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tt0104409 | Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth | After the confrontation in Hellraiser II, the Cenobite named Pinhead is trapped, along with the puzzle box, amongst the writhing figures and distorted faces etched into the surface of an intricately carved pillar - the Pillar of Souls. The pillar is bought by the rich and spoiled J.P. Monroe (Kevin Bernhardt), owner of a popular nightclub called The Boiler Room. An ambitious young television reporter, Joey Summerskill (Terry Farrell), slowly begins to learn about Pinhead and the mysterious puzzle box. She is introduced to the pain the box can bring when she views a teenage club-goer being ripped apart by the box's chains in a hospital emergency room. She tracks the box and a young woman named Terri (Paula Marshall) to The Boiler Room, from which Terri had stolen the puzzle box.Through video tape interviews with Kirsty Cotton recovered from the Channard Institute, Joey and Terri learn about the demonic Cenobites and the power of the Lament Configuration, the only means of sending Pinhead back to Hell. Pinhead remains dormant until one night several hooked chains shoot out of the pillar and rip into one of the club goers, Brittany Virtue (Sharon Percival), Monroe had recently slept with. After killing her she is absorbed and her face appears on the pillar. Pinhead convinces Monroe to bring him club members so he can feed on their blood and be freed from the pillar.Now more dangerous than ever before, since he has been separated from his human self - a World War I British Army officer named Elliot Spencer who takes Joey on a walk round a trench filled with the corpses of what are presumably his men, explaining the nature of himself and Pinhead - and is simply the manifestation of Elliot's dark side and no longer under the control of Hell and purely out to cause chaos and destruction (in the previous movies the Cenobites were creatures of order, not chaos). Pinhead slaughters everybody in The Boiler Room, creating several new Cenobites in the process. Pinhead sets out to destroy the puzzle box so he need never return to Hell again. As time runs short, Joey must think of a plan to bring Pinhead and his newly-created Cenobites back to the realm of Pinhead's human self or else doom both herself and the mortal world to an eternity of pain and suffering.================================A young, rich club owner, JP Monroe, stops in an art dealer's shop. As he looks around he notices a large, plaster column with several relief sculptures on it, mostly of humans contorted in pain. Also on the column is a small sculpture of a puzzle box. The owner of the shop approaches him and sells the piece to JP, telling him to "take pleasure in it."At a hospital emergency room, a young TV reporter, Joey Summerskill, is doing a piece on the abilities of the staff, however, the ER is strangely vacant that night. Suddenly, a man is wheeled inside the ER on a gurney. Sharp hooks at the ends of long, bloody chains are embedded in his flesh. As he passes Joey, the man whispers, "Help me." A young woman follows after him, hysterically chattering about his condition. Joey interviews her briefly and the woman tells her that she & the man came from a club called The Boiler Room. When the doctors and nurses try to treat him, the chains are suddenly lifted by an unseen force, tearing at his flesh, and the man screams in pain. As the doctors and the young woman watch horrified, his head explodes. Before she leaves, the young lady retrieves a small puzzle box the man had been holding. She asks for the young woman's name and finds out it's Terri.Joey is ultimately bored with her job; she's only given puff pieces to report on. She also experiences nightmares about her father, who'd died in the Vietnam War.She goes to the Boiler Room and asks about Terri, who turns out to be JP's former girlfriend. They tell her that she's out with JP at a restaurant. Joey finds JP there & gives him her card, asking to call if he sees Terri. JP tries to hit on her but she rebuffs him. Later, Joey wakes up from another nightmare and receives a phone call from Terri & invites Terri to her apartment. Terri shows Joey the puzzle box, which allows anyone who solves it to experience a strange realm of Hell. Terri concludes that the man who died in the ER must have stolen the puzzle box from the sculpture JP had recently bought.At the Boiler Room JP, a self-absorbed and cruel man, examines the sculpture he'd bought. JP finds a hole in the column where the puzzle box had been. JP reaches into the hole and a rat bites him on the hand, drawing blood. JP's blood splatters across the column and is inexplicably absorbed into it. JP is fascinated. Later, while slyly watching the women who come to his club, he spots a lovely blond girl at the bar and has one of his employees give her a single rose, an invitation to meet with him privately. He lures the girl to his apartment, attached to the club, and has sex with her. As he does, the sculpture shows slight signs of animation. After he's finished with the woman, he harshly tells her to leave his apartment, having only wanted her for pleasure. Angry at being spurned, she begins to berate him for being such a cad when hooked chains emerge from the sculpture and snare her skin. She's forced to turn around and face the pillar. One of the faces, belonging to the Cenobite Pinhead, suddenly comes to life and hooks her forehead with another chain. Her skin is yanked from her body in a single jerk and as she screams, she's swallowed into the sculpture. JP is horrified but listens intently as Pinhead tells him he can grant JP all the pleasure, wealth and fame he seeks if he'll supply the statue with fresh blood and flesh. JP is unconvinced and shoots at Pinhead with a pistol; the shots are useless -- Pinhead spits the bullets out effortlessly. JP promises to bring what Pinhead asks for.Joey continues to be plagued by the nightmares about her father. She also continues her investigation into the young man who died in the ER and JP's club. Her efforts continue to be fruitless. She also receives news that she's been offered a job in another city -- since she and Terri had struck up a mild friendship, Terri is upset and leaves Joey's apartment after receiving a call from JP, who asks her to come back to him.At JP's apartment, JP tries to talk Terri into starting up their romance again. Terri is very reluctant but still starts to fall for JP's charms. As he talks to her, he walks her closer to the pillar, suddenly grabbing her and trying to force her even closer to it. Pinhead's face suddenly comes to life and growls and Terri retreats. When JP tries to grab her again, she hits him in the face with a set of brass knuckles. He falls on the floor unconscious. Just as Terri is about to leave the room, Pinhead stops her, demanding she give him JP's body. She pushes his limp body closer to the pillar and watches in horror as JP is hooked and yanked into the pillar. The sculpture explodes, tossing bits of flesh around and Pinhead emerges, free of his prison. Terri is too frightened to retreat.Terri has another nightmare about her father while he fights in a battle in Vietnam. This time, she's confronted by a young British man in an army uniform. He identifies himself as Captain Elliott Spencer, a World War II veteran, whom, after the war, had acquired the puzzle box in the Far East after the war and had discovered, while trying to solve it, that it was a doorway to an alternate world much like Hell, where wanderers can experience the extremes of pain and pleasure. Spencer had unlocked the doorway and had eventually become a demon of the netherworld, subjecting thousands of victims to extreme torture. He'd also had several demon assistants who'd themselves been victims of the puzzle box. Having been challenged previously by a young woman, Kirsty Cotton, who's own father had been a victim of her crooked uncle, Pinhead was banished and his accomplices were destroyed. Joey learns of the box's power by watching a videotaped interview with Kirsty taken from the Channard Institute, where she was held as a psychiatric patient.Spencer himself wants to regain his human form and asks Joey to help him. He wants her to, using the puzzle box, lure Pinhead into the spirit realm Spencer currently lives in so he can capture him and break his curse. Joey agrees.Back at the Boiler Room, Pinhead bursts into the club and begins to torture, mutilate and kill the club-goers. Joey sees a news report on the carnage and calls her cameraman, Doc, who tells her he'll meet her there. When Joey arrives, Pinhead has finished his rampage. Joey runs from the club, chased by Pinhead. In the streets, she sees an odd-looking man approaching her: Doc has been turned into a Cenobite with a camera embedded in his head where his right eye used to be. Escaping Doc and another Cenobite -- the DJ from JP's club, who makes use of compact discs as weapons -- she retreats into a church. A priest meets her and doesn't believe her fantastic story about "demons." Pinhead suddenly bursts into the church, shattering its stained-glass windows and melting the priest's steel cross in his hand. Over the priest's loud protests, Pinhead tortures the priest, forcing him to eat entrails plucked from his chest.Joey taunts Pinhead with the box and flees the church. In a nearby construction site she meets two more Cenobites: the first is JP, who has two drilling devices thrust through his head. The other is Terri, who wields sharpened hook blades and has a cigarette jutting from her throat. They are about to torture her when Pinhead stops them, demanding Joey give up the box. The box activates and Joey is sent to Hell with the Cenobites. In the alternate dimension, Joey meets her father. He asks for the box to break the spell and reveals himself to be Pinhead in disguise. He prepares to torture and transform her into a Cenobite when Elliott Spencer appears and forcibly fuses himself with Pinhead. While Pinhead is distracted, Joey stabs him with the reconfigured box, destroying him and restoring Spencer's humanity. The box remains and Joey drops it into a foundation block of the construction site. She walks away, believing that the terror is over. The building is constructed; the lobby features an elaborate decor of the box itself. | good versus evil, cult, horror, violence, flashback | train | imdb | null |
tt1424381 | Predators | Royce awakens to find himself parachuting into an unfamiliar jungle. He meets several others who arrived in the same manner: Mexican drug cartel enforcer Cuchillo, Spetsnaz soldier Nikolai, Israel Defense Forces sniper Isabelle, Revolutionary United Front officer Mombasa, San Quentin death row inmate Stans, Yakuza enforcer Hanzo and general practice doctor Edwin.
Upon landing, they discover that all are armed and lethal killers, with the apparent exception of Edwin, though none know where they are or how they got there. The group follows Royce, who Isabelle suspects is a former black operations soldier turned mercenary. In the jungle they find empty cages, plants with a neurotoxic poison that Edwin collects on a scalpel, and a deceased US Special Forces soldier. Arriving at higher ground, they find themselves staring at an alien sky and realize that they are not on Earth.
The party is attacked by a pack of quadruped alien beasts. Cuchillo is killed, and his body is then used as bait to lure the survivors into a trap, but they avoid it. Royce deduces they are on a planet used as a game preserve, where humans are hunted as game. The group follows the quadrupeds' tracks to a camp and finds a captive Predator. The "hunters", three larger Predators known as the Tracker, Berserker and Falconer, attack the group. Mombasa is killed and the rest of the group escapes. Royce confronts Isabelle, believing she knows something about the creatures based on her shock of recognition when they encountered the alien. She reveals that she has heard of the Predators before, from a report by the only survivor (Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer) of a Special Forces team who encountered one twenty three years earlier in Guatemala.
The group next meets Noland, a lone soldier who has survived on the planet for "ten seasons" by hiding and scavenging from the Predators and their victims. At his hideout, he explains that the Predators hunt in threes and sharpen their killing skills by abducting warriors and dangerous beasts from other worlds and bringing them to the planet to hunt. Noland also reveals that there is a blood feud between the larger Predators and the smaller ones. Royce hopes that if the group can free the smaller Predator being held prisoner in the encampment, it may take them home using the other Predators' spaceship.
When the group fall asleep, Noland traps them in a room and attempts to use smoke to suffocate them. Having gone mad, he plans to kill them for their equipment and supplies. Royce uses an explosive to break out of the room, attracting the Predators to the hideout. Noland tries to escape and is killed by a Predator. In the ensuing chase, Nikolai uses two claymores to kill The Tracker Predator, sacrificing himself. Stans savagely attacks leader known as the Berserker with his shiv, buying time for the others to escape, and is killed when the Predator rips out his skull and spine. Hanzo duels The Falconer Predator with a katana, killing it before falling down from his wounds.
Hoping they can commandeer a spacecraft to return them to Earth, Royce, Isabelle and Edwin head for the Predators' camp until Edwin is injured by a trap. When Isabelle refuses to abandon him, Royce leaves them both behind and they are caught by the Berserker. Royce frees the smaller Predator in exchange for control of its ship and leaves as the two Predators confront each other. The Berserker kills the smaller one and destroys the ship as it takes off. Meanwhile, Edwin paralyzes Isabelle with the neurotoxic poison on his scalpel and reveals that on Earth he was a murderer, and feels that he fits in on this planet among the monsters. Royce appears, never having boarded the ship, and stabs Edwin with his own scalpel, paralyzing him.
Royce booby-traps Edwin with grenades, using him as bait to injure the remaining Predator. While Isabelle covers him with her sniper rifle, he proceeds to fight the Berserker with an axe and eventually decapitates it. As Royce and Isabelle rest, they observe parachutes opening in the distant sky. Royce, surmising that more Predators will soon arrive to hunt the new prey, tells Isabelle they must find another way to get off the planet, and they make their way back towards the jungle. | insanity, revenge, action, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | It's clear they had a real long look at the original film and decided to keep the best pieces (the tension, the focus on group interaction, the music) but also try new things with it to attain the same feel of mystery the original was so good at.The visuals are gorgeous, the acting solid, the writing exciting.
I'm surprised at the polarized opinions of Predators here on IMDb. From fans of the original movie (like me), I would have expected a degree of respect for this latest iteration; it seems to honor its predecessors while still offering new twists and depth.
It's shot on location in the Hawaiian jungle with Gyula Pados on cinematography, while John Debney reworks Alan Silvestri's score from the 1987 film Predator.The plot sees eight former members of Earth - mercenaries, soldiers, criminals and a doctor, who are literally dropped into a jungle on an alien planet.
However, it didn't happen and it's only now, with the franchise at rock bottom, that his script has been reworked and funded to give us Predators, the sequel to McTiernan's 87 ball buster.The set up is a little different but in truth the formula is exactly the same as the original movie.
And in "Predators", he infuses it with not just a showcase of tried and tested sci-fi ideals but also a discernible impression of a robust horror film.Antal keeps things moving along at an exhilarating pace by introducing a rag-tag team of mercenaries and criminals getting air-dropped into a highly tropical and vegetative alien planet tailored by the ruthless and single-minded Predator race as a game reserve for the insufficiently armed humans and other prey.
Kept alive by de facto leader, the preternaturally perspicacious Royce (Adrien Brody), the band of humans begin to formulate their plan of survival against the truly fearsome Predators and their formidable weaponry.Brody's presence seems almost folly at first – a gruff vocal inflection worthy of Christian Bale's in "The Dark Knight" underscores a predictably rote tough guy but to his credit, a good actor always manages to sell his act despite himself.
They make the sequel its own; the film takes place on the predator's planet, the lead actor is not the macho hero of the 80s but instead rather reluctant and they create interesting characters.
I won't get into too much of detail but I will say that any predator fan or even someone who likes a good action/thriller should watch this movie.
Although technically more of a sequel to Predator 2 than the first movie, Predators keeps everything that is good about the original and just sort of shakes them all around a bit.Predators gives us another jungle, albeit on an alien planet instead of South America, a bunch of hunted humans, this time all sorts of mercenaries instead of one platoon of Americans and three hunting aliens instead of just the loner.If you can get over having (the only slightly skinnier) Adrian Brody in place of Conan the Terminator and were a fan of the original, you'll probably like this.
They are Royce (Adrien Brody , Nimród Antal specifically chose him for the main protagonist); the Israeli soldier Isabelle (Alice Braga , she is the third brunette actress who appears in the "Predator" series, following Elpidia Carrillo and Maria Conchita Alonso) ; the Chechenian soldier Nikolai (Oleg Taktarov , who hit his face on a Steadicam camera and started bleeding , he insisted that filming continued to add effect to the scene); the San Quentin criminal Stans (Walton Goggins who along with other actors did their own stunts in the cliff fall scene); the Serra Leoa militia Mombasa (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali); the drug lord Cuchillo (Danny Trejo , Robert Rodriguez's usual); the Yakuza Hanzo (Louis Ozawa Changchien); and the Doctor Edwin (Topher Grace) awake and they encounter an alien force that begin to attack one by one .
In the end, Nimród Antal was hired because Robert Rodriguez enjoyed Antal's earlier films ¨Kontroll¨ and ¨Vacancy¨ .Other film about Predator series are the following : The original and the best ¨Predator¨ (1987) in which Arnold leads a team of CIA-hired mercenaries into the Central American jungles , being filmed by John McTiernan with Arnold Schwarzanegger , Jesse Ventura , Bill Duke , R.G. Armstrong , Carl Weathers ; ¨Predator 2¨(1990) in which the alien has inexplicably returned to L.A , being directed by Stephen Hopkins with Danny Glover , Bill Paxton , Ruben Blades , Maria Conchita Alonso and Gary Busey .
After having seen this film and Splice I cant wait to see what he does next, I like seeing the added range of an already proved actor.Now having said all this, the film isn't without its disappointments, I feel the film needed to spend a little time explaining how our characters got to this reserve planet.
And with a fellow like Robert Rodriguez comes a reputation, a reputation to recruit the likes of Adrien Brody, Lawrence Fishburne, Alice Braga and Danny Trejo.As far as the story goes, it follows in the line of traditional survival horror tactics of having a large number of expendable characters and the big bad monster (monsters in this case).
Lets be Honest, what did we all expect???There was never going to be the same suspense as the first film.If you go into this film with an open opinion and don't read most of whats on here then your bound to enjoy this movie.Brody I thought was excellent in his role, to many people are quick to shoot him down after seeing him in previous roles however he really was good as the main bad ass.Fishburn appears as a good cameo however nothing that would drag me to say that he makes a massive impact on the movie.Good film and great entertainment, pays homage to the first movie without stealing its identity.
The action sequences are good teamed up with the stunning new score (Old one is one of my most favored scored of all time).I think almost all the early predator fans will like this movie.
When a mercenary (Adrien Brody) wakes up in an unfamiliar jungle amid others of his ilk, including a dubious doctor (Topher Grace), he is apprehensive.His uneasiness is later justified when it becomes apparent he and the others are being stalked by an alien race of trophy hunters.The second sequel to the 1987 original, Predators revisits its roots: tropical terrain and a smorgasbord of bullets.
But what Brody lacks in statue, he makes up for in pure acting talent, and brings a well needed central performance, to a film that ultimately lacks in dialogue.The supporting cast unlike other movies of this genre, don't just play the part of a large body count, but have a likable mentality (well some do) similar to James Cameron's Aliens – but don't get me wrong, none of them are by any means Bill Paxton's Hudson.
going into this movie i had a lot of hope knowing that Robert Rodriguez was producing Predators because he is the man behind wonderful movies like (Sin city,planet terror,the Mexican trilogy,and from dusk to dawn,) i was a little disappointed he wasn't directing this but Nimrod Antal is a OK choice i enjoyed vacancy and Armored but neither of those are sci-fi, Vacancy is a suspense thriller and Armored is a action thriller so i was curious of the direction he was going to take, sense i seen the movie yesterday my expectations going into the movie was exceeded in every way except one, no Arnold Schwarzenegger besides that it was amazing the horror and gore is finally back to the predator franchise.
Predators made avp and avpr look like a bad Nintendo 64 video game, don't get me wrong avp and avpr are OK movies if you are a teen or have never seen the first two predator or alien movies but if you are a fan of the original predator movie or alien movie your mind can't imagine a pg-13 predator movie or alien movie, Predators didn't tailor or edit the movie for a teenager crowed or church group like avp did, Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal took the concept of the original 2 movies and made predators similar to John Mctiernan's predator movie but its not remake or a copy its not even a sequel its more of a refresh to the franchise and to show new environments and situations for the audience to experience.
When I first was looking into the movie 2 weeks before it came out I had my doubts about Adrien Brody as the lead, I've never really viewed him as a tough military kind of actor but he did great as the lead role Royce the only better choice would have been Arnold himself, I also thought Topher Grace did great he was the perfect comic relief.
