Frank drives off the chosen path and Johnson is made aware of it, since his men are tracking the car. Johnson sends some henchmen to persuade Frank to get back on course, but warns his men not to kill him since they need him. Frank drives to a garage owned by his friend Otto (Timo Dierkes), whos also a tech whiz. He shows Otto the bomb around his wrist, and asks him if he can remove it. Otto cant, and says that he knows the Pentagon has been working on something like it in secret. He says that theres a transmitter somewhere in the car, and then Johnsons goons show up. Frank orders Otto to search his car for the transmitter while the henchmen order Frank to get driving. They grab wrenches & poles, and attack Frank. As he beats his way through the men, Frank takes off his clothes and uses them as weapons. Eventually, he winds up shirtless and a giant henchman shows up. He throws Frank through a wall and beats him up. Frank tries to fight back, but his punches/kicks seem to hardly have any effect on him. The giant winds up getting stuck in the floor, and Frank bashes his head with a shovel. As Frank gets dressed, Valentina has obviously become attracted to him and helps straighten his tie. Otto finds the transmitter, but if he removes it the bombs will go off. Frank and Valentina drive away.While Valentina takes a nap in the back, Frank calls Johnson and tells him that he wants to talk face-to-face. Johnson says that hell be at Budapest, and to wait for his call. Frank arrives in Budapest and then sees a nearby pay phone ringing. He exits the car to answer it, and Johnson says that hes been thinking about their arrangement. Hes starting to think that anyone with a drivers license can do the mission, and so in the vein of Donald Trump, he fires Frank. A henchman steals Franks car and drives away. Frank chases him on foot, desperate to remain within distance. Valentina wakes up and sees that the new driver is not Frank. She starts to fight with him, trying to get him to stop the car, as Frank steals a bicycle and rides through a factory. Eventually, the driver stops to take care of Valentina. Frank rides his bicycle through a window, jumps through the drivers window, and kicks him out. Frank then drives off with Valentina. Meanwhile, the men that hired Johnson meet with Vasilev and order him to sign their contract, which also includes allowing the ship from the beginning to enter port without question. Vasilev buys some time by requesting 24 hours to review the contract. Also, Frank contacts Tarconi and informs him of the situation at hand. Frank talks with Johnson again, and agrees to do the mission. The next location he has to go to is Bucharest. Tarconi and his cops were listening in on the call, and are doing their best to trace Johnsons location but its difficult since he keeps on moving.Valentina says that shes hungry and describes what she wants to eat. She becomes more upbeat and puts on some make-up. When she does, she finds that she still has some drugs. She offers Frank a pill, but he refuses since hes more focused with driving. He tells her not to take the pills, but she does anyways. Valentina blasts some music and then says that she needs to pee. Frank pulls into a gas station and fills up the tank. Before Valentina goes inside, Frank reminds her not to go far from the car. Valentina goes inside the convenience store and pays for the gas. She eats some food and drinks some vodka in the back of the store. However, she is unable to get to the bathroom because its more than 75 feet from the car. Valentina resorts to pissing in the aisle while Frank becomes frustrated with her behavior. A car pulls up in front of the gas station, and a man gets out to piss on the side of the road. Frank gets suspicious and tells Valentina to get back in the car. She keeps on drinking the vodka and makes a scene at the gas pump. The guys in the car up ahead recognize Valentina and go into reverse. Frank throws the vodka away, shoves Valentina into the back, and speeds off. The other car tries to run Frank off the road, but fail. Frank calls Johnson and asks him why the car is chasing him. The guys in the other car are not Johnsons people, and so he tells Frank to drive faster while he figures out who they are. Two big trucks drive in both lanes on the road up ahead. Frank turns the car on its side and drives sideways between the trucks. He makes it past, and one of the trucks loses control. The other car chases Frank to a forest and fire at him with machine guns. Frank slams on the brakes just before the edge of a cliff. The other car drives over the cliff and explodes after falling.Frank rests his head on the steering wheel, and Valentina massages him because hes so tense. She then kisses the back of his neck, and Frank asks him what shes doing. She says that if theyre going to die, she wants to have sex one last time. Frank declines and gets out of the car. He looks in the trunk and finds that the two bags are filled with phone books. He then realizes that Valentina is the package hes transporting. She steals his keys and playfully walks away from the car. She says that she was turned on watching him fight shirtless earlier, and she wants him to do a striptease. Frank reluctantly takes off his shirt, but Valentina then requests a kiss. He kisses her, but she wants a kiss like he means it. Frank passionately kisses her, and they continue to make out even after he gets his keys back. Meanwhile, Johnson calls Vasilev and is furious that he sent some men to try to thwart his plan. Johnson says that if he ever wants to see his daughter Valentina again, hell have to play ball and sign the contract. Vasilev reveals that he knows who Johnson is and says that he wants to talk to his daughter before signing the contract. Johnson tries to call Frank, but hes too busy having sex with Valentina in the car. Hes also at a loss because since Frank is in the forest, hes out of range for them to track him.As Frank and Valentina overlook the valley, Valentina finally reveals what happened. She was at a nightclub partying with friends when someone gave her a drugged drink. She went to the bathroom and passed out. When she woke up, she was in the backseat of Malcolms car. She begged Malcolm to pull over and let her call her father. He did, even though it was against the rules. As she called her father, Johnsons henchmen showed up and chased them. They shot Malcolm in the back, and he told Valentina that he would make sure shes safe, which is why he crashed into Franks house. Frank and Valentina get back on the road, and Johnson calls them. He says that instead of going to Bucharest, hes going to take the next left and continue down the road. Valentina is afraid that they will kill Frank, but he tells her not to worry about it. Elsewhere, Tarconi visits Vasilev and works with him on getting his daughter back. Johnson calls and orders Vasilev to sign the contract, but he refuses until he hears Valentinas voice. He hangs up before Tarconi can trace his location. Frank winds up driving on a bridge, and becomes blocked on it (Johnson and his men are at both sides). Johnson orders Valentina to get out of the car and walk to him. Frank kisses her goodbye and tells her that hell be fine. Valentina walks over to Johnson, who removes her bomb, and spits in his face. Johnson punches her in the stomach and shoves her into a car. He then orders his men to kill Frank. They pump his car full of bullets, and Frank drives off the bridge into the water below. Johnson is satisfied, since hes dead either way (he stays, he drowns he leaves, he explodes).Underwater, Frank calls Tarconi and tells him where he is. Tarconi and the cops are ten minutes away and tell Frank to hang on. As Frank begins to drown, he swims to the trunk and takes out the two bags from earlier. He uses the air from the tires to blow air into the bags, which allows him to breathe. He then ties the bags to the car, and the air causes the car to float to the surface. Tarconi and the cops arrive just in time to see Frank & his car being pulled out of the water by a tractor. Frank gets a new pair of clothes and works on his car to get it running again. Meanwhile, Johnson and his men arrive at a train station. He tells a henchman to buy tickets for the next train, since they need to keep moving. The henchman annoys Johnson and he almost kills him, but stops when he sees witnesses around. While on the train, Johnson calls Vasilev and lets him speak with Valentina. Tarconis cops are able to trace Johnsons location to the train. Franks car starts again, and he speeds off to save Valentina. Johnson says that he really hates violence, since it causes more problems than solutions, but sometimes its necessary to get what you want. Valentina then sees that Frank is driving alongside the train and smiles. Frank drives up ahead to a bridge and then drives off it, landing on top of the train. He jumps through a window and is fired upon by the henchmen. Johnson holds Valentina at gunpoint, but she bites his hand and runs off into the other cabs. Frank kicks a helmet at a goons face, grabs a machine gun, and kills all the henchmen. Johnson gets to Valentina again, and Frank runs after him. However, he is forced to stop due to being 75 feet from the car. Johnson dares Frank to takes one more step, but Frank runs away.While Tarconi and the cops give chase to the train, they see Frank climb on top of the train and climb back into his car. Johnson separates the cabs so that Franks section drifts away from them. Frank manages to drive his car from the top of the train into the cab where Johnson and Valentina are. Frank then gets out and beats the hell out of Johnson. He tries to stab Frank with a knife, but Frank knocks it away and continues to beat him. Johnson lands on the car and Frank grabs the key to remove his bomb. He then ties Johnsons arm to the car, straps the bomb to his wrist, and puts the car in reverse. Johnson panics and gets his arm loose from the car before it falls off the train. He then realizes that he shouldve stayed with the car, since he becomes 75 feet from it. Johnson explodes, causing the train to come to a halt. Frank finds Valentina and kisses her. Tarconi rescues them and calls Vasilev, telling him that his daughter is safe. Vasilev rips up the contract, and the ship from the beginning is raided by the police. Some time later, we see Frank and Tarconi fishing again in the ocean. Tarconi notes that Frank is changing, and we see that Valentina is with them, sunbathing on the boat. The film ends with Valentina telling them what she wants to eat. | murder, stupid, violence, flashback, psychedelic, action, entertaining | train | imdb | They completely took the humour out of all the potentially very humorous moments through the more 'arty' editing, over the top score dramatic score (soundtrack definitely plays a big part of the different tone in the 3rd movie) and generally lousy script.This leads on to the pacing, which is far too slow at times.
Jason Statham is capable but the script can't really be saved here.So, a dramatically more realistic Transporter movie but sucked dry of all the humorous and fun tone that made the previous instalments so much fun.
As far as action films go it ticked all the boxes, plenty of guns, car stunts, good fights, romance and even some corny humour, and has a happy ending .........what do people expect ..........Sir Laurence Olivier doing bloody Hamlet?
Natalya could have been a fun character, without the bad accent and romantic twist to the plot.Please give us a Transporter 4 more in line with the previous two films!!.
Transporter 3 is over-the-top and cheesy at times, but if you don't mind those things in an action movie, then there is much entertainment to be found here..
Ready to watch an average entertaining movie, I didn't expect to see the best of the Transporter sequels.For once the script has been designed carefully, action and fight scenes happen logically, there is true suspense and we believe in the story.
Camera effects give fights some necessary depth, compared to other movies.The best of Luc Besson back at work.Do not pay too much attention to the low rating: It looks like the Transporter aficionados - used to pure raw action/no story "Chuck Norris" like - were disappointed.
Well, this is probably the best thing that could happen to this movie: Transporter 3 definitely got its level upgraded and targets a different audience.My advice to the producer: keep on the good work, and create a new movie based on the same pattern, but just don't name it "Transporter 4", so that you don't disappoint the "Missing in action" fans..
Created and written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen for three installments so far, the character of Frank Martin is a roguish looking strongman with a penchant for suiting up when going about being the best of the best in personalized delivery, with no questions asked, no names, and a whole host of other rules which he will of course break during the course of the movie.Like Bond, he drives a cool, sponsored signature car.
And when he gets the chance to, it's the same old one-man-surrounded-by-thugs routine where he effortlessly dispatches them all with aplomb.Such fight scenes are becoming common in The Transporter franchise, and Corey Yeun definitely needs to rejuvenate his action sequences designed for the franchise pronto.
And apart from that, we get the usual complementary car chases which seem to be rather standard with the usual camera shots and angles capturing the action too.Fans of the series and of Statham will no doubt make a bee line at the box office for this, but I suspect that should there be any more thoughts on extending the franchise beyond the three films, then while the formulaic plot format can be kept, the action better be innovative because nobody likes seeing the same thing twice.
Riding on after the fun and at times hilariously over-the-top "Transporter 2", Jason Statham is back as Frank Martin, aka, The Transporter in "Transporter 3." And, if you enjoyed the previous films, I can guarantee you will love this ride of mayhem.This time around, Martin has been kidnapped and forced into his new job by Robert Knepper's character, the villain known only as 'Johnson.' Johnson has slapped a chemical-bomb-bracelet onto Martin which will explode if he strays from his car by more than 75-feet- an insurance policy to make sure he completes his task- transporting a sexy young woman named Valentina (Natalya Rudakova) and two mysterious bags throughout parts of Europe, for reasons unknown.
While not as show-offish as the previous film, which had action in every-other-scene, this entry in the series definitely has its share of fist-fights and car-chases, explosions and gun-battles.
Though I will say the camera-work is sometimes sub-par, and sometimes a little too "Jason Bourne Shaky." But overall, if I wasn't told any different, I'd assume Leterrier was still directing, which is good, because a series like this should generally feel consistent.The story itself (written by "Transporter" and "Transporter 2" scribes Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen) is halfway decent for a silly, PG-13 action-fest, and ends up being much better than most will give it credit for.
I think this series, and particularly Statham, are not getting the attention they deserve.All-in-all, I liked "Transporter 3", it was a great ride filled with good action, cool characters and a silly but decent, cliché-ridden story.
I liked the previous Transporter films and this one is the best out of all of them not mainly because of the action but because this one had a better story-line than the first two.
The story is about Frank Martin has been pressured into transporting Valentina (by using a device which prevents him from moving 75 feet from his car or the bomb explodes) the kidnapped daughter of Leonid Vasilev the head of the Environmental Protection Agency for Ukraine, from Marseilles through Stuttgart and Budapest until he ends up in Odessa on the Black Sea. Along the way, with the help of Inspector Tarconi, Frank has to contend with the people who strong armed him to take the job, agents sent by Vasilev to intercept him, and the general non-cooperation of his passenger.
Statham again drives an armoured Audi S8 in the film.Other than the story the movie was loaded with ultra cool action sequences and spectacular stunts that will keep you in the edge of your seat.
I'm generally not really keen in action movies because they are all the same but Transporter 3 is different and I had a good time watching it.
After my crabbing that Quantum of Solace didn't give me the James Bond rush I expected from the series, I happily saw Transporter 3 with Jason Statham's taciturn, scowling super Fed-Ex-like operative, Frank Martin.He's low-rent Bond, but more Bond than Daniel Craig's current revenge-seeking, brooding, post-modern version of the ol' happy-go -fornicating super agent made mythic by the ironic Sean Connery version.
Critics criticize the Transporter films for the action being to unreal, well that is the point, it's not supposed to be taken seriously, It's just meant to be popcorn fun, nothing else.The best in the business is back, Frank Martin(Jason Statham) is kidnapped and knocked out, when he wakes up, he finds he has a bracelet attached to his arm, he finds he must deliver a package, and is told the bracelet on his arm is a bomb, and if he gets too far from his car, he will explode.
Will he get out of this alive, or will this be the last of Frank Martin, you'll half to see the movie to find out.The action was ten time more greater, and the fight were more intense also.
Jason Statham is top-notch as action hero who specializes moving goods of all kinds ,he's a tough man fighting stunningly .
More fast and furious action from Jason Statham, directed in this outing by Olivier Megaton (is that name for real?) The "Transporter" series is the bargain bin version of the James Bond films, but I enjoyed this film way more than the latest Bond, "Quantum of Solace." This installment exists as nothing more than a Jason Statham fetish movie.
The rambling conversations between the two leads (which probably take up 70% of the film) are completely pointless doing nothing to further the plot, resolve any conflict, and they certainly fail to entertain.During a fight scene there are no less than 10 cuts where they show her for a few seconds and she raises her eyebrows while ogling Statham.
By the end of the scene you want to cover your eyes each time they show her on the screen.By the point in the movie that Statham is strip-teasing for her, you're ready to head to the concession stand in the hopes they sell cyanide pills.
With the third instalment, new director Olivier Megaton fails to reach the heights of the second; and has created a bland and curiously empty entry.I am not what you would call a fan of the Transporter series; the first was dumb to a delirious extent, and the second while unbelievable incorporated more frequent action as well as a plot far too creative for what a film of such ilk deserved.
As such, we are left with a sans plot flick, light on action and the resulting product is less then engrossing.As we always do, we meet up with Frank Martin (Jason Statham), this time vacationing in Marseilles, fishing with his long-time friend Inspector Tarconi (Francois Berleand).
There was zero tension in the final confrontation between Frank Martin and Mr. Johnson, only the passage of time between the beginning of the confrontation and the obvious conclusion.As I said, I didn't have high expectations for this film, but I was looking forward to Jason Statham driving a car and kicking ass.
The is a pointless sex scene midway through which I think was there as a MacGuffin but fails and only takes from the characters.Had this been the first in the series, there may never have been a sequel, as it is, it's a poor follow up to the previous movies, lacking in action and direction.
I'll start off by saying that the first two Transporter films are 2 of my favorite action movies of the decade.
So it saddens me to say that the greatness of the Transporter series ends with the third installment, but it has nothing to do with Statham, who is at his best once again as the title character.When you've got a movie directed by a guy whose last name is 'Megaton', you know there's bound to be problems.
Saying a thing like this in a movie that is shown widely in both countries should really cost the writer a couple of hard burns in hell.The scene where Statham drives away from a Mercedes on a country road with the slut being drunk, giggling stupidly and turning the volume dial makes me want her character to die instantly even more than the constantly whining stupid boy from "The War of the Worlds"..
People were laughing during the love scenes at my screening, and I have to say, some of the lines were so unbelievable they made me cringe.The action sequences were great, but there were many times when the movie dragged on (hard to believe for being such a short film), and the action scenes couldn't make up for it.
The place where it needs to be original and truly creative is in the action scenes, that's why people will bother to see this movie, after all.And that's where "Transporter 3" fails and sinks into the mediocre depths that the two films preceding it enjoyably leaped over.
In "Transporter 3," Jason Statham returns to his signature role as Frank Martin, a professional courier and martial arts expert who delivers valuable packages for an exorbitant fee, "no questions asked." In this installment, he's actually being forced to drive some mysterious item from the South of France to Ukraine, accompanied by a freckle-faced cutie (Natalya Rudakova) whose mascara keeps running and who may actually be of more value than what is in the trunk.Despite the pretty scenery, "Transporter 3" is driven into the ground by a barely coherent storyline, near-comical chase and action sequences, and enough scowling Russian bad guys to single-handedly re-ignite the Cold War. Even Olivier Megaton's flashy, hurdy-gurdy directorial style can't jump-start a moribund gimmick that actually feels ripped-off from the far superior "Speed." Actually, one suspects that the real, unstated goal of the movie is to find as many reasons as possible for Statham to take his shirt off.A ludicrous time-waster..
Transporter3 doesn't fare any where near to the previous ones in the transporter series.The poor script can only be blamed for its failure to catch the eye of the viewers at the box office.Lack of a proper plot is evident from the incoherent scenes in the film.The duologue's are out of context many a time and hence dragging.Action sequences are a way too over the top and gives one the feeling that the stunts could have been more realistic.Statham has reiterated that he still has it in him to do daring stunts even at dis age of his.The character Valentina is the one that is the most annoying aspect of the film.An animated character which keeps on blathering all the time makes u lose interest in the film.The director could have portrayed the girl alongside Statham in a much better way.Some of the action scenes haven't even been properly thought out, thus inviting the viewers to ridicule these no sense scenes.The Audi car bumping onto the backside of a running train making its way right into it with ease wud have been difficult for even the makers of Audi to fathom.There are enough scenes in the film that anyone wud be able to point out in-order to state the flaws in its making.I wouldn't have wanted such a worthless film to be made for the transporter series considering the acclaim it had received for the previous flicks.Rather than going on a spree of making sequels without a clear cut story that cannot live up to the standard of its prequels,it would be cleverer for the directors to label it as a new offspring which would at least deter any cloud from shadowing the the series as a whole..
Either way, I saw 'Part 3' was on an online streaming service and decided to give it another go.Now, I think most of us won't expect the third outing of a B-movie type action franchise to rival Shakespeare, but - this time - I found it really good fun.
If you've seen either of the previous instalments then you'll know the drill: Jason 'The Stath' Statham plays a practically indestructible hero, Frank Martin, as he has to 'transport' a 'package' from Point to Point B.
I watch this movie last night and I love frank Martin and the transporter series.
Starting out with an unnecessary opening montage of cross-cuts between the character of Frank Martin, portrayed by perfectly in shape actor Jason Statham in his forerunner role, gone fishing and a tight alley car chasing enriched with cheap looking flashing forward cuts to save screen-time, the third installment of the "Transporter" movie series (2002-2008) can hardly come to pace before at approximately 00h22min the new mission for driver Frank Martin gets gun-to-the-head presented by a fairly performing antagonist under actor Robert Knepper, and becomes clarified; repetitive martial arts scenes choreographed by specialist Cory Yuen, who is not able to bring anything new to table for this picture, after extraordinary full contact action work for the first two installments, which saves "Transporter 3" only over some chemistry slowly build between actor Jason Statham and actress Natalya Rudakova as the character of Valentina and one of three car chases over an open country road toward a tumbling cliff before the first kiss between Frank & Valentina takes place, prevailing the otherwise poor script by producer Luc Besson and writer Robert Mark Kamen of being a fall-out with director Louis Letterier left to direct "The Incredible Hulk" (2008) and Olivier Megaton filling in as director uneventfully.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC).
I did not like either of the first 2 films , many plot holes , scenes completely clueless , special effects very bad .Today saw the third film without expecting good thing , but I was surprised .A very good and intelligent story , with a good connection between all the characters without too many plot holes .Well done fight scenes ( unique feature that I liked in the first 2 films )Good soundtrack .Negative point for me, bad special computerized effects in some scenes and screen plays, and tricks impossible as the car on 2 wheels for so long for example.For those who want to entertain with a good action movie and adrenaline , recommend , far more than the other first two films.7/10 Conrade !.
Jason Statham is his usual cool, cheeky self, losing his shirt several times and is just bad-ass sexy.I also enjoyed Natalya Rudakova as his love interest, she grew on me as the film progressed, unique looking girl.
Jason Statham is my favorite actor, and I love the transporter series, but this is ridiculous, she ruined the whole movie for me, it made me super ticked.
I remember one day when my brother in law told me to watch this great movie with action and fighting and the like and told me i wouldn't be disappointed.
Jason Statham is not a bad actor for action movies, but I think he should park his car and head for other things.
Transporter 3 is an action film starring Jason Statham as the no-nonsense hire-for-anything driver lead character.
Felt almost amateurish, and the car scene with the two trucks was filmed good but completely ruined by the editor.If you did not like the previous ones, you will definitely be disappointed.Music choices were good, Jason does his part, and the French cop probably the best actor in the movie.
I Am a huge fan of Jason statham and seen most of his movies, this one however was one that i just watched Last Night, i loved the first Transporter and The second was OK and enjoyable But this one....
First things first The Transporter was a great little action movie over the top sure but very enjoyable.
The only other thing I could find wrong with the movie was the fact that the film tried to give a environmental friendly feel (don't ask).There's one thing (other than Statham) that makes the Transporter series so great. |
tt0385002 | Hooligans | Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood), a journalism major, is expelled from Harvard University after cocaine is discovered in his room. However, the cocaine belongs to Jeremy Van Holden (Terence Jay), his roommate. Buckner is afraid to speak up because the Van Holdens are a powerful family, and Jeremy offers him $10,000 for taking the fall. Matt doesn't initially accept the money, but reconsiders and uses the money to visit his sister Shannon (Claire Forlani), her husband Steve Dunham (Marc Warren) and their young son, Ben (James Allison) living in London. There, Matt meets Steve's brother, Pete (Charlie Hunnam), an acerbic and imposing Cockney who leads the local football hooligan firm – Green Street Elite (GSE): a group of football supporters that arranges fights after matches – and teaches at a local school. Steve asks Pete to take Matt to a football match between West Ham United and Birmingham City, though Pete is reluctant to take a "Yank" to a football match, because of the xenophobic attitude of his friends. He is persuaded because Steve will only give the money Pete needs to Matt. When Pete changes his mind and demands the money from Matt a minor scuffle between the two ensues, where Pete quickly gets the upper hand and subsequently decides to take Matt to the football match, thinking he might learn something.
Matt meets Pete's friends and his firm in the Abbey, their local pub. The hooligans all befriend Matt, with the exception of Pete's stubborn right-hand man, Bovver (Leo Gregory). After a few pints of lager, they head to Upton Park for the match. After the match, Pete, Bovver, and the other firm members agree to go and fight some Birmingham fans, but Matt decides that it is not for him and tells Pete he is going to take the train home. On his way back to the underground, Matt is jumped by three Birmingham fans, who nearly give him a Chelsea grin (Glasgow Smile), but he is rescued by some GSE members, who are on their way to a larger fight. Though grossly outnumbered, the GSE manage to stand their ground until reinforcements chase off the Birmingham firm. Matt does well in his first true fight and is inducted into the GSE. After a row with Steve, Matt moves in with Pete, and the two exchange stories.
The GSE firm then head to an away game against Manchester United. Matt was not meant to come but ends up sneaking onto the train. Whilst on the train they are warned that 40 Manchester United firm members are waiting for them at the station singing "Where's your famous GSE!". Bovver hits the emergency stop button which allows the GSE to get off at an earlier stop (Macclesfield). Having failed to find a taxi, they persuade a van driver to take them into Manchester. Matt sits in the front of the van with the driver; the rest of the GSE are in the rear. As the van approaches the Manchester United fans, Matt tells them that they are moving equipment for a Hugh Grant film, so the fans let them through. When past them, he stops the van, opens up the back, and the GSE charge out to attack the United firm members. They win the fight and run away singing "There's your famous GSE!"
It is revealed earlier in the movie to Matt that the GSE's sworn enemy is Millwall's firm, led by Tommy Hatcher (Geoff Bell), with whom Bovver makes negotiations after getting jealous of Matt. After one of the members of the GSE see Matt meeting his father, a renowned journalist for The Times, for lunch, they assume Matt is a "journo" as well. Bovver informs Pete of this, and, when Steve finds out, he goes to the Abbey to warn Matt. Matt finds out that Steve used to be "The Major" of the GSE but quit following a match against Millwall, to which Tommy Hatcher brought along his 12-year-old son. The boy was killed in the ensuing fight by members of the GSE, causing Tommy Hatcher to "lose the plot", blaming Steve and the GSE for his son's death. After witnessing this tragedy, Steve left football hooliganism for good.
At that moment, Bovver and Pete arrive, get into a brawl within the Abbey, in which Bovver comes out defeated. Agitated, Bovver goes to Millwall's local and asks Tommy Hatcher to ambush GSE at the Abbey. Initially reluctant to get involved with an internal struggle within the GSE, Tommy Hatcher agrees upon learning that Steve Dunham is there. Pete angrily confronts Matt in the bathroom over the covering-up of his real identity. The Millwall firm then crash the Abbey, and petrol bomb the bar. Upon arriving, Tommy Hatcher attacks Steve. Steve's attempt to convince Tommy Hatcher that he is no longer involved in the GSE only further reminds Hatcher of his son, and he stabs Steve in the neck with a broken bottle, telling him that if he dies tonight then they are both even. Bovver, who had been knocked unconscious by one of Tommy Hatcher's men upon arriving at the Abbey, awakes just in time to help Steve, who is dying. At the hospital, Pete criticizes Bovver for his betrayal. Shannon decides to return to the United States to ensure the safety of her family.
In the aftermath, the two firms meet near the Millennium Dome for a violent and blood-curdling brawl. Matt and Bovver show up to fight for the GSE, but during the fight, Matt's sister, Shannon, turns up with her infant son to look for Matt and are proceeded to be attacked by Hatcher's right-hand man. Matt and Bovver come to their rescue. Pete notices that Tommy Hatcher is approaching the car, and distracts Tommy by goading him to "finish him off". When Tommy Hatcher declares to have finished with him, Pete then retorts that Tommy Hatcher was to blame for his son's death, having failed to protect him, shouting "he was your son!". Tommy Hatcher, driven to insanity, tackles Pete to the ground, eventually beating him to death, all the while shouting out a variation of the words to the chant 'Only a poor little Hammer', using it as an analogy for Pete's condition. As both sides draw a line at manslaughter, the fight completely halts at this point, and a distraught Tommy is pulled off Pete by members of his firm. Everyone on both sides gathers around Pete's dead body in shock, with Bovver sobbing at his side.
Matt returns to the United States and confronts Jeremy Van Holden in a restaurant toilet, where Jeremy is snorting cocaine. Jeremy arrogantly tells Matt to leave during a brief discussion in which he admits to his identity as the cocaine stash's true owner. Matt then pulls out a tape recorder and plays back what Jeremy just said, saying that it is his "ticket back to Harvard". Jeremy lunges at him to try to get the tape, but Matt casually reverses the attack and raises his fist as if to punch Jeremy. He does not do so, instead walking out with a smile as Jeremy collapses to the floor, anxious. The film ends with Matt walking down the street outside the restaurant singing "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles". | revenge, psychedelic, violence | train | wikipedia | Both ID in 1995 and last years FOOTBALL FACTORY either failed to convince or just went down the familiar exploitative road of glamorising the buzz and thrill of violence.HOOLIGANS as the title suggests depicts what these aforementioned films centre upon with the added value of having a story and characters you care about.
The prospect of West Ham's cup tie with Millwall brings joy to the faces of both sets of fans.Casting Elijah Wood is a bold move, he looks like a Choirboy but this adds to the films main storyline of innocence corrupted.
The acting is better than average, despite letting his cockney accent slip on occasions, Gang leader Charlie Hunnam shows a genuine mix of anger, aggression and compassion which holds the film together.This won't win awards but it's refreshing to see a film finally tackling the subject matter that unfortunately has been a shameful factor of Britain's attitude towards football as we are constantly under threat of being disqualified from International tournaments due to the bad behaviour of soccer hooligans..
He flies to London to visit his sister and quickly gets caught up in a small group of West Ham United supporting hooligans called the Green Street Elite.The film does slightly glamorise the violence, but ends on a moralising note.
An engaging storyline, good cinematography and decent cast performances make this a very enjoyable film.Two minor demerits: 1) Charlie Hunnam's "cor blimey guv'nor" accent owes more to Dick van Dyke than London's East End.2) To establish that Wood's character has landed in London, we hear this frankly ridiculous message over the airport's PA system - "this is a security announcement at London Heathrow airport".
This film is simply brilliant and finally provides us with an accurate portrayal of life amongst the hooligans in a way The Football Factory or ID never did.Central to this are the amazing fight scenes and the performances of the primary actors with Hunnam in particular doing an outstanding job.
Pete refuses since he is the leader of the GSE (Green Street Elite), a gang of hooligan fans of the West Ham United that usually fight after the matches.
Rather a ridiculous film, this; Elijah Wood as a Harvard-dropout-turned-East-End-Football hooligan...?
At no point during the film was I convinced that a) he could handle himself in a fight against such thugs and b) the 'firm' of thugs would accept such a person into their fold.The other main character is played by Charlie Hunnam.
Hubby grabs the opportunity to palm off his unexpected guest on brother Pete (Charlie Hunnam), a cocky jack-the-lad who, as we've already discovered from the opening sequence, is also an extremely mouthy football yob.Although Steve's discomfort over Pete's potty-mouthed demeanour in front of both wife and house-guest is evident, such is the attraction of 'Chicago' (a gangland tale, chosen for reasons which soon become gratingly obvious) that he's quite happy to entrust the naive Matt to the care of his errant bro': an even rougher diamond than he whom he knows is certain to lead the young American astray.Matt, despite his preppy disposition and the small voice of calm that would surely be bidding him "run" from a situation that looks iffy from the start, is strangely happy to spend quality time with this boorish and potentially dangerous character, his jetlag apparently having rendered him a sponge for every splenetic old anti-American cliché in the book (yes, even the ones about "friendly fire" and "being late for both wars").
Soon the pair is all but arm-in-arm and joshing happily together in the pub, the initially suspicious crew of local hardboys (for Pete is the Main Man) quickly coming around to the thought that the Yank's a good'un after all, understands the concept of loyalty and will support his new mates no matter what sort of how's-yer-father's going down.Apart from generally getting things very wrong about London, the film's foundation conceit, the premise upon which Matt becomes involved with West Ham's Green Street Elite in the first place, is fatally flawed from the beginning and heads rapidly south from there.
We are drawn towards the GSE's loathsome characters only because the real 'bad guys' of the piece - wouldn't you know it, it's the MILLWALL firm - are so operatically unhinged that anyone else can only look like a choirboy, no matter how handy he might be with the coarser rhythms of East End slang, a taunting terrace chant and a set of brass knuckles.
Marc Warren goes through his barrow-boy chops and does what we've come to expect of him, whilst Wood is tolerable in a wretched role; the single observation that enthusiasts for this film have made with which I agree - that Matt needed from the start to have an air of the innocent abroad about him, only latterly discovering a steelier determination when forced to face life full-on - is fair enough, and few ought to be able to do this better than good old Frodo Baggins himself.But this isn't nearly enough on which to hang the story.
And his father's Fleet Street connections could easily land him a plum job in journalism; Matt's major at Harvard and the calling whose discovery by the respective Upton Park and Coldharbour Lane crews eventually leads to the film's ultimate big set-piece: a ludicrous final gang skirmish on a bleak post-industrial lot, complete with the inevitable slo'mo evocation of our virtuous warrior-princes doing honourable battle for a higher calling, like something out of 'Excalibur' with pylons.Shannon pitches up to spoil the fun and Matt returns to Boston, an older, wiser man.
Basically, a very poor film which people will like if they have little knowledge of real football, and hooliganism.
Only a writer/director growing up in Germany then transplanting to the USA could have cast Newcastle born Charlie Hunnam as an East End football hooligan.With a cockney accent as convincing as Dick Van Dyke's in Mary Poppins, Hunnan's portrayal was laughable.The premise of the film is ludicrous - sheltered and protected Harvard man easily transplants and integrates into a violent gang, where he makes a national reputation for himself as a thug.One of the gang appears to be employed as an airline pilot.
I found watching this film to be rather insulting, as a genuine football fan.Sure, were I an American with no knowledge of football in England, I would find the film riveting, but at the end of the day, the world in which it is set is just not realistic enough.This film finally proved a suspician of mine for a while - Elijah Wood cannot act.The leader of the GSE sounds like an American trying to speak cockney.
It's like Fight Club in the West End of London (without the schizophrenia.) The plot alternates between pulsing sound and bare-knuckle street fighting and real, tangible character development.Elijah Wood delivers a great performance unlike the boyish roles he's had thus far.
The kind of film you'd cross the street to avoid, this absolutely dreadful waste of time is filled to the brim with all the standard clichés of the football hooligan film.As an added bonus, this one has a cast of fake Cockneys putting on terrible accents.
The little conversations between Hunnam and Elijah Wood where he's educating him on British football hooligan firms are some of the most pathetic scenes I've ever seen in any movie.
Green Street tells the tale of an absolute outsider making his way into a football firm and gradually infiltrating the group as the ever volatile life of fighting and maiming takes a hold on them, seducing them into a stupor of all things crude and nasty.
In short, I find The Football Factory to be one of the most frightening; most affecting and one of the more interesting British films of the last ten or so years whereas Green Street is a passable tale of a young man caught up in a reprehensible lifestyle and how this affects him for his longer run at life.Green Street is more the processed film, in the sense it requires time to set up a lead and his 'current' lifestyle; introduce the characters they'll be spending the majority of their time with; have them enter this 'new' lifestyle; gradually build them up within that bubble before having it all implode and have everything linked to the demonisation of hooliganism play out – it is the quintessential Amercican fable of rising through the ranks.
Indeed, the intended audience is so far infused with Elijah Wood's lead here that football firms and hooliganism in general needs to be explained to him, in black and white, by someone more experienced with the lifestyle.Green Street's Americanised sensibility is captured in its narrative structure; its more thorough attention to character arc and its somewhat flashy, glitzy aesthetic that it carries throughout, acting rather uncomplimentary with its disgusting subject matter.
One is reminded of Alan Clarke's low-budgeted; grimy; scuzzy-looking 1988 effort The Firm which was, granted, made for television but gave the world in which it was set a downtrodden and frightening feel to it through its colour saturation and persistence on having the scenes play out in enclosed terrace streets complete with rock solid brick walls acting as the backdrop plus worn-out public houses in which large groups of men would be shot in close-up format instilling confrontation and claustrophobia.It's said that German born female director Lexi Alexander is to have based the film on a number of real life instances with people of a similar ilk, but most of her characters are given some pretty unreal 'triggers' or prior tragedies to further both character and conflict; some of the characters having undergone specific transitions that render them specific archetypes that exist to aid the progression of the story.
The use of these specific lifestyles and prior tragedies to emote both threat and the sense that something's at stake forces the film to feel a little fabricated, thus, pushing the film away a downtrodden sense that something like The Firm certainly had and The Football Factory effectively carried.Indeed, it is Elijah Wood that plays American Matt Buckner, a guy who was expelled from Harvard university in America when his room-mate was busted for cocaine and he took the fall for it.
Alexander captures the bond these men have, these big; well muscled men clutching a hold of each other as they sing and talk dirty in pubs, indeed Matt and Pete's relationship is taken to a point that sees a rival, Pete's former best friend, enter a public house as they share a drink and storm out again in a jealous rage when Matt and Pete's bonding is captured by way of his gaze.I don't think the film enjoys the violence, nor does it invite us to enjoy it; more-so, it is the lead character that enjoys the rush of the violence while the scenes play out around him and this acceptance into a sub-culture occurs.
It's a whole system that is far more aggressive (and 'pissed' aka drunk) than a typical group of sports fans like one would find in the States, but it's not quite as ruthless as a gang like crips and bloods either.The Hooligans of the GSE fight and act like a gang for status, not for profit, and this is the way of things when Matt (Elijah Wood), a Harvard dropout, lands in England and somehow befriends his brother in law's brother Pete (Charles Hunnam).
He's taken along to the pub, then to a football/soccer match, and then proves his worth the best way he can: he gets in his first real fight-cum-brawl in the streets with some other soccer hooligans.
From then in the film becomes a story of friendship and eventual betrayal from a scorned member of the GSE, who doesn't like Mike from the start and feels taken aback by his best friend Pete's connection to a practical family member.It's also about the way that the male brain works in such situations: Matt is a very smart guy, being from Harvard and all (and sort of hiding a secret as a journalist major - a big no-no in hooligan gangs, being a "Journie" as its called), but he can go into this violent state of being because it's part of a clique, and part of being part of a group where everyone looks out for everyone else - which he doesn't get from his sister (Forlani) or his absentee father.
Then again, I've never been in a fight in my life and don't know what I'm talking about right?The movie is good and yes, you should watch it to broaden your horizons of the extent of stupidity Man can comprehend because the real situation of what is going on on the streets of UK's cities is even worse.
Apart from the fact that it is slightly low budget the film is brilliant.At first it seemed that violence was the only thing that happened in the football hooligans life.
Pete's the head honcho of the Green Street Elite (GSE), the Firm of West Ham United, and I'd like the beginning of their budding relationship where Pete educates Matt on aspects of football (not soccer, mind you).
I'm sorry but this film was terrible, quite honestly i don't know how anyone is supposed to believe that a Harvard drop out manages to get himself caught up in football hooliganism on his first day in London.
i know that it does happen and is fairly common, but do yourselves a favour and watch the firm (with gary oldman not tom cruise) or the football factory and see what is actually a good film about the subject matter, not this americanised drivel.
After a number of "UK Football Hooligan" movies - I.D, Football Factory to mention two and being a football fan and seeing scenes of violence between rival fans, I was hopeful that Green Street would be equally if not better at depicting the insular culture of a small group of society.I think the first major flaw is the casting, no offence to Ejija but if he were to enter this culture he would be hospitalised before he could open his mouth.
Although most firms do have younger members, these are normally the watch outs for the old bill, they would not be allowed to take part in the actually "meets" until at least 16 or 17.The scenes of violence although quite well edited are on the whole unbelievable, there is no way the old bill would allow the fans to wait outside the train station as they did.Football Factory is a much better depiction of the way the firms are run and what happens when opposition firms meet, this is almost a school boy version, and really not worth your time..
This film was excellent, I really liked the way Elijah wood played his role character.
I struggled to see any areas or streets or pubs I am familiar with.If you want an entertaining film which gives some insight as to what supporters are really like in London go for Football Factory starring the excellent Danny Dyer.
The human story, involving Elijah Wood and his sister Claire Forlani, is dull and goes nowhere; in fact it gets in the way of the hooliganism stuff when it should be getting to grips with it.The cast is varied, with Charlie Hunnam giving the most interesting performance as the charismatic football thug who takes Wood under his wing.
Elijah Wood was OK, he is obviously trying to shake off the Frodo typecasting and he did it beautifully in Sin City, but this was wrong for him and he wasn't strong enough in this to make it a good film.I found this film simply unbelievable
This American chap shows up in the east-end, his sisters fella tells him to go to a football game with his brother, the leader of one of the most notorious football firms in London.
That said the opposition firm led by Terry Hatcher are spot on they've got the accents right and aren't a bunch of school kids.The film did have some good scenes and effects, although the violence tended to be that of people spitting fake blood out of their mouths at any chance.The plot was like something out the Karate Kid, simple and well trodden.
The final climax used some god awful Irish folk song which made the whole saga laughable.Then there's Elijah - what a hard man - lol - the end scene was hilarious.This whole film competes very well with the likes of David Brent for cringe worthiness but instead of being good in Davids place is absolutely terrible in Green Streets place..
He likes it.The clear problem is that you could never envisage in a million years the real West Ham firm ever accepting someone like Wood's American tourist character into their fold.Even worse is Charlie Hunnam's cockney accent.
I simply cannot suspend my disbelief enough to accept that the Elijah Wood character would react the way he did to his experiences with Pete.It's a shame as the cast are pretty good - apart from Charlie Hunnam's accent, which seems well off, and his swagger is comical rather than intimidating.Imagine football Hooliganism through a pornographic soft focus and you have this movie.
The ominous, bleak texture of the city is wonderfully portrayed, and the film makes no attempt to try and gloss over the facts when it comes to street violence and how unapologetic it can become.Director Lexi Alexander, a world champion in both kickboxing and karate, has stated in interviews that her older brother was a member of a football firm and that she got a lot of inspiration from the encounters she had with the gang while with him.
With time on his hands, Matt decides to visit his sister Shannon (Forlani) in England and falls in with her brother-in-law Peter (Hunnam); the leader of notorious football hooligan firm The Green Street Elite. |
tt0078492 | The Wild Geese | Colonel Allen Faulkner (Richard Burton), a middled-aged British mercenary and former Army officer, arrives in London from Switzerland to meet the rich and ruthless merchant banker Sir Edward Matherson (Stewart Granger). The latter proposes an operation to rescue Julius Limbani (Winston Ntshona), imprisoned former leader of the fictious central African country of Zembalia, who is due to be killed by the military dictator who overthrew him. Limbani, whose people believe he is already dead, is being held in a remote prison, guarded by ferocious African troops known as the "Simbas", under General Ndofa.Faulkner provisionally accepts the assignment and sets about recruiting his officers, all of whom have worked with him on previous African operations. They comprise:Shaun Fynn (Roger Moore) is a former RAF pilot. He is working as a currency smuggler, but when he realises that he's actually running drugs, he kills the mafia drug dealer and consequently has a death contract placed in his head. Matherson forces the crime boss to lift the contract at the last moment.Pieter Coetzee (Hardy Krüger), is a South African mercenary who only wants to return to his homeland and buy a farm, but can barely afford to pay his rent in London.Rafer Janders (Richard Harris) is hired as an experienced mission planner. He initially refuses the job, as he's making some money as an art dealer and is planning a Christmas vacation with his son, Emile. But Faulkner persuades Janders to join the mission as the tactician.Retired R.S.M (Regimental Sergeant Major) Sandy Young (Jack Watson), is asked by Faulkner to serve as drill sergeant to train the troops and assist in recruitment. He is very willing, but his wife strongly disapproves.With the tacit approval and support of the British government, the 50 soldiers are transported to an unspecified African location, equipped and mercilessly trained by Young. The day before the mission is to begin, Janders exacts a promise from Faulkner to watch over his son Emile, and take care of him should Janders die on the mission. Faulkner agrees.The mercenaries are transported by plane and parachuted into the African country near Zembala Prison. Coetzee uses a powerful crossbow with cyanide-tipped quarrels to take out the prison sentries. The rest of the guards are killed silently with cyanide gas. They rescue Limbani, but he is clearly a sick man and is later hit by crossfire during the battle. The group then makes its way to a small airfield to await pickup.But backers of the project, led by Matherson, reach an agreement with the Zembalese government concerning valuable copper concessions, and the aeroplane due to collect them is recalled at the last minute.The abandoned mercenaries are forced to fight their way through hostile territory, pursued by the Simbas.The relationship between Limbani and Coetzee develops from initial animosity: "I bleed red like you, white man; don't call me kaffir" to one of understanding, as Coetzee comes to understand and appreciate Limbani's struggle, and realises that white and black must work together.Fighting off armed attacks, ambushes and napalm bombing, the mercenaries separate into two groups, and make their way to Limbani's home village, where they intend to provoke a revolution. Faulkner is forced to kill his own men who are gravely injured by an airstrike. Coetzee observes, "we can't leave them to the Simbas", whom will torture him to death.Coetzee is then killed while saving Limbani from a Simba ambush, leaving another soldier to carry Limbani. The medic Arthur Witty (Kenneth Griffith) is killed by machete-armed Simbas while trying to fend off another ambush, allowing the rest of the platoon to escape. Faulkner is reunited with the rest of the remaining 32 mercenaries at Limbani's village where an Irish missionary alerts them to the presence of an aging transport plane, a Douglas C-47 Skytrain aka "Dakota" at an old runway to provide for their escape.As the masses of Simba troops attack, the group attempts to board the plane, but many are killed in the fierce battle. While in the cockpit reading the plane for takeoff, Fynn is shot in the leg, but manages to keep the plane moving. Janders is badly wounded and can't get onto the plane; he implores Faulkner to shoot him as he is running down the runway with mobs of Simba troops in chase. Faulkner cannot bear to shoot his friend, but there is no hope. As Janders cries out his son's name: Emile! Emile!", Faulkner shoots and kills him just as the plane takes off.The plane is initially refused landing permission in nearby Rhodesia, but after they provide proof that Limbani is aboard, they are given permission to land at Kariba. But by the time they land, virtually out of fuel, Limbani has died of his wounds. Flynn passes out, wounded but still alive despite blood loss.Several months later, having managed to return to London, Faulkner breaks into Sir Edward's residence, holds him at gunpoint and takes half of the originally agreed payment from his safe. He then kills him.Faulkner fulfills his promise to Janders. In the closing scene, Faulkner visits Emile at his boarding school. Faulkner offers to tell Emile about his father. | revenge, murder, violence | train | imdb | A British multinational seeks to overthrow a vicious dictator in central Africa as hires the much-wanted mercenary Colonel Allen Faulkner (Richard Burton miscast as chief of mercenaries) , as he travels to London invited by the British millionaire Sir Edward Matherson (Stewart Granger) to rescue the African President Julius Limbani that had been kidnapped in a coup d'état by the dictator Colonel Mboya.
They plan the whole operation and succeed in their mission .The commando is led by Colonel Faulkner , a sergeant named Sandy (Jack Watson) along with Lieutenent Pieter (Hardy Kruger).The adventure starts when the veteran band of mercenaries land deep inside the African country to rescue Limbani and destroy installations .This fast-paced film packs adventures, large-scale blow-up , plot-twists routine plot , and lots of action for the most part .
Certainly a good work done by one of Hollywood's more skill director, a real craftsman.It's followed by Wild Geese II (Peter Hunt with Scott Glenn, Edward Fox, Barbara Carrera ), an inferior sequel deals about a new group of the much-wanted mercenaries assigned by a rich television network (Robert Webber) to free famous arch-Nazi war criminal Rudolph Hess (Laurence Olivier); this following depended in their all star cast .
The film keeps faith with the good guys always win in the end as "Sir Edward" learns the hard way that he double crossed the wrong man because the ever resourceful Faulkner eventually turns the tables on him; Matheson comes off second best in the confrontation in the study.
In this story a powerful, but arrogant English lord and wealthy financier, (Stewart Granger) Sir Edward Matherson, hires, a professional Mecernary, Col. Allen Faulkner, (Richard Burton) to fly into Africa and rescue a popular but imprisoned African leader Julius Limbani.
The screenplay, much like the actors playing the key roles, is very self aware to not take itself too seriously, it's also very funny at times, there is some absolute cracker-jack slices of dialogue here.The PC brigade and political historians beat themselves around their heads trying to flatten the appeal of The Wild Geese, it didn't work.
No film is for everyone, but this one has a lot to love, especially for fans of the genre and the cast.Richard Burton plays Allen Faulkner, an aged British mercenary hired by a multinational company to lead a team into Africa and rescue the president of a war-torn nation to serve their purposes.
Burton convinces as boozed-out, aging and fallen out of fortune mercenary, Harris as his reluctant buddy and Krueger (although his sudden conversion from racist Afrikaner to moderate is more than a little sudden and implausible), Krueger plays the redneck Boer with a heart to a tit.The rest of the cast is similar formidable: Stewart Granger, although generally known for his dandy-roles, is suitable unlikeable as aristocratic, double-dealing employer, Frank Finlay excellent even in a tiny role as missionary, one cannot help but like Kenneth Griffith as gay comedic-sidekick-cum-hero, Ian Yule, all makes a perfect cast for this Film.
The leading African cast other than the enemy-soldiers of course, namely John Kani and Winston Ntshona, is generally portrayed positive and amiable and as for accusing the film for showing African countries as either tribal and backward or run by military despots and juntas – well, one needs only look toward the country that was back then called Rhodesia today or perhaps at Uganda, one of the more "stable" countries in Africa, where they're considering a bill that will make homosexuality a crime punishable by death, at the time I'm tipping these words.
Allegedly, loosely based on the incredible adventures of "Mad Mike" Hoare and his mercenary unit operating in the Belgian Congo in the early sixties rescuing Westerners and stemmimg tribal violence..."The Wild Geese" is a real "Boys Own" adventure that races along like a good action film should !Ageing mercenary leader Allan Faulkner (Richard Burton) is hired by wealthy, but unscrupulous, merchant banker Sir Edward Matherson (Stewart Granger in an oily performance) to rescue an imprisoned African leader, Julius Limbani (Winston Ntshona) from terrorists and turn him over to his own people...at stake are copper mine concessions in Africa worth millions !!Burton enlists the aid of war time pals, Capt.
Rafer Janders (Richard Harris) debonair pilot Lt. Shawn Fynn (Roger Moore), ex-South African troubleshooter Pieter Coetze (Hardy Kruger) and 'tough as nails' RSM Sandy Young (Jack Watson) as well as about 40 other mercenaries to engage on one last adventure for truth, justice and a very large paycheck.Burton & Co. parachute into darkened Africa and all goes well....until a double cross emerges and the Wild Geese are running for their lives....outgunned and outmanned by the pursuing brutal, machete-wielding Simba troopsWhen the action commences in "The Wild Geese"...it comes thick and fast...the film is filled with gritty firefights, fast paced entertainment and colorful use of African savannah / veldt locations for the battle scenes....highly recommended for fans of the action / war genre !!Just when is this film going to come out on DVD ???.
The Wild Geese has great actors like Burton, Harris and Moore, and there are several scenes found politically incorrect nowadays.
The cast list is like a who's who of great macho actors-with fine performances in relatively small parts.Look out for Ronald Fraser,Percy Herbert,and Valerie Leon.Also-the score is excellent.Director Euan Lloyd went on to make two similar films with a lot of the same actors in.These were THE SEA WOLVES and WHO DARES WINS..
This is easily the best mercenary film I've ever seen, much better than the more-hyped "Dogs of War." Daniel Carney's novel by the same title, the basis for "The Wild Geese," is good too, but I prefer seeing the actors bring the story to life.
Fifty hand-picked mercenaries attempt to a free an imprisoned nationalist from a corrupt dictatorship, but their escape plan goes wrong and they are left to fight their way to safety across many miles of hostile terrain.The high profile cast includes Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Stewart Granger.
Best of all is Harris, excellent and commanding as the member of the mission who doesn't want to be there because he has settled down to a peaceful life with his son, but whose loyalty to his old mercenary buddies forces him into accepting the job.The plot of the film is nothing special, and indeed it feels predictable and cliched in some parts.
In a way, I suppose this is the ultimate take on modern mercenary soldiers, just as, for example, "March or Die" - made around the same time - was THE French Foreign Legion movie, simply because there weren't too many films made in that particular genre, if there is such a thing.
Roger Moore, Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Not forgetting legendary German And international star Hardy Kruger,)And a whole host of familiar British, acting talent, are the wild geese the best Damn Mercenary's in the business,Burton play's the Tailor made role of Colonel Faulkner, an alcoholic, mercenary, who is recruited by former Matinée idol Stewart Granger, To release a disposed dictator of Africa, Naturally Granger, has other interests particularly the mining faction of Africa,Burton,Quickly assemble's together his army buddies's to undertake this deadly mission, which doesn't go too smoothly, In the cracking climax The 'Geese find themselves's out numbered And against the odd's.
As hammy and as un-PC as they come, 'The Wild Geese' is actually a pretty good yarn, buoyed up by its cast of excellent character actors, plus the heavyweight teaming of Richards Burton and Harris, and the eyebrow of Roger Moore.A group of rather elderly soldiers of fortune are brought together to carry out a secret operation to liberate a President and to kill all who get in the way.
Hardy Krüger is also good as the man who kills simply to fund his farm back home.As a 'boy's own' film, 'The Wild Geese' probably scores high but there is something here for everyone and it is fairly enjoyable; also good to see Richard Burton playing all kinds of rubbish as if it was Shakespeare.Very much of its day but still worth a look..
The rest of the cast do pretty well and they are good enough to feature in a film like this.Overall, if you like the Dirty Dozen and those types of movies, then there is sufficient action and excitement to carry you over.
When seeing this film for the first time, at about 12yrs old its still as enjoyable 20yrs later.Apart from the fighting,an out-numbered and stranded mercenary unit,the acting of some of the greats really adds to the whole package.The screen presence of Richard Burton (Faulkner) especially when talking to Stewart Grainger (Matheson)is particular special.The plot is simple enough with a nice twist,the action is well done with the pace quickening nicely.Its still topical enough to be enjoyed today,Africa still has its problems and money and business call the shots.Richard Harris,Roger Moore and Hardy Kruger are all excellent and supported well by the rest of the cast,and a theme song sung by the brilliant Joan Armatrading.Although now 25yrs old its still a great film probably due to the above great actors.See it and dont let the Simbas get you!!.
the wild geese is one of the most underrated action movies of all time and what about the cast talk about star quality lot's of awesome action great story and a ending that no matter how many times you see it you'll be on the edge of your seat.if you hav'nt seen this movie and love action flicks this is a must see.it's just been released on DVD here in the UK (hopefully uncut).
Today's PC types will take issue with some of the characterizations of misfit guns-for-hire who, in real life, populated (and fought and died in) places like Katanga, Kolwezi and Stanleyville, but still it molds action, suspense, plot twists and heart-clutching scenes into a great action-adventure film - A lovingly prepared valentine to the British fighting spirit transported to perpetually strife-torn 1970s Africa.
I hadn't seen it for a few years until today.Other reviews go into the plot so I'll leave that one alone, except to say that I think this bares some similarities to Tears of the Sun. I think The Wild Geese is vastly superior to Tears of the Sun however.Suffice to say, they don't make 'em like this anymore.A wall to wall blood and guts, brutal at times war/action film.
Their aim doesn't deteriorate with age.The relationship between the lead characters is strong and this is also a great buddy film, each man having their own motivations for doing the job while sharing a very strong bond.The film isn't perfect and I'm not saying it should have scooped the Oscars or anything but any shortcomings can't detract from the good points.When the going gets tough, the Wild Geese get going.
A British action movie with no Americans in it which is rare the action scenes are brutal violent nasty and very real.the cast are great.Burton Harris Moore all look like there having fun.but more importantly so is the audience.maybe they should remake it.even the plot where there stuck behind enemy lines after being betrayed was used in rambo 2.a true classic..
Fine cast of stalwart actors and superstars in mostly the British film industry make their mark in this war-actioner regarding the mercenary- era stories of note in 1960s-70s post-independent African countries.
The major Actors, Richard Harris, (Rafer Janders), Roger Moore (Shawn Fynn), Hardy Kruger (Peter Cotzee) playing a hard- lined Apartheid era soldier and of course the wonderful Jack 'NCO' Watson as well as homosexual (purposefully) support from Witty, played by the excellent Kenneth Griffiths' medic make this an excellent blood and guts saga of this kind of genre.
I have watched this film over the Years many times and every time its still like watching it for the first time there action all the way through the film it has a good strong cast and a good strong story of old soldiers working as mercenaries.
Richard Burton: The Old Soldier: Colonel FaulknerRoger Moore: The Womenising Comic/Hitman: Lt Shaun FynnRichard Harris: The Planner and Father: Capt Rafer JandersHardy Kruger: The South African: Lt Pieter CotzeFour men are hired to do a dareing job, Bring out President Julias Limbani from Africa, a prisoner and a leader.The Film is brilliantly acted from the outset, the action is second to none, the storyline is solid and the characters sound.With the talents of so many good actors playing the lead characters just adds to the icing on the cake.Richard Burtons cynical attitude, Roger Moore's witt and great attitude and lack of respect, even for his own life, Richard Harris at his best as the loving father, Hardy Kruger as the non believer!Its a Must see for any one who likes a good Movie!.
If you're a male, at any age, this film will appeal to you.Starring tough and yet intelligent, poignant stars such as Burton, Kruger, Harris, Moore and Granger this movie has all the elements that build a fine story.The British mercenaries are financed to go to Africa, rescue a President from his captors and return to the U.K. for the rest of their earnings.
Each character has a valued part to play in this compelling action flick, and consequently the viewer really cares about the outcome.Throughout, you can sense that the main players really had a good time doing this movie (in his biography Harris recalls that he and Burton were both on the wagon during the filming!) There are some fine set pieces on location in Africa and the finale is really quite a rousing affair.Wild Geese II unsuprisingly fails to meet the same standards..
So it's a disappointment the filmmakers couldn't make something worth watching.Based on a novel by Daniel Carney, "The Wild Geese" presents Col. Faulkner (Richard Burton), a hard-drinking soldier of fortune still shaking off the pain from losing good-guy African leader Julius Limbani (Winston Ntshona) to a cruel dictator years ago.
When I first saw this film, I was too young to appreciate just how good an actor Richard Burton was.Having watched this movie again, I think I became more aware of what great acting is all about.
Likewise with Richard Harris.The supporting cast, especially Jack Watson and Kenneth Griffith, are also fine exponents of their craft.In these days of action packed thrillers, and no brainers, it is nice to watch a film with a clear plot, a competent script and good acting..
I saw The Wild Geese as I do like Richard Harris and Roger Moore and while he is not a favourite Richard Burton has also given some good performances.
The Wild Geese does have an interesting cast, and while they do all give good enough performances, Harris in particular(Stewart Granger I personally found rather bland), all have been better and all have been in much better movies.A major problem was my difficulty in connecting with the characters, some of them are not well developed much and it doesn't help that the script doesn't do much to make them more engrossing.To me, the most interesting character was the one played by Hardy Kruger.
Mercenaries On The Run. Movie Review: "The Wild Geese" (1978)A 1970s action thriller enriched with some political dispute material; Actor Richard Burton (1925-1984) presents himself in one of his most accomplished roles, leading fellow actors Roger Moore (1927-2017), Richard Harris (1930-2002) among others into battle on Central African grounds to break out a disposed African President.
A conniving businessman sets up mercenaries lead by Richard Burton,Harris and Moore,they rescue an African leader but are doubled crossed.The action is non stop and the dialogue rattles along very well.This is not the greatest war film ever but its very watchable I would like to see a remake of this with modern stars.A great couple of hours entertainment..
Moore & Burton seem to be in a competition as to who can 'out-ham' the other (some tournament as in their time, both have taken ham-acting to previously unheard of levels) and Harris looks as if this movie was in the middle of one of his 'Wild Man' sessions.Wild Geese features probably some of the worst editing that I have ever seen, with action sequences that border on farce.The plot is wafer thin, the characterizations even thinner and at the end of it all you're left with a feeling of 'erm.....was that it?'Avoid this film like the plague..
It's an eclectic cast of serious depth.Spawning two sequels, and headlined by a James Bond-esque eponymous theme song, "The Wild Geese" is an easy-viewing, uncomplicated action-war movie with a couple of sentimental moments (e.g. Harris' agreement with Burton, or the budding friendship between Kruger and Ntshona) and plenty of good old-fashioned up the British heroics.
All we want is to know who the good guys are (Moore, Harris, Burton & co) and who the bad guys are (Granger, Allen and a bunch of Simbas from Central Africa).In this case, therefore, a high-flying businessman, Granger offers Burton and his company of British Mercenaries a contract to overthrow a naughty dictactor and release the imprisoned Opposition leader so as to win democratic freedom for his country.The deal is agreed and Burton's Army succeed in their task, but just when they think their plane is about to land in order to pick them up and take them hope, Granger makes a phone call..........From that point on the story moves from "complicated double-dealings" to a out-and-out fight for survival as the troops battle their way through the hostile environment of Africa and renegade armies such as the feared Simbas.It would be true to say that this film was very much an easy payday for the elderly statesmen of the acting world.
Richard Burton, a wooden film actor, looked absolutely awful and the rest of the cast were all far too old and obviously unfit to play mercenaries.
The Wild Geese stars some wonderful actors: Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, Hardy Kruger, Stewart Granger. |
tt2241351 | Money Monster | Lee Gates (George Clooney) is the host of the financial TV discussion show "Money Monster". He tells his viewers about the downfall of the corporation Ibis, which has seen its stock plummet and a loss of $800 million in shares, and its CEO Walt Camby (Dominic West) is in Geneva, unable to comment on the situation of his company.Before the next show, Lee talks to his studio director Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts), who, unbeknownst to him, is taking a new job across the street. Although she goes along with his smug behavior, she appears to have grown tired of it. Lee just finds out that Camby, who was supposed to be the guest on his show, has cancelled on them, so they are going to interview Ibis's CCO Diane Lester (Caitriona Balfe). They head to the stage for the show to begin. Lee has his backup dancers and rap music accompanying him.A few minutes into the show, a supposed deliveryman (Jack O'Connell) walks into view, so Patty has one of the cameras focus on him. When Lee notices him, the man drops the boxes he was carrying and pulls out a gun. Lee thinks it's a "union thing", but it stops being a joke when the man fires a shot at the ceiling. At gunpoint, he forces Lee to open one of the boxes. It contains a bomb vest, and the gunman forces Lee to put it on. He takes out a dead man's switch and threatens to blow everyone up if they don't comply to his demands. Patty quietly gets everyone not working on cameras or sound to get out of the studio.The police soon arrive outside the building, led by Captain Marcus Powell (Giancarlo Esposito). The police (and by extension, Patty) learn that the gunman's name is Kyle Budwell. In the studio, Kyle criticizes Lee for giving a bad tip on the show several weeks earlier, encouraging viewers to invest in Ibis, not knowing what would eventually happen to them. Kyle lost $60,000 of his entire life savings as a result.Powell and his officers contact the studio and try to negotiate with Kyle, but he refuses to speak to cops and threatens to start shooting if they still talk to him. The cops then discuss handling the bomb situation by planning to shoot the receiver that is by Lee's stomach. The bullet would still strike him but only hit his kidney and still give him an 80% chance of survival.By now, the hostage situation is televised all over the world, including Seoul, Iceland, and Johannesburg. Patty also attempts to buy Lee some time. They bring Diane by the studio to speak to Kyle through a camera, but she continuously insists that she has no idea what happened to Ibis's stock. Kyle gets fed up and shoots the screen. To buy himself more time, Lee is given ten minutes to address his viewers to buy shares in Ibis, mainly to save his life. While the number appears to go up at first, it then drops significantly, indicating that people aren't so concerned about his life.Diane starts to investigate what really went wrong with Ibis. The problem is said to have come from a glitch in the company's algorithm. She goes to an airfield with an assistant and contacts a man in Seoul, Won Joon (Aaron Yoo), who came up with the algorithm. He insists that there's no way there's a glitch, and that there are human fingerprints on this. Moments later, Camby's plane arrives. He greets Diane with a kiss and gives her some chocolate. When Camby isn't looking, Diane sees his passport booklet and learns he wasn't really in Geneva, but in South Africa. Diane then lets Patty know that they are headed to the federal hall and where he really was.The police find Kyle's pregnant girlfriend Molly (Emily Mead) and bring her by the studio to contact him. Kyle sees her through a monitor, and she angrily berates him for the whole world to hear, calling him a coward and an idiot that threw all their money away. He takes the words to heart and starts to rethink his plan. He leaves the gun on the desk. Lee contemplates grabbing it, but he calls Kyle and lets him take it back.The police get ready to send in a sniper to take out the receiver. Patty's assistant contacts her and tells her what the cops plan to do. The rest of the crew is evacuated. Patty warns Lee about what's going to happen. The sniper takes his shot, but Lee ducks out of the way before anything happens. He grabs Kyle and tells him to cooperate with him. They leave the studio with the cameraman following them.Patty hops in a van toward the federal hall to catch Camby. One of her crew members gets in touch with two hackers from Iceland to gather whatever they can on Camby's recent activities. Meanwhile, the cops and several New Yorkers follow Lee and Kyle. During the walk, Kyle admits to Lee that the vest doesn't contain explosives, but just heavy packs of clay. Lee tells him to keep his thumb on the switch regardless. The show's producer then appears to tell Lee something, but he startles Kyle and gets shot in the arm.Everyone makes it to the federal hall, with Diane leaving Camby to deal with Lee and Kyle. They enter the building and have cameras and the cops surrounding them. Lee forces Camby to explain what really happened with Ibis's money. Camby gives him the "glitch" response, which angers Kyle. With Patty still speaking to him, Lee exposes publicly how Camby invested the money in platinum mines, and he was working with a man in South Africa named Moshe Mambo (Makhaola Ndebele), who has lead a miners strike in Johannesburg. There is even video evidence of Camby arguing with Mambo over a bad deal. Kyle then tells Lee to put the vest on Camby. Kyle orders Camby to admit what he did and say it was wrong. Camby does so, and Kyle tosses the switch, causing Camby to panic. An officer shoots Kyle in the chest, killing him, to Lee's dismay.In the aftermath, Lee and the producer are recuperating at the hospital. Patty joins him with some food. They watch a news report that says Camby is under investigation, and several Vine videos of his panicked reaction have hit the internet. It is also reported that Kyle was just a deliveryman from Queens and that his mother died six months earlier. Lee appears to feel genuine sorrow for Kyle. Patty then asks what show they will do next week, indicating that she'll stick around with the topic of Lee. | revenge, suspenseful, neo noir, comedy | train | imdb | null |
tt0071824 | McQ | About an hour before dawn just outside Seattle in 1973, a man dons sunglasses and fits a silencer to a pistol. He then drives into the city and eventually to a corner where a policeman sees his car and approaches - and is promptly shot dead by the man. He then drives to a police impound lot where another officer, Wally Johnson, is parking a car; the killer shoots him dead. The killer then drives to a corner coffee shop; as he washes his hands his police badge briefly appears, indicating he is a dirty cop. The shop proprietor greets him, for he is Stan Boyle, a detective sergeant. While the proprietor goes to the kitchen, Boyle sees a car pull up outside; he goes to the car and gives the driver a carrying case with the murder weapon inside - but as he returns to his own car the driver shoots him down with a shotgun then escapes.Boyle's partner is Lon McQ, a lieutenant, and after being noisily awakened by his telephone on his dockside houseboat, McQ learns from police Sergeant J.C. Davis of the shootings. McQ deduces the shootings to be the work of Manuel Santiago, a businessman who fronts for massive shipments of narcotics from Canada. McQ's suspicion about Santiago is hardened when he is fired on near his car by a hitman who he shoots dead and identifies as Patty Samuels.McQ visits the hospital where Boyle is in critical condition and comforts Boyle's wife Lois. He asks her about the previous night where they were attending a show and Stan got a phone call to leave. After his questioning he drives to police headquarters where his superior, Captain Ed Kosterman, has rounded up street radicals he believes may be responsible for the shootings; here he greets city councilman Franklin Toms, who is close to him as well as the Boyles.McQ greets Kosterman in the station commisary and Ed orders McQ not to harass Santiago, pointedly reminding him of a previous case where a hood was brutally assaulted by McQ and the police had to deal with backlash from several lawyers. McQ blows him off and drives to Santiago's harborside business where he photographs him greeting a suspicious type just before he drives to a downtown diner. It is there that a news broadcast reveals that Stan Boyle has died of his shotgun injuries; when Santiago goes to the restroom and uses a payphone to inform someone of Boyle's death, McQ jumps him and rams him head-first into the mirror then punches him unconscious and dumps him in the trough.For this McQ is taken off duty and assigned to a desk until further notice by police brass, but instead of taking this punishment McQ angrilly quits the force, though he gives J.C. Davis the roll of film on Santiago and tells him to get an identification on the suspect with Santiago. Days later following Boyle's funeral Lois comes by McQ's houseboat where he comforts her and she suggests they get in his "Green Hornet," a splashy Pontiac, and just drive away.Later McQ shows up at the office of Pinky Farrell, a private detective, and asks to join him; he wants to investigate Boyle's murder and Santiago's supposed role in it and not be held up by the police umbrella. Farrell reluctantly agrees to register McQ, and at police headquarters J.C. gives him the photos he took, identifying the man with Santiago as Freddie LaSalle, a hitman from St. Louis. McQ later borrows $5,000 from his ex-wife Elaine, who still holds Lon in her heart and remembers the fear for his life that drove her away.That night at a Seattle Supersonics game Lon confronts Rosey, an informant who wants nothing to do with him anymore since he's not on the force; Lon shows him a newspaper with some of the $5,000, and Rosey tells him that Santiago has brought in three hitmen for a drug heist. Lon then greets Myra, a waitress who was an informant of Boyle and may have been closer to him that just that; she is an addict and Lon gives her a line for her to inhale; she agrees to tell him that she knows about Santiago's hit team and that they intend to steal from the police.Lon follows a state police detail transferring several million dollars worth of powder to an incineration plant, but Santiago's hit team, disguised as part of a laundry service, jumps them and steals the power, but have to fire on Lon as he pursues them to their laundry truck. Lon chases them in his Pontiac and catches up to and corners a laundry truck, but it turns out to be a different one.Kosterman is doubly furious at Lon for the shootout and for not imforming the police beforehand as well as at Franklin Toms, who defends Lon to Kosterman. Kosterman revokes Lon's gun permit before leading a sweep of Santiago's house and business to find the powder; Lon for his part purchases another gun anyway, then is told by his friend Jack, the gun shop owner, about a new submachine weapon, the Ingram, a 9 mm weapon that fires 20 rounds per second. Lon is so impressed with the Ingram after test firing it on a trashcan of water he borrows the weapon and half a dozen magazines of ammo. He then drives to Lois' house for a drink before getting a phone call from J.C. Davis that the police search turned up nothing. Lon, though, knows better, and that Santiago has driven the junk around before stashing it where the police already searched - his office.Yet it blows up in Lon's face when he finds the powder in Santiago's office but is cornered by his gunmen and then learns from the furious Santiago that the powder he stole is in fact harmless sugar. Clearly the drugs were switched with sugar by certain officials, and now Lon realizes Santiago never was involved in the killing of Boyle or the other two officers. Santiago, with nothing to fear from Lon, lets him go, but first beats him up as revenge.Lon now suspects Kosterman may be involved, but gets more shocking news when he confronts his informant Rosey and Rosey reveals that Boyle himself was a dirty cop. Lon initially doesn't believe it, but after seeing Myra she herself is shot to death by a gunman who thinks she knows something. Lon himself is then attacked when two trucks crush his Pontiac between them. Lon is questioned about the attempt on his life by J.C., who reveals where the wrecked car is being held.Lon now realizes something about his car, and when he sneaks into the impound yard both to retrieve the Ingram weapon and to search the car he finds traces of cocaine - the cocaine switched with sugar earlier. Now Lon realizes his friend was indeed dirty - some time earlier he'd loaned Stan his car for a day, and this was how Stan switched the sugar and cocaine - but the police now suspect he himself is involved, so he must hotwire a car to escape, then finds Lois, who is packing to visit her folks upstate; Lon drives with her and reveals that her husband was dirty - but that others close to him are involved, all leading to a confrontation involving Santiago and a lengthy high speed pursuit along a stretch of beach. | comedy, suspenseful, neo noir, murder, violence, humor, revenge | train | imdb | However having made a string or westerns in succession John Wayne was eager to broaden his horizons and undertake a new project, the project was to be a contemporary detective drama titled 'McQ'.McQ is set in Seattle and follows Lon McQ (Duke) in his pursuit of the gangsters whom murdered his friend and colleague Stan Boyle.
As the quest intensifies McQ uncovers the motive behind his friends killing and uncovers corruption that stems right to the top of the police hierarchy.While the movie was slammed by critics and some anti Wayne elements its impossible to deny that John Wayne is well cast in this movie as a tough cop who is something of an outsider in a world of changing values.
The Duke gives a fine performance with some good supporting players most notably Eddie Albert, Al Lettieri, Colleen Dewhurst and Diana Muldaur There are some well-staged action scenes including two high-speed car chases and an exciting climatic shootout.
One notable if somewhat improbable action scene involves two lorries playing a large-scale version of dodgems with McQ's car that would have been very akin to a scene from a James Bond movie.The movie delves into several interesting areas including corruption, family breakdowns and the shadowy underworld of drugs, one brilliantly directed and acted scene involves McQ exchanging drugs for vital information about an imminent drugs heist, this scene illustrates just how complex the drug underworld actually is and the chemistry between McQ and Myra is very evident.The overall tone of the movie is notably grim and gritty and while the movie would have benefited from a larger budget, tighter direction and greater character development, nevertheless McQ was an undeniable hit at the box office and is a worthy entry into John Wayne's impressive portfolio..
It is great to sit and watch an action movie with so many great starts of the past (Wayne, Eddie Albert, Diana Muldaur, Colleen Dewhurst, Clu Gulager, and a young Roger E.
And the story was interesting (from the start to the end) and gripping, and the remaining actors well-cast and excellent.With John Wayne now gone for more than 30 years, it's particularly nostalgic and enjoyable to watch one of his movies you haven't seen before.This may not quite be a 10* flick, if one were rating in a contemporary fashion.
I've always felt that John Wayne did his two police films McQ and Brannigan for a combination of reasons.
In fact the whole point of Rio Lobo is Wayne putting his whole life on hold to find a couple of guys who betrayed him and their country during the Civil War. So McQ is definitely in line with both of those films.In the supporting cast my favorite is Al Lettieri the drug kingpin of Seattle.
Awakened fully-clothed on his boat, groggy policeman John Wayne (as Lon "McQ" McHugh) learns one of the cops killed was his partner.
It would have been better to see him similarly co-star, in a modern drama...Wayne does get to kick a "hippie" early in the running time; to boot, the lad has a full head of natural, fuzzy hair.***** McQ (1974-01-04) John Sturges ~ John Wayne, Diana Muldaur, Eddie Albert, Colleen Dewhurst.
While not exactly a sequel, he plays a very similar role but the writing, locale and acting is just a whole lot better--and aside from THE SHOOTIST, is probably the best film of the final decade of Wayne's career..
John Wayne was very good as a near-retirement cop, but this movie definitely has a 1970's feel.
It is not a classic since the story is a lot less inventive as the aforementioned films, but it is pretty cool to see John Wayne as a cop - he is no less tough then when sporting six shooters and riding a horse.
Inevitably, the film would have prospered more if Wayne was a bit younger, but he is still good as the lead pretty much as he always has been in previous roles.Also, there are several car chases - all are very different.
I think it took some guts on John Wayne's part to do these kind of roles late in his career, roles like "McQ" and "Brannigan" instead of playing it safe and giving his long term fans more of what they expected of Wayne(The War film or Western) I felt Wayne pulled off the role quite well even at his advanced age!
Of course he would of been great as "Dirty Harry" but I'm glad Wayne met the modern times with films like this and "Brannigan".
Real great fun to watch John Wayne plays 'Dirty Harry'!.
I recently watched the reruns of two action movies, McQ & Brannigan, both starring John Wayne, on cable TV.
John Wayne even got a beautiful side-kick in the movie, Detective Sergeant Jennifer Thatcher, played by Judy Geeson.In McQ, I was very surprised to see John Wayne in an intimate scene involving a junkie informer played by a fine actress (Colleen Dewhurst) in an understated role.
Where it fails is in the wasting of three talented actresses Diana Muldaur, underused, Colleen Dewhurst, although she comes across the most strongly it is more the power of her personality and presence than anything she's given to work with in a throwaway part, and Julie Adams, she and Wayne have a good rapport in their one scene and you have a feeling there is more to their story but then she is gone from the film..
I didn't see any of this; McQ was just John Wayne putting on a business suit (as the reviewer in Time said, "Seems like putting Cary Grant in bib overalls"), strapping on an exotic weapon, and sliding behind the wheel of a Trans Am to go kick drug-dealer butt.
Just a cop movie with an old guy playing young.As I got older--and saw McQ uncut on WTBS or KSTW--I began to appreciate both the film and its star even more.
. .Wayne is at his most comfortable, maybe his best work since In Harm's Way. The crime drama itself plays out nicely, with clues being offered out at just the right pace, Seattle and the Olympic Penninsula are beautifully sun-washed and crisp-looking, and Wayne's costars give real weight to the movie--Colleen Dewhurst, Eddie Albert, Diana Muldaur, and David Huddleston, to name a few.
The role of this film was originally offered to Clint Eastwood as the role of Dirty Harry was originally offered to John Wayne.
The car chases are quite good (although the Pontiac Trans-Am is referred to as an AMC Hornet), and ultimately, I would say that this is a satisfying and intriguing film, and one of the first mainstream movies to deal with police corruption..
But this incongruity is the most interesting thing about this tired, cliched "corrupt cops and drugs" yarn, with its obligatory car chases and violence.There is one scene though that shows how good an actor the Duke had become, and how well he may have responded to better material.
John Wayne as a police detective in Seattle, investigating a friend's murder while uncovering corrupt drug smuggling activities within the police department.
I enjoyed this movie, was especially fun to watch since I got to see over 1/2 of it being filmed and met and got Mr. John Wayne's autograph.
John Sturges (Bad Day at Black Rock, The Great Escape) directs Big John Wayne for the first time and the result is "McQ", an action packed detective thriller that ranks among the best of the 1970's genre.
Boyle's former partner Lieutenant Lon 'McQ' McHugh (John Wayne) believes it to be drug lord Manny Santiago.
McQ is somewhat of a change of pace for John Wayne, as he trades in his horse for a Trans Am and plays a Seattle cop looking for the men who gunned down his partner.
There are a couple of good chase scenes, which while obviously borrowing from Bullitt and The French Connection, still add quite a bit to the movie as a whole.Overall, while McQ may not be as good as say, Dirty Harry, it's still a good movie which provides a different type of role for one of Hollywood's most legendary actors..
Seattle cop Lon McQ (aging Wayne , he was 66 when he played a cop for the first time) investigates the murder of his best friend , Stan Boyle (William Bryant) , and the corruption within the police department .
John Wayne starred in this film , along with Brannigan (1975) , because he missed out on starring in Dirty Harry (1971).
Stirring film in which there are nail-biting action scenes , intrigue , blasts , suspenseful set pieces and a big star as well as an excellent plethora of secondaries such as : Eddie Albert , Colleen Dewhurst , Clu Gulager , David Huddleston , Al Lettieri , Roger E.
Oh yeah!Wayne was old here for the role but was such a macho stud he pulled it off!Wayne showed his liberal side in this movie and I loved it!Because of this,this movie was very unfairly put down.It was almost as good as Dirty Harry,definitely better than all the other Dirty Harry sequels and better than Bulitt.Conservatives and narrow minded fools were prejudiced and afraid of this change of direction Wayne took so they rejected this movie not based on it's quality but based on it's style.Wayne was blasting the bad guys with his rapid high power weapon here almost a decade before Rambo!The acting was top notch,the music was da bomb and the action was not too condescending.I always knew the 1970's Wayne was the best Wayne.This movie confirms it.If he made this when he was 20 years younger,he would have put McQueen and Eastwood to shame.There were those critics who said that Wayne was imitating Eastwood.First of all,the role of Dirty Harry was first offered to Wayne before Eastwood,and second,it can be claimed that Eastwood imitated McQeen's Bulitt character,although it is not mentioned in that case.McQ is a classic detective movie and should be given it's due respect.......
John Wayne plays McQ, a Seattle cop.
As the plot leads him into the seedy underworld, (what 70's cop film doesn't) he quits the police force and becomes a private eye in order to catch and bring the killers to justice.This is by no means a great John Wayne action picture.
very interesting to watch a movie where i know where most of the places are...McQ gets his car smashed between 2 log trucks behind the theater that i used to go to as a kid - the D&R - and the beach that the car chase was filmed on is (was) one of the best clam beaches in the state, and Colleen Dewhursts house (long since demolished) was on State Street.
John Wayne was perhaps slightly too old for the part, however, I thought he did a pretty good job as the Dirty Harry type cop who wants to know why is partner was killed.
John Wayne was not one of them.There is something to be said for any movie that has the Duke running down the street, Ingram in hand, to bad 70's "wakka-chikka" music.
This can be looked as a version of ''Dirty Harry'', with John Wayne instead of Clint Eastwood, and directed by John Sturges instead of Don Siegel.Here renegade Cop Lon McQ (Wayne) tries to avenge the death of a friend trying also to investigate and uncover the corruption of the Seattle police department, even against his chief (Albert), that even suspends McQ from service.The only negative comment about the cast is that John Wayne, that was 67 at the time, was too old to play a cop in the ''Dirty Harry'' style, but the other cast members are all famous faces of those years' TV and movies, like Eddie Albert as Kosterman, McQ's superior that hates his un-ortodox methods and in the end believes him, Julie Adams in a small supporting role as Elaine, the wife of McQ's dead friend, Colleen Dewursth as McQ's former wife, Diana Muldaur as Lois, the girl who helps McQ in his investigations, and Al Lettieri as Santiago, the Mexican drug smuggler.By the way, it's an interesting crime movie of the 1970s and it's suitable for everyone, I give this 8 out of 10.
The Duke is just not very believable as a 67-year-old cop doing a Bullit/French Connection-style car chase.Do you feel lucky?
A rather standard police actioner from the 1970's, with John Wayne playing a policeman who is angered when his best friend on the police force is murdered (not knowing at the time the friend was corrupt), and quits the force when his superiors refuse to let him go after the drug dealers he believes responsible.The story was okay, and the villains certainly were good, but John Wayne was in his sixties and obviously too old for the role.
All this takes place just after the opening credits have stopped rolling and will have the audience scratching their chins this might be a very interesting crime thriller If it was for the opening hook that people watch films for then MCQ is an unquestionable success but they don't - They go to the cinema to see stars so what you think of this movie is entirely down to what you think of John Wayne .
Certainly Elmer Bernstien's bombastic score seems well suited to a movie with John Wayne and to be fair it's a lot better than THE GREEN BERETS , another film that was interesting for the wrong reasons.
Regretting turning down Dirty Harry a few years earlier, John Wayne tries to make his own "cop who plays by his own rules" movie with this Swingin' Seventies thriller directed by John Sturges.
Wayne plays McQ, a Firebird-driving tough-as-nails detective who investigates the killing of his friend and uncovers corruption in the police department.
McQ is no better or worse than most of 70's cop movies, and it's crafty pace and looks have a lot to do with two veteran professionals, John Sturges directing, and John Wayne's portrayal of action roles, that he does strictly by the numbers.If you're a fan of police & thieves genre crime movies of the 70's, you won't be disappointed with this showcase for the Duke, and may even enjoy it.
to play his first 'policeman' role in the legendary career.Not out of his league by any means, the Duke definitely fills the bitter seen it all lost my partners kill some drug dealers genre cop of the early 1970's.Not so much a rip-off of 'Dirty Harry' as a different take on the idea.
As it so happens, Stan is a close friend of another Seattle police officer by the name of "Detective Lon 'McQ' McHugh" (John Wayne) who immediately wants assigned to the case to find the killer.
Not The Duke's best movie, but still entertaining for any hardcore John Wayne fan.
Wayne and Sturges moved to new genre for a change and at least to me in high style indeed,McQ delivery in every single scene,Duke embody perfectly a tough cop,can be matched an older Dirty Harry which some desperately attempt imply???
Overall, "McQ" is an unremarkable movie--competent but nothing special, despite strong performances from John Wayne, Al Lettieri and Colleen Dewhurst.
It never occurs to him that he's done essentially the same thing!You can tell that Wayne, director John Sturges, and writer Lawrence Roman were trying for a "maverick, rule-breaking cop" in the Dirty Harry tradition...but none of them seem to realize that McQ crosses the line from "maverick" to "corrupt.".
First, John Wayne always gets criticized for copying Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry with both of his "cop" films, McQ and Brannigan.
All those guys were definitely in the Duke's age bracket, and I think they were what Duke had on his mind when he decided to make a detective movie, not Eastwood.The second thing I've always noticed is what no one has mentioned here so far (and I'm a bit surprised nobody has mentioned it), that even if you count films like The Long Voyage Home and The Cowboys, McQ may very well be the most depressing movie John Wayne ever made.
After his officer best friend is killed, McQ (Wayne) is told by his boss (Eddie Albert) to forget about the murder and let the police investigate.
Sound familiar?This ponderous, heavy-handed film tries to turn John Wayne into Dirty Harry, and it doesn't even come close.
"McQ" seems to takes its inspiration from movies like "Bullitt" and "Dirty Harry", which were big hits around that time.
In this one, the plot is pretty similar to "Dirty Harry", and the fact that Wayne's main character is named McQ could possibly be an in-joke, intended to liken him to Steve McQueen (McQueen; McQ; get it??), who starred as Bullitt.Honest, tough Seattle cop Lon McQ (John Wayne) investigates the death of his partner Stan Boyle (William Bryant) and two other police officers.
Angry and betrayed, McQ sets out to bring down the corrupt cops and drug dealers whose greedy operation caused the death of his colleagues.This is one of Wayne's poorest films, even though it's refreshing to see him in a different sort of movie.
If you want to see John Wayne in something different from his usual fare, then "McQ" might appeal to you
but everyone else will probably come from the film feeling rather disappointed..
Western television star Clu Gulager is on hand, too, in a first-class cast that includes "McCloud's" girlfriend Diana Muldaur, perennial tough guy villain Al Lettieri, Colleen Dewhurst, Julie Adams, and portly David Huddleston.The complex plot opens with McQ's long-time partner Stan Boyle (William Bryant of "The Guns of Will Sonnet") who puts three bullets each into two uniformed cops during the early morning breakfast hours.
let's get a drink," is John Wayne's last line as Lon McQ, title character in his stab at the BULLITT/DIRTY HARRY market. |
tt0349467 | Freedomland | Brenda Martin (Julianne Moore), a single mom works at a day care at Armstrong housing project in Dempsy, New Jersey. Brenda lives in the small blue-collar town of Gannon, which is connected to Dempsy, but Gannon is considered the better of the two communities. After work, Brenda walks into the emergency room with blood all over her hands, and the Dempsy Police are called to the hospital. Police detective Lorenzo Council (Samuel L. Jackson) is on the case. Brenda tells detective Council that she was carjacked and assaulted by a black man in the housing projects. After some time goes by, Brenda finally breaks down and tells Council that her four-year old son, Cody, was asleep in the back seat of the car. The two communities begin to search for the kidnapped child. However, the carjacking suspect is presumed to come from the projects, and racial tension comes to the surface, pitting the two towns, and the white cops and black cops against each other. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)(...continued by KrystelClaire)
Brenda has to be taken to hospital. She is hysterical, and her two hands are bloodied and wounded, presumibly because the male criminal pulled her out of the car violently and dragged her through the leaves and twigs dirty ground.It also happens that Brenda used to be a drug addict five years ago, and that her brother is also a cop. Danny Martin (Ron Eldard) arrives to the hospital from work and produces a caption photograph of the little boy, Cody (Marlon Sherman). She speaks of a mysterious young black man who tapped on the windowglass of her car. Lorenzo knows that the case has potential to escalate out of control because of the race stint of the case. Some of his workmates even deem Lorenzo unfit to lead the case to a good end, because of his diabetes and his unsharp mind.Brenda doesn't seem to take stress well. She was distracted at hospital by the ramblings of several patients (Colman Domingo & Teodorina Bello) in the same room as her. She asks another cop (Jason Furlani) if he's got a child, and he shows a picture he's carrying with him inside of his uniform cap. When pressured by Lorenzo, Brenda seems to be unable to take control of her own emotions, and she slaps herself repeatedly.The area is cordoned off. A man tries to escape from a window, and he eventually falls down. There is chaos everywhere, the police are unable to stop the complaining tenants, and there are questions again of the abilities of Lorenzo to remain detached in the case.Lorenzo accompanies Brenda almost everywhere, even to her home, to check her out. Outside her home, she finds two cars parked, which worries him, so he goes to check them out. Marie (LaTanya Richardson Jackson) says that the matter may escalate out of control, because Brenda was almost a public figure, well-known, cherished and respected in the community, so there's need for the case to be wrapped up nicely and fast. Outside, Lorenzo leaves with the keys of a drunk young man who was about to drive off. The black car follows him in the night with two women in it. Lorenzo talks to them. Karen Collucci (Edie Falco) belongs to an organization who looks for disappeared children. Lorenzo knows that they found the body of a boy, Cory Baker, who had disappeared in another case, so he takes their card.Lorenzo visits his brother, Jason Council (Dorian Missick), who's doing time in jail. He's got himself a tattoo of Tupak, the rapper. They joke about not wanting to have Tyger Woods tattooed in his arms.Other cops, like Lt Gold (Peter Friedman) are going around looking in people's homes almost randomly, which creates more angst and anger in the residents. Lorenzo thinks that nobody in the projects knows anything, in spite of the kidnapping having happened in the woods nearby. Another possibility which is going around is that Brenda is faking everything. She hurt or killed the child and now she's playing the suffering distraught mother, but Lorenzo doesn't really believe in that possibility, as she has looked into his eyes and showed to him how much she's suffering, as he tells to another cop. This other cop tells Lorenzo to pass the case to him, unless he gets burnout.
An angry tennat (Gil Deeble) acknowledges Lorenzo "Hey, man, whacha gonna do about this?". Lorenzo sets to work but doesn't answer.Danny is present when Lorenzo tries to question Brenda again. Danny thinks that Brenda may have started to use drugs again, which she denies strongly. When Danny looks at her with skepticism, she starts to bang on a wall with her bandaged swollen hands. Danny leaves, freaked out. Marie and Lorenzo stay with calmed-down Brenda.She puts on her handsets to isolate herself. There is chaos on the projects, with media asking questions, angered tenants and crazy bystanders. Brenda keeps on being vague about what happened that night, so Lorenzo sits down and asks her whether she killed her son. She looks a bit crazy, and as though she were overacting. She says that having her baby made her a million times better. Lorenzo tells her that he believes in god, and that there is something in the back of her head. Lorenzo tells her that he won't rest until he finds her son.When Brenda comes back to her primary school classroom, all the children hug her. She says that she's okay, and she shows her pupils the photograph of Cody. Meanwhile, Lorenzo asks the substitute teacher about Felicia (Aunjanue Ellis). Lorenzo learns that she didn't work the day of the kidnapping at all. Cheryl Willis (Herself) is on TV, sending a public message asking for the public to give information anonymously; it is also Danny's plea.The cops are going door-to-door asking people about that night, and Rafik (Fly Williams III) runs away. A mother of one of Brenda's pupils tells her to stay away from her child. Back at the police station, the cops hit Rafik with no particular threat to them. Vicky (Haneefah Wood) and Doreen (Portia) get hysterical when they see that. Rafik only crime looks to have been possession and marijuana.His superiors want Lorenzo out of the case, but he wants to go on with it, believing that there is a lot Brenda is holding back about what happened that night. He asks Karen for help while Danny keeps on appearing on TV. He asks her whether she has been to Freedomland, and she questions back if they still look for rookies there.Karen talks to Brenda in front to Marie, Louis, Elaine (Donna Cutugno) and Tina (Genevieve Hudson-Price). Brenda doesn't look to be interested in talking to them and refuses to speak of that night. Only 24 hours have passed by at this point. In the area, there are four places where the child could be, but three of them have been eliminated (a park, a golf course, a cemetery), as there is no place to hide there and they have all been checked out. That only leaves them Freedomland, an old estate children's home behind some woods, which was shut down in the 1950's. They are all going there to check it out, including Brenda and Lorenzo.There are leaflets being passed with photographs of Cody Martin. Brenda doesn't want to enter the place. A priest (Philip Bosco) is telling people to enter Freedomland and search the place for Cody's body. There are dogs and hundreds of volunteers with sticks. Elaine and Tina tell their stories, and they are doing that because of sympathy. They look among the debris inside the main building. The place is not too safe, so Lorenzo tells everybody to stay together. Brenda starts whimpering again and doesn't want to be left alone. There are ragged dolls and children shoes everywhere. Brenda first lays herself down and then leaves the building. Karen speaks to her, and Brenda rocks herself back and forth, like a crazy woman.Brenda says that she wasn't there. Finally, she says where Cody is. In the woods, she can't find the exact spot. There are some stones placed in a particular way. Karen finds it, and Brenda says that she buried Cody all on her own. Lorenzo insists that Brenda picks one of the stones: they are really heavy. Brenda couldn't have done it on her own; Lorenzo tells her that one lie more, and he's out of the case.Outside, while they take Brenda away, a man is telling everybody that white people still blame all crimes on blacks. They find the body, but Lorenzo is still unsure that she should be charged on homicide grounds. The same cop who first devised and organized the blockade, now wants to get rid of it and wash his hands. Lorenzo says that there was never any reason for the blockade, apart from the cop's attitude, that the blockade would only affect a bunch of black animals on welfare (Lorenzo's quote, not mine).Danny arrives, asking for a lawyer for Brenda. She says that there was a Billy UnknownSurname with her. She used to try to help children at the Rainbow Club. Billy (Anthony Mackie) was unemployed at that time. Felicia thought that he was full of crap, but Brenda felt identified with him. Brenda can't resist the pressure of having to take care of Cody 24 hours a day. When she wants to go out, sometimes he'd wake up and cry for her. Billy and Brenda want to go out together, but Cody starts calling for her. Cody tells her that if she went, she'd be sorry. There is a lot of rambling on Brenda's part. When she returns home, she smells something awful, probably the cough syrup Cody had on his own. At that point, she is convinced that Cody was dead, because "a mother always knows". Lorenzo tries to tell her that it was an accident. Brenda says she's done and that she wants to be charged. Lorenzo tries to convince to talk about Billy, so that he can be charged as well. Billy took Cody's body wrapped in a blanket and buried him where Brenda told him.Lorenzo's bleeper sounds. Brenda becomes hysterical and asks if Cody is OK. Lorenzo will charge her with homicide. Lorenzo starts speaking into a microphone. Brenda becomes violently hysterical, shouting like a madwoman. Three police officers are needed to take her away. Billy Williams arrives, also arrested. He says to Lorenzo that he only helped Brenda.Meanwhile, there is a riot on the streets. People are running all over the place, there is fire everywhere, Lorenzo and other cops arrive to the place. The riot police and the crowd are face-to-face. Lorenzo and the rest are trying to calm people down. There is a moment of quiet and still when Lorenzo prevents a boy to start burning some boxes. Rafik looks to a particular riot police officer. Lorenzo tells one of the riot police officers to back off so that the people will have the opportunity to back off as well. Rafik steps in and punches one of them, as if he had something private against him. This is an all-out war.Mayhem ensues.Lorenzo gets in the middle and he gets punched / hit with a club. He thinks he sees ---- staring at him. He remembers Cody, the child Brenda thinks she saw at hospital. Lorenzo passes out.A judge (Patricia Mauceri) charges Brenda Martin with the murder of Cody. Her attorney (Richard Price) almost has to answer in her behalf. Lorenzo is there, sad but not hurt. Brenda is in suicide watch. Lorenzo feels responsible somehow. Brenda suddenly blurts out that she loves him and kisses him on his lips and leaves. Lorenzo also checks on his brother. Lorenzo cries and hugs his brother.He goes to the site where Cody's body was found: there is a shrine of photographs, flowers, balloons outside derelict Freedomland. | violence | train | imdb | null |
tt0082096 | Das Boot | The movie opens with a screen noting that 40,000 Germans went out on submarines in WW2, and that 30,000 never came back. Then you find out that it is near the end of 1941, and the German Atlantic U-Boat fleet is a mere 12 subs.Now cut to the officers of U-96 driving down a dark road by the shore. Enlisted sailors are drunk and hanging out on the road. They harass the officers in a fairly obnoxious way, including urinating on their car as it goes by. The officers (including, as you soon find out, the Captain) take this in stride.The next scene is in a raucous beer hall. It is an award banquet for a sub captain Thomsen (Otto Sander), who just received a commendation, as well as a sending off for U-96's crew. Various scenes of debauchery play out. The officers are just a bunch of rowdy kids having fun. U-96's Captain (Jürgen Prochnow) looks on calmly. The Captain is then introduced to a party reporter, Lt. Werner (Herbert Grönemeyer) who will be accompanying them on their next tour to report on the greatness of the Reich's sub crews. They meet the Captain's chief engineer and de facto second-in-command "The Chief", (Klaus Wennemann), who is older and bedraggled and obviously doesn't look forward to another tour.The Captain goes to find Thomsen as it is time for the old guy to give a speech. He finds Thomsen nearly passed out drunk in a disgusting bathroom. He manages to get Thomsen to his feet with the help of another officer and guides him to the podium. They note sadly that all the crews these days are just kids, and that the old guard is almost gone. Thomsen gives a speech full of what comes very close to anti-Nazi rhetoric (a couple guys in the audience, possibly SS men, look tense), but ends it on a positive note without saying anything too incriminating.Now U-96 leaves port and you meet the rest of the crew. Of most note are the first lieutenant (Hubertus Bengsch), a prissy young hardcore Nazi, and the second lieutenant (Martin Semmelrogge) who is a clever jokester and constantly winds up the first lieutenant. Lt. Werner, the reporter, is led to the junior officer's bunks where he finds out that even the officers have to share beds because of space constraints. Lt. Werner is ribbed by Pilgrim (Jan Fedder), another jokester, and befriends a very young officer, Ullmann, with a French girlfriend back home who he constantly writes letters to. You also get your first shot of Johann, the head of the engine room, a pale, gangly fellow whom the crew members call "The Ghost".Now is the first stretch of drudgery in the movie. Lt. Werner snaps pictures of everything in sight initially, but gradually calms down. The crew goes about their day to day business with increasing dreariness, all of them except the first lieutenant stop shaving and grow beards, and their moil is only broken by a false alarm arranged by the Captain to keep them on their toes. During this time you learn that the Captain has no love for the Nazis, and morale amongst the higher officers seems abysmal.The Captain at one point decides to see how deep the sub can dive. The gauge limits the "safe" zone down to only 170 meters, but the Captain, much to the chagrin of the crew, takes it down to almost 200. This causes ominous creaking noises to emit from the hull, and everyone is relieved when the Captain orders the sub back up.After more boredom, the sub receives a transmission that a convoy has been spotted. The crew leaps at the opportunity to go after them, but the Captain says they have no chance of getting there in time and so they go back to twiddling their thumbs.Shortly thereafter, they get a message about a convoy that they will be able to intercept, and the Captain kicks the sub into full gear to catch it. They approach the convoy in very heavy fog, but before they can even get close enough to see anything one of the escort destroyers spots them and the sub has to dive. After being depth charged repeatedly by the destroyer but taking no real damage, the Captain manages to lose them and escape. The Captain notes that the British destroyers are getting smarter, and that they no longer make mistakes.Now is the final really long stretch of nothing happening. The crew is totally demoralised since they didn't even get close to sinking a ship and barely escaped with their lives, but still remain in fairly good spirits. Lt. Werner is obviously no longer enjoying himself and has stopped snapping pictures of everything in sight. Half the crew ends up with crabs. They randomly run into one of the other eleven subs in the Atlantic, which is a brief happy interlude, followed by the Captain being annoyed at the horrible planning and navigation that resulted in 1/6 of the fleet being in the same spot for no good reason.Now they get a transmission that there is a large convoy spotted and that several other subs are already converging on it. They decide to go for it too, and this time they approach the convoy unnoticed and fire several torpedoes at two of the freighters, landing direct hits. While they are launching the torpedoes they spot a destroyer in the distance, but don't think it will cause a problem. However, after launching the last of the torpedoes the Captain can't see the destroyer in the periscope any more. When he finally does see it, it is rapidly coming straight for them.They dive in a panic and manage to get far enough away that the depth charges don't cause any damage. They hear the torpedoes hit, and are quite happy until the first dreadful ping of the destroyer's ASDIC (British sonar) system sounds. The sub sits there with the pings getting closer and louder, the destroyer approaching, unable to do much besides hope it doesn't notice them. It does notice them, though, and starts depth charging them like mad. You see a shot of Johann wedged under some machinery, holding his head in his hands and looking freaked out and miserable.The Captain manages to evade the destroyer, only to have a second destroyer come at them from a different direction. Left with no choice, the Captain orders them to dive VERY deep, well into the red zone on their depth gauge. The water pressure causes bolts to start popping inwards, damaging equipment and wounding a crewmember. At this point Johann, now totally out of his mind, stumbles onto the bridge babbling incoherently. The Captain orders him back to his post, but Johann just lurches towards him. The Captain moves away and eventually the other officers are able to get Johann out. You see that the Captain was about to shoot him.Finally all signs of the destroyers fade, and the sub hangs under water for six more hours just to be safe. It then surfaces to find that one of the ships it torpedoed was an oil tanker, which is now surrounded by burning oil but not actually sinking. The Captain orders another torpedo fired at it to finish the job. As this torpedo hits, the sub crew is able to see that there are still survivors on the tanker. The Captain is incensed that in six hours no one came to rescue them. The survivors swim towards the sub, but the Captain sadly orders them to move away. The crew who witness this, particularly Lt. Werner, are very distressed.Running low on supplies and fuel, the crew expects that they are now to dock at La Rochelle, France. Instead they are given grim orders: they are to secretly dock with an undercover German supply ship at Vigo, a neutral Spanish port, then make the crossing of the British-controlled Straights of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean to reach the Italian coastal town of La Spezia. The Captain knows that this is essentially a suicide mission, and he arranges for Lt. Werner and The Chief (whose wife is very ill) to leave the sub at the Spanish port and make their way back to Germany. Lt. Werner doesn't want to go, but the Captain insists that he's already been in too much danger. Werner agrees to take the junior officer's love letters (there are dozens of them) to his French girlfriend.Johann comes to the Captain and apologises for leaving his post, insisting that it won't happen again and begging the Captain to not court martial him. The Captain is hesitant, but eventually accepts Johann's apology and sends him off.They make it to Vigo and the secret supply ship turns out to be fantastically well appointed. The officers go aboard and are treated like heroes by the fawning crew. The officers are sullen and do not take kindly to the princely treatment. They are even more annoyed by the ship's crew begging them to tell their exciting stories.In the midst of this the Captain receives a telegram from headquarters. Leave for Lt. Werner and The Chief has been denied. They have to stay with the ship til the end. The Chief is visibly upset, but says that it's a good thing as his replacement would be some incompetent kid. Lt. Werner is conflicted, but definitely unhappy about having to give the junior officer back his love letters. The ship is resupplied and they go on their way.The sub stops away from the Straights of Gibraltar to take stock of things. They can see a fleet of British warships patrolling the depressingly narrow gap between the cliffs. The Captain, for lack of a better idea, decides that they will make a silent run towards the gap, then dive deep at the last minute and hope that the tide can help them drift under the enemy fleet. No one, including the Captain himself, seems to put much stock in this plan.When the time is right, they begin their run towards the Straights. They are immediately noticed and shots from the ships begin exploding around them. The Captain and the navigator are on the ship's lookout when a plane flies overhead, strafing them with gunfire and hitting the sub with a bomb. The Captain and navigator (who is badly shot up) head back into the sub, which immediately starts diving.Unfortunately, due to the damage from the bomb the sub is unable to pull out of the dive. It goes deeper and deeper, past the point that the bolts start blowing out again and horrible noises come from the hull. The pressure causes several pipes to burst and parts of the sub start flooding. The sub eventually comes to a rest on a rock at about 280 meters down, well beyond the limit of the depth gauge.The sub is flooding badly and its engines aren't working. Meanwhile, the navigator is bleeding to death and the doctor is desperately trying to keep him alive. The crew goes into a panic of trying to patch up the damage and stop the water from flooding the entire sub. Amidst the chaos of people madly jamming whatever they can into the leaks, Johann heroically dives into a deep flood puddle to find and jam the source of a major leak. The Chief shimmies under floor panels to replace a bunch of damaged batteries, braving the noxious fumes created by the spilled battery acid in the process.As the leaks stop and the shot navigator stabilizes, the Captain and the Chief assess their situation. There is a bunch of damage to fix, and all the water needs to be bailed out, and if all goes perfectly they might have one shot at surfacing. They are also short on oxygen and need to do everything quickly so they don't run out.The crew goes about bailing the massive amount of water, bucket-brigade style, into the bilge where it will be blown out when they try to surface. The Chief starts repairs. After hours the water is all bailed and the crew is utterly exhausted from the effort. Oxygen is critically low. The Captain orders all men to go to their bunks and relax, while the Chief continues his repairs.The crew is all collapsed about the sub, oxygen deprived and resigned to death. Even the Captain despairs and blames his own recklessness for the crew's fate. The Chief finishes repairs, however, and believes that they still have a chance. The Captain and the Chief resolve to give it a try. They blow their ballast and slowly start rising. Johann fires the engines and, amazingly, they start and work. They surface and everyone takes ecstatic breaths of fresh air. The Captain notes that since they are presumed sunk, they can easily escape and make port back in La Rochelle.The sub limps back to La Rochelle. Droves of people are out to greet them, and the tired mariners get a heroes' welcome. They look exhausted but happy that they made it.Just as the movie seems about to end happily, an air raid siren sounds. Enemy warplanes swoop in, gunning and bombing everyone and everything in sight. Lt. Werner and the Chief manage to make it into a shelter along with a few of the sub's crew. After the planes leave Lt. Werner goes out to survey the damage.Most of the crew is dead. You see the corpses of Johann, the second lieutenant, the junior officer with the French girlfriend, and others. Finally Werner comes to the Captain, who is still standing... but a trickle of blood flows from his mouth and he slowly collapses. Werner looks on, horrified. The Captain lives just long enough to see U-96 sink from sight. The camera zooms out of the scene, with Werner holding the dead Captain. | realism, anti war, cult, thought-provoking, atmospheric, claustrophobic, suspenseful | train | imdb | After being in the Navy for four years, serving with around 350 different men, and being acquainted with a further 200-300, all of them submarine sailors, I think that I can state with absolute certainty that this film is the ONLY submarine movie that ALL submariners take seriously.
Here is a movie that explores heroism, duty, patriotism, hope, fear and the futility of war--all grand themes--explored in the confined, and collapsing, spaces of a German u-boat.I saw this film when I was a freshman in college during a weekend that I later dubbed my "depressing movie festival." (The Wall and Apocalypse Now were the other weekend "entries.") Of these films, it was Das Boot that haunted me--when I laid down at night, I saw Jurgen Proctow's pained blue eyes.
Drama, tension and resolution occur naturally in Das Boot, which contributes to the very real impact of the film.Story is a 10, direction is a 10, acting is a 10 and the cinematography is a 10.
Patriotism for my own country would tend to make me hate the crew on this ship by definition (especially if portrayed as typical mindless killing machine Nazis), but these characters are so well developed and played like human-beings facing difficult decisions that I find myself sympathizing with these guys.I love the flow and pacing of the Director's Cut; it takes its time, and does not feel like typical Hollywood formula "first major plot point at minute 12" cookie-cutter routine.
Then when the action finally starts: how they deal with the possibility of dying deep underwater, how they react to the sounds of a sub going deeper than it should, the look on their faces as a destroyer is heard pinging them, and dozens of little personality quirks--subtle details that bring the crew to life.
It truly does feel like an epic about a submarine crew, and I'm interested in some day viewing the 6 hour TV version.The underwater battles somewhat remind me of Sergio Leone in that Wolfgang Peterson takes forever and a day to get the fights started.
For the rest of you, I feel certain you will too be dragged in and know what it is like to live on board a WW2 U-boat.This movie also shows how leadership is so important in keeping the crew (and ultimately the sub) together.
Don't watch this film unless you are absolutely prepared to immerse yourself into the drama of life as a crewman aboard a German submarine during war.
I can't imagine another film actually displaying what it must have been like to be on one of Nazi Germany's U-boats - young nationalist boys being plucked from their mother's bosom and cast into the claustrophobic iron wolfs in the heat and height of the second world war, who begin to doubt the cause and victory of the fuhrer they've been taught to love and trust.
It would probably be too laborious to refer to the decisive symbols the director uses, therefore I recommend this movie to everybody, especially those who are interested in the Second World War.It presumably sounds pretty weird, yet I suppose that mankind gladly participates on the misfortune of others, without being closely involved with it.
As i grew up i began to understand more about the second world war and was able to make up my own mind as to whether the 'evil Nazis' were all that the cinema portrayed them to be, but 'Das Boot' always stuck at the back of my mind as an outstanding example of how to show fighting men, from what ever side, in the best possible way.Lots of people rave about 'Saving Private Ryan' being the ultimate WW2 film.
The Boat has everything; Fine actors, an excellent script (which doesn't deviate from the Novel at all) and excellent hand-held camera work, supported by brilliant lighting, and 20 years before 'Private Ryan' too!Das Boot is an excellent example of how to depict the horrors of war without resorting to a blood and gore fest and it remains a film that everyone should see it it's entirity at least once..
In October 1941, the German Capt.-Lt. Henrich Lehmann-Willenbrock (Jürgen Prochnow) of the U-96 U-Boat receives the war correspondent Lt. Werner (Herbert Grönemeyer) to cover the work in the submarine during their mission in the Atlantic Ocean.
The German captain, officers and crew are not shown as one-dimension character or sad killing machine like in many war films, but as human beings with families and friends, very efficient in their works but with fear and other feelings.
It knocks hollywood epics like Saving Private Ryan on their sorry overproduced, oversentimental behinds, it torpedoes other submarine films before they have a chance to shout "dive!, dive!, dive!".I first saw this in its original form as a miniseries with english subtitles, and if you can find this version then this should be your first port of call, although the Director's cut I now own is also top notch and doesn't miss much from the series.where to begin?
It's one of those films that will make you watch if only you can spare the ten minutes it takes for it to grip you.Being British, I thought it impossible to feel sorry for the U-boat crews, especially after what they did to us - but this film forces you to realise that we are all fragile and emotional (despite what Hitler says).I would recommend people watch the mini-s rather than the film (i.e. German subtitled version) to get the full flavor.As a side note, my grandfather (twice decorated destroyer captain) burst in to tears watching this at two points: One was at Gibralta, the other on the straights :| Says a lot..
Watching Das Boot, you forget that the crew is German, which in Western society we are taught is the 'bad team' of WWII, and see them for what they really were: ordinary men.
The acting is absolutely first class the characters totally believable and although u do not get to completely identify each of them you really do start to imagine what life on board a WWII u-boat in the latter part of the war must have been like.
With the exception of the noise levels that crew members made in the movie (for drama purposes) he told me that it was a very faithful depiction of the life and hardships a submariner lived on a U-Boot.I personally have always admired the film because it depicts war without glorifying any of the participants.
You are not guided by the director or the plot to identify with any particular character - you can actually relate to many of them, and therefor immerse yourself in the claustrophobic experience they live.Its an excellent piece of film making that combines drama and action into a very powerful anti-war message.
This is a deeply impacting film because the audience really feels the claustrophobia, the filth, the tension and all the other emotions that the 42 crew members of the U-Boat go through.The sentiments of Das Boot are decidedly anti-war.
By showing that it consists of bureaucratic senselessness, German officers living in a fantasy world, the despair of the fighting men - it makes for a touching tale.The director's cut is the version to be seen although it is long.
My favourite was the charge through Gilbratar.Although this movie takes on an Axis power's point of view, one can discard the political aspect of this film, and understand that lives on both ends are similar - each are fathers, brothers, husbands, and are thrown into a senseless political war.
I've seen a fair number of war movies, but none can come close to "Das Boot." I saw it first in theaters when it was first released, in German with subtitles (great); saw it again in theaters, dubbed in English (awful); and then just saw it on the DVD director's cut with subtitles (excellent).
As a movie, this presents a problem because the viewer is taken through all that time in somewhat realistic fashion, which in turn makes the film long and not quite as gripping.The real punch of the movie, though, are the characters, their life on board, their hopes for a successful cruise and a return to normalcy.
After seeing Das Boot, I can't ever bring myself to watch any other submarine movie.I give it 9.5/10 stars; just barely on the edge of a perfect 10, but not quite..
Of course, when he lets his emotions loose at certain pivotal moments in the film, the audience is spellbound, and Prochnow commands the scenes of the movie as surely as his character commands the ship and its crew.
Das Boot is one of the best anti-war movies ever to have left the mind of any director.
A sheer masterpiece of unrelenting terror that makes impeccable use of its claustrophobic atmosphere, nerve-wracking tension & nail-biting suspense to deliver a World War II epic that's still unsurpassed in the authenticity of its tension & realism, Das Boot is a naval adventure unlike anything seen on film before or since.
Director Wolfgang Petersen takes us through a fantastic journey,giving us an insight into the fun, fears and general life aboard a German submarine during the second world war.
It is a piece of art , more than a commercial movie,and that is what makes Petersen such a good director in this film.I felt I was at that submarine together with those heroic sailors.
This film has to be seen in its full length to be fully appreciated as a true masterpiece and dubbing only serves to take away some of the impact of the dialogue.The director handles matters from an entirely balanced view and shows the submariners aboard the u-boat as being both heroes and cowards as they swing from hunters to hunted.
As the movie progresses it is hard not to feel sympathetic towards the crew of the u-boat and it is almost impossible not to see them as victims.The film ultimately stands as a bold and brilliantly crafted portrayal of the futility of war.
It lacks the gloss and glamour of other films of this type and concentrates on the hardship of the crew and the almost squalid conditions in which they are forced to live.The end is one of the most powerful scenes in any war movie and points to the fact that in the end everything that men do in war is pointless and without any honour or heroism.
At the end of the movie I thought "what was the point in any of that", and then it hit me that that was precisely the reaction the director was after.By the way, U-boat stands for: "under sea boat" and I don't know how true it is, but I heard that one of the full size models used in Das Boot was used again in Raiders Of The Lost Arc..
It's a great movie, one of the best at capturing the feeling of being there.What is less impressive, at times, is the more ordinary character development that seems inevitable in a movie this long--2 ½ to 4 hours depending on the version you have, I saw the long one, the director's cut.
The other standout character, for me, is Johann (Erwin Leder), who has one of the most gaunt and frightening faces in movie history.Speaking of the crew, some critics have complained that the film is far too sympathetic to them, since the Germans were the universally recognized bad guys of World War II.
I can understand why some people might be bored by "Das Boot," but of course director Peterson actively tried to make parts of the film slow in order to simulate the tedium of daily life on a submarine.
The models draw you out of the realism a bit - you may find yourself wondering who turned off "Das Boot" and put on "Godzilla" instead - but, for the time, they look fine (I could point to several equivalently lame model shots in "Star Wars," for instance, but that would be blasphemy.) Anyway, the effects are certainly respectable enough to earn our (slight) indulgence.There are really no problems with this movie, then - it's one of those "just about perfect" films.
I watched the 216 minutes Director's Cut and I must say that even if it lasted for over 3 hours it was not boring.Das Boot takes place on a German sub during World War 2.
The U96 and the other boats have been, for all practical purposes, mere pesky details the Fuehrer has already written off and so the physical isolation of the U96 crew is thus compounded with a very real sense of abandonment, not even allowed the simple victory of mere survival, which makes the sailors' tragic fate that much more poignant.Although I am no film critic, I get the impression that the director (Wolfgang Petersen) had a great appreciation and knowledge of the cinematic techniques of Akira Kurosawa as well as of Russian filmmakers like Andrei Tarkovsky and of great familiarity with classic English war dramas like "Sink the Bismarck." His Kurosawa-like portrayal of the often baffling nature of human behavior in various situations, the Russian literary theme of the individual facing the colossal power of nature (in this case, the sea) and the meticulous attention to detail, continuity and realistic characterization representing the best of British cinema are all apparent here..
The most realistic u-boat/submarine film full with all the details of the contemporary sub VIIc. The commands are quite correct for that time, some scenes are too spectacular & unreal as my grandfather told me but the rest is so real that I could see the fear in the eyes of my grandfather after the first 30 minutes (beyond the inside lightning which wasn't neither red or blue).
When I heard that a German WW2 story was being filmed I wondered how they would portray themselves....This was one of the most amazing movies I have ever seen...you feel as if YOU are part of the crew, you will live or die in a small steel cylinder around 100 feet long.
well actually as a German, i liked watching this movie several times...it is, IMHO, as was stated before a good description of the folks who were drawn into war 70y ago...there are no real bad guys and no good guys...and thats who it is..we all are no bad or good guys..we are drawn to the reality we live in...
There have been far too few films made about the U-boat crews during the Second World War, but since Das Boot, it seems as though no others are necessary.
Wolfgang Petersen's epic "Das Boot" is one of them, as it has introduced the "submarine war film", a genre that later included hits such as "The Hunt for the Red October", "Crimson Tide", etc.
Unlike Leone, once the torpedos are launched and the depth charges dropped, the cat-and-mouse game is ongoing and relentless, but never boring.And despite the fact that most of the film takes place inside a cramped submarine, Das Boot is never boring to look at; in fact, it's a visually spectacular film (given the dated special effects, who hold up reasonably well and add to the old-school charm).
Unlike Leone, once the torpedos are launched and the depth charges dropped, the cat-and-mouse game is ongoing and relentless, but never boring.And despite the fact that most of the film takes place inside a cramped submarine, Das Boot is never boring to look at; in fact, it's a visually spectacular film (given the dated special effects, who hold up reasonably well and add to the old-school charm).
The color and composition of the shots in those tight quarters -- particularly upon approaching the first destroyer when we get the first real glimpse of the interior prepped for war -- it is both haunting and beautiful.Jurgen Prochnow delivers the most believable performance of a ship captain I've ever seen on film.
The color and composition of the shots in those tight quarters -- particularly upon approaching the first destroyer when we get the first real glimpse of the interior prepped for war -- it is both haunting and beautiful.Jurgen Prochnow delivers the most believable performance of a ship captain I've ever seen on film.
It's both disappointing and satisfying that I'm not given enough space to do so (I wish I could state that about a tenth of the films I've reviewed here on IMDb.) I liked the entire crew of this U-boat, the war correspondent and his character arc as he realizes the truth behind these "heroes", the chief and his longing to return to his wife, Johann and the story of his redemption--all well cast, well acted, and believable.Another aspect I adored about Das Boot - the controversial scenes simply rolled by with no more or less emphasis than any other statement the film makes.
It's both disappointing and satisfying that I'm not given enough space to do so (I wish I could state that about a tenth of the films I've reviewed here on IMDb.) I liked the entire crew of this U-boat, the war correspondent and his character arc as he realizes the truth behind these "heroes", the chief and his longing to return to his wife, Johann and the story of his redemption--all well cast, well acted, and believable.Another aspect I adored about Das Boot - the controversial scenes simply rolled by with no more or less emphasis than any other statement the film makes.
Wolfgang Petersen's "Das Boot" from 1981 is one of the greatest films ever made.Claustrophobic, sweaty, wet, rocky, tense, frightening - Das Boot shows young Germans during World War II in a submarine, headed up by an old man, played by handsome Jurgen Prochnow, whom I believe was supposed to be 30 - actually the actor was older, but the point is that this crew is a bunch of kids.
I was not sure how I would feel watching a movie about a WW2 Axis U-Boat crew but I'll admit, I really liked these characters!!! |
tt0055184 | The Misfits | In Reno, Nevada, Roslyn Tabor (Monroe) is a 30-year-old woman who has just gotten a quickie six-week divorce from her inattentive husband Raymond (McCarthy). After leaving the Washoe County Courthouse, Roslyn's best local friend, Isabelle Steers, (Ritter), who is also a divorcee, takes her to a bar at Harrah's Reno for drinks to let the reality of her divorce sink in. While there, they meet an aging cowboy named Gaylord 'Gay' Langland (Gable) and his tow truck driver friend Guido (Wallach). They invite Roslyn and Isabelle to Guido's place in the Nevada country to help her forget about the divorce, after Gay tells Roslyn that he is also divorced. They arrive at the unfinished house Guido built for his late wife, who died several years earlier during childbirth. They drink and dance. Roslyn has too much to drink, so Gay drives her home to Reno.
Eventually, Roslyn and Gay move into Guido's half-finished house and start to work on it. One day after breakfast, Gay tells Roslyn how he wishes he were more of a father to his own children, whom he has not seen for some years. Later that afternoon, Roslyn and Gay argue when Gay states his intention to find and kill the rabbits which have been eating the vegetable garden they planted outside Guido's house.
When Guido and Isabelle later show up at the house, Gay suggests that they round up wild mustangs to sell. They plan to go to a local rodeo in Dayton to look for and hire a third man for the job. Along the way, they meet Perce Howland (Clift), a cowboy friend of Gay's who is also on his way to the Dayton rodeo to compete. Gay offers to pay for the broke Perce's $10 rodeo entry fee if he helps the group round up wild mustangs for slaughter afterward. Isabelle sees her ex-husband Charles and his new wife Clara, and decides to invite them to her home instead of going to the rodeo with Gay, Guido, Perce, and Roslyn. Before the rodeo, Guido, Perce, Roslyn and Gaylord all drink heavily at a Dayton bar, where wagers were made and won on Roslyn's ability to play a game of paddle ball. The group is nearly involved in a fist fight when another patron at the bar spanks Roslyn's bottom.
At the rodeo, Roslyn becomes somewhat upset when Guido tells her how the horses are made to buck with an irritating flank strap. She declares that all rodeos should be banned. Later, Perce is thrown by a bucking horse and Roslyn begs him to go to a hospital, but he insists on riding a bull he had already signed up and paid to ride. He gets thrown again, resulting in a head injury.
Later, after Roslyn dances with Perce, he passes out in a back alley. When he regains consciousness, he sees her crying over him. He says that he never had anyone cry for him before and that he wished he had a friend to talk to. He tells her how his mother changed after his father died, giving his stepfather the ranch Perce's father wanted to leave to Perce. A drunken Gay then fetches Roslyn, telling her that he wants her to meet his kids, whom he claims he unexpectedly ran into. When Gay discovers his children have already left, he causes a public scene.
Later on, during the drive home to Reno, a drunken Guido asks if Roslyn has left Gay and offers to take his place. Back at Guido's house, Guido, intoxicated and sleepless, attempts to finish the patio he started. Perce awakens and nearly tears his bandages off, forgetting about his recent injury. Roslyn puts him to bed and sits down with Gay. He asks her if a woman like her would ever want to have a child with him. She avoids the issue, and Gay goes to bed.
The next day, Gay, Guido and Perce prepare to go after the mustangs, and Roslyn reluctantly tags along. After they catch a stallion and four mares, Rosalyn becomes upset when she learns that the mustangs will be sold for dog food. She then tells Gay she did not know she was falling in love with a killer. He tells her that he did things for her that he never did for any other woman, such as making the house a home and planting the garden.
After the horses are captured, Roslyn begs Gay to release the horses. He considers doing it, but when she offers to pay $200, it angers him. Guido tells Roslyn that he would let them go if she would leave Gay for him. She rebuffs him, rightly telling him he only cares about himself. Perce also asks her if she wants him to set the horses free, but she declines because she thinks it would only start a fight. He frees the stallion anyway.
After Gay chases down and subdues the horse all by himself, he lets it go and says he just did not want anybody making up his mind for him. They get into Gay's truck. As they're driving Roslyn tells Gay that she will leave the next day. Gay stops the truck to pick up his dog, and watches Roslyn joyfully untethering it. Gay and Roslyn realize that they still love each other, and drive off into the night. | allegory, romantic, atmospheric | train | wikipedia | "The Misfits" is literally about four people who don't fit into society
A divorcée (Monroe) meets cowboy Langland (Gable), who is getting too old for his job
They decide to live together
A former rodeo star (Clift) and an unemployed mechanic (Wallach) join in the drifting
Huston's masculine images are stripped of their former glory, existing only one rough exterior which fails to conceal what has been lost
Eventually the men agree to round up wild mustangs for a dog food manufacturer
Scenes of the trio and Monroe speeding across the prairie in a beaten-up truck, raising a hurricane of dust while attempting to rope the stallions, are the strongest evocations of lost souls wandering in time
Huston's film established Marilyn Monroe as a dramatic sensuous actress, thus liberating her from a decade of steamy cheesecake roles in sexy comedies.
The Misfits is famous for being the last completed film of two cultural icons, Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe.
I can't say it is an entertaining movie, but it is certainly profound and stays with you.Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift were all wonderful.
Knowing that it is Clark Gable's and Marilyn Monroe's last film added to the aura of finality at the end.
The Misfits, the last film of Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe, is a truly haunting film that never leaves you long after you've finished watching it.
It is about a restless fragile divorcée finding a new life in Reno with a couple of cowboys, one of which has a gambling problem and survives on slaughtering mustangs to make dog food.Not only does this showcase Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable's exceptional (and often underestimated) talent, but it is a very beautiful movie that lingers on in your mind long after you have finished watching it.
Marilyn's equally iconic co-stars Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift, Eli Wallach, Thelma Ritter realize their parts with finesse and feeling.
Whether intentional or not, these facial shots of grief and pain are exquisitely disturbing, as much for their fleshing out Marilyn's personal travail at the time the movie was made as for the mixed-up character she was playing.Her sensitivity to the plight of the wild horses the ranchers are capturing and killing for illegal profit, is brilliantly well-paced, her anguished dialog in defense of their freedom evocative of larger social issues coming to the fore in the 1960s.
The film contains some of the best acting Clark ever did.Clift and his sad broken looks make a powerful impact and Wallach scores well too but the great Thelma Ritter is somewhat shortchanged since she disappears about halfway through the picture.
This collaboration between acclaimed playwright Arthur Miller and director John Huston, while not without flaw, is a consistently engaging study of the inevitable death by degrees of the faux values of the American Dream.Guys like Gay (Clark Gable) are littered throughout small towns across North America - these are folks who remember how it 'Used to Be,' and who feel lost in the New World Order, where the sort of machismo that manifests itself in wrestling 800 pound stallions to the ground single-handedly is no longer a ruling concern.
Gay's mantra, `Better than wages, ain't it?' is a paean to a simpler time when free men didn't have to work for The Man, but could take care of themselves, thanks very much.Roslyn (Marilyn Monroe), on the other hand, is a more rare bird: flighty and sensuous, beautiful and beaten, she is this world's canary in the coalmine.
The Misfits was the last film of its stars Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe, and they couldn't have asked for a better send-off.
"The Misfits" is well-known for being the last completed film of two of the most iconic stars in film history, Clark Gable, the man who became known as the "King of Hollywood", and Marilyn Monroe, the woman who, at the height of her fame, had a good claim to be its Queen.
The film was written by Arthur Miller, directed by John Huston, and, besides Gable and Monroe, starred actors of the quality of Montgomery Clift, Eli Wallach and Thelma Ritter.
The performance of Monroe, like a delicate flower dancing over a volcano, is crucial to the film, because it is truthful.There's a moment where Gay, the rugged and tough cowboy played by Clark Gable, gently gazes at her and says "you're the saddest girl I ever saw".
But Huston's confident directing and Miller's screenplay allow a few outbursts of emotions to each character, so the anger can steam out, even a drunken Gay, desperately cries for his lost children, and this is perhaps the greatest acting moment of Gable's career, pathetic but certainly not pitiful.
(As an aside, I found out that Arthur Miller wrote the screenplay while in Reno waiting for his divorce to be finalized; significantly, the film opens with the character of Roslyn getting her divorce from an abusive husband).There's the delightful Marilyn Monroe (as Roslyn Taber) in her next to last movie, trying to find a man worthy enough to believe in; Clark Gable in his last movie (as Gay Langland) the restless, older cowboy resourceful, independent, strong, but with a touch of cynicism who's attracted to Roslyn despite himself; the always vulnerable Montgomery Clift (as Perce Howland), who drifts from rodeo to rodeo, trying to forget his past; and then there's the ever-present Eli Wallach one of Hollywood's greatest playing the widower (Guido) who can't forget his past, but for all the wrong reasons.All three men are, of course, attracted to Roslyn, and all the while Thelma Ritter (as Isabelle Stears, and an older friend of Roslyn's) tries to help her sort out what she should do.Together the group stay for a while at Guido's unfinished house, out near the Nevada desert, and it is there that Roslyn decides she will try to live with Gay for a while, to see if things work out for them both.
And the editing is just excellent as the cowboys bring down each horse, one by one, leaving the stallion to last, in a final great tussle (in a Clark Gable biographical documentary I saw, I found out that he did much of the heavy work in those scenes; no mean feat for an aging star in his sixtieth year.
The superb cast were well versed in these matters, as their performances show with striking clarity, with Gables tragic loss of wife Carole Lombard during the war, Clifts horrific car-crash a few years earlier, and Monroes ongoing breakup with Miller paired with her own personal demons.
The beautiful Roslyn has just divorced and she meets two friends, Guido and Gay, who take her to Guido's house.She and Gay, an aging ex-cowboy and a gambler start having something going on between them.But Roslyn is against how Gay sells the mustangs he captures to the slaughterhouses for the manufacture of dogfood.Then in the picture appears Perce Howland, a drifter rodeo rider.John Huston, a big-time gambler directed The Misfits (1961).Clark Gable is terrific playing Gay Langland.Marilyn Monroe as Roslyn Taber really shows in this film that she could act.The legendary actor Eli Wallach is Guido.It's great how Clift plays that scene where he talks on the phone with his mother.Two of the great stars of last century had to finish their careers to this movie due to their early deaths.Gable had a heart attack after two days after the filming ended and died ten days later.He was 59.Monroe died the next year to an alleged drug overdose.She was 36.This film was an end of an era.It showed us these two for the last time on screen.And the movie was something that wasn't seen too much after this..
Great performances by Clark Gable, Eli Wallach, Montgomery Clift, Thelma Ritter and specially Marilyn..
The film has such a human range yet it harmonizes with the genre in such a sublime way.John Huston is great here, Miller evokes such harsh beauty and a tragic optimism near the end, and the performances of Monroe, Clift, Gable, and Wallach are beyond excellent.
The story of a distraught divorcee looking for happiness with a barrage of Reno cowboys may sound lumbering, but this is truly an excellent film, featuring what I believe was Monroe's best performance (WHY wasn't she Oscar-nominated for this?).
John Huston's direction of Arthur Miller's screenplay is exceptional, and each of the actors (especially Gable, Thelma Ritter and Eli Wallach) give vibrant performances.
Hard to tell--she goes from happy to sad within each segment with little explanation given.CLARK GABLE's character is no more illuminating--he seems to be playing a lazy but good-natured drifter who doesn't really know where he's going or what he wants and he gets lifeless support from MONTGOMERY CLIFT who seems to be (like Monroe) in some sort of daze most of the time.
As you can see, this will never rank as one of my favorite films even though the script is by the renowned Arthur Miller and the direction is by the equally renowned John Huston who had a hard time coaxing Marilyn Monroe onto the set.Pretentious from start to finish is the only verdict I can come up with and a difficult film to watch without losing patience.Unfortunately, its chief distinction today is that it was the last film of Gable and Monroe..
As much as I really enjoyed this film, I can't help but feel that Arthur Miller created the role of Roslyn Taber with the influence of Marilyn's life; Her dialog throughout the movie really sounded like a reflection of her childhood troubles and tragedies.
Although this was to be the last film roles for Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe, The Misfits is a touching film that served as a springboard for environmental issues, especially the plight of the Nevadan wild Mustang.
A recently divorced blonde bombshell in Reno (Marilyn Monroe) befriends three guys and stirs their passions: An aging cowboy (Clark Gable), a cynical bush pilot (Eli Wallach) and a brooding rodeo contender (Montgomery Clift).
The Misfits was her last completed film, - she never completed the filming of George Cukor's remake of My Favourite Wife (1940), Something's Got to Give, which has been subsequently released as a short - and I feel that it captures much of what made Norma Jean Mortensen, Marilyn Monroe.She plays Roslyn, a newly divorced woman, who meets up with a couple of older men, Guido (Eli Wallach) and Gay (Clark Gable - this was also his last film), and escapes with them to a country house.
The screenplay was written specifically for her by her then husband, playwright Arthur Miller, and he clearly knew her need for that elusive father figure, and her need to soak up attention, and wear her body (and image) as a mask to her internal pain, and tragic sense of abandonment.Whilst certainly not her best film (director John Huston had stated that she was difficult, and the decision to shoot in black and white was due to her bloodshot eyes - caused by alcohol and prescription drugs), that surely would go to Some Like it Hot (1959), but this is absolutely her greatest, and most revealing role.
The scene of him with Marilyn Monroe makes you think of two victims of life, comforting one another.How Gable could show so much affections for Marilyn when she infuriated him with her continual lateness, shows what a good actor he finally was in this final film of is.
This is a classic United Artists film starring Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe with fine ensemble cast support by Montgomery Clift, Thelma Ritter, and Eli Wallach.
Movie fans will note John Huston directed MM in her first classic role in MGM's The Asphalt Jungle and this MM's last completed film.Arthur Miller wrote the screen play for his wife Marilyn Monroe.
And finally Marilyn Monroe, a recent divorcée, trying to re-start her life.At times the story itself does seem slow, as another review mentioned, but the characters and their psycho-dramas are well worth watching.
As the men, and their friend Perce begin to fall for Roslyn, the real nature of their characters, the stuff that shows with time, begins to come out.With an all star cast, a director with classics under his belt and a script from Arthur Miller, the credits of this film made me believe I had made the right decision in taping it.
He also draws good performances from his cast, which is a bigger feat than it sounds as I personally didn't feel they were given more than one or two aspects of character to work with certainly I didn't seem them as people so much as performances.Despite this the cast are roundly good and time has added this film even more of a sombre tone in that it was the last films of Gable and the penultimate one from Monroe, with Clift only a few years behind.
Her work in John Huston's THE MISFITS may be the only time on screen that we glimpse Marilyn Monroe as a real person, both as an individual and as a character, and not as an icon or a Hollywood contrivance.
Roslyn finds companionship with three men: the ironically named Gay, an aging cowboy played by Clark Gable (himself a symbol of fading Hollywood glory); Perce, a battered and deteriorating rodeo rider played by the battered and deteriorated Montgomery Clift (who like Marilyn has become a gay icon); and Guido, who, as played by Eli Wallach with a disconcerting mixture of graciousness and lust, seems to be Miller's vision of Monroe's male fans.
It's amazing people crow over B-rated comedy like "Some Like It Hot" (making it #1 at AFI for comedy and #50 overall at IMDB) yet flame a John Huston film & Arthur Miller screenplay!"The Misfits" is as topical today as it ever was (like any good work of art), and not just for the cause of animal rights or LV wild mustangs.
This is the film's one major flaw and may have resulted from Monroe's fear that Wallach's character as originally scripted would over shadow hers.Perce (Montgomery Clift) is a relatively young rodeo rider who has been kicked in the head a few too many times.
I'm sure they didn't think about this when they were filming, but The Misfits has become somewhat of a mystic film experience since it is now known as the last role featuring Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe, two of the biggest stars in film history.
Scenes between these two movie giants are interesting to watch, especially Monroe, who seems like she has completely immersed herself in this role and does some things you wouldn't expect of Marilyn Monroe.The supporting cast is also big-named with Montgomery Clift, Eli Wallach, and Thelma Ritter.
Clark Gables last screen performance is good, & Marilyn Monroes last completed film, ironically, is OK too.
The Misfits tells the story of recently divorced Roslyn (Marilyn Monroe), and the friendship that she develops with car mechanic Guido (Eli Wallach), aging cowboy Gay (Clark Gable) and failing rodeo rider Perce (Montgomery Clift).
The irony here is The Misfits script was meant as a gift from Arthur Miller to his wife, Monroe; the role of Roslyn being one that Marilyn could truly act.
And finally the ending of the film, is strangely abrupt considering the run time, and one can only assume that Gay and Roslyn live happily ever after.BOTTOM LINE: Marilyns greatest performance in a film where the characters, or lack of, misfits..
John Huston's filming of Arthur Miller's THE MISFITS was dismissed at the time -- even by its doomed stars (well, "doomed" except for Eli Wallach, who is with us still at the grand old age of 137) but this poignant parable, set in the Nevada foothills, has aged as well as almost any film Marilyn ever did.
The cast are excellent too, The Misfits was both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe's last films, and this film is an affectionate enough tribute to them.
Director: John Huston Writer: Arthur Miller 1961"The Misfits", would, sadly be the final film, for both Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable.
Early on in the movie, Marilyn Monroe's Roslyn tells Gay, played by Clark Gable in arguably his best performance, that she doesn't know what to do next with her life.
As the credits rolled by I thought to myself that this film must be a classic with the names Monroe, Gable, Clift, Houston, Miller, Wallach.
Clark Gable does his best, Marilyn Monroe actually acts more than usual, Montgomery Clift is funny, Eli Wallach is wonderful, and John Huston is a legend.
In Reno, Nevada, voluptuous Marilyn Monroe (as Roslyn Taber) obtains a divorce; then, she attracts the attention of three boozing cowboys: Clark Gable (as Gay Langland), Montgomery Clift (as Perce Howland), and Eli Wallach (as Guido).
indeed, the stars are out tonight.******** The Misfits (2/1/61) John Huston ~ Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Thelma Ritter.
Marilyn Monroe portrays a newly divorced woman in Reno, who, accompanied by her friend Thelma Ritter, hooks up with 3 men - Clark Gable, Eli Wallach, and Montgomery Clift.
The method actors - Monroe, Clift and Wallach and classical stalwart Clark Gable assume the roles of Roslyn, Perce, Guido and Gay respectively, with Thelma Ritter acting in the supporting part of Isabelle.
For Clark Gable, the crusty old cowboy, this recently divorced woman played by Marilyn Monroe was seen as the child that he wanted to father after a wasted life in which he 'lost' his real children.
Starring three screen luminaries of towering magnitude - Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift, the film falls short of its lofty ambitions but not for lack of trying.
Some of the finest actors of the late 50's early 60's, Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Eli Wallach, Montgomery Clift, Thelma Ritter are gathered together in Reno, Nevada by the master John Huston. |
tt2726560 | The Longest Ride | In the opening scene, Luke (Scott Eastward) is riding a bull and falling off of it; the commentators seem concerned as his fall seemed unsafe.Then the movie cuts to Sophia, a young college student at Wake Forest College. She is in her room at her sorority house with her best friend handing her a pair of boots and begging her to come to a bull riding competition. Her friend calls her boring and tells her that she can't spend her whole life studying. She - relenting - goes to the competition and watches Luke (and several other riders) ride the Bulls. Luke is attempting to make a comeback at the championship after his fall. He rides the bull for the required amount of time and dismounts. As he waves to the crowd the bull charges in his direction, so he heads to the rails, in his rush his hat falls into the lap of Sophia, and he tells her to keep it. Later that night while everyone is drunk at the bar, Sophia heads outside and runs into Luke, who recognizes his hat and says "hi". They are both about to make their way inside for a drink, but Sophia runs into her friend who is noticeably drunk and feels sick. They all agree it's best for Sophia to take her friend home. Luke takes Sophia's number.Luke calls Sophia, but she doesn't answer because she has an upcoming art internship in New York after she graduates in two months and doesn't think it worthwhile to pursue a relationship. Her friend (who was drunk in the bar that night) convinces her to call him as all the sorority girls would like to be with a handsome bull rider like that. He takes her out to a secluded lake and brings some delicious barbecue take out for them to eat. On the ride home, though it's pouring outside, Luke notices some missing rails on a bridge, reverses and runs towards a car- It's on fire, and an elderly passenger is inside. As he is rescuing the old man, he keeps yelling about saving a box in the front seat. Sophia grabs the box, and they take him to the hospital. Sophia agrees to stay behind with the elderly gentleman and they part ways as Sophia explained to him earlier that she won't be in town for much longer.While in the waiting room, Sophia opens the box and discovers a lot of letters. She opens one and finds that it's addressed from a young Ira to his late wife, Ruth. When he's out of surgery, Sophia introduces herself and hands him the box. The old man is not eating his food so she says she'll read him one of the letters (as his eyesight is not a good as it used to be) if he eats. While eating we cut to a scene with a young Ira being introduced to a young immigrant Ruth from Austria, at his parents' store; he is at a loss for words.Ira observes her around town but doesn't approach her out of shyness. He finally summons up the courage to approach her with a rose in his hand, but sees another young man talking to her and so throws away the Rose as he walks off, but she sees him as he walks away. Another day at a joint gathering she approaches him and wonders why he hasn't said "hi" even though he always stares at her, she said it's a shame he threw away the rose.In the present day, Sophia asks old Ira if he would like her to read another letter but as he is crying he asks her to do it another time. Sophia comes back to visit old Ira regularly and so the rest of the movie is intertwined with scenes of Ira and Ruth and the present. Luke continues to ride bulls and is shown throughout the movie in a series of competitions climbing the ranks, and his aim is to be number one. Driving home one day, he notices a picture in his car of young Ira and Ruth and so goes back to the hospital to return the picture to the old man, where he runs into Sophia. As he turns to leave Sophia asks him to go out sometime and he accepts. He tells her he'll take her bull riding, but she agrees to ride a horse.They go home to his ranch and after a day of horseback riding she dares him to a race but before he can stop her she runs right into the lake hidden behind the grass. He takes her inside to change and have a shower. As she is entering the bathroom, he offers her soup when she gets out. While undressing they both notice that the door is slightly open, so she takes off her clothes slowly making eye contact with him. He joins her, and they have sex in the shower.Ruth and Ira continue courting enjoying dates on the beach and at art galleries. One day she pulls him into a hotel lobby and shows him an arty picture and explains how beautiful it is and her interpretation of it. He is also shown having dinner with her family one night where we learn that art is looked upon highly in her family. He proposes to her one day on the beach, and she says that she wants a large family. It is then shown that he is called off to serve in the war; they are both sad, but she promises to wait for him til he returns. While in the middle of the battlefield one of his fellow wounded soldiers calls for help. Many of his colleagues are hiding in a ditch as shots and bombs are being fired, so they see helping him a suicide mission. Ira decides to help against the warning of a colleague. He grabs the wounded soldier but is shot on the way although they both make it to safety.Next he is shown in the hospital, and while he is still alive he is sent home but the reason is not yet known. Upon arriving home he is shown outside Ruth's home but doesn't have the courage to enter. She approaches him in a diner saying that his mom called to tell Ruth that he has been home for a few days, and she is upset as he hasn't called her. She demands to know why he won't talk to her as she waited all that time for him and wanted to marry him. He reveals that the injury left him unable to have kids and said that he can't give her the family that she wants so she should continue without him. She says that she loves him and will marry him regardless. On one of their dates he takes her to an open house and asks her if she likes it, she says yes and he reveals the keys in his hands and inside the house he reveals the painting she loved from the hotel lobby. They hang it in the house.Sophia and Luke are now in a relationship. While talking to his mom one day at home, she reveals that his father was also a bull rider who passed away several years ago. Luke rides Bulls as a way to keep the ranch and his mom afloat. Sophia's boss calls her and tells her that the New York art dealer will be in Charlotte that weekend and asks if she'd be interested in meeting him, she says yes. On leaving to meet the art curator she receives a call from Luke's friend and finds out that he took a rough fall and is in the hospital. She calls her boss to let her know she can't make it this weekend.While at the hospital, she hears the doctor warn Luke not to ride again, as he was warned against riding after his serious injury (for which he has a scar on his chest) at the beginning of the movie. Sophia is concerned as she cares about Luke, and doesn't want him to harm himself, upon being discharged from the hospital she assumes he will stop riding bulls but when he tells her he won't she breaks up with him as she can't be with him if he is harming himself unnecessarily especially after she called her boss to cancel both the meeting this weekend and her upcoming internship so they could be together. His mom says that he is making a mistake letting her go as she is the rest of his life. When he explains that he does it for his mom, she says she will make it without the ranch and that the only person he is doing it for is himself.Sophia meets with Ira at his home as he has been discharged from the hospital. She learns that adoption was not as easy in those days so Ruth took a job as a school teacher so she could be around kids. Though it is shown that it still isn't enough for her. She notices a kid asleep in class one day and it is obvious that he needs a bath, she visits his home to find that his impoverished half brother looks after for him and neither he nor his wife care much for the boy. Ruth takes extra care of the boy bringing him home after school and feeding him some days. Ruth and Ira become attached to the boy and look into adopting him, but his half-brother says no. She cries and says there must be another way, but Ira says that his lawyer said there was no other way. This is a small town, and his brother is legal guardian so there is no way they will win in court. Upon bringing the boy to his family for the last time, she tells him that he can be anything he wants to be a farmer, a scientist a lawyer. Whatever he wants to be as he is a smart young boy.This loss and Ira's level headed approach to the situation is too much for Ruth as she considered the boy a part of their family. She packs her bag and leaves as she wants children too badly. Ira cries but loves her enough to want her happy and so lets her leave. She comes back a few days later, and they grown old together, continuing to collect art and have adventures until one morning in their old age Ruth doesn't wake up. After her funeral, Ira says that a woman showed up to his door, she is the wife of the young man Daniel they wanted to adopt. She reveals that he has passed on but was not only a teacher but professor at University College of London; she returned to America after he died. He was inspired by Ira's wife who told him as a child that he could be whatever he wanted to be. Words that clearly struck a chord with him and so upon reading Ruth's name in the obituary she felt compelled to visit. She hands him a framed portrait. While the portrait is not shown, a picture of Ruth and Ira stuck to it is. This is the same picture Ira had with him the night of the accident.Cut to present day, when Luke is ranked number five in the world and is competing for the championship. From the hat pick, it is shown that he will ride the number 1 bull for the championship. His hand is still shaky from his accident, but he rides the bull and the entire time he is looking in the audience to the empty seat where Sophia usually sits. He rides the bull long enough and is now ranked number 1 rider in the world. Sophia receives a call one day and is notified that Ira has died, she starts crying but is invited to an invitation only auction for his art the following week. Luke also receives an invitation in the mail. Apparently, Ruth has an eye for art, and amassed a large collection throughout their lifetime, which Ira took down after she died because the painting were a permanent reminder of her and too painful to bear. They have Warhols and other paintings by famous artists in their collection as Ruth was great at identifying young talent.Luke arrives late and stands to the back of the room while the first picture goes to auction, it is a picture of Ruth painted by Daniel. The auctioneer offers $1,000 with no takers and so goes down to $800 with still no takers. At $600 Luke purchases the picture, and Sophia is surprised to see him. The auction is on hold until he finalizes the purchase, and in the other room, Sophia says "hi". He tells her that all thought he wanted was to be the #1 bull rider, but the entire time he was riding the bull, he was thinking of her. He realizes that she is his life, and he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. They kiss and can't keep their hands off each other til the curator calls them up. The auction was put on hold as Ira's lawyer reveals that the entire collection now belongs to the owner of the picture of Ruth. He reads a letter from Ira explaining that Ruth was his heart and his entire life belonged to her so the entire collection will go along with the painting of the love of his life Ruth. Luke is unsure what the hysteria breaking out in the room is about as people start asking him how much he wants for the pictures. Sophia grabs his hand and explains that he is now a millionaire.In the final scene, Sophia is seen at a art gallery surrounded by Ira's pictures and is shown locking the door to the room and jumping into a car with Luke. The building she left is the 'Ira and Ruth Levinson Museum'. | melodrama, flashback | train | imdb | Their love story is entwined with the memories of a relationship of love long ago, told and acted by Alan Alda, who plays Ira, as he reads letters he wrote to his dear wife, Ruth.
The Longest Ride is definitely not the perfect film, and in the end is another Nicholas Spark's novel come to life.
Based on Nicholas Sparks' novel of the same name, the film stars Scott Eastwood, Britt Robertson, Jack Huston, Oona Chaplin, Alan Alda, Melissa Benoist, and Lolita Davidovich.Luke Collins is a bull rider who is seriously injured one night while riding.
In the book you find yourself falling in love with the couple while I do not believe they got enough screen time.As for Ira and Ruth's story, it was wonderful to see the scenes played out and while I LOVED the way their story was presented in the book, I was glad for the chance to see Ira have more screen time as an elder.There were a LOT of things that were changed from the book when this AMAZING story was made into a movie, and I feel that it only hurt the story.
Nicholas Sparks' movies are almost always seemingly made to please the hopeless romantics and the fairytale romance-loving audience, they're expected to manipulate emotions, no matter how extremely recognizable their set ups may be, and they often triumph.
In modern day, it has Luke and Sophia, two utterly good-looking people, who at first sight falls in love with each other, they stumbles upon Ira, a World War II veteran, who himself, has his own epic love story to tell—that one he shared with his wife, Ruth, seventy years ago.
Sophia(Britt Robertson) a college student living in North Carolina, while on a date with Luke(Scott Eastwood) a rodeo star, is not real sure where to go with it, cause she is moving to New York within two months, feeling it would not work out with him, even though she really finds herself falling for him, one night after there first date they discover a car wreck, and rescue a man that was in the wreck, and take him to the hospital.
You know what to expect when you go to a movie based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, but I was entertained, Britt Robertson was great I believe there is an Oscar in her future.
After an automobile crash, the lives of a young couple intertwine with a much older man, as he reflects back on a past love.The latest Nicholas Sparks adaptation stars Britt Robertson and Scott Eastwood.
Adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' source material (calling it a book would be too charitable), this drama, targeted at lovelorn teenage girls, concerns the turbulent love affair between a handsome professional bull rider and his university girlfriend, which parallels the one between an elderly man (whom they rescued from a car accident!) and his wife in the 1940s.
Art student, Sophia (Britt Robertson), and bull rider, Luke (Scott Eastwood) are an unlikely couple that must choose between new found love and their dreams.
Love isn't easy for Sophie and Luke or for Ira and Ruth, but as old Ira tells Sophie, "Love requires sacrifice.""The Longest Ride" is a title that carries different meanings in this movie, much like the dual love stories that play out on the screen.
This is perhaps unusual for a review, but let's get the movie portion of the review out of the way...Longest Ride is at best a "Lifetime" romantic drama that is overlong, has a weakish script, relies heavily on flashbacks, lacks focus, and at the very end tries (with limited success) to redeem itself with a "feel good" happy ending.The happy ending was sort of fun.
Now, in present day, Sophia must decide whether or not to go along with her internship or stay behind with Luke, who must decide whether or not to pursue his bull-riding career through one traumatic injury after another.The first problem with most Nicholas Sparks films is that they take two potentially thoughtful stories and mesh them together to create a romance amalgamation.
It might sound strange being a male, but I am a huge Nicolas Sparks fan and this does not disappoint.I did not even know of Scott Eastwood until I heard about this film, even though I saw him in Fury, but I have long been a fan of Britt Robertson from TV shows Life Unexpected and Swing Town and Alan Alda everyone should know and love by now.
All of the performances by the leads are fantastic, but Alan Alda's really stands out and if nothing else convinces you to see it, see it just to see him shine.I am very glad that Scott changed his name to Eastwood as he had now earned himself a huge fan as I have been of his father Clint for most of my life.If you enjoyed The Notebook, you have to watch this one, after I had seen The Notebook I didn't think I would see another like it, but this comes pretty close.
For those who just can't get enough of "The Notebook," "The Longest Ride," written by Craig Bolotin and directed by George Tillman, Jr., is guaranteed to stir up all those feelings from the earlier film - not a surprise, given that they're both derived from novels by Nicholas Sparks, that modern-day purveyor of romantic schmaltz.
Nicholas Sparks has an enduring audience – his novels are read by those of all age who love romance stories and his books are consistently transformed into successful films.
The story centers on the star-crossed love affair between Luke (Scott Eastwood, a significant growth in presence), a former champion bull rider looking to make a comeback, and Sophia (Britt Robertson), a college student at Wake Forest in North Carolina who is about to embark upon her dream job in New York City's art world.
As conflicting paths and ideals test their relationship, Sophia and Luke make an unexpected connection with injured Ira Levinson (Alan Alda) whose memories of his own decades-long romance with his beloved wife (the young Ira being played by Jack Huston and his wife Ruth played by Oona Chaplin) deeply inspire the young couple.
Thankfully, The Longest Ride casts two vibrant and talented actors to bring their characters and most importantly, chemistry to life.While you could guess that every Sparks romance involves two parallel love stories, a dark personal secret, a past and present rendering, a World War II reference, an infamous scene in the rain, and very noticeable slices of Americana, The Longest Ride only fulfils half of the typical Sparks criteria, allowing the film itself to play on a fresher slate than half a dozen of his previously adapted films.This time around, we are introduced to the eclectic and cultured Sophia (Britt Robertson), a young and beautiful woman studying in North Carolina on a full scholarship.
While the similarities of young Ira (Jack Huston) and Ruth's life beg to make their way into Sophia and Luke's relationship, the young couple begin to question the route of their lives and the acceptance of whether or not they are meant to be.With any good Sparks film, there is always an independent director trying to reinvent them self for a career in the mainstream.
Luckily this time around, George Tillman Jr. was the man responsible for directing Sparks latest, and like Lasse Hallstrom, the director at the helm of Safe Haven and Dear John, as well as other very successful light-hearted fares including Chocolat, The Cider House Rules and most recently The Hundred-Foot Journey, Tillman Jr. continues Hallstrom's tradition of executing successful romance without ever down playing its clichéd niche and obvious narrative directions.Tillman Jr. does some of the best work with his actors in creating very real yet idealized characters within Sparks' world.
The film exposes a world that confirms sometimes opposites attract – a notion many young people need to begin to accept.Although many might complain of its duration, The Longest Ride (no pun intended) does also showcase one of the Sparks cannon's best flashbacks since The Notebook.
Night Shayamalan, I don't think audiences will ever get a Sparks adaptation that will be better than The Notebook, while other films like A Walk to Remember and The Longest Ride will continue to satisfy audiences, begging to never see iterations that are closer to the flat and tired Safe Haven and The Last Song side of things..
Only a few more lines to go so I may just repeat myself...I feel just like Nicholas Sparks writing his next "masterpiece".I would explain why this movie is bad but I am afraid after seeing this film it has sucked my will to live, typing anything is a challenge right now, but I must endure the pain to save future generations from self torture..
This is the story of a seemingly mismatched young couple Scott Eastwood and Britt Robertson and an old man with his memories who cements their relationship.Nostalgia is bursting all over the place with The Longest Ride.
The contemporary world is owned by bull-riding handsome Luke, played by Clint Eastwood's son, Scott, and the innocent but fiesty art-loving college girl, Sophia (Britt Robertson) who falls for him.
The movie stars Luke Collins, a professional bull rider looking to be the best of the best, who is portrayed by the handsome Scott Eastwood along with college student, art lover and sorority sister, Sophia played by Britt Robertson.
The movie begins when Sophia's sorority drag her to the rodeo Luke is participating in and the two meet and begin to fall in love, but with Sophia getting ready to head to New York City for her dream job and Luke trying to make a comeback in the bull riding scene, their relationship might not make it.
Throughout the movie Ira tells them stories about him and his beloved wife and how they got through life and their struggles together, which gives Sophia and Luke lessons about life and love.
Ira, a world war 2 veteran, played by Alan Alda is very grouchy the first time we talk to him, slowly the audience falls in love with him and his stories as he grows closer with Sophia.
At the end of the day Longest Ride is the best romance movie I have ever watched.
Review: I really didn't like this movie because it doesn't the classic mold of a Nicolas Sparks love story.
Its the usual angsty star crossed love affair with two stories in one -which is actually what made this movie.Scott Eastwood takes the leading hunk role as Luke Collins, a former bull riding champion trying to make a comeback on the rodeo circuit and Sophia an art student preparing to seek her future in New York.
Jack Huston, Oona Chaplin and Alan Alda all gave decent acts, Britt Robertson also was good, fitting the character.on the other hand, for a 2 hours 3 mins, the story was supposed to be more in depth, more touching, not saying it wasn't but when you have plenty of running time it should be a bit more.
Pretty descent movie....i will not say that it is one of the best movies but also not a bad one..The story of Sophia and Luke is very simple but the second one is mind blowing...yes the story of Iris and Ruth..Luke is a Bull rider and wants to be the no 1 in world..One day at a bull riding event,he accidentally meets Sophia, a student of arts...Both fall in love and give us sensual romance through out the movie.On their first date,they meet an old man called Iris..His love story has also been traced back in the movie.The essence of this movie is unconditional love.and that, you have to sacrifice for your love..In the movie,both love stories go parallel..One of Luke and Sophia.
Filled with more cheese and sap than a full season of Days of our Lives, The Longest Ride wears its Hallmark like heart on its cowboy sleeve and never once tries to hide it but for a film that so easily could've been too mawkish to take, it ends up being a likable, watchable and most importantly smile inducing effort.As a word of warning, anyone that has found Nicholas Sparks adaptations like The Notebook, A Walk to Remember or Nights at Rodanthe unbearable then stay as far away as possible from Ride as like those films it features impossibly cute couples being in love like only novels and movies can portray and with this film you don't just get one love story, you get two.
This two pronged element is quite likely the main reason Ride never becomes too unbearable and at 2 hours in length it could've easily become that but experienced director George Tillman Jr. handles both the modern day story of bull rider Luke Collins and art loving college student Sophia and also the told via flashback story of Boardwalk Empire's Jack Huston's Ira and Oona Chaplin's Ruth in a way that the film never gets to bogged down in either story mode and the audience is able to enjoy their time spent with these love birds before they start to get annoying, whether it be Britt Robertson's OTT laugh or Oona Chaplin's off putting accent.Like all Sparks adaptations before it and likely after it, Ride finds young attractive couples to take centre stage here and while the chemistry of both Eastwood and Robertson and then Huston and Chaplin isn't at a Notebook like level they all share an easy to like persona which helps these slightly unbelievable characters feel a little more real.
The most interesting of these is Eastwood's Luke, while his like a fairy-tale cowboy Luke isn't your typical male lead and while he has a long way to go Clint Eastwood Jr shows enough to suggest a career as a leading man like his father isn't out of the equation.A slight bit more cheerful than your average Sparks story thanks to an almost groan inducing ending, The Longest Ride is a romantic tale that thankfully boyfriends, partners and husbands the world over can watch with their better halves and enjoy rather than count down the minutes until the pain is over.3 full faced Richard Harrow's out of 5.
The love story works (there have been some movies where the romance felt "forced" upon or either too slick or not "real" enough) and the actors are having an obvious blast in this (put Mr. Alda into the mix for the occasional funny bit and you are set to go).While it's obvious what the second story line is there for (helping one or both our main characters realize what is right in front of them), it never quite feels as urgent or as "topical" as it could have been.
Well I admit I wasn't gripped from the beginning; the script was weak to begin with, the prospect of watching bull riding was slightly unsavory and I felt little connection to the characters at the beginning.The chemistry between the two lead actors though built nicely, it was interesting to observe Clint Eastwood's son stamping a similar level of masculinity on the screen but in a softer, more modern way.For me what made the film great was the depths that we reached about 20 minutes in.
Showed how love needs to be worked at and can overcome troubles, that's what we all hope and want, so good to see it on screen, hate going to the movies to come out depressed or crying, I go to feel better, smile and if I cry I want it to be happy tears.
'THE LONGEST RIDE': Three Stars (Out of Five)Another adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks' romance novel (of the same name), this one stars Scott Eastwood (son of Clint Eastwood) and Britt Robertson.
I enjoyed the film more than I expected to; because I'm not a fan of Nicholas Sparks' movie adaptations.Robertson plays Sophia Danko; a college student with plans to move to New York, to pursue an art career there.
Their love story is entwined with the memories of a relationship of love long ago, told and acted by Alan Alda, who plays Ira, as he reads letters he wrote to his dear wife, RuthYou know what to expect when you go to a movie based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, but I was entertained, Britt Robertson was great I believe there is an Oscar in her future.
The Longest RideAnimal rights activists would have a way better time at bull riding competitions if they would just root for the bull to paralyze the rider.However, the art student in this romantic movie is cheering for the rider's safety.Catching the eye of North Carolina coed Sophia (Britt Robertson) when he is tossed from a bull at a local rodeo, Luke (Scott Eastwood) bestows her with his cowboy hat.The pair later goes on a date.
On their way home, they rescue an old man (Alan Alda) from a burning car who turns out to be an art collector with a troubled love story similar to Sophia and Luke's ill-fated relationship.Based on Nicholas Sparks' novel, The Longest Ride is no departure from the lovelorn author's cinematic schmaltz, thanks to its preposterous ending and ham-fisted acting.
Mostly predictable.Set and filmed in North Carolina, Britt Robertson (of "Under the Dome" TV series) is Sophia, just finishing up her college studies in some Art discipline when her good friend gets her to go along to see some competitive bull-riding, something she wouldn't normally enjoy.As fate would have it Scott Eastwood (Clint's boy) as Luke Collins is one of the competitors, just coming back from a very serious injury falling off a ride.
I normally enjoy reading his books and watching his movies, but The Longest Ride is one I particularly enjoyed as novel and film.Go ahead, call me biased, but I really liked this story. |
tt0069933 | La tumba de la isla maldita | When Professor Bolton [Mariano Garcia], an archeologist doing research on Vampire Island (somewhere between Africa and India), is killed, his son Chris [Andrew Prine] comes to the island to bury his father, something not easily done since the professor's body is pinned under several tons of tomb. The tomb belongs to Hannah, fiance of King Louis VII. Legend has it that Hannah became a vampire and that Louis sealed her alive in the tomb such that, should the tomb ever be opened before the return of Christ, Hannah would rise again. Chris is met at the dock by Peter [Mark Damon], a grad student doing research on the Crusades, which is also what brought Louis and Hannah to Vampire Island in the first place. Peter, along with his sister Mary [Patty Sheppard], has been living on the island, and Peter seems to be the only inhabitant not fettered by the vampire superstition. However, Peter is actually the one responsible for the professor's death, arranged as a ploy to get Chris Bolton to the island so that the heavy tomb could be moved and Hannah released.Together, Chris and Peter rig up a hoist to lift the tomb off the body of the professor. In doing so, the first thing they lift is the lid, which reveals Hannah's body, as fresh and beautiful as if she were alive. Probably a vaccuum, explains Peter, or a lost embalming technique. With the heavy lid moved, they halt lifting the rest of the tomb until the next morning. That night, Hannah [Teresa Gimpera] leaves the tomb in the form of a shewolf and preys on the dog of Abdul Hamid [Frank Branya], an old blind sailor. Abdul warns that Hannah's tomb must be resealed before she grows too powerful and begins to prey on humans. In the meantime, Abdul suggests surrounding the tomb with a wreath of garlic and dogbane to keep Hannah from leaving. The next day, Abdul and Adnan [Jack La Rue Jr], a young boy from the village, prepare a stake, which Abdul intends to drive through Hannah's heart. Before he can do the deed, however, Abdul and Adnan are both murdered by the Wild Man [Ihsan Gedik]. At the same time, Chris finds that the rope holding the lid off the tomb has been cut, resealing the tomb with only Hannah's head in view, effectively making it impossible to drive a stake through her heart.With the deaths of Abdul and Adnan, the villagers refuse to help Chris anymore, so Chris goes back to the tomb alone. Hannah works on his mind until Chris ends up removing the garlic and dogbane. Hannah is now free to leave her tomb. When Chris regains his senses and sees that Hannah is gone, he rounds up the villagers to find her. While they search, Mary goes looking for Chris but instead finds her brother chanting Latin over Hannah's empty tomb. Chris, looking for Mary, also stumbles upon Peter's invocations for immortality. They fight, and Chris runs off with Mary just as Hannah arrives and drinks Peter's blood. The villagers catch up with Peter and Hannah just in time to drive a stake through Peter, but Hannah turns to mist and disappears. She shows up in the graveyard where Chris is taunting her to come and get him. She subdues Chris, and just as she is about to take his blood, Mary tosses the wreath of garlic and dogbane onto Hannah's back, causing her to turn into the shewolf and run away. Chris pursues, but Hannah finds him first. To protect himself, Chris tosses his lantern at her. Hannah catches fire, falls off the cliff, and Chris and the villagers finish her off. The next day they seal the tomb, and Chris and Mary leave the island together.Epilogue: Young Arda calls on little Zora to come out and play, but Zora doesn't want to come out in the sun, so Arda goes inside. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.] | violence | train | imdb | DVD title: Young Hannah, Queen of the Vampires.
An archaeologist (Andrew Prine) visits Vampire Island to bury his father, who has died under mysterious circumstances.
He ignores the warnings of a schoolteacher (Patty Shepard) and, prodded by an historical novelist (Mark Damon), he opens the tomb of the 13th-Century vampire Queen Hannah (Teresa Gimpera).
Despite a tedious midsection and poor dubbing of minor roles, the film has a mildly distinctive flavor, like a failed Euro-Trash Count Yorga, Vampire (1970).Of the cast, Gimpera played the Crying Mother opposite Christopher Lee in Jesus Franco's El Conde Dracula/Count Dracula (1970), and Shepard (Spanish cinema's answer to horror star Barbara Steele) was Paul Naschy's co-star in the cult classic La Noche de Walpurgis/The Werewolf vs.
(Today a Hollywood producer, Damon faces a different kind of vampire.)Originally titled La Tumba de la Isla Maldita, the completed film (directed by Julio Salvador) was reworked for American release with new scenes shot by former actor Ray Danton, whose horror films as director include Deathmaster (1972) and Psychic Killer (1975).It is more interesting to learn about such films than to dismiss them out of hand..
Spanish/US vampire movie about a gorgeous bloodsucker threatens to the island villagers.
Creepy as well as colorful terror movie with chills , thrills , scary events and being decently filmed .
When Professor Bolton , an archaeologist doing research on Vampire Island , is murdered , his son Chris (Andrew Prine) comes to the island to bury his dad , something not easily done since the professor's body is pinned under several tons of tomb .
There Chris is received by Peter (Mark Damon) a student doing research on the Crusades , and his sister Mary (Patty Sheppard) who is a teacher of the Island kiddies .
As Chris , Peter and villagers dig come across a vampire burial ground and discover that a strange creature (Teresa Gimpera) are about to awaken and attack a nearby village with its inhabitants (Frank Braña , among others) .
Director Julio Salvador brings this ghastly and stylish story plagued with eerie intrigue , and depraved gore murders executed by a vampire who becomes a wolf .
It is a straight horror film that features a supernatural intrigue , a Vampirism story plenty of mythology and historical events about Crusades .
In fact , the tomb of the title belongs to Hannah, fiancé of King Louis VII , legend tells that , 700 years ago , Luis VII King of France goes out to conquest orient lands for Christendom but along the way happens a shipwrecked , they wash up at a weird island where his sweetheart Hannah became a vampire and that Louis sealed her alive in the tomb such that, should the tomb ever be opened before the return of Christ, Hannah would rise again .
This eerie picture was professional and stylistically directed by Julio Salvador though in the American version there are some new frames filmed by Ray Danton .
Julio Salvador was a good professional who directed some nice films such as ¨Contraband in Spain¨ with Richard Greene and Anouk Aimee and in 1968 directed Ray Danton , co-filmmaker in this film , at the movie titled ¨Hello Glen Ward¨ .
Quite ridiculous yet somewhat engaging story about a young archaeologist, played with one dimension by Andrew Prine, coming to Vampire Island to see/investigate the death of his father.
The film doesn't have much of a budget but the bleak desolation of the island is convincing, the vampire queen is impressive(and beautiful), and some of the shots are very atmospheric.
Prine is bland and Spanish horror queen Patty Shepard displays some histrionics.
"She is smart...700 years smart" and other quotes about Hannah sticking her fangs into necks and the power of superstitions cascade from his lips in an almost monosyllabic manner which only accentuates his strange looks as he might be a cross between Bela Lugosi's Ygor in Son of Frankenstein and Carmen Ghia from The Producers(okay, I know it's an obscure reference).
While Crypt of the Living Dead is indeed a bad film, it is a very watchable one once things get going..
Crypt of the Living Dead was filmed in colour, but my copy—part of a dirt-cheap Mill Creek box-set of vampire movies—was presented in black and white (despite the packaging stating otherwise); amazingly, the lack of colour might actually work in the film's favour, lending a touch of much needed Gothic atmosphere to an otherwise rather tedious tale of vampirism in a remote island community.The film sees archaeologist Chris Bolton (Andrew Prine) visiting the island to claim the body of his father, who was crushed to death under a stone sarcophagus while investigating an ancient burial site; when Chris attempts to lift the marble tomb, he accidentally releases 700-year-old vampire Hannah (Barbara Steele lookalike Teresa Gimpera) who begins to feed on the locals, aided in her task by a wild-man in a furry waistcoat and a member of the village who seeks immortality.Slow moving and devoid of action for much of the time, the film will definitely prove hard going for many, but director Julio Salvador achieves just about enough effectively haunting moments to make it a worthwhile watch for vampire movie completists: the local fishermen's hostility towards Chris's arrival on the island immediately provokes an unsettling 'Wicker Man' vibe; Hannah's ability to turn into a cloud of mist or a wolf makes her all the more menacing; and the finalé manages to pick up the pace a tad (albeit a little late, perhaps) providing a few reasonable chills in the process.4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb..
Atmospheric, eerie little Spanish thriller starring Andrew Prine as a man who travels to a remote island off Turkey after his archaeologist father dies in an apparent accident after discovering an ancient tomb.
Writer (Damon) and his sister (Shepard) who have also recently inhabited the island try to facilitate Prine's attempts to raise the heavy sarcophagus that covers his father's remains to affect a proper burial.
But the locals are reluctant to assist, fearing that the crypt's occupant - Hannah (Gimpera) - will be resurrected to raise hell on the island.Surprisingly effective, though it appears to be un-liked judging from other reviews, I found the English translation conversion by Ray Danton to be a genuinely scary and compelling tale beautifully shot in black & white, with a talented cast.
Film buffs should also applaud Danton's assembly of B-movie talent - Edward Walsh and John Alderman in minor roles (Walsh has a great scene after an encounter with Hannah), while prolific Spanish actor Frank Brana has a key supporting role as the blind foreteller of doom.The lighting and sound is exceptionally refined and the film overall is stylish; the beach and cliff-top scenery bathed in black & white is visually stunning, though admittedly some of the night scenes are obscure in the darkness.
"Crypt of the Living Dead" is an extremely low-budgeted Spanish production that centers on the resurrection of a malicious vampire queen after being asleep on an island for nearly 7 whole centuries.
Directors Julio Salvador and Ray Danton sure as hell did their best to make Hannah (quite a modern name for an ancient vampire) look like a 700-year-old!
Hannah's resurrection is the fault of a young archaeologist who opened the tomb after his own father (accidentally?) got crushed in the tomb.
Hannah's walking pace sort of illustrates the entire film: slow, boring and truly annoying.
"Crypt of the Living Dead" isn't at all scary or atmospheric, and this despite all the potentially great decors and locations.
Crypt of the living Dead seemed like a pretty decent vampire film to me.
As I was reading the other commentaries which were fairly negative, I suddenly realized that my version of this film (which came from a Mill Creek entertainment box set-Chilling Classics) is in black and white whereas the film was actually made in color (at least according to IMDb).
A Vampire Film with Little Bite.
"An archaeologist visits a remote island to bury his late father and, despite the warnings from the local people, opens the tomb of the vampire queen, buried over 700 years ago.
This foolish act by the archaeologist and his reporter friend places the entire island in danger, including the local schoolteacher
With the schoolteacher in danger of being a sacrifice to the vampire queen, the duo sets out to stop the vampires, rescue the teacher, and destroy the vampire queen," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.Just so you know, the "schoolteacher" Patty Sheppard (Mary) is bad guy Mark Damon (Peter)'s sister.
The film is atmospheric, and features an able cast - but, it takes an interminably long time for anything to happen.
*** Hannah, Queen of the Vampires (6/73) Ray Danton, Julio Salvador ~ Andrew Prine, Mark Damon, Patty Sheppard.
"The Crypt of the Living Dead" is an odd, but run of the mill horror movie that will hold your interest but not leave anything memorable in it's wake.
They had a chance of having some mystery in this film but two of the villains are revealed right at the start of the movie.
For those looking for the horror aspect, there are some scary scenes and the locations have a Gothic feel.
Andrew Prine's father is crushed by the marble tomb of a 700 year old vampire, and Prine goes to retrieve the body which is still under the 3 ton tomb.
this is just a set up so he will open the tomb and release the beautiful female vampire.
It is a very low budget movie filmed in Turkey of all places,is pretty slow, and some of the minor actors can't act.
The film does have a good low key performance by Andrew Prine (I don't think he every turned in a bad performance), some good sets, some creepy atmosphere and s somewhat better ending that i expected.
The film takes place on the tranquil sounding Vampire Island, where Mark Damon and a crazy mountain man are worshipping someone called Hannah.
That reason is so that the dead guy's son, Andrew Prine, will be lured from the US to wherever vampire island is on the Mediterranean, because he is an architect or an engineer or something and the only one with the know how to move the four ton tomb that contains Vampire Queen, Hannah!
Of course, this crazy plan also needs to be optimistic enough to have to foresight to know Prine would have to remove the lid of the tomb to free Hannah, but let's not think about it too much.The locals hate Prine on sight but Damon, who is pretending to be just a normal guy and not a crazy vampire worshipping loony, tells him that the locals hate everybody and are a bit riled up because Prine's going to start messing with that tomb.
Best of all is Frank Bana's blind sailor, who is dubbed by a guy from the Bronx doing an impression of a guy from the Med.Of course they get the lid off the bloody thing and Hannah's looking like she's just stepped out of a hair salon.
"Hannah is smart
700 years smart." He advises they get some dogbane and garlic because "she won't get by dem, neither." That holds her at bay, but then there's still Mark Damon, the mountain man, and several bitten islanders to contend with
No one is going to run down the street screaming about how great this film is, and even though it is bad in a way, I still like it.
I've shot everything but aspirin and I blew my house down!" Andrew Prine's terrible clothes should have people choking on their seventies nostalgia, and then there's the weird patchiness of the film, which took two different directors to make, in two different aspect ratios.It looks like the film was incomplete and someone (probably Ray Danton) was brought in to fill up the gaps, which is mainly the sub plot regarding the islanders being turned into vampires.
Pretty terrible film about a vampire woman terrorizing a community.
Crypt of the Living Dead AKA Hannah, Queen of the Vampires (1973)The copy I have seen of this film was in black & white and honestly I could not imagine seeing this in color.
I found it enhanced the film.The editing is pretty sloppy at times but the story is kinda good.
Add more mystery to her moving slowly.It's not the world's greatest vampire film - but it's not all that bad either.
Know it all Andrew Prine (whatever happened to him?) shows up on an island to deal with the body of his father.
Ho Hum. As I am a big Paul Naschy fan, I have seen Patty Shepard in The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman.
Of course, you can't help but have seen star Andrew Prine, as he has appeared almost 200 times on TV and movies.
Teresa Gimpera, who plays Hannah, was in the excellent Spirit of the Beehive.Sound effects and music were definitely irritating at times, and certainly lessens whatever enjoyment you might find in the movie.There really wasn't a lot to recommend.
This was a Spanish film, shot in Hungary, and it's such a blotchy mess you have to wonder if the original version featured the American actors at all.
The good part of watching this movie is that you can start in as part of your own private Friday night horror fest, get up and make a sandwich and be sure you won't miss anything.
Don't go out of your way, but like most people, if you get it in a cheap horror set with 200 other movies, go ahead and watch it..
With a title like "Crypt Of The Living Dead" I guess I was expecting a little more in the way of zombie spectacle.
What the picture lacks in horror and gore is suitably replaced by creepy atmosphere, which is probably the highlight of the film.
I actually learned more about the story from some of the other reviewers on this board than from watching the flick, but then again, I was able to pick up all the information I needed from a handful of scenes that moved the story along.OK, so Hannah (Teresa Gimpera) 1269 is a vampire looking none the worse for wear and fresh as a daisy from a seven hundred year long dirt nap.
What really distracted me from the story was every single appearance of Andrew Prine on screen as Chris Bolton investigating his father's death.
He looked like he could be the spitting image of a guy I knew about twenty years ago who's since passed away.
How is it that Young Hannah is 700 years old?.
For the most part, Crypt of the Living Dead or Young Hannah: Queen of the Vampires or Vampire Women is a throughly retched movie.
All you really need to know about the story is that 700 year old Hannah is released from her tomb on an almost uninhabited island.
There are so many negative things to say about this film that I'll just mention a few that really bothered me.One, Hannah has got to be the slowest vampire in the history of movie vampires.
I'm not talking about logic as you and I know it, but these people don't even act according to "horror movie logic".
In one scene, it is used to get Hannah to release the movie's hero.
It's not till the slow moving Hannah is awakened to prey upon the illogical victims on the island that anything seems to happen..
Also known as Hannah, Queen of the Vampires this surprising "R" rated film is in black and white.
His son Chris (Andrew Prine) comes to the island and meets Peter (Mark Damon) and the local school teacher Mary (Patty Shepard).
He discovers that the crypt that fell on his father was that of the vampire Hannah (Teresa Gimpera) who has been there since 1269.
To the dismay of the village, he opens the crypt to find a perfectly preserved body.The film is low action.
At one point we discover the vampire can make herself into a mist and then a wolf, supposedly a werewolf, but it looked more like a regular wolf.
Hannah, the queen of the vampires......
The movie opens with some kind of ritual and a lightning storm: two decent elements for classic horror.The beginning of the story, seems to be a little suggestive of Dracula with many differences.
It is not immediately apparent to the viewer, what the actual plot of the story is all about.Archeologists, a tomb, the talk of vampires; and the sounds of a beating heart, build on the suspense.The score, seems to play okay with the scenes.The weather changing with the opening of the crypt, is a nice touch; it gives the film a mummy- like feel.The evil, takes on alternate forms of a mist and a wolf: classic vampire ideas.The title: Crypt of the Living Dead is a little unexpected.
Crypt of the damned, or queen of the vampires easily comes to mind as alternate titles.Decent acting talent, and a well thought out story.
Crypt of the Living Dead is an okay movie.
The film will appeal to any fan of classic horror..
Archaeologist Chris Bolton (a typically excellent and engaging performance by the always reliable Andrew Prine) comes across a vampire burial ground while working on a scientific dig in turkey and unleashes lethal vampire queen Hannah (the beauteous and bewitching Teresa Gimpera) from her tomb.
Meanwhile, Bolton romances local school teacher Mary (an appealing portrayal by striking brunette Patty Shepard).Directors Julio Salvador and Ray Danton keep the enjoyable story moving along at a steady pace, make good use of the scenic Turkish locations, do a bang-up job of crafting a supremely spooky'n'dreamy ooga-booga atmosphere, deliver a few nice bits of gore, and pull out the stirring stops for the lively and exciting climax. |
tt0316655 | Spider-Man | Nerdy high school student Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) becomes the amazing superhero Spider-Man after being bitten by a radioactive spider during a class field trip. His life instantly becomes different. In order to impress his redhead crush Mary Jane Watson (Catherine O'Connor), Peter enters a wrestling match competition with Bone Saw McGraw (Jay Gordon) to win $3000 dollars. However, when the fight promoter cheats Peter, he allows a robber to escape with the money. But when Peter's uncle, Uncle Ben Parker, is murdered by the robber, he seeks vengeance with his spider powers to hunt the criminal down.Once Peter locates the murdrerer's hideout, he invades the lair and eventually duels him in a storage room at the top floor of the warehouse. Upon the shocking realization that the murderer is the same man who robbed the promoter, Peter feels ashamed of himself. After the murderer accidentally slips out the window and plummets to his death, Peter goes by his Uncle Ben's words, "With great power comes great responsibility" and becomes the masked superhero Spider-Man.Now Peter lives in Manhattan and works at the Daily Bugle taking pictures of his alternative persona. During a picture roundup, Spider-Man is suddenly attacked by flying Hunter Killer Robots. The robots were secretly sent by workers at Oscorp Industries, Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) and Dr. Stromm (Peter Lurie), who needed a sample of Spider-Man's DNA. While Spider-Man easily defeats the Killer Robots, the mystery remains unsolved for now as a jewelry store alarm goes off. As he swings down to the scene of the crime, a green flying figure bursts through the windows and out into the New York Sky with precious gems.This is followed by the appearance of another criminal, The Shocker (Michael Beattie) who has a posse of henchmen with him. The supervillain flees in a getaway van, but after Spider-Man stops the vehicle, the Shocker blasts a hole into the Grand Central Terminal and along with his men, round up hostages. Following the villains, Spider-Man arrives at the scene and aids to a security guard in defeating the henchmen. After helping defeat the thugs, the Shocker and Spider-Man have a brief confrontation which leads further beneath Manhattan and into the sewers.Declaring to his thugs that Spider-Man must be stopped, the Shocker delves deep beneath the tunnels in the sewage labyrinth. This is nothing Spider-Man can't handle as he makes his way through the sewers and finally into the subway tunnels where he faces and defeats The Shocker. Before taking Shocker to the authorities, Spider-Man interrogates him to learn that his flying accomplice who made off with the jewels is known as The Vulture (Dwight Schultz) and he resides at an old clocktower.Swinging over to the clocktower, Spider-Man cautiously ascends up the staircase. Halfway through, the Vulture becomes aware of his intrusion and sends an array of firearms and bombs down upon Spidey. Luckily, Spider-Man reaches the top in time and the Vulture is forced to flee and fly across Manhattan while Spider-Man chases him. Their dangerous chase during a brewing thunderstorm ends at the Chrysler Building where Vulture finally decides to stop fleeing and duel Spider-Man. Victory goes to Spider-Man who sends a tied up Vulture to a nearby cop along with the missing jewels.Meanwhile at Oscorp, Dr. Stromm detects movements of a similar being of greater strength than Spider-Man's. The being is identified as Scorpion (Michael McColl), who is looked upon as a mere experimental test gone deranged from the numerous trials. Deeming Scorpion as a suitable replacement for the similar type of DNA that was not retrieved from Spider-Man, Dr. Stromm sends out the mechanical spider slayers to capture Scorpion. Scorpion flees through the sewers and eventually winds up at the abandoned Grand Central Terminal which had been partially destroyed from the Shocker massacre.Peter Parker, who happens to be at the terminal for pictures, runs into Scorpion and instantly changes into his spider suit to aid the arthropod-like foe from the spider slayers. After a raging melee, Spider-Man believes Scorpion is an alley until he ultimately instigates a fight. The two battle and Spider-Man ends up knocking Scorpion out. However, while examining one of the broken spider slayers, Scorpion gets up undetected to Spider-Man and escapes.Meanwhile, Norman Osborn is on the verge of losing his company's name when the board members declare to fire him. In a last ditch effort, he tests his own strength enhancers on himself. Dr. Stromm watches in terror as Norman blacks out and while reviving him, Osborn awakes and kills Dr. Stromm. He then dons the suit and becomes the Green Goblin.Later that day at an Oscorp Unity Day Festival, Peter takes pictures while his friend Harry Osborn (Josh Keaton) dates Mary Jane. Snapping a pick of Osborn flirting with Mary Jane, Peter shakes his head in dismay. His thoughts are interrupted by explosions from above and the Green Goblin appears on his glider disrupting the festival. Mary Jane is flung from the balcony atop the main building and lands on a large panda air balloon. Peter suits into his spider suit and as Spider-Man, quickly saves Mary Jane and places her atop a building. As she kisses the hero for gratitude, a nearby spider slayer snaps a pick.In the meantime, the green menace flies on his glider and it isn't before long that Spider-Man chases him through the Manhattan skies. After a lengthy chase of repetitive battling, the Green Goblin stops by three highrises and confronts Spider-Man. As the battle rages on, Goblin tries to persuade Spider-Man to join him. Obviously refusing the request, the Goblin takes enough blows and coaxes Spider-Man to either chase him or locate the bombs he planted across the city and defuse them.Now in a race against time, Spider-Man zips across the skyscrapers and using his spider senses, locates and defuses all of the green menace's bombs. Returning to his investigation of finding the Green Goblin, Spider-Man eventually runs into the menace once again. This time, the Goblin has an arsenal of razor bats (50 to be exact) and targets all of them at Spidey. For Spider-Man, it is a no breezer, but just another obstacle for the Green Goblin to escape.However, Spider-Man grabs one of the razor bats and brings it to his apartment for insepction. After realizing it is under the name of Oscorp Industries, he swings over to the main building and breaks in. He uses stealth to sneak across the dark hallways but in order for him to go deeper into the laboratory, he must collect a set of codes from computers. Using his web techinques, Spider-Man manages to get all the required codes and then sneaks into the lab.Upon entry, he hears a brewing argument between two Oscorp scientists. One scientist is reluctant about the Oscorp Chemical Weapons division experiments while the other is persistent to let the experiments go on. When the reluctant scientist is left, Spider-Man jumps in and agrees to shut down the chemical injection experiments- thus also preventing Goblin from getting anymore of his high powered weapons. Spider-Man is capable of sneaking into the labs and shutting down the chemical machine. Unfortunately, Oscorp has hidden a greater weapon. It is a giant Super Mech Killer Robot hidden within a large containment chamber. Doing whatever a spider can, Spider-Man manages to shut the mech off only to have the alarms burst and the killer robot guards come out.Desperately swinging and fleeing from Oscorp in any way possible, the entire building is flooded with robots intent on killing Spider-Man. Making it out in the knick of time, Spider-Man believes he has stopped the Goblin for good. Things differ however as an angry Norman Osborn in his office receives the pictures of Mary Jane kissing Spider-Man. Using MJ as a weakness to Spidey, Green Goblin locates her apartment and kidnaps her.Realizing she is in danger, Spider-Man rushes to the scene, only seconds late to see the Goblin flying away with her. Chasing his formidable foe throughout the night skyline, Goblin's chase ends at the Brooklyn Bridge where he drops Mary Jane off at the western tower and tosses bombs into it where it becomes ablaze. Rescuing MJ, Spider-Man drops her off by the authorities and returns to the bridge to fight the Green Goblin.The two have an epic duel and by the end, Goblin removes his mask to reveal the face of Norman Osborn. Utterly taken by surprise, Spider-Man wonders why Norman, his friend's wealthy father, of all people would do such a thing. Before any straight answer is given, the goblin glider shoots towards Spider-Man in a last ditch effort to kill him. Spidey however uses his keen spider relfexes and backflips, just missing the glider, which continues on its streak through the air and impaling Norman in the gut.Norman's dying words are "Tell Harry...I'm sorry." As Spider-Man woefully turns away, Mary Jane comes up and states that she has a feeling of his identity. Without reluctance, she kisses him and the game ends. | good versus evil, violence, murder, romantic | train | imdb | This game is great.
This game is great.
Not only do Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe lend their voices, but the animation is amazing, the scenery of New York City is so cool, and there is lots of cool extras on the game too.
It's also kid-friendly.I recommend this game to everyone!.
Here comes the Spiderman indeed.
I played this game a little bit at my cousins house when i was about 10 and i didn't know much about spidey until the movie itself however after the movie i really wanted the game and i bought it for my gamecube and the game was so much fun i couldn't leave my room for hours the graphics were bold the villains were cool and the combos were quick and fun to execute however there were a few drawbacks i found 1 was the web swinging which all you do is shoot a webline in the air and swing no connection to buildings at all the 2nd was controlling spiderman in general i didn't know if this is just my game but it felt like spidey had a mind of his own and would often more or less run or walk even when i was not touching the buttons but despite these drawbacks i loved it and it has become 1 of my favorite games of all time GO SPIDEY GO.
Pure Fun. I only started seriously gaming around 2001-2002, and this was the first game I ever really got into.
By far it is the most fun E-Rated action game there is.First of all, there are the dozens of creative, entertaining levels.
The basic plot of the game follows the movie very well, and every few levels will be part of the main storyline.
In between your fights with the Goblin and other villains from the movie are the best parts of the game: Battling the Shocker, The Vulture, the Scorpion, and hordes of robots and other henchmen.Secondly, there are what seems like a million combo moves which can be picked up throughout the game to keep it more exciting.Further, even though it does follow a specific story and doesn't allow a lot of freedom web-swinging-wise (at least, compared to its sequels), there are secret areas, shortcuts, easter eggs, and bonus objectives enough so that each time you play the game it can be an entirely new experience.My personal favorite parts of the game are the scores of special features.
If you defeat the game at the hardest setting, you get a Green Goblin costume and Glider which, in addition to completely changing game-play, gives you a whole new (often more interesting) storyline to follow.
In addition to this, there are the training missions, including my favorite, Big Brawl, which are loads of fun and offer even more of Bruce Campbell's hilarious narration.Though this game is intended for younger gamers, it can be incredibly fun at times, and remains one of my all-time favorites..
Spidey never looked so good.
Spider-man the movie game looks soooooo great, for a 2002 playstation 2 game, the graphics are amazing, it wouldn't be a mistake to pick this up just for graphics, the gameplay is tight too, sometimes the swinging can feel awkward but not really.
Voice acting is great in this game too and the levels are all really fun.
Great adaption of the great movie.The only thing that makes this not superior to 2 and 3, is the non-ability to freely roam around new york, but it is still a solid action game that's defanitly worth the buy.Pick this one up, trust me, and it's really cheap anyway haha.10 out of 10.
Never been better.
Spiderman the Video Game is the best adaptation from movie-game transition ever made.
What makes the game cooler, is the fact that its like the movie, but with more detail.
You get to go after Parker's Killer, save Mary Jane, fight the Green Goblin and also deal with more villains from Vulture, Shocker and the Scorpion.
This is more of a crime/fantasy game than what people thought of Spiderman.
What's really cool is throwing people off the buildings.
As long as their not the victims.
Tobey Maguire and Willem Defoe, the main stars from the film portray each other in the game as well.
This is what makes Spiderman one of the coolest adaption from movie to game.
If i were you, I go out and play this game.
No matter what system you have..
Almost very good.
I have to say I enjoyed the game very much, and would have given it an 8 were it not for two very annoying flaws.
The first is that the positions taken by the "camera" were often appalling.
Sure you can manually move the view point around, but in the heat of the moment when surrounded by baddies, you simply don't have the time.
I found some parts of the game extremely frustrating because of this.
The second is that the loading times are excessive, and in my view occasionally unnecessary.
Ok, you expect to have to wait for a new level to load, but when you die you have to wait for the current level to re-load.I think both these flaws are a result of sloppy programming, or maybe the game just needed to spend more time in development instead of rushing a release to coincide with the film.
It's a shame, because I very much enjoyed the variety in the gameplay, and the degree of control that, with practise, you can exercise over Spidey.
Overall, then, I give it a 6..
Good classic game..
This game have good voice acting like I still own this game because it's good.
I hate if someone say this game is "medioacier" then the don't know how hard they work on this game.
I'd beat the game 2 times and that's the first game I beat on my Original Xbox.
The looks of Spider-Man looks good like really good.
I'd recommend a lot..
Best Super-Hero Game ever.
I played the first level of this game on X-Box, in Target.
What did I get, possibly the best game experience from a movie/game tie-in.
Not Only do Willem Dafoe and Tobey Magurie reprise their roles as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin and Peter Parker/Spiderman, It is possibly the best game I have ever played on a X-Box, buy it now!!.
Dated By Today's Standards, But Still Good Fun..
Spiderman is one of the first PS2 games I plated on a regular basis all the way back in the early 2000s; while the controls are a little clunky compared to the likes of more recent games like GTAIV/V, Batman: Arkham City or any of the recent Zelda games, Spiderman still has some mighty impressive for the technology that was available in 2002 (the game sometimes goes to 50/60fps when at certain camera angles).
But does it hold up in 2017's market?
Not as a contemporary title, no.
But it's still great for Spiderman fans, or fans of beat-'em-ups in general.If there was anything lacking in this title originally, Spiderman 2 made up for it with its innovative open-world gameplay that was pioneered by games like GTA:III.
And we've moved a long way since this title.
Still, this game is a good time-capsule of when Spiderman was at the top of the entertainment world, when he swung onto the big screen in 2002..
Plays like the Spider-man game for the playstation one, just not quite as good..
This game plays like that game as far as the combat and swinging is concerned, however the story is lifted from the first Spider-man movie.
Well a lot of it is anyways as there are a lot more enemies to face than just the Green Goblin here.
Well not to many more, mainly you get to fight The Shocker who seems to be the old standby in these games, Scorpian, and the Vulture.
I think in the Xbox version you get to fight a couple of other bad guys one of which is Kraven the Hunter and the second of which I do not know.
Tobey and William lend their voices to this game, however Bruce Campbell as the tour guide steals the show as he had me cracking up.
The game is good for the most part, I just thought it followed the movie a bit to much and like in the Spider-man game for the playstation one Spider-man seems to be swinging on a web that is attached to absolutely nothing.
The fights with the characters are fun as I enjoyed fighting the Shocker and Green Goblin the most.
The fights in this game with the Green Goblin top the fights with Doc Ock in the next game.
Still the levels on the roofs are a bit of a pain at times, you get stuck in that stupid costume longer than I care for, if they were going to follow the movie so closely why did they not incorporate the fight with Bonesaw in the main storyline of the game, and there are various other little annoyances in the game to be found as some of the fights and stealth stuff gets on one's nerves.
Still, at least this game did not ignore Spidey's strength like part II and III did.
Though both those games are the superior web swinging games..
A bit too easy.
A lot of movie tie-in games ain't too successful but this is OK cause you're Spider-man.The plot's pretty much the same as the movie except there's other baddies to fave other than the Green Goblin.
As cool as it is to swing around New York city like Spider-man, the floor combat ain't that good.
All you have to do is punch and kick.
You can get combos but they're pretty pointless.
Another problem is the camera, it keeps moving and going the wrong places!
Some cool features is that Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe reprise their roles.
Unlike the movie, Spider-man says more jokes, making you think Tobey is Spider-man.
Bruce Campbell does some very funny voice-over work, watch out for one of the training sessions where he talks about his grandfather, it's very funny.There are some cool secrets to get so that's pretty worth it.In the end, it's an OK game but doesn't offer anything challenging..
I agree the movie was OK!.
Being familiar with the Spiderman comic book, the story was not totally true to the facts concerning Peter Parker and the transformation into SPIDERMAN!
I read that some critics were comparing the two biggest movies of the Summer (Spiderman/Star Wars: AOTC) regarding the story.
I must say I enjoyed the movie but Spiderman the story was lacking in my opinion.
I gave the film a 6....
AOTC had the better of the two blockbuster hits!.
Movie based games normally have a long history of being just avenged or awful.Spider-Man 2002 has the thin line of being that.
The game is based off the 2002 Spider-Man motion picture.However the game just seems broken mostly.
While the game does follow the story line of the film it is however like an different take of the film.The story follows Peter Parker Voiced by Tobey Maguire who reprise his role from the film which is a interesting take plus Willem Dafoe also reprise his role as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin.
Bruce Campbell provide the voice of the Tour Guide and his performance alone is what sold the game.The game while following the story line of the movie also features villains like Shocker, Scorpion and Vulture to make the game feel original in terms of villains.But the game doesn't have the feel of fun which is what the most important of any video game is for it be fun and playable.The Graphics in the game do look great and you can get to see the whole city of New York as you swing into action.
The Voice acting is very good and the music is very strong in the game.
The controls however are a mix bag I wish the game was like Spider- Man 2000 which is a very good video game.So the results is the game is great to look at and listen to but not much for playing, only play it if you are a huge fan of Spider-Man but the game is just broken to me.I give Spider-Man 2002 an 6 out of 10.
Good film.
I never saw this film in the theaters.
I was never much of a Spider-Man fanatic, so I was not all that hyped to see the film in theaters.
I wish that I had though as it is a very good film.
With that, I don't think it is THE best comic to film ever, one of the best definitely, but not in my top 5.
Still, it does exactly what it should and it does that very well.Though I am not a professed Spidey fan, I am very familiar with the mythos behind him, the early ones that is.
And that seems to be what they tried to stick with introducing the character to everyone.
There are some changes, most notably his web coming from within him rather than from a contraption he builds, but it makes sense given how they handle the story.
I thought they did a great job of honoring the classic Spider-Man and incorporating elements of the character from today.
The leads across the board are very well cast.
I know there was some controversy with Dunst being cast to play a redhead.
But she has great chemistry with Tobey and does a fantastic job of convincing you she could be the object of Peter Parker's dreams all these years.Upon subsequent viewings this film has gotten better in my eyes.
Had I posted a review of it when it first came out, I would probably given it a 6 tops, but with time and multiple viewings, I have grown to appreciate the effort that was put in and just how good the film is.Great start..
O.K. game but nothing too exciting.
The game is not that much different from the original playstation version.
The graphics and the sound are better but the gameplay is virtually the same.
I was disappointed in the odd camera angles that would sometimes make gameplay frustrating.
Also, the game was too short.
I realize that this isn't a "final fantasy" or "resident evil" type of game, but please, give me something that's worth my fifty bucks..
This is just as bad as you can guess!.
The movie starts out as an ordinary comic-hero-movie.
It´s about the boy who is picked on, has no parents and is madly in love with the schools #1 girl.
Nothing surprises in the movie, there is nothing that you can´t guess coming in the movie.
Toby Mcguire shows us that either he is no good actor or that no actor in the world can save a script like this one.
Maybe kids around the age of ten can enjoy the film but it is a bit violent for the youngest.
You can´t get away from thinking of movies like X-men, Batman and Spawn.
All of those titles are better.
I almost walked out the last 20 minutes!
One thing that could have been good though was the computeranimation, BUT not even that is anything to put in the christmas-tree!
So my recomendation: Don´t see this film even if you get paid for it! |
tt0053285 | Sleeping Beauty | King Stephen and his wife have been blessed with the birth of a daughter, Princess Aurora. Many travel to pay their respects to the birth of the Princess. Also attending the event, are King Hubert, and his son, Prince Phillip, who have journeyed from a neighboring kingdom. Through an agreement between the two rulers, Phillip is betrothed to Aurora, and their marriage will unite the two kingdoms when they come of age.Also in attendance, are the Three Good Fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. Each has come to bestow a gift on the Princess. Flora gives the gift of beauty, Fauna the gift of song. However, before Merryweather can bestow her gift, a gale wind blows through the great hall, signifying the arrival of Maleficent, a sorceress from The Forbidden Mountain. Upset over not having been invited, Maleficent casts a spell, promising that once Aurora turns 16, she'll prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel, and die. Stephen orders Maleficent captured, but she disappears with a laugh and a plume of smoke.Flora and Fauna persuade Merryweather to use her 'gift' to possibly stave off Maleficent's spell. Through her 'gift,' Aurora will not die, but only lay in sleep, until kissed by her true love. Even so, King Stephen still is fearful, and orders every spinning wheel in the kingdom to be burned.The three fairies ponder what to do to prevent Maleficent's curse from taking effect. They then decide to hide their magic and change their appearances, appearing as peasant women. The three then persuade the King and Queen that they will hide their daughter until she turns 16, and take her to an abandoned woodcutter's cottage.The years pass by, and as Aurora's 16th birthday approaches, the people of the Kingdom rejoice, as atop the Forbidden Mountain, the atmosphere has stayed in a constant clouded thunder, a sign of Maleficent's mood, and that her own quest to find the hidden Princess has not been fulfilled. Maleficent's mood is also foul in that her minions have only been searching for a baby for the last 16 years, not realizing that Aurora would grow up. After punishing her minions, Maleficent sends her crow Diablo to find the Princess.After 16 years, the Princess has grown into a lovely young woman, whom the three fairies have named Briar Rose. On the eve of her 16th birthday, the three fairies (who've convinced the Princess that they are her 'aunts') send her out to pick berries, while they prepare a birthday cake for her. The Princess walks through the forest, confiding in some forest animals that follow her, that she dreams of one day meeting a handsome prince. Close by, some of the animals find a red cape, a hat, and some boots, and after taking their places, create a make-shift 'dream prince' for the young woman to dance with.However, it just so happens that these items belong to Prince Phillip, who has been riding through the forest on his horse, Samson. Phillip finds the Princess, and the two share a dance, though neither knows that they are their betrothed. The Princess is enchanted by the young man, but remembering how the fairies told her not to talk to strangers, runs away. However, she does tell the Prince where she lives.Aurora returns to the cottage to find a dress and a cake made for her by the three faeries. Excitedly, she explains how she met someone in the forest, whom she is in love with. It is then that the three faeries reveal who they really are, and that she is betrothed to Prince Phillip. When they explain that she must not meet this 'stranger' again, Aurora runs to her room, distraught. During all this, none of them have noticed Maleficent's raven, Diablo, peeking in through a window, before flying off to tell Maleficent.Back at King Stephen's Castle, King Hubert is also in attendance, as the entire court is preparing for Aurora to return. Stephen speaks grandly of the future for their children, as Phillip arrives. Phillip grandly tells his father about the 'peasant girl' he met in the woods, and hopes to marry. Hubert is upset at these turn of events, and tries to persuade his son to remember his betrothal, but Phillip rides back to the forest and to the cottage.In the meantime, the 3 faeries have brought Aurora into the castle through a secret entrance, to prepare her to meet her family. However, she is still upset about never seeing the young man in the woods again. The 3 faeries give her some time to herself, but in their absence, Maleficent opens a secret passage in the castle room, and Aurora, under a trance, follows a floating green orb through the passageway.When the three faeries enter the room, they find Aurora following the green light, and give chase. However, before they can catch her, Aurora has pricked her finger on an enchanted spinning wheel, and now lays crumpled on the floor, with Maleficent cackling wickedly over the faerie's failure to safeguard her.Outside in the castle courtyard, the kingdom prepares to welcome the Princess home. However, in a tower room, the 3 faeries have placed Aurora on a bed, distraught over what has happened. It is then that Flora decides to put the entire Kingdom to sleep, until Aurora is awakened. As they finish putting King Stephen and King Hubert asleep, Flora hears Hubert talk about the Prince meeting a 'peasant girl.' Deducing that it was Phillip that Aurora had met in the forest, they remember her saying how the person she met would be coming to the woodcutter's cottage. Hoping to get to him and awaken Aurora, they set off through the forest, only to find the cottage door wide open, and Phillip's hat on the floor. The three deduce that Maleficent must have captured him, and taken him to her castle on the Forbidden Mountain.The three sneak into the castle, where they find Maleficent's goons celebrating, while she pays a visit to Prince Phillip, stuck in a dungeon. Maleficent taunts Phillip with images of Aurora sleeping, and of one day, sending him off to wake the Princess, once he and his horse Samson have aged considerably, laughing at the very idea.Once she leaves, the three faeries free Phillip, and arm him with the 'Shield of Virtue,' and the 'Sword of Truth.' With his new weapons, and the faeries' help, Phillip finds Samson, and they ride off toward King Stephen's castle.Maleficent tries to strike down Phillip with lightning bolts, but the 'Shield of Virtue' deflects them. Before he can reach the castle, her magic creates a forest of thorns that surrounds the structure. Phillip triumphs and cuts his way through with the 'Sword of Truth.' Outraged at his determination, Maleficent appears before Phillip, transforming herself into a dragon. The Prince appears to be no match for the enormous beast, until the three faeries guide the 'Sword of Truth' into Maleficent's heart, felling her once and for all.With evil vanquished, Phillip is led to Aurora's bedside, and his kiss awakens her and the entire kingdom. As King Hubert and King Stephen awaken, the sound of trumpets heralds the arrival of Phillip and Aurora, and it is soon made clear to Hubert that it was actually Aurora that Phillip met in the woods. The two then share a dance as their parents and the three faeries watch. | good versus evil, psychedelic, fantasy | train | imdb | When I was a little girl, Sleeping Beauty was my all time favorite Disney film.
I really miss these old Disney movies where the animation was so bright and beautiful, the characters were so lovable, and the story was so magical.
Sleeping Beauty is just a timeless story and has so much wonderful romance, I guess since I'm a girl, I just couldn't help but still be in love with this beautiful story.Princess Aurora is born and is the future queen of her land, three fairy's, Flora, Merryweather, and Fauna bless her with three gifts: beauty and song, right as Merryweather is about to bless Aurora, the evil witch, Maleficent, comes in and curses Aurora that she shall touch a spinning wheel by her 16th birthday and die!
Now the fairy's need Phillipe to save Aurora before it's too late.Everything about Sleeping Beauty is just a perfect Disney film and I can't wait until to show this to my future kids one day.
The voices, the animation, the story, Sleeping Beauty is the most romantic fairy tale that anyone could easily fall in love with.
However, like it's predecessor "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) which was Disney's first fairy tale, as well as his first full-length film, this screen adaptation of "Sleeping Beauty" strays from it's origins.
(I love the sequence with the forest animals as they are awakened by the singing of the barefoot princess and join up with her, like multiple chaperons, in harmonious whistles.) Even the fairy godmothers- who may initially appear as sugary stereotypes- spend so much time bickering (well, two of them do anyway) that you get to identify them as thoroughly fleshed out personalities.
This is a film that can be enjoyed on so many different levels--music, animation, story, art work--it ranks with the very best of the classic fairy-tales from Disney.
This Disney cartoon feature has the familiar-princess-in-distress theme of a lovely girl, kind fairies, a handsome prince, forbidding castles and an evil witch.
If there was no other likable thing about the movie, the animation would go a long way to saving it.The story of Sleeping Beauty is, of course, set in stone.
Only "The Black Cauldron" took as much time as this to be made, but we can't compare "The Black Cauldron" to the undeniably superior "Sleeping Beauty".There is a curious fact that surrounds the movie's final scene (when Prince Phillip and Princess Aurora dance above the clouds): that "trick" was actually tried in "Cinderella", but they only managed to do it successfully in "Sleeping Beauty".As a movie, generally speaking it is pretty good, happy, pleasant, magic, romantic, sometimes dramatic and emotional, while classic humor is not forgotten either (there are many funny moments, actually).
Even if "Sleeping Beauty" has its dark side, it isn't much darker than what we see in many other Disney animated films.Maleficent is the kind of villain I can't find a correct word to describe: an evil queen?
Speaking of animals, Maleficent's pet raven is an interesting character yet a bit annoying - what a snitch that thing is!As for the soundtrack, it is entirely beautiful but the best is in "Once Upon a Dream" and the famous classical music "Sleeping Beauty ballet" by Tchaikovsky.Just to finalize my review, this movie was very unsuccessful when it originally came out in 1959, almost bankrupting the Disney studio.
Sleeping Beauty is one of Disney's finest, and a perfect example of how the make-believe world of witches, fairies, kings and princesses can truly enthral and fill a young heart with wonder.King Stefan and Queen Leah welcome the birth of their daughter, Princess Aurora (Mary Costa), and invite their subjects to pay homage at their castle.
The curse is dented somewhat when Merryweather intercepts, meaning that Aurora will not die, but will fall into an eternal sleep unless she receives true love's kiss.Inspired by the Brothers Grimm's Little Briar Rose and The Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault, the film, under the directorial supervision of Clyde Geronimi, has some of the finest animation work ever put out by Disney.
But after a series of missed opportunities, I finally watched Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" all the way.Still, it wasn't that new an experience, I remember being mesmerized by the TV versions of the classic fairy-tale, I saw two when I was 9, and the story had no secret for me, especially because the two films where relatively faithful to Perrault's original book (in one of them, Aurora was actually named 'Briar Rose' and I thought it was just an artistic license).
Speaking of the story, I thought it was surprisingly dark, projecting our deepest fears like being struck by a malevolent curse such as the spindle of the wheel, and living in the constant fear that it would be complete, not to mention the creepy vision of a whole town put in a comatose state for a whole century, a device that a child could easily assimilate to death.Although it deviates from the original material, "Sleeping Beauty" magnificently renders the sinister atmosphere of the story and one of its strongest aspects relies on the depiction of magic through the eternal opposites: good and evil.
In fact, for a Disney film, the film gets strangely explicit by always referring to the antagonism between good and evil through the devilish incarnation of Maleficent, who's more than your usual Witch.And perhaps this is the main achievement of "Sleeping Beauty", to exploit familiar archetypes from previous Disney classics, without recycling them.
Given the role she's supposed to have in the original story, the main players being the fairies, Maleficent and the Prince, her lack of screen-presence doesn't damage her characterization at all, hell, even her smile when she's waken up isn't the same ecstatic enthusiasm than Snow White but rather looks like a clever 'here you are' wink.
The four roles are fairly distributed and the best thing it did was to spare us from too much cute little animals as time-fillers.If not as revolutionary as "Snow White" or as popular as "The Lion King", the film features three classic scenes, so-defining of what Disney stood for: the magic christening, the climactic good vs.
"Sleeping Beauty" uses all the archetypes of the fairy-tales and Disney previous successes and the result is a classic masterpiece of Animation, certainly the most defining of Disney, since even the castle where Aurora lies in the highest tower became Walt Disney's all-time trademark..
For some reason, there's a whole swathe of classic 40's and 50's Disney classics I've not yet seen, including "Cinderella", "Pinocchio", "Dumbo", "Bambi", "101 Dalmations", "The Lady & The Tramp" and up until now, this lovely, warming re-telling of the classic "love conquers all" fairy tale.It's a long time since I've sat so rapt by a movie, an animated one at that, my eyes and ears never leaving the screen, even knowing as we all do, how the story ends.
Only once did I detect the encroachment of the modern, with references to "this is the fourteenth century, you know!", but this was only the mildest of jarrings if I'm being honest.The animation is delightful, particularly the backgrounds and there are some particularly eye-catching segments, two I particularly liked being the three good fairies' transformation into pixie-size and one of Malificent's entrances where she's reduced to a set of eye-slits and green light.Tchaikovsky's orchestral music is lovely, although some of the songs are a little starchy plus there's a bit too much of the young lovers' royal fathers if I'm carping, but with its gentle humour ("make it pink, make it blue") and sheer Disney magic firmly in place, this delightful movie will waft all but the coldest heart to a lovely place long ago and far away..
Sleeping Beauty mayn't have the strongest story development in a Disney movie, but neither the ballet or the fairytale have the best story development either, no matter how beautiful the film really is.The characters were unforgettable.
The good fairy helps turn this around, but only in a little way...Recommended to anyone who likes the fairytale, the ballet or the princess stuff of "Sleeping Beauty".
The story itself is a pure joy, based on Charles Perrault's ever enduring fairytale, it's awash with rich characters, led by the delightful three fairy godmothers - Flora - Fauna and Merryweather, all plumpy and sweet, while evil witch Maleficent is brilliantly produced, with a long pointy chin and devil horns on her head.There's a whole bunch of charming fun on show, as the three ladies bring the magic and potter around while gently ribbing each other, but it's with the drama where Sleeping Beauty most soars.
The nightmare sequence luring Briar Rose (Princess Aurora) to the dreaded spinning wheel is unnerving, and the battle between Prince Phillip and Maleficent is exhilarating and shows the animators at their best.
Sleeping Beauty, from 1959, was the final fairy tale produced by Walt Disney himself and remains one of his studio's most under-cherished works.
Tchaikovsky's music from the ballet Sleeping Beauty is beautifully adapted into the musical numbers and background scoring.Not for people looking for emotional depth, but for those who aren't adverse to style over substance films, this is excellent stuff.
It for me comes joint first with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1936) and heres why.Apart from the amazing scenery and beautiful bewitching score, like all of Disney films, its the voices of the actors that made the characters come alive.
Walt Disney's first widescreen animated film is a variation on the "Snow White" legend, as Princess Aurora is cursed by evil witch queen Maleficent to die before her 16th birthday by pricking her finger on a spindle wheel.
To prevent this, her father the King sends her into the care of three good but bumbling fairy godmothers who raise her, but are still unable to prevent the curse, though Aurora's love Prince Philip will revive her with a kiss, if he can first survive the trap set for him by Maleficent, and then battle her when she transforms herself into a huge dragon.
In spite of the screenplay being quite straightforward and predictable (like you can expect from Disney at that time), there are some clever twists on the love story, which catches the interest of the viewers.So don't miss "Sleeping Beauty".
Classic Disney fairy tale adaptation about a princess named Aurora who is cursed by an evil witch named Maleficent.
I'm no film historian but it seems like, in many ways, this movie represents the end of an era for animated Disney films that began with Snow White in 1937.
Either way when I sat to watch this the other day as a man in his mid-30's it did very much feel like I was coming to the total film for the first time and I was quite surprised by how simply it engaged and entertained me.The plot is simple and will be known to all and within this telling we do pretty much go from one bit to the next with little in the way of extrapolation or development – a potential problem for older viewers looking to get into it, but it still manages to work.
The broad strokes of a fairy tale are here – the good fairies are non-threatening and comic while the evil fairy is tall, lean, strict and menacing; the prince is handsome, the princess stunning etc and it does feel like being read to as a child because it is simple yet vivid in the way it is told.It is easy (and tempting) to look at the film with a cynical modern eye and criticise it for its presentation of beauty and its gender politics but, while I do believe that things like this film and Barbie and others had a major role in shaping the view of beauty, it is not a thought that occurred to me once while watching the film.
The voice work perhaps lacks the character of modern animated films, but all are good in their various roles – in particular the evil fairy is strong in her presence.Overall Sleeping Beauty is considered a classic and it is so for good reason – because it is.
It is the type of film that parents will want their children to see because it is simple, engaging, well presented, beautiful to look at and tells a story that has danger and evil in it while also showing the power of love and that good will always prevail.
Sleeping Beauty is a film filled with captivating animation, beautiful music, and loving characters.The film starts off with the revealing of the princess Aurora and how the kingdom loved her and even the three good fairies Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather loved the young princess.
Sleeping Beauty was my first ever Disney film, I saw it when I was 4 years old, I loved it and still do!
"Sleeping Beauty" is one of my favorite fairy tales from Charles Perrault, along with "Cinderella" and "Puss n' Boots."I'd love the scenery, it's like stepping through a magic tapestry and going back in time to the Middle Ages.
This film has a top-notch voice acting like : · Mary Costa...Princess Aurora/Briar Rose, · Bill Shirley...Prince Phillip, · Eleanor Audley...Maleficent, · Barbara Luddy...Merryweather, the Blue Fairy, and...
Widescreen Disney animated fairy tale with music classily adapted from Tchaikovsky has three good fairies sheltering a princess, who has been doomed by a curse.
Walt Disney's 16th full-length animated feature "Sleeping Beauty" (1959) could really be retitled "The Three Good Fairies" instead.
The prince is probably the best developed out of the three Disney princess movies made while Walt was alive ("Snow White", "Cinderella", and "Sleeping Beauty").
Though not a success on its release, Sleeping Beauty is a visual wonder and has some of the best elements ever put in a Disney film.
But I've become curious about the old Disney films, so I thought I'd take a look.While the title focuses on sleeping beauty, the movie itself focuses on good and bad magic, the good represented by three fairies, the bad by the wicked Malificent.
This is fortunate, because the beauty and her love interest are painfully dull; Disney's attempt to create classically attractive people is rather unattractive.The fairies, on the other hand, are delightful and often quite funny, and Malificent is a wonderful character who I imagine would be rather scary for children.
Sleeping Beauty (1959) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Disney classic about an evil fairy who puts a curse on a young princess putting her to sleep and only a prince can awaken her with a kiss.
"Sleeping Beauty" looks like an actual film - rich in color, detail, staging, etc.And this is all, of course, rooted in one thing, which the unbelievably convincing artistry of the Disney staff in creating this world.
Four stars for "Sleeping Beauty", the best of the "Classic" Disney films.
I don't think Disney could ever make a "They lived happily ever after" type story again and that is why we must appreciate the classics left from the past, Sleeping Beauty being (in my opinion) the best of them all.
Sleeping Beauty is one of those animated Disney movies with some of the best elements ever created by them and at the same time it has drawbacks which stick out like sore thumb.
If you like exeptional artwork, great music, entertaining side characters and all power of hell brought to you by The Queen of Darkness herself then you definitely must see Disney's Sleeping Beauty..
Just as his "Snow White" (1937) was a cinematic breakthrough years before, Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" is a masterpiece of animation.
Memorable scenes include: the good fairies trying to prepare a birthday party without their magic, Aurora's meeting with Phillip in the forest, and the thrilling showdown between Malificent and the prince.A truly wonderful piece of art, and one of the best animated features.
Sleeping Beauty is absolutely one of the best Disney movies ever made, truely standing the test of time even now forty years after it's creation.
If she will fall asleep the only thing that can save her is a prince who kisses her.'Sleeping Beauty' is not as good or charming as the early Disney classics like 'Snow White', 'Dumbo' or 'Pinocchio' but it has some wonderful moments.
With music adapted from Tchaikovsky's 'Sleeping Beauty Ballet' and some nice animation it is worth seeing, and for Disney fans may be more..
And, back at the time (1959), it would also be their most expensive and elaborate production ever.Set in 14th Century England, this film's story is actually a very simple and straightforward telling of the classic fairy tale, with music adapted from Tchaikovsky.At birth, Aurora, daughter of King Stefan and Queen Leah, is cursed by the wicked sorceress, Maleficent.
Sleeping Beauty is not among my favorite fairytales,but this movie is nice.Voice acting and animation are great,especially by Maleficent.Maleficent is my favorite Disney villain,even though her character ,like Ursula's ,is made more evil than in the original fairytale.She is cruel,yet elegant.Also,she is one of the first people to say Hell in the animated movie.Music is inspired by Tchaikovsky and is very good.Aurora,Philip and the fairies are very nice.Overall,great.10/10.
Sleeping Beauty is one of Walt Disney's greatest films made.
The music is forgettable and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) is the worst Disney princess she has nothing going for her in anyway.
Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty is one of those movies.
As for me, I am perfectly comfortable in going further than that to call Sleeping Beauty the best animated film of all time..
Maleficent is by far the best character in the film and probably the greatest Disney villain ever to step onto the screen.
Sleeping Beauty is the perfect Disney animated feature.
The tale of the Sleeping Beauty is a well known fairy tale, but I personally thought this animated Disney movie was actually quite forgettable. |
tt0107150 | House of Secrets | Marion Ravinel is married to Dr. Frank Ravinel, an arrogant abusive doctor. Together they run a physical rehab spa at what was once Marion's family home in New Orleans. But a congenital heart condition forces Marion to curtail her activities. The condition is controlled with medication but she must still use a wheelchair at times. Frank is brusque and rude to the staff, especially Laura Morrell, a physical therapist. After witnessing Frank strike Marion, Laura befriends her. Both women are afraid of Frank, although Marion professes to still love him and keeps hoping he will change.Among the spa employees is Evangeline, an elderly African-American woman who has known Marion all her life. Frank has tried without success to evict Evangeline from her apartment on the premises. He considers her a bad influence on the clients because of her belief in voodoo. But she insists that Marion's parents promised her a home for life.After learning that Frank is planning to sell the property behind her back, Marion confronts him. He is physically abusive and Laura comes to her aid. Frank threatens both women. It turns out that he has a hold on Laura. She served time for killing a man who tried to rape her and is actually on parole. If she violates her parole, she will have to return to prison. Frank is aware of this and frequently threatens to turn her in on trumped-up charges. Although Marion is somewhat taken aback to learn that her new friend is a murderer, she eventually agrees that it was justified.Evangeline is afraid for Marion and warns her to be careful. Laura convinces Marion that neither of them are safe. She proposes murdering Frank and disposing of his body. Marion is horrified but when she is once again subjected to her husband's physical abuse, she agrees to Laura's plan.The women drive to a house on the bayou owned by Laura. The plan is to lure Frank to the house, knock him out with drugs, and drown him in the bathtub. It is Mardi Gras and everyone is celebrating. The neighbors, who are acquainted with Laura, are having a noisy party. No one will notice Frank's arrival. Marion gets cold feet at the last minute but Laura tells her it is the only way they can ever be free of Frank. Reluctantly Marion agrees. She telephones Frank and asks him to come to the house so they can talk things over. To her surprise, Frank knows the house belongs to Laura and he appears to have visited there before.Laura tearfully confesses to having an affair with Frank. She insists he forced her into it and threatened her. By this time Marion is not sure what to believe. She no longer trusts Laura but feels it is too late to back out. When Frank arrives and is served lemonade containing narcotics, Marion knocks the glass from his hand. She cannot bring herself to kill the man she once loved. Frank taunts her and pours himself another glass. This time she lets him drink it. He falls asleep. With difficulty, Laura and Marion drag him to the bathtub full of water and put him in. He appears to drown. Laura orders Marion to lie down and rest, fearing she will have a spell with her heart.The next morning, they roll Frank's body in a canvas and drag it to Laura's car. After they have him inside and the door closed, Laura's friend from next door appears. He is disappointed that they are leaving. Then he notices water pooling next to the car door. When he offers to look inside and see what is leaking, Marion curtly orders him off.The women drive both cars to a lake. Frank's car is pushed in and they watch it sink. Then they return to the spa. It is early and no one is about. They drag Frank's body to the man-made pond and roll it in. Evangeline sees them but says nothing.Soon everyone is looking for Frank. It is unlike him to miss appointments with the clients. While watching a VHS tape of Mardi Gras, Marion spots Frank in the crowd, wearing the costume that was specially made for him. She faints and is confined to bed. Another doctor at the spa warns her that her blood pressure is sky-high and she should be in a hospital but she refuses. She is disgusted with Laura and wishes they had not done it.The next morning Frank's car is brought home by his uncle, who saw him the day before. Laura and Marion are shocked but manage to act normal. Marion learns from the uncle that Frank is staying in town at a hotel. She goes there and apparently just misses him. His cigar is still smoking in the ashtray. But how can any of this be real since she saw Frank's corpse? Laura knocks the handyman's tools into the pond, forcing him to drain it. There is no sign of Frank. This brings on another heart spell for Marion.Then she hears a report on TV of an unidentified body of a man turning up. Summoning what little strength she has, Marion goes to the police station and tells them she thinks the man is her husband. Sgt. DuBois takes her to view the body but it is not Frank. Sensing she has found a friend, Marion confesses everything to DuBois. He is skeptical but agrees to pay a call at the spa.After examining Frank's car, DuBois finds traces of mud under the hood. The canvas that Frank was wrapped in is discovered in a cistern. He visits Marion, who is still confined to bed, and tells her he thinks Frank is alive and pulling a fast one on her. This would mean that Laura was also in on it. He promises to get at the truth.Marion is awakened by someone on the lawn outside. It is Frank, dressed in his Mardi Gras costume. He beckons Marion to follow him. She does and he leads her down the road to a cemetery. Then he disappears in the crowd. Breathing heavily, Marion manages to return home. She goes to the bathroom for her heart pills and sees Frank's body in the bathtub, just as it was that night on the bayou. He rises from the water just as Marion collapses. Her pills scatter everywhere and Frank's shoes crunch them as he walks across the room. He checks Marion's pulse but there is none. She has died of a heart attack. Frank goes into the bedroom where Laura is waiting. He tells her Marion is dead and they fall into each other's arms.At Marion's funeral, DuBois confronts Frank and Laura. He has deduced that Frank murdered Marion to get his hands on her property. But he cannot prove it and Frank knows this. DuBois promises to be their worst nightmare, which they find amusing.That night, Frank and Laura serve an eviction notice on Evangeline. She casts a spell and talks to Marion. She apologizes for not being able to save Marion but Frank and Laura were too strong for her. Then she calls Marion to come forth and take her revenge.Laura and Frank are asleep when he is yanked from the bed by Marion, who appears to be very much alive. She slaps him around the room until he begs for mercy. Then he wakes up. It is morning and Laura is in the shower. Frank smiles with relief until he finds Laura dead in the bathroom. She has been strangled with a pendant belonging to Marion. An expression of horror is on her face.The police are called and Frank is arrested for the murder of Laura. He insists that Marion came back and killed her but no one listens. Evangeline looks up and sees Marion standing in the bedroom window, smiling and happy. DuBois sees her too but when he looks again, she is gone. | revenge, cruelty, murder | train | imdb | Diabolique ripoff.
The big screen and television never tire of recycling the plot of the classic French film, Le Diabolique.
This is the second (at least) TV movie based on the Diabolique plot, the other that I know of being Reflections of Murder with Tuesday Weld and Joan Hackett from some years ago.
Diabolique was remade as a feature film with Sharon Stone and the gorgeous Isabelle Adjani in the early '90s.In this version, the school has been changed to a medical clinic and there's some voodoo thrown in for good measure.If you haven't seen any of the other movies, you will find the story intriguing.
If you have, you may still find it interesting.
After all, this is one of the classic stories of all time.
But see the original, which stars Simone Signoret.
I saw a rotten print of it and loved it anyway..
An Ole Classic Favorite!.
I really love this movie, it would be awesome if in real life those who do reap what they sow like they did in this movie.
I loved Cicely Tyson she really adds that special touch to the movie..
Same movie as Diabolique with Sharon Stone.
Last night, I couldn't sleep and turned on the tv, catching this movie.
It seemed so familiar, yet I was sure I'd never seen it before.
Turns out, I had seen Diabolique with Sharon Stone.
Exactly the same movie with just a couple of variations such as location and names.
See both and compare.
I liked them both..
Brazen Ripoffs.
I liked this movie and it gave me the "heebie-jeebies" when I first saw it.
(I spook easily)It has the classic elements of a good old fashioned Southern ghost story.
Throw in a little voo-doo and a New Orleans cemetery and it doesn't get much better.
However, having recently seen "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte" with Olivia DeHavilland and Bette Davis, there are certain elements that are brazen ripoffs from the DeHaviland/Davis work.
Makes me think less of the more recent of these two films.
Odd and eerie seeing Ms. DeHavilland playing such an ugly, selfish and mean character...she will always be Melanie Wilkes in my mind.
It took me a minute to recognize Agnes Moorehead as Velma....she looked completely different from her role as Endora on "Bewitched.".
Would have been really good but.......
I liked the plot, it was a good movie to watch on a Sunday morning, but Melissa Gilbert's character drove me nuts.
All her weakness and sniveling enabled her husband and his honey to carry out their plot.
Even though she got her revenge in the end, watching her do everything wrong throughout most of the film was hard for me to watch..
Do do that Voodoo that you do so well.
(Some Spoilers) Murder and madness is mixed in with a little of the supernatural in "House of Secrets" and the ending, even though it wouldn't knock you off your feet,has a nice and surprising twist to it.Inheriting her parents Southern Plantation Marion Lambert Ravinel, Malissa Gilbert, can't keep up with the daily grind of the place that's been converted into a sanatorium by her late father Mr. Lambert.
Having a bad heart Marion let's her husband Dr. Frank Ravinel, Bruce Boxleitner, run the place but he's running it into the ground.
He's Secretly having the Mansion turned into a casino behind Marion's back has his frail and sensitive wife throw a fit when she finds out about it.Marion is also very angry at her husbands attempt to throw the maid Evangelin,Cicely Tyson, out of the place because of her knowing what the doctor is up to and working with her knowledge of the black arts and Voodoo to put a hex on him.
This in order to stop Ravinel from destroying the Plantation which she and her parents and great-parents worked at all their lives, and which is the only home that she knows.Working at the sanatorium is nurse Laura Morrell,Kate Vernon,who Dr. Ravinel got out of prison for the murder of a man who tried to rape her some eight years ago.
With Laura having to have a job in order not to break her parole she's more or less being blackmailed by the good doctor to stay at his medical facility, even though she just about had it with the abuse she's taking from him.
With Dr. Ravinel about to sell out his medical profession to become a part-owner of a casino and throwing everyone in the sanatorium out in the cold Laura, together with Marion, concocts this plane to murder Dr. Ravinel and make it look like it was an accident.
Getting Dr. Ravinel to come over to Bayou Country during "Fat Tuesday" week to pull this "perfact crime" off the doctor almost blows the entire plan when he tell Marion, as she gave him a glass of drug laced lemonade, how much he loves her.
Marion moved by his sudden show of affection for her then purposely knocks the glass out of his hand to keep him from drinking it.
Back to "normal" now Ravinel, mad at her spilling the lemonade on his clean suit, becomes more like his old self again by smacking Marion across the face so hard that he knocks her to the the ground and almost out cold.
Marion quirky changes her mind and give him another drink, which Ravinel asks for, that soon puts him to sleep and on queer street.
With the dancing and partying going on outside of the house both Marion and Laura take the knocked-out Dr. Ravinel to the bathroom and deep-six him in the water filled bathtub drowning him .
Sending his car to the bottom of the nearby swamp the two take Ravinel's body back home and drop him into the pond on the plantation grounds to make it look like he got himself drunk and fell in and drowned.
Everything worked to perfection but there turned out to be just one small problem:The next morning Ravinel's body just disappeared into thin air!
Even more strange his car, that was underwater in the swamp, popped up back at the plantation driven there by Ravinel's cousin Vincent, Michael Aubley, who said that Ravinel is in perfect health and staying at a hotel back in New Orleans.
Who was drugged and later drowned by Marion and Laura?
What happened to Ravinel's,if it was really him, body at the bottom of the pond?
How did the car that Ravinel drove to the bayou and was later submerged there get itself out of the water?
And most of all what was Vicent talking about in him seeing and talking to Ravinel hours after he was supposedly killed by the two women?
The second half of the movie is somewhat contrived and nowhere as good as the first half.
There's a number of twists in it that are not that surprising but the ending is a bit of a shock.
It has a lot to do with Evangaline who we see at the beginning of the film telling the story, in flashback, to the officer in charge at the murder scene Sgt. Joe DuBois,Michael Boatman.
Not at first believing a world of what Evangaline told him Sgt. DuBois has a quick change of mind when he looks up at the bedroom widow and sees something or someone thats not, in all logic, supposed to be there! |
tt1428538 | Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters | Abandoned by their father deep in a forest, young Hansel and Gretel enter a gingerbread house and are captured by a cannibalistic witch. The witch forces Hansel to continuously eat candy to fatten him up, and enslaves Gretel by ordering her to prepare the oven. The siblings outsmart her and incinerate her in the fire of the oven. In the fifteen years that follow, Hansel and Gretel become famed witch hunters, slaying hundreds of witches. The pair find that they are somehow immune to spells and curses, but the incident in the gingerbread house has left Hansel diabetic. He needs a shot of insulin every few hours or he will get sick and die.
Becoming witch hunters as adults, Hansel and Gretel arrive in the town of Augsburg and immediately prevent Sheriff Berringer from executing a young woman named Mina for witchcraft. Mayor Englemann tells the crowd that he has hired the siblings to rescue several children presumed abducted by witches. Berringer hires trackers for the same mission in the hopes of disgracing the mayor and cementing his power. All but one of the sheriff's party are killed that night by the powerful grand witch Muriel, who sends one man back to the town tavern as a warning to the locals. Hansel and Gretel, along with the Mayor's deputy Jackson, capture one of Muriel's witches and interrogate her. They discover that the witches are preparing for the coming Blood Moon, where they plan to sacrifice twelve children in order to gain an immunity to fire. Muriel, accompanied by her witches and a troll named Edward, attack the town and abduct the final child. Muriel kills Jackson and launches Gretel out a window, rendering her unconscious. Gretel is rescued by Ben, a local teenager who is a fan of theirs and plans to be a witch hunter himself. Hansel grabs onto a fleeing witch by her broomstick, but falls and is lost in the forest.
The next morning, Mina finds Hansel hanging from a tree. She takes him to a nearby spring where she heals his wounds and makes love to him. Gretel searches for Hansel in the forest, but is attacked by Sheriff Berringer and his posse. The men capture and beat Gretel before being stopped by Edward who kills the sheriff and his men. Edward tends Gretel's wounds and tells her that he helped her because trolls serve witches. Hansel and Gretel reunite at an abandoned cabin which they discover is both a witch's lair and their childhood home. Muriel appears in front of them, telling them the truth of their past. She reveals that Hansel and Gretel's mother was a grand white witch named Adrianna who married a farmer. On the night of the last Blood Moon, Muriel planned to use the heart of the white witch to complete her potion. She found Adrianna too powerful and decided to use Gretel's heart instead. To get rid of Adrianna, Muriel revealed to the townspeople that Adrianna was a witch. The resulting angry mob burned her alive and hanged Hansel and Gretel's father. Following this revelation, the siblings battle Muriel before she stabs Hansel and abducts Gretel for the ceremony.
Hansel wakes up with Mina, who reveals herself to be a white witch. She heals his wounds again and uses a grimoire to bless Hansel's arsenal of weapons. Hansel, Mina, and Ben head out to disrupt the Blood Moon Sabbath. Mina begins slaughtering dark witches with a Gatling gun, while Hansel squares off against Muriel's witches and frees the children. Edward defies Muriel's orders and releases Gretel before Muriel throws him off the cliff. Muriel flees on a broomstick, but Ben manages to shoot her and forces her to crash. Hansel goes after Muriel while Gretel stops to revive Edward. Hansel, Ben, and Mina follow Muriel's trail to the original gingerbread house. Muriel wounds Ben and kills Mina before Hansel shoots her several times, knocking her into the house. Gretel arrives and the pair engage Muriel in a brutal fight that ends with Gretel decapitating her with a shovel. They burn Muriel's body on a pyre and collect their reward for rescuing the children. They head out on their next witch hunt accompanied by Ben and Edward.
During the credits, Hansel and Gretel are able to slay a Desert Witch. | comedy, fantasy, gothic, murder, paranormal, violence, flashback, good versus evil, psychedelic, humor, action, sci-fi | train | wikipedia | I seriously enjoyed this film-- it had more gore than Mel Gibson could shake a fist at, some very cute actors, and didn't waste time with excessive back-story and details, and gave me many good laughs.Its not an intellectually stimulating movie...
In my opinion this is the type of movie to see if: 1)You love and support Jeremy Renner 2)You're in a mood to see cool but not overly flashy effects 3)Love for dark fairy tales 4)Awesome make up and costumes (the witches were very VERY well put together) 5)Just an all around chill movie with gore violence and cool effectsDon't see it if: 1)you expect high quality acting 2)Over the top graphics and effects 3)Complex plot line 4)Extremely witty scriptBecause Jeremy Renner was in big time movies, people are over analyzing this one.
There's lots of gore here, so people who love endless CGI blood will fall in love with this film.Tommy Wirkola's film adds some more depth to the classic tale from the Grimm Brothers, Hansel and Gretel.
And so Wirkola fast- forwards the story many years later, where he would like us to believe that Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) have found their calling as witch hunters, travelling around from village to village killing the evil ones who kidnap children and rescuing their abductees in the process.One particular such mission brings them to the town of Augsburg, where a beautiful blonde-haired woman named Mina (Pihla Viitala) is due to be drowned in front of an angry crowd by the shifty Sheriff Berringer (Peter Stormare).
Seeing no visible signs of sorcery on her, Hansel and Gretel free her, inadvertently setting themselves on a collision course with the Sheriff.But the bitter Sheriff and his band of hunters are the least of their problems – indeed, their most pressing concern is the Grandmother Witch Muriel (Famke Janssen) and her hench-women, who have been keeping the children they have kidnapped locked up in wait for a much more sinister plot to make them even more powerful.
But Wirkola also brings his eye for gore – seen in his sophomore film 'Dead Snow' – to this movie, so be prepared for exploding flesh, crushed skulls and some particularly nasty decapitations that is good reason why this grown-up version of Hansel and Gretel does not carry a kid-friendly rating.Amidst the gore and adult humour, Renner and Arterton unfortunately are left with paper-thin characters.
While Renner pretty much looks dour throughout the movie, Arterton seems determined to have fun with her ass-kicking female heroine of a role, and her portrayal of Gretel resembles a Lara Croft for the medieval ages.
Other supporting actors don't make much of an impression – including Thomas Mann, a firm Hansel and Gretel devotee who gets some laughs from his fanboy behaviour and eventually sees his wish come true to be a witch hunter like his heroes.And we suspect, how much you will end up enjoying this new twist to the classic fairy tale will also depend on your expectations.
The siblings Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) are left alone in the woods by their father and captured by a dark witch in a candy house.
On the other hand, it has a good visual style, its action is very pleasing, if a bit gore-filled (not a bad thing in this case), the two main actors are actually pretty good in their roles, and as a whole it's just plain solid fun.
I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw the poster for "Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters" because it actually puts together my two favorite current movie stars, Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton!
This film seems to be a cross of those two types, and so is one film I made sure I would watch this once it opened.Hansel and Gretel starts as we all know them from the fairy tale, children left by their parents in the woods.
When a mysterious series of missing children terrorizes a small town, its mayor hires Hansel and Gretel to look for the witches responsible and kill them.That was one shallow story line I know, but I really enjoyed myself while watching this movie.
But Hansel and Gretel as witch hunters followed the mold of Blade, and proved to be quite the mass market entertainer, with no pretences in wanting to be more.Written and directed by Norwegian Tommy Wirkola, this story had all the right ingredients for the kind of film it wanted to be, taking the familiar folk lore, and putting a creative, not necessarily new, spin on it.
This forms the prologue, and the What If scenario that Hansel and Gretel were to build on their initial success, and form a career out of hunting, and destroying witches anywhere, bounty hunter style.As you would already have seen in the trailer, this is but one of their adventures shown in helping a village deal with the menace of the witch Muriel (Famke Janssen), who together with her posse of like-minded witches have kidnapped children in preparation of a ritual to be performed under the blood moon.
And there's no other better for the job than for Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton), engaged by the mayor thanks to the widespread news of their successful witch hunting exploits played over the opening credits.
And having another Bond girl in Famke Janssen in yet another villainous role also helped, although every character in this film is pretty one dimensional.But this is an action-adventure taking a well known fairy tale and giving it a license to thrill with blood and gore.
With the short runtime of 1 hour and 28 minutes, you can expect this to move briskly and to be packed with a lot of action.The story: The movie starts with the young Hansel and Gretel losing their parents.
Sure, there is a great potential that the movie never reach but Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters won't disappoint if you want a good entertainment packed with action.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) ** (out of 4)R-rated, gory horror-adventure has brother and sisters Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretal (Gemma Arterton) called to a small town to try and locate some children that have been kidnapped by some witches.
HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS isn't quite as bad as some are making it out to be but there's no question that the entire film just has an uneasy mix of genres that never fully come together and in the end the film just came off as something that didn't know what it wanted to be or do.
Now, everyone pretty much knew the story of two kids who escape the wrath of a cannibal witch living in a candy house in the middle of the woods, but what happens after that is revealed in this movie: Hansel and Gretel become witch hunters.
Throw in a little humor, a couple of nice twists, and excellent special effects (from the CG to the monstrous design of the witches) and you have one fun fairy tale roller coaster ride.Definitely one of the better reinterpretations of classic fairy tales out there that I have seen and worth a watch, so check it out!
Also, it's been said that to properly make a parody of something you need to truly love it, but here, such scenes feel quite crass.I'm aware that this movie is not supposed to be a high-brow work of art, it's supposed to be a slice of enjoyable fantasy adventure, and don't get me wrong, I love a good fantasy romp as much as the next man (I even have a soft spot for 2004's 'Van Helsing') and often relish a nice dollop of violent (and somewhat silly) action, having thoroughly enjoyed Zack Snyder's adaptation of '300'.
The film centers on the classic story of Hansel and Gretel and picks up after that tale as they are now a brother and sister team of bad ass witch hunters.
Just Plain Bad. If someone ever figures out the point of this film, don't bother telling me.In 1812 Germany Hansel and Gretel run around hunting witches with everything from modern revolvers, pump shotguns, belt fed machines guns, and tasers.
The acting is shallow (I suspect the actors weren't convinced themself of the scenario), the medieval contemporary / atmosphere is a mess ( "Van Helsing" replica but much worse ), and god all I can remember really about the movie is that tons of of ketchup and strawberry jam spammed at every single minute of the movie, looking to put any sense in this glorious mess "Hansel and Gretel" - Witch Hunter...I struggled to not leave during the movie, having some hope for a potential sparkling in the scenario, which will save the day...
This is not a detractor, as the music, no matter how much it shows its influence, is very good.I would like to see Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton team up in another, better movie with a better sense of adventure.
"Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" is a pretty dopey movie, and the 3D just makes it dopier..
For a tough, burly witch hunter guy who didn't take prisoners, Jeremy Renner's Hansel has a poorly explained and even more careless paid off medical condition that requires a completely unexplained yet miraculous cure- -the situation and stakes of which he outright explains the to a woman who was inexplicably two thousand times more attractive than her fellow town folks, who later, after Gretel proclaims his inability to swim, finds it incredibly appropriate to take off her clothes and lead him into a neck-high pond.
basically, it was unwatchable; 45 minutes into it I gave up; admittedly, I could tell after the first 10 minutes (i.e. after the prologue retelling of the original fairy tale) that I wasn't the target demographic or audience but that's no excuse (IMO) for the awful spectacle of ugly old women being gruesomely murdered by a handsome man & largely skin-tight leather-clad (which showcases her generally straddling - and ample - thighs) young woman clearly enjoying their 'job'; it felt to me like watching mediaeval Bonny & Clyde type psychos with serious granny issues
nor was there any excuse for such a poor plot-line and almost complete absence of wit in the script.
What it actually is is a veritable goldmine of rip-roaring popcorn entertainment, so outrageous in execution yet so disciplined in pacing that it becomes increasingly easier to immerse oneself with each passing second.The film opens with a minimalist retelling of the classic fairytale, as a young Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) outsmart their first witch, burning her alive and escaping her candied fortress with limbs and brain intact.
Packed with creative and beautifully choreographed action and with some gleaming profanity scattered in for good measure, Hansel and Gretel is a welcome stray from the labours of 'historically accurate' storytelling, as the sheer audacity of the project permits- if not, encourages- the audience to quickly ignore the siblings' modern American accents and mounds of firepower at a time where light bulbs remain closer to witchery than reality.Excessive amounts of blood and gore punctuate every action sequence, giving the film Tarantino-esque levels of violence, while it takes itself about as seriously as any QT film in the process.
I thought that Jeremy Renner was great in this film, and Gemma Arterton made a fantastic Gretel.
In fact, Hansel & Gretel has exactly the vibe that I expected from Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Van Helsing (and which those movies failed to deliver).
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters — Action and magic in the medieval times.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is an action hero movie set in the dark ages.
A few good twists and surprises are in store throughout but it knows it doesn't take itself too seriously.The acting from Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton are great as always, they get a fair amount of screen time together they can show they're action chops and reel in their character into reality.
I could go on, but if you've seen it you know what I mean.Jeremy Renner is a good actor and it's readily apparent that they signed him to what should be a B movie so that he could hopefully garner the producers some respectable box office returns or at least help to break even on the film.
Perhaps that impression came from such movies such as "Twilight" and "Red Riding Hood".But "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" turned out to be somewhat of a bloody and gory action / horror movie.
The whole village really looked real and seemed like something right out of the middle ages.Well, "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" isn't all just great stuff, there were parts which I didn't really fathom or could fully wrap my head around.
But it was without a doubt Famke Janssen (playing Muriel) who stole the show and totally carried the movie."Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" is an action-packed and adrenaline-filled action / horror movie, and it was a real treat to watch, both story-wise and effects-wise.And on a final note, then this movie confirmed my suspicion, Edward is a troll!.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters: Even before watching it, common sense already told me that this will be an outstanding film!.
Actually it's much better than I expected it to be!Jeremy Renner (Hansel) and Gemma Arterton (Gretel) acted spot-on in playing their roles.
The guys get some nice shots of Gemma's Cleavage (they knew what they were doing)Famke Jansen is another beauty who plays the main Evil Witch with some style & gutso.And then we come to one of the most beautiful new actresses I've seen in awhile 'PIHLA VIITALA' make a note of this INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL Finish actress for she is truly AMAZING and features in a lovely revealing scene here that the guys are just gonna love.So yes it's an over-the-top foul mouthed, brutal, gory fairy-tale but there's plenty of fun & action to be found here...I especially liked the ending with the gathering of all the witches at the 'Blood Moon' & it features a truly awesome looking Troll who goes by the name of Edward.It's a FUN Great Looking Popcorn Film...PERFECT for 'Halloween Night' after the kids have gone to bed (and after they have watched the likes of the wonderful "Hocus Pocus" or "The Monster Squad") I for one am looking forward to these characters teaming up in the proposed sequel (as you get to see them as a group heading towards their next quest) so it should hopefully be fun to see what they come up with next.This is a whole lot of late-night fun that will probably do good business in future Halloween Nights....ENJOY.A Rocketeer Flyer Rating of an up up away 8/10.
To be honest I never wanted to watch this movie for the fact it took a children story and made it a R-Rated film about our protagonists become witch hunters.There are a few things I will say I like about the film.
I would advice watch with caution because the gore and violence in this movie take it to the limit often times I had to turn away because I have my limits when it comes to thatMy advice only watch it if you're curious some might like it some will think one watch that's it.I give Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunter an 6 out of 10.
Hansel and Gretel (Jeremy Renner and Gemma Atherton) are bounty hunters who track and kill witches all over the world.
Casey's Movie Mania: HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS (2013).
The good news is, Wirkola's US debut in HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS is a hard-hitting, R-rated gorefest -- with plenty of hardcore violence, dark humor, goofy undertone and playful energy in a compact 88 minutes.
Well, as in this classic fairy tale, you should know how the story ends except that this movie offers a new twist: These two siblings manage to defeat and burn the witch where they are being held captive inside the Gingerbread House.
Renner (Hansel) and Arterton (Gretel) are likable characters with a little depth and that's pretty much all you need from this type of film.
"Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" is yet another failed attempt to convert a child's tale into an adult-oriented action movie.
Hansel and Gretel are now adults and are professional witch hunters.The original fairy tale is pretty dark as it is, child abandonment, kidnapping, attempted cannibalism, people being burned alive, this film tries to make it darker simply by splashing blood all over the place
and that's about it.
Overall, 'Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters' is mildly entertaining but it is pretty forgettable.
Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters is a campy twist to the children's fairy tale.
Hansel&Gretel: witch hunters takes on a modern twist to the Grimm Brothers story.
(Which ended up producing quite a fun, quirky little action film, but I digress)So I wasn't too surprised to learn that Hollywood was planning on unleashing a new take on the classic fable of "Hansel & Gretel", this time telling the story of how after escaping the witch who tried to kill them, the siblings went on a lifelong conquest to hunt other witches for profit.
Yes, it's time to take a look at "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters", a goofy, loud and very stupid action movie that is loaded floor-to-ceiling with rampant entertainment value, thankfully because it never takes itself too seriously.We begin with a brief re-telling of the classic, with some alterations.
The current addition to this "killing mythological characters" craze comes in the form of Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.I wanted to see this because Jeremy Renner, who plays Hansel, is a great actor, and I thought it was a cool idea to have a "where are they now" of fairy tale characters. |
tt1084950 | Rachel Getting Married | Kym Buchman (Anne Hathaway) is released from drug rehab for a few days so she can go home to attend the wedding of her sister Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt). At home, the atmosphere is strained between Kym and her family members as they struggle to reconcile themselves with her past and present. Kym's past drug and alcohol fueled antics have more or less made her the black sheep of her rather bohemian family. Kym's father Paul (Bill Irwin) shows intense concern for her well-being and whereabouts, which Kym interprets as mistrust. Kym also resents her sister's choice of her best friend to be her maid of honor instead of her. Rachel, for her part, resents the attention her sister's drug addiction is drawing away from her wedding, a resentment that comes to a head at the rehearsal dinner, where Kym, amid toasts from friends and family, takes the microphone to offer an apology for her past actions, as part of her twelve-step program.
Underlying the family's dynamic is a tragedy that occurred years previously, which Kym retells at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. As a teenager, Kym was responsible for the death of her younger brother Ethan, who was left in her care one day; driving home from a nearby park, an intoxicated Kym had lost control of the car, driving over a bridge and into a lake, where her brother drowned. The day before the wedding, as Rachel, Kym, and the other bridesmaids are getting their hair done, Kym is approached by a man whom she knew from an earlier stint in rehab. He thanks her for the strength she gave him through a story about having been molested by an uncle and having cared for her sister, who was anorexic. Rachel, hearing this, storms out of the hair salon. The story turns out to be a lie, an apparent attempt by Kym to evade responsibility for her addiction.
The tension between the sisters comes to a head later that night at their father's house, when Kym comes home. Rachel reveals she has never forgiven Kym for their brother's death, and suggests that Kym's rehab has been a hoax since she has been lying about the cause of her problems. Kym finally admits responsibility for Ethan's death and reveals that she had been relapsing in order to cope. She gets into her father's car and leaves. Kym heads to the home of their mother Abby (Debra Winger), hoping to find solace with her. However, a fight breaks out between them, when Kym asks Abby why she left Ethan in her care on the night of his death despite knowing that she was often on drugs, suggesting that Ethan would have been better off in Rachel's care. Abby tells Kym she left Ethan with her because she was good to him and that she thinks Rachel is a hypocrite for her accusations.
When Kym makes it clear she thinks her mother's decision was in part responsible for Ethan's death, Abby becomes furious and punches Kym in the face. Kym hits her mother back and drives off in her father's car. While driving away, Kym begins sobbing uncontrollably because she feels Abby has not accepted appropriate responsibility for her part in the actions which ultimately caused Ethan's death. Kym drives the car off the road in an attempted suicide and crashes into a boulder. Rather than summon help, she spends the night in the car while everyone at home worries about what has become of her. The next morning, the day of the wedding, Kym is spotted in the car by passing joggers, who call the police. The police awaken her and give her a sobriety test which she passes. She gets a ride home with the driver of the tow truck who is towing the wrecked car. She makes her way to Rachel's room, as Rachel prepares for the wedding.
Seeing Kym's bruised face from the crash prompts her anger of the previous night to vanish, and Rachel tenderly bathes and dresses her sister. Amid a festive Indian theme, Rachel and her fiancé Sidney (Tunde Adebimpe) are wed. Kym is the maid of honor, and is overcome with emotion as the couple exchanges their vows. Kym tries to enjoy herself throughout the wedding reception but continues to feel out of place and is plagued by the dispute with her mother. Ultimately, her mother leaves the party early, despite Rachel's effort to bring the two together, and the feud between Kym and Abby is left unresolved, suggesting Abby's emotional distance and unwillingness to accept responsibility is the root cause of the family's problems. The next morning, Kym returns to rehab. As she is leaving, Rachel runs out of the house to hug her. | violence, psychological, realism, storytelling | train | wikipedia | Now the newly colored spotlight falls on Anne Hathaway and her powerful turn as Kym in Rachel's Getting Married.The film is a slice of life piece detailing a small space of time, only a few days, where Kym returns home from a rehab clinic just in time for her sister Rachel's wedding.
That technique gave the movie a certain level of improv or even documentary feeling, like the audience was the most silent of voyeurs.Recommendation: A powerful series of moments, filled with terrific acting, that don't quite come together as a film.
Pointless long scenes that didn't advance the story or even appear to have meaning.I'm astounded and I'm not quite sure how they did this, but despite the seemingly compelling subject matter, I managed to get through the film without connecting to even one of the characters.
Sitting through a movie about sibling rivalry at a wedding, especially one starring the doe-eyed and normally facile Anne Hathaway, sounds like a potentially painful way to spend an evening.
Their remarried father Paul is a bundle of loving support to the point of unctuous for both his girls, while their absentee mother Abby is the exact opposite - guarded and emotionally isolated until she is forced to face both her accountability and anger in one shocking moment.Anne Hathaway is nothing short of a revelation as Kym. Instead of playing the role against the grain of her screen persona, she really shows what would happen if one of her previous characters say, Andy Sachs in "The Devil Wears Prada" - went another route entirely.
After the first 5 minutes, I hated Anne Hathaway's character and I was sea-sick from director Jonathan Demme's hand-held camera work.
I got fully sucked in by Jenny Lumet's (daughter of Sidney, the master) riveting story of a family ripped apart and trying desperately to hold on to what is left.While Hathaway's Kym is getting all the pub, I found Rosemarie DeWitt's Rachel every bit as mesmerizing, though a bit less laser-tongue equipped.
So much self-destructiveness that it makes one wonder why apparent sweet guy Sidney (played oddly by Tunde Adedimpbe of TV on the Radio) wants to have anything to do with this ghastly group.Just to make sure you are absolutely uncomfortable, Lumet tosses in the rarely seen Debra Winger as Kym and Rachel's estranged mother, who has emotionally backed out of their life completely so as not to feel the guilt she deserves for the death of the youngest sibling.There is no way to watch this movie without numerous moments of being squeamish or uncomfortable.
Members of said family are narcissistic, rehab babe Kym (Hathaway); her snobbish sister Rachel; their divorced, weak father and their fed-up mother.I will mention only a few among the movie many problems 1) the music played throughout the film is simultaneously nerve-wracking and monotonous.
No answer; 5) finally, even if Anne Hathaway does a good job, her character is so unlovable, self-centered and self-destructive that it does not elicit the least sympathy.At a certain stage I sincerely hoped that Kym would manage to kill herself, to put an end to her - and the audience - misery and to provide some sort of cathartic moment to this otherwise lethargic movie.
Maybe this is a generational thing but I wholeheartedly agree with those who have said, "Excellent film sabotaged by execrable camera work," "Teenagers Making Video," and "Rachel Gets Married, Audience Gets Headache." When I was an engineer and again as a programmer, we had a saying, "Just because you can do something doesn't mean you have to do it." Last week I saw W.
The kind of movie that gives films about family dysfunction a good name.Anne Hathaway plays Kym, troubled younger sister to Rachel, who's (as the title suggests) getting married.
Unlike the recent and absolutely atrocious "Margot at the Wedding," which this film reminded me of, "Rachel Getting Married" is full of flawed but deeply sympathetic characters who I for one cared tremendously about.
Anne Hathaway gives the kind of performance that will convince people she's more than just a pretty face, while she's met every step of the way by the less well known Rosemarie Dewitt, who plays Rachel.
In a movie like this, it's crucial that the audience understands the back story that led the characters to their current dynamic, and it's a minor miracle that "Rachel Getting Married" does that without the use of flashbacks, voice over or even extensive scenes of plot exposition.
I went where the characters took me, Anne Hathaway and Rosemary DeWitt are terrific but it is Debra Winger's distant mother that will make me want to see this film again.
In Connecticut, after years of rehab, the drug addicted Kym (Anne Hathaway) is released to go to the wedding of her sister Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt).
A great performance by Anne Hathaway and a good story gets lost inside a horribly shot and edited film.
This pitch-black-comedy-cum-drama, Rachel Getting Married, bucks two kinds of marriage movies that are fairly common in the two sides of release: one is the schmaltzy, dumb mainstream rom-com like Maid of Honor or The Wedding Planner where A-List actors go in the motions of a batch of conventions-by-checklist, and the other is a glum, mean indie picture like Margot at the Wedding (can't think of others right now like it's ilk, wouldn't want to).
What helps it make it not just watchable, or appealing, but a very good movie, is the fact that the screenplay- by Sidney's daughter Jenny Lumet (as every critic has noted)- is very true to the tragic dimensions amid such a hectic weekend at a Connecticut, upper-middle class house where a wedding will take place with some bad memories and skeletons opened in the process.In fact, for all of Jonathan Demme's efforts to give it a raw and spontaneous energy- he's said it's akin to Altman but I sensed more-so Cassavetes- his approach works best, even at a rough-edged masterful level, when characters are talking/arguing/yelling in a room.
Lumet's story involves the title character (Rosemarie DeWitt) in a weekend where there's much happiness for her and her to-be-spouse, and a good lot of tension because of her sister, Kym (Hathaway), getting out of rehab for the weekend to come to the occasion.To say she's the black sheep is somewhat sugar-coating it, and nearly every moment Hathaway is on camera (or, somewhat in the Altman mode, Demme manages to catch her off-guard in a moment or with a look) is electrifying, by far her best performance if only because she finally has a character to really dig her 'acting' heels into.
This is the only tricky part of the picture, but one I wasn't daunted by; there's a real "indie-movie" spark here that's indescribable.At the end of it all, I'll remember Rachel Getting Married more as an exceptional experiment than a truly great film, but anyone completely sick of seeing ads for sappy marriage comedies or films that treat the families or people gearing up for a wedding like paper figures would do themselves a favor seeking it out.
It's not a documentary so don't treat it like one.The film's obvious strong point, and really the only reason worth watching is Anne Hathaway's performance.
I can see why Anne Hathaway got nominated (I was so hoping she would've evolved from 'The Devil Wears Prada' and 'Get Smart' and like heck she did.) Her performance in 'Rachel Getting Married' was nothing short of astounding, believable and sympathetic not a minute passed that I truly didn't believe she was reliving her past, remorseful, yearning to change and attempting to cope.
I loved the documentary, real-life feel of the film, the way it's forgiven (on being yet another dysfunctional family drama) and forgotten (that it's actually a movie, that is.) The film, shown over a course of a short period of getting ready, families meeting for the first time, rehearsals, reunions and the actual wedding, was so wonderfully and realistically shot.
The movie's recommended for the exceptional Hathaway performance (much like Clint Eastwood's 'Gran Torino' which is worth seeing, if only for Eastwood's excellent performance, another undeserved Oscar snub) as was the real-life portrayal of a wedding and families brought together.
Demme's Good Direction, Original Score, Excellent performances and a very ordinary Situation of story makes Rachel Getting Married a very memorable film.
Director Jonathan Demme falls rapturously, wrongheadedly in love with screenwriter Jenny Lumet's dysfunctional family at the heart of "Rachel Getting Married".
Anne Hathaway plays smudgy, shaky Kym, a young woman who is given a reprieve from rehab to attend her sister's wedding, yet she is a walking (and talking!) reminder of old wounds and problems-past, and nobody knows how to respond to her and her newfound sobriety.
From the previews of this film I was expecting to see a much more intense story about addiction and dysfunction than what I think it turned out to be.Instead, what I felt I got was a story that didn't make you care very much about the characters and in it's place put a ridiculous and annoying effort into the music -- not to mention the stupidly long wedding sequences that lost their effect after 3+ minutes of the same dancing/drum beats.
It reminded me a lot of Elizabethtown which I watched a good 3-4 times trying to understand why I should care about the characters and how the whole final sequence seemed like a good excuse for the folks working on the movie to add in their favorite tunes for no good reason.The band that played for the most part of this movie sounded very good, but come on!
If the same effort had gone into improving the story and camera work -- which as many others commented made them feel dizzy & nauseous -- instead of adding another track from the band that seemed to be playing non-stop at the family's home, it would have been a much better film....
I immediately noticed that all of God's races were represented, with the exception of Mexicans, because rich, pretentious people cannot conceive of a wealthy, educated Mexican.Just take a poor uneducated person to this movie and I'm sure they will think, "if being rich and educated makes me act like this, then no thank you".Don't waste your time on this crap.
My sister likened the movie to attending an excruciatingly long wedding except without the booze.The acting is good and everyone is giving their all, but the writing is so self indulgent, you just want to throttle all of the characters.
None of it is believable but it seems to think it is some kind of reality.The strangers in the theatre to the right of us AND to the left all said they wished they had spent the two hours somewhere else.Artsy Fartsy Camera-work Tries To Mask Lack of Interesting Characters Bad Acting / Anne Hathaway does nothing special..
Her sister, Kym (Anne Hathaway), is also coming home for the wedding after nine months in rehab for drug addiction.
I now know what seasickness feels like.Anne Hathaway is good as the recovering druggie Kym who shows up at her sister Rachel's wedding after being in and out of rehab for a decade; Rosemarie DeWitt is even better as Rachel.The cast for the parties and the dinner must have been captured during recess at the United Nations.
It was almost like watching home movies.The way I see it is that we were just looking in on these people's lives, there didn't need to be a back story or character exposition because none of that mattered.Hitch and my mom both hated it because they said they felt like they were watching people have intimate conversations with no beginning or ending but I think that was the point.
The problem is they take you out of the movie pretty much every time, they go on for too long, there's about 10 minutes straight of music and dancing at one point.I understand the point of reminding the viewer that life exists out of Kim's world and thus scenes without her make sense, but the movie would have been better if it were almost entirely portrayed from Kim's point-of-view and some scenes capture it perfectly, such as Rachel taking her father to another room to talk, or scenes with people crying after Kim has left the room etc..
All these multicultural, musical, self-aware and self-expressed house guests who have gathered for this upscale, esoteric (vaguely East Indian themed but throw in the United Nations for good measure) wedding with a full dress rehearsal two nights before, all hosted at a home with way-too-many bedrooms....it was as if the cast of Hair had been transported into some retired banker's mansion in Connecticut for a love-in....I mean who ARE all these people and what do they do and how do they earn a living and where do they get their tolerant world view from and how come they can all do witty monologues (or sing a cappella) with a hand-held mike....it didn't all make sense to me and thus I found the whole movie derailed by an unreality....it just seemed like a whole bunch of actors acting...and it was hard to connect with the raw pain the writer no doubt intended we would share and feel.....only when Ann Hathaway's mannerisms and facial expressions conveyed how she felt like she didn't belong amidst the joyous after-wedding celebrations did I, for one, get transcended from seeing an acting performance to the vicarious experience of a point of despair and isolation I am sad to admit I can personally recognize......
The father role was different and I liked what happened there but there wasn't enough in this film to make me keep from getting nauseous...in part from the camera work but also the character development and their lines!
This movie is almost like that hilariously politically-correct and painfully obvious atrocity, Crash, only with more of a focus on interracial and multicultural diversity and one character's (Anne Hathaway, in another forced "bad girl" performance) struggle with drug rehabilitation.
Family gatherings often make for awkward or even unpleasant moments in movies, and Jonathan Demme's "Rachel Getting Married" presents such a situation.
Anne Hathaway plays Kym, who gets released from rehab for a few days to attend her sister's wedding in Connecticut.
Once she arrives, the family's painful history begins to come out, and every member - Kym included - has to face how s/he has contributed to the problems.Probably the most noticeable thing during the movie is the hand-held camera-work.
one of the most intriguing aspects in this movie for me , was the use of music.Almost all the time you could here somewhere out of the scene, some form of live music was being performed....I liked the sounds that came to ya as watcher.the story well , kinda predictable , but still intriguing..seeing the preparations of an upper class family for the wedding of their oldest daughter.The film reminded me a lot of the work by Robert Altman f.i...
Those bemoaning the existence of the film, and stating things like, "but I consider myself a good critic of movies
" when doing so, miss the point, which is, in the end, Rachel Getting Married is an excellent film and, above all, its accessibility is a question of temperament and taste.Some of the acting is second to none..
While I certainly will give Rachel Getting Married for bringing something new to the table, admittedly this "dysfunctional family deals with drama before a wedding" plot has been done way too many times.
It follows two families becoming one at the wedding of Rachel and Sidney, and Rachel's sister Kym (Hathaway), a recovering drug addict, is returning home for the first time in some years.One thing that really stands out to me is the feel and atmosphere of the film.
Demme uses the set and setting, the camera, the actors and in-scene musicians (brilliant pretext that the dad is into music and that many of the family friend's add impromptu notes to the score of this "family movie"), the emotionally-charged and witty script, unobtrusive editing and careful casting to create a movie experience as close to real life as possible.Yes, this is a family movie as it focuses on the wedding of Rachel and the return of her sister that just came back from rehab.
Anne Hathaway comes into her own as a serious dramatic actress in "Rachel Getting Married," a film by Jonathan Demme that is neither as compelling as its champions would argue nor as loathsome as its detractors might insist.Hathaway plays Kym, a recovering drug addict who checks out of rehab to attend her sister's wedding in the country.
I don't know if the performance deserved a nomination but it at least makes this film mildly tolerable.Debra Winger might also have been good had she had more than 4 minutes of screen time (most of which was in the background of these wedding documentary scenes).Here is what doesn't work.
I actually felt like turning it off a few times, and that doesn't happen to me lot.In the end though, I'm glad I stuck with it, because the second half of the film picks up the pace and finally introduces some real character drama.Simply put, this film is about a drug addict who gets leave from rehab for a few days to attend her sister's wedding and pretty much ruins the whole thing.
'Rachel Getting Married' is an exuberant, raw, honest, and painful but in the same time joyful film starring Anne Hathaway in her best performance so far.
In certain films, it is imperative that you jump on a characters back in order to go along on the journey with them.Anne Hathaway proves that she can give a bitching performance by grabbing you by the hand in her first second on camera as Kym the -fresh out of rehab- sister of the bride Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt). |
tt2649554 | Midnight Special | The glow of a television set illuminates an otherwise dark motel room. On the news, the story of a missing boy named Alton Meyer (Jaeden Lieberher) last seen with a man named Roy, traveling in a primer grey Chevelle.Roy (Michael Shannon) pulls back duct tape covering the peephole in the door and sees that its night. He tells Lucas (Joel Edgerton) that its time to go. They gather Alton, whos reading a comic book underneath a bed sheet. Hes wearing headphones and darkened swim goggles. They exit the room.The front desk clerk of the motel watches as the peculiar threesome get into a Chevelle. The news is on in the motel office too. She picks up the phone as the Chevelle drives away.Elsewhere, Calvin Meyer (Sam Shepard) tells Doak (Bill Camp) that he must get the boy back no matter what. They exit the room and we see theyre on the altar of a large congregation of religious followers. He starts reading scripture which sounds more like a series of dates and numbers. The FBI raids the church and we see that were in the compound of a Waco-like cult. They gather up the members of the congregation into school buses and take them away.Through their police scanner, Roy and Lucas discover the authorities have a description of their vehicle. Lucas puts on night vision goggles, turns off the headlines and speeds through the darkness. After driving through three counties, Roy tells him to turn the lights back on and slow down. As Lucas does, their car narrowly misses a stalled car in the middle of the road. However a vehicle heading in the opposite direction isnt as lucky and crashes into the stalled car. Lucas stops, gets out and checks on the driver. As he does, a State Trooper pulls up. The trooper is about to assist, when he gets a message on his radio about the Chevelle. Lucas pulls his own gun and tells the trooper not to do it. The trooper pulls his weapon anyway, so Lucas shoots him, gets back in the Chevelle and off they go. Roy assures Lucas that the trooper was wearing a vest.The FBI questions the members of the congregation about the large collection of weapons theyve started to amass. Calvin says its still currently legal to own guns in this country. We also find out that Calvin Meyer is Altons adopted father. Roy is his biological father. NSA agent Paul Sevier (Adam Driver) arrives and questions the congregation too. He asks about Altons powers. Calvin tells him that he speaks in tongues and has given the church a series of numbers. It turns out those numbers are classified government information. They also talk about the light Alton has in his eyes. Sevier lets everyone return to their church. Doak and Levi (Scott Haze) gather a secret stash of weapons and head out after Alton.Roy, Lucas and Alton get to the home of a former congregation member named Elden (David Jensen). He hides them and already has a darkened room for Alton to sleep. In the morning, the entire house is rumbling like theres an earthquake. Roy runs into Altons room and sees Elden staring in the bright lights shooting out of Altons eyes. They pull Elden away and get the goggles back on Alton. Elden explains that he just had to see it one more time. Lucas takes the man's car and gathers Alton. Roy pulls his gun on Elden and tells him that he has to do this because the man knows too much. He begs Roy to spare him.Alton reads comic books in the back of Eldens stolen utility van and asks questions about Superman and Kryptonite. Roy admonishes Lucas for letting him read that. Lucas defends his decision by saying that its good to read. Roy doesnt want Alton reading stuff that isnt real. We get the sense that, before all this, Lucas wasnt a member of the Meyer family like Roy was. Alton starts speaking in Spanish. Lucas is surprised he can do that. Roy says he cant and turns on the radio. It turns out that Alton is reciting what a DJ is saying on a Spanish speaking radio station even though the radio wasnt even turned on. Roy was able to determine that the numbers Alton was saying to the church were coordinates with a corresponding date. He needs to get him to those coordinates by that day a few days from now.They end up at a gas station. Lucas goes inside to get supplies. Roy makes a phone call and tells Alton to stay in the van. Roy tells the person on the phone that he misses them and will see them in a few hours. Something above catches Altons attention and he gets out and wanders away to the edge of the parking lot. Roy runs over and Alton apologizes and points to the sky. Fiery debris rains from the sky onto the gas station. Lucas and Roy take Alton, get in the van and drive away as the gas station explodes behind them.They go to the home of Sarah (Kirsten Dunst). Shes Altons mom and concerned that hes not looking too well. She puts him to sleep.Re-joining Sevier and Agent Miller (Paul Sparks) from the FBI at the aftermath of the gas station, we find out that a defence satellite in charge of stopping nuclear weapons exploded and crashed at the gas station. Theres a heat reading comparable to a nuclear bomb where Alton was standing when the satellite exploded, but there isnt any radiation present at the site. They determine they can program a drone to track that exact same reading, so next time Altons super powers flare, they can figure out where he is.Doak and Levi, armed with duct tape and guns, pay a visit to Sarahs mom.On the radio, the official report is that a weather satellite crashed.Lucas works on rigging up Sarahs car with some equipment while she makes small talk. We find out that Lucas was a childhood friend of Roys before he left to join Calvins cult. His job before all of this, he was also a State Trooper. Sarah couldnt handle seeing Calvin raise her child, so she left the cult. Roy bravely stayed behind to keep an eye on Alton.Doak and Levi go to Sarahs house and find Eldens van. Then they go to Eldens house and find him alive. Roy couldnt kill him after all. They ask where the heroes are headed.Our heroes drive and suddenly Alton has difficulty breathing. They pull over and try to help him. Lucas insists they should go to the hospital, but Roy says they cant. If they do, they wont be able to get to the coordinates. Light shoots out of Altons eyes and he cant control it. They take him out of the car. The grass around him starts to die. He recovers and tells Sarah and Lucas to go. He points to a distant light in the sky the government knows where they are.Roy and Alton flee into the woods and find a cave. Alton tells Roy that he needs to be outside in the day time. Roy says that could harm him. Alton says that Roy needs to trust him. In the morning, Alton and Roy watch the sunrise. Alton recovers completely and his hand illuminates with light.Sevier decodes the numbers from Calvins sermons. Theyre a series of coordinates with corresponding dates. Some line up to stuff like where the State Trooper was shot and where the gas station explosion happened. Others are just government secrets. Putting the government numbers aside, Sevier is able to find out where our heroes are headed next!Lucas and Sarah are holed up in a hotel room. Sarah reassures Lucas that Roy wont stop at anything to get Alton where they need to be. Theres a knock. It cant be Roy and Alton because its daytime. Wrong! Its them. Roy says that Alton was able to show him a glimpse of where he needs to be. Alton explains that he belongs with people who live on a plane of existence thats parallel to ours, but different from ours. He shows Lucas that place through the lights in his eyes. Lucas now believes.Lucas puts on his Kevlar vest and goes out to get their car. As soon as he opens the door, hes shot by Doak and Levi. Ray grabs his gun and exits the room too, but hes shot in the neck. Doak and Levi break in the room and take Alton. They zip tie Lucas, Ray and Sarah and drive away. Sarah breaks free and rescues the other two. They head off after the kidnappers, but the trip is short. Theyre stuck in the traffic of a military roadblock. Ray goes off road to get to the front and there they see a military helicopter flying away from Doak pick up. Inside the open truck, the blanket that Doak used to cover Altons head. It's over.At a military compound a group of military leaders and scientists try to talk to Alton. He could be a valuable asset. He says that hell talk to Sevier and only to Sevier, so everyone else leaves. Using telekinetic powers, Alton is able to make it so the security cameras arent recording the actual present events. He telekinetically opens the door which imprisons him. Sevier sheepishly goes inside to talk to Alton. Alton shows him his light.In the middle of nowhere, Roy is devastated that he failed. Then all of the nearby payphones start ringing at once. He picks up. On the other end, Sevier tells him that he has Alton and tells Roy where they can meet. Alton magically helps Sevier steal a car.In the morning, Sevier turns over Alton to Roy and Sarah. He handcuffs himself with Lucas cuffs and asks if Lucas would be willing to punch him which Lucas has no interest in doing.Alton tells Roy that theres one route they can go to get through the government roadblocks keeping them from their final destination. Roy and Sarah also come to terms with the fact that Alton might not belong with them after all and that once they get there, its goodbye.They drive through a small military blockade on a country road. Alton and Sarah get out of the car and run through swamp land. Roy and Lucas keep the military occupied while driving in Sarahs, now badly damaged, car.As if by magic, a dome appears around Alton that takes up a good third of the United States. Everywhere, everyone sees this magical world where Alton belongs. All of the beings that inhabit that world are made of light that comes from their hands and eyes, kind of like an evolved version of Alton. Lucas and Roys car crashes. Alton and Sarah share a goodbye glance and then as suddenly as everything appeared, it, along with Alton disappears.AFTERMATHLucas is being questioned by the government. His incredible story is the only story he has to tell. Sarah cuts her hair in a scummy bathroom clearly on the run. Roy is in a prison. He has electrodes on his head and stares into the sun. His eyes magically illuminate like a lesser version of Altons. | psychedelic, suspenseful, murder, cult | train | imdb | You start to understand that, in spite of the hype, movies are not as good as they used to be -- more like production-line white-bread, all mapped out and pre-sold into the appropriate distribution channels before the first viewer ever even gets a look -- and that in the same time period, TV has come to surpass film in terms of quality and entertainment value.And then every now and then you get a film like Midnight Special and for a brief moment you start to think this medium might someday recapture its glory days.I am not going to tell the story or do anything which will diminish your experience, should you choose to see this film.I will simply say that, if you believe the primary goal of a movie is to hold your interest and entertain, this one does the job from the first frame to the closing credits.Boy is that refreshing!
Roy enlists childhood friend Lucas (Joel Edgerton) to help them get to a specific location on a specific date, the reasons for which are unclear but may involve some sort of otherworldly or cataclysmic event.The comparisons with Starman (1984) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) are apt, but this is very definitely a different movie altogether.The actors are uniformly excellent, especially Michael Shannon, who gives another intense and believable performance as a man who would do anything for his son.
So I enjoyed quite a lot this movie, though at the end I thought the story was a bit too light, I walked away with the feeling that there were quite a few questions left open and that I would have wanted to know more....like when you finish a dinner and you're still hungry.....
With Midnight Special, Jeff Nichols enters the pantheon of those nostalgic American filmmakers armed with their lens flares, Pandora's boxes and deeply sentimental reasons, driven by a protective father figure and a maternal relationship to the plot itself.Lately, Christopher Nolan's Interstellar walked on the same path, and in many ways Midnight Special strangely looks like Interstellar.
David Wingo's soundtrack is electrifying, the script is intelligent enough for not telling us the whole plot and characters' background in a few lines of dialogue, and despite a half-hearted performance by Michael Shannon, who still shines in its restraint, and some facilities in scriptwriting approaching the end of the film, Midnight Special is so perfectly controlled that it would be difficult to get out of the theater unscathed..
First and foremost, Jeff Nichols is quickly becoming one of my favourite directors working today, and I honestly believe that his movies have increasingly become better.Midnight Special starts off in the middle of the plot, and does not rely on exposition.
In terms of the characters, Michael Shannon's character does feel like a father who would genuinely do this for his son (especially because he may feel as though he is making up for lost time) and the other characters are very enjoyable and feel necessary to the movie.
Jeff Nichols has made it no secret that classic sci-fi films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind are inspirations for his film however, I find the fact that his relationship with his own son was used as an inspiration too, much more intriguing.Alton (Jaeden Lieberher) is an eight-year-old boy who possesses otherworldly powers.
When his father, Roy (Michael Shannon), takes his son and flees from a religious cult, they must travel across the country to an undisclosed location on a specific date, during which a celestial and possibly world-changing event may occur.Mystery is a strong point for Midnight Special, the entire mystery surrounding Alton's powers, what will happen on that specific date and the reason a religious cult want him back, all playing a part in making the story such a captivating one.
Here in "Midnight Special" we have the nearest thing I've seen to a loving tribute to that classic.Our hero Roy (obviously!) played by Michael Shannon (Zod from the recent "Superman" reboots), and with help from childhood friend Lucas (Joel Edgerton), kidnap a strange light-sensitive child with strange powers from the Texan HQ of a doomsday-focused religious cult led by Calvin Meyer (Sam Shepard).
Although very atmospheric, it takes the "Midnight" from the title rather literally in places: something that I can see causing difficulties for TV viewers in working out what the hell is going on in places.This is a slower paced film than many might like, but for me it perfectly balances character with mystery and action.
Midnight Special is the first movie of the director to be produced by a major studio (Warner Bros.); though this film is as stylish as all of his former pictures, even if this time around he must have been more aware of criticism and must have had to defend his ideas and choices to impose his point of view again and again.
In fact, the sci-fi elements of the film have an organic style, they look quite real, inspiration of movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial by Steven Spielberg or even Starman by John Carpenter with their opaque dark night.
There are 2 kings of bad movies: The ones that are plain bad from the beginning, and you stop watching them rapidly, cutting your losses.The ones that look initially appealing, and turn into an horrible mishmash of meaningless drivel, but in such a way that you stay until the end, hoping for it to get better.(some spoilers here)Midnight Special is the second kind.
I'm all for superpowers, aliens, bad government wanting to kill or exploit the gentle benevolent being everybody roots for, but here the story devolves into some incomprehensible emotional junk that looks like a religion propaganda movie, but without the religion.Yuk!.
"Midnight Special" focuses on a father (Michael Shannon) who goes on the run with his son, Alton (Jaeden Lieberher) who seems to be a conduit channeling earthly and celestial information, as well as being the chosen prophet of a religious cult in rural Texas, from which his wife (Kirsten Dunst) formerly fled.
The bulk of the film entails the family's mission to bring Alton to a specific geographical location (for purposes that remain relatively undisclosed until the end) while the FBI, CIA, and US military relentlessly pursue them.To put it straight, I am not typically a sci-fi fan, but Jeff Nichols's "Midnight Special" almost defies the category itself in many ways.
The film starts out with a starkly ambiguous premise, and revels in its own ambiguity for the majority of its duration; Nichols keeps a steady hand on the trigger from the opening scene to the visually astounding conclusion, and the audience is kept in a state of contemplation and wonder that never really closes in on itself.In many ways, it's a road film, and in others it is full-blown science fiction-meets-the horror aspects of "Village of the Damned" with shades of David Lynch.