Honestly, this review is very special for me, because, when i think about it, i can't recall another occasion, when i wrote a review, without seeing the rate of the movie.So as my first time, i have to say, that i don't need a side opinion, because this movie was the best sequel to an Alien or a Predator movie, maybe, reaching the heights of James Cameron's Aliens.Robert Rodriguez sure raised the bar with this third installment, although, a lot of time was needed to do so.Adrien Brody does a good Arnie role, adding a little more darkness to the character.And he worked out a lot, it's obvious.And in one thing, Predators is stronger even than the Arnie-driven original.And that's the development.And for such a movie-a hunting movie, that's very hard.Gamer is a good example of movie, where you just don't give a ...
about the characters.And honestly, Predator had an issue of itself, as well.And that i find very good for the installment.I liked the intensity of the situation as well.I don't know, if it is because i saw the original on tape, but i just was'n feeling it.But this one-i saw it at a small pre-premiere theatre, where one is able to hear even the crew shooting the movie :) And when you hear each and every single footstep, more or less, you stand on the edge of your seat, waiting something to happen.That's why i found it so intense.Another thing i liked was the Laurence Fishbourne cameo, eclipsed only by the Bill Murray cameo in Zombieland, in recent memory.It was cool, claustrophobic and a little bit crazy, but a needed step into making the movie fresh enough and breaking the atmosphere.The other were fun to watch as well-Rodriguez's favourite, Danny Trejo, was interesting as ever, although, the little on-screen time for him.The others did a fine job as well, especially Alice Braga and the "unsure" Topher Grace.Another visually good thing were the flora and fauna at the planet.The special effects were OK, and the predators looked very convincing, and most important, faster than before, although their on-screen time is measurable to Danny Trejo's.The hounds were something cool and new, seeing the movie needed something like this, to pull itself out from the original.All in all, Robert Rodriguez made an incredibly refreshing movie, memorable and Nimrod Antal shoot it perfectly.Seeing Predator 2 very recently, i think this movie is way better than it's predecessor.I'm giving it the full note, and i'll see it again with some friends very soon!
Oleg Taktarov and Danny Trejo where also cool characters and Fishbourned cameo was fun, although you can tell his role was meant to be a cameo for Arnold.The creatures worked when I was worried they would have been a bit cheesy, but the hunter aspect came into play.I think a lot of the scenes were good just because they reminded you of the original (Which I'm not sure is that good a reason.) There are a few nods for die hard fans, especially a creature that was the original Predator design.I can't decide whether or not I like this more than Predator 2, it doesn't surpass the original but it's head and shoulders above the two horrible AvP films (that's not hard).
The characters lead by Adrien Brody as Royce, Alice Braga as Isabelle, Topher Grace as Edwin and Oleg Taktarov as Nikolai were given little screen time to development, and along with the weak dialog provided it at times felt like a cheaply executed B-Movie; which was the tag line they were desperately trying to avoid after 2007's AVP.R. The story moves along at a relatively fast rate as the group of elite hunter find out that there located on a gaming preserve planet, where the Predators hunt them down as sport for trophy's and ranking points.
While Predators is not as good as the first two Predator films Predators is a fantastic entry in the Predator series.Predators tells the story of a group of soldiers,cops,criminals and one doctor who are led by a Mercenary named Royce(Adrien Brody)who have been brought from planet Earth and put on another planet and are being hunted and stalked by vicious Alien Predators.
It sure didn't go towards the making of this movie As much as people like to bash the Alien vs Predator installments, they were at least entertaining, faster paced and filled with action.
It' would have been a good idea if the studio in question had just dumped the PREDATOR tag and thought up a new alien monster but the thinking is that there might be a ready made market of people who enjoyed one of the previous movies .
The movie in whole a lot is amazing with keeping in mind the old predator the fights and intense sequences are good enough to keep you awake Adrien Brody showed that he isn't just a drama person he can do action too.Nimrod Anatol does a great job The Movie Takes its time but delivers it with precision enough.
It is impossible to deny the influence the film Predator had on the action cinema from the last two decades.Its perfect combination of violence, machismo and a brilliantly designed monster made it memorable.And even though I enjoyed its sequel, Predator 2, I think the hybrids Alien Vs. Predator and Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem failed pretty much due to their poor screenplays and pathetic performances.Now, with Predators, co-screenwriters Alex Litvak and Michael Finch and director Nimród Antal tried to make another formal sequel, returning to the jungle setting from the first movie in order to capture a similar narrative and aesthetic style, adding a bit of mystery and increasing the level of violence.The result is moderately entertaining, but nevertheless mediocre.Antal's Hungarian movie Kontroll impressed many people (including me), and it was enough for Hollywood to call him to work there.Unfortunately, his North American filmography has gone from the mediocre (Vacancy) to the horrible (Armored); but I had the hope that, with Predators, producer Robert Rodriguez had found a project which could exploit Antal's talent.On some way, it was like that, but the result disappointed me for being so generic on its concept and its execution.In other words, Predators would have been an acceptable action movie if the legendary main monster had been replaced by any other antagonist.But as a heiress of the legacy from the original Predator, I found this sequel to be painfully "safe" and predictable.As for the actors, none of them show conviction or enthusiasm for their characters; on the contrary, they all appear apathetic and listless.But the biggest fail from Predators is that its screenplay is too simple, and it does not add anything new to the Predator mythology.And the action scenes are not very exciting; I have always said that the visual spectacle does not compensate the fails from a screenplay, but with better planned action scenes, Predators would have earned a little bit of life, in order not to give us the impression that it only copies important moments from the original film and it gives them a slightly different treatment.And what they changed was what they did not have to change: setting the story in a different planet seems a good trick to show a different and threatening environment; however, they did not spend any money in designing an alien jungle, so we only see the actors walking through the Hawaii jungle, where one of them can identify terrestrial plants!
However, not everything is bad on this movie: it has some good moments of tension, competent special effects and, as I said on the beginning of the commentary, it kept me moderately entertained.So, I think it deserves a slight recommendation because of all that.However, this film is not very satisfactory, and although it is better than the Alien Vs. Predator movies, it pales in comparison to Predator and its first sequel..
We initiate knowing only what the characters know:A group of cold hearted murderers with the awkward exception of a nerdy physician, mysteriously land into an unknown planet only to become the prey of the evolved new breed of alien Predators.Adrien Brody inhabits the role of the loner mercenary with the typical "I don't give a damn" attitude, strangely the dialogs felt of those of a traditional macho blonde American soldier though Brody makes everything work out just fine.Now the other characters were just as typical or even more overrating exaggerated that have no grand impact on the plot what so ever, in fact one character has max 3 lines in the entire film.While the characters might not have had enough time to grow on you, they were killed off one by one in what I thought was a social accepted order.
It was a genuinely creepy scene and I felt it stood out more than any other death in the film.And it had Laurence Fishburne in it but his character is pretty much wasted.All and all, though Predators wasn't the worst movie I've seen, but I definitely rate it as the worse I've seen this summer.
It's a sequel to the first film ("Predator"), it emphasizes action like the original, and it mixes in a few interesting ideas in its own thought experiment. |
tt0117802 | Swingers | Mike Peters (Jon Favreau) is a struggling actor who left New York, and a girlfriend behind, to find success in L.A. The move caused his girlfriend of six years to split up with him six months earlier and left him feeling alone and heartbroken.In the opening scenes of the film, Mike talks about his situation with his friend Rob (Ron Livingston), another thespian from back east. Mike feels miserable about their conclusions. Afterwards, while on the phone, Mike is coaxed into an impromptu Las Vegas trip by his new best friend, and also actor, Trent (Vince Vaughn) to help Mike get over his ex. The trip starts out on a high note with excitement and anticipation but soon takes a turn for the worse when Mike crashes and burns at the casino. Soon after, the guys manage to meet some ladies and just when it seems as if though Mike can make some progress and salvage the trip, it all falls apart again and this time Trent goes down with him.On the ride home, Trent gets Mike to feel better about himself and to look at the positive side of things. Mike promises to try his best to move on.Now back in L.A., Mike and Rob get together for some golf and to talk shop. Later that night, Mike and Trent are getting ready to hit the Hollywood hills, at their actor friend Sue's (Patrick Van Horn) apartment. With the vibes feeling right and things going well, Mike and Rob meet up with Mike's pal Charles (Alex Désert), yet another starving actor, at a local bar where they admire the beautiful women. Soon afterward they rendezvous with the others and they all finally make it to a party where Mike makes an ill-fated attempt to get back into the game, while Trent gives the guys a lesson in how to handle the opposite sex.The guys agree to head to their favorite after hours spot and after watching Trent and Sue effortlessly meet some girls, Mike is clearly shown feeling lower than ever but not yet defeated. Trent and Sue convince Mike that he is in control so he finally makes his move like he's got nothing to lose and he actually meets Nikki (Brooke Langton) and gets her phone number. Success at last or so he hopes.The swingers leave the lounge and narrowly miss getting into a brawl in the parking lot caused by Sue's temper yet averted by Sue pulling a gun which no one else was aware was even a part of his attire. The group splits up but not before angry words are exchanged among friends. Mike is left feeling desolate once again.To make himself feel better, Mike decides to call Nikki but he blows any chance he has with her when he goes overboard in their "conversation". Now he feels as if he has truly hit bottom and he sits alone in his apartment, missing his ex more than ever and contemplating a move back to New York. Rob comes over to console him and, after some serious talk, he feels like it's time to get back in the saddle again.Mike meets up with the guys at Sue's, where he discovers that he has missed some changes in the group dynamic. That aside, apologies are exchanged, and the nightlife once again awaits them. The next stop is a Hollywood night club for swing night. The guys enter through a makeshift VIP entrance in a style that pays homage to Director/Writer/Producer Martin Scorsese.Once inside, the guys let the good times roll and Mike spots a beautiful woman whom he decides he wants to meet. He gathers all his courage and approaches her confidently. He finds himself in an actual interesting conversation with the young and single Lorraine (Heather Graham). They are soon swing dancing and the chemistry between them is incredible. The night ends well and Mike, Trent and Sue head to an after-hours meal to discuss the particulars. Mike finally appears to be on his way to moving on and feeling good about himself.The following morning Mike receives a phone call from his ex. She wants to talk about their state of affairs, but when Mike decides to answer another incoming call, he is greeted by Lorraine. He has to make an immediate decision as to which path he wants to go down and in a moment that solidifies his regained self-esteem, he puts his past behind him and chooses to take a chance on someone new.In the closing scene, Mike meets Trent for coffee and they enjoy one more good heart to heart while Trent is brought down to earth by a reminder that even when you've got it, you can't win 'em all, in an ending that suits the swingers perfectly before we leave them on another sunny L.A. day. | comedy, neo noir, cult, romantic, entertaining, storytelling | train | imdb | null |
tt1204342 | The Muppets | Walter, a puppet, lives with his brother Gary (Jason Segel), a human, in Smalltown. The two became Muppet fans when they watched The Muppet Show in their youths. As adults, Walter and Gary continue to live together in their home town of Smalltown. Gary plans a vacation to Los Angeles with his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) to celebrate their tenth anniversary, and he invites Walter along so he can see the Muppet Theater. Gary is pleased to spend time with both Mary and Walter ("Life's a Happy Song"), though Mary feels that Gary's devotion to Walter detracts from their relationship.In Los Angeles, the three visit the Muppet Theater to find it in ruins. During the tour around the facility, Walter sneaks into Kermit the Frog's office and discovers Statler and Waldorf selling the theatre to Tex Richman (Chris Cooper), an oil magnate, and his associates Bobo the Bear and Uncle Deadly. Waldorf explains that the Muppets can raise 10 million dollars to re-buy the theater in a certain amount of days. Once Statler and Waldorf leave, Walter learns of Tex's true intentions: to tear down the Muppet Studios and drill underneath for oil.Walter explains the situation to Gary and Mary, and the three track down Kermit at his mansion. Kermit is distressed to learn the news, and realizes the only way to earn the ten million dollars would be to put on a show, which the Muppets have not done in years ("Pictures In My Head"). Walter convinces him to try anyway, and they set off to reunite the group. Fozzie Bear is performing with a group of uncouth Muppet impersonators, the Moopets, in Reno, Nevada, and Kermit persuades him to leave the group. Gonzo has become a powerful plumbing magnate. He at first refuses, but secretly longs to return to his daredevil days; he then blows up his business and joins them. Animal is in a celebrity anger-management clinic; he rejoins them, but his sponsor, Jack Black, warns him to avoid drums. During a montage, the rest of the Muppets are found and picked up. They then travel to Paris to find Miss Piggy, who went to work as Vogue Paris' editor in chief. They try to ask her to come, but she refuses to cooperate. The Muppets replace Piggy with her Moopet counterpart, Miss Poogy.The Muppets pitch their idea for a telethon and are rejected by several TV networks. One executive, Veronica (Rashida Jones), accepts an offer to give the Muppets a 2-hour opening in her network's schedule, due to the sudden cancellation of one of the network's hit shows, however, on the condition that they bring in a celebrity guest. The Muppets repair the theater ("We Built This City"), but their rehearsal does not go well and Kermit is unable to find a celebrity guest. Miss Piggy returns and kicks Miss Poogy out. Kermit persuades Walter to help them out and find his talent.Soon realizing they have not found a guest host, Kermit asks Tex to give their studio back, but he refuses ("Let's Talk About Me"). He further reveals that the Muppets will also lose their rights to the Muppet name; it will be given to the Moopets, who have allied with Tex. Miss Piggy then organizes the Muppets, sans Kermit, to kidnap Black to serve as their celebrity host. Mary returns to Smalltown after Gary forgets the promised anniversary dinner. Gary and Walter each want the other's help with their problems, and they have a falling out. Gary realizes that he needs to step up in his relationship with Mary, while Walter realizes he was meant to be a Muppet ("Man or Muppet"). Gary returns to have dinner with Mary and they watch the telethon, which goes well with celebrity support and Black as host. Tex cuts the power to the theater, but Gary and Mary rush back to Los Angeles and repair the wiring so the telethon can continue. Uncle Deadly turns on Tex and stops him from destroying the transmitter antenna.With the telethon running short, Walter finds his talent by performing a whistling act to the audience's acclaim. The tote board stops at $9,999,999 after Tex destroys the nearby telephone pole. A glitch discovered when Fozzie bangs his head on the tote board then reveals the total donations were actually only $99,999.99, nowhere near the amount of money needed. Kermit states that they tried and that is all that matters. Together again as a family, they will start over. When the Muppets, along with Walter, Gary, and Mary, walk out of the theater, they discover a huge gathering of fans and press. With Gary's encouragement, Walter joins the Muppets as they greet the crowd ("Life's a Happy Song"). Gary proposes to Mary, Black is taken and declared king of the hobos by Hobo Joe (Zack Galifianakis) and Friends, and Tex returns the theater and the Muppet name to the Muppets after Gonzo's failed "head-bowling" act from the telethon causes Tex a head injury, making him laugh for the first time in his life. | comedy, cute, entertaining | train | imdb | null |
tt0311519 | Mies vailla menneisyyttä | *************************************SPOILERS***********************As a non Finnish speaker I watched this with Finnish Subtitles to Finnish dialogue. This therefore is my limited understanding of the movie.A Man is attacked by three younger men. The attack is vicious and the first man is robbed and left for dead. He somehow staggers to the hospital where he is thought lost and left by the medical staff only to jump up and leave the place. He is robbed of his boots whilst prone by water but luck has him taken in by people that care for him rather than misuse him. He as he slowly recovers has lost his memory and therefore spends the rest of the film unable to do more than survive via the relative kindness of others.Two youngsters and their mother. A Male friend of hers too. Blind Lemon Jefferson on the sound track and other songs provide clues to the Mystery Man's love of music.The attacked man finds accommodation (at a price) essentially a container. Salvation Army personnel help him and others. And one female Salvation Army officer particular become part of his life. He starts to help the Army in their work.He adds modern or fairly modern songs to the Salvation Army's musical quartet's reportoir and a female Salvation Army leader becomes their singer. He stumbles on the fact that he may have been a welder of some skill. He has already proved he can organise and is gifted a dog. Hannibal.On a visit to the bank - it is robbed and he and a female teller are locked in a vault. The police now take an interest in this mystery man and his identity is sought via the Press.The lawyer that springs him is quite a funny turn. I have never heard a Finnish accent like that gentleman's. Almost undecipherable to me at least. The bank robber later finds him and yields up his ill gotten gains before I assume killing himself Our mystery man spread tht money around his acquaintances and later in the film we find out what part of it was for. His identity is found and he travels to meet the wife he had forgotten who was divorcing him at the time he went missing and that was now complete.It allowed both of them to continue leading their new lives. Another man for the ex-wife and Salvation Army lady for our former Mystery Man.On the way back to Helsinki the three attackers from the start of the film are encountered again but this time he is not alone. The bad men's fates are left to our imagination but I suspect the police were not troubled till later. The man and his new love exit across a railway track. | comedy, boring, dramatic, violence, atmospheric, revenge | train | imdb | null |
tt0120885 | Wag the Dog | The movie starts with a scandal at the White House where the unseen and nameless The President of the USA is accused of fondling a young girl scout visiting the Oval Office just a few weeks before Election Day. Being the third party observers, we know the truth, he's guilty.Conrad Brean (Robert DeNiro), a notorious political "spin doctor" is called to a secret midnight meeting at the White House underground command bunker by Winifred Ames (Anne Heche), one of the President's many advisers, where she asks for his help to engineer a way and a means to divert the news of the scandal when it breaks in the newspapers the next day. Brean suggests creating an artificial war for television only to distract the American public and let the President get on with the job at hand... thus protecting the free world.Brean and Ames fly to Hollywood where Conrad hires brash Hollywood producer Stanley Motts (Dustin Hoffman), whom worked for Conrad several times in the past, to help fabricate this non-existent war with the selected country of Albania to divert the public with the real news about the President's extra-marital trysts. Motts is glad to help out of blind loyalty to service for his country.At an all-night gathering at Motts' Hollywood home, he assembles a team of loyal specialists whom include creative consultant Liz Butsky (Andrea Martin), country-western singer Johnny Dean (Willie Nelson), and entrepreneur Fad King (Dennis Leary) to help out fabricate the means for the "war with Albania". The next day, Motts and Brean venture to a studio back lot that Motts rents out where he hires a young, up-and-promising actress named Tracy Lime (Kirsten Dunst) to play an Albanian peasant girl carrying a CGI cat through the green-screen set up of a destroyed Albanian village. The filmed scene makes the evening news and brings up public intrest in the war.However the very next day, Brean and Ames are riding in a limo when they are pulled over and detained by CIA agents led by Charles Young (William H. Macy) who confronts them with fabricating the non-existent war with Albania. Brean manages to talk the CIA agents to releasing them by insinuating that the CIA knows little about what is really going on with the world behind the scenes. Mr. Young releases them, but the next day, the CIA leaks the story about the war in Albania being over and focusing the attention back on the President. Everyone is upset, but Motts downplays the setback by declaring "this is nothing" (the start of a running joke that gets increasingly hilarious as the movie progresses), and proposes an "Act Two" to spin another fabricated story about a secret American unit stuck behind enemy lines and the missing-in-action story about a fellow American left behind in Albania.Motts's team of experts again go back into action by constructing a theme song about the missing soldier left behind as 'Old Shoe' sung by Johnny Dean as a 1970s pop song. Soon, the American public becomes consumed once again by the war and patriot fever as Election Day counts down and the President's popularity rises again as the public quickly forgets about the secret White House tryst.However, more setbacks occur when Motts and Brean suggest bringing in a candidate to impersonate their non-existent war hero as an image to the public. But at a secret midnight meeting on a airport runway, the military police arrive where they agree to release a dangerous mental patient who once served in the military because he has the same last name, "Shoe", to portray the war hero of the conflict. The military release Sgt. William "the Old Shoe" Schumann (Woody Harrelson) into their custody as Motts, Brean, and Ames fly away in a private plane through a raging thunderstorm towards Washington DC to welcome 'Old Shoe' back from Albania.However the plane crashes (off-camera) killing the pilots and stranding Motts, Brean and Ames along with the deranged Schumann in a rural part of South Dakota ("this is nothing" Motts quotes yet again). The four of them are forced to hitch a ride on a tractor from a passing farmer to a gas station to call for help. It is there when Schumann attempts to sexually assault the wife of the gas station owner which results in him getting shot dead in self defense by the owner.Despite this latest setback, (Motts again relates his quote "this is nothing") the trio return to Washington and they have the dead Schumann buried in Arlington National Cemetery as a war hero killed in the plane crash, and the funeral is broadcast all over the national news.Election Day comes and goes. The President defeats his rival Senator John Neal (Craig T. Nelson, in an uncredited cameo) and is thus re-elected president. As Motts and Brean celibrate their victory for a job well done, they watch a TV broadcast about the President's re-election campaign. Everything seems fine... until Motts sees that the media are crediting the president's election win to his tired "Don't change horses in mid stream" campaign slogan, rather than Motts's elaborate plans. Motts announces that he will call the media to "set them straight," despite Brean's warning him that he is "toying with his life." When Motts refuses to back down and walks out wanting to take the credit for the President's successful re-election, Brean very reluctantly orders a nearby secret service agent to do what they have to do. Motts is seen being taken away by several agents to a waiting car.The next morning, Brean reads a news report about Motts being found dead at his Hollywood home from an apparent "heart attack"... strongly impying that Brean and Ames and their associates had Motts killed and covered it up to prevent him from talking to the press about the truth of the fabricated war. Brean never less goes to attend Motts' funeral anyway.In an ironic tragicomedy ending, movie ends with a news report about a violent incident in Albania, but it is unclear whether this is a true event and that a very real war between the US and Albania has started, or simply a continuation of the fictional war. | entertaining, comedy, satire, murder | train | imdb | And he does that very well in this movie; at the beginning, we may think Conrad Brean and Stanley Motss are real sleazebags, but at the end, while we deplore the action they take of faking a war just for political ends, we can't quite dismiss them either.Of course, a lot of that has to do with the performances of Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman (Anne Heche is also a standout as Winnifred Ames, the increasingly bemused presidential aide).