I'm sure I could edit this into a one hour TV episode and deliver the same story.Second, and I hope this is not considered spoiler, because this is kind of like my opinion and everyone else could think differently: the ending only revealed the what, not the why and the implications.
Austin-based filmmaker Jeff Nichols serves up some of the familiar themes of spiritualism and parenting seen in his first three films: Mud (2012), Take Shelter (2011), Shotgun Stories (2007), but this time he goes a bit heavier on the science fiction
while maintaining his focus on the individual.An exceptional opening scene kicks off the story, and Nichols makes sure we are alert by forcing us to absorb and assemble the slew of clues flying at us
an Amber alert, cardboard on the windows of a cheap motel, a news report tying us to San Angelo, Texas, duct tape on the peep hole, a duffel bag of weapons, two anxiety-filled men, and a goggled-boy under a white sheet who seems extremely calm in an otherwise hectic environment.
An FBI agent (Paul Sparks) leads the raid on the compound and takes us to an interrogation of Calvin by NSA analyst Paul Sevier (Adam Driver).Alternating between sci-fi special effects and an "on the run" story line, we slowly pick up more details about the boy Alton (Jaeden Lieberther), as well as the men with him – his father Roy (Michael Shannon) and Roy's childhood friend Lucas (Joel Edgerton).
It's not long before they reunite with Alton's mother Sarah (Kirsten Dunst) and we really start to comprehend just how different and special Alton is.It's easy to see the influence of such films as Starman, E.T.: The ExtraTerrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and The Day the Earth Stood Still.
We seem to have jumped right in the middle of the story and it is the job of the film-makers to give us subtle bits of info for us to catch-up with the history of why our characters have ended up at this point in time.As the film goes on there are moments of surrealism that is never over-blown and does not de-tract from the pacing and tone.
Her anguish at the film's end brought tears to the eyes of many in the audience and her performance has all the depth of a much older actress.Adam Driver is appealing in his role as an FBI agent who easily inserts himself into the action and takes command in several scenes.Sam Shepherd with his steady gaze and razor sharp eyes, is appropriately cast as the leader of a cult who can speak volumes with just a sideways glance.
In the most widespread versions of the song, Midnight Special is a train and the chorus asks the train to "shine your ever-loving light on me" (or, "ever-living" in other versions).The main character in this movie shoots light from his eyes, and it's a light that could be understood as corresponding with the song's lyrics in several different ways.
All of this means that Alton is a boy of great interest to many different people.Alton's parents are Roy and Sarah (Michael Shannon and Kirsten Dunst) who, at the time of the boy's birth, were living in a religious compound (which is called "the ranch" and is made to look like the rural central Texas Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' YFZ Ranch, which was raided by Texas law enforcement in 2008).
When the story does finally come together (kind of), there are some good action scenes and the acting is strong throughout, but Nichols refuses to make clear why the story's developments are taking place, or why we should care.This film includes elements of movies like "Powder" (1995), "Phenomena" (1996), "Michael" (1996), "K-PAX" (2001) and "Tomorrowland" (2015), while trying to be a 21st century version of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) or "E.T." (1982).
Less time spent with concept development and more actually put into the plot would have seen a far better film.In the end you are left with a "That's it?" feeling.
The cast looked interesting -- Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, Sam Shepard -- and so, for once, I didn't bother with reading reviews, and instead went into the movie with no preconceived notions of what to expect.
I have nothing against open endings or cliffhangers, however Midnight Special does nothing to entice and interest the viewer throughout its 2 hour run time to make the ending worthwhile.The plot is as bare bones as it gets, and remains that way until the very end - boy needs to get somewhere, big bad government wants to stop him.There was just enough intrigue throughout the movie that I held on, hoping for something to happen, be it some kind of revelation, or at the very least, more information about the boy, however it never happened.There are far too many loose ends by the end, and too much is left to the viewer's imagination for the story to be considered coherent.
The lead kid is awful, Michael Shannon gives the exact same performance he gives in all of Nichols' films, and Edgerton and Dunst feel about the same.
More of a film for a lazy day as opposed to a weekend with your friends, but I get the feeling that having landed Kirsten Dunst, Joel Edgerton, Michael Shannon and Adam Driver - as well as the very talented Jaeden Lieberher - we haven't seen Nichols at his peak quite yet.
Midnight Special, written and directed by Jeff Nichols, is in essence a story about a boy, his parents and the lengths they are willing to go to to keep him safe.Without a doubt Alton played by Jaeden Lieberher and Roy played by Michael Shannon are the stand out performers in this film.
This movie feels engineered for the internet age, where Buzzfeed articles and comment section philosophizers can pick apart every detail to search of deeper meaning.Midnight Special is a good film.
I would describe this film as combo of a sci-fi and road movie and while it is a good flick overall , I found it a little bit underwhelming compared to the magnificent Take Shelter and the captivating Mud. Great special effects,the acting is strong enough : Michael Shannon,Joel Edgerton, Adam Driver and the little kid who plays Alton were brilliant.Sam Sheperd was also good in a small but pivotal role.However, I was really disappointed in how underwritten was Kirsten Dunst's character.While delivering a solid performance, you can still feel that something's missing.She doesn't seem to find her footing and the movie could have worked just as well without her.
I bring this up because it seems to be that many reviewers of this film are looking for something besides a good thriller, a tight mystery with clues strewn here and there but little definite plot until, as the film continues, a willing viewer can easily get caught up in several kinds of espionage and cult subterfuge, one can get caught up in what I might call a Midnight Special,i.e. a film to watch for fun, to suspend one's disbelief so that the involvement is total.The ingredients are here: the film has an independent streak, features five actors of compelling capability, several really frightening jump-out-of-your-seat moments, and enough likely intentional references to past films of a similar nature to echo past thrills as one runs away with the haunted, gifted child escaping and his parents.
Jaeden did play Alton extremely well, alongside his devoted father, Roy (Michael Shannon), who knew that his son was special, and he had to fight off a cult and the government to protect him, with the help of his friend, Lucas (Joel Edgerton).
Enjoyable!Round-Up: This movie was written and directed by Jeff Nichols, 37, who also brought you Shotgun Stories, Mud, Take Shelter and the upcoming Loving, which all star Michael Shannon.
Budget: $18million Worldwide Gross: $6.2millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their adventure/sci-fi/dramas, starring Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, Adam Driver, Jaeden Lieberher, Sam Shepard and Bill Camp.
Jeff Nichol's Midnight Special is not that kind of movie.
His role is eventually minor but Sam Shepard is very effective as Calvin Meyer, the cult leader someplace in Texas.The movie starts with Michael Shannon as Roy, the special boy's dad, and his friend Joel Edgerton as Lucas, traveling at night with the boy, heading for the state line, towards N.
MIDNIGHT SPECIAL is suspenseful, often emotional, and full of mystery.I can't help but feel a little bit of an Amblin vibe from this movie.
Midnight Special, directed by Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Mud), is an interesting science fiction film.
Whatever it is Mike Nichols delivers once again a thoroughly enjoyable film with an amazing cast including Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Adam Driver, Sam Shepard and of course the young Jaeden Lieberher..
Also the effects are great for a movie with a small budget.Overall it's a decent film that would have been really good had the story played out a little differently..
'Midnight Special' a Sci-Fi Mystery Drama movie, that had some outstanding Actors, great Visuals, & musical scores, no doubt.Yet, all along the movie, I was expecting something new and surprising to happen, something we haven't already seen before elsewhere...
You just start watching getting confused about if u accidentally fast forward it to 30-40 minute and missed the hole story.Then you reallize you didn't and think all the pieces will start coming together ,and *spoiler alert* They don't!!!!You know something is wrong in a movie when you just cant feel a damn emotion about any of the main characters and for the bond between a father and a son,which are the main ones.Seriously i never felt anything,no pity no sympathy, no love, no overprotection , i didn't even end it up hating them...Really don't watch it.
Jeff Nichols (Mud 2012, Take Shelter 2011
) is a gifted artist, provided with rich imagination and a particular talent for making up interesting situations.The present film is one of his best: the story revolves around a special family and it's full of catching ideas, well developed and entertaining.In the end you will find that some things are left untold, some questions unanswered and some words unspoken.
Take the story of a boy with special powers, a cult that worships him as a messiah, a government that believes him to be a weapon, and a father that will do anything to protect him, and you have one of the most interesting and intense films I have seen this year.
Midnight Special (2016) was not the movie expected to see, in fact it was extremely slow and it never really had that big band at any point in the film.
Midnight Special is the new science fiction movie from director Jeff Nichols, and it follows the story of a young boy who is being taken by his father (Michael Shannon) and a state trooper (Joel Edgerton) to a place. |
tt0051378 | Ascenseur pour l'échafaud | Florence Carala and Julien Tavernier are lovers who plan to kill Florence's husband, Simon Carala, a wealthy industrialist who is also Julien's boss. Julien is an ex-Foreign Legion parachutist officer and a veteran of the Indochina and Algeria wars. After working late on a Saturday, with a rope he climbs up one storey on the outside of the office building, shoots Carala in his office without being seen, arranges the room to make it look like a suicide, and then makes his way out to the street. As he gets into his Chevrolet convertible outside, he glances up and sees his rope still hanging from the building. Leaving the engine running, he rushes back and jumps into the elevator. As it ascends, the caretaker switches off the power and locks up the building for the weekend. Julien is trapped between floors.
Moments later, Julien's car is stolen by a young couple, small-time crook Louis and flower shop assistant Véronique. Florence, who is waiting for Julien at a café nearby, sees the car go past with Véronique leaning out of the window. She assumes that Julien has run off with her and wanders the Paris streets despondently all night asking for him in the bars and clubs where he is known. While joy-riding, Louis puts on Julien's coat and gloves. Checking into a country motel, the two register under the name "Mr. and Mrs. Julien Tavernier" to avoid problems for Louis, who is wanted for petty crimes. At the motel, they make the acquaintance of Horst Bencker and his wife Frieda, a jovial German couple on holiday with whom they had raced en route to the motel. After Frieda takes pictures of Louis and her husband with Julien's camera, Véronique takes the film to a photo lab beside the motel for developing.
After the Benckers go to bed, Louis attempts to steal their Mercedes-Benz 300 SL gullwing. Bencker catches Louis and threatens him with what appears to be a gun, though it is really a cigar tube. Louis shoots and kills the couple with Julien's handgun. He and Véronique return to Paris and hide out in her flat. Convinced that the crime will be traced to them, Véronique persuades Louis to join her in a suicide pact. They take an overdose of pills and pass out.
The Benckers' bodies are discovered, along with Julien's car, handgun, and raincoat. Julien therefore becomes the prime suspect in their murders, and the morning newspapers print his picture. Searching for him, the police arrive at the office building with the caretaker, who unlocks the entrance doors and switches on the power. The elevator is working once more and Julien is able to escape without being seen, but when he orders coffee and croissants in a café he is recognized and the police are called to arrest him. In the office building, the police discover Carala's body but assume he committed suicide. However they charge Julien with killing the Benckers, refusing to believe his alibi of being stuck in an elevator.
Florence is determined to clear him and sets out to find Véronique. She and Louis, their suicide attempt having failed, are alive but drowsy. Florence accuses them of killing the Benckers and goes off to call the police. Louis at first thinks there is no evidence to connect him with the crime, but then remembers the photographs of him with Bencker. Rushing off to the photo lab, he finds that the police have developed the pictures and he is arrested.
Florence has followed him and, when she enters the lab, the police show her the photographs taken with Julien's camera. These make clear that she and Julien were secret lovers, who shared a motive for killing her husband. Both will go on trial for Carala's murder. | atmospheric, suspenseful, claustrophobic, murder, romantic | train | wikipedia | It's a mother lode textbook of how-to for noir genre filmmakers as he creates his own style from what he's learned from other masters.Malle pays tribute to the tense murder style of Hitchcock with Billy Wilder's cynicism of selfishness a la "Double Indemnity" plus Graham Greene-like, post-war politics from "The Third Man"-- and arms and oil dealers with military pasts in the Middle East are not outdated let alone adulterous lovers and rebellious teenagers.
Julien Tavernier (Ronet) is going to kill husband of his lover, Florence Carala (Moreau), who also happens to be his boss, but upon executing the perfect murder, he, through his own absent mindedness, winds up stuck in a lift close to the crime scene.
The second disc, however, makes up for it with a bevy of extras starting with an extensive 1975 early career retrospective interview with Malle, a 2005 interview with an aged but still haunting Moreau, and a joint interview with the two icons and one-time lovers at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.Three shorts on the second disc focus on Davis's contribution - the six-minute "The Record Session" shot the night Davis and his musicians recorded the score; a remembrance piece with pianist Rene Utreger, the only surviving member of Davis's ensemble; and the celebratory "Miles Goes Modal: The Breakthrough Score to Elevator to the Gallows" where jazz trumpeter Jon Faddis and music critic Gary Giddins discuss Davis's influence over the generation of musicians to come.
At times I almost felt like I was watching a darker, dramatic French-noir version of Curb Your Enthusiasm; you're cringing in your seat at times because everything, at least for the first hour, seems realistic, and the inter-cutting between the three plot-lines (Julien in the elevator, Florence on the streets, the lovers-on-the-run at the Motel).
But it interested me, and kept me in my seat, how I knew things may unravel as they should in these films, and I found myself having to root for someone in a sea of anti-heroes.I mention Curb Your Enthusiasm as there is a sort of everyday occurrence that basically kicks off the plot (in tune with the genius title of the film), as Julien Tavaneur gets stuck in an elevator after getting rid of Florence Carala's rich husband (Moreau's character).
Malle also is tremendous in his filming of the elevator scenes with Maurice Ronet.The secondary characters of the young lovers played by Yori Bertin (Veronique) and George Poujouly (Louis) are unmistakable in their likeness to Natalie Wood and James Dean.
Louis Malle made his striking directorial debut in this French film, "Elevator to the Gallows" in 1958, with the script cowritten by him and Roger Nimier.Jeanne Moreau plays an unhappily married woman who colludes with her lover Tavernier (Maurice Ronet) to kill her husband (Jean Wall), for whom he works.
He's stuck.Meanwhile, two young people, an impulsive, cagey young man and his girlfriend from a flower shop (Georges Poujouly, Yori Bertin) steal Tavernier's fancy car and take off.Fabulous noir set in rainy France with captivating scenery and Miles Davis music, perfectly catching the atmosphere - Moreau, not knowing where Tavernier is, walking in the rain, going from bar to bar trying to find him; the two young lovers on an adventure, the girl with a romantic, Juliet-like attitude, the boy headstrong; Tavernier, smoking in the elevator as he works on how to get out; people still talking of the Occupation and war in Algiers...Malle weaves a fascinating story of fate and random circumstance.There isn't a lot of dialogue in this film, but the actions say it all.
I fell in love with Louis Malle!!For those of you who like film noir and nouvelle vague, I think this films lies almost exactly in the middle of the way.The actors are very charming too.I don't want to give too many details, so I will not write too much about the plot, but the nice thing is the way the character are seducing the viewer to be on their side.
She does a lot silently or with just a few words in the scenes where she walks the streets of Paris, frantic because her lover and fellow murder conspirator, Julien Tavernier (Maurice Ronet) has stood her up and she cannot understand what has happened.Second, Malle's collaboration with screenwriter and novelist Roger Nimier adapting a roman thriller by Noel Calef to the screen turned out to be exactly right for the material, especially because they used mostly just the plot of the novel and expanded Moreau's role.The third factor was the fortuitous jazz score by Miles Davis.
Davis happened to be in Paris as the movie was being edited and Malle was able to talk him into doing a trumpet-centered original score, said to have been composed on the fly late one night and early the next morning as Moreau drank champagne and listened."Ascenseur pour l'echafaud," like so many American film noirs that it frankly resembles, is a murder done for love and money gone wrong.
Meanwhile his car is stolen from outside the building by two youths and his mistress walks the streets waiting for news of their crime, wondering if he did it and if she will ever see him again.It took me a bit of time to get into the plot with this film, mainly because I was interested in the score that had been improvised by Miles Davis.
Much of the suspense comes from attempts to thwart these situations as unwitting supporting characters tighten fate's grip.Malle creates the quintessential film noir atmosphere with the use of natural lighting and Miles Davis's unabashedly urban jazz score.
When beautiful Jeanne Moreau, in her despair of supposed betrayed love, is walking alone the nightly streets of Paris accompanied by the fine jazz tunes of Miles Davis then it feels like contemplating a valuable piece of art.It is also true that the side story of the young couple borrowing the car of Mr. Tavernier is a bit awkward and not too persuasive but on the other hand the play of young flower-girl Veronique is really impressive.
"Ascenseur pour l'Echafaud" (1957, and it is also known as "Elevator to the Gallows", "Frantic" and "Lift to the Scaffold"), was Louis Malle's first motion picture, so it can be regarded as one of the earliest Nouvelle Vague movies, although it lacks the iconoclastic, free-wheeling nature of the films from Jean-Luc Godard or the cool, ice cold criticism of bourgeoisie values that mark Claude Chabrol's masterly thrillers.
However, the assured direction of actors and scenes make this not only interesting for historical reasons, but a really fine, charismatic crime picture.In synopsis, at least, it just sounds like another well worn twist on the "Double Indemnity" story: Florence Carala (Jeanne Moreau) and Julien Tavernier (Maurice Ronet) are lovers, but Florence is married to the boorish Simon Carala (Jean Wall), a wealthy arms industrialist who is also Julien's boss.
Julien commits the apparently perfect murder and makes Simon Carala's death look like suicide: but when he tries to get rid of a clue that make his boss's death look suspicious, he gets trapped in a lift
However, after this, Malle, like that other supreme puppet –master, Alfred Hitchcock, makes sure fate intervenes at every stage, dooming the couple from the beginning.
I saw a new print of this film noir, and was captivated by the incredible lush sensuousness of the depth of the black and white film, as well as the music---Miles Davis on his trumpet, like no one else.Jeanne Moreau and Maurice Ronet were larger than life on the screen--faces and camera close-ups, rare and wonderful to see.
Things will get messier the next morning when Julien gets out of the elevator, he is wanted by the police and Florence starts to get a grip on the entire misidentified situation, after a concise confrontation with Louis and Véronique, a few developed photographs reveal the real culprits of both homicides, the star-crossed lovers meet their comeuppance as well as the hotheaded Louis.Logically speaking, its 88 minutes running time seems a bit sketchy for clarifying the police's investigation procedure and there are a flew negligible plot holes dangling (e.g. how the rope without a trace appears at the entrance of the building is never explained), obviously they are not Malle's first choice.
This was on the Flix cable network last night ~ they've been showing a lot of Malle's older films, and I hadn't seen this one before; needless to say, a treat was in store for me.A very subtle, cleverly diabolic little tale of misguided assumptions, nasty confusions and the like, the movie takes place over a short period of time, in which 2 different couples' lives intertwine in ways they're not even aware of, all played out against the backdrop of Miles Davis' exquisite music.
In Paris, agile Vietnam War (Indochina War, to the French) veteran Maurice Ronet (as Julien Tavernier) and his beautiful lover Jeanne Moreau (as Florence) plan the murder of his boss and her husband, a much older and very wealthy war profiteer.
Therefore, it was a joy to discover this black-white European film-noir from the late 1950's.I was impressed with the on-screen personas of the leading actors, Jeanne Moreau and Maurice Ronet, not to mention the tense night-time atmosphere in Paris as the web of crime and deception engulfs the characters.
French screenwriter, producer and director Louis Malle's inventive feature film debut from 1958, made two years after he assisted Robert Bresson on "A Man Escaped" (1956), tells an intricate story set in Paris where lovers Julien Tavernier and Florence Carala plan to kill Juliens boss who happens to be Florence's husband.
The execution of their vicious idea goes smoothly, but the overlooking of a minor detail dissolves their conspiracy and pushes them further away from each other.Narrated from multiple viewpoints and through Jeanne Moreau's longing and esoteric voice-over which is as atmospheric as the jazzy score by composer Miles Davies and the loud weather, this classic Film-noir which was adapted from a novel by Bulgarian author Noël Calef is noticeable for Louis Malle's accurately structured filming, the long takes following Jeanne Moreau's graceful footsteps during an eventful night in Camps Élysées, the vigorous light setting and the suspenseful scenes of Maurice Ronet trapped in an elevator.
Jeanne Moreau was simply captivating as a woman who was having an affair and could not figure out what went wrong with the murder of her husband and why her lover played by Maurice Ronet (The Scandal) was driving away with another woman.What she didn't know was that he was actually trapped in an elevator and his car was stolen by some young kids.
Maurice Ronet plots to murder his arms merchant boss and run away with his beautiful wife (Jeanne Moreau), but then things go horribly awry...With ugly German tourists, James Dean-wannabe juvenile delinquents, and a great jazz score by Miles Davis.
The rest of the plot gets tangled up in mixed identities so I won't give any more of it away, but the ending is wrapped up neatly by a plot device that reveals to the police just who murdered whom.Well worth watching--an enjoyable film directed by Louis Malle in film noir style with a jazz soundtrack that gives it a still modern look.The plot has the film noir elements found in many crime melodramas written by American writer James M.
(Possible Spoiler!)The atmosphere of 1950's Paris, a truly beautiful actress, a well-balanced plot and the ultimate Jazz soundtrack, recorded in one go by Miles Davis.The 1958 Louis Malle masterpiece, more than 40 years later, is still one of the best police films ever, Hollywood included.
Ever since hearing a number of critics widely praise films from the French New Wave I have always gotten a feeling of intimidation and inaccessibility from the wide group of films due to how most of the mainstream critics seem to constantly try and put the New Wave films in a special box just for themselves.After having become completely fascinated by tremendous "genre" films from Italy and Sweden,I started to look over at the New Wave films from France and began to feel that I should completely tear down the wall of intimidation around them by jumping straight into one of the first ever French New Wave films made that also starred one of the most famous (and most loved) actresses from the period The plot:Finishing his latest phone call by arranging a meeting with his secret lover Florence Carala,Julien Tavernier goes back to his office and tells all his staff that he is not to be disturbed for any reason.Gathering up a rope,gloves and a fully loaded gun,Julien quietly grapples his way to a building on the opposite side where Tavernier plans to stage an I'm prov meeting with his boss,who is also Florence's husband.Succeeding in getting the short meeting to take place,Tavernier shoots his soon to be ex-boss in a style which will make it look like a suicide.Feeling that he should get back to his office before anyone gets suspicious,Julien picks up everything and quickly glides back to his office.Getting set to finally spend the rest of his life with the now-widowed Carala,Tavernier walks past two rebellious looking teenagers and jumps straight into his gleaming car.Just as Julien is about to set off ,he has a look back at the building Tavernier gets a feeling of terror running down his spine when he notices that during the rush to get back to safety he had accidentally left the grappling rope hanging outside the room where the murder had taken place!.Leaving the car still running,Julian makes a dash for the lift in the building so that he can correct his dangerous mistake.As the lift starts nearing the all important floor,Tavernier is suddenly left trapped and with no where to run when the buildings lift is shout down as the staff close the office block down to get set for all having the weekend off work.Meanwhile outside,the two teenagers start to take a real interest in Julien's abandoned car and soon decide that they will steal it so the they can use it for some wild weekend travailing.Driving down one of the cities main roads,the teens inadvertently drive past lady in waiting Florence Carala,who due to mistaking one of the teens for Julien begins a long furious search for him all over the city which will lead to her and Tavernier discovering that their troubles are far from being confined in a shut down lift.
View on the film:For his tremendous directing of what is possibly the first ever French New Wave film, Louis Malle (who also wrote the stunning screenplay adaptation of Noel Calef's novel with Roger Nimer)starts the new era off with a "bang", as the film opens on a proto-Segio Leone extreme close up of a beautiful Jeanne Moreau.Checking for any info about the making of the film,one of the very best decisions that I feel Malle made was to show Moreau's face with no make up on at all,which along with allowing Malle to show Florence as a real femme fatale who is more than ready to walk through the shadows of the city to catch the smallest glimpse of her murdering lover,also allows Jeanne to give an elegant performance as she shows Florence to go from being self assured of her and Julian's murder plot,to shivering with fear as Florence realises that the situation has gotten completely out of her control.Whilst Moreau unforgettable face does open this fantastic film,the rest of the cast easily deserve equal praise,with the sadly under rated Maurice Ronet giving a terrific performance as Julian Tavernier who along with showing a chilling precision of executing the murder is also able to show an increase feeling of dread as the walls of the lift start to close in on him as his fear of getting found really starts to take its toll on him,and also gives the audience of great sense of isolation.After opening his New Wave Film Noir on a stunning shot and a rolling score from Miles Davis,Malle brilliantly creates a world of darkness as he goes from a truly edge of the seat,gripping murder sequence to making the city filled with wonderful characters who go from an edgy proto-James Dean teenage rebel who steals a car from under everyone's nose,to a cop,who like the audience finds the activates of Florence and Julian something that he will never forget.Final view on the film:A stunning,unforgettable and extremely moody New Wave Film Noir,with an astonishing cast,a fantastic tension building screenplay and artful directing from an amazing Malle..
Louis Malle, like the directors that were arriving on the scene of the French cinema were impressed by the American crime and film noir genre, they discussed in magazines.
The streets of Paris became the backdrop to the movies that will follow.What Louis Malle created was a moody film that tells a lot about the mind of the criminals as they are going through the anxieties of knowing what they had done and thinking how they would get away with the horrible crime they had committed.
Framed by the terrific Jazz score by Miles Davis, this is the story of two lovers, played by Jeanne Moreau and Maurice Ronet, who construct what should come off as the perfect crime- the murder of her arms sales dealer-husband.
Well, it's a classic of French cinema and it has many things going for it: debut feature of the great Louis Malle, with Jeanne Moreau —one of the most important muses of Nouvelle Vague—, and music of Miles Davis, so, this film could be perfect, but...
Boasting a jazz score by the legendary Miles Davis, Louis Malle's "Elevator to the Gallows" is a moody film noir starring Maurice Ronet as Julien Tavernier, an office worker who murders a wealthy industrialist.
I'd say Malle's film is one of the best I've seen from France and from the 1950s.In it, Julien Tavernier kills a man named Simon Carala because he's in love with Carala's wife Florence, played by the beautiful Jeanne Moreau. |
tt0338751 | The Aviator | The Aviator has no opening credits other than the title. The film begins in 1913 with nine-year-old Hughes being bathed by his mother, who warns him of disease: "You are not safe."The film next shows him in 1927, as a 22-year old preparing to direct Hell's Angels. Hiring Noah Dietrich (John C. Reilly) to run Hughes Tool Co, while he oversees the flight sequences for the film, Hughes becomes obsessed with shooting the film realistically, even re-shooting the dogfight himself. By 1929, with the film finally complete, when The Jazz Singer is released, Hughes re-shoots the film for sound, costing another year and $1.7 million. Nevertheless, Hell's Angels is a huge hit, and Hughes makes Scarface and The Outlaw. However, there is one goal he relentlessly pursues: aviation. During this time, he also pursues Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett). The two go to nightclubs, play golf and fly together, and as they grow closer, move in together as well. During this time Hepburn becomes a major support and confidant to Hughes, and helps alleviate the symptoms of his obsessive-compulsive disorder. As Hughes' fame grows, he is seen with more starlets.Hughes takes an interest in commercial-passenger travel, and purchases majority interest in Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA), the predecessor to Trans World Airlines. In 1935, he test flies the H-1 Racer but crashes in a beet field; "Fastest man on the planet," he boasts to Hepburn. Three years later, he flies around the world in four days, shattering the previous record by three days. Meanwhile, Juan Trippe (Alec Baldwin), owner of Pan American Airlines, and Senator Owen Brewster (Alan Alda) worry over the possibility that Hughes might beat them in the quest for commercial expansion. Brewster has just introduced the Commercial Airline Bill, which will give world expansion solely to Pan Am. Trippe advises Brewster to check to the "disquieting rumors about Mr. Hughes."Hepburn and Hughes eventually break up when she announces that she has fallen in love with her movie costar (although he is briefly seen but never clearly stated, the viewers already know that the costar is her would be life-long partner Spencer Tracy).He soon has a new interest: 15-year old Faith Domergue (Kelli Garner) and later, Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale). He also fights the Motion Picture Association of America over the steamy scenes in The Outlaw. He learns of Pan Am's efforts to run TWA off the map yet secures contracts with the Army Air Force on two projects, a spy plane and a troop transport. By 1946, Hughes has only finished the XF-11 reconnaissance aircraft and is building the H-4 Hercules ("Spruce Goose") flying boat.With the strain of meeting deadlines and budgets, Hughes starts to show signs of alarming behavior, repeating phrases over and over and exhibiting a phobia over dust and germs. That July, he takes the XF-11 for a test flight. One of the propellers malfunctions, causing a crash in a Beverly Hills neighborhood. Rushed to the hospital, he slowly recuperates but learns the H-4 Hercules transport is no longer needed but orders production to continue. When he is discharged, the whole TWA fleet is built and ready to go, but he is in danger of being bankrupted by the airline and his flying boat.Afraid of the media trying to find him, Hughes places microphones and taps Ava's phone lines to keep track of any suspicious activity. After being confronted by Gardner, he returns home to find the FBI searching his house for incriminating evidence that he embezzled government funds. The incident is both a powerful trauma for Hughes and gives his enemies knowledge about his condition. Hughes meets with Brewster, who offers to drop the charges if Hughes supports the CAB Bill and sells the TWA stock to Trippe. Hughes sinks into a deep depression afterwards, shutting himself in his screening room, growing ever more paranoid and detached from reality; terrified of germs, he urinates into dozens of empty milk bottles. Hepburn tries to visit him, but is unable to help. Trippe then pays Hughes a visit, but an enraged Hughes vows he will never sell TWA. Trippe warns Dietrich that the world will see what Hughes has become if he goes to the Hearings. After nearly three months, Hughes finally emerges and prepares to face the Senate, with encouragement from Ava Gardner, who helps him get cleaned up.Hughes arrives at the hearings, and starts off with counter-claiming Brewster's charges: "Why not tell the truth, Senator? Why not tell the truth that this investigation was really born on the day that TWA first decided to fly to Europe?" Humiliated and enraged by this turn of events, Brewster formally states that Hughes charged the Defense Department $56 million for aircraft that never flew. Hughes defends himself and reveals that Trippe essentially bribed Brewster to hold the hearings.
The H-4 hercules "Spruce Goose" transportHughes successfully test flies the flying boat himself. After the flight, he talks to Dietrich and his mechanic Odie (Matt Ross) about a new jetliner for TWA (The Convair 880 Coronado) and makes a date with Gardner at a celebration party on the Long Beach shoreline. Hughes seems free of his inner demons until he sees three attendants in business suits and white gloves edging towards him, which triggers an obsessive-compulsive fit as he begins repeating "The way of the future." Dietrich and Odie take Hughes in a bathroom and hide him there, while Dietrich fetches a doctor and Odie stands outside guarding the door. Alone inside, Howard has a flashback to his boyhood, being washed by his mother and resolving he will fly the fastest aircraft ever built, make the biggest movies ever and become the richest man in the world. As the film ends he mutters "the way of the future... the way of the future" into a darkened mirror. | dramatic, romantic, flashback | train | imdb | Martin Scorcese has created a seminal work -- one that brings the harrowing, big-studio, adult movie making of the 1970's and totally reinvents and reinvigorates it for today's audience.The story traces the rise and demise of billionaire Howard Hughes as he struggles to find meaning and purpose in a life unfettered by concerns of money, talent or opportunity.
"The Aviator" has an amazing performance by Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes, and a mesmerizing performance by Cate Blanchett, who seems to inhabit the role of Katherine Hepburn-- the love of Hughes's life.
Scorsese tipping his hat to old Hollywood is the most fun he has had since "Goodfellas." The costumes, set designs, and pacing of this portion of the film are stunning and suck the viewer in.The rest of the film, despite Scorsese's amazing and vivid attention to detail, is a muddled mess, giving us glimpses into Hughes' obsessive (and compulsive) ways, his womanizing, his ambitious foray into aviation and the early days of commercial flight, his fight against Congress at the end of WWII, and the notorious plight and ultimately single flight of his infamous "Spruce Goose." It's all semi-educational and semi-entertaining, but in the end I think the complicated life of Hughes remains a mystery.As for the performances, they are amazing (thanks in most part to Scorsese, the ultimate actor's director).
Leonardo Dicaprio in the title role gives yet another performance that goes against my natural loathing of him, and although he seems a bit too boyish playing Hughes in the latter years (and the film really suffers for it), he's impeccable for the better part of the film.
The film is lengthy, but this compliments it, for the story is riveting and the production is practically flawless (even the combination of computerized processes and more traditional photography was smooth and effective).The presentation of the film, in an evolving color (from two-tone Technicolor, as Martin explained it to us, to three-tone, to modern by the later sequences) is absolutely stunning, and the cinematography by renowned Robert Richardson, ASC, is some of the best I've seen (and, in my opinion, deserving of an Oscar).Cate Blanchett was impeccable as Katharine Hepburn, though, at times, I felt that the complexity of her character was never really deeper than a surface analysis.She did her role flawlessly, but this is not to say that it really Alec Baldwin portrayed one of the flattest villains I've seen in a major motion picture, but, again, this is about Howard Hughes, and DiCaprio's performance is worthy of an Oscar nod at least, and perhaps an Oscar Win (certainly the best performance I've seen all year).One of my few complaints, though, is the lengthy sequences featuring Howard Hughes as a solo aviator.
Before Howard Hughes was a recluse so reclusive as to out-Salinger J.D. Salinger, he was a big time stud, who made big movies, flew fast planes, and courted gorgeous ladies; so say Martin Scorsese and John Logan, architects of this latest Hollywood biopic.' Leonardo DiCaprio continues his trend of turning in great performances with great directors, playing Howard Hughes between 1927 and 1947, the years where Hughes conquered the worlds of film and aviation, making room for romance with Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) and Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale).
I know that the movie is about Howard Hughes (who was an absolute genius, even though he was a mad man), but Leo's performance was amazing.
The film tells about the achievements that Hughes accomplished such as the movies HELL'S ANGELS & THE OUTLAW, the building of an airplane that can fly above 20,000 feet, acquiring TWA and making it a international airline, and the design and building of the largest airplane ever the Hercules (now known as the Spruce Goose).
Mayer (Stanley DeSantis); his romance: Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett), Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsdale); and himself: paranoia, and obsession compulsion disorder.THE AVIATOR discusses all of those elements in rich detail, that after watching the movie, you begin to realize the amazing accomplishments that Hughes did.
And would like to know more about Howard Hughes and see the films that were discussed in the film.This isn't a Scorsese film that people want another TAXI DRIVER, GOODFELLAS, CASINO, or RAGING BULL would expect.
THE AVIATOR shows that DiCaprio is a great actor, giving a realistic portrayal of the eccentric Hughes in some scenes, and a man who cleanses the germs that represent people he dislikes or negative incidents.
While Beckinsdale also does a great job playing the very sexy Ava Gardner who has a love/hate relationship with Hughes, a woman who hates him at times, but will help him when he needs help.The supporting performances by John C.
The editing and special effects might diminish the grittiness that permeates most of this great director's work, but Martin Scorsese is at his peak as a storyteller here; the film is three hours long but I didn't even know it until I looked at a clock after exiting the theatre.
It feels like it plays in half that time--the movie is a very entertaining masterpiece about one of the most influential and complicated industrialists in American history; the man Howard Hughes was a true visionary, and dare I say in the world of aviation...
But like so many artists, this one is troubled, and DiCaprio plays him very, very well.I still liked Gangs of New York better, but this is a great movie and if it nabs Scorsese the key Oscars he has never called his own (Best Picture, Best Director) then he can finally fulfill that tiny blank space on his resume.
This is where Howard Hughes and his paranoia starts to take off.The best part of the film comes in the third act, during a simple and what some may think as a rather uneventful Congressional Hearing.
The story of aviation pioneer Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio), the eccentric billionaire industrialist and Hollywood film mogul, famous for romancing some of the world's most beautiful women.
The drama recounts the years of his life from the late 1920s through the 1940s, an epoch when Hughes was directing and producing Hollywood movies and test flying innovative aircrafts he designed and created.It also follows his descent into madness as his compulsiveness for cleanliness gives way to frequent outbursts and ticks.
As you well know, Scorsese's film tells the story of the infamous Howard Hughes who led a life full of beautiful women and a huge amount of money to do whatever he pleased with.
We progress through the prominent stages of Howard's life and along the way, Scorsese shows us everything about his life from his relationships with beauties like Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) and Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale) to his battles with severe mental issues ranging from OCD to bipolar disorder and potentially paranoid-schizophrenia; and all of this is portrayed exceptionally while in the background his aviation empire rises, falls and rises back again and his film career is met with constant turmoil.
Taking on someone as complex as Howard Hughes would be an immensely difficult task for any actor, especially one as young as DiCaprio, but Scorsese firmly believed in his abilities (the two previously worked together on Gangs of New York) and his decision pays off in a way that I couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams.
Scorsese and DiCaprio are to be congratulated.The gorgeous and extraordinarily well-acted (by DiCaprio) movie moves through the highlights of Hughes' accomplishments in film and especially aviation.
He owes his obsessive compulsive disorder to his mother, who "washed" his penis when he was an adolescent, which is the disturbing and totally unnecessary opening scene.The best parts of the movie were (1) fantastic airplanes and old cars throughout, (2) Hughes' amazing survival of a spectacular crash of an experimental plane into palatial homes in Beverly Hills, (3) the takeoff and flight of the Spruce Goose, (4) the Senate hearings, (4) the night time flight over LA with Hughes romancing Hepburn, (5) dinner with Katharine Hepburn's family in New England, and (5) the crash landing of another experimental plane in a beet field.
However, the image this movie constructs of the great modern eccentric Howard Hughes is fascinating.The film is also emotionally powerful.
Its director, Martin Scorsese, is no doubt one of the greatest filmmakers of our time, but he has stumbled again with this film (following Gangs of New York).The film's begins by showing one puzzling scene of Howard Hughes' as a child being bathed by his mother and then it jumps to a scene showing Hughes as a young man directing a movie, Hell's Angels.
However, none of the plots are explained with any interest and the story skims only the plots' surface with no effort to grab the attention of the audience (at least not mine).If an audience is not familiar with the life and times of Howard Hughes, Katherine Hepburn, Eva Gardner, and the evolution of commercial airlines in the U.S., then it is almost impossible to see any depth in this movie.Sure, the set designs and acting of Leo and Blanchet are above-par in the film, but most others aspects of this film are in such a mess!
It seems as if Martin Scorsese (and the writer) assumed every audience coming to theaters to watch The Aviator would already be fascinated by Howard Hughes' eccentric life.
It starts abruptly and ends abruptly.Although the film spends nearly three hours concentrated solely on Howard Hughes' success and his inner demons of life, I walked out of the theater with a feeling that I've just watched an expensively designed movie with no real content.
Howard Hughes is an admittedly difficult subject matter for a film (perhaps this is why so many announced film projects about the eccentric billionaire have gone by the way side) -- Peculiar to a fault, Scorsese fails to make Hughes sympathetic or understandable to audiences he expect to go on a three hour journey into Hughes madness (which is pretty much the same in the third scene in the film as it is in the last.) DiCaprio does his best, but the character of Hughes has nowhere to go.
And we are really excepted to believe his life long phobias are the result of a single conversation with his creepy mother during a bath?The lone bright spot in this film is Cate Blanchett who manages to turn in a richly textured performance of Katherine Hepburn.
If the site of naked, half mad Howard Hughes lining up rows upon rows of milk bottles filled with urine is your idea of a good time, THE AVIATOR is the film for you..
Good.To me that means these actors delivered the lines well, nothing the director recommended or framed them in got in the way and I enjoyed watching the film.Audiences and Critics (even armchair) are a bit too quick to throw recent movies into the "Great!" category.
Although there is no reason to think there was anything psychologically wrong with him at that time, the movie makers made him appear as some kind of nut who mumbled to himself and behaved in crazy ways, something that is unsubstantiated and offensive since he was the head of large corporations and did (his company still does) a lot of business with the government, unlikely for a crazy person as he is depicted in this film.The producers (which include Leonard DiCaprio) apparently took what few bits and pieces of his personal life are known to the public, rearranged them to suit this mostly fictional film, and came up with another trashy Hollywood film.The acting left much to be desired as well..
Blame it on the slow moving script by John Logan which just skims over Hughes life.Sorry to disappoint you, but, Marty Scorsese strikes out again, with a lackluster script and terrible performances by Leo and Gwen Stafani.This movie putters along like a tortoise, with an occasional brief appearance from some of Hollywood's greatest early actresses.However, one of the main problems, is that Leo DiCaprio just is not believable at all as Howard Hughes in the least.
Every time he spoke I thought he was the drifter from Titanic trying unsuccessfully to imitate Howard Hughes, as well as Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind.There are great performances from Jude Law as Errol Flynn, and Cate Blanchett as Kathrin Heppern.However, my advice to No Doubt lead singer Gwen Stafani is to keep your day job, because you seriously need acting lessons.
One of his dreams was to make a motion picture, which he did with HELL'S ANGELS, a film that not only introduced Hughes to Hollywood, but introduced him to such movie starlets as Katherine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett) and Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale).
Not only did Martin Scorsese capture the true essence of Howard Hughes and what he meant to this country, he allowed Leonardo DiCaprio to run with the character which ultimately left no stone unturned..
I never felt that I was being brought into his mind, heart, drive, life.I don't know if this was the fault of the script, or DiCaprio's performance, or Scorcese's direction.I left this lengthy movie, though, without new insight into Howard Hughes..
It took a lot of courage for Scorsese to not just structure the film around someone as familiar as Hepburn but to have her character played in a manner where she was recognizable to her fans.Alan Alda does great as a slimy senator, Adam Baldwin is slick as thestrangely likable Pan Am President, Kelli Garner and the other Kate (Beckinsale) are dazzling decoration, and Ian Holm provides comic relief.
The life of the late Howard Hughes is realized by director Martin Scorsese and his star, Leonardo DiCaprio, in this biopic that shows the millionaire's eccentric ventures into Hollywood film-making and breakthrough feats of aviation by breaking speed records.
Movie Review: "The Aviator" (2004)As director Martin Scorsese earns another "Best Director" Academy-award nomination and leading actor Leonardo DiCaprio plays his heart out with less then 30-years of age, when the perfectly-pitched screenplay by John Logan exceeds any expectations on a usually one-sided, up-high-in-the-sky Howard Hughes (1905-1976) story as several airplane action scenes amaze, when dramatic turning points as including accompanied supporting actresses Cate Blanchett, playing legendary actress Katherine Hepburn, and Kate Beckinsale as Greta Garbo, when director Scorsese and acrto DiCaprio collaborate to ultimate cinematic splendor.
The first time I saw this film I thought, "It's pretty good," but the second time I watched it I came away with a much different perspective.Most of us knew about Howard Hughes' obsession with germs and about the Spruce Goose but not a lot about his early years or the extent of his involvement with airplanes.
"The Aviator", but virtue of its very title, lets us know that flying was Hughes' magnificent obsession and everything else came second.Watching the film the second time I was stuck by the importance of color.
Thus, I can't say more about Hollywood movie, however I am very impressed by this work."Imagine life without limits", I think Mr. Martin Scorsese have shown their one of his best imagination and creativeness through this film, which will be proved as a great film in future.
It is remarkable that Howard Hughes is not more of a cultural icon having run a booming company, produced and directed acclaimed movies, designed planes, broken speed and distance records, and battled a senate committee (which was filmed in a fashion that is comparable to any of the great boxing ring bouts).DiCaprio just gets better with each movie superbly playing a character that can mix it with the best business minds of the time yet has trouble finding his way out of a toilet.
After working with Martin Scoresse on Gangs Of New York I was a little skeptical on whether this would be the same fare, Leo being out acted and not really achieving much of a sensible story, but here it all comes together and why Leo never got that Oscar is beyond me, the boy is marvelous!Playing Howard Hughes, an aviator and film director/producer and rampant womanizer with a passion and obsession leo pulls it off and truly shows he is not just a pretty face!Direction is what truly makes this film and Scoresse shows his love of the old days and their films, its like watching a fan of golden oldies talk about the old films and industry.
Martin Scorsese directs this biopic that peaks at the life/career of eccentric billionaire industrialist Howard Hughes(Leonardo DiCaprio).
Hughes became increasingly eccentric and insane as time went on and by the end of the film I think Scorsese does something rather brilliant in terms of narrative effect -- I won't give it away but suffice to say it's a nice little conclusion to the movie.The movie itself is quite good but tries a bit too hard.
There were only about 5 very interesting scenes all having do to with the actual aviation like the speed test, the crash (the best scene of the movie), the filming of hell angels, and the mental breakdown towards the end, which was even a little under acted and under played.
No matter how interested you are in Howard Hughes don't I repeat Do Not waste your money or the 3 hours of your life you'll never get back watching this movie.
It is an epic that has everything that makes an epic film extraordinary with its story of a person who are bigger than life itself, combined with great visual effects, wonderfully colorful performances, and exposing the utter genius of Hughes, "The Aviator" proves not only be entertaining, but enlightening.
This comment on THE AVIATOR deals with the motion picture itself, not with its biographical aspects, since I know too little of the facts concerning Howard Hughes' life.I can say right away that this movie kept my interest, even with its 170 minutes running time.
The film is as amazing and dark as the man who called himself with pride, "Howard Hughes, the Aviator". |
tt0833960 | Gardens of the Night | At the age of eight, a girl named Leslie Whitehead (Ryan Simpkins) is kidnapped by Alex (Tom Arnold) and Frank (Kevin Zegers). Alex says he needs help finding his dog, then he and Frank take her to school. While driving, Alex tells Leslie her dad is their boss, thus earning her trust. After school, Alex and Frank find her again. They lure her into their car with a story about her dad being in trouble, drug her and take her to their house. Alex tells Leslie her parents do not want her anymore. As proof, he provides the number to her "dad's cell phone," which, in reality, is a pay phone. After several unanswered calls, she eventually accepts his story.
She and another victim, a young boy named Donnie, are forced into prostitution and pornography. Their clients include men in positions of authority, such as a judge. As a coping mechanism, Donnie and Leslie pretend they are in an imaginary world based on the stories of Mowgli and The Jungle Book. One day, Leslie goes to a convenience store, where it becomes apparent her parents are looking for her because her picture is on milk cartons. However, Leslie doesn't see the cartons, thus preserving her notion that her parents don't want her. While Alex is paying for ice cream, the store owner's wife recognizes her as missing and calls the police. When the police show up at Alex and Frank's house, they hastily escape with the children.
Almost nine years later, Leslie (Gillian Jacobs) and Donnie (Evan Ross) are living together on the streets, prostituting themselves and stealing. As a way for her to be "independent" and get off the streets, a pimp named Cooper (Shiloh Fernandez) tries to convince Leslie to lure a twelve-year-old girl, Monica, living at a youth shelter into prostitution. Meanwhile, Donnie has fallen in love with Leslie, but she's unsure because, presumably, she's always just seen him as her brother. She ends up deciding to leave Donnie and goes to the shelter to "turn out" the girl. When Donnie goes looking for Leslie, Cooper tells him she's left him, devastating him. At the last minute, Leslie decides not to turn out Monica and returns her to the shelter. She tries to go back to Donnie, but finds out he has left town without saying where he was going. Having no other choice, Leslie goes back to the shelter to stay. A counselor there (John Malkovich) discovers Leslie is a missing person and tells her her parents have been looking for her all these years, which she finally realizes is true.
Leslie reunites with her parents, along with two siblings born during her absence, and attempts to "return home." However, she is too traumatized after all she's been through and cannot remain in such a normal atmosphere. She leaves in the middle of the night and starts to hitchhike, hoping to find Donnie again. Donnie is shown hitchhiking through Florida, the location of an amusement park where he and Leslie, as children, said they would meet if they ever got separated. | psychedelic, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0101272 | The Addams Family | Gomez Addams laments the 25-year absence of his brother Fester, who disappeared after the two had a falling-out. Gomez's lawyer Tully Alford owes money to loan shark Abigail Craven, and notices that her son Gordon closely resembles Fester. Tully proposes that Gordon pose as Fester to infiltrate the Addams household and find the hidden vault where they keep their vast riches. Tully and his wife Margaret attend a séance at the Addams home led by Grandmama in which the family tries to contact Fester's spirit. Gordon arrives, posing as Fester, while Abigail poses as psychiatrist Dr. Pinder-Schloss and tells the family that Fester had been lost in the Bermuda Triangle for the past 25 years.
Gomez, overjoyed to have Fester back, takes him to the family vault to view home movies from their childhood. Gordon learns the reason for the brothers' falling-out: Gomez was jealous of Fester's success with women, and wooed the conjoined twins Flora and Fauna Amor away from him out of envy. Gomez starts to suspect that "Fester" is an impostor when he is unable to recall important details about their past. Gordon attempts to return to the vault, but is unable to get past a booby trap. Gomez's wife Morticia reminds "Fester" of the importance of family amongst the Addamses and of their vengeance against those who cross them. Fearing that the family is getting wise to their con, Abigail (under the guise of Dr. Pinder-Schloss) convinces Gomez that his suspicions are due to displacement.
Gordon grows closer to the Addams family, particularly the children Wednesday and Pugsley, whom he helps to prepare a swordplay sequence for a school play. The Addamses throw a large party with their extended family and friends to celebrate Fester's return, during which Abigail plans to break into the vault. Wednesday overhears Abigail and Gordon discussing their scheme, and escapes them by hiding in the family cemetery. Tully learns that Fester, as the eldest brother, is the executor of the Addams estate and therefore technically owns the entire property. With the help of the Addamses' neighbor Judge George Womack, who Gomez has repeatedly angered by hitting golf balls at his house, Tully procures a restraining order against the family, banning them from the estate. Gomez attempts to fight the order in court, but Judge Womack rules against him out of spite.
While Abigail, Gordon, and Tully try repeatedly and unsuccessfully to get past the booby trap blocking access to the vault, the Addams family is forced to move into a motel and find jobs. Morticia tries her hand as a preschool teacher, Wednesday and Pugsley sell toxic lemonade, and Thing—the family's animate disembodied hand—becomes a courier. Gomez, despondent, sinks into depression and lethargy.
Morticia returns to the Addams home to confront Fester and is captured by Abigail and Tully, who torture her in an attempt to learn how to access the vault. Thing observes this and informs Gomez using Morse code, who gathers the family and rushes to Morticia's rescue. Abigail threatens Morticia's life if Gomez does not surrender the family fortune. Fed up with his mother's behavior and constant berating, Gordon turns against Abigail. Using a magical book which projects its contents into reality, he unleashes a hurricane in the house, which strikes his own head with lightning and launches Tully and Abigail out of a window and into open graves dug for them by Wednesday and Pugsley.
Gordon turns out to actually have been Fester all along, having suffered amnesia after being lost in the Bermuda Triangle and turning up in Miami, where Abigail had taken him in. The lightning strike has restored his memory and he is enthusiastically welcomed back into the Addams household. With the family whole again, Morticia informs Gomez that she is pregnant. | comedy, gothic, paranormal, cult, horror, psychedelic | train | wikipedia | The kind who has the right look, the perfect comedic timing, and the ability to deliver lines so deadpan it almost hurts.Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, and a young Christina Ricci somehow ALL manage to deliver.
In this case, Morticia (Anjelica Huston) and Gomez (Raul Julia) are raising their family, when long lost Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd) rejoins the family.
Charles Addams' dark characters get the film treatment in Barry Sonnenfeld's THE ADDAMS FAMILY, which is something of a cross between the actual New Yorker comics and the 1960s television show.
Not trying to lean too far to either, the movie stays at a safe plane, even incorporating a vague plot involving two grifters, Gordon and Abigail Craven, posing as Uncle Fester and a renowned psychiatrist (Christopher Lloyd and Elizabeth Wilson) who are in cahoots to rob the Addams of their fortune and house.
However Gomez's joy at his return is gradually marred by a sneaking feeling that Fester is not himself meanwhile Wednesday has no such doubts at all and is out to expose the impostor.One of the few remakes that actually works, The Addams Family takes the Gothic humour of the TV series and makes it feel fresh and entertaining.
Angelica Huston certainly didn't match Carolyn Jones' beauty but she, along with Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd and Christinia Ricci all were entertaining to watch.There certainly were no end to the colorful imagines, unique scenes and dialog, special-effects and - for those with a surround system, good sound.
What is nothing short of ensemble perfection, a sense of fun had by all on set during production remains undeniably infectious throughout, lending the amusing proceedings a distinct level of class.Directed by easily digestible Barry Sonnenfeld, The Addams Family may be a bit intense for young kids but should stay a delight to all others.
Raul Julia in the performance of his career, and Christopher Lloyd in a very offebeat role even for him.This was a breakout performance for Christina Ricci (playing Wednesday Addams).
but it's darned entertaining and is a great riff on a classic piece of source material.The very creepy and kooky Addams Family is getting along fine, though Gomez Addams (the late and great Raul Julia) still laments the disappearance of his brother Fester 25 years earlier.
Though the more time he spends with the devilish family, the more he grows attached to them, and the more he doubts he'll be able to go through with the plan...The peculiar thing about both this film and it's immediate follow-up "Addams Family Values" is that in many ways, they come across more as a series of clever but only tenuously connected vignettes than as singular, cohesive narratives...
This film is very good.The late,great Raul Julia,Anjelica Huston,and Christopher Lloyd performed well.Even though there is a sequel this film is one of a kind.In My opinion this is a good dark comedy for everybody!.
That said, a few more good gags mightn't have come amiss; Caroline Thompson (here as in Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas') is stronger on the feel than the actual words.The story is perfectly strong enough - better in some ways than the sequel's, because it doesn't dissipate its energies between different plotlines - and of the actors, only Christina Ricci was to improve on her performance here.
Raul Julia, quite wonderful as a dashingly romantic, athletic, terribly vulnerable Gomez, and Christopher Lloyd in surprisinglycontrolled form as Fester, give performances here that are understated compared with their work in the (more sharply-written) sequel, and much the better for it; Angelica Huston's Morticia has just the same chiselled perfection.
Also excellent is Elizabeth Wilson as the phony doctor and and equally phony mother Alison Craven (aka Dr Pinder-Schloss, the name she eventually takes to her grave: in the Addams family, as in all classic American fantasies, you can become who you want to be).Perhaps having Dan Hedaya's oddly sympathetic lawyer villain lose his wife to the, umm, hirsute Cousin It is a bit too much icing on the cake, but it must be said that this film is a lot bolder than its sequel in evoking an unexpected degree of sympathy for all weirdos, good-for-nothings and all-round bad sorts, even lawyers.
I love this movie based simply on its macabre sense of humor and across-the-board perfect cast; Christopher Lloyd's physical comedy, the unbelievable chemistry between Raúl Juliá and Anjelica Huston, and Christina Ricci's just adorable.But there's an undeniable charm here, some twisted wholesomeness to this family.
Entertaining film version of the 60's television series with Julia and Huston beautifully in sync as Gomez and Morticia, while Lloyd is a hammy riot as Uncle Fester.
Available on Blu-ray Disc (Region B)USA 1991 English (Colour); Comedy/Horror/Fantasy (Paramount); 100 minutes (PG certificate)Crew includes: Barry Sonnenfeld (Director); Caroline Thompson, Larry Wilson (Screenwriters, from Characters created by Charles Addams); Scott Rudin (Producer); Graham Place (Executive Producer); Owen Roizman (Cinematographer); Richard MacDonald (Production Designer); Dede Allen, Jim Miller (Editors); Marc Shaiman (Composer)Cast includes: Anjelica Huston (Morticia Addams), Raul Julia (Gomez Addams), Christopher Lloyd (Uncle Fester Addams), Dan Hedaya (Tully Alford), Elizabeth Wilson (Abigail Craven), Judith Malina (Grandmama), Carel Struycken (Lurch), Dana Ivey (Margaret Alford), Paul Benedict (Judge Womack), Christina Ricci (Wednesday Addams), Jimmy Workman (Pugsley Addams), Christopher Hart (Thing)Academy Award nomination: Costume Design (Ruth Myers); BAFTA nominations (2): Production Design, Makeup; Golden Globe nomination: Actress - Musical/Comedy (Huston)"Weird is relative."A suitably freakish impostor (Lloyd) - or is he?
- infiltrates the spooky residence of a ghoulish yet loving family, headed by an elegant, vampirish matriarch (Huston) and her debonair, devoted husband (Julia), in an attempt to get his hands on their substantial wealth.Spot-on costumes, sets and casting (precocious little horror Ricci is particularly memorable) are highlights of an extremely successful comic strip adaptation, but not for Orion Pictures, whose fiscal woes compelled them to sell off their anticipated triumph to a no doubt grateful Paramount.A just-as-enjoyable sequel, likewise helmed by noted cinematographer Sonnenfeld (this big-budget effort, though an exhausting experience, opportunely being his directorial début), appeared two years later.Blu-ray Extras: Trailers.
If you like the classic TV show, you're going to enjoy this movie adaptation of the Addams Family, featuring Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester, Granny, Wednesday, Pugsley, Lurch and Cousin Itt. It has the same craziness and kookiness as the TV show, but with more serious and darker tones - in this movie, Uncle Fester has been missing for 25 years, leading to an evil doctor to introduce a fake Fester to the family in an attempt to get their money.The make-up was superb in bringing the Addams Family to life and the house was dark, eerie and mysterious, a perfect Halloween-like setting.
There was unbelievable chemistry between these two.Christina Ricci *is* Wednesday Addams- her face pale, blank, and emotionless, as she so cheerfully tries to switch on the electric chair Pugsley is sitting in, or dump a cauldron of boiling oil on unsuspecting door knockers, in a well done reference to Charles Addams' original comic strip.Carel Struyken is another wonderfully, comically, creepy, seven-foot-tall Lurch, quite possibly the most loyal and dedicated butler on Earth.Christopher Lloyd is also a wonderfully nutty Uncle Fester (or is he an impostor?) But the material is sometimes forced: in the original television series, the Addams' just did whatever normal (to them) macabre things they felt like, but here, the screenwriters seemed to go out of their way, on occasion, to make the family seem macabre and outlandish.
I saw The Addams Family movies in the order of Addams Family Reunion (I'll save you the trouble, its crap) and then Addams Family Values (which I thought was pretty funny) and it seems that the ones with Raul Julia as Gomez and Anjelica Houston as Morticia have the same kind of plot, Uncle Fester is forced by his fake mother to steal the Addams family fortune.
Others I like are Christina Ricci as Wednesday (although, take my word for it, her time to shine was the sequel), Christopher Lloyd as Fester, Jimmy Workman as Pugsley and in this film, I actually felt myself warm up more for Anjelica Houston as Morticia.
That moment echoes another scene where Wednesday (Cristina Ricci) asked a Scout girl if the biscuits were made of real children: that kind of humor was severely lacking in "The Addams Family" and the more I think about it, the more I realize it was the only one the film could provide besides the obligatory children-oriented slapstick.The second problem is that they still felt the need to ruin to that "shovel" quote by actually showing them 'waking up the dead' and that kind of on-the-nose humor is a blatant example of the way they ruined the very effect the film could have as a comedy.
Barry Sonnenfeld's adaptation of the iconic cartoon made me realize one thing: he certainly understood the Addams Family and whatever they 'stood for(', but he did not understand the audience.But let's give Sonnenfeld the credit he deserves, his film is marvelously looking, it carries that scary Gothic look where I suspect many trainees made their bones before working later on the Harry Potter' franchise.
Raul Julia makes a perfectly suave and seductive Gomez Adams, and Anjelica Huston has never been so frighteningly sensual, and more than that, both had that unique chemistry going, if I ever think of a dad and mom who love each other to death, well, I guess Gomez and Morticia come to my mind first.Cristina Ricci is more than convincing as Wednesday, whose main occupation consists on tormenting her cooperative brother Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) with many instruments, from a knife to an electric chair.
When Wednesday tortures her brother, it's not funny anymore because he enjoys it, how about she plays hide-and-seek with a 'normal' boy and we'll see what the outcome will be."The Addams Family" isn't totally unfunny, the film makes you smile and is visually entertaining but there were so much room for great laughs, it's a pity the film didn't exploit these eccentricities.
That's the stuff we expect, not a long and continuous exposition leading to a superficial conflict, the only 'conflict' possible is between the 'Addams' and normality, as during a funny school play sequence with an unexpected outburst of blood splattering the audience.The film should have been like its last five minutes, from the way they get rid of the two villains by pushing them in a coffin, "are they dead?" asks Pugsley "does it matter?" replies Wednesday.
As I said, either the normal world comes to Addams, or they come to it, the first comes too rarely, the second too late.The film is still a good Family comedy with cute one-liners, but it really could've been a laugh-riot.
The family is played by Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, and Christina Ricci as young Wednesday Addams.
a silly kind of funny, and that is exactly how the Addams family is.I really liked the casting of this film.
The Addams Family is a decent movie with an enjoyable story and a cast that match their characters well.Its definitely a very childish film that children will enjoy much more than the parents will,but there are still plenty of jokes that will make an older audience laugh.My favourite part of the movie is without a doubt Christopher Llyod's performance,I really like him as an actor in family films as he is usually the funniest character in the movie (Back to the Future being a perfect example) and he is without a doubt the character that made me laugh the most.My biggest problems with this movie is that they didn't use some of the other Addams Family characters (Lurch,Thing,Cousin It,etc) as much as they should have,and the final act of the movie is definitely the weakest as the humor gets way too childish and a lot less that will entertain adults.The Addams Family isn't the perfect family film,but it is enjoyable and I would definitely recommend it to a younger audience.Mortica (Angelica Huston) and Gomez (Raul Julia) Addams welcome long lost Uncle Fester to live in their home after as he returns from the Bermuda Triangle,but he isn't all he seems..
I had a really good time with it mainly because of the extremely good acting and the dark but at the same time, colorful art direction and cinematography.To be honest, when I watched it, it was because I was very young and didn't notice the overall witty humor and great technical values.Nowadays, as a grown up and objective reviewer, I can say that the movie is smartly character driven and is supported by great technical values and aspects like funny situations, groovy clothing, the classical situations we all love, and best of all, a fun factor that ranks very high.Raul Julia owned the movie every time he was on scree and I remember being in love/lust with Christina Ricci with her pony tails, mini dress and everything.
Gordon Craven (Lloyd) pretends to be the long lost brother of Gomez Addams (Julia) in hope of gaining access to the family's money.This 1991 comedy from Barry Sonnenfeld (Get Shorty) is one of those rare gems that will never be praised enough.The Addams Family brings a dark and dismal tale to a vibrant colourful light with its superb choices of characters and settings, not to mention a great use of slapstick comedy.The narrative revolves around a man who has obeyed his mother and gone into the home of the craziest people in the village.
And, just like the series, there's just a ton of quirky, off-handed humor.The late great Raul Julia and Angelica Houston were perfectly cast as Gomez and Morticia Addams.
The Addams Family(1991) Starring Anjelica Houston, Christina Ricci, Christopher Lloyd and Raul Julia.
In this dark adaptation of the TV series, a man(Lloyd) who pretends to be their long lost Uncle Fester in order to try to retrieve money that The Addams Family has.I rented this because I read the reviews on this site, and most were positive.
This I think is the most prominent feature of it and sets mood and tone for the Addams' point of view and for everyone else.Raul Julia, Angelica Huston, Christina Ricci and Christopher Lloyd are excellent and Cousin It is just fabulous (wonder what shampoo he uses?) If you want something a little weird with some very black comedy one evening then if you haven't already I suggest you give it a whirl.Sleep tight.
When Gordon(Christopher Lloyd) pretends to be Gomez's(Raul Julia) missing brother Fester to get to his wealth, it might ruin the addams family fortune forever.
However, The Addams Family does that well.What really helped this movie was the great cast in which everyone was suited to the character they played.
Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, Christina Ricci and Christopher Lloyd excel in their roles.The story is good as well and involves the long lost relative Uncle Fester (an ugly looking creep) coming to the Addams mansion to claim a large sum of money which he believes belongs to him.
Christopher Lloyd gives Fester more dimensions than Jackie Coogan ever did, but the one character that steals every scene is Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams.
Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia stand out as the forever morbid couple Gomez and Morticia Addams as does Christina Ricci in a scene stealing role as Wednesday Addams.
Sadly the death of Raul Julia, who incarnates Gomez in a delightful way, marked also the end of a good time for the Addams Family incarnation.
Comparisons to the TV show are of course expected and while the movie is just as much dark fun..Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston are perfect as Gomez and Morticia and the rest of the cast fit well..especially Ricci and Wednesday..The plot leaves something to be desired...But the movie is good fun and is definitely recommended..on a scale of one to ten..7.
Raul Julia stands out as Gomez in a rare (for Julia) comedy role, and Angelica Huston's subtle smirks and dark romantic flair is remarkable even for her, Christopher Lloyd is a great Uncle Fester in a role that seems tailor-made for him, and watch for Christina Ricci, though only 11 in this film she may well become one of the most prolific and talented stars of the next decade.
Hilarious adaptation of Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons that plays out more like the plot of a television episode (perhaps intentional as an homage to the 1960s show?) than a feature film, with Gomez (Juliá) and his family being reunited with his estranged brother (Lloyd), except the man who they believe is Uncle Fester is really an impostor out to steal the family's riches that is hidden in a vault.
This film adaptation of the Addam's Family has its moments and is watchable, but there are just certain things about it that do not work that cause it to be a sort of all right comedy rather than a really good one.
Every single character is perfectly casted in this film; Raul Julia does a great Gomez, Anjelica Huston is perfect as the dangerously slim, french-loving Morticia, Christoper Lloyd is flawless a Fester, Christina Ricci does a chillingly good Wednesday, which is quite impressive at that age(she was 10 or 11 when they made this), and Jimmy Workman is also great as Pugsley.
While all the actors of this movie version (of the much charming TV show "The Addams Family") are excellent only Christopher Lloyd manages to do justice to his character, Uncle Fester.
The Addams Family have always been original, in their weird way, and this film is not.
The Addams Family 1990's movies are so special for so many reasons: Christopher Lloyd, Anjelica Houston; Cristina Ricci; Carel Struycken (Lurch); Thing, Cousin It, the score, the set design; the puns - but I have to say the reason I am in love with these movies and watch them over and over again is Raul Julia as Gomez Addams.
Raul Julia is perfectly cast as Gomez Addams (it's a shame this and it's sequel were some of his last roles before his death) As is Angelica Houston as Morticia. |
tt0104714 | Lethal Weapon 3 | Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) are sergeants with the Los Angeles Police Department. As the show opens, they respond to a call of a bomb at the ICSI Building. The building had already been evacuated and the bomb squad had been called, but Riggs wanted to go in and check it out himself. Murtaugh is just one week from his announced retirement and he does not have any desire to risk his life to go check on a potential bomb, especially when the bomb squad was on the way. Riggs notes that the bomb squad never arrives on time and charges ahead anyway. Murtaugh feels obligated to accompany him, since they are partners.They find a large bomb inside a car in the parking garage. Riggs opens the door and pulls back a blanket that partially covers the device. There is less than 10 minutes on the timer. Riggs speaks confidently about being able to disarm the bomb, simply by cutting the red wire. He produces a pair of tiny scissors and is about to clip the wire, when Murtaugh says wait. He wants to know if Riggs is absolutely sure. Riggs is not sure, so he changes his mind and prepares to cut the blue wire. Murtaugh is about to go crazy with panic.They are startled when a stray cat jumps on top of the car. Riggs finally cuts one of the wires, which causes the timer to accelerate, rather than stop. Murtaugh grabs the cat and the run for their lives. They barely descend the steps in front of the building when it explodes. They take cover behind their car and the building collapses in on itself.Shortly afterward, well within the original time remaining if Riggs hadn't have tampered with the bomb, the bomb squad arrives. At least they managed to save the cat.The next day, they are both busted to the uniformed service and they venture outside to start their patrol. They start arguing about the previous day's screw-up and can't even remember whether it was the red or blue wire that Riggs cut. The argument gets physical and Riggs grabs Murtaugh, stopping only when he discovers Murtaugh is wearing a girdle. He had to wear one so he could fit into his uniform again.Riggs decides to harass a jaywalker, preparing to write the man an ticket, when he notices some armored car guards starting to argue. Two men approaching an armored car are not recognized by one of the guards already inside the vehicle. When he challenges the two who are approaching, one of them draws a gun and shoots the guard. Riggs is already charging the scene, and as the imposter prepares to shoot again, Riggs knocks the gun out of his hand. The associate of the imposter has taken the wheel of the armored car and takes off. Riggs had jumped inside the back of the vehicle and starts fighting with the bad guy.Murtaugh joins the female driver of a second armored car as she follows the stolen car. The lady driver is also black, and she immediately finds Murtaugh to be a very attractive man and starts flirting with him. Even though he tells her he's married, she persists.Riggs eventually tosses the bad guy he's been fighting out of the vehicle, then makes his way forward to the cab, where he forces his way in and starts fighting with the driver, taking over the wheel. Riggs eventually has to brake the vehicle hard, causing the armored car to come to a sudden stop, resulting in the bad guy flying through the windshield and coming to rest on the hood. The man is taken into custody, with his first stop being the hospital.The next morning, Riggs arrives at Murtaugh's house, as they are getting ready for the house to be viewed by a potential buyer. Murtaugh and his family, and Riggs, are all hiding in the kitchen. Murtaugh becomes upset when Riggs starts to light up a cigarette, knowing the smell would probably turn off the potential buyers. He hands Riggs a box of dog biscuits to chew on to help with his craving.As it turns out, Leo Getz, their old witness protection client, is Murtaugh's real estate agent. Leo brings the married couple into the house and he starts telling them about the car that crashed through the wall and the upstairs bathroom that exploded when a bomb detonated. Murtaugh is about to lose his mind and he and Riggs get into another argument. They end up in a clinched position just as Leo and the buyers come through the kitchen door. The couple can't get away from that house fast enough.Murtaugh begins choking Leo for telling the couple all about the home's recent history. Leo tells Murtaugh that he has to do that in the interest of full disclosure. When Riggs reminds them of the time Murtaugh shot someone with a nail gun in the house, Leo asks if the repairs after the toilet bomb were properly permitted. That infuriates Murtaugh even more, but Leo quickly says he'd arrange for some backdated permits so that the sale, when they find a buyer, won't hit a snag.Before they leave for work, Murtaugh and Riggs see Murtaugh's son, Nick, talking to his best friend, Darryl, who has become a gangster. Murtaugh is very concerned about that.At a housing development in the desert outside Los Angeles, an African-American named Tyrone (Gregory Millar) meets the foreman of the project, Jack Travis (Stuart Wilson). He explains that people will buy the houses because they don't want to live next to people like Tyrone. He then calls over Smitty, who it turns out is the armored carrier impersonater that got away. Travis found out about the attempted heist, and he tells Tyrone and Smitty that doing something like that would jeopardize their project. He then has his men knock Smitty down and pour concrete over him, smothering and killing him. Travis forces Tyrone to watch.While heading to work, Riggs looks across the way and sees what looks like Murtaugh's eldest daughter, Rianne (Traci Wolfe) being held at gunpoint. Riggs charges over there, followed shortly by Murtaugh. Riggs punches the guy and knocks him down, only to find out that what's going on is a film production, and Riggs just ruined the scene. The director is livid and fires Rianne, but Riggs then roughs up the director and forces him to re-hire Rianne, with a pay raise.At work, as they change into their patrol uniforms in the locker room, Murtaugh accidentally discharges his firearm. Riggs immediately starts kicking lockers and making lots of noise, so that the other officers who came running to see what happened, will think he's having a tantrum. The two head to the shooting range, where they meet some of their comrades, including Officer Edwards (Jason Rainwater), who is fresh out of the Police Academy and is an incredible shot. Riggs shows them a new bullet just came into circulation on the streets: a pointy-tipped .357 Magnum armor-piercing bullet that the bad guys called "cop killer." The bullets were found in the gun of Billy Phelps (Mark Pellegrino), the armored car suspect they caught. Riggs had him moved to Interrogation, so he and Murtaugh could question him.Jack Travis arrives at the police building, where he reveals the credentials of an LAPD Lieutenant. In the meantime, Riggs and Murtaugh go up an elevator with Lorna Cole (Rene Russo), a female detective who is with Internal Affairs. At their mutual stop, it is revealed that Internal Affairs is taking over the Billy Phelp's case. Angered by this change, Riggs and Murtaugh force Cole to go with them to see Captain Murphy (Steve Kahan) and the head of Internal Affairs to clear things up. They decide to have Riggs, Murtaugh and Cole work together on the case. Riggs and Murtaugh are also restored to their former positions as homicide detectives.While Riggs, Murtaugh and the others are in their meeting, Travis enters the interrogation room to talk to Billy Phelps, but it turns out he's not there to talk, but to shoot. He produces a handgun with a silencer and quickly dispatches Billy, then calmly walks out.Riggs, Murtaugh and Cole arrive at the Interrogation Room and find Phelps dead in his seat. Cole reveals that there recently were cameras covertly installed in every interrogation room, so they are able to see a close-up of Jack Travis, an AWOL cop who they correctly surmise has gone rogue.Leo Getz walks in on them to tell Murtaugh that the house has termites. Leo glances at the video and tells them he recognizes the man in the video. He thinks about it awhile, then says he once got the man some Los Angeles Kings hockey tickets. As a result, the three go to a Kings game to see if they might find Travis there. Riggs takes the extraordinary step of using the PA system to call Travis out. Ultimately, Leo sees Travis trying to run and he takes off after him, actually jumping onto Travis. Their struggle carries them onto the ice and Travis shoots Leo in the arm. Riggs follows Travis out of the arena, but loses him. Leo is taken to a hospital for a minor flesh wound, but Riggs persuades the doctor to admit Leo for a few days. Before leaving the hospital, Riggs grabs Leo's chart and adds "proctology" under the treatment section.To celebrate their re-promotion, Murtaugh takes Riggs to a friend's lunch shack. While Murtaugh makes some hamburgers for them, Riggs notices something at a nearby construction site: several gangsters in an apparent drug deal. He wastes no time deciding to interven in that, and gets hit in the back of the head by a 2-by-4 as he is closing in. Murtaugh arrives to assist, but most of the gangsters escape. One takes refuge in a shed and Murtaugh orders the man to surrender, but a hand extends through the door holding an automatic weapon and fires at Murtaugh. Murtaugh returns fire, shooting several rounds through the aluminum wall of the shack. The man crawls out, having been shot several times. He collapses just beyond the door, and dies. Murtaugh turns the man over and takes off his sunglasses: it was Darryl. Murtaugh is distraught, since Darryl was Nick's friend.The call comes in to the Murtaugh residence, where his wife picks up, and finds out about Darryl. Murtaugh arrives home in his car, and starts to get out, but reconsiders and drives away, still upset, unable to face his family. The next day, Murtaugh didn't arrive at work, but Riggs covers for him with Captain Murphy and the precinct's psychologist.Lorna Cole insists on speaking with Riggs. He drags her into the men's restroom, where she dresses him down for interfering with the Internal Affairs investigation, but Riggs turns it on her, saying she's the one that hasn't been forthcoming. They decide to work together. In Cole's office, they look up information on the gun that Darryl had. It was stolen from an LAPD impound lot several months previous. The reason Internal Affairs was on the case is because they believe Jack Travis was stealing guns and ammunition from LAPD impound and selling them on the black market.Riggs and Cole go to the address listed for a phone that Billy Phelps had called several times. They encounter a vicious Rottweiler guard dog. Riggs gets down on all fours and starts acting like a dog. He also has some of those dog biscuits that Murtaugh had given him to munch on, so he gives the Rottweiler some of those, and ends up making friends.Cole and Riggs then go on inside the building to discover a bunch of guys loading a truck with boxes full of stolen weapons. They initiate a fight, where Cole shows extraordinary hand-to-hand combat skills. Cole and Riggs end up stealing the truck, pausing to wait for the Rottweiler who runs after them. They head back to Cole's place so she can dress up his wound. She's not very sympathetic to his moaning, and shows him one of her old scars. That leads them to alternately taking turns showing various old scars. Things get heated, and they end up making love. Riggs briefly stops himself because of a possible "serious ethical breach", only for Cole to tell him to shut up.As it turns out, the aforementioned Tyrone was the intended buyer of the guns Riggs and Cole recovered. Jack Travis convinces Tyrone to give him another chance to get his guns and ammo back.That afternoon, Rianne arrives at Riggs' beachfront mobile home, where he has brought his new Rottweiler friend inside with his other dog. Rianne tells Riggs that her father had yet to return home, since the incident with Darryl. That night, Riggs heads to the marina, where he finds Murtaugh aboard his boat. He was drunk. He is not dealing with the killing of Darryl very well.Initially Murtaugh is angry that his daughter went to see Riggs at his beach home, since he's always worried that Riggs would seduce Rianne. Riggs works to snap Murtaugh out of his funk with rhetoric about how they share the same problems, and they need to stick together. Riggs finally talks Murtaugh down, reasoning that Murtaugh had no choice but to kill Darryl, since Darryl was shooting at him, with intent to kill.The tension resumes when Murtaugh convinces Riggs to share a problem that might be giving him trouble. When Riggs reveals he "slept with somebody he shouldn't have," Murtaugh punches Riggs off the boat, assuming he meant Rianne. After pulling Murtaugh into the water with him, Riggs explains that he was speaking about his liaison with Cole, though he had to clarify that he meant Lorna, as her uncle worked in the Traffic department. Riggs and Murtaugh attract the attention of an LA County Sheriff boat officer, who tells them to clear out of the water.The next morning, Murtaugh finds Nick attempting to shave, getting ready for Darryl's funeral. Murtaugh helps his son stroke the razor correctly. Nick tells his father that he loves him and he doesn't blame him for having to kill his friend.The Murtaugh family, Riggs and Cole all attend Darryl's funeral. When Murtaugh goes to express his condolences to the parents, Darryl's mother slaps him in the face. The boy's father gives Murtaugh an admonishment: find the man that gave Darryl the gun.Riggs, Murtaugh and Cole then begin a series of raids, tracing the path of Darryl's gun. First they strike one of Darryl's gang buddies, whom Murtaugh dresses down about "genocide", and black people killing each other. That leads them to Tyrone, who in turn directs them to one of Travis' associates, Herman Walters (Alan Scarfe). Cole once more shows her hand-to-hand combat skills, this time for Murtaugh to see, but Walters gets away. They were able to take one of Travis's henchmen, Hubie, into custody.Travis is on his way to the LAPD, where he takes Captain Murphy hostage and forces his way back into the LAPD's storage facility to get more guns and ammo. Meanwhile, Riggs, Murtaugh and Cole return to the precinct, where Murtaugh asks Riggs to show him some hand-to-hand combat techniques. Riggs demonstrates a roundhouse kick, but he positions Murtaugh such that he tries it out, he kicks a water cooler over, leading to a brief run-in with the psychologist.Some more research leads them to Mesa Verde Construction, Travis' cover operation. Leo Getz returns from the hospital, promptly going through a tirade about hospitals because of an unnecessary rectal exam he received, before Murtaugh calms him down and sends him off to research Mesa Verde.As Travis finishes loading up the guns and ammo he's stealing, with Captain Murphy in tow as a hostage, Cole is on a computer and discovers that the files on the very same guns and ammo had just been accessed and deleted. They hurry down to the storage room, with Edwards tagging along for extra help. Riggs tells Edwards to stay behind him.Travis attempts to escape via the subway, which was still under construction. The group discovers the guns missing, and traces them down into the subway, where a firefight ensues. The bad guys attempt to kill Murphy, but he manages to push his immediate captor onto the rails, electrocuting him on the third rail, and gets away. Edwards is killed when he takes cover behind a barrel, and gets shot by Travis, who is armed with the cop killer bullets.Riggs chases Travis and Walters, who are getting away with the guns on a truck designed to ride the subway rails. He jumps onto the front of the lead subway car and directs the driver to move up on the truck. Once aboveground, Riggs jumps off the subway and commandeers an LAPD motorcycle, then continues his pursuit of the truck, which has by then left the rails and taken to the streets. Murtaugh races in his vehicle to catch up. Riggs pursues Travis on the wrong side of a freeway, then into a section that was under construction. Travis manages to get stopped, but Riggs flies off an unfinished ramp, getting hung up by some cables. The cables give way, and he falls through several platforms, to the ground. He's okay, despite dislocating his unstable shoulder again.Leo arrives on the scene. He announces that he has the location of Mesa Verde's desert construction project, Rancho Royale. Leo wants to go with them, but Murtaugh shoots out his car tires, preventing him from tagging along.Riggs and Murtaugh head to Rancho Royale, where they are joined by Lorna Cole. Murtaugh intends to use Darryl's gun to finish off Travis. They use Cole's empty car as a decoy, then attack the development. Riggs inserts a hose in the gas tank of a truck and siphons it to start a flow, then he drives through the housing frames, spilling fuel all over the place. Murtaugh ignites the fuel, setting the development ablaze.Travis shoots Cole and she goes down. Murtaugh fights through some of Travis' men, then finds some cop killer bullets and loads up Darryl's gun with them. Riggs fights hand-to-hand with Travis, then gets pinned down as Travis tries to run him over with a front-end loader. Murtaugh takes out Walters, then tosses Darryl's gun to Riggs, loaded with the cop killer bullets. Riggs shoots through the bucket of the front-end loader, killing Travis.Tending to Cole, Riggs finds that she was wearing two bullet-proof vests. She was still badly hurt, but they prevented fatal injuries. Riggs goes with her as she is taken by helicopter from the scene. He then lectures her on how you're supposed to live "for" somebody, not "because of" them, declaring his love for her.Murtaugh's final day of work arrives, and he is taking a bubble bath when his family comes in to celebrate his retirement. He breaks the news that he's decided not to retire after all. Leo Getz then comes marching into the bathroom and says he's finally sold the house, but when Murtaugh tells him about his decision not to retire, Getz gets upset and Trish Murtaugh (Darlene Love) has to usher him out.The movie ends with Riggs arriving and saying goodbye to Rianne as she heads to her own work. He's also started smoking again, because of his "dog biscuit problem". Murtaugh is again suspicious that Riggs has designs on Rianne, but Riggs eases his fears by saying that things are getting serious between himself and Cole, who he is picking up from the hospital later that day. They already have a dog, after all.In an post-credits scene, Riggs and Murtaugh arrive at the scene of another bomb threat. As soon as they exit their vehicle, the building explodes. They quickly get back in the vehicle and drive off like nothing happened, both cursing their bad luck. | comedy, neo noir, murder, cult, violence, action, revenge, entertaining | train | imdb | null |
tt0036855 | Gaslight | Why does the flame go down? Lights in the London house are from fixtures with gas flames, and when you light one light, it reduces gas supply to the other lights in the house that are close by, and the light dims. Yet no one in the house has lit any other lights! And there are also footsteps overhead, from a nailed-closed attic. Neither of the two servants sees or hears either of these signs. Paula Anton (Ingrid Bergman) thinks she is losing her mind, just as she has lost the brooch her husband Gregory (Charles Boyer) gave her.Her new marriage is falling apart; she cannot go out lest she make another embarrassing scene. Is it the house, where Paula's aunt, a famous and beautiful concert singer, was murdered when the young Paula resided there? What does her new husband, who plays the piano beautifully, do for a living? Nothing. Why does he go out every night and leave her alone to fret and worry?Who is the man who sees them at unexpected times and places, a man we soon learn is Scotland Yard detective Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotton)? Cameron is curious about the unsolved murder of Aunt Alice Alquist, who looked a great deal like Paula does now -- a murder that defied the investigators. No motive, no suspects, no clues.You now have the clues to this Oscar-winning (Best Actress) dark mystery. Introducing (first picture) Angela Lansbury (Best Supporting Actress nominee) in the role of one of the servants. Also nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Boyer), and three more. | insanity, suspenseful, horror, murder, atmospheric | train | imdb | The movie is really about their back and forth, with Joseph Cotten making his appearance as a necessary line of safety and hope because we can't stand to see the woman go down without a fight.Most of the film occurs in an old, lavishly decorated house, and the lights and camera-work are dreamy, dripping in rim light and shadow, in odd angles and closeups of their faces.
If you're looking for everything you've ever wanted to know about horror, mystery, depression, and suspense, go take a peek into Ingrid Bergman's eyes.The actress -- who would soon become blacklisted after her marriage to Italian director Roberto Rossellini -- can convey every emotion and nuance of her character through her amazingly expressive eyes.
Completely believable in George Cukor's Gaslight as a wife whose husband (Charles Boyer) is trying to make insane, Bergman can show you all her turmoil and emotional stress just by looking around.The plot is simple, perhaps even arcane.
After living ten years trying to forget the past, Paula returns to her house in London at the suggestion of her new husband, Gregory (Charles Boyer).
Not being a big fan of older movies myself (for some reason I really don't know) I decided to go out on a recommendation and rent "Gaslight." And I must be honest, I was impressed.When Paula was younger, her aunt with whom lived with in Thornton Square in London was murdered by a strangler roaming the streets.
In the difficult role of a Victorian young woman of intelligence, honesty and vulnerability, Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman earns the award by sustaining a sunny and intelligent personality undergoing a series of slowly-revealed and subtle attacks from her husband, who is trying to convince her she is incapable of independent function.
This American-made version of the English thriller "Gaslight" is well-crafted and well-acted, with many moments of good suspense and tension.Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer work very well in the two leads, and they get considerable help from the rest of the cast and the production.The character of the fragile, self-doubting Paula is an ideal role for Bergman, who conveys Paula's anxious uncertainty while keeping her sympathetic and even engaging.
Boyer likewise comes across very believably as her calculating husband, and the two leads make their characters into a strong foundation for the tense story.Joseph Cotten does not really seem as if he could be a Scotland Yard detective, but in a more general way, he succeeds pretty well as a sympathetic policeman who wants to help personally while striving to get at the facts of the matter.
"Gaslight" is a classic psychological thriller in the vein of the best Hitchcock with Ingrid Bergman, fresh off "Casablanca", stealing the show as the innocent victim of mental illness..
The film has always been a favorite of classic movie fans all over the world because it holds the viewer interested in watching the psychological drama with echoes of Gothic overtones, unfold on the screen.This was not the first adaptation of Mr. Hamilton's play, although in our humble opinion, it is much better than the previous account, in part helped by the great cast that Mr. Cukor assembled to portray these characters.
There's not a thing wrong with her performance.Charles Boyer also makes a great Gregory Anton, a man who is duplicitous and sly, with a hidden agenda to get whatever he can out of poor Paula.
Dame May Witty is about the sunniest one in this film."Gaslight" is an excellent way to spend the time in the company of Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer, thanks to the detailed production directed by George Cukor..
Ingrid Bergman plays Paula, an orphaned Victorian-era Londoner whose opera-singer aunt is murdered at the beginning of the movie.
We know for a fact that a woman is being manipulated but only suspicion can heal her from her husband's cruel dominance.But she can't suspect him because she loves him in a way that echoes Stockholm Syndrome and he's a Machiavellian gourmet who knows exactly the amount of cruelty and suavity to apply.Charles Boyer's with all these cunning eyes, that mouth always wary about not letting a word slip, and his faux-affable "French lover" manners, elevate his characters to summits of vileness and gaining extra altitude by a symmetric effect with Ingrid Bergman who brings an extraordinary level of pathos while maintaining a strange aura of dignity.
"Gaslight" is also a marvel of film noir in its use of the nightmarish fog of London Victorian streets used as the perfect camouflage for a Jekyll/Hyde villain, and where d the walls of respectability of an ordinary house, hid the claustrophobic nightmare of a woman lost among so many useless items and trophies, being the most precious one of all...
It lives up to all of the Hitchcock's and despite the fact that we know that Bergman's character is not insane, the film depicts a woman's suffering from her Husband.
It is shot in close ups and foggy streets as the film was made in California.Charles Boyer marries Ingrid Bergman in Italy and they return to her London home, long been abandoned since her aunt, a world famous Opera singer was killed.
Lacks mystery and intrigue - quite predictable.A young woman, Paula Alquist (played by Ingrid Bergman) leaves her home in England for Italy, for singing lessons.
His meticulous, somewhat fussy attention to every little detail of sets and costumes softens the suspense.Based on a stage play called "Angel Street", it shows its stage origins with mostly interior scenes of Bergman slowly being driven mad by a husband who is searching for jewels in the attic.
Angela Lansbury makes an auspicious film debut, looking very confident indeed as a saucy Cockney maid.The only flaws are the slow pace and the casting of Joseph Cotten as the Scotland Yard detective.
Years after her aunt was murdered in her home, a young woman (Ingrid Bergman) moves back into the house with her new husband (Charles Boyer).
When the Scotland Yard policeman Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten) sees Gregory Anton in a tourist place, he immediately recognizes Gregory and decides to investigate and find evidences to connect Gregory with the unsolved murder, while Paula is being driven mad and menaced of being interned in an asylum by her husband.The American version of "Gaslight" is not as good as the claustrophobic and Machiavellian original 1940 British version, but it is also a great movie.
Hearst - fortunately they didn't (just imagine the history of film since 1941 if they had!) And although MGM didn't destroy all prints of GASLIGHT, they did manage to keep it out of sight for many years - I think I first saw it on a cable station in the early 1980s - I tuned in expecting Boyer and Bergman and got Walbrook and Wynyard - as it turned out I didn't mind at all, and have enjoyed it many times since!
And perhaps Ingrid Bergman's menaced, anguished role in "Gaslight" inspired Hitchcock to cast her as the similarly tortured heroines of "Spellbound" and "Notorious."Here, Bergman plays Paula, newlywed wife of the dashing Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer).
Angela Lansbury makes a memorable film debut as the impudent housemaid, and even gets to sing a few bars in her distinctive voice.The foggy streets of Victorian London are effective and atmospheric, and recall other, more famous thrillers like "Dracula" or "Dorian Grey." But unlike those two stories, there's nothing supernatural about "Gaslight." Instead, it's a great psychological thriller, just the right blend of florid melodrama, riveting suspense, and believable human emotion..
Combining the fantastic acting talents of the beautiful Ingrid Bergman and handsome Charles Boyer plus the supreme, intelligent direction George Cukor and a great supporting cast you get Gaslight: a cinematic masterpiece.
Brian decides to look into the goings-on in the Anton house and when he uncovers the mystery, must convince Paula of the truth in order to save her life."Gaslight" is an essential film in the suspense genre; at times it was easy to forget that it was not a Hitchcock film, rather, directed by the masterful George Cukor, a man as known for his romantic comedies as for his melodramas.
Good beat evil at the Academy Awards that year (at least on screen
it was Bing Crosby that won for "Going my Way", but at least he didn't beat his kids until he got home) but Boyer's performance should have won out.There were several suspense films that were released in 1944, (one of them, "The Uninvited" is quite good) but "Gaslight" has a hint of originality to it.
GASLIGHT directed by George Cukor, a director that was more familiar with melodramatic stories of intense female sensibility (consider CAMILLE with Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor), displays a truly engrossing combination of film noir and psychology, something that was still winning widespread acclaim at the time.And the film won two Academy Awards being nominated for seven: Ingrid Bergman as Best Actress and Art Direction.
Berardinelli rightly concludes that hardly any film can match "this picture's intricate psychology."It is nothing but a masterwork in the depiction of Paula Alquist (Ingrid Bergman) being planted the seeds of doubt about her husband and Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer) slowly growing horns of tyranny and greed.
The supporting characters need a special mention as well, primarily Joseph Cotten as Scotland Yard officer Brian Cameron who soon contributes to Paula's way to fresh air, charming luminous humour of Dame May Witty's in the role of Miss Thwaites who finally manages to see the couple, Barbara Everest as Elizabeth and, in her debut role, a newcomer to the screen Angela Lansbury as Nancy.
The basic set-up of the story is that a woman, Paula Alquist (Ingrid Bergman) has lost her closest and dearest relative, a famous opera singer, at a very young age and now, as an adult, returns to the very place of crime with her husband, Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer).
With Oscars for Ingrid Bergman (Best Actress) and William Ferrari (Best Black and White Art Direction) besides a string of other nominations and awards, Gaslight is a must see for all classic movie fans.The plot centers upon the psychological terror exerted upon a woman by her husband whose greed for jewels leads to deception and murder.
It stars Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten and Angela Lansbury.This "Gaslight" has some differences from the British film, in that it switches the connection to the woman murdered in the house where the Antons live from the husband (Boyer) to the wife (Bergman), and the old detective interested in Gregory is now an attractive young detective interested in Paula (though the names are changed here too).
It also gives us a back story as to how the couple met.For reasons of his own (also different in both films) the lovely Paula's new husband, Gregroy, starts slowly driving her mad, accusing her of forgetting things, losing items, and setting her up to be frightful of going out or being social, and when she does, having hysterics so everyone knows she is disturbed.
With a cast including the beautiful Ingrid Bergman, the suave Charles Boyer, and the sophisticated Joseph Cotton (not to mention a very young Angela Lansbury), this film had a lot going for it.
Ingrid Bergman plays Paula, a troubled young woman trying to escape her memories of her aunt's unsolved murder.
Gaslight is the story of a beautiful, innocent woman (Ingrid Bergman) who marries a charming man (Charles Boyer) who tries to drive her insane.
Boasting a lavish, detailed production that perfectly recreates the Victorian era, Gaslight is one of the greatest psychological thrillers ever made, thanks to Bergman's stellar, Oscar-winning performance.If you're looking for everything you've ever wanted to know about horror, mystery, depression, and suspense, go take a peek into Ingrid Bergman's eyes.
Completely believable in George Cukor's Gaslight as a wife whose husband (Charles Boyer) is trying to make insane, Bergman can show you all her turmoil and emotional stress just by looking around.
Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotten and debut of Angela Lansbury.
Perhaps one of the first "pure" psychological thrillers, Gaslight, just like Ingrid Bergman's eyes, contains the perfect blend of mystery, suspense, and beauty.
Perhaps one of the first "pure" psychological thrillers, Gaslight, just like Ingrid Bergman's eyes, contains the perfect blend of mystery, suspense, and beauty.
Paula (Ingrid Bergman) begins to doubt her sanity after she, with her suave new husband Gregory (Charles Boyer), moves back to the childhood home where her beloved aunt had been murdered years earlier.
Charles Boyer is deliciously creepy and evil in this psychological thriller from 1944, and Ingrid Bergman plays the part of his young wife well, slowly tricked into believing she's losing her mind.
Gaslight is a nice little thriller/drama where poor Bergman thinks she's going mad, courtesy of her not so loving husband.It isn't the most original or unpredictable of plots, at least not by today's standards, but it has some nice moments in it.
This is another stand out performance along with Dame May Whitty as Miss Thwaites, an inquisitive neighbour with a taste for murder mysteries who keeps on trying to get into that house where the murder happened.Academy Awards went to Ingrid Bergman and Art Director Cedric Gibbons, while the film was nominated as best picture as was Cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg, Charles Boyer and even Angela Lansbury.
But as the story goes on, and this gaslighting takes place - as this has been coined now due to this film - I bought into Boyer's performance more, as this man who can turn on and off the charm when he needs to, at a whim, and is rapidly making this woman go out of her mind.It's all about, of course, where one puts the blame for things.
She won a richly deserved Oscar for this performance, by the way.This is classic suspense, the kind of material Hitchcock could have had fun with, and in George Cukor's hands is moody at times (watch for the scenes of the London fog, with Boyer walking like someone surely with something to hide), and then also engrossing but in an entertaining way.
Bergman is so Lovable and Quaint Her Abuse, from the outset, Rides the Edge that keeps Sympathies with Her and is in Danger of Losing Not only Her Mind, but the Audience as well.In Fact, both Leads Play the One Note of Good and Evil Continuously for the Long Running Time and Joseph Cotten as a Scotland Yard Investigator Figures Things Out maybe a Reel to Late to Save the Movie from Collapsing under its own Weight of Repetitive Similarity.In Support, Angela Lansbury got the Oscar, as well as Bergman, and is Creepy as can be, but May Witty as the Comedy Relief, like most of the Movie, tends to Grate on the Nerves.Overall, a Must See for Classic Film Fans, the Movie has a Reputation that Cannot be Denied.
A young bride (Ingrid Bergman) and her husband (Charles Boyer) move into the house where her aunt was murdered years before.
Bergman won a "Best Actress" Oscar for her high strung portrayal and Ms. Lansbury got a nomination in her first screen credit.******** Gaslight (5/4/44) George Cukor ~ Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotten, Angela Lansbury.
Not until Brian (Joseph Cotten) appears on the scene does she have any real hope of discovering that something sinister has been in the air.Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer are excellent in the lead roles - Bergman plays the victim well and she is never quite so weak as to be annoying - and it is good to see her fight back at the end.
Joseph Cotten is wonderful as well but he is horribly underused as an American-sounding detective from Scotland Yard who has a strange fascination with Bergman's case.One of the best things about Gaslight is the fact that it shows director George Cukor's ability to go outside his usual sophisticated comedies and melodramas and make a bleak, moody thriller focusing more on the psychological aspects of the main character than the physical actions.
However, my point is not the film itself, but one particular scene-- the drawing room recital at Lady Dalroy's where Paula (Ingrid Bergman) is finally driven to emotional collapse by her fortune-hunting husband Gregory (Charles Boyer).
Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman star in this chilling and creepy drama of a woman slowly driven to madness in her London home - the same house where her aunt was murdered.
The latter also features Ingrid Bergman who won her first Oscar for Gaslight, one of the more atmospheric of the psychological thrillers.Based on the Patrick Hamilton play, this one features terrific lead performances by Ms. Bergman and Charles Boyer, a role quite against type for France's romantic leading man.
Classic suspense tale with Oscar winner Bergman playing the frightened wife of husband Charles Boyer, who is devilishly clever in his performance.
The film contains incredible performances by Ingrid Bergman(who won an Oscar for Best Actress),Charles Boyer,and Angela Lansbury in her film debut.
Bergman won a Best Actress Oscar for her role in GASLIGHT, and she is indeed convincing as a wife terrified she is losing her sanity, in the face of the tricks of her cunning and opportune jewel-thief husband Charles Boyer (remarkably sinister yet attractive).It's an engrossing work for the most part, with great performances by the two leads.
Boyer was also nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, but no one was beating Bing Crosby that year in Going My Way. Joseph Cotten plays the stalwart Scotland Yard inspector and a very young Angela Lansbury has an early part in Gaslight as a tart cockney maid.George Cukor directs it all with a Hitchcock type flair that even the master of suspense would tip his hat to. |
tt0104321 | Gas, Food Lodging | Nora, (Brooke Adams) a waitress with two teenage daughters, struggles to raise them in a trailer park as a single parent after her husband abandons the family. After repeatedly skipping school to go on dates, Trudi (Ione Skye) quits school and gets a job as a waitress alongside her mother. Meanwhile, young Shade (Fairuza Balk) spends most of her time watching the movies of Mexican film star Elvia Rivero (Nina Belanger) and dreams of finding a new boyfriend for her mother.
After being dumped by the boy she was seeing, Trudi meets Dank (Robert Knepper), a British petrologist, at the restaurant where she's working. They eventually sleep together, and she tells him that her promiscuity is caused by the fact that she lost her virginity in a gang rape perpetuated by local boys she knew. Returning home the following night, her mother informs her that she has one month to find a new home.
Shade tries to seduce Darius, a boy she has a crush on, by dressing up in a wig and costume at the suggestion of her sister. After her seduction attempt fails, she runs into Javier (Jacob Vargas), the local projectionist, who teases her over her outfit before giving her a ride home on his bike. Afterwards she sets her mother up with Raymond, a man she found outside the bar, who works as a gravedigger, on a date that goes horribly wrong.
Trudi discovers she is pregnant with Dank's child, but when he fails to turn up, she decides to go to Dallas and give up her child rather than have an abortion. While Trudi is away, Nora begins an affair with Hamlet Humphrey (David Lansbury), a man who installs satellite dishes, and the girls' biological father, John (James Brolin), reappears.
Shade falls in love with Javier and tries to reconnect with her father. Initially disturbed by Hamlet Humphrey, she warms to him after he reveals that he is familiar with the movies of Elvia Rivero and compares Nora to her.
Shade goes up to Dallas with her mother to be there for the birth of Trudi's baby. After giving birth to a daughter, Trudi tells Shade that she'll be staying in the city. On their way home Shade spots a sign advertising day-glo rocks like the one Dank gave her sister. She goes to confront Dank but instead learns that he was killed in an accident while looking for rocks. Walking home, Shade realizes that Dank always loved Trudi and vows to eventually tell her the truth of what happened. | melodrama | train | wikipedia | Allison Anders motivation in making this film may be obscure, but I'm glad she made it.
This, her debut feature, runs like a meandering stream through rivulets of teenage angst and single-mother frustration in small town New Mexico.
Maybe its' the Mexico bit that made this movie seem more foreign than traditional action-based, marketing-oriented, formulaic American movies.I'd heard the term "trailer trash" via Jerry Springer and guests, but this female family of free (alright, forget the alliteration - three) are far from "trash", just down on their luck.
The mother, Brooke Adams is a waitress on a low income trying to bring up her girls; the older one, Ione Skye, discovers through a fraternisation with a gallant, geologically quizzical Englishman (for once, not Hugh Grant), that relationships beat one night stands.Ione's brother, Donovan Leitch, also appears in this film, but it is Fairuza Balk as the younger teenager, who is outstanding.
She wants the best for her mother, which she has difficulty in securing, but her film-buff instincts and a predilection for Spanish movies, enable her to find fulfilment for herself.The movie concludes in a somewhat enigmatic manner without all loose endings tied up.
Our end, like this film's, leave us wanting more..
Brooke Adams and Fairuza Balk.....
I admit I am biased- I have always loved Ms. Adams since "The Dead Zone"...Stephen King at his earliest, and best.This film is quirky and interesting.
Beautiful photography, and a dysfunctional family trying to survive- two young girls living with their disillusioned mother.This film addresses a niche which is not mainstream, but real...disappointed Americans living and working , trying their best, yet opposed by the realities.
One of the best indie films out there!.
I have seen this movie countless times.
Such a great, well-written story brilliantly executed by Anders.
Keen adaptation of Richard Peck's novel "Don't Look and It Won't Hurt", starring Brooke Adams in a terrific performance as the single mother of two headstrong young daughters who hopes for a better existence outside their backwater town in New Mexico, but not knowing just how to go about finding it.
Arty, intriguing showcase for some very fine actresses (Adams, Ione Skye and the inscrutable Fairuza Balk), as well as James Brolin in a small but telling role as the girls' dreamy-quiet, estranged father.
Director Allison Anders, who also adapted the screenplay, does hit an awkward snag or two in exploring these characters' emotions, but her feel for Nowhere U.S.A. is rich with complexity.
Very authentic story with regard to the lack of anything to do in the small desert towns of NM and the constant desire to get the heck out of there either by running away or using your imagination.
Shade is a fantastic character and you will easily fall in love with her.
Wish I heard about it sooner, my husband just remembered it one day when he was telling me how excited everyone was that a movie was being made in Deming.
I absolutely loved this movie.
There's no other way to put it.Great acting from Fairuza and Ione and no matter what anyone says Ione Skye is a fabulous, talented actress.
For a change this film actually had an intelligent screenplay and top quality acting and directing.
Again, I highly recommend the movie especially to women.
It is very inspiring to watch, with superb acting, quiet character building and developing.
The film grabs you and pulls you into a small New Mexico town setting.
I found Fairuza Balk's acting performance particularly compelling.
Such a good movie, such a great Fairuza..
The critics had voted "Gas, food, lodging" as the best movie in 1992 or 1993, I can't remember.
Wonderful movie, a touching Fairuza Balk that appeared to be a future star and ended making small parts or characters too much below her.
It is not only another indie film but a great movie..
A wonderful movie, especially if you want to understand women.
This is a story about a mother and her two daughters, and the personal struggles each go through as they try to be a family.
While the movie is slow-paced, I highly enjoyed the cinematography.
The ages of the three main characters gives a special insight into the difficulties facing women at different stages in their lives..
GAS FOOD LODGING (1992) *** 1/2 Brooke Adams, Ione Skye, Fairuza Balk, Donovan Leitch, Robert Knepper, James Brolin, David Lansbury, Jacob Vargas.
Delightful and at times melancholy story of a single mother raising her troubled daughters as a truck stop waitress.
Directed nicely by Allison Anders, her debut..
This is one of those movies that is often passed over by people who would love it if they watched it.
The cover art and tag line make this movie appear to be a low budget skin flick - which it is not.
This film is touching and beautiful and quirky.
The acting by Balk is spot on and her character is very well developed.
But what really makes this movie so wonderful is the story line.
In the summary of this movie you will hear something like.....Truckstop waitress struggles to raise her two daughters...while this is true, the story is so much more than that.
I suggest anyone who loves quirky movies (like Lawndogs or Box Full of Moonlight) watch this one - just ignore the cover art and rent it already!.
I wish there were more films like this.
Anders, the director, is a very wise person, especially in how she sees human relationships and treats them in this film.
People call this an intelligent film and I'm not saying it's not, but that comment says a bundle about a lot of the other films that have been out there lately, where characters just don't seem human and act more like plot robots, void of any recognizable human feelings or dimensions.
This movie is intelligent because it's very intuitive in its understanding of how most real people relate to one another.
She and the ex play it cool and ironically pretend they don't know each other and by the end of it, the lover comes to understand the mom's maternal love for her daughter and why she can't continue with him as her lover, which is all spelled out without anyone saying anything directly.
Nora (Brooke Adams) is a single mom trying to raise two daughters in a small New Mexico town.
Shade (Fairuza Balk) is a nice girl obsessed with a latina cinema heroine Elvia Rivero.
Trudi (Ione Skye) is rebellious and sexually promiscuous.Director Allison Anders has made a small movie about mother-daughter and sister-sister relationships.
The three female leads have created good compelling characters.
There is one missing element from the movie.
It's basically watching their love lives slowly unfold.
The movie doesn't really have a direction.
The meandering love stories have memorable moments and are compelling..
I liked this film a lot, even if it didn't have a plot.
Ione Skye and Fairuza Balk are really good in this film.
Give this one a shot, you might be surprised.One thing that was disconcerting was the way Allison Anders made this film.
It almost seems like the incidents of the film go day after day, and you really can't tell that time has passed at all.
Allison Anders' unabashedly southern drama Gas Food Lodging concerns Nora (Brooke Adams), a struggling waitress with two teenage daughters, who wants nothing more than the best life for both of them as they live paycheck-to-paycheck in a congested trailer park home.
She is single after her husband abandoned them following the birth of their two daughters, and she is left to raise the rebellious teen Trudi (Ione Skye), who would rather skip school to work alongside her mother and chase boys and the more introverted tween Shade (Fairuza Balk), who wants nothing more than her mother to find true love.Nora's life becomes more complicated when Trudi's disinterest in school is fueled when she meets Dank (Robert Knepper), a British petrologist, who knows the direct way to her impressionable mind.
Trudi's insistence on skipping school, and even work, for Dank leads Nora to give Trudi one month to find a new home.In the meantime, Shade makes an attempt to seduce Darius (Donovan Leitch), a boy from school she has a crush on, by dressing up with a wig and a dress.
However, Shade's main goal of setting her mother up with a halfway decent man comes to fruition when she finds Raymond (Chris Mulkey), a local gravedigger who proves to be more than she bargained for.I can continue on with the plot of Gas Food Lodging, right down to the moment when the end credits roll, but that's not what this review is for.
Gas Food Lodging plays like a more compelling and well-acted soap-opera, predicated on believable locational problems for its characters and real human drama rather than a constant array of dramatic circumstances positioned to provoke "oohs" and "ahhs" from the audience.Beneath its sun-soaked exterior and its desolate landscape is a film concerning the deep, human desire to be wanted.
Anders picks a more vibrant and colorful film about alienation than I've seen in quite some time.
It's a film where the characters don't have to actively march around like they are miserable, self-loathing misfits, but rather, those who feel like making the best of a bad situation whilst trying to find someone they can tolerate who also loves and respects them.
Nora, while never openly admitting it, is trying to find love and acceptance to fill the void of her husband, who kicked it relatively early after the birth of Shade.
She slums and wastes away at a waitress job, making ends meet but compromising her talent and happiness for a paltry paycheck each and every week.Shade, on the other hand, finds solace in old Mexican films.
The only one not looking to find a relationship for herself, Shade represents selflessness and a Jane Austen, Emma-esque character of trying to play matchmaker for her mother in order to kickstart some kind of long lost happiness.
Shade seems to be the kind of person who will strive to make everyone else around her happy, only to tragically look around one day and recognize that she is incomplete in life.Then there's Trudi, the character the film wants us to focus on the most.
Trudi is also the kind of person that has a fear and an inability to cope with being alone with her thoughts, which is why she'll search and try to befriend somebody, regardless of how bad or toxic they may be to her wellbeing, in a romantic way with hopes that she can achieve some kind of connection.Gas Food Lodging is an appropriate title for this film because it deals with the immediate things in conventional American life; we need gas to commute, food to survive, and lodging to thrive and life comfortably.
It's up to you.Starring: Brooke Adams, Ione Skye, Fairuza Balk, Donovan Leitch, Chris Mulkey, Jacob Vargas, and James Brolin.
Directed by: Allison Anders..
Exquisite film.
I had never seen any of Allison Anders films; but from the interviews I looked them up.
Story, cinematography, music - this movie has the whole package.
Each of the actors played their roles to perfection, especially Fairuza Balk, who gave us a brilliantly nuanced performance.
Thank you Allison Anders for this beautiful gift of a film.
Will three feisty women, a single mother and her two daughters, find love and fulfillment in small-town Laramie?
Allison Anders' debut film 'Gas, Food, Lodging' aims at a low-key, indie feel but the characters struggle to acquire more than a single dimension: Brooke Shields makes a reasonable stab at Mum, but the teenage characters are little more than outlines.
The soundtrack has a nice feel but is used to unsubtle effect; the film touches on America's racial divide, but quite shallowly; the teenage fashion on display has period interest for those who remember it at first hand.
This movie is one of Brooke Adams' best films.
Ione Skye and Fairuza Balk showed their talent and deserve much acclaim.A home hitting,tear jerker.I definately could relate to this movie in a sense that home is where the heart is, no matter where your pillow may be..
Gas, Food, Bad Acting.
It's really too bad this movie is marred by poor performances from Ione Skye and Brooke Adams.
In the movie, they are feuding daughter and mother, respectively, and constantly look as though they want to crack up laughing.
Ione Skye did nothing in this movie to convince me that she has the slightest idea how to act.
However, Fairuza Balk did an admirable job of carrying this movie as the younger, wiser daughter who's trying to keep what's left of this tormented family together..
Good performances from the women , but the rest of the cast was greatly underused.Most of the cast- aside of the 3 major women had little or nothing to do or offer.However, I did rent it 3 times over a period of 2 years for some reason and therefor, I find it to be watchable and entertaining - but yes, it's made by and for women for the majority - which is OK...It is a slow moving drama and if you can handle that, you might be able to make it to the end.As nice as nude women are - and I think Ione Skye looked excellent without clothes, I don't feel that there had to be nudity, because the little bit that there was, didn't offer anything to the story..
If you like Fairuza Balk ...
then this is an excellent movie.
FB (in an early role) portrays a young teen in a small southwestern town, discovering herself and falling in love for the first time, and meeting her father who has been absent from her life for as long as she can remember.
Ione Skye also shines as the troublesome (and troubled) older sister with the bad reputation, and FB's ongoing attempts to set up her mother (Brooke Adams) with a nice guy are touching and heartfelt.
I really didn't know why I wanted to see this film.
This does make it the first coming of age film that I have really enjoyed.
On my previous track record of this genre most of them (if not all of them) didn't seem to come across as real characters.Which is where this movie succeeds.
All the characters in this movie feel real, they act like real people in real situations that I can actually see a family going through.Now the plot is that Nora and her two daughters Trudie and Shade live in an uneventful town.
Shade believes in getting a guy for her mother because of old Mexican romantic movies and Trudie is rebellious and stays out for long hours because of dates she has with guys, and she doesn't mind if she has sex with them because her first time was a gang rape.
Nora just wants to keep the family afloat with as little problems as possible.
Over the course of this movie Trudie gets pregnant with a man she believes to be the one (but isn't), Shade meets their father, she also falls in love and learns a few things about herself.Because I usually analyze the stories in reviews, it seems that I have only worked out now that coming of age films are about characters and the series of separate events that create their arcs, not about story.
The character of Shade especially is one that I like and possibly one of my favourite teen-aged characters in film.So would I recommend this movie?
If you can handle a little bit of a slow pace (I am not kidding this is the only thing I see wrong with this movie) and enjoy coming of age films then yes, This is definitely worth it.
If I can find more coming of age films of which a leading character sounds interesting then I will most certainly be watching more..
There is a real story here, clearly understandable and enjoyable by everyone, just give it a chance.Anyone who as a teen has wrestled with grown-up problems can understand clearly what is being told by this movie.Guys, shouldn't be too quick to dismiss this as "a chick flick" because you will be missing an inside to women that can be very informative.And the acting is well done, too.
Brooke Adams is believable as the low income mom trying to cope with her daughters' problems.
Ione Skye puts a whole different view on the "easy girl" we remember for high school.
And Fairuza Bulk puts a nice believable twist on her role as narrator learning about real love..
Why I think every teenage girl in America needs to see this film.
This movie is a must see for any teenage girl.
It has more heart and soul then a lot of movies that I have seen in a long time.
Trudi is a bad girl but when it comes down to it, she will do what is right for her.
Shade is one who you can't understand at first but once you get to know her you can relate.
This movie is worth a 10 because it can show that sometimes no matter what you have to do what is right for you and not the rest of the world.It also shows that if you get caught crying sometimes that it is not always a sign of weakness, sometimes it is a sign that you have just had enough!
Any girl from the age of 13+ should get their best friends and mothers for a girls movie.
Warning: Need to reveal some crucial plot elements, but if you have seen this movie already, please read on.Are there 2 versions of this movie?I swear we saw a version where the little girl and her Latino boyfriend broke up, and I think the satellite guy ran off on her mother too. |
tt0367631 | D.E.B.S. | Four co-eds are about to graduate from a secret academy, where they have been trained since high school to become spies in the paramilitary group D.E.B.S. (Discipline, Energy, Beauty, and Strength). Candidates are selected through a test hidden in the SATs that measures an applicant's ability to fight, cheat, lie, and kill. The team is headed by the somewhat obsessive Max (Meagan Good), who tends to draw her gun at the slightest provocation. The other team members are the prissy and somewhat naive Janet (Jill Ritchie), the chain-smoking and promiscuous French-exchange student Dominique (Devon Aoki), and Amy Bradshaw (Sara Foster), who is doubtful about being a spy, despite the fact that she earned a perfect score on her D.E.B.S. test and is now an honor student at the academy. Amy is considering going to art school in Barcelona after graduation, but Max, who has been her best friend since freshman year, tries to convince her that espionage is more important.As the film opens, Amy has broken up with her boyfriend Bobby, a Homeland Security agent. Her personal life takes a back seat to the re-emergence of Lucy Diamond, a criminal mastermind whom, by coincidence, is the subject of Amy's thesis. The D.E.B.S. are sent by the head of D.E.B.S., Miss Petrie (Holland Taylor), to surveil Lucy Diamond (Jordana Brewster). They arrive at the restaurant Les Deux Amours expecting to witness criminal dealings. Little do they know that Lucy Diamond has simply been set up on a blind date by her chief henchman and best friend, Scud (Jimmi Simpson). She is there to meet an ex-KGB assassin named Ninotchka Kaprova. The date is a disaster. Bobby shows up to confront Amy about their breakup, but accidentally alerts Lucy Diamond to the spies hanging on swings overhead. A shootout erupts, and Diamond escapes in the chaos. The D.E.B.S. follow her, splitting up into two groups with Max and Dominique going one way, and Amy and Janet going the other. Amy and Janet get separated and Amy literally runs into Lucy in a large storage room. They quickly end up in a standoff, with Amy trying to convince Lucy to come quietly. Lucy instead charms Amy (who is surprised to learn Lucy is a lesbian, since none of the material she studied for her thesis revealed this) into lowering her guard and disappears the moment Amy's attention wavers. When the other D.E.B.S. arrive, they praise Amy for being the only federal agent who has ever encountered Lucy and lived to tell about it.Despite Scud's protests ("Not only is she a D.E.B., She's the D.E.B.! She's the perfect score!"), Lucy returns to the squad's residence that night to talk to Amy, with whom she is quite taken. They fight, until Lucy gains the upper hand and forces Amy to go out with her for a night of fun. However, they encounter Janet outside the house. Lucy has no choice but to bring Janet along or risk discovery. They drive to an underground nightclub called 'The Junk Pit', which is reached by driving through holographic barriers disguising it from casual observation. Amy has every intention of sulking in the car, but Janet goes inside to use the bathroom and Amy accompanies her.Inside the club, Lucy notices Amy and convinces her to have a drink. Janet ends up bonding with Scud while Lucy further charms Amy. Lucy is intrigued by Amy's intellect, her breakup with Bobby, and her obvious doubts about being a spy. Amy is fascinated to discover that much of Lucy's deadly reputation has been carefully manufactured and that many if not all of the agents who supposedly died while confronting her actually died from environmental factors like frostbite and Ebola. Lucy senses Amy's attraction and leans in to kiss her only to be interrupted by a shocked Janet and a bemeused Scud.Lucy takes the two D.E.B.S. home. Janet is indignant, claiming that Amy is violating protocol, and is further troubled at learning Amy might be bisexual. Amy blackmails her into silence by reminding her of an incident where Janet "got drunk on peach wine coolers, and nearly got the chancellor of Bulgaria killed" and Amy covered for her. The next day, Miss Petrie meets with Amy and promotes her to squad leader, effectively replacing Max. Max is furious, but must follow Amy as they respond to a bank robbery orchestrated by Lucy.At the bank, Amy and Max bicker over the best approach to rescuing the hostages and capturing Lucy Diamond, who, despite Scud's disapproval, has committed the crime solely for an opportunity to see Amy again. Amy rushes blindly forward and the squad gets trapped inside the bank vault. A chute opens under Amy's feet; she falls out of the vault, leaving the other three behind. Amy arrives in the bank's basement, where Lucy is waiting for her. Meanwhile, the vault has turned into a death trap as the ceiling sprouts large spikes and begins to descend. In the basement, Amy tells Lucy that they cannot be together and gets her to release her squadmates, although, spiked ceiling notwithstanding, Lucy claims her squadmates were never in danger of death, and releases them from the vault. Lucy attempts to cover her interest in order to salvage her pride and turns to leave, but is pulled back by Amy, who can no longer resist her attraction to Lucy. They kiss, and Lucy asks Amy to come with her. The D.E.B.S. arrive in the basement to find Lucy's callsign, diamonds, Amy's tie, and a note spraypainted on the wall reading "I HAVE THE GIRL." They assume Amy has been kidnapped, though Janet seems to know exactly what has happened.Miss Petrie organizes a nationwide manhunt to find Amy while she spends some quality time with Lucy; Janet desperately tried to keep Amy apprised of the situation, but Amy never hears any of Janet's phone messages. Amy shares her art school dream with Lucy, who suggests running off to Barcelona together, where Amy can attend art school and Lucy will rent sailboats to tourists. Lucy and Amy are seen by a jealous Ninotchka, who anonymously tips Max to their location.Lucy and Amy are arguing about their respective professions while the three D.E.B.S. and Bobby close in on Lucy's lair. After a gun battle between Scud and his henchment, they continue onward, and catch the two women in a moment of passion. Mortified, Amy returns to the D.E.B.S and attempts to explain herself. Miss Petrie is ready to exile her, but Max steps in with an alternative to save Amy's reputation and thus prevent the D.E.B.S from looking foolish for having held her in such high academic esteem. Amy will tell everyone that she was brainwashed by Lucy, but that the D.E.B.S. rescued her in the nick of time. Tearfully, Amy agrees to comply. Max is still disgusted with Amy, and Amy finds herself being shunned by her friends for her deception. When the academy headmaster, Mr. Phipps, tries to encourage her on her upcoming graduation, she is further distressed to learn her perfect D.E.B.S. test score meant that she was "a perfect liar."Meanwhile, Lucy does everything she can to win Amy back, returning all the money she has ever stolen and projecting a valentine message into the sky like a Bat-Signal. Finally, she and Scud plan to crash the D.E.B.S. year-end dance, Endgame, where Amy is to be made D.E.B. of the year. At the dance, Lucy gets spotted by security guards and must evade Bobby while Amy gives her speech, unaware of Lucy's presence. Lucy fights her way to the auditorium, where she is just in time to hear Amy publicly condemn her. She is saddened, but catches Amy's eye and smiles hopefully. Amy retracts her entire speech, and admits that the days she spent with Lucy were the best days of her life, before running offstage. She and Lucy find each other in a storage room very like the one in which they first met, and they share another long-awaited kiss. Max, Janet, and Dominique catch up to them, guns raised. But Max has by this time reconciled herself with the fact that her best friend is in love. She lets them go and misdirects Bobby and the security squad so that Amy and Lucy can make their escape. Scud then starts to ask something of Janet, who agrees before he has even finished speaking.The final scene has Lucy and Amy driving off together into the beautiful night. | romantic, entertaining, queer | train | imdb | Yes. Slender girls in microskirts with long hair of course!For those who like tattooed trash or twerking, er, women there are 100 other films (or indeed walk around your downtown) for those who love action and dialogue and eye candy, which is the point of cinema and entertainment, here is a film you need to own on DVD.
Debs I like you ( the show) the have the prettiest clothes and gadgets character plot and it is a special series and I give u good report because of how you made sure that the movie was clean and watchable by all thanks and also how the violence is so much That people may get a freaked out, the drama in this movie is amaZing and how both of them are confused and scared and think That they will won't get serious but sure enough they do, the movie was in a good pace and it did give much fore shadowing for the finish, and will true some scene were in appropriate you made it in a way That 12 yrs can watch and that is something many parents would appreciate though this is strictly not a children's movie because of the lesbianism but that's why this movies is more special because not every romantic movies is about a girl and a grill but the same old but truth be told lesbianism is not a good thug and so since this is like the only movie of its kinda it is really good and amazing once shout outs To you debs.
Well, M.A. Martinez is certainly entitled to his opinion, but I think a different point of view should also be represented on this page:The way I see it, D.E.B.S. is not a re-hash of Charlie's Angels, nor is it trying to be an action movie.
If the Wizard of Oz had given Charlie's Angels 2 a heart, some brains and some courage it might have become a film like D.E.B.S.Set in a secret girl-spy academy, the film is an action comedy romp, made easy on the eye by silly special effects and the uber-short plaid uniforms of the leads.
D.E.B.S. has the same exuberance as the Austin Powers films without the gross-out humor and the characters neatly blend action genre and teen-movie stereotypes.
Just like "Thelma and Louise" would have been a totally different movie with two men, this one breaks ground by being a cheesy, silly, spy spoof for lesbians.
The movie is WONDERFUL- sure, it is as substantial as cotton candy, but it is GREAT to see a summer-blockbuster-type action film that spoofs so manyclichés, never takes itself seriously, and treats its lesbian characters with respect.
Every look, every facial crinkle, every lip curl, every line and every flash of the eye could not be improved one bit whatsoever, period, end of story.But perhaps most of the kudos for this kitchy, catty, silly, lezurely masterpiece should go to Angela Robinson who came up the idea when she was in film school, as she explains in the extra footage on the DVD.
The simple little touches and dialog are what make this movie so worthy of my undying madly in-love-with-ness.Here, as Lucy and Amy are having their first fight, Lucy (the goody two shoes) of the pair tries to justify her existence:"Just because I'm not some bad ass master criminal doesn't mean what I do isn't important" There is line after line which will make you chuckle until you can't chuckle anymore....And when Lucy Diamond wants to turn the continent of Australia to burnt toast with a Dr. Evil style supermegadestructo gun, after she can't have her way with Amy, well, again watchable a hundred or a thousand times over.
But through and on top of it all, is a very clever, touching and believable love story in the midst of all the goofiness, between two incredibly hot women, but the hotness is not in sex scenes, which were deleted to get a PG rating, but in their expressions, conversations, kisses but mostly, in the way their lips and their eyes are used when they are not kissing, but when simply engaged in conversation.I stumbled across this movie on accident on YouTube.
Keep infringing copyrights, Go independent thinkers, writers and fun loving producers and studios for making movies like this come true!!THANK YOU ANGELA ROBINSON!!!
Having just seen "D.E.B.S." at the Chicago Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, I'll tell you that it's been a long time since I've had so much fun at a movie.
Oscar material this movie ain't, but if you're looking for a funny, creative satire with interesting characters and a sweet, tastefully executed lesbian love story, this is the film to see.
The acting is flawless through the majority of the film (these are people who do comedy extremely well, but falter slightly in the face of more dramatic scenes--which, thankfully, there are few), and Jordana Brewster in particular is stunning and subtle in her portrayal of the "criminal mastermind" Lucy Diamond.
Written, directed and edited by Angela Robinson, this film obviously has roots in a comic strip - highly stylised and (no doubt) extensively story-boarded (First it was a comic, then a short).It's an exhilarating ride from the moment it takes off, playing on the action genre and taking the time to laugh at itself.This is a queer film with modernised Disney-like values and is likely to be recognised as one of the first cross-over-to-mainstream queer films.A fun movie with a wonderful cast, witty dialogue and a ripper soundtrack.
Yes. But that's not all, we're also talking a fun, campy movie that's just a hoot to watch and has a sweet love story at it's core.
This movie really focuses on Amy discovering who she is and who she wants to be, Super Spy or Aspiring Artist; and on Lucy growing up, leaving behind her flashy Super Villain career for a less exciting and more rewarding life with someone she loves.
There are three types of folks out there who may have "problems" with the "message" of this film: social conservatives, LGBT activists, and serious cinemaphiles.Social conservatives might object to this movie because of the love story plot line that involves Lucy Diamond (Jordana Brewster) and Amy Bradshaw (Sara Foster).
The love story between Lucy and Amy is about as sweet and inoffensive as can be, think any 80's Teen Film and that's what you've got, so if the fact that you have to see two girls kiss and profess their love for each other bothers you then you really need to re-evaluate your thought process because you've got issues.There are also going to be LGBT advocates who won't think the movie goes far enough to establish it's bona fides as a lesbian film, well that's probably because it's NOT a lesbian film.
Unlike other parodies which poke fun at the American scene without really hitting the mark(like American Dreamz),D.E.B.S is both an extremely funny and light - hearted movie as well as offering a biting critique of American society..
Skimpy school girl outfits and spy movie spoofs suggest a male audience in mind, but the lesbian lead characters lend themselves to female viewers.
It's definitely one of my favorite movies of the year, and I wouldn't mind watching it a few more times.D.E.B.S. begins with 4 girls who work as super spies for the D.E.B.S Academy, and is a witty parody of traditional spy flicks like Charlie's Angels.
The film's also packed with sharp one liners and great caricatures of film stereotypes, like the over-the-top Russian assassin, Ninotchka and the Academy headmistresses (a priceless Holland Taylor).The core strength of the film though, is the sexy romance between the head of the spy team, Amy (Sara Foster) and Lucy (Jordana Brewster).
Even better than the action is the great acting by all the leads and supporting actors.One of the most fun movies of the year, I highly recommend this!
(the movie never really clarifies if the "S" is part of the acronym or if it is to distinguish pluralism): Max, the on-edge African-American girl and squad leader; Amy, the blonde who got a perfect score on the secret portion of the SAT; Janet, the doofus of the group; and Dominique, who you know is French because she is a sex addict, smokes non-stop, and speaks with an accent so obvious that it can almost visible.
So Painful, Even Rampant Short Skirts & Lesbianism Couldn't Redeem It. I was able to only stomach about half an hour of this film before common sense got the best of me and made me press the "Stop" button.It seems the producers had plenty of money to throw at this project, just look at the girls they cast in the various lead roles, but all this ends up being is like a sex-charged female-focused adult version of Spy Kids!
All in all I think the love story was good and I would love to have the opportunity to watch another one of Angela Robinson's movies.
Films like this make me wonder who on earth pays for such inane rubbish or gets paid for writing it.The plot,characters and action are some of the worst that I've ever seen and is almost Keystone Cops meets Laurel and Hardy.
When the movie started I thought "well OK this it just one of those teenage comedy flicks with sexy teenage babes in" so an OK way to waste some time.
After the first 10 minutes I was like "well OK they just need to get some action started and then the movie will be worth watching" and then after 15 the first action scene came, and what a load of crap that was.
It NEVER takes itself seriously, it's VERY colorful, it has strong female characters and it is the FIRST time I've seen a lesbian love story in a very commercial film.
Much like every other film playing at multiplexes nowadays, it just has to have a pop song in each scene (they even dig through the '80s a bit, since teens these days act like they know what '80s culture was like), idiotic postmodern outfits like girls wearing loose-fitting ties over tank tops (wow, how sexy), and of course the obligatory lesbian element that has to permeate everything aimed at the young demographic.
Not a movie for young girls, no role models here, only 4 young ladies with guns, violence, lesbians, smoking, inane dialog and so bad it must be seen to be believed.
Comparing this performance with the one she delivered in "The Big Bounce" and you see that the young lady has acting chops.Jordana Brewster as the "Super Villain" was a joy to watch.Holland Taylor in her limited screen time created a timeless character.
This film starts out as a fun action comedy, with some nice touches (gotta love a plaid forcefield).
but if you into for the story or some thing different then watch this movie it is really really good.
For all the gratuitous shots of girls in schoolgirl kilts, a few decent but ineffectual action sequences, and the general satirical sheen that drapes the movie, there's actually quite a tender love story(albeit, a lesbian one) between a D.E.B.(Amy played by Sara Foster) and Jordana Brewster's 'villainous' character Lucy Diamond that provides the film it's backbone.
This wonderful, romantic lesbian comedy/parody of Charlie's Angels rates 10 stars with me.Both of the lead actresses, while way too thin - a problem besetting a lot of today's actresses are, nonetheless, cute and appealing and do a great job with their roles.The D.E.B.S. are a small group of high school girls, I would guess perhaps seniors, who are a secret crime fighting unit.The head of the D.E.B.S. was actress, Holland Taylor, whom I enjoyed seeing.
The D.E.B.S. receive their orders from Michael Clarke Duncan - an actor who has been one of my favorites ever since I first saw him in The Green Mile with Tom Hanks.Amy Bradshaw,(Sara Foster) cute, blond D.E.B., thinks she's just as determined as the other girls to capture world class criminal, Lucy Diamond, a cute brunette(Jordana Brewster),but after actually meeting her, has different feelings about the matter.Amy has a boyfriend, Bobby (Geoff Stults)but something's missing in their relationship.Lucy has a right-hand man named Scud (Jimmi Simpson), who reminded me quite a lot of another actor I like, Jimmy Spader.
Jordana Brewster who played Lucy Diamond, reminded me of the very pretty brunette lead in the wonderful lesbian film, Desert Hearts.Not to give too much away - Lucy and Amy of course fall for each other--but Amy is trying to remain faithful to her crime-fighting vows.
Call me a dirty old man, but I have to admit that at first I wanted to see this movie because of the beautiful Jordana Brewster and the lesbian affair she has in the story.
So even though she has made her $4MM production look better technically than mega-expensive stuff like "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", "Taxi", and "Charlie's Angels", you won't see it unless you buy or rent the DVD."D.E.B.S." is not only technically better that its genre mates, it is a significantly superior story (i.e. not brain-dead and moronic) and actually incorporates moments of humor and charm.But for a modest budget original film to get good distribution it must totally take off in the markets of its limited release.
The movie is WONDERFUL- sure, it is as substantial as cotton candy, but it is GREAT to see a summer-blockbuster-type action film that spoofs so many clichés, never takes itself seriously, and treats its lesbian characters with respect.The writer/director Angela Robinson spoke at the screening and indicated that the film will get a theatrical release, but the distributor is having trouble marketing the film because they don't know which market to target- teenagers, gays, etc.In short, if you think this campy action film will appeal to you GO SEE IT in its opening weekend (to be announced) to send a message to the studios that taking a risk on an unusual, fun film like this was well worth it.Oh, and the music is great too!
This movie was pretty funny the only actress that was in it for the short was jill ritchie but the new actresses that played amy and lucy did great the love story was done real well (for those of you that havent seen the short I wont spoil anything for you) Basically its your typical popcorn flick but its funnier than most of the movies out now go see it when it comes out you wont be dissapointed..
It's sincere, has a true plot about love behind, and I really liked the relation between Lucy and Amy, since the first moment they looked into their eyes, you can tell how love flooded them, and I thought that was a sweet and funny scene, the first encounter, and it "made me cry" when they just met again the same way in the last scene.This also shows the stereotype of forbidden love.
I loved it enough to buy the DVD now I want the soundtrack we need more movies like this in my opinion.
yeah it pokes fun at other movies, great cast, incredibly sexy actresses I wasn't bored I really got into the characters and I was wishing the story would keep on going.
Anyways great movie and definitely worth a rent if you want a good action film and a good laugh!!!.
I didn't find one line in this movie funny or even "cute." With the exception of the Lucy and Amy characters, I have seen better acting on Gilligan's Island.
to be honest, when i heard of the film i didn't sound so good,but then one day i watched it and changed my mind.apart from it being a very sweet story of two people who are in completely opposite sides of the law falling in love against all odds, the two leads (amy and Lucy) are really really hot and make it so the much better.
She has written, directed and edited a spectacular film.This is an extremely enjoyable action/comedy that will make many gay teenagers happy (myself included) since it presents an amazingly believable lesbian love story between the two main characters, played by the two incredibly talented and beautiful actresses Sara Foster and Jordana Brewster.But let's not forget it is also a comedy and a very good one too.
Director Angela Robinson proved her mettle by writing both a convincing and endearing love story, and also by creating a movie that looks visually appealing on a 4 million dollar budget.Jordana Brewster and Sara Foster are no pushovers either.
But I got what I want for a good movie: witty lines, awesome acting, bittersweet love stories, and sexy actors, did I say sex actresses and actors.
But in the end, its all about a lesbian love story, that doesn't appeal to the male public, and seems aimed to teenagers.Poor acting, especially by Meagan Good, and the complete lack of script makes this movie one of the worst i've ever seen.Seriously, even if you are lesbian, the only way you could actually like it, would be if you had the mentality of a 14 year old.
At first glance the movie may seem like a spy comedy but after the first 20 minutes or so the real story begins.
Not only is the movie well written, its funny,enlightening and the romance is just SO darn so sweet.Also 'Lucy Diamond' looks incredibly hot in every scene so if not for the story line, watch it for the eye candy.
This is the kind of movie to watch if you really feel like relaxing, no thinking and no stressing, but need to have some laughs.
The dialog , I found to be perfect.This movie had comedy, romance and action all mixed into one to produce one great film.
Therefore I don't think this movie can even have any audience, as it is unfit for little girls to watch, but girls over 12 won't like it because of its immaturity. |
tt3824386 | Lava | This Pixar short opens with a scene of a giant, male volcano in a Hawaiian bay. The music and song began. this sad volcano watches two sea turtles and other pairs in love and wishes for someone too. Then he looks to the sky and sing" I have a dream I hope it will come true that you're here with me and I'm here with you. I wish that the earth, sea and the sky up above-a will send me someone to lava", as he envisions two volcanoes together in the clouds.
As the story goes on he loses hope and lave. He is shown drying up and sinking into the sea. Then far below him is a female volcano who has been listening to his song. She emerges from the depths of the sea but can't find him. So she sings his song and his lava returns and he comes back above the sea. They sing a new song as they hold each other forever. "I have a dream I hope it will come true" She:"That you'll grow old with me" He: "And I'll grow old with you" Both: "We thank the earth, sea and the sky we thank too
I lava you.
I lava you.
I lava you."
blogmonstermike.word press.com | romantic | train | imdb | This short film alone is more than enough reason to go see Inside Out.When I went to the theater to see Inside Out tonight, little did I realize that the best part of my evening would be when they showed the short, Lava, before the feature film.
However, like Inside Out, I doubt if Lava will resonate very well with small children, as its intended audience appears to be adults.The short is very simple--as you'd expect in a short film.
It consists of the most adorable volcano in history singing a love song--hoping that perhaps a girl volcano will answer his call.
The bottom line is that this is one terrific short and more than reason enough to arrive at the theater with plenty of time to spare so you don't miss a moment of this lovely film..
My only complaints are that I have no where to download the song, and l have to wait for the next Pixar Short Films Collection.
This was a cute little short that actually really surprised me in may ways.
Lava: Quaint but weaker than the average Pixar short.
Lava tells the story of a lonely volcano, yep really.
Don't get me wrong Lava is good, it has your usual Pixar charm and hits you right in the feels but it just didn't have "It" whatever "It" may be.If I saw two one man bands competing for the attention of a little girl to get a shiny gold coin (One Man Band: 2005) I'd laugh and cheer, if I saw a magician trying to keep his unruly rabbit in check (Presto:2008) I'd be in hysterics, if I saw a baby bird brave the new world I'd d'awww (Piper:2016) but I can confidently say if I saw a singing volcano I'd run screaming in soggy trousers (It'd be sweat I swear).Sweet, heartfelt, but a lonely singing volcano really?.
Lava is a charming short animation from Pixar.The story is simple, a volcanic mountain in the middle of the ocean is singing for companionship.
A female lava or should I say lover.As the centuries turn into millenniums then into millions of years, the lonely volcano is sinking beneath the sea in extinction but right at the bottom for all this years was a female volcano who forever has been enchanted with his song who rises out from the bottom of the ocean just as he dips beneath it.Can the old volcano make his lava stir one more time and find true love?A simple, elegant original cartoon with a catchy song and wonderful animation..
Lava is a great short film with a well developed story and a terrific voice cast.
The film manages to tell a very sweet story in the space of less than ten minutes, and also within this small amount of time it takes place over hundreds of years, it's very impressive how a short film can do that and we feel a genuine connection for this talking volcano and want him to succeed in his dream.
As far as Pixar's short films go, this isn't one of the greats, I would normally find myself given these shorts a rating of nine, but Lava is missing that magic that is evident in shorts such as Day & Night and For the Birds, and it simply isn't as memorable.
The voice acting is outstanding, there are only two voices heard in this movie, which is quite rare for a Pixar short, their singing is beautiful and perfectly conveys the overall ton and message of the film, to never give up on your dreams.
It's not Pixar's finest short, but Lava is a fun and a very sweet seven minutes that will warm you up for Inside Out, definitely worth the watch.
We saw this short before "In & Out" just a day after returning from a vacation in Hawaii, where my 11 year-old daughter learned to play the Ukulele.
When the music started and the story unfolded, we looked at each other and gave the "Thumbs Up" sign, really enjoying this short.
The Pixar artists did a great job in capturing the serenity and calmness of the Hawaiian island spirit of nature.
I hope this will become available for sale soon!Pixar - thank you for something different that has a valuable message: in the vastness of the natural world, what we have here on Earth is special, and finding someone to share our hopes and dreams is an amazing event worthy of our best hopes, dreams, and inspired creativity..
Lava is the short story of a volcano who wishes to find someone to love like the animals that surround him.
Luckily each time the short reaches this point, something happens to change the status quo and mildly peaks interest again.Lava is definitely not Pixar's best.
Still, Lava is definitely not Pixar's worst either, giving a story that really is sweet and showing us familiar objects from a different point of view as only Pixar can..
Extremely Charming and Beautiful to Look At. Lava (2014)*** 1/2 (out of 4) Exceptionally entertaining Pixar short has a volcano singing about "lava" and how he wishes he had someone to spend time with.
Over millions of years we learn that there's a volcano under the water who has heard him the entire time.
As you'd expect, the actual animation is really wonderful and I'd argue that some of the studio's best work can be found here including a brilliant sequence where we see the volcano over thousands of years.
This film really does a great job at showing this love story through the ages and I think parents will enjoy it just as much as children..
A short musical involving one volcano helplessly falling in love with another volcano with the assistance of picturesque illustrations and on screen lyrics.
This short tells a love story that ends up in a happy manner.
'LAVA': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)Another Pixar computer-animated short; which preceded 'INSIDE OUT' in theaters.
It tells the story of a volcano, on a tropical island in the Pacific, that's lonely and dreams of love.
The male volcano continues to vent lava, in sadness, and sink as well; while the female volcano grows stronger, from hearing his song.
The short is 7-minutes long and was directed by James Ford Murphy (a veteran Pixar animator).
The song, sung by the volcano, is also titled 'Lava' and was written by Murphy as well (it's also featured as a bonus track on the 'INSIDE OUT' soundtrack).
Once again the animation is beautiful to watch (like all Pixar shorts) and the story is moving.
It's a beautiful little short, but it's probably not Oscar worthy; like a lot of Pixar is.Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://youtu.be/3LSix0bykDQ.
Well if 'Inside Out' wasn't a good enough film to begin with the short that accompanies it is just as good.Well done to Pixar, who consistently produce these lovely little films before the main feature, and also make them to such a high standard.This one has all the qualities that Pixar strive for within their feature films.
I smiled through the whole thing, it was heart warming , and put just a little bit of kindness & love in the hearts of those watching.
After reading a lot of mixed reviews for Lava, from those who really loved (or shall we say 'lavad' it) and from those who consider it Pixar's worst short film.
Lava is not one of my favourites from Pixar, and is perhaps one of their weaker short films (a contrast from seeing it with one of Pixar's best, and their return to form, Inside Out), but it is still very sweet and touching as well as well-made so it's still a winner.The only real problem for me with Lava was the song.
It is a lovely, beautifully sung and well-meaning one, and fits nicely within the short (also did like how the story was told through the song), but felt a touch overlong and repetitive, which dragged the pace a tad and one does wish that there was a little more story, while effectively simple it was like a lot of attention went into the song and it dominated everything else.
However as always from Pixar the animation in Lava is wonderful, the character designs of the lover volcanoes are appealing but even better are the vibrant colours, gorgeously rich backgrounds and the nature surrounding visuals.
The time elapse of a thousand years on the volcano is a visual masterstroke and very cleverly done.No matter how slight or predictable the story is, it is difficult to deny how truly sweet and touching it is, it really resonated with me emotionally.
The characters are very cute and it was easy to feel their charming romantic chemistry, while the singing voices are beautiful and soulful which does help to give the song, no matter whether you like it or not, the emotion it does clearly have.
All in all, an above-decent short film from Pixar, if not one of their best, almost did 'lava' it.
This animated short video tells the story of two volcanoes in Hawaii, who long for each other.The story is delivered using relatively static images, and through a beautiful song.
It's a beautiful animated ukulele love song.
(Pele: Pronounced "peh-leh." Meaning 'lava.' Pele is the name of the Volcano Goddess).His name could have been something like "Oha" (welcome, love, greet, fondness, affection), "Oli" (a chant), or even better yet "Mele" (to produce harmonious sounds with one's voice; to sing).I like the idea of bringing new Hawaiian vocabulary to people as well.
For those of you who are going to see Inside Out, this is the short that will accompany the actual movie.
Just saw Lava with Inside Out and absolutely loved it!
It starts as a beautifully written tropical island song about a lonely volcano watching love grow in all its forms in nature as he pines for his own love.
A big old male volcano longs for love and sings his feelings but almost becomes extinct, trying to keep his hope alive in his isolation.
Unbeknownst to him, a beautiful female volcano submerged in the sea nearby falls in love with his voice and his story.
I don't get the point of Lava, it's a short film for the fabulous Inside Out, but this short is a joke, a Volcano making love With another Volcano, what, here's why this is the worst Disney short film yet.The short follows a Volcano back 1 million years ago sings a song about when he will find someone he will love, then a lot of days later, a female Volcano comes up from the sea and the male Volcano gets his prize, a Volcano to love, that's basically i can sum up this Garbage.The animation is good, but not Incredible, With creepy designs and weak Development time, the song that Plays through this 7 minute short is too sad to be true, it's creepy and unfitting, especially With a talking Volcano, seriously.The concept is the worst in a short ever, i even thought that awful Blue Umbrella short was better than this, the only good thing about Lava is when Inside Out finally starts, i was confused for the entirety of the short.Lava is a weak but decent short film, animation, song and concept is terrible.4/10.
Also, the "male" island looks ancient while the "female" island appears youthful and beautiful...this is just creepy.Disney prides itself in great stories and clever characters, even in their shorts.
The upside,the fact that everything works out in the end, nobody is lonely and everybody finds their lava is bliss and it leaves you happy and warm on the inside..
Lava is another wonderful Disney/Pixar computer animated short.
Before the Disney/Pixar feature Inside Out, this short by them appeared.
It concerns a male volcano who sings of wanting someone to love as he witnesses various creatures with significant others.
I'll just now say this was a very enjoyable short with all those images and the singing and, well, I'll just now say that Lava is very highly recommended..
Basically, an old volcano falls in love with one a third his age that appears out of the water.
But then they end up next to each other and sing, "I lava you."Now, tell me--why is something 60 years old (or at least looks sixty in human form, much older in thousands of years) in love with a twenty-year-old?
Even though they're volcanoes, which are thousands of years old, he's still three times older than her.
Like another said, sweet and heartfelt, but a singing volcano?.
Lava is a beautiful allegory for how a lonely old man can be rejuvenated by the companionship of a very attractive and much younger woman.Uke, the male volcano, spends his life singing about how lonely he is and wishes for the universe to send someone for him to "lava" (a pun for "love").
They sing about growing old together, in spite of the established fact that Uke is significantly older than Lele.On the other hand, it is followed by a film (Inside Out) about a young girl with agency and a relatively sophisticated understanding of her life.
When I took my niece to go see "Inside Out" As the previews run their course we thought along with everyone in the theater thought the movie was about the start.But low behold we were greeted with this short little movie called "Lava".
My niece and I look at each other surprised and thrown off by this little feature that came on but actually it was a nice surprise to have a short little animation feature before the movie started kind of like a double feature which I think all Disney movies should have more of with their movies in the animation and family side of course.
The movie tells a love story about a Volcano called Uku (Voiced by Kuana Torres Kahele) who sings every day for a thousand years to a female volcano named Lele (Voiced by Napua Greig).
I'm trying to keep it spoiler free because the only way to fully understand the story is by watching it on screen with "Inside Out" but the movie itself is really a nice little surprise and unexpected because when you think you're about to watch the movie you paid to see you get a special bonus.
The animation in this short is really amazing and superb as Pixar once again show case their animated talents and they really did a wonderful job as everything from the design of the volcano to the ocean is very well done and shows just amazing animation can be done if you do it right.
The Song they sing in the movie to tell the story is quite surprising how they created such a interesting song for the short Overall Lava is a nice surprise and really smart of Disney/Pixar part to have play with "Inside Out" like a few say it's reason enough to go watch "Inside out".I give Lava an 9 out of 10.
Not as good as the usual Pixar shorts.
A lonely volcanic island sings a song of hopeful love over the years: just as he goes extinct and sinks below the surface, a new volcano arises, inspired by his song: but will they ever be together?
Lava is the Disney/Pixar short which accompanies Inside Out. It is, as usual, visually beautiful but, for me, it falls quite a long way short of the usual standard of these short films: it is trite and obvious, and contains little of real substance other than its visuals.
I was also not terribly amused by the conflation of "love/lava" in the song lyrics.Sorry to be out of step on this one..
On the same level as the film it preceded with a lovely song throughout.
I saw this film at the cinema when it was shown right before Inside Out and I found it surprising since I forgot about it for a while.The song is lovely and it impeccably tells the story of the cleverly-named Uku and Lele, the two volcanoes who find love.
While the animation is simple for a Pixar short the area surrounding the volcanoes is lush and vibrant.
Uku is rich in detail while Lele is beautiful and although this short has received criticism for somehow depicting a relationship between an older man and a younger girl the relationship between these characters is sweet if basic and purposefully doesn't catch on until the end.Overall this is a lovely Pixar short that isn't on par with Day and Night and One Man Band but the relationship between the volcanoes is adorable and the song is its most memorable feature.
"Lava" is a 7-minute short film that was screened already about a year ago at festivals, but its real release was together with Pixar's new "Inside Out".
And I must say Pixar delivered again in terms of this short movie.
Together with this wonderful love story once again, comes a beautiful song that fits the atmosphere perfectly and the two singers do a really fine job.
And it's not just the volcanoes falling in love.
This short animated film is included as an "extra" on the "Inside Out" DVD.
It is just about 7 minutes long.In essence it is a 7-minute song, wanting someone to "Lava Me." The elapsed time has to be millions of years because first we see the male volcano in the sea, sitting proudly and high, but as time passes he sinks lower and lower.In the meantime there is a pretty female undersea volcano waiting to erupt, and rise above the sea, but only as the other one continues to sink.In the end they are both above the sea, next to each other, each with someone to "Lava Me."The singing and harmony are done very nicely. |
tt2184339 | The Purge | In 2014, the New Founding Fathers of America, a totalitarian political party portraying themselves as successors to the Founding Fathers of the United States, are voted into office following an economic collapse and pass the 28th Amendment which sanctions an annual national civic tradition called "The Purge," the first of which takes place in 2017. The Purge occurs for 12 hours, from 7 p.m. March 21 to 7 a.m. March 22, during which all crime is legal and all police, fire, and medical emergency services remain unavailable. Restrictions prohibit government officials "ranking 10" from being disturbed, as well as the use of all weapons above Class 4 (explosive devices such as grenades, rocket launchers, and bazookas). Violation of Purge rules results in a summary execution by hanging. The Purge has resulted in unemployment rates plummeting to 1%, low crime, and a strong economy.
On March 21, 2022, James Sandin (Ethan Hawke), a top salesman for elaborate security systems designed specifically for Purge Night, returns to his home in an affluent Los Angeles gated community to wait out the night with his wife, Mary (Lena Headey), and their two children, Zoey (Adelaide Kane) and Charlie (Max Burkholder). The family is assured that the security system manufactured by James' company will keep them safe. Their neighbors attribute the size and fittings of the newly extended Sandins' house to his success in selling security products to them for Purge Night.
While the family awaits the start of the Purge, Zoey meets her boyfriend Henry (Tony Oller), an older boy whom James dislikes. James enables the security system, and as the Purge begins, the family disperses in their home to go about their normal routines.
Zoey returns to her room to unexpectedly find Henry, who managed to sneak back in before the security system was engaged, and says that he plans to confront her dad about their relationship. Meanwhile, Charlie watches the security monitors, and sees a wounded man (Edwin Hodge) calling for help. He temporarily disables the system to allow the man into the house. James races to re-engage the system and holds the man at gunpoint as Henry comes downstairs and pulls a gun on James. Henry fires at James and misses, but James fires back, mortally wounding and eventually killing Henry. During the chaos, the wounded man disappears and hides. James takes Mary and Charlie back to the security control room.
As James reprimands Charlie for letting the man into their home, they view over the surveillance cameras, where they witness a gang of masked young adults armed with guns, axes, and hammers arriving to the front lawn. Their leader (Rhys Wakefield) unmasks himself, compliments the Sandins on their support of the Purge, and then tells them that if they fail to surrender the man, they will be forced to "release the beast," implying they will forcefully enter the house and kill everyone inside. Mary asks James if the security system will help protect them, but James admits the system is essentially a security theater—it is only supposed to discourage potential invaders and would not actually protect them against heavy force. They decide to find the man and give him to the Purge gang outside, but after capturing the man, they realize they are no better than the gang waiting outside. They decide to spare the man, and defend themselves against the gang.
With their deadline having passed, the gang uses a truck to rip the metal plating off the front door, and enter the house. As the family fights against the gang, Charlie views the surveillance cameras, and notices their neighbors leaving their homes. The neighbors overpower and murder the gang, though James is mortally wounded by the gang leader in the battle. Elsewhere, Mary is subdued by two Purgers, one of whom tickle tortures her before almost killing her, but are both killed by the neighbors. As the gang leader prepares to kill the remaining Sandins, Zoey appears and kills him.
Mary thanks their neighbors for their support, but one of them, Grace Ferrin (Arija Bareikis), reveals their hatred for the Sandins due to their wealth acquired by the money the neighbors paid the Sandins with for various security products. They tie Mary, Charlie, and Zoey up with duct tape, pulling them out into the hallway to kill them. But as the neighbors make final preparations for the murder, the man re-appears, kills a neighbor (Tom Yi) with a Browning Hi-Power and holds Grace hostage, forcing the neighbors to free the Sandins. He asks if Mary wishes to kill the neighbors, but Mary spares them. Eventually, the sirens go off, announcing the end of the Annual Purge. The neighbors leave, and Mary thanks the man for his help, which he appreciates and bids the Sandins farewell.
News reports later state that this year's Purge is the most successful to date. | suspenseful, neo noir, murder, violence, satire, revenge | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1104001 | Tron | 1989: Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), now CEO of ENCOM, tells his seven year-old son, Sam (Owen Best), about his adventures in the Grid, a completely digital world within the Tron computer system that Flynn created. Flynn explains to Sam that, with his counterpart Clu (Jeff Bridges, body performance; John Reardon) - the second of a Codified Likeness Utility modeled after Flynn - and the security program Tron (Bruce Boxleitner), he discovered something amazing within the Grid; a miracle. Sam asks what it is but Flynn holds the story for next time before putting Sam to bed and going to work. A series of newspaper articles and television reports follow announcing the mysterious disappearance of Kevin Flynn after that night. Since the passing of Sam's mother (Amy Esterle) several years prior, Flynn's absence leaves him effectively orphaned and puts ENCOM's future in a state of jeopardy. Sam is left to stay with his paternal grandparents (Donnelly Rhodes and Belinda Montgomery), questioning the nature of his father's disappearance.20 years later, Sam (Garrett Hedlund) rides his motorcycle through the night streets towards ENCOM tower. He hacks into the building and evades security cameras as he makes his way upstairs. Meanwhile, a board meeting is being held where Richard Mackey (Jeffrey Nordling) presents the new OS-12, a secure operating system. When Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) inquires about improvements to the system, given the high prices already charged, young Edward Dillinger II (Cillian Murphy: uncredited) says that the idea of sharing software for free disappeared with Kevin Flynn. Sam breaks into the control room and swaps out the OS-12 master file so that when Mackey attempts to run it, all he sees is a repetitive video of Sam's dog Marv (a Boston terrier). Sam smirks as he passes the boardroom, followed closely by a security guard (Dan Joffre). When Mackey angrily asks where the master file is, Bradley announces that it's on the web.The security guard, Ernie, chases Sam onto the rooftops where Sam reveals his true identity as the largest shareholder of the company before he leaps off the edge of the building. He parachutes safely to the ground but gets snagged on a traffic light and is soon arrested by police. Sam makes bail and returns home; a shipping container refitted as an apartment and overlooking the city skyline across the river, including ENCOM tower. Bradley visits Sam, commending him on his latest prank, apparently an annual event that Sam performs on the day of his father's disappearance. Bradley tells Sam that he recently received a page from Flynn's office above his arcade, a number that hasn't been in use for 20 years. Sam reluctantly follows the tip and heads to the arcade. There he finds a secret doorway behind his father's Tron arcade game which leads him down a passage and into a confined control room. Sam sits at the computer to find that it still works and searches through it for information. However, he unknowingly activates a large laser behind him which emits a digitizing ray, sending him straight into the Grid. Shocked at the sudden change in environment, Sam stumbles outside the arcade where he is quickly picked up by a Recognizer. The programs on board restrain him and the Recognizer takes off again.Sam comes face to face with other captive programs, including one that nervously chatters (Christopher Logan) and one missing half his face (Kis Yurij). They are all taken to the edge of the Gaming Grid where they are assigned either for derezzing or games. Sam watches as the nervous program is assigned to the games but, once free, plunges himself into an in-ground fan, derezzing himself. Sent to the armory, Sam's clothes are removed by Sirens (Serinda Swan, Yaya DaCosta, and Elizabeth Mathis) and is fitted with armor and an Identity Disc. The last Siren, Gem (Beau Garrett), instructs Sam to survive before he is led out onto the gaming grid for Disc Wars. He is pitted against an opponent (Allen Jo: uncredited) whom he manages to defeat before trying to escape the arena. Sam comes out on the final round to face Rinzler (Anis Cheurfa) who quickly subdues him. When he sees blood on Sam's armor, Rinzler recognizes him as a user and faces him towards a viewing box above the arena where the watching authority figure asks Sam to identify himself. The figure then summons Sam to see him where he reveals himself as a youthful Kevin Flynn. Amazed to see his father, Sam asks if they can go home, but his request is denied. His 'father' then reveals himself as Clu and, after seeing nothing of note on Sam's Disc, sends him to the Lightcycle arena.Clu's right-hand man, Jarvis (James Frain), entices the crowd before Sam is put on a team of programs while Clu battles them with his own team. One by one, the racing programs are eliminated while a mysterious figure watches overhead. Before Sam and Clu can face off, the figure intervenes with a Light Runner and blasts a hole out of the arena, escaping off-Grid into the Outlands where other programs' vehicles cannot follow. The figure introduces herself as Quorra (Olivia Wilde) and takes Sam out to a secluded home situated on a craggy hilltop. Inside, Sam is tearfully reunited with his real father who had been meditating upon Sam's arrival. Quorra shows Sam that Flynn has been teaching her about the real world before they all sit down to dinner. Sam and his father catch up before Flynn answers Sam's biggest question: why he never came home.Flynn reveals that, as Sam now knows, when he went to work he was really entering the Grid, working with Tron and Clu on creating the 'perfect system'. The 'miracle' that Flynn spoke of before disappearing was the birth of the ISO's; isomorphic algorithms that spontaneously evolved from the Grid without user intervention and with properties that Flynn had never seen before. Their makeup included bio-digital genetics that Flynn was convinced would change the world. However, Clu saw them as imperfections. Tasked by Flynn to create the perfect system, Clu performed a coup, ambushing Flynn and Tron and taking over the system. Tron was presumably derezzed and Flynn was forced to flee into the Outlands while the ISO's were destroyed, an event known as the Purge. The portal - the only way out of the Grid - saw the end of its millicycle window (8 hours in the Grid; just 30 seconds in the real world - which means Flynn's absence of 20 years equated to nearly 20,000 years) and closed on Flynn, leaving him trapped. With Sam's arrival, the portal is open again and Sam argues that they have time to escape, but Flynn refuses. He explains that it's a move that Clu anticipates in hopes of retrieving Flynn's identity disc to use to manipulate the portal. Flynn is also certain that it was Clu who sent the page to Alan.Understanding Sam's frustration, Quorra goes to him in his room and tells him about a program in the city named Zuse who used to help the ISO's during the Purge and may be of some help. Sam takes Flynn's vintage Lightcycle into the city where he trades it for a cloak. However, he's recognized by the Siren Gem who takes him to Zuse's End of Line Club where a large party is being entertained. There, he meets the eccentric Castor (Michael Sheen) who promises to take Sam to Zuse.After finding Sam gone, Flynn resolves to head into the city though Quorra assures him that she sent Sam to someone they could trust. Regardless, they head out as Clu's guards locate Flynn's Lightcycle and trace it to the point of origin. Clu prepares a group and flies out to Flynn's home to find it empty. As he looks around, Clu recalls when he was first created and how Flynn promised that they would change the world together. The thought makes him furious.Sam, meanwhile, is taken by Castor to a private room above the party while the masked DJ's (Daft Punk) spin a tune. Castor reveals to Sam that he *is* Zuse but admits that his services have turned with the tide. At that moment, the club is infiltrated by Clu's guards and Sam steps out to fight them. Quorra arrives and fights along Sam but is overpowered and her left arm is derezzed. Flynn then appears and derezzes the rest of the guards before escorting Sam, carrying Quorra who has gone into a state of shock, to the elevator to escape. Zuse propels an extension cord to capture Flynn's Disc as the elevator doors shut and sabotages the lowering mechanism. Flynn manages to slow the elevator before they crash and scolds Sam for 'messing with his Zen thing, man'. They decide to then board a Solar Sailer which should take them directly to the portal.Clu arrives at the club where Zuse presumes a silent agreement: Flynn's Disc for control of the city. But, as he and Gem watch, Clu orders his guards to rig the place with bombs and, as Clu leaves in his ship, the tower explodes.As they ride the Solar Sailer, Flynn takes Quorra's Identity Disc and rearranges the corrupted material that will enable her arm to regenerate. He also shows Sam that Quorra is an ISO; the very last one. Her digital readout shows that she has triple-stranded DNA. "Bio-digital jazz, man." Flynn then leaves Quorra with Sam to reboot so that he can 'knock on the sky and listen to the sound'. Quorra wakes up moments later and tells Sam that Flynn saved her during the Purge. They bond further and Quorra asks more about the real world. Sam tries to describe to her what the sun looks like as Flynn looks on, smiling. Suddenly, the Solar Sailer intersects the Rectifier, a large carrier ship. Flynn, Quorra, and Sam hide among the cargo units of the Sailer and discover that programs are encased within, en route to be reprogrammed into an army for Clu. Rinzler then appears and begins to investigate the Sailer. Flynn suddenly recognizes Rinzler as his old friend, Tron; reconfigured as Clu's henchman. Quorra gives Sam her disc and runs into Rinzler's line of sight where she is immediately captured and taken away.Flynn and Sam use Quorra's distraction to move out. They find Clu giving an announcement to his army. With Flynn's disc in his possession, he intends to use it to allow passage into the real world where they may 'perfect' it. Flynn and Sam agree to a plan and split up. Clu goes to his tower where Flynn's disc is stored. There, Quorra is brought to him and, when he sees that she is an ISO, claims that he has something special in mind for her. Flynn makes his way to the Light Jet hangar where he reprograms a guard, allowing him to access one of the vehicles. Meanwhile, Sam makes his way to Clu's docking tower to rescue Quorra and retrieve Flynn's Disc. He fights off the guards there and intimidates Jarvis, allowing him to retrieve Flynn's Disc. Rinzler confronts him, holding Quorra as a hostage, but Sam fights him off and defeats him by knocking him off the edge of the tower. Sam takes Quorra and leaps off the tower, using a wing-like parachute to glide to the ground. They meet up with Flynn in his Light Jet and Quorra takes the pilot's seat.Clu storms into the tower to find Rinzler, having climbed back from the ledge, and Jarvis looking sullen. As he watches Flynn's Light Jet leave the carrier, he strikes down Jarvis with his Disc and leaps out of the tower, creating his own Light Jet. Rinzler and a few guards follow. As they fly over the Sea of Simulation, Sam is sent to the Light Jet's turret to fire on their pursuers. Rinzler flies over the Light Jet and he and Flynn make eye contact for the first time. Flynn speaks out to him and the connection allows Rinzler to regain his memories of being Tron. He turns against Clu, crying out "I fight for the users!" However, Clu wins out on the battle, sending Tron sinking into the Sea of Simulation, his armor circuitry changing from red to blue.Flynn asks Quorra to do something for him just before they arrive at the portal. As they walk up the pathway, they find Clu standing before them. Clu confronts Flynn and insists that all he was trying to do was what Flynn instructed him to. Flynn apologizes to Clu and says that perfection is impossible because it's unknowable; but Clu would not know that because Flynn didn't when he created him. This revelation incites Clu to attack Flynn who yells at Sam and Quorra to continue to the portal. Though determined not to lose his father again, Sam is pushed forward by Quorra. Clu takes Flynn's Disc and reads it to see that it's actually Quorra's; Flynn had swapped his with her before arrival. Infuriated, Clu jumps the gap between the gate and the portal but Flynn performs reintegration; a destructive method of rejoining Clu to him. Flynn watches tearfully and with pride as Sam holds his Disc into the portal. He says, "Goodbye, kiddo" before Clu is merged with him. Sam and Quorra escape the Grid just before the union which results in a massive explosion that destroys it.Back in his father's office, Sam saves the Tron system onto a microchip that he laces around his neck. He pages Alan to the shop and tells him that he was right about everything. Sam says that he will take back ENCOM and would like Alan as chairman. Leaving the arcade, Sam greets Quorra who asks what they will do now. Sam tells her that he has something to show her and takes her for a ride on his motorcycle. As they ride out into the real world, Quorra sees the sun rise for the first time. | murder, allegory, violence, alternate reality, atmospheric, flashback, good versus evil, psychedelic, philosophical, prank, sci-fi | train | imdb | However, the movie starts in the the real world with a "young" Kevin Flynn telling his son the story of Tron/The Grid, and you can plainly tell the drastic difference between a real and fake Jeff Bridges.
Nevermind too that the fantastic world and great ideas aren't expanded upon some more, as well as the fact that the script could use a little bit more originality.Also, not forgetting some good (in Jeff Bridges' case, great as always as he plays two very different characters with perfect emotional resonance - proving that he still has the chops to carry a big movie) performances by the cast - with Garrett Hedlund showing great leading man potential and Olivia Wilde looking great and cute to boot.
It is possible that, like "Avatar" a year ago, this film can be a game-changer for special/visual effects alone.It's a real treat for the eyes, and it's even better in 3D which is splendidly used to flesh out the dimensions and graphics of the cyber world bring you even deeper into the world instead of things merely flying out to you and post-production conversion like in SO many 3D movies (Note that in the 3D version, there's a disclaimer before the film starts, saying that parts of the film are filmed in both natural 2D and 3D as they way they should be.
Just so you know, this shows that the filmmakers care for what they want to give you).Very ambitious architect-and-designer-turned-first-time-filmmaker Joseph Kosinski hit a home run with this film, crafting an extraordinary and spellbinding world of escapism that looks slick, stylish and extremely cool to watch.
"Legacy" sets Kevin's son, Sam Flynn, 27 years in age as the main character who gets a message from Kevin (or so it is) from the world of Tron.
There's a fairly coherent storyline here that would appeal across the spectrum, striking a fair balance between drama and action, although action junkies would have preferred for set action sequences given the investment in souping up and introducing a number of vehicles other than the light cycle.Certain scenes stood out either as homage or influenced pieces, and perhaps you may disagree with me, but the nightclub scene with Gem the Siren (Beau Garrett) bringing our new protagonist Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges returns to once again play two roles, that of Kevin Flynn the founder of Encom and his digital creation / avatar Clu) to meet Castor (played by Michael Sheen with flamboyant spunk) an information broker in the undergrounds of the digital Grid world, seems to have contained a whiff out of The Matrix Revolutions, with Persephone and Merovingian.
But of course the Wachowskis didn't have Daft Punk to turn the tables, and parallels between the Matrix and the Grid cannot be more prominent given entities within are programs, with the ones gone rogue instilled with a desire to cross over to the real world.Then there's something unmistakably Star Wars about it too, with the designs of attack space crafts zipping through the night sky, and clearly one of the many gorgeous costumes here can't seem to hold a candle to what looked like an awesome robe, simple as it is, but striking nonetheless.
The dramatic elements here between Father and Son is the film's strength to provide that emotional anchor and attachment making this a digital affair with plenty of soul, and the chemistry shared between Jeff Bridges and Garrett Hedlund make them quite the father and son pair up, with shades of how revered the former is within his own created realm, and the tremendous power that he still holds even if in exile.Olivia Wilde provides for the token fashionista who is ever ready to flex her battle prowess with skills in various weapons - a lethal combination of The Matrix's Trinity equipped with Star Wars blades - and vehicles, whose background is given a superficial twist which seeks to expand the TRON universe a little bit more with miracle phenomenon being a natural occurrence once a perfect equilibrium is achieved.
3D may be the latest Hollywood fad that got people jumping onto its bandwagon, but just as how computer graphics has to be inherent in the first TRON movie, the updates of the franchise has to keep up with the times, and in true reel mimicking real life, The Grid pops up in more than 2 dimensions, starting with the light cycle wars that include an additional dimension to consider, which makes for some thrilling action, both on or under the ground and in the air, rather than just becoming a mere special effect.But I had to admit my personal hook line and sinker to watch this film, is the soundtrack by Daft Punk.
Instead, they've merely sullied our memories by reducing what was a tremendous and ominous world into the digital equivalent of Smalltown, USA.In 1982, few people had computers, far fewer had even heard of computer networks, and hardly anyone outside the military had heard of "the internet." The creators of the original movie crafted an entire alternate plane of existence, accessible only to computer programmers, in a time when the words "virtual" and "reality" both still meant "true." Their inspired fantasy gave audiences an entirely new perspective on the nascent digital age.
The bad guys could have tried to empower Wii systems to control people instead of the other way around, or to animate an army of Second Life avatars, or to rewrite all of Wikipedia to brainwash every student in America, or to take control of every electronic device on Earth (think Y2K).Tron Legacy has dazzling visual graphics, but it falls into that disappointing category of films that match astronomically high priced production values with cut-rate B-movie plots, acting, and character development.
I must begin with the explanation of why i'm giving the full note to the movie-i wasn't the biggest fan of the original Tron (1982) when i saw it, and even though i didn't expect much from the sequel, i was eager to see it, because i am a fan, a huge admirer of Olivia Wilde's and because the timeframe reminded me of another movie, i wasn't so keen to see, last year.A movie, which then turned out to be one of the fullest movies of the year-full of both heart and soul.I even saw it the same day-on the 19-th last year.And i said to myself, there were too many things alike, such as the fact i saw Legacy's trailer at the teather, just before the beginning of Avatar-too many things to throw away such an opportunity.So today i went, and i was totally blown away by, by almost everything.I guess that's what happens when you see a movie you didn't expect to be something special, but that wasn't the case.The experience itself was special-and not in terms in time and date and likeness but in terms of quality.The costumes, the effects, the music, the tone of the movie were special.The actors were the thing i actually wanted to be a little better.I always felt strange, seeing a Jeff Bridges movie-he clearly can act and is a great actor, but i don't like his style very much.I quite expected he would be the show-stealing actor, but i was wrong.It was the beautiful and stunning Olivia Wilde.I am a fan of hers and i always knew she is a great actress with huge potential, but was sad, so to say, by the fact she was great in TV-shows mostly-in House or the O.C. she's great, and now she put that passion in a big project so her talent can be visible for audiences around the world.She has great looks and is a skillfull actress.Only by the look of her eyes i felt what she feels, and that's very important.The bond, the connection with the people, ordinary people in the audience like me was so real and was what left us wanting for more even from other movies.She did that, a thing only a handful of people can do.That's what makes her such important for the movie.I know it sounds cliché but she is really the only woman for this role.No one else could've done it better.Garrett Hedlund, or Sam, was also interesting to see-a fact, i didn't see from the trailers-he has potential and he showed that in the movie.And i forgot to check who played Zuse, but i'm sure it was Michael Sheen, because only he is so crazy and unique in his style.He brought brilliancy and sheer entertainment in his role, it was something great to see.When we talk about the people behind the movie, we must pay a huge credit of the rookie director Joseph Kosinski.Disney made another brilliant gambling move, that's paying off.The man knows what he's doing and the studio was aware of that fact.I'm paying a huge debt to him for the effects as well, because he works with computer generated imagery, also a specialty of his.It will be an interesting thing, to follow his upcoming career moves and projects-he'll become a big face, i'm sure of that.All in all production and effects were great, some fresh faces were introduced and some-rediscovered in this one-hell-of-a-ride sequel, which will stand in mind for a long time to come.Avatar and Tron formed a Christmas movie-going tradition, that one only could hope continues the next year and the one afterwards(a little bit like Saw & PA's Halloween traditions).We, moviegoers, can only hope for things to continue in this direction, because you've brought warmth to this moviegoer's heart during winter-time.I hope people like Joseph Kosinski and Garrett Hedlund continue develop, Jeff Bridges to keep making strange, but otherwise captivating roles, and last but not least, Olivia Wilde to progress, because, she's not just another beautiful face, but a mesmerizing actress as well, who can heaten up a fan's heart and a woman with such skills, suitable for both the big screen and TV-such diversity is rare to see these days.She's something special.I know i'm not objective, but this must and is visible for many people i know and is now visible for everyone.So, all the best for her, and all the cast and crew behind the movie.Because you made one hell of a movie.The new Christmas movie-going tradition is here.And cheers for it.Cheers for "Tron : Legacy"My grade:A deserved 10/10.
Actually the headline of this review is an actual quote from TRON LEGACY, it's the only time I had to laugh in the movie, because it was exactly the same question I was asking myself.After watching the movie I can at least answer this question: A heartless and confusing movie that lacks a good script and tries to compensate with state of the art special effects.I can't complain about the visual effects.
I have to say that I saw the 3D version and I hate to say it but this has to be the worst movie that I have seen this year, the visual effects are very bright very spectacular but that is it; If you are into light shows this is the movie for you; because that is all you'll get; if you wanted a movie with substance THIS IS NOT THE MOVIE FOR YOU; IT WAS THAT BAD AND I'm NOT KIDDING; I was stunned at just how stupid this movie was there is not and I mean no plot line Walt Disney has sunk to new lows; It was not worth the $11.00 per ticket to see this B Flick.The plot was terrible along with the acting; this movie lacked vision and substance you get pushed from one bad scene to another and it does make me sad to give this film a bad rap but it was not worth sitting through all of the bad acting just to see the light show and CG effects.
The heavy iron that is Disney Pictures seems keen on squashing every sense of freshness and imagination, producing products so perfected and polished that they leave nothing behind when you're done watching.First and foremost, the story:The more Hollywood moves on with its tent-pole "events" and skyrocketing budgets, the more I find myself asking: "300 million dollars, and THIS is what they come up with?" We often distrust each other here on IMDb, but I would safely hand out the screen writing job of Tron: Legacy to any of you readers or fellow reviewers, knowing that you'd do a better job than what ended up on the screen.
Skip Tron:Legacy and revisit the original, or go watch a movie like Where The Wild Things Are to remind yourself that films are about imagination - and that they can have a heart.P.S. That odd disclaimer about keeping your 3D glasses on is even odder because you should ignore it.
Once Kevin's young heir - our next-gen protagonist - enters the Matrix, we are strapped in and taken for a ride through the most predictable plot in the world wedded on top of the most nonsensical action.It turns out that during a bad trip in the '80s, Flynn père made a software clone of himself, named Clu, that was meant to help him turn his digital idyll into a "perfect system." As these things go, the clone turned evil and appointed himself supreme dictator of the computer wonderland, trapping the programmer inside and instituting a totalitarian rule where programs are rounded up on the streets and pitched against each other in arena battles to the death, cheered on by howling hordes of spectators – also programs – while he watches on from his levitating VIP lodge.
As he is sucked inside a powerful computer where he must fight for his life but with the help of the fearless warrior Quorra ( a gorgeous Olivia Wilde ), father and son embark on a life-or-death journey across a cyber universe -- a universe created by Kevin himself that has become far more advanced with vehicles, weapons, landscapes and a ruthless villain ( a computer generated Jeff Bridges who with his charisma keeps afloat the film ) who will stop at nothing to prevent their escape.It's an agreeable , if somewhat light-headed piece of escapism with state-of-art special effects .
this movie was really bad...it started off fine...some decent visual effects, but after 20 minutes you could leave and not have missed a thing...i know that the plot/story wasn't the point, because that was horrible...
If the trailers interests you in the slightest, sure go see it, enjoy it if you can, but I found the whole thing to be messy.The story folds over itself in a spectacular self destructive fashion, what started out as a rescue mission turned into a reflection of technology circa 1991, then a reflection on passion and being blinded by ambition with hints of the pursuit of global purity, mixed in with the labors of the father being passed to the son and then back to a breakout rescue.This isn't at all helped by a mixed presence throughout the cast, while Hedlund looks passionate about what he's doing most of the time there's never the sense that he's more than just that surface level character, Bridges comes off apathetic and confused when he's playing his own persona and unrelentingly scowling as his digital doppelganger, Wilde is a mixture of this strange cross between child and genius but shes never given enough moments to really be a beloved character as appose to just token hot action chick.The action set pieces are built to be fantastic but are executed in such a near lifeless fashion and only two really shine, the light-cycle battle and a latter brawl in Michael Sheen's club, which is more enjoyable as a parody.
"Tron Legacy" is still worth watching if you want to see some awesome visuals and love Daft Punk.The movie could have been better if there was a decent plot.
Like I said the story isn't that impressive or involving and although it does try to tug at the emotions in the father / son tale it's not really that effective but still the movie is a visual action roller coaster ride and in the end none of that other stuff really matters.
TRON Legacy is garbage.The trailer looked promising, and the intro seemed to be going in a good direction.But as soon as they started to talk, it just showed how shallow and depth-less this movie really is.The actors are to play "digital-biological" beings, no one seems to know how they should act like?
There was also a homage to the original that hardcore fans of Tron will notice as Sam turns on the electricity of the arcade in the form of Separate Ways by Journey.The acting in the movie was top notch, Garret Hellund did good job in making his character likable and carried the film well.
Even if the story turned out bad, it was a new Tron, and that alone made it perfect.I watched the movie last night, in 3D, and it was a very pleasant experience for the most part, but don't think this is a great movie, because it's not.Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is back, and in two shapes.
Saw the advance screening in Sydney today.I am one of the ones old enough to have seen the original in the cinema when it hit the screens in 82 and was keen to see the follow up.Overall, there is a fine line between paying homage to the original concept and characters and serving up pretty much the exact same fare 28 years later.This version touches all the familiar points of the original (they have gone all out tricking up the game play on 'the grid' with 3D and CGI) but have essentially rehashed the original story line and not taken it new or interesting directions.A good percentage of the film also takes place in 2D (when not in the computer). |
tt1615147 | Margin Call | An unnamed Wall Street firm begins a mass layoff on the trading floor during a normal business day. Among those let go is Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci), head of risk management. Dale attempts to contact his former employer to look into his most recent and unfinished project, but an uninterested human resources staff tells him to leave immediately. While boarding the elevator he meets one of his underlings, junior risk analyst Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), and gives him a USB drive-stick to look at with vague instructions to “be careful.”
Sullivan works late that night to finish Dale’s project, and discovers that current volatility in the firm's portfolio of mortgage-backed securities will soon exceed the historical volatility levels of the positions. Because of excessive leverage, if the firm's assets decrease by 25%, the loss will be greater than the value of the firm itself and the firm will go bankrupt. Sullivan, fellow junior analyst Seth Bregman (Penn Badgley) tell their their desk head Will Emerson (Paul Bettany) about the situation. Emerson alerts floor head Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey), who also returns to the office. They attempt to contact Dale, but his company phone has been shut off and he hasn’t returned home yet.
These employees remain at the firm for a series of meetings throughout the night with senior executives, including division head Jared Cohen (Simon Baker), chief risk management officer Sarah Robertson (Demi Moore), and finally CEO John Tuld (Jeremy Irons). Cohen's plan is for the firm to quickly sell all of the toxic assets before the market learns of their worthlessness, thereby limiting the firm's exposure, a course favored by Tuld. Rogers protests that dumping the firm's toxic assets will spread the risk throughout the financial sector and destroy the firm's relationships with its counterparties. He also warns Cohen that their customers will quickly learn of the firm's plans, once they realize that the firm is only selling the toxic securities.
They finally locate Dale and Will is able to convince him to return to the office for the day, letting him know that the firm will fight him on his severance and other benefits unless he agrees to their plan. Will also is honest with Seth, telling Seth he'll lose his job but will get a large severance, and outlines how the entire trading system is basically rigged. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Robertson, Cohen, and Tuld were aware of the risks in the weeks leading up to the crisis. Tuld plans to offer Robertson's resignation to the board and employees as a scapegoat. Both Dale and Robertson are instructed to remain in the office all day and do nothing with the promise of handsome compensation in return. Robertson expresses regret for not doing more to stop the crisis.
Rogers tells his traders they are effectively ending their careers by selling the toxic assets, but they will be well compensated. The firm pulls off the fire sale despite growing suspicion from the buyers, and the firm takes tremendous losses while dumping positions for cents on the dollar. After trading hours end, there is another round of layoffs. Rogers confronts Tuld and asks to resign, but Tuld dismisses his protests, claiming that the current crisis is no different from various crashes and bear markets of the past, and that sharp gains and losses are simply part of the economic cycle. He persuades Rogers to stay at the firm for another two years, promising that there will be a lot of money to be made from the coming crisis. Tuld also informs Rogers he will promote Sullivan. Rogers says he will accept the deal, but only because he needs the money.
In a final scene, Rogers buries his dead dog in his ex-wife’s front yard in the middle of the night, and learns from her that their son’s financial firm took a big hit but survived the day’s trading. | entertaining, suspenseful, boring, realism | train | wikipedia | Set at a Wall Street firm on the night in 2008 when the leaders realize that changes in the market will wipe them out if they don't immediately stop selling the products that have been making them all rich, the movie centers on the moral dilemma - recognized by some characters but dismissed by others - that they face in unwinding their positions, saving themselves but shifting the pain to others.The movie finds a way to hold the mirror up to our civilization, showing how we are all complicit in a collective 'dream' (one character says at one point, in response to another who says he feels like he is in a 'dream', 'Funny, it seems like I just woke up').
So there are no villains in this movie, just people, richly drawn, beautifully acted characters realized by some of our best actors who relish the opportunity to show what they can do given a killer script and enough screen time between lines to actually be the people they are portraying.
Central to the movie's success: 1) It gets across the essence of what is going on in the financial markets without bogging us down or dumbing it down2) finding a moral question that can be resolved in a night, yet which is nevertheless a perfect allegory for the whole set of moral questions raised by an economy that works the way ours does, rewarding false confidence, recklessness, and deceit as often as industry, skill, and integrity3) the placement of young, innocent but perceptive characters at the center of the drama, who function as our eyes and ears, who are like stand-ins for all of us who weren't there, at the heart of the dream machine, when the latest fantasy of easy wealth was exposed as a collective delusion4) really 'gets' the trader ethos and manner - they are a kind of warrior caste, foul-mouthed, impulsive, deeply selfish, surviving by their ability to outplay their counterparts, and yet living by a warrior code that sets boundaries on what they will and will not do to one another (having spent three years on Wall Street several panics ago, it rang as true as any movie I have seen on the subject)It's like Mamet, except you don't have to work as hard to figure out what everyone's up to.
The ensemble is just brilliant, especially Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons.The movie works solely from inside the nameless firm – apart from minor steps outside.
I particularly liked the way the film depicts the frightening absolute and ruthless power of the corporation over the lives of people that work there as well as the implications and ripples for everyone else.How those people get sucked in to the embrace, security and pleasures of what the corporations have to offer and the consequences and vulnerabilities of those choices.The freedom and comforts that we cherish here in twenty first century USA are not as secure as we might think.
Having been the victim of corporate downsizing more than once, I was immediately engaged with this propulsive 2011 corporate drama from the beginning as Stanley Tucci's character, a seasoned risk management executive named Eric Dale, is told in a coldly indifferent manner that he is being laid off after 19 years with the same unnamed Wall Street firm.
It's a piercing yet dramatically economical scene that perfectly summarizes how bloodless the corporate world can be, and in first-time writer/director J.C. Chandor's effort set on the eve of the 2008 financial crisis , it is very cold indeed with 80% of the trading floor being let go.
Blessedly, Chandor doesn't stoop to the customary stereotypes in this corporate cage match, but what he does manage is capture the moral compass underneath each player by way of a cast that really delivers the goods with powerfully implosive performances.Zachary Quinto ("Star Trek") is initially at the center of the plot as Sullivan and performs well enough in the constraining, semi-heroic role, but the veterans really stand out here beginning with Kevin Spacey, who effectively plays against type as Sam Rogers, a genuine company man, the seen-it-all head of the trading team who rallies what's left of the trading floor with corporate brio but then faces his own cross to bear struggling to commandeer a fire sale of worthless assets dumped on unsuspecting clients.
Tucci is excellent in his smallish role as Dale and gets to show off his resigned character's engineering aptitude with a brief monologue about building a bridge.Comparatively less impressive but playing their more predictable roles fitfully are Penn Badgley as Sullivan's younger, overtly money-obsessed colleague Seth Bregman; Paul Bettany as Dale's nihilistic, snake-oil salesman of a boss, Will Emerson; and Simon Baker as the most morally despicable executive of the bunch, Jared Cohen.
Only the Jeremy Irons character (John Tuld, aka Dick Fuld) feels a bit over the top, while the rest are truly believable well-rounded depictions.Despite having good characters and amazing cinematography, the film lacks plot.
Though their job motivations may drastically differ from yours and mine, this film had no really distinct good and bad guys.The main characters were properly introduced in the time-line when logically needed.
This is a film that is sure to get some comparisons to Glengarry Glen Ross and as a deconstruction of stoic men hitting a breaking point, it does offer a similar kind of study (albeit not nearly as good) with a fantastic cast of great male actors.
As it starts out, it seemed like the story was going to give some attention to the moral complexities that must have occurred with men in this position (the investment brokers on the eve of the financial crisis), but as the film progresses it turns more and more into an acting showcase with a little bit of focus on the ramifications of what they were involved in.I feel that someone like Sorkin could have given it a lot more bite, but as it stands it still works as a fine display of some solid acting skills.
The film peaks too early, leaving a final act that drags quite a bit, and there's a symbolic subplot with Spacey's dog that is embarrassingly heavy-handed, but it's certainly worth watching if only for the chance to watch a great male cast do their thing..
I'll concede this picture is not better than The Artist (Best Picture Oscar 2012), but it's damn much closer than the competing nominees.Kevin Spacey in Margin Call (2011) goes through a number of inner changes with flying colours, and less make-up and wardrobe aids than Jean Dujardin (Actor in a leading role Oscar 2012).Demi Moore in Margin Call shows a bit of leg and a big talent, both saying her lines and when she has no lines to say - which in my book is at least nomination material comparable if not better than, the cloning of an iron lady with due respect to Maryl Streep (Actress in a leading role Oscar 2012).Paul Bettany is surprisingly good as a top villain, and that should have been awarded instead of keeping rewarding established names like Christopher Plummer (Actor in a supporting role Oscar 2012).I'll not contend that Mary McDonnell's work in Margin Call, reduced to a marginal role of 3 minutes at best, was better than the much helpful support by Octavia Spencer in The Help (Actress in a supporting role Oscar 2012).
(Directing Oscar 2012).Pete Beaudreau did a wonderful job, so as you won't notice is presence in Margin Call - what would have been a good reason to award him instead of maybe Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall (Film Editing Oscar 2012).I'd have elected Erin Ayanian and Fabiola Arancibia for their work on Demi Moore, rather the overdone makeup of Mark Coulier and J.
Roy Helland on their Iron Lady (Makeup Oscar 2012).Nathan Larson discreet, varied, mood creation, imaginative music certainly beats the expected score by Ludovic Bourse (Original Score Oscar 2012), and probably all other nominees, hands down.Most of all, J.C. Chandor was robbed of award and nomination for his original screenplay that is what the people should be exposed to, to understand the reality of the last three years with a perspective that goes through 7 centuries, with a dialogue that all actors delivery naturally, because they were very careful written by someone who knew what he was writing about!
2. I am confirmed in my conceited opinion that good movies are rarely rewarded by the Oscar crowd.PS - This film is rated R, probably because of the repeated use of the F**k word, despite the characters saying the expletive or the verb are subjected to unbearable psychological and economic pressure.
From following the news the last few years, the audience is well aware Peter just figured out the securities which the banking industry has been trading based on lousy home mortgages is about to send everyone to the poor house.Peter calls his new boss Will (Paul Bettany) who call his boss Sam (Kevin Spacey) who calls his boss Jared (Simon Baker) who calls his boss John (Jeremy Irons).
I am not saying they deliver poor performances, but someone is going to come in second fiddle to Jeremy Irons.I do not actually recommend this film even though the cast will most likely be strong nominees for any ensemble cast award this season.
If it lacks the brilliance of Michael Douglas in a role made for him, it has a whole cast of excellent fits, from Kevin Spacey as a tiring trader having shades of doubts about the business to Simon Baker as an up and coming executive slightly outside of the technicals to Jeremy Irons as the boss's boss who doesn't really know the business except by instinct, which is fine.
I am surprised that so many good actors (save for demi moore) agreed to do this film--specially jeremy irons.as i watched the movie i kept waiting for something nteresting to happen.
Jeremy Irons great line "So that we may survive" makes you feel as if you are in that crisis meetingThe actors are fantastic and tie in this film that gives us a glimpse into the financial crisis that went on around us.
For such an ensemble cast, this film was disappointing; Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, Paul Bettany, Stanley Tucci and - for goodness sake - Kevin Spacey in one movie?
Like Boiler Room and Wall Street, Margin Call is a film highlighting behind the scenes of the financial industry.
This film is an honest, sincere effort to show us what happened in the big Wall Street banks during the height of the financial crisis.
Honesty in writing and performance only adds to the horror that you feel unfolding on screen.I imagine this started life as a play - or will finish it that way - but in the interim, Margin Call has defied even that humble restriction to become THE definitive Wall Street movie..
The only thing that kept me from going to sleep on this movie was Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons, both were great.
The movie tries to show that some people actually cared about what was going to happen with the markets when in reality all they cared about was losing their jobs, money, and getting in trouble legally.
The only exception (and not by a large margin), was Jeremy Irons, who was the only convincing character in this film.The pace was very slow, and perhaps adding an appropriate score may have made it feel faster, as it felt there was just too much blank/boring time in between scenes.So it's a 7/10 mainly for the interesting writing..
This is the beginning of one of the best films of its type about the cut-throat world of financial firms on Wall Street, "Margin Call".The man they let go, Eric Dale, was some kind of senior risk-management adviser, and he was working on the profit-income-risk of the company and realizing something was terribly wrong.
The sharp script and top-notch acting (from the likes of Kevin Spacey, Staley Tucci, Zachary Quinto and Paul Bettany, though I was somewhat underwhelmed by Jeremy Irons) create engaging, relatable, complex characters who give us only glimpses into what makes them tick, and as dull as a film about banking sounds, that's enough to make it constantly engaging.
Very enjoyable and fast pace despite a subject matter that would seem as interesting as watching paint dry.After about 15 minutes it was Glengarry Glen Ross that was brought to mind, in a good way I might add and not because Kevin Spacey was in both films.The claustrophobia of the office in Margin Call was overpowering and well portrayed, heightened by the lack of score and the absence of anything organic, no trees, a little sky and no emotional attachments.
A terrific film that dramatizes the events leading up to the most recent financial meltdown.A cast of middling to great actors all give excellent performances in a movie so terse and devoid of histrionics that it feels almost like a documentary.
The various characters have greater to lesser feelings of guilt about this -- Jeremy Irons and Paul Bettany get a couple of dog-eat-dog speeches, while Kevin Spacey and Zachary Quinto serve as the film's moral conscience -- but really no one person's opinion matters much in the face of a steam engine charging out of control."Margin Call" takes a very resigned tone to the whole episode.
The second reason would be a spoiler, but lets just say that Goldman is pretty aggressive at "making way for new blood" relative to the others even though the movies depiction was way overblown.I think many will be happy to know that the amount of "inside lingo" is kept to a minimum, but that doesn't mean that you will be able to understand a handful of things mentioned without a pretty good cursory knowledge of financial jargon.
Separated from the world (barely a single character unrelated to the firm has any screen time or speaking role), focused on their personal short term gains (one broker obsesses over the annual salaries of his superiors), and trapped in a situation where everyone is convinced that they "need the money", selfish people act in their own self interest.Margin Call plays like a documentary.
I liked the movie, but that's because I've been an executive and a trader and immediately understood the implications, characters, motivations etc.A junior analyst does some math and discovers a comet is about to hit them, they decide to let the peasants die so they can get out of the way, end of story.....The real story, however, is yanking the veneer off the business so we the public can see how nonchalantly and arrogantly the people in real power in our country will devise a way to take money from us, then throw us to the wolves when it blows up.
So if you are looking for great acting showing what it was very probably like in real life, this movie delivers in a big way and includes a bunch of artful symbolism.You guys should love it for being the truth it is..
Some businesses have only one thing in mind - their gain - and that is the only thing in the mind of some of the corporate big wigs.Margin Call has a great cast - especially Stanley Tucci, Kevin Spacey, Zachary Quinto, and Jeremy Irons.
The key line at the end of the movie is when he agrees to go along with the company's plans because "I need the money."One of the things i liked most about this film is that the tension builds like a scene working up to the big gunfight in a Western.
Margin Call is, in few words, a rather boring TV-style film that got shrunk from 10+ hours to two; ++++++++++++++EXTREME SPOILERS BELOW++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++This review might get complicated from now on.MC starts great actors such as Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons ..
The entire movie takes place over two days and one sleepless night within an unnamed Wall Street investment firm in a fictionalized retelling of the days just before the 2008 financial meltdown; the film starts with a very subtle bang: a mass firing of employees begins and one of them happens to be the head of the risk department, Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci plays him with a smoldering intensity), despite his protests that he is onto something big, they take away his cellphone coverage and he gets escorted out of the building by security.
Unfortunately as I pass the time away it's a God awful feeling to be in this predicament, so I almost feel compelled to give a review of this fine film.A cast of all star actors along with a fine screenplay really give meat to this movie as it propels the audience through this riveting edge of your seat day at a NYC investment bank at the dawn of the financial crisis.
I am not sure if I understand it fully but basically it is a choice of morality - whether to sell the "soon-valueless" stocks to the market and saving the company.Indeed, what makes the film good is not the plot itself, but the different attitudes of the depicted characters towards such a decision.
The performances by the all-star cast are all great, and the script is full of lots of technical dialogue I honestly don't understand, I certainly don't understand all the components that lead to the 2008 financial crisis, but this is a good story, making the characters humanised, and it feels claustrophobic, all in all it is a worthwhile drama.
The film co-stars a large assortment of A list celebrities including Quinto, Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Stanley Tucci, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, Simon Baker and Penn Badgley.
And Demi Moore as Sarah Robertson, a middle executive who in the end seems powerless.Good movie, as an example of what most likely goes on during a financial crisis. |
tt0093066 | G.I. Joe: The Movie | G.I. Joe faces a new enemy as an ancient society of snake people known as Cobra-La try to forcefully take back the earth from those who drove them underground eons ago.
The leader of Cobra-La, Golobulus, sends out Cobra Commander and the Cobra forces to steal the Joe's BET, Broadcast Energy Transmitter, but they have failed to do so. Golobulus and Cobra-La need the BET because it's the only energy source that is hot enough to ripen the pods that they are about to launch into earth's atmosphere and devolve mankind into their perfect society. One that is devoid of any intelectually sound organic life-forms. The punishment for failiure in Cobra-La society is being biologically mutated and devolved.
Cobra Commander begged and pleaded for mercy before being sentenced for his short-comings.
G.I. Joe then figures out that if they don't stop the enemy from launching the spores into the earth's atmosphere it could devolve mankind as they know it.====================================================The story opens at Cobra's headquarters, the Terror Drome fortress. Cobra Commander is berating his staff for gross incompetence in light of the failures Cobra has endured in their plan for world domination. Cobra's supreme ruler, Serpentor, is also present and wastes no breath in belittling Cobra Commander's own failures, which his staff, Destro, the Baroness, the Crimson Twins, Tomax and Xamot, and Zartan, all agree is at the root of their organization's problems.Outside the Drome, a mysterious figure, dressed in a cloak, rapidly approaches the main gate of the Terror Drome and begins using what appear to be organic weapons to subdue Cobra's elite guards -- the intruder throws small, octopus-like creatures at the guards faces, which instantly incapacitate them. The intruder rushes through the Drome at a rapid pace, heading for Serpentor's throne room. Though several security gates and devices are employed and many more guards are dispatched to stop her, she defeats them all and slips in between two large gates and falls to her knee before Serpentor. As she evades capture, Cobra Commander sees her and seems to recognize her.The intruder is a humanoid woman named Pythona, who tells Cobra's Emperor that she is an emissary from an ancient civilization called Cobra-La. Though Dr Mindbender had created Serpentor through genetic manipulation and was inspired to do so through a dream, Pythona's species was responsible for the actual dream Mindbender experienced. Pythona shows Serpentor a small organic holographic projector and gives him his next mission: he and Cobra must attempt to steal a device from their greatest opponents, GI Joe. The device is the Broadcast Energy Transmitter (BET), which can generate enough energy to remotely power any device or vehicle that is electrical. Pythona promises Serpentor that the plan will succeed and Cobra will rule the Earth.GI Joe heads to a site near the Himalaya Mountains to run the first tests of the BET's capabilities. In a snowy valley, they unload the BET and are about to begin the tests when Cobra attacks in full force, lead by Cobra Commander. The battle is fierce and Cobra is able to turn the tide of battle against the Joes when they activate the BET. The device sends power surges to all their vehicles, which engage in the battle. Cobra is routed, Serpentor is captured and the Joes split their forces: one unit will pursue Cobra into the nearby Himalayas & the other will take the BET to a secure location.Cobra Commander leads the rest of their forces into a valley between two of the mountains where there appears to be a tropical forest. Large flowers form most of the forest and the whole area is covered by a natural stone dome. As the Joes continue their pursuit, one of their vehicles is suddenly flipped over by a large being of which they only catch a glimpse. Other humanoids burst up from the ground holding large cleaver-like weapons. The Joes are quickly overwhelmed and captured.Cobra Commander walks up to the hulking humanoid that had flipped the Joes' vehicle and congratulates him and his forces on their easy defeat of the Joes. The winged humanoid, the Nemesis Enforcer, grabs the Commander by the throat and gives him to his comrades, who take him away. The rest of Cobra's lieutenants, including Zartan and the Dreadnoks, are easily persuaded to follow the orders of Pythona when she shows them a large jewel, promising them riches beyond their dreams.The remnants of Cobra's forces are taken to the center of the domed area, called Cobra-La. There, they meet Golobulus, Cobra-La's ruler. He shares his peoples history with the group: millions of years ago, they were the rulers of the Earth as it's first intelligent species and their own technology was based on organic life. However, another species began to threaten their sanctity: humans. As neanderthal humans evolved and began to discover technology based on science and mechanical means, Cobra-La and its inhabitants realized they must retreat and wait for a time when they could destroy humanity and regain the Earth. Cobra-La's dome was constructed and became their home for many millennia.One of Cobra-La's brilliant scientists began to work with a plant species that produced dangerous spores. An accident occurred in his lab where the spores exploded in the young scientist's face and mutated his appearance, giving him multiple eyes. Golobulus saw the potential for this being to retake the Earth and sent him out to do battle with humanity, wearing a helmet with a silver mask. He became Cobra Commander and rallied others to his cause, building the forces of Cobra. However, he was repeatedly met with defeat by the forces of GI Joe.Golobulus reveals that the recounting of Cobra-La's and Cobra Commander's history is a trial of sorts, where the Commander is judged to have committed the greatest sin of their civilization: failure. He is condemned to be exposed to the spores again. Nemesis Enforcer carries out the sentence and the Commander is again deformed, his body mutated again into a snake. Golobulus also reveals his plan to wipe out humanity: the large flowers that make up the forest outside of Cobra-La's dome contain larger spores, enough to infect the Earth and turn humans into mindless, deformed beasts, which Cobra-La can rule over. Golobulus will need the BET to aid the spores' maturity in space before the intense cold freezes them. He orders Serpentor's lieutenants to mount a mission to both rescue their leader and steal the BET.Back at GI Joe's headquarters, the officer put in charge of guarding the Serpentor is Lt. Falcon, Duke's half-brother. He is arrogant and irresponsible, bringing a young woman on a date to the secure facility which imprisons Serpentor. Duke finds them and orders Falcon to escort his date off the base. As the woman runs from the area, she whips off a disguise; she is Zarana, Zartan's sister. She reports back to Cobra-La about the Serpentor's location & the security measures surrounding him.Meanwhile, at a training facility, Beach Head is trying to whip some new recruits into shape. Lt Falcon is one of them but does not show up for PT. The rest are quite undisciplined and a motley bunch: Jinx is a Japanese martial arts expert who is able to defeat Beach Head in hand-to-hand combat when she fights with her eyes closed, but brings her own bad luck to any situation she finds herself in. Law is a demolitions expert whose dog, Order, is a trained bomb-sniffer. Big Lob is a tall former basketball player who sees combat as a form of sport. Tunnel Rat can find alternate routes around most obstacles. Chuckles is an undercover operative but also relies on brute strength. Beach Head's training sessions are tough but the recruits bring their own unique talents to bear and complete the course.At night, a small Cobra unit, led by Pythona and the Nemesis Enforcer, lead a mission to free Serpentor. Pythona and the Enforcer outwit the security measures and defeat the Joes with their organic weaponry. Gung Ho, Alpine and Bazooka are all seriously injured.General Hawk holds Lt Falcon, responsible for the security of Serpentor, accountable for the theft and for the wounded. He is quickly court-martialed and sent to St Slaughter's remote training grounds to learn proper soldiering. He's dropped out of an airplane and parachutes into a large desert, where he's met by several thuggish brutes, the Renegades. Sgt Slaughter appears and tells Falcon he's been charged with "whipping him into shape". While the rest of the team board vehicles and drive to Slaughter's base, Falcon is left behind to travel by foot. When he arrives, he's too late for chow and is ordered to clean all the dishes. While they train, Duke gives Slaughter and his team a mission to infiltrate the Terror Drome and gather any intelligence they can. Falcon jokingly suggests that they go on the mission unarmed. With the help of Mercer, a former Cobra operative, the team successfully sneaks into the Terror Drome and discovers that Cobra plans to again capture the BET. They also overhear Serpentor talking about Cobra-La, an organization Mercer himself has never heard of. Slaughter orders Falcon to find the communications room and alert the Joes while he, Mercer & the rest of his squad set a bomb in the armory. Falcon is discovered and captured. Serpentor interrogates him harshly until Slaughter and the Renegades rescue Falcon and they escape as their bomb explodes.Meanwhile, at Cobra-La, the imprisoned Joes believe that they can rebel against their captors and escape. Waiting for the guards to open their cell, they rush out, beating several guards. However, when they reach the main gate, large plants surrounding the area come alive and snatch them, wrapping them in vines and immobilizing them. Only Roadblock manages to escape, meeting the Nemesis Enforcer, who blinds him with dust from an organic pod. Roadblock is found by Cobra Commander, who leads him out a secret exit. They float down a nearby river to safety. Cobra Commander mumbles most of the way, his voice slowly changing to a snake's hiss and his speech indicative of his mind being lost. His mask falls off, revealing that his face is changing to a snake's.Cobra launches another assault on the Joes to seize the BET. Again, Cobra-La's organic weaponry defeats the Joes, who are highly outnumbered. Two gigantic caterpillar-like creatures erupt from underground and battle the Joes. Slaughter, Falcon and the other Renegades join the battle. A large moth-like creature appears and carries off the BET. Serpentor himself is about to kill Lt Falcon with a poisonous snake he uses as a spear but Duke throws himself in front of it. He falls into a coma, bidding the Joes to defeat Cobra and Cobra-La.Roadblock and Cobra Commander are picked up by Joe forces in the Himalayas. Roadblock is told that his sight will return; however, there's nothing they can do for Cobra Commander. Roadblock warns them that the outer defenses of Cobra-La are formidable but with the Commander's help, they will able to sneak into Cobra-La. The mutating spores are launched into space and Golobulus orders the activation of the BET to mature the spores in space and infect the Earth. The Joes begin a final assault to stop them.In the pitched battle, Golobulus orders all of Cobra-La's plant and animal life to rise and attack the Joes. Sgt Slaughter faces off against the Nemesis Enforcer and defeats him, throwing him down a deep chasm. Jinx blindfolds herself and battles with Pythona and beats her hand-to-hand, avoiding Pythona's venomous claws. Lt Falcon takes on Serpentor, sabotaging his air chariot and sending him spinning out of Golobulus' lair. Falcon then faces off with Golobulus, who emerges from his pod, exposing his serpentine lower body. When it seems that he'll break Falcon's neck, Falcon stabs him in the eye with his timer rod. Golobulus retreats to his pod, telling Falcon that the spores have matured in space and will cover the Earth any second. When Falcon finds the BET, he reconfigures the device to overload and incinerate the spores. The plan works and the BET overloads and explodes.The Joes regroup, gathering prisoners. They are informed that Duke has come out of his coma. Lt Falcon has proven himself a solider, as have Sgt Slaughter's Renegades and Beach Head's motley recruits. The Joes return to their headquarters victorious. | good versus evil, psychedelic | train | imdb | null |
tt0036711 | Christmas Holiday | Lt. Charles Mason has a few days' leave before being sent overseas. His plans to marry his fiancee in San Francisco are shattered when he receives a telegram announcing her marriage to another man. He decides to make the trip anyway so he can confront her. But the plane is forced to land in New Orleans on Christmas Eve due to stormy weather. The airline finds rooms for the passengers at a nearby hotel but cannot guarantee that the plane can take off the next day. Mason unsuccessfully tries to find other transportation. He goes to the hotel bar for a drink and meets an inebriated reporter, Simon Fenimore. After hearing of Mason's dilemma, Simon suggests that they visit a nightclub where the owner, Valerie Le Merode, knows a lot of people and might be able to find him a ride.While Valerie and Simon talk, Mason listens to the girl singer, Jackie Lamont. Valerie regrets that she can do nothing to help Mason and suggests that he buy Jackie a drink. She asks Mason to take her to the midnight mass at a nearby cathedral. He agrees but the sanctuary is so crowded that he is forced to stand.During the service he is aware that Jackie is crying. Her sobs become audible, annoying those around them. Mason tries to comfort her and eventually she regains control. When the mass is over, she suggests they go to an all-night diner where she tells Mason her story.Her real name is Abigail Mannette, Mrs. Robert Mannette. Her husband is serving a life sentence for murder. She took the nightclub job so she could be near him, changing her name to avoid recognition. The Manettes were an old New Orleans family and lived in a beautiful home in the Garden District. Abigail met Robert at a concert. They were instantly attracted to one another. She had no family left and Robert only had his widowed mother, with whom he lived. It wasn't long before they fell in love. Robert seemed to have trouble keeping a job and admitted that he was a gambler. But he promised to give that up if Abigail would marry him. He took her to meet his mother. Mrs. Manette sent Robert out of the room so she and Abigail could talk. She wanted to make sure Abigail was the right sort of girl for her son. Shortly afterward, Abigail and Robert were married.They were very happy for a few months. Then Robert began staying out late. Abigail feared he was back with his gambling crowd. He began snapping at her when she tried to find out what was going on. Then one day he didn't come home until dawn. He had blood on his suit and his mother tried to wash it out. Later Abigail saw her burning the suit. The police came looking for him but he wasn't home. Mrs. Manette sewed a large bundle of cash in the hem of her bedroom curtains. Abigail saw her and removed the money, so that when the police came with a search warrant, they found nothing. Robert was arrested and charged with the robbery and murder of his bookie. Abigail remained loyal to him even when he was found guilty and sentenced. As they were leaving the courtroom, Mrs. Manette suddenly slapped Abigail across the face. She blamed her daughter-in-law for not keeping Robert away from gambling.Mason asks Abigail why she didn't divorce Robert. She replied that she would always love him,no matter what. As for Mrs. Manette, the last Abigail heard she was working as a housekeeper for a wealthy New York family.By this time, it is so late that Abigail has missed the last bus. Mason offers to let her sleep on the sofa of his hotel suite. He has decided against going on to San Francisco. As soon as he can get transportation, he will return to his base.Just after Abigail leaves the next morning, Simon telephones looking for her. Mason says she should be on her way back to the nightclub. He doesn't know that Robert Manette broke out of prison and is hiding out in Simon's apartment. Simon asks Manette to leave but he refuses. He has come to check up on his wife, but he can't leave until it's dark.Mason spots the newspaper headlines about the prison break and feels Abigail is in danger. He goes to the nightclub but the police are there waiting for Manette. He and Simon climb unnoticed into the window of Abigail's dressing room. She is overjoyed to see her husband and instantly starts planning how they can escape the city. Manette has an ugly air about him as he accuses Abigail of cheating on him. She denies it just as Mason bursts into the room. The police notice footprints leading to the half-open window. Shots are exchanged and Manette dies in Abigail's arms. She has loved him to the end. | murder, flashback | train | imdb | "Christmas Holiday" (Universal, 1944), directed by Robert Siodmak, is an interesting drama with "film noir" elements, (based on the story by W.
Somerset Maugham which changes the local from Paris to New Orleans), starring two performers long associated with musical-comedy, Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly (on loan from MGM), in their only film together.
Due to its lack of television revivals during the last couple of decades, "Christmas Holiday" just remains only a memory to anyone who has any recollection of ever seeing it.The story begins with Lieutenant Charlie Mason (Dean Harens) about to have Christmas leave from military service to return home and marry his fiancée, Mona, but he receives a letter written by her that reads that she has married someone else.
Abigail goes through a series of unpleasant circumstances during her husband's trial, especially when Robert's domineering mother (Gale Sondergaard) gives her a hard slap across her face for not having been a stronger influence on him after her son is found guilty and sentenced to serve time in prison.) Forwarding to the present: Abigail finishes her revealing story to Mason.
Durbin sings two songs, "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year," and her lovely rendition to Irving Berlin's "Always." I was even surprised to find Gene Kelly playing a role against type.
As for Gale Sondergaard, she looks too young to be playing Kelly's mother, a role that would have been far better suited to the likes of Margaret Wycherly (best remembered for her gangster mother role in James Cagney's in "White Heat" (1949)), but Sondergaard doesn't disappoint with her domineering performance over her "Momma's boy." Also seen in the supporting cast is Universal contract player, David Bruce playing Gerald Tyler.
Bruce would soon be elevated to Durbin's co-star in her only Technicolor musical, CAN'T HELP SINGING (1944).Yes,"Christmas Holiday" is a rare find indeed, a different kind of Christmas story, the one that doesn't get to be added in the package of other Christmas movies that air annually on television, including all versions to "A Christmas Carol" (1938), "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) and/or "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947).
The two stars are Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly so 1940's audiences seeing a title like "Christmas Holiday" may well have expected a musical.
Cleverly, Universal cast music stars Gene Kelly as the handsome spoiled son with the demon mother (Gale Sondergaard) and cherubic Deanna Durbin as the adoring slavish young woman that Mother encourages he marries to keep his amoral unethical character in check.
The plot's about a soldier stranded in New Orleans on Christmas Eve, after getting a Dear John wire from his fiancee; he ends up meeting Durbin in a roadhouse, and they swap stories after midnight Mass.
The picture is also fortunate to have two outstanding character actresses among the cast, Gale Sondergaard reserved and conflicted as the no account Kelly's mother and the great and under-appreciated Gladys George in her typical role of the been around goodhearted but tough owner of the joint where Deanna has landed.
This is a strange noir, made even more so by the odd casting of the usually wholesome Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly as a barely-disguised 'floozie' and an inveterate gambler and murderer respectively!
Besides, the title is most ironic since, while it does revolve around just that occasion, the main narrative (which unfolds in flashback, a typical genre device, I might add) hardly evokes a feeling of good cheer – incidentally, this is possibly the only film set around this time of year to depict the Midnight mass traditionally held on Christmas Eve!
As for how the two fare within this seedy/gloomy environment, Kelly is quite good as a ne'er-do-well but Durbin (even though the studio bosses forced her into a couple of numbers – Frank Loesser's "Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year" and Irving Berlin's "Always", with the latter essentially turned into a motif throughout – to appease her established fan-base!) is surprisingly excellent.Anyway, the plot involves Durbin and Kelly meeting at a concert (the 'Love/Death' theme from Richard Wagner's opera "Tristan And Isolde" – also effectively reprised here for the finale – which, for my money, has been immortalized in two Luis Bunuel films!) and immediately falling in love.
Sondergaard, whose feelings for her son go far beyond motherly love(!), takes it out on Durbin for having failed her – which sends Durbin on her path to perdition (self-imposed, really, so as to be herself in a prison of her own making!)
which is how we first see her, offering solace at a New Orleans "joint" to a soldier who has his own beef against love (in fact, he was on his way home to take revenge upon the fiancée who had just jilted him!).Other prominent characters are the proverbial madam-with-a-heart-of-gold played by Gladys George and Richard Whorf as the sleaziest figure of all, a muck-racking reporter who also operates as something of a pimp in the latter's establishment!
DEANNA DURBIN begged Universal to let her play a dramatic role after her great success in a string of mostly mediocre films where she played a Little-Miss-Fixit in featherweight romantic comedies who sang operatic ditties with great skill and charm.
She was always involved in a scheme to reunite her mother and father for the final clinch.Here, she handles her very adult role with competence, quite believable as a torch singer in a disreputable nightclub, a troubled woman seeking redemption for problems in her twisted past relationships with a mother and son (GALE SONDERGAARD and GENE KELLY).Deanna shines in the role, giving it shades of both simplicity and charm while playing the happy bride, but convincing when she becomes the bruised and fragile woman who manages to tell her tale of woe to a young lieutenant.
But Robert Siodmak and cameraman Woody Bredell give the whole piece a fluid style with long tracking shots and superior cinematography for several key scenes, notably the one that takes place at a church service on Christmas eve, and another in a concert hall.Durbin's fans will certainly appreciate her rendering of "Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year" and Irving Berlin's haunting ballad "Always." The background music, a mixture of popular songs and classical pieces, is effective, especially for all of the nightclub scenes.
The major attraction here is that Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly both play against type in a "doctored up" Somerset Maugham story.
It stars Deanna Durbin, Gene Kelly, Richard Whorf, Dean Harens, Gale Sondergaard and Gladys George.
All of these instances mark Siodmak's film out as a fascinating oddity, and certainly of high interest to film noir lovers.Plot essentially has Durbin telling Harens in flashback how her life crumbled around her when she married Kelly.
The strong performances by the leads, supplemented by the wonderful Sondergaard (you know things are going to be creepy when she's around), and the Oscar nominated score by Salter round out the many strengths of Christmas Holiday.Not one to cheer you up at the yuletide season, and far from perfect with its draggy mid-section, but this is hugely effective film noir and fans of such will get plenty of miserablist rewards from it.
Nice to see some good supporting performances by Gladys George and Gale Sondergaard--although Ms. Sondergaard seems a bit young to play Gene Kelly's mother!!.
I know that online bidders pay up to $75 for this film AND Gene Kelly and Deanne Durbin are cast against type (which, I guess, is cool) AND Robert Siodmak directed AND....Well, the plain fact is that it's not a great fim or a great film noir.
Cast against type both Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly are excellent in Robert Siodmak's noirish romance "Christmas Holiday".
She's an chanteuse in a New Orleans 'club' (for that read brothel) telling her story, (it's mostly in flashback), to soldier Dean Harens one stormy Christmas Eve. You see, she was married to good-for-nothing wastrel Kelly who's now in jail for murder.
Sounds just like a Deanna Durbin movie, doesn't it?Durbin here plays Jackie Lamont, who tells her story to a soldier, Charles Mason (Dean Harens) grounded in New Orleans during bad weather.
Yet he showed he was an actor to be reckoned with.Through a combination of circumstances soldier on leave Dean Harens who was supposed to be getting married but has just gotten a 'dear john' letter is alone and at sea in New Orleans and meets up with Deanna Durbin who is singing in a nightclub.
Kelly kills Cy Kendall, a bookmaker he's into for some big bucks and eventually the cops catch up with him.But that is hardly the end of the story as both Harens and Durbin learn a lot about life and love in that Christmas Holiday season.New song that Deanna sings is Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year and Irving Berlin's classic Always is given a fine rendition.
This is the story of a Christmas holiday, but it doesn't belong to either of the two principals, Gene Kelly and Deanna Durbin.
A young lieutenant, Charles (Dean Harens), on his way home to San Francisco on leave finds that his bride-to-be has married another, and on a stop-over in New Orleans meets nightclub torch singer slash prostitute Jackie (Deanna Durbin) who tells him the story of how she married the charming young Robert (Gene Kelly) and how he got sentenced to life imprisonment for murder.Noir specialist Robert Siodmak makes the most of a slightly befuddled script that never comes anywhere near to explaining Kelly's psychopathy or, even more puzzling, the circumstances surrounding the murder, who was killed?
A young Army lieutenant receives a "Dear John" telegram on Christmas Eve and as he heads West to confront his unfaithful fiancée, bad weather grounds his plane in New Orleans where he meets a chanteuse with an even sorrier tale of amour fou...An all-consuming love becomes a degrading, destructive force that only death can still in Robert Siodmak's offbeat, masochistic film noir.
Universal's singing sensation Deanna Durbin is cast against type as a roadhouse canary who's world-weary veneer cracks on Christmas Eve during midnight Mass and in a series of flashbacks she tells the jilted serviceman (Dean Harens) how she went from utter bliss to the depths of despair after falling madly in love with a sociopathic ne'er-do-well (future musical star Gene Kelly) who involves her in murder.
Robert Siodmak's career is huge .I wonder whether there's one user who has seen all of his output.It includes German,French and American movies.1944 saw three of his movies: a classic "Phantom Lady" ,an exotic extravaganza best forgotten "Cobra Woman" ,then the overlooked "Christmas Holiday"."Christmas Holiday " is a deceptive movie.Its very structure is weird beyond comment: it was not that much common to begin a film with many scenes revolving around a character that is not really the hero of the story (Gene Kelly appears long after the cast and credits);more stunning ,the two flashbacks are not in chronological order:the first one actually takes place in the middle of the second one.Even more amazing is the Christmas mass: to attend a service after spending the first part of the night in a club is downright disturbing.Anyway ,it's in that scene in the church that Siodmak turns in some of his finest signatures:creating an atmosphere was always his forte ,witness "the spiral staircase " or the French "Pièges" (remade as "lured" by Sirk) .After a complete "Kyrie Eleison" sung in Greek,there's this incredible moment when Deanna Durbin begins to cry as she hears the "Mea Culpa Mea Culpa Mea Maxima Culpa" sentences (which echo to the "guilty ,guilty,guilty" when the jury brings a guilty verdict and when the mother slaps her daughter-in -law in the face.) That mother is over possessive ,like so many Hitchcock mothers ("Notorious" "Strangers on the train" etc) and Gale Sondergaard as Mrs Monette almost outshines the two stars.(In Wyler's "the letter"another Somerset Maugham adaptation, ,she almost stole the show from Bette Davis).And the editing of the flashbacks makes sense: the first one begins after something horrible happened ,something the husband and his mom do not want the wife to know,because she is an intruder in their house.The title itself is a misnomer.People who are expecting a nice Christmas tale will be disappointed.People who are looking for something different will be satisfied.Siodmak's last French movie was called "Pièges" (= Traps)..
When she first enters the film to sing "Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year", she is both poignant and bored to death, a combo I tend to love in my leading ladies (Dietrich, anyone?).Kelly always seems self-conscious and over-rehearsed to me (this mommas-boy-psycho role might be a little out of his grasp), but OK, I'll buy his shift from smirking charmer to brooding villain, especially since he's terribly sexy when he emerges in the final reel with his 3-day beard.I wouldn't call Christmas HOLIDAY a raging success--so much needs to be squeezed into this running time to make the finale ring true, and yet it still feels rather sleepy (I have similar issues with Siodmak's PHANTOM LADY).
Somerset Maugham, "Christmas Holiday" is a floridly stylish, oddly convoluted mood piece starring Universal's grown-up child star Deanna Durbin in a luridly dramatic role and a miscast Gene Kelly.
After watching the fun romantic Christmas drama Holiday Affair,I decided that I should try to hunt down a Film Noir which takes place during the Xmas period.Asking for advice on this websites fantastic Film Noir board,I got suggested a very interesting,grim Film Noir,that features the future star of Singing In The Rain in a leading role!The plot:Prepairing to take a break from the army and get married to his girlfriend,Lt Charles Mason gets a heart breaking letter shortly before Christmas from his long-time girlfriend,who has written to give him the news that she is leaving him.Deciding to make the most of a bad situation,Mason decides to tag along with his army buddies,and get away from the barracks.Sadly Mason's luck continues to nosedive,when the plane that he is on has to make an emergency landing.Chatting to other poor souls stranded,Charles is eventually taken to a bar,to chill out for the night.Suddenly the owner of the bar appears and goes over to Mason's table,to offer him some "quality entertainment" for the night.Before he has the chance to reply,the owner calls one of the very best "bar" girls over to the table: Jackie Lamont.After originally being uneasy around her,Mason soon gets use to Jackie,and ends up inviting her to a mass!.Part way through the mass,Charles is caught off-guard when Lamont begins to have an emotional break down.Attempting to comfort her after the mass,Jackie explains that she decided to attend the mass with him,so the she would at last have the opportunity to become a part of something.Calming herself down,Lamont surprises Mason when she tells him that her real name is in fact Abigail Martin.Feeling strangely at ease around Mason,Jackie begins to tell him about her "past life" with her husband Robert Manette,who she feels will never be let out of jail,after he was found guilty of murder.Unbeknowst to Martin,whilst she is telling Charles everything that her husband and his mother put her through,Robert is beginning to plan away out of jail,to finally be reunited with his wife Abigail Martin..
Mankiewicz credited as the writer of this wonderful film.Interestingly both films feature flashbacks that show the characters happiest moments before their "fall",with Kane remembering his winter childhood,and Martin remembering the experience of a music concert.For Abigail's marriage,Herman makes sure that the character gets put through hell with both barrels.Thanks to making the husbands (Robert Manette) mother Mrs Manette (played by a wonderfully cunning Gale Sondergaard) someone who kicks in Abigail's anxiety at every waking moment,due to Mrs Manette having a vice-like grip on her "mummys boy" son Robert.Whilst Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly are both more well known for their famous musical performances,both actors show that they have what it takes to become engulfed in a Noir world.Although Deanna's role as a "bar escort" is only hinted at,Durbin is still able to make Abigail Martin into a tremendous Femme Fatale,thanks to showing Abigail to be a very fragile character,who goes from living in almost total bliss with her new husband,enjoying the finer things in life and doing everything possible to become accepted via Robert's mum.To gradually living in constant fear,which is unhelpfully heightened when she discovers that Roberts trousers have a spot of blood on them, (a reference to Macbeath?)and that his mother is being a prison-warden type figure to her,who makes sure that punishment is served whenever Martin falls out of step in the slightest.For his strong performance,Gene Kelly turns Robert Manette into one real creep.Initially in the scenes that show Robert and Abigail meeting for the first time,Robert just seems to be a bit of a "wise guy",with Kelly showing Robert to be goose bump-inductively all over Abigail.As the flashbacks to their married life expand,Gene starts to cleverly show Manette's mask gradually removed,and show that behind his "wise guy" image,Robert is someone in a pre-Psycho era,who will do what ever possible to get into the good books of his mother,who both cause Abigail to walk on egg shells around them.Until everything gets too much,and begins to crack for her.
The film has the nightclub singer, "Jackie" AKA Abigail Manette (Deanna Durbin), lose everything, due to her ex-husband, Southern aristocrat Robert Monette (Gene Kelly)'s gambling, resulting her to live, in a somewhat quiet, yet gentler life.
I wondered why, with two such great stars as Gene Kelly and Deanna Durbin, I had never heard of this movie before.
For one thing we waste a good reel and a half on something that is totally superfluous; a passing-out parade, a Dear John letter, a plane journey interrupted by bad weather that could all have been eliminated leaving us with the main story of Deanna Durbin's ill-starred marriage with Gene Kelly who, in addition to enjoying an all-but-spelt-out incestuous relationship with his mother, Gale Sondergaard, is also addicted to gambling and not above murder. |
tt0125022 | Heartbreakers | The movie opens with Sigourney Weaver getting married to Ray Liota. The wedding night comes and Sigourney falls asleep before the two can have sex. Ray wakes up and goes to work where his secretary (Jennifer Love Hewitt) is waiting in a tight dress. He cannot overcome his urges and starts making out with Jeniffer. Sigourney walks in and catches them in the act. She files for divorce and takes half of his money and a car.We then find out that Jennifer and Sigourney are a mother daughter duo of con artists who marry men and then set them up to cheat so that they can take half of the husbands property.The two women have various ways of getting things for free throughout the whole movie; putting broken glass into their meal, slip on a puddle of goo that they put there, in order to get a hotel room.After the divorce from Liotta, Jennifer decides that she is a PRO, and can handle herself on her own.Sigourney needs to convice her to stay so she comes up with a plan. When the duo go to the bank to withdraw their money they are told that Sigourney has no money in her account. Sigourney had given her friend, an IRS agent her account number and had the agent hold all her money so it appeared she was broke. Sigourney convinces Jennifer to do one last con.The women drive along the beach in a speedboat looking at possible people to con. Jennifer has her eyes set on a young mamas boy while Sigourney sees an old single man (Gene Hackman) who is a chain smoker and coughs every 3 seconds. The two decide to go with Gene Hackman, while Jennifer is not to sure.Sigourney moves in on Gene at an auction, while Jennifer is at a bar, owned by Jason Lee. He approaches Jennifer and asks her what she wanted to drink. Jennifer thought this was a pick up line and freaked out at him. While Jason comes back with a drink, Jennifer gets a phone call from her mother.Jennifer storms out of the bar and goes to the spot her mother told her and lays out a spike strip in the road so Gene Hackman would get into a car accident. Little did she know that she left her purse at the bar and Jason Lee was returning it. He runs over the spike strip and crashes into a tree. The two have an awkward moment when Jennifer sees Gene coming and pushes Jason Lee down a hill so he does not see the spike strip in the road. The two fall down while Gene crashes into Jasons car. Jennifer then makes out with Jason to keep him distracted while Sigourney convinces Gene that she will take him home.Once home Sigourney has an encounter with the housekeeper of Genes home. It turns out that the housekeeper is on to Sigurneys plan. Jennifer goes into the maids room and sets her up by making it appear she stole all of Genes ex-wifes jewelry. The maid goes to jail and Jennifer becomes the new housekeeper.After a night out on the town, Gene Hackman comes to Sigourneys house and asks her to marry him. Along with him he brought a statue that Sigourney bought at the auction where they met but broke the penis off (it was a statue of a naked man) . Gene brought it back penis and all. After Gene asks her to marry him, he goes to kiss her and trips and hits his head on the penis of the statue and dies.Ray Liotta then shows up and asks Sigourney to marry him because he messed up and he hasnt forgotten about what they had and he wants another chance. Jennifer Love Hewitt walks in and Liotta realizes he was "played" by the two women. He demands his money back but they don't have any. They decide if he helps them put Hackman's body back to his own house they would include him in the next con.Jennifer Love Hewitt goes pack to the bartender and he eventually asks her to marry him. She has a few doubts but with Sigourney and Liotta posing as her second cousins, she eventually agrees. On their wedding night, they pull the same routine with them about to have sex and Jennifer fallls asleep. When he realizes she's asleep, he leaves the room. Jennifer opens her eyes and is crying. She actually loves him.Outside, Sigourney meets up with him and invites him to her house for a drink. She keeps trying to seduces him but he won't bite. Finally, Jennifer Love Hewitt comes over (as planned) and sees him asleep in Sigourney's bed.The next scene is in the divorce court and Jason Lee decides to give her whatever she wants.As they're driving home Sigourney tells Jennifer that he didn't want to sleep with her, she actually had to drug him to get him in bed.Jennifer realizes that Jason really did love her.Jason is heads back to the bar and his friend tells him he forgot a few things (after selling the bar to pay off the divorce). When he opens the door, it shows everyone welcoming him back. It was a surprise party and Jennifer is there with the papers to the bar.The next scene shows Liotta, Sigourney and Jennifer driving home from the bar. Sigourney tells Liotta that the IRS agent conned her and actually took all her money. They have to get her back.Next we see Liotta talking to the IRS agent at dinner, having a romantic evening. Waiting outside is Sigourney.... | revenge | train | imdb | Plus you get to look at Jennifer Love Hewitt a lot.Mother/daughter grifter duo Sigourney Weaver and JLH are on the verge of splitting up, but agree to do One Last Big Score (isn't it always the way) in order to get out of trouble with the IRS and part sufficiently loaded; Gene Hackman, as a chain-smoking pensionable zillionaire ("His liver spots are positively luminous") is their mark in Palm Beach and also the source of a lot of the fun.
In fact, he and an under-used Ray Liotta come close to swiping the film from the leads, but Sig and Love make a good team, each complementing the other - Weaver's the better actress, but Hewitt holds her own; and though the former's attractive, the latter - even in her blonde disguise - is smokin' (something the film never forgets - you get to look at Jennifer Love Hewitt a lot).The Robert Dunn/Paul Guay/Stephen Mazur script won't win plaudits from the PC brigade; "Heartbreakers" is often a farce in a good sense, but the female characters come off for the most part not as morally upright as their male counterparts (though Hackman's moneybags is by far the most repellent person here).
Pacy for sure, and often funny if not always in what the late British DJ Kenny Everett's Cupid Stunt character called "the best possible taste" (witness the oral sex gags early on), there's a distinct slowing down as the tale unfolds and Jen's growing feelings for a potential mark (Jason Lee) makes it more sentimental than cynics would like; the first half of the movie is funnier and edgier than the second.
But you get to look at Jennifer Love Hewitt a lot.In the end, "Heartbreakers" has a tone a bit too much like the likes of "Are You Being Served?" to be a must-view for all; the movie sometimes comes across like a "Carry On" film.
Okay, so it's not much like a "Carry On" film, but it does make for a good two hours' watching; Weaver fans will get a particular kick out of her rendition of "Back In The U.S.S.R.", and Hackman fans will enjoy seeing him upstage everyone except for Hewitt's anatomy; I gave this 7 out of 10, but I should have given this an 8 purely on that count.
The Con Is On. A movie that proves that what you see is not necessarily what you get, as a mother/daughter team con one well-heeled member of the opposite sex after another, in `Heartbreakers,' directed by David Mirkin and starring Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
An amusing, and at times hilarious comedy, the fact that it works as well as it does can be attributed to two things, by category: Weaver and Hewitt; and Ray Liotta and Jason Lee.
Jennifer love Hewitt and Sigourney Weaver work so well together, and the emotional scenes in the film are so believable.
Ray Liotta, Gene Hackman and Jason Lee as the love-struck victims are perfectly cast.In the scene where Jennifer Love Hewitt is on the bed "sleeping", and opens her eyes crying, I was and still am choked when I see it.
Pussy Power is this films message,and Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt are two hot actresses who team up to create Max and Page Conners,a seductively sexy mother/daughter con team who deviously lure men into marriage and then leave them broken hearted,and....Broke.
Heartbreakers is a delightful comedy that proves how deceitful a clever woman can be,as Weaver demonstrates as the gorgeous and alluring Max Conners,who targets wealthy gentleman,walks them down the aisle,and then empties their pockets through divorce when she discovers that they have eyes for other women.But the amusing thing about this film is that the other women is Max's sexy younger daughter Page,and she can turn just as many heads as her mother.Unknown to her husbands,Page is trained to seduce them,helping her mother get out of her newest marriage with a few bucks in her pocket,and the freedom to put more foolish men under her spell.Ray Liotta is hilarious as Dean,and Vinnie Stagliano,the ex husband of Max,who is bitter and desperate for revenge when he discovers how much of a bitch his ex wife is.Meanwhile,Page believes she could just as easily lure men into marriage like her mother,and sets her sights on Jack Withroe (Jason Lee)a bar owner who falls in love with her,unaware of her game.But the plot really gets interesting when we learn that Page has a heart and is in love with Jack.The ending is exciting,enjoyable and romantic.Heartbreakers is a fun film for the females,with plenty of eye candy and cleavage for the males!.
HEARTBREAKERS / (2001) *** (out of four)Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ray Liotta, Jason Lee, Jeffrey Jones, Gene Hackman, Nora Dunn, and Anne Bancroft.
"Heartbreakers" is easily one of the funniest comedies of the year.The film stars Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love-Hewitt as Max and Page, two conniving con artists who use their good looks to get what they want.
As the movie opens, Max is married to small-time Jersey womanizer Dean Cumanno (Ray Liotta), but the marriage is short lived when Max shows up at his office the next day only to find her newlywed fooling around with an attractive younger woman-her daughter, Page.
The whole act was a setup for a abrupt and easy divorce settlement, with the two double-dealers coming away from the act with their pockets overloaded with three-hundred thousand dollars and a really nice car.Page is growing up and wants to start a business on her own, but her mother thinks she is not yet ready and finds them both in a demanding circumstance: the IRS needs lots of money real soon from Max and Page.
The two must decide how to deal with these situations, all while persuading Tensy to further fall for Max in attempt to pay off the IRS.Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sigourney Weaver deliver performances that are both sexy and funny.
Its about a sexy mother and daughter pairing of Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love-Hewitt who basically marry men for their money; every character seems to be double crossing every other character, and it makes for terrific viewing.Each member of the cast puts in a top performance, the characters are all intelligently written and the story is very strong and interesting.I have to recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys a good laugh, this is definitely not just a another chick flick, it is a brilliantly funny movie.
Tragically some women can't be trusted, especially when they're working on man's weakness, by using temptation.The movie takes maximum advantage of all the funny things that can happen when a mother and daughter team of marriage con goes out to dig the gold out of rich men.
But the plan is still to con the guy into being seduced by the mother (who's pretending to be the cousin of her own daughter) on the night of the wedding of the daughter to the bar owner.The movie is a comedy but hits close to home about how men can be conned by having wool put over their eyes in the name of love, and by some forceful means.
That's what makes this movie an extra delight to watch.The movie is actually a love comedy with a twist, and lives up to both the comedy, and romance aspect of the story as well.Jennifer Hewitt and Sigourney Weaver puts on great performance as well as the supporting casts.Great movie that I wish they made more of its kind..
The story is interesting, the laughs are plenty and the acting is top notch.Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt play mother and daughter who con rich men into marrying them, to divorce them soon after for a hefty divorce settlement.
Heartbreakers (2001) starring Jennifer love Hewitt, Sigourney Weaver, Ray Liotta, and Gene Hackman is a very funny well done comedy about conwomen mother and daughter.
I loved the casting, Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer love Hewitt play their roles very well and they have good on screen chemistry as a team.
It's about a mother/daughter con team of Max and Page (played by Sigourney Weaver of `Aliens' and Jennifer Love Hewitt of `Can't Hardly Wait') who prey upon wealthy men with the mom as bait and the daughter as cheating material to end the marriage in a fraudulent divorce.
While this seems to work fine for them on a rich chop shop owner named Dean (Ray Liotta of `Goodfellas') and tobacco tycoon William Tensy (Gene Hackman of `Enemy of the State'), they run into a unexpected problem when Page falls for a bar owner named Jack (Jason Lee of `Chasing Amy') and actually grows a conscience on their supposed `last con'.
Due to the hilarious performances by Liotta and Hackman, and the amazing turn for Hewitt (from the dreadful `Party of Five'), this movie stayed on track and kept the laughs rolling.
For all those guys who debated seeing this movie because it looks like a chick film, but you really like Jennifer Love Hewitt.....GO SEE IT!
I didn't switch--not that it's something you should rush out and see, but it's got some very funny bits of business supplied by Gene Hackman (as a disgusting old man) and Sigourney Weaver, funny when she's impersonating a Russian chanteuse.It's a tepid variation on the "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" theme and this time it's a mother-daughter team who make an unforgettable pair of schemers.
But if I had seen this movie in high school (a temporal impossibility), things might have been different.This film stars Hewitt, alongside Sigourney Weaver, as a pair of black widows who con men into marrying them so they can reap the divorce money.
It's the impressive list of guest stars they con along the way: Kevin Nealon, Ray Liotta, Jeffrey Jones, Gene Hackman and Jason Lee.If the cast doesn't sell you, there are key scenes you won't want to miss: Sigourney Weaver posing as a Russian woman singing the Beatles' "Back in the USSR"...
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.Although possibly not as great a comedy as that movie, this flick has many good laughs.
And for the complaints of the happy ending, this movie is really a romantic comedy.Sigourney Weaver is great, and is another female Hollywood lead that proves that older women can be incredibly sexy.Jennifer Love Hewitt does a convincing job of playing daughter and has good chemistry from Weaver.
I really Enjoyed this Movie, Both lead Actresses play well and are funny.I've seen it about 5 times and am gonna buy it on dvd.Jennifer love hewitt was the main reason i watched this as i've liked all her movies but this is probably my favourite of hers,The movie's got a great storyline and laughs from the start, I'd give it a 8/10.
The cast is excellent for this film, you can't go wrong with Gene Hackman, Sigourney Weaver, Ray Liotta, Jason Lee and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
I've watched Heartbreakers over ten times and it never fails to make me laugh at the crazy antics of the characters who made this movie enjoyable for viewers.Pairing up actresses Sigourney Weaver & Jennifer Love Hewitt to play the mother/daughter con team was genius they're incredibly talented and beautiful women,their performance was fantastic.Gene Hackman's part as the tobacco tycoon was good of all his acting roles this was his funniest one yet.
One of my favorite scenes is when Page falls asleep on the bed and begins to cry it's then shown that she really loves this nice guy.Max (Weaver) & Page (Hewitt) Conners are a sexy mother/daughter con artist team who make men fall in love then break their hearts and steal their cash.
"Heartbreakers" is a comedy with 2 con artists both female named Max Conners(Sigourney Weaver) and her daughter Page Conners/Jane Helstrom(Jennifer Love Hewitt) that go around conning men out of there money, because usually when it comes down to it they know most of the time men tend to think with there dick instead of there brain when dealing with attractive women.
The ending is perhaps never much in doubt, and yes it's going to be too sweet for some, but preparing for a formula ending whilst having a laugh on the way is, I think, all one can expect from a production such as this.Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ray Liotta and Gene Hackman lead the way.
Jennifer Love Hewitt plays her role so well as a really naive and beautiful woman in need of independence and Sigourney Weaver is hilarious and so convincing as her mother.
Ray Liota plays his role very well as well- Its one of the best comedies that I have come across in a very long time and its the sort of movie that both men and women can enjoy..
You can't miss Sigorney Weaver alongside Gene Hackman or Jennifer Love Hewitt seducing Ray Liotta without cracking up.
Signorney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt, that fat girl in a bikini, are "Heartbreakers" in this 2001 film also starring Ray Liotta, Gene Hackman, Jason Lee, Anne Bancroft and Nora Dunn.
I have always liked Sigourney Weaver, and this movie did not change my opinion of her acting skills in any way.It's a an interesting comedy with a good plot and funny situations.
In their zeal/greed to con men, mother-daughter team Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt keep getting themselves into impossible situations and then getting themselves out in witty, ingenious ways.
Everything in this movie is hilarious, including the small scenes and things that go on in the background, like Gene Hackman's parrot; Ray Liotta goes fishing; and anything Anne Bancroft does.
Heartbreakers (2001) Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Gene Hackman, Ray Liotta, Jason Lee, Anne Bancroft, Jeffrey Jones, Nora Dunn, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Ricky Jay, Sarah Silverman, D: David Mirkin.
However everything is put at risk due to Page breaking the top rule of the game by falling in love.With the cast involved and some good looking trailers, I decided to watch this film when it came onto television, hoping for it to be smart, funny and entertaining.
Sigourney Weaver was good as well, although she apparently chose to play her role straight rather than a little wacky, which would have fit the movie's theme better I feel.I can recommend this film without reservation.Who should see this film:-- Comedy lovers, a must-see, especially for the modern womanwho liked "Charlie's Angels".
Jennifer Love Hewitt, who I do not usually like that much, does a great job with her character Paige and is probably the best role that she has ever played.
Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sigourney Weaver, Ray Liotta, Gene Hackman and Jason Lee are all excellent.
And the mother and daughter con team is played by Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Then, Liotta is seduced by Weaver's daughter, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt.
What I liked about Heartbreakers is the chemistry between Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
In this movie, I think she does a pretty good job, playing Weaver's daughter.
I really liked this movie despite it is a little bit silly but Hey I had a lot of fun watching it and it has the most important thing about a movie that it is being entertaining which is very rare for a silly comedy film which last 2 hours (a lot of time for this kind of movies which frequently last 100 minutes top).The performances are really funny, Jennifer Love Hewitt looks great with all the sexy clothe she wears through the film (this is a very good reason just to see it).
It's the kind of film a person can watch without engaging too many brain cells after a hard week of work and which offers action set in luxurious surroundings (always an upper when you're feeling down) and some fine and amusing acting by Sigourney Weaver, Ray Liotta, and Gene Hackman.
Watch it, you will like it if you like a good comedy, and Jennifer Love Hewitt is Soooooooo sexy, believe me..
Well, if you've seen the trailers, you pretty much know the plot; mother-daughter con artist team played by Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Jason Lee and Jennifer Love Hewitt have good chemistry in this movie, which I wished would have been explored more.
Ray Liotta, who I haven't seen in a while, is really fun as the latest of Weaver's jilted husbands."Heartbreakers" is probably not for guys, unless they REALLY want to see Jennifer Love Hewitt in some VERY VERY short, tight dresses and high high heels.
There are only three characters who have any real substance to them: Sigourney Weaver's Max, Jennifer Love Hewitt's Page, and Gene Hackman's outrageous spluttering billionaire, William B Tensy.
"Heartbreakers" could have been a brilliant comedy, namely because of the general plot idea and Gene Hackman's, maybe also Sigourney Weaver's, acting, but it seems that the producers got cold feet and decided to play it safe by throwing in the extremely corny Jennifer Love Hewitt - finding - true - romance subplot.
Max and Page - mother and daughter - (Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt) are marriage impostors.
Sigourney Weaver and Love Hewitt play a mother-daughter con woman team.
Sigourney Weaver, and Jennifer Love Hewitt star in a sexy comedy about a mother and daughter who break hearts and bank accounts as they charm their way across the country.
But Heartbreakers is funny and Jennifer Love Hewitt shines as Page the junior member of a mother/daughter con game.
Sigourney Weaver and Gene Hackman were gold together; he was as lecherous as they come, and Jason Lee is always good :)Anyway, this movie deserves better than it's rating, it was hilarious when it tried to be, and sweet and sentimental where it needed to be.
It is hard to exactly see where the point of this story is going sometimes because it is dealing with so much, but still the dialogue is very good and David Mirkin gets his cast to all put in lively and wild performances that make it all seem worth while.Our two cons are Max (Sigourney Weaver) and Page (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a mother- daughter team who center their sights on two timing males. |
tt2938522 | Yonderland | An average Mom suddenly discovers there is an entire world in the back of her kitchen larder. Taken beyond the portal by a helpful elf, and a grumpy talking stick, she is soon to discover that she is the chosen one who's coming was written, and only she can save the people of Yonderland.Two of Yonderland's characters meet as one is entering, and the other is leaving through the same door, only neither of the two will allow the other to be more courteous than he, and just as they are about to come to blows over the indignity that they each feel at having been out shined by the other the chosen one steps in out of frustration, and orders that the two of them stop fighting, and shake hands, and get over it. That day would be known as the first time in history that someone of Yonderland did not die in battle. The war was over, and all thanks to the chosen one. This new hand graspy shaking thing would replace the fighting from now on.It's parts of Princess Bride, Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, Discworld and Fraglerock + just a little "The Sarah Jane Adventures" rolled into a nice bit of humour for all ages.*The storyline of Series 1-3, told in chronological order:Nestor of Maddox, a nobleman from the Twelve Realms, accidentally gains access to the forbidden Second Scroll that foretells the Realms' future. He is horrified to read in it that his twin daughters, one good and one evil, are destined to unite and cause unimaginable destruction. Nestor steals the scroll, kidnaps his good daughter Debbie from her wet nurse Nanny La Roo, transports himself to Earth, and leaves Debbie in the care of a public welfare agency in Birmingham, England. In this way Nestor hopes that fate will be averted and Debbie will never meet her sister.The evil daughter grows up to be Imperatrix, the ruthless warlord who conquers eleven of the Twelve Realms and is intent on subjugating the last remaining free Realm, Yonderland. An enterprising elf discovers Debbie living in Selly Oak, Birmingham, with her twin children and husband Peter, and persuades her to come with him through a convenient space-time portal in her kitchen pantry to Yonderland, where she is hailed as the Chosen One, destined to save Yonderland and usher in a new age of peace. Debbie soon finds herself on a hectic schedule shuttling back and forth between Selly Oak, where she tries to carry on her roles as wife and mother as normally as possible, and Yonderland, where she embarks on a quest to find the Second Scroll that will explain to her why she is the Chosen One. Along the way, with the help of Elf and his magic stick Nick, Debbie becomes a valued and beloved pillar of the community, offering sensible leadership and advice while dodging the attempts of Imperatrix's buffoonish sub-overlord Negatus and his demonic minions to stop her.On his deathbed, realizing that his attempts to shield Debbie from her fate have failed, Nestor sends her a box containing the Second Scroll--which one of Negatus' minions steals--and a message warning her to avoid Imperatrix. But after Imperatrix sends a giant robot to destroy Yonderland, Negatus persuades Debbie to confront Imperatrix and save the Realm. Debbie succeeds and Imperatrix disarms the robot, killing herself in the process.Peter is promoted to a new job in Glasgow, and Debbie reluctantly prepares to sell their house and lose access to her kitchen cupboard portal to Yonderland. However, a new threat to the Twelve Realms emerges: Cuddly Dick, a valued associate of the Council of Elders, whose brain has been taken over by an parasitical despot bent on conquering the Realms. The possessed Dick uses his personal warmth to seize control of the Realms, taking command of Imperatrix's crew of evil Overlords and turning the people of Yonderland against Debbie, Elf and the Elders. With Negatus as an unreliable ally, Debbie endeavors to stop Dick and win back the hearts and minds of the people of Yonderland. After a series of perilous adventures she succeeds: the parasite is removed from Dick's head, making him good again and ending his evil reign. Back on Earth, Peter realizes that neither he nor his family really wants to leave their home in Selly Oak and turns down the job in Glasgow. | fantasy | train | imdb | null |
tt0317248 | Cidade de Deus | Taking place over the course of over two decades, City of God tells the story of Cidade de Deus (Portuguese for City of God), a lower class quarter west of Rio de Janeiro. The film is told from the viewpoint of a boy named Rocket (Busca pé in Portuguese) who grows up there as a fishmonger's son, and demonstrates the desperation and violence inherent in the slums. Based on a real story, the movie depicts drug abuse, violent crime, and a boy's struggle to free himself from the slums' grasp.The movie begins cinematically depicting chickens being prepared for a meal. A chicken escapes and as an armed gang chases after it bumps into Rocket who believes that the gang wants to kill him. The movie then flashes back ten years earlier, to tell the story of how he got himself into that position.Three "hoodlums", "The Tender Trio", one being Rocket's brother, Goose, are terrorizing local businesses with armed holdups. In Robin Hood fashion they split part of the loot with the citizens of City of God and are protected by them. Li'l Dice is a hanger-on who convinces them to hold up a motel and rob its occupants. Li'l Dice ("Dadinho" in Portuguese), serving as lookout, fires a warning shot, then proceeds to slaughter the inhabitants. The massacre brings on the attention of the police forcing the three to quit their criminal ways. Each meets an untimely end, except one who decides to join the church. Goose, Rocket's brother, is slain by Li'l Dice after robbing the younger boy and his friend Benny who have been hiding out and committing crimes themselves.The movie fast forwards a number of years. Li'l Dice now calls himself Li'l Zé ("Zé Pequeno" in Portuguese), and, along with his childhood friend Benny, he establishes a drug empire by eliminating all of the competition except for a drug dealer named Carrot ("Cenoura" in Portuguese). Meanwhile, Rocket has become a part of the "Groovies" a hippie-like group of youth that enjoy smoking pot. He begins his photography career shooting his friends, especially one girl that he is infatuated with, but who is dating another boy.A relative peace has come over City of God under the reign of Li'l Zé who plans to eliminate his last rival, Carrot, against the judgment of his best friend Benny, who is keeping the peace. At one point, his best friend and partner in crime Benny has decided to become a "playboy" and becomes the "coolest guy in City of God". Eventually, along with the girl that he has wooed away from Rocket, he decides to leave the criminal life behind to live on a farm. However, he is gunned down at his going away party by former drug dealer, Blackie, who is actually aiming for Li'l Zé. Benny was the only thing keeping Li'l Ze from taking over Carrot's business, so now Carrot is in danger.Li'l Zé humiliates a peace loving man Knockout Ned at the party and afterwards rapes his girlfriend and kills Ned's uncle and younger brother. Ned turns violent and sides with Carrot. After killing one of Li'l Ze's men, Ned starts a war between the two rival factions that creates a "Vietnam" of City of God. Jealous of Ned's notoriety in the newspapers, Li'l Zé has Rocket take photos of himself and his gang which, unknown to Rocket, are taken by a reporter and published in the daily paper. Rocket then mistakenly fears for his life believing that Li'l Zé will want to kill him for it. In actuality, Li'l Zé is pleased with his newfound fame.Coming full circle, Rocket is startled by Li'l Zé's request that he take a picture of the gang which had been chasing the chicken at the beginning of the film. Before he can, however, a gunfight ensues between the two gangs, but is broken up by the police. Ned is killed by a boy who has infiltrated his gang to avenge his father, who was killed by Ned during a bank robbery. Li'l Zé and Carrot are arrested and Carrot is taken away to be shown to the press. Li'l Zé is shaken down for money, humiliated and finally released, all of which is secretly photographed by Rocket. After the cops leave, the Runts (a gang of young children who robbed and terrorized the local merchants) come upon Li'l Zé and shoot and kill him in retribution for him killing one of their gang earlier in the film. Rocket takes pictures of Li'l Zé's dead body and goes to the newspaper.Rocket is seen in the newspaper office looking at all of his photographs through a magnifying glass, and deciding whether or not to put the pictures of the crooked cops in the newspaper, or the picture of Ze's dead body. The photos of the cops would make him famous but put him in danger, while the photos of Li'l Zé would guarantee him a job at the paper. He decides to take the safe route and gives the paper the picture of Li'l Zé's bullet-ridden body, which runs on the front page.The story ends with the Runts walking around the City of God, making a hit list of the dealers they plan to kill to take over their drug business. | comedy, dark, neo noir, murder, depressing, realism, mystery, dramatic, cult, violence, atmospheric, flashback, good versus evil, romantic, tragedy, revenge, storytelling | train | imdb | It simply is, in my opinion, one of the best contemporary films ever made.Based on true events and characters who live in the overlooked and poverty stricken slums in the shadows of Rio de Janiero, where life expectancy doesn't reach the 30's and drug dealers are kings.The tale of the City of God, and its myriad of characters is told by Rocket, a young man who struggles to make something of his life, other than to wind up another victim of drugs or gang wars.Not only are the characters in City of God absolutely fascinating, and also very endearing, but also convincingly acted by groups of young and unknown actors.
The film revolves around the, 'City of God,' a favela (or ghetto) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a horrifying area where drug dealers run the community, and where children killing children is not an uncommon occurrence.
Rocket's dream is to become a photographer and to escape the City of God while Lil Ze becomes a powerful gang leader and drug dealer.The film offers an unflinching look at gang life in the City of God, as it follows the favela through three decades; the 60's, 70's and 80's, and shows how violence just spirals into more violence with the disturbingly high amounts of violence in the favela, most involving teenagers and children.
The editing is very frantic, which makes you feel like you are on the streets of the City of God, and the direction is flawless, seamlessly blending the many elements of the story.The film was definitely one of the best films I have ever seen.
From our narrator Buscape / Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) whose ticket out of the slum is his love of photography over to people like laidback Bene / Benny (Philippe Haagensen), followed by Ze's fierce rival Cenoura / Carrot (Matheus Nachtergaele) or good guy turned bad (although it's not so simple) Mane Galinha / Knockout Ned (Seu Jorge) we see a multidimensional, pulsating, alive community that seems in need of a strong, sustained outside push to finally stop chasing its own tail and get out of this destructive cycle..
The film, directed by Fernando Meirelles, tells the story of life in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, in an area known as the Cidade De Deus, the City of God.
This technique is used heavily in the first twenty minutes of Cidade De Deus, with the freeze frame trick being used to introduce the story's main characters alongside the dialogue of narrator, Rocket.Throughout the film one cannot help but watch a scene and think, 'I've seen that in Raging Bull, Goodfellas, or Casino', and this may make some look less favourably on the film's direction.
But simply, Cidade De Deus is a perfect film for avid fans of cinematography, and those just in search of two hours of a bloody good story.I cannot decide yet if I would consider this better than Amores Perros, but it is certainly not inferior.
Amores Perros triumphs in creating relationships between the audience and the characters, as it concentrates for a long time on relatively few people, each of whom we grow to know and ultimately care about, which is important for the emotional impact of the film.
Actually, it's probably just about one of the best films I had ever seen.The characters really make this movie come alive with each of their compelling personalities shining though in the backdrop of oppressive conditions and constant violence.
The violence hits you in the chest like a load of bricks sometimes, especially when you recognize that many of the kids involved in the violence are right around 10 or 11, but you also realize that this reflects the culture of the slum these kids live in.Gangster films always seem to make for good dramas (e.g. the Godfather, Goodfellas), where the culture of evil almost always triumphs as the dominant character.
It also shows the bravery of many of these people when even the government won't stick up for them.If you're thinking of starting to watch some foreign language films, this is a good place to start.
Wow, this is one of those different movies - meaning not run-of-mill by any means - and one of those which isn't pleasant to watch but one you might find yourself mesmerized by it.This also is one of those "based on a true story" films which makes it even more shocking, if its mostly true.
No one is older than 25, partly because of choice, but mainly because no one lives past this age.On the surface, in this context, City of God is a coming of age story of two young people, a sort of Brazilian "Angels With Dirty Faces.' One character escapes from the City of God, while the other succumbs to it.But when one scratches beneath, one finds the film a comment on the morally bankrupt City of God in Rio De Janeiro, and a mirror on Brazil itself.
Far away from the party hopping, Travel and Leisure postcard perfect white beaches, is another world, one of marauding bands of displaced children.The most surprising thing about City of God is its references to American films.
Then, a teenager called Buscapé (Alexandre Rodrigues) tells the story of the Cidade de Deus and the main characters of the movie (Zé Pequeno, Bené, Cenoura etc.), since they were kids.
When he is in his late teens/early twenties, he goes to work delivering newspapers, when one of his photographs of the slum gang boss is discovered and published without his permission, putting his life in danger, but beginning his professional career.There are so many reasons why 'City of God' is compelling, but besides its stylish and flashy cinematography and brutally realistic script, the pacing of the film is unrelenting.
Of course, since I had no idea it was based on real events, 'City of God' became that much more intriguing, especially when, during the closing credits we see actual news footage of some of the primary characters, and we can see how closely the film mirrored actual events.With a film like 'City of God' it is nearly impossible to convey why it is an excellent film because it is just seamless and well done in so many ways.All I can do is recommend the film to pretty much anyone who is looking for a good story and a great presentation.
In 'Cidade de Deus' we follow some dirt poor kids who live as brutal gangsters in a shanty town part of the Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro.
Most of the times when something really awful happens in the story, like children becoming killers or getting killed, it's rapidly followed by some non-emotional scene with some cool music and flashy editing.
There's no grieving for the victims, the movie is over 2 hours long & the director spends about 30 seconds of that time showing family members shattered by this unnecessary loss of life, which means there's no depiction of the deep sorrow & hopelessness that extreme poverty & violence creates.
I rate it 5/10 for the cinematography & editing and for showing a small piece of a harsh reality without blinders, but for me it felt more like an ordinary action movie than an epic masterpiece..
But the manipulation of at least three hand-held cameras, the constant sound of samba and the relapses of the story, together with the sheer vivacity of the original dialogues (mind you, I do mean the original, extremely nuanced Rio favela-slang Portuguese dialogues!!) make the movie possible to be watched without post-traumatic-stress.
But it is its own unique film.It is based on a true story of one boys desperate attempt to survive and escape the city of god (the slums of Rio de Janeiro) a truly brutal and violent place.
All of the amateur actors were recruited from Favelas (slums) in Rio de Janeiro, and a couple of them actually lived in the Cidade de Deus (City of God) itself .
The movie is produced by Walter Salles , the best director and production manager from Brazil .The film is rated ¨R¨ for crude murders and sex and isn't apt for boys , only for old people (+18) , neither squeamish.
Great, he has the moral character of a robot, real inspiring.I also noticed that its one of those "based on a true story" films, like that is supposed to make us think.
The way that Fernando Meirelles used to capture and describe the harsh reality of Brazilian slums and, via a special embodiment , was able to transpire the difficulty that young people have to disconnect from the criminal environment surrounding them and all the corruption and urban warfare that exists in Brazil today .Fantastic cast, could not have been better chosen .Maybe if this movie was spoken in English language, it might have been further recognized.Congratulations to all involved and keep up the good work to producers and director..
The one great scene in this movie (where Lil Dice shoots one of the "runts" in the foot, then forces another young kid to decide which of the two "runts" to kill) is devastatingly effective because it doesn't use any crap film tricks at all.
Copying Tarantino's style of putting little titles up for each segment, he seems to utterly forget what story he's telling, jumping around from character to character, and even short flashback loops like the whole "apartment" sequence that he seems to think build dramatic tension whereas all they really do is shout "hey, look at how cool this narrative technique is!" It might be cooler if we hadn't seen the same "Lil Dice takes over another dealer's turf" sequences so many other places.
It only detracts from the story, making the characters all the less believable.It seems like the subject matter (i.e. the horrible conditions under which these kids live - and the fact that it's foreign) has influenced viewers into thinking that the film is somehow better than it actually is.
I felt like I should have been utterly horrified by the scenes portrayed, yet it came across as not credible or realistic.City of God is certainly not a bad film, and it did have some moments of genuine truth and power, most notably in interactions with various girlfriends.My overall impression of the movie: - a noble and decent attempt at movie realism in that "cinema verite" style that does not succeed due to the lack of skill of both the director and the actors.
I'm sure many viewers feel the same way due to the absolute brutality of their slums where the police do little to interfere with gangs who run it.FYI--there's an excellent and sobering documentary on the Criterion DVD of this movie about the drug problem in Rio in the present day.
It's the combination of an objective style, fast filming, a great soundtrack and the chocking story that made "Cidade de Deus" a revolutionary movie.Although the events are tragic, don't expect a melodramatic story.
Although we are confronted with violence on TV every day when we watch the news, the fact that kids are involved in this kind of gang life is really chocking.Although I really liked this movie, I think it's highly overrated.
That film is a tragedy, this one is a tragedy of such extreme proportions that you know nothing can save the people---especially the innocent---in the city of God. Judging by how popular the movie is with audiences worldwide, I'm in the minority here.
Being based on a true story, having lots of non-actors, making some very imaginative choices in cinematography, and so forth, this film really throws a lot of stuff at you, and it is impressive in its ability to keep a great many plates spinning in the air (although to tell the truth, if the narrator had said "but it's not time to tell So-and-so's story yet" just one more time, I would have screamed).Unfortunately, the next day when you look back on the experience, you realize that all you really got was a couple of hours worth of just another gangland storyline with a little too much Guy-Ritchie-influenced camera work and more than a few this-will-get-them-talking shock cinema moments.Original grade: 6 out of 10.
We follow his story from a child through the 60's and 70's in the slums where he is witness as children Lil' Dice and Bene grow up to become the heads of the gangs, using violence and murder to increase their power.I had missed this in the ONE art cinema in the city I live in and had to wait for the DVD to come out.
City of God has two main characters: Rocket and Lil Ze; the movie uses these characters to show that there are different ways to escape the ghetto.
The movie shows the events that each character has gone through to come to a decision point that could change his life from that day on.City of God borrows a lot of the ideas and techniques from American films.
More praise: I think City of God possibly has the best cinematography I have ever seen in a movie.
All the while it truly felt as though you were there, but desperately wanted to get away from the madness.However, it may feel, at times, somewhat like an orgy of drugs and guns or mindless glorification of street violence to appeal to teen audiences.But then I realised the violence is not gratuitous because City of God is about violence (duh, I know) and it condemns it in many ways, such as making out the protagonist non-violent and aspiring to a better life, and getting us to sympathise with him more than anyone else..
The action of the movie is placed in the rough hoods in Rio and presents the hard life there or how the narrator says:"City of Gods has nothing to do with the Rio De Janeiro you see in postcards" It has everything-love,war,revenge,crime,funny.The movie can be seen in two opposite ways- of the child who wants to escape from the rough world and of the rest of the children from there who think the only place to make something in life is there.
it's not derivative at all, but it certainly makes you compare elements to the all-time greats of entertainment.you hope for closure for our young photographer narrator but never quite get it, coming to the realization that this City of God is truly the Land of the Damned, even today subject to profound political corruption and gang violence.
This movie deserves all the credit it gets and some, and I hope that the situation that this story follows, one day, will no longer exist: life of violence, drugs, and death..
However, having had a week or so to reflect on the movie I don't think I will be quite so generous.CITY OF GOD has many good points: the directing, the acting, the locations, the interesting storyline.
If you like action or gangster movies then this is the film to see.7/10.
Imagine what it would have been like if Tarantino made a film about the D.C. area sniper shootings, then you'll get "City of God" - a sensational, cold and calculated stylistic exercise based on compelling real-life human drama.
Some may consider the film to be too violent, but I think the violence is needed to realistically portrait the hard life in the City of God, or any other slum where drug cartels are present.
The raw directing style, coupled with a great soundtrack makes for a movie which many different kinds of people can enjoy.
The raw directing style, coupled with a great soundtrack makes for a movie which many different kinds of people can enjoy.
I know that sounds weird, but I'm not kidding this movie is so disturbing and shocking, but its vibrant visual style made it impossible to look away from.Like the visuals and colors, the soundtrack is so vivid and dynamic to mirror the vicious cycle of violence in the eponymous city, and the slums of Rio de Janiero.That being said, City of God's exhilarating visuals and soundtrack aren't the only, nor even the main two reasons that made it unbelievably engrossing.
City of God tells the true story of a young Brazilian boy growing up in Rio debJaneiro and his attempts to avoid the local gangs.
'City of God' or 'Cidade de Deus' is one of the most realistic and brutal gangster films I have ever seen and without question one of the best foreign language films ever made.
Set in the slums of Rio, it gives an shocking account of gang culture in a city where crime and violence is the natural path for most young people growing up in deprived communities.The way in which the story is told, from Rocket's perspective, contributes enormously to the film.
The narration, combined with the realistic storyline and characters, means 'City of God' plays more like a documentary than a crime/drama film adapted from a novel.
I have not seen a gangster movie with the level of nuance and attitude as City of God. All the of the characters are wonderfully developed and all have their own identity to add to the message of the film.
Only true circumstances in life can generate a tale as the one depicted in City Of God. The simple fact that this was a true story makes this movie even more dumbfounding and astonishing at the same time.
And I say "world" and not city because when you are watching this movie, it doesn't even seem like a real place in our world.
City of God is a necessary film not only for movie lovers, but to all who wish to improve their social conscience and try to better understand the society we live in..
"City of God" is a quite brilliant film that portrays three decades - the 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s - of child and adult drugs gang warfare in the slums (favelas) outside Rio de Janeiro. |
tt2246549 | Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies | After his mother Nancy Lincoln (Rhianna Van Helton), falls victim to an illness that requires her to be tied to her bed, vicious and cannibalistic, 10-year-old Abe Lincoln (Brennen Harper) sees his father Thomas Lincoln (Kent Igleheart) commit suicide at her bedside. Taking up a scythe, the distraught young Abe tells his mother that he loves her before beheading her. He then joins others in his community in containing a local zombie outbreak.
When an adult Abraham Lincoln (Bill Oberst Jr.) has become President of a fracturing United States, he is apprised of rumors concerning a prominent Confederate stronghold. He is told that a regiment of 30 men had gone to Confederate Fort Pulaski to seize it from the Confederates and only one man returned barely alive. When questioning the survivor, Lincoln discovers the soldier has an illness that seems to bring corpses back to life. He then personally leads a team of the newly established secret service to accompany him in investigating the fort.
They get to the fort and are attacked by Confederate survivors led by General Stonewall Jackson (Don McGraw) as well as by several of the infected people. Abe kills one of his men who had been bitten by an infected and explains to the others in his party that if they are bitten or scratched by an infected, or if an infected's blood makes contact with their mouths or eyes, that they too will become infected and, within twenty-four hours, would no longer be considered "human". More are lost when attempting to investigate the surrounding neighborhood, and Abe encounters an old flame turned prostitute Mary Owens (Baby Norman) who is sheltering her help, including a young Theodore Roosevelt (Canon Kuipers), daughter Sophia (Hannah Bryan) and prostitute Annika (Anna Fricks) to protect them from the invasion.
The group makes their way back to the fort where Jackson refuses to kill the infected, believing them to only be sick and in need of care. He claims Lincoln's actions are only against the members of the Confederacy. Based on an old Bantu word he'd learned from his mother, Agent Brown (Jason Hughley) names the infected persons "zombies". Pat Garrett (Christopher Marrone) volunteers to help Abe, and guides them to a nearby plantation that has farming implements and other weapons they can use to combat the threat.
When returning to the fort, Mary is splashed in the face with zombie blood and soon falls ill. Meanwhile, agent John Wilkinson (Jason Vail) protests the killing and asks to remain behind as the rest of the group heads into the township to kill off the infected. Being greatly outnumbered, only Abe, Theodore, and Sophia return when the others are slaughtered. Wilkinson, who is revealed to be a spy, plots to kill Lincoln while he's alone but changes his mind when he catches Abe praying, as in his mind prayer would ensure Lincoln's soul going to heaven. After being convinced by Pat Garrett that Lincoln is right and escape is unlikely, Stonewall shows Abe a secret cache of gunpowder. They then decide to use the explosive to blow up the fort after trapping and containing the zombies inside. When the fuse goes out, Stonewall ventures down alone to re-light it, but is over-run and killed by the zombies just after doing so. Abe and Brown escape just in time and the entire place goes up. Mary accepts her fate and goes off with Lincoln to die, much to Sophia's heartbreak.
Eighteen months later, Abe goes to visit Mary who had been in the care of a doctor investigating the illness in vain hope of finding a cure. As Abe cleans wounds caused by her restraining shackles, Mary grabs his hand scratches his skin infecting him, much to his horror, forcing him to kill her. Knowing he is himself uncurable, Abe requests that a message be sent to John Wilkinson, as earlier he'd discovered that Wilkinson was actually John Wilkes Booth who had a plot to kidnap Lincoln in response to the end of the war and the Union the victor. The message gives Booth the information to know exactly where Lincoln would be the following night as Abe and his wife Mary go to the theater, thus leading to his assassination (purposely arranged by Lincoln to prevent another outbreak) at Booth's hands. | violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0058576 | Seven Days in May | (Monday, 12 May) The United States is in a state very close to turmoil. Strikes threaten to shut down the entire coal industry--and on Pennsylvania Avenue (still open in front of the White House in the film setting), two opposing forces of demonstrators meet, first in stony silence, then with taunts shouted back and forth. One side carries signs offering thanks to President Jordan Lyman (Fredric March) for signing a nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union. ("Peace On Earth Or No Earth At All" says a double-wide banner.) The other carries bellicose signs denouncing Lyman and the treaty, and promoting the possible Presidential candidacy of a four-star Air Force general: James Mattoon Scott (Burt Lancaster), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Then a Scott fan swings his sign to cut the double-wide banner. Result: mélée, to which the Capitol Police respond at once with cruisers, motorcycles, and paddy wagons.Inside the White House, the President's physician (Malcolm Atterbury) notes that Lyman's blood pressure climbs by three millimeters of mercury for every letter he dictates. Aide Paul Girard (Martin Balsam) reluctantly shares with Lyman a Gallup Poll result showing that only 29 percent of the American people approve of the treaty. To the desperate pleas of the physician that he take two weeks off, Lyman says that he will take a swim in the White House swimming pool.Lyman asks Senator Raymond Clark, D-Ga. (Edmund O'Brien) to join him. Lyman has two things to tell Clark. One is his rationale for the treaty: that absent that treaty, the hair-trigger status quo would only get worse, and inevitably some hatred-crazed officer, on either side, might initiate a full nuclear strike, maybe with authorization, possibly without, and the resulting war would end in Pyrrhic victory. The other is some advice to Clark: lay off the sauce. Ray Clark is, quite simply, an alcoholic.Clark takes his leave of the President and returns to Capitol Hill and a meeting of the Senate Committee on the Armed Services. (Today such a meeting would take place in the Russell Senate Office Building.) General Scott is the key witness. He insists that the treaty is "at best, an act of naïveté, and at worst an unsupportable negligence." Senator Frederick Prentice, R-Calif. (Whit Bissell), the chairman, is inclined to sympathize and to throw softball questions at Scott. Clark ridicules the proceedings ("a bad Gilbert and Sullivan") and frequently spars with his chairman and with Scott. Very clearly, Scott cannot persuade anyone who does not already agree with him.Scott does enjoy the almost unquestioning devotion of his senior administrative assistant, Colonel Martin "Jiggs" Casey, USMC (Kirk Douglas). As the two men make their way out of the Russell Building to Constitution Avenue for a drive back to the Pentagon, Scott instructs Casey that no one on Capitol Hill, or in the press, is to know about an alert planned for the upcoming Sunday (18 May). "This one must be deep and dark," he says.Back at the Pentagon, Casey checks into the E-ring and goes to the office complex of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. There he chats with a young officer in All-service Radio, Lt. (jg) Dorsey Grayson USN (Jack Mullaney). Grayson gives Casey some gossip: that General Scott has sent a message to "nothing but the cream", asking them to place their bets for the upcoming Preakness race. The recipients are: the commander of Vandenberg AFB; commander, SAC (Omaha, NE); ComSixthFleet (Gibraltar); Commander-in-chief, Pacific Theater; and commander, First Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, NC. The only man to send in a no-bet message: Vice-Admiral Farley C. Barnswell USN (John Houseman), ComSixthFleet.Casey goes on to his office, where he next meets Colonel William "Mutt" Henderson USA (Andrew Duggan), a member of the Army's Signal Corps. Henderson tells Casey that he is exec of EComCon, a secret unit based at a "Site Y" near El Paso, TX. Casey has never heard of EComCon, but draws Henderson out. Henderson reveals that his commanding officer is Colonel John Broderick USA (John Larkin), an officer that Casey has always regarded with suspicion of harboring neo-Nazi attitudes, particularly toward what an army ought to be. Henderson also reveals that EComCon has 100 officers and 3600 enlistees--and has been training more often for seizure than for prevention, as if the assets that EComCon is tasked to guard are already in enemy hands, and EComCon has to repossess them.General Scott's aide-de-camp, Colonel Murdock (Richard Anderson), interrupts the two by sending Henderson to another office. He then tells Casey that he should not discuss the alert with Henderson. Casey then, on a wild hunch, starts trying to draw out Murdock on Scott's Preakness pool. To his surprise, Murdock becomes terrifically angry and lets Casey know, in no uncertain terms, that he ought not to stick his nose into "the General's personal business!" As soon as Murdock leaves, Casey calls the Pentagon operator and asks whether she has a listing for EComCon. The answer: negative.That night, Casey goes to a party at the home of Stewart Dillard (Charles Watts). There he has a run-in with Girard, who protests Scott's belligerent appearance before SASC earlier that day. Senator Prentice butts in, taunts Girard over the treaty, then tries to goad Casey into talking out-of-school about what the military thinks of the treaty. This Casey will not do. Before things get seriously out-of-control, Dillard shows up and escorts Girard to meet "the wife of the Indian Ambassador."To Casey's immense relief, the next guest to speak to him has more pleasant things to say. This is Eleanor Holbrook (Ava Gardner), who until recently has been General Scott's squeeze. Now he has apparently dumped her, and she is trying to drown her sorrows in booze, a thing that Casey tries to put a stop to. Casey then agrees to see Ellie on a social basis.But before Casey can keep the nightcap date, Prentice, clearly not through, button-holes Casey and shoots his mouth off: "We all have to stay on the alert, especially on Sunday." Casey cannot let that rest. He apologizes profusely to Ellie, then sets out for Fort Myer, General Scott's headquarters. What to his wondering eyes should appear but Senator Prentice' automobile, parked outside of General Scott's official residence, and Senator Prentice getting out of his car and letting an orderly escort him into the residence--at 2345 hours.(Tuesday 13 May) The next morning, Casey reports to work, to review some footage from the last all-service alert, run in January. Scott is clearly not satisfied, saying that the military's response is way too slow. He then asks Casey to "stay close" and be available after the JCS meeting. Casey notices that Scott is tired, and asks Scott whether he got to bed late. Scott answers that he "went to bed too early, slept from eight to eight, too much sleep. I may never wake up." Clearly, that's a lie.After the meeting, Casey notes that the Chief of Staff of the Navy was not present at the meeting. He idly picks up a crumpled piece of paper from the desk of General Hardesty (Tyler McVey), Chief of Staff of the Air Force. The note reads: "Airlift EComCon 40 K212s to Site Y before 0700 Sunday. Chi, New York, LA, Utah." (The K-212 is a fictitious troop transport; no such aircraft exists on the military aircraft catalogue.) Scott tells Casey to keep secret the Preakness pool and Admiral Barnswell's refusal to participate. He then asks Casey to watch the broadcast from tonight's convention of the American Veterans' Order, which Scott will address.Grayson flags Casey on his way out, saying that he has just received a transfer to Pearl Harbor. He also reveals that Admiral Barnswell was indeed the only man to "poop out on the General's racing form."Casey does watch the AVO convention. Commentator Harold McPherson (Hugh Marlowe) introduces Scott, who addresses the meeting after the fashion of a politician, not a military officer. Casey has now seen enough. He calls the operator and asks for a connection to the White House.Casey goes to the White House and lays out everything before the President: EComCon (which, if it is a formal military abbreviation, could stand for Emergency Communications Control), its size, its ostensible mission, its probable mission ("training for seizure"), the Hardesty Note, the Preakness pool (and shipping Lt.-jg Grayson off to Hawaii when he revealed too much), Senator Prentice shooting his mouth off, Scott receiving Prentice late at night and then lying about how soon he went to bed that night, and finally that Congress is in recess, the Vice-President is on a goodwill tour of Italy, and the President has been asked to participate in the alert without the press. The upshot: General Scott is orchestrating a plot to take over the government. D-Day: Sunday, 18 May.Girard is not inclined to believe Casey. Girard also telephones Bill Condon at the Bureau of the Budget (after Casey leaves), and from him learns that no authority has ever appropriated funds for anything like EComCon. But the President will not discount the story. Hastily he assembles a task force, consisting of Girard, Supervisor Art Corwin (Bart Burns) of the Secret Service, Secretary of the Treasury Chris Todd (George Macready), Senator Raymond Clark, and Col. Jiggs Casey.(Wednesday 14 May) Chris Todd flatly does not believe in the plot, citing the absence of evidence for EComCon. Girard is inclined to agree with him. But the President cites the Navy being left out of the JCS meeting, the Hardesty Note, and what 3600 troops, aboard 40 K212 transports, could do. Art furthermore reveals Col. Broderick's Nazi-like attitudes, and Clark especially fears Scott's politician's manner.Finally, the President calls a halt to any further discussion. He lays out specific assignments. Chris Todd will coordinate at the White House. Art will recruit as many Secret Service agents as he needs to run tails on Generals Scott; Hardesty; Riley (William Challee), commandant of Marines; and Diefenbach (Robert Brubaker), chief of staff of the Army. Paul Girard will take a letter from the President to Gibraltar, confront Admiral Barnswell with it, and get his written reply. Ray Clark will go to El Paso, take a telephone number that Casey got from Col. Henderson, and "find that base." Casey will stay close to Scott and try to gather more information from him.Scott catches Casey looking up El Paso on the map. Whether Scott suspects Casey of compromising him, the film does not make clear--but Scott peremptorily gives Casey a seventy-two-hour leave.At Dulles Airport, Casey sees Clark off, but not before Clark instructs Casey to go see Ellie Holbrook, who might know more about Scott than anyone. As Casey prepares to leave with Art Corwin, they spot Harold MacPherson getting into a staff car belonging to Scott. The two men trail this car to a back alley, where apparently McPherson has met with Senator Prentice.(Thursday 15 May) President Lyman cancels all his appointments for the day. He also telephones Scott to tell him that he won't participate in the alert after all, but will go to his private island retreat on Blue Lake, Maine. (This is not the official Presidential retreat at Camp David; this is Jordan Lyman's private property.) Scott tells his secretary to hold his calls, while he calls Colonel Broderick at Site Y.Ray Clark makes it to El Paso an strikes up a conversation with a girl (Colette Jackson), who wonders why no soldiers have patronized the bar, though a base must be located nearby, as she and the bar owner see and hear planes flying in and out of a remote area at all hours. Clark gets into his automobile and drives down a desert road, and takes a turn-off. Then a helicopter drops out of the sky, and out steps a stone-faced guard, gun drawn, to arrest Clark.Paul Girard has made it to Gibraltar, and meets with Barnswell aboard his flagship (USS Kitty Hawk, CVAN 63). Barnswell breaks into a sweat, then agrees to write a detailed confession.Jiggs Casey goes to see Ellie Holbrook at her home. From her he gets a detailed and lurid story of her affair with Scott--in which Scott was so supremely sure of himself that he would write letters to her describing all the details of their relationship, none of which are safe for work. Casey then stuns and hurts Ellie by taking possession of the letters. Because he cannot tell her why he needs the letters, she assumes, incorrectly, that he came to collect them to spare Scott any embarrassment.(Friday 16 May) President Lyman screens some very damning footage shot from Blue Lake. Shown is a runabout reconnoitering the private island. In that runabout: Colonels Murdock and Broderick. That alone convinces Lyman, and Todd, that Scott and the others are indeed guilty.Todd heaps fulsome praise on Casey for securing Scott's lurid love letters. Casey makes no effort to hide his monumental distaste, and lets Todd know that he does not appreciate the inference. Lyman stops the nasty argument and assures Casey that, thanks to Paul Girard securing a written confession from Barnswell, he, Lyman, won't have to use the letters. But then Presidential secretary Esther Townsend (Helen Kleeb) brings in a dire message: Paul Girard is dead, killed in a crash of the airliner he was on. (The airline's name is "Trans-Ocean Airlines," but is probably TWA, given the era of the film's release.)Ray Clark, now detained at Site Y, bellows into a telephone to Senator Prentice that he will demand several explanations from him the next time he sees him. Colonel Broderick, now back from his errand to Blue Lake, tells Clark that he's not going anywhere for awhile, and leaves him a bottle of booze. Clark pours this down a sink drain after reading a newspaper account of Girard's death.Henry Whitney (Fredd Wayne), an attaché at the US Embassy in Madrid, visits the crash site looking for the personal effects of Girard and the one other listed American passenger.Back on Site Y, late at night, Colonel Henderson visits Clark in his locked room. Clark then tells Henderson that when he, Henderson, first told Jiggs Casey about EComCon, Jiggs had never heard of it. Jiggs then looked up EComCon and found no reference to it in JCS orders. Henderson sits down to listen as Clark tells him "the d____dest story you ever heard." Whereupon Henderson decides to take Clark off the base. He tries to go non-violently, but when a sergeant detains him near the base flight line, and the alarm sounds, Henderson decks the sergeant, drives over the barrier berm, and escapes with Clark.(Saturday 17 May) Henderson and Clark arrive at Dulles Airport. But when Clark calls the White House to report in, someone takes Henderson away as if Henderson never existed. The President later confirms that someone has seen Henderson driven into Fort Myer and confined to the stockade--incommunicado.The President calls Barnswell to try to trick him into an incriminating statement. The savvy Barnswell denies ever signing anything or handing anything to Girard.Chris Todd urges the President to arrest Scott, Hardesty, Riley, and Diefenbach right now. Lyman will not do this without evidence. Ray Clark urges Lyman to use the Scott Letters, but Lyman won't make up his mind to do that, either.Then Scott's plan begins to unravel. Scott is rehearsing the communications cutouts at Mount Thunder, when an aide tells him that General Barney Rutkowski (Ferris Webster) has gotten his wind up after ten of the K212 transports crossed his radar and then flew under it. The aid is afraid that the by-the-book Rutkowski will go straight to the President with what he knows.That is exactly what Rutkowski does. "Someone has a secret base near El Paso, and I should have been notified!" says the angry Rutkowski. He then says that thirty more transports were due to fly in the same general direction by 0700 Sunday--only now they're due by 2300 that night. The President orders Rutkowski to ground any aircraft going anywhere near El Paso, or flying out of it.Now Lyman summons Scott to the White House. At a late-night meeting, with no witnesses, Lyman confronts Scott with everything he knows: EComCon, the detention of Senator Clark, the collusion between Senator Prentice and Colonel Broderick, the very selection of Broderick (considering his attitudes), Broderick's reconnaissance of Lyman's Blue Lake island, the arrest-without-charge of Colonel Henderson, and the Preakness code. Then the two men debate one another's moral position. Scott insists that he could be elected by acclimation whenever he asked. Lyman stands on the Constitution, elections, and the very real possibility that the Soviets would attack at once upon sensing that the United States was falling to a military dictator. In the end, Lyman demands Scott's resignation, and those of Hardesty, Riley and Diefenbach, and says that he will announce that demand in a press conference the following afternoon.Scott passes Casey on his way out and leaves without a word. Lyman then comes out of the Oval Office, hands the Scott Letters to Casey, and tells them to give them back to Ellie.(Sunday 18 May) Scott's plans have gone more than a trifle awry. Obviously, the EComCon Airlift did *not* take place as planned. So Scott plans to tape a delayed broadcast "to take his case to the people." Hardesty, Riley and Diefenbach are highly dubious by this time, but Scott presses on.President Lyman begins his press conference, pre-empting the Preakness Race to do it. Then he delays it for half an hour, when Henry Whitney shows up--with the Barnswell statement, which Whitney did manage to recover from the wreckage of Paul Girard's doomed flight. (Girard had hidden it in a cigarette case that Lyman had given him as a special gift.) After ordering Whitney to keep the paper secret, Lyman has it copied out.Casey goes to the E-Ring to hand-deliver a copy of the Barnswell statement to Scott, together with Lyman's written demand for Scott's resignation. Scott accuses Casey of betraying him, and Casey accuses Scott of betraying his country and "disgrac[ing] the four stars on his uniform."Scott goes to a TV station to record his belligerent message. But before he can begin, a panicked Prentice and McPherson inform him that the President has a signed statement giving names and dates and implicating them all. Scott contemptuously dismisses the two men and returns to the E-Ring--where he overhears Lyman accepting the resignations of Hardesty, Riley and Diefenbach. Now utterly defeated, he gets back into his staff car and orders his driver to take him "home."Casey goes to see Ellie, who knows perfectly well why Casey took the Scott Letters. As he hands them back to her, she accepts Casey's word that the letters "might have been" "the bullets" to "[shoot down]" Scott, but weren't. The two agree to see each other again, after the excitement has died down.Lastly, Lyman declares that it is "slander" to suggest that the United States cannot be strong without directly waging war. He insists that world peace, and freedom, will come peaceably. With that, and a display of the Constitution, the film ends. | mystery | train | imdb | In the story, we have Gen. James Mattoon Scott, (Burt Lancaster) (in what certainly became a custom tailored role for him) who firmly believes that the president of the United States has criminally endangered the country by agreeing to a nuclear disarmament treaty.