Naturally DeNiro and Hoffman are guaranteed to excel in a film like this, but good work is also done by people like Heche, Denis Leary, William H.
Conrad employs Hollywood producer Stanley Motss to produce a war in Albania to divert the media away from the real story.This was made before Clinton was accused of misconduct with Monica Lewinsky and the subsequent re-start of military action in Iraq.
However even before this happened it was still a very sharp and very good satire on political spin, but also managing to have a dig at Hollywood movie types.
Hoffman is good sending up Hollywood producers well and drawing parallels between the creation of a film and the creation of political news stories.
The cast also has a series of cameos and extended cameos who add both humour and quality to the film - Willie Nelson, Denis Leary, James Belsuhi, William H Macy etc.Recently in the UK we've had huge problems with spin doctors running the Labour Government - to the extent that 11th September was described as "good" by one as it gave them the chance to bury several bad news stories that they had stored up.
This film doesn't make hugely serious points but it does make you think about how the media is used to shape public perception and make us think what those in charge want us to think.Overall a very funny, very clever satire that has a great cast, the only criticism being that it stretches it's point a little too far with the "old shoe" section..
Prior to "Wag the Dog" my answer would be "no", but watching, and now re-watching it for a second time in the past week, this film could be watched today, watched next year, or even watched prior to the next four elections, and it would continue to feel current, real, and modern in today's political/cinematical world.
As we continue to allow CNN to give us our news, this film will remain as vivid as America's apple pie.Act I: The Chemistry of the Characters Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman could play chess for three hours, and it would capture my attention from beginning to end.
Politicians try and deceive as many of the people for as much of the time as they think they can get away with, and the media will go along with such deception for as long as it is in their interest.`Wag the Dog' has some sharp points to make, and there is a very good performance from Dustin Hoffman as the Hollywood producer Stanley Motss.
As the calibre of the talent involved would suggest Wag The Dog is a very well acted and directed film, however for some strange reason it isn't a particularly satisfying one.Perhaps that is mainly due to the fact that it is somewhat of a one joke idea, or maybe it's due to the fact that with current events as they are it's all too plausible and the whole thing of late is somewhat comically overexposed.
From the fistful of great performances from Robert Deniro, Anne Heche, Denis Leary, Willie Nelson, Woody Harrelson and especially Dustin Hoffman who seems to be relishing his role here, to the well played supporting roles filled out by the likes of William H.
It also has a sharp, amusing script (by Hilary Henkin & David Mamet, based on the novel "American Hero" by Larry Beinhart) going for it and Barry Levinson's direction is top notch, but despite being quite entertaining, it also seems too slight by half, and just not focused or funny enough to quite make everything work successfully at the end of the day.
Sure, there are some far fetched things but overall the movie leaves the impression like this is something that could actually happen in real life or already maybe has happened.But "Wag the Dog" is more entertaining than anything.
Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman are great in their second movie together ("Sleepers" was the first which was also directed by Barry Levinson and they can now be seen together again in "Meet the Fockers").
The movie is almost than 20 years old and yet it rings true today, although the political outrages of the day that it satirizes seem tame compared to what has transpired in reality since.Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro deliver priceless performances.
Whether it was Bush Sr. coming up with the Gulf War to distract people from the Savings and Loans scandal, Clinton threatening military action against Iraq to distract people from the Lewinsky thing, Bush Jr. invading Iraq as a we-can't-find-Osama diversion, or the current threats against Iran, this movie is the hilarious but unfortunate truth.The plot of course has spin doctor Conrad Brean (Robert DeNiro) teaming up with Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman) to fabricate a war, so as to distract the country from the president's sexual follies (and to think that the movie came out around the same time as you-know-what).
Writers Hilary Henkin, David Mamet & director Barry Levinson deserve an ovation to attempt a film like 'Wag The Dog'.
A Washington spin doctor who, mere days before a presidential election, distracts the electorate from a sex scandal by hiring a Hollywood film producer to construct a fake war with Albania.
In a similar manner, "Wag the Dog" offers up the same kind of black comedy satire, with great insight into how the modern, amoral, political PR mind works.
Make a Top 10 list of Hoffman and De Niro performances and movies, Wag the Dog would appear on all of them.
This film has a neat enough premise; the US president gets caught with his hand in the underage cookie jar right before election time, and his hatchetman Conrad Brean (De Niro) goes out to divert public attention.
Dear lord, this film looked almost perfect, great reviews, good cast, good story, but it was all done so messily, it looked like they put the movie together in about 2 days, characters suddenly appear and then re-appear without any explanation whatsoever, the plot doesnt take time to explain itself and why the hell would they cast Craig T.
This movie tells the story of "spin doctors" who create a diversion to get heat off the President of the U.S. In this case, the President was accused of having sex with a young girl in the White House (ironically, this was made before the Monica Lewinsky-Bill Clinton affair!) so a spin doctor - played by Robert De Niro - is hired to find a way out of the predicament before election day.
His answer is to create a fake war with Albania.Lest you think this is the rarest of all Hollywood films - anti-Democrat, or even politically impartial story - no, it stays true to form by making disparaging remarks only about Conservatives (Reagan, Bush, Nixon, etc.).
Along with Winifred Ames (Anne Heche), he recruits Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman) to manufacture a fake war.This is a brilliant satire with just enough realism for the audience to question whether this is actual reality.
I did not give this movie a higher rating because the top rated cast - De Niro, Hoffman and Heche only gave average performances and the direction was also average; there was enough entertainment though to keep you interested until the end.
The other hardly ever noticed aspect of this movie is the brilliant work of Barry Levinson - it's not only the guiding of every actor and every actress, not only the perfect pacing of the plot - it's the amazing control he exerts over the look of the film.
After the U.S. President is implicated in a sex scandal at the White House, with less than two weeks to go before he faces re-election for his second-term in office, a professional "Mr. Fix-It" is called upon by a presidential adviser to do a fast spin on the problem; determining that the nation's attention must be diverted to more pressings matters, he enlists the aid of an experienced movie producer and his troupe to fake a media-covered war with Albanian terrorists.
Robert De Niro plays the White House equivalent of Mr Wolf from Pulp Fiction Conrad Brean, his role is to bluff the media for just long enough to get past the election, where the President (never seen in the film) had a massive lead in the polls at least before the incident.De Niro and his team never pretend the President didn't commit the act - only that they must cover it up - so Brean decides that the public will only be sufficiently be distracted by a misdemeanor this large by an even larger situation.
They do this by spreading rumours through various sources that the US security has been threatened by another country, in this case Albania, and that America must band together to ward off this enemy.This comes as a surprise to Albania of course as no such peril exists, but I guess that for a film such as this an element of farce is required.Wag the Dog is never especially funny, there are a few chuckles to be had but the main pleasure is derived from some fairly smart dialogue and how the large team that is ultimately amassed deals with inconvenience and developments that aren't in their favour.
Of course being a movie nothing runs smoothly, the CIA and the opposition party see to that, but it is how Motss and Brean adapt and react that provides the interest.Motss is initially reluctant to help, given that he won't get any public credit regardless of how the ploy works, but as things develop his relentless positivity is pretty amusing, it doesn't matter how bad things look, he is still there saying "This is nothing!" and coming up with yet another counter-move.De Niro plays the straight man for much of the film to Hoffman's egotistical Hollywood bigwig, but you sense he is not a man to be messed with and will do anything to make sure that his side wins.As the credits were initially rolling my wife said something along the lines of "Wow, everyone is in this", and indeed the cast does boast Kirstin Dunst, Denis Leary, William H Macy and Woody Harrelson, as well as Anne Heche as Brean's loyal yet seemingly a little naive aide.The final third of the film contains some plot points that seem a little bit too extreme even for a satire such as this, especially given the intricate planning and attention to detail given to early situations, but overall what I went away thinking was "well that seemed way over the top, but no more than the Lewinsky scandal", and in my mind that is probably the most scary part.Stuff like this probably goes on in America way more than we realise, and that we as the global public probably believe way more of what we are told than we should at times.Final Rating – 6.5 / 10.
I do not want to say that a movie cannot or must not be funny AND serious at the same time, but in "Wag the Dog" there is an abyss with a very thin bridge between the two aspects, and it is not very good for style.I am not going to argue whether Americans or other nations are actually so stupid en masse as to be so ignorant of the outside world and to believe everything their politicians say on TV; maybe, they are, after all (though I personally would like to hope they aren't).
So the presidents right hand man (or in the case girl) Heche gets the presidential adviser De Niro in to help fix the problem, and with election on in 11 days it isn't going to be easy to fix.De Niro gets cutthroat & eccentric Hollywood producer Hoffman in on the scene and to divert the countries attention away from the sex scandal they decide to create a war.
Hiring actresses to play young girls in the bombed wreckage and bringing in singers to create full-hearted songs to bring America back on the president's side, the three amigos (Heche, De Niro and Hoffman) actually do a magnificent job.Watch the movies for the laughs, watch the movies for the music (which unfortunately is not on CD) but overall watch the movie to escape reality and to have a great hour and a half.An amazing movie a solid 9/10*I would like to personally congratulate the actors on a remarkable performance..
Although it wasn't a very successful film, I think Dustin Hofmann, Robert de Niro, Anne Heche and especially Woody Harrelson were fantastic!.
In it, a veteran spin doctor hires a Hollywood mega-producer to help start a false war, in an effort to divert attention from the President's alleged underage affair with a "Firefly girl." The spin doctor is played by Robert De Niro.
Although De Niro stole the show in "Analyze This," Hoffman does the same in "Wag the Dog," creating a very memorable character to add to his resume.The movie was written by David Mamet and Hilary Henken.
In a subtler way the film bites at Hollywood in the same way that "Get Shorty" and "Adaptation" did.With Barry Levinson's career now being harmed by disasters such as "Envy," "Wag the Dog" is good proof that he still can direct a very solid comedy -- he just needs to learn to turn down certain scripts in favor of better ones..
I won't necessarily disagree with either of those comments, but both have been done to death, and the way Barry Levinson chooses to meld the two isn't very interesting, and certainly not funny.Hoffman and DeNiro are two of the most celebrated actors around, but this movie just isn't a good use of their talents.
De Niro was great in it as well (obviously) and I was surprised at the amount of people in the supporting cast: Anne Heche, Woody Harrelson etc etc...A good film, quite a witty humour, found myself giggling quite a lot - mainly at Hoffman's character.
Rather than resign or take responsibility, White House spin doctors(led by Robert De Nero & Anne Heche) instead contact a Hollywood producer(Dustin Hoffman, quite funny) to direct an elaborate hoaxed war with Albania, in hopes that the nation will rally behind their incumbent president, and forget/forgive the sex scandal.
When the president is involved in scandal shortly before the election, a Hollywood producer is brought in to manufacture a war in Albania to distract from the scandal and that the President can end."Wag the Dog" has a great premise that was prescient; before the film was released, President Clinton was involved in the sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky, and he threatened military action in Iraq.
Maybe it's based on the premise that the American people are fairly dumb, and if you don't agree with that, you probably won't like it.Nevertheless, "Wag the Dog" puts forth a provocative idea and gets you thinking, and it's great to see Hoffman and DeNiro as two clever albeit sleazy people who believe the end justifies the means..
But this success is a result of the good performance of many great actors like Dustin Hoffman (as a star especially in the comedy genre), Robert De Niro or Denis Leary ,too.The U.S. president (Michael Belson) is hoping of a reelection.
For this plan he gets help by the big Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman) who creates for example video footage which is then shown in the media.The message of the movie is clear: The politician uses the media by manipulating and faking the truth to improve the image of themselves.
And because of the great performance for example of Dustin Hoffman, who is perfectly cast with the role of Stanley Motss, as the producer who is always relaxed, funny but also focused on his work, the movie reaches to convey this message in a quite funny way.
A political spin doctor, Conrad Brean (Robert de Niro), and a Hollywood producer, Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman), both well endowed with chutzpah, set out to create the illusion that the USA has gone to war with Albania, as a distraction from a Presidential sexual peccadillo.
Like the Blair Witch movies, this film makes us consider the question of what is real and what is not, what is genuine and what is hype.Hollywood, politics, spin doctors, and human nature are all on display here and get royally satirized..
excellent, timed performances by DeNiro, Heche, and Hoffman raise this movie to orchestral proportions.watching Wag the Dog is very much like listening to a good symphony..
Wag the Dog. A White House intelligence team, just before the election, tries to distract the public attention from the President's sex scandal by hiring a stand-out Hollywood producer to create the impression of conflict, then war in Albania.Waspish and slightly bitchy political satire that became unexpectedly topical shortly after its release; it has a certain elegance of wit, but never really bites sharp enough, and its gradual self-adulation and messy style leave little to impress afterwards..
The idea that anything seen or heard on the news might be a hoax, the comical punch line of this movie, may not be so funny after all.Wag the Dog, directed by Barry Levinson, also starring Woody Harrelson, is a political satire', which becomes less than satisfying,.