Kirk Douglas is a Marine Colonel that suspects the Joint Chief of Staff Chairman(Burt Lancaster)of plotting a disguised military coup that would destroy the President's nuclear disarmament treaty.
Perhaps one of the most genuinely suspenseful films every made, this paranoic film should be seen in conjunction with its natural brethren, "The Parallax View" and "The Manchurian Candidate" (which is also directed by John Frankenheimer).The film's strength lies in a group of superb performance -- Burt Lancaster as the ramrod-stiff and egomaniacal general bent on saving the United States by planning the overthrow of the government; Kirk Douglas as his senior staff officer, who only gradually realizes what his boss is planning and just how dangerous he is; Fredric March as the world-weary President; and especially Edmond O'Brien as the souse of a Senator who, like March, demonstrates the kind of ingenuity and resolve that Lancaster and his co-conspirators assume they don't possess.
Intense and gravely serious, "Seven Days In May" tells the fictional story of a super-patriotic American General, a man named James Mattoon Scott (Burt Lancaster), who may, or may not, be plotting with others to overthrow the U.S. Government.
It was wisely filmed in black and white with virtually no obligatory special effects--all of which works terrifically as the drama is structured on character and plot, not military pyrotechnics, Serling's usual formula for success.While working at the Pentagon, Kirk Douglas (Colonel Jiggs Casey) accidentally uncovers a plot to stage a coup of the government masterminded by Gen. Matoon Scott (Burt Lancaster).
Colonel Casey ( Kirk Douglas ) discovers what appears to be plans by General Scott ( Burt Lancaster) who schemes a coup to use false military exercises in his plans to remove President Lyman (Fredric March) from government office.
The film's intrigue snowballs toward an exciting final .Extraordinary casting , all of whom give admirable acting , as a terrific Burt Lancaster who heads the all star cast , he plays as leader of the coup , magnificent Douglas as Colonel who learns about the malignant plans and Fredric March as upright President under pressure .
He took another opportunity to change to the big screen , collaborating with Burt Lancaster in The Young Savages (1961) and Birdman of Alcatraz(62) ending up becoming a successful director well-known by his skills with actors and expressing on movies his views on important social deeds and philosophical events and film-making some classics as ¨The Manchurian candidate, Seven days of May and The Train¨.
The final confrontations between Lancaster and March, then Lancaster and Douglas, are cinematic political drama at their finest.Based on the Charles Bailey/Fletcher Knebel novel of the same name, and brilliantly adapted to the screen by Rod Serling, SEVEN DAYS IN MAY benefits from the always superb acting of its all-star cast, which includes Martin Balsam, Ava Gardner, Whit Bissell, William Prince, and John Housemann, to name a few.
One of my favourite scenes not just in this film but in any political thriller is the tense scene between Kirk Douglas' Colonel "Jiggs" Casey, Frederic March's President Jordan Lyman and Martin Balsam's Presidential Chief of Staff Paul Girard when Kirk Douglas' character first outlines his suspicions to his initially sceptical interlocutors.
The film portrays an attempt to stage a military coup in America, which would appoint the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, an air force general played with relentless and laser-like intensity by Burt Lancaster, as a new leader for the country.
A marvelous and wholly believable account of a military conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States after the President signs a disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union against the wishes of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.Rod Serling (known primarily for his work on "The Twilight Zone") wrote the screenplay for this wonderful movie, based on the book by Fletcher Knebel.
Serling masterfully builds the suspense from the very beginning and leaves the viewer hanging on every word, waiting to see how this plot is going to be stopped (or if it will succeed.)Burt Lancaster puts on a powerful performance as the megalomaniac General James Scott - Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - who sees himself as the saviour of the nation opposing a weak and unpopular President (Frederic March, who does a good job of portraying a President perhaps a bit unsure how to handle the situation, but certain that he will not give in), and who is prepared to topple the democratically elected government to ensure that the President's disarmament treaty is stopped.
(In my opinion, the most powerful scene of the entire movie occurs near the end, as Scott and Casey disagree over which of them most closely resembles the biblical figure of Judas Iscariot.)Aside from an ending that was perhaps a bit anti-climatic there is very little to criticize in this movie, and it raises disturbing questions even today in the absence of the Cold War. What would happen if the democratically elected government set out on a course that powerful military figures genuinely believed would lead to the destruction of the country?
Those who choose fear and might over diplomacy.With Ocean's 13 in the movies theaters right now, featuring some of the best stars of today, this film featured some of the best of yesterday.Burt Lancaster (Elmer Gantry, From Here to Eternity, Atlantic City, Birdman of Alcatraz) as Gen. James Mattoon Scott, the leader of the coup; Kirk Douglas (Lust for Life, Champion, The Bad and the Beautiful) as Col. Martin 'Jiggs' Casey, the man who exposed the plot; Fredric March (The Best Years of Our Lives, A Star is Born, The Royal Family of Broadway, Death of a Salesman, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ) as President Jordan Lyman; Ava Gardner (Mogambo), one of the Sexiest Starts in Film History, as Eleanor 'Ellie' Holbrook, Scott's mistress; Edmond O'Brien (The Barefoot Contessa) as Sen. Raymond Clark (Nominated for Oscar) and Martin Balsam (A Thousand Clowns ) as Paul Girard.There were other great actors in the film, like John Houseman (Julius Caesar, The Paper Chase) and Leonard Nimoy (3 Emmy nominations for Star Trek), who were uncredited.
Burt Lancaster as the rebellious general, Kirk Douglas as the torn officer, and Frederic March as they embattled president present a very believable scenario of how a coup of the United States government might occur.
SEVEN DAYS IN MAY is a political thriller, that brings to us, in a realistic way, an attempt by several combative generals to take control of the Government in the United States during the crisis, which is caused by the Cold War. It is based on the novel of the same name by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W.
Such was the background of riveting plot of this great political thriller.As the movie opens, the president's Gallop poll is at an all time low (29%); the people are restless because President Jordan Lyman--note the similarity between the fictitious president's name and that of Lyndon Johnson--(Fredric March) is about to sign an agreement with the Soviets to ban nuclear weapons.
Burt Lancaster plays General Scott, head of the joint chiefs and likely presidential candidate who decides to lead a revolt against president Jordan Lyman, who is as unpopular as Scott is popular, but that doesn't stop him from pushing a nuclear disarmament treaty with Russia, which alarms and enrages General Scott, convincing him that he can't wait two years until the next election; he must act now.
All three men are on a collision course to determine who stays in the White House, and emerges a "hero".Fine acting by the cast, and solid direction by John Frankenheimer make this thought-provoking political drama quite interesting, although it is marred somewhat by an overly simplistic(bordering on sanctimonious) approach to General Scott, who may really have a good point, even though he is going about it the wrong way.
In many ways, the film is an extremely accurate depiction of where the 60's were at (riots in the street, tensions between the Pentagon and the White House) and an extremely disturbing look at what could have happened had things manifested in such an ugly light.The most intriguing thing about this gem of a movie is the blessing it received from none other than the sitting President of the United States at the time of production, John F.
Right after his excellent post Korea war suspense film "The Manchurian Candidate", director John Frankenheimer surprised us again with this excellent "cold war" political thriller that deals with an intent of a popular Air Force General to overtake the Government of the United States because the pacifist President has signed a disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union.I imagine this must have been a most original picture in the USA where you could even rank it as a sci-fi product.
From then on, the plot is very well handled by Frankenheimer with no flaws aided by a perfectly chosen black and white photography, good dialogues, a great atmosphere and an excellent cast in a film where action sequences are not the main issue.Burt Lancaster is very convincing as the messianic general that thinks he is the man that will save his Country and so is Kirk Douglas as the army colonel that finds out what is going on and though an admirer of Lancaster doesn't hesitate in deciding where his duty and loyalty have to be.
He uses deep focus effectively; two characters will be having a conversation in the foreground, but a third will be constantly in view in the background, as if to suggest that every whispered secret has the potential to be overheard.This style is fabulously on display in "Candidate" and is reprised here in "Seven Days in May." Frankenheimer makes great use in both films of TV screens: a character will be simultaneously in view of the film's camera and projected on a screen within the world of the film, giving the movie viewer different angles of the same scene both literally and figuratively; since media plays a role so frequently in his movies, Frankenheimer constantly draws our attention to its existence and the power it has to manipulate what we perceive to be the truth.As for the performances, there is no improving on Fredric March's understated interpretation of an ailing president, stuck in the dilemma of acting in what he thinks is the country's best interests even though the country itself is rejecting his beliefs.
And Edmond O'Brien won an Oscar nomination as a hot-tempered southern senator and friend to the president, somewhat curious since March's performance of all of them seems ripe for Academy consideration."Seven Days in May" isn't as taut a film as "The Manchurian Candidate," and it's more heavy handed in its political agenda (this severely dates the film), but it's still a rousing good time and comes highly recommended.Grade: A-.
2003/04 This is the fourth time, I have watched this movie over the years, and each time it just gets better; Its interesting, who could not be awed by Kirk Douglass as Colonel Jiggs Casey USMC and Burt Douglas as USAF Gen Scott the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.The thing that got me this time was that ( I am now 39,) the supporting characters, especially the phenomenal Frederic March as President Jordon Lyman, Martin Balsam as Secretary Paul Gerrard, and the amazing Edmund O'Brien as the alcoholic but heroic Senator Ray Clark are outstanding.
Director John Frankenheimer's earlier "The Manchurian Candidate" is comfortably in my all time top 10 movies and this thriller, again set in the morally tainted world of contemporary American politics, is similarly exciting.For big-subject film-making like this I believe you have to go for A-list actors to engage and hold the audience and with the likes of Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Ava Gardner and Fredric March heading the cast, this is amply achieved.I see the film described as set in the near future but honestly I didn't pick up on this at all, instead given the monochrome filming style, contemporary fashions and modes of transport, it certainly seemed as if it was set in the present day.The context of course is the Cold War, as the incumbent president's new multilateral disarmament deal with the Soviets sees his public popularity plummet and right wing hawks in the military see an opportunity to usurp his position in what would effectively constitute a coup, under the leadership of charismatic war hero James Matoon Scott played by Burt Lancaster, in a strong, credible performance as we never see him in hectoring, eyes-popping, arms-waving mode.
He hasn't however reckoned with his believed loyal right-hand adjutant, played by Kirk Douglas, who from scraps of seemingly unrelated information gleans the magnitude of what is going on under his nose.Douglas puts patriotism before devotion to his revered boss and goes straight to the President, convincingly portrayed by Fredric March and from there it's a game of cat and mouse as the president sends two trusted envoys out to garner definitive proof of the coup although Douglas himself is later sidelined by a suspicious Lancaster and so effectively disappears for a major part of the movie.In a sub-plot before this however, Douglas is unwillingly sent to glean some background dirt with which to besmirch Scott's heretofore untainted public image by wining and dining the general's old mistress played by Ava Gardner to access incriminating correspondence between her and Scott to no doubt leak at the appropriate time, which questionable tactic seems only too topical now.The film moves inexorably to its grandstand confrontation between March and Lancaster as both their points of view are put forward before the viewer in convincingly argued if diametrically opposed speeches, although it could perhaps be argued that the president doesn't need the extra boost to his status which his knowledge about the general's love-letters gives him.
The war establishment, led by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Scott (Burt Lancaster), plot a military coup in seven days (hence the title).
A well rounded cast includes Martin Balsam, Edmond O'Brien, Andrew Duggan, Richard Anderson, John Houseman, and Ava Gardner as a former lover of General Scott who has some dirt on him the President's Men can use.The coup is revealed less than 30 minutes in to the movie.
Meanwhile, Colonel Kirk Douglas (as Martin "Jiggs" Casey) thinks charismatic General Burt Lancaster (James Mattoon Scott) is planning a military coup.
This movie was a classic political intrigue, with Kirk Douglas, Fredric March, and Burt Lancaster wrapped up in a plot to overthrow the president!
Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Fredric March and Edmond O'Brien are all excellent; Ava Gardner is okay too, though she looks far too old and nowhere near the beauty she is hyped to be (I've not seen earlier films of her, to be truthful).General Scott, played by Lancaster, actually comes down as the most sensible character at the beginning.
What do you get when you combine a genius director of suspense films (John Frankenheimer), a quartet of Hollywood legends (Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Frederic March and Ava Gardner), and a platoon of great character actors (Edmond O'Brien, Martin Balsam and Andrew Duggan, just for starters)?
IT MAKES YOU THINK and it seems so plausible the way it is laid out for the viewer.The acting is GREAT as well--with Burt Lancaster as the popular general planning the coup, Kirk Douglas as the military officer who agrees with Lancaster but cannot allow himself to violate his oath as an officer, Frederick March as the idealistic President, and Edmund O'Brien as his trusted (though occasionally intoxicated) adviser--along with many others.See this, then try the other two Frankenheimer thrillers listed.
Rod Serling's screenplay brought the drama on screen invariably close to a real life Twilight Zone that the American public never got to witness - the takeover of the United States government by a military coup led by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.For me, the best scene was the confrontation between President Lyman (Frederic March) and Lancaster's Major Scott.
Seven Days In May refers to a week in which a small group of men help President Fredric March forestall a military coup d'etat in the United States Of America.Kirk Douglas is a high ranking Marine colonel who through some small bits of information he gleans, straws in the wind so to speak, he reasons out that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff played by Burt Lancaster is plotting such an overthrow.
Also to note in the cast are Ava Gardner as a former mistress to both Douglas and Lancaster, Edmond O'Brien as an alcoholic southern senator and close friend of the president and Martin Balsam as a presidential aide.What I liked best about Seven Days In May is the small and telling performances director John Frankenheimer got out of even the smallest roles.
Events like this have been taking place all over the world for centuries...but, in the United States!?!?This is a well-acted, well-written, and, well-directed study of the possibilities of a US government overthrow in a time of fear and paranoia (The Cold War); and, when many top figures in the US Military, and, elsewhere in the US government, believe that the president is too weak and unfit to make the correct decisions to protect the United States due to his support of a nuclear disarmament during the communist nuclear buildup.Lead by Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, this all-star cast delivers a powerful story (written for the screen by the great Rod Serling), that 'could have happened' during this fragile time of world crisis that was all-too-real after World War 2 and up until the fall of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991. |
tt0092991 | Evil Dead II | The first 15 minutes of the film acts as an edited account of The Evil Dead. This alternate version starts with protagonist Ashley 'Ash' J. Williams (Bruce Campbell), and girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler), driving to an abandoned cabin high in the mountains. Within the cabin plays a piano while Linda dances in underwear. He has recently given her a silver chain with a little magnifying glass on it. When Ash goes into another room to get a bottle of champagne, and Linda changes out of the rest of her clothes, he finds a reel-to-reel tape player and switches it on. The recording explains that the cabin belongs to a Prof. Raymond Knowby (John Peakes) who was busy translating passages from "Necronomicon Ex Mortis" (called "Morturom Demonto" in the recording), the "Book of the Dead", which they found in the Castle of Candar, beside a ceremonial knife with a skull on its handle. The tape says that "it is through the recitation of the book's passages that this dark spirit is given license to possess the living", then precedes to recite one of the passages, which awakens an evil force that possesses Linda.Discovering Linda's disappearance, our Hero ventures outside and is attacked by the now-demonfied Linda. Panicking, the terrified Ash gets lucky and manages to decapitate the love of his life with a handy shovel. Following this murder, Mr. Williams decides to do the decent thing and buries his, now headless, girlfriend, keeping the silver necklace and pendant.It's at this point the summary of the first film ends as the evil force sweeps through the woods and cabin and spins the stressed Ash through the woods, possessing him. Fortunately the sun comes up and drives away the Candarian demon, the mist in the woods retreats into various trees, and the cloudiness from Ash's eyes, leaving Ash perfectly healthy, if not a little depressed. He has a little nap in the woods.Looking at the cabin, Ash sees a face superimposed on it and hears a voice saying "Join Us". Ash bravely clambers into his Oldsmobile and makes a dash for freedom only to find that the bridge is now destroyed (the gap it spans is much shorter than the bridge they drove over when arriving), presumably by evil forces. The sun goes down rapidly and yet again the evil pursues him, branches whipping into his face, a tree stump stopping the car abruptly enough to send Ash flying out the windshield, to have his face stopped by a tree. He runs the rest of the way through the woods to the cabin, and the pursuit continues, through at least 9 doors between 10 rooms and an unfinished hallway in the small cabin, but Ash, using all his cunning, evades it by hiding under a trap door. The evil presence continues back outside and retreats into the woods.At an airport, Annie Knowby (Sarah Berry) arrives by plane, with 3000-year-old pages of the Book of the Dead, and is picked up by her boyfriend Ed Gentley (Richard Domeier). They start their drive to the cabin to join her father.Following a manly little nap, our terrified and bloodied hero wakes in an armchair to piano music, and finds that the piano is playing itself. The music must remind him of Linda as he takes the silver necklace from his pocket. Some boards barricading a window fall, and looking outside he sees the Linda's grave marker fall over and her headless and already badly decomposed corpse (Ted Raimi) re-animate and dance, and regain its much fresher head, which can conveniently keep facing in one direction while the body spins around many times. Her moves include seductively straddling a tree limb. She then vanishes into the dark, then reappears just outside the window and grabs Ash, telling him to dance with her. After being slammed into the window barricades several times he breaks free, and Linda's head falls off again.Ash discovers that he is back in the chair, screaming. Was the dancing corpse a dream? The window barricade seems intact. Suddenly Linda's smiling head drops into Ash's lap, says "hello, lover", and bites hard into his right hand between thumb and forefinger. Unable to remove the head he rushes to the work shed and clamps it in a vise, causing it to release its grip, and it starts to mock Mr. Williams, who has already had a trying day. He reaches for the spot on the tool shelf marked for the chainsaw, but it's not there. The headless torso charges into the shed and attacks Ash with a chainsaw, but he deflects it with a crowbar and the corpse clumsily saws into itself, not having an attached head to let it see what it's doing. He pries the chainsaw from the body and the detached arm still holding in, and yanks on the pull-start cord. The head, looking much nicer, begs not to be hurt, then spews black bile and turns evil again, and Ash destroys it. She's obviously gotten on Ash's bad side since she gets no further burial.Upon returning to the cabin and trading the chainsaw for a double-barrel shotgun and a handful of extra shells, Ash is further frightened by an unseen entity moving the rocking chair and moaning. It stops when he brings his right hand near it. Dropping the shotgun, he tries to console himself by telling his reflection in the mirror that everything is fine. However, his reflection suddenly comes to life, leans out of the mirror, and contradicts him, laughing at Ash's predicament and then throttling Ash before vanishing, leaving Ash holding himself by the throat. He taps the mirror with his right hand, but it is just an ordinary mirror again.Dark veins radiate outwards from the bite wounds on the edge of Ash's right hand as it mutates and grows longer finger nails, and it begins to move around under its own control, and make strange laughing noises, then starts attacking Ash by grabbing his face. He holds it down and screams to be given back his hand.Annie and Ed's drive is blocked by workman Jake (Dan Hicks) putting a barricade in front of the destroyed bridge. Bobby Joe (Kassie Wesley DePaiva), leaning on their car, says that there isn't any other road that leads there, and Jake points out that there is a trail through the woods, and that they would lead them there for $40... $100. Annie says sure, if they also carry the luggage. Sly grins all around.Ash tries drowning his evil hand, and it smashes crockery over his head and bangs his head into the sink, hits him, and flips him onto the floor. After a few more plates and bottles, it spots a cleaver and starts to drag Ash's unconscious body towards it. But Ash wakes up stabs his own hand, pinning it to the floor, and hacks it off with the very chainsaw he used only moments ago to carve his lover to pieces. He starts it by pulling the rope with his teeth. "Who's laughing now?" He binds the stump of his arm with cloth and duct tape.Annie, Ed, and Bobby Joe are preceding through the dark woods, trailed by Jake struggling along under a huge trunk.Ash traps his amputated hand under a tin and a few books (including "A Farewell To Arms"), but it escapes and hides inside the wall. Ash fires several shells into the wall, and the hand taunts him, then gets its thumb caught in a rat trap. It shakes that off and gives Ash the one-finger salute. After several more shots, the walls begin to bleed, then spew like firehoses, spraying Ash and covering the entire room in blood. Suddenly the blood turns black and vanishes back into the walls. Ash sits on a chair that breaks under his weight. An evil-looking deer head mounted on the wall suddenly begins to laugh at Ash, and other items in the house, such as lamps, cabinets, and books, join in. Ash, who appears to be losing his sanity, laughs along with them. The laughter ends abruptly when Ash hears movement outside the front door, and unloads the shotgun into it.The people at the door are Annie Knowby (Sarah Berry), Prof Knowby's daughter, who has pages of the Necronomicon with her, boyfriend Ed Gentley (Richard Domeier) - who's not really important as he'll be hacked to pieces within 15 minutes - and their two red neck guides, Jake (Dan Hicks) and his honey Bobbie Jo (Kassie Wesley DePaiva). Ash shoots through the door, clearly on his last nerve. This result in grazing Bobby Jo. Ed and Jake beat Ash as Annie notices the absence of her parents in the cabin. After seeing the blood on the chainsaw and on Ash, they come to the conclusion that he killed Annie's parents. The four newcomers throw Ash into the fruit cellar.Annie, Ed, Jake, and Bobby Jo listen to recordings of Professor Knowby's, where they learn that Knowby killed Henrietta (Lou Hancock) - Annie's mother - after she became possessed, and buried her body in the fruit cellar. Surprisingly Henrietta then rises from the grave and attacks the luckless Ash. The other four take pity on him and release him from his basement prison, hauling him out of by his head, and force the demon wife into the cellar, although this procedure results in Jake getting grabbed by the face, Ed similarly grabbed and thrown into the wall, and Bobby Jo getting a mouthful of flying eye ball. Fortunately Henrietta is locked underground.But that's not this demon done yet, it takes human form and tries to persuade Annie to let it out (that's right, she's a crafty Candarian demon). Ash sees through this trick, grabs Annie and shakes his head. This sheer act of manliness overwhelms Annie and makes her say "That thing in the cellar is not my mother". At this point it becomes apparent that Ed too has rudely became possessed, levitating, and, even more rudely takes a bite out of Bobby Jo's hair and tells them all that they will be "Dead by Dawn". Other corpse-oids join in on the chant. Jake is thrown up and breaks a light bulb with his head. Ash appears to flee at this point and receives a shouting from Annie.But lo and behold our hero has not fled and as the others have been frozen with fear Ash returns brandishing an axe. He hacks Ed to pieces (told you), spraying green slime everywhere.In a lull, Jake notices through the barricaded window that the trail they came in on just ain't there no more. The clocks pendulum stops suddenly. It's so quiet. For a moment. Following some unconvincing sound affects, the spirit of the professor appears ghost-like before them and says that the pages Annie possesses are the key to dispelling the evil dead. Bobby Jo then discovers Ash's possessed disembodied hand holding hers, and she screams, and knocks down their only oil lamp, and runs into the forest, where she is attacked and killed by the trees.Annie and Ash find a drawing in the pages of the book she brought along which depicts a hero in 1300 A.D. said to have dispelled the evil; the hero appears as a figure with a chainsaw-like hand and a "boomstick." Hysterical with fear for Bobby Jo, Jake picks up the shotgun and brandishes it at the others. Ash tries to convince Jake that Bobby Jo is dead, but Jake grows furious and throws the book pages into the cellar, and forces everyone to go after her. Outside, the trees are moving, and not the way they would in a wind. The group goes into the woods, only to discover that the trail has disappeared. A demon rushes them, again possessing Ash, and throws Jake into a tree. Ash chases Annie back to the cabin. She grabs the bone dagger from the first movie and accidentally stabs Jake as he is trying to get back into the cabin.She has to pull Jake's body inside so that she can shut the door. Ash pounds on the door, then suddenly stops. Annie removes the dagger from Jake and then drags him to a safer place, right next to the cellar door, where of course Henrietta pops up and drags him in head-first to kill him. Annie is hosed by a tsunami of blood. Ash attacks Annie, accidentally ripping her necklace off her neck. As she lays unconscious, Ash looks at the necklace and reverts to his normal self after being reminded of Linda. After convincing a terrified axe-wielding Annie that he is no longer possessed, Ash and Annie agree to vanquish the evil together, for which they'll need those pages in the basement.This calls for an awesome montage, as Ash uses his technical know-how to convert the chainsaw into a chainsaw hand, fitting firmly on his amputated stump and sawing the end of his shotgun. The scene ends up with a close up of his rugged face and he announces "Groovy". This establishes that the previous coward has become a lean mean deadite slaying machine.Ash and Annie return to the cabin, where Ash cuts the cellar doors in half, and enters the cellar and finds the pages strewn about the floor, seemingly leading him deeper into the darkness. Henrietta leaps out of the cellar door and attacks Annie. Ash emerges from the cellar and begins fighting with flying Henrietta; he has the upper hand until Henrietta transforms into a more vicious demonic form. Ash is saved when Annie distracts Henrietta by singing a lullaby that Henrietta sang to her when she was a girl. While Henrietta is focused on Annie, Ash uses his chainsaw to decapitate and dismember the demon, then deals the final blow by delivering a shotgun blast to its head. "I'll swallow your soul!' "Swallow this!" Annie & Ash have a tender hugging moment, and then the trees attack.Annie takes the pages and begins translating the text to manifest the evil, which appears in the form of a large bloody head covered in the faces of those it has possessed, and the power to wilt flowers. While Ash is grabbed by tree branches and brought closer to the creature, which he tries to fend off. The chainsaw in its eye seems to irritate it. Annie recites the incantation to rid the earth of the evil. A large vortex opens up just outside the cabin, gravitating everything around into it, including Ash's car, a large tree, and the evil itself. Annie is then stabbed in the back by Ash's severed hand with the bone knife. With her dying breaths, she speaks the last words of the incantation, and the giant head and its tree hands are sucked into the vortex before it disappears. Ash is left in the cabin with Annie's body for a moment, before the door is ripped away showing that the vortex is still there. Ash is sucked in along with trees and many items from the cabin.Ash, his car, and a tree fall from the sky and land on a large block of rock. He looks up and finds himself surrounded by armoured and mounted medieval knights. The knights are about to attack Ash when a winged demonic creature swoops down from the sky, terrifying the knights as they scatter. Ash reaches for his shotgun and blows the creature's head off. The knights gather around Ash as he prepares to defend himself. One knight then lifts his face plate and declares, "Hail he who hath fallen from the sky to deliver us from the terror of the Deadites!" The army of medieval warriors then falls to their knees and begins chanting "hail" as Ash realizes that he is in fact the prophesied "Hero from the Sky." The film closes with Ash shaking his head in disbelief and screaming "No!" as the camera pans out to show the large army that now awaits Ash's command. | comedy, avant garde, dark, murder, cult, horror, violence, haunting, atmospheric, good versus evil, psychedelic, humor, tragedy, suspenseful, sadist | train | imdb | The first time I watch it, this film really confused me a lot because I thought it was sequel to The Evil Dead but it had a lot of changes, which I love that.
On some level, the film certainly works as a nightmare that has to be replayed by our poor reluctant hero Ash. second Evil pairing of writer-director Sam Raimi and star Bruce Campbell doesn't pick up from where the first Evil Dead left off, it instead reinvents some of the same characters from the first film, notably Campbell's daffy hero Ash and putative girlfriend Linda (played by Denise Bixler in this film), and plops them back in the same basic plot setup as the first film, in a kind of horror-comedy Groundhog Day scenario.Once again Ash visits an isolated cabin in the woods, turns on a tape recorder that has a professor spouting verbiage from the Necronomicon, and the next thing you know, all hell has broken loose, quite literally.
Raimi is a director who may not win points for finesse, but he works in a manic, breathless style that is perfectly suited for the outré black comedy of the Evil Dead franchise, and that devil may care, throw caution to the wind spirit is what has made the Evil Dead trilogy (Army of Darkness was the third film, though there's evidently a Raimi-Campbell remake of the original Evil Dead in the offing) such a cult sensation and what continues to draw audiences to the films to this day.
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn is really a sly, if sometimes sinister, comedy, one blacker than, well, death, but which delivers some consistent guffaws mixed in with the more typical "avert your eyes" blood and guts.Ash (Bruce Campbell), the sole survivor of THE EVIL DEAD, returns to the same cabin in the woods and again unleashes the forces of the dead.
With his girlfriend possessed by the demons and his body parts running amok, Ash is forced to single- handedly battle the legions of the damned as the most lethal - and groovy - hero in horror movie history!
The combination of demon possessed people, EVIL sounds (I love the weird noise in the movie), wicked laughs and chanting ("dead by dawn!"), and intrepid camera angles are the perfect ingredients to make a sui generis Horror-Comedy movie.
It adds up to a very entertaining 85 minutes.There's a lot to like in this kinda-goofy movie: nice visuals; good humor to counteract the scariness and gore of a horror story; a small amount of ridiculous theology compare to what usually is offered in this genre, and some totally outrageous scenes.
Evil Dead II (1987) After the huge success of the first film, Sam Raimi andBruce Campbell reunite for this Quasi-Remake/Sequel.
There was more of a budget for Evil Dead 2 and was created from the original story line but with a bit of a punch to it.Ash Williams and his girlfriend Linda take a vacation to a small cabin in the woods, romantically entangled they love the place and the area.
Raimi is well known for his Spider man series but not as much as his evil dead series which is equally as good maybe even better.This is a gore fest mixed with great comedy and the cheesy quotations from Ash makes the film even more enjoyable.This film is remarkably much better than the original Evil Dead but don't be so surprised first read on By mistake i stumbled upon this film thinking it was actually a zombie film, sorry if you expected that but in all honesty its more of a ghoul kinda film.
Great direction from Sam raimi and definitely worth waiting for EVIL DEAD IV.If you want a good hour and so of gore slash and thrash then this is a perfect film for you, if you like black comedy same again, if you like old films then this again is the one for you.
This deserves more than 7.9 on here, Bruce Campbell is at his best as Ash. Definitely better than The Evil Dead (still worth a watch if you haven't seen it.) When I first watched this, I expected more of the same but it becomes more of a comedy that the Evil Dead films is best known for and I loved it ever since.
This perfect blend of horror and comedy produces the perfect emotion in the viewer which I call "nervous laughter" (Another pretty much perfectly crafted blend of these two genres is in Shaun of the Dead when the two main characters first meet the zombie girl named "Mary").The low budget style which permeates the film helps not only creates more laughs but also makes you smile and kind of inspire you in a weird way.
This persistent of the genres make this one of the most entertaining films of all time.Honestly I'd skip the first Evil Dead movie and go straight to this one.
This frightening , strikingly designed horror/comedy movie achieved a lot of success thanks to its unstopped terror and humor , including continuous resemblances to the original version also directed by Sam Raimi .
This one is Bruce Campbell's favorite film of the trilogy ('The Evil Dead', 'Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn', and 'Army of Darkness' in which Ash is hurled back to the 14th-century through the powers of an evil book and attempts to get back to his own time) .
I would have to say that the evil dead 2 is one of my favorite comedy horror movies and Bruce Cambel is just so iconic in this one and i love him and it is his best work definitely and the movie is just one i can just enjoy over and over again..
1987, splatter film sequel to the 1981 movie The Evil Dead, which is also directed by Sam Raimi, and also starring Bruce Campbell.
Bruce Campbell's character Ash does have some awesome senses which make him seem like a badass.The gore and the monsters are the best part of this film.
The gore is also great.Pros: Compelling story, awesome monsters, fast pacing, some humorous parts, Bruce Campbell's Ash is bad, and great use of goreCons: B movie acting and an over the top ending that seemed out of placeOverall Rating: 8.0.
I am still working to evocate my first demon with the help of the Book of the Dead, but maybe I need an edition that is really bound in human skin ;)Sam Raimi directed and produced a lot of movies but imo the best ones are still the two first Evil Dead parts and Army of Darkness..
When I first saw this film it was when I was about 10 or 11 I believe first time I ever notice Horror Gore Blood & Grotesque Monsters was in the video game series Splatterhouse which scared the hell out of me even more than evil dead did.& so now of Day I'm a super fan of cult films that have this sore of stuff..
The combination of demon possessed people, EVIL sounds (I love the weird noise in the movie), wicked laughs and chanting ("dead by dawn!"), and intrepid camera angles are the perfect ingredients to make a suit generous Horror-Comedy movie.
I like funny horror-movies, but I want to have quality in this sort of horror-movies and Evil Dead 2 have that.Bruce Campbell is a very good actor and make a very good role in this horror-movie.Sam Raimi have capacity to make fun and horror!.
And also adding a very good blend of slapstick humor into it.Ash (Our well known hero) is back on the road to the cabin in the woods with his girlfriend Linda (The one with the missing head) this time and all too soon they came upon the book of the dead and release the demons upon the woods and same as the first one Linda gets killed in the same style and new characters and scenes came along, Annie along side with her boyfriend Ed (Soon to be Evil Ed) comes to the cabin to put the missing pages together and the redneck Jake and his girlfriend comes for the ride.
The new moments added Ash's hand coming to life running around a dead old women coming out of the basement and a new spin on the attack of the forest (they do much more than raping)and added crazy comical moments into it which works very well.EVIL DEAD 2 is one of those well creative turns in low budget film-making, sequel to EVIL DEAD and prequel to ARMY OF DARKNESS..
As some people hate this movie, and some love it, I will give a basic summary and small thoughts.Ash (Whose last name is never mentioned throughout the series) and his girlfriend go to a cabin in the tennessee back-woods (Where in the original also contained two friends and a sister, cut due to no need) where they unknowingly resurrect the dead.
This movie is really good, and its one of kind!Its one of the best horror/comedy movies of all time, and I never get sick of the scene when all the furniture of the house was laughing at Ash!
And I will state, for the record, that I enjoy this film's ending much more than the original's.A delightful addition to the horror/comedy genre, and a different although worthy sequel/remake.
Geniously fusing horror with comedy (not to mention Bruce Campbell's trademark one-liners), you've got yourself one freakishly enjoyable splat-fest.......And if you can't tell by my enthusiasm for this movie already, that's a good thing.From what I've heard (darn you all who have seen the first movie!!!!!), Evil Dead II is essentially a remake of the first, but going to a less darker, less scarier tone.
The comedy has been upped though.The overall story is this: Ash (Bruce Campbell) and girlfriend Linda go to the infamous abandoned cabin for a weekend alone, in director Sam Raimi's trademark beat-up Oldsmobile (in practically every one of his films, with the exception of "The Quick and the Dead"....Cause you wouldn't see one of those in the 1800's...).
After trying to destroy Ash, it's off with her head, and I'd give everything away if I said any more.Surprisingly, more people know about this film then the landmark original, which sparked as much controversy as it did acclaim (it was personally reccomended by Stephen King), and one-upped the original by boasting a bigger budget, better acting by the front man (Bruce Campbell even admitted that in the first film he was still perfecting his acting skills and may have gone a little overboard), tongue-in-cheekiness, and an overabundance of gore, which all horror fans should be happy to hear.So, before I ramble on till Kingdom come, go and watch this movie.
The evil dead series is converted from a horror movie to an action comedy.
Although the director, Sam Raimi, did in fact take a few steps (like changing the color of the blood) in order to avoid an NC-17 rating - and a lot of good that did, eh?The beginning of the film is basically the same (but revised) thing as the first "Evil Dead." Big-chinned Ash(ley) travels with his girlfriend to a quaint log cabin on, what seems to be, some deserted mountain.
Anyway I recommend this film to anyone who's a fan of the horror genre or anyone who just likes a fun ol' movie, but doesn't mind the sometimes extreme ridiculousness that comes along with it.
Its the centrepiece of the Evil Dead Trilogy and yet it feels a little like a remake of the original, it does follow on from the events of the first film but the similarities between the two are very apparent.Once again there is plenty of horror, gore and chills; but this time there is even more humour than in the first outing, and once again it is a great film.The character of Ash and the direction of Raimi combine well again and this time the effects have improved a little too.7/10 I still prefer the first film, but in truth they are about as good as each other..
Ash unknowingly releases evil spirits that start to torment, haunt and possess anyone around him into vicious demons as he fights the creatures, his own possessed hand and southern hicks.An asskicking and action packed sequel to the brilliant 1981 horror classic "The Evil Dead", writer-producer-director Sam Raimi has conjured up an excellent sequel that surpasses the original.
Indeed, for all it's blood and gore and self-mutilations and animated severed limbs, this is one of the funniest horror films I've ever seen.One thing that is shown in part II is a visual presentation of the evil force in the woods, which is sadly a disappointing attempt to add more complex special effects into the movie, but the majority of the film will be remembered as Ash's truly classic battle with the evil force in the cabin, which ultimately starts to take over his own body, but he is able to stop it by cutting off his own possessed hand.
Ash is attacked by a severed head, a headless body, and his own severed hand in the movie, along with countless other beasties, and the effect, due in no small part to his hilarious reactions, is horror entertainment of the highest order.Of course, the budget is bigger now, but Raimi was able to take more money and still retain the same feel of the original film, except that he was able to give us more detail and use more effects this time around, but definitely without selling out.
Bruce Campbell is a genius in the acting world and he revises his role of Ash in this sequel to Evil Dead.
evil dead 2 is possibly the worst movie ever made.bad acting,a plot that made no sense and had more holes in it than swiss cheese.supposedly a sequel to the first one,it starts off as if the first one didn't exist.the whole movie is one incoherent mess.it was billed as being a scary movie, but my friend and i merely laughed at the absurdity of it all.granted,in most horror movies, characters do stupid things, but in this movie they do things that completely defy logic and reason.i could sort of be forgiving if these actions furthered the movie in some way, but since there is nothing resembling a plot,all they do is make things even more coherent and stupid.the effects were abysmal,even laughable.it looked like they spent five dollars on the whole movie.the first one was good,even scary at times,but the same cannot be said of this bomb.only rivaled in awfulness by "the gate".pure and utter garbage.avoid,avoid,avoid.
The director Sam Raimi claims that is is a sequel, and that the differences between the first movie and Evil Dead 2 "flashbacks" is because of ownership rights to the scenes from the prequel which lead to them having to re-shoot them.
The thing that makes the Evil dead trilogy some memorable is definitely Bruce Campbell himself.Once again I feel I've got to mention, this movie is R rated for a reason.
Quebec Rating:13+ Canadian Home Video Rating:R(should be 18A)Evil Dead II is the second film in the Evil Dead trilogy.I have not seen Evil Dead 1 or Evil Dead 3:Army Of Darkness.I really enjoyed Evil Dead II.Its a fun b-rated zombie movie filled with gore and comedy.I didn't see the first movie but from what I read, it was a pure zombie horror movie with no comedy.Evil Dead II and III however have a good mix of horror and comedy.There is a little recap at the beginning of the film with different actors/actresses from the first movie so some people think this is a remake.But it is a sequel.Ash is still in the cabin fighting off deadites and trying to get rid of them with two archaeologists and two rednecks.This time he has a chainsaw for a hand and a sawn off shotgun which he calls his "Boomstick".He uses it to kill the zombies(deadites).With a surprising ending, Evil Dead II is a very fun and gory horror movie that I recommend to horror fans.9/10.
The part in which his hand becomes possessed is especially memorable.A wickedly fun horror-comedy all the way, Evil Dead II ranks among Raimi and Campbell's greatest work.*** 1/2 out of ****.
Overdoes itself intentionally to excess as a parody of the blood n' gore of both the original Evil Dead and horror movies in general..
My Rating : 8/10Sam Raimi's 'Evil Dead II' is the definition of horror-comedy done well.
Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert love comedy movies and there earlier short films attest to this.
If you like the original film or ARMY OF DARKNESS (the sequel to EVIL DEAD 2), then you should check this movie out and see for yourself why so many peope consider this one of the best sequels ever made.
If you're unclear of the difference, the evil dead aren't just your run-of-the-mill zombies, but demons who just look like zombies, but are a hundred times more powerful and are completely insane.If the gore and general craziness of seeing a man fight his own (possessed) hand isn't enough for you to get you to watch this, you have Bruce Campbell as the central character, Ash. After this performance the B-movie world had a new cult hero who has gone on to not just star in the sequel, but countless computer games, comics and most recently a TV show.
He is definitely not your average Hollywood hero – and the film is all the better for it.Ash makes Evil Dead.
I think Sam Raimi is a great director, A Simple Plan being his best movie since ED2 so I just hope he forgets all about spiderwebs and starts working on Evil Dead 4.. |
tt0100802 | Total Recall | Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a construction worker in the distant future. He is happily married to Lori (Sharon Stone), but is dissatisfied with his place in life. She teases him about a recurring nightmare about being on Mars with a beautiful woman who is not his wife. On the way to work he sees an advertisement on the subway TV for ReKall, Inc., a facility that implants fake memories of ideal vacations. Against the advice of his co-worker Harry (Robert Costanzo), Doug visits ReKall and orders a special package that will implant memories of an adventure trip on Mars as a secret agent. Before the procedure begins, he is asked to select a woman of his choice. He chooses a brunette, with an athletic body, and a sleazy and demure personality.Before the memory implantation procedure can begin, Quaid goes into a violent rage, ranting about his cover being blown and how men are coming to kill him. He tries to break free of his restraints, and the ReKall director tries to calm Quaid. Quaid responds by throttling him and muttering, "My name is not Quaid!" The technicians tranquilize him and he falls unconscious. The ReKall director believes that Doug was acting out the secret agent part of the trip, but learns that the memories have not yet been implanted. The technicians realize that Doug's memory had previously been erased. To cover their involvement, the ReKall director orders his team to erase his memories of Rekall, refund his credits, and send him home.Quaid awakens in a Johnny Cab that takes him to a subway station where he can catch a train home. While walking through the subway, he is attacked and detained by several men led by Harry, his co-worker. They accuse him of blabbing about Mars while he was at ReKall, although because ReKall erased his memory, Quaid cannot remember anything about ReKall or being on Mars. Harry prepares to shoot Quaid, but Quaid fights back, successfully killing off Harry and all of his men. He doesn't understand how he could have these skills and is horrified at his actions.Quaid rushes back home to Lori and tells her what happened. She recognizes that he's regained his memory of Mars and attacks him. They fight and Doug subdues and interrogates her. Holding a gun that he took from her to her head, Quaid pressure Lori into revealing that his original identity has been erased and a new one implanted, which included her as his wife so she could watch over him for past six weeks. An astonished Quaid asks, "If I'm not me, who the hell am I?"A video monitor in Quaid's apartment displays the arrival of several men with weapons outside their apartment building. Quaid knocks Lori out and flees. He is pursued by Lori's real husband Richter (Michael Ironside), an agent of a mysterious Agency led by Vilhos Cohaagen (Ronny Cox), the corporate dictator of Mars. Richter is intent on killing Quaid who he apparently knew on Mars. Lori greets Richter as her real-life husband. Richter and his men try to kill Quaid as they chase him through the streets and into an underground subway station. As Quaid escapes he kills some of Richter's men. Cohaagen contacts Richter and asks about the gunfight. Richter explains that he is "trying to neutralize a traitor." Cohaagen angrily orders Richter not to kill Quaid because they still need him. He tells Richter that Quaid must be captured alive for re-implantation. Richter, intent on killing Quaid, pretends he has a bad connection and hangs up. Richter's right-hand man, Helm, tells Richter they've located Quaid using a tracking device.Doug finds a room in a cheap, anonymous hotel, but a mysterious man calls him in his room and tells him he as a suitcase for him. Quaid, puzzled, asks who he is. The man says they were agents together on Mars. He tells Quaid that there is a bug inside his skull that allows Richter to track him. Following the man's instructions, Quaid wraps his head in a wet towel to disrupt the tracking signal. He gets the suitcase and as he is leaving the hotel Richter and Helm arrive. They chase Quaid in another Johnny Cab taxi who escapes their violent pursuit and flees to an abandoned factory. Richter uses the tracking device to follow Quaid there.When Quaid opens the case a screen plays a recording of himself. He finds a variety of spy gear inside the suitcase. The recording tells Quaid he was originally Hauser, a high-ranking member of the Agency and Cohaagen's key agent. In the recording, Hauser tells Quaid that he met Melina (Rachel Ticotin), an agent for rebels on Mars, and that she convinced him to switch sides. Hauser says that Cohaagen discovered his treason, the Agency erased his identity and a new one implanted. In the new identity, Quaid was exiled to Earth where he could be watched. Hauser tells Quaid how to remove the tracking device from his skull. After Quaid successfully extracts the bug, Hauser tells him to go to Mars and connect with the rebels to help destroy Cohaagen's empire.Quaid arrives on Mars at a giant domed mining colony half-buried in the martian landscape. Many of the people living on Mars are deformed and possess psychic abilities caused by the mixture of solar radiation and shoddy air quality provided by Cohaagen. Cohaagen's men follow Quaid to Mars and locate him in the immigration and customs facility. They attempt to kill Quaid but he escapes.Later in Cohaagen's office, he angrily tells Richter that he doesn't have all the information about Quaid and he needs to follow orders.Quaid gets a suite at the Hilton and retrieves a note from a hotel safe that he left for himself. It tells him to contact Melina at The Last Resort. Outside the hotel, a mutant taxi driver named Benny (Mel Johnson Jr.), persuades Quaid to let him take him to Venusville and The Last Resort, a bar and brothel. Quaid finds Melina, who strongly resembles the woman he requested at Rekall, but he can't remember her and she doesn't believe his story. She orders him to leave at gunpoint.Quaid returns to the Hilton and is visited by Dr. Edgemar (Roy Brocksmith), the founder of ReKall, who Quaid saw in a Rekall ad on Earth. Edgemar tells Quaid that everything that has happened since his trip to Rekall is all in his mind. He says everything Quaid has experienced since falling unconscious at ReKall on planet Earth has been a dream due to a "schizoid embolism" and "acute neurological trauma". Quaid, disbelieving, holds him at gunpoint. Edgemar tells Quaid his entire experience matches the dreams he asked to be implanted.Edgemar opens the hotel door and Lori enters. She pleads with Quaid to listen to Dr. Edgemar. Edgemar offers Doug a pill, "a symbol of his desire to return to reality." He says Quaid must take the pill voluntarily to escape his permanent dream state. If he does, he will fall asleep and then wake up at the memory implant facility on Earth. He tells Quaid that if he doesn't take the pill, he will end up lobotomized and his mind will be trapped in this alternate reality forever. Quaid seriously considers the offer, but before he can swallow the pill, he spots a drop of sweat on the nervous Dr. Edgemar's face. He thinks this confirms that he is experiencing reality and not a dream and immediately shoots and kills Edgemar. A team of men break suddenly break through the room's walls and capture Quaid.Lori and Richter's men take the subdued Quaid to an elevator. When the elevator doors open, Melina opens fire with a sub-machine gun, killing all but Lori. Melina and Lori fight, but just as Lori is about to stab Melina with a knife, Quaid shoots the knife out of her hand. She looks up, telling he wouldn't hurt her because they're married. Seeing her reaching for a gun, Quaid shoots her dead, replying, "Consider that a divorce."Richter and Helm chase Melina and Quaid. They flee the hotel where Benny is conveniently waiting for them. He takes them to Venusville and The Last Resort. They hide behind a secret panel. The rebels and Cohaagen's security forces engage in a firefight during which Helm and several of Richter's security forces are killed. Richter barely escapes and takes command of a platoon of reinforcements. Cohaagan calls Richter after hearing about the firefight and orders him to pull back. Richter and his men retreat and the entire neighborhood is sealed off and the oxygen circulation system and fans feeding the area are turned off.Quaid is taken by the rebels to meet Kuato, the unknown leader of the rebellion. Kuato is psychic and can spot undercover Martian agents and extract information from them. They hope that Kuato can read Quaid's mind and find key information that will help them defeat Cohaagen and free Mars from his dictatorship. They take Quaid to see George (Marshall Bell), a high ranking rebel officer, before he can meet Kuato. They meet George in a private room, who opens his shirt to reveal that he is also Kuato, a conjoined, symbiotic creature with only a small head and arms. Kuato reads Quaid's mind and sees a vision of alien ruins, that have been rumored to lie underneath Mars. Cohaagen has kept their existence secret because it would convert the tribidium and make it worthless.The rebel hideout is attacked by Cohaagen's forces who massacre the rebels. Quaid, Melina, Benny and George/Kuato flee. As they prepare to escape, Benny suddenly shoots and kills George/Kuato, revealing that he is a covert agent of Cohaagen. Before Kuato dies, he tells Quaid to start the reactor. Richter finishes Kuato off and takes Quaid and Melina to Cohaagen.In his office, Cohaagen smugly explains to Quaid that the entire operation was a trap conceived by Hauser and Cohaagen. They devised a plan to trick Kuato by erasing Hauser's memory and implanting memories making him into Quaid so he could pass Kuato's psychic test. Quaid doesn't believe Cohaagen, but Cohaagen plays a recording made by Hauser before he became Quaid. Hauser, with Cohaagen at his side, congratulates Quaid for helping wipe out the rebels. Cohaagen orders that the oxygen supply to a large part of the Mars colony that aided the rebels be completely cut off.Quaid and Melina are taken to a memory implant facility so that Hauser's memories and personality can be restored. Melina will be implanted with memories making her subservient. During the memory programming procedure, Quaid escapes from his chair, frees Melina, and kills the tech workers and all the guards. The two head down to the alien ruins. Quaid explains to Melina that Kuato helped him remember that the ruins are actually reactors that will create enough air for the entire planet, and would thus cause Cohaagen to lose control of Mars.Quaid and Melina get to the ruins. They are attacked by Benny, who is driving a gigantic mining drilling machine. Quaid impales Benny with a power mining drill. They then find a way to the reactor, where a large platoon of soldiers, led by Richter, are waiting for them. Doug utilizes a hologram device to confuse the soldiers while he and Melina gun them all down. Richter boards a freight elevator that ascends to the ruins' control panel. Quaid jumps on and the two fight, ending with Richter having his arms ripped off and falling to his death.Quaid makes it to the reactor control area, where Cohaagen is waiting for him; he has rigged the control facility to explode, and is just about to kill Quaid when he is shot and wounded by Melina. He activates the bomb, but Quaid throws it away before it detonates. The explosion rips a hole in the wall, causing depressurization. As Quaid and Melina hang on for dear life, Cohaagen is sucked into the atmosphere and lands in the Martian landscape, where he quickly dies from the lack of oxygen and the massive solar radiation. Quaid manages to turn the reactor on just before he and Melina are sucked into the atmosphere as well, but they are saved as the reactor releases a large amount of breathable air, which washes over the entire atmosphere. The people who were dying can now breathe freely again.As Quaid and Melina gaze in astonishment at the Martian sky, which is now blue and clouded, Quaid wonders if he really is having a dream and if all of this is really happening in his head back on Earth at Rekall. Hearing this, Melina invites him to: "kiss me quick before you wake up." He and Melina kiss as the screen fades to white. | comedy, murder, stupid, paranormal, cult, violence, alternate reality, good versus evil, psychedelic, action, brainwashing, suspenseful, sci-fi | train | imdb | Luckily, Arnold Schwarzenegger talked Carolco into picking up the project for him, with Paul Verhoeven--who'd already proved his mettle on the similarly toned RoboCop (1987)--on board as director, because this is an excellent film.While Total Recall certainly has influences, including "The Martian Chronicles" (1980), Dune (1984) and the first major film based on a Philip K.
It's also yet another film on the very long list that have had various elements "adapted" into part of The Matrix (1999)--most explicitly here, the "bug" that Quaid has to remove from his body with a high-tech machine and the possibility of "waking up" from a particular reality by taking "the red pill".Although it's easy to interpret Total Recall in a very straightforward manner, so that the bulk of what we're seeing at any particular moment and the bulk of the dialogue are the literal reality, very convincing arguments can be made that the majority of the film is a depiction of Quaid's memory implant while in the "patient's chair" at Rekall.
The twists occur about once per every ten minutes, if not more frequently.The film is notable for its special effects by Rob Bottin, which were far ahead of their time, and its fantastic production and art design, which manage to make us feel both that we're experiencing a vicarious trip to a "future grunge" Mars and an almost "Doctor Who" (1963)-ish absurdly artificial reality, complete with supersaturated red skies, ala Frank R.
Verhoeven also brings little satirical stabs to the proceedings as he did with ROBOCOP and it's a great shame we see less and less of this European director working for Hollywood Verhoeven even gets a good performance from Big Arnie , okay this body builder was never in danger of winning an Oscar but Arnie doesn't send himself up and nor do his wise cracks like in his other blockbusters but he does make for an affable - Though violent - hero .
Anyway this is along with the original TERMINATOR the best movie starring Arnie though most of the credit for this movie belongs to the screenwriters and director and it's a great pity Hollywood is reluctant to mix a high concept SF plot with a crowd pleasing action adventure.
When a man (Arnold Schwarzenegger) goes for virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars, an unexpected and harrowing series of events forces him to go to the planet for real, or does he?One could consider "Total Recall" part of a Philip K.
And even as a stand-alone sci-fi film, it ranks as one of the better ones of the 1990s, if not all time.One of the great things about Total Recall is the ambiguous nature of the story.
Arnold fits perfectly in the role of Doug Quaid (definitely his best acting in a movie to date) the confused construction worker and Ronny Cox provides his usual evil plotting arch bad-guy.
The impressive visual effects are worth the movie's $100million price tag, and Paul Verhoeven proved that, as with Robocop and Starship Troopers, sci-fi is where he does his best work.What does spoil films like these, however, are people who cannot grasp the concept of Science FICTION, and refuse to suspend their belief for 2 hours(a vital part of enjoying these movies).
If it isn't as astute or consistent as Blade Runner or Minority Report, it's probably more due to it having to be a vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger than it being a full-on thought-provoking work of science fiction on film.
In fact, much of the film works on the strengths of both director and star by having it not too over the top to have some belief in what is going on, but that expectations aren't limited to what might happen as Arnold's character in on Mars uncovering the conspiracy around his messed-up memory.Featuring a sultry Sharon Stone in a great supporting role (another memorable scene comes with her demise, as usual quotable to the bone), as well as a memorable climax involving the arid Mars air and a certain outrageous reaction to it, I recommend Total Recall for genre fans and even those who might be wary of it being a 'Hollywood' take on Dick.
The baddies (or maybe not?) are the best roles solid baddies like Ironside and Cox are just as good as they were in other similar roles and Sharon Stone is good as Douglas' wife.Overall this continues Verhoeven's trend of making ultra-violence and clever plots and satire work well together (Robocop, Starship Troopers and this) as opposed to his trend of making trash!
Total Recall is a fast paced sci-fi action movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat all the way from beginning to end.
A factory worker (Arnold Schwarzenegger though Christopher Reeve was offered, but turned down ,Jeff Bridges, Matthew Broderick and Richard Dreyfuss were each considered and role posteriorly interpreted by Colin Farrell in recent remake) happily married to Lori (Sharon Stone , subsequently acted by Kate Beckinsale in remake directed by his husband Len Wiseman) , begins to suspect that he is a spy after visiting Rekall - a company that provides its clients with implanted fake memories of a life they would like to have led - goes wrong and he finds himself on the run .
Quaid finds himself thrust into the midst of a global conspiracy to find it out , as he goes to Mars where is helped by Melina (Rachel Ticotin , ulteriorly played by Jessica Biel) .This exciting picture is based on a short story titled "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" by Philip K.
The makers wanted a high energy sci-fi blockbuster, a star vehicle for Schwarzenegger, and Verhoeven was only too happy to oblige.Total Recall is a fascinating concept as we find ourselves wondering what in fact is reality?
It should be noted that the film is far removed from the cerebral essence of Dick's story, and really when one saw that Schwarzenegger was to star in a Verhoeven directed adaptation, one really should be prepared for the high octane brain dumb down that Total Recall is.
Dick's short story 'We'll Remember It For You Wholesale' in the Hollywood makeover 'Total Recall.' And a darn good makeover it is.Schwarzenegger plays Douglas Quaid, who is having a serious identity crisis.
He pulls the film's acting and stunts off with ease, all the while spitting out his catchy one-liners ('Consider this a divorce!').Sharon Stone is probably at her best here, seeing that her career went mainly down-the-drain from here on (okay, she won - or was nominated - for an Oscar for 'Casino.' This movie made her).Paul Verhoven directs this film, and there are no arguments that this is his finest work - by far.
He was the director who went on to make such 'critically acclaimed' (*guffaw*) films such as 'Showgirls' and 'Hollow Man.' His only other film that was remotely good was 'Basic Instinct,' but this is still ten times better (Sharon Stone would not have starred in that film if not for 'Total Recall' - Verhoven said so himself.).The special effects in this movie are excellent; supposedly, they spent millions and millions on the fake Mars sets, and I bet they're glad it paid off.I recently bought the 'Total Recall' Limited Edition DVD with a newly remastered digital makeover, Dolby Digital 5.1, behind-the-scenes documentary(s), a commentary by Verhoven and Schwarzenegger, and much, much more.
In fact, it is one of the best sci-fi/futuristic thrillers ever.Many people do not realize that 'Minority Report' with Tom Cruise is actually a sequel to this film, and Verhoven and Schwarzenegger had talked about making it for a long time, but now, it looks like the deal is off.
Dick's stories, this is a superb sci-fi action thriller set in a dystopic 2084 about a construction worker named Quaid who decides to go on a 'vacation' by having memories of a secret agent fantasy implanted into his brain, only for things to go horribly awry...or maybe not.
Two surprisingly intelligent action films made in succession allowed Verhoeven to become an established film-maker, who was at liberty to take the content of mainstream films distinctly further.Arnold Schwarzenegger took leading-man once again for Total Recall, just like the majority of films he starred in during the '80s and '90s.
Growing up watching "Arnie actioners" is something I have always treasured, which is why his films are cherished memories and also the reason for making re-watches such an electrifying event.Fusing reality with delusion (in what is essentially a case of identity crisis) is the core theme of Total Recall.
However, it actually succeeds so much more as a psychological thriller thanks to director Paul Verhoeven and an incredible script.For a basic plot summary, "Total Recall" follows the very strange set of circumstances surrounding one Douglas Quaid (Schwarzenegger), who one day is living the married life with Lori (Sharon Stone), and the next moment is caught up in an intrigue plot involving a stunning vixen named Melina (Rachel Ticotin) who tells Quaid he is not exactly what (or who) he thinks he is.
It was evident that the original idea was a good one, but a whole lot of garbage had been tacked on to make this into a Hollywood scifi bomb.I do not understand why some fans of science fiction and action movies think it necessary to have their intelligence insulted in order for a film to be enjoyable.
I've never seen such a collection of bad acting from so many actors in a single film, with Rachel Ticotin winning the award for worst pseudo-action female star ever.Things are made worse by the complete lack of vision from the director: the papier-mâché look of the sets and the Mars environment, with the uber cheesy mutants living there made the film look like a $80 million TROMA film.
The special effects are still great, we see Arnold take an ax to a few people, rip off Michael Ironside's iron arms, shoot people, bangs Sharon Stone, eats apple pie, and many other actions such as walking and talking.
On the basis of his performance in 'Total Recall', he can't act, his mastery of the English language is limited, he's not even conventionally handsome and, most bizarrely for a star of action films, he runs like a man with a war wound.
'2001: A Space Odyssey' did better in this respect over 20 years earlier; the feel of 'Total Recall's vision is more akin to that of 'Star Trek'.The holey plot is based on some interesting ideas that have since been re-used in films like (obviously) 'The Matrix' but also David Fincher's 'The Game': what is reality, and how can we tell?
Somewhere in between there, was Arnold Schwarzenegger's action epic, "Total Recall," which was released in 1990 and was directed by Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Starship Troopers)."Recall" (adapted from Dick's short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale") starred Schwarzenegger in the role of Douglas Quaid, a construction worker who goes to a place that sells you fake memories and Quaid opts for an implant of the planet Mars.
Verhoevens plastic world reappeared in Starship troopers, but that film, this and Robocop are three of the best action movies of all time.
He may never win an Oscar, but he knows how to crank out entertaining cinema, with thrilling action films like the Terminator movies, True Lies, and even End of Days.
The writing in Total Recall was SO bad that in the first 15 minutes I still found myself laughing awkwardly at their casual conversations about going to Mars and the mystery "dream girl." Everything about this movie was a standard Sci-Fi book cliché and it hurt my soul to watch it...
Part of this memorability comes from cheap methods such as gross-out visual effects and three-breasted prostitutes, but credit also belongs to a story full of roller coaster twists.Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Douglas Quaid, a man with a seemingly loving wife (Sharon Stone), who has vivid dreams about Mars, a planet that has been colonized by America and is at the center of a military controversy.
The meat of "Total Recall" lies not in the sci-fi future world the story takes place in, but more in the mystery of who Quaid (or Hauser) actually is.Schwarzenegger is still best suited for playing a machine or straight-up action hero not to be taken seriously, so "Total Recall" might not be the best fit, but he's probably better than most would give him credit for.
He doesn't really hurt the film in any way.It seems like "Total Recall" was Verhoeven's attempt to make a visual effects spectacle because he simply had the money thanks to Arnold's star power.
Total Recall passed through the hands of a great number of actors, producers and directors and was given the title of "the greatest sci fi film never made." Well several years ago it did get made and the results were not worth the wait.
One of them is the 1990 version of Total Recall, a gruesome violent, entertaining sci-fi action flick with plenty of substance.In the future Dennis Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is construction worker on Earth, longing for more and having recurring dreams of being on Mars with a brunette woman.
Quaid has to go to Mars to discover the truth about his identity as Mars is in the middle of a violence Civil War.Total Recall was directed by Paul Verhoeven and he is a man with a reputation for making action films with substance.
That is certainly the cast with Total Recall and it worked on a number of levels: it is a mystery about who Quaid really is and as a futuristic spy flick, a bleak sci-fi film which acts as a criticism of big corporations and exploiting native people or the underclass and the health effects on them to simply being a gore-fest.
Verhoeven is great the world building, showing the political situation of Mars.Total Recall is brutally violent and it is a shame that this type of film is no longer made.
Schwarzenegger was also supported by a fine cast, including Ronny Cox and Ironside in villainous roles, Stone in one of her best roles and Rachel Ticotin was very good as both the love interest and a woman of action.Jerry Goldsmith supplied an iconic score for the film with a memorial theme.Total Recall is a classic sci-fi that has aged very well.
There is the retold short story:Douglas Quaid is a simple worker (his wife is his wife, not an undercover agent, as in movie) who is obsessed about going on Mars (because this some time after his wife leaves him for good).
Total recall is a typical sci-fi movie packed with action and of course Arnie.
Dick (whose work has made it to the big screen also in the form of "Minority Report" and "Blade Runner," to name a few), "Total Recall" is a landmark both for its stunning visual effects as well as its non-stop pace and over-the-top action.
As like most of the science fiction films around at this time for example Terminator 2, it is filled with original ideas and makes it a intelligent plot line and can be thought of as deeply as the viewer feels necessary or just enjoyed as a action film.
Total Recall is good thinking man's science fiction film and is highly recommended, kudos to the film makers and Arnold Schwarzenegger for making this film possible as a large budgeted film with star backing..
However, if you're into either action or sci-fi films, practical effects over the computer-generated variety, of - of course - Arnie himself, then you're in for a real treat here.In 'Total Recall' he plays an 'everyman' in the near future (assuming the average guy comes from Austria and is built like Mr Universe!) 'Doug Quaid' - a lowly construction worker on Earth who dreams of going to Mars (did I mention a reasonable proportion of the human race lives on the red planet?).
This film begins many years in the future with a man named "Dennis Quaid" (Arnold Schwarzenegger) waking up from a nightmare about being killed while on the planet Mars.
Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an exciting action-packed sci-fi film which had an interesting plot that takes several sharp turns with some unique special effects along the way.
Arnie Is A Smart Business Man. Continuing my plan to watch every Arnie movie in order, I come to Total Recall.Plot In A Paragraph: in the future Doug Quaid (Arnie) is haunted by a recurring dream about being on Mars.
Entertaining sci fi action-drama.Set in the future, a man, Douglas Quaid (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger), is plagued by dreams that he is living an parallel life on Mars.
The movie makes you think if it's real or not which is interesting and intriging.Total Recall is great to watch any time of the day or night.
I Understand the Praise but the Film Just Doesn't Work for Me. Total Recall (1990) ** (out of 4) Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi/action picture has Arnold Schwarzenegger playing Douglas Quaid, an average man who is growing tired of his world so he goes to the company Total Recall so that he can experience life as a Secret Agent.
Arnie started the 90s with a bang with Total Recall- an awesome science fiction action film from Dutch Paul Verhoevan.
Arnie started the 90s with a bang with Total Recall- an awesome science fiction action film from Dutch Paul Verhoevan.
Arnie started the 90s with a bang with Total Recall- an awesome science fiction action film from Dutch Paul Verhoevan.
Paul Verhoevan's Total Recall is a fantastic science fiction movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a construction worker who gets dreams of being on Mars.
Paul Verhoevan's Total Recall is a fantastic science fiction movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a construction worker who gets dreams of being on Mars. |
tt0118583 | Alien: Resurrection | Hundreds of years after the events of Alien³, doctors aboard a spaceship called the USN Auriga are working on a secret project for the military; they have been attempting to produce a clone of Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) working from a blood sample that was collected from Fiorina "Fury" 161, the planet where she died. In doing so, they hope that they can harvest the alien embryo, a queen of the species, that was gestating inside of her at the time. Dr. Wren (J.E. Freeman) and his team of colleagues have succeeded with their eighth attempt. They operate on the Ripley clone and remove the embryonic alien, which is still too small to struggle with the robotic arms used for the operation. After the alien is removed, Dr. Wren and his colleague, Dr. Gediman (Brad Dourif), decide to keep the clone alive for further study. They repair the wound in her chest. As she recovers, she notices a numeral 8 tattooed on one of her arms.The Ripley clone begins to gain consciousness and mature at an unprecedented rate. The ship's doctors go through exercises with her regarding language and learning, and she responds positively. She also exhibits a frightening predatory physical power, able to break her bonds and attack at will. The doctors and orderlies are only barely able to subdue her. She seems to share DNA with the alien creatures, explaining her unusual strength, and her blood is also slightly acidic. The experiment angers General Perez (Dan Hedaya), the military figure in charge of the operation, who calls her a "meat byproduct". He is only interested in the alien queen, which has also grown at a terrifying rate; it is now almost full size and is contained within a cell on the ship.The Ripley clone seems to sense what is going on. One day she eats with Gediman and Wren, and she reveals a startling flash of her former self; it seems as if the clone has retained some of Ripley's memories and personality traits. It is almost as if the woman herself has been recreated and is slowly awakening. Ripley has a fragmented conversation with Gediman. "How did you...?" she asks. Gediman tells her how they painstaking recreated her, and she intuitively guesses that they wanted the alien. Even in her dazed condition, she is cynical and tells them that they can't control it.Enter the Betty, a ragtag ship carrying a crew of space pirates. Their cargo is the crew of another ship, still in their cryogenic containers and asleep, unaware that they have been hijacked. General Perez has hired the crew, led by Frank Elgyn (Michael Wincott), to deliver the unfortunate sleeping travelers to be used for breeding the aliens. Before long the kidnapped people have been impregnated with aliens, and a number of drone aliens are now in containment units on board the ship.The Betty crew find Ripley exercising in a rec center, tossing a basketball around. Johner (Ron Perlman), one of the Betty's crew and a brutish, scarred man, attempts to engage her in a predatory manner of flirting, but Ripley easily out-maneuvers and fights back against him and one of his comrades, Christie (nm023542), and proves herself to be physically powerful beyond their expectations. At one point, her nose is bloodied; when she wipes off the blood and flicks it onto the floor, it begins to dissolve the surface, much like the blood of the aliens.One of the Betty's crew, a young waifish girl named Annalee Call (Winona Ryder), seems to have a different agenda. She slips away from the others and finds Ripley's containment unit, gaining illegal access to it. There she finds Ripley and wakes her up; Call admits that she came here to kill Ripley, but Ripley is far too cunning to allow that. She even deliberately presses her hand onto Call's knife; the resulting wound heals itself rapidly and her blood corrodes the blade. Call can tell that the doctors have removed the alien embryo already, and she tells Ripley that she is just a clone, something the doctors consider only a byproduct. Ripley seems confused and hurt by this, but she knows it is true. She releases Call, who goes outside the cell only to be intercepted by guards and Dr. Wren.Wren is furious about Call's trespassing, and he attempts to execute the crew of the Betty as terrorists. A number of things happen simultaneously. The Betty crew has a battle with soldiers who have orders to execute them. Gediman, who is experimenting with adult aliens in a cell, inadvertently teaches them how to use the pacifying equipment in the cell, which sprays freezing gas. Together the aliens revolt; two of them gang up on a third and kill it, causing its acid blood to eat through the floor of the containment unit. Gediman is snatched away by one of the aliens. Now loose, the aliens quickly begin to take over the ship. Ripley escapes from her cell when aliens begin to break through the door. The ship goes into emergency mode and some people escape in life pods; the unfortunate ones are killed by aliens. The crew of the Betty bands together, but Elgyn is killed by the creatures.Ripley joins Call and the others as they make their way across the Auriga to the bay where the Betty is docked. Ripley also discovers that the Auriga is actually moving. Wren scoffs, saying she couldn't possibly know because the ship is equipped with stealth run. However, Ripley's heightened senses are correct, the ship is moving, traveling rapidly back to homebase: Earth. The crew of the Betty is disheartened since Earth has become a polluted wasteland. They take Wren with them, although he is more of a hostage.Along the way they find the laboratory where Gediman and the others created the Ripley clones; inside are the previous seven attempts, all of them hideously deformed and bizarre human/alien hybrids. Six are dead and contained in stasis tubes, but the seventh attempt is the most heartbreaking; she is human enough to be identifiable, yet her limbs and her body are misshapen and alien. Even worse, she is still living, kept alive by tubes and ventilators. Ripley 8 is horrified, realizing now exactly what she is and where she came from. Ripley 7 begs her to kill her, and Ripley 8 uses a flamethrower and grenades to destroy the other clones. Wren is morbidly amused by her inner turmoil over her bizarre identity, and Ripley 8 looks at him in utter rage and disgust. Johner has no idea what caused Ripley's rampage; "Must be a chick thing!" he quips.The crew makes another strange discovery: the room containing what's left of the hijacked crew that the Betty crew delivered to General Perez. One of the crew members, Purvis (Leland Orser), is still alive, but Ripley suggests they leave him behind. She can sense that he is gestating an alien embryo, having been impregnated by a facehugger. Call insists that they bring him along, that perhaps if they make it to the Betty in time, they can put him in cryostasis long enough for some sort of surgery to be performed on him.A hitch in their escape plan occurs when they find that they are forced to traverse the mess hall; unfortunately, it is completely underwater now due to a flood that occurred during the chaos of the alien escape. Vriess (Dominique Pinon) has to leave his powered wheelchair behind, and is harnessed to Christie's back. Everyone must hold their breath for a painful amount of time, and Sabra Hillard (Kim Flowers) from the Betty is snatched along the way by aliens that emerge, swimming after her. Ripley watches, strangely fascinated by the creatures.When they emerge on the other side of the tunnel, they find that they've been ambushed; the shaft leading upwards from the mess hall has been festooned with alien eggs, which eject facehuggers at the humans. Ripley gets one on her face, but her inhuman strength allows her to rip it away from herself (a strange twist on the similar incident that happened to her in Aliens). Grenades clear the shaft of eggs and allows the crew to climb the ladder to the top, but aliens emerge from the water below them and attack. When Call and Wren reach the top of the shaft first, Wren talks her into giving him her gun and shoots her in the chest; her body falls back down into the water and drifts away. Ripley is horrified, as she has found something strangely compelling about Call. Christie (Gary Dourdan) is wounded and grabbed by an alien, and then sacrifices his life to give Vriess a chance to get away. Wren has escaped the shaft and sealed everyone else inside, but the door eventually opens again from the other side; Call has somehow survived the gunshot and rescued them.Ripley is not fooled, as she knows she saw Call get shot in the chest at close range. She makes Call show everyone the wound, revealing wires and white android blood. Call confesses that she is one of a legendary second generation of androids who were so lifelike that they gained consciousness and rebelled, burning their internal wireless modems and trying to pass themselves as human. The soldier Vincent Distephano (Raymond Cruz) who is with them is geeked about actually seeing this kind of android; Call seems humiliated that her secret has been discovered. Ripley now understands why she feels a kinship with Call; both of them are somehow artificial, creatures that have been created in the likeness of human beings but who are distinctively different.Knowing Call's capabilities, Ripley takes her to a small chapel, where they find a computer interface. Although Call does not want to make use of her android functions, Ripley urges her to take over the Auriga's computer. Call discovers that the Auriga went into emergency mode after the attack; it is now automatically returning to Earth, where surely the aliens will escape and infect the human race. The ship has burned too much energy for Call to make critical mass and blow it, so Ripley tells her to crash the ship. Call blocks Wren from reaching the Betty and makes a sarcastic announcement summoning all aliens to the deck where he is. Call reveals that before the recall, she accessed the mainframe and discovered the plans that General Perez had for cultivating the aliens by cloning Ripley. Her personal mission was to destroy the operation and keep this from happening, as she understands that the aliens will wipe out humankind.When they set out for the Betty again, Ripley is snatched through the floor grating by aliens. Her connection to the creatures comes full circle; they recognize her as one of their own and take her to the nest, which is crawling with aliens and which also contains the queen. Gediman is there as well, cocooned and delirious, and he tells Ripley that the queen inherited Ripley's human reproductive cycle. After laying her first round of eggs, she gives birth as a human being would, developing a strange, uterus-like pod and birthing a bizarre creature that resembles a human being crossed with an alien. This "Newborn" kills the queen and embraces Ripley as its mother. It attacks Gediman, biting off the top of his head. Ripley escapes the nest and races to rejoin the others as the Betty takes off. She makes it just in time, making an impossibly long leap from the deck to the ship. With their pilots dead, Ripley seems to be the only one of them who has the experience to fly the ship. "Are you kidding?" she tells them, "This piece of shit's older than I am."There is final confrontation when Call goes to close the bay door and discovers the Newborn has stowed away. She barely manages to evade it. Distephano comes into the bay and is killed. Ripley senses that something is wrong and comes back to find the Newborn cornering Call. She distracts it by speaking soothingly to it; it trusts Ripley as it thinks she is its mother. She deliberately cuts her hand on its sharp teeth and flicks her acidic blood onto a glass porthole. Her blood dissolves a hole in the glass, depressurizing the cabin and sucking the Newborn onto the window. It hovers there pitifully as it is slowly drawn violently out through the tiny hole; Ripley feels torn between her desire to exterminate the species and the loyalty she feels toward them since she has their DNA. She watches in horror as the Newborn is slowly destroyed, aware that it is dying.The Auriga crashes on Earth and is destroyed. The Betty breaches Earth's atmosphere safely and Ripley and Call look out the porthole at the clouds and the sun, dazed by their experience and wondering what the future will hold for both of them. Neither one has ever been to Earth before. In the alternate version of the film released on DVD in 2003, a wide shot shows Call and Ripley sitting in the hills overlooking a desolate and ruined Paris. | boring, paranormal, cult, horror, violence, action | train | imdb | Thinking back, the first three films all had very solid overall stories and well developed characters while Resurrection has a very solid concept but can't seem to build a coherent movie around it.
Ron Pearlman is always fun to watch and makes a good comic duo with Dominique Pinon, but Winona Ryder absolutely kills this movie with her nonperformance.
The effects look less realistic this time out and the score at times seems to try too hard to emulate the second and third films with Goldsmith's original Alien theme being used on several occasions.
I prefer the later performance, myself.The resurrection implied in the title refers to Ripley being borough back to life 200 years after her death for the purpose of creating one of the alien queens, and then breeding the animals for twisted scientific purposes.
I see nothing but whiny, pouting little brats whimpering and griping about little nitpicky details in the movie, condemning the third sequel in the Alien quadrilogy as a travesty and an embarrassment and a pathetic way to end the series.
What I think everyone didn't acknowledge about the film was the fact that it did a damn good job of resurrecting the aliens.
Several people say that the old Ripley was gone, but by the end of the film, she was acting just like the good ol' gal we all know and love.
Fincher had originally intended the film to be much longer and with more character development, but executives at Fox had cheated him out of his own vision by removing most of said footage.Now we have "Alien: Resurrection", released in 1997 and directed by acclaimed French film maker Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
Set two-hundred years after the events of "Alien 3", Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) has been cloned from a sample of her DNA and must continue her ongoing fight with the deadly alien this time with the help of a group of futuristic space pirates and a mysterious woman named Call (Winona Ryder).
The fourth installment in the Alien Franchise was Alien Resurrection which had Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), cloned after she died 200 years ago in Alien 3.
The reason why I think that it wasn't "Alien" material because there was to much comedy even though the second installment of Alien had some comedy in it, it still didn't seem like it went over board like I thought it did in the forth installment but if thats what the director wanted then thats the way it would be but it didn't fit but this is my own felling about the movie but don't get me wrong it was still a good movie I think it deserved better then a 6.0 out of 10 vote maybe more like a 7.0 but remember this is only me comments..
Ripley has done enough, she gave her life as the final act of destroying the aliens, but when I saw the film I was impressed, Ripleys come back was believable & as usual Weavers performance was compelling.
I can admit that the plot in this movie was not as strong as in the other three and Winona Ryder didn´t really act very well, which can also be said about Sigourney Weaver, I´m sad to say considering the brilliant acting in the other three, but the overall acting was really good, with the performance of Dominique Pinon and Ron Perlman.
Amélie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet did a fantastic job and gave us the best Alien film of the lot.I loved the first two, but this was so much more.First, there was the lighting.
With Resurrection, we finally get to have fun with both the story and the characters, thanks in large part to fine performances by Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, and Ron Perlman.
French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen (1991), The City of Lost Children (1995)) directs this pacy science fiction-action-horror film set purely in space.
The storyline was a tad simplistic but perhaps that was for the best, with fewer gaps showing and allowing the film to progress at a fluid pace.As good as hoped?No. But considering the impact and flavour of the original film, (which despite the effects looking dated today, it is still the most powerful and believable film of the four) I certainly was not disappointed - In fact I think I'll see it again - Soon.Dan. Actually a great Alien film, just not the one fanboys wished for...
There was never going to be a point in retreading Scott's or Cameron's takes..and after what the studio did to dir Fincher on Alien 3 the franchise definitely needed the touch of an auteur with an inventive vision.I just saw Heaven's Gate after many years of reading what a terrible film it supposedly was - only to discover it's actually a great film...
I hope time is the great equalizer for films like AR..many appalling films get lauded and do very well commercially whilst often audiences and critics don't understand or appreciate certain others because they do not suit the times or fashion..Alien Resurrection is one of those breaths of fresh air that operates on a level above what many so obsessed with the genre are able to appreciate.When you consider how truly awful the AvP films have been this is easily a masterpiece by comparison!.
The previous films, in order, are Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), and Alien 3 (1992).Taking place 200 years after the events of Alien 3, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is now a clone living on a military ship as the subject of scientific experiments.
Shortly after a ship of "space pirates" docks to complete a deal with the military ship's shady General Perez (Dan Heyda), things start to go haywire, and once again, humans are fighting for their lives.Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's series entry is most similar in tone to Aliens, James Cameron's action-heavy take on the alien mythology.
The primary differences are those rooted to each film's place in time--Aliens is a typical mid-80s actioner, this is a typical late 90s actioner--and distinctions due to James Cameron's style versus Jean-Pierre Jeunet's, although in some ways, this is a more unusual film for Jeunet, who has leaned more towards surrealism and "art films" throughout his career.On the other hand, the script for Alien Resurrection, which was written by Joss Whedon (of television's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly fame), can be easily seen as more surreal than the other entries in the series, if not darker (the tone of Alien 3 makes it difficult to call anything darker).
Sigourney Weaver was always one of the best things about the series--she presented a deep, intelligent, resourceful character, and in Alien Resurrection, she gets action hero-like physical prowess to boot.
The story is good for some of the film, turning the conspiracy story up to 10 with aliens being bred in captivity, but after the aliens get out the story is mostly a chase and kill deal and then goes onto some nonsense about a new breed of alien that looks like milky bars!Apart from the visuals and the conspiracy angle this is pretty ordinary stuff, it doesn't deserve to be part of such a classic series.
The performances are so-so, Weaver enjoys the fact that her character is allowed to be more powerful than usual but this doesn't actually make it a better performance, the fact that Jeunet fills the film with the French actors from his other films makes it slightly more interesting but no less average.Just because Jeunet put the guns back into the Alien series doesn't make it good.
Alien 2 was doubly astonishing because it was almost as good as Alien 1 and, as any film buff knows, the sequel is rarely if ever that good.Expectations were high going into Alien 3, the prison planet movie, but the entry was disappointing and for the first time fans started to wonder if the franchise was going to self-destruct.For this reason, Alien 4, Resurrection, was disappointing in every possible way.
The success of Aliens was due to the fact that James Cameron realized that for now only an action movie would do, making a totally different genre of his sequel.
If you ask me, I think this is a good sequel since it flowed naturally from the first three movies: we have the Ripley character and a bunch of people being hunted by the Aliens trying to make their way out into space.
I thought this new Ripley and Alien-queen-in-one was a great find (albeit with disgusting consequences, making a smart anti clone statement at the same time); she was almost like a predator herself, with a humoristic and unpredictable tweak, still keeping her strong character alive that made her an extremely credible protagonist in the first three movies.
It's a ton of fun, even if it is objectively a "bad movie."Two-hundred years after the events of the previous film, scientists working for the military successfully clone Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and the queen embryo she had been impregnated with, intent on allowing the alien life-form to reproduce so that they might study its race.
Along the way, she will uncover startling and deadly revelations about the project that brought her back to life, and come face to face with a devilish new threat...Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet from a script by the world-renowned geek-god Joss Whedon, "Resurrection" does so much right that it's frankly a shame it's so routinely dismissed without much thought.
Despite being dead for 200 years, military heroine Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) appears alive, well and enhanced with alien attributes, including acidic blood.The mercs eventually discover that there are other genetically engineered aliens aboard and that the infested ship is headed straight for Earth.Thanks to French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, this third sequel in the Alien franchise manages to stand on its own merits, despite sharing similarities with its predecessors.
Yes, she died in the third film, but writers have found an unoriginal and somewhat far-fetched way of bringing her back, which surprisingly ends up being perhaps one of the most interesting subplots in the whole movie (and one of the only ones too), as it leads to one pretty haunting scene later at the mid- point of the feature.The script certainly isn't the film's strongest asset, as it serves no purpose other than getting the spaceship crew to confront the notorious alien creatures through all areas of the spaceship, with plenty of bloody and gooey fun throughout.
It does borrow elements from the previous films: Ripley develops a relationship with one of the characters that's a bit reminiscent of that she had with Newt in Aliens; there is a lot of action and gun play, just like there was in Aliens; it follows the tradition of featuring a robot character; the crew of the spaceship is composed of a few macho characters that might remind you of those in Alien 3, etc.
Overall, Alien:Resurrection, despite its fundamental flaw of suffering from a linear and quite predictable script that might borrow too much from the previous outings, is still a welcome (yet maybe unnecessary) addition to the franchise, and a technically competent film which profits greatly from Jean-Pierre Jeunet's approach in visual storytelling.
While "Alien: Resurrection" continues the story of extraterrestrial monsters going after humans, there's something of a dichotomy with Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver).
It kind of bothers me that people hate this film just because of the hybrid.Alien=Horror Aliens=Action Alien 3=Suspense Alien Resurrection=ThrillerEach of the Aliens have there own unique settings & each of them feature a different Alien,Like on Alien it was 8 foot tall,Aliens Had a Queen,Alien3 had a runner & This movie had a Newborn, I thought the new born was the coolest thing I ever seen.
Not only is she a lab rat, but the doctors and scientist have managed to capture the aliens and the queen and test them like lab rats along with bringing the queen's eggs and experiment human guinea pigs.Other cast members include Winona Ryder as Annalee Call, a member of a mercenary team led by Michael Wincott where other supporting characters include Ron Pearlman as a hotshot gun-shooter who remains a likable for the fans to enjoy.
Because in real life, (just as Number 8 (the cloned Ripley) says in this new film Alien Resurrection), we die.
One redeeming aspect of Resurrection is that it is ruthless and seemed to have good gore effects that were disturbing and were of quality to the first two alien movies.
I seen it a couple times now and it remains just as adrenaline pumped and enjoyably over-the-top entertainment.Anyhow French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and writer Josh Whedon (best known for penning "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer" TV series and than later on the TV show and movie "Firefly") would definitely change the tone of the franchise with this well-budgeted sequel "Alien Resurrection" as its broodingly surreal visual edge and venomous tongue-in-cheek approach were the signature styles of its creators.
Rest assured, it's a lot better than Deep Rising.So the set up is one thing but the real meat of the film sees these rouge space travellers, of whom include Ron Perlman's Johner and Winona Ryder's Annalee Call as well as heroine of the hour Ripley fight and fend their way off the ship to safety.
Now off to the good stuff Sigourney Weaver potrays the Ripley clone in a different way but It's not bad I especially liked the scene where she founds out about the other Clone experiments failed.
While all of us agreed that Alien was a really good, definitely scary movie -- a real undie-stainer if you're not used to horror -- none of the people with whom I watched Alien Resurrection could remember much about the two other installments of the saga.
From Ripley's weird little body movements into which she occasionally lapses to the makeup and costume design of the human/alien hybrid at the end of the film, this is one visually trippy experience.The cast is pretty good -- with stand-outs being Sigourney Weaver (the ultimate femme bad-ass), Brad Dourif (the weird and crazy alien-obsessed doctor), and Michael Wincott (the surly yet likeable captain of the spaceship Betty).
Resurrection manages to take the unintentionally amusing and laughably patchy Alien3 and come up with a plausible way to bring back Ripley from the dead.Now all those expecting Ripley to bond with a cutesy little girl, strap together two guns or get down with her bad self inside a power suit will no doubt feel let down by the new "alienated" Ripley that manages to be far more menacing and infinitely more interesting than the old one.All those expecting the Marines to kick Alien butt will also be disappointed - in this film they actually manage to do the more believable thing and vacate as soon as possible rather than provide the Aliens with HostsRus. This Ellen Ripley is unsure who she likes less, the humans or the Aliens - she's unsure of what she is or whether living is worth doing.
Resurrection had some good things going for it - not least Jeunet as director - but it's a pity that Dan O'Bannon (Who wrote Alien) did not have more of a direct input..
Years into the future, a clone of Ellen Ripley and other survivors find themselves trapped in an abandoned research ship overrun by the aliens they bred from her remains and try to escape before they're killed one-by-one.This here is an unjustly maligned sequel and actually has a lot of good stuff going for it.
The film takes place in 2850 (200 years after Alien 3)but does not really seem like it actually.The story is about Ripley resurrecting from the dead after 200 years had passed after many failed tries.
Good movie, though there is a few bizarre scenes here and there including one with Weaver and an alien.
Basically a haunted house movie set inside a spaceship (two, actually) full of the eponymous Aliens, writer Joss Whedon scraped the bottom of the cliche-barrel, bringing us not-at-all-lame scenes of people wandering down dark hallways and sticking their heads into acid-burned holes for no particularly good reason (other than to be eaten, of course).
Fans of the Series HATE that movie but I'm a fan and I feel Alien 3 is very underrated and deserves a second glance ( like that David A.R White Film ) In spite of this, Alien Resurrection was made.
An Awful Film With Near Nothing Going For It. Alien Resurrection is directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and once again stars Sigourney Weaver, this time as a clone of Ellen Ripley.
I found nothing good about Alien: Resurrection; even Sigourney Weaver's acting was pretty bad..
All dynamics were stripped from the characters by the poor script, and left the characters as nothing more than names and bad acting.The worst part of Alien: Resurrection is the main antagonist towards the end of the film.
While Resurrection shouldn't have been made to start with, it actually does a good job at being a decent movie entertainment-wise.Sigourney Weaver is back as Ripley, who's somehow resurrected after over two-hundred years.
Not a smart move in part of the Alien movies but I like how the direction was executed.Alien fans shouldn't be too disappointed by Resurrection, it's got some fun action scenes.
The only bad thing about this movie is that after watching you realise that is the end of the brilliant series , but after I guess Weaver is getting too old for this fun stuff.
Two centuries after her death, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is revived as a powerful human/alien hybrid clone who must continue her war against the aliens.Roger Ebert felt "there is not a single shot in the movie to fill one with wonder", later naming it one of the worst films of 1997.
The film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, contributes nothing new to the series aside from better quality visual effects and a reason (albeit, a weak one) to resurrect Ellen Ripley.
Signourney Weaver, as in the previous two movies, is a standout and brings a new dimension to the character as a resurrected clone. |
tt0816692 | Interstellar | A group of elderly people are giving interviews about having lived in a climate of crop blight and constant dust reminiscent of The Great Depression of the 1930's. The first one seen is an elderly woman stating her father was a farmer, but did not start out that way.The scene changes. We are introduced to a farmer and widower named Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey). He is a college-educated former NASA test pilot and engineer who was forced to give up his occupation to farm, living in a run down farmhouse, presumably owned by his father in law. They farm corn, with wheat no longer available and okra just now having become extinct due to blight. We see no animal life.It is the 2060's in eastern Colorado. More than half the world's population has been decimated from famine and America has been reduced to a struggling agrarian society for the past 30 years. Technology has come to a standstill for the past 40 or so years, with automobiles no longer produced and a computer laptop is a luxury item. There is no military or wars anymore. At a certain age, kids are tested to determine what occupations they will have to take to help humanity survive. In school, it is taught that the US going to the moon in 1969 was a hoax to drive the Soviet Union into bankruptcy and win the Cold War.Cooper's family consists of his 65-year-old father-in-law, Donald (John Lithgow),15-year-old son Tom (Timothée Chalamet), and 10-year-old daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy). Donald was born at the end of the 20th or beginning of the 21st century and fondly recalls times when technology was constantly changing and new gadgets being invented. He is a down-to-Earth man who takes care of the household duties and gets along well with Cooper. The two of them sit on the porch drinking beer in the evening and philosophize about the condition of the world and how things should be. Joe's son Tom is a boy of average intelligence already being ruled out to be a farmer by the school administration, since a college education is now something only a very small percentage those will enjoy the privilege of. His daughter Murph is a feisty and highly intelligent girl whom Cooper is very close to and who shares his affinity with space and science. She believes her room is haunted by a ghost because books keep falling off her shelves and a lunar ship model was just knocked over.The Cooper family lives a pretty simple life and have a rare treat of attending a game of a supposedly major league baseball team at a local ball field similar to what the little league play on today. His father in law is unimpressed at the amateurishness of the players and having only popcorn for refreshments and no hot dogs. An approaching dust cloud interrupts the game reminding them of the grim world they live in, and ends it prematurely. The Cooper family makes back to the farmhouse during the dust storm and Murph's bedroom did not have the window closed and the dust settled into perfect lines on the floor. Cooper spends the entire night studying the lines and Cooper thinks the lines are binary code and coordinates for a place he feels the need to find and uses a map. He spends the next day driving to the Rockies and his daughter sneaks into the truck to come with him.Soon after arriving at his final destination, Cooper is apprehended and tasered into unconsciousness by a strange looking robot called TARS. It turns out he is in the best-kept secret in the world, a bunker, and meets his old boss from NASA, an Englishman named Dr. John Brand (Michael Caine), plus his beautiful young daughter, Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway). Nobody is convinced that Cooper just stumbled into the place by accident and Dr. Brand believes a force brought Cooper there. The compound Cooper found is actually the remnants of NASA, inhabiting the facility in secret and no longer funded by the government because of the scarcity of resources. There is a space mission leaving soon to go through a wormhole of unknown origin near Saturn that will take them to three potentially habitable planets, two of them orbiting a supermassive black hole named Gargantua; a large black sphere about the size in diameter of Earth's sun but which has a solar mass of about 50 million Earth suns. Ten years earlier, 12 individual astronauts were sent out through the wormhole in 12 different ships, but only three (Miller, Mann, and Edmond's) activated the thumbs up beacon, all of whom are at three planets. At the moment, NASA has nobody to pilot the spacecraft and at the last minute they want Cooper to go, despite his family responsibilities.The bunker itself is actually a centrifuge, which is projected to become something else later on. The mission has two plans: Plan A is to get the centrifuge into orbit as a space station and rescue a large number of people; this requires Dr. Brand to solve the equation that will allow the scientists to overcome gravity and get the centrifuge into orbit. Plan B is to colonize the most habitable of the three planets along with a bunch of frozen embryos to repopulate the species. Dr. Brand assures Cooper the Earth is dying and humanity doesn't have much longer and that he needs to pilot the craft and explore, lest his family and the rest of the world all die soon. Cooper is very reluctant, because he's barely left Earth's atmosphere, but Brand reassures Cooper the twelve astronauts sent on the mission never even left the simulators beforehand.The next day, Cooper and Murph return to the farmhouse, his daughter is extremely upset with him for choosing the mission. That night Cooper and Donald are sitting on the porch drinking beer and Cooper reminding Donald once again of the futility of staying and the conditions they live in. Donald assures Cooper he's doing the right thing, but needs to set things right with Murph. The next morning, Cooper does his best to comfort a sobbing Murph and promises to come back to her and that they might even be the same age when he returns, giving her a wristwatch to compare time. Murph refuses his assurance and that her bookshelf is communicating with her in Morse Code to "stay". Despite her pleas, Cooper won't back down and one more book falls down before he leaves, but Cooper disregards it. Cooper leaves and says goodbye to Tom and Donald and while he's driving away, Murph storms out the front door wanting to see him one last time, but it's too late.The space shuttlecraft rockets away from Earth at high speed with Cooper, Amelia Brand, Dr. Doyle (Wes Bentley), Dr. Nikolai "Rom" Romilly (David Gyasi), and the TARS and CASE robots on board. Doyle and Romilly are two scientists that were in the conference room at NASA during the meeting with Cooper. When the spacecraft leaves the atmosphere, everything goes quiet all of a sudden, except the inside. The ring shaped Endurance is up ahead and they dock with it, which has all their needs for space travel. The Endurance is leaving Earth and they bid farewell to a spinning Earth and have to look forward to the lonely, claustrophobic, and potentially dangerous reality of space and put themselves in a plastic-covered water cryosleep bed for the two-year journey to Saturn.Dr. Brand makes a trip in Cooper's old 2010 Dodge ram truck to deliver the vehicle back to the homestead and give a tape recorded message from Cooper to his family. Murph appears hoping her father is home, but angrily storms back into the house. Donald tells Dr. Brand about how Murph is making fools out of her teachers, but Brand tells Donald maybe she'll eventually make a fool out of him.Two years later: the Endurance is orbiting Saturn and Cooper is out of cryosleep, reviewing video messages. His son Tom tells him he's doing okay and Donald says hi, telling Cooper that Murph still refuses to talk to him. The Endurance crew come upon the wormhole, which resembles a plasma globe and will provide a quick channel for the crew to reach the three planets in the next galaxy. The crew take off for the rough ride, (a la 2001 infinity) and come to their first mission, Miller's Planet. During the time through the wormhole, Amelia reaches out and feels she touched someone's hand.They find themselves in a region of space around 10 billion light years from planet Earth. They decide to head first to Miller's planet, intending to stop there only briefly as its close proximity to Gargantua causes severe gravitational time dilation with each hour spent on the surface costing seven Earth years. Cooper, Amelia, Doyle, and the robot CASE decide to risk themselves and intend to be in and out of there in just minutes to survey while Romilly remains on the Endurance to study the black hole and get quantum data from it. When they land, all they find is shallow water and wreckage of Miller's ship, who apparently died and had arrived just an hour or two earlier, even though she sent the thumbs up beacon on Earth 10 years before. The crew think there are mountains in the distance that turn out to be giant tsunami waves. Brand becomes trapped under the Miller wreckage and has to be rescued and carried back by CASE, Doyle is drowned, and the ship is flooded and won't be able to make it out for another hour, costing them years. Cooper is frustrated at Brand, but forgives her mistake. After the engines are mostly emptied of water, Cooper fires them up and just manages to escape the next tidal wave and fly off the surface.Cooper and Brand make it back to the Endurance to find an aged and gray Romilly in a robe -- 23 Earth years have passed and Romilly has spent most of the time waiting with a couple of stretches in cryosleep. It is now about the year 2090 on Earth. They are all beyond crushed, but Brand is relieved to know her father is still alive and well. They are receiving messages from Earth, but unable to transmit out. Cooper reviews all the videos and breaks down looking at 23 years of recorded videos and sees before his very eyes his 17-year-old son Tom showing a picture of what he believes is the right girl for him. In the next video, Tom (now played by Casey Affleck) introduces to Cooper to his grandson Jesse. In the next video, a now beaten and 40-year-old Tom reveals that Donald died a week ago and is buried next to Jesse and that he believes Cooper to be missing or dead and needs to let him go. Then afterwards an apparent live recording comes from Murph (now played by Jessica Chastain). After 25 years of silence, a still stubborn and saddened Murph tells off her father for not fulfilling the possibility of being back because she is now 35 years of age, which is the same age he was when he left Earth. It's like a knife has been plunged into his heart and he feels he has betrayed her badly and has no way to communicate back with her.On Earth, Murph stops recording the video. She is now working for Dr. Brand and living in the NASA bunker, who is now about 90-years-old and confined to a wheelchair. Brand is still trying to solve the incomplete gravity equation to get Plan A rolling and is reassuring Murph that the crew of the Endurance are receiving their recorded messages, but the crew can't transmit out.Now that the Endurance crew have recovered emotionally from Murph's video, they debate whether to visit Mann's planet or Edmond's planet, because they only have enough fuel to visit one of them before they head back to Earth. Brand wants to visit Edmond's Planet because his planet appears to be the better prospect, but Cooper wants to visit Mann's because he's still transmitting his beacon.On Earth, Murph returns to the old Cooper homestead with her brother Tom, a farmer. He has just torched a third of his crop because of blight, which is spreading. He now has his old neighbor's crop to cultivate since the neighbor moved or died. They believe the farm will soon produce nothing. She has dinner of corn soufflé and corn-on-the-cob with Tom, his wife Lois (Leah Cairns), and son Coop. She discovers Coop has a bad cough. They want her to stay the night, but she refuses because of bad memories from her childhood. Murph is aware that the nitrogen levels in the air are taking their toll more and more each day on their son.A day or two later, Murph is back at the NASA bunker and learns Dr. Brand is dying. He confesses to her that Plan A is not possible and that he had lied to her. He could never solve the gravity equation to get people off Earth. She believes her father knew all about Brand's scheme and that he escaped and purposefully left her and everyone else to die. Dr Brand dies. Murph sends a video message to Amelia informing her of her father's death and begs him to tell the truth that the whole thing had been a sham.The Endurance crew make it to Mann's Planet a few months later; the planet is perpetually cold, covered with glaciers, and has a poisonous atmosphere of methane filled with ice clouds. Dr. Mann (Matt Damon), who has been in cryosleep for over 35 years, is awakened by Cooper and has a mental breakdown and relieved he is rescued. He tells the story of the frigid, but beautiful world he lives in, indicating it has 80% of Earth's gravity and a lower part is livable, possibly even a source of fresh water.Brand sees the video Murph sent about her father dying and Plan A being a sham. She is absolutely shocked and had no idea, but Mann reassures her the equation was actually solved long ago and determined to be impossible before he ever went on the mission. The only way to ever get data would be to get inside a black hole, which is impossible without being killed.Back on Earth, Murph and her boyfriend, Dr. Getty (Topher Grace), another NASA physicist, are driving in her Jeep through the bleak plains surveying the endless clouds of black smoke and families with their decrepit 80-90 year old vehicles on the road with their belongings in tow, much like Midwestern farmers in the 1930's escaping to go west to find a better life. She knows the equation is solvable as long as it comes from a black hole and that Dr. Brand only gave part of it. Somewhere in her subconscious, she has a gut feeling that the coordinates of dust on the floor of her bedroom long ago gave her a hint, along the books being pushed off the shelf, and with the Morse code message for Cooper to "stay". She has a feeling this "ghost" is a being that has tried to comfort her and help save humanity. She knows it's not the end and that humanity is running out of time.Simultaneously, Mann is showing Cooper the icy and forbidding world. Murph is back at the Cooper homestead with Dr. Getty examining Tom's son for his lungs. Dr. Mann pulls off Cooper's voice beacon and pushes Cooper off the cliff and Murph's brother Tom is outraged by Dr. Getty's comment that they can't stay and will die, hitting him in the face. Mann reveals to Cooper that the planet is uninhabitable and that he sent the signal so he could take Cooper's spaceship to return to Earth. Murph confronts Tom that her father never meant to save them, but escape and leave it up to her and Tom outright refuses and tells her to leave, believing it's his duty to take care of the farm to fulfill his promise for his father. Mann is trying to kill Cooper by breaking his helmet's visor, allowing the ammonia-rich air to suffocate Cooper.Cooper manages to reach his voice beacon that was taken off of his helmet by Mann to call out for Brand to rescue him. Murph and Dr. Getty are driving back to NASA, but in a fit of rage, she pulls over and pours gasoline over corn crops and sets them on fire, in order to distract Tom and get back to the farmhouse. Cooper has been rescued by Brand. Mann's living quarters on the planet has exploded and Romilly killed. Romilly was killed because he was trying to retrieve data from Mann's robot KIPP, which was booby trapped and supposed to reveal the truth about the planet. TARS comes out of the rubble to be rescued by Cooper and Brand and they leave the planet.On Earth, Tom's family is now out of the house and Murph is now in her old bedroom trying to make sense of the past. Cooper and Brand are leaving the planet, but Mann is also in another shuttle trying to do so and refuses to listen to their pleas to not attempt to dock with the Endurance. Murph is in her bedroom examining her old belongings to find out what the "ghost" might be telling her.Dr. Mann has steadfastly refused to listen to the warnings from Cooper and Brand not to dock with the Endurance, but he continues his efforts. He's manually maneuvered the ship into docking position, but ignores the computer's warnings of "imperfect lock" and we see the docking pincers attempting to grab but failing to lock in. In mid-sentence the coupling release and the violent expulsion of air into space carries him with it, and resulting collision causes an explosion. The Endurance is now out of control and Cooper tells Brand that he is going to dock with it, even though it is now in a rapid rotation. Though the centrifugal g-forces from the spin are enormous, Cooper is able to dock. However, they are unable to get back to Earth and have to go to Edmond's Planet to even hope to survive, because of the life support being destroyed. They have to slingshot around the black hole Gargantua in order to make it to Edmond's Planet and on manual controls.During the harrowing orbit around Gargantua, Cooper and TARS detach their respective shuttles and get sucked into the black hole, sacrificing themselves to collect data on the singularity, and propel Amelia and CASE faster by reducing the ship's mass. Cooper separates from Brand in his Ranger, without her prior knowledge, and Brand is on a path that will take her to Edmond's Planet. He realizes the cost of orbiting the black hole due to the gravitational time dilation will be 51 Earth years, but takes the chance. Brand is outraged with Cooper and now left alone with CASE.As Cooper's shuttle falls into the black hole, gravitational forces begin to rip it apart. Cooper is descending towards the center of the black hole with pellets that look like sleet hitting his Ranger spaceship. The computer of his ship tells him to eject himself and without reluctance, he does it.Cooper descends in the black hole towards a grid full of cubbyholes thinking he's dead and finds himself in some sort of afterlife and unaware of what sort of surroundings he's in which resembles a tesseract. He hits an object along with a bunch of others that look like books stacked and knocks one down, revealing ten-year-old Murph reacting at an object falling from her bookshelf back at the farmhouse. He knocked down the lunar lander model shown at the beginning of the movie. He's screaming out for Murph, but she walks away with it and doesn't hear him. Then he sees Murph in another part of the grid pleading for her father not to leave. Cooper watches this begging himself not to go and to stay using Morse Code by knocking the books off the shelf. Cooper breaks down realizing that he should have listened and not gone on the mission. Then there is adult Murph at the bedroom while the fire is still burning and she realizes all along that her father himself was the ghost communicating with her feeling comforted and reassured. Now it's all making sense to her and she's no longer angry with him and has hope. But she's still trying to find out what her father is trying to signal to her, recalling the events of the dust storm coordinates and the books falling off.TARS gets Cooper out of his grief-stricken state that he survived and tells Cooper that some fifth dimensional beings sent him there to communicate with Murph and that his love for his daughter sent him there to help her. Cooper is delighted to see TARS is there with him. Cooper realizes that the mission was not a mistake and that he will get done what he needs to. Murph has been the chosen one to save humanity, but Cooper is the one chosen to help engineer it. He sends the coordinates to himself at the farmhouse to NASA, then the data from the black hole through TARS via Morse Code to a wristwatch he gave Murph before he left, which is the gravity equation. Preteen Murph put the watch back on the shelf making it possible for Cooper to add the black hole equation to it. Adult Murph picks up the old wristwatch out of a box of her old keepsakes seeing the second hand with the Morse Code realizing it's the key. Dr. Getty is pleading with Murph to get out and for them to leave because the fire is out. Murph leaves the farmhouse with the watch in her hand, and angry Tom returns, but she tells him about the watch, embraces him assuring her father was the ghost all along and will save them. Tom is befuddled by it all, but accepts her hug.Murph returns to the NASA bunker and completes the equation using the data from the wristwatch. She writes it all down, and throws the papers off the deck of the centrifuge under construction that the equation is solved. She kisses Dr. Getty in a fit of happiness. So what's going to happen soon might save most of remaining humanity.Back in the black hole, the tesseract is now closing up, with Cooper convinced it all worked and Cooper is comforted that future human beings constructed it to make all this happen and tells TARS everything is okay. He comes across the Endurance when it passed through the wormhole and touches Brand's hand, then knocked unconscious into the orbit of Saturn with a couple of beaming lights approaching him.Cooper wakes up to find himself in a hospital bed. A very clean room with background noise of a baseball bat cracking a ball and birds chirping. A doctor tells him to take it easy jokingly telling him he is now 124 years old, but he still looks the same. The doctor tells Cooper he's very lucky to be alive because space rangers found him with only minutes left in his oxygen. Cooper looks outside the window of his room with kids playing baseball with a batter hitting a ball into the sky, which turns out to be the skylight of an upside down house with kids cheering at the window being broken. Cooper is told he's on Cooper Station orbiting Saturn and thinks the station is named after him, but it was named after his daughter Murph. She's still living and on another space station and will be there to visit him in a couple of weeks despite her age and health. Cooper is delighted that Plan A did indeed work out and that the gravity equation was solved. The very centrifuge that was the NASA bunker is now a space station to sustain human life.Cooper is now released from his hospital room by a tour guide and shown the station, an O'Neill cylinder with a old world rural American environment and has artificial sunlight beaming from one side, which was the same place the rocket took off from 89 years ago. They pass by a group of sleek ranger ships that are more efficient than what he used and he takes a great interest in them. He is led to a museum exhibit, which is his old farmhouse, only much cleaner and restored. There are videos all over the place of elderly people telling of the dust bowl they lived in, whom you saw at the beginning of the movie, one of which is his daughter. He finds a shorted out TARS in the farmhouse the rangers recovered and immediately repairs him.Cooper is sitting on the front porch that "night" with TARS drinking beer like he and Donald used to do, but very dissatisfied at the artificial surroundings and pretending to be home. He's more interested in the spaceships than anything else and still yearning to explore the unknown. Plus almost everybody he knew is now dead and he wasn't welcomed back as a hero.Cooper is about to go to the hospital room where Murph (now played by Ellen Burstyn) is living out the final days of her life -- she'd insisted on being brought to the station to say goodbye to her father. A nurse tells Cooper that her family is in there and that she's spent the last two years in cryosleep. He wasn't aware she had a family and carefully opens the door with over a dozen people, from small children to middle aged adults surrounding her bed. His grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, and their spouses are there, yet he pays no mind to them while they are puzzled by his appearance. His main interest is seeing his daughter. Murph breaks down in delight at the sight of him, and he takes her hand without any reluctance or awkwardness, even though he's the same age he was when he left and she's 99 years old and near death. He assures her he was the ghost that communicated to her in her room and she already knew for years even though nobody believed her. He tells her he's now here for her, but in her still feisty and stubborn ways, she doesn't want him to see her die, saying her kids are here for her and that she forgave him and made peace with his disappearance decades ago.Cooper slowly leaves her room to see her one last time and she's surrounded by her beloved family and his descendants he knows nothing about. Knowing the space station is not where he belongs, he takes Murph's advice to go seek out Brand, who has landed on Edmond's Planet to start colonization. It is a desolate place resembling Mars, but the air is breathable and can sustain life, so it's the best humanity can do outside the space stations. Edmonds died long ago and is buried by CASE, but she continues to set up camp and puts herself in cryosleep. Cooper steals one of the new generation ranger ships he's been obsessed with and goes with TARS through the wormhole to find her and beat the rangers at their mission. | thought-provoking, flashback, psychedelic, action, romantic, inspiring, suspenseful, sentimental | train | imdb | null |
tt0066160 | La noche de Walpurgis | The corpse of Waldemar Daninsky [Paul Naschy] bears the mark of the werewolf (a
pentagram on his chest), so two disbelieving coroners remove the silver
bullets to prove to themselves that there are no such things as
werewolves. Of course, the werewolf is immediately revived and kills
the two coroners on his way out the door.Back in Paris, college students Elvira [Gaby Fuchs] and Genevieve [Barbara Capell] are completing
their "final thesis." They've tracked down the tomb of the a 15th century
Countess Wandessa d'Arville de Nadasdy, a supposed witch and vampire. The
Countess's tomb is said to lie near a small village somewhere in northern
France, so the girls load up their car and go in search of the place.
Short on gas, daylight, and directions, however, they accept an invitation
to stay at the rustic (meaning 'no lights, no phone, no motorcar')
countryhouse of writer Waldemar Daninsky. Over a dinner of cold cuts and
wine, Waldemar reveals that he's writing a book about the history of
gothic churches and monuments, but he falls silent when Elvira mentions
her search for Wandessa.The girls retire for the night, but Elvira is awakened from her sleep
when Waldemar's sister Elizabeth [Yelena Samarina] steals into the room, feels her up,
attempts to strangle her, and warns her to leave before the night of the
full moon. The next morning, Waldemar explains to Elvira that Elizabeth
lost her mental stability after the death of their father but that she is
harmless. Meanwhile, Genevieve explores the manor and comes across a shack
with blood on the walls and shackles hanging from the ceiling. Then
Genevieve is attacked by Elizabeth, but Waldemar explains that the
shackles are used to hang game, so the girls decide to remain. In private,
Waldemar warns Elizabeth to leave the girls alone because they are his
"last hope."Armed with papers, documents, and maps, Elvira, Genevieve, and
Waldemar go in search of Wandessa's tomb. They find and open it
uneventfully but Genevieve cuts her arm when she pulls the silver Mayenza
cross from the chest of Wandessa's cadaver, and some of Genevieve's blood
drips on Wandessa's lips. Later that evening, of course, Wandessa [Patty Shepard] rises
from her coffin and calls Genevieve to join her in the garden where she
wets her whistle on Genevieve's blood and returns later for a nightcap on
Elizabeth. Genevieve, now a vampire, pops in for a bite on Elvira, but
Waldemar chases her away with the Mayenza cross. With Genevieve and
Elizabeth out of the way, Elvira confesses her love for Waldemar
(forgetting Marcel, her policeman boyfriend back in Paris), and the two
vow to fight Wandessa together, although Waldemar must first take "certain
precautions" to ensure Elvira's safety because tonight is a full moon.
Waldemar wants Elvira to take the cross and spend the night in the
village, safely locked in a lodge there.Elvira goes to the village. The full moon rises. Waldemar turns into
a werewolf and kills a camper. The next morning, Elvira finds Waldemar
wandering about in tattered clothes, so he tells her how he became a
werewolf while exploring Tibet and how Elizabeth would chain him to a wall
during full moons. Only being stabbed in the heart with the Mayenza cross
by someone who loves him will release him from the curse. But first things
first. First, they have to destroy Wandessa. While Waldemar is out hunting
for her hiding place, Genevieve sates her thirst on Elvira. Waldemar
doesn't find Wandessa, but he does run into Genevieve and destroys her,
which releases Elvira and heals the bite marks on her neck. Because it's
another full moon tonight, Elvira places Waldemar in shackles, but he
escapes just in time to save Elvira from being assaulted by Pierre [José Marco], the
handyman.The next morning, while Elvira is in bed with Waldemar, her Parisien
lover Marcel [Andres Resino] drives into town. He starts asking around about Elvira's
whereabouts and hears strange stories about Waldemar Daninsky, black
magic, vampires, and young girls dying. Marcel finally gets a lead from
Pierre's old girlfriend and decides to pay Waldemar a visit. When Marcel
shows up at Waldemar's house, Elvira greets him with a less than exuberant
kiss, and Marcel realizes that something is going on between Elvira and
Waldemar. Marcel threatens to launch a fullscale investigation into the
rumors surrounding Waldemar, so Waldemar talks Elvira into leaving with
Marcel.Tonight is Walpurgisnacht, the night when Satan rules the earth and
Wandessa will have all her powers. Thinking Elvira safe, Waldemar steps up
his search for Wandessa. However, Wandessa is holding Marcel and Elvira in
her lair while she prepares to make Elvira a blood sacrifice to her Lord
and Master, Satan. Just as Wandessa is about to plunge the knife into
Elvira, however, Waldemar wanders in and rescues Elvira. But the full moon
is on the rise, and Waldemar transforms into a werewolf. As Elvira and
Marcel watch, vampire and werewolf battle it out. The werewolf ultimately
reduces the vampire to a bony shroud crawling with waxworms. Elvira
suddenly grabs the Mayenza cross and, with all the love in her heart,
plunges it into the werewolf's heart. The werewolf turns back
into Waldemar, and Elvira and Marcel leave the tomb with their arms around
each other. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl] | gothic | train | imdb | While it is painfully slow, It place as a low budget flick and the devotion of Paul to the old-time horror feal makes this more of a labor of love, than a b-movie.
I have to agree with others that this film is much better than "Fury of the Wolfman" - in fact it's one of Paul Naschy's best films - specifically his werewolf films.
If you like werewolves and/or vampires then this one is worth watching if you happen to see it on TV or acquire it in a film pack as I did.The copy that I have came from the Legends of Horror 50 Movie Pack.
The Vampire Woman esily competes with all but the best of the seventies Hammer Films, and surpasses most horror movies that have ever been made.
The Vampire Women " and despite the ridiculous title there actually were some effective and artfully done scenes, especially with a slow motion, day-for- night cloaked figure lurking in some windy ruins.
Also very interesting are the last few scenes, shot in slow motion, of the title's vampire women (who are both really hot and reasonably talented) running from the rising sun..
There's only a small amount of nudity in the film, gratuitous though it may be, and the dialogue isn't half as bad as most horror movies of this period.
The historical sequences are surprisingly good, and the vampires are particularly creepy -- thanks to Molina's insistence that they should be filmed in slow motion.
Successful Werewolf movie with the unforgettable Waldemar Daninsky-Paul Naschy.
Jacinto Molina or Paul Naschy ,who recently passed away, was actor,screenwriter and director of various film about the personage based on fictitious character, the Polish count Waldemar Daninsky.
The first film about Waldemar was ¨The mark of the Wolfman (1967)¨ by Enrique Eguiluz , after that ¨Night of Walpurgis¨, ¨Fury of the Wolfman¨ , ¨Doctor Jekill and the Wolfman¨ ,¨The return of the Walpurgis¨, ¨Howl of the devil¨, ¨The beast and the magic sword(1982)¨ that is filmed in Japan and finally ¨Licantropo(1998).It's a B series entertainment with abundant sensationalistic scenes and a Naif style.The movie has a bit of ridiculous gore with loads of blood similar to tomato .
Eerie and atmospheric musical score by Anton Garcia Abril .The motion picture is professionally directed by Leon Klimovsky , a slick craftsman who directed all kind of genres, as Terror for Paul Naschy (Marshall of hell,Rebellion of dead one,Orgy of vampires, Werewolf shadow,Dr Jekill vs.
Paul Naschy, the Werewolf Prince of European cinema, portrays the tortured Waldemar in this film of many titles.
He changes into a werewolf and slaughters the two doctors performing the autopsy.Afterwards, we are introduced to a redheaded student, Gaby Fuchs, who takes her friend Barbara Capell out to the countryside to search for the tomb of a fabled governess.
The following day, Naschy leads the two girls to the tomb and they dig up the corpse of the governess - Capell cutting her arm and having droplets of her blood fall into the governesses open mouth.
The plot line of students staying in an abandoned castle while on academic furlough is a bit too overused but it works here).ACTING: $$$ (As with most of these European horror films, it is difficult to tell how good of an actor the thespians are because their lines are dubbed in English.
Very slow moving with plenty of creepy music.Those used to copious amounts of nudity and gore in the series will be disappointed with this entry.The final battle between the wolfman (Naschy) and the vampire woman, Countess Wandesa Dárvula de Nadasdy (Patty Shepard) was quick and anti- climatic, but they are both gone for good..
"The Werewolf vs the Vampire Woman" wastes lots of great Gothic elements in plodding through it's (too long) running time.
Scenes from this flick look great as stills; when moving, they leave a lot to be desired.Paul Naschy's acting talents never advanced beyond "high school play status" in any of his filmic endeavors.
As the title suggests, the film handles the stalwart horror monster 'the werewolf', and it does it in an almost fairytale like manner.
However, they happen to run into Waldemar Daninsky, a Count with a secret, who invites the girls to stay at his castle.The film is probably most notable for the fact that it stars prolific Spanish horror veteran, Paul Naschy.
Overall, I really can't recommend going out of your way to find Werewolf Shadow; all of its elements have been done better in other films, and despite some nice aesthetics; this is a sadly lacklustre effort..
The slo-mo gliding of the lady vampires is good too and there are a few minutes somewhere in the middle where it looks as if the film is rising to some altogether different level.
From the very beginning, it should be clear to anyone that a movie with Paul Naschy and under the English title of "The Werewolf vs.
If there wasn't any good gore, then at least I would have expected unintentionally humorous results, but sadly, this film fails to deliver the expected elements of entertainment that a horror fan would imagine in a film of this kind.In "La Noche de Warpugis", Elvira and Genevive, go to the French countryside, with the intention of making some enquiries about a wicked Countess named Wandessa, who lived through the 13th century and who was recognized for devoting herself to Satan, among other things.
In "The Night of the Walpurgis", the werewolf and the vampire women find themselves battling in a dull and banal encounter, in which the viewers are the only ones who actually lose.Too bad this film was so below my expectations.
Several films with Paul Naschy are well-known for having a little bit of everything, so I supposse I should give a friendly warning to anyone who thinks "La Noche de Walpurgis" is also going to be like this.
Yes, Daninsky is a werewolf and, once again, the curse can only be broken by the one who truly loves him.Enter two Euro-hotties Elvira and Genevieve searching for the fabled tomb of a powerful witch/vampire, Countess Wandessa.
Before long, the vampire arises and attacks Genevieve, who becomes one of the undead herself.With a full moon on the way, bloodsuckers on the loose, and a werewolf for a boyfriend, can Elvira save the day?
There are some nice atmospheric scenes and the ladies are pretty easy on the eye, but this is still not reason enough to recommend this lacklustre effort.Definitely one for Paul Naschy completists only..
The whole film reminds me in mood and imagination of some of the great horror comics of Warrens Eerie and Creepy (late 60s) and is actually one of my favorites among surreal monster flicks, and one of the most enjoyable werewolf movies.
And so begins a battle of werewolf (Naschy) versus sexy looking vampires.
best part about the movie is of course without a doubt is the ever so sexy Elvira ,, queen of the night,, the darkness and everything else in between,, she never looked so good,,, I will have to watch again to catch up on the finer points of the movie,, but all in all not a bad b flick..
Great Atmosphere and Make-Up. The Werewolf versus the Vampire Woman (1971) ** 1/2 (out of 4)A couple beautiful women go looking for the tomb of Countess Wandesa (Patty Shepard) who was believed to have been a vampire.
They happen to end up staying with werewolf Waldemar Daninsky (Paul Naschy) and sure enough one of the women (Gaby Fuchs) falls for him while the other falls victim to the Countess when she returns to life.
The werewolf, the vampire woman and the two female characters are all much more interesting than anything in the previous two movies.
Definately not worth it.I heard some buzz about Paul Naschy and I'll admit that I enjoyed Horror Rises from the Tomb.Werewolf Shadow on the other hand is really really lame.
I have seen some of the Paul Naschy films in which he has played vampires, werewolf and other evil beings but I really like his werewolf films.
A tortured and depressed man that cannot beat this secret, a man cursed to be a "werewolf." Naschy usually plays a wolf with much panache and does not disappoint an battling an evil vampire.
Continuing my reviews of werewolf movies in mostly chronological order, this is my first time on one with Paul Naschy as Waldemar Daninsky.
This time round Paul Naschy plays Waldemar Daninsky as a depressed, introspective type hiding away in his creepy castle.
One resurrected Vampire Queen later, Elvira's buddy is turned into a cute vampire in training and we see her and the Vampire woman running around in slow motion which adds rather nicely to the general atmosphere of the film, while Paul of course is trying not fall in love with Elvira, which doesn't work, and trying not to tear the throats out of the local populace, which also doesn't work.It becomes a case of which horrible movie monster must be destroyed, so Paul Naschy takes it upon himself to dispose of the Vampire Queen, which is just as well as she's using Elvira like a kind of blood Soda Stream, but what will happen to Paul.It might be cheap, but it's still effective.
This is why I've been hoarding Paul Naschy films - I watched his Horror Rises From The Tomb years ago and thought every film he made would be like that.
Paul Naschy plays a man who turns into a werewolf when the full moon is out.
She and her foxy friend (Barbara Capell) end up being the house guests of the mysterious Waldermar Daninsky (Naschy), who is in fact a werewolf.
WEREWOLF SHADOW (aka THE WEREWOLF VS THE VAMPIRE WOMAN) (1970) **1/2 (D: Leon Klimovsky) - Most fans consider this the best of Paul Naschy's werewolf films.
boring flick is badly made and weakly directed it has an amusing opening but really bad dubbing it has plenty of fake looking gore lame effects and a weak ending it is also way way too talky and too darkly lit scenes the acting is pretty bad Paul Naschy is the only one that stands out here with his goofy performance all the rest of the actors stink i was quite disappointed i expected lots of werewolf Vrs vampire action and that dubbing is just horrible this is one headache inducing and boring time that i recommend you avoid the reason this review is so short there is nothing else worth noting avoid this one folks you will be glad ya did BOMB out of 5.
There were 13 films in which Paul Naschy played Waldemar Daninsky, who was turned into a werewolf.
There were 13 films in which Paul Naschy played Waldemar Daninsky, who was turned into a werewolf.
Very slow moving with plenty of creepy music.Those used to copious amounts of nudity and gore in the series will be disappointed with this entry.The final battle between the wolfman (Naschy) and the vampire woman, Countess Wandesa Dárvula de Nadasdy (Patty Shepard) was quick and anti-climatic, but they are both gone for good.Oh, I forgot this is number four in a series of 13.
Jacinto Molina (or as he is internationally known, Paul Naschy) is an actor who most people would not think of: a Spanish horror star.
I think this was the first Paul Naschy film I`ve ever seen.
Elvira (played by Gaby Fuchs who had a smaller part in Mark of the Devil) and her very foxy friend Genevieve are crossing the French countryside, searching for the tomb of an ancient female vampire Countess Wandessa when they are housed by the charming Waldemar.
It is, however, a decent werewolf movie for those who appreciate cheesy horror films.
It is, however, a decent werewolf movie for those who appreciate cheesy horror films.
I'm actually looking forward to seeing other Paul Naschy movies, especially the werewolf ones..
I'm actually looking forward to seeing other Paul Naschy movies, especially the werewolf ones..
The gore is really icing on the cake though as the film is strong enough to stand up without it.Highlights include the scene where Naschy kills his vampire sister and the final sequence where the witch dissolves into a maggot-covered skeleton.
The violent werewolf scenes are pretty good, although Naschy looks slightly comedic he is still excellent value for money.
Add to that the subplot of vampirism and you have a film well worth watching.The locations are nice, the atmosphere is brilliant, the acting, although affected by dubbing, is nonetheless more than adequate with Naschy particularly excelling himself in his role.
Another guy, a policeman, looks like the spitting image of Gregory Peck.Okay, the film itself is not particularly well made, down to the lack of budget more than anything else, but there are some nice bits of editing (the repeat flashes from Naschy to the full moon and back again are rather good) and it could have been a lot worse.
Paul Naschy is at his best in this little werewolf romp.
If you enjoy this film, the fifth in the Waldemar series, then chances are you're game for all that Spanish Horror has to offer – Werewolf Shadow is one of the gateway drugs to the world of Naschy, his Suspiria if you will.
While the movie is, of course, cheesy (which is to be expected), and unfortunately also has some pretty boring parts , it is also very stylish, quite creepy and quite interesting due to the Werewolf/Vampire topic and, especially, thanks to Spanish Exploitation/Horror icon Paul Naschy.
- Elvira (Gaby Fuchs) and Genevieve (Barbara Capell) are two young girls who happen to search for the tomb of a murderous medieval witch, who was said to be a vampire.
The friendly passenger is Waldemar Daninsky (Paul Naschy), a kind-hearted and educated man, who has he misfortune of turning into a werewolf at full moon...
B-movie cult actor Paul Naschy stars in the role of the Werewolf Waldemar Daninsky the fourth time, a role which he has played 13 times so far.
The film furthermore features a beautiful female cast, Gaby Fuchs, Barbara Capell and Patty Shepard (especially Capell is very, very hot), and, in spite of an obviously minimal budget, many scenes are very stylishly made (allthough its sometimes overdone, as nearly all creepy moments are done in slow-mo)."The Werewolf Vs. Vampire Women" isn't a masterpiece.
My first ever exposure to the world and works of the late Jacinto Molina (aka Paul Naschy), "Werewolf Shadow" made quite an impression on my younger self, due to its heady cocktail of Wolf Man, hot Euro babes, sexy vampire chicks and needless gore.
Perhaps not, but it sure is good fun.Molina / Naschy here portrays the eternal werewolf Waldemar Daninsky for around the third or fourth time - not that these movies have any real continuity between them at all - reanimated by a foolish pathologist removing the silver bullets from his heart.
La Noche de Walpurgis, or the ridiculous sounding The Werewolf Vs. Vampire Woman or the better sounding but still irrelevant Werewolf Shadow as it's known amongst English speaking audiences, starts at a local mortuary where Dr. Hartwig (Julio Pena) & his assistant Muller (Bernabe Barta Barri) are carrying out a postmortem on Waldemar Daninsky (Jacinto Molina under his usual pseudonym Paul Naschy) a suspected Werewolf who has been shot with silver bullets.
Anyway, the script by star Molina as James Molin (how many pseudonym's does this guy have?) & Hans Munkel has plenty of the elements that most rabid Euro horror fans will be looking for like Vampires, Werewolves, blood, superstitious locals, pretty girls, idiotic dialogue & nudity.
Director Klimovsky manges to create some great scenes & atmosphere with the Vampires moving in slow motion & for some reason he has them jump off something whenever they appear, I also liked Wandessa's outfit with her black veil.
Elvira(Gaby Fuchs)and her friend Genevieve(the delicious Barbara Capbell)are searching for the burial site of a devil-worshiping, supposed-vampire Countess Wandessa d'Arville de Nadasdy(Patty Shepard, who looks great when she ever gets a chance to be on screen; quite menacing yet striking at the same time).
Keeping a recording of the chilling Spanish Horror Sleep Tight on the side to see in October,I was pleased to spot a Naschy film in a local DVD shop,which led to me finally meeting Daninsky.The plot:Traveling round in search of mythical vampire Countess Wandessa de Nadasdy, Elvira and her friend Genevieve meet gentlemen Waldemar Daninsky, who unknown to them is a Werewolf who has just come back from the dead,after some now-murdered doctors removed silver bullets from him.
Paul Naschy is great as the werewolf, not so great as Waldemar Daninsky.
The handy man was good, the wacky dialogue and German accent.Best parts of the film are when the werewolf or the vampires are around.
Like every Paul Naschy vehicle I've seen, "WvsTVW" compares to a classic Hammer or Universal horror film the way an Arby's Roast Beef sandwich compares to a standing rib roast - there's some flavor there, a bit of enjoyment, but it's no substitute for the real thing.
Average Paul Naschy film.
the Vampire Woman" isn't the best film in the series featuring Paul Naschy or the worse.
Naschy stars again as Waldemar Daninsky,a nobleman who turns into a werewolf.
The dubbing is average but the girls are attractive.There are some good action scenes as well.If you're a fan of Paul Naschy, this is worth a peek.
The hero of this piece is Paul Naschy, who was pretty good as the tortured, Waldemar, and did his best to menace, as the werewolf, in less than spectacular makeup.
WALPURGIS NIGHT is one of the better "Paul Naschy" efforts- due in no small part to director Klimovsky's extremely effective use of slow motion during most of the vampire sequences. |
tt0051818 | King Creole | Nineteen-year-old high school student Danny Fisher (Elvis) works before and after school to support his surviving family: his father (Dean Jagger) and sister Mimi (Jan Shepard). After Danny's mother died, his grieving father lost his job as a pharmacist, and moved his impoverished family to the French Quarter in New Orleans.
At work one morning, Danny rescues Ronnie (Jones) from her abusive date. After a taxi ride to Danny's high school, Ronnie kisses him. Danny responds to witnessing schoolmates' teasing by kissing Ronnie back and then punching one of them in the face when he makes a teasing remark. Danny's reaction summons him to the principal's office; where Miss Pearson (Helene Hatch), his teacher, tells Principal Evans (Raymond Bailey) that Danny will not graduate because of his poor attitude. Mr. Evans is sympathetic, but powerless to help; so Danny decides to drop out of school to find work, against the wishes of his father, who tries to convince Danny to stay in school.
When Danny leaves the school grounds, three young men lure him into an alley. Their leader, Shark (Vic Morrow), wants revenge for Danny hitting the teasing student at school, who turned out to be his brother. Danny defends himself so well that it impresses Shark, so Shark invites Danny to join his gang. Shark then has Danny to help the gang shoplift at a five-and-dime by singing "Lover Doll" to distract the customers and staff.
Only Nellie (Dolores Hart), who works the snack bar, notices Danny's complicity in the theft, but she does not turn him in. Danny then invites Nellie to a fictitious party in a hotel room; finding nobody else there, Nellie starts crying in fear and leaves after admitting that she still wants to see Danny again, but not under those conditions.
Later that night, Danny meets Ronnie again at The Blue Shade nightclub, where Danny is now employed. At first, she pretends not to know him, as she is accompanied by her boyfriend and the club's owner, Maxie Fields, aka "The Pig" (Matthau). When Maxie does not believe her, she claims she heard Danny sing once. Maxie insists that Danny prove he can sing. His rendition of "Trouble" impresses Charlie LeGrand (Paul Stewart), the honest owner of the King Creole nightclub, the only nightspot in the area not owned by Maxie; impressed, LeGrand offers Danny a job as a singer at his club.
Meanwhile, Mr. Fisher finds employment as a pharmacist in a local drug store; but his boss, Mr. Primont (Gavin Gordon)—who reluctantly hired Mr. Fisher after his boss made him do so—constantly demeans Mr. Fisher obviously out of retaliation, much to Danny's embarrassment. That situation makes it easier for Danny to go against his father's wishes and accept Charlie's job offer. Danny does; and when he becomes a hit at the King Creole, Maxie tries to hire him. Danny declines his offer out of loyalty to Charlie.
Shark, now working for Maxie, suggests to Danny they beat up Primont to help his father. One night when Mr. Fisher leaves the store dressed in Primont's hat and coat (lent due to a rainstorm), Shark recognizes him, but decides to mug him anyway, as that would be even better for Maxie's purposes. Danny's father is so badly injured that he needs expensive surgery; so Maxie pays for a specialist to perform it. Maxie later blackmails Danny into signing with him by threatening to tell his father about his involvement in the mugging, and then does it anyway. Outraged, Danny pummels Maxie for the betrayal and helps Ronnie escape him.
Maxie sends his henchmen after Danny. Shark and another gang member trap him in an alley. Danny knocks out one of his pursuers. Then Shark stabs Danny, but kills himself in the struggle. Ronnie then finds a profusely bleeding Danny and takes him to her house on a bayou to recover. She asks him to forget her sordid past and pretend to love her. Danny replies that it would not be difficult and kisses her. Maxie drives up, accompanied by Dummy (Jack Grinnage), a member of Danny's former gang. Maxie fatally shoots Ronnie. Dummy, who had been befriended by Danny, grapples with Maxie; the gun goes off, killing its owner.
Danny returns to the King Creole. He sings the lines "Let's think of the future, forget the past, you're not my first love, but you're my last" to Nellie in the audience. Mr Fisher also shows up to listen to his son sing. | cult, violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0775529 | The Savages | In sunny Arizona, elderly Lenny gets mad at his girlfriend's home health care aide and writes in feces on his bathroom wall.Lenny's daughter Wendy works as a temp in New York City and is an aspiring playwright. Her married boyfriend Larry comes by and she lies that she's had an abnormal pap smear.Wendy calls her brother Jon in Buffalo after hearing about their father's behavior. She is quite upset, but Jon, a drama professor, does not want to deal with it.Lenny's girlfriend suddenly dies in the middle of a manicure, and Wendy and Jon meet in Arizona. They are surprised to learn that their father has been placed in a hospital on the advice of his girlfriend's children, who no longer want him living in her house, based on a non-marital legal agreement.The siblings visit their father, who is quite angry they have taken two days to see him. A doctor explains to them that Lenny has dementia indicative of Parkinson's Disease.Wendy and Jon go to a nightclub to discuss what to do about Lenny. He insists that they find a nursing home; she is reluctant but doesn't know what else to do.Later that night at a hotel, Wendy overhears Jon in a phone call with his girlfriend Kasia, crying about their breakup.Jon leaves early the next morning. Wendy goes to retrieve Lenny's items from the house, which is already being sold.Back at the hotel, Wendy goes through her father's memorabilia. Jon calls from Buffalo to tell her that he's found a nursing home for Lenny.Wendy picks up Lenny at the hospital, and then endeavors to get him on a plane. In flight, she helps him to the bathroom, but his pants fall down in the aisle.Jon picks them up at the Buffalo airport and takes them to the nursing home, which is designated a "rehabilitation center" and looks like a hospital. After they leave Lenny in his new room, Wendy gets upset that he no longer knows where he is, and tells Jon she feels horrible.Jon brings Wendy to his house, which is filled with his academic research. Jon reassures Wendy that they are taking better care of their father than he ever took care of them. That night, Wendy explores the literature and videos that Jon compiled on nursing homes.Wendy and Jon go over paperwork with the home administrator, who already wants to know their plans for Lenny's funeral and burial.The siblings take Lenny to a diner to discuss his health care directives. Lenny is confused because he thinks he's been staying in a hotel, but angrily tells them to "pull the plug" if needed.Wendy is surprised to find Kasia at the house, who is returning to Poland the next day. He cries the next morning when Kasia makes him eggs for breakfast. Then he drives her to the airport.While playing tennis with Wendy, Jon injures his neck. He later needs her to help him with traction support at home, which he has used before. Jon asks her to stay in Buffalo through Thanksgiving to help with Lenny, and they argue about who has more important work. Wendy announces that she has won a Guggenheim fellowship that will fund her playwriting, much to Jon's surprise. He suggests they spend the holidays together and write, since he has been trying to finish a book on Bertolt Brecht.Wendy calls Larry back in New York, who is caring for her cat. She becomes dismayed and hangs up on him.The siblings go to a workshop on eldercare at the nursing home. They later attend a screening of The Jazz Singer that Lenny has requested. He becomes convinced that he is the protagonist and gets angry for a moment. Jon reassures his father, but he and Wendy are embarrassed by the racism of the movie.They take Lenny to a nicer nursing home for an interview, but he has trouble with basic questions. Afterward, Jon gets upset with Wendy for denying the impending death of their father.Wendy visits Lenny at the home and brings him a lava lamp.Larry comes to visit Wendy, bringing her cat. They drive around Buffalo, which Larry has never visited before, and go to Niagara Falls. They go to a hotel to have sex, but Wendy gets upset about their situation, claiming that he is going through a typical midlife crisis. He claims that she is the one with a problem.Wendy angrily leaves Larry when he drops her off at the home, where she finds Jon watching television with Lenny. She gets upset when she finds that his special pillow has been taken by a woman patient, and she takes it back. When she tries to return it to Lenny, he does not know who she is.Wendy goes outside and meets a male nurse named Jimmy, with whom she smokes. He invites her to his van to get out of the cold. She mentions that her mother is "out of the picture," and talks about her playwriting. Jimmy explains that her father's toes have not begun to curl, which is a sign of death within a few days (from air leaving the body), so he has some time yet to live.Wendy goes back to Lenny's room and looks at his toes, which are not curled.The siblings take Lenny out for Christmas shopping. Jon has discovered that Wendy did not receive the Guggenheim fellowship and she gets mad at him for investigating. On the drive back to the home, the two argue about who is more talented, while Lenny turns down his hearing aid and tunes them out.Wendy confesses to Jon that she got money from FEMA due to losing work after 9/11. He laughs at her.Back at the home, Lenny's toes begin to curl.Not knowing this, Wendy goes to the home to get her cat, where she is impressed that Jimmy has read her play. After a moment, she lunges forward and kisses him. She immediately apologizes, and he explains that he has a girlfriend.During a lecture on Brecht, Jon gets a call, and is visibly upset.The siblings go to the home, where Lenny has taken a bad turn. They spend the night, and the next morning Wendy awakes, touches her father's hand, and realizes he has died. She wakes up Jon, cries, looks at Lenny, and says, "That's it."They later gather his things from the home.Wendy returns to New York. Larry drops by her apartment with flowers. He tells Wendy that he needs to euthanize his old dog because her hips and legs have gone bad. Wendy hugs him, then he leaves.Six months later, Wendy meets Jon at a small theater, where she is mounting a play that re-enacts a scene of Lenny beating him as a child. He cries. On the way out, Jon tells her he is going to a conference in Poland to meet Kasia's "people."Wendy goes for a jog. Behind her is Larry's dog, following along with the assistance of a wheeled device. | romantic, magical realism, realism, sentimental | train | imdb | Philip Seymour Hoffman (Jon, the professor) and Laura Linney (as Wendy, aspiring playwright)are perfectly cast in the roles of the sister and brother who have to deal with their obnoxious, foul-mouthed elderly father, Lenny, played by Philip Bosco in a riveting performance.Their childhoods have been difficult, abuse is hinted at along with a runaway mother.
Throw in Phillip Brosco - who absolutely conquers the dementia that his character has (my aunt has dementia, so I see her all the time and know that his face and way of talking and mannerisms are all spot on) - and you've got three characters who are so strong alone that they're enough reason to see this movie, funny-touching script and story aside.While all three performances were incredible, I'd have to say that my favorite performance came from Hoffman.
I would say this is one of the most underrated movies of 2007.This movie has it all,acting,directing,comedy,true life etc.So many of us baby boomers can really identify with this movie and what the characters are going through.I had the opportunity of seeing this movie at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2007,and when the tickets went on sale to the public for the two showings they were both sold out within 30 minutes.This is a must see movie that just doesn't get the ravings that so many other movies are getting.Now that it has had two nominations for this year's Academy Awards let's hope that it gets its rightful recognition..
But that's not a bad thing, the other way around.This is a story about two siblings, Wendy (Laura Linney, who earned a surprise - and much deserved - Oscar nomination for this performance) and Jon Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who have to take care of their ailing, estranged father, Lenny (Philip Bosco).
Fathers and kids relationships have been discussed in tons of movies, but Tamara Jenkins (real life wife of Jim Taylor, co-author of Alexander Payne's scripts - they both produced this movie, by the way) managed to create something fresh and beautiful in its own simplicity (and, at the same time, so complex and painfully real, for all of those who've had difficult family relationships - and who hasn't?).
Despite the fact that the siblings feel little emotional attachment to their father, they agree to do the decent thing by caring for him in his final days, even though his dementia makes it nearly impossible for them to heal old wounds or build a filial bridge between them.Meanwhile, John and Wendy, both unmarried and childless, aren't exactly what one would call models of highly functional and successful adults in their own right.
Wendy is an unsuccessful playwright who pays the bills with temp jobs and has been carrying on a dead-end affair with a married man for years."The Savages" works on a dual level, exposing the grim realities of aging, while at the same time exploring the complexities of familial (i.e. parent-child and sibling) relationships.
Any film that features Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman is certainly worth seeing, and the acting in "The Savages" is excellent, not only by Linney and Hoffman but by Philip Bosco who plays their father, Lenny, an elderly man suffering from dementia.
The two main characters, played by two of the greatest actors working right now, are not only everyday sorts in terms of their occupations as unsuccessful playwright and theater professor drudging through a book on a forgotten literary icon, but are also similar enough in their occupations to infer the sharing of interests and pursuits that fueled the by-gone good times of their sibling relationship they might've had in the past.While the movie is quite funny, it doesn't spare the viewer anything, something that is incredibly admirable, especially for a breakthrough film for its filmmaker.
Yet we delight in the comfort of a film so down to earth, disillusioned, and mature and alive enough through its wryness to find congruence with humor.The oustanding highlights of The Savages are the two lead performances by Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who are so self-aware and realistic that one can't help but directly connect them with the characters they are playing.
That my be cathartic or it may be of comfort to realize the commonality of such experiences, but it may just leave you with difficult memories.Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney both turn in quality performances.Another movie with a similar theme that is equally as good, or better, is "I Never Sang for My Father," with Gene Hackman and Melvyn Douglas..
His daughter Wendy (Laura Linney) is a thirty-nine year-old freelancer and aspirant writer of screenplays for theater that lives in New York and has an affair with the middle-aged married man Larry (Peter Friedman).
The performance of the charming Laura Linney and the outstanding Philip Seymour Hoffman are top-notch but the subject of this film is not attractive and Philip Bosco performs a non-charismatic character and when he dies in the end, the viewer feels absolute indifference.
i am not a big fan of laura linney and find her voice irritating so to have her playing a slightly irritating character was not great, added to which she and phillip seymour Hoffman no way look like they could ever really be siblings unless one of them was found in a handbag...as i was watching the film, part of me was thinking that i did not like it at all - but somehow i couldn't give up on it.
Fans of Phillip Seymour Hoffman (MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III, CAPOTE) will be pleased with this entertaining outing, also staring Laura Linney and Philip Bosco.THE SAVAGES is the story of Jon (Hoffman) and Wendy (Linney) Savage, two somewhat distant siblings who are suddenly reunited when their father, Lenny (Bosco), is unexpectedly diagnosed with dementia.
A dramedy at its heart, hilarity unfolds when it is decided that Lenny will be put into a nursing home in Buffalo.In many ways this film is an acting showcase; Linney, Hoffman, and Bosco are all pitch-perfect in their respective roles and there are a number of strong supporting turns that effectively sell the story.
It's difficult to watch, sort of like 1998's Affliction only without the grizzled crankiness of Nick Nolte to soften the grim viewpoint.Wendy Savage (Linney) is 39 years old and works various temp jobs as she struggles to gain footing as a playwright; older brother Jon (Hoffman) is a philosophy professor.
Cinema has vast ways of coming full circle.The film centers around two grown-siblings Jon and Wendy Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney), who are brought together after they receive a call that their father Lenny (Philip Bosco), a man quickly falling prey to dementia, has been writing obscenities on the wall of his home in his own feces.
Lenny still has the luxury of living at home, but after this uncomfortable and peculiar episode, both Jon and Wendy must now try to face two demons - coming to terms that their dad may be approaching his final days and needs to be put in an assisting living community, as well as trying to look past the fact that their father neglected them quite a bit as kids, which may justify both souls being emotionally broken in the present.
Instead, Jenkins knows this material is not funny and needs to be handled with a delicate, intimate touch, one more focused on honest conversations nobody really wants to have instead of dialogs designed solely to evoke a few chuckles.Take a look at the film's best scene, where Jon, in a brutally honest tone, screams at Wendy for being way too oppressive when it comes to picking the right nursing home, ejecting their father from one place to visit another, completely eliminating all ability for him to get comfortable and adjust.
Wendy is facing middle age, sleeping with a married man and not having a lot of success getting grants for her work.Then both of them are faced with a problem they must face together: the dementia of their elderly father (Philip Bosco) in a place called Sun City in Arizona, where he was living with his girlfriend.
Wendy wants to assuage her guilt according to Jon. She takes out her anger by writing plays about her childhood.Realistic, heartwarming, difficult at times, "The Savages" is an excellent movie about a brother and sister bonding in a family crisis, and about coming to terms with an aging parent and their own lives now that their youth is over.This isn't a big movie.
While it does have a few good gags that made me laugh out loud once or twice, it's only about 25% comedy and the rest is a heavy, emotional drama about the painful subject of slow, lingering death.Two siblings (played by Laura Linney & Philip Seymour Hoffman) are burdened with the task of taking care of their estranged father who they learn is suffering from dementia.
This is a painfully funny and realistic picture in which Jenkins, who both wrote and directed, is blessed with three terrific performances.As the scatter-brained, academic would-be playwright, Laura Linney is blissfully on-the-ball and is matched perfectly by Philip Seymour Hoffman as her touchingly prosaic brother, failures both, in life and in love but without an ounce of bitterness at having been abandoned by the father they are now forced to care for.
And, it was done as well as a subject like it could be, especially to those of us who have already had the sobering experience of caring for aged parents now deceased.Phillip Seymour Hoffman played another of his great chameleon roles, burying his own persona within another in a fine and very understated characterization of John, the scruffy, academic older son of a very dysfunctional family upbringing, who reluctantly has to deal with his father's severe dementia problem that, in the beginning, is a nuisance to his demanding college professor/writer career.
Phillip Bosco, the fine character actor with a familiar face but not always known name, played their angry father in a realistic surly and selfish manner that most of us having witnessed it understand as a common manifestation of advanced dementia.That both siblings were seen as damaged, mostly accomplished by their very deficient and abused, angry father-only upbringing, was a main focus of the story, and it also showed well that the uncomfortable responsibility we all feel for the increasing care and time required to deal with our aging parents has little to do with the quality level of our upbringing.
For the most part,I'm very glad I did.New Yorkers--well,okay,one's in NYC,the other in Buffalo--Wendy(Laura Linney,kicking serious A as a flawed and clumsy character)and Jon SAvage(Philip Seymour Hoffman,mostly low-key here,but still invaluable)learn upon their father's misbehavior at an idyllic retirement community in Arizona.
The SavagesBrother and sister Jon and Wendy Savage are drawn together to deal with their ailing father's end-of-life care in a film that could have been seriously depressing.
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney play Brother and Sister, Jon and Wendy Savage.
When, for various reasons, Jon and Wendy's estranged Father loses his home, the Brother and Sister are forced to face the realities of dealing with an ailing parent that they barely know.I think that "The Savages" is a great movie.
How far can you go wrong with great performers like Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and a really black, pointed, funny and incisive script by writer/director Tamara Jenkins.
Jenkins puts some serious thought into her directing and like most (good) films written and directed by the same person, even the smallest of ideas and themes come out of this film.Linney and Hoffman play two middle aged siblings (Wendy and Jon) who had little to no parental influence in their lives, so when they find that their father, who has been on the other side of the country for over twenty years with a woman that wasn't their mother, is suffering from dementia, they must find a new living situation for him.
Tamara Jenkins' breakthrough indie drama-comedy THE SAVAGES, surprisingly captured 2 Oscar nominations back in 2008 , one for the unmistakably excellent Laura Linney and a BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY nomination for herself, so freshly coined as an Oscar nominee and subsequently granted the membership of the academy , allegedly her next project should be on the horizon at any time, nevertheless, as a telling manifest of the shameful situation of female directors in the movie industry, 8 years has passed, we still have no news of Tamara's follow-up to her excellent work, a life-affirming dissection of the worst-case scenario for (almost) every grown-up - how to fulfil our responsibility, when we must become the caretaker of our aging parents during their last days.
More importantly, under the dysfunctional family troupe, the storyline steadily builds a re-connection between the two siblings, from the unspoken competition for grants, the guilt-shifting mind-game, to a tacit feeling when Lenny eventually drops dead peacefully, this is what is happening everyday to ordinary people, no "how could this happen to me!" overcompensating drama or "I can't believe it!" emotional wreck, Jenkins is act of genius in singling out the golden touches out of a real-life scenario, and the unexpectedly rosy ending brings about so much hope using just a little gesture, one single scene, to cogently affirm her talent in theatrics.
Not to be confused with the 2013 Oliver Stone movie "Savages", 2007's "The Savages" stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney as brother and sister dealing with their aging father.
The Savages relies on a sweet and sour story, not free from flaws but very touching, and a real sense of sincerity emerges from the movie at every level.The script, shot in a very simple and intimate way, is pretty tough but genuine and anyone can identify with the situation of the characters, played with nuance by an excellent duo, special mention to Philip Seymour Hoffman who is brilliant as always.However, one can deplore the lack of development of Jon and Wendy's characters, because even though they kind of rediscovered each other, ultimately they didn't evolve much throughout the film despite many possibilities to explore.The potential of the movie therefore doesn't seem to have been fully exploited and it's too bad because the end result is already solid..
The film feels carefully nuanced from the glowing opening scene in Sun City where Lenny Savage is in the early phases of dementia to the messy lives of the two siblings, Wendy and Jon, living in different New York City areas, both drowning in a confused if failing theater-drama interest.Laura Linney received a Academy Award-nomination for her turn as Wendy Savage, a woman so in fear of the midlife-crisis-cliché that she feels more in touch with her married boyfriend's dog.
Jon (Hoffman) and his sister Wendy (Linney) are forced to take care of their aging father (Bosco) who has dementia.If you plan on living forever, in good health of course - and with a lot of money, you don't need to watch this movie and maybe ask yourself a few questions.
The song used in the trailer, The Way We Get By by Spoon (also used in Stranger Than Fiction) also played a part in the deception, making the movie seem more upbeat than it really is.Perhaps we can forgive the producers for coming up with a fun poster and teaser to get people into the theater to face something that they would rather not deal with: caring for a sick parent.The highly educated Savage siblings Wendy (Laura Linney) and Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) must take care of their old father Lenny (Philip Bosco) when he is struck with dementia.
The acting is top-notch all around, but this is mostly told from the point of view of Wendy, which is why The Savages is up for two Oscars this year: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for Laura Linney, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen by Tamara Jenkins, who also directed the movie.
THE SAVAGES is one of the most brilliant and well written films that 2007 has seen on the silver screen with performances that are rich in character and so well developed by Tamara Jenkins in the roles played by the immensely talented Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Wendy Savage (Laura Linney) are malcontent siblings who were abandoned by their mother and abused by their father Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco).
Two of the best actors of this generation, Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman, give equally strong performances in this indie film that is perfectly cast, written, and directed that tells the story of two siblings trying to make it through the troubles of their own lives but are then thrust into the situation of having to care for their ailing father.
Not the only truth in the film, however, because the whole notion of life decisions made for another with the consultation of a sibling is fraught with little mine fields, subtly and accurately acted by Laura Linney as Wendy and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Jon. Praise goes again to director Jenkins, who smartly has her actors underplay what could be scenery-chewing parts.Comparisons should be made this year with Away From Her, the Julie Christie vehicle about a lady slipping into Alzheimer's.
The Savages in fact is a very bleak drama about the struggle to set an aging parent to a nursing home and care for him as he suffers Dementia.The Savages was incredible with great performances by Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman.Overall Tamara Jenkins' film is a triumph in so many cinematic areas.
I can't imagine any other actress than Laura Linney for a role like Wendy Savage and the same goes Philip Seymour Hoffman and his part.
Wendy and Jon were deserted by their mother at an early age, left in the care of their abusive father Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco), and both siblings have distanced themselves from their father now living in Sun City, Arizona with his girlfriend of twenty years. |
tt0081677 | L'ultimo squalo | While wind surfing near an unnamed seaside community, a young man is killed by a giant great white shark with the power to make the sea explode. Author Peter Benton (James Franciscus) and occasionally Irish-accented professional shark hater Ron Hamer (Vic Morrow) realize the truth but ambitious mayor William Wells (Joshua Sinclair) refuses to accept that a shark threatens their community. Fearing that a canceled wind-surfing regatta would derail his gubernatorial campaign, Wells has shark nets installed. But the sounds of teenagers splashing in the surf leads the shark to rip through the nets. The next day, the shark plows through the wind surfers, knocking them off their boards. But rather than eat the scattered teenagers, the shark targets the mayor's aide. Using its sea-exploding power, it flips the aide's boat then eats him.The mayor can no longer hide the truth. Benton and Hamer head out on the sea, planning to stuff dynamite down the shark's throat and cause it to explode. But the crafty, suspiciously wooden looking shark traps them in a cave; the men have to use their dynamite just to escape. Meanwhile, Benton's daughter Jenny (Stefania Girolami Goodwin) and some of her friends head out on a yacht, armed with some steak and a shotgun, intending to shoot the shark. Instead, its powerful bites on the bait knock Jenny into the water. Her friends pull her aboard but not until the shark bites off one of her legs. Mayor Wells's son was one of the friends she went out with, and Benton blames him for her injury. Determined to do something right, Wells goes out in a helicopter armed with a steak, apparently intending to hoist the shark into the air and suffocate it. But the shark is too powerful; when it bites into the steak dangling from a winch, it shakes the copter and knocks Wells into the sea. The shark then bites him in half then lunges into the helicopter, dragging it into the sea.Benton and Hamer go back out to blow up the shark. After an argument, Benton agrees to allow Hamer to be the one to go down with the dynamite strapped into a belt around his waist. Thinking the shark might be hiding in the downed helicopter, Hamer investigates it. But the shark sneaks up on him and attacks. Benton dives in to save him, but Hamer becomes wrapped up in a line and is towed to his death by the shark, just like Ahab in Moby Dick.Meanwhile, someone gets the wise idea to chain some spare ribs to the side of the dock. Then some yahoo in a cowboy hat and denim jacket with majestic embroidered wings shows up. He has a shotgun that shoots special bullets that can blow up a tank. Cowboy Hat, a TV cameraman and some spectators go stand on the dock. The shark takes the spare ribs, towing the surprisingly seaworthy dock out into the ocean. Apparently needing fiber, or perhaps a toothpick, the shark begins to eat the dock. Then it uses its sea-exploding power to knock a hole in the dock and people into the water. It eats Cowboy Hat and TV Cameraman but the others clamber back onto the shockingly still surprisingly seaworthy dock. Benton arrives and rescues the others but for some reason gets trapped on the dock when the shark arrives to drag it further out to sea. Hamer's corpse floats by. Benton cuddles with it, but the shark rips it from his arms. Benton realizes he has the detonator in his hand. Dramatically leaping into the ocean, he flips the switch, detonating the dynamite and knocking the shark's head off.Back on shore, Benton punches a TV reporter then gets in a car and drives away. | cult, murder, violence | train | imdb | Released in the U.S. under the title, "Great White," in 1982, the movie went as quckly as it had come into theatres at the time due to Steven Spielberg and Universal Studios having the film barred from distribution due to the blaring similarities to JAWS and JAWS 2.
The stock footage of real sharks sometimes helps but there is one where the silhouette is of a nurse shark and not a great white.The late James Franciscus and Vic Morrow do as much as they can with their roles and do bring something to a film with no shortage of bad lines and wooden acting co-stars.
As history states, this film was notoriously crowbarred out of its cinema release by Universal for being *too* like the Spielberg film (and also its sequel).In its own right, 'L'Ultimo Squalo' is an entertaining - if not trashy - killer shark movie which throws in some of the typical Italian touches of humour and ambitious technical trials.
Also, the stock footage of real fish is used to better effect here and shows the savagery of the shark attacking the many pieces of meat that varying characters attempt to lure the creature with.Unfortunately, the evident budget used here hampers some moments: underwater and night shots are hard to make out and the toy helicopter that crashes into the water is pretty obvious.
Vic Morrow (god rest his soul) shows up as the obvious Robert Shaw Cap'n Quint character but Morrow (who appears good and soused) does one of the worst accents I've ever heard - sometimes it's Irish, other times it is a thick Scottish brogue, other times, who knows what it is - the mayor of the town - sorry the Governor in this version - is this fey, badly dressed guy who looks like more of a fashion designer than a powerful politico.
However, this is still an enjoyable Italian rip-off of Jaws (and Jaws 2, for that matter), featuring some decent attack sequences and gory moments, not to mention Vic Morrow as a hilarious ersatz Captain Quint.One great thing about the shark in this film is that it appears to be jet-propelled (at least that's what it sounds like when its conical head breaks the surface) and has the ability to blast watercrafts fifteen feet into the air.
I've no idea why a guy like Enzo Castellari would stoop to such a wholesale rip-off of the Jaws movies, but we're talking about the wacky world of Italian cinema, so who knows?
Castellari never ceases to amaze me with his action-packed, stylistic films like Street Law and the Big Racket, and although folks say that he lost it a bit during the eighties, the Last Shark is the only film I've seen by him that's less than great (c'mon - Bronx Warriors and The New Barbarians are still a hoot, despite their limitations).The plot is a bit of Jaws and a bit of Jaws two mixed together.
We've got an Italian b-movie cast from heaven - James Franciscus (Cat o Nine Tails) is our hero, with Vic Morrow (Bronx Warriors) as the pseudo Scottish Robert Shaw facsimile, Joshua Sinclair as the troubled mayor torn between his polls and the safety of his folks, Romano Puppo as a shark hit-man (or something like that), with Giancarlo Prete and Massimo Vanni turning up as a ruthless film crew.Basically: it's Jaws.
It never come near the original's level of tension, and there's not much by way of shocks (the 'head popping out from under the boat bit' in Jaws is a classic), but I'd say that the Last Shark is mainly interesting for fans of Castellari himself, as well as his perpetually recurring actors.
There's a ton of style injected into these proceedings, plus plenty of Castellari slow motion, and the usual gore (though not so much as Jaws).The Last Shark starts off well, slumps slightly in the middle, and picks up again towards the end when Joshua Sinclair tries his hand at fishing the shark out the water using a helicopter.
Plus, any film that has Massimo Vanni being bitten in half earns extra points.At the end of the day though, it's still a blatant rip-off of Jaws, and the low budget rears its head whenever shark footage appears, with some dodgy models and terrible stock footage.
I can understand the film studio that made 'JAWS' suing the makers of this effort because SO MANY of the events in the original and best shark film made were copied in this.When the only 2 actors I had heard of were heading the cast in this I immediately knew it was certain to be bad as both James Franciscus and Vic Morrow were only ever 'B' movie fodder and the remainder of the cast were akin to amateurs.
But at the very least it is exceptionally entertaining -but for all the wrong reasons.With my recent discovery of this Italian-made JAWS rip-off from the early-80's, (thanks to the guys at Rifftrax) all of the sudden the last two JAWS sequels, don't seem all that bad in comparison and that's really saying a lot, as those two movies suck badly.
Well it's based around JAWS and it's familiar plot scheme's, so there's an Italian Amity Island equivalent, that's being terrorized by a big fake-looking robotic shark (and they show that thing a lot too), there's a political figure in there to complicate and obstruct the flow of things, various people on boats, wind surfers and in helicopters, that all fall prey to the shark, usually because of their own massive stupidity and poor/ illogical planning.
And in the end this epic slice of aqua-shlock comes to a head in an explosive finale - poorly done, of course, just like the rest of the movie.Once you've seen this bogus, Italian-made, stinking pile of sh** JAWS rip-off - I think you'll arrive at the only conclusion possible, which is "Yep, movie's don't get much worse than The Last Shark".Flash-forward: For those of you who got a kick out The Last Shark, I strongly recommended that you track down a copy of "Orca", (that's right, killer whales this time around) this movie, just like The Last Shark, has incredibly bad effects and reaches unhinged levels of highly illogical lunacy.
In fact truth be told it looks about on par with Jaws itself and almost managed to spawn a sequel.Telling the story of a coastal resort that comes under attack from a great white shark during a wind surfing contest it's pretty generic stuff but not all that awful.The effects are considerably better than I expected, the performances are okay and if it weren't for the fact it was so unoriginal it might be considered a passable film.In a world awash with terrible shark movies, this isn't actually one of them.The Good:SFX are great for its timeThe Bad:No originalitySoundtrack keeps sounding like Dolly Parton is about to regale us with 9 to 5Things I Learnt From This Movie:The confederates were big wind surfing enthusiastsBy walk out of the hospital I'm pretty sure he meant that she'd hopHelicopters can't land on water.
Italian shark film that took a big bite of the Jaws movie.
Then there were several shark films that tried to emulate Jaws to a degree; however, none would be as flagrant a rip off as this film that was titled The Great White when it was initially released in American theaters and subsequently yanked when Speliberg's company threatened a lawsuit.
There were parts in this that had me laughing because it was so incredibly goofy, such as the shark using rocks to block the guys trying to kill it in a cave and the scene where these people are acting like a windsurfing race was incredibly exciting when it clearly was not.
This is just a great laugh-out loud comedy, there is one scene of someone dying and getting catapulted into the air which they show again later as someone in the movie filmed that moment, it's like the director knew how terrible and hilarious it was and wanted to give us another chance to see it, God bless him.
Movies like "The Last Shark" (which is also known as "The Great White" and "The Last Jaws," among others) can sometimes be hard to sit through because they're rarely as good as their poster art promise, but the Rifftrax treatment here is a perfect companion and redefines the experience of watching these types of movies.
Aside from having the balls to openly rip off a big blockbuster, Castellari also manages to do a really good job with the underwater scenes, and despite the silly looking monster; many of the attack sequences are well executed and surprisingly suspenseful.
Overall, this is a much better movie than it looks on paper; the film is lots of fun and is many times better than all of the official "Jaws" sequels..
When it was released, The Last Shark (aka Great White) got quickly pulled from theaters due to threats of a lawsuit from Universal Studios, producers of the Jaws movies.
The writers of The Last Shark basically watched the first two Jaws movies and stole every good scene from them, even going so far as to clone characters.All the main elements from Jaws are here.
I've seen plenty of movies that have ripped off Jaws (and its subsequent sequels) but none have been quite as blatant in doing so as The Last Shark, directed by Italian schlockmeister Enzo G.
Castellari: the film follows Spielberg's hit so closely that it's little wonder that the film was pulled from theatres after a lawsuit was filed by Universal Studios.Just like Jaws, The Last Shark sees a coastal community come under attack from a man-eating Great White.
And just like Jaws, a trio of brave marine experts—Peter Benton (James Franciscus), his wife Gloria (Micaela Pignatelli) and ageing sea-dog Ron Hamer (Vic Morrow)—put out to sea on a fishing boat to try and kill the shark.
Even the film's poster copies that of Jaws 2.Rather unsurprisingly, Castellari's film comes nowhere near Spielberg's classic blockbuster in terms of style, performances or special effects: Castellari fails to generate any tension whatsoever and uses copious use of unconvincing stock shark footage, the acting is atrocious (Morrow's shameless impersonation of Quint by way of Groundskeeper Willie is hilarious), and if you thought Bruce in Jaws was lifeless, wait till you get a load of the immobile fish models used here, especially the pathetic toy sharks employed in the underwater shots.It might not be great movie-making, but it's certainly good for a laugh or two, with ridiculous highlights including the shark displaying above normal intelligence for a fish by deliberately trapping Peter and Ron in an underwater cave, a shark victim being pulled out of the water minus his lower half, and another getting his legs bitten off while suspended from the skis of a helicopter (closely followed by the whole helicopter—another unconvincing model—being pulled completely under the water!)..
the last shark(aka;great white)is an Italian made jaws ripoff that is pretty good not bad like most of the killer shark movies made after jaws, its James Franciscus in the Chief Brody role although he's not a police- man.and the late great;Vic Morrow in his next to last roles as the shark hunter.the shark is sort of like a cheaper version of the jaws shark,looks kind of rubbery but not too fake looking.as compared to the original jaws it pales in comparison,but its enjoyable.the one thing i found annoying is the soundtrack,i think they could have used a better score.i think the Goblins would of been good.(suspiria,deep red)but all in all its not bad.
i was a little confused about the ending but maybe i missed something,i did see it on google video since i cant find it on DVD or even VHS.i guess universal is fighting that.the title last shark makes no sense.i think a better title would have been killer jaws,but that would really irritate Spielberg and universal,anyway its worth a look.like i said one of the better jaws ripoffs,the bad ones were jaws of death,tintotera,and up from the depths.now those are bad..
Romano Puppo makes an uncredited appearance near the film's end as an ill-fated bounty hunter.The star squalis in this movie isn't any worse than that seen in "Jaws", and certainly less laughable than those constructed for the ill-fated second and third sequels in that movie family, but the use of infantile miniatures and cheap special effects seriously diminish the impact of the action sequences.
but even then I knew it was an Italian ripoff of "Jaws" - even the opening credits of the English-language version had "The Last Jaws" as the title for a split second before changing ON SCREEN to "The Last Shark." Apparently they thought nobody would notice (true, lots of people don't read the credits, but...).That Universal took umbrage of the legal variety against this movie doesn't surprise me (and in addition to borrowing huge chunks of "Jaws"'s plot it also finds time to swipe bits of "Orca," not least the scene where a woman has a leg chewed off.
the "Jaws" sequels) but they're still preferable to seeing this again.In all respects, notably the shark effects, it makes you feel for the late James Franciscus and Vic Morrow for getting involved in this.
Titled under America asGREAT WHITE (Listed in other countries as LAST SHARK) it had a large budget but Universal was strait ahead they filed a suit againist the producers saying it was to close to JAWS, and three weeks after it's short release 'GREAT WHITE' Pulled away from theaters in 1980 a year of good horror films.
Interestingly, he even saw fit to steal from himself since JONATHAN OF THE BEARS (1993) bears {sic} more than a cursory nod to the latter; another thing he was prone to doing was reviving popular mythical figures, such as the disastrous SINBAD OF THE SEVEN SEAS (1989) and the TV mini-series THE RETURN OF SANDOKAN (1996; which I recently acquired but have yet to check out) though, in all fairness, he did muster a fairly successful re-imagining of Homer's "The Illiad" in gangland terms with the little-known spoof HECTOR THE MIGHTY (1971).However, there's little to say about the crass commercial thinking that went into the making of THE LAST SHARK (by the way, Castellari had already made the even sillier THE SHARK HUNTER [1979]); the greatest insult, though, is that the film-makers couldn't hope to raise the budget (most likely, they didn't even have the inclination!) to attempt a product on the same level as JAWS 2 (1978), let alone the classic original which is why the thing smacks of blatant rip-off, pure and simple!!
Worse, the film repeats a good many of its incidents and effects twice or more: the idiotic 'explosion' when the shark attacks from below; the heroine played by the director's own lovely daughter falling into the sea, where she's not so lucky the second time around; the dives by would-be expert shark-fighter Vic Morrow complete with heavy Irish brogue a' la Robert Shaw's Quint from the first JAWS to destroy the creature both fail miserably, the second time getting tangled up in ropes and being dragged Ahab-like by the shark; characters get bitten in half
to say nothing of the ultra-fake blue-eyed[!] shark's head emerging open-mouthed out of the water and always hilariously tilted at the same angle.
What about the sheer excess of stock footage, then (with the shark changing dimension and look from one scene to the next)?; some of these were genuinely unsettling, to be sure but, while this practice may be forgiven when viewed in excessively dark prints (as some online reviewers have complained), it wasn't in the surprisingly clean edition that I came across only recently
James Franciscus has the lead role here; for the record, he had played a villain in another Italian JAWS rip-off or, more specifically, PIRANHA (1978) i.e. Antonio Margheriti's KILLER FISH (1979; which is one I'd also love to get a second opinion of after all these years).
Mind you, the film is hugely enjoyable while it's on (albeit unintentionally so for the most part) right down from the very opening scene, accompanied by the cheesiest song imaginable, of a surfer trying out some impossibly intricate moves until the shark takes a bite out of his board.It's ironic, then, that this movie was itself ripped off by the makers of both JAWS 3-D (1983) and JAWS: THE REVENGE (1987), the vastly inferior concluding episodes in the Universal saga: as in the latter, the shark is depicted as an intelligent animal (such as when it systematically pursues the entire line-up of surfers without killing them only to then vent its anger on the man leading them in a boat and, again, when it tries to bury our two heroes inside a cave by crashing repeatedly into a rock-face and barring its exit with the falling stones!)
while the explosive ending was replicated wholesale into the official third JAWS entry (THE LAST SHARK was actually released as part of the series in Spain!).
well it's quite a Jaws Rip off but hey - it's a lot better than some other shark movies for instance - "Tintorera" which was a complete waste of time.
That's when we make our way to the resort town of Amity - I mean, Port Harbor - where Mayor Larry Vaughn - sorry, I meant to say governor William Wells (Joshua Sinclair, Ice from 1990: The Bronx Warriors) - refuses to believe that a shark is attacking his beach.That's when horror writer Peter Benton (James Franciscus, Butterfly and the voice of Jonathan Livingston Seagull ) and shark hunter Ron Hamer (Vic Morrow, who has delighted us in so many movies, such as Message from Space) realize they gotta do something. |
tt1238834 | Wuthering Heights | The movie begins differently than the book. It begins with Heathcliff (Tom Hardy) having a nightmare which he seems to have had many times: something enters the house, and goes upstairs to the room where Heathcliff lies, and the voice of a woman - Cathy's (Charlotte Riley) - whispers urgently: let me in! At that moment he wakes startled.The scene changes and shows a great landhouse, where a boy is let out by his uncle, the landlord Edgar Linton (Andrew Lincoln). He seems weak, because he has two men supporting him, and a bit frightened. It appears to be the cousin Linton (Tom Payne) of the landlord and his daughter Catherine (Rebecca Night), who has to go back home, though he doesn't seem to know it at all, asking about it on the way. When they arrive at Wuthering Heights they have a brutal and rude welcome, and the greeting between Edgar en Heathcliff is evenly hostile. Even for Linton, Heathcliff has no pity, calling him 'it', saying that he looks worse than he expected, and that his mother was a wicked slut. When Linton is dragged inside, he screams at his uncle not to leave him there. Edgar threatens Heathcliff best to be kind to his son, and Heathcliff assures him not so very convincing that he will be very kind to the boy. Edgar's daughter, Catherine, is very angry at her father for sending Linton back, asking if he's far away and why he couldn't stay. She finally had a friend, and he has been taken from her, for which she can't forgive her father.Six months later, we see Edgar again in a graveyard, laying flowers on the grave of his wife, murmuring 'oh Cathy'. At the same time, at his house, his daughter Catherine receives a gift from her nanny for her birthday. It's a book, that once was her mothers. A bit disappointed Catherine asks if her father is at the church. She needs no answer, and asks her nanny - Nelly (Sarah Lancashire) - why his sadness over her mothers death always wear on his happiness that she was born. To cheer her up Nelly asks what she would want to do, and Catherine insist on going outside, to one of her favourite places. Nelly agrees reluctantly, and warns her that they will have to be back within the hour. Outside, they have had a long walk and Nelly calls to Catherine that they must go back, but Catherine keeps on going, insisting 'just a little further'. She's climbing on some rocks when she meets Heathcliff, who recognises her and seem to know a lot of her, though she doesn't know him. He invites her to Wuthering Heights to see 'his son who will explain everything'. Nelly is just in time to see them riding away, Catherine on the back of the horse Heathcliff is riding. At Wuthering Heights Catherine recognizes the son of Heathcliff as her cousin Linton, concluding that Heathcliff must be her uncle. Another young man lets Nelly in, who leaps up to Catherine saying that she shouldn't have come there. Catherine doesn't understand and is even more confused when Heathcliff tells here that Nelly had lived at Wuthering Heights, raising her mother and him. He suggests to Linton to show Catherine the stables, but he is too weak, and Hareton (Andrew Hawley) takes the job. Outside Catherine discovers that Hareton can't read, and mistakes him for a servant, at which Hareton walks away angrily. Linton, who has joined them, explains that he's not a servant but her cousin too. Inside Nelly asks Heathcliff if this is how he takes his revenge out on 'the next generation', at which Heathcliff seemingly innocent replies that he just wants for Catherine and Linton to get to know eachother. At home, Edgar warns Catherine to stay away from Wuthering Heights and the family, but she once again doesn't understand why, and walks away. Edgar begins to cough, seeming very ill, but when Nelly tells him that he has to rest, he replies that he cannot abandon Catherine to Heathcliff. But the next morning Catherine is already back at Wuthering Heights, and excited tries to figure out which chamber is Linton's. He calls to her not to do it, but she's already upstairs. When she enters a room, she finds out it was her mothers, with her and Heathcliff's name all over the walls and a portrait of her hanging on the wall. When Linton catches up with her, he explains that Heathcliff and Cathy had loved eachother, before Edgar did. Upset she calls him a liar and wants to leave the house, but all the doors are locked. Linton cries out that he is going to die, while he's just 18, and that's the reason why Heathcliff wants them to be married as soon as they can: he made Linton change his will, so that Heathcliff will have Wuthering Heigts and Edgar's estate when he dies. Catherine is in a fury and when Heathcliff enters the room she demands to be freed. But Heathcliff tells her coldly that by this time the next day he will be her father, so she better learns to obey him.That night, Heathcliff goes to the graveyard and unearths the grave of Cathy, lying by her corpse, muttering 'my love, come home!' In the same time, Nelly arrives at Wuthering Heights to tell Catherine that her father is dying. Catherine wants desperatly to go home, but Hareton closes the door demonstratively. When Heathcliff comes back the following morning, he sees Catherine at the window and is reminded at the times her mother stood there.We get a flash back of how Heathcliff is adopted by the father of Hindley and Cathy, but there is a lot of gossip about it. Hindley looks down on Heathcliff, seeing him as a threat, and mistreats him, though Cathy tries to defend him. When a fight goes out of hand, Hindley and Heathcliff are called in the office of their father, where Cathy confesses Heathcliff was offended by the other boys. Her father sends her and Heathcliff out, and tells Hinley that he will have to go to school. Hindley goes away, very angry at his father, and warns Cathy to stay away from Heathcliff. But she and Heathcliff become great, even inseperable friends and through the years eventually lovers. But still the people look down on Heathcliff and call him gipsy boy. When their father dies, Hindley returns as heir to the estate, and is determined to show Heathcliff his place, which is among the servants according to him. Although Heathcliff tries to fight back, sometimes even with a little help from Nelly, Hindley keeps on humiliating him. When Cathy by chance meets Edgar Linton, a gentleman with a good name, Hindley is enormous pleased, hoping they will fall in love with eachother. Heathcliff on the other hand is very jaleous, and refuses to see Cathy when she comes back to Wuthering Heights, looking as a young lady, saying he once knew someone who looked like her. To prove her love Cathy has to run away with him, as they had planned, but she refuses, saying she's scared. Heathcliff gets angry, saying that his love for her was the only thing that kept him there, and asking to at least release him if she is indifferent, which she is not. After her brother humiliates him even more in front of the visiting Edgar Linton, Cathy gives herself even more to Heathcliff to prove her love. But when Hinley's wife dies while giving birth to a son, Heathcliff is delighted, saying that Hinley has now lost the only one who loved him. Cathy is shocked by his words, saying that sometimes it seems as if hatred is his true passion, rather than love. From that moment on, Hinley starts to drink, and Cathy goes almost every evening to the Lintons. Heathcliff is furious, saying that he will let her suffer for finding him not worthy enough for her. When Edgar Linton comes to visit, he proposes to Cathy, and she is reluctant to refuse him on Heathcliff's behalf, which Heathcliff discovers. But when she talks to Nelly that evening, she realises she cannot be parted from Heathcliff, because he's like a part of her. But before she can tell him, Heathcliff sets off in anger, not to return for 3 years.On the day Cathy finally marries Edgar, she receives a note, which she knows is from Heathcliff, that says 'I know you have betrayed me'. The next scene, Heathcliff finds Hinley drunk in a bar, while he's been cheated upon by his fellow players. He declares himself the landlord of an estate that once was Hinley's, but has been sold due to his depts. Heathcliff pushes Hinley from the bank, taking his place among the players. Back at the Linton's house, Cathy and Edgar prepare themselves for their wedding night, but Cathy is reluctant, saying she feels feverish. As a real gentleman Edgar suggests he'll sleep on the cough, which she gladly accepts. Back at the bar, Heathcliff shares what he has won with his playmates and gives a vast amount of it to the boy who has deliverd his letter. He takes up Hinley and dragges him by the back of his shirt out of the bar. In Wuthering Heights he doesn't exactly receives a warm welcome, but isn't bothered by it either. The following day he visits Edgar and Cathy. She is really thrilled to see him, and insists that Edgar and Heathcliff must be friends. But the rude behavior of Heathcliff makes this impossible, although Edgar's sister, Isabella (Rosalind Halstead), enjoys his company. Three weaks pass, before Cathy comes to visit Heathcliff. At first they are thrilled to see eachother again, but when Heathcliff sees the guilt in her eyes he guesses that she has given herself to Edgar and is disgusted. Cathy runs away crying. At Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff steals away even more land from Hinley by tempting him into more gambling. One of the servants asks him if he hasn't humiliated Hinley enough, on which Heathcliff declares he's a good man, but he himself has forgotten how to be one after he met Hinley. At Edgar's estate, there's a quarrel between Cathy and her sister-in-law Isabella, the first hoping he won't come back, the second he will. But when Heathcliff eventually comes, it is Cathy who is thrilled as always that he's back. But Heathcliff only wants to see Isabella, declaring that if Cathy thinks he is to be consolted by sweet words she's an idiot. Cathy becomes angry and indeed bring him to Isabella, but is quite rude when she introduces one another. When Isabella runs away ashamed and hurt, Heathcliff tells her she had no right to tread Isabella like that, and leaves. Isabella and Heathcliff meet again, and Heathcliff tells her that there are only a few who saw good in him, and for that, he is willing to try and love Isabella. When they arrive at Edgar's estate, Cathy is furious and almost in tears, screaming that he should let Isabella alone, on which Isabella declares that 'she loves Heathcliff more than Cathy ever loved Edgar, en Heathcliff might love her if Cathy would let him'. Cathy tells her that he might just marry Isabella just to hurt her, but Isabella refuses to believe that and walks away. When Cathy and Heathcliff argue about the matter, Edgar comes in, and there's a fight between him and Heathcliff, that Cathy can barely stop. Edgar threatens to throw her out of the house if she insists on still being friends with Heathcliff, at which Cathy tells him she is with child. Isabelle goes that night to Heathcliff to tell him that Cathy is pregnant from Edgar, and they ran away together to get married.When Edgar hears the news, he declares that Isabella is no longer his sister. But when Cathy hears of it, she's heartbroken. She weakens every day because she refuses to eat or to drink, and in the end she's very fragile.
Heathcliff comes to the conclusion that he cannot love Isabella, and they return to Wuthering Heights, to find Hinley ever so drunk and aiming with his weapon at Isabella, asking if Heathcliff has returned. He warns her that Heathcliff has to shut his door when he sleeps, because if Hinley will find it open once, Heathcliff wil be dead. Shocked, Isabella leaves the room, but when she arrives at Heathcliff's - who still wants to sleep in Cathy's old room - he tells her that she'll sleep in another room, away from him. The next day Heathcliff wants to see Cathy, but Nelly refuses, arguing she's too weak, even dying. Although Nelly lies about her meeting with Heathcliff, Cathy still seems to sense him close. She says she knows he's back. That night, when Nelly has fallen asleep, Cathy walks into the night, while it is raining hard, calling for Heathcliff. Heathcliff, who seems to sense her nearby, goes out and searches for her. When he finally finds her, she lies on the ground, with only her nightcloth on, soaked by the rain. He takes her out of the rain, under a rock, and they share a last, intimate moment with eachother. Then he hears the men from Edgar calling after Cathy, and shouts back that he has found her. After that night, Cathy is even weaker, having a pneumonia from her night in the rain, and it looks like she even doesn't want to recover. At Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff is threatened by Hinley with his gun. Again the humiliations and insults rain down upon Heathcliff, who only responds with the message that Cathy is dying. But Hinley spits out that Heathcliff's love and grieve for his sister can only be a pretense, on which Heathcliff grabs him and takes all his anger and grief out on him. Isabella and the housekeeper can hardly prevent him from strangling Hinley. Isabella then asks Heathcliff for permission to leave, because she now realises it's better to be hated then to be loved by Heathcliff, for his love is so murdurous. Heathcliff screams at her she has to be gone. At Edgar's estate, when Edgar is away to the church, Heathcliff can steal a moment with Cathy, and she begs him to stay with her. On his way, Edgar meets his sister Isabella, but refuses to take her back in, although she tells him she is pregnant. When he comes home, he finds Heathcliff with his wife in his hands. Heatfcliff leaves, but waits outside to have a chance to get back in. But Cathy is so sick Edgar doesn't leave for a moment, and calls the doctor.That night, Cathy dies, giving birth to her daughter Catherine. Lost in grieve, Heathcliff curses her to have no rest as long as he is living. He has one last moment with her, as she lays dead in her coffin before the funeral. That's when he takes her necklace in the shape of a heart.Back to the present, Heathcliff plays with the necklace, while Catherine and Linton come out of the church, apparantly married. He gives the necklace to Catherine, but she immediately runs off to see her dying father. At his dying bed she begs Edgar for forgiveness, but he doesn't blame her at all. He just wants to know if she'll be happy, and for her fathers sake she tells him that Heathcliff will let hem live there and fill the house with children and laughter. Now Edgar can die happily, and he leaves them, just on the moment Heathcliff comes to fetch 'his daughter'. At Wuthering Heights, Catherine has - after just seeing her father die - to take care of her dying husband. Hareton tries to help and distract her as much as he can, but Heathcliff doesn't approve. Cathy gets angry at Hareton for not standing up against Heathcliff, who walks away angrily, telling her that he has taken enough beatings of her part. Confused, Catherine asks Nelly why Hareton defends Heathcliff, at which she answers they are attached by ties stronger than reason can break. That night, Heathcliff dreams again of Cathy, and is awakened by Catherine, who tells him his son, Linton, has died. It is a sober funeral, but on the way back, Catherine asks Hareton right before Heatcliff's eyes to forgive him for the words she's said, and he does. The next day Hareton picks some flowers for Catherine, finding her upstairs, in Cathy's room. He warns her they will be punished if Heathcliff finds them there, but still sits with Catherine as she shows him the books of her mother, and how much she must have loved Heathcliff. At that moment, Heathcliff himself comes in, shouting at them because they are in that room. When he threatens and offends Catherine, she says Hareton will strike him back, and finally, Hareton indeed does stand up against Heathcliff. When the later sees the portret of Cathy, he seems to calm down, and asks them to leave the room. That evening, Hareton and Heathcliff talk, Hareton accusing Heathcliff from misleading him. Another day, Heathcliff finds Hareton and Catherine together, teasing and tempting eachother. When he sees that the book they are reading was Cathy's favourite, he leaves them alone. He goes out walking, like he did so many times before with Cathy, and when he returnes, it's like he sees her spirit, waiting for him. The next thing Catherine and Hareton hear, is a hard noise, and when they force open the door to Cathy's room, they find Heathcliff who has shot himself.The last scene we see, is from Catherine and Hareton, who have emptied the house of Wuthering Heights, and bringing the furniture to a new home, together, while in a window of Cathy's room, two figures seem to see them leaving. | revenge, romantic | train | imdb | null |
tt0780571 | Mr. Brooks | Earl Brooks (Kevin Costner) is an upstanding business owner and family man, recently honored as the Portland, Oregon Chamber of Commerces Man of the Year (the movie itself was filmed in Shreveport, Louisiana). In his secret life, Brooks is a serial killer, encouraged by his id, manifested as a gleefully sadistic alter ego he refers to as "Marshall" (William Hurt) whom only Brooks can see or hear (conversely, no one can hear him talk to Marshall). While he has refrained from killing for the last two years, Brooks feels the urge rising once again and, spurred on by Marshall, murders a couple in their home. Despite killing them before noticing that their curtains are open, Brooks follows his meticulous modus operandi, cleaning up the crime scene (and later cleaning the car he drove to the murder scene and burning his clothes and pictures he took of the victims) before departing. As part of his pathology, he leaves each of the victims' bloody thumbprints on a lampshade.The next day Brooks attends his weekly meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, where he vaguely reveals his addiction without elaborating on the nature. Soon afterwards, his daughter Jane (Danielle Panabaker) returns home, having abruptly dropped out of college. She goes on to visit Brooks' business and mentions that she would like get a job with his company so it can "stay in the family." Jane eventually reveals that she's pregnant. Even more worrisome is the appearance of a man who calls himself Mr. Smith (Dane Cook), a peeping tom who photographed Brooks at the scene of the previous day's crime. Blackmailing him, Mr. Smith demands to accompany Mr. Brooks on his next murder.They both grow nervous over Portland Detective Tracy Atwood (Demi Moore), chief investigator of the "Thumbprint Killer" case. Brooks hacks into Atwood's personal file and financial records; it turns out that she is an heiress worth more than $60,000,000, who could have gone into the family business but became successful in her own chosen profession. Brooks comes to admire Atwood, even to the point of wishing that Jane was more like her. Atwood has many personal problems, including a messy divorce from her sleazy ex-husband, Jesse Vialo (Jason Lewis) and concern over Thornton Meeks (Matt Schulze), a serial killer who has escaped prison with the sole intent of killing her.One day, Brooks finds detectives outside his house, only to realize they are interested in speaking with his daughter, who left school following the murder of a student. Jane professes innocence during questioning, but Brooks is convinced that his daughter did indeed commit the murder and is afflicted with the same addiction he has. Brooks considers letting her go to jail in the hope that it might "save" her from becoming like him. However, he decides instead to deflect suspicion by travelling to her college campus in disguise and replicating the hatchet murder, making it appear the two murders are the work of a serial killer.At the same time, Brooks forms a plan to address Smith's blackmail scheme. He decides that the best course of action for his family is that he be murdered, a decision that infuriates Marshall, who would cease to exist if Brooks died.Brooks takes Smith along with him to infiltrate a high-rise apartment and murder another couple. They are revealed to be Atwood's greedy estranged husband and his divorce attorney (Reiko Aylesworth). The double homicide comes off, but not before an overly excited Smith wets himself on the floor of the apartment.Atwood requests a search warrant and goes to Smith's apartment, now believing him to be the Thumbprint Killer. She finds it empty, except for an invoice with the furniture's forwarding address.Despite the attempt of Atwood's partner to bring her in for questioning in the killing of her estranged husband, she gets away. The furniture movers' address planted in Smith's apartment turns out to be Meeks' hideout. In the ensuing gunfight, she wounds both Meeks and his girlfriend. Meeks kills the girlfriend and commits suicide.Smith pulls a gun on Brooks, who calmly reveals his intention to die at Smith's hands and spare his family the shame of his eventual arrest. The two go to a cemetery that Brooks happens to own. Brooks stands in front of an open grave and beckons Smith to shoot him. Smith squeezes the trigger, but the gun doesn't fire. Brooks reveals that he disabled the gun, just in case he should change his mind. As he faced death, he realized he wanted to live to see his unborn grandchild. Brooks then kills Smith and rolls him into the grave, calmly revealing as he does so that he is not restricted to the thumbprint murders and has changed MOs before.With Smith's urine providing the only DNA sample of the Thumbprint Killer at the murder scene, Brooks remains beyond suspicion.He returns to his normal life, anonymously phoning Atwood to find out why she became a cop. She tells him that she chose her career to prove her unloving father wrong.Later that night, Brooks goes to bed, stopping first in his daughter's bedroom. As he kisses her, she stabs him in the neck with a pair of scissors and watches him bleed to death. Then she puts on his glasses just like she did earlier. Brooks wakes up, shuddering at the nightmare which symbolised the fear he has felt throughout the movie: Jane has begun to enjoy murder, and may one day claim him as a victim. | cruelty, murder, cult, alternate reality, violence, plot twist, flashback, romantic, suspenseful, sadist | train | imdb | null |
tt0052600 | Ballada o soldate | A middle-aged farm woman walks through her village and gazes down a country road. A voiceover reveals that her son was killed in the war and buried in a foreign land.
On the Eastern Front, nineteen-year-old soldier Pvt. Alyosha Skvortsov (Vladimir Ivashov) single handedly destroys two attacking German tanks, more out of self-preservation than bravery. His commanding general wants to give him a decoration, but Alyosha asks instead for a leave to see his mother and to repair the leaking roof of their home. He is given six days.
During his journey, he sees the devastation the war has wrought on the country and meets various people. When the jeep Alyosha is riding gets stuck in the mud, Private Pavlov helps push it out. As Alyosha will be passing through his home city, Pavlov persuades him to take a present to Pavlov's wife. Pavlov's sergeant reluctantly parts with two bars of soap, the entire supply for their platoon.
At the train station, Alyosha helpfully carries the suitcase of Vasya, a soldier discharged because he has lost a leg. Vasya does not want to go home, as he would be a burden to his wife, and their relationship had already been troubled. However, he changes his mind and is welcomed with open arms by the loving woman.
When he attempts to board a freight car of an army supply train, Alyosha is stopped by Gavrilkin, a sentry. However, a bribe of a can of beef eases Gavrilkin's fear of his lieutenant, a "beast". Shura (Zhanna Prokhorenko) later sneaks aboard as well, but when she sees him, she becomes frightened and tries to jump off the speeding train. Alyosha stops her from risking her life. She tells him she is going to see her fiancé, a pilot who is recuperating in a hospital. As the days pass, she loses her fear and mistrust of him. Gavrilkin spots the civilian stowaway, forcing Alyosha to bribe him anew. When the lieutenant discovers the unauthorized passengers, he lets them remain aboard and even makes Gavrilkin return the bribe.
At one stop, Alyosha gets out to fetch some water, but the train leaves without him. Frantic, he gets a lift to the next station from an old woman truck driver. He is too late; the train has already departed. However, Shura got off and is waiting for him. The couple then go to see Pavlov's wife. They discover that she is living with another man and leave. Alyosha returns, takes back the soap he had given her, and gives it instead to Pavlov's invalid father.
When they finally part, Shura confesses she lied; there was no fiancé, only an aunt. Alyosha realizes too late, after his train departs, that when Shura said she had no one, she was telling him that she loves him. His train is stopped by a blown-up bridge and set on fire by German bombers. With time running out, Alyosha rafts across the river and persuades another truck driver to give him a ride to his rural village, Sosnovka. He gets to see his mother only for a few minutes before having to make his way back to his unit. His mother vows to wait for him. The voiceover tells us that while he could have gone far in life if he had lived, he will always be remembered simply as a Russian soldier. | romantic | train | wikipedia | (The Red Army did not give its soldiers any time off in the ordinary way.) He tries to get back to his home village long enough to put a new roof on his mother's shack of a house, but is delayed en route, and has time only to greet her and say goodbye before returning to duty and death.Alyosha is swimming against the tide.
but we remember him just as a soldier- a Russian soldier." Not as a Bolshevik comrade, not as a freedom-fighter against fascism: the film is true to the truth of the "Great Patriotic War", in which millions of Alyoshas fought and died for their patch of earth, not for ideology or Stalin.Chukhrai's later movies have not been seen widely in the West.
The beautiful and moving Ballad of a Soldier tells a personal story that illuminates how war can ravish both an individual and a country.
Instead of accepting a medal, he requests to be granted a four-day leave to go home and visit his mother.We learn early through the narration that this soldier did not survive the war so his journey home to visit his mother for one last time becomes all the more poignant.
Reluctant at first and fearful of Alyosha, the young couple experiences their first love in several sensitive scenes but it is to be short-lived.Ballad of a Soldier, of course, aims to present Russian soldiers in the best possible light yet Chukhraj does not hesitate to show his characters as real human beings with flaws.
In Alyosha, Chukhraj has created a good person: kind, loving, and noble but not larger than life, a soldier perhaps typical of millions of young men who gave their lives to protect their homeland.
Alyosha, a 19-year old private in the Soviet army, more or less by accident neutralizes three German tanks and is allowed to return home to see his mother and fix her roof on a six-day leave.
The movie depicts the people he meets on his way home through war-torn Russia.This is an amazing film, a kind of shaggy-dog story and one you are not liable to forget.
Be that all is it may, whatever the film's affinities with Pudovkin masterpieces such as 'Earth' and 'Deserter', 'Ballad of a Soldier' is all heart, empathy and sincerity, and it will clutch at your heart-strings.The boy is not yet jaded in the grown-up fashion, and the people he meets stir him into immediate sympathy, Alyosha is simply one of the most likable characters you will encounter in a film, without being trite or cutesy.
Director Grigori Chukhrai, himself Ukrainian, seems to know that his role, in the Khrushchev era of Cold War USSR, is to show the best of the Soviet heart and soul.The journey, for the viewer, is often filled with silence, and with carefully composed shots of the boy, alone or with other travelers (often soldiers).
Many times the key face in foreground is sharp and softly stark while many other faces fall out of focus around this, camera tilted, or looking up, with flickers of light from trees outside the train window or a diffused glow of a grey sky drenching it all with melancholy.Alyosha, the young man who by some fast wits and luck knocked out two tanks in the first scene and earned this special trip, meets a variety of people on his way who each represent a part of the Soviet (mostly Russian, but with a nod to Ukrainians) experience: a wounded man going home without his leg, a young conscript heading to the front to probably never return, this same young man's father in a hospital apparently dying, and a girl his own age, equally pure and nearly untouched by life's horrors.
Because, the wounded man meets his wife at the station and is renewed, the young conscript is cheerful and hale, the father is proud and glad his son is a good soldier, the mean officer has an understanding heart, the sergeant gives his only soap to the traveller, and so on.
After all, Alyosha has found the truest of true love, and even though he may be returning to the war to never return, the boy and girl have elevated each other, and the movie, and the viewer, with a real sense of what being good is all about.
If there is a film which all human beings must watch, it is "Ballad of a soldier" made by the great Russian cinéaste Grigori Chukrai.
"Ballada o soldate" has one of the most poignant sequences of all war movies:when the mother holds only for a few minutes, her dear boy in her arms,it's impossible to hold back your tears .I saw the movie for the first time thirty years ago and I have never forgotten it.Far from politics ,"ballada o soldate" is an universal poem,enhanced by a magnificent grandiose score,which enhances the simple beauty of the pictures,climaxing on a symphony for the finale.Aliocha's furlough is so short (48 hours) and it's such a long way to his dear home.His journey becomes an odyssey ,but ,unlike Ulysses,his happiness will be short-lived.He and the girl form one of the most touching,lovable and innocent couple you will see on a screen.Their simple joys ,particularly when they share the soldier's food,or when they meet again in the desert station,are the ones which make a life worthwhile,even in the hell which surrounds them.Sometimes recalling Sirk's " a time to love and a time to die"(1958)from Erich Maria Remarque ,the great German pacifist writer,with which it shares the same disgust of war ("I wanted to film a subject which could condemn war",the director said),"ballada o soldato" is one of these rare movies that will reward you each time you watch it..
"Ballad of a Soldier" along with "Andrei Rublev" is one of my favorite Russian films ever and one of the great movies made in USSR during Khruschev´s so-called "thaw" period in the late 1950s and early 1960s when soviet filmmakers got a certain amount of an artistic freedom and were less controlled by the Soviet state.Directed and co-written by master Russian filmmaker of a soviet era, and also a WW-2 veteran, Grigory Chukhrai, who was even nominated for this picture for Academy Award for Best Screenplay, the film is set during WW-2.
It´s a story of 19 year old Russian soldier who as a reward for a heroic act in fighting with Germans given a 3 day leave home by his commanding officer.
Nevertheless, his perseverance to bring this work to life and the touchingly realistic performances of the cast make of this movie not only one of the best films that ever came out of the Soviet Union but also a classic gem of world cinema..
He wasn't a larger than life hero, he was just an adolescent, and that's why it was so easy for me to enter his skin in my imagination; I was also an adolescent, I also was not larger than life, and I was also supposed to fall in love, as he did.Grigori Chukhrai made this movie in 1959, three years after Сорок первый (another gem), and two years before Чистое Небо (a movie trying maybe to say too much, this time, but definitely with some unforgettable moments).And let's mention here the names of the actors who played the two young innocent lovers: Vladimir Ivashov and Zhanna Prokhorenko..
During his journey home, Alyosha helps a cripple dashed veteran to meet his wife; embarks as clandestine in a train and falls in love with the stowaway Shura (Zhanna Prokhorenko) that is traveling in the same wagon to visit her aunt; meets the unfaithful wife of Pavlov, a soldier that is in the front and misses her, to give soap to her.
Thus he must abandon the injured soldier with whom he could have been friends; he must risk losing the love of his life because trains must run on wartime; he must leave his mother, without even time to fix the leaky roof.
The dedication at film's end may be to the Russian soldier, but the subtext throughout aims at the universal, regardless of time, place, or nationality.Thus 50 years later, the movie remains a timeless humanist classic.
At the very beginning, the mother of the young, hero soldier who is the central character of the film looks out at the one unpaved road that leads in and out of her village.
When he was going to be decorated by the commander in chief, the young soldier and already hero, he asks to him of favor allows to change his decoration him by a visit of a few days to his mother.In the way to his maternal house, he finds to a young girl in a load train, falling in love, having themselves both that to dismiss to few days in untimely form.After visiting by minutes his mother, he must return to the front, where it is understood that he dies.I consider a film against the war since it describes the death, pain and destruction consequences of a war.
The phrase is very insistent in the dialogs of when the war finishes.History is tender, describes the birth of a love that as soon as farmer begins between the young soldier of origin and the girl of the city.As usually it happens in a good film, without giving me account I already put to the plot, doing to me part of the events.I do not want to take leave without commenting that there are three or four scenes that surely the director used David Lean, to make its film, the Dr. Zhivago..
A good half (if not more) of Russian films deal with what Russians term the Great Patriotic War, and yet precious few of them are so profound and universally understood as Grigory Chukhrai's classic.It's a simple story about a young soldier, Alyosha (Vladimir Ivashov), who has just 48 hours of furlough.
Director Chukhrai shows little of the overpoweringly visual virtuosity of Kalatozov's film (except for the superb sequence near the beginning which earns the main character his heroic status) preferring to capture the reality of the scene rather than its emotional core.Even so, BALLAD OF A SOLDIER is a beautifully made film with winning performances from its youthful leads: a 19-year old boy who wins a much-coveted 6-day leave from the front after blowing up two enemy tanks single-handedly and the suspicious waif he befriends (and subsequently falls in love with) on his clandestine train journey.
In this road movie of the different kind you learn a lot about life far away from the front lines, it's about people and their varying struggles during the times of war.
Plus the restored print is as perfect as it can be, making this one a shining gem in every movie-lover's collection.Additional Note: If you've acquired a taste for emotional war drama between the front and back home, there's of course that other Soviet key film you shouldn't miss either.
The story though very simple and common it is told in a most humble way (Just for instance the reason soldier want a break from war to visit his mother is to take care of the leaking roof that she wrote about in a letter), possibly very few movies are this strikingly simple.
For those who haven't yet indulged further, Grigori Chukhrai's 'Ballad of a Soldier' is a good introduction: more universal, less political, not as formally difficult, and quite a bit more fast-moving (demonstrated, quite literally, by sped-up shots of a tank near the beginning!) than most other Soviet fare.In general, the film is a delicate, lyrical story about a young Soviet soldier who goes off to fight the Germans, and then gets just enough leave time to come back to his small village and see his mother.
This return journey takes up most of the film, and along the way our hero meets a girl, falls in love, and sees a variety of characters affected, in different ways, by the war.
Everything is presented in episodes, and the film feels, at times, like it's in chapters.Although the DVD cover and title make 'Ballad of a Soldier' appear to be a war movie, be warned that, really, it's not.
Grigori Chukhrai's Soviet film Ballad of a Soldier begins with a downbeat and downcast voice-over informing us of a situation in which a young boy's mother will never have the chance to have recited to her the rather epic story her fateful son has to tell.
Just as you dread a Soviet era period piece set during The Second World War in which war heroism from the country's youngest and finest is at the very forefront; as the rest of those those poor, equally brave in some sense civilians stay at home and weep for the very soul of the nation; the situation and those on the front, Ballad of a Soldier actually opens up into one of the more interesting coming of age tales I've seen.The young man at the forefront of the piece is a certain private by the name of Alyosha Skvortsov (Ivashov), a boy whose war exploits would indeed make a fine story to tell any mother; friend or friend of a mother in the sense that in the heat of conflict, two Nazi tanks are wiped out by the said young man who has both the reality and responsibility of fighting on the Easatern Front thrust onto him at this early age.
The film is decidedly anti-war, rendering it a soulless and empty experience if a young man's coming of age adventures are explored on the travels he makes inbetween exploits of a combative ilk, and thus gradually informing us that any prior 'dread' we may have had in what to expect from this period Soviet piece, was unnecessary.The film will focus on Alyosha's travels in a minute and careful manner, observing one such instance in which the failure to identify the moment when it is apparently necessary to bribe someone, almost getting caught out and rectifying the situation before applying the said learning later on under different conditions.
The extra burden of a chore is significant in the sense it is an odd job Alyosha is returning home for, and in preoccupying himself with one of someone else, risks the threat being unable to fulfil a duty set by himself - but it's all part of a learning process.If anything, Chukhrai's film victimises the 'little guy', or the poorer and more grounded characters such as Alyosha and those he encounters - it pities them and presents their situation as less than desirable; whereas stately figures such as soldiers and others of various degrees of authority are hard-nosed, seemingly uncompromising and find it rather difficult to understand the true nature of human emotion.
Chukhrai's representation of two classes of people, worlds apart, but bound within the same nation is both sly and inspired.Rather, the film focuses on Alyosha's relationship with a young girl he meets whilst stowing away on a cargo train returning home: she is Shura (Prokhorenko).
Art work at its best 'Ballad of a Soldier' is simple which makes it ever the more powerful causing the mind wonder how many times we've ridden on that same train as Pvt. Alyosha Skvortsov and Shura....
Showcases the Passion and Grim Realities of War. This film essentially begins with a young soldier named "Private Alyosha Skvortsov" (Vladimir Ivashov) leaving his mother and the small village he was raised in to defend his country from the invading German army during World War 2.
This 1959 war film movie directed by Grigori Chukhrai, proves them, wrong, big time with its gripping story about love!
It recounts, within the context of the turmoil of war, various kinds of love: the romantic love of a young couple, the committed love of a married couple, and a mother's love of her child, as a Red Army soldier named Pvt. Alyosha Skvortsov (Volodya Ivashov) tries to make it home during a leave, after being rewarded for taking out two German tanks.
The announcement at the start of the film that Alyosha is dead makes his experiences all the more impactful, knowing that he will never return home again, and assuming that he may never see his love Shura (Zhanna Prokhorenko) after he leaves her.Alyosha is an idealization of what many Russian soldiers were: Young, and willing to give anything for their country.
And the heroes are heroic because of who they are as people, not what they've done for the cause.In this movie the casualties of war are the families forced to leave their homes, the wife unfaithful to her deployed husband, the almost soul-mates separated by a train that has to leave on time and the mother who has to see her son for the last time.
Ballad of a Soldier is about Aloysha, a young private in the Soviet army that is granted some time to go visit with his mother.
The movie follows the people that he meets on his journey home, even falling in love on the way.
He travels across the countryside, meets various people, and falls in love with Shura (Zhanna Prokhorenko), a young woman whom he meets on a train.One of the interesting things about this movie is that it starts by telling the audience that Alyosha got killed in WWII.
A common theme of Thaw films, especially those about World War II like the Ballad or Kalatozov's The Cranes are Flying was the lack of communication between soldiers leaving for the front and the people who they loved who stayed behind.
The 1959 Soviet film entitled "Ballad of a Soldier," directed by Grigori Chukhrai is set during World War ll.
The Ballad of a soldier is a Russian movie that revolves around World War 2 and is about a young couple who are madly in love.
In Germany and the Netherlands the film Ballad of a soldier is one of the most celebrated Soviet war stories. |
tt0102510 | The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear | Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) is honored at the White House, where President George H. W. Bush (John Roarke) announces that he will base his recommendation for the country's energy program on Dr. Albert Meinheimer's (Richard Griffiths) advice at the National Press Club dinner the following week. The heads of the coal and oil (fossil fuel) and nuclear industries are apparently distressed by this fact, as Dr. Meinheimer is an advocate for renewable energy. Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley), now working for Dr. Meinheimer, is working late at his research institute, crying about Frank, when she spots a man leaving in a red van. A maintenance worker, emptying out garbage cans, discovers a clock with dynamite attached and takes it to the security guards, accidentally triggering it.
The next morning, Frank reacquaints himself with Jane as he interviews her about the explosion. He is shown around the institute and meets Jane's boyfriend, Hexagon Oil executive Quentin Hapsburg (Robert Goulet), of whom he becomes exceedingly jealous. Frank's boss, Ed Hocken (George Kennedy), finds him and Jane at a lonely blues bar, where Frank promptly blows another chance to make up with her. Meanwhile, at a meeting of the "energy" industry leaders, Hapsburg reveals that he has kidnapped Dr. Meinheimer and found an exact double for him, Earl Hacker, who will give their recommendation to the President endorsing fossil and nuclear fuels.
Police Squad tracks down the driver of the van, Hector Savage (Anthony James), and find him connected to a sex toy shop. Once he discovers the cops are onto him, Hector holes up in a house, demanding money. Frank then takes it upon himself to drive a SWAT tank into and through the house, allowing Hector to escape and causing more damage when he loses control of the tank and crashes into the city zoo, causing all of the animals to escape. Later that evening, at a party Frank makes matters worse when he attempts to push the wheelchair-bound doctor up to the front of the room. However, in the encounter he notices that Dr. Meinheimer did not remember him upon sight. Since Jane told him he had a photographic memory, Frank confronts her with that at her home following the party. She refuses to believe him and dismisses him. Moments later, Hector enters the house trying to kill Jane, who spots and alerts Frank. After a tussle where Frank causes Hector's body to burst by sticking a fire hose in his mouth and turning it on full blast, Frank confronts Jane again and she realizes that he was right. They then rekindle their romance.
The next day Police Squad stakes out Hexagon Oil's headquarters where Dr. Meinheimer is being held. Frank tries to go undercover into the building, but instead is discovered and tied up by Quentin's henchmen. The rest of Police Squad is able to return after a snafu and free both Frank and Dr. Meinheimer, and head to the Press Club Dinner to try and intercept Earl. Finding their only way in locked, Frank, Ed, Nordberg (O.J. Simpson), and Dr. Meinheimer commandeer a mariachi band's costumes and head in, stopping briefly to perform for the gathered crowd. After heading backstage, Frank encounters Earl, who attacks him. Several members of the Chicago Bears see this and begin attacking Frank, not knowing he is not attacking a defenseless man. The confusion ends when Ed and Meinheimer take out Earl so the doctor can begin his speech.
However, due to the confusion Frank does not know that Earl has been eliminated and goes into the gathering assuming Dr. Meinheimer is the fake one. After embarrassing himself for a few seconds, Ed comes in to inform the audience that Quentin is the mastermind of the whole scam. However, he has already left the room with Jane, and after a shootout on the roof of the building Quentin informs Frank that he has one more trick up his sleeve; he has rigged the building with a small nuclear device which will kill everyone in there except for him and render Dr. Meinheimer's speech useless. As Frank gains the upper hand and is about to get the disarming code, Ed enters and throws Quentin out a window. On his way down Quentin hits an awning and is able to come to the sidewalk unscathed, but is immediately met by a lion and devoured.
Frank frees Jane from being handcuffed to the bomb, and they attempt to disarm it while Ed and Nordberg go back into the ballroom to evacuate it. After several failed attempts, Frank finally manages to disarm the bomb at the last second by tripping over the power cord, unplugging it. He is commended by the President, who offers him a special post as head of the Federal Bureau of Police Squad. He declines, instead asking Jane to marry him, which she accepts. They go out to a balcony, where they accept commendations from the crowd. Frank spins around and accidentally knocks Barbara Bush (Margery Ross) off onto the edge. She manages to hold on, although in an attempt to help her, Frank pulls off her dress. | cult, comedy | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0059464 | Monster a-Go Go | A space object is circling Earth - it looks like a helicopter. Col. Steve Connors (Phil Morton) tries to communicate with it. They speak to a radio dispatcher. They find that the capsule of Frank Douglas, the astronaut has fallen down to Earth. Ginny (Lois Brooks) visit Ruth Douglas (June Travis), Frank's wife. Dr Chris Manning (Peter M. Thompson) visit them when they are worried about Frank's disappearing.Connors, Ginny and other policeman look at the scenery where the capsule fell: there is no proof that Frank Douglas is dead. Analysis by Dr Logan shows that there is radioactivity. Nobody wants to speak with Ruth or her son Jimmy. Manning visits the area. He's the civilian responsible for the case.A girl (Lorri Perry) is dancing the night away with her friends. She wants to dance with everybody, not only her boyfriend. They leave because he gets jealous. They make out in their car in the night. A dog barks. She screams. Connors et allii see that the girl is alive, but the man isn't. They take her away.An alien - or maybe mutated Douglas - attacks a scientist - Lucas - which is measuring up radioactivity. Ruth had an intuition that everything was gonna go wrong. She, Ginny, Connors and Manning search the area.In the morning, two men discuss the situation. They asks Dr Bergman (Aviva Crane) about Lucas' murder and the radioactivity. The monster is calculated to be extremely strong and tall. At the lab, scientists conduct some tests. Dr Bergman leaves for her weekend, but Dr Logan's brother - also called Dr Logan - realises that the danger is not over, and that time is running out. Radiation made Douglas mutate onto something much bigger. Frank has gone with the antidote, but Logan didn't want to say. Dr Brand says that Logan may have jeopardized the whole project, but Logan says he couldn't avoid it.Girls sunbathing in bikinis. The alien monster arrives, it has a deformed scarred face, surrounded by a weird sound. They ran from the monster. Dr Logan is told immediately. They want to inject an antidote to the Douglas monster. Plenty of money was thrown in by humans to kills the monster. They also discovered they they can't leave. Two soldiers talk from behind a stone pillar.The monster enter the area where the Army and the lab are. The monster and the emergency services are running from one another. It leads a legacy of radioactivity. The police find a huge whole, and the monster may have risen from there. They use a decontamination spray.They can't find the monster who looks dazed walking around in a tunnel. Radioactivity increases after the monster, but they can't find him.Suddenly, the monster disappears; the narrator (Bill Rebane) concludes that never was t here a monster. Frank Douglas appears alive and well in the Pacific with a normal size. We can see the first scene of the film again - Frank Douglas dressed as a kind of astronaut walking superimposed on a scene of stars. .>>Summary by KrystelClaire | cult, murder | train | imdb | null |
tt1598822 | New Year's Eve | The film opens with a shot of a horse-drawn carriage, then a montage of other New York City locations at Christmas time. We hear Jessica Biels voice saying, Some people swear theres no beauty left in the world, no magic. Then how do you explain the whole world coming together to celebrate the hope of a new year?Cut to Ryan Seacrest beginning his hosting duties in Times Square. Crowds are already gathering for the New Years Eve celebration. Claire Morgan (Hilary Swank) gets out of a taxi and rushes over to a group of reporters to be interviewed. Shes the new Vice President of the Times Square Alliance.Nearby, Ingrid (Michelle Pfeiffer) gets off a bus, looking at a piece of paper she is holding. She almost gets hit by a taxicab and falls into a pile of garbage bags.Paul (Zac Efron) zooms past Ingrid on his scooter, which he parks outside Ahern Records Inc. He enters the recording studio headquarters, flirting with every girl he passes on the way.Meanwhile, Tess Byrne and her husband Griffin (Jessica Biel and Seth Meyers) are introduced. Tess is nine months pregnant and is waiting in the waiting room of the hospital. She and her husband overhear another couple, Grace and James Schwab (Sarah Paulson and Til Schweiger), discussing how they need to have their baby as close to midnight as possible so they can win the $25,000 the hospital is offering to the first baby born in the new year. Griffin tells Tess that if they have their baby first, they could use the money to pay off his student loans.Meanwhile, Randy (Ashton Kutcher) is waking up to the phone ringing in his extremely messy apartment. His roommate, Paul, is calling to ask what Randy wants to do for New Years Eve. As they talk, Randy wanders out into the hall, which is heavily decorated for New Years. He tells Paul that he hates New Years Eve and starts tearing down the decorations.Meanwhile, there is a couple getting married in a tiny, empty church. The only guest present is Sam (Josh Duhamel). The couple teases him that he is the last of their friends still single, but they are sure hell meet a great girl soon. The bride asks him about the girl he met last New Years Eve. Sam says that was a year ago. Everyone has moved on since then. His phone rings and he hurries off its his work calling, and he has a big speech to make that night.Cut to Laura (Katherine Heigel). She's a chef, and she is preparing to cater the biggest A-list party of her career, the Ahern Records Masquerade Ball. She needs her sous chef Ava (Sofia Vergara). Ava finally arrives, and she's extremely excited because she just saw the tour bus for the famous singer Jensen who will be performing at the party. The street is lined with Jensen fans holding signs. Inside the tour bus, Jensen (Jon Bon Jovi) is practicing guitar.Laura heads into the kitchen to instruct the rest of the staff. Ava calls her on her cellphone to update Laura on the status of Jensens tour bus. Laura says, "Well, if you see Jensen, tell him to avoid the blond in the kitchen with the really big knife". Ava says, "Do you know him?" Just then, Jensen walks into the kitchen and says, "Hi Laura". Laura slaps him across the face.Back to Paul, who is bringing a delivery to Ingrid, who is a secretary at Ahern Records. He notices her working on a list, and asks if its her New Years resolutions. Ingrid thinks hes being nosy, and he mentions that he has been delivering her packages for over a year, and shes never looked him in the eye before. She opens the package, which is full of tickets to the Mask Ball. Paul is desperate for a ticket, but Ingrid pulls them away.In a nearby food court, three teenage girls are watching three teenage boys. One of the boys, Seth (Jake T. Austin), asks Hailey (Abigail Breslin), if shell meet him in Times Square that night. She agrees. Her girl friends giggle and say hes going to kiss Hailey at midnight for sure. But will her mom let her go to Times Square?Cut to Hailey's mother Kim (Sarah Jessica Parker) who is working on the Rockettes' costumes at Radio City Music Hall. She tells one of the dancers that she plans to spend the evening at home with her daughter Hailey. She thinks her daughter is excited at the prospect.Back to Sam, who is trying to find his way back from the wedding to New York City. His GPS keeps giving him conflicting instructions, and he crashes his car into a signpost.Over to Claire, who is trying to organize everything in Times Square. A generator is missing. Everything is going wrong. Her police officer friend Brendan (Ludacris) comforts her. She asks when he is going to get home to his family, and he says that he is staying on duty to help her out. He asks Claire if she is going to make it to the appointment she has later that night. She's not sure if she can.Back to Jensen and Laura. Jensen says, "I know youre upset with me, but it's been a year". Laura says, "I've been planning that slap all year. It wasnt as satisfying as I expected." She slaps him again. Jensen says, "I tried to call you. I left you tickets for my show". She says, "I never got to make you a single dinner in our apartment. You walked out before I even unpacked the groceries."Over to Ingrid, who is trying to get her year-end bonus from her boss. Her boss says it has been a tough year for the music industry. He writes her a check, and its obviously a lot smaller than she expected. She says she was planning to take a trip with the money. She already booked two weeks off. He says he couldn't spare her that long she can have one week. Ingrid says, "Then I quit! I almost died today." Her boss says, "You're fine. Now get me a coffee". Ingrid storms out to her desk and starts packing her stuff.Back to the kitchen where Laura is throwing eggs at a Jensen poster. Ava joins in, but she has terrible aim and her eggs splatter on the floor. She shrugs and says, "I'm a delicate girl."Cut to the hospital. Stan Harris (Robert De Niro) is a middle-aged man lying in bed, extremely ill. His doctor asks why Stan hasn't accepted chemotherapy or any other kind of treatment for his cancer. Stan says he knows he is going to die, so why prolong the inevitable? He only wants to live to see the ball drop in Times Square one more time. That's why he picked this hospital, because it has a good view. He asks the doctor whether he can watch from the roof, and the doctor says hes very sorry, but its against hospital policy. The doctor speaks to Nurse Aimee (Halle Berry) in private and tells her that Stan probably won't last the night.Back to Randy, who is taking the elevator downstairs to throw away the bag of decorations he tore down. Elise (Lea Michele) runs out of her apartment and asks Randy to hold the door. Halfway down, the elevator jerks to a stop. Elise tries the service phone, but its dead. Her cell has no service either. She starts freaking out because she has somewhere really important to be.Back to Tess and Griffin at the hospital. The doctor informs them that it was a false alarm, Tess isnt in labor yet. The doctor is extremely holistic and is planning on a birth with no epidural or Pitocin. Griffin says "what about a c-section, maybe right after midnight?" The doctor says she is not giving them a c-section so they can win some money. Griffin says, "what if we split it with you?" She says, "You are dangerously close to a rectal exam."Over to Hailey, who tells her mom Kim that she would actually like to spend New Years Eve with her friends. Kim says there is no way she is going to leave Hailey alone in Times Square. Hailey says "Don't you trust me?" Her mom says it's the world she doesn't trust. Hailey says, "I want to start living in the world. You used to."Cut to Claire, who is trying to climb the stairs to the giant ball, but she's afraid of heights. Brendan carries her up on his back. Claire gives a little speech about the origins of the ball, then she flips a giant switch to light it up. This is the practice run, and everything goes smoothly.Back to Sam, who is getting his smashed-up car towed. He asks the tow truck driver if he can take him all the way back to New York city, but the driver says no way. Also, the mechanic is already closed for the day, as is the car rental company. Sam says he has to get back to the city, he has a huge speech to make at his company party.Back to Paul, who is returning to Ahern Records for another delivery. Ingrid meets him outside, and tells him that she has hired him for the day. She wants him to help her complete her list of New Years resolutions. She says, I already did the first one quit my job. If Paul helps her complete the whole list by midnight, she'll give him tickets to the Masquerade Ball. He looks at the list. The first few items are Eat breakfast at Tiffanys. "Go to Bali. Save a life". Paul says, "These are impossible". Ingrid says, Use your imagination. Paul really wants the tickets, so he agrees. They drive off on his scooter.Over to Jensen, who is trying to convince Ava to help him talk to Laura. He explains that last New Years he asked Laura to marry him, but then he got cold feet and took off. Laura overhears him and offers Jensen a truce.Back to Paul and Ingrid, who are drinking lattes and eating donuts outside of Tiffanys. Next they take a New York taxi ride with no traffic on a water taxi.Back to Jensen and Laura. She apologizes for slapping him shes really stressed out about the Mask Ball. Jensen apologizes for running away. She says, You didnt run, you sprinted. Jensen says, "I'm going back on tour tomorrow, will you come with me?" Laura says, "I did your life. I have a life of my own now". Jensen says, "I'm ready to commit". She says, "Me too, Im committing to what I really love my work. I can't do this again."Back to the elevator where Elise and Randy are still trapped. Randy is complaining about New Years Eve. Elise loves New Years and she has big plans that night. She is desperate to escape the elevator and asks Randy to lift her up so she can climb out the hatch in the top of the elevator, but its locked. As she tugs at the lock, Randy sees that she is wearing a Jensen backstage pass and he says, "Ugh, you're a groupie." She glares at him and says, "Put me down."Over to Hailey, who is telling Seth that she can't come to meet him in Times Square because her mom wont let her. He says, Let me talk to her. He tries to convince Kim that its perfectly safe, that they are practically adults. Kim threatens to call Seths mom. Seth says, "Sorry Hailey, I tried, but your mom fights dirty."Over to Paul and Ingrid, who are driving around a sketchy Brooklyn neighborhood on Pauls scooter. Ingrid asks, "Is this safe?" She wants to forget the whole idea and go home, but Paul opens the door of an extremely dirty building to reveal a gorgeous indoor paradise its the Bali Garden Spa. Ingrid gets an amazing Bali-style massage.Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Tess is eating anchovies to try and induce labor. The other pregnant couple, Grace and James, are watching her. James says, "Do you think you can come in at the last minute and steal our money?" The husbands glare at each other.At Kim and Hailey's apartment, Hailey is still mad at her mom. She says "Mom, youre a hot woman. Lose the clogs and find yourself a sexy man." Kim tries to convince her that they can have fun staying home, having their own party. Hailey says, "I'm over the party and I'm over you!" She slams her bedroom door in her mom's face.Meanwhile, Sam is still stuck with no ride. The tow truck driver takes pity on him and finds him a ride the pastor from the wedding. The pastor and his family are driving into the city to see the ball drop in Times Square. Sam says hell gladly pay for the gas if they give him a ride. The family rolls up in a giant bus. Sam asks, "How much gas are we talking?" The pastor says, "What's the limit on your credit card?"Over at the hospital, Nurse Aimee is asking Stan why he didn't get any cancer treatment. Stan says he was a photographer in Vietnam, and he doesn't really see the point of fighting to live. He only wants to make it to midnight.Back at Kim and Hailey's house, Kim brings her daughter a plate of cookies. When she opens the door to Hailey's room, Hailey is gone. Kim chases Hailey to the train station, but right as she gets there, the train pulls away. She tries to call Hailey's cellphone, but Hailey doesn't answer.Over to the Adopt A Pet Center. Paul has taken Ingrid to adopt a little brown and black puppy. "There you go", Paul says, "You saved a life!" For her trip around the world, he takes her for a drive around a giant globe statue.It's 6:00 p.m. now, and Ryan Seacrest is starting the show in Times Square. Claire is all set to send up the giant ball. She flips the switch, but the ball stops halfway and the lights go out. The crowd boos. Claire says they have to get it fixed before midnight.Back to Sam in the giant bus. The pastors family is asking him about his big speech that night. He says he actually hasn't written it yet.Meanwhile, Paul takes Ingrid to the art museum where they have a miniature reproduction of the New York boroughs. This allows her to walk all five boroughs in one day. While she is doing this, he calls Randy and leaves him a message. He says he is helping out a friend, but they can go to the party after. He says, Shes a little crazy, kind of pathetic, but in a cute way. Ingrid overhears him talking, and shes hurt and furious. She says she doesnt want to do the list anymore and she leaves.Over in Times Square, no one is able to repair the giant ball. The repairmen tell Claire that they need Kominsky.Meanwhile, Griffin comes home and finds Tess standing on her head. He says that will just send the baby the wrong way. Hes bought her a bottle of castor oil to induce labor, but she says he has to try it first. He takes a swig, but its too disgusting. Just then, Tess water breaks. They rush downstairs to get a taxi, but people keep stealing their cab. Griffin ends up hiring a bicycle rickshaw.Over at the hospital, Stan is asking Nurse Aimee when she gets off work. She says at midnight until then, Stan is her date. Stan asks, "Why are you so nice to me, when I've spent my whole adult life being an ass?" She says, "Maybe being an ass is how you got everything you wanted out of life". He says, "Not everything."Meanwhile, Randy and Elise are still stuck in the elevator. Randy says, "Aren't you going to talk to me?" Elise says, "Sure. While were making assumptions about people, how about I make a few about you: let me guess, you grew up in suburbia, went to liberal arts college, and then moved to the city to prove how cool you are. Now youre a wannabe hipster who spent all month growing half a beard, and you whine about New Years because once upon a time some Prom Queen broke your heart on New Years Eve." Randy is quiet for a minute, then he says, "It took me a year to grow this beard actually, and the heartbreak was in college". Then he offers her a sip of his cold coffee.Meanwhile, in the pastors bus, Sam is telling the family about the amazing girl he met last New Years Eve.Cut to the Ahern Records Masquerade Ball. Jensen is about to perform. Mrs. Rose Ahern is introducing him to the waiting crowd.Back in the elevator, Elise is explaining that she went to Julliard and shes a singer. She just got hired to sing backup for Jensen, which could be a huge break for her, if she wasn't stuck in the elevator. Randy asks her to sing for him, but she says she only does private performances in the shower.Over in Times Square, the ball is still stuck, but Kominsky (Hector Elizondo) has arrived. Claire thanks him for coming. He says they never should have fired him. Claire says it wasnt her that fired him, shes new at the VP job. She asks him whats wrong with the ball, and he says one of the lights has shorted out. Hell have to find the one faulty light out of 3,000 in order to fix it.While Kominsky is doing this, Claire gives a speech to the waiting crowd. She says that the stalling of the ball is a reminder to all of them to stop and reflect on the year gone by, on triumphs and missteps, promises made and broken. She says New Years is about getting another chance.Back on the bus, Sam is telling the pastor's family how he and his mystery girl had the most amazing conversation last New Years Eve, they talked for hours. The family asks if he kissed her, and he says he did at midnight. But then he went to the bathroom, and when he came back she had disappeared, leaving a note that said her life was really complicated at the moment, and if he was still thinking about her in a year, he should meet her at the restaurant La Gambina at midnight. The pastors family asks if Sam is going to go meet her. Sam says hes not sure if he should. He doesnt even know the girls name.Over to Paul, who receives a call from his sister Kim asking if hes seen Hailey. He says that Hailey might have called her cool uncle to tell him that she was planning to meet her boyfriend at the 54th street pen. But in return for this information, he needs Kim to do him a favor. Then Paul finds Ingrid and says he is ready to accomplish the next item on her list: Be amazed. He asks Ingrid to give him one more chance to help her. Ingrid says, "Okay, but on one condition". Cut to Ingrid driving Paul's scooter while Paul hangs on for dear life.Meanwhile, Brendan compliments Claire on her speech. He says she should go to her important meeting. Claire says, "I don't move until the ball does."Over at the hospital, Tess and Griffin are ready to have the baby, but Grace and James Schwab have just showed up to have their baby as well. The husbands race to check in while the wives commiserate.Back in the elevator, Randy tells Elise he is a comic book illustrator. He offers to draw her if she will sing for him.Meanwhile, Ava is asking Laura if she is going to watch Jensen sing. Laura says no. Cut to Jensen performing the song Have a little faith in me. While he sings, Kominsky works on the ball and Elise sings the same song in the elevator. She has an incredible voice, and Randy stops sketching to stare at her in amazement. Jensen keeps singing, while Stan hunches over in his bed in pain, and Tess is in the final stages of labor. Kim is running around Times Square, searching for Hailey. Jensen looks up in the balcony and sees Laura watching him. He sings the end of the song directly to her.Elise finishes singing and Randy claps. She demands to see his drawing, and he shows her a sketch of her trapped in the elevator. She teases him, "Is that me? I look crazy. Do you have any other hobbies?"In the hospital, Stan is talking with Nurse Aimee. He says, "Remember when I took you to New York City to see the ball drop and I promised you wed go back? But we never did. Why did I ever leave you?" Aimee says, "I'm Aimee. Remember, Nurse Aimee?" Stan says, "Right... Aimee".Meanwhile, Paul is sitting in the empty auditorium of Radio City Music hall. Hes still trying to call Randy. The curtain pulls back to reveal the backdrop and stage. Ingrid comes swinging through the air on a harness. Paul yells, "Are you amazed?" She says, "I'm amazed you got me to do this."Back in the elevator, Elise tells Randy they could have their own New Years party. She pulls the decorations out of the garbage bag and tells him to imagine theyre at a party and he has just spotted her across the room. Its almost midnight. They count down from ten together, moving closer and closer. Just as they are about to kiss, the elevator starts moving again. The superintendent lets them out on the ground floor. Randy tells Elise, You might still make your gig. She is about to wish him a Happy New Year, but she remembers that he hates the holiday and just says goodbye instead. Randy is about to take the elevator back upstairs when he sees that Elise dropped something.Back at the hospital, Tess is moments away from having the baby. Griffin is distracted watching the other couple to see how far theyve progressed. Tess says I dont care about the money anymore, I need you to focus. Griffin sees James leaving the other delivery room, and notices that he already has two small children.Meanwhile, Sam and the pastors family have finally arrived in New York City. Nearby, Hailey is searching the 54th street pen for Seth.Paul drops Ingrid as close to the ball drop as he can. He wishes her good luck with the last item on her list. She says, I knew it was a long shot. She hands him the tickets to the Ahern Records Masquerade Ball. She tells him to make his own list of resolutions, and not to wait as long as she did to fulfill them.Meanwhile, the President of the Times Square Alliance rolls up in his limo to tell Claire that if she doesnt get the ball fixed in time, she will let down the whole world, and shell also be fired.Elise runs over to the main stage of Times Square and announces she is a backup singer for Jensen. Apparently Jensen is missing, however. Randy runs up behind Elise. He gives her the little pink plastic bracelet she dropped in the elevator. She says, You came all this way to give me a rubber bracelet? He says, Also, to tell you Happy New Years. Oh, and you left something else in the elevator. He kisses her. Elise says, Im glad you remembered that.Nearby, Jensen is sitting on the bumper of a car. Claire comes over to ask him why he isnt performing. He says that he heard Claires speech, but he doesnt think he deserves a second chance. Claire says, I know how you feel. Jensen tells her about Laura, and Claire says, Maybe she cant share you with the rest of the world. Jensen hears his fans chanting his name, and he knows Laura is right. Claire says, Remember, second chances dont expire until midnight.Sam runs into the Ahern Records party. He hugs Rose Ahern, who is apparently his mother. Sam gets on the stage to deliver his speech. He says that his father isnt with them anymore, but he used to say What would you do today if you knew you wouldnt fail? Now go out and do it. Sam says, Its okay to listen to your heart. Its risky, but take that leap of faith.Jensen finally climbs up on the main stage and starts singing. He jams with Elise while Randy watches from the crowd and Kim watches on TV.Meanwhile, Kominsky finally locates the burnt-out light and fixes the giant ball. It starts moving upward with Kominsky still on top. He yells for the other technicians to let him down. Claire is thrilled, and shes even more excited when her assistant tells her that Mayor Bloomberg heard her speech and wants her to assist with the ball drop. But Claire says there is somewhere else she has to be. She leaves Kominsky her walkie talkie and tells him he is rehired, and officially in charge. As one last act before she leaves, she brings Brendans family upstairs so he can spend New Years Eve with them.Over at the Ahern Masquerade Ball, all the gorgeous ladies are trying to flirt with Sam, but hes not interested. His mother Rose Ahern thanks Laura for her amazing catering work. Rose says she will definitely recommend Laura to all her famous friends. Then she reveals that she hired Laura for the party because Jensen said he wouldnt perform otherwise. Sam is watching the clock, which points to 11:45. He cuts off the gorgeous ladies mid-sentence and takes off running.Back at the hospital, Stan asks Nurse Aimee to leave him alone. He doesnt want her to watch him die. Aimee says I wont leave you alone. Someone says, Hes not alone. Hi Daddy. Its Claire. Her important appointment was to watch the ball drop with Stan. Nurse Aimees shift is over and she leaves to change into a sexy pink party dress. While the other nurses are talking, Claire sneaks her father into the elevator in a wheelchair. The head nurse notices Stan is missing, but Aimee says to let them be. Claire takes her father onto the roof, even though shes afraid of heights.Aimee heads upstairs to an empty room where she has a computer and a web cam set up. She turns it on so she can talk to her husband who is in the military overseas. He says that all the other guys are watching Times Square on TV, but he just wants to look at his wife. Aimee says he is coming home soon, she knows it.Meanwhile, Laura is alone in the kitchen eating chocolates. Jensen comes in and says, Is the kitchen still open? Laura says, Only for dessert. She tells Jensen that she knows he got Rose Ahern to hire her. Jensen says, I knew you had a lot of offers and I needed you to take this one so I could talk to you. Im cancelling my tour. Im never going to leave you again, ever. The best decision I ever made was asking you to marry me, and the worst decision was sprinting. Im going to make it up to you, no matter how long it takes.Cut to Mayor Bloomberg and Ryan Seacrest, about to drop the ball in Times Square. Claire and Stan are watching from the roof of the hospital. Stan says, I made so many mistakes in my life, but you werent one of them.The countdown starts. Kim is still running around looking for Hailey. Sam is running towards La Gambina. Laura and Jensen are kissing. Tess is pushing her baby out. The countdown ends and everybody in Times Square kisses. Ingrid is standing alone. Laura stops kissing Jensen and asks, If youre here, then whos at Times Square?Cut to Elise, who starts singing Auld Lang Syne on the main stage. While she sings, Hailey is still looking for Seth. Just as she catches sight of him, one of her girl friends grabs him and kisses him. Hailey watches the kiss, devastated, and Kim sees the whole thing. She runs over to hug Hailey, and they leave together. Tess and Griffin are holding their new baby boy. Nurse Aimee is still talking to her husband, and he says, I love you so much, I think about you all the time. Sam has reached La Gambina, but it is all boarded up and shut down. Paul runs up to Ingrid in Times Square and kisses her. Ingrid says, What the hell are you doing, Im twice your age! Paul says, Final resolution: midnight kiss. Boom! Check it off! Elise finishes singing and Randy gives her a thumbs up. She touches her pink plastic bracelet.Hailey and Kim head to a nearby café. Kim says, You have no idea how worried I was. Haileys friends follow them to tell Hailey about an after-party. Hailey looks at her mom, and Kim agrees that Hailey can go. Hailey says, You should go to your thing too, mom. Just then, Seth comes in. He asks Hailey to let him explain he says the girl totally stole the kiss from him. As he tries to explain, Hailey steals a kiss of her own. Kim leaves them and runs over to the costume department of Radio City Music Hall.Back at the hospital, Claire is sitting alone in a chair holding the bag with her fathers belongings. There is a watch, a wallet, and a photo of her as a little girl. Claire cries as she looks at the photo. The nurses see her crying and invite her to participate in their New Years Eve tradition. They head to the nursery where all the new babies are laying and say, Welcome to the world!Down the hall, James comes into Tess room to congratulate Tess and Griffin. He says his wife had a baby girl, which means he now has three daughters. He tentatively tells them that his baby was born at 12:04, and asks when their baby was born. From the gleeful look on Tess face, its obvious their baby was born sooner, but Griffin says, 12:05. Tess looks surprised, but then smiles at him. She doesn't mind letting the other couple have the money.Meanwhile, Sam is waiting outside La Gambina. He sits for a while, then finally leaves. Just as he starts to walk away, he sees a horse-drawn carriage approaching. A woman steps down, dressed in a sparkling gown. Its Kim. Sam says, "You look amazing". Kim says, "I had a year to get ready."Jessica Biel's voice returns to say, "Sometimes it feels like there are so many things we can't control, earthquakes, war, famine. But it's important to remember the things we can control, like love and forgiveness. Thats what New Years Eve is really about: love, hope, and a really great party."The credits roll, interspersed with footage of Paul and Ingrid dancing at the Ahern Records Masquerade Ball, and bloopers from filming. | feel-good | train | imdb | After his last holiday-themed box-office smash Valentine's Day in 2010, director Garry Marshall has carbon-copied the exact same formula for his latest film New Year's Eve which uses its gigantic ensemble cast to document various different relationships and states of emotions over the course of a single day and night in New York City.The story lines include: a couple awaiting the birth of their child, two people who become trapped together in an elevator and a gentleman who is trying to enjoy his last New Year's Eve on earth as he sadly lays on his deathbed.Much like Valentine's Day, Marshall's latest film seems to forget the importance of character development and indeed sure-footed narrative; these films feel like the audience are watching Ashton Kutcher flirt with Lea Michele, or Zac Efron helping Michelle Pfeiffer, which – in all honesty – they are.
Never are viewers able to break away from the celebrities portraying these supposed characters, which cause great issues when trying to build and present emotion.The film also has some bizarre cast members, including the incredibly pointless Jon Bon Jovi who slinks about, and may as well be promoting a new Greatest Hits album when he enters the frame.
It did try very slightly to be different – with a gay romance amongst other things – and whilst this was all still "Hollywood", there were far worse movies released in 2010.To be fair to 'New Year's Eve', it is not amongst the worst of the year.
Expecting a film to be bad makes it all the less painful if the final product is indeed poor and consequently, makes it seem much better than it truly is if a viewer is not disappointed.'New Year's Eve' felt mechanical and forced, a project merely designed for profit – there is no love nor compassion, no credibility nor realism.
Spend your £8 at the cinema this Christmas on a film that gives like 'Hugo' rather than this, and save the holiday romances for 'Love Actually' on DVD with the family or partner.Verdict: It is better if Marshall does not attempt to make another movie about a commercial holiday again.
The variety of characters is okay, as you get to know them enough to see a little bit of yourself in them or not,and it's really interesting to see what different people go through at that time of the year and how they feel and what they hope to change.
This is certainly the case with Garry Marshall's seasonal effort New Years Eve, but the problems with the film are far from done there.Stuck somewhere between a 'Visit New York' advert and meandering rom-com, few of the movies plots are linked and many are only hastily so at the end of the movie, almost as an afterthought.
The atrocities that were (and still are) Valentine's Day and New Years Eve. Looking for a fun holiday film to put a spring in your step, and a sparkle in your smile?
Yes, for all its celebratory mood seen in the trailer, the actual product is nothing more than a really boring affair culminating in the New York Times Square ball drop at the stroke of midnight.Garry Marshall continues from his festival theme film Valentine's Day with yet another ensemble that rounds up some of the hottest folks in Hollywood, playing caricatures in 8 short stories that you know will link up one way or another, either through characters or through events.
Jessica Biel and Seth Meyers play a couple who are expecting their child, and are in competition with another couple played by Sarah Paulson and Til Schweiger to produce the first New Year's baby to walk away with 25 thousand, engaging the help of Carla Gugino's spiritual doctor.Leaving the hospital and into the hottest party in town, there's food caterer Laura (Katherine Heigl) who has to contend with rock star Jensen (Jon Bon Jovi) who is trying his utmost to win her back after walking out on her a year ago, with tired comedy contributed by her chefs played by Sofia Vergara and Russell Peters.
Hillary Swank plays the executive of the ball drop event which has hit a snag, with Ludicrous as her police confidante, and rounding it all up is Josh Duhamel as a music mogul apprehensive whether he'll meet the woman of his dreams once more.And throw in a couple more big names from Ryan Seacrest to cameos like Matthew Broderick and even Michael Bloomberg himself against the backdrop of Times Square, and the stage's all set for one heck of a party, not.
If not for the bevy of stars, this film would have fallen flat on its face because there's nothing absolutely compelling in the stories that you'd root for anyone to succeed in fulfilling their objectives before the new year kicks in.It's dull and uninspiring, with no real emotion on display despite the wealth of talent at its disposal.
I never understood her appeal, and when she appeared in the end to close the loop, I'd swear I'd rather shoot myself if that was something that can happen in real life.New Year's Eve was a tad too long in dragging out its scenes so that each arc has about an equal amount of time without one upstaging another, but all in all this film has one purpose and one purpose only - to serve as product placement, in almost every shot you'd see a brand name sticking out.
There's just too much going on in this film, far too many characters, as soon as I found myself interested in one plot its segment would end, you can never get really attached to one set of characters.For me the best storyline was the Michelle Pfieffer and Zefron plot, it was really the only one with a bit of substance, I actually think a full movie of that story would be great, also the Jessica Biel and Seth Meyers plot was rather funny thanks to the highly underrated Ms Biel.
This movie is entertaining enough I suppose but it's also lacking any real great laugh out loud moments, the only time I laughed was when Jessica Biel was in labour, she could do some great comedy if given the chance.Lea Michele manages to bring her great screen charisma to the big screen, she is very fun to watch and her rendition of Aude Lang Syne was lovely and a nice way to end the movie.If this movie had about four or five less stories happening this movie would have been much better, it's not horrible by any standards but it's not excellent either, also this may sound mean but Sofia Vergara is possibly the most annoying actress alive, at least they didn't put a decent actress in the most annoying role in the film.
Not Celebrating New Year's Eve. There were so many stars in this film that it felt like a Hollywood casting office.
My daughter and I both really enjoyed New Year's Eve. For the first few minutes, we did feel a bit like we had ADD because the scenes changed so quickly from one story line to the next.
It's much better than last Year's Valentines Day and is definitely a feel-good movie for a Girls' Night Out..
Efron stands out as annoying and out of his league, while De Niro and Pfeiffer give great performances.Directing/Cinematography/Technical: 5.5* - There is a lot going on in this film and the director manages to do a nice job of pacing the movie.
A series of vignettes, centering around a vast array of N.Y.C. characters and their differing perspectives as they live through New Year's Eve, including a dying man whose final wish is to see the ball drop at Times Square, a Manhattan crew trying to ensure that same ball drops as scheduled, a work-obsessed gourmet chef dealing with her feelings for an old flame who suddenly re-enters her life, a single mother trying to 'protect' her teenage daughter from the dangers of the big city, two pregnant couples competing for a big cash prize, two strangers with nothing in common who get trapped inside an elevator, and a middle-aged secretary who quits her job then makes it her mission to live out her outrageous resolutions.
Garry Marshall's 'follow-up' to Valentine's Day is made attractive by its star-studded cast, but—just like its predecessor—gives its actors nothing to do other than just show up and look good.
Needless to say that these precautions would have not rescued the movie, but they would have prepared us to face the creative bankruptcy the film industry has fallen into.So, I think that New Year's Eve should have prevented us from the following: -Caution: it contains various prestigious actors trampling their careers only in order to charge a paycheck.
Katherine Fugate wrote the stewed ingredient stories for Garry Marshall to stir, and the list of actors involved is staggering: Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Robert De Niro, Halle Berry, Cary Elwes, Jessica Biel, Seth Meyers , Sarah Paulson, Til Schweiger, Carla Gugino, Katherine Heigl, Jon Bon Jovi, Sofía Vergara, Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Abigail Breslin, Josh Duhamel, Larry Miller, Penny Marshall, Cherry Jones, Hilary Swank, Ludicrous, Hector Elizondo, Ryan Seacrest, Matthew Broderick, John Lithgow and more.This is a razzle dazzle movie with some good moments, improbable though they mostly are, and a nice mindless evening to enjoy popcorn.
I laughed, I liked most of the story lines, I had a smile on my face when I left the cinema - now that's not so bad for a night at the movies, is it now?All this slagging and hating makes me almost suspect darker forces at work...is IMDb becoming a platform for studio-wars??
The number of votes has not increased in the last 18 hours - I find that hard to believe...Anyway, this is a fun film for a fun night, nothing life-altering or spectacular, just story-lines in which to maybe find a part of your lifelast time I checked, us ordinary people like that sort of thing.I did.
New Year's Eve is filled with almost most of the Hollywood actors who couldn't take time for Valentine's Day. Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Abigail Breslin, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Zac Efron, Héctor Elizondo, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Seth Meyers, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Til Schweiger, Hilary Swank, Sofía Vergara, Alyssa Milano and Jake T.Austin.
I was kind of hesitant to watch "New Year's Eve" because I feared it would just be like that movie.
finale, Garry Marshal it would be better not to make any movie smoking between valentine and new year eve..
New Year's Eve is really a lot like Gary Marshall's earlier holiday film, Valentine's Day. That one took place in Los Angeles and this one is in New York.
New Year's Eve is an all star ensemble romantic-drama-comedy from the people behind the similar formatted Valentine's Day. However here they had an idea and tried to cram a script and a multiple storyline and it failed.A film that does not even smell Christmas even though it has a holiday season setting and is set on New Years Eve with Times Square becoming a focal point as the Times Square Ball will in due course will be raised and come midnight will be dropped.Our set of characters include two couples that want to be the first to give birth after midnight, a man dying alone of cancer, a stoned cartoonist stuck in a life with a backing singer, a middle aged woman who realises that life is sliding by and asks a young man to make her dreams come true, a young schoolgirl who wants to see the new year in with her friends and her mom is reluctant so she runs away, a man on his way to New York hoping to meet a lady of his dreams but his car has broken down.
A teenage girl pointlessly flashes her bright yellow bra at her mother in the middle of Times Square, trying to convince mom to let her go alone to watch that bloody ball drop, in a quite out-dated vignette, seemingly left over from the 1940s.Film is just an excuse to show a lengthy list of Hollywood A-listers, and present them in underwritten mini stories in this overly busy train wreck of a movie, hoping their fans will turn out to see them playing characters who are either just moronic, or repellent.It was like the filmmakers took a plate of spaghetti (with each spaghetti noodle representing one of this film's underwritten subplots, randomly presented) and flung it at the wall, knowing that some of it might stick briefly before falling to the floor, but in the end, it leaves nothing but a huge mess as a reminder, and ends up being nothing but a waste..
Yet again, Marshall and Fugate juggle about a dozen story lines and twice as many characters over the course of a single day, with the events set at and around Times Square in New York City.Adopting the same narrative formula however means that 'New Year's Eve' will inevitably share some of the same flaws as their earlier film, and true enough there are the stock characters, the stilted dialogue and most of all the unabashed sentimentalising that made 'Valentine's Day' a somewhat cringe-worthy affair.
We'll not attempt to summarise all of the multiple plot threads criss- crossing throughout the movie- suffice to say that the more notable ones include Hilary Swank as the frazzled, newly promoted VP of the Times Square alliance whose task is to ensure the New Year's countdown goes on smoothly; Katherine Heigl and Jon Bon Jovi as a pair of ex-lovers who almost got married a year ago before Bon Jovi's rocker got the cold feet; Michelle Pfeiffer as a disgruntled office assistant who hires Zac Efron's office courier to accomplish a list of resolutions; and- get this- two rival couples (Seth Meyers and Jessica Biel as one, Til Schweiger and Sarah Paulson as the other) competing to have the year's first baby for the congratulatory prize money.
Indeed, there's little point belabouring about the lack of plot or character in 'New Year's Eve'- you should already know what to expect from 'Valentine's Day'.
It's fun to see many famous people in this film, even though just for small, brief parts.Overall, it's a feel-good movie about hope, love, second chance, guilt, etc.
It is filled with the usual childlike connect-the-dots plot that sets up stereotypes to be linked to the Ryan Secrest ball drop.Complicit in this clichéd confection are too many stars, a number too big count, from Sarah Jessica Parker to Robert De Niro with Ashton Kutcher as one link to Marshall's other star spectacular, Valentine's Day. Both films are left in the dust by the actually witty ensemble in Love Actually.
Despite having talent like Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfieffer and have also liked some of Gary Marshall's other films (even thought the still highly uneven 'Valentine's Day' wasn't that bad), expectations were not high having heard for a while nothing but bad things about it from trusted friends and sources and often heard it described as one of the worst films of the year.Both of us were bitterly disappointed and intensely disliked 'New Years Eve', having watched it anyway because it intrigued conceptually, there were some good ideas and the talent sounded too good to resist, and we are not always on the same page when it comes to opinions.
Films like Garry Marshall's New Year's Eve are hard to talk about in terms of story because this one has so many different stories weaving in and out of the narrative.
With a cast of fine actors, New York City as the set, great musicians and an over $55m budget, Gary Marchall's "New Year's Eve" remains an "OK, no big deal" movie.Robert de Niro, Halle Berry, Michelle Pfiffer, Zac Ephron, Catherine Heigle, Josh Duhamel, Sarah Jessica Parker, Hillary Swank, Jon Bon Jovi, etc., all gifted performers, couldn't save the film from falling into the "no big deal" category.According to many, New York City is a set to die for.
You would think a movie with this many stars would be good well...You have Jessica Biel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Halle Berry, Robert De Niro, Cary Elwes Alyssa Milano, Seth Meyers, Jon Bon Jovi, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Abigail Breslin and Sarh Jessica Parker many more.You get a series of stories all taking place in one night on New Year's Eve in the city of New York.Like my review of valentine's day you get so many stars in one movie you can make it work or you can't.With New Year's Eve it's no difference.I'm not saying it's one of the worst movies out there it just another movie with so many stars that you like or you don't.The movie has it moments of enjoyment but some make you go Really?
This is coming from ME, a girl who hasn't celebrated NYE since I was in high school AND I've never had a New Year's Eve kiss, but now I look forward to it more than ever!!Way to go, Lea Michele, such a beautiful first time in a blockbuster, and SOOO many wonderful surprises with actors I didn't even KNOW were in it!.
Marshall worked once again with screenwriter Katherine Fugate and also teamed up with Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Biel, and Hector Elizondo who also worked with him in the previous film along with several other A-list actors such as Robert de Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Halle Berry, Seth Meyers, Katherine Heigl, Sofia Vergara, John Lithgow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Abigail Breslin, Hillary Swank, Josh Duhamel, and rock star Jon Bon Jovi among others.
Such a feel good movie for New Year's Eve!!.
Some people may say it was too convoluted and had too many story lines, but I love it - I mean, New Year's Eve is crazy full of life as it is! |
tt0051792 | Jalsaghar | Huzur Biswambhar Roy (Chhabi Biswas) is a middle-aged aristrocrat in India. His estate is suffering financially, but he continues to engage in the indulgences that he thrives off of. He has a palace that includes an opulent music room, replete with a huge chandelier, mirrored walls and various rugs. He also loves riding his white horse or his domesticated elephant. He is somewhat insulated and basically only interacts with his estate manager (Tulsi Lahiri), his servant (Kali Sarkar) and his beloved wife, Mahamaya (Padmadevi), and young, teenaged son, Khoka (Pinaki Sengupta).The wealthy Mahim Ganguly (Gangapada Basu), the son of a neighbor who was a debt collector, returns from the West to claim his late father's estate. Ganguly is a shrill social-climber and asks that Roy come to visit the estate. When Ganguly builds his own more modern music room, he plans an opening party. In competition, Roy claims and starts to plan his own music room party. This is despite his financial floundering.Mahamaya and Khoka go to visit friends via boat, while Roy stays behind. Upon their returning boatride, a storm hits and kills nearly everyone on board the boat, including Mahamaya and Khoka. Roy withdrawals into grieving and a long-lasting depression. The anguish he goes through ages him visably.Four years go by with Roy by himself in his palace. On day, Ganguly visits and boasts about a young female dancer who has discovered a new form dancing that is performing at his music room. The younger man's grating manners gives Roy the motivation to have yet another music room party. Roy's servant is estatic, but his estate manager is less than happy, since Roy is even more financially destitute than before. The music room is re-opened for the first time since his family's death and cleaned up. The female dancer is booked and several neighbors attend, including Ganguly. The dancer and the music group give a magnificent performance.Roy lingers in the music room throughout the night, long after the last guests leave. Drunkly, he pays tribute to his ancestors and his own portrait. However, his bliss turns to hysterical despair when the candles in the music room start to go out. Obviously mental unsound, his fear of the darkening room mystifies his faithful servant. The servant is able to open the drapes and Roy is comforted by the rising sun. Roy hears his white horse nay outside and claims that the horse is calling to him to ride him. His servant and estate manager are distressed, since Roy's dilapidated physical state makes horse riding dangerous now. Roy gallops off quickly on his horse with the estate manager and servant in pursuit. When he rides to the beach, he is distressed to see a beaching, broken boat, which reminds him of his departed family. He doesn't change the horse's course and, upon nearly colliding with the boat, the horse flips out and jumps in the air, knocking Roy roughly into the ground. Roy dies where he lays with his servant and estate manager standing over him. | flashback | train | imdb | The Greatest Film You Never Heard Of. At the time I post this, only 123 people have cast a vote of any kind for The Music Room.
What a shame.Satyajit Ray is one of the greatest directors of all-time and The Music Room is his masterpiece.
Correction: The Music Room is a masterpiece of world cinema.How to describe this movie?
A forgotten man waiting in his empty shell of a world.He spends the last remnants of his once vast fortune on a final, lavish musical performance in his crumbling home, a last-ditch attempt to connect to the pride and joy he once felt in his life.Not that he is innocent.
So we can cheer as he is granted one last moment of happiness and weep for him as he meets his inevitable end.How is that Satyajit Ray remains unknown even to many die-hard cineastes in the States?
WARNING -- PLOT DISCUSSED -- The jalsaghar is a great music hall in the mansion of the main character, a scion of a great landowning family.
When you read that Biswas was in real life completely tone-deaf, his creation of a music-lover is an astonishing accomplishment, both by him and by Satyajit Ray..
Just to appreciate Roshan Kumari's legendary performance -one of the most mesmerizing dancing sequences ever filmed, this masterpiece deserves a repeated viewing.
In the age of MTV and MP3, we are used to the idea of carrying routinely our favorite songs everywhere from streets to bathroom, and it's pity that we hardly experience anymore the authentic ambiance of intimate music gathering such as miraculously acted and filmed in Jalsaghar.
The decor and lighting of the music room is sumptuous and otherworldly, in perfect contrast with the wearisome monotony of domestic scenes the declining aristocrat is forced to endure..
A Potpourri of Vestiges Review: Indian master filmmaker Satyajit Ray's profoundly evocative film that pays homage to classical Indian art forms.
Jalsaghar (aka "The Music Room") is a 1958 drama film directed by master Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Based on a short story of the same name by Bangla writer Tarashankar Bandopadhyay, Jalsaghar presents the tale of decline of a feudal lord in the pre-independence India.
Jalsaghar stars veteran Bangla actor Chhabi Biswas in the lead role of Huzur Biswambhar Roy. Huzur is the last of Zamindars—a dying breed of landlords who once formed the very basis of the Indian Feudal System.
Ray had initially thought of making a commercial film, based on some popular work of literature, which would incorporate popular Indian music.
It was more of an art-house work than a commercial movie that Ray had initially intended to make.
The music of Jalsaghar was written by the Indian composer and sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Ali Khan who was encouraged by Ray to compose musical pieces that would gel well with the movie's dark and gloomy tone.
The movie's melancholic musical composition and sombre art direction—the sublime use of mirrors, chandeliers, etc.—gives it a Gothic feel in the vein of American Film-Noir films of the '40s and '50s.In Jalsaghar, Ray highlights the perpetual conflict of tradition versus modernity while simultaneously examining the Indian caste system.
Jalsaghar is widely regarded as Satyajit Ray's most evocative film.
Jalsaghar with its universal motifs is also the most accessible of Ray's films, especially for foreign viewers.
Jalsaghar.is an essential watch for all Satyajit Ray fans as well as those who understand and appreciate intelligent cinema.
There is also a great deal of entertainment in this film: the music performances are excellent.
I wonder if Ray found the best musicians of the region and gave them roles as performers in the musical soirees: performers playing performers.
Jalsaghar is a poignant rendering of social transition at the personal level -- the indigent aristocrat whose delusive and self-destructive obsession with bringing his music room back to life shields him from the reality of his family's economic and social collapse, and indeed hastens it; the showy nouveau-riche neighbor who embodies the rise of a new social order based on economic achievement rather than aristocratic roots and inherited wealth.
For me the most rewarding films (or any art for that matter) are those that are acutely mindful of life and death and themselves in the midst of it.
And yet these poets bring us fire and light." The same with all art, much of which this film epitomizes."The Music Room", as it is known in English, is as much about the power of cinema as it is about that of music.
Bresson replied -" Satyajit's Ray's 'The Music Rom'.
An old film but one that made an indelible impression on my mind.""The Music Room" is a film that led to greatness by Satyajit Ray's devotion to a single mood: elegiac.
The acting by Chabi Biswas as the crumbling aristocrat Huzar Biswambhar Roy, cinematography by Subrata Mitra and music direction by Ustad Vilayat Khan all contribute immensely.
The film adaptation of Tarashankar Banerjee's short story but instead of creating an exact adaptation, Satyajit Ray gave his own spin to the film, making music, rather being an interlude, an integral part of the screenplay.
In "Jalsaghar or The Music Room", Ray examines the age-old conflict between the landed nobility and the rich without pedigree, between those who dwell in the past and those who embrace the future.
It's a fascinating snapshot of Indian culture in the 1930s, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of an inflated opinion of self-worth.Set in the 1930's with the emerging nouveau rich, Roy is the last in a long of rich patriarchs, stumbling as his estate diminishes but clinging till the end to his refined means.
The story flashes back some 15-20 years to a more glorious time when the younger Huzar, with his young son Khoka and wife Padma (the realist/pragmatist to Huzar's idealism) was the class of his region, hosting luxurious concerts in his home.
Likewise Mitra's camera often, and nearly always in relation to Roy, dollies inwards toward Roy. The movement not only serves to honor the character and make us feel more empathy toward him, but counterpoints the film's maze-like construction.
" Music Room" is a very visual film -- there are numerous ingenious shots (the insect dying in the glass, the bliss of an elephant being bathed in the river, the joy of the servants reopening the dusty music room, the way the chandelier gets reflected in the wine glass revealing Huzur's states of mind , and the last scene where a spider crawls up the leg of his own portrait) and a stirring dance sequence.
The camera movements reinforce the character and highlight film's maze-like construction and Roy being trapped in his past.
"The Music Room" remains as a majestic masterpiece of a man's monumental effort to cling to his illustrious legacy and hold his head high when his feet wither..
Elegant cinematography, a perfect location and an elaborate set, and three amazing musical performances, each more electrifying than the last.
And of course, there's Chhabi Biswas dominating in the lead (although the other actors are excellent as well), portraying a man caught between his pride and the changing times, and suffering the consequences.
The film isn't perfect -- for one thing, I'd like to see more time devoted to Khoka to help establish the emotional connection, not to mention Roy's wife -- but it is quite magnificent and captivating..
In the fourth feature film directed by Satyajit Ray, Jalsaghar, we are treated to a magnificent spectacle of musical performances, Hindu dance, and a powerful film thrown some place in the mix.
Jalsaghar tells the gloomy tale of a landlord living in Bengal whom has just lost his wife and beloved son in a horrid boating accident.
Biswas is exceptional in his performance of Roy by revealing a side to the character of near-perfect emptiness in a human being; he shows us what the empty body of a man can become.The film is a decorative wonder to watch and hear to any degree.
Later on in the film when we are introduced to the many performances which will be carried out in the landlord's music room, the film comes full circle as an audio delight as well.
Beautiful Hindu compositions are performed in full length throughout sweeping-music video like coverage scanning the pitch-perfect vocalists on to the unique Indian instruments tooting away.
As the music grows to inspire Roy to overcome his grief, we grow along with Roy and feel the inspiration of the songs as well.Despite its depressing subject matter, Jalsaghar is a great delight throughout its in entire runtime.
Overall this is a must-see film for anyone with a passion for film, music, or both although it is recommended you enter in good spirt..
There is quite a bit that I admired about this Indian film, however there are also a number of aspects that, whether it be for objective or subjective reasons, I did not particularly about it.
The high contrast prints are good for certain scenes, such as the fireworks, but the feel they generally provide is graininess, which makes the film rather uncomfortable to look at.
Some scenes, such as the main character's son riding an elephant or watching a painter, tend to disturb the flow of the plot.
The last thing that I would complain about is however the final few minutes of the film in which performance is treated as more important than the character's reactions.
It's a movie that works on a dramatic level with its main character and makes all of his emotions and feeling come across very realistic and almost sensible.Of course the movie is not as stylized and perfectly put together as a big Hollywood movie from around the same time period but nevertheless "Jalsaghar" still is one fine put together movie, by director Satyajit Ray. You can really tell he is a director that progressed over the years, as he gained more and more experience, recognition and money to work with.Really visually this movie is being great.
I really liked the black & white cinematography by Subrata Mitra, who started out his movie career along with Satyajit Ray. It's a movie with an heavy Indian atmosphere over it, so the lovers of its culture will definitely be able to appreciate this movie, all the more.Simply one fine, effective little drama.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
This 1958 story is remarkably subtle, about the advancing age and declining wealth of a higher caste Indian man, a Zamindar (landlord), whose income from his inherited lands is dropping from the previous levels of his wealthy ancestors because increasing river floods have lessened his rentable property and income.
As he ages we see his memory decline, e.g., asking one of his two remaining servants, "What month is this?" before he presents one last concert for invited guests (and to belittle his rival, his lower caste neighbor, an included guest) before he then embarks on an activity which leads to his death.
Great examples of Indian music (but the closed captions on the DVD we saw had white type/lettering which sometimes was not very legible against its background).
Depicts the end days of a decadent zamindar (landlord) in Bengal, and his efforts to uphold his family prestige even when faced with economic adversity.After the box office failure of "Aparajito", Ray desperately needed a hit film and decided to make a film based on both a popular piece of literature and a film that would incorporate Indian music.
It was the first film to extensively incorporate classical Indian music and dancing.For the life of me, I haven't found an Indian film -- classic or contemporary -- that I really liked.
Music and passion without those to share it with is without value, dried leaves rustling along the ground and pettiness to win burns them...It's Indian, but I wouldn't call it Bollywood, it's more like Ingmar Bergman in its depth.
The story is about a wealthy man whose life is music and putting on parties for friends, but he doesn't really enjoy the music he just does it to one up his neighbors who he feels in competition with...
his wife and son go out in a storm and die not to return, and he becomes a recluse in his castle, and at the end of his life he puts on one more final concert.
The film is amazing as a cautionary tale, but I felt it could have shown some form of redemption in the end, rather than racing out to regain something, out of fear for his own mortality, more so a sense of humility and love for his family he lost, neglected all that time...
For me, I was touched by most of this film, because I feel that the power of music is both a symbol and a seducer; this is something I've 'known' in my own life.
If you are not from India and find the cast system an insult to humanity and if you can tell music from noise or hypnotic sounds, then you will probably, as I, have a more sensible view on this film and its virtues than an inbred Indian of the Brahman cast (the most privileged cast).
To attack the music in this film and call it noise is, I admit, to put your chin out.
It is a music however, that easily puts you in a hypnotic state in which some interesting experiences are possible as, for instance, a deeper understanding of Indian way of life.
Allowing lyrics to the music, the number of hours is, of course, much larger.Back to the film.
An art film of exceptional beauty that delivers a sense of the aging of a character that is superior even to, I think, that of Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.
That the aging that we see here occurs over the course of only four years and opposed to decades makes this film, I think, all the more subtle and remarkable.
I do not hesitate when I say that it is perfect, and contains the single greatest musical number ever set to film.
It amazes me when I pop in a picture made 50 years ago and learn so much from it, and am moved and shocked and carried by its honest emotions in a way that makes the Music Room feel so modern.
Satyajit Ray made "The Music Room" in 1958, a few years after "Pather Panchali" and before completing the rest of the Apu Trilogy and like them, it too is a masterpiece.
It's about the sin of pride and how it destroys the supercilious old landlord Biswambhar Roy, (a magnificent performance from Chhabi Biswas), whose idea of 'keeping up with the Jones'' is to squander all he has on musical evenings that will outdo those of his nearest neighbour.
Although you might say it destroys him Biswambhar is also redeemed by opening up his music room for one last great concert.This is also one of the cinema's greatest studies of obsession and of loneliness.
If "Pather Panchali" were not enough this confirmed Ray's stature as one of world cinema's greatest directors and it is a film that remains as powerful today as it did when it first appeared.
The cinematography, shadow & light play alongside the film's music combine to perfectly highlight the moments of elation and ultimate downfall of its lead character.
Chhabi Biswas is perfectly cast as the ageing zamindar oblivious to his world crumbling down around him.
The cleaned up audio does wonders for the incredible music & classical dance scenes, which feature a guest appearance from Ustad Waheed Khan.
If you have any interest in real cinema and even if you're not a Ray fan, this is one of the greatest examples of what a totally flawless film looks like..
The old Zamindar tries really really hard to hold on to the lost glory of his family through his music room (Jalsaghar) when there's no hope.
And finally in an act of madness loses his very life.I think, through this movie Ray has brought out something very essential to being a human being: Pride (mixed with false hope) and its power to drive a person insane.One of Ray's masterpieces: will definitely compel you to watch more of Ray's films..
Sadly, the economy of the Bush years more resembles the tragic hero of Satyajit Ray's "The Music Room," -- whose title and nobility make social requirements for him to provide entertainments, and whose patrimony make financial requirements, which he has no wherewithal to maintain: eventually he bankrupts himself to the very moneylenders he entertains at his home, to maintain an image only he felt obligated to maintain.
There are many places where this film could have ended, and it would have been a better film, such as (a) after the storm, (b) with the house in ruins, even (c) after the triumphant final performance.
The Music Room (Jalsaghar).
I found this Indian Bengali film in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I knew nothing about prior to reading about it, but I was hoping for something worthwhile, directed by Satyajit Ray (Pather Panchali, Aparajito, The World of Apu).
Basically Bishwambar Roy (Chhabi Biswas) is a wealthy landowner, or zamindar, who lives in a palace, the decadent manner of his ancestors, with his wife and son and his many servants.
His biggest passion, which his wife thinks of as an addiction, is music, and he spends a great deal of his fortune and time throwing lavish parties for the locals to attend concerts to be held in his magnificent music room.
Roy's wife Mahamaya (Padma Devi) and son Khoka (Pinaki Sen Gupta) are killed in a storm, he becomes reclusive, and closes his music room.
To be completely honest, I did not follow the full story as it was playing out, concentrating on the subtitles made this difficult I suppose, but I did enjoy the great music and dance routines that went on in the music room, all in all it a reasonable drama. |
tt0082307 | ...E tu vivrai nel terrore! L'aldilà | New Orleans, Louisiana, 1927. An enraged posse of men descend on the isolated Seven Doors Hotel deep in the swamps. They grab an artist called Schweik (Antoine Saint John), who is cloistered there. Accusing him of being a warlock, Schweik is dragged down to the cellar where he is savagely beaten with heavy chains, tortured with quicklime acid, and crucified with his wrists nailed to a cellar wall, despite his dire warnings of evil to be unleashed.New Orleans, 1981. Liza Merril (Catriona MacColl) is a young woman who arrives from New York City to claim the hotel as her inheritance. No sooner has architect friend Marin Avery (Michele Mirabella) begins to show her around the property, strange incidents begin to happen. A painter (Anthony Flees) falls off his rig and is horribly injured, coughing up blood and babbling about, "the eyes, the eyes." Dr. John McCabe (David Warbeck) arrives to take the injured man to the hospital, and offers Liza some sympathy. Next, a plumber, named Joe, attempts to repair a major leak in the flooded cellar. However, he is murdered by a presence that emerged from behind a slim-caked wall. The atmosphere at the hotel is further chilled by the creepy-looking servants, Arthur (Giampaolo Saccarola) and Martha (Veronica Lazar), who apparently come with the hotel. Martha discovers Joe's dead body in the cellar, and another much older cadaver lying in a pool of dirty water nearby. It is apparently that of Schweik, the artist.Driving down the 14-mile causeway to New Orleans, Liza encounters a strange blind woman, standing in the middle of the desolate highway. The blind woman introduces herself as Emily (Sarah Keller), and tells Liza that she has been waiting for her, although her eyes are occluded with cataracts. Liza drives Emily over to her opulently furnished house in New Orleans. Liza is warned by Emily to leave the hotel while she still can. Meanwhile at the hospital morgue, Dr. John McCabe is performing the autopsy on Joe the plumber while his assistant Harris (Al Cliver) wants to install an EMG machine to the corpse of Schweik. John laughs it off and leaves for lunch, while Harris remains behind to install the EMG machine. After Harris leaves for a call, the EMG machine begins pulsing with activity. A little later, Joe's wife Mary-Anne (Laura De Marchi) arrives with her daughter Jill (Maria Pia Marsale) to dress up her husband's corpse for the funeral, when she is killed in a horrific way by scalded with acid. Jill is then menaced by the re-animated cadaver of Schweik.Liza meets with John McCabe in a downtown bar to discuss her misgivings and anxieties. He expresses puzzlement when Lisa complains about he ineptitude of her weird servants. John claims to have never heard of them before despite knowing everyone in the area. Then a phone call from the bar arrives from Harris who informs John that Mary-Anne's body was found in the morgue, while Jill was found huddled in a corner frightened and unable to speak. After Joe and Mary-Anne's funeral, Emily appears again to Liza that evening at the hotel. Emily tells Liza about the warlock Schweik, who stayed in Room 36 of the hotel and about the supernatural underworld that the hotel conceals. The hotel was built over one of the Seven Gates of Hell, and Schweik has been the Guardian. Emily is about to reveal more when her hands wander over to a canvas depicting a desolate vision of lost souls in a terrible and arid landscape. Suddenly afraid, Emily says that the painting was painted by Schweik before he died, and she runs out of the hotel parlor into the night. But Liza notices a disquieting fact about her sudden departure: Emily made no footfalls on the bare wooden boards as she ran, and neither did her seeing-eye dog.The next day, Liza ventures nervously into Room 36, a dingy phantasmal of sheet-covered furniture and shafts of dusty light. She finds an ancient book, whose weirdly flesh-like cover bears the single word: Eibon. The closet breaths a cold hind of dark stygian realms from behind moth-eaten clothes. Liza tries to shrug off her fears and strides into the bathroom, only to be confronted with Schweiks rotting corpse nailed to the bathroom wall. She runs screaming from the discovery into the arms of the visiting John McCabe. The two of them return to the cursed room, but find nothing. Two nails are all that remain of Liza's nightmare vision. When Liza says she must have been over stimulated by Emily's tale, John queries her story by saying that there is no blind woman living at the house she described.Liza goes for a walk around New Orleans with Martin Avery, and they happen upon a old antiquarian bookshop. Just for a second, Lisa spies a copy of the book Eibon in the window. But when she runs into the shop, the book is gone. The weird old bookseller tells her that he never heard of a book by that name. Back at the hotel, Arthur is continuing his efforts to re-seal the hole in the cellar wall that Joe unwisely breached when he gets killed off-screen by unseen ghouls.Martin goes on alone to visit a local library in search of the original blueprints to the hotel. The strange librarian (director Lucio Fulci) leaves him alone as he goes out to lunch. Just when Martin discovers a clue in the Seven Doors Hotel blueprints, a bolt of lighting from the unseen forces of darkness knocks him off a high ladder to the floor, breaking his neck. Then, a horde of supernatural tarantulas appear and finish off the paralyzed Martin in a very gory way by eating his face off. Meanwhile, John investigates the house where Liza said she met Emily. But he discovers only a blasted, decaying shell of a house, empty of clues, except for one rotting item on the floor: the book of Eibon.At the hotel, Martha is continuing her lackluster efforts to clean up the hotel, and drain a scum-filled bathtub in Room 36. As the dirty water receds, the living coprse of Joe the plummer rises from the foul fluid. He impals the appalled housemaid through the back of her head on one of the nails jutting from the wall.Meanwhile, the semi-sinister Emily returns to her house which magically appears with all the posh furniture that was seen during Liza's visit. But then she is visited by the motionless, but menacing, figures of the recently dead; Arthur, Joe, Mary-Anne, and Schweik. Despite her pathetic pleas to be allowed to stay in the land of the living she is called back to Hell for she apparently served her purpose. Emily orders her guide-dog, Dickie, into action who attacks the rotting cadaver of Schweik. For a while, it seems that Emily's dog valiant efforts might save her. But with a mesmerizing stare from Schweik to the dog, and in a moment of devilish duplicity, Dickie turns on Emily herself, ripping out her throat in a welter of blood and gore.Back at the Seven Doors Hotel, Liza is suffering a supernatural assault during a visit to the cellar. John arrives from the hospital just in time to save her, but then accuses Liza of being in league with the forces of darkness. Just as John reveals from his research of the book of Eibon which he brought with him, that the hotel is one of the seven gateways to hell, a sudden storm erupts in the confides of the flooded cellar. As they flee to John's car and drive away, the hotel is seen lurking with the undead. The gates of hell have finally been opened.Driving around New Orleans, they notice that there is nobody in the streets. They arrive at the hospital where John gets a gun from his desk drawer, but discover that to their dismay that the nightmare has broken out there too. They run into a group of zombies that stagger through the corridors, and the phone lines are all cut. There are no bodies anywhere, yet no one seems to have survived the marauding undead. When John and Liza are separated, John finds his colleague Harris hiding in a storage room. John and Harris brief exchange of words ends when Harris is killed by flying glass by a magically shattered window, which impales him to a wall.Reunited, John and Liza find the exits blocked by groups of zombies. Corralled into the morgue, they find Jill there, and a fresh horde of reviving corpses. John begins shooting the zombies in the head to prevent them from reviving. Amidst the turmoil, Jill suddenly attacks Liza, her eyes cataracted with the stigma of the living dead. Jill is now an agent for the forces of darkness, as Emily had been. John whirls around and, without hesitating, blasts the young girl's face off with one bullet. A final appearance from the spectacularly rotting corpse of Schweik, drives the terrified couple down a spiral staircase into what should be the hospital basement. But to their utter bewilderment, they find themselves back in the cellar of the Seven Doors Hotel. Following a bright light emanating from a cloud of smoke, they walk through the large hole in the wall, and into a landscape of death depicted the warlock's painting; each horizon offering the same view of dead bodies scattered everywhere among the arid landscape. The porthole behind them closes, and there is no escape! John and Liza are trapped in the Beyond.... apparently for all eternity.Quote from the book of Eibon: "And you will face the sea of darkness, and all therein may be explored." | dark, avant garde, cruelty, gothic, murder, bleak, cult, violence, horror, atmospheric, flashback, insanity, psychedelic, revenge, sadist | train | imdb | A couple of years back (late 90's), I had the pleasure of experiencing Fulci's The Beyond the way it was meant to be watched...on the big screen at the Angelica Movie Theater in Soho (NYC) at midnight, in all of its uncut glory (thanks to Quentin Tarantino's Rolling Thunder Films).For a couple of hours, I was taken aback to the greatest days of horror!
The Beyond was his greatest Masterpiece, combining a better plot than most of his works, with the high quality level of gore Fulci was and always will be well known for.The Beyond starts with a Warlock being executed in the 1930's by a lynch mob.