Wag the Dog, a political satire of a fake war between USA and Albania, directed by Barry Levinson. |
tt0080491 | Caligola | Pagan Rome, 37 A.D. Prince Gaius Germanicus "Caligula" (Latin term for 'Little Boots') (Malcolm McDowell) the 24-year-old young heir to the throne of the syphilis-ridden, 77-year-old, half-mad Emperor Tiberius (Peter O'Toole), thinks he has received a bad omen after a blackbird flies into his room early one morning. Shortly afterward, Macro (Guido Mannari), the head of the Praetorian Guards, appears to tell the young man that his great uncle (Tiberius) demands that he report at once to the Island of Capri, where he has been residing for a number of years with close friend, Senator Nerva (John Gielgud), Claudius (Giancaro Badessi), a dim-witted relative, and Caligula's younger stepbrother, Gemellus (Bruno Brive), Tiberius' favorite. Fearing assassination, Caligula is afraid to leave, but his beloved sister Drusilla (Teresa Ann Savoy) convinces him to go. Macro seeks to curry favor with Caligula, who will be the next Emperor, by tempting him with the promise of sleeping with his wife Ennia (Adriana Asti).At Capri, Caligula finds his uncle has become depraved, showing signs of advanced venereal diseases, and embittered with Rome and politics. Tiberius enjoys watching degrading sexual shows, often including children and various freaks of nature in his underground grotto. Caligula observes with a mixture of fascination and horror. Tensions rise when Tiberius jokingly tries to poison Caligula in front of Gemellus.A short while later, when Nerva chooses suicide over a natural death by slashing his wrists in a bath, Tiberius' seemingly ordered life is shaken, and his own death, hastened. Tiberius collapses from a stroke, leaving Macro and Caligula planning a way to hasten the latter's ascent to the throne.Late one night, Macro escorts all the spectators out of Tiberius' bedchamber to allow Caligula the opportunity to murder his grandfather, but when Caligula fails and falls into an epileptic trance, Macro finishes the deed himself by strangling Tiberius with a scarf. Caligula triumphantly removes the imperial signet from Tiberius' finger and suddenly realizes that Gemellus has witnessed the murder.Back in Rome several days later, Tiberius is buried with honors and Caligula is proclaimed the new Emperor, who in turn proclaims Drusilla his equal, to the apparent disgust of the Roman Senate. Afterwards, Drusilla, fearful of Macro's influence, convinces Caligula to get rid of him. Caligula obliges by setting up a mock trial, in which Gemellus is intimidated into testifying that Macro alone murdered Tiberius. Caligula then has Macro's wife, Ennia, arrested for "insubordination" and has her exiled to Gaul, never to be seen or heard of again.Macro is then executed in Caligula's public courtyard by a large decapitation machine; Macro and other convicts are buried up to their necks in the earth ground, and the blade-slashing machine, standing over 100-feet tall and wide as a city block, runs over him. At one point Caligula, when booed by the crowd, mutters "If only all of Rome had but one neck..."With the powerful Macro gone, Caligula appoints Tiberius' former financial and political adviser Longinus (John Steiner) as his new adviser and right-hand man, and pronounces the docile Senator Chaerea (Paolo Bonacelli) as the new head of the Praetorian Guard. Drusilla endeavors to find Caligula a wife amongst the priestesses of the goddess Isis, the mystery cult they secretly practice. Disguised as a woman, Caligula chooses a candidate from among the shapely priestesses in the Temple of Isis. He is attracted, despite Drusilla's protests that she is promiscuous, to Caesonia (Helen Mirren), an eloquent, sensual divorcee, who becomes his mistress.Over the next several months, Caligula proves to be a popular, yet eccentric ruler, cutting taxes and overturning all the oppressive laws that Tiberius enacted. Within a few months, the Roman Senate begins to dislike the young emperor for his eccentricities and various insults directed towards them. Darker aspects of his personality begin to emerge as well. When Caligula eyes a young woman named Livia (Mirella D'Angelo), whom is engaged to Proculus (Donato Placido), one of his most loyal soldiers, Caligula and his entourage crashes Livia and Proculus wedding party where he lures both to the kitchen and rapes both of them in a minor fit of jealousy. Proculus is later disemboweled and castrated in a gory torture-murder by Caligula himself. When asked why he murdered one of his most loyal officers, Caligula's insane reply is: "because I can."The much darker side of Caligula begins to show itself as he comes to realize that no one will challenge his absolute power. His terror during a thunder and lightning rainstorm is the first sign of a mental breakdown; his reaction is to run outside and dance naked.Over the next few months, Caligula's actions become increasingly senseless. His only confidant is his Arab stallion, Incitatus, which he rides into a banquet where Gemellus is one of the guests. In a macabre mood, Caligula accuses Gemellus publicly of treason and has him arrested merely to provoke a reaction from Drusilla. Caligula defends his increasingly erratic and outspoken actions as he is the Emperor of the Roman Empire and he feels that he can do anything he want with impunity.After he discovers Caesonia is pregnant, Caligula suffers a severe fever, but Drusilla nurses him back to health. Right after he recovers, Caesonia bears Caligula a daughter, whom they name Julia Drusilla, and Caligula marries her on the spot. He is enraged to learn the child is a girl and insists on calling her "my son." During the celebration, Drusilla collapses in Caligula's arms from the same fever he'd suffered. Soon afterward, Caligula receives another ill omen in the guise of a black bird. He rushes to Drusilla's side and watches her die. Caligula experiences a nervous breakdown, smashes a statue of Isis and drags Drusilla's nude body around the palace while screaming hysterically.Now in a deep depression, Caligula walks the Roman streets, disguised as a beggar. When Caligula is dragged drunk and dirty into a prison for causing a disturbance at an outdoor theater, his signet ring is spotted by a giant (Osiride Pevarello) and his true identity becomes known. Caligula is released and has the Giant become his companion and 'flunky'.After his brief stay in jail, Caligula becomes determined to destroy the senatorial class, which he has come to loathe. Over the next year, his reign becomes a series of humiliations against the foundations of Rome. He orders the execution of several senators and their families without the slightest provocation.Caligula officially proclaims himself a god and awards free games and food to every citizen for one month. When Longinus protests by saying that the economy will never be able to handle such an expense, Caligula shows him how easy it is to replenish the Imperial purse. He builds a large ship in the palace that is to be used as a brothel. Forcing the wives and daughters of his senators into prostitution, Caligula himself collects the fees from citizens eager to sample their betters.Afterward, estates are confiscated, the old pagan religion is desecrated, and Caligula initiates an absurd war on Britain to humiliate the army. His final public act of madness is to proclaim his horse, Incitatus, a senator.Having overruled every branch of the government, mocked the Roman gods, humiliated and killed all of the most loyal and trusted members of the Senate, destiny finally catches up with Caligula; Chaerea, Longinus the Imperial physician Charicles (Leopoldo Trieste), his Chief Executioner, the Roman High Priest, and a few other senators and members of the Praetorian Guard have quietly begun plotting his assassination.On the last night of his life, Caligula wanders into his bedroom where a nervous Caesonia awaits him. The black bird makes a final appearance, but only Caesonia is frightened of it. By this point, Caligula is so consumed by his insanity that he no longer exhibits fear or any kind of strong emotions.The next day, on a cold January morning in 41 A.D., after rehearsing an Egyptian play, Caligula and his family leave the stadium to return to the Imperial Palace. On their way back, a vengeful Chaerea awaits them in the front corridor. It is Chaerea whose sword brings down the Emperor. Caligula is stabbed and bashed in the head. To insure that none of Caligula's line will follow him to power, Caesonia is also stabbed, the child Julia has her head smashed on the marble steps by the Executioner, and the Giant is decapitated by Chaerea. Deranged to the last, the mortally wounded and bloodied Caligula rises to his feet and to which he defiantly whimpers: "I live!" Chaerea stabs Caligula a final time and he falls to the floor. Caligula is finished off when 10 or more of his own guards, seeing their now-hated Emperor dying, stab him to the marble floor with their spears while the horrified Claudius watches. Begging to spare his life, Claudius is given Caligula's robe and ring by Longinus and the servants who hail him as the new Emperor, proclaiming a new era for the Roman Empire. As the unwilling and dull-witted Claudius is carried away, Chaerea, Longinus, and the other conspirators flee the scene of the crime.As the servants wash the blood off the palace floor following the assassinations, the mutilated and lifeless bodies of Caligula, Caesonia, and their daughter are thrown down the marble steps of the Palace for display to all those in Rome. | violence, cult, murder, sadist | train | imdb | A lot of people say the colors are "dark" and "washed out", but I think that lends to the grittiness of the film.Danilo Donati's sets are big and well designed, it kind of shocks you to see someone getting a blow job in them.
Malcolm McDowell gives a great performance as the young Caligula who kills his way to the throne of the Roman Emperor and then soon leads a legacy of terror.
CALIGULA was a major box-office and critical flop (producer Guccione had to rent theatres in order to get it screened at all), and although the film was released on VHS to the home market so many censorship issues were raised that it was re-edited, and the edited version was the only one widely available for more than a decade.
Then, when Guccione felt Brass' work wasn't explicit enough, he and Giancarlo Lui photographed hardcore material on the sly.Viewers watching the edited version may wonder what all the fuss is about, but those viewing the original cut will quickly realize that it leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination.
In one particularly disturbing scene, a man is slowly stabbed to death, a woman urinates on his corpse, and his genitals are cut off and thrown to the dogs.In a documentary that accompanies the DVD release, Guccione states he wanted the film to reflect the reality of pagan Rome.
Anyway, Nero made Caligula his role model and managed to surpass his uncle's' notorious fame.The movie is notoriously famous for the plentiful scenes of real sex, including incest, necrophilia, rape, and orgies.
Historical revelations indicate that the content of this film probably does in fact (to a degree) reflect the lunacy rampant at the time and yes that means....meaningless executions, wild paranoia, incest and of course the gratuitous sex which could probably leave some soft porn movies looking very average (provided you get the right version).
The attempt to even try something like this is outrageous and to have pulled it off (pardon the pun) as much as Guccioni and the gang did is amazing.It seems as if the fact that some actual money was poured into this epic makes it bad, while something like 'Pink Flamingos' by John Waters is thought of as 'great' when it is just as likely to make a person squirm with its bad taste (again, pardon the pun and God rest Divine).I really like this movie.
There is also too much emphasis on Caligula himself, to the detriment of revealing some important traits in other characters, making them seem somewhat shallow at times.The sex scenes are very well placed within the context of the film.
I thought that only two scenes stood out as being unnecessarily overt, but for the most part, the explicitness is on the fringe of the focus of each scene, while also playing a major part in the atmosphere.Never once did I feel that any dialogue was out of place, nor did the acting strike me as being bad.By far the biggest problem with this film is the fact that the sexual content is widely advertised and therefore anticipated before viewing.
Roman orgies are regarded to have been extremely opulent and promiscuous - I found it refreshing to see one as it may have actually been rather than lots of fully-clothed laughing fat men pouring red wine over their faces and eating grapes while draped with female automatons.In summary, Caligula definitely has it's place in film history due to it's controversy, but if you look beyond that controversy, you should find a rather good film which neatly tells the story of how power can turn someone into a madman..
The fact that they had the courage to show violence and nudity, not shying away from the depravity of the subject matter, and also showing the 'dark side' of Ancient Rome, is in the end what makes this a cinematic masterpiece.Another plus is that, if you can focus away from the depravity, the movie is all around very solid.
The man is one of the best, most underrated actors and has shown before that he can play a devious lunatic like no one else.The fact this is directed by Tinto Brass (known for his almost pornographic movies) and produced by Penthouse (no explanation needed) might be one of the motives for the film's overly poor critical reception.
A director like Pasolini, for example, made worse depravities years before and got away because 'cinema experts' said it was an allegory for the human nature or whatever it is they use to justify overrating their 'art' films.
You don't see many movies that actually stick with the facts instead of making it 'Hollywood.' I reccommend this to people who "know" about Caligula in advance so that they know what their seeing instead of going into the film not having a clue what its about.
This is the first film I've seen to have a character wearing a toga like the one Caligula's sister (a design many Roman women actually wore) wears in the opening scene.
The film builds around one of the most notoriously decadent of the Roman emperors, Caligula
The movie covers his rise to power, his four-year rule, and his bloody assassination
His vile deeds include crashing a wedding and sexually abusing the bride and groom, playing erotic fantasies with his sister (who is also his lover) and turning the Imperial Palace into an exclusive brothel
For a really big-money film, the treatment of the sexual scenes is daringly explicit, but somehow the obsession with it makes the film uneven
It blends very good actors, O'Toole and McDowell, with some simple-minded Penthouse models
The overall effect is disappointing...Guccione does deserve a hand for the exquisite sets, costumes, production values, and very fine cinematography.
But in setting this sex in the context of Caligula's depraved reign, it dignifies the act even less than the average adult movie.
Let's not kid ourselves here, all ye art students, film-school nerds, and other self-loathing "cinema l'arte" snobs: had this exact same movie been released under the banner "directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini" you would have loved it - sorry: CLAIMED to have loved it - and praised it to high heaven, espousing its virtues in long essays, justifying its extreme sex and violence through some b.s. semantic pseudo-intellectual movie-critic-jargon mumbo-jumbo.Go on, admit it.
We promise.This movie has been unanimously dismissed as exploitative trash and of no cinematic value by "notable" movie critics.After having seen the full two-and-a-half hour version: a) I can certainly see why THEY would choose to view it that way b) I totally disagree The fact that "Caligula" was financed by Penthouse (gasp!) and directed by Tinto Brass (oh no!) is what this is all about.An excellent cast includes McDowell (an ideal choice for Caligula - or any devious lunatic, for that matter) and Mirren (at the height of her enormous sex-appeal).
I'm not sure what is more horrendous; the violence, the sexual perverseness, the acting or the plot (or severe lack thereof).The two and a half hours basically follows the ascension of the infamous Roman Caesar "Caligula" to to throne in 37AD and shows the atrocities and perverseness he supposedly committed whilst in power.
Add to that Peter O'Toole as syphilis-ridden emperor Tiberius and Malcolm McDowell sticking his finger up a male victim's anus, and you begin to appreciate that Caligula is solely of interest to addicts of sick/outrageous films.The film charts the life of notorious Roman emperor Caligula (McDowell), a highly disturbed individual whose story is told through a series of sexual encounters, decapitations, betrayals, murders, incestuous relationships and lesbian sex scenes.Although Caligula was totally mad in real life, and probably did succumb to his base instincts more often than not, the film is still inexcusable filth.
It is doubtful that this amount of time, talent and money will ever be thrown at a porno film again, so in that sense Caligula is a one-of-a-kind experience...
Actors of the calibre and stature of Malcolm McDowell, Sir John Gielgud, Helen Mirren and Peter O'Toole flew to Rome for what promised to be one hell of an experience, and it proved to be just that.Ever since its release in 1979 Caligula has been resoundly lambasted by not only the critics but by most of the participants in the production.
Can't say again if incidents are real then how much honestly they are filmed but sure thing that such events are reality of human history not too old at various developing places.I wish this movie can tell about or show us about the extreme or limit of money, power, sex in human life.
The movie traces the rise and fall of Caligula, the last real emperor of the united Roman Empire; before the military took over the government and instituted a line of puppet rulers.Nothing is held back in showing the moral decay and decadence of the final days of the empire.
While the attempt at realism is admirable, it makes it difficult for some viewers to look past the offense to their personal sensibilities and appreciate the film as a whole.The movie has a lot of big names stars, but strangely it is a relative unknown, Theresa Ann Savoy, as Caligula's sister that provides the best performance.
While some viewers have criticised the movie as exaggerating the concept of Roman orgies, one should remember that "Caligula" takes place during the fall of Rome, where the power of the Emperor and nobility had reached the epitome of corruption.
Not only did porn go away from the movie theaters to the VHS and further online that regular film rearly have explicit scenes of sex in it.
It is obvious now days that porn and regular films are separated and probably they will stay that way for a long time.Caligula remains an extraordinary tryout in putting those two genres together.
Peter O'Toole plays Tiberius, Caligula's adopted Grandfather and he does a great job also for the short time he is in the movie.
And Tinto Brass is not a bad filmmaker in the small, meaning he knows how to make a good image if not craft things as a project.It could have worked, because by the late seventies, audiences had plenty of examples of performances that referenced and encapsulated other performances, so we could have what this could have been: a (film) performance of a (porn) performance of a (historical, voyeuristic-in-its-time) performance.
i mean we are all adult, and sex scenes in Caligula are well made and have something to do with the plot.i saw "the making of Caligula" and there are some useful info about this movie.8 outta 10, for actors performance, and "theater" idea.
"Caligola" stars Malcolm McDowell as the Emperor and chronicles his rise and fall as the brief ruler of the Roman Empire.The film focuses heavily on Caligula's infamously deranged sexual practices,as well as those of his contemporaries.It's surly a pretty controversial piece of work which was heavily censored in several countries.I own the original 156 minutes long version which was cut down from the Cannes 210 minute version,which may still exist somewhere as a bootleg.The film is not as bad as it's reputed to be,unfortunately both Peter O'Toole and Malcolm McDowell have since expressed regret in participating in the film.It's clear that "Caligola" was directly inspired in look and theme by the vastly superior and even more controversial 1977 Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Salo:The 120 Days of Sodom".Still this is a strong film guaranteed to offend the prudish and the squeamish.The sex scenes are as intense as most of your standard hard core porn,with rampant fellatio(male/female plus homosexual)and actual sexual penetration featured throughout.The film also boasts some fine grue including a castration(with the penis fed to dogs),numerous decapitations and disemboweling,so fans of sleaze and gore won't be disappointed.The lesbian scene between Anneka Di Lorenzo and Lori Wagner is truly arousing as is the imperial orgy sequence.Overall,I enjoyed this film and you should too,if you are a fan of exploitation cinema.A must-see!.
I first became familiar with his work when I saw A Clockwork Orange and after seeing him in that film I immediately rated him 3rd in my all time favourite movie stars.
with outstanding performances from not only McDowell but also from Peter O'Tool and Helen Mirren Caligula is a great experience.If you ARE AGAINST STRONG Violence AND STRONG SEXUAL PREFRENCES THEN THIS MOVIE IS NOT FOR YOU, but if you don't mind all that and you are a fan of Malcolm McDowell then you must see this movie!!!!!!!!!!.
Secondly, if I were to sit the multitude of graphic sex scenes only to be repelled and mystified by their presence in the film, then it barely functions as good porn.In short, CALIGULA has provided me with two and one-half hours of cinema (if you wish to call it that) that I would never wish on anyone..
To me, this movie was an expensive attempt to create a pornographic film set to the backdrop of Ancient Rome and throwing in extreme violence and established actors just to lend it some credibility.
This makes Caligula a small minded big movie.Or add any perspective taken from a character's point of view wherein we at least think that what is being portrayed as deviant behaviour actually is.
Peter O'Toole (as the dying and diseased Emperor Tiberius), Malcolm McDowell (Caligula) in yet another full frontal movie (Clockwork Orange), Sir John Gielgud and Helen Mirren (thats right the Queen herself).It is nice to see Peter O' Toole and Malcolm McDowell fully embedded in the hedonism of ancient Rome.
The film looks as good as any Fellini and contains some brilliant work from the actors McDowell is legendary, Gielgud and Steiner great (notice how Steiner's Longinus, Caligula's treasurer, is a physical manifestation of the penis, complete with a slit on the top of his head).
Other big names that signed up for this highly controversial movie include (Dame) Helen Mirren, (Sir) John Gielgud and Peter O'Toole.Watching these highly regarded thesps mixing with Penthouse pets performing hardcore lesbian trysts and blow-jobs is a real eye-opener and really has to be seen to be believed.
Other notable actors/actresses are: Peter O'Toole as Emperor Tiberius John Gielgud as Nerva, Helen Mirren as Caesonia and Paolo Bonacelli as Senator Chaerea.The film contains scenes of sex and violence and I therefore do not recommend it being shown to persons under the age of 18.
I liked what McDowell himself said about the film: "It was like one moment I'd be staring, admiring my mule or something, and the next scene would be two lesbians going at it."How true.What an awful movie.1/5 stars..
The Emperor Caligula and his predecessor Tiberius were certainly known for their debauched lifestyles, so the film's concentration on sex and violence is not necessarily historically inaccurate.
If anything the film downplays the reality of Rome during Caligula's reign.The people who agreed to be in this movie, knowing full well that the project was VERY controversial, provide world class and Oscar level acting for the most part.
Although he only shot six minutes or so, the most sexually hardcore six minutes of the movie, he re-edited the entire thing in to the mess that it is.I've never been an advocate of censorship, but 'Caligula' seems to be so far removed from the intentions of all involved that Brass needs to be given the opportunity one-day to re-edit it back to the film it could have been, which I suspect for all its shocking and offensive imagery, would have been pretty good..
Alongside McDowell there is a wealth of British acting talent being flushed down the pan, with Helen Mirren as Caligula's wife Caesonia, John Gielgud appearing briefly as Nerva -- wisely bowing out after the first ten minutes -- and Peter O'Toole, who fares least well in the embarrassing role of syphilitic paedophile Tiberius, a role which probably did his ailing career little favours.Of course the film will no doubt be written off on the grounds of the sex and violence, which are purposely excessive.
I believe the version I sat through was the director's cut, with some creative work done by the powers that be to remove footage that failed to meet the taste and decency guidelines.Because of these offending images, the resulting ban of the film in many countries means that 'Caligula' now, somewhat undeservedly, has acquired a place in cinematic history as "the first pornographic epic" -- the proud words of Mr Guccione.
As for the acting, McDowell is actually pretty good, John Gielgud keeps his dignity (and departs early on) and Teresa Ann Savoy is quite luscious as Caligula's sister, but Peter O'Toole hits an all-time low with a brief but shameful performance.All in all, this movie IS worth seeing, if you are prepared for some of the most inconceivably and jaw-droppingly graphic sex scenes you'll ever see in a non-purely pornographic film (the violence is also strong, but not THAT strong).
The version I first saw was three hours long and had historic scenes interspersed with almost hardcore pornography.Obviously, the sex scenes turned me on, and watching this film felt like an extremely guilty pleasure, but to be honest, I really enjoyed the other scenes too.
It seems that producer Bob Guccione was more concerned with filming hardcore sex scenes to show the debauchery of ancient Rome than with making an accurate or entertaining film.The plot is basically that of the life of Emperor Gaius Julius Caeser Augustus Germanicus (Caligula was his nickname).
This film could have been great, but it ended up being extremely disappointing.If you want to learn about the early Roman emperors watch "I, Claudius." If you want to see hardcore sex, rent a porn..
What's even worse is that talented actors such as Malcolm McDowell, Peter O'Toole, John Gielgud and Helen Mirren allowed themselves to participate in it.The sets look as if they were lifted out of a really bad sci-fi film. |
tt0029947 | Bringing Up Baby | David Huxley (Cary Grant) is a mild-mannered paleontologist. For the past four years, he has been trying to assemble the skeleton of a Brontosaurus but is missing one bone: the "intercostal clavicle". Adding to his stress is his impending marriage to the dour Alice Swallow (Virginia Walker) and the need to impress Elizabeth Random (May Robson), who is considering a million-dollar donation to his museum.
The day before his wedding, David meets Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) by chance on a golf course. She is a free-spirited young lady, and (unknown to him at first) Mrs. Random's niece. Susan's brother, Mark, has sent her a tame leopard from Brazil named Baby (Nissa) to give to their aunt. (The leopard is native to Africa and Asia but not to South America.) Susan thinks David is a zoologist (rather than a paleontologist), and persuades David to go to her country home in Connecticut to help bring up Baby (which includes singing "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" to soothe the leopard). Complications arise since Susan has fallen in love with David and tries to keep him at her house as long as possible to prevent his marriage.
David finally receives the intercostal clavicle, but Susan's dog George (Asta) takes it out of its box and buries it. Susan's aunt, Elizabeth Random, arrives. The dowager is unaware of David's identity, since Susan has introduced him as "Mr. Bone". Baby and George run off, and Susan and David mistake a dangerous leopard who was being driven to be euthanized from a nearby circus (also portrayed by Nissa) for Baby, and let it out of the cage.
After considerable running around, David and Susan are jailed by a befuddled town policeman, Constable Slocum (Walter Catlett), for breaking into the house of Dr. Fritz Lehman (Fritz Feld) (where they had cornered the circus leopard). When Slocum does not believe their story, Susan tells him they are members of the "Leopard Gang"; she calls herself "Swingin' Door Susie", and David "Jerry the Nipper". David fails to convince the constable that Susan makes things up "from motion pictures she's seen". Eventually, Alexander Peabody (George Irving) shows up to verify everyone's identity. Susan, who during a police interview contrived to sneak out a window, unwittingly drags the irritated circus leopard into the jail. David saves her, using a chair to shoo the big cat into a cell.
Some time later Susan finds David, who has just been jilted by Alice because of her, on a high platform at his brontosaurus reconstruction at the museum. After showing him the missing bone which she'd found by trailing George for three days, Susan, against his warnings, climbs a tall ladder next to the dinosaur to be closer to him. She tells David that her Aunt has given her the million dollars, and she wants to donate it to the museum, but David is more interested in telling her that the day spent with her was the best day of his life. Unconsciously swaying the ladder from side to side upon hearing David's further words of endearment and love, Susan tells him that she loves him too, then notices that the ladder is on the verge of falling over. Frightened, she climbs onto and over the skeleton, but just before the dinosaur bones collapse David grabs her hand, she dangles below him, and he lifts her onto the platform. Regrettably surveying the wreckage of his work, David soon accepts the destruction and chaos, gives in, and hugs and kisses Susan. | comedy, romantic, humor, psychedelic, entertaining | train | wikipedia | "Bringing Up Baby" is a film I unconditionally love; it is so utterly sublime a comedy that I was truly sighing, awed, 'it can't get better than this...' at many points.
There is a beauty in the photography and simple choice of perspectives and angles that matches the There is not one actress in the annals of film who I adore more than Katharine Hepburn; she is a compelling performer, of great charm, intelligence and wit; of very real, idiosyncratic looks that to this eye are beautiful, vivacious, impish.
just go and watch it and see Howard Hawks, a master craftsman, at his best - there are no pretensions but making a quite wonderful character comedy - and Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant on insurmountable form.
Both Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn are very adapt at this kind of comedy, in top form here, and work very well together.
Howard Hawks directs this film with the appropriate light touch the material requires.Cary Grant is not the usual suave sophisticate you normally find him cast as either.
Howard Hawks, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant make the most exquisite comedy of the sound era.
(And he makes it look easy, which it isn't: Peter Bogdanovich fumbled in his loose remake What's Up, Doc, making it labored and literal-minded.) Hawks could barely go wrong with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant as his leads, but the rest of the cast he assembles, human as well as animal, can't be faulted either (with the redoubtable May Robson earning extra credit).
And while he draws on stock characters and stereotypes that probably date back to commedia dell'arte the stuffy professor, the blithe rich girl, her crusty dowager aunt, the bumbling sheriff he freshens each one up, making them distinctive, memorable and endearing.Behind a pair of repressive spectacles, Grant plays the single-minded paleontologist whose path crosses with that of madcap Hepburn, never again to uncross.
The plot revolves around a leopard named Baby, a million dollars, an intercostal clavicle bone, a dog named George who buries it....well, it all makes perfect sense while you're watching.Underneath all the antics, Hawks never loses sight of the pastoral romance that Bringing Up Baby at its core really is (at its most magical in the woods under a full moon, and captured by Russell Metty's lovely photography).
The best part is that the funny bits are just as funny on the sixth viewing as they were on the first, if not even funnier, because you've grown to really love the scatter-brained chatterbox Susan, and the befuddled, confused David.It's impossible to imagine anyone else playing either Susan or David: Hepburn and Grant are perfect for their roles, and their characters are perfect (foils) for each other.
Bringing up Baby is an absolute classic of screwball comedy, starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and the eponymous Baby.
Grant plays stuffy palaeontologist Dr David Huxley who is due to be married, and is trying to obtain some money for his museum, but all his carefully laid out plans start to unravel when he first meets Susan Vance (Hepburn) on the golf course.
From this point on Huxley is subject to an almost continuous series of humiliations and misfortunes.Those who claim that Bringing up Baby isn't funny because of the cruel way that Hepburn's character treats Grant's are missing the point.
If the film's events were taking place in the real world then many of Hepburn's actions would be inexcusable, but the point is that these events are happening in a world without consequences where anything goes, and this is the premise on which much of the film's humour is based.The presence of a tame leopard called Baby provides further evidence that the film is trying to distance itself as far as possible from the boring predictability of reality.
Grant is terrific as the professor who gradually loses his inhibitions, but Hepburn steals the show as a self-absorbed young woman who wins the audience over through her lack of inhibitions.Films such as Bringing up Baby became far less common as America geared up for World War II and people began to lose interest in screwball comedy.
Cary Grant and Kate Hepburn both do their best under the adverse circumstances, and the slapstick with the leopard towards the end of the film is genuinely funny.
How much of this is revisionist Hollywood history is anybody's guess.Of course we all miss debonair Cary and the great Katharine Hepburn.But you can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse, and this movie remains to me a sow's ear.
Although the film is a bit "stagey" (since it came from Broadway), I do find the gallows humor of "Arsenic" a fine comic turn for Grant.One reviewer who loves this movie says that "it's not supposed to make sense", like I am not getting it.
Don't get me wrong; I love both Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, but just not in this film.
Howard Hawks, the director of "Bringing Up Baby", was not a name one associates with screwball comedy.
The screen treatment, by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde, made this movie the classic it became to be after not being embraced by the public when it was originally released.The pairing of Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn paid off handsomely.
Even Asta, the Charles' dog, made a valuable contribution to the proceedings by appearing at key moments, even fighting Nyssa, the tamed leopard that is the "baby" of the title.The best way to enjoy the film is to let the magic Howard Hawks created put its spell on you.
The real winner was the leopard.Bringing Up Baby turned out to be a warm up, a practice run for Philadelphia Story two years later, which has plenty of screwball elements, but which slows it down a bit and which has a story where you actually care about the main characters, and how it turns out for them.
I'm no stranger to screwball comedies and have watched many of the best movies of that era, so I have a rather extensive frame of reference for this type of film.
When the Hepburn character falls in love with him you feel she must have been watching his other movies because this ineffectual wimp couldn't possibly have attracted her.Charlie Ruggles is just pathetically begging for laughs.
In theory, the way two main characters acted should have complimented each other perfectly with the easy going, not a care in the world Susan (Hepburn) and the work oriented Dr. Huxley (Grant), but I just didn't enjoy the film.
Let's cut to the chase: I love Howard Hawks, Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.
Because just being old, and having famous people in it, doesn't already make it a classic.Cary Grant plays a muddle-headed professor yet again, Katharine Hepburn a wealthy and capricious 30-year-old spinster like a ditzy twelve-year old.
Another Overrated 'Screwball Comedy' Dud. There have been few female movie stars more obnoxious, affected and downright annoying to watch than Katharine Hepburn.
This way over-hyped movie reminded me of another "classic screwball comedy" she starred in, "The Philadelphia Story," another very overrated film.Critics have labeled this film as "hilarious" for way too long.
Much of the same can be said for most of those "screwball" comedies.I gave this film two chances in 20-year period, just to make sure, because I like Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles and some of the other cast members.
Back in the late 30's, commonplace people went to the movies to forget their boring and mundane lives...it was called 'escapism.' Pseudo-sophisticates, such as Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Nick (William Powell) and Nora (Myrna Loy) Charles were the stars of screwball comedy, but, today they are bland, even to those who are rich, famous and well-educated.
Mild-mannered paleontologist (Cary Grant) meets free-spirit (Katharine Hepburn) who turns his world upside down in this classic comedy from Howard Hawks.
Please, mr Hawks, not more of this!!!The best comedy of this era is The Philadelphia story - a film that has a phenomenal script and even if it's 1940, it doesn't feel old..
Even in more modern movies ("Titanic" and "the Notebook" for instance) it is the poorer characters (who are in fact also male) who first notice and woo the richer characters.The leads; Katherine Hepburn, my favourite actress, and Cary Grant are just incredible and work wonderfully together.
Unless you love screwball comedies, that's the only reason to watch this flick.Cary Grant plays a bespectacled, nerdy professor pursued by silly society girl Kate, and time after time he gets roped into her madcap adventures involving Baby the Leopard.
It's rather silly, setting the tone for the rest of the film.I'm not really a fan of this type of ridiculous romantic comedy, so I didn't really like this movie.
He did have Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant to contend with, so it is a bit hard to see why he couldn't match up, but the sleek creature played such an important part in the movie that it just cannot be done without giving the animal some credit.
Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant have great chemistry together and it is obvious that they enjoyed making this film.
If you'd like to get a better idea of his acting range, watch this movie and Notorious; those two performances couldn't be more different.What I would love to know is how they filmed the sequence of Baby (played by the leopard, Nissa) and George (played by the terrier, Asta) playing together.
Filming a leopard on screen with Oscar nominated actors is more impressive than some of the FX current filmmakers do today.Seriously though, this movie is pure gold in terms of comedy.
And normally for old movies like this it has the same old premise, but in fact Bringing Up Baby is a much different film and at times unexpected.
Having seen quite a few screwball comedies, I'd have to say that Grant and Hepburn have some of the best on screen chemistry EVER.
But I don't think any movie critic could ever argue against putting this film - at the very least - in the Top 10 very best comedies ever made.
I have just watched this movie on BBC television, it is fantastic, the acting is charming, not only from Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, but all of the supporting cast as well.
With a plot and characters straight out of a lunatic asylum, this deliciously daft and frenzied comedy has palaeontologist David Huxley (Cary Grant) trying to recover a valuable dinosaur bone which has been stolen by the dog of potty heiress Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn).
With such a richly comic set-up from screenwriters Hagar Wilde & Dudley Nichols and such polished performances from the cast, all Director Howard Hawks has to do is point his camera, stand back and film the ensuing chaos.Rightly considered the consummate screwball comedy and cruelly under-appreciated in it's day (Hawks was fired from the studio and Hepburn labelled 'box-office poison' by distributors following it's disastrous performance), BRINGING UP BABY is surprisingly modern and seems to improve with age being as fresh and sparkling now as it was when first released.
I agree that I don't think Katharine Hepburn should have dabbled in comedy, especially with a script like this, but I guess she could only work with what she had
which was nothing.
This should have been a movie about a leopard co-starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, not the other way around.
I didn't enjoy this movie in the least, and still wake up sweating at nights after nightmares of Hepburn, the dog, and Grant singing to the leopard.
Add: perfect production values, absolutely brilliant comedy writing, a cast of those inimitable 30s character actors, Howard Hawks in the director's chair, and last but certainly not least, the scintillating team of Grant and Hepburn in the leading roles...and, voilà!
Each moment of the film is delirious: The golf match, the party, the dinner at Connecticutt, the leopard Baby, The dog George, and, of course, the actors: Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and all the rest.
If you know anyone suffering from chronic depression, simply screen this screwball film classic "Bringing Up Baby" for them and watch their tears evaporate and turn to laughter.
Superficially, like most people, I can enjoy it as a screwball comedy par excellence, and laugh at Cary Grant's and Katherine Hepburn's quickfire comedy acting, the crazy situations and amusing animal antics.
Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant are wonderful together in this classic comedy.
A great teaming in this classic screwball comedy: Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.
and are hugely enjoyable.In this movie, directed by Howard Hawks, Hepburn plays ditzy Susan, who hits on stuffy professor David (more at home with his dinosaurs), and takes charge of a leopard, called Baby.
This is probably one of Cary Grant's best roles there are effective supporting players, too, including Charles Ruggles, Barry Fitzgerald, and May Robson, not to mention the leopard herself.Hawks had already helmed a classic comedy of the early 1930s Twentieth Century' and would go on to Bogart's first teaming with Bacall (To Have and Have Not') and Montgomery Clift's debut (Red River').
Kate Hepburn is hysterical as Susan Vance, a flutter-brained girl who is set in her ways to get Dr. David Huxley (Cary Grant), a zoologist whom she is in love with.
It's funny to watch Grant and Hepburn chase after a leopard.
Of the four films Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn made together (inc.
Based on a story by Hagar Wilde and Dudley Nichols, Bringing Up Baby is true slapstick comedy in the classic screwball tradition.
This isn't the first or last screwball comedy -- but it is one of the best.Cary Grant does an absolutely fab-oo-lous job as the mild-mannered professor who falls in to the traps set by zany Katharine Hepburn.
Bringing up baby is a fun movie with great characters.
I really enjoyed the comedy in this movie and I think that is all due to the fact that Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn have such great chemistry on screen.
That is what makes the movie so much fun are these two and the comedy is great with the leopard and one scene that stands out it when Grant is buying meat and the butcher thinks it just for him and they think he is going to eat 10 pounds of raw steak.
This I suppose is just one way of reading and enjoying a film like Bringing Up Baby.
By design-of-nature and my environment of upbringing, I incline to keep a sensible mind with regard of viewing films, so when a screwball comedy goes it its extreme with uper-rapid pace and madcap characters, it is pretty understandable why initially this Howard Hawks film bombed tragically by its acceptance both commercially and critic-wisely, albeit Grant and Hepburn's dedicative endeavor, a well-crafted film script and its astonishing achievement of the animal (a leopard and a dog) performance (credits to their trainers as well).
After their run in at a golf course, Susan (Katharine Hepburn) convinces David (Cary Grant) to help take care of her auntie's pet leopard, as she believes David is a zoologist rather than a paleontologist.
However, aside from that, the film is a joy to watch for the brilliant acting and screen presence of Cary Grant and for the wonderful comic timing by Katharine Hepburn.
Bringing Up Baby is a classical film that consists of good writing, great comic performances and many laughs along the way..
Bringing Up Baby is a charming film, starring legends Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn.
Grant's character was inspired by the image of a classic silent comedian Harold Lloyd.Katharine Hepburn as Susan Vance is in its implementation independent, although the pair works great.
That shouldn't surprise me,I suppose(wasn't "Casablanca" also a flop when it was released,too?)but I still feel like audiences had to be either unforgiving for comedies or just plain had no sense of taste because this movie is about as textbook "Comedy film" as they come.PAleoentologist Dr. David Huxley(Cary Grant,a natural here)needs to get funding for his museum,and on the day before his wedding to a prim and proper lady his path crosses with a daffy heiress named Susan(Katharine Hepburn,who,young and vivacious,is quite the vision to those of us who are only readily familiar with her as a quavering elder actress).
Bringing Up Baby pairs two of the best actors of all time (Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant) together at their best to make one of the best films of all time!
It's actually true to Catherine, she is said to be an unconventional woman, never follow rules and care not what people say.Cary Grant also did an exceptional job in this movie, proving he is a great actor in all fields: comedy, romance, drama, or thriller.
I feel I'm in another dimension!I love Cary Grant and Howard Hawks' work -- their "His Girl Friday" (a screwball comedy!) is literally my favorite movie.
BRINGING UP BABY is the better film because of the great Katharine Hepburn.
But when she set her mind to playing ding-bats, she could be as ditzy as the best of them, and her character here may just be the ditziest ditz ever captured on film.Cary Grant was sort of a male Kate Hepburn in a way.
But my favorite just may be when Grant and Hepburn go charging around her family home's extensive grounds, chasing after the dog George.Not to be missed by anyone who enjoys film comedy.Grade: A+.
This movie is great, with an unexpectedly good comic performance from Katherine Hepburn.
This movie is the best comedy i saw in my life, i like so much Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, it is a very funny movie...when i saw this movie i forgot all my problems of my life, and i laughed so much...great movie.
Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn are perfectly cast in this film.
Hepburn and Grant are so funny in this film. |
tt2120120 | Pixels | In the summer of 1982, a young Sam Brenner rides his bicycle to the home of his best friend Will Cooper to tell him the new arcade in town is open. They spend the whole day there, with Brenner dominating almost every game while Cooper excels at the crane machine and wins a Chewbacca mask. Seeing how awesome Brenner is at games, Cooper grabs a flyer for the arcade game world championships and says Brenner should bring his skills here.At the event, the MC (Dan Aykroyd) tells everyone that a time capsule will be launched into space containing elements of the present culture. Brenner and Cooper meet Ludlow Lamonsoff, a weird but brilliant kid who's in love with Lady Lisa, the main character of the game Dojo Quest. After Brenner gets through every game, he faces hotshot gamer Eddie Plant in Donkey Kong. Eddie mentions the pattern to the game, causing Brenner to lose focus and come in second place.In the present day, the adult Brenner (Adam Sandler) works for a company that installs software. Cooper (Kevin James) is the President of the United States, and he is frequently mocked in the media, most recently for failing to read properly during a kindergarten class and yelling at a little girl.In Guam, a military base picks up a threatening signal. Alien life forms based off the designs of Galaga attack. The soldiers try to fight back but are easily taken out. One soldier (Affion Crockett) gets taken by the aliens.Brenner goes to a home to do his job. He meets a lady named Violet Van Patten (Michelle Monaghan) and her son Matty (Matt Lintz), who tells Brenner that his mom is going through a divorce. While Brenner goes to work, he hears Violet crying in the closet. He comforts her by listening to her situation, and they share wine. He thinks they're having a moment, and he goes in for a kiss but gets shut down. He then gets a call from Cooper telling him to be at the White House soon.Brenner heads to the White House with Violet close by. To his surprise, he finds out she is a Lieutenant Colonel. Cooper brings Brenner into the Oval Office to show him the Galaga aliens attacking.Later, Brenner drives his van home to find Ludlow (Josh Gad) in there. Ludlow brings Brenner back to his home where he says that the aliens are sending creatures with classic video game designs to attack. Ludlow received a message using manipulated footage of 1980's icons like Ronald Reagan and Madonna to explain their plans: since they perceived the items in the time capsule as a declaration of war, they are using the video games as a challenge, giving the people of Earth three rounds to fight back or it's game over for everyone. They also show that the soldier they took was a "trophy". They show the video to Cooper and determine that the next attack will happen in India. Sure enough, the aliens attack the Taj Mahal, and they take an Indian man as a trophy as well.Brenner and Ludlow are brought in to "train" soldiers to fight back by showing them how to play these games, to which Admiral Porter (Brian Cox) objects. Violet shows Brenner and Ludlow that the pixels are taken down by strong light beams. Cooper is with his wife Jane (Jane Krakowski) at a bakery when his assistant comes in to tell him that the next attack will happen in London.Everyone heads to London to meet with Corporal Hill (Sean Bean). The soldiers brace for attack as the creatures from Centipede attack. Brenner tells the men to shoot for the head and anticipate the pattern, but they have no luck. Brenner and Ludlow take over with permission from Cooper, and they blast away at the Centipede. The final boss makes its way into town and nearly devours a boy until Brenner blasts it away for good.The aliens send a message using the Fantasy Island guys to congratulate Earth on their victory, and they give them the Duck Hunt dog as a trophy, but remind them that they (aliens) are leading 2-1. It is learned that the next attack will happen in New York City. Needing more help, Ludlow and Cooper agree that they need someone else to help them.Brenner, Cooper, and Violet go to a prison to find Eddie (Peter Dinklage), a bitter and hardened criminal who got busted for adding charges to phone bills. He still taunts Brenner and makes self-serving demands in exchange for his help, among them a private island for himself, never paying taxes again, and a meeting with Serena Williams and Martha Stewart. Cooper agrees to let him out of prison... but only with the 'no taxes' agreement.The team goes to New York to discover that the next boss is Pac-Man. Violet presents the guys with four cars based off the ghosts in Pac-Man, with the fourth car driven by the game's creator Toru Iwatani (Denis Akiyama). When the team gets downtown Manhattan where Pac-Man is chomping through everything, Iwatani tries to appeal to Pac-Man's good side by talking to him like a father. Unfortunately, this gets his hand chomped and pixelated. The remaining three chase after Pac-Man. He eats a power pellet, giving him ten seconds to be able to eat the ghosts, and he eats Ludlow's car as he jumps out.. Eddie hits the first Pac-Man after catching up to him quickly. The second one also gets taken out by Eddie. The third causes him to drive into the water. Brenner chases him near a parking garage where Pac-Man finds another power pellet. Brenner counts down and drives backward through a parking garage. At the last second, the power pellet wears off and gives Brenner a chance to defeat Pac-Man, and they're given Q*Bert as a trophy.The team has a ball held for them as thanks for their heroics. Brenner asks Violet to be his date, and she stuns him when she arrives in a green dress. Eddie brings Serena Williams (who only showed up because she was promised an island). After Brenner spends time with Violet, the aliens send another message saying the rules have been violated, and they will launch a full-scale attack momentarily. Marty finds Eddie and sees that his shades that were fished out of the water contain cheat codes, which allowed him to beat Pac-Man and also explains how he beat Brenner in Donkey Kong. Eddie flees, and Matty is taken by the aliens as Violet watches.Q*Bert tells the heroes that the aliens were peaceful until they felt threatened by the time capsule. They realize they have to go to the ship and stop the aliens.The aliens bring down more video games upon Washington DC, including Frogger and Defendor. Brenner, Violet, and Q*Bert gear up and are joined by Cooper while Ludlow stays behind to fight. One of the aliens takes the form of Lady Lisa (Ashley Benson), to Ludlow's joy. However, she still fights him until he says he only wants to love her. She drops her swords, and they kiss. Eddie comes to fight and apologizes for ditching the team.Brenner, Violet, Cooper and Q*Bert get brought up to the ship where Brenner faces his biggest challenge... Donkey Kong. The ape rolls barrels down as the heroes try to reach Matty and the other two captives. Matty tells Brenner that Eddie cheated all those years ago, making him realize he is the true DK champ. Brenner takes the hammer and smashes the barrels before hurling it at Donkey Kong, destroying him. This causes the rest of the video games to freeze and be brought back up to the ship. Unfortunately for Ludlow, that includes Lady Lisa.The team is recognized as heroes before the White House. Cooper announces he's made a peace treaty with the aliens. Eddie apologizes to Brenner for cheating and admits he's the best in the world. Ludlow misses Lisa until Q*Bert randomly morphs into her. Brenner and Violet become a couple. Eddie then gets a text from Serena to meet him in the bedroom, along with Martha Stewart, who made sandwiches. Eddie sneaks off with excitement. The aliens leave Earth, and Iwatani's hand is restored.One year later, Ludlow has married Lisa, and they're the proud parents of five Q*Berts. | good versus evil, psychedelic, satire, flashback | train | imdb | Okay, I am actually a little upset I listened to IMDb on this and didn't see it when it first came out.This is my ideal type of movie, a Sci-Fi - Comedy, that is family appropriate.This movie was very well made, graphics were great, and the story line and characters were fun to watch and kept you involved throughout the movie.Its one of the few movies I have seen this year that I actually re-watched and was still loving the movie.Yes, if you are hoping for a curse filled / sexually derogatory movie...
But the two who were just hilarious and almost made you cry because they were so funny was Peter Dinklage and Josh Gad. They were so funny and the stuff they said and did was totally laugh out loud funny.Surprisingly, the action in this movie was really good.
The PAC-MAN car chase, the Donkey Kong battle, and the video games attacking the city was great action and there were some cool new stunts I have never seen before and that was nice to see in a comedy film.If you love the old time video games, Happy Madison, good, laugh out loud comedy, and some cool and comical action then you will love this movie.
President Will Cooper (Kevin James) calls upon his best friend since childhood, former video game professional Sam Brenner (Adam Sandler), who is now a home theater installer and had a previous relationship with Cooper's wife (Jane Krakowski).
To combat the video game characters, Brenner decides to lead a team of retrogamers Eddie Plant (Peter Dinklage) and Ludlow Lamonsoff (Josh Gad) to defeat the aliens with technology similar to those used in games.Pixels is a great 2015 American science fiction comedy film all people must see.
However, after throwing down the toilet a whole 106 minutes of my life just to endure Pixels' exhaustingly diabolical 'acting', 'comedy wit', and story line (as well as the forewarned painful knowledge both Kevin James AND Adam Sandler are in this) I have came to conclusion that life is honestly just not worth living any more.
I am the target audience, I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s playing these games and I WANTED to love th hell out of this film, but this could be the worst movie of 2015.
Adam Sandler is clearly phoning it in, Kevin James is up to his usual antics, the clumsy fat guy, Josh Gad screams at the top of his lungs in every scene, and even the great Peter Dinklage is not good here, though Dinklage delivers the one laugh worthy moment in the film.I was disappointed when I discovered that Chris Columbus directed the movie, as he is usually really good.This is absolutely a 2/10 production, I'm not a hater, I wanted to love this movie so much, but the terrible execution from script to screen was too poor to even consider this as something that I could recommend in good faith.
When I 1st heard about Pixels, I was pumped & couldn't wait to see it.Now after finally watching it, Major, MAJOR disappointment.After seeing Kevin James was the president (Seriously?) the movie just went straight downhill from there.I just felt like as it went along, it just got more & more & more boring.The only good thing about Pixels was seeing all the old video game characters, remembering the old video games I use to play & the 1's I didn't recognize, trying to figure out what games they were from.God, this movie stunk.I can't think of enough bad things to say about it.If somebody told me to come up with 1 funny moment from the movie, I'd say the scene where the lady is in her closet, crying over husband, drinking wine from a sippy cup & Adam Sandler walks in.Other than that, nothing.If you're thinking of watching Pixels, I'd tell you to skip this movie & find something better to do with your time.
This is my first review and i really had to write it after just coming back from watching Pixels.I'm not going to really talk about the movie, the premise is simple, its just a show about the old arcade games attacking the world.
The people who slam this movie are going on and on about acting, the show being not funny, lame jokes, Adam Sandler trying to make moneyPlease..who makes movies not to earn money?
He still adds his classic jokes so I would recommend this movie if he makes you laugh.I grew up on those arcade games as a child and I loved how he portrayed it.
I understand why critics come down on Adam Sandler, when it comes to his comedies they are pretty much hit or miss, but to some more miss then hit.Gamers from the 1980's are called upon by the government when an alien invasion comes in the form of old video game characters, and half to try to defeat them like the game.
But will they save the day before it's too late?Like some of Adam Sandler comedies, this is not a great film, but it never tries to be, but it is entertaining, I did laugh a few, end enjoyed the effects.
Every single moment of this movie embarrassed me, there only a few redeeming qualities in this filth and that was the admittedly eye popping visuals in terms of the arcade games and the charming performance of Peter Dinklage from Game of Thrones, that is where the positives end for this waste of film.
This movie has no idea what it wants to be or who it's target audience is because it plays out like a typical Adam Sandler vehicle just with video games added in so he can cash in on gamer's nostalgia for arcade games.
None of the jokes were funny and were underwhelming, Josh Gad annoyed the crap out of me, there is absolutely no love put into this movie and is the very definition of a missed opportunity, there is so much that could have been done with the concept yet the potential was disposed of just so that Sandler can continue to steal our money with predictable idiotic humor that isn't even witty, sarcastic, clever, or self-referential or even a shred of respect for the classic games put on display.
That said, it doesn't really affect this fantastic movie in any way.Please ignore the critics reviews- perhaps they were terrible at the video games and hate to see them again :D?
I love Adam Sandler, and Peter Dinklage was by far the funniest character in the whole movie.
Without any doubt I think that the movie is the greatest tribute of all times, specially for people like me who grown up playing this games..
I'd say I felt personally victimized by 'Pixels' (and by Sandler's presence in the film industry in general) but Adam Sandler's incessant need to portray nerdy men as victims is far stronger than any discomfort I had watching this embarrassing excuse of a film where women are literally trophies & men that play video games and act like children are paraded as underdogs.
Ill be honest I really wanted to like this movie, as I'm a huge gamer myself, and I wanted Adam Sandler to be in something good again.
The script was terrible, the women characters are just there to stand and look pretty, Sandler was unfunny and looked like he just wanted a paycheck, everyone else seemed to be phoning it in, but Peter Dinklage was the only person who was funny the whole time and even that isn't saying much, as he only made me laugh twice.
It could have been good cause the Video game bosses were the only good part, but in the end its just another bad movie on Adam Sandlers resume.
It seems that a lot of people born in the 80's (the word for it is target audience) rank this really high because "Adam Sandler is funny and there's video game characters in it" Go see the movie, make your own assessment but really, I refuse to believe that anyone reviewing this as positive isn't underage or just plain stupid.
OK so I went to take my siblings to see this movie I wasn't expecting much due to bad reviews however when I sat down to watch it I was highly surprised in a good way well not really I love Adam sandler Kevin James and josh grad so no real shock I recommend that u take your family Its hilarious full of action good heart as well not a lot of adult content so perfect pick for any and everyone there is some language but nothing too extreme if u are a kid of the 80 s I definitely recommend it to you take a trip down memory lane and go see this fun and very funny movie Kevin James makes the perfect president in this movie and it proves just because the label nerd Is not accurate anyone can do anything they set their mind too if they Believe in them selfs.
I know this movie isn't good enough to be a sequel though because this was just a one time thing to show old video games coming to life to take over the world..
The story was funny uncomplicated but riddled with little innuendos and subtle jokes that will keep Adults laughing.The Idea that a Computer nerd could have a beer and pretzels friendship with the president of the USA cracked me up and I think a lot of people will enjoy the slapstick tongue in cheek humor used In this film.If you like Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, here comes the boom.
If you like Adam Sandler, you WILL LOVE this movie!.
Kevin James does the same exact thing he does in every other movie he's in, Adam Sandler looks uninterested most of the time, Michelle Monoghan comes off as non believable at times, Josh Gad yells a lot and isn't that interesting, etc.
There are a few things I did like that keeps this a tiny bit better than other Adam Sandler films in my opinion (for whatever that's worth).
Pixels, however, is dreadful, and fully deserving of any critical mauling it has received.A promising premise—aliens attack Earth in the form of video games after mistaking a videotape of '80s arcade classics for a declaration of war—is developed as a series of lacklustre action scenes loaded with flashy CGI and not very funny humour.Sandler adopts his usual affable loser persona but can do little with the lousy material; also wasted are the talents of Brian Cox, Peter Dinklage and Sean Bean, while the lovely Ashley Benson, as sexy game character Lady Lisa, is there purely as eye candy (not that I'm complaining about that—she was sorely needed to take my mind off the terrible comedy).It's also hard to see who the film would appeal to: adults will find much of the humour childish and grating (the 'cute' digital Q-bert character had me cringing in embarrassment), while the many references to '80s pop culture (Max Headroom, Hall and Oates, most of the games) will be lost on the young.And is it even possible to use a cheat code on an arcade machine?
This Movie Is The Best I Hope There Is A Sequel The People Who Rated It 1 out of 10 Suck There Just Doing That Because Adam Sandler Is In It This Is The Best Movie Adam Sandler Did Please Make A Sequel If They Don't Do It Do Do It For Me This Is Better Than Any Adam Sandler Movie Except Hotel Transylvania 2 Please Make A Sequel For Pixels When I Watched It I Was So Surprised Of How Awesome It Was At The End I Said I Wanted A Sequel I Am A Video Gamer The Movie Is The Best Movie I Watched Ever So Just Please Make A Sequel My Favorite Scene Is Them Fighting Donkey Kong The Music Was Awesome Good Job On The Movie The Other People Who Don't Like The Movie You Don't Know Nothing If They Make A Sequel I Will Be So Happy.
I went to see this film today, and thought it wouldn't be that bad.Sure, Adam Sandler movies have been awful in the last couple of years but, I thought I would give this movie a shot.It was truly awful, it has the same quality of the past couple of Adam Sandler movies, which as I said is not a good thing.The movie is bad and not in a "so bad it's good" type of way.The acting is bad, and it felt like the actors didn't really care at all for the movie, and just wanted their money.Adam Sandler gives another Razzie-worthy performance, and the supporting actors are not great either.The direction is bad too,Chris Columbus was good in the early 2000s and 90s but for the past 5 years he has been awful.It feels like he's not even trying because he was successful with Harry Potter and Home Alone.The writing and humor was awful too,something I kinda expected.I didn't expect this movie to be hilarious, but with the fun video games storyline, I thought the humor wouldn't be that bad, oh so wrong I was.This is a terrible film and disgraces the video games image, don't go see this film until DVD or On Demand it's not worth seeing in the theater.1/10..
Spoken about regularly as one of 2015's worst films, Pixels is a dire comedy made by and starring a bunch of people that should know better and a film that thinks some good old fashioned gaming nostalgia will be enough to win us over despite the fact this 'comedy' is scarily bereft of laughs, charm and features a cast that looks like they would rather be somewhere else, spending the money they earnt here on a not well earned break.I can't recall from recent memory a film that feels so tired, so bored with itself, almost resigned to the fact that it's not fun and it doesn't help at all that in a recent career full of bad roles and lethargic performances, Pixels features Adam Sandler at his very worst.The Oxford dictionary better update their recent editions as tired and uninterested needs to place a picture of Sandler under those definitions.Sandler's avid old school arcade gamer Sam Brenner is truly one of the worst leading characters of modern film.
Possessing neither a comedic timing, an ounce of actual effort or any genuine hint of life, Sandler is but a zombie walking through this ugly looking cavalcade of ideas and uninteresting action scenes, scenes that are reminisce of someone playing a fun game but never sharing the controller as you sit back and watch.
Wasting not only the chance to merge gaming lore with big screen thrills but support from the likes of an unbelievably bad Peter Dinklage (Tyrion would be sorely disappointed) and the sad supporting turns from actors like Sean Bean and Brian Cox.Any movie that casts Kevin James as the American President was going to have a hard time succeeding but really there is no excuse for Pixels to be so downright boring and lacking in joy.
For those of you who might be averse to the presence of Adam Sandler and/or Kevin James, note that both are quite subdued in this film, especially since the real stars are the video game characters who are invading Earth.
Like most Adam Sandler movies there was some interesting casting.
Pixels revolves around four incredibly talented gaming nerds namely, Brenner(Adam Sandler), Cooper(Kevin James), Eddie(Peter Dinklage) & Ludlow(Josh Gad).
Adam Sandler, Kevin James , Josh Gad and Peter Dinklage they did one hell of amazing job to make such a comedy movie "saying comedy just for those who reviewed it as a bad sci-fi movie" oh relax it is a comedy of funny pixels attacking Earth not star wars.Overall ...
When I first read about the premise of the movie "Pixels" (PG-13, 1:45) – early 1980s video arcade games coming "to life" and attacking the earth – I thought that it was a really original and fun idea.
Then I learned that the movie starred Adam Sandler and Kevin James whose last few films haven't exactly been their best.
With the support of the President (and to the dismay of military leaders played by Brian Cox and Sean Bean), Sam and company link up with weapons designer Lt. Colonel Violet van Patten (Michelle Monaghan) to fight
high energy light with high energy light.As the attacks unfold, the pixels (actually, voxels, because they're presented as three-dimensional cubes and the film is in 3-D) take the form of a different classic arcade game each time, announce their next attack via re-dubbed versions of early 1980s news and entertainment video clips, and commence to pixelate everything from ordinary objects to famous buildings to people, which is how they capture humans and transport them to their spaceship as war trophies."Pixels" both is and isn't your typical Adam Sandler movie.
There's some juvenile humor, but this script features better jokes than most of Sandler's recent comedies, while the sure hand of director Chris Columbus (director of two "Home Alone" movies, two "Harry Potter" movies and many others) maintains great pacing and keeps things very entertaining.The special effects are crude, but that's by design since the attackers take the form of decades old video game characters, which don't have nearly as many pixels as those in today's games.
Better than previous 80s video game movie adaptations like "Tron", "Pixels" is the most fun I've had at the movies in a long time!
I don't usually like Adam Sandler but loved this movie!.
I like this movie and remember me all the good times in the arcade!.
I like this movie and remember me all the good times in the arcade!.
I like this movie and remember me all the good times in the arcade!.
Again it's not the best of any Adam sandler movie I've seen but it's great entertainment for a night out. |
tt0804497 | It's Kind of a Funny Story | After contemplating suicide by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge, 16-year-old Craig Gilner (Keir Gilchrist), decides to go to the hospital to seek help. Craig tells Dr. Mahmoud (Aasif Mandvi) that he needs immediate help to which Dr. Mahmoud registers Craig for a one week stay in the hospital's psychiatric floor.[2][3] At first, Craig is unsure if he made the right choice to stay, mostly due to the fact that his friends might find out when he misses school, especially Nia (Zoë Kravitz), his crush and the girlfriend to his best friend Aaron (Thomas Mann). Also, he is placed in the adult ward because there are too few teenage patients, and he understandbly feels uneasy and a bit scared being in the midst of so many adult psychotics.Craig is introduced to Bobby (Zach Galifianakis), an adult patient who claims he is only there on vacation, as he takes Craig under his wing. During a group discussion, Craig learns that Bobby is stressed about an upcoming interview in hopes of moving to a halfway house. When Bobby states that all he'll have to wear for the interview is the sweater he is currently wearing, Craig offers that Bobby could borrow one of his dad's dress shirts to wear, and Bobby accepts. Craig's kind offer to Bobby is witnessed by Noelle (Emma Roberts), another teenage patient who is in for self-mutilation. She is impressed by Craig and leaves him a note to meet with her that night. Later, Craig and Noelle attend a painting session for the patients. Craig paints a picture of an imaginary city map which he describes as like his own brain.Throughout his stay, Craig comes to a close bond with various patients on the floor including Bobby and Noelle. Bobby reveals to Craig that he is a father of a little girl and that he is actually in the ward for attempting to commit suicide six times. As Craig tries to help Bobby with his problems, Bobby, in return, helps Craig to gain the courage to ask out Noelle.One night, Nia stops by to visit Craig at the hospital, revealing that she and Aaron had broken up. Craig takes Nia back to his room where she tries to seduce him. However, the two are caught by Craig's roommate Muqtada (Bernard White), an old Egyptian man who has not left the room during his stay. As Nia runs out of the room, Criag chases her and calls out that he loves her, unaware that Noelle is standing behind him. Upset, Noelle storms off leaving behind a drawing of a self portrait that she planned on giving to Craig.Craig eventually wins Noelle's forgiveness, and the pair sneak out of the ward in scrubs and run around the hospital, ending up on the roof. There, Craig finally works up the courage to ask her on a date, and they kiss. On Craig's last night, he hosts a pizza party for the patients and helps Muqtada leave his room by playing Egyptian music for him to dance to. Craig also meets with Bobby, who got accepted into the home, and gives him a map of how Craig imagines Bobby's brain to be. Craig leaves the hospital the next morning not entirely cured, but with better aspirations to enjoy his life. He finally gains the courage to speak the truth to his father - which seems to be one of his main problems - perhaps the biggest problem. Dad wants Craig to be a big businessman, but Craig is more clearly cut out for the creative artistic life - painting and singing. | psychedelic, entertaining, sentimental | train | imdb | Fortunately, he soon makes friends with an affable patient named Bobby (Zach Galifianakis) and casts his eye on a lovely young female Noelle (Emma Roberts), who bears telltale scars on her wrists.
You know what I would do just to be you, for just a day?"Despite the fact that most critics were underwhelmed with It's Kind of a Funny Story, I found myself liking the movie.
Imagine a lighthearted version Girl, Interrupted with more teen angst (in a good way).The story's about a teenage boy who's burnt out on pressure from parents, school, and his peers, exhausted, and contemplating suicide.
"It's Kind of a Funny Story" is based on the book of the same title in which Ned Vizzini tells of his experience checking himself into an adult psychiatric ward at the suggestion of a suicide hotline.
If you can remember or relate to what it is to be a teenager under pressure from school, parents, friends, and life in general you will like this movie.
Here Craig meets the wizened Bobby (Zack Galifianakis), who has a complete emotional range here, his hangdog is perfect and watched closely you'll see every thought and facial gesture with real pleasure, and a teenage girl his age, Noelle (Emma Roberts).
These two relationships along with a very special girl named Noelle (Emma Roberts) change Craig's life.The Good: The film follows its genre as a dramatic comedy very well and isn't over sentimental or Hollywoodized at all.
"It's Kind of a Funny Story" is a refreshing antidote to the seemingly endless parade of movies and T.V. shows about teen angst.In it, Keir Gilchrist, in a winning performance, plays a young teen who's vaguely depressed for reasons he can't explain, is overwhelmed by the seriousness of the world in which he lives and even harbors the occasional thought of suicide.
Thinking himself seriously messed up, he checks himself into a mental ward for a five-day stint, only to find out once there that he's nowhere nearly as screwed up as he thinks he is -- certainly not as screwed up as the other people on the ward who deserve to be there -- and that he's not suffering from anything that pretty much every other human being on the planet doesn't suffer from from time to time.The lessons he learns will sound pretty familiar and sound like a summary of lines spoken by Ruth Gordon in "Harold and Maude." They're all about living life instead of being afraid of it, doing what makes you happy, and not letting others life your life for you.
Instead, co-writers and co-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck deliver a black comedy-drama that has appeal to both teens and grown-ups.The story revolves around Craig, a 16 year old who is feeling depressed and suicidal given the pressures of a relentless father, looming college entrance exams and a screwed up social life.
Well, this movie somewhat satirically makes fun of that idea, but also puts into perspective why a kid might feel this way and gives a legitimate tale of the funny story of life and its problems.As the film starts out, we meet our main character, Craig, played by Keir Gilchrist.
But the way the director does this is great, as he still shows the seriousness of the subject matter, but at the same time the title is applied throughout the scenes, reminding us how funny it all really is out of perspective.Eventually our main character finds himself convincing his doctor to allow him to be admitted into the psychiatric ward of the hospital, where he's greeted with more than he expected.
'It's Kind Of A Funny Story' is a quirky Drama with the right amount of romance and comedy, making this film extremely entertaining.
It's kind of funny (no pun intended) because with all the attention that Zach Galifianakis has gotten since the release of "The Hangover" one would think they would try to get this film off the ground as his first major dramatic role.
I also thought she had great chemistry with Gilchrist and definitely proved here that she deserves to do more stand out work like this rather than lackluster teen films like "Aquamarine" and "Nancy Drew." While the acting was solid across the board, I think the best part of this movie was the film was the overall story and message.
A movie about people in a psychiatric ward doesn't seem like it would have a feel good message but this film does.
It has a funny way of showing it but "It's Kind of a Funny Story" makes you feel alive and makes it's audience really want to go out there and live everyday to the fullest.A the end of the day, I was actually very sad that I didn't get to catch this film in theaters and that it didn't get the kind of attention it deserved.
"It's Kind of a Funny Story" was a well acted and well written film that featured a good mix of drama and comedy but also managed to stay realistic.
I think more people should check out this film because not only will you enjoy the film as a whole but you will feel good about life after seeing it, at least that's how I felt when it ended.
I had read the novel "It's Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini a while ago and knew it had been adapted into a movie not too long back, and decided to watch this a few months ago.
About his experiences self checking himself into a mental health clinic due to the advice he got from the suicide hot line.The cast in this is great Keir Gilchrist is the main character Craig and delivers a excellent performance Of the boys who has the tendency to have suicide thoughts.
He is helped however by the very skilled supporting cast Zach Galifianakis, Emma Roberts and Lauren Graham to name a few.This movie is something you can relate to if you have or have had any sort of Stress or pressure in your life.
See my full review at the Huffington Post under "It's Kind of a Funny Story (Really Is):Lost in the slog of fright flicks, and masochist movies in 3D, comes an Oscar-worthy little gem that delivers Zach Galifianakis into the pantheon of movie stars, and serves up the first great psych ward story since "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." "It's Kind of a Funny Story" is old-school movie making.
This is the film where I think Zach Galifianakis has given his best performance.Now, the main flaw of the movie are the therapy sessions and how the main character evolves throughout his stay on the psychiatry floor.
The cast is supported by a very well written adapted screenplay by Anna Fleck and Anna Boden that will make you laugh and cry.The Bad: The actress, Zoe Kravitz, does not do a very good job playing Nia, Craig's love interest from before he meets Noelle in the psychiatric hospital.
The cast is supported by a very well written adapted screenplay by Anna Fleck and Anna Boden that will make you laugh and cry.The Bad: The actress, Zoe Kravitz, does not do a very good job playing Nia, Craig's love interest from before he meets Noelle in the psychiatric hospital.
This movie is the story of a teenager going through some tough times, not because he has a rough life, but because he is just feeling a lot of pressure and stress and doesn't know how to handle it.
It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010), directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, focuses around a teenage boy, Craig (Keir Gilchrist of United States of Tera) and his interactions with other patients after he checks himself into a psychiatric ward.
They were all well written characters, and I found it very appropriate that they kept Roberts' reasons for being in the psych ward concealed.This is a teen drama about teen problems, told in a light-hearted kind of way, and it's ultimately a great film.
In that time he becomes acquainted with other patients such as fellow teen, Noelle (played by Emma Roberts) and the man he encountered in the waiting room, Bobby (Galifianakis) who regularly leaves the ward, without permission, dressed in scrubs to avoid being escorted back.I love this movie.
This is actually not my kinda movie,I wanted to watch a rom-com(something like The Proposal,Knocked up,The Vow etc.,) but my friend gave me a DVD of this movie as soon as I got the DVD I understood that its not the kind of movie I wanted to watch at that time.Since I had no other choice I took a chance & watched the movie expecting something like Hangover.First 20 mins of the movie kinda sucked with Keir Gilchrist telling about his sucking life and his plan of killing himself but when I was starting to judge the movie(in a -'ve way) the movie started to reveal itself and transformed slowly from boring to meaningful-exciting,enjoyable & exquisite.The movie is well scripted,well directed and appropriately casted & fabulously acted.This movie has really good messages all over and still manages to entertain us till the end.Its really refreshing and would make you feel light after watching it.And I totally forgot,Emma Roberts looked great in this movie you should watch it at least for her..
Obviously the film had other qualities like a good dialogues, believable and engaging characters, bearable soundtrack (mind you there's hardly any of the recent stuff I would consider good music in a motion picture), feel-good entertainment for people under pressure, and of course another amazing performance from the rising star- Mr Galifianakis!
As the title says, the movie present us the life of a teen who's depressed and put himself into a psych institution ....there he meets a girl, he likes her at first sight, and all movie is about those 5 days that he stays inside that institution.Most will consider "a boring story" or "a boring movie" ..
This film gets off to a somewhat uncertain start, but is rewarding enough if you stick with it - just keep your hopes and expectations low.It is essentially a teen rom-com, with that way overused device of the narration-that's-aware-it's-a-narration, which runs consistently throughout.The film also begins on a sombre note - suicidal depression - which is one of the principle themes of the piece, despite never being adequately explored beyond its shallow convenience as a device for facilitating a meet-cute.The main setting is a psych ward, populated by thinly-drawn caricatures of mental patients, complete with all the standard two-dimensional clichés of appearance and behaviour.But this film is decidedly not "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest".
(But she self-harms, and has three pretty little scars to justify her presence on the ward).Once it finally makes up its mind to be a rom-com rather than a treatise on mental healthcare, the film picks up its pace and its mood, and even includes a delightfully silly and unexpected musical number.There are some nice performances, and a couple of genuinely touching moments, but despite a feel-good finale it is not a film I'd rush to watch again..
This is covered later, in short bits in the movie, but I think the viewer should know in the beginning.Watching the movie kept realizing again and again that if I had not read the book I would have no clue about whats really happening around.I wanted to be told who Craig is and understand why he did what he did and how he ended up here.
What makes this film not as good as it could have been is not necessarily the writing or directing but the lead actor portraying the character of Craig (Keir Gilchrist).
The supporting characters of Emma Roberts, and Viola Davis are there simply for support of Craig, as they are not given as much to do.Overall, It's Kind of a Funny story is not a bad film, but depends on the certain atmosphere and type of film one is intending in watching.
disappointing.the acting is clunky and Zach Galifianakis does not suit the role he plays at all.there are several clumsy attempts to make depression an 'everyday illness' by having the main character's friends allude to struggling with it which also detract from the legitimacy of the illness.overall, a very poor attempt to raise awareness about mental health - especially as many of the other mental health issues seen within the film are left largely unaddressed..
Craig (Keir Gilchrist) is a depressed teenager who is not very sure on what makes him feel like that.
From the opening scene of this movie I was enveloped in the story being told, I've had many high peaks and subsequently many low valleys during the years I've been alive and the self-doubting, socially awkward personality of the main character was in so many ways like looking in the mirror for me.
It tells the story of a teenager named Craig (Keir Gilchrist) who has become depressed to the point of being suicidal, and checks himself into a hospital psych ward at the behest of a suicide hotline.
An easy to watch, not complex movie about a guy who has a good life, but is feeling stressed out and depressed by the simplest things.
When Craig discovered other passions and saw what other people are going through at the hospital, he really appreciated his own life and wanted to go out there and just live his life, of course, a big part of that was his new found love Noelle, who had her own problems too.Zach Galifianakis with some of his usual flicks, but this time he was in a role that was a little bit more serious than his usual movies, such as The Hangover or Due Date.
This is a good movie for teens who feel pressured to live up to standards expected by others - like parents and the peers that pass themselves off as being so 'mentally together'.Craig feels he can't cope and contemplates suicide but has better sense to seek help at a local hospital.
After being admitted to the psychiatric ward he encounters patients with real problems and he wants out.But he cannot leave due to necessary evaluation and in the five days he's there he learns a big lesson - first he's not as crazy as he thought and that he means a lot more to his family and friends than he imagined.This is a nice fun movie but regrettably forgettable - especially the title!.
Keir Gilchrist plays Craig Gilner, a suicidal teenager who checks into a hospital's psychiatric ward.
I knew very very little about the movie when I decided to watch this film, but when I saw that Zach Galifianakis was in it I needed no convincing as generally he plays a very funny character.
Maybe one of the patients could harm/kill themselves which would give our main character 'Cool Craig' a better perspective and understanding on how small his problems were in comparison to those who really were suffering from major depression.Anyway overall, I thought the movie was alright so a solid 4 I think is adequate.Reviewed through the eyes of Straight talking Tony NZ..
It's Kind of a Funny Story laces the typically untouchable subjects of the human psyche that make people squirm and it makes you not just laugh about it, but understand it in the way in which we need to understand in order to cure our psychological problems.Craig learns self-empowerment, that he actually has something going for him in life, and that the unhappiness he was exhibiting was because he was not living the life he wanted.
Possibly the most surprising performance is that of comedian Zach Galifinakis, who delivers a fine dramatic performance as psych ward patient and Craig's best friend, Bobby, and while Galifinakis is given plenty of moments to make you laugh, the through line of his character's desire to be with his daughter but not being able to overcome his depression is quite possibly the most moving aspect of this piece of cinema.It's Kind of a Funny Story is what I'd imagine the result would be if John Hughes decided to make a movie about a suicidal teen, supplement his usual High School aesthetic and applying it to a psychiatric ward, that in all actuality has way more intriguing options for interesting characters than an ordinary high school.
Good for Craig, right?It's a familiar story - a stressed kid struggling with depression during some of the most difficult years of a person's life.
I love how this movie not only makes you think about how fortunate you are, but also shows you how to deal with minor issues that have the potential to depress you.Zach plays his role so well that you can tell he has been through it all.
Let me give the review or reasons to this movie and i don't want to reveal or tell whole story because you must watch to experience it.Story and Plot : The basic story line is about a teenager Craig (Keir Gilchrist) who is depressed goes to adult psychiatric yard.
The story follows a boy named Craig (Keir Gilchrist) on a five day self-discovery journey in a psychiatric hospital he checks himself into after dealing with depression in his stressful life.
The story follows a boy named Craig (Keir Gilchrist) on a five day self-discovery journey in a psychiatric hospital he checks himself into after dealing with depression in his stressful life.
These two relationships along with a very special girl named Noelle (Emma Roberts) change Craig's life.Overall The movie title may be It's kind of a funny story but it is sensible and sensitive story.
To me, this movie was very natural, it seems like a story which can actually happen in real life.
'It's kind of a funny story' is a coming to age comedy about an overstress teenager Craig (Keir Gilchrist) who feeling depression and suicidal because he is high-school junior in the gifted program trying finish his accelerated academics, get into a good college and job. |
tt0100107 | Maniac Cop 2 | A man stumbles into a convenience store and shows the store clerk his shotgun and demands he empty the safe and cash register. The clerk says that he does not know the combination to the safe and he hits the silent alarm on the floor. With the register nearly empty, the potential thief forces the clerk to scratch off lottery tickets. After getting a $5,000 winner, the would-be robber sees a hulking man wearing a police uniform; the undead Maniac Cop, Matt Cordell (Robert Z'Dar), in the back of the store. The thief fires his shotgun, but the unaffected undead cop takes the shotgun away from him and beats him with the butt of the gun, and then shoots the store clerk dead. The Maniac Cop then hands the shotgun back to the crook and leaves out the back door. The man gets up and runs outside the front door where the real police are waiting. The man tells them that one of the cops was responsible for the murder, and the man gets gunned down for not dropping his weapon.The next day, the new police commissioner, Edward Doyle (Michael Lerner), tells Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell) and Theresa Malloy, that they are both cleared for the murders they suspected them of committing (in the previous 'Maniac Cop' movie), but he refuses to believe them that Matt Cordell is responsible for Cordell has been dead for over 10 years and that he died in prison. Theresa says that since they have not found a body in the river where the supposed Maniac Cop had driven into weeks earlier, Cordell must still be alive. The commissioner tells the two officers that they see the police psychiatrist Susan Riley (Claudia Christian). During their session, Susan suggests to Jack and Theresa that the so-called "Maniac Cop" was someone other then Cordell. Theresa is angry at Jack's willingness to accept that theory in order to keep his job.Meanwhile, Detective Sam McKinney (Robert Davi) is on patrol when he shoots and kills a holdup suspect. He is sent to see Susan over this incident. They discuss his indifference towards killing a man and also McKinney's old partner who committed suicide.That evening, Jack talks to Harry, a blind newsstand vender, when the unseen Cordell walks up and stabs Jack through the neck with his billy sick blade, sparing the blind Harry. At the coroner's office, Detective McKinney shows Theresa Jack's body and then rails her about their mild argument they had earlier. Commissioner Doyle and McKinney put "pressure" on Theresa so she will not go to the press with the story about "a dead man" being the Maniac Cop. McKinney sticks it to Susan for being a doctor.Another night later, a man tries to talk to a cop out of towing his illegally parked car away, and Cordell shows up by beating up the officer and driving the tow truck away with the cop hooked on the back whom is dragged to his death.The next day, Susan talks to Harry, who says that he brushed against Jack's killer and was reminded of the cold, dead flesh of lifeless bodies surrounding him in a trench during World War II. Harry claims that Jack's killer was "very cold" with no body heat at all... something only a corpse would be. Meanwhile, the man who avoided having his car towed is arrested and he tries to tell them that a cop who tried to tow his car away was killed by another cop, whose face he could not see. McKinney and Doyle discuss the recent killings, and the Commissioner avoids the detective's suggestions that Cordell is the murderer and again repeats that Cordell has been long dead.That evening, Theresa packs her bags and tells Susan that she is leaving town, but first going on a local TV talk show to alert people of the killings and that the Maniac Cop is back. Susan gets in the taxi with her to try to talk her out of running; when the cabbie stops for an apparently flat tire. Theresa sees that Cordell is right behind them, and attempts to drive away. Theresa crashes the cab, gets out and is thrown through a window by Cordell. The Maniac Cop handcuffs Susan to the taxi's steering wheel and rolls the car away down the road. After Theresa attacks Cordell with a chainsaw, he manages to wrestle the chainsaw away from her and snaps her neck with his super strength. Susan manages to get inside the runaway taxi and turn off the road, flipping the vehicle.Another day or so later, Susan goes on the talk show 'Criminals at Large' with Doyle and discusses her encounter with the still-living Maniac Cop, Matt Cordell. After the show, Doyle suspends Susan from the police force and orders her to keep silent about the undead cop.Across town, in a local strip club, a scruffy man named Turkell (Leo Rossi) watches stripper Cheryl on stage. Later, Cheryl is in a seedy hotel room, talking to her mother on the phone and lying about her job and place of residence. Someone starts to knock on the front door. Cheryl hangs up and tries to call for help, but the person evidently leaves. Suddenly, Turkell crashes through her window, knocks the woman to the floor, and puts his hand around her neck to strangle her. Cordell breaks through the door, and starts choking Cheryl. Cordell then throws two cops across the room when they enter to arrest Turkell and he and the undead cop escape.Turkell excitedly talks to Cordell and compliments his "gimmick". They go to Turkell's apartment where the man shows the officer pictures of his girls (whom are dead stripper victims; Turkell is a serial killer of exotic dancers). He notices that Cordell hasn't spoken a word since he rescued him and asks him his name. When Cordell doesn't answer, Turkell goes to get a pen and paper for Cordell to write it out, until Cordell manages to whisper his name through his decomposing vocal cords. Later, Turkell asks what happened to Cordell and why he still manages to live despite that he is clearly dead and rotting. As Turkell goes to sleep in his bed, Cordell remains sitting in a chair and thinks back to his sentencing and his attack in the showers at Sing Sing by the three inmates who killed him (in a recycled flashback scene from the first 'Maniac Cop').The next day, the police put the word out that Cheryl died in the attack so the serial killer will relax. Susan visits Cheryl where she sees her neck bruises and asks what the cop's hands felt like. Cheryl says: "like ice!" McKinney, Susan, Detective Lovejoy and Cheryl go to the strip club where the woman points out Turkell and the man is arrested. McKinney goes to Turkell's apartment and finds the photos of the dead strippers, including one of Cheryl.Susan is at Turkell's cell, wanting to talk to him about Cordell. Turkell says that if she wants to know, she should just stick around. Meanwhile, the zombie-like Cordell shoots and kills a number of police officers at a shooting range (from behind the targets), grabs a gun, walks into the police station, and begins shooting all the officers and people that are in his path. Susan is taken hostage by Turkell who breaks out of his cell with his cellmate, Blum, whom get some guns from the precinct armory as well as police uniforms. Turkell tells Susan that they are going to Sing Sing to break out all the prisoners on Death Row to begin a crime spree. Turkell, Blum, and Cordell get to a prison bus and Turkell gets in the driver's seat and escapes by plowing through some cop cars. McKinney rides with Doyle as they chase the prison bus to Sing Sing, where he tells the commissioner that the only way he can stop Cordell is by reopening the "rights violations" case against Cordell and sign a confession, admitting to setting up the troublesome officer up for finding out about "payoffs" involving the mayor, the governor, and most of New York's high ranking police officials.Turkell and the bus arrive at Sing Sing and since Turkell is disguised as a police officer, the cop at the front gate allows them in and says that the prisoner they are transporting (Blum) has been "delivered". But just then, the warden tells the cop over the phone that Blum was broken out of jail an hour ago and tells the cop to seal off the prison. As Cordell and Turkell begin to release all the prisoners from their cells, over an intercom, Doyle tells Cordell to stop and that his conviction will be reversed due to perjury at the trial committed by himself, the former commissioner Pike as well as most of the high ranking officers on the police force. As Turkell calls out after him, Cordell walks past the Death Row inmates and into the general population as the prisoners are beginning to riot. It is here that Cordell finds the three prisoners who attacked and killed him many years ago. One of the prisoners who attacked him throws a burning bottle at him, and a fiery Cordell, grabs, kicks, and throws his enemies against a wall. As Cordell burns a fourth man to death, a forlorn Turkell stabs him with the cop's Billy stick knife. Cordell grabs Turkell, and the men burn and both of them break through the burning wall and fall all the way down into the prison bus which explodes.In the final scene, Cordell is awarded a proper funeral and burial. McKinney drops the officer's badge on the semi-buried casket. After McKinney walks away with Susan, Cordell's hand pushes through the coffin and grabs his badge. | cult, revenge, grindhouse film, murder, flashback | train | imdb | The film starts off with a recap of what happened at the end of the original Maniac Cop and this leads to the police force believing that Matt Cordell drowned and his body got washed away.
So, it's up to detective Sean McKinney and police psychologist Susan Riley to put a stop to this macabre madness."Maniac Cop 2" is a pearler of a trashy sequel that's just as dark and entertaining like its predecessor
maybe more so.
Robert Davi paints an convincing performance as the hard-ass detective Sean McKinney who's on the trail of Cordell and Claudia Christian is equally good as police psychologist Susan Riley.
Michael Lerner is excellent as the slimy Commissioner Edward Doyle and there's some quick scenes with Charles Napier, Sam Raimi and Danny Trejo.Director Lustig manages to grab you with some well set-up explosive thrills (like the terminator style slaughter of a police station) and he makes the most out of the very grimy and atmospheric backdrop of New York.
This direct-to-video follow up still holds up well as one of the better B-films of the early 90s.We all know the story of how dedicated NYPD officer Matt Cordell became the Maniac Cop after being framed by his superiors and sent off to prison as part of a corruption cover-up.
Bruce Campbell and Laurene Landon return briefly from the first film though neither of them survives very long, and new characters are brought in to deal with the psychotic officer: grizzled NYPD detective Robert D'avi (of the James Bond flick "License to Kill") and police psychologist Claudia Christian (who went on to "Babylon 5" as well as lots of other genre TV/film).
The ante is upped this time because the Maniac Cop has hooked up with a partner for this second installment (Leo Rossi of "Halloween II" fame), a serial killer who's been stalking strippers and prostitutes on New York's seedy streets.
That doesn't take away from the fact that "Maniac Cop 2" works beautifully both as an action flick and a horror/slasher movie.
Car crashes, shootouts, throat impalings, explosions -- whatever your taste in carnage, "Maniac Cop 2" will have a scene that satisfies.The (slightly) larger budget when compared to the first "MC" go-round allows for nastier makeup on the Cordell character (who by this time is basically a hulking, undead Jason Voorhees type in a cop uniform), better set pieces, and improved stunts and pyrotechnics.
Robert Z'Dar returns as the super cop, turned maniac cop; Matt Cordell in this surprisingly good sequel to the surprisingly good 1988 horror-thriller, Maniac Cop. This time, however, he's not alone in his fight against the police force as he's found an accomplice; the local serial killer.
(except maybe a second sequel, of course).The directing and writing/producing team of William Lustig and Larry Cohen return to helm this movie, and do a good job as they did in the first.
Of course, his role in the Maniac Cop films is nothing like the Ash that we all know and love, but B-movie fans have come to expect a certain kind of performance from Bruce and that wasn't what he gave in the first movie.
Also new is Claudia Christian, who pretty much does what Laurene Landon did in the first film, and Leo Rossi enters the fold as Matt Cordell's newfound friend, who also happens to enjoy strangling strippers.
Also like the first film, the sequel features several instances of lovely black humour, portrayed best by Maniac Cop saving a man from a parking ticket, and then taking the traffic officer away...literally, on the back of his crane truck.
Of course, this point is lost somewhat under the violent gun battles; but the fact that the movie is actually trying to convey a point is admirable from a film that you wouldn't expect any kind of meaning from.Overall, Maniac Cop 2 is a lovely piece of B-grade cinema.
Maniac Cop 2 reunites several of the original Maniac Cop cast members including Bruce "Evil Dead" Campbell, Laurene Landon, and Robert Z'Dar as the main title character.Officer Matt Cordell, a.k.a. the notorious Maniac Cop (Z'Dar) is back from the dead.
The Maniac Cop shows no mercy as he dispatches a good number of unfortunate victims who stand in his path of death and destruction...No one believes the story of the Maniac Cop, except for Detective Sean McKinney (played by a woefully charming Robert Davi).
McKinney is the only other Police Detective willing to go into the case of the "Maniac Cop." However, as Cordell continues to remain impervious to bullets and gunfire, his wraith only continues to grow...Maniac Cop 2 is a superb, fast paced sequel with great car crashes and plenty of intensive action sequences!
This maniac kills strippers.The brilliant shootout in the police station rivals The Terminator and the pace is fast.Again featuring a brilliant B-list cast including: Bruce Campbell, Robert Davi, Charles Napier and Babylon 5 star Claudia Christian..
Exploitation legends William Lustig (director) and Larry Cohen (writer/producer) team up once again for this better than you'd expect sequel to the b-grade classic 'Maniac Cop'..
Forever." Once again director William Lustig ('Maniac', 'Vigilante') and writer/producer Larry Cohen ('God Told Me To', 'Q The Winged Serpent') team up for this better than you'd expect sequel.
Robert Z'Dar reprises his role as Matt Cordell the "maniac cop", but like the original the supporting cast steals the movie from him, and in this case are the main reason to tune in.
B-grade legend Bruce Campbell and Cohen regular Laurene Landon from the first movie put in an appearance, but the rest of the cast is new - Robert Davi (Bond baddie in 'License To Kill'), and Claudia Christian (then best remembered for her bit in 'The Hidden', now for her recurring role in 'Babylon 5') as cops, and Leo Rossi ('The Accused') as a creepy serial killer who befriends Cordell.
Many people, including William Lustig himself, think 'Maniac Cop 2' is the best in the series, but I still prefer the original.
Hulking, undead officer Matt Cordell (Robert D'Zar) returns from his apparent watery grave to wreck yet more carnage in this entertaining sequel to the 1988 film.Whilst in my opinion not quite on par with the original, this one nonetheless certainly ups the action sequences.
Acceptable followup set in New York about the huge supernatural police man , Matt Cordell, Robert ZDar, who joins forces with another murderer , Leo Rossi, executing various grisly killings.
At the same time, Cordell executes a relentless vendetta against the nasty criminals who attacked him in prison.There's a monster-like on the loose on the streets of NY and a Police Inspector, Robert Davi, and the police psychiatrist , Claudia Christian , set out in chasing him at whatever cost .This B movie contains shocks , violence , horror , chills , high body-count and a lot of blood and guts .
This second one was as worthy successor to the superior original and it also has a fine cast as Robert Davi, Leo Rossi , Claudia Christian , Charles Napier ,Michael Lerner , Paula Trickey, Clarence Williams III, among others.
**SPOILERS** More violent then the original "Maniac Cop" with a far higher body count "Maniac Cop II" starts where it's predecessor left off with Matt Cordell,Robert Z'Dar, crashing into the East River on a hijacked police patty-wagon and being according to the official police report swept out to sea, we could only hope.Out of the night this giant killer policeman is back but this time to take care of some unfinished business, and loose ends, from the first "Maniac Cop" film.
Cordell want's justice in his own warped and twisted way and that's to have his name cleared and those in the police department and NYC political hierarchy who set him up and had him convicted and sent to Sing Sing to be brought before the bar of justice.It's hard to be critical of the rampaging "Maniac Cop" Matt Cordell since he does have a reason for his actions even though a lot of the people that he murders in the film had nothing to do with his being sent to prison an innocent man.
The movie brings out, unlike the first "Maniac Cop", that Cordell was getting too close to exposing, like another Frank Serpico, corruption in the police and Mayors office.
I thought this movie was the best in the series.Matt cordell the evil cop is at it again and truly shows his anger.Some scenes are scary as hell and make you think twice about cops.New york scenery is great and Leo rossi is great as a sleazy physco killer.Robert davi is really good in this movie,he plays a selfish cop who really wont put up with much garbage..
It's nice to see Bruce Campbell and Laurene Landon back, and series additions Robert Davi and Claudia Christian have palpable chemistry, which makes the movie's escalating plot register more than one might expect.
"Maniac Cop 2" is a fairly lucklustre cross between a slasher and an action flick.The first one was mostly forgettable, but did have an atmosphere, a memorable villain, and the presence of Bruce Campbell.This sequel is muddled.
He feels more like a vigilante than a villain, and his quest for revenge against the guys who slashed his face up (with the footage reused in this sequel) is understandable, not fearsome.As an action movie, it has nothing of note.The third Maniac Cop is by far the best.
A very good Action packed Horror Thriller & Robert Davi is a very cool tough detective character now on the hunt for The Maniac Cop but in my opinion it's not as great as the Cult CLASSIC 1988 original & that's because of the great TOM ATKINS!!!
MANIAC COP 2 is still a very good dark Thriller & still had that gritty tone & seedy New York City atmosphere & plenty of gore & killings & shoot outs so yeah a very good sequel & very good movie, they just shouldn't have killed off Detective frank McRae (Tom Atkins) as he was a fantastic character & could have returned for this sequel & would have made it better but I've been a fan of the excellent Robert Davi for as long as i can remember?
Of course, this is hardly The Godfather Part II or Toy Story 2, but, with an increased budget and B-movie maestro Larry Cohen back on writing duties, director William Lustig pulls out all the stops to deliver a hugely entertaining, if formulaic, slasher follow-up.
Jack (Bruce Campbell) and Teresa (Laurene Landon) are also back, although they don't last very long, as we are replayed the climax of Maniac Cop, where the seemingly bullet-proof psychopathic ex-cop Matt Cordell (Robert Z'Dar) was last seen in the driver's seat of a van heading straight into the sea.Naturally, Cordell's body is nowhere to be found and he is soon spreading terror once again across New York City, gunning down an innocent convenience store clerk who was in the process of being robbed.
As it was revealed at the ending of the first movie, Matt Cordell, the maniac cop (Robert Z'Dar) is alive and returns to exact his mission.
When another spate of violence against officers occurs, a detective ties them to a previous rampage committed by the undead Maniac Cop Matt Cordell attempting to continue his original quest for vengeance and recruits the two survivors to stop him.This one here is incredibly impressive and manages to have a lot of things going for it.
the first Maniac cop was a classic, the third part i have not seen in years so i can't say how it was i don't remember, Maniac cop 2 pops up on cable every few months, i thought it was ok, nothing great, it is fast paced for the most part but it's the same thing has the first part Cordell out for revenge, and what i don't understand is how can you kill off Bruce campbell?
Maniac Cop 2 (1990) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Sequel to the 1988 cult film has the psychotic cop (Robert Z'Dar) back and this time he's killing any fellow officer that he can find.
Was it perhaps "let's take everything that part one didn't have, but make it worse"?If you grew up with watching movies during the 1980s and 1990s, then there are some pretty familiar faces on the cast list, which includes Charles Napier, Robert Davi and, of course, Robert Z'Dar as Matt Cordell.
It was also nice to see Bruce Campbell return to the movie, although I was quite surprised with his minor role that he had here.The effects in "Maniac Cop 2" were pretty bad, and they came off more as being laughable than believable.
And it made Matt Cordell look more like a hilarious low-budget puppet than it made him look like a mutilated police officer."Maniac Cop 2" pretty much suffers from being a sequel as well, because it doesn't reach the first movie to even mid-level.
In fact Maniac Cop 2 while not being quite as exciting or fresh as the first movie, adds a whole demented spin to things that is wonderful to behold.Vicious zombie psychopath Matt Cordell is back, he's bigger, he's a lot scarier looking on account of a short sojourn at the bottom of the New York river, and man is he mad.
Starting his vendetta anew with a few random victims and the man who put him in the river in the first place, Jack Forrest (played for an alarmingly short period of time by an earnest and confident Bruce Campbell, as in the original film).Maniac Cop 2 plays up the 'unstoppable zombie SOB' element of the original, turning Cordell into a Voorhees style proper zombie cop as opposed to the disfigured mute from the original, but it works well, given that he's spent a fair while at the bottom of a river, he would have decomposed a bit, and given the increased action quotient of this addition to the series, it makes sense to have him more openly horrifying as he has to spend a lot of time on screen.
After Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell) and Teresa Mallory (Laurene Landon) defeat Matt Cordell (Robert Z'Dar) by drowning him in the river, they think all is well.
They're sent to Dr. Susan Riley (Claudia Christian) to prove their sanity and return to the force, but before they're reinstated, Jack is murdered and the force finally realizes they must accept the fact of Cordell's return and find a way to stop his murderous rampage, all the while trying to put a stop to a serial killer who specializes in murdering strippers.After seeing the terrific original for the first time, I decided to check out the sequels, the first being Maniac Cop 2 (1990), followed by Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence (1993).
After a brief recap of the events in the previous movie, William Lustig's MANIAC COP 2 offers much more of the same violence and mayhem, albeit glossier and slightly less dark than in the original film.
Okay, so the story is predictable and barely links together a string of set-pieces, and said set-pieces are also familiar (the police station massacre is almost a direct reprisal from the first movie, but with better action), but it's all done with style thanks to Lustig and is never less than watchable.Three actors reprise their roles from the original movie: first up is the hulking Robert Z'Dar as the madman of the title, looking more zombie-like than ever this time around - he might as well be Jason (from one of the later Friday the 13th movies) in a uniform.
The stunts are very impressive, and the cast is just littered with familiar faces, who approach Larry Cohens' story with square-jawed conviction.Matt Cordell (Robert Z'Dar), naturally, has survived and goes on to commit a new series of murders.
Fans of "Maniac Cop" 1 will note with pleasure the presence of returnees Bruce Campbell and super sexy Laurene Landon, no matter if their characters are treated in a typical slasher sequel fashion.
However the maniac cop Officer Matt Cordell (Robert Z'Dar) is not dead, and makes an appearance, he kills the store clerk leaving the robber to be shot by the real N.Y. police when they arrive for a crime he didn't commit.
This exciting and action-packed sequel to the immensely enjoyable original has the unrelenting brutal badge-wearing wacko Matt Cordell (the hulking Robert Z'Dar) team up with scuzzy serial killer Turkell (delightfully played to the lip-smacking odious hilt by a bearded Leo Rossi) to wreak plenty of gory havoc in New York City.
Appearing in nice supporting parts are the always affable Bruce Campbell as doomed cop Jack Forrest, Laurene Landon as Jack's equally ill-fated girlfriend Teresa Malloy, Michael Lerner as a shady politician, Paula Trickey as a sexy stripper who narrowly avoids being offed by Turkell, Robert Earl Jones as a blind newstand vendor, Clarence Williams III and Danny Trejo as prison inmates, Charles Napier as a tabloid TV show host, and ubiquitous Cohen film regular James Dixon (Lt. Perkins in the "It's Alive" pictures) in his umpteenth police officer role..
The best scene is Maniac Cop attacking the police station like the Terminator.
Other than most horror villains, I think Matt Cordell a.k.a Maniac Cop had a good reason to come back and avenge himself in this sequel.
Director William Lustig and writer Larry Cohen did a great effort to make a worthy sequel to their surprising original.
This time he has a new "nemesis" in wily and street tough Detective Sean McKinney(Robert Davi is perfect form as a noirish archetype, a man of few words who gets the job done)who joins forces with police psychologist Susan Riley(Claudia Christian of "Babylon Five fame)in tracking down Cordell.
~Spoiler~In the original Maniac Cop, they killed Tom Atkins and replaced him with Bruce Campbell.
This time around the crazed cop, Matt Cordell, teams up with serial killer Leo Rossi. |
tt0254455 | Lucía y el sexo | Lucía (Paz Vega), a waitress, is talking on the phone with her depressed writer boyfriend Lorenzo (Tristán Ulloa) after they had a nasty argument, where, afterward, she walked out. Since he's been in a 'funk' for a while, she's worried and goes home to console him. Finding an empty apartment, Lucía is frantic. She receives a phone call from the police while finding a suicide note, and is so afraid of bad news that she hangs up, assuming the worst. They call back, but she ignores the ringing phone, packs a bag, and flees. Looking for a new beginning, Lucía travels to the mysterious Balearic Islands that Lorenzo had always talked of, but had recently been very negative about.
Six years earlier: Lorenzo is having casual sex in the ocean, on a bright moon-lit night, with a beautiful married woman he just met named Elena. They part ways, expecting to never see each other again. She discovers she is pregnant with his child, and attempts to find him, but, not knowing much about him, is unable to.
Later, as Lorenzo talks with his literary agent at a restaurant, discussing his writer's block, Lucía catches his attention as he gets up from his table to get cigarettes. She asks to speak to him and he joins her. She brazenly tells him that ever since she read his latest book, she has been following him and has fallen passionately in love with him. A smitten Lorenzo immediately