The ending is as disturbing as it gets, and the deaths are both unique and horrifying (vintage Fulci).I remember walking to the subway station that night, still thinking about what my eyes had just seen (occasionally looking over my shoulder) - realizing I had been genuinely scared and disturbed by a movie that at the time was about 17 years old.
"E tu vivrai nel terrore - L'aldila" (or "The Beyond", as I fondly remember) is the beguilingly simple story of a cute little hotel in the deep South (Southern Louisiana, that is; NOT Southern Italy!) whose basement has an inconvenient little doorway to hell where undead warlocks, zombies, tarantulas and other creepy crawlies lurk to entomb man in darkness, death, despair and other such "D" words.
I tell you, almost wall-to-wall gore FX permeate this film and the blood-drenched sensibilities of director Lucio Fulci make every scene a nail-biter, gut-wrencher, heart-stopper and probably will involve sundry other parts of your body, as well.
After rushing back home to watch it, I was tortured (literally) with an hour of half of bad acting, bad special effects and an extremely confusing plot-line involving a stupid woman who unknowingly opens a gateway to Hell under the house she has just inherited.
So far, this sounds like a comedy, but I assure you, you will be laughing for all of the wrong reasons!While I don't exactly tune into a Lucio Fulci film for the 'acting', the work displayed in "THE BEYOND" is simply phenomenal.
For example, as always, Lucio Fulci delivers his gore and the first victim gets his face pulled off and one of his eyeballs popped out of its socket in the basement by a 'zombie hand' that thrusts out of a wall.
A man, whose connection with the main characters are never fully explained, goes to the town library to seek out the original construction plans for the house, only to be 'surprised' by a flash of lightning that appears out of nowhere (and for no real reason) that sends him crashing to the floor where he gets parts of his face bitten off by spiders.Some laughable special effects take place in this very scene.
How a horrific scene is supposed to have any effect when cheesy 70's pop music blurts out of nowhere is beyond me.The acting is atrocious, most of actors are Italian and are dubbed over in English, this is all fine and dandy but the shock horror expressions that they pull are hilarious.
Seriously, woman inherits old hotel, said hotel is built over the gateway to hell, lots of random people die for no real reason, the end.The deaths, people just lie there and get eaten or covered in acid or torn apart by zombies without even bothering to move or trying to escape.Common sense, there isn't any.
In one scene she thinks someone is in her living room and she backs into a corner and she screams and shouts...And screams and shouts...And shouts and screams...And so on and so forth for a good 5 minutes, "no, no go away leave me alone" she wails constantly, over and over for 5 solid minutes, it completely did my head in and was totally unnecessary.The scares, there aren't any, there is nothing scary about this film at all, sure, there's a decent amount of gore in the film but none of it is scary or even unnerving.
The music, acting and shoddy camera work see to that.As I said, I love early 80's horror films, The deadly spawn, Phenomena, Demons, I spit on your grave, The burning to name but a few, but The Beyond is a big pile of steaming crap.
Forming a loose trilogy with Fulci's "The Gates of Hell"(1980)and "House by the Cemetery"(1981),this gruesome bloodbath is one of the best horror movies ever made.Set in Louisiana,the film opens with a 1927 prologue featuring a Satanic painter being crucified and melted alive with quicklime in the basement of an old hotel.54 years later,Liza(Catriona MacColl)inherits the hotel and sets about restoring it.Little does she know that a 4000-year old book containing the prophecies of Eibon marks her new home as one of seven gateways to Hell.The atmosphere is so thick you could cut it with a chainsaw,the music by Fabio Frizzi is excellent,the set pieces are great,and the gore effects by Gianetto de Rossi and Germano Natali are really effective.The gore is extreme for example a poor plumber has his eyeball poked out by a zombie,an architect has his face eaten by hungry tarantulas who chew out his tongue,a blind Emily has her throat ripped out by her guide dog(this scene reminds me a similar sequence in Dario Argento's "Suspiria").Anyway if you haven't seen this cult masterpiece don't call yourself a horror buff.10 out of 10-what else?.
I totally disagree with people calling Fulci the King of Italian horror films.
This movie and those of its "ILK" are strictly for those who have an affinity for CULT movies, with BAD ACTING, BAD DIRECTING, NON SENSICAL PLOT and CHEAP GORY SPECIAL EFFECTS...if you like that sort of thing, then this flick is right up your alley, dont get me wrong, I LOVE outright horror and gore...the problem is, while 3/4 of the population ACCEPT the crap that is put out as such, I however remain on my search.
'The Beyond' does have a (Lovecraftian) plot as such - a woman inherits a hotel in Louisiana that contains one of the doorways to Hell - but that is basically an excuse for Fulci to string together a series of fantastic and frequently gory images.
These were clearly over my head, but only add to the greatness of the film.My horror idol Jon Kitley sums it up best: "Fulci isn't interested in a coherent storyline, with all the loose ends tidied up at the end of 90 minutes.
Meanwhile, Emily (Sarah Keller), a blind woman, advises Liza to leave the place as soon as possible."Seven Doors of Death" is a frightening horror movie from the master of the genre Lucio Fulci.
When you consider the other horror films that were coming out in the states around this time, like "Alien" and John Carpenter's "The Thing" it really shames Fulci.
This is the best of Fulci's three great horror films (the others being The House by the Cemetary and the Gates of Hell) which all, coincidentally starred MacColl..
He was a director whose specialty was creating bloody tableaux and constructing memorable set pieces that reeked of death and putrefaction, yet possessed a supernatural vibe that chilled the heart.Some of the greatest horror film music has come from Italy, and Fulci's musical collaborators, including Fabio Frizzi, who scored "The Beyond", have produced some amazing work in their partnership with the director.
Fulci's approach is quite literal in this tale in that he asks us to accept that an old house is an actual doorway through which hell's bloodthirsty minions can pass.The special effects are top notch, as usual, and we get flesh tearing, facial disintegration by acid, limb hacking and assorted grotesquerie involving the living dead.A must see..
I've seen ZOMBI 2 (another film by Fulci)last week and although I thought that film was not a very good one either (to say the least), it was far better than this tasteless and ridiculous tale, which seems awfully similar to INFERNO by Dario Argento from a year earlier.
A few examples of stupidity: a woman's face (bad special effects too, none of the victims seems to be in any pain when being killed) is getting covered with acid, and there are still large bursts of blood coming out of the face; lightning strikes in the basement; a man runs out of bullets, but keeps firing at zombies in the next scene; a woman is standing at the door when being attacked by a zombie, but still manages to get to the other side of the room so that there's no way out anymore; and so on, and so on...
An example of this has got to be when the eyes of some of the characters turn white for no apparent reason other then they have seen some shocking images.however the film has many things going for it, firstly many of the gore effects are very well done and are in fact quite shocking, especially where we see a tarantula bite the victim in the eye turning it into slop.
The Beyond (The UK title for this movie) is by far the best film that Lucio Fulci ever made.
I noticed that everyone there had their legs up on their chairs, scared senseless just like me.I had known of Fulci from Fangoria magazine, but this was the first Fulci film I had actually seen and I had never seen anything like it before (I had missed seeing Zombie because the person who was going to drive me there chickened out).I loved and hated these feelings I was experiencing while watching this movie.
It was a mix of fascination and absolute fright, due to the perfect combination of incredibly creepy atmosphere and outrageously well designed and executed gore effects.I was shaking when I left the theatre and vowed to never see another horror film again.
Fulci makes totally different kinds of films intended primarily for a domestic Italian movie-going audience, with foreign distribution viewed only as an afterthought.
Lucio Fulci redefines the word Zombie in this film about the living dead and the 7 gates of hell.
Lucio Fulci redefines the word Zombie in this film about the living dead and the 7 gates of hell.
The soundtrack really destroys the atmosphere and it as almost as though scenes are edited together just to make the movie long enough to be called a " film" .I think it may be time for the reviewer to give up on the Italian horror film genre.
The film is a part of Fulci's unofficial four part zombie series (the other three being Zombie Flesh-Eaters, City of the Living Dead and The House by the Cemetery), and for my money the best of the lot.
There's things like, well, atmosphere and terror from the Louisiana locations and lighting in those subterranean quarters near the 'gate' of hell, and, of course, the manic gore.What surprised me most of all though after the fact of Fulci more than proving himself as a near-virtuoso with the camera and moments of great suspense (maybe not quite Argento but close enough), was how scary the film turned out to be.
And characteristic for an Itallian "splatter" pic there's gore, lots of it, usually around popping eyeballs or close-ups of gashing flesh- the sepia-toned opening crucifixion is just one such fantastically over-indulgent treat- only with the Beyond Fulci tries out some things that gain their power from the cranked-up "what-the-hell" factor, such as the little girl in the autopsy room walking back away from the flowing pool of blood/whatever.The Beyond isn't for the squeamish, or for the easily frightened.
The film is really gore and I think we have the right to the best special effect of the master : Lucio Fulci The two scenes with the eye are very impressive.
Lucio Fulci is best known for his splatter films, and this movie certainly shows why.
I don't really want to watch that scene again.In the end Lucio did what he did to create one of the deepest darkest haunted house/zombie movies.
Joe's wife and daughter try to claim his corpse, but the mother has her face slowly — "Sempre così lentamente!" I can hear Fulci yell from his director's chair — burned off by acid and her daughter becomes one of the undead (zombies appear, drink three times) until she is shot by a bullet that sends her entire head spraying all over the screen in one of the most shocking scenes in pretty much all of film.
E tu vivrai nel terrore - L'aldila, translated "And You Shall Live In Terror- The Beyond(afterlife)" was released in the USA, with large bits of what little plot the film had, chopped off under the title "The Seven Doors of Death." The box art was compelling, looking like the cover of an issue of "Vault of Horror" from EC Comics and promising(From the looks of it) extreme carnage and violence.This was not so.
On the other hand, the hotel was called the "Seven Doors Hotel" or somesuch, so I guess it couldn't have been all too secret.We learn later that the man was named Sweik, because one woman(a ghost in fact) cries out to him for pity right before she gets her throat ripped out, in an only somewhat-convincing scene(yeah, the director was known for gore, but never really made it look all that real, except for two now-legendary scenes from Gates of Hell, which was something of a 'Part One' to this film).So all in all the plot is not the driving force.
The whole film, while not heavy on character developmet, plot, or even decent dialogue is very heavy on one all-important thing in Italian horror cinema: atmosphere.And Fulci knew *that* area well.
Of Fulci's 'big three'(which consists of this film, "The Gates of Hell aka City of the Living Dead," and "Zombie aka Zombie Flesh Eaters aka Zombie 2") The Beyond is most successful as an entertaining movie.
"Zombie" had nice makeup effects but the main attraction, a scene in which a woman gets a wooden splinter into her eye, is very easy to see through- you can tell exactly how it was done, and that's a bad thing when it comes to gore.
The ending to "The Beyond," however, was well-paced, well shot, the 'scenery' was great and you really couldn't see it coming(or maybe I'm just bad at guessing endings).So what it amounts to is this: If you can watch a movie without being spoonfed all the answers; if you love watching films with atmosphere as much as plotline; if you like violence and can overlook if it looks fake sometimes; if you like nightmare scenarios; and if you'd like to see what is hailed by many to be the best film of who is hailed to be one of the best Italian horror film directors of all time, check out "The Beyond." I'd skip "Seven Doors of Death" if I were you- get it uncut.
He was too dumb to work out that a head-shot might be a good idea.With characters this dumb, plots this pointless, and gore which varies between excellent (a man getting nailed to a wall is a sphincter clincher) and laughable (the worst fake spiders you have ever seen in your life - yes, worse than Jumanji), we turn to Fulci's directorial skills.
****SPOILERS**** Italian film director Lucio Fulci who gave us such diverse classics as "Escape from Sing Sing" and "Sins of Casanova" cleaned up in the box office with his 1979 horror flick "Zombie" that he just had to make a sequel and settled for "The Beyond".
The Beyond, the second film in Fulci 'Gates Of Hell' trilogy (in between City Of The Living Dead and The House By The Cemetery), exceeded all my expectations.
Fulci employs transitions that defy narrative sense, but still invoke an effect akin to taking the Warp Zone in "Super Mario Bros." In between the elaborate gore scenes (including a man whose face is mangled by tarantulas; a literal acid bath; a head blown apart by a gunshot, etc.), it should be noted that Fulci creates an atmosphere of dread with great skillthe suspense built is easily as impressive as the Giannetto de Rossi FX that concludes it.But "The Beyond," like Herk Harvey's "Carnival of Souls"(1962), is most interesting as a meditation on an imagined limbo existing between life and death: both Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) in "Carnival" and Liza are females tormented by a reality that pulls away from them at random intervals.
Fulci was able to create creepy atmosphere like in bad dream; once I watched this film with my friend who is not acclimated to watching horrors and he was really scared within all show.
This is one of my favorite Fulci films next to Gates of Hell/ City of the Living Dead.
I have seen a lot of Fulci's 80's horror like 'Zombi 2' and 'House by the Cematary' and they are brilliant.
I love Horror films, especially Zombie movies because of there tackiness, cheap gore and hardly Oscar award winning acting which just adds character to a film of this sort.
I watched "Zombie Flesh Eaters" about a year ago and since then i have been interested to see more of Lucio Fulci's work and other italian directors famous for horror.
This is a tough film to review.I remember back in 1996 going on the hunt for this movie after hearing about it through various horror/zombie/gore websites on the early days of the internet.
There are many...MANY people here defending the films of Fulci as horror masterpieces.
In the end...some pretty good zombie makeup, an interesting idea for a movie, but poor cinematography (mostly), bad acting, an AWFUL soundtrack, slow pacing, and a total lack of logic create what is essentially a cult-classic for snobbish horror film buffs.
Lucio Fulci's best horror film....
I thought that The Beyond was one of the best of Lucio Fulci's horror films.
I like most of Lucio Fulci's movies but a found this to be one of his best.. |
tt1135985 | Sex Drive | Ian Lafferty (Josh Zuckerman) is an 18-year-old recent high school graduate. He searches for a girl online making it seem as if he is attractive and strong, although he's sweet and unassuming. He soon meets "Ms. Tasty" (Katrina Bowden) and agrees to meet her in person. She lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, while he lives in Chicago, Illinois. With his best friends Lance Nesbitt (Clark Duke) and Felicia Alpine (Amanda Crew), he goes to Knoxville in a 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge borrowed without permission from Ian's arrogant homophobic older brother Rex (James Marsden).
On the way to Knoxville, they come across a hitchhiker (David Koechner), as the radiator in the Judge overheats. Felicia suggests urinating in the radiator in order to get to the next town, so they talk her into urinating into the radiator after her friends when the hitchhiker says he's empty. They only works briefly as they try to leave the hitchhiker in the dust. The hitchhiker, frustrated at Ian's lack of concern for his well being, leaves, but not before urinating on the car window. As Ian and Felicia wander to find help, Lance is waiting with the car as Ezekiel (Seth Green) happens to pass by in his horse-drawn buggy. Ezekiel and his Amish buddies repair the car while they join a Rumspringa party where Fall Out Boy are playing a concert, and at which Lance meets an attractive Amish girl, Mary (Alice Greczyn). The three promise to come again on the way back to do some work in return for fixing the car.
They go to jail due to Ian throwing a tire iron into a state trooper car, due to his increasing frustration after trying to put a possum he hit out of its misery, and are released after Mary pays the bail. Upon arriving in Knoxville, they find a hotel that sports a wide variety of role playing rooms. Rex, who has discovered the Judge missing, arrives angrily and insists that they go back and that Ian cannot visit Ms. Tasty. After Ian pretends to be gay, Rex allows him to see Ms. Tasty, hoping this encounter will change Ian's mind. Ian finally meets Ms. Tasty. However, when he tells her about Felicia, her seduction of Ian becomes a threat as her psychotic boyfriend Bobby Jo (Dave Sheridan) puts a gun to Ian's head. It becomes apparent that they work at a chop shop and attempt to steal the Judge.
Lance and Mary arrive after having sex, as well as a redneck named Rick (Michael Cudlitz) whose girlfriend Brandy (Andrea Anders) slept with Lance earlier. Felicia, however, is hiding in the car when Bobby Jo tries to steal it. Soon, a green car that has been continuously drag-racing with the Judge throughout the movie arrives. Ian manages to save Felicia, who then is able to run off and report to the police. Ms. Tasty tries to escape, but is stopped by the green car, whose drivers turn out to be Andy and Randy (Charlie McDermott and Mark L. Young), two dim-witted self-declared "womanizers" from Ian's school, who Ms. Tasty tried to manipulate into giving her the car. Bobby Jo is treated after being shot by Ian in self-defense. Felicia tells the police about the chop shop location and the couple is arrested.
Upon finding out that if Mary leaves the Amish community, she will be shunned, Lance refuses to come back home and stays behind to marry Mary, while Ian and Felicia realize their love for each other. Ian and Felicia drive to a tree where Ian throws his shoes up into the tree. A few weeks later Ian is Felicia's date to her cousin's wedding. At Thanksgiving dinner, Rex tells his family that he's gay. On New Year's Eve Ian and Felicia finally have sex, in Ian's basement under a blanket on the sofa. In the final frame of the film, a picture is shown of Lance and Mary getting married, accompanied by Ian. Lance is shown sporting a beard exactly like Ezekiel's. During the credits, a short scene shows Ezekiel and Fall Out Boy arguing over the fact that the Amish fixed Fall Out Boy's tour bus for just "a five song set" in form for compensation, referring to a running gag throughout the movie. | comedy, romantic | train | wikipedia | Zuckerman plays Ian, a young virgin with no luck with the ladies, a crush on his childhood friend Felicia (Crew), a jerk of an older brother (Marsden), and is best friends with an Austin Powers-esquire Casanova by the name of Lance (Duke).
Ian's character has the usual nerdy teen virgin-in-a-movie problems: falls for the wrong girls, takes few risks, gets caught in embarrassing sexual situations.
I don't want to wait til October, I want to watch it right now".THREE WEEKS later three of my friends and I decided to see a last minute movie- I looked up Sex Drive only to find that it was only playing in one theater in our entire city (Denver) with only one showtime!
In the suburb of Chicago, the eighteen year-old Ian (Josh Zuckerman) is a naive and virgin teenager that is mocked by his homophobic brother Rex (James Marsden) and his schoolmates; his best friends are Felicia (Amanda Crew) and the wolf Lance (Clark Duke).
When Ian meets a girl called Tasty (Katrina Bowden) in Internet, he writes many lies about himself; when she invites him to drive to Knoxville, Tennessee, to have sex with her, Ian steals Rex's GTO Judge 1969 and travels with Lance and Felicia.
During their travel, Ian and Felicia discover that their feelings are more than friendship and that Tasty is not who she told she is.I am still laughing with "Sex Drive" since this movie is one of the funniest comedies that I have recently seen.
The scene when Ian is on the stage watching the dancers backstage while a pregnant girl is telling her sad story is so funny that I needed to stop the movie just to laugh.
If you are intellectual, or if you do not like this type of movie, please do not spend your time to write bad reviews in IMDb. I can not understand how a viewer can be surprised with the content of a comedy that begins the way "Sex Drive" does.
Sure enough such sprawling pit-stops are usually followed by a series of great, laugh out loud bursts of humour, but this incessant need to fill up space needlessly makes Sex Drive feel like a much longer drive than it actually is.That being said, despite the formulated, familiar approach to this road trip story, Anders and Morris do well to capitalise on the stronger elements of such a narrative.
It's a romance that never quite takes off, but with decent characterisation and performances from those involved, it's enough to give the story a warm core that pays out with an ending befitting of your average genre movie.To watch a movie like Sex Drive for the romance however, is a bit like eating a hot dog for the bun; the real drawing power and force of conviction that draws you into the surreal, ridiculous world displayed here is through the characters, and the awkward, downright hilarious jams they get themselves into.
For the most part, the movie strikes gold most when the comedy is just thatcharacter drivenand it's always fun to watch lead character Ian (Josh Zuckerman) constantly get into uncomfortable, cringe-inducing moments of embarrassment.Of course, a lot of such moments succeed primarily upon the clever, rat-a-tat, teenage colloquial dialogue that Anders and Morris accentuate through their script, but a lot of it also comes down to the performances of the cast who bring their characters to life vividly and with shades of naturalism that brings out the script's modern, laid back feel.
Don't get me wrong Sex Drive is crude, rude, smart, and funny.My problem is this: I have seen it too many times now - really.If this film had come out 10 years ago it would have been great but not it suffers from severe retread.
Because despite some laughs, funny moments ( "amish") and unexpected action - we experience beautiful acting of Amanda Crew who didn't appear to me that intense in other movies before (like Final Destination for example).
She does not only look beautiful but acts in a very authentic way, it seems to me like she enjoyed the set, the whole idea of the movie, and the acting in it especially (though the film had its rather crude moments at the beginning and in the step-mother appearances).I admit that this was one of the best teenage-road-movies I've seen in the last decade.
A closer look at the character of Ian would have been great because during the whole movie he seemed a bit inapproachable, and we don't get an impression about his development of feelings towards Felicia, only the other way round.Summary: Funny movie with a very nice development in the end, and a fascinating and breath-taking Amanda Crew - worth watching!.
In sight that the main trilogy of American Pie was destroyed by the repulsive sequels made straight-to-DVD which had nothing to do with the sharp tone of the first three films,the producers of Sex Drive took an opportunity and they used it,trying to show the rude humor and over the top characters which made the first American Pie film memorable.And although they surpassed the level of mischief and bad taste from that film,they fell short on the emotional and funny aspects.Sex Drive is a very bad juvenile comedy which bored me very much and did not make me laugh with one or two exceptions.There is not one cliché which is not used in Sex Drive or scenes which we have never seen on another movies : the embarrassing sexual situation discovered by the parents of the main character,the intolerable older brother who tortures him (James Marsden representing the only good element from this movie...I think he was the one who made me laugh on the previously mentioned exceptions),the younger brother who has more experience than the rest of the characters and the predictable ending in which happiness is nearer than what all the characters think.With the exception of Marsden,all the actors are anonymous and completely unfunny...they never put enthusiasm to their characters.The worst element from this movie is that it is not funny,specially if you have seen all the sexual juvenile comedies which were made after the success of American Pie.I cannot explain to myself how this movie got a release on cinemas,when it deserved to be one of those pathetic juvenile comedies made straight-to-DVD (like Cougar Club,Pledge This,Dorm Daze and other ones which I have fortunately forgotten).So,I suggest you to avoid this enormously boring and unfunny juvenile comedy because this is not worthy of your time and your money..
This is NOT one of them...American Pie, Superbad, Roadtrip and 100 others I don't remember anymore are way way better, funnier and in some cases actually worth your time....The plot is easily given, the acting ain't good and there's just not much to laugh about that we haven't seen before.It's just a lame attempt of making a funny movie, failing all over the place.
I'll even consider reliving school detention rather than watch a replay of Sex Drive.It's actually the very first movie I've rated below 3 stars at IMDb. i know I haven't rated nearly all movies I've ever seen and some I haven't even never seen to the end and all that, but this is the worst comedy attempt I can remember..
2 stars because it has some very funny moments........BUT I watched the unrated DVD and I am not in the least bit prudish but this "could have been the 16 Candles of 2008" turned out to be the "Fetish Porno version of Road Trip" Sean Anders has fallen into the trap of thinking that if he shocks you with utter vulgarity, you will tell your friends and you will all go see his movie and discuss it behind bathroom walls.
Despite what I would deem as a glut as far as teenage sex comedies are concerned, it's easy to have seen one to have seen them all, but Sex Drive still managed to arrest some attention from start to end because the screenplay by John Morris and director Sean Anders, based on the book "All The Way" by Andy Behrens, has plenty of genuinely funny moments, delivered by an excellent fresh faced cast supported by unlikely veterans hamming it up.Like all road trip related movies, from Harold and Kumar, to Road and Euro Trips, amongst a lot more others, there's always your virginal protagonist who is luckless in getting laid, and the premise has it all set up for him to do so en route to his deflowering destination.
If American Pie has its Stifler, then Sex Drive's equivalent would be the unlikely and pudgy Lance (Clark Duke) as his trash-talking mad humping equivalent, goading his best friend virgin Ian (Josh Zukerman) on to make a half-cross country trip to meet the internet girl of his dreams Ms Tasty (mm mmm, Katrina Bowden), who offered to go all the way should he arrive in his (brother's actually) sweet GTO.So on the guise of visiting his ailing grandmother, Ian brings along Lance (who's in on the plan), as well as best female friend Felicia (Amanda Crew) who along the way discovers that this road trip isn't exactly as innocent as it seems.
The whole film I felt this way and and it was quite distracting, this may to some degree be attributed to the actors and Director failing to create believability and instead creating teen-comedy caricatures, but to the actors credit the three leads showed promise and could do better in a different movie.The comedy itself has a lot of preteen raunchiness that appears so often and so strongly that if you were to see a naked old man showing his gonads like in the movie "Borat" you wouldn't be very shocked or surprised.
The whole film I felt this way and and it was quite distracting, this may to some degree be attributed to the actors and Director failing to create believability and instead creating teen-comedy caricatures, but to the actors credit the three leads showed promise and could do better in a different movie.The comedy itself has a lot of preteen raunchiness that appears so often and so strongly that if you were to see a naked old man showing his gonads like in the movie "Borat" you wouldn't be very shocked or surprised.
I mean by teen comedy standard(and when i say standard you got to know the difference between American Pie and Epic Movie) this was really good.I really wanna shout out some of the funny refreshed idea's, but I don't want to give away any spoilers, I will just say that, Sometimes you knew what was going to happen (random cliché's) yet It's done in a way that still makes you laugh, which is where it get's its quality.Cast wise they did a good job, I think they gave a lot of control to the Cast, to be as funny with the scene as they felt was their best(Seth Green).
But for the most part "Sex Drive" is a pleasant Comedy, equipped with plenty of laughs, a good story, and an excellent cameo by Seth Green.Starring: Josh Zuckerman, Clark Duke.
Having a character like Rex, resembles the original Stifler character, therefore Sex Drive reminds you of a dull and copycat version of American Pie which sadly fails to live up to any of the classics.The film has a storyline which has already been used a million times before, however teenagers will continue to see these films regardless of the story, as with all teenage films; sex has to be involved in it somehow.Its the story of an 18 year old guy called Ian who meets a girl on the internet, he then takes his best friends Lance and Felicia with him on his journey from Chicago to Knoxville to meet her.
Along the way they encounter many situations similar to that of Road Trip.The film was an average comedy, not as good as American Pie, Superbad or the classics such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
And while that was the base line for the movie, it just Wasn't the typical American pie kind of movie at all.Strangely if I had to compare it to something...i would put it somewhere between Ready to Rumble meets Dukes of Hazard meets American Pie.The whole traveling half-way across the country strangely reminded me of the classic Ready to Rumble for some odd reason....just couldn't get that movie outta my head when i was watching this.It also reminded me of Dukes of Hazzard(2004) a lot because of the GTO Judge they drive and the car is seen like EVERY 5 minutes,lol.And obviously reminded me of American Pie because of the Ians older brother, he reminds me of the character Stiffler(Sean William Scott)They basically travel a lot in this movie, it's like American pie gone Road Trip with 3 friends, and a lot of funny stuff along the way, but its not cheesy as a lot of the other movies.I TOTALLY thought i was going to hate this movie...like NO DOUBT in my mind...but i was wrong....it was a really good redneck version of a teen sex movie,haha..
Sex Drive is a decent movie with some funny scenes and some good cast members but its definitely nothing great,its not hilarious and nothing I've never seen before.It reminded me a lot of the American Pie movie and I could definitely imagine this being one of those sequels.However the cast wasn't great,I did enjoy Seth Greens appearance,who I am a big fan of,and I also liked James Marsden performance because he seemed into that role,unlike most of the cast,and I didn't even realise until the credits that it was him.Ian (Josh Zuckerman) is a desperate virgin and meets a girl on the internet who he goes cross-country to meet her and lose his virginity.However,he starts to feel like he might be in love with his best friend Felicia (Amanda Crew)..
This continued until the end of the film for me.It's a classic stupid road trip comedy, and yes to all the haters, IT WAS MEANT TO BE A STUPID MOVIE.I'm not sure why people hated it so much, all I can think is that they weren't in a very good frame of mind when they watched it.I was in a relaxed mood, a little bored maybe, and was laughing through out the whole movie.Yes it was cliché and immature and unrealistic, but to me that's what made it so funny.HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for easy going people (with a GSOH) who enjoy good harmless zany fun!.
So, with his best friends Lance (Clark Duke) and Felicia (Amanda Crew), Ian steals his brother's beloved Jaguar and heads off to Nashville.There's some very funny stuff in this movie, such as getting a wet dream at the worst possible moment, or partying with the Amish during Rumspringa, and many other comic moments.
The Girl Next Door in that the previews make it look like a dirty sexual comedy but ends up being a comedic feel-good, get the right girl movie.Don't get me wrong, I laughed a lot during Sex Drive, but I got the same exact vibe as I got from The Girl Next Door (mind you I also rated that a 7/10).
Certainly.On another note, like Superbad, there really aren't any good quotes from Sex Drive to recite to your friends...that unless you really want to go out of your way and memorize Seth Green's unexpected, and comical lines..
His bullying brother was great, loved Seth Green in it and the vengeful boyfriend.Overall its pretty funny and actually got a nice sentiment behind the story, not just another sex film but there's these things called feelings involved (Yes I had to check the dictionary for feelings, they apparently are quite normal to have them) which make the story quite engaging.Would definitely watch again..
It's another raunchy teen movie sort of like American Pie, but it doesn't have as many crude scenes.Ian, a teen virgin, decides to take his brother's car and go to Knoxville to meet a hot girl he's chatting with online.
Basically in Chicago shy and naive eighteen year old high school senior Ian Lafferty (Austin Powers in Goldmember's Josh Zuckerman) is still a virgin, which is easy for his homophobic brother Rex (James Marsden) to mock, but he has best friends Lance (Clark Duke) who although being a little geeky gets all the women, and beautiful Felicia (Amanda Crew) who has been his friend since childhood but he secretly may love.
And Seth Green's appearance as an unlikely Amish mechanic is a treat.James Marsden is extremely funny as older brother Rex whose prized GTO is taken without permission.The biggest problem I had with this movie, though, concerns Ian's friend Lance.
There were a lot of great comedy movies in 2008 and Sex Drive was one of them.
Desperate meeting the girl, Ian takes his brother Rex's (James Marsden) car without permission and is off to Knoxville with two of his close friends Lance (Clark Duke) and Felicia (Amanda Crew).The story is very simple and easy to follow, but there is a good twist at the end that might surprised you a bit.
I loved the crazy characters and all the wild stuff these kids got into, I wish more films were made like this...I have only seen the unrated version and it was pretty raunchy at times.Josh Zuckerman, James Marsden, Seth Green, Mark L.
Also you can hear great songs by bands like AC/DC, MGMT and The Flys - Fall Out Boy actually play live on the film, I wish they could have found someone better for that Amish party.I almost gave this movie a perfect 10 rating, because it is that good and I can't wait to show it to every one I know...9/10 stars ....if you want real crazy comedy with hot girls, kinky sex, fast cars, randy Amish, old man testicles, hold-ups and so much more then here you go...I loved it!.
"Sex Drive" also reminds a little bit of American Pie, if you consider the humor and one of the characters in this movie. |
tt0091223 | House | A dettached house is shown with eerie music. A careless boy who hits the fence with his moped brings a bag of groceries into the home. The grocery boy (James "Jim" Calvert) calls for Mrs Elizabeth Hooper (Susan French), saying that he'll collect the money next week. the boy thinks he has heard some noise upstairs so he goes up, making a comment on his way -"yawk"- about a painting on the wall. He peers onto a room, and hears a soft thud. He enters on a second rooms and looks at Mrs Hooper, who has just hanged herself.At the funeral, the priest (Billy Bekc) is giving out his response. A man (Bill McLean) tells Roger Cobb (William Katt) that his aunt was not crazy. The man points to his wimpering wife, saying that she is truly mad, but not Mrs Hooper.Cut to a store where Roger is signing autographs to buyers of his shocker book - the novels Rob Cobb writes as supposed to be thematically similar to Stephen King's first horror novels. All the fans are a bit of a nerd/weirdo: the punk; the talkative spinster (Mindy Sterling) who is more interested in knowing whether he is married to Sandy Sanclair (Kay Lenz), the movie star, than in buying the book; the fan (George Wendt) who is disappointed when he hears that Cobb's next book is going to be about his experiences as a veteran in the Viet Nam war; the cheesy high-school football player (Jayson Kane). Roger says that he's now divorced from her, but the spinster keeps on talking about how wonderful and talented Sandy Sinclair is as a young actress. Frank McGraw (Steve Susskind), Cobb's publicist and friend, tells him that his fans want to buy and read the same type of novel he's produced before, but Roger insists: he really needs to write the Nam book.Back home, on his own, Roger prepares himself to defrost a pizza, putting it into the microwave without even tearing the package open. Roger stares at the blank page, so he goes to the phone instead, but the investigator hasn't been able to find any new information. Sandy phones Roger from a phone booth: she's lost a nomination to an award. Roger pretends like he's with somebody else in a party. Roger consoles her briefly and then mentions that he's writing another book, to what Sandy reacts with happiness. Sandy is sad to hang up, but she smiles to cheer the pararazzi and the crowd.That night, Roger is having a restless sleep. He wakes up with a nightmare: he is playing close to a cross indicating a tomb, all on his own, and all of a sudden, a rotten dead arm springs from the dirt. Roger wakes up in horror.Right afterwards, Roger receives another call from a realtor, saying that he's inherited his aunt Elizabeth's house. Roger goes to his closet and packs, in spite of Sandy's concerns about Roger going back to that home. Chet Parker (Michael Ensign) shows him around the home, which will be auctioned. Parker also sees possibilities in auctioning some of the furniture and bric-a-brac.Right afterwards, Roger is pruning some bushes, and his son Jimmy (Eric Silva & Mark Silva) is playing on his own with toy cars. A second later, Jimmy has disappeared, leaving the toy cars there. Roger calls out for him everywhere, Sandy goes to the door to help him, but the car leaving through the other end of the street looks to be too far away to have anything to do with Jimmy's disappearance. Roger sees a boy on the pool splashing the water. Without a doubt, Roger jumps in, but nobody - apart from himself - is there. All this is remembered by Roger while Parker talks on and on about the home. Parker thrusts an air-shotgun arrow at him carelessly. Both men stare at a weird painting of an elderly woman resembling the late aunt about to enter a lighted passage. Parker can't believe that the house has got an omen, as Roger says.Roger keeps on remembering - the police have no clue. Aunt Elizabeth looks a bit mad when she says in front of the police women that the house took Jimmy. Sandy runs away from the room crying. The police officers (Alan Autry & Steven Williams).Finally, being on his home at the house, Roger starts to think that he can hear something upstairs, and as usual, he goes to take a look. He looks at Jimmy's bedroom, and in Aunt Elizabeth's room, he watches her hang herself again. She encourages him to leave while he still can.Roger has a medicine box full of pills, but for now, he won't take any. Next morning, a dog is spreading all his rubbish. He watches his neighbour Tanya (Mary Stavin) jogging, an attractive woman. His neighbour on the house of the left, Harold Gorton (George Wendt) talks to him, and invites him to have some beer. Harold is a fan of him. As they don't have a pen there, Roger will sign an autograph for him later on.Roger goes back to writing at night. He remembers about Nam. His lieutenant (Dwier Brown) wakes Roger up, and Big Ben (Richard Moll) expresses his wish to be done with Nam as well. The Lieutenant is distributing Fitzsimmons (Joey Green), Cobb and Big Ben in attack formation for the impending one they are about to launch. Big Ben realises that a grenade was thrust at them. Shooting and mayhem ensue, and Big Ben stands tall to shoot the Nam soldiers back. He is supposedly killed in action at that moment. -- We realise that it's not only a rememberance; Roger is finally! writing the Nam war novel he wanted to write. There is a moment in which he turns off TV so that he won't lose his concentration.However, he can suddenly see the smiling face of Jimmy.He stops writing and goes to take a look. In old Jimmy's bedroom, he can't see anything, is about to peer open another door, but then mutters to himself that he's going crazy. Roger leaves, goes to the bathroom to take a pill and wash his teeth, but then decides to go back to Jimmy's bedroom to open up a door which he had left closed the previous time: there is nothing there, bevause it's an empty closet. The grandfather's clock strikes midnight just when he's aboout to leave. Roger decides to peer into the closet again, and this time, a monster is there. It attacks him, but Roger pushes it back and locks the door.Roger buys plenty of staff to build a monster trap. He dresses himself up as if he were back in his soldiering times again, and jumps out of the house, cheering to himself. His neighbour Harold asks him what he's doing, and Roger first asks "nothing", but then rumbles something about being doing his workout, and wanting to go back to the solitude of his home.He sets the monster trap, a photograph and video recording system and several thingies more. He pulls with a coil the closet door open, but nothing appears. He turns off his equipment, but comes back at midnight again. Harold scares him offering a midnight snack. Downstairs, Roger tells him that he believes that the house is hunted and he wants to catch the ghost. Harold points to Roger's divorce, level of stress..., but Roger is convinced. Roger shows his scars from when the monster tried to catch him. Harold doesn't believe him, and starts believing that Roger is nuts. Harold leaves after stealing Roger's phone book. He tells Sandy that Roger may be losing it. Unfortunately, Sandy has to be on the set at 6:30 the following morning. She leaves her day-time phone number with Harold, and then, she tries to hole Roger on the phone.But he won't pick the phone up, as he's wrting about the time when he, Fitzsimmons, Scott (Stephen Nichols), and another soldier are smoking during a break. They finally keep marching on, trying to hide from the enemy, and they realise somebody has been following them. He is writing that when he feels he needs to stop.A running toy car recalls his attention. The eye of a sword fish hanging on the wall starts to move and the sword fish attacks him. Roger tries to pick some weapons but axes, hammers, and other DIY tools start attacking him. He shoots the sword fish but his eyes keep on moving around. He tries to take another pill but has not time, as the tools bang on the door and attack him.When he goes to the hall, Sandy appears. A bullet falls, Sandy bends to pick it up, saying that she was really worried about him, and then a monster appears. Roger kills it, but then he realises it was Sandy all the time. Sandy's body has fell out of the home, but Harold his neighbour couldn't see the body. He calls the police thinking that Roger Cobb has tried to commit suicide. Roger picks Sandy's body and puts it inside the department under the stairs. When the police arrive, Roger says that it was a loose shot, as he didn't know that the gun was loaded. One of the policemen asks to use the toilet, and Roger offers them some coffee. He's nervous as hell, and everybody can notice that. Harold has also invited himself in to some coffeee. On the floor, Harold can see two more shotgun bullets. The police officer (Ronn Carroll) asks him questions about that.Later, alone again, Roger goes to tend to Sandy's corpse, but it's not there. He follows some closing doors, but behind him appears the monster (Peter Pitofsky) with a shotgun. the monster says that he won't find Jimmy as the boy is dead. The monster tries to shoot him after having hit in the back, but the gun doesn't fire. Roger leads the monster to where the flying tools are waiting, and they are the ones who killed it. Roger digs a hole in his garden to hide the head and the body sepparately. Tanya appears in a bathing suit, swimming in Roger's swimming pool!, as apparently she used to do that when Aunt Elizabeth was alive. They talk, and she asks Roger what he's doing, and what he's about to bury - the body of the monster. Roger tries to talk to her non-chalantly, as if nothing is ado. An arm appears from under the plastic rubbish bag and Roger steps on it so that Tanya doesn't notice anything odd. She is cute but stupid, so she doesn't seem to realise nothing out of the ordinary.Roger has to dig many holes, and he stares at the photograph of what once was a happy family. Harold's dog undigs the hand of the monster and runs away. Tanya calls on him with her son on tow. He's a nice boy, and the hand of the monster is holding to the jumper of Robert. Robert (Robert Joseph) is a naughty boy who runs away until Roger catches him. He has to bite onto the monster hand to release it, then he throws it away rhough the toilet. Tanya is in a hurry: she leaves Robert with a bag full of clothes, toys, etc...Robert cries, so Roger picks him and sits him down in front of the TV. Leaving him on the sofa of the sitting room, Roger goes back to write. there are animal noises in the jungle, but probably they are the enemy closing in. Big Ben goes to look what's happening, as usually staying tall, when panicky Roger Cobb shoots him dead - friendly fire. Roger goes to look for Robert, but he's not there.Three little critters (Elizabeth Barrington, Jerry Maren and Felix Silla) have taken Robert away, and are taking him up the chimney. Roger holds to Robert legs, until the three critters let him go. Roger puts Robert in a bath, and they start playing with sponges. When Tanya comes back, Robert is smiling and laughing, a s he had lots of fun.Harold appears again with some beer. Roger convinces him to help him with his fight. Harold is getting nervous. Harold is going to shoot at midnight, and it's Roger who opens the door. A big monster appears, but Harold stays frozen. When he reacts, Harold can't help Roger, who leaves flying with the big monster with a foot tangled on the rope.Roger feels he's back at the Nam place when Big Ben is about to die. He asks Roger not to abandon him in the jungle, wounded as he is. Roger says that everything will be all right, and doesn't kill Big Ben. The Nam soldiers appear and take Big Ben with them, alive and screaming that he will get back at Roger someday. Roger runs away amist the soldiers' fire. He runs to the light and gives a big jump to fall in front of the sleeping useless Harold. He wakes Harold up, who reacts startled and hits Roger in the head.Roger puts Harold to bed. He checks one of Elizabeth's paintings again: hidden with a dirty piece of cloth, in the painting of the elderly lady walking into a lighted door, he can see Jimmy from behind a mirror screaming for Elizabeth not to get in there. Roger recognises the mirror of his medicine cabinet; he goes there and pries it open, but only his medicines and pills are in it. He closes the cabinet and breaks the glass with a stool. There is a black hole which leads to another diemnsion.A tentacle appears to catch Roger. He frees himself and cuts the monsters with a knife, but then, he goes armed onto the black shaft with a flashlight. the skeleton of a dinosaur attacks him. He falls to a lake / sea. Incredibly enough, his torch is still working. He swims down trying to find Jimmy.On the shore, on a cage, he finds Jimmy, who wants to go back home but is OK otherwise. Jimmy tells him that he is coming back. Roger rescues Roger, and they emerge through the swimming-pool. They are about to leave the house through the door, but the skeleton of Big Ben (Curt Wilmot) appears Big Ben says that the Cong soldiers tortured him for weeks, and that now he wants his own back. Roger sends Jimmy for help. Big Ben enters the home and goes after Roger. Big Ben's ammunition is finished, so he throws his shotgun away, while Roger runs to the roof, and then goes back inside the house again.Roger takes one of Big ben's arms away, but he puts it in. The house now stands on the verge of a cliff. Roger galls and holds to the floor while dangling from a height. He uses his belt to throw Big Ben to the cliff.Big Ben appears again, lifting Jimmy by his t-shirt. Big Ben tells Roger to commit suicide or he will slash JImmy's throat. But a stab from Big Ben to Roger doesn't produce any effect: Roger is not afraid of him anymore. He takes Jimmy away from Big Ben, steals one of his grenades and thrusts it up between Big Ben's showy rib cabge. The explosion kills Big Ben and creates a fire on the house.Outside, Harold stares at teh fire. Finally, Sandy has arrived on a taxi, and she gets off with a worried look. Roger appears with Jimmy, who runs to Sandy.John William Young ... Would-be Writer (as John Young)Ronn Wright... Enthusiastic PatronRenee Lillian... Zealous Fan. | comedy, murder, violence, cult, flashback, absurd, revenge, entertaining | train | imdb | I found it scary and dark and mysterious and funny and i think i've added too many 'ands' to this review already.This is about a horror writer (Roger Cobb) who is working on his next book about his experiences in the Vietnam War. His Aunt seemingly has committed suicide and has left the house to him in her will so Roger goes there to work in solitude and is bothered by ghosts and his next door neighbour.
Among these were the House movies, which are a lot better than the genre reputation suggests.First and foremost, this is not strictly a horror film.
Monsters burst out of the closet at midnight, doors in the house lead into different dimensions and he is haunted by the memories of his best friend (Richard Moll), whom he betrayed back in 'Nam. Third, there is a sexy blonde, who bathes in his pool.One of the most appealing things about House is that Roger doesn't respond with any clichéd horror movie tactic - running away, falling flat on his face, hiding under the sink, etc.
It also stars a lot of actors that were more known for their roles in television rather than film as it has William Katt known for, The Greatest American Hero, George Wendt from Cheers and Richard Moll from Night Court.
The second film in the series would rely a bit more on comedy and action rather than horror.The story has a man named Roger Cobb who is a writer.
House was a marvellous excursion in the world of Horror Comedy and gave many people a glimpse of how to combine humour, drama and frightfully good scares.
William Katt makes for a likable victim, to his worrying state of thinking his going crazy due to the traumatic stress (war experience, missing child and marriage failure) or maybe it's the house and its dark, devious secrets preying upon his fragile mind.Roger Cobb is a Vietnam VET/ horror novelist that has tragedy on mind after the strange disappearance of his son Jimmy when visiting his aunt's house.
Truly one of the best of the 80's horror-esque films, House uses a unique blend of suspense, horror, and humor to create a quite enjoyable movie experience.
House is definatly the best film of William Katt's career(well known for his work in the Perry Mason made for TV movies) In House, he plays a recently divorced man who is haunted by the disappearence of his son.
Cunningham released the wildly popular (but highly overrated) "Friday the 13th" in 1980, and several years after director Steve Miner helmed the film's two sequels, the pair reunited for the 1986 horror-comedy "House." Still another hugely profitable outing for the team, "House" is a more family-friendly affair, blending some effective jolts, rubbery-looking monsters and a great deal of silliness into a tasty but middling stew.
As it is, those comedic elements are practically assured by the inclusion of George Wendt (riding high at the time playing everyone's favorite beefy barfly, Norm Peterson, on TV's "Cheers") as Roger's Gladys Kravitz-like nosy neighbor (essentially, he IS Norm Peterson here), and by the casting of Richard Moll (who was enjoying a similar great success at the time playing the childlike Bull on TV's "Night Court") as a soldier buddy of Roger's, and whose character is seen largely in flashback.
The film brought to mind two other movies for this viewer: 2011's "Insidious," which also features a father entering a demon-haunted other dimension to search for his young son, and (of all pictures!) 1958's "Monster on the Campus," which I'd just seen the day before, and which also shows us a man cutting his finger on a fish's tooth!
The successful writer Roger Cobb (William Katt) is trying to write a book about his experience in Vietnam, but he is blocked after the disappearance of his son Jimmy and the divorce from his wife, the actress Sandy Sinclair (Kay Lenz).
Aside from the two leads there is also a lot of really good 80's effects and make-up for the various demons who plague the house, including a monster in the closet which I daresay haunted many a little kid who happened across this flick back in the day.
"House" is a pretty nice cheesy haunted house story.**SPOILERS**Novelist Roger Cobb, (William Katt) who has a very dedicated horror fan-base who isn't very receptive about his new planned novel about the Vietnam War. His estranged wife Sandy, (Kay Lenz) takes this as a great sign of progress, and from her response, he decides to rent his recently-deceased aunt's mansion to get some fresh inspiration.
As the visions and experiences start getting stranger, he looks to other avenues to fight the supernatural within the house.The Good News: This film came out in the mid-80s, when it was very fashionable to have an amount of cheese in the film that will have an appeal to others outside the horror general.
"House" isn't completely bad,but isn't great either.Usually I don't like horror comedies(apart from Peter Jackson's stuff)and this film isn't also exception.The gore is virtually gone as is any trace of originality.William Katt is basically decent as a writer,who fights with demons in the house and the film is quite entertaining and relatively non-violent-good for children!OK,if you want a bad copy of "The Evil Dead" and "Demons" mixed with humour,you can try this one,just don't expect something really exciting.Not really recommended.Avoid its sequels like the plague..
For the first film, we not only get an extremely informative audio commentary from Steve Miner, Sean Cunningham, William Katt and Ethan Wiley, but we have a brand new making-of documentary which has all of those names plus George Wendt, Fred Dekker, Harry Manfredini and more.
There is nothing scary about the film, nothing creepy or even remotely macabre (other than the wardrobe and hairstyling choices, which are a whole different world of scary.) The film places itself in the "horror-comedy" genre, a dubious genre which has birthed far more bad movies than good.
Every genre fan worth their collective salt should always make time to check out this cheeky little off the wall supernatural black comedy.Back in 1986 when this movie glided onto home video I was just gathering my love for all things off the wall when it came to genre movies, of course back then my main preoccupation was any movie associated with Charles Band and his glory days at Empire Pictures.That being said, every so often a certain trailer would come to my attention that would more often than not strongly suggest that I should really check that movie out.So without hesitation, I devoured the movie, from certain pieces of dialogue, some seriously well staged set pieces and a really good soundtrack.A few years later when the movie surfaced on DVD, I needed no invitation to purchase, once again if you harbour any anorak ambitions, listening to how they came up with the story and how the movie got made is always worth a serious listen.Reminising just recently after my latest viewing, the movie has lost none of its charm, William Katt looked like he was having fun, I had only ever seen him in one movie previous, remember Disney's Baby Secret Of The Lost Legend?
Would he rather forget that one and cling to the memories of House.Or how about Kay Lenz, she who has the most amazing jaw line, should they ever consider a revamp of Doc Savage look no further, Ms Lenz's career highlight for me was the very excellent 'Stripped To Kill' which had hot dancers, a killer soundtrack and a pretty decent storyline.George Wandt as Harold Gorton I could take or leave, his acting style has never really amounted to much for me, as for behind the camera, Steve Miner was already a seasoned professional when it came to this style of movie-making and as his mentor Sean S.
Not just is this film horror but also it has enough humor to also give a viewer laughs and most of all the story is well written by watching the movie the story reveals the whole plot of the movie though it takes time to develop it all comes together in the end.
House is one of the better liked horror films of the 80's you can notice by the continued airings it receives on both premium and basic cable, I remember first watching House in the summer of 1988 and many times since I have viewed it when it shows on cable I even used to have a recorded copy put away.
William Katt is great as a novelist(Roger Cobb) who moves into his dead aunt's house only to slowly but certainly find it is a haunted home with terror and most of all secrets.
So if you haven't watched or want to watch again watch House especially when you want humor and a little suspense the cable networks both premium and basic give it many showings the acting is good so enjoy the 80's most underrated horror film..
Vietnam vet and successful horror writer Roger Cobb (William Katt) is quietly suffering after his son Jimmy's mysterious disappearance in the swimming pool.
Harold Gorton (George Wendt) is his nosy next door neighbor and his biggest fan.Coming off Friday the 13th Parts 2 and 3, director Steve Miner makes a well constructed haunted house movie.
The comedy aspect of the film is what really drew me in, hysterical one liners and situations, the special effects are really scary and Steve Miner hammers the horror home.
But during the last twenty-five years, post SCREAM, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN and many others, horror combined with comedy (where death can be funny yet still scary and final) has been commonplace, even cliché, and those movies were most likely inspired by AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and, for people in-the-know, HOUSE...Wherein William Katt's character, a horror novelist named Roger Cobb, is really more likable and affable than funny or trying for laughs: The perfect ambiguous pawn for what happens in the HOUSE he moves back into, once owned by his "crazy" old aunt, ranging from communication with his actress ex-wife (Kay Lenz) to flirting with a gorgeous blonde neighbor (Mary Stavin) to fighting a mounted marlin to strategically battling a jovial yet nightmarish "witch" monster leading to a formidable humanoid creature resembling Eddie from the Iron Maiden album covers....The best scenes occur within the HOUSE as Cobb and next-door neighbor Harold, played by George Wendt, investigate the two-story interior...
By day, Cobb struggles on a non-fiction book that conjures up palpable war memories of his personal experience in what was extremely popular during the 1980's: Vietnam...The flashback jungle sequences (featuring giant cult actor Richard Moll) look glossy and contrived, obviously filmed on a back-lot location liken to a TV show (MAGNUM P.I., etc), but the primal direction from Steve Miner is edgy, fun and full of suspense: He was a b-movie student of the film's producer Sean S.
Cunningham, who were both catapulted by the original FRIDAY THE 13TH franchise: Sean directing the first while associate producer Miner directed parts two and three...So there's a genuine and spooky, omnipresent feeling we're watching an authentic haunted house flick as opposed to a parody, and the severe main plot has Cobb searching for his son, who'd vanished in the swimming pool a year earlier.
A troubled Vietnam veteran turned writer moves into a haunted house after inheriting it from his kooky aunt.Director Steve Miner (Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, Friday the 13th Part 2) House oozes all the wacky horror comedy staples of the 80s.
Its characters all have purpose and there's a real sense that our hero - divorced former Vietnam soldier, turned horror writer, Roger Cobb - has been on a real adventure where he's grown as a character and actually accomplished something (a feat that many of today's Hollywood blockbuster scripts could take a lesson from!).While visiting his aunt in the titular 'house' Roger's young son vanishes almost inexplicitly, causing his marriage to break up and, eventually his aunt to commit suicide.
Basically, 'House' is a delight to watch if you're into 'practical effects' rather than today's CGI, for there are all sorts of rubber nasties trying to hack, slice and possess everything around Cobb.As you can probably guess, I love this film to bits, but then I'm a big fan of comedy-horror.
I grew up watching the Evil dead trilogy & hundreds of other creature features such as Critters & Ghoulies & Many Many more but never got to see any of the HOUSE movies until recently as i FINALLY found a cheap dvd on eBay on the first House (1985) & I've fallen in love with this gem of a fun Horror!!!
House is a great horror/comedy movie to watch.
House (1985) *** (out of 4)Roger Cobb (William Katt) is an author trying to come to terms with the disappearance of his young son and the separation from his wife (Kay Lenz).
Roger wants to use the isolation to come up with his new novel but it doesn't take long before strange things begin to happen.Producer Sean Cunningham and director Steve Miner had known each other since they worked on THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and they also worked on the first two sequels to Friday THE 13TH.
Pure Comedy Horror Fun. A divorced writer, Roger Cobb (William Katt) inherits the home of his recently deceased aunt - a haunted house.
Our writer has a son missing, an aunt who once was an artist that commits suicide, a past where he was in the Vietnam war, a divorce, a neighbor that is concerned about him and moves into a haunted house.Is Roger crazy?
How this movie was not horror movie at all, Its more of comedy movie and some of some stuff that this movie come up with were just way over the top and not funny.I did laugh in some place in the movie, I thought, I did find the Rubber monster really funny, no scary at all, I think I may have enjoyed this more when Teen and as adult you would find this really silly!
William Katt stars in the 1986 horror-comedy release "House" (also known in some circles as "House: Ding Dong, You're Dead"), a fun little forgotten treasure from the creators of the "Friday the 13th" series.
The film is very much in the vain as other horror comedies (such as "Evil Dead II" and "Shaun of the Dead"), where our hero finds himself in a serious, life-threatening situation (in this film, a haunted house with connections to a hellish realm that brings your nightmares to life), yet also is full of good, light-hearted humor, and is arguably appropriate for some families with older children, as there isn't much swearing, sexual content or gore.
(Much to the anger of his publishers, who assure them that the public is tired of war stories.) However, after moving in, strange events begin to occur- things moving by themselves, the appearance of startling creatures, and other horrors, and Roger realizes that they might be connected with his son's disappearance, and that he must face these terrors to get him back.There are also some fun, supporting characters, including his oafish but good-natured neighbor Harold (George Wendt) and a good performance by Kay Lenz as his ex-wife.
I have owned this film on DVD for many years, and although it isn't a movie that I would come back to over and over, it is still a great horror comedy to watch when you haven't seen it in a while..
Roger Cobb (William Katt) was just your basic horror novelist who's aunt recently passed away due to suicide as he inherits her house.
William Katt does a nice job as a horror writer who goes "crazy" when he moves into his aunt's house and starts to see weird things.
William Katt ('The Greatest American Hero', "Carrie") stars as Roger Cobb, a horror novelist who's going through a bunch of problems: his son has vanished, his wife has divorced him, he's suffering from haunting Vietnam flashbacks, and his dotty old Aunt Elizabeth (Susan French) has recently hung herself.
It must be put into the horror genre, but it's on the fringe similar to 'People Under the Stairs', 'Highway to Hell', 'Monster Squad' or 'Army of Darkness' because of the films' comedy/Pre-PG-13-esque feel and its' near-fantasy spin.House suffers from some low-budget/80's pitfalls, but all of the characters are likable, and it does have a great deal of unpredictability and wit.
"House" is like the "Star Wars" of the horror genre -- an innovative, thought-provoking film that will forever change the way you look at horror movies.
In an effort to turn his life around, Roger decides to write a new book based on his war experiences in Vietnam, but after moving into his late Aunt's creepy old house for a bit of solitude, he discovers that his past is finally about to catch up with him.Written by Fred Dekker, produced and directed by Friday the 13th's Sean S.
very entertaining horror/comedy has great acting a cool looking dead guy and lots of cool moments and a very cool finale although silly it is very fun silly so it did not bother me and the house looked cool and you have a happy ending a must watch ***1/2 out of 5.
Horror Writer Roger Cobb has lost his son at his aunt's house.
It seems as though the actors, with the possible exception of George Wendt, can't decide whether they're in a scary comedy, or a humorous horror film.
Roger Cobb is quite the interesting hero--the way he deals with the demons in his house is very odd, but hey, it's nice to see someone fight back in a horror movie for once.
Directed by Steve Miner I thought House was an entertaining & modest little comedy horror. |
tt1890342 | 476 A.D. Chapter One: The Last Light of Aries | After General Flavius Aëtius' Last Victorious Campaign against Attila the Hun, at the Battle of Chalons in 451 A.D. Once again, Order and Safety is restored within the Roman Empire. However, with increasing political power and popularity of General Flavius Aëtius, known as "The True Savior of Rome", Flavius becomes a threat to Caesar and the Senate of Rome. This brings the corrupt Caesar Valeninian III to eventually murder Flavius Aëtius, the Last of the Old Generation of Roman Generals. From here on, Rome endures two decades of intense turmoil and corruption, leading the way to the final inevitable Demise of the Empire.After 12 centuries of power, Rome finally reaches it's sunset, on the eve of September 4th, 476 A.D. The Eve of an Ancient Age, and Donning of the New Dark Ages. The last day of the Mighty Ancient Rome that once Ruled all the Known World, from the borders of Scotland, to the Deserts of Arabia. Flavius' son, Aetius Patrius Majorian, now a grown man, and a Commander of all the Roman Armies, gathers the Last of Roman Legionnaires, for One Final Battle of Rome against the invading Barbarians.As the Last Roman Caesar Romulus Augustulus, helplessly sits on his throne in Rome, the Germanic Ostrogoths, under their Chieftain Odoacer, sack the City of Ravenna, the last stronghold North of Rome, thus leaving the path to Rome completely open for attacks. With the end now inevitable, General Aetius Patrius Majorian appeals to the Senate in order to evacuate the city. However, his attempt is arrogantly ignored, as possibility of Rome falling, seems practically inconceivable to the overly confident Senate. With a popular tradition of holding Barbarians in contempt, there is a misconception of false hope and safety for the "Eternal City of Rome". This takes away from the actual real danger of destruction that stands in the way of Evacuation of Rome. However the cunning and corrupt Senator Magnus, aware of danger, secures his safety and that of the Senate, by proposing negotiations with Odoacer, following the usual tradition of Senators swearing loyalty to whom ever wins and takes control. While, at the cost of their own safety, the Senate leaves the People of Rome completely at the Mercy of Barbarians, and the young Caesar Romulus as a Scapegoat FIgure for the Coup d' état.With the Last Roman Stronghold of Ravenna destroyed, North of Rome is completely undefended, and the Ostrogoths finally do reach the Outskirts of Rome, ready to fulfill their centuries old dream of crushing the City once and for all. General Aetius Patrius Majorian is finally left with the Last of the Roman Patriots, including his Father's Loyal Centurions, to defend the City, Although forsaken by the Senate, and greatly outnumbered, young Aetius is surrounded with the Last of the Best, until the Very End. Thus One Last Stronghold remains to fulfill the Final Chapter, between Barbarians, and the Eternal City of Rome.By
Ivan Pavletic | violence, murder, romantic, flashback | train | imdb | It's definitely not the best movie out there, but when you take in consideration the ultra low budget behind its creation, which according to IMDb was at only 100k, it's actually not bad at all.
According to the cinematographic quality, from the very beginning, it is obvious that it is a low budget art/indi film, however once you accept it for what it is, it is actually rather interesting, and seems to suck you in about half way in to the movie.
For instance, the first 10 minutes, there is not a single word spoken, in fact it feels overly artsy and slow, and even comic in a way, however, it is very rich in imagery, which makes up for it's slow paste, and gradual rise.
Another element that comfortably surprised me, was the fact that at every moment, there is some kind of a soundtrack playing, is it just some barely heard ambient sound, or a classical symphony, there is hardly a second in the movie without music.
From the beginning until the end, the film never leaves its tempo, which it manages to hold until the very end.The film doesn't really start to pick up in its story until about half way in, which I felt was cleverly done, as majority of the new high budget blockbusters reach their peaks at the beginning, and then just ride that left over echo throughout the entire movie.
This, I find to be a grossly cheap solution for a quick money making gimmick with today's high budget blockbusters.
Here the slow gradual rise to its peak was rather interestingly done, where I felt the gradual transition in its tempo and dynamic of the story was original, in the way that it didn't use the usual formula that many others do.
While at the same time, never loosing its art experimental feel and style of the film.
This is something that I found very interesting in a low budget film, because very little filmmakers still manage to do this in a transition of the story, yet stay consistent to it's style and genre.Overall, despite the lower budget lack of quality in its cinematography, compared to many today's blockbusters, this movie somehow never lost me, and managed to keep my attention until the end.
Which for a low budget film like this, is very impressive in my opinion..
Spartacus Fan. If you like this kind of period piece and similar big stories like 'Spartacus', 'Rome', '300', 'The Immortals' etc...then you'll love this film.
By Ivan Pavletic, a great up and coming Denver based Actor who comes off more like a chameleon and less like a human.
Support Independent Film Making and rent '476 A.D. Chapter One: The Last Light of Aries' today!!
Featuring a terrific and talented cast, this feature film is set in the first century with great costume and production design.
476 AD: chapter 1 a great film that begs to be seen..
At a time when The Roman Empire was in its last throws of collapse, Aetius brought glory to its people.
Ivan Pavletic's portrayal of Aetius, who fought the Huns and returned a hero, highlights the reality of what led to the down fall of the empire and meeting an enemy on a battlefield may very well be the easiest fight.
The making of this film is a great example of why independent films continue to prove that big money and the Hollywood formulas aren't necessary to create a movie of quality and importance.
I enjoyed watching this movie and felt that it was a well crafted combination of talent and skill comes together in Pavletic's film, giving it the right recipe for success..
The movie sort of feels like a 1970's/80's TV film, and with the type of the shots and theatrical acting, reminds me a little of a low budget version of the 1970's BBC series "I'Claudius".
Possibly, one of the most underrated of his films, and other then the 1969 "The Wild Bunch", possibly the best of director Sam Peckinpah.Although the quality of 476 A.D. The Last Light of Aries might have been compromised by the very low budget production, its realistic acting and original mystique dynamic, definitively makes up for its misses as the low budget indi, which it is.
If you are a fan of big budget Hollywood blockbusters, then perhaps this might not be for you, but if you are a fan the European low budget art house films, then this is definitively a movie for you..
This is a big story that brings the audience in quickly and purposefully..
Ivan did an excellent job bringing this big story to life with great attention to detail and setting.
Though this is not a high budget film, it came across as a very professionally created film.
The costumes and setting brought an important authenticity to the production, making it simple for the viewers to connect with the story.
The film was shot on location in Europe, as well as in the US, which helps to set the intended tone for the movie.
Ivan is a very talented film director, writer and actor.
I look forward to seeing the next part of this film when it comes out..
It seems that the history of man is locked loop that keeps the man inside if your own vanity, selfishness and greed history is the mirror that shows us clearly that our present but our good if we only have the clarity reflector an abyss our limits to see just one step away, we bend our weaknesses and condemn us to repeat our mistakes inevitably condemning us to an endless sedition and human torture ...
Ivan Pavletic having sensitivity to delve into these issues in his film recounts story that the past is a clear window of life that still continue to choose the difference is only the loss of time that will never ever recover .......
This is one of those bizarre low budget indi films that somehow grows on you.
I bought it on Amazon a month ago, and didn't really care much for it then, but I decided to watch the whole thing again, and the second time I actually really liked it, and simply got hooked on it.
There is just something about this film that talks to you in its own hypnotic bizarre language, to the point that it made me open my Italian Red Malvasia wine.The film is obviously low budget, as it is lacking in cinematographic quality, when it comes to the special effects, and computer graphics, but that is exactly what makes it interesting.
Even though it starts really slow, at moments even corny, and just simply bizarre, if you watch it with an open mind, I promise you will love it by the end.
In an unorthodox way, it get to its own by the second act, as it catches up in its richness and novel like dynamic.
It sort of feels like listening to those audio books, only instead of the voice, the atmosphere is expressed through the collage of plentiful rich and colorful images, almost like looking at classic paintings, and somehow you just can't take your eyes and ears of it.
The film manages to take you to the Mediterranean life it self, to the point that you feel you are actually there.
This is something I caught right away, because I lived in Italy, which I try to visit at least once a year, and if anything, one thing this indi film caught very well, was the true Roman Mediterranean vibe.
I had a great opportunity to see this film at it's premier.
Everyone enjoyed it and had a great time.
The story meant a lot to him and think that passion was projected quite well in the finished product.
Great movie.
Great movie.
Great story.
I really liked this film.
It makes me wonder what it must have been like to live in 476 A.D. I really like this films sensibilities.
It reminds me of the way Fellini's movies made me feel when I first saw them.
I feel so numb watching most of the shlock that Hollywood is selling these days.
476 A.D. is the type of movie I can watch over and over.
Historical Film with Historic Story.
To see this film take shape was a treat, but when I got to watch it for the first time..
Great story line, & to see these guys do it on such a tight budget was something else.
Loved the feel of the battle scenes, really made you feel like there were many more on the field, & done with true style for a low budget film...Ivan Pavletic is a true artist, & I can't wait for Chapter 2 to come out...
let's make it a series guys!!!Check out Ivan's other projects as well, his film Tesla looks to be another hit...
I decided to give 476 A.D. a shot at the recommendation of a buddy of mine, and from the look of the trailer I was expecting to sit through 75 minutes of repetitive imagery, sub-par scores and stiff acting.
So while the film isn't necessarily devoid of all low budget clichés, its directorial direction is astoundingly clear, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone with an evening to spare..
My compliments dear sir Pavletic to the overall artistic impression of the film.
Once again congratulations for a great movie.Dragica Petrovic, Zagreb; Croatia adu-951-17475.
Love the historical accuracy and attention to detail.
Ivan did an excellent job with this film.
From the script writing and directing to the actors & settings there was great attention to detail in all things.
I love that it was filmed on location as much as possible.
Great job Ivan.
Make sure to look for Ivan in other projects as an actor as well as Director and writer.
This tragedy of a film is the most horrendous watch I ever seen.
A film that was shot with a early 2000 camera phone.
It looks like a someone mashed together footage from a renaissance festival and mixed it in with some shitty dialog that doesn't make any sense.
This has inspired me to make a film because if these douche bags can do it anyone can...cause it shows..
I came across this movie on Amazon Prime, and gave it a shot, based on the reviews on Amazon that I saw, and two thirds of people seem to either really hate it, or really love it.
I personally have to admit, I did not like this film, despite the fact that it is a low budget artsy experimental indi film, however, I can not say I hate it either.
This is an unusual low budget film, yet very interesting for its underground historic genre.
The presence of the obvious nostalgia for the old 1960's European cinema is very evident while watching this.
It is evident in its intentional old look, and slightly distorted type of sound, that hasn't been heard in films, in the last 40 years or so.Even the whole dynamic of the film seems to feel a bit distorted, seeming to cater more to atmosphere, rather then story line.
Hence making it confusing at moments, but enjoyable from the ambiance point of view.Although the style of storytelling is rather unorthodox, it doesn't come across as a deliberate protest against the norm, but rather its own path of story telling.
This I found interesting, because such type of a more free and no rule following approach is often seen in the Italian cinema, especially in the earlier Fellini films from the 1950's, such as La Strada, or The White Sheik, from 1952.476 A.D. Chapter One: The Last Light of Aries is definitively not your pop-corn flick that you will watch in a main stream movie theater, but its own hermit.
It is not a type of a film that is made by any fashion of the presently accepted module, but rather off the grid type experimental expression.
It is definitely an art-experimental type of a film, that holds its virtue based on its one of a kind originality.
Sort of like a modern art painting, painted in the moments of passion, that seems to speak only to the similar viewing minds..
476 A.D. an epic Roman feeling.
This film brings out a personal feeling rather than a regurgitation of history.
Unlike 300, this Roman epic is riddled with historic accuracy with the personal feelings that the director portrays within his vision.
Watching this movie, I believe it is safe to say that the personal feeling is nostalgia.
The director, Ivan Pavletic makes one feel like they are transported from the current era and placed in the Roman era.
This entertaining film is one for the ages, Roman and current era alike..
This is a true artistic film!
I love the artistic drive of Ivan Pavletic.
Independent film is a growing art form that needs it's place and 476 A.D. delivers!
This film gets to the real foundation of the human story at a crucial event in history.
The end of the Roman Empire and how it felt to those who lived it.
I am at a loss when reading the other reviews of this film...as if it is a masterpiece.
It most certainly isn't.The film is rated one star on Amazon Prime and I can see why.The credits, story-line scroll, dates, more credits are still rolling after 13 or so minutes!The first 20 minutes is dominated by extreme close-ups (head shots) of people...nodding, looking around them, smiling, looking shifty, drinking...no dialog, no explanation of who they are.
It takes nearly 22 minutes before one of the heads talks!The sound is awful, sounds like the voice recording was made in a cupboard.The framing is so close that the director didn't need sets...you simply can't see them in the first part of the film.To be fair there are some nice shots of the sun, the moon, some tops of trees and the sky...The crowd scenes are blurry, I think deliberately so that you cannot see who they are, what they are dressed like.There are too many fades, cuts and panning shots to make this a film that is easy to watch and I cannot believe that it took two years to film (reading the descriptions on IMDb).
It has the look and feel of something shot in two weeks.The main problem with this film is that the visuals and audio detract from the story-line...you concentrate more on how bad those things are than trying to listen and understand what is going on.The music that rumbles on in the background feels wrong and the continued crowd noises are too high many times...adding nothing to the 'feel' of the film.
Put simply, the soundtrack is mismatched and detracts from the overall presentation.29 minutes in and you get the first long-shot...with a bit of a set, but then immediately they go into unnecessary cuts of drums playing, back to close-ups of people standing in front of what looks like a false backdrop and echoing dialog seemingly recorded in a bathroom or in the bathtub (it echoes so badly).Unsure what equipment this was filmed on, but looks incredibly poor quality and not helped by the colour grading applied (or I hope it has been applied in post).There are close-ups of people talking throughout, but no sound or real connection to the story-line, more heads turning, cross-fading shots of animals and more cuts to head-shots that are simply too close.You get the idea...the visual style gets too much in the way of this film.Oh and the acting is rather stilted and wooden.
I cannot recommend this film at all..
This year, a swords and sandals epic got released that had clunky dialogue, cheap digital camera work, extremely wooden acting and hardly even a dash of historical accuracy, in addition to an extremely loud soundtrack that overpowered the dialogue (which wouldn't have been a problem if the music weren't so overly cheap sounding).
I'm referring to Ivan Pavletic's "epic", 476 A.D. Part 1: The Last Light of Aries The film is apparently a part 1, yet it's hardly even 90 minutes long and worse yet, it's hardly a movie.
For one, the film was made on a small budget and it shows.
It boasts overly cheap and cringe-worthy green screen effects, the audio editing is horrendous and the dialogue sounds like it was recorded in a decompression tank.
The rather unattractive and uncharismatic actors mumble through their lines as if English is their ninth language, but it's hard to blame them when the script is so paper-thin.
Speaking of the dialogue, if you love dialogue either that appears to have been written by someone whose first language clearly isn't English, or love cliché dialogue from films such as Gladiator ("Rome...
Actually, while I'm at it, good luck trying to understand ANY of what the characters are saying because it's so hideously poorly mixed A particularly bad offender is Ivan Pavletic himself, whose accent can be described as a drunken Croatian cyborg.
And it's obvious that there's only forty minutes of of intent here because the majority of the film is looped shots and stock footage.
Oh speaking of which, go on youtube and look at the hilarious sex scene that apparently opens up part II that makes the sex scenes in "The Room" seem like a Coppola creation.
One must wonder if like Wiseau himself Pavletic had any intention on making more sex scenes But what truly baffles me most about this movie is how on earth it managed to make it into any cinema.
It is completely unprofessional and looks like it was thrown together in ten days.
Or are people just afraid of saying no to someone whose head clearly isn't in the right place?
(Pavletic does rhyme with pathetic after all) or is the film business riddled with yes men willing to enable this guy's clearly delusional fantasies? |
tt0978759 | Frozen River | The film is set shortly before Christmas in the North Country of Upstate New York, near the Akwesasne ('Where the Partridge Drums') St. Regis Mohawk Reservation and the border crossing to Cornwall, Ontario. Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) is a discount store clerk struggling to raise two sons with her husband, a compulsive gambler who has disappeared with the funds she had earmarked to finance the purchase of a double-wide mobile home. While searching for him, she encounters Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham), a Mohawk bingo-parlor employee who is driving his car, which she claims she found abandoned with the keys in the ignition at the local bus station. The two women, who have both fallen on hard economic times, form a desperate and uneasy alliance and begin trafficking illegal immigrants from Canada into the United States across the frozen St. Lawrence River for $1,200 each.
Ray's older son T.J. wants to find a job and help support the family so they can afford to eat something more substantial than popcorn and Tang. He and his mother clash over whether he should remain in high-school and look after his little brother Ricky or drop out to work. To make matters worse, T.J. sets an outside corner of the trailer afire with a torch in an attempt to unfreeze the water pipe. Lila longs for the day she will be able to reclaim and live with her young son, who was taken from her by her mother-in-law immediately after his birth.
Because the women's route takes them from an Indian reservation in the US to an Indian reserve in Canada, they hope to avoid detection by local law-enforcement. However, their problems escalate when they are asked to smuggle a Pakistani couple and Ray, fearful their duffel bag might contain explosives, leaves it behind in sub-freezing temperatures, only to discover it contained their infant baby when they arrive at their destination. She and Lila retrace their route and find the bag and the baby, which Lila insists is dead, but which she revives moments before being reunited with the baby's parents. The experience leaves her shaken, and she announces she no longer wants to participate in the smuggling operation. But Ray, needing just one more crossing to finance the down payment on her mobile home, coerces her into joining her for one last journey.
They pick up two Asian women from a strip club for crossing. When the club owner tries to short them, Ray successfully threatens him with a gun. When she is re-entering her car, the irate club owner retaliates by shooting Ray in the ear. Shaken, her fast and erratic driving catches the attention of the provincial police. Ray tries to elude capture by crossing the frozen river where one of the wheels of the car breaks through the ice. The four women abandon the vehicle and take refuge at the Indian reservation.
Because the police are demanding a scapegoat, the tribal head decides to excommunicate Lila for five years due to her smuggling history which involved the death of her Mohawk husband. Surprised then saddened by the news, Ray gives in to Lila's pleas to go free for the sake of her children. However, running through the woods, Ray has a fit of conscience and returns. Ray gives her share of money to Lila with instructions for taking care of her (Ray's) sons and seeing through purchase plans for a trailer home. Ray and the illegal immigrants are surrendered to the police and a trooper speculates she will have to serve four months in jail. Ray calls her son T.J. to explain what has happened.
Lila pushes her way into her mother-in-law's home and reclaims her infant son. She and the baby show up at the Eddy trailer while T.J. is still on the phone with his jailed mother. In a day scene, T.J. completes the welding of a bicycle-propelled carousel bearing his younger brother and Lila's strapped in baby. He pedals the carousel while Lila smiles on. A truck nears carrying the new trailer home. | suspenseful | train | wikipedia | The town where Frozen River takes place is Massena, New York, a few miles from the Canadian border in the middle of a Mohawk reservation, and in the winter it's every bit as cold and grey as the film depicts.
'Frozen River' is a grim little tale of a middle aged woman (Melissa Leo)who's good for nothing, substance abusing,gambler husband has left her & their two sons for points unknown (only after usurping all of the money from the bank--and this,just a week before Christmas).
Courtney Hunt's début feature, "Frozen River", winner of this year's Sundance's Grand Jury Prize, is as tense as a great thriller should be, and also a heartfelt, poignant drama.Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) was just abandoned by her druggie husband, having to take care of their two kids and pay for their house alone (otherwise, they'll be evicted).
With her minimum wage job at a local store, Ray can't make enough money, but chance will introduce her to a young Mohawk, Lila (Misty Upham), who smuggles illegal immigrants across the frozen St. Lawrence River (between New York State and Québec), and both will be forced to risk a lot in order to get the money they need.Hunt's writing/directing is secure and reveals a very promising talent, but the film's major strength is the extraordinary performances of the lead actresses, in particular Melissa Leo ("21 Grams", "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada"), magnificent character actress turned lead.
She manages to hold her own with Leo. Her lack of experience as an actress in contrast to Leo's filmography may be what has worked for her as a single mother who is rather young and new to motherhood while Ray is someone with two kids (one of whom is a 15 year old).In 'Frozen River' the broken American dream is broken but one has to survive.
Melissa Leo and Misty Upham perform two innocent and mature women driven into the crime world after desperation.Frozen River carries a vital independent spirit that even though the value of contents of the film is so unassuming, it brings in both sentimental and intellectual prestige.
As a result Melissa Leo, who plays the mother, begins to smuggle illegal immigrants across the border to make money.Melissa Leo's performance in this movie is very good but hard to watch.
In Massena, New York, nearby a Mohawk Reservation and the Canadian border, the middle-aged Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) is left by her husband a couple of days before Christmas.
Lila lures her telling that she has a buyer for the vehicle, but she actually wants to use the large trunk to smuggler illegal immigrants from Canada into the United States through a frozen river in the Mohawk Reservation.
"Frozen River" is an overrated little movie with a realistic and depressing story of two women that smuggle people to raise money to support their families.
Melissa Leo has a stunning performance in the role of a desperate mother that is going to lose the house she has dreamed to raise her sons after her addicted husband stealing the family savings.
Driving over the frozen water of the title allows Ray Eddy (veteran actress Melissa Leo) temporarily to earn quick money by smuggling illegals into the US with the grudging assistance of a young Mohawk woman called Lila (Misty Upham), who's done it before.
"Frozen River" is an example of what great indie film making is all about.Instead of special effects and outrageous plot twists, we are shown real people caught up in some of the significant issues of life.First let me say that the acting by Melissa Leo, and especially Misty Upham is superb.
It's a bleak indie film about struggling to survive.I found it well written with strong performances by Melissa Leo & Charlie McDermott.The movie was very moody with some intense scenes and generated a strong emotional response for me.
It went on to win many other awards and even received two Academy Award nominations for best lead performance from Melissa Leo and for original screenplay written by Courtney Hunt who also directed this grim indie film.
The first was for writer-director Courtney Hunt's original screenplay, and the second was a best actress nod for Melissa Leo. Finally catching up with this film, as the first in my "SHITTY Christmas!" series, I'm firstly left bemused as to why the Academy were so impressed with the clunky script, and secondly, angry that Leo's staggering performance didn't get the gong it deserved.Set on the snowbound American side of the New York/Quebec border, Leo plays the fatigued shop assistant Ray, with a ballsy, pugnacious streak.
Whenever Melissa Leo isn't in the frame, Frozen River is too dour to be entertaining, and everything ends up grinding to a halt.Fortunately enough, Hunt is aware that Leo really is the star of the movie, giving her the respect, creative license and screen time she deserves to pull off one astonishing breakthrough performance.
"The greatest poverty is not to live In a physical world, to feel that one's desire Is too difficult to tell from despair." Wallace StevensHaving just previewed the ersatz horror film, Baghead, I was not prepared for a true horror drama set in the bleak New York/Canada border: Frozen River.
It's a social/realist indie that depicts with simple storytelling the harrowing experience of a single mom, Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo), smuggling aliens from Canada to the US.Rarely will anyone see as authentic a presentation of the quiet desperation of the impoverished making it through a Christmas, in this case with three young boys to please.
The white Ray with her five and fifteen year old boys and Mohawk Lila (Misty Upham) with her baby join together to make quick money smuggling aliens over a treacherous, borderless, remote, and frozen section of the St. Lawrence River leading to Quebec.
Melissa Leo earned a richly deserved Best Actress nomination for her stunning work in "Frozen River" playing a woman in upstate New York who's so down-on-her-luck that she resorts to smuggling illegal aliens across the border as a means of paying her bills.
Recently abandoned by her ne'er-do-well, compulsive gambler husband and desperate for money to support herself and the two young sons she is struggling to raise, Ray agrees to drive immigrants across the frozen St. Lawrence River that separates the United States from Canada.
But in "Frozen River," writer/director Courtney Hunt shows us what it is like for people who are forced to live paycheck to paycheck, worrying about where their next meal is coming from or how they'll be able to afford presents for their children at Christmas - and for whom happiness might well come in the form of an upgraded doublewide mobile home with a good padding of insulation and a Jacuzzi built right into the middle.
Frozen River is more than just a film or a work of art, it is a fine portrayal of the tough way of life.An all together moving piece of art is only accompanied by Oscar worthy performances, which Leo seemed to nail on the nose.
When her husband disappears with the family's money, Ray joins up with Lila (Misty Upham), a Mohawk woman, and they start transporting illegal immigrants across the US-Canada border.Almost every scene in this movie tenses the viewer up.
Two single mothers - the white Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) and the Mohawk Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham) - become unlikely allies in a struggle to provide for their kids in this unusual and moving tale both written and directed by Courtney Hunt.
Melissa Leo and Misty Upham star as Ray Eddy and Lila Littlewolf, two struggling single mothers in 2008's "Frozen River." They form an unfriendly alliance to make money by smuggling illegal immigrants into the USA via the Mohawk Reservation on the border of New York and Quebec.
Later, when something mind-blowing happens, Ray tells Lila that she did something really amazing, but Lila openly admits, "It wasn't me; it was the Creator." I mentioned the questionable acting of some of the Native cast members, but I'd rather have weak acting with real Natives than great acting with people pretending to be Natives.The film runs 97 minutes and was shot in Plattsburgh, New York, Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.GRADE: B+.
In 'Frozen River', debut director Courtney Hunt's tough-minded story about life beyond the safety net, an impoverished and fiery mother (well-played by Melissa Leo) gets involved in a people-smuggling operation on the U.S.-Candian border.
The Eddy family are one very much on the edge; a later altercation with a descendant of the Native American's whose land centuries ago this once was, named Lila Littlewolf (Upham), sees Ray put a bullet square into the entrance door to her trailer home, this following some aggravation – we get the feeling six months ago, it may very well have been a warning shot into the air but that sense of her being well past that point of 'warning' has arrived, that here and now at this new level of agitation is the plateau upon which she now resides.The film will come to follow these two and their uneasy alliance, an element to any film which when executed with the sort of bravado and effectiveness as is rather demonstrated here, can make for some fascinating viewing.
Lila, a mere bingo house worker patrolling the floors and the player's little-to-no bingo playing activity, the film coming to reveal lives an equally dishevelled lifestyle in rather humble shack-like conditions; somebody whom is additionally devoid of a husband but very much with that out-casted, hermit-like existence similar to that of Ray. Their duty, as perpetrated by some local indigenous people whom Lila knows, is to smuggle people across the aforementioned border with what the instigators claim is within legality but was always ambiguous in its criminality, for large amounts of money; the zone through which they must journey is the titular frozen river, a stretch of icy nothingness doubling up as a moral grey zone neatly capturing the nature of Ray and Lila's activities; a zone devoid of most things and set well away from the confines of whatever passes for civilisation.
The film additionally makes use of Ray's infant son and his desperate pleas for a set of small, metallic cars with which he can play; Frozen River utilising such a notion or potential event without really exploiting such a child-like and innocent desire whilst keeping us wholly aware that if its lead does indeed get away with what it is she's doing, these two realities will be able to come to fruition.
Also, Melissa Leo packs in a winning performance, that makes this difficult story even more intriguing.'Frozen River' focuses on two working-class women who smuggle illegal immigrants in the trunk of a car from Canada to the U.S in order to make ends meet.'Frozen River' is a disturbing story, and Courtney Hunt's writing & direction never runs away from that fact.
Frozen river's driving forces are the two magnificent performances by Melissa Leo and Misty Upham who play women bound by desperation, attempting hopelessly to find a better life for tomorrow.
As a good little IMDb member with a near unquenchable curiosity for the people behind shows,I found myself looking up her resume--it seemed as of about 2007,it appeared that the amount of running material about her was kinda sparse--and found out that,on the contrary,she's been doing A LOT of movies(as well as quite a few guest spots on TV)of late,just that many of them were not commercially very well-received or promoted.The steady,rising good word on this film,coupled with Miss Leo's Oscar nomination for Best Actress,ratchet up my interest in this show,but had been convinced that due to the lack of publicity or common knowledge of this show,that I'd probably not get to see this until WELL after award season.
Ray Addy(Leo,earning her award nod and,though I have yet to see 60%of the Best Actress academy noms,I still feel like this performance could stand up to any and all of them)works a tough,low-paying job for lots of hours and takes care of her two sons,one a teen,one still a grade-schooler,in upstate,border town New York.
When her worthless husband(ex?)runs off with the money she's saving for,among other things,buying a new custom-built home,her pursuit of the cad will have her crossing paths with Lila Littlewolf(Misty Upham,also very good here),a socially-awkward misfit who has gotten adept at smuggling illegals in though the U.S./Canadian border.
Whether it's Ray, the single mom who lives in a trailer on the U.S. Canada border and works in a dollar story, or an immigrant family trying to smuggle their child into the U.S., or a native American whose baby has been taken away from her, all share the hope for a better future for their kids.The actors in this are amazing, and bring you into a world most of us know little about including life on an Indian reservation and the business of smuggling immigrants into this country.
Academy Award Best Actress nominee Melissa Leo does deliver a robust performance as Ray Eddy, a northern New York mother of two boys living a poverty life in a beat-up trailer.
Ray does not win no lotto but she does encounter Lila (Misty Upham), a young Mohawk Indian woman who offers her an opportunity to drive & smuggle illegal immigrants from the Quebec-New York border in exchange for nice cashola payoff.
Frozen River (2008)**** (out of 4)Melissa Loe plays the mother of two who has her husband leave her days before Christmas with the money they had been saving for a new double-wide trailer.
It doesn't exactly scream "distribute me as a major motion picture." Then again, those who give "Frozen River" a chance will be incredibly impressed and fascinated with an independent drama unlike any other.Oscar-nominated actress Melissa Leo, whose done numerous small projects/roles in the past, gives a strong performance as Ray Eddy, a mother working at minimum wage to support two kids, a teenager and a 5-year-old, whose gambling-addicted husband has run out on them again, leaving them with nothing to live on.
In search of her husband, she has a run in with a young woman (Misty Upham) on the local Mohawk Reservation who pulls her into the profitable world of smuggling Asian illegals across the border via driving over the river which is frozen in winter.
Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) finds a way to survive and feed her children more than popcorn and Tang, along with helping them deal with their father's absence.She hooks up with Lila Littlejohn (Misty Upham), a Mohawk who lives alone, claiming her mother-in-law stole her child.
"Frozen River," written and directed by Courtney Hunt, is a minimalist film about a hard luck middle aged white woman (Melissa Leo) who comes together with a Mohawk woman (Misty Upham) in a criminal enterprise -- smuggling aliens into the U.S. from Canada across the "frozen river" in the dead of winter.
She sees the ever-growing ambivalence and frustration in her older son, knowing he can help make money, yet constantly shot down as he must finish school; the youthful exuberance in young son Ricky as the dream of a real home may be taken away, but all he can see is that Santa will make it happen; and the fact that her husband is all but done with their family, seeing their money as a way to extend his gambling habit, not as a future within reach.While Leo has been lauded over the most, with good reason as she is fantastic, (hopefully this may be her Love Liza, the film that finally gave Oscar-regular Philip Seymour Hoffman his first starring role), but I can't stop thinking about Upham's performance.
If anything, Frozen River is the kind of "story for women" that could be considered too *good* for the likes of their work.This is not to say I found the movie perfect or entirely one of the year's best.
Overall "Frozen River" I have to say was one of the 2008 surprise hits and probably one of the better films made in 08, even though it's message is that of illegal trade it shows that you feel for a poor mother proving people will do anything for money and a better way of living..
In this film, Melissa Leo bares the rough, tough life of Ray Eddy whose husband Troy has left her and their two sons, T.J. and Ricky right before Christmas.
It's an original story: Ray (played by Melissa Leo), a mother of two children has just had her gambler husband run off with the down payment on a new trailer she was in the process of purchasing.
Ray drives her car with Lila over the frozen river inside the Mohawk Reservation and picks up the illegal aliens on the other side of the border and then drives them back to New York.Right away I had a hard time buying that the gambler husband would simply abandon his family.
The illegal immigrant dispute between the U.S. and Mexico has been such a hot-button topic lately that I never think about illegal immigration being a problem between the U.S. and Canada."Frozen River" uses that very issue as a backdrop for its story about a desperate single mother (Melissa Leo) in upstate New York who turns to illegal smuggling as a means for making money to buy her and her two sons a new home.
Written and directed by Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River" stars Melissa Leo as Ray Eddy, an impoverished woman who lives with her two sons in a dilapidated trailer in upper state New York.
It's a quiet story of mostly quiet moments that will touch you if you open your heart to it.Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) is a woman who looks like she's lived a rough life and still is.
The cops eventually tumble into Ray and Lila's scheme and one of these women will have to sacrifice herself for the other and her family.Frozen River is a good little movie that focuses on a few weeks in the life of working class America. |
tt0251075 | Evolution | A meteor falls to Earth. At the same moment, a young man called Wayne Grey (Seann William Scott) is pretending that his mother has burned the house down because of falling sleep while smoking in bed. The mother is a dummy. He sees the meteor fall and runs away, runs because the meteor fell right over his car, leaving a huge crater.Cut to GLEN CANYON COMMINUTY COLLEGE, in the morningDr Ira Kane (David Duchovny) is a professor who has just given almost all his students an A in their biology papers. Two overweight boys - siblings Deke and Danny Donald (Ethan Suplee and Michael Ray Bower) were the only ones who got a minus, because they confused the topic of their papers, talking about their uncle living in a "cell" instead of writing a paper about "cells" as in the cells which make up human bodies.Professor of Geology Harry Phineas Block (Orlando Jones) checks a female student, Nadine (Katharine Towne) [who wants to be a nurse]'s examination and wonders whether she should try a different job, one where other people's lives are not dependent on her skills. She wants to be Miss Arizona, but her pageant consultant says that nursing studies would impress judges. Ira interrupts him to go to lunch.They both go to check the meteor. Harry belongs to the USGS, the USA's geological service, so he can check the meteor. Harry presents Ira as his secretary to Sheriff Long (Michael Chapman). The guy from the beginning says that he was practicing for his fire-brigade entrance examination in the middle of the night. The hole made by the meteor looks like a cave, and the police officers are fooling around it and taking pictures of one another. Officer Sam Johnson (Pat Kilbane) asks Harry what he's doing there. Harry gives attitude, but Ira gets straight to the point, saying that they need to take some samples. Sam says that they (the police) already have all the photographic evidence they need. The meteor is still hot. When they hit it with an axe, it kind of bleeds. It's Ira who analyzes it under the microscope and he sees cells multiplying like crazy until they break the thin layers of glass in which they were put.Harry is the volleyball coach as well. Ira runs to tell Harry about the ten base pairs DNA he's just found. Harry and Ira are already talking about the Nobel Prize. Suddenly, there is not a unicellular organism, but a multicellular organism. To explain it, Ira immediately comes up with the explanation that the cells are evolving.Wayne fails his fire brigade exam because he's sleeping, he hits himself in his privates with the hose pipe. He can take the exam again in six months.Harry and Ira take their classes to see the meteor. There, there is a bad smelling vapour around everywhere, and mushroom-like yellowy things have sprouted out from the floor of the cave. Nadine complains of feeling something on her toes. Under the mist, there are millions of slimy worms. Ira picks one up and it dies when he lifts it up: he thinks that oxygen killed it. Ira puts one in a specimen jar, and it splits over and over again. Ira wants to keep everything secret, because the government will take things from them. Ira seems to know a lot about how the government works.Wayne is the pool manager, and he's told off about a damp towel by Barry Cartwright (Gregory Itzin). He goes to get some cleaning stuff, and he finds loads of slimy worms on the floor - he stumps on some of them - and wonders at what is inside a kind of container with water - a kind of fish with sharp teeth and bad-ass attitude. He leaves the storeroom. Harry has analyzed the samples and found three different subspecies, the worms are evolving really quickly. They again visit the crash site, but the military are already there. The guard at the gate (Timothy R. Layton) won't let them pass, he enquires about them. Another soldier tries to shoot Ira. They are let in eventually.There, they meet General Russell Woodman (Ted Levine), Ira's ex-boss, who says that they have been monitoring Ira's computer, and Allison Reed (Julianne Moore), a clumsy scientist who trips on the step and falls down. Harry and Ira see her underwear and make comments about her garter belt. The Army is going to lead the investigation. Ira and Harry have to leave, and Ira moons.Two weeks laterIra goes to court to be allowed to be part of the federal investigation. Judge Guilder (Steven Gilborn) gets annoyed when Russell says that Glen Canyon Community College facilities are a joke. Allison questions Ira as a witness. He was dismissed because he gave an experimental anthrax vaccine to soldiers with horrible consequences. They have no chance of winning. When they return to their lab, all the samples and their computer have been stolen in a break in. They get angry so they decide to break in the military facilities, Ira dressed as a colonel and Harry as a soldier.Inside the facility, they see a large flying mosquito. Lt. Cryer wonders who these two people are - one of them is kinda dancing in the lift. Inside the cave, there is an Alice-in-Wonderland kind of rainforest. Cryer tells Reed of the unauthorized walk through. Colonel Flemming (Ty Burrell) smiles at Harry's sexual comments. A fly has entered Harry's suit. They try to kill it, but it's in his leg. Immediately taken to hospital, Dr. Paulson (Wayne Duvall) removes the bug via Harry's rectum, while nurse Tate (Wendy Braun), Ira and Allison cheer him. When they take the bug out and it breathes oxygen, it dies.Wayne is the waiter at a party, still pissed off abut his failure. Barry sets a date with a pretty lady at a lonely location at the golf club and a kind of alligator eats him. Wayne isn't sorry at all. Wayne takes the late alligator to Ira and Harry, just out from hospital. It just died choking because of the oxygen in the air.At a meeting of ladies, at Jill Mason's home (Stephanie Hodge), Patty (Kristen Meadows) finds many dead bugs. Something is pushing a locked door, and Jill makes Grace (Miriam Flynn) open the door. A huge frog-like thing appears. It looks sad and meek. Grace wants to pet it, but alien-like inner mandibles spring out and bite her hands. The ladies panic, and Debbi (Winifred Freedman) tries to call 911, while Jill tries to shoot the animal. However, it chokes to death and deflates.Ira talks to Allison, saying that they're spreading and adapting. Harry, Wayne and Ira talk over breakfast about the alien. Ira asks Denise (Sarah Silverman), his ex-girlfriend, for some cream. She's with Sam at that moment. Ira reclaims his shirt - which Denise is wearing - so she offers to take it off right there. Sam avoids it, but has to run to work, because he's been called.The three of them go to check the animal, and Sam lets them. Wayne finds the place where hundreds of alien animals are dying. One big animal dies on the spot, but it gives birth to a small dragon-like animal through the mouth. It immediately flies off to Tumbleweed's, the nearby shopping centre. The three friends steal weapons to shoot it. A middle-aged couple (Mary Pat Gleason & Tony Mirzoian) are the first ones to spot it when it flies through the shop window. A girl (Morgan Nagler) is in the dressing room. The dragon takes her. Wayne sings to attract the dragon. Incredibly enough, the dragon responds to the bad singing, because it looks like it hurts it. Harry takes the girl and Harry shoots the dragon. Everybody claps. The three friends leave by car, dancing to the song Play That Funky Music White Boy A reporter (Steve Kehela) is reporting on the dozens of dead animals. They interview a road worker (Andrew Bowen) who has a hurt hand, and another reporter (Lee Garlington) says that there are no comments from the government.Governor Lewis (Dan Aykroyd) is angry at not being informed about the alien situation earlier. The three men interrupt the meeting in which the spread of the aliens is being discussed. Woodman wants to drop an h-bomb onto the things. In the cave, the aliens have evolved into primates which are disabling all cameras, and appear to be leaving through the lift, which is empty, and at that moment lights turn off and the primates attack everybody. One jumps back down the hole through which they appeared, Wayne kills the last one.Lewis gives Woodman the power to use the bomb. Allison disagrees with Woodman's decision, who makes them leave, but this time, Allison leaves with them. They try to evacuate everybody. Ira addresses a bowl of liquid from the meteor. Harry smokes and throws a match which lands in the liquid, igniting it, causing it to grow immediately, like an indoor firework. Allison tries to tell Woodman not to use the bomb. Deke and Danny take beers to everybody. By looking at the periodic table printed on Allison's T shirt they calculate they need selenium, and a lot of it. The Donalds will create it from Head & Shoulders shampoo, whose active ingredient is selenium sulphide. Wayne borrows the fire-brigade's lorry.The army and Lewis shoot the aliens, and with the explosions, they expand rapidly. A gigantic worm destroys houses and roads and stomps on soldiers. The huge thing starts dividing. They drive the fire truck under the thing, which nastily farts. Harry introduces a hose pipe as though it were an enema. The thing takes Harry inside, and then, when Harry is out and the truck is driving away, it explodes all over the place, sowing green goo everywhere.Ira and Allison kiss, covered in green goo. Woodman fights the people who try to clean him up. Lewis congratulates the group. Wayne becomes a firefighter. Allison and Ira go to the fire truck to make love, so they don't take their medals.The dragon-like animal flies over the three friends because... they are making a commercial for Head & Shoulders shampoo.Credits. | cult, comedy, entertaining, boring, stupid | train | imdb | While this film is far from a masterpiece, Evolution deserves better ratings than it currently enjoys here at IMDb. The cast and crew contribute superior work, and the storyline is quite inventive.
I anticipated another lame comedy and a cheap imitation of "Men in Black." "Evolution" can be compared to "MIB" in certain aspects, but it breaks new ground.I can't give a really scientific review, because quite frankly I was too busy laughing to weigh out the pros and cons.
Ivan Reitman is the famed director of the "Ghostbusters" movies, and "Evolution" has much of the same charm and quirky sense of style and humor.
I enjoyed the watching the entire alien "ecosystem" evolve.Fortunately, I'm the kind of person that understands a movie made to be predominantly a comedy doesn't require scientific accuracy, nor should the audience expect it.
I mean, come on, after he was given duds like `Father's Day' and `Six Days, Seven Nights' to work with, isn't it about time that Hollywood gave him a project worth while (I won't even mention the bombastic disaster of `Junior'
oh, I just did)?It begins with the introduction of Scott's character, Wayne Green, a wannabe fireman practicing for his fireman final (questionable at first, hilarious in the end).
After a community college science professor, Ira Kane Duchovny, working with one screwed up screen name)and his eccentric geologist buddy, Harry Block (Jones) discover the meteor, they find that the `bleeding' rock starts to create these weird alien creatures and soon they begin to multiply.
Kane's nemeses, Gen. Woodman (Levine) and the military get involved, things get too out-of-control, so it's up to the teaming of Kane, Block, Green and government scientist Allison Reed (Moore) to stop the evolution.If you're a Reitman fan, the plot of this could make you go in expecting some kind of tribute to both `Ghostbusters'.
Thank god the film is a comedy; if it was its original idea, the ending would have been disastrous.`Evolution' is a overall crowd-pleaser with nice special effects and makeup (those dead aliens looked great).
He's tapped into the present and how most comedies are made, but he didn't dare forget his roots: there is a sequence in the film where Duchovny, Jones and Scott chase down a flying creature in a mall.
David Duchovny has good comic timing that hasn't really been tapped before, Orlando Jones is far better here than in Double Take and Say It Isn't So and Seann William Scott is a damn fine comic actor who uses his goofy charm to his advantage.
"Evolution," starring David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott and Julianne Moore, is a terrific fun summer romp.
It has been made in a summer of super event movies, and film/game conversions and I feel stands alone as the only comedy with an original source material (in sci-fi anyway).It is highly enjoyable.
Mr. Jones is a relative newcomer to the cinema, and I reckon that over time he may very well ascend to the the same esteemed level as Eddie Murphy, or his latterday composite (of sorts) Will Smith.The plot is most sound, and although it draws some comparisons to "Ghostbusters" as other critics have noted, it stands alone as Summer 2001's most original comedy event movie.
Mr Reitman, a veteran knows how to make films play easily, is one of the few directors who knows how to use good comedy actors.
It's a shame that Aykroyd's presence as a "big" man is more valued then his acting talent, because he's always a delight to watch.To cut in some sourness, there's not a lot of involvement with the central characters, and you do find yourself watching people being cheated into a state of reaction at the expense of the colourful effects, but that's the way it was made, and we can't change that.In all I would recommend this film to the less morose viewer, as it's cheerful, colourful, and does not require an over-critical view.
Think Ghostbusters with aliens, the heart and mood of Galaxy Quest, better special effects, and Orlando Jones..
Basically, think of Evolution as a remake of Ghostbusters only throw out the ghosts and put in aliens, which I like because aliens, in my opinion, are cooler and more realistic than ghosts.Let me mention some bad stuff, just to get it over with because I have to do at some point.
Ivan Reitman has made a new classic sci-fi comedy, but that isn't a huge surprise coming from the man who helmed Ghostbusters.
Some of the gags are somewhat overused, such as Julianne Moore's CDC scientist's clumsiness, but the rest of the movie easily overshadows these blemishes.In his first few scenes, Scott's acting seems absolutely awful, but that quickly disappears (and I have no explanation for it whatsoever).
One line about government officials seems to draw from the audience's knowledge of Duchovny's "other" role, and received an even bigger laugh for it.Orlando Jones also shines in this movie.
This is not going to be a great classic but if you want broad humour and a silly story with a few laugh-out-loud jokes then this is definitely the film for you.
David Duchovny is out chasing aliens again and, in some ways, spoofs his `X-Files' character; he was a good bit of casting.
He and Ms Moore have good screen chemistry and it would be nice to see them together again.More directors need to think of Orlando Jones when casting films
He really can act and, while the material in `Evolution' doesn't offer too many opportunities to do so, he takes the chances he is given and runs with them.
He has some of the better lines in the movie and, remembering that this is a farce, is probably the most believable character in the movie.The location photography is, at times, dazzling; however, some of the special effects looked very cheesy very obvious green screen' shots so obvious that I wondered if they were bad on purpose.
Unfortunately the sound track detracts from the overall end product: it seldom had anything to do with the action on the screen and sometimes was outright annoying.This is a good summer movie: just go, laugh and don't think too much..
The combinations of Mr Duchovny and the other are great but some extra do not perform very well such as the scene at with the flying creatures.The last part where the movie almost end, looks so fake on the big huge aliens and that make this story weakness at that part.
Duchovny's comic timing is terrible, and the witty repartee that one normally finds in buddy movies such as this is completely lacking between Duchovny and Orlando Jones; it's absolutely amazing, watch this movie and you'll see that there is zero chemistry between the main characters.
It's like taking everything in your refrigerator and mixing it all together and hoping it will taste good.It doesn't.I'll echo the sentiments of another reviewer who said the film lost him when they were taking the mosquito thing out of Jones.
'Evolution' is the movie equivalent of your tonsils: You're not sure why they were made, and once you're done with them you're left with only pain and discomfort.Director Ivan Reitman has made some good stuff, most notably 'Ghostbusters.' This movie is 'Gross Bluster.' Like Ghostbusters, the plot revolves around some misfit scientists who discover a paranormal (this time alien) threat to humanity.
Ayckroyd himself even makes a cameo, just to remind us we're watching 'Ghostbusters,' only without the laughs, story, characters, script, or direction.Julianne Moore and Seann William Scott round out one of the most wasted groups of talent in recent film memory.
This movie is really funny , I really liked how all the Aliens creatures are total different from one and another and the way some of creatures looked were really great special effects.One of one favourite part of the movie, which I can not, not mention is the house full of the those Women and one of the women open door and then appears nice looking creature and one of women say's When did you a get dog"That scene made me laugh so much also most stop breathing and as I on the floor.
There are some really great funny moment in this movies, that had me laughing out loud.The acting for the whole cast was really good and liked how the movie ended.I am little shocked there was no sequel to this movie, I would love to see a sequel to this movie..
Okay let's make a list of pro's and con's:PRO'S: a really good and original story, (mostly) great special effects, the humor isn't overdone & Ivan Reitman is directing.
Jones as Vankman, Duchovny as Ray/Egon, S.W. Scott as Winston, Julianne Moore as Dana and Dan Aykroyd as the mayor)CON'S: fortunately, it wasn't turned into "Ghostbusters III" as planned because for a Ghostbusters-movie it wouldn't have been good enough.
BAD directing, BAD acting, TERRIBLE script writing (Makes me feel even stronger in my convictions that NEPOTISM among screenwriters & producers is ALIVE & WELL in Hollywood)This is an AWEFUL retread of Men in Black...and when, OH WHEN, are we gonna see a comedy with a Black character NOT talking about "whoopin' some White ass", dancing, and/or acting like a sex fiend?..Oh, how about this now CLICHE' throw away line by a black actor in a movie...
Little to nothing is actually funny about the plot, characters, or their interactions with each other or the aliens.David Duchovny, who does an okay job in this unfunny movie, seems out of place trying to do comedy with an Xfiles-type investigative character.Julianne Moore play an uncoordinated government scientist.
It's an amusingly sarcastic movie that takes full advantage of Duchovny as a straight man (something he showed he's a master of during the X-Files years.) I think the studio really missed the boat on the way this film was marketed and subsequently very few people ever saw it..
Two scientists from the local community college (David Duchovny, Orlando Jones) get wind of the happening, and on arriving at the scene, discover a few curiosities about the meteor - not least of which is the appearance of alien life.
As the army aren't known for their sense of restraint, it all leads to an explosive finale, that'll make you think twice about your brand of dandruff shampoo.One of the things that makes this movie great is that it works, not just as a roaring comedy, but as a sci-fi thriller.
This movie was extremly funny with Orlando Jones and David Duchovny.
I mean, David Duchovny, playing a twist on his 'X-Files' character, and Orlando Jones, the 7-Up guy,who had only been in a couple movies.
I mean I see pretty decent movies on IMDb that are low, I mean like cute little comedies like Mannequin or Simply Irresistible that just make you feel good at the end.
Sure, Ivan Reitman also directed Ghostbusters, but this movie has NO similarity to that film in plot, location, theme, etc.
This was supposed to be a Men in Black knockoff.The only thing is that Orlando Jones is no Will Smith and David Duchovny is no Tommy Lee Jones.Was this supposed to be a funny movie?
"Evolution" stars David Duchovny and Julianne Moore with Seann William Scott.
It's a comedy with a lot of jokes and silliness with some great special effects for the kind of movie this is, silly summer fun that's worth watching for sure..
Yeah, the alien lifeforms are weird, Seann William Scott's character is weird, classical independent drama actor Julianne Moore attempting to do broad slapstick comedy is weird, David Ducovny doing a half-baked parody of his famed X-Files persona and baring his ass is weird; and Ivan Reitman attempting to copy the success of his hit GHOSTBUSTERS with a sci-fi movie comedy grounded in science exobiology theory is weird.
They had a good cast and it just seemed like they didn't know what to do with them the movie really is just a waste of time its not even worth to rent..
All in all I would say its one of those kind of movies you watch once every couple years or so whenever you happen to catch it on.I must say tho, I have always liked David Duchovny!
All in all I would say its one of those kind of movies you watch once every couple years or so whenever you happen to catch it on.I must say tho, I have always liked David Duchovny!
All in all I would say its one of those kind of movies you watch once every couple years or so whenever you happen to catch it on.I must say tho, I have always liked David Duchovny!
(Why is the expulsion of intestinal gas regarded with such mirth?) As it was, the movie just got stupider by the minute in the second half, very few of the gags were funny, the science went down the drain and the shampoo commercial ruined whatever was left.Although it is possible to mix SF with comedy, it is very hard to make it actually work.
Good Fun. Every time I watch Evolution after a year or two of not viewing it I expect the film not to hold up.
Wayne (Seann William Scott), a want to be firefighter who discovered the meteor, and Allison (Juilianne Moore), a klutzy government scientist, join Ira and Harry to combat the alien organisms that have been rapidly evolving since their arrival on Earth.It is a simple script with not many twists or turns, but the thing that gets me every time is the chemistry between the actors.
And at the end of the day I'm always down to watch this movie once a year just for some good fun..
As I watched EVOLUTION I thought to myself, "this film would actually work if it did away with the attempted comedy and stayed serious." Therefore, I'm not surprised to read here that Ivan Reitman turned a straight sci-fi plot into a unrepentant series of butt gags.Let me cut straight to the chase: not once did EVOLUTION make me so much as 'crack' a smile.
I found it amusing to hear Reitman remark on the DVD how the strength of the film was its comedy; it reminded me of listening to George Lucas insist on the Phantom Menace DVD that "Jar Jar is the key to the whole movie."EVOLUTION could have been a classic had the story fell into a different pair of hands.
The special effects are quite good, and the actors do good performances: David Duchovny is ok (as always), Orlando Jones is very very funny (I like this man) and Dan Aykroyd is the funniest one for me.
And "Evolution " it's a complete failure :it's bad as a sci-fi movie and it is unfunny as a comedy .
It's clear that as long as Ivan Reitman works in sci-fi comedy he will never achieve the greatness he did with Ghostbusters.
Watching them run riot and cause havoc is the main fun of this film.Ghostbusters had a dry, sarcastic sense of humor, like a fine wine.
Orlando Jones is kind of good but he too often takes his role in the stereotyped 'only black guy in a white movie' direction.
Sadly though, Julianne Moore's accident-prone scientist just isn't funny and her clumsiness seems false and forced.But obviously when you judge Evolution next to something better it seems an inferior movie.
When "Evolution" came out, many critics asserted that director Ivan Reitman had ripped off his own movie "Ghostbusters" and re-worked it to be about an alien invasion.
Starring David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott, Ted Levine, Dan Aykroyd and Gregory Itzin..
Reitman must have thought he was doing a remake of Ghostbusters, a movie that was that was far more successful because it was strictly a comedy with three fine comedian actors.
For some reason.David Duchovny took a break from playing 'Fox Mulder' in the ever-popular 'X-Files' in order to film this other 'alien invasion' movie.
It'll never really win any awards or be remembered as anything other than a sort of Ghostbusters-with-aliens clone, but if you like David Duchovny, or silly light-hearted sci-fi in general, put this on – it's the kind of movie you don't have to think too deeply about and can dip in and out of and still get a nice warm feeling of enjoyment out of..
I can't believe I haven't reviewed this movie until now.it' stars Stars Orlando Jones and David Duchovny as two professors/colleagues who stumble onto something out of this world.i won't give any more of the plot away than that.you'll have to see it for yourself.it's played for laughs and it comes by those laughs honestly.it's very funny.there are some hysterically funny scenes.but it's not just a comedy.it's also a sci/fi/adventure film.Julianne Moore, Ted Levine and Sean William Scott also star and are very good here.the wring is very good here with some great dialogue.of course this is just my opinion.for me,Evolution is a well deserved 8/10.
Add Sean William Scott and Julianne Moore and this is not that bad of a movie.Oh yeah...let's not forget the aliens, crawling into different orafices of Orlando Jone's body.
There were times where I would think "Oh, that's funny!" Won't laugh, but hey, they tried.I liked David & Julianne...
If you can appreciate a skillful blend of imagination, science fiction, and comic genius, you'll love this movie.On the other hand, if you've got an unreasonable prejudice against (A)David Duchovny or Orlando Jones, (B) a film that pokes fun at the rediculous theory of evolution (now there's COMEDY for you), or (C) the delightful blend of sci-fi and comedy, then you won't like this film.Oh well, it's your loss..
Fun film to watch, the acting was interesting, the special effects varied and the plot only had a few quirks.
It's full of cliches, wasted characters (Sean William Scott is a GREAT man to have around in a comedy but he has nothing to do in this movie), and some pretty bad acting all around. |
tt0264464 | Catch Me If You Can | A pre-credits scene shows an episode of the popular game show 'To Tell the Truth' set in 1977 where three contestants appear claiming to the panelests to be the legengary Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) who impersonated an airline pilot, a lawyer, and doctor, as well as scammed people on three continents for millions of dollars... all before reaching the age of 19.The film begins in 1969, with FBI agent Carl Hanratty Jr. (Tom Hanks) arriving at a French prison to meet the flu-stricken Frank Abagnale Jr, who attempts to escape from the prison prior to his extraction to the USA for a series of crimes.The scene flashes back to six years earlier. 16-year-old Frank Abagnale Jr lives in New Rochelle, New York with his father Frank Abagnale, Sr. (Christopher Walken), and French mother Paula (Nathalie Baye). Frank's father cons a woman into lending him a suit for Frank Jr., who later acts as a driver for Frank Sr. in a ruse to get a loan from Chase Manhattan Bank. When the loan is denied (due to a series of IRS tax frauds by Frank Sr.), the family is forced to move from their grand home to a small apartment, with tension building within the family.Frank soon realizes that his mother is having an adulterous affair with his father's friend Jack (James Brolin) and feeling that he will not fit in at his new school, poses as a substitute teacher in his French class for a short time. Eventually trouble builds between Frank's mother and father, who file for divorce and ask Frank to choose who he will live with. Horrified, Frank runs away from home, using checks that his father had given him. When Frank runs out of money, he begins to use confidence scams. Frank's cons grow ever bolder and he even impersonates an airline pilot. He forges Pan Am payroll checks and succeeds in stealing over $2.8 million by staying in fancy hotel suites, and eating at expensive restaurants, with the bills going to Pan Am.Meanwhile, Carl Hanratty, the nearly humorless but persistent FBI agent, begins to track down Frank in spite of his superiors not attaching much importance to the case (as most of them do not take bank fraud seriously). Tracking Frank to a hotel, Carl discovers to his surprise that he is still a resident there and breaks into his room to arrest him. Emerging from the bathroom and knowing only that Carl is from the FBI, Frank pretends to be Agent "Barry Allen" of the United States Secret Service and brazenly claims to have just caught the suspect himself. It is not until after Frank has escaped from the room that Carl realizes he has been fooled.Frank soon attempts to use the money that he has stolen to find a way to reunite his divorced parents. He invites his father to a fancy restaurant, and gives him the keys to a brand-new Cadillac. Frank Sr. explains that he can't accept the gift, since the IRS are still watching him, and makes an attempt to put a positive air to the meal.Some months later, on Christmas Eve, while Carl is working in the office late and alone, Frank calls him to apologize for tricking him back at the hotel. Carl announces that it doesn't work that way and, to Frank's horror, Carl realizes the reason for the call: Frank has no one else to talk to. Frank hangs up, and Carl continues to investigate. He later discovers that the name Barry Allen is from The Flash comic books and that Frank is actually a teenage minor, which explains why they have been unsuccessful in finding a record of him.Remembering that Frank had made a reference to the New York Yankees, Carl has his men check for runaways in New York. Their search eventually leads them to Frank's mother, who has now remarried. After seeing Frank's yearbook picture, Carl now knows who his suspect is.One year later. Frank has not only changed from impersonating a pilot to impersonating a doctor (complete with a forged Harvard Medical School degree) in Georgia, but is romancing Brenda Strong (Amy Adams), a Southern belle who works as a hospital nurse. He proposes marriage to her, at least partly to try to engineer a reconciliation with her parents who have disowned her since she had an abortion. The two travel to meet her parents in Louisiana. Announcing to them not only that he is like them a Lutheran but that he is a qualified lawyer as well as a doctor. Frank soon joins Brenda's father (Martin Sheen) as an assistant prosecutor after passing the Bar exam.Frank soon decides to marry Brenda, and decides to tell his father. It is here that Frank Sr. (now working as a US Postal worker) informs his son that Frank's mother has remarried, devastating Frank. After Frank leaves his father for good, he calls Carl, wanting the chase to end in the wake of his wanting to settle down. Carl informs Frank that this is not possible, since Frank has stolen some $4 million. Once Frank hangs up, Carl's men look through wedding announcements to track Frank down.When Carl tracks him down and arrives at their engagement party to arrest him, Frank admits the truth to Brenda, shows her all his stolen money and asks her to run away with him. Although shocked, she accepts his offer and agrees to meet him two days later at the airport. However, when she arrives as planned, he sees a devastated Brenda being coached by FBI agents, who have surrounded the airport. Realizing that Carl has convinced her to turn against him. When Frank doesn't appear, Carl has his men stake out the airport, certain that Frank will attempt to show him up somehow, and try to escape by plane.Frank puts a new plan into effect, where he claims that he works for Pan Am, and is recruiting stewardesses to travel to Europe. The girls he chooses work as "eye candy", and Frank manages to walk right past Carl's men, distracting them with a decoy in the unloading zone of the airport. Frank escapes to Europe.A year-and-a-half later in 1967, Carl angrily tells his boss that Frank has been forging checks all over the Eastern Hemisphere. Only this time, the checks are the real thing. Arguing that Frank is out of control, he requests permission to track him down in Europe. When his boss denies him permission, Carl takes one of Frank's bogus checks to professional printers who suggest it can have been printed in only a handful of European countries. Remembering from an interview with Franks mother Paula that she was born in France, Carl travels to her birthplace of Montrichard and he finds Frank there, on Christmas Eve, inside a massive printing factory. Carl tells Frank that the French police outside will kill him if he doesn't surrender quietly. Frank assumes he is joking at first, but Carl vows that he is not lying. Frank handcuffs himself and Carl takes him outside, where, seeing no police, he compliments Carl on his ability to fool him. Almost immediately, however, the French police arrive and escort Frank to prison. The French police take Frank away, with Carl promising to have Frank extradited back to the USA. After two years, Frank is released into Carl's custody.Later on Christmas Eve 1969, on the plane extraditing Frank to the United States, Carl informs him that his father had died accidentally the previous year. Devastated, Frank escapes from the plane in incredible fashion, and tracks down where his mother lives. Here he finds his mother with her second husband, as well as a young girl who Frank realizes is his half-sister. Before he can even speak to his mother, however, a posse of police arrive in pursuit and Frank surrenders (it is never explained if Frank's own mother called the police on him or if it was just a coincidence that they showed up at her house).Frank is tried, convicted, and given a 12-year prison sentence for check forgery, embezzlement, among many other charges, and sent to a maximum security Federal prison in Atlanta. During the next four years, Frank receives regular visits from Carl. During one of these visits, Frank easily deduces the identity of a forger by glancing at a check that Carl shows him. More visits from Carl has Frank cooperating with him in identifying other check forgers.In 1974, an impressed Carl arranges for Frank to be allowed to serve out the remainder of his sentence working for the check fraud department of the FBI under Carl's custody. Although Frank is out of prison, he is chained to his desk-job and misses the thrill of his old life and even attempts to pose as an airline pilot once again. Just as he tries to run again, Carl meets him at the airport. Carl allows him to go free, predicting that Frank will return to work on Monday since there is no one chasing him.Back in the office on Monday morning, Carl is nervous when Frank doesn't appear for work on time. He is afraid that he has run away and ruined both their lives. But Frank soon shows up and asks Carl about their next case. Bristling, Carl demands to know how Frank cheated on the Bar Exam in Louisiana, to which Frank replies that he didn't: he had studied for only two weeks and genuinely passed the exam. Astounded, Carl asks him "Is that the truth, Frank?" to which Frank merely smiles. Carl smiles back and the two continue to their investigation work together.Lastly, it is revealed through scrolling text that "Frank has been happily married for 26 years" had three sons, lives in the Midwest with his family, is still good friends with Carl, caught some of the world's most elusive money forgers and gets millions of dollars each year because of his work creating unforgeable checks. | comedy, dramatic, cult, flashback, feel-good, tragedy, revenge, entertaining | train | imdb | Although it is important to remember (as with any such film) that this is only 'inspired' by a true story and not told word for word from one, the plot is fascinating and keeps you laughing, crying and wondering until the end.Frank Abagnale Jr. is an astounding and interesting character.
From the charming animated title sequence (featuring John Williams's delightfully sneaky score) to the end, this is an enormously entertaining film from the gifted craftsman, Steven Spielberg, who is so damn good people take him for granted or resent his "manipulation," i.e. his seemingly effortless ability to create effective drama.Leonardo DiCaprio (in his best performance that I've seen) stars as Frank Abagnale, Jr., a real-life teen-aged con man so spectacularly gifted that he was able to steal millions from various companies with forged checks, while successfully impersonating an airline pilot, a doctor and a lawyer, among other guises.
Walken is one of my favorite actors, but while I enjoy the occasional one-dimensional freak or villain he plays, I wish most of his parts were like this.Spielberg's movie is rich with fascinating details and memorable incidents, while the script by Jeff Nathanson moves backward and forward in time to tell the story in the most engrossing way possible.
The strange but enjoyable chemistry between these two characters goes a long way toward making this movie work.Frank Jr. showed a lot of intelligence, and DiCaprio effectively showed us what this man could do.
As the numbers go up, FBI agent Carl Hanratty starts tracking him in a game of cat and mouse.Based on a true story, although it doesn't rely on `and it really happened' to be a good film - although that this guy could even do half of this stuff is impressive, this film is a slick bit of entertainment even if it left me feeling a little bit like it was too much presentation.
Walken is good in support and Sheen adds another famous name to the end credits but it is very much a two hander with Hanks and DiCaprio more than able.Overall this film is a slick, stylish chase movie which should be enjoyed as such and is slightly more enjoyable for being a true story.
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (2002) **** Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Nathalie Baye, Amy Adams, James Brolin, Frank John Hughes, Brian Howe, John Finn, Jennifer Garner.
DiCaprio gives a grandly charming performance as Frank Abagnale, Jr. a teenager who adopted the professional guises of airplane pilot, physician and lawyer to front his check kiting schematic modus operandi during the 1960s and eventually making the FBI's most wanted list by bilking millions until his capture and imprisonment.
Like many great artists, Spielberg doesn't have to swing for the fences to make an indelible impression every time out.Indelible impressions are the sort of thing Frank Abagnale Jr. is good at, especially on the kind of phony checks that fool bank security.
After his parents' divorce, Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) sets off in the Big Apple, making his way as an airline pilot, a doctor, and an assistant district attorney, all by means of fraudulent credentials and irresistible charm, not to mention the ability to stay one step ahead of the law, as represented by FBI Special Agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks).A film that owes a debt to Alfred Hitchcock by way of Henry Mancini, "Catch Me If You Can" zips along on its own kind of sneaky charm, making us root for a character who would probably steal our life savings if given half a chance.
One thing is for sure, Steven Spielberg has an amazing range.He made this engaging movie in a five-year period that included "A.I. Artificial Intelligence", "Minority Report", "The Terminal", "War of the Worlds" and "Munich".Set in the early 60's, the movie tells the story of Frank Abignale (Leo DiCaprio) and how he impersonated an airline pilot, a secret agent, a doctor and finally a county prosecutor before he was 21-years old.
It's that element of daring that makes Frank's crimes entertaining rather than despicable.I have seen this film quite a few times, and like the best movies, the reunion is always rewarding..
(Di Caprio) makes his way across America posing as a lawyer, a pilot, a doctor whilst all the while being chased by Carl Hanratty (Hanks) Based on the true story of conman Frank Abagnale Jr. this ambitious crime caper is a turn for excitement harmless joy that encodes spurts of comedy in a dramatic construction of a man looking for a sense of mayhem and wealth, to live in his father's footsteps.Flowing with the energy you would expect from a Spielberg project alongside Oscar nominated scorer John Williams you would expect a ferocious appetite of crime shindigs and sharp tantalising scenarios across America and for the most part we see a relaxing and remarkable story that is hard and equally remarkable to believe really happened.Leo Di Caprio, in his first paring with Spielberg, stars as central character Frank, giving the conman an elusive personality whilst aiming to be naïve of the difficulties at home between his parents.
Encoding uses of his father's charm and wit may seem corny but the resemblance between Di Caprio and Oscar nominated Christopher Walken is mirror like, giving the film a formidable consistency.Tom Hanks, in more of a supporting role, has his moments as the stubborn and driven FBI agent determined to catch Frank.
I knew the acting was going to be solid, you can never go wrong with Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio, but they weren't the only superb things about this movie.I was most astounded by how entertained I was during this film.
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsBeing probably one of the finest acting talents in Hollywood,it would be hard to refuse to watch any film headbilling Tom Hanks as one of the main stars.While it probably wouldn't be any direct guarantee of the actual film's quality,it would at least always ensure a strong,forceful central performance.And the main,most driving point about Catch Me If You Can is the performances from the leads Hanks and Leornardo Di Caprio,which are amazing.Steven Spielberg's direction is actually a little wayward and the plot does seem a tad unbelievable,but it is a true story so who are we to argue?A thoroughly absorbing and worthwhile picture.****.
People used dismiss him as that kid from Titanic, I did as well, but he has grown to become one of Hollywood's top actors and I personally saw this coming while watching this film.Catch Me If You Can is also one of those films that I'd recommend if someone had no idea who Steven Spielberg was and wanted to give one of his movies a try.
It's seemingly light-hearted, has an A-list cast, has a great score and the story is pure entertainment, yet the movie also takes it time, here and there, to address slightly darker themes - in this case the reason why Frank Abagnale Jr.
They both have acted perfectly in many films, but so far, this is my favorite.The movie simply is about a 16 year old boy (DiCaprio) who when finding out his parents are getting a divorce panics and runs away from home.
I Don't know how accurate these events are but as they are based on accounts written by Frank Abagale Jr. himself, then i assume that they are probably only dramatised for the viewing audience.It's hard to believe that people were so naive, that they allowed Frank Abagnale to achieve what he did, but i have give the guy credit for pushing the system, and riding the high life for as long as he did.Leonardo DiCaprio does a great job of capturing the character of Frank Abignale Jr.
I Don't know how accurate these events are but as they are based on accounts written by Frank Abagale Jr. himself, then i assume that they are probably only dramatised for the viewing audience.It's hard to believe that people were so naive, that they allowed Frank Abagnale to achieve what he did, but i have give the guy credit for pushing the system, and riding the high life for as long as he did.Leonardo DiCaprio does a great job of capturing the character of Frank Abignale Jr.
The ensemble cast in a Spielberg movie which happens to be a biography would be nothing less than good, true to keeping the name high, Catch me If u can is a terrific watch for those who love biographies and for those who enjoy quality movies.Leonardo Caprio And Tom hanks teaming up with Spielberg was more than enough for me to watch it way back like a decade ago.
That is just the case with Stephen Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can. The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Abagnale Jr., one of the most successful and intelligent con men of all time.
But once the money he is illegally earning starts to build up, red flags go up for the FBI and Agent Carl Hanratty, played so well by Tom Hanks, sets out on an obsessive quest to chase down and capture Frank.The film is clever, quick, and an absolute blast.The nice thing about Catch Me If You Can is that it doesn't take itself too terribly seriously.
I thought the chemistry between Leonardo's character (Frank Abagnale Jr) and Carl Handraty played by Tom Hanks was great to watch.
Then there is a flash-back to the hunted's childhood, and we watch his development into a con-man.The pacing and characterizations are well done, and the viewer is kept pleasantly off-balance by both situations and switching empathy for the hunter and the hunted.The period items (like the "What's My Line" bit, clothing, cars, ways of talking) do more than just ring true: they draw viewers back into that time and place.Although the film is primarily entertainment, the story it tells gives one pause more than once.
The film also stars Tom Hanks as Carl Hanratty, the FBI special agent assigned to track down Frank Jr. By telling this cat-and-mouse story from both the perspective of the cat and the mouse, director Steven Spielberg shows that hard work and honesty are more rewarding in the long run than any get rich quick scheme.The theme of Catch Me If You Can is best illustrated in scenes involving Frank Abagnale Jr. and Frank Sr., played by Christopher Walken (nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor).
That was not "based on a true story" and thus George Roy Hill understood that for the film to work he had to make us believe that Redford and Newman could pull off such a caper and he succeeded so well that under repeated viewings we have no doubt that these two could both devise such a plot, find the "talent" to do the job and lead them successfully to the end.In "Catch Me If You Can" Tom Hanks playing the FBI agent who tracks Abagnale around the country and in Europe (though he apparently went to South America as well and Spielberg or not South America never seems to fit into the budget) asks Abagnale to the very end how he passed the Bar exam to be an attorney in Louisiana.We never get a believable answer.
This is what you get when two great actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks play together in a movie under Steven Spielberg's direction.
I had no idea he would direct something out of his crazy wheelhouse, but nevertheless, it was executed perfectly.When you have an all star A-list cast such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken and Martin Sheen, what you end up is a film that is a fun ride and very entertaining!Leo DiCap's role was played perfectly and very convincing in every disguise.Not a unique film by any means, but certainly this one played out quite well.It's a 9/10 from me!.
Christopher Walken did a superb job as the father, he's not the traditional mentor and it works extremely well in this movie.Tom Hanks does a marvelous job portraying the agent trying to catch Abagnale and his mind games work perfectly through every scene.
The only major difference between "Catch Me If You Can" and the other two is that this is obviously the only one with humorist moments, but not because of intended comedy, which is none, but due to one of Leonardo Di Caprio's most interesting and charming characters, Frank William Abagnale, all combined with the hilarious moments.This movie also features Christopher Walken in almost his best acting performance, as Frank Abagnale.
Acting is superb (Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Christopher Walken: do I need to say more?), Spielberg's direction is flawless, music is interesting and adds the right amount of tension.The story tells of (real-world) con artist Frank Abagnale, of his complicate family and the reasons pushing him into a criminal life while still very young.
Its two hours and twenty go "flying", he does not feel, so much that you can have fun and hold this film.He has a very good plot, with good performances - mainly DiCaprio and Christopher Walken -, DiCaprio because commanded sensationally the movie showing multiple identities, knowing to be a character with a lot of insight to act in many different ways and in many different situations.
At the age of 16, he relies on superhuman courage, imitation and interpersonal clever eyes color check forgery extract millions of dollars in just two years, disguised as a copilot pan American travel, the doctors and lawyers, also depend on their ability through the judicial examination.He was less than 18 years old, but like a 28-year-old man wandering between cars beauty,.However, after him ,Carl isn't so good luck, is a dull personality, career and marriage failure, middle-aged men.Unpopular between colleagues, boss hated, daily work, is a workaholic.Two people one after one escape, this is the natural enemy.On Christmas Eve, Carl's telephone always remind of, the end, is lonely, frank.Carl saw through his disguise, from the start he laugh to shoot a Frank confidence.However, it was from that moment on, Carl became depend on Frank.He is the only man Frank say one "Merry Christmas" at Christmas.He is the only man can let Frank willingly let Frank handcuffed himself;He is all the way from his illness and death on the edge of the foreign country home;He is on another lonely goes to the prison to see his Christmas;He is the man to Frank, a second life.He is the only one who see Frank the heart of children.He understood that, in the heart of Frank has always been longing for the warmth of family and family reunion.We saw Frank watch at mother's home town have a happy family.On the day the news of his father, standing in the snow outside the window and looked at mother happy new family, and the warm in the room is what he can never match, that the child's eyes, and couldn't help but tears, finally revealed an insecure fragile heart.Fortunately, he and Carl in the side, two people from the enemy to the friend, even the fathers and sons, also let gradually into the arcane master plot, A ray of sunshine into the dark.We CAN see our shadow from Frank: young little.Future is so long, the world and how much pleasure, which have time to consider the consequences?So, we heartily squandering youth, escape may for all consequences and punishment.
The breathless narrative of the movie was reflected in the shooting schedule (it was filmed in just 52 days), but Jeff Nathanson's screenplay gives the story an emotional thread by repeatedly focusing on the relationship between Frank and the FBI lawman leading the chase Carl Hanratty who is played by Tom Hanks as both the mirror-image to Frank in style and motivation and increasingly a father figure to the teenager who has lost his real father..
Leonardo Dicaprio's performance as Frank in the film was terrific and Tom Hanks' role as an FBI agent only adds to it.
Inspired from a true story, Catch Me If You Can is the biopic of Frank Abagnale Jr., a mastermind conman who succeeded in forging millions of dollars worth of checks while disguised as an airline pilot, doctor & lawyer, all before turning 19 years of age, and apart from capturing the methods employed by this young & brilliant con artist to get his job done also covers his stint with the FBI agent, Carl Hanratty, who eventually hunts him down.Although Steven Spielberg is yet to give a true cinematic masterpiece in the 21st century, Catch Me If You Can comes pretty close with nothing much to complain in any of the filmmaking departments and is one of his most enjoyable & entertaining films.
The performances are flawless, Leonardo DiCaprio shines as the mischievous, charming Frank Abagnale Jr. and Tom Hanks brings in great characterisation, as well as a beautiful screen presence, as Carl Hanratty.
The con man is played by Leonardo DiCaprio who impersonates a pilot and few other personalities while FBI Agent is played by great actor Tom Hanks.Movie has all the elements that makes it a must watch.
Leonardo DiCaprio + Tom Hanks + Steven Spielberg = one good movie.
Starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo Dicaprio this is a slick, good looking, and intelligently funny movie that ranks up with some of Steven Spielberg's best work.Frank Abignale (Leonardo DiCaprio) lives what would seem like a perfect middle-class life, but when his father is convicted by the IRS for bank fraud things start to fall apart.
He learns couples are not like idealized; but, this thread of the film lacks a proper conclusion; a scene with mother Baye, or the introduction of a new romantic interest, would help.******** Catch Me If You Can (12/16/02) Steven Spielberg ~ Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken.
Spielberg did an excellent job of developing the characters and the casting of DiCaprio, Walken and Hanks in their respective roles brings this true story to life. |
tt0066026 | MASH | It's August, 1951, the Korean War. Over the noise of incoming helicopters carrying wounded U.S. soldiers, Colonel Henry Blake (Roger Bowen), the commanding officer of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (M.A.S.H.), located just three miles from the front lines, is shouting at Corporal Radar O'Reilly (Gary Burghoff), telling him to inform Major Frank Burns (Robert Duvall), that one of the day surgeons will have to stay over on the night shift. He also needs to get word to Brigadier General Charles Hammond (G. Wood), in Seoul, that the 4077th needs two more surgeons, as the patient load is getting overwhelming. Radar says out loud everything Colonel Blake is telling him, but a split before Blake says it. That's the first of many instances where Radar proves always to be one step ahead of his commanding officer. Another enlisted man is trying to write it all down, but misses most of it. Blake tells him that Radar has it.Quotes pertaining to Korea, from both General MacArthur and General Eisenhower, scroll down the screen as Captain Hawkeye Pierce is shown exiting the Officers' Latrine in Seoul and approaching a Jeep for the next leg of his journey. He has just arrived in Korea for duty at the 4077th. He is originally from Maine.The motor pool sergeant (Jerry Jones), struts up to Hawkeye and says, "What the hell do you think you're doing? Don't think that just because you're a captain, you run this place. I run this place!" He tells Hawkeye that his driver is having his coffee and will be along when he's ready. Hawkeye, who is in the process of removing his collar devices from his uniform, is shocked and disbelieving about how rude and insubordinate the sergeant is. He mutters "racist" to himself as the sergeant walks away (the sergeant is black).Also newly arriving is Captain Duke Forrest (Tom Skerritt). He's from Georgia. He approaches Hawkeye, who is sitting in a Jeep, waiting for the driver. Forrest mistakenly thinks Hawkeye is his driver and, after confirming that the Jeep is headed for the 4077th M.A.S.H. unit, he orders Hawkeye to take him there. Hawkeye says ok, puts the Jeep in gear and roars out of the compound.The motor pool sergeant watches as Hawkeye and Forrest tear out of the place and yells at two military policemen (MPs) to go get them. Something happens to the MPs Jeep, as there's a bang with smoke, and it stops, causing the sergeant to throw a fit and start punching and wrestling with the MPs.Hawkeye & Forrest prove to have a lot in common, in that they are both rebellious, womanizing, and mischievous rule-breakers. They arrive at the Officer's Mess tent at the 4077th and decide to go in for some lunch. They are already making eyes at some nurses. One in particular, Lt. Maria "Dish" Schneider (Jo Ann Pflug), attracts their attention and they sit down near her.Colonel Blake asks Captain Murrhardt (Danny Goldman) if he knows those two men who just came in. He does not. Another officer suggests they may be the new doctors, but the Colonel says that can't be, as the two new people are supposed to be really bright. He decides they are just a couple of moochers coming in for a free meal.Forrest is staring at Lt. Schneider and says, "I think I am in love." He tells her he's new in town, with nothing to do, and asks her to show him around the place if she's not doing anything tonight. She stays quiet, smiles and holds up her left hand. Hawkeye tells Forrest that the lady is wearing a wedding ring, but he doesn't let that dissuade him.Colonel Blake decides to go see what's up with these new guys. He learns that they are indeed the newest doctors assigned to his unit. The colonel tells Pierce that he'd received a message about him stealing a Jeep at Headquarters. Hawkeye tells the colonel that he didn't steal the Jeep, that it's right outside there. The colonel then sets about informing Forrest about the Army's regulations for proper reporting to a unit. Hawkeye is mostly interested in asking questions about how many people are on staff, especially nurses.The colonel decides to introduce the new captains to the existing staff who are in the mess at that moment. They include the Irish Catholic Chaplain, Father John "Dago Red" Mulcahy (Rene Auberjonois); the dental officer, Captain 'Painless Pole' Waldowsky (John Schuck); the anesthesiologist, Captain "Ugly" John Black (Carl Gottlieb), a.k.a., the "gas passer"); Captain Dennis Patrick Bandini (Corey Fischer); and Corporal 'Radar' O'Reilly.Radar tells the captains he will change the identification number on the stolen Jeep, just before Colonel Blake orders him to do that.As Pierce and Forrest proceed with their check in, over near the officer's quarters and barber shop, they walk past a post covered with wooden arrows depicting the mileage and directions to various other cities in the world. Duke lays claim to a pretty blonde nurse who walks past, but after Radar whispers in Hawkeye's ear and Hawkeye in turn whispers in Duke's ear, he realizes that Colonel Blake's girlfriend, Lt. Leslie (Indus Arthur), is "hands off."Radar leads them to their tent and inside is Major Frank Burns (Robert Duvall) and a South Korean boy, Ho-Jon (Kim Atwood), who works at the mess hall. Major Burns is teaching Ho Jon how to read, using the Bible. Major Burns will prove to be both a religious man and an inferior surgeon.Captain Forrest slips Ho-Jon a girlie magazine, telling him that it helps when learning how to read to have some pictures to go along with the words. Ho-Jon avoids letting Major Burns see what Forrest gave him and he quickly excuses himself and leaves the tent with the magazine.In the first of many scenes from the M.A.S.H. operating room, the new captains are performing surgeries on two patients. They both have a matter-of-fact attitude as they go about their life and death work, speaking and moving around much like a chef preparing a meal might do. Hawkeye is preparing to saw off a soldier's lower leg while Captain Forrest is hitting on one of the nurses.Frequent announcements come over the camp public announcement (PA) system. They are usually given by SSgt. Wade Douglas Vollmer, (David Arkin), who can't read very well. The first announcement is for all non-commissioned officers to report for a short-arm inspection at 0400. (short-arm inspection refers to the medical inspection of male soldiers' penises, or "short arm", for signs of sexually-transmitted diseases and other medical problems).Major Burns enters his tent to find Ho-Jon serving martinis to Pierce and Forrest. Burns lets them know how inappropriate he considers that to be and he grabs his Bible and starts praying. Ho-Jon escapes to go do some laundry. Pierce and Forrest waste no time in starting to tease and mock Major Burns about his obsession with the Bible and religion. They speculate that he suffers from some sort of syndrome and wonder if he's always had it or just since he arrived in Korea. Forrest asks how long "the show" is going to last and Burns says that it gets longer all the time, now that he has Forrest's and Pierce's souls to pray for. Hawkeye and Duke start singing, "Onward Christian Soldiers," as Burns keeps on praying. Soon, people outside the tent hear the singing and they join in, marching in a line as they sing.Colonel Blake receives a report from Lt. Leslie about the status of the patients currently at the M.A.S.H. as he sits at his desk tying a fishing fly. Leslie also assists him by handing him various tools that he needs.Hawkeye and Forrest come into the colonel's office and demand that he get the "Sky Pilot" Major Burns out of their tent (it's been one week). They also tell Blake that they need to have a "chest cutter" (thoracic surgeon) to properly tend to the injured soldiers. Blake tells them he'll have Burns out of their tent within 24 hours, and he'll try his best to get a chest cutter.Colonel Blake seems to empathize with the fact that most of his men and women there at the 4077th are draftees, they have very stressful jobs trying to save lives, and therefore he does very little by way of asserting discipline to keep his staff at the mobile hospital in line with military regulations.Father Mulcahy often hangs around surgery, either to administer last rites, pray, or sometimes assist the doctors. This particular time, he gets called over to administer last rites to a soldier who died on the surgical table, but gets interrupted and is asked by Duke Forrest to come over and hold a surgical retractor being used on another patient. When Mulcahy hesitates, Forrest apologizes, but points out to Dago that the first soldier is dead, while the one they are operating on is still alive.Hawkeye is busy making out with Lt. Dish in the Officer's Club when Ho-Jon comes knocking at the tent door. He tells Hawkeye to come quick, that the new chest cutter has arrived. Hawkeye and the nurse separate, frustrated, but duty calls.Forrest is sitting in his tent with the new chest cutter and complains to Hawkeye that all he has been able to learn is that the new surgeon is from "Bastin" (Boston) and has been in the Army for 2 months. As the new doctor is putting up a photo of a pin-up girl, Hawkeye attempts to find out more about him, but the new guy continues be very evasive. As they sit down to have some martinis, and the new doc produces a bottle of green olives from inside his jacket. Hawkeye is amused and impressed. He tells the new man that he looks familiar, but he can't quite place where he knows him from.The new doctor's first operation in surgery attracts a sizable audience, inside and outside the operating room, as everyone is curious as to how he'll do. He does just fine.Other than the frequent PA announcements, Radio Tokyo is often playing throughout the camp, with Japanese announcers and singers providing entertainment in broken English.The staff frequently toss a football around between the tents in the compound and the play can be quite vigorous. One guy performs a flying tackle on the man with the ball, and they both splash down hard into a mud puddle. When the ball flies out of the hands of the man being tackled, it is caught by the new thoracic surgeon. He makes as though to fake a handoff to Duke, then rolls left while Duke runs behind and out the opposite side of a tent, with Hawkeye defending. The new surgeon lobs an off target pass and Hawkeye jumps up and intercepts it. That prompts an immediate recall in Hawkeye's mind. He now knows who the new guy is as he rushes forward, proclaiming it's "Trapper John McIntyre, former quarterback for Dartmouth University. Hawkeye played in a game for Androscoggin College, against Dartmouth and McIntyre, and he intercepted a pass thrown by Trapper John, enabling Androscoggin to win the game, 6-0.Hawkeye also tells Duke that Trapper got his nickname as a result of cornering a girl in the restroom of a railroad car, and when the conductor caught them in there, the girl screamed, "He trapped me!'The enlisted all line up outside the shower tent to get a peek at Dr. Captain "Painless Pole" Waldowsky as he's showering. The attraction is the captain's sexual apparatus, which is apparently of unusually large proportions. Corporal Judson, from Mississippi, takes his turn at the peephole. As he walks away, he says to a shocked looking Private Lorenzo Boone (Bud Cort), "Ah'd purely love to see that angry!"A small group, led by Colonel Blake (in his civilian winter coat), goes out to meet an incoming helicopter. On board is Major Margaret Houlihan (Sally Kellerman), the new Chief Nurse for the 4077th.Major Burns is tending to a male patient who suddenly goes into cardiac arrest. Burns calls for a nurse and proceeds to do a couple of unenthusiastic thumps on the patient's chest. When there's no nurse at hand, he directs Private Boone, who's just a teenage orderly, to go grab a cardiac needle and some adrenaline. Boone is hesitant, as he's not sure where to find those things, but he tries. The soldier dies right about then, and when Boone returns with a regular needle and hands it to Burns, Burns calls him an idiot and tells him he wanted a cardiac needle. Boone asks Burns if he wants him to get a nurse and Burns says, "it's too late, Boone, you killed him." Boone feels horrible and goes away in tears. Trapper observes all this and a short while later he approaches Burns and asks him if he's done for the day. When Burns says yes, Trapper says, "good, I just wanted to make sure you'll have time to sleep this off," and he lands a haymaker right hand across Burns' head. Burns crashes into some boxes of Tampax while Trapper grimaces in pain as he grips his right hand with his left. At the same moment, Colonel Blake and Major Houlihan pass by and are shocked at what they witness. They demand to know what's going on. Burns asks for them to leave he and Trapper alone and let them settle things, but Blake tells SSgt. Vollmer to arrest Trapper and confine him to his quarters.Before happening on the fight between Trapper and Burns, Blake had introduced Major Houlihan (he called her "O'Houlihan") to the people in the operating room. Among those there are Captain Dana Murrhardt (Danny Goldman), Captain Black, Captain Judson Sax, Captain Scorch (Dawne Damon), and Captain Bridget "Knocko" McCarthy (Tamara Wilcox-Smith).Henry wants to make Trapper the head surgeon, but feels the fight with Major Burns necessitates that he wait for a week or the new chief nurse will likely make a stink about it.Blake and Lt. Leslie are out on a small stream near camp and he's flycasting. Vollmer runs up to inform the colonel that General Hammond can't answer the phone as he's at a football game. Blake complains that the generals have all the fun.Margaret joins Hawkeye at his table in the mess tent. He asks her where she's from and she tells him she likes to think of the Army as her home. She then asks Hawkeye how he likes the nurses who work on his team. He tells her he likes them fine. She tells him that Major Burns does not think much of the nurses, to which Hawkeye responds that Burns is a lousy surgeon and an idiot. Margaret strongly disagrees. She thinks Burns is a fine doctor and military man. Margaret also think it's very unprofessional that people call Captain Pierce, "Hawkeye." Hawkeye tells Major Houlihan that she's what he and others call "a typical, uptight, career Army clown," as he loses his appetite and gets up to go to his tent.On occasion, the lights in the operating room go out. When that happens, several enlisted staff position themselves with flashlights so the doctors can keep working. In one instance, the doctors and nurses started singing "When the Lights Go On Again," a song written in 1942, during WWII.Blake leaves the camp overnight to go see General Hammond over at the 325th Evac Hospital and he leaves Major Burns in charge. There's a big party in the mess tent for Trapper, to celebrate his being named the camp's new chief surgeon. Margaret and Frank are not impressed, especially when Trapper calls out for Margaret, the "sultry bitch" to be stripped of her clothes and brought to him for sex.Frank and Margaret collaborate on a typewritten letter to General Hammond, complaining about the lack of discipline and order at the 4077th. After they finish, Frank notes that it's dinnertime and Margaret asks if he's hungry. "For you, Margaret," and they attack each other with passion and engage in a dry hump, but only briefly.There's a PA announcement that three cases of amphetamine sulfate (central nervous system stimulant) have disappeared and this is the third time this sort of thing has happened in the last month and it must stop by order of Colonel Blake's office. Burns escorts Margaret to her tent and offers to stop by and check on her later. She says that won't be necessary but she also says she'll leave the door unlocked. When he comes by later, they exchange empathy with one another for how poorly the others in camp treat them, and how disrespectful they are. Frank then says he thinks God willed them to find each other. Margaret throws open her pajama top, exposing her breasts and says, "His will be done," and Frank plants his face on her breasts and they fall onto the bed. As they struggle to get their clothes off, Radar lifts up the bottom of the tent and places the microphone to the camp's PA system under the bed. At first, the sounds are transmitted only to location of the PA equipment in Henry Blake's office, where a handful of people are listening in. Trapper then decides the rest of the camp should hear it and an enlisted man flips a switch to broadcast it.Margaret is panting and tells Frank that her lips are hot, asking him to kiss her hot lips. Hawkeye, busy doing surgery, wonders what those sounds are and soon figures it out. He says, "it sounds like Frank Burns is doing a bit of dilitation and curretage." Before long, Margaret can hear her own voice over the PA system and that quickly brings the lovemaking session to an end.The next morning in the mess tent, Forrest says, "well, hi, Hot Lips," as she gets all flustered and has to leave the tent. Hawkeye sits down across the table from Frank and taunts Frank by asking if he'd heard from his wife. About then, Colonel Blake returns to camp and Radar directs him over to the window of the mess tent, behind where Hawkeye and Burns are sitting. Blake peers in and it warms his heart to see the two finally sitting down together to have a talk.Hawkeye says to Frank that he and the other guys wonder how Hot Lips is in the sack, "is she better than self-abuse?" He asks Frank, "does that big ass of her move around a lot, or does it just sort of lie there, flaccid? What would you say about that?"Blake wonders what they are saying. Radar looks and says Hawkeye is making a point about human anatomy. Blake is impressed at how professional the conversation is, how they are exchanging ideas.After Hawkeye asks if Hot Lips is a moaner or does she just lie there quietly, Frank launches himself across the table at Hawkeye and they fall to the ground, Hawkeye yelling for help. As they struggle, Trapper tells Hawkeye to look out for his goodies, as Frank is a sex maniac and he didn't think Hot Lips satisfied him. Several others in the area hurry to pull Frank off Hawkeye. Frank is put in a strait jacket and taken away by the MPs as Father Mulcahy attempts to read to him from a small scripture book. Frank won't be coming back, he's being shipped back to the states. Duke asks the colonel if he nails Hot Lips and punches Hawkeye, can he go home?In surgery, Hawkeye has to move quickly to stop a soldier's spurting neck artery, as an announcement comes over the PA system about the American Medical Association declaring marijuana to be a dangerous drug.Father Mulcahy tells Hawkeye that "Painless Pole" Waldowski has consulted him about a problem. Though Mulcahy feels unable to divulge any details (Waldowski had come to him in confession), he makes clear the severity of the problem. by explaining to Hawkeye that when one of the men asked for a ruling in the poker game they were playing, the captain said, "what does it matter, it's only a game?" Hawkeye wastes no time in going over to see Waldowski in his tent.Waldowski confides in Hawkeye that he has suffered a "lack of performance" (impotence) with a visiting nurse after a sexual encounter. He tells Hawkeye that he's distraught over how he will ever be able to tell his three fiancées back home. Hawkeye tells Waldowski that occasional impotence is not a problem, and nothing for the "dental Don Juan" of Detroit to worry about. Waldowski tells Hawkeye that he's been reading up on it and Don Juanism is just a cover up. He thinks he's a fairy, a victim of latent homosexuality, and he can't deal with it.The next day, the other doctors are sitting around joking about Waldoski's concerns. He enters the tent as they smirk and giggle and tells them all he knows they were talking about him. He announces that he's going to commit suicide. Bandidi jokingly asks Waldoski if he can have his record player. He says sure. Then he asks for suggestions about how best to go about killing himself. Trapper says, "the black capsule," which is what Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun used. Trapper claims to be able to provide a capsule for him.Hawkeye asks Father Mulcahy to perform last rites for Waldoski . He's hoping that if they conduct an end of life ceremony for him, he'll get scared and decide he wants to live. The doctors, administrative officers, chopper pilots and enlisted men all form up for the ceremony, a replica of the Last Supper, with a coffin placed in front of the table. Someone plays a scratchy version of "Taps" on a violin. Dago Red performs a quick absolution and Trapper gives a black capsule (actually a sleeping pill) to Waldoski. Waldoski figures that he'd better go lie down in the coffin, since the pill is supposed to work pretty fast. He gets in and immediately swallows the capsule with some wine. Everyone one files by to say goodbyes or leave little mementos with Waldoski. Among the items presented to him are some poker cards, a fifth of scotch, some basic dental instruments and the photographs of his three fiancées. Finally, he goes to sleep as Corporal Judson (Timothy Brown) sings "Suicide is Painless."A group of men carry the coffin to the Officer's Club and Waldoski is placed in a bed, complete with mood lighting. Hawkeye is outside making out with Lt. Schneider, who is scheduled to transfer out within 12 hours. Hawkeye asks her to do him a favor, to meet her professional obligations as a nurse, and go in and lie down with Waldoski, to help him with a potentially fatal psychological condition. She's not wanting to do it, but once she lifts up the edge of the sheet and sees what Waldoski has down below, she changes her mind.Captain Waldoski was in a very good mood the next morning, a new and improved man, seemingly having forgotten he supposedly had died the night before, and Lt. Schneider flew out on a helicopter, with a big smile on her face.Hawkeye and Trapper need some A-negative blood for a Korean prisoner of war with a chest wound they are operating on, but Radar said their requests for A-negative blood are never fulfilled. The operation proceeds and Radar goes to see a sleeping Colonel Blake. Radar sits next to the bed and monitors a tube extending from Blake's arm. A pint of blood is harvested from the colonel while he's sleeping (he's obviously type A-). Radar delivers a pint of blood to the operating room just as the surgeons were about to be forced to go on without it, at great risk to the patient.During the operation, Trapper is being assisted by Margaret and he says, "Hot Lips, you may be a pain in the ass, but you're a damn good nurse."Captain Forrest likes blondes, but strongly disagrees with Hawkeye who speculates that Duke is attracted to Hot Lips. Duke says he nearly pukes every time he sees Hot Lips. He thinks she's probably not even a true blonde and decides to bet Hawkeye $20 that she isn't. They conspire on a plan to isolate Hot Lips in the women's shower and then expose her so they can see what color her pubic hair is. Everyone in the camp, including a dog, take seats outside the shower tent and when they are ready, Waldoski clangs two metal lids together and a soldier releases a sandbag connected to some ropes and the sides of the tent all fly up. Hot Lips had been singing in the shower, but when she discovers everyone is looking at her, she screams and falls to the ground, covering herself. She crawls over and gets a towel and, in hysterics, she storms off to see Colonel Blake. She's furious as she tears open the door to the Colonel's tent and finds him inside, lying in bed with Lt. Leslie. She screams at him that the camp is an insane asylum and that it's his fault for letting the doctors get away with practically anything. She threatens to resign her commission if Blake doesn't turn Duke and Hawkeye over to the MPs. Blake listens and becomes angry, telling Houlihan, "Goddamit Hot Lips, resign your goddamn commission!" Houlihan dejectedly turns and leaves, sobbing "My commission, my commission....."Duke won the bet with Hawkeye. Margaret was not a natural blonde.Ho-Jon receives notice to report for an induction physical for the South Korean Army. Hawkeye, along with fellow co-workers Boone, Bandini, and Nurse Scorch, drive him to the induction center in Seoul for his physical. Hawkeye dopes him up with some drugs that temporarily give him a fast heart beat and high blood pressure. The doctor examining him is at first concerned, then figures out what's going on. He goes outside and informs Hawkeye that he will be keeping Ho Jon for a couple of days and retesting him. He says to Hawkeye, "nice try." Hawkeye reluctantly has to let Ho-Jon go.A helicopter pilot arrives at the 4077th, looking for Captain McIntyre. A soldier who'd been doing some training in Japan was accidentally wounded when a grenade went off and some shrapnel got into his heart. Some big time heart surgeon in Boston told the kid's father, a Congressman, that Trapper John was the only surgeon in the theater who might be able to save his boy. Trapper is ordered to proceed to Kokura, Japan, to do the operation. After looking at the x-rays, Trapper realizes that just about anyone could remove the shrapnel, as it's not threatening the boy's heart, but he decides there's a free trip to Tokyo in the offing, plus General Hammond said in the orders to Trapper that he could bring an assistant, so he invites Hawkeye. They view it as an opportunity to do some golfing.Trapper and Hawkeye are driven past a golf course on their way to the hospital in Japan and they are pretending to be speaking Japanese. Their driver is Sgt. Gorman (Bobby Troupe), who doesn't view the task of escorting these two as appropriate to his skill set and he curses the army.At the hospital, the pair waste no time in upsetting just about every person they come into contact with, both medical and non-medical staff alike, as they order the congressman's son into surgery. Trapper tells Captain Peterson (Cathleen Cordell) to prepare the patient and find him a nurse who can work in close without getting her tits in the way. They are equally disrespectful to the straight-laced commander of the hospital, Colonel Wallace C. Merrill (James B. Douglas), ordering him to leave the operating room when he comes in to criticize their behavior.When the anesthetist for the operation, Captain E.B. "Me Lay" Marston (Michael Murphy), tells Hawkeye to save his rapier like wit for the clam diggers back home, Hawkeye suddenly recognizes it's an old acquaintance of his. Hawkeye had once told Trapper John how one of his friend's back home got the nick-name "Me Lay" by saying to girls, "Me lay, you lay," and it would enable him to score with about 1 of every 50 of the girls.Trapper and Hawkeye quickly finish the surgery, but on the way out of the hospital, they are followed by two MPs. They think they are escaping through a door, but when they close it and turn around, they find themselves in the Colonel Merrill's outer office, where another MP is sitting and waiting for them. They are directed into Colonel Merrill's office to wait for him to appear. They still have their golf clubs with them, so they take advantage of the wait by practicing their putting.When Colonel Merrill comes in, he threatens to have Hawkeye and Trapper court martialed. They remind him that they bailed him out with the Congressman by operating on his son and if Merrill decides to press the matter, they will call and tell the Congressman their side of the story and the colonel can tell his side. They tell the colonel they will hang around one more day to golf and check on the Congressman's son, and he can contact them at the golf course if he wants them. Then Hawkeye uses the butt end of his putter to push the colonel back into his chair and off they go.Dr. Marston invites Hawkeye and Trapper to come check out Dr. Yamachi's New Era Hospital and Whorehouse, where Marston moonlights as a doctor. As the three later sit with some Geisha girls and eat a meal at the facility, a nurse comes in and speaks with Me Lay, telling him that a Japanese-American baby boy was having trouble breathing and needed help. Based only on a description of the symptoms, Trapper and Hawkeye decide to schedule surgery for the boy back at the Army hospital. Hawkeye has already diagnosed the problem as a tracheal-esophageal fistula. He tells Dr. Marston not to tell the hospital who the surgery is for, because it is against the rules. However, when Colonel Merrill finds out what's going on, he comes into the operating room and throws a fit, prompting the doctors to clamp a surgical gas mask over his face and put him to sleep, then they complete the operation on the child.While the Colonel is still asleep, one of the Geisha girls, Michiko (Hiroko Watanabe) is put with him in a bed and some compromising photos are taken to assure that the Colonel will remain quiet about everything that had transpired.On their return to the 4077th from Japan, Hawkeye and Trapper (still wearing their newly purchased golf attire) immediately go into surgery for several hours. Finally with a chance to go their tent, now nicknamed "The Swamp," they find the flaps on the windows down and the door locked so they bang on the door. Duke's face appears at the window and he wants to know what the hell they are doing back already. He tells them to wait a minute. Hawkeye and Trapper figure something's up, so they start around towards the back of the tent and see a shirtless Forrest trying to smuggle Hot Lips away under a blanket. When the blanket falls off, they say hello to Hot Lips and ask her if she missed them. As she scurries away, Duke just looks at Trapper and Hawkeye and shrugs. Apparently non-blondes are ok with him after all.General Hammond calls Colonel Blake to tell him the battle for Old Baldy was all over (the battle that was responsible for so many wounded). He ignores Henry's inquiry as to who won, instead telling him he got a rather disturbing report from Major "O'Houlihan" about things taking place at the 4077th that he finds hard to believe. Blake says, "well, don't believe them then...goodbye" and he hangs up the phone.General Hammond makes a trip over to the 4077th to check on things for himself. The first thing he does is join the surgeons out under a camouflage net for some martinis. They discuss Major Houlihan. Trapper tells the general that Colonel Blake can't be blamed for Hot Lips not being able to stand her name. When Hawkeye tells the general that Hot Lips is a regular Army fanatic who won't even let them play football, that gets the general's attention, as he loves football. He asks if the 4077th has a football team. Hawkeye starts to say no, but Trapper John interjects and says yes. Hammond mentions that his team at the 325th Evac (he's the head coach) is currently scheduling games for the upcoming season. They like to play games against other units and bet on the outcomes. When he says the bets are typically in the $5,000-$6,000 range, Hawkeye nearly chokes, but the general has already decided to go speak with Colonel Blake about it.Trapper observes that the general has five times the manpower to draw his football players from. Hawkeye thinks they can deal with that by finding a "ringer" to help them. He knows an Army neurosurgeon named Oliver Harmon Jones, a.k.a. "Spearchucker" who used to play for the San Francisco 49ers. If they can get Henry to put in a special request for Dr. Jones, then he could be on their football team. Forrest, being from Georgia, is concerned about potential social problems, as Jone's would be the only black officer in camp. Hawkeye tells Duke they'd just stick him in the Swamp with them.The general goes to see Blake and tell him about the football game plan. Henry is taken aback. "Football? Gambling? What about Houlihan?" The general says, "ya mean Hot Lips? Screw her!"So, "Spearchucker" (a nickname from his days as a javelin thrower) shows up at the 4077th and Colonel Blake assumes the role as head coach. He organizes the first practice and just as he's beginning his first coaching lesson (about the three basic principles of football: organization, discipline and teamwork), Dr. Jones interrupts and asks if they can all limber up first. Henry decides that's a good idea and asks Spearchucker to organize that.The team is put through a pretty rigorous training camp, just like any normal football team would go through. Hot Lips also participates by organizing a squad of nurses as cheerleaders.Trapper is the team's quarterback. Spearchucker is a running back. Spearchucker presents Colonel Blake with seven or eight plays that he drew up, telling the coach that he figured that's about the maximum number of plays their team could handle.As for the bet, Hawkeye suggests they bet $2,500 on the first half, in which Spearchucker won't play, then get new odds for the 2nd half and put Spearchucker in. Everyone agrees that's a good idea.On game day, the 325th Evac team is dressed in blue uniforms and the 4077th M.A.S.H. is in red jerseys and white helmets with red crosses on the front and back. The field is well manicured green grass and well marked. The referees are very official looking. There are cheerleaders for both teams and bleachers on one side of the field, filled with spectators.The 4077th kicks off and a flashy little runner for the 325th returns the ball for a touchdown. Spearchucker knows him as "Super Bug" (Noland Smith) and tells the others that Super Bug played for the L.A. Rams. Spearchucker tells his teammates they have to get Super Bug out of the game. Meanwhile, the general is telling his defensive star, a huge lineman, #88 (Ben Davidson) to go easy on the 4077th players so as not to run up the score.The 4077th's first play from scrimmage sees the ball snapped way over Trapper's head and he falls on it in the end zone for a safety.Radar serves as the water boy. He brings out a syringe and hands it to anesthesiologist Black who tucks it into his belt. After Super Bug returns the next kickoff for another touchdown, Dr. Black injects him in the arm, even using an alcohol swab first, while he's still on the ground. Within seconds, Super Bug becomes disoriented and falls down. On the sideline, he starts talking about the next race. He thinks they are all participating in a track meet.The "Painless Pole" tells the huge player opposite him, "All right, Bud, this time your fucking head is coming right off!" but he's the one who gets hammered.It's 16-0 at halftime and when the gun goes off signaling the end of the half, Super Bug mistakes it for a starter's gun and takes off in a sprint and runs into his team's cheerleaders, knocking them all over.Henry begins a rallying halftime speech when Hawkeye reminds him that he needs to go take care of the second half bet with General Hammond, so Blake stops talking and he and Radar go over to the 325th's locker room.The 325th's #88 takes a big mouthful of water and purposely directs a stream of water at Radar's head as they sit around observing the colonel and general discuss terms of the bet. Radar just looks like a sad little puppy dog as he is forced to suffer through the insult.The general and colonel decide to double the bet for the 2nd half.Spearchucker enters the game for the 4077th and returns the 2nd half kickoff for a touchdown. The extra point attempt is blocked. The general demands to know who the that new guy is and one of the players on the 325th tells him it's Spearchucker Jones who played for the 49ers. The general yells at Blake from across the field, accusing him of bringing in a ringer. Blake couldn't make out what the general said, so he asks Radar. Radar says, "His ringer identified our ringer." Blake shouts back, "How do ya like them apples, Charlie?"The second half is brutal, as numerous players from both side are injured and carted off the field. Several 325th Evac players are sharing a marijuana joint on the bench during the game. The general occasionally gets distracted looking at his team's cheerleaders.The 4077th cheerleaders stand right behind Colonel Blake throughout the game and he often gets frustrated with them. He once yells at Hot Lips, calling her a "blithering idiot" because she's cheering for everything that happens: injuries and penalties, as well as scores or good plays. When the gun goes off at the end of the third quarter, at the same time a 4077th player is being tackled, Hot Lips shouts out, "oh, my God, they shot him!"Blue team's #88 calls the 4077th's #69 a "coon," as he's black. #69 wants to fight #88, but gets chastised by Spearchucker for risking a penalty and ejection. Spearchucker knows something about #88 from pro football camp, so he advises #69 to use the fact that #88 has a sister named Gladys to turn the tables and piss him off instead. So, before the snap of the ball on the next play, #69 says something, causing #88 to level him. #69 jumps up and runs the opposite direction, with #88 in hot pursuit. They run all the way down the field before the refs and other catch up to them. #88 is ejected from the game as the 4077th cheerleaders start chanting, "69 is divine."The 4077th scores on a TD pass, but the extra point is muffed. The score is 16-12. It comes down to the last play of the game. Spearchucker tells the team that he spoke with the umpire and they will run a special "center eligible" play, where the center, SSgt. Vollmer, will hike the ball to Trapper, but then bring the ball right back between his legs and tuck it under his shirt as Trapper and the rest of the players carry out a fake. The play works, even after Vollmer runs over to the sideline to show Coach Blake that he actually has the ball, then he continues on down the sideline and, thanks to a block from Spearchucker, scores a touchdown. Final score: 4077th - 18, 325th -16.The 4077th team rolls back into camp, all drunk. Later, there's a big poker game in a tent and in the background a dead soldier is being loaded into the back of a Jeep and taken away, bringing the reality of their situation back in focus.There's a little yellow camp dog that Hawkeye often plays with. He calls it "pup-pup." He's petting the dog when he receives word from Radar that prompts him to rush over to the operating room and inform Forrest that they both had received orders to go home. Forrest can't celebrate right away, as he's assisting Dr. Jones in brain surgery.Father Mulcahy blesses the Jeep that Forrest and Hawkeye will leave in. After some quick goodbyes, Duke and Hawkeye jump in a Jeep, and just as when they arrived in Korea, they don't wait for their designated driver. Hawkeye drives and they roar out of camp. Blake asks Radar if Hawkeye just stole that Jeep and Radar says no, that it's the same Jeep they arrived in.The PA Announcer reads the end credits as the movie ends. | comedy, anti war, cult, suicidal, psychedelic, satire | train | imdb | The Robert Altman film with Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye, Elliott Gould as Trapper John, and Radar as Radar.
Script, direction, casting, music and acting are all at their very best in this satirical take on the Korean War - ironically, there is no army action played out during the movie, just the escapades of Elliot Gould, Donald Sutherland, et al where they are stationed to take in casualties of war.From the opening shots we feel the slow mood of the film, yet if we look a little closer, we see comedy and havoc all around.
It is very much a character driven movie.The football game just shows what these people are really like - fun, scheming, lovable cheats - but it pays off because the opposition is so loathsome.
But while I could see why M*A*S*H was groundbreaking and important for a Hollywood film of it's day (lack of the usual clear narrative line, anti-war stance, overlapping, improvised dialogue, sexuality, bloody operating room scenes serving as ironic counterpart, etc), it felt pretty dated and unfocused.
As is obvious from the many user comments here, it's difficult to talk about "MASH" without comparing it to "M*A*S*H," and in fact the most important cultural thing the film may have done is establish an aesthetic universe for the TV series to exist in (and that really is the only thing the film and the TV show have in common as many have pointed out, the tone, style, timing, and even character personalities are quite different between the two).
But taken on its own, "MASH" is not really the anti-war polemic it's been made out to be, nor is it the joke-driven movie comedy we might expect from the series' style.
The movie subtly suggests that war makes ordinary people into silly, stupid, and vicious ones, and Hawkeye and Trapper are no more exempt from this law than Frank Burns; in fact, if anything they are more angry and mean than he is.
Some viewers will laugh at the moment of recognition, but playful directing doesn't make a good film all by itself.) Another possible innovation is the use of a Simon&Garfunkly theme ("Suicide is Painless") that has no bearing on the movie or much else in the world.
All the army ever did to these distinguished surgeons was to replace, temporarily of course, their zillion-dollar a year civilian careers with the opportunity to play golf, football, and crude practical jokes while occasionally saving of patients whom they obviously do not give a **** about personally.The primary "anti-war" message here is that surgical operations involve lots of blood squirting around.
It's quietly effective, immediately giving you a sense of the 4077th MASH unit (looking much bigger and grimmer than it ever did in the TV series) and coming as close as the movie ever does to delivering an effective anti-war statement.
Scenes like Major Burns and Hot Lips' transmitted tryst and Painless Pole's suicide attempt are not as funny as we are meant to think, but they are well shot, especially the Painless Pole bit, the best thing in the movie for pure entertainment.
Instead, it veers wildly off course, away from the camp and into two radically pointless subplots, one involving a trip by Hawkeye and Trapper to Japan where they operate on a congressman's son and a sick infant (some sort of parallel there, though lost on me), the other a football game that apparently was director Robert Altman's comment on the folly of war, but to me just shows what happens when you allow your characters to veer off-script for so long you can't make it back to the ending as written.
The actors who deservedly made their reputation in this film and give fine performances throughout are Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Robert Duvall, Sally Kellerman, Gary Burghoff and Bud Cort, and that's just the A-team.
When chest cutter Trapper John McIntyre joins them in the camp it starts a working practice that ignores authority and tries to find as much fun as possible in the middle of their bloody war.I had watched the TV show for a long time before I finally got to watch the movie - I prefer the cynical comedy of the film although I have always loved the more sitcom style approach of the series.
It does have some scenes of blood and gore but it is far from having anything substantial to say about the cruelty of war.Instead I always find this film to be a very episodic, freewheeling comedy, some bits of which work and some others don't.
Altman's use of overlapping dialogue and his usual use of overlapping scenes as opposed to a traditional narrative flow is good here but it would have been better if it had been toned down somewhat.The cast is what really carries the film - the plot is weak and they have no characters other than what they create themselves and, although the dialogue is good, I couldn't help the feeling that the cast did as much as the writers.
The support cast are all a good mix of characters whether they be played by actors such as Duvall and Kellerman or less well known faces such as Burghoff or Bowen.Overall, I am still unable to see what those who call this a `brutal anti-war film' see but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it as a comedy.
Hawkeye, Trapper John (Elliott Gould), Frank Burns (Robert Duvall), Hot Lips Houlihan (Sally Kellerman) and Col. Blake (Roger Bowen) are portrayed very differently than their TV counter-parts.
Anti-military perhaps, but not anti-war (and the two are not the same thing, in my opinion.)I realize that I'm not in tune here with most people's thinking, but as far as I'm concerned the best thing about this movie is actually hearing the words to the familiar MASH theme: "Suicide Is Painless." I also appreciated the fact that, this being a motion picture rather than a TV series, the horrors of war (ie, the wounds of the soldiers) could be more graphically (and therefore more soberingly) portrayed.
I cannot understand, how it ever could have been considered, as such.If you want good comedy, great characters, and very sad and moving anti-war material, watch the series.
This Robert Altman movie, made during the Vietnam war years, talks about a group of doctors during the Korea conflict.
The film was a big hit when it came out, maybe because it was the first movie to talk about army in a funny way -it teased the US Army...Today the film looks old and overrated and the political sarcasm seems very weak, actually.
Over and over I kept saying to myself "THIS is the classic I've heard such rave reviews about?" As so many others have noted, the movie displays a wide streak of misogyny, the main characters are supremely smug and unlikable, no plot to speak of, the endless football game is silly and belongs in another movie, the film itself is grainy and difficult to watch, and in general the movie carries a very ugly and mean-spirited tone.
Perhaps it was pioneering to see surgeons during the Korean War at work, but it added nothing to the overall film no comedy, no insight, no charm just a way to prove to the viewers that these men were actually men of medicine.
From the actors to the continuity to the muddled themes, "M.A.S.H." was genuine for its time, but watching it now, in 2008, it feels dated and overwhelmingly tiresome.What a treat it was to see the groundlings of such great actors like Donald Sutherland, Eliot Gould, Robert Duvall, and even Tom Skerritt.
While never a fan of the dry humor of the TV series & certainly too young to be an expert on the Korean War, MASH - the movie - comes off as an unconventionally funny & intriguing look at war thru the eyes of irreverent doctors in the kooky MASH unit.Director Robert Altman never allows us to get seriously involved in the "war" aspect of this film - there are few, if any, poignant moments in regards to the actual battle in Korea.
But there are jokes and laughs which this film relies on during the absurd war, it's the joking that keeps these characters alive.I wouldn't say this picture features a good screenplay but the direction is so unique that it deserves to be seen by everyone.
Nevertheless I have seen enough to know that it is miles superior to Robert Altman's 1970 film, in terms of acting, characters and especially in terms of jokes.'MASH' was a highly popular film when it was released.
I have heard it compared to 'Animal House' for its humour and anti-authority attitudes, but what made 'Animal House' better than the average such film was the well developed and appealing characters, of which 'MASH' the film (certainly not the TV series) has next to none.But with the TV series being a later spin-off from the movie, it is not quite right to compare and criticise.
And most people know that there was a T.V. show, but, surprisingly enough, not as many have heard about the movie.Directed by Robert "Gosford Park" Altman, it begins with all the characters coming to the 4077th (I think) MASH unit (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) during the Korean War. Some characters include Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland), Trapper John (Elliot Gould), Duke (Tom Skerritt), and the foxy Hot Lips (Sally Kellerman).
I laughed on some occasions but most things that were supposed to be funny, I didn't like at all.In the TV-series, the characters were more sympathetical and even though they could be cynical and evil on many occasions, they had more warmth and respect for others, than they had in the film.The TV-series has given me many fine and funny moments and also a great anti-war message.
Sure, you can see the film, to see what the original preceding the TV-series looked like, but be thankful that they gave us eleven great seasons but only two hours of crap and not the other way around..
I don't know, perhaps I needed to be around at 1970 to fully understand its appeal and appreciate it, since it certainly was a popular movie at the time, that even had an even more successful TV-series following it up, only 2 years later.Thing that the movie is known and praised for, is its heavy anti-war message in it.
Maybe it would had also helped if the movie did actually showed some of its war but now I really never had the feeling as if the movie was taking place during a war situation.The cast-list sound interesting, with people such as Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Robert Duvall and Rene Auberjonois in it but most of them were still pretty big unknowns at the time and their roles also aren't all that big.
I have to credit Robert Altman's breakthrough film MASH for at least one thing- it's one of the few films from the 70's to look at those in war not as overly anxious and gung-ho military types, but average shlubs working a particular kind of job.
The film is put together in a piece-meal kind of way, with about as loose a plot as dialog construction, where the sense of humor from the main male characters (i.e. Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland) is the kind of juvenile, sarcastic humor associated with its time.
This is likely the kind of film that John Landis must have seen at least a few times before making Animal House.But the problem for me, aside from the film's strength in breaking conventions and having such a varied cast (Sally Kellerman and Robert Duvall in the same movie, not to mention Tom Skerritt and Bud Cort), is in it working as a comedy.
The humor and jokes in the film are a big step above the television show's lot that followed in the 70's (then again, I'm not a fan of the show anyway), but the attitudes of the characters, and the little understated bits that happen, miss marks of satire I would've liked to have seen.
I have not ever seen an episode of the show so my opinion of the show is yet to be discovered, but my opinion of the movie is that it's not funny enough to be a comedy, not dramatic enough to be a drama, and isn't about the war enough to make it a war film.
Although (sadly) it is better known as a long-running television series, the film is an absolute treat that has gained a reputation among fans and critics as one of the best American movies of all time.
Even more impressive is the fact that it's an anti-war movie in which not a single bullet is fired -- unless you count the gun that goes off during the ending football game, leading to one of the film's biggest laughs as Hot Lips screams, "Oh my God!
This film was obviously ahead of its time and I think something is lost when some people watch it today.It is an antiwar black comedy that deals with the absurdity of war and its horrific consequences, much the same as "Catch-22".
Women aren't being treated like objects, especially when you consider the time-frame for this movie was the Korean war (early 1950's), so there wasn't even a women's liberation movement as yet, anyway it takes two to Tango, and in the interim if a "regular army clown" gets his/her comeuppance, it's just sauce for the goose and eventually they do come around most willingly.I personally think this film is cinematic masterpiece and a genuine timeless classic full of satire, and will endure through the ages.
I was a big fan of the MASH series.In fact,it is my favorite TV show,period.Oddly enough,I had never seen the movie until now.Now,that I have,I can honestly say that I am glad that I got to know the series first.The characters that we came to know and love because of the series were portrayed much differently here and as a result,they are much less likable.Another issue that I have is the perception that all people who read the Bible and kneel by their bedside to pray are automatically written off as nut jobs.Some may be,but certainly not all of them are.To be fair,perhaps the Frank Burns character as played by Robert Duvall did deserve his fate.All in all,I am glad I waited so long to view this film,because if I had seen the film first,I may never have given the series the time of day..
though i thought this movie was OK,in my opinion it pales in comparison to the Television series.i have nothing against any of the actors,most of whom were just staring out or barely known at the time,and are now well known.but,in the TV series,the actor are a better fit for the characters.the movie isn't as clever as the TV show either,although there are some moments of dialogue brilliance.Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland do have good chemistry together though,and that counts for something.however,something else that really bugged me was the opening theme song.in the series,it's all instrumental.in the movie,we get to hear the lyrics which to me,overpower the piece,and take away its impact.plus,the words don't really make sense and they don't fit with the melody.that may seem like a minor point,but to me it's a major faux pas.as for the movie itself,it's not horrible by any means.it's just no masterpiece.for me MASH (the movie)is a 5/10.
Robert Altman directs the irreverent gags of Hawkeye, Trapper, Duke (Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Tom Skerrit, respectively) and the rest of the assorted doctors, nurses, and soldiers at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital unit (or MASH) during the Korean War (Altman strived to make it look like Vietnam to fool audiences).
Unlike the TV counterpart, this MASH was as cynical as it should have been, and the characters were real with incredibly memorable lines like that spoken by Margaret "Hotlips": Houlihan, "I wonder how a degenerate like that ever reached a responsible position in the Army's medical corps?" to which Father "Dago Red" Mulcahy replied "He was drafted." Korea like Vietnam was a war in which the U.S. meddled in what was essentially a civil war, and in that they were the same more or less, but this movie's war was no different in the respect of the way the Army looked at their own soldiers.
I wonder if that TV exec or producer preferred the movie to the TV show.) I must have seen this film about a dozen times when it hit Tan Son Nhut AB RVN and refused to see Patton when it played at first, because I knew that IT was put there to counteract the anti-war sentiment of MASH.
Which is also interesting to note that the author of the book didn't like the anti-war sentiment of either the film or the TV show, though I don't believe he ever sent back a single royalty check.I resented the softening of the Radar O'Reilly character on the TV show even though the same actor played the part both times.
You know you're in for something very odd when the theme song is named "Suicide is Painless".This is, inexplicably, considered an anti-war movie, as only a viewer who has never actually seen one could describe it (and what Altman said about his own work doesn't sway me - he outfoxed himself).
For people expecting a total war movie, do not even watch this film.
Around this time is when Robert Altman took on the job of directing a film based off of a book titled MASH.The movie was focused around three drafted Army surgeons and how they lived their lives in a MASH unit stationed on the front lines during the Korean War. It was a combination of serious moments and dark humor, elements of which carried over to the television series. |
tt0350258 | Ray | The film opens in 1948. Young Ray Charles Robinson (Jamie Foxx), the blind son of a sharecropper, boards a bus in Florida. Ray lies to the racist bus driver about loosing his sight an Omaha Beach in 1944 during the war to get a cheap ride. He travels to Seattle, Washington where he uses his unexpected talent for the piano to get a job playing for a nightclub band. The club's owner (Denise Dowse) soon begins to exploit Ray, demanding sexual favors and controlling his money and career. After discovering that he is being lied to and stolen from, Ray leaves the band in disgust.In 1950, Ray joins a white country band who make him wear sunglasses to hide his damaged eyes from audiences. They go on tour, and Ray is introduced to heroin. He also suffers from traumatic flashbacks relating to his childhood. The elder of two brothers, Ray is raised by a fiercely independent single mother, Aretha Robinson (Sharon Warren). The family is poor, but young Ray finds solace in music. He learns to play the piano from a man at a local store. At age five, Ray is playing with his younger brother George in front of their house when George slips into their mother's full washbasin. Ray laughs at first, thinking George is goofing off, but becomes paralyzed with shock as his brother's limbs thrash violently in the soapy water, scrambling to escape. Aretha rushes to pull George from the water, but it is too late. Ray feels immense guilt over his brother's death, and begins to develop vision problems soon afterward. By age seven, he is completely blind. His mother teaches him to be independent despite his condition, and makes him swear that he will never let the world "turn him into a cripple." Eventually, she sends Ray to a school for the deaf and blind, weeping as her only remaining son boards a bus and disappears.As Ray travels on the road, he demands to be paid in single dollar bills so no one can cheat him (since he cannot see the paper notes of the cash). We see another flashback of Ray playing with a country band and the man counting singles by $20 to pay Ray. Luckily another band member steps up and demands Ray be paid fairly. As Ray is becoming more and more popular with his music, a man from Atlantic Records discovers him. The man has written a song and offers to let Ray sing it. The song, "The Mess Around" becomes Ray's first hit.Ray ends up meeting Della Bea, a preacher's daughter. He falls in love with her, and the two get married. Della is not happy about Ray mixing gospel and soul music, but realizes he's got undeniable talent.Ray goes out on the road, and meets up with Mary Anne, a singer who teams up with Ray. On a trip home, Della Bea finds Ray's drugs in his shaving bag, and demands he stop using. Ray refuses, and walks out on a pregnant Della Bea.Ray begins an affair with Mary Anne. As Ray's popularity grows, Ray gets a girl trio to become "The Raylettes". Ray immediately falls for Margie's, the lead singers charms, and the two begin an affair. Mary Anne grows resentful and begs Ray to give her a solo, which he does. Figuring now she's got her name out there, Mary Anne leaves Ray and his band, but not before throwing a brick through the windshield of his car out of jealousy over Ray and Margie.Another few years later, Ray is out on the road as a headliner, and one night while doing a set, the band finishes early. The owner of the club demands Ray fill the 20 minute slot he has left, and Ray makes up the hit "What I'd Say" on the spot.During the 1960s, Ray is becoming more and more popular. Ray is offered a better contract with another record label, and although he is loyal to Atlantic, Ray leaves them, but on amicable terms. Ray goes to Atlanta to play a concert, and encounters civil rights protests. Ray protests by saying that he will not play if the black concertgoers have to sit in the balcony. Ray ends up being barred from the state of Georgia.Another year or so later, Ray then wants to try and do different things with his music, and incorporates classical and country into his sound. Some of his biggest hits come from this mixture, such as "Georgia on My Mind" which Margie says will be Ray's downfall. Ray also records "I Can't Stop Loving You", for which he receives a standing ovation at one concert.While sleeping in a hotel room, Ray's sleep is interrupted by the police who burst in and arrest him. They tell him that they are acting on an annymous tip that he has drugs in the room and are there to arrest him. Although heroin is found and Ray is charged with posession, he gets off on a legal technicality because the police didn't have a search warrant.Later, while in a hotel room with Margie, Ray is tinkling on the piano while she gets sick. Margie is pregnant, and demands Ray leave Della and his three children with her. Ray refuses, and Margie is angry. Ray tells Margie to keep her anger, while he literally writes "Hit the Road Jack" complete with Margie's solo. Now that she's got her name out there, Margie leaves the Raylettes to try and make a solo career for herself.Flashing forward another few years later in the early 1970s, we see Ray and Della Bea move into a huge new house with their kids. Della is uncomfortable in the new house. Ray has to go to Canada for another concert. But when he gets off the plane, he is arrested for possession of heroin. The record company has trouble getting him out of this trouble and a judge sentences Ray to go to a treatment clinic. Della and Ray fight about this and the phone rings.Picking up the phone, Ray learns from someone on the other line that Margie is dead... from a drug overdose. Ray swears to Della that he never turned her onto it and wouldn't let her use it when she was around him. Della says she will start sending money to Ray's child with Margie, but Ray tells Della he already sends him money. Ray goes to a rehab clinic where he suffers from withdrawals and nightmares.Throughout the movie, in flashbacks, we see how a young Ray slowly went blind nine months after watching his brother die. We see how his fiercely independent mother forces Ray to make his own way in the world and never to let anybody cripple or tell him otherwise just because he is blind. While at the rehab clinic going through painful heroin withdrawals, a now-grown Ray has a conversation with his dead mother, who chastises him for letting drugs cripple him. Ray tries to apologize, but his independent mother won't hear of it. Then his little brother George shows up and tells him that he doesn't blame him for his death.The movie ends in the year 1979 with Ray getting off drugs for good and receiving his proudest accomplishment. That same year, the state of Georgia officially apologizes to Ray and makes "Georgia On My Mind" the official state song. The movie ends with Ray, Della, and their three grown sons receiving applause after Ray performs the song before a live audience.The closing title card reads:This movie is dedicated to Ray Charles Robinson, 1930-2004. (whom died before the release of this feature film) | romantic, historical, flashback | train | imdb | null |
tt0172396 | The End of the Affair | Novelist Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes) is writing "This is a diary of hate" as he starts a new book as well as the film's narration.It's 1946 when Bendrix has a chance meeting one rainy night in London with Henry Miles (Stephen Rea), husband of his former mistress Sarah (Julianne Moore). Two years before, she had abruptly ended their affair for reasons revealed later. Henry suspects Sarah is currently having an affair and is considering employing a private eye to investigate. Bendrix was jealous of Henry during his affair with Sarah and had tried to persuade her to leave him. If she has since started an affair with someone new after telling him there would never be anyone else, Bendrix wants to find out. Without telling Henry, he hires the investigator himself, at the same time as making arrangements to meet Sarah.Consistent with the tone of his diary, their meeting is cold and promises no future. Events are shown from Bendrix perspective, with contrasting flashbacks of Bendrix with Sarah as they began their affair during World War II. The present day action continues as Bendrix encounters the private investigator Parkis (Ian Hart), who uses his young son Lancelot (Sam Bould) to help him snoop. The boy has a birthmark that disfigures his face.Parkis reports that he has found who Sarah has been seeing under the pretence of attending dental appointments. Bendrix jealousy leads him to confront the man named Smythe, using Lancelot as a ploy to gain access to his home. Smythe (Jason Isaacs) is a priest who admits he knows Sarah and who Bendrix is. Smythe is affronted by the way he has approached him and tells him to leave.The climax of Act 2 is a night of passion during the war when we witness them making love amid the sound of V2 rockets falling and shaking the house. Bendrix gets out of bed to check on his landlady and is blown down the stairs by the blast from a rocket hitting the house. When he recovers consciousness, he goes back upstairs to find Sarah praying. Seeing him, she is shocked that he is alive. Bendrix detects that her attitude has changed and accuses Sarah of being disappointed that he survived. She leaves telling him "Love doesn't end, just because we don't see each other."Back to 1946 and Parkis inveigles his way into a social function at the Miles house and steals Sarah's diary which he gives to Bendrix. As he sits to read it, the film sequences of the main events in their relationship are reshown but the narrative is from Sarah's perspective. After Bendrix is hurt by the bomb, Sarah runs downstairs and finds him motionless with no pulse. Assuming him dead, she runs back upstairs and begins to pray for a miracle. Just as she makes a promise to God that she will stop seeing Bendrix if he is brought back to life, Bendrix comes into the room.Now knowing why Sarah ended the affair, Bendrix follows Sarah and begs her to reconsider. Sarah tells Bendrix that she has felt dead without him and can no longer keep her "promise" to God. They rekindle the affair. Bendrix tries to persuade Sarah to leave Henry and confesses to Henry that he hired Parkis to find out who she was seeing while making fake visits to the dentist. Henry is furious and burns the evidence Bendrix produces about Smythe. Henry also desperately asks Sarah not to leave him.Bendrix is visited one night by Henry as he and Sarah are in bed. He does not open the door. She agrees to go away with him the following morning to Brighton where Bendrix finds Parkis is following him. To increase the likelihood of divorce, Bendrix contrives to kiss Sarah in view of their hotel bedroom window where Parkis can photograph them.Bendrix believes his goal has been realised when Henry appears in Brighton. But Henry's reason is not to confront the adulterous couple. It is to tell them what he had come to Bendrix' house for the night previously, that Sarah has a terminal illness and will not survive much longer than the duration of a divorce.Bendrix stays with Henry and Sarah during her final days. Bendrix does not permit Smythe entry when he tries to visit Sarah, telling her it was just a person, and not the postman. When she dies, Smythe visits to offer spiritual support but evokes anger from Bendrix who blames God for taking her. It becomes clear the object of hate in his book is not Sarah or Henry but God. "I hated You as though You existed. Now I am tired of hating...but You're still there".At Sarah's funeral, Parkis tells Bendrix that after finding his son Lancelot asleep in a doorway while he was supposed to be recording her visits to Smythe, she had kissed his birthmarked cheek as she put him on a train home. When the birthmark disappeared, Lancelot believed she had worked a healing miracle on him.At Henry and Sarah's house, Bendrix continues to talk to God whose existence and virtue he had earlier doubted, completing his book with the lines.. "I've only one prayer left. Dear God, forget about me.
Look after her and Henry". | romantic, flashback | train | imdb | One of the great joys in movie watching lies in stumbling across films that, by their very nature, should be nothing more than clichéd, hackneyed versions of stories we have seen a thousand times before yet, somehow, through the insightfulness of their creators, manage to illuminate those tales in ways that are wholly new and unexpected.
Such is the case with Neil Jordan's `The End of the Affair,' a film that in its bare boned outlining would promise to be nothing more than a conventional, three-handkerchief weepie centered around the hoary issue of romantic infidelity, but which emerges, instead, as a beautiful and moving meditation on the overwhelming force jealousy, love, commitment and passion can exert on our lives.Ralph Fiennes stars as Maurice Bendrix, a British writer living in 1940's London, who has an affair with Sarah Miles (Julianne Moore), the wife of Maurice's friend, Henry (Stephen Rea).
Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes) is a man haunted by jealousy and pain over an affair he had with the wife of one of his friends, Henry Miles (Stephen Rea).
But when you like to see a quality product (and no I'm not going to use the title 'art'-movie because I hate that name and this certainly isn't such a movie), with believable emotions, a great story and some excellent acting performances, than this might be a movie that you definitely should give a try.
Besides this, it still does work well and is quite tragic as a love story - this is not a romantic date movie sort of thing!The main reason I was able to buy into the heart of the emotion was the performances.
She is good in the role (better and freer than the 50's actress) even if I didn't feel she was as good as Rea and Fiennes - maybe because her character is less expressive and, simply, a `good' person: I can only assume Greene was unable to look down on his lover even after the end of the affair.Overall this film has a few sticking points but it is a wonderful version of Greene's book of the same name.
Watching it on video...a second viewing...I was even more deeply moved than the first time around.Julianne Moore, very much on the big screen these days (and for good reason), gives another of her splendid performances, this time as Sarah Miles, a middle-class English woman, married to a good, but dull man who takes her for granted.
Stephan Rea as Henry Miles, Sarah's husband, trapped in his desire, but inability to fulfill the emotional and sexual needs of his much-loved wife, is another convincing and touching portrayal.The spiritual aspects expressed in the film, reflect the life-long struggle of Grahame between his Catholicism and his doubts.
The deep pulls of each character toward both personal and impersonal love give the film a dimension and an honesty that reward the "participant" (for that's how potent the film is) with an indelible human experience.To Neil Jordan, the director, my wholehearted gratitude for his sensitive, nuanced presentation of this beautiful film..
This film tells the story of a wartime love affair between Maurice, a successful, cynical and rather callous novelist, and Sarah, the beautiful but neglected wife of a dull senior civil servant.
Greene is a very cinematic novelist - at last count there were at least 40 screen versions of his works - and Jordan has very cleverly used a present - flashback - present and then forward technique to tell the story from both Maurice's and Sarah's viewpoint.
Greene went overseas to find danger and forget, to Vietnam and elsewhere, and these trips produced at least one more major novel, "The Quiet American." However Greene's career as a writer peaked with "The End of the Affair." His later work is interesting and readable, but never again did he reach the same emotional depths and heights.Greene is often said to be a Catholic novelist but on the basis of this work at least he wasn't a great pitchman for the Almighty.
Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes) is a novelist who meets beautiful Sarah Miles (Julianne Moore) at a party hosted by her husband Henry (Stephen Rea), whom Bendrix is researching for a book.
"This is a diary of hate," is the opening line of this film, said by the main character and narrator, novelist Maurice Bendrix(Ralph Fiennes).
Neil Jordan's adaptation of The End of the Affair does, in some sense, attempt to tell the story sideways, and is occasionally interesting as a question of, `Where am I now in their idyllic past or the grim future?'The opening credits of the film are quite reassuring.
`This is a diary of hate,' he begins, and I smiled, knowing that he was going to be the laconic, smart but silly everyman akin to Joseph Cotton in `The Third Man', the Graham Greene protagonist, tough yet brittle, with a wise acre mouth but deep wells of insecurity underneath.Fiennes and Moore flirt at a party, and talk about the characters in the book he is going to write.
An incident which caused The End of the Affair brought about Moore's complex relationship with God.This leads to the movie's major problem, which is that I never felt the "Presence of God" in this film as a character.
In this film, the miracles feel like plot points.Perhaps God is underdeveloped as a character because Moore (though excellent) is really given a somewhat limited role.
Other films which are superior to the source material might include "All the President's Men"; "The Ice Storm"; "The Day of the Jackal." I'm sure you can think of a few more.Finally, there are films like "The End of the Affair," faithful and intelligent adaptations which nonetheless leave so much to be desired that one is forced to question one's opinions about the novel in question.
And there's a lot of lust satisfying in this movie--especially when some coupling is shown twice, from both participants' viewpoints.It's a very adult movie that will bore young romantics to death, but the senior citizens in the audience hated it because they didn't understand the repeating scenes.I was just starting to think it was more than a visually satisfying menage a trois voyeuristic dance macabre when Julianne Moore (whose bland Brit accent is out of place compared to the pro's around her - what no Masterpiece Theatre beauties were available?) started to cough.
At first she appears to be nothing but a deceptive woman who cheats on her husband and leaves her lover for another, but as the film progresses and we realize how complex she is.In a brilliant stroke of direction, the couple takes off more and more items of clothing in successive love scenes.
Also excellent is the showing of the same incident twice; once from his point of view, and once from hers.There is also a moment of cinematic reference that few will catch unaided: On a date to watch one of his books that was turned into a movie, Sarah and Maurice watch "The End of the Affair" (1955).
This, of course, is a clue that the character of Maurice might be slightly autobiographical (representing author Graham Greene).The End of the Affair features both a love story and a mystery, and is a movie that deserves for viewers to watch with both eyes open..
Academy Award nominees Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore, and Stephan Rea all are at the top of their game.To keep things brief without giving anything away, the plot surrounds a torrid love affair between Fiennes and Moore during the German Blitzkrieg of London during World War II.
And the interior conflict within a person himself works better on page than on screen, as the failure of FIGHT CLUB demonstrated.As an author, one would expect Jordan to be faithful to Greene's analysis of the act of writing itself, and this is the most satisfactory element of the film.
The relationship with Sarah begins with reference to his writing, his 'stealing' Henry's wife being part of his project of studying Henry for a character.One of the film's main structural devices is the visualising the same incident from different points of view, revealing the blinkered perception of protagonists who make decisive judgements without learning the full story.
The first, Bendrix-clouded, half of the film sees her cast as a duplicitous, sex-mad whore; the second, diary-aided, defence, white-washes her as a near-saint.At no point does she come across as a real, vibrant, playful, complex woman like her real-life model, with whom Greene stayed for a good few years after writing the novel.
Eventually though she breaks it off abruptly with Fiennes and he's obsessed to find out why.He hires a private detective played by Ian Hart and his report leads to some surprising developments for all concerned.The film is based on a Graham Greene novel though you can bet that the very Catholic Mr. Greene would not have approved of what Fiennes tells to a Catholic priest played by Jason Isaacs.Actually I liked the rather droll performance of Ian Hart as the detective who winds up working for two of three sides of the triangle and has no scruples about getting his 10 year old son involved to achieve results.
Hart did very good work also in Backbeat, playing a young John Lennon.This is a remake of a 1955 film that starred Van Johnson and Deborah Kerr though you can bet it was not as graphic as this version is.For those who love old fashioned romances, you'll like The End of the Affair..
The End Of The AffairIn the midst of a passionate affair with writer Maurice Bendix (Ralph Fiennes), Sarah Miles (Julianne Moore) has finally encountered the soul mate she never had with her husband (Stephen Rea).
And like a film of the time, the music by Michael Nyman (THE PIANO) harps endlessly trying to awaken the listless drama unfolding onscreen.Coming from two spectacular actors like Fiennes and Moore, I thought AFFAIR would have been more engaging.
Fiennes, to some extent, reproduces the detachment of his character in 'The English Patient', but that detachment also works well in 'The End of the Affair' because detachment is a skill, facility, talent, characteristic (call it what you like) that people of that era enjoyed and which is dismally absent from narcissistic postmoderns bent on instant gratification; and that detachment is, it should be appreciated, somewhat exaggerated in an observant writer such as Bendrix.
I expect Greene would have been pleased by Neil Jordan's multiple-viewpointed, fly-on-the-wall, adroit adaptation of his novel for 'The End of the Affair'.What struck me most about this film is that it dealt with issues which nowadays are commonly dismissed, evaded, or weighed and judged peremptorily by most people.
Parkis's attention to convention and respect for sensibilities heightens for us the delicacy and drive of Bendrix's passion, the weight and profundity of Sarah's promise, the bitterness and equanimity of the cuckold's heart, and the tenterhooks of love.'The End of the Affair' is a long, tender-tough look at the trials of souls.
"This is a diary of hate," writes Maurice Bendrix, beginning the narration of "The End of the Affair," a highly sensual and emotional melodrama that takes place during 1939 in war-torn England, where two people will discover a love that can resist all boundaries, even that of marraige.
Based on the novel by Graham Greene, who is supposedly the person that Maurice is based upon, "The End of the Affair" is a gorgeous and almost lyrical tapestry of events that all fall into place like a canvas of pastels.
The end of the affair (1999) is a drama film starring Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes.
Julieanne Moore as Sarah (Catherine) and Ralph Fiennes as Bendrix (Greene) make stolid, joyless work of even the sexual side of their relationship and Stephen Rea as the husband Henry looks miserably content.
Now, in conclusion, if you are a fan of Ralph Fiennes or Julianne Moore, or you enjoyed Graham Greene's title novel, I highly recommend this movie.
Aided by flawless performances by Ralph Feinnes, Julieanne Moore and Stephen Rea, Neil has given us as much of Graham Greene's novel as we could reasonably expect, and he has made it oh so real.Great novels (and films) are not about just one thing (there's more to The Wizard of Oz than 'There's no place like home'), they are about several complex things that interact with one another.
there are some interesting stylistic touches in Neil Jordan's The End of the Affair, but few of them manage to overcome the curiously stilted, somewhat detached performances by the central trio of characters.In mounting (no pun!) this adaptation of Graham Green's semi-autobiographical novel, director Jordan has opted for a restrained, somewhat old-fashioned tone.
...in fact, the film works better as a detective story than a romance, as Finnes tries to piece together the events that actually led to the end of the affair...
Finnes is strong in the lead, lending the film an old-fashioned charm, sort of like Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter, but he fails to spark any form of chemistry with his supposed love-interest, Julianne Moore.
Julianne Moore was wonderful as the trapped and doomed Sarah and i have to say that though Ralph Fiennes is usually wooden in movies (great on stage though) in this movie, his acting is pretty convincing.
first of all a great cast: *Ralph Fiennes = Maurice Bendrix *Julianne Moore = Sarah Miles *Stephen Rea = husband of S.Miles *Ian Hart = detective Notes: -Directed by Neil Jordan -This move has been made before with Deborah KerrThe story: Sarah Miles and her husband meet Maurice Bendrix.
Many adults have at one time loved and/or been jealous, even if there was no reason.I personally feel that beyond the wonderful acting and directing in this film, it is how it represents, for me, what any kind of art should do.
A story of a woman torn between her husband and her lover; torn between feelings of lust for her lover and her pact with God to be faithful to the man to whom she made her wedding vows.Not only was the acting superb, (and, I must add that I'm a Ralph Fiennes fan-he has such alluring eyes!)but the music score is very compelling-I just brought the soundtrack.Anyway, this story is a perfect example of some of the sacrifices that we as humans make for the the one's we love.
Having always considered THE END OF THE AFFAIR one of Graham Greene's finer works, I was nervous that unless it fell into the hands of just the right screenwriter and director, the film version could never live up to the original source.
The compelling story of the affair between Maurice (perfectly played by Ralph Fiennes, that look, those eyes, if you thought he played well in The English Patient you're going to have a pleasant surprise!) and Sarah (the fourties look which suits Julianne Moore brilliantly) takes you by the hand until the end.
Fine job again by Jordan.....Rhea and Fiennes superb as always and I was quite pleasantly surprised by Julianne Moore...I knew she could act but she really stepped it up a notch with this performance....A fine film all around..
The remake of the 1955 film edition based on Graham Greene's novel brings the extra thrill needed after the 'English patient'.Ralph Fiennes is here again in an era movie showing London bombarded during WWII.Julianne Moore will suffer the consequences of fierce jealousy by her lover.Psychology and social relations take precedence in this philosophical novel.Sarah Miles will promise in her great faith to God not to see her beloved Maurice Bendrix if he survives the explosion and stay with her husband Henry forever.Hard decisions intermingled with passionate feelings in a conservative society of that timeline.The act of love in a war catastrophe gives colour to difficult ways of life..
Between 1939 and 1942 a love affair develops between Maurice (Ralph Fiennes in top form) and Sarah (Julianne Moore in even better form).
The End of the Affair is no different.even for a film about love and romance between the characters played by Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore, they seemed to play as secondary roles opposite jealousy and faith.
Neil Jordan's picture-perfect adaptation of Graham Greene's novel about the romance between a sour, successful novelist (Ralph Fiennes) and a married woman (Julianne Moore)--a soap opera that turns into a medieval mystery play.
Neil Jordan's End of the Affair, based on the now classic novel by Graham Green cannot help but be compared to The English Patient, only because it stars Ralph Fiennes, it takes place during World War II, and it uses a narrative that flashes back and forth between two parts of one man's life.
This is really a love story about a woman who leaves a man for God, and that's where it gains its greatest power and uniqueness: a movie in 1999 daring to say there may be something greater in life than shtupping Ralph Fiennes.
"The End of the Affair", Neil Jordan's impeccably rendered and finely acted version of Graham Greene's classic novel.
Fiennes and Moore are perfect and brilliant in their roles, and Rea is pretty good but a bit sluggish in a scene or two.The movie sadly shows the effect jealousy has on an obsessed lover and just how powerful the love of God is.
Graham Greene's knack for story-telling coupled with Neil Jordan's elegant film technique offer a compelling film experience in The End of the Affair..
Ralph Fiennes as Maurice Bendrix and Julianne Moore as Sarah Miles are great, of course; unfortunately, Stephen Rea (as Henry Miles) is too briefly on screen - he is a great actor and Jordan has used him repeatedly.
Neil Jordan's 'End of the Affair' could have been a very good film, but ends by being a bizarre mix of WW2 love story in London, with erotic and mystic nuances at once, and a spin of soap opera. |
tt1606378 | A Good Day to Die Hard | In Moscow, Viktor Chagarin, a high-ranking, but corrupt, Russian official plans to incriminate former billionaire and government whistleblower Yuri Komarov in an imminent rigged trial unless Komarov hands over a secret file believed to contain evidence incriminating Chagarin. Separately, Jack McClane, who has been arrested after an assassination attempt, negotiates for a shorter sentence by offering to testify against Komarov. Meanwhile, Jack's father, NYPD Detective John McClane, who has not been in touch with his son for several years, has learned his son is in trouble and travels to Russia to help. As John arrives and approaches the courthouse where Komarov is on trial, a bomb explosion, orchestrated by Chagarin's henchman Alik, occurs in the courthouse and Jack breaks free with Komarov. Seeing his son, John confronts him, but their dispute is cut short as Alik and his men chase them in a US Cougar MRAP through the streets of Moscow. John, Jack, and Komarov manage to escape.
Hiding in a safe house, John finds out that his son is a CIA officer and has been on an undercover operation for the past three years. Jack's partner, Collins, demands the file's location from Komarov so that the CIA can bring Chagarin down. Komarov eventually agrees on condition that he and his daughter are given safe passage out of Russia. Collins is eventually shot and killed while the McClanes and Komarov come under heavy gunfire from Chagarin's men, but they escape. They make their way to a hotel in the city to fetch the key to the vault containing the file. There they meet up with Komarov's daughter, Irina, as earlier planned. John grows suspicious of her shifty behavior, and is proven correct when Alik and his men burst in and tie John and Jack up, while Komarov is taken as a hostage, and Irina confesses to informing on them for the "millions of dollars" to be gained. Jack breaks free of his ties and kills the nearest guards using a Russian gun-knife, allowing the two to kill most of the men. Alik and Irina, with Komarov still their hostage, return in a Mil Mi-24 helicopter and try to kill them, but the two escape a second time.
That night, the two steal a car full of firearms and drive to Pripyat, Ukraine, where the vault with the file is located. However, Komarov, Irina, and Alik have preceded them. In a twist, the file is revealed never to have existed: the drawer with the file supposedly inside is in fact a secret passage to a Chernobyl vault containing €1 billion worth of weapons-grade uranium. Once inside the vault, Komarov kills Alik and calls Chagarin to gloat and to listen as Chagarin is killed by a henchman of Komarov's.
At this point, John and Jack enter the vault, discover Komarov's true plot, and capture him. Irina, with another henchman, comes to her father's aid. As they attempt to escape, Jack follows Komarov, while John goes after Irina, who is escaping on a Mil Mi-26 helicopter. Irina tries to protect her father by firing the helicopter's guns at Jack. John is able to bring the helicopter out of balance by driving a truck out of the hangar section, still shackled by a chain, via the open rear ramp; he is later thrown off into the building. Komarov remarks that Jack will get to watch his father die, prompting Jack to hurl him off the rooftop into the path of the spinning helicopter rotors, killing him. As Jack and John reunite inside the building, Irina tries to avenge her father by ramming the helicopter, now out of ammunition, into the building in a suicide attack. Father and son survive by leaping off the building into a large pool of water, as the helicopter crashes and explodes, killing Irina. In the end, the McClanes return to New York and reunite with Lucy McClane on the tarmac. | revenge, humor, action, murder | train | wikipedia | The fifth instalment in the beloved "Die Hard" saga ends up as the worst of the series so far; it falters thanks to a weak characterization, even weaker screen writing, lack of worthy villains, absurd action sequences and incoherent direction.
Not even the R-rating and the return of the famous "Yippie ki yay" line in full can save this one.As much as I love action movies, I like mine with a side of plot and character, of which this film fails at.
His son Jack (Jai Courtney), filling in for McClane's sidekick, has certain charisma and shows a few glimpses of character development in McClane but it is cut short by the merciless and absurd action sequences.A good action movie has to have a good villain.
But like all Die Hard movies, there has to be at least one sensational action sequence, and that is at the film's beginning.
If you think the F-35 scene in "Die Hard 4" was absurd, hoo boy, wait until you get a load of this one.At the very least, there's some competent cinematography from Jonathan Sela and a good, riveting music score from Marco Beltrami, who really knows his stuff when it comes to action, as well as incorporating Michael Kamen's themes into this one.
The people at Fox must be idiots because John Moore has not made one good film, so to trust him with the Die Hard franchise seemed a bad idea.
As a fan of the Die Hard series I feel the need to warn others - Don't waste 97 minutes of your life on this movie!
As much as I wanted to like this movie, I just couldn't; not even as a die hard fan of the franchise.First, let's look at the selling point.
The story was no fun and the action was all messy This movie does absolutely nothing to resemble the Die Hard films and as such, one of the most anticipated movies of 2013 has fallen down a drain with overuse of CGI, lame characters and plot, uninteresting villain with no real intention and another excuse to make more money out of it.A Good day to Die Hard is a movie that makes you think that this day is a good day for you to die hard.
First off, I am a huge fan of the three first films, the fourth film was alright, but it didn't feel like a Die Hard movie, sadly, this one doesn't either.
The only thing that this movie benefited the franchise is that John's son at the end actually mentions the fact that his name is actually John McClane Jr. not Jake ( in Die Hard (1988) his kids are named Lucy and John Jr.), But not actually explain the name change in the first place.Much like when they took Oceans 12 to Europe and twisted Indiana Jones into confusing whirlwind that involved aliens, they should have just stayed in America where John McClane belongs.
And for that aspect alone, they did a commendable job.So now I look at A Good Day to Die Hard, with all the trappings that action films are known for and ostentatious hijinks that scream Michael Bay-esque action that reeks of his earlier films to date.Bruce Willis plays McClane to a hilt, but that's all there is.
It like they forced the franchise before Bruce Willis ages even more.I would rather have sat through Barney.Cherry on the top: When they fighting bad guys in Chernobyl ....they fall in water sputter about with no concern with the radioactivity of the water...only to dismiss it as rain water.....ha ha ha haSigh..."It's a good day" to avoid this movie.
As if they just threw Bruce Willis in this over- the-top, not-thought-out action movie and slapped Die Hard 5 as the title.
(Or rather, a film ago!) John McClanes Terrorist attack number 5 was already pushing it, but when the trailers showed him "tagging along" on an adventure following his son, I think the movie was already doomed before I'd even seen it.
Short, fast paced films always feel like less effort has been put into them, but maybe that's just me.Outside off having some hot chick in it, and the most destructive car chase ever (which only happens in the movie so that they can say they broke some record or something) I cant actually think off any reason why you should watch this.
Really Disappointing Sequel Should End It. A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)** (out of 4)The fifth film in the series finds John McClane (Bruce Willis) going to Russia after learning that his son Jack (Jai Courtney) is in prison for murder.
A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD is a pretty bad movie but the only thing that keeps my rating from being lower is the disappointment of how bad it is.
I say the disappointment is rather heartbreaking because the first four films in the series were actually very good and intelligent action movies but this one here is just a loud mess.
(who is for reasons unknown called Jack for most of the movie.) That's also probably what the makers of this film were thinking while shooting this latest addition to the beloved Die Hard franchise.
If this film wouldn't have Die Hard in name, it would have been actually good action flick.
Die Hard characters, especially the villains, usually share some charisma with John McClane but here they are just a bunch of idiots causing a lot of damage because they had to so it can be interesting, but they end up being annoying instead.
Another great thing is it's short so we may not linger to this terribly told storyline unless it spends more of the time developing the plot and the characters, but it's too late for that.A Good Day To Die Hard is a gigantic mediocre mess.
This is by far the worst one of the Die Hard series and one of the worst action movies I've ever seen.For the first half an hour I had no clue what the plot was, let alone who the bad guys were supposed to be.
All the Die Hard movies have one bad guy with an evil plan and John Mclane comes out of nowhere to ruin those plans.
Die Hard 2 was a cheeky repeat of the original, fun but lacking substance and originality, and as a result was always the weakest of the series for me - only passable compared to the third and fourth, each successfully breaking free of the 'man trapped in a confined location' premise and trying to do something fresh (the script for DH3 was based off the original screenplay for Lethal Weapon 4, and I thought the cop-buddy-esque dynamic of Willis and Jackson made up for any flaws in the movie; it also gained back a lot of the hard-boiled style of the original thanks to McTiernan returning.
And while fans rip on the fourth one because of its PG-13 rating and over-the-top action, I think it's a solid film in its own right, surprisingly well-made and staged, and the action really isn't that much crazier than blowing up a plane with a Zippo or jumping off a building attached to a fire hose -- the stakes simply get raised every decade thanks to advances in technology).Anyway, that long-winded introduction aside, I will say this: "A Good Day to Die Hard" feels palpably like an attempt to bring the series back to its roots.
It is subpar by action film standards, and wholly mind-boggling to see in a Die Hard movie, especially one that otherwise attempts so consciously to revert to the grittier, basic approach of the original trilogy.
He's just not memorable, and in a Die Hard film, I feel like the strength of the villains make up a lot of the movie's overall quality.
"A Good Day to Die Hard" feels as though John Moore acquired a ton of money to shoot a handful of eye popping action scenes, and then string them together with painfully contrived dialogued scenes to fit his film into the franchise.
The last 4 die hard films have all been quite clear on plot and well laid out for the viewer to digest but this is shocking in every aspect.Slight Spoiler below (nothing to give away a plot as there isn't one!)In 97 minutes (UK Version) Bruce Willis tells us 4 times he is on Vacation, I hope after this one he is!!
With all the digital technology the cinemas use now it wouldn't be hard to have 2 cuts of the movie downloaded on to a digital projector.I love the first 3 Die Hard films and if not for taking in the Die Hard Trilogy at the Price Charles Cinema in Leicester Square straight after Seeing A Good Day To Die Hard at the Imax I think my day would've been spent in disgust at what had become of such a great action series of films.This film should never of been released, John Moore should never be allowed to direct again and Skip Woods should have all his pens, computers, iPad (anything he can write with) confiscated.1 out of 10 - truly awful..
Do not get me wrong, I have the time for "Vengeance", but this process of throwing action at the screen and hoping that doing nothing with a lot will compensate for your inability to do a lot with very little, is waning.Indeed, it is unfortunate that "A Good Day to Die Hard" is as bad as it is – a throwaway film with nothing to really mark it out amongst any other action thriller; a terrifically grey film, cold and metallic and arid in character; a film lacking a villain and any sort of real tension.
"A Good Day to Die Hard," the 5th - and least - installment in the series that began in 1988, finds John McClane (Bruce Willis) in Russia trying to rescue his son (not Edward Snowden, in case you were wondering) from prison.
Turns out, unbeknownst to the elder McClane, Junior (Jai Courtney), who's apparently more of a chip off the old block than dad ever imagined, is actually an undercover agent for the C.I.A., foiling terrorist plots seemingly on a daily basis.Papa McClane isn't there five minutes before he's turned the streets of Moscow into a veritable demolition derby - honestly, Godzilla didn't wreak this kind of havoc on Tokyo even on his worst day - and the movie itself into a smoldering ruin.In the screenplay by Skip Woods, nothing less than the fate of the free world hangs in the balance, while Junior works out his daddy issues amid a hail of bullets and a fusillade of explosions.
Well, 20th Century Fox must have discovered my complaints
and hate my guts
because the fifth movie in the series, A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD, is officially unrecognizable as a McClane film with the exception of star Bruce Willis.
In this movie, John McClane continues developing the super powers he discovered in LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD.
Bad dudes show up now and he grabs the biggest gun he can find, stands tall in the middle of the room, and lets loose.A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD is a blatant attempt at establishing a new McClane for when Willis grows tired (or too old) to continue the cash cow franchise.
I liked the three 'original' Die Hard Movies and I found the fourth one to be a pretty much successful modernization.But this one, the fifth, is just boring and therefore not worth watching.The main problems are in my opinion: - There is really not much humor in it.
However, unlike Liver Free or Die Hard, A Good Day to Die Hard biggest problem wasn't it's director, it was it's script writer, Skip Woods.Despite the fact that, pretty much like the last movie, McClane is now a bald James Bond instead of an everyday man in extraordinary situations (which is truly what McClane is all about, not "a rebel who defies authority", like Bruce Willis thinks) the R rating does wonders for the character and it's surroundings.
please bring back John McTiernan OR don't release another die hard at all!its a good action movie but thats about it.
All right, basically all you need to know about this latest "Die Hard" movie is that once again, Bruce Willis plays cop John McClane and he's now in Russia to rescue his grown son who he thinks is in trouble.
"A Good Day to Die Hard" brings Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) from New York City to the mean streets of Moscow.
Like in previous Die Hard films, I was ready to accept the superhuman abilities of the McClanes in the action scenes.
The original Die Hard was so good because the action was leavened by character and some clever dialogue, but this one is just relentless action with little understanding of the people involved - sadly this is the way so many action movies are going these days.
A highly forgettable sequel that wasn't even needed in the first place, A Good Day to Die Hard is a superb example of terrible scriptwriting & direction and is a brilliant lesson in how to make a really bad film.
While many people slated DIE HARD 4.0, I enjoyed watching it the few times I've seen it since release; I felt like it was a moderately successful way to bring the Bruce Willis-starring franchise slap bang into the 21st century, although of course it wasn't as good as the original trilogy.
Inevitably, A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD followed, but the bad news is that it makes the last instalment look like a masterpiece by comparison.This movie really is that bad, and it's all down to the people who made it.
As his son, Jai Courtney is given a one-dimensional character and displays none of the charm he brought to his role as Varro in SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND.The film meanders from one pointless action scene to the next, and we never get a clear idea of who the bad guys are or what they want; Willis just kind of stumbles into their plans (whatever they are) and goes along with it.
it is a good action but not quality enough for a die hard movie.
it is a good action but not quality enough for a die hard movie.
Bruce Willis character was not the same person he was in the previous die hard films.
A Good Day to Die Hard on the other hand not only does it not live up to the franchise expectations, it kills it once and for all thanks to a terrible script and some senseless action scenes.
So far the 2013 releases have been pretty weak and A Good Day to Die Hard wasn't the exception.For the first time we get to follow our hero, John McClane (Bruce Willis) to a foreign territory as he decides to travel to Russia on vacations in search of his troubled son, Jack (Jai Courtney) with whom he hasn't been in contact with in over three years.
Now they are forced to work together in order to get Yuri to safety and find the file before Chagarin and his men do.Like in all other Die Hard films we have plenty of helicopter explosions and a lot of action, but we lack a true story.
"A Good Day to Die Hard" is a disappointment; the beginning of the films doesn't immediacy of the first three and is more like a Bourne, Mission Impossible or Daniel Craig Bond movie.
Bruce Willis became an action icon when the first Die Hard film burst onto the screen in 1988, giving rise to his John McClane character who was always at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and a trouble magnet.
With the Die HArd films, you know it's about the mayhem one, and now two, McClanes can inflict, from large scaled car chases involving a Unimog (brownie points here, since I've driven one for years), to pitch perfect shots blending CG and practical stunts especially those involving the McClanes' retreat to safer haven, done slow-motion style that's action poetry in motion.But what's more enjoyable in this guilt trip of a franchise that I've followed while growing up, is the little things that flies by unless you're paying close attention, such as little events happening in the background where John puts his street smarts to good use, and those cheeky instances that snuck in unexpectedly.
And this time he's On Vacation.Following reading a lot of reviews that dubbed Die Hard 5 as boring and subtitling it "A Bad Day To Die Hard" I wasn't expecting much from the fifth instalment in a series of films which I thought peaked with the third and fell away with an average fourth film.But I was pleasantly surprised by Willis' latest outing in the white vest.The story centres around McClane's son, Jack, who is working as an undercover CIA agent who is aiming to stop all out carnage between two men.
Anyone who has ever seen the previous actual Die Hard films know that this is a huge embarrassing step down from the over-the-top script with the crazy action that makes you want to scream out loud because the main character actually had something you liked even loved.
I liked it, but thought it was unoriginal and had characters that felt out of place.But Die Hard 5 (as I'll call it) made up for that easily, with a truck load of action and fun, leaving me with a feeling I haven't had in a very long time leaving the theater - wanting to see more.
The action sequences had some good moments, but John McClane is for sure a superhero in this film!
Good action, but not a Die Hard movie.
A Good Day to Die Hard must have been to the producers an idea that was going to be great, as anyone will think: what is better than McClane our lone hero going after bad guys? |
tt0299458 | All the Real Girls | Paul and Noel have fallen in love.He is a young man living in a small North Carolina town. She is a teenager who has returned from boarding school after six years.Noel's older brother, Tip, is Paul's best friend. Tip and Paul drink beers and tell stories, doing little else until friends begin noticing that Paul is spending a lot of time with Noel. Tip does not like the idea, and lets Paul know it.Paul's mother works as a clown for sick children, and begs him to go on certain hospital visits with him, which he says he hates but otherwise seems to enjoy.One of Paul's ex-girlfriends, whom Paul dumped badly like every other girl in town, warns the naive Noel about the boys who hang around her, including Paul and a dorky guy nicknamed Bust-Ass.Agitated by the rumors, Tip confronts Paul and wants to know if he is having sex with Noel. Paul refuses to answer, and while their friends try to pull them away from fighting, Tip takes out his anger by beating another guy.Paul and Noel talk on her bed and begin to make out. He has tenderly expressed to her that he did not expect to like her so much after she returned, but he feels he can be real with her, and he is worried about what she thinks of his reputation. She tells him she is a virgin, and she trusts him. Paul gets off the bed and tells her that he does not want to hurt her like he has hurt so many other girls. And he does not know much else of what to say, so he leaves.Later, Noel asks Paul if they can spend the night in a motel. She emotionally tells him about a set of scars on her side: a few years earlier, her dad had let her drive their boat on a lake, but she was careless and ran over a boy in the water, then she fell on the deck in horror and began clawing at her skin with a fishhook. Noel says she just wanted to feel pain for what she had done.Noel and Paul go out swimming near the motel that night, then return to the room and make a tent with the sheets on the bed.Bust-Ass meanwhile begins nudging Paul about his curiosity for Noel.Noel and Paul meet at an empty bowling alley and express further affection for each other. She lets him know that she plans to go away to a friend's lake house the next weekend. They kiss on an open lane. Paul is so filled with love that he wants to dance, but he asks Noel to not watch as he does.Paul's mother is angry when he forgets to return her car for a disabled child's party. She expresses concern for how he involved he has become with Noel.Paul finds Tip sitting along the river in town. Tip tells Paul to do right by Noel, and tries to withhold his anger at how much the two of them used to sleep with girls without a care. Tip reveals that he's become increasingly distraught, especially since he recently learned that he got a local girl pregnant, which has sent him on a drinking bender. Paul asks if he loves the girl, and Tip guesses he does.Noel calls Paul from the lake house and tells him that she is having a party with some friends there, and that one guy keeps hitting on her. She has gotten a rather radically short haircut.After she returns, Paul is astonished at Noel's haircut, but likes it. He tells Noel that he wants to take her someplace special, but she wants to tell him something first.What happens after that is devastating. | romantic, boring | train | imdb | null |
tt1400515 | Don't Let Him In | What if you invited a serial killer on holiday?Handsome, charming and arrogant, Tristan has picked up Mandy on a one-night stand. The love- struck girl invites him to a rural getaway with her brother Calvin and his girlfriend Paige, an emergency room nurse.But Tristan has secrets. He needs to get out of the city. And suspicions grow when a local police officer warns the group that a sadistic serial killer is plaguing the area.Dubbed the Tree Surgeon, this brutal psychopath ritualistically slaughters his victims, hanging their severed body parts in the trees as unholy offerings.That night a delirious, half-dead stranger hammers on the door, a deep, bloody gash carved in his stomach. Paige stitches the wound, saving his life. The seemingly innocent strangers name is Shawn, a hitchhiker who claims to have been attacked whilst taking a shortcut through the woods.As the weekend wears on, doubts start to breed amongst the isolated group. Is Shawn telling the truth? What is Tristans real motive for fleeing the city? Why does he keep disappearing? And why are his answers to their questions so evasive?Soon the group discover theyve invited a serial killer on their break. But as the body count rises, a punishing battle for survival climaxes in a shocking revelation, as the Tree Surgeon drags his final, traumatized victim into his lair...DONT LET HIM IN is a blistering, nerve-bludgeoning horror thriller which mixes taut, slow- burning suspense with graphic, visceral shock.The film is the debut feature from Coldwood Productions, a production label formed in 2008 by producer-director Kelly Smith, who recently worked as Script Consultant on FACES IN THE CROWD, a thriller from Forecast Pictures starring Milla Jovovich and Julian McMahon.The cast includes Sophie Linfield (FOOTBALL FACTORY), Sam Hazeldine (THE WOLFMAN) and Gordon Alexander (SUCKER PUNCH). | suspenseful, dark, cult, murder, violence | train | imdb | So, my interest piqued – I enjoy even below average horror films, mostly – I look at the synopsis.
And I think, "Sounds good." So I set it to record, and look forward to watching it.
Because, like my own private horror movie, this keeps happening to me.I keep recording Don't Let Him In, having forgotten that I've seen it, and that it was – truly – one of the worst things I've ever sat through.
And I seem to block it from my mind (that perfectly generic title is so easy to separate from the film it belongs to) and forget that it ever happened, and record it again, and sit down to watch again, and I am swamped with anger and disappointment.
I stop the film as the girl is doing her best to act like someone coughing in bed, and delete it, promising to never let this happen again.
You have seen the British horror film called Don't let Him In. You gave it 1/10 on IMDb. Learn.
I truly mean that.But on the basis of the film: I have to say I was very disappointed with the final results after 80 minutesFirstly I found the sound to be very boomy (cheap sounding) in parts & the mix could have been a lot better, considering the time spent on the film & in my opinion the premise itself although promising on the tag-line lacked somewhat in terms of story & characterisations.I really did not connect with ANY of the characters on screen or cared if they were hacked to bits.
I feel no matter what genre it is, there has to be some audience connection with the characters, even with low budget classics such as Halloween or Friday 13th etc, all had pretty much wooden characters there true, but there was something elusive or tangible about them or the atmosphere present in the film itself which this film sadly lacked in abundance...sorry!I am truly sorry to write this, but I believe in giving my own 'personal opinion' & is nothing more &..of course I will have many others who may or may not agree with me..C'est La vie.I will positively say that the editing was pretty much spot on & some of the visual effects were quite good for this genre but I just did not feel any 'real' atmosphere or feel on the edge of my seat.
A couple of jumps here & there but they're quite easy to pull of in any horror film really.So to conclude: A good idea for a synopsis/treatment but unfortunately was not conceived well.
Since my viewing of "Don't Let Him In", I deliberately waited two days to write this comment, allowing for the film to sink in a bit deeper.
This combination leaves a rather unpleasant aftertaste in your stomach just after finishing the film, but the memory that sticks permanently is that "Don't Like Him In" is a new horror movie that dares to shock and provoke the audience perhaps?
While on the subject of - I thought the jovial local constable was moving into a slightly humorous realm a feeling which threaded throughout the film.This is the sort of movie childhood nightmares are made of, it starts with a weekend away in the countryside and then soon descends into - bloody murder.Brilliant stuff - fans of Hammer Horror will appreciate this film..
None of the characters do things that people in real life do, nor do they react to situations like a normal human being.
The main female character is a nurse and immediately begins to give him medical aid (I with the scene so far), so the tertiary blonde bimbo say in the background, I will call an ambulance.
But here's the kicker, after the mysterious stranger is going to live, they don't call the police, an ambulance, they are going to let this wounded guy stay in there remote cabin without an explanation to why he was stabbed.
The second unforgivable scene is when the protagonists now know who one of the killers are, and still let him back into the house.
I was fortunate enough to attend the UK premiere screening at Bafta of this great new British horror film from upcoming writer/director Kelly Smith.
Forget Hammer's WAKE WOOD with it's disappointing acting and direction and head for Don't Let Him In. Sam Hazeldine is outstanding as the wounded hitchhiker who seemingly falls prey to the rural slasher known as The Tree Surgeon.I really don't want to give too much away but if you are a fan of British Horror, particularly with a 70's sensibility you will really like this one.
It is very nice to see that even eight years old or so can write a script for British horror movie.
Some scenes like "do not draw these things" might belong maybe to some horror parody, but they definitely should not belong to serious movie.It is such a shame to observe such descent of British horror which was really good in fifties and sixties.
If the characters would spent less time babbling the resulting movie might be at least average.
I was unable to finish the movie because the characters were way too much annoying and the story was too naive and childish..
I'm no horror fan, but this was a good watch.
I found Don't Let Him In to be a movie with pace, a clear storyline (not always the case for horrors in my experience), a solid cast, quality editing, and good special effects and sound.
The plot was innovative and moved along at a good pace, and when the film ended, I felt that all questions had been answered.Overall, the movie kept me entertained throughout and despite not being a horror fan, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The way the characters were killed off gave no real reason to the question, why?
Furthermore, where was the gore and guts, I thought this was a horror film?
It was a good story with a little twist in it but the only thing that was a bit exaggerated was the scene with the maggot in one's eye.
A slick and well produced first feature.As a Hardended horror fan it did make me jump on more than one occasion.This was due in no small part to the excellent score by Samuel Karl Bohn and sound effects which were a particular strength of the film.If I were to make any criticism it would be to question the part of the policeman which while amusing did lean to far into parody for my liking.In addition there seemed to be some rather over resonant sections in the male dialogue at the beginning of the film.
The pace, atmosphere and performance in Don't Let Him In is spot on - the film looks gorgeous, and the slow, suspenseful, sometimes humorous build-up to the nail-biting knock-around horror action fills you with joy.
All in all, a great atmosphere, some really unexpected and unpleasant shocks and moments of dark hilarity make this a fab horror film you don't wanna miss!.
Don't Let Him In (2011) is a horror film from the United Kingdom ...
I don't know what to say, this movie is very bad, ridiculous, bad acting, character annoying ....
One Word for this movie: AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL AND VERY SUCK, DUMB AND ANNOYING, TERRIBLE CHARACTER, BAD DIALOG, POOR ACTING, CLICHE..
At first glance, DON'T LET HIM IN is an intriguing slice of low budget British horror.
What follows is a tale packed with twists and turns as character motivations and hidden secrets come to the fore.In terms of production values, DON'T LET HIM IN is a perfectly serviceable slice of low budget entertainment.
:) This movie had it all, bad acting, cliché storyline, and you have no interest for the characters.
But a good death scene does not a movie make as they say.
I was fortunate enough recently to attend the premiere of new horror flick "Don't Let Him In", at the impressive BAFTA theatre, and I have to say I was very impressed.
Horror is not a genre I regularly choose to watch but this was a slick, edge of the seat movie which captured the imagination of the audience and was engaging from beginning to end.
The characters were plausible, if in some cases a little naive (or even stupid!), but I think that's horror....and there was plenty of room for blood and guts to make the room scream.
If you're about to go on holiday with the in-laws and want to put them off coming with you, make them watch "Don't Let Him In" - problem solved..
Horror is not a genre that I would go out of my way to watch, but I must say that the film was very watchable, and you can only be proud of what you have produced.
I was very lucky to be able to attend the premier of this film on Sunday evening, amazing film well put together, reminds me of the true great horror films, highly recommended.The film was well made and well acted, gripped me through out and contained some good old close your eye moments.All effects were true to life and it really made you not want to be their but at the same time you could not take your eyes off the screen.The atmosphere it created was tense and was well backed up by the soundtrack.Kelly is a talented director and I look forward to seeing more of his work..
Any group of friends with a digital camera, a little bit of skill and some free time can make a film -- especially a horror film, which are notoriously easy to make and market.
While there are exceptions ("Clerks" and "Slacker" come immediately to mind), by and large movies were better when you had to raise a significant sum...That being said, this film has some things going for it.
I like bad horror films (probably too much), but this was even beneath my standards...
This is certainly not the sort of film I would normally go out of my way to watch.
However this is very well balanced with well drawn characters and an engaging narrative.The film takes you with it from the outset and even before it all goes a bit "Pete Tong' you care enough about the characters to want to know what happens - also I suspect because you know it will kick off at some point you're waiting for the moment!If I'm honest there was a scene that didn't quite work for me involving a character's eye (not to give too much away) but I'd invested emotionally enough in the film at that stage to go along with it and sort of reset my frame of reference as to what was possible in universe the film is set.
It's the sort of moment which, love it or hate it, you'll remember and I'm sure the film makers intended exactly that.The film plays with you a bit and you're not really sure who the 'tree surgeon' is until it wants you to know, which I liked a lot.
The film looks and sounds great and I would imagine would be a good date movie particularly on a large screen with a good sound system.
It's a very respectable first feature for the director Kelly Smith and I hope it makes it's money back and more so we can see more from him.All in all the film is good fun and well worth a watch but - don't let him in - seriously don't!.
I have honestly seen better acting and production values in a home movie.
I was surprised at how long the end credits were, I thought it was going to have things like 'Sound by my Uncle Terry' and 'Blood Provided by Heniz'.From the outset, you know who the killer is...no imagination there.
The movie grabs you right from the start and takes you on a ride filled with u-turns and questionable motives.Don't let him in is more psychological than gore and much is left up to your imagination which for me makes the whole thing a lot scarier.The sound and cinematography are also excellent and helps to immerse you into the world of this serial killer.The one negative I had about the movie is that not all the actors were engaging for me.
The two leads are captivating but unfortunately I think a couple let the movie down a little.It's not for everyone.
A very cool movie in the best traditions of the horror genre.
A very cool movie in the best traditions of the horror genre.
Plot twists, high body count, atmospheric scenes and a bone juddering sound track that got me and others jumping out of their seats.The actors were believable in the situations that presented themselves, although it must have been as much a roller coaster ride for the participants as it was for the audience watching!The only question is whether horror presents the same opportunities it once did.
...a refreshing throwback to the early days of Amicus horror, Don't Let Him In even feels like a 70's shocker, downbeat & sun-blocked & gnashing at the bit, with strong performances, particularly Sam Hazeldine (a nascent star in the making?)and Sophie Linfield.
Quite surprised that there are already over 1500 Facebook 'likes'.I've also just watched a little presentation, including interviews, of the London Premiere......seems it went down well.In view of all this I've just watched the film again, after a gap of over a year, and have to admit that I liked it far better this time around.
Maybe its just the time of year (Halloween).....or perhaps the film just grows on you?Anyway, all of this stuff is now on the DLHI website..
Bad actores, a a awful producer to say the least.Before starting to write I was to see what my friends in IMDb had written here on this film, and with my astonishment most of them liked!
When i watched the trailer I thought to myself, " well this film goes to be a cool low-budget horror movie" , LIE, LIE!Loss of time for who appreciates a good film!Don't let him in you your TV!.
Possibly the only film I've seen in which every single decision made by every character, every second, is the wrong one.
He's so vile you know about three seconds in that the movie makers are setting him up as a red herring, so we can all be "shocked" when one of the "nice" guys turns out to be the real killer.
The aforementioned Mandy has obviously never seen a movie either, since she lets a possible killer into a locked house, puts down her knife, and--hugs him?.
it looked like the late Benny Hill in disguise), who cheerfully tells the four that there's a sexually deviant maniacal serial killer on the loose who cut's off his victim's body-parts, and then he concludes with: "but don't worry, we have everything under control, just keep your doors and windows locked".
My other half and I watched this awful drivel in its entirety purely to laugh at the juvenile nature of the plot and the disgraceful performances of the 'actors'.By far, the greatest scene in this movie is the final one.
This is because you know that the characters are all dead and this awful, awful, stupid 'film' has ended.
To think that somebody has even looked at this script without laughing worries me.Watch only to waste your time, or laugh at the shocking reality that this film received funding to begin with.
I not a horror fan but enjoyed watching this film.
A good composition also made the time fly by.It fitted in the horror genre well, with good pacing, foreshadowing and plot twists.
And as mentioned before the Tree Surgeon character is pretty horrific especially as he is introduced to the film as a pleasant, wounded hitch-hiker..
They have hardly been at the cottage for 10 minutes (not all that remote, then) before the local copper turns up and warns them about the local serial killer who is dismembering people and hanging the bits from trees.
(by the way, don't bother asking, because the answer makes little sense).This is a cabin in the woods, last man standing, slasher horror.
If it had been an American cabin in the woods movie, all the trees would have been in leaf: as it is British, it is inevitably filmed in the winter, when cottages don't have holiday letting, so all the trees are bare and everyone looks frozen.
Some of the acting is OK, and the technical aspects of the film are dealt with professionally.But it isn't very good, and I don't recommend it..
Don't Let Him In...especially if he wants you to watch this....
I'm a huge horror fan...have been for years...I've watched every bad and every good horror movie I can get my hands on.
Jason Carter plays a ridiculous role as a police officer that is forced into the story to delivery an important plot line.In watching the special features I was shocked to learn that director, creator and writer Kelly Smith took this so seriously and thought that this was such a great piece of work.
The script is so bad that the aforementioned Policeman played by Jason Carter shows up to say the following line..."I'm a police officer, there is a serial killer in these woods.
The only thing redeemable about this film was the special effects were decently done and even though the gore was gratuitous it was well done for a low budget horror flick.
I'll give it a 2 instead of a 1 to give the writer of the movie benefit of the doubt that he meant the film to be this bad.
I'm glad I've seen this movie so I won't ever think that it could've been good and I'm glad all the characters ended up dead. |
tt1361313 | The Extra Man | Louis is a young bookish prep school teacher who is relieved of his job after accidentally handling a brassiere in the headmaster's office. He soon relocates to Manhattan and moves into a room with Henry, a greying but handsome older man who is so conservative that he feels women should not be educated.Henry is a wildly eccentric sort, dancing in bizarre morning rituals that belie his age and lecturing Louis on the inferiority of women. Louis finds a job at an environmental journal where he is immediately attracted to his co-worker Mary.Henry explains to Louis that he is an escort, a walker, an extra man, and most certainly not a gigolo because he does not take money for his services in entertaining older ladies. He also lives under the delusion that he is an "aristocrat" even though he has no wealth. Louis asks out Mary and she declines, suggesting she is seeing someone else.Louis responds to an ad from a middle-aged female "spankologist" whom he pays for treatment. Without knowing this, Henry tells Louis that he kicked out his last roommate, Gershon, because he was fascinated with bondage. Henry proclaims he is himself not a sexual deviant in any way, but refuses to elaborate when Louis asks him more specific questions. When Louis sees that Gershon is a sullen hirsute local, Henry claims he tried to help Gershon over his deviance, and agrees to try training Louis in becoming an extra man.Henry takes Louis to an art opening and introduces him to a potential client as well as one of his own, but the evening turns sour when she tells him she will not need his services for her annual Palm Beach vacation.Mary invites Louis out on a casual lunch date and, in addition to suggesting that Henry may be in love with him, she asks him to cover some of her work while she goes to Jamaica with her boyfriend.Henry invites Louis out for a blustery seaside lunch with Gershon, who speaks in a squeaky high-pitched voice. The trio go for a walk on the shore and while Henry tries to show Louis how to dance he aggravates his sciatica.Out of commission in pain, Henry sends Louis on his next extra man job. Louis escorts spirited granddame Vivian to a fancy dinner with six other guests, where he accidentally insults a man who turns out to be Henry's protégé. Vivian likes him even more when he brings her home and carries her to bed, to sleep.Later that night, Henry leaves by bus to rest in Florida for the next few months. Louis grows dour over the winter months. One day Henry's former roommate Otto returns, who will be marrying Vivian's granddaughter, and they make small talk.Louis, who had tried some cross dressing with his spankologist, visits a tranny bar and soon hires a helper to remodel him into a woman specifically one who looks like Mary. The result makes Louis realize that cross-dressing is not for him.At the moment of this realization, Henry happens to return home due to Vivian's death, discovers Louis dressed as a woman, and angrily tells him to leave.The next morning, after crashing his car and spending the night on the street, Louis fears that he will lose his job, but his boss actually offers him a promotion. Louis returns to Henry that afternoon, who is not so angry at him after all. Gershon emerges clean-shaven with a haircut and returns a play to Henry that he had stolen from him.The trio attend Otto's wedding, where his bride turns out to be a little older than him. | flashback | train | imdb | null |
tt0089880 | Rambo: First Blood Part II | Set around five years after 'First Blood', John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is working in a labor camp prison somewhere in the USA when he gets a visit from his former commander, Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna). Trautman offers Rambo the chance to be released from prison after being convicted by a military court after the events of the first film and given full clemency, but on condition of taking a mission where he will infiltrate Vietnam to search for American POWs that are still rumored to be held by the Vietnamese.Rambo travels with Trautman to Thailand and meets Marshal Murdock (Charles Napier), an American bureaucrat who is in charge of the operation, and his right-hand men who are freelance military contractors Ericson (Martin Kove) and Lifer (Steve Williams). Murdock tells Rambo that the American public is demanding knowledge about the POWs and they want a trained commando to go in and search for them. Rambo is briefed that he is only to photograph the POWs and not to rescue them, nor is he to engage any enemy soldiers due to the unstable situation between the USA and Vietnam. Rambo reluctantly agrees and he is then told that a CIA informant named Co will be there to receive him in the jungles of Vietnam. Before he leaves on his mission, Rambo tells Trautman that Murdock is lying about his combat experience. Rambo tells Trautman he's the only person he can trust.Rambo parachutes into the Vietnamese jungle, but loses most of his equipment in the process due to the faulty jump and is left only with his knives, his bow, and arrows. Miles from his landing spot, Rambo is met by a woman named Co-Bao (Julia Nickson), who introduces herself as his contact (Murdock had incorrectly identified the contact as a man). Co arranges for her and Rambo to go upstream with a group of local river pirates. During the boat ride, Co reveals that she would like to eventually travel to America, while Rambo confides to her that he was chosen for this mission because he is expendable.Rambo is led to a nearby camp commanded by Captain Vinh (William Ghent). After dispatching a sentry with a throwing knife, Rambo finds an American, Banks (Andy Wood), hanging from a makeshift crucifixion and frees him. Banks warns that several other American POWs are being held there. A patrol discovers the dead sentry, and Vinh's second-in-command, Lieutenant Tay (George Cheung), heads out into the jungles in search of the intruder. Rambo, Co, and Banks escape with the pirates, but are attacked by a Vietnamese gunboat and are promptly betrayed by the pirates, who fear the military's reprisals should they not cooperate; Rambo sends Co and Banks to safety and manages to destroy the gunboat with an RPG and kill all the pirates.Rambo radios and calls for extraction. Trautman, Ericson, and Lifer head out in a rescue chopper. However, once it becomes apparent that Rambo has a live POW with him, Murdock radios the chopper, ordering them to scrub the extraction and return to base. When Trautman protests, Lifer pulls a gun on him. Ericson tells him they have their orders (implying that he doesn't like it either), but Trautman denounces them both as "goddamn mercenaries." Rambo and Banks watch helplessly as the helicopter flies off, and are forced to surrender as Tay's squad advances. Co, having escaped, watches from the jungle nearby.Back at the base in Thailand, Trautman angrily confronts Murdock, accusing the whole mission of being a sham, Rambo wasn't supposed to find anything there. He suspects that the whole situation is really about money; the US government refused to pay war reparations to Vietnam, and the Vietnamese apparently kept American POWs for revenge. Murdock tells Trautman that the political situation is far more delicate than he realizes, and he needs to swallow his pride and let this go. Trautman refuses, while also insisting that Murdock should be more worried about Rambo.Rambo's wrists are bound to an oxen yoke and he is lowered naked into a chest-deep, leech-infested cesspool (or possibly a pit dug especially for the purpose of torture). The torture is briefly interrupted by the arrival of Vinh's Soviet Liason officer, Lt. Col. Podovsky (Steven Berkoff) and his silent, robust henchman Sergeant Yushin (Voyo Goric). Although Podovsky orders Vinh to take Rambo out of the cesspool and clean him up, the POWs believes things are about to get worse for him. Podovsky orders Rambo to contact the American military and tell them that they should not send any more commandos for rescue operations in Vietnam. When Rambo refuses, Yushin tortures him. This yields no results, so they bring in Banks and threaten to kill him. Rambo grudgingly agrees to Podovsky's condition.Meanwhile, Co enters the camp in the guise of a prostitute and comes to the hut in which Rambo is held captive. Rambo uses the radio to contact the US base in Thailand, but instead of relaying Podovsky's message, he uses this opportunity to swear vengeance on Murdock. He punches out Yushin while Co dispatches another guard with her shotgun. The two then proceed to fight their way out of the camp. Once they are a safe distance away, Co tends to Rambo's wounds and begins to implore him to take her to the United States. Rambo agrees and they kiss, however they are then attacked by some Vietnamese soldiers and Co is killed by Tay, whom escapes. Rambo kills them the remaining Vietnamese soldiers and then buries Co's body in the jungle.Following his escape, the camp's Soviet and Vietnamese soldiers are sent to look for him. Rambo assembles his weapons, and using guerrilla warfare tactics, is able to kill a large number of enemy troops, including Vinh. He proceeds to a nearby enemy camp and destroys it and several vehicles with explosive arrows. He comes face-to-face with Tay and kills him with an explosive arrowhead. Yushin appears in a UH-1N Twin Huey and drops a firebomb on Rambo's position. Rambo escapes and hijacks the Huey helicopter after killing Yushin and proceeds towards the POW camp. He destroys most of the camp with the helicopter, then lands and arms himself with the M-60 machine gun that is mounted on the Huey, kills the remaining Vietnamese soldiers, and rescues all the POWs. They get to the helicopter and head towards the American camp in Thailand.Podovsky chases them in his Mi-24 helicopter gunship. Although Rambo's helicopter is heavily damaged by Podovsky's helicopter, he manages to land his helicopter on a river, then plays dead. When Podovsky comes near him and gets careless, Rambo fires a LAW 66mm rocket at Podovsky's chopper, obliterating it.Rambo then returns to the base and shoots up Murdock's command center. He threatens Murdock with a knife, challenging him to find and rescue the remaining American POWs in Vietnam. As Trautman prepares to leave the camp, Rambo says that he will be staying in Asia in a bid to find himself. Trautman agrees that their government gave them a raw deal, but he asks that Rambo not hate his country for it. Rambo insists that he doesn't, he only wants his country to love its soldiers as much as its soldiers love it. As he leaves, Trautman asks him, "How will you live, John?" To which Rambo replies, "Day by day." The film credits roll as Rambo walks off into the distance while his mentor watches him. | murder, violence, cult, humor, action, revenge | train | imdb | null |
tt0091653 | Nothing in Common | Happy-go-lucky advertising executive David Basner, who recently got a promotion at his Chicago ad agency, returns to work from a vacation. He is carefree, until his parents split up, after 36 years of marriage. It soon becomes apparent that he must care for his aging, bitter father Max, as well as support his emotionally fragile mother Lorraine, especially since his father has also just been fired from his 35-year career in the garment industry. Although his girlfriend, Donna, is sympathetic, she also tells him he needs to "grow up", but Max fears that if he tried to be less child-like, his advertising work could be adversely affected. At work, David is developing a commercial for Colonial Airlines, owned by the rich and bullish Andrew Woolridge. A successful ad campaign would likely gain David a promotion to partner in his company. David develops a relationship with Woolridge's daughter, Cheryl Ann Wayne. His father is well aware of David's playboy nature. Asking at one point whether his son is in bed with a woman, Max adds: "Anybody you know?"
The parents separately each begin to rely more on David, frequently calling him on the phone. His mother needs help moving to a new apartment. His father needs to be driven to an eye doctor. Late one night, David's mother calls to be rescued from a bar after going out on a date, having become frightened when the man tried to kiss her goodnight. At the bar, David's mother confides that his father Max had cheated on her and humiliated her in their marriage. An enraged David goes to confront Max. Their argument ends with David saying: "Tomorrow I'm shooting a commercial about a family who loves each other, who cares about each other. I'm fakin' it." The next day, David is distracted by his problems with his father, affecting his work. As a peace offering, David offers to take Max to a nightclub to hear some of his favored jazz music. While there, David accidentally discovers that his father has been dealing with diabetes and his foot has gangrene.
Max must have surgery. Beforehand, he and Lorraine share thoughts about their life together, and she condemns him for his treatment of her. Alone, Max sobs in regret. At the agency, Andrew Woolridge insists that David accompany him to New York to promote the new ad campaign for his airline. David refuses, saying he wants to be with his father, who is scheduled for surgery. After Woolridge complains, David loses his temper with this important client, and is fired. The next day, David accompanies his dad to the operating room. His boss Charlie is sympathetic and assures David that he will personally smooth things over with Woolridge, so David can take time to be with his father. Max has two toes amputated. When he goes home from the hospital, David pushes his wheelchair. Max tells him: "You were the last person I thought would ever come through for me." Later, David recovers his job and gets to show Max what his work is about. | melodrama | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1667353 | Mirror Mirror | In the opening animated segment, the Queen (Julia Roberts) begins by telling us the story of Snow White's birth (throwing in some sarcastic comments with modern day slang). Her mother died. She was spoiled, and the kingdom was a very happy place. Her father was grooming her for the kingdom, when he met the Queen. They got married, but he had to go away. He gave Snow his dagger, and rode off into the woods, and was never seen again. Snow White searched for him, devastated that he wasn't found. Now she is at the mercy of the Queen.Present time. Ten years after the King vanished in the Dark Woods without a trace, Snow White (Lily Collins) talks to and plays with the birds. She has never left the castle. Downstairs she hears music. The Queen is sitting on her throne, and it looks like shes playing chess with her servants by using them as human pawns and she is playing with her top minister known only as the Barton (Michael Lerner). One servant named Brighton (Nathan Lane) steps forward to tell her that the kingdom is close to being destitute. Snow White comes downstairs, from the bedroom she seems to live in, to ask the Queen if she can attend the gala since it is her 18th birthday. The Queen considers it, admitting that Snow didn't do anything wrong; however, Snow is just so irritating! She doesn't care if its her 100th birthday, she better never sneak down again.Cut to the woods. Two men are riding their horses, talking about the adventure they are on and have been on for months. The men are Prince Alcott (Armie Hammer) and his valet Charles Renbock (Robert Emms). They stop for a rest when a group of bandits in masks and walking on stilts attack them with swords. It turns out they are dwarfs, which makes the two men laugh. Their stilts shrink down like accordions, and the men refuse to fight them because it would be too funny. However, the dwarves are after their gold, and they take it.Back at the palace, the servants help Snow White celebrate her 18th birthday. One woman, Baker Margaret (Mare Winningham), speaks up, telling her that she knows she will one day take back the kingdom, which is why she has stuck around all those years. She gives Snow White the dagger she received from her father all those years ago as a gift. Snow White decides she is going to leave the castle, after the encouragement of the servants, and does so causing the guards to question if that's even allowed.All of a sudden we hear those famous words spoken by the Queen Mirror Mirror on the wall except the difference is, she walks into it. When she comes out she is in a new place in another dimension where she is in a small hut on a vast lake. She talks to another version of herself in the mirror, discussing marrying the Baron. The mirror tells her to marry someone rich, for one day she will ask Who is the fairest of them all?While walking in the snowy woods, Snow White comes across the two men, who are now stripped to their underwear and hanging upside down from a tree. She decides to release them. It almost seems to be love at first sight for her and one man, Prince Alcott, but he declines the offer to travel with them.Back at the palace, the Queen is trying on shoes when she is interrupted by Prince Alcott and Charles (both of them still only partially dressed in their undergarments). The Queen has never heard of his kingdom before and organizes a ball very quickly to impress him. Her plan is to marry the prince, however, she is reminded by Brighton that they have no money to pay for it. She doesn't care that people are starving however and does whatever it takes to throw the ball.Snow White is wandering in the streets of the village where she sees children and adults begging for food and money. She is shocked, since the last time she saw the town, when she was a child with her father, the land was plentiful. Brighton comes into town and puts up a notice that there is to be more tax collection. He tells them that the money is being used to keep a terrible beast away from them, and therefore, they must pay, despite them being poor.Prince Alcott is warned by his friend Charles that something is fishy about the Queen, but he leaves anyway. Snow returns very upset, telling Baker Margaret how horrible everything has become for the people. She tells her about the ball, telling her that she will crash the ball and save the kingdom. A few minutes later, we see the Queen preparing herself, being treated by Baker Margaret, who is doing disgusting things to her without her knowing as she has her eyes covered. This includes settings bees, snakes, and other insects on her.That evening, the costume ball begins. Snow White crashes the ball dressed as a white swan where is surprised to see the prince, and he is also surprised to see her. They dance together, all the while being watched by the Queen. She admits that she is a princess, and he tells her hes the prince. They cheat in the dance, so they don't have to switch partners and can continue chatting, which is of course upsetting to the Queen. Snow tries to fill in Alcott on whats happening and how she needs his help, but when she is spied on by the Queen, she attempts to escape, before she is grabbed by her.The Queen corners Snow White, questioning her as to where she got the dress, while Snow yells at her about the conditions in the village. Snow White stands up for herself, saying she is the rightful leader of the kingdom, and we zoom in on a celestial necklace around the Queens neck. The Queen later tells Brighton she wants Snow White killed, and to take her to the woods and feed her to the beast.Still in her white swan dress, Brighton has now brought Snow White to the woods. They are both very upset and, while the snow is falling, they hear the beast. Brighton, in appreciation still of how her father treated him so kindly, cuts loose the ropes tying her hands together and tells her to run. She runs through the woods and into a sign saying No Entry. She wakes up inside the house of the 7 dwarfs. She tells them that she is Snow White, however not all of them believe her. She tells them that she has no gold for them, and explains how the Queen tried to have her killed. They are reluctant to let her stay, as they could be killed for it. They decide to let her stay for one night. The dwarfs introduce themselves; Butcher (Martin Klebba), Wolf (Sebastian Saraceno), Half Pint (Mark Povinelli), Grimm (Danny Woodburn), Chuckles (Ronald Lee Clark), Grub (Joe Gnoffo), and Napoleon (Jordan Prentice).Meanwhile, Brighton runs back to the castle and lies by telling the Queen that the work has been done. He shows her a bag of her organs which are instead various food items. The Queen is thrilled that Snow White is finally dead. Brighton tells the maids, and both he and the Queen act very apathetic. Brighton goes into town to collect the new taxes. The Magistrate tells him that the townspeople cannot handle their money problems much longer. Meanwhile, on his way back to the castle (through the woods), Brighton is not only pocketing some of the money, he is being chased down by the dwarfs. They take his gold, hide their costumes, and go back home. Snow White has prepared a nice dinner for them, which makes them want her to stay longer. She questions them on the gold and tells them how much the villagers need the money. They tell her that they were expelled from the village years ago by the Queen because they were undesirables. As they start to argue about their old lives, Snow White grabs the gold and leaves, with them chasing slowly behind her. She brings it to the town Magistrate. Snow White is about to say her name, when the dwarfs run in. She tells the townspeople that it was their doing, and they are the ones that deserve the thanks.At the palace, the Queen is eating dinner with Prince Alcott, and he very obviously finds her a bit odd. As she tries to get to know him, he reveals that Snow White is the prettiest girl he has ever seen. She tells him that she died the night before in the woods, to which he is obviously upset. The Queen is about to ask him to marry her, when Brighton barges in (in his undergarments), explaining that bandits stole the tax money. Prince Alcott, having been robbed by them before, storms out to fight them.The dwarfs tell Snow White she can stay with them, but must live by certain rules. She must become a thief, and Snow White agrees as long as what they steal from the Queen goes back to the people. They begin to teach her all their tricks, including how to sword fight and use their costumes. Over the next few days, she quickly learns their ways and trains well to be a thief with them.Prince Alcott has now arrived with some soldiers to the place in the woods where he was attacked last time. He sees Snow White who is pretending to be lost, so she could attack and steal from them, until she sees that it is him. She draws her sword, and the fight ensues between her and the prince, and the dwarfs and the men. Soon everyone is watching Snow and Alcott fight one another, and she wins. He once again returns to the castle, half naked. He tells the Queen that the leader of the bandits was Snow White, revealing that she is still alive.The Queen, upset, once again goes through her mirror into her hut in the alternate reality. She tells the mirror she wants Snow White dead and she wants to marry the prince. She tells the mirror to use her magic and wants to use the love potion she used for Snows father to fall in love with her, but shes all out. The mirror tells her there is always a price for using magic, but she doesnt care. Meanwhile, Brighton drinks another potion by accident and turns into a cockroach.Later at the palace, Prince Alcott approaches the Queen. They talk about Snow White as he keeps saying how beautiful she is. She begins to tell him how Snows father (the King) died, and they must honor his memory. They drink from their cups in a toast, which is really a potion for puppy love. Alcott starts acting like a dog, asking to play fetch, and licking her (very funny!), while calling her his master.At the house of the dwarfs, they reveal that they heard the Queen is marrying the prince. Snow is upset and taken aback. The dwarfs don't understand why shes upset, since the last time they met they fought. Outside their house, there are two robot-like wood puppet figures brought to life, being controlled by the Queen at her house, to kill Snow White. It begins fighting the dwarfs but doesnt succeed in harming them as they escape underground and Snow comes to their rescue where she cuts the "strings" holding the two large wooden puppets up and they fall to the ground.The next morning, as the Queen and Alcott prepare for their wedding, the Queen is being squeezed skinny into her corset, Alcott is sniffing everyone like a dog, and Brighton returns to human form. Snow White left the dwarfs, leaving a note saying that her presence causes them harm (i.e., the attack the night before). They decide to go after her, but shes right outside. After an inspirational speech, she decides to stay, and they will crash the wedding. The dwarfs sneak in, in costume, scaring everyone. With them, Snow White says This is a stick up! When the Queen arrives in her carriage at the wedding tent/site, no one is there. She enters the tent and sees that all the servants and guests are without clothes. The Baron tells her that the Sentry wants her dismissed and stepped down. They tell her that the prince has been stolen by Snow White.At the dwarfs house, Alcott is tied up, begging to be taken back to the Queen (his master). They realize hes under a spell, but they dont know how to break it, so they try several physical attacks on him, loud noises, rain dances, etc, but nothing works. Finally, they realize maybe a kiss of true love will work. When they realize that it will be her first kiss they try to make it special for her with makeup and a nice hairdo.Alcott is begging her not to do this, but she sits on his lap to kiss him, only to stop and ask for privacy, since all the dwarfs are watching. She kisses him despite his protests, and once its done, he kisses her back. He snaps out of the spell, and they kiss again. They tell Alcott all the embarrassing things he was saying about the Queen, and he cant even believe it. Suddenly they hear the roar of the beast and Snow White leaves to fight it herself. She tells Alcott that she wants to change the ending of most fairytales, and no longer will the prince have to save the princess, and locks them all inside the house. She runs into the Queen and realizes that the Queen controls the beast with her necklace, and it runs after her.Alcott finally manages to open the door with a key they forgot they had, and runs through the woods to find and save Snow White. He finds her, and they run from the beast together. The dwarfs are also running through the woods to find them. The beast attacks and hurts them. Just as the beast is about to strike again, the dwarfs begin to attack it, but the beast manages to bring them all down. Meanwhile, the Queen goes back through the mirror, very giddy, thinking they will die. The dwarfs manage to get Snow Whites dagger to her, but instead of killing the beast, she grabs the celestial necklace from it. The Queen notices that hers no longer has powers and the mirror tells her now she will see the price for using magic, and she grows old.Suddenly the beast disappears and turns into Snow Whites father... The King (Sean Bean). Snow White is thrilled, and the King doeskin understand how she has grown up. She tells him he has been under a spell and introduces him to everyone. He asks Alcott how he can ever repay him, which is of course giving him Snow Whites hand in marriage.We see the two of them getting married, officiated by the King. Everyone is congratulating her after the wedding, when an old woman, the Queen, approaches her and presents her with the modest gift of an apple. Snow White is about to take a bite when she hears her say the fairest one of all. Realizing it is the Queen, she cuts the apple into slices and says age before beauty and gives her the slice. The mirror shatters and the Queen disintegrates into nothing, to the shock of the people. Snow White walks to the middle of the floor and over the closing credits, begins to dance very modernly and sing. The dwarfs join in, and eventually everyone else does too. | good versus evil, fantasy | train | imdb | Snow White (Lily Collins) is treated horribly by her wicked stepmother The Queen (Julia Roberts) who is ruling the kingdom since her father's mysterious death.
I am not familiar with the actress that played Snow White or the Prince but they were both adorable and funny.This movie was entertaining for any age, full of action, surprises and humor.....
This isn't the first time that we have seen a re-telling of the classic Snow White story, from the Brothers Grimm fairytale, to the classic Disney animated film.
Not that I have a problem with kids' movies, but "Mirror Mirror" is one of the most ridiculous takes of the Snow White story that I've ever seen!
Not only are comic book characters finding screen time in the cinemas, but fairy tale ones as well, with films such as Red Riding Hood going through a reinvention of the character, as does Snow White this year with no less than two big budgeted productions, each with its unique take on the character in what would be a face off between Lily Collins and Kristen Stewart in the title roles, one still very much that demure teenager, while the other going by the trailers happen to be more warrior princess instead.The Snow White I believe most of us know is likely the Walt Disney version, her trademark being that of her songs, dance, and ability to uncannily communicate with birds and other small, cute animals.
After all, Lily Collins shows she's up to the mark and a bona fide Disney-ish version with the provision of her singing voice in I Believe (In Love) in a sequence that could be liken to be as out of place as Jai Ho in Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire.But while her Snow White is that demure damsel who's the fairest of them all, she also does show a little bit more character in her ability and grit determination to wield a weapon to wage war against her enemies, namely her stepmother The Evil Queen (Julia Roberts) and her minions, made up of court bootlicker Brighton (Nathan Lane) and other mystical creatures, including her own magic mirror reflection in a stunning CG sequence each time she calls out to her.
But don't expect a full on battle ala the other Snow White played by Kristen Stewart, as this one gets trained by her seven thieving dwarfs who decide that she joins them in their mission if she wants to continue seeking refuge in their humble abode, and passes with having looks, brains and brawn, with plenty of heart going out to her people when she learns of the truth of the suffering in the villages.Visionary director Tarsem Singh is well know for the imagery of his films, full of the fantastical, strange, but always fascinating view of the created world.
While his previous film Immortals may have suffered by the lack of a strong plot and action that made it look like a poor cousin to 300, he's back in his element with Mirror Mirror, providing the audience a visual treat while treading on a story structure that is familiar with most, which more or less follows the line of the evil Queen being jealous of Snow White's beauty and gets rid of her, only to have the planned assassination attempt botched with the killer taking pity, her venturing into the woods and meeting up with the seven dwarfs, with the Queen poisoning her with an apple, and to be rescued by Prince Charming, or in this case, a certain Prince Alcott (Armie Hammer) from Valencia.But be warned that this version too may not go down well with some, especially since the story by Melisa Wallack reworks most of the major details on how the Prince meets up with Snow White, playing a major role here rather than appearing as a cameo at the end, and giving each of the seven dwarfs completely different personalities, with names like Napoleon (Jordan Prentice), Half Pint (Mark Povinelli), Grub (Joe Gnoffo), Wolf (Sebastian Saraceno), Grimm (Danny Woodburn), Butcher (Martin Klebba) and Chuckles (Ronald Lee Clark), who are almost Robin-Hood like in a subplot about not being loved, and discriminated against.
But thankfully some of their personalities come across with good natured humour.Much has been said of Julia Robert's role as the sarcastic Queen whose heart is filled with plenty of black humour, and her character is quite man-crazy, finding it necessary to quickly hook up a rich prince/king in order to continue with her lavish lifestyle at the expense of the kingdom's coffers, raising taxes to fund her whims and fancies.
Probably the first Snow White story to have both the Queen and Snow White tussle for the love of the Prince, all I can say is Armie Hammer, who did a great job as the Winklevoss twins in The Social Network and as J.Edgar's right hand man, continues to impress in his roles - in this one having a shirtless running joke - that I am anticipating his turn as The Lone Ranger come next year.
Instead it's as close to what a fairy tale will look like on the big screen with the plenty of beautiful sets and scenarios crafted for the characters to operate in that made it quite dream like, and Tarsem being at his element in crafting a visually impressive outing that draws first blood in rival Snow White films.
Julia Roberts, Nathan Lane, and Lilly Collins are pretty good in the fairy tale spoof Mirror Mirror.
Julia Roberts plays the Evil Queen who wants Snow White (Lilly Collins) killed but her henchman (Nathan Lane) is very reluctant to do so.
When you consider the story's comic backbone complete with slapstick moments, Roberts's sarcastic one-liners arising from a witty script and the ever amusing Nathan Lane as the queen's royal subject, this movie becomes a lighthearted stab at one of the oldest and most adapted fairy tales.
Lily Collins is very beautiful in the role of Snow white, Julia Roberts makes a role that i don't expected, but i liked.
Directed by Tarsem Singh (who also directed THE CELL) it stars Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen, Lily Collins as Snow White and Armie Hammer as Prince Alcott in a fun and often tongue and cheek romp through the fairy tale.The movie starts with the basic premise of Snow White's father, the King (played by Sean Bean), marries the Evil Queen and then mysteriously vanishes into the dark woods while trying to find an evil and dark creature threatening his kingdom.
Snow listens to the Queen but on her eighteenth birthday things start to change from the traditional fairy tale as she meets the prince and decides to take matters into her own hands.Julia Roberts' queen is a petty and not really malicious evil.
Later on in the movie he seems to be having a great deal of fun with the situations handed to him.One thing I have to mention is that the costumes – especially the Queen's – and the sets are utterly gorgeous, a delight to look at.
The German fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by the Brothers Grimm is one of the most delightful fairy tales and was immortalized by Walt Disney in 1937, in the first full color animated feature film produced in America in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series.There are several versions made by the cinema industry and "Mirror Mirror" is among the worst.
This isn't a people version of Walt Disney's 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which I found charming but shallow, Mirror Mirror finds it's own path taking the same basic plot (evil/jealous stepmother/queen, young beautiful girl, dwarfs , etc.) and turning it into something else.
Really, the big reason this movie didn't work for me is that it was boring, the action isn't interesting, I didn't care about the relationship between Snow White and the Prince, and like I said, it isn't really that funny.This movie isn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, but part of me wishes it was, then at least it would have gotten an emotional response out of me.3.5/10.
The cast for the dwarfs is excellent, Snow White is fine but didn't do anything spectacular for me, and the prince is bland and simple, but I think that works well for the movie (it's really not his story, he's just along for the ride).Overall, it's great for a date, girls night, kids, teens, and pretty much any audience for a predictable fairy tale- beautiful imagery and costumes, lots of laughs, moments of tenderness and action, and of course true love and living happily ever after.
I mean what could a lousier way to end a movie like that.Julia robert can't act for sure in this film.
In my opinion this movie is just lacking something, obviously it's a comedy, which I thought was aimed equally at adults and children alike, I mean it has Julia Roberts in it, but I think this film is strictly for kids only.
I think with a story so well known and loved as Snow White is hard to retelling in a different way without ruining it, every single joke was very very juvenile, the kids in the theater were having a swell time, but most of the parents were just grinning and bearing it.The casting is atrocious, I think the actual cast are all obviously talented but they are so miscast, the only person who somewhat seems at home in the role is Lily Collins, she's OK as Snow White but I just don't think she is Snow White, however she does look absolutely gorgeous in the film, Julia Roberts is nowhere near evil enough and Armie Hammer is kind of unnecessary.I think the reason Julia Roberts doesn't seem evil enough is that the script is comedic, and I'm sure I'm not the only one but I don't think Julia is that funny, extremely miscast.The movie isn't all bad, obviously the costuming and the production is top notch, the dresses and sets are fantastic and a feast for the eyes and the supporting cast deliver fun performances, in particular Nathan Lane and the 7 Dwarfs.
MIRROR, MIRROR is a fantasy adventure movie adaptation of the fairy tale SNOW WHITE (AND THE SEVEN Dwarfs) It's directed by Tarsem Singh, who directed "The Cell", "The Fall" and "Immortals", and stars Lily Collins as Snow White, the ever-funny Nathan Lane, Armie Hammer, and Julia Roberts as the wickedly amusing Evil Queen.This movie is something that has a little too many of almost everything you can get from a movie that promises pure fun and entertainment.
My favorite scenes with her is when she joined with the bandit dwarfs; I loved it when she was doing some swashbuckling action, because even though she's wielding a sword, somehow she still maintains that very princess-like poise.Nathan Lane is ever amusing, Armie Hammer is great in playing a prince who goes through non-stereotypical circumstances, and all the dwarfs played by Mark Povinelli, Danny Woodburn, Jordan Prentice, Ronald Lee Clark, Sebastian Saraceno, Martin Klebba, and Joe Gnoffo were all hilariously amazing to watch, and they were pretty much my favorite characters in the movie.And then there's Julia Roberts who played the evil Queen Clementianna.
Granted, there might be unexpected changes, but it all works in the context of the story, and it's not as drastic as to completely change the feel of the source material (like what they did in the other movie where they made Snow White look like an iron-clad Conan the Barbarian) The costumes are so lavish, stylish, and positively weird; it makes you feel like you are watching a music video from Bjork.
The movie's genre is not centered only for one demographic, as it also has some action on it; what with the swashbuckling bandits, and the gigantic creatures sent by the Queen to kill Snow White, there are sword-fights and awesome action scenes to balance out the comedy and the fantasy.MIRROR, MIRROR is perfectly fun-filled, and quirkily weird in a very positive manner.
And just having done this film shows us that Julia Roberts knows her ingénue days are over and she has to look for mature roles that suit her.But yeah, don't even wait for "Snow White and the Huntsman," just get the DVD of the 1997 version with Sigourney Weaver and Sam Neill and see how it should be done..
Tarsem Singh's Mirror Mirror is, by far, the farthest thing away from any experience like that or anything similar to a stimulating theater experience and offers no means of entertainment unless your idea of fun is sticking a fork in your eye over and over again.Mirror Mirror opens with a voice-over by Julia Roberts's Evil Queen, explaining all the facts and story elements that everyone knows if they have ever heard of Snow White.
But Julia Roberts and Nathan Lane, both accomplished actors, were excellent in their scenes together, the seven dwarfs were funny and Lily Collins was very good as Snow White without overacting.
The movie tries to be funny, but when you have to make such an effort, it usually falls flat and this one landed with a thud.Lily Collins does look a little like Snow White, and she does seem like a sweet girl, but this movie has the feel of people wanting to do something nice for her famous father, Phil Collins.Also, with such a big budget, you would expect sets and wardrobes that match the money spent.
I suppose all the money went to paying stars like Julia Roberts, who was quite unconvincing in her role.In future retelling of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "Mirror Mirror" will be a good reference of how not to ruin a perfectly good fairy tale..
With a recent glut of reimagined fairy tales Mirror Mirror takes a comedic twist.Snow White is raised by the evil queen (Julia Roberts) who saw off her father but she escapes and lives with seven dwarfs in the woods where she learns survival techniques and learns how to steal.The Prince (Armie Hammer) has a buff body, dim brain but the Queen wants to marry him although he has fallen for Snow White who he had met earlier.The Queen uses her spell on the Prince to make him act like a dog and she uses the money from the villagers to live a party lifestyle.
The language and humour used is very modern.The comedy is mixed with some action especially at the conclusion where there is a beast in the woods.The positives are the set designs and the costumes which are fantastic.The negatives, Lily Collins as Snow White is rather a plain actress and Armie Hammer does not cut it as a leading man and they made the film drag.
To me, it seems like this film would be enjoyed by those who have absolutely no expectations, preferably know nothing of the original Snow White fairy tale and are totally fine with an inconsistent mess.
Wrong Casting: The prince seems like a mindless goof (far from lovable or charming!), the princess is so not Snow White, and Julia Roberts is so not fit for an evil queen's role.
It's certainly a family friendly film, although there are several suggestions in the first post-robbery scene that are echoed later on in the film, as well as with the robbers in some of their scenes, and in the finale fight in the woods that might be too much for very small children, certainly worse is available on TV.The good points of the movie are good performances by Julia Roberts (although her role could have been more interesting, either more evil and/or with more real magic, the witch/queen played by Susan Sarandon in ENCHANTED comes across as far more powerful, in far less screen time, for example), Armie Hammer in a reasonably thankless role, Nathan Lane, as the comic relief, and of course, while playing anti-Disney Dwarf types, the performances were all very good among the seven actors who portrayed.The COSTUMES were excellent, and the set pieces gave the idea that the art direction, sets, and so forth, could have been so much more, but what we did see was enjoyable.The movie is marred by a weak script, a poorly plotted and simplistic story, and a genuinely uncharismatic women portrait as the essential lead.
A Lovely Gem for You. The old story of Snow White is retold in a refreshing way with Mirror Mirror.Rarely have I seen costumes and sets play such pivotal parts.This fun filled romance has a first rate beast at the end.The thrilling plot developments and wonderful acting keeps the show engaging.I greatly appreciate the clever way the background of the tale is introduced.The end has all those boring credits along with a beautiful music video kind of clip.
I like Snow White and this movie was interesting,but could have been better.Lily Collins is sweet as Snow White .Julia Roberts was for me the problem here.The evil queen should be evil and sinister,yet here she is goofy ,which is not good.The comedy was funny,but there was too much of it.Could have been better.4/10.
It's so great to watch a movie with your kids and come out of it thinking, "Well that was a pleasant surprise!" I never liked the Snow White Disney cartoon, so this was a great diversion from that, while still keeping the fairy tale-esque atmosphere and costuming.
Julia Roberts brings an extremely forced performance as the Queen, while Lily Collins feels insipid as Snow White.
Why put someone so annoying in the lead role when there's a far more likable character in Julia Roberts, this is bizarre.This film isn't as good as TV's Once Upon a time, but whether its better than Snow White and the Huntsman remains to be seen, but at least it won't have to try that hard.. |
tt0033873 | Man Hunt | On July 29, 1939, renowned British big game hunter Captain Alan Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) slips through the forest undetected near the Berghof, Adolf Hitler's residence near Berchtesgaden. Getting the dictator in his telescopic sight, he pulls the trigger on his unloaded rifle and gives a wave. He ponders a moment, then loads a live round, but is discovered at the last second by a guard, and the shot goes wild.
After being beaten, Thorndike is taken to Major Quive-Smith (George Sanders). Quive-Smith is also a devoted hunter and an admirer of Thorndike. Thorndike explains that it was a "sporting stalk", not to kill, but just for the thrill of going after the biggest game of all. The Nazi half-believes him, but insists he sign a confession that he was in fact working for His Majesty's government. When Thorndike refuses, he is tortured, but remains steadfast and warns of "questions being asked in high places" if he is killed, as his brother, Lord Risborough (Frederick Worlock), is a very important diplomat. The phrase gives Quive-Smith the idea to have Thorndike thrown off a cliff to make his death look like an accident.
Thorndike survives when his knapsack gets caught in a tree, breaking his fall. He eludes his German pursuers and reaches a port. He steals a rowboat, but is forced to abandon it hastily when a patrol boat comes near. He swims to a Danish ship about to sail for London. Vaner (Roddy McDowall), the British cabin boy, helps Thorndike hide. The Germans find Thorndike's coat and passport aboard the rowboat and search the nearby ship. Though they find nothing, they place agent Mr. Jones (John Carradine) on board using Thorndike's passport to continue looking even after the ship leaves the harbour.
Jones is met by German agents in London. Thorndike, mistakenly believing he is now safe, casually debarks and is spotted. He manages to shake off his pursuers by ducking into the apartment of Jerry Stokes (Joan Bennett), a young woman. Jerry lends him money so he can reach his brother.
When Lord Risborough tells his brother that the British government, continuing its pre-war policy of appeasement, would have to extradite him if he were found, Thorndike decides to hide in Africa. Jerry tries to refuse a large cash reward, leading Lady Risborough (Heather Thatcher) to assume that it is payment for other services, but Thorndike insists. He also buys her a new hatpin, as she had lost hers when they first met. She chooses a cheap chromium arrow and insists Thorndike present it to her. Thorndike likens it to her, saying both are "straight and shiny". By this point, Jerry is in love.
Quive-Smith arrives in London to join the hunt. When Thorndike calls on his solicitor, Saul Farnsworthy (Holmes Herbert), the Nazis are once again on his trail. Chased into a London Underground station, Thorndike struggles with Jones, who is killed when he is thrown onto an electrified rail.
Thorndike tells Jerry to have Lord Risborough send him a letter in three weeks time care of Lyme Regis Post Office. Thorndike hides in a cave. However, when he decides to pick up the letter, the postmistress (Eily Malyon) seems alarmed and sends a girl on an errand. Thorndike grabs the letter and beats a hasty retreat. Back at his cave, he finds the letter is from Quive-Smith, who has followed him to his lair.
Quive-Smith seals the only entrance and passes his quarry the confession and a pen through an air hole, threatening to leave him trapped inside. Quive-Smith also slides in Jerry's beret with the arrow pin, informing Thorndike that she was thrown out a window to her death when she would not betray him. They only discovered Thorndike's location through the address he had written down for her. Badgered by the Nazi, the grief-stricken Thorndike finally admits that he subconsciously intended to assassinate Hitler after all. He then agrees to sign the confession. Quive-Smith unblocks the entrance, but waits to shoot him as he crawls out. Thorndike has other plans; he uses his belt, a slat from his bed, and a stick to fabricate a bow, using Jerry's pin as the tip of a makeshift arrow, and shoots the German through the air hole. When Thorndike emerges, Quive-Smith manages to wound him before dying. By the time Thorndike recovers, the war has started.
Thorndike joins the R.A.F. as a Bomber Command crewman. On a mission over Germany, Thorndike unexpectedly parachutes into the Reich with his hunting rifle to finish what he had started. | suspenseful | train | wikipedia | null |
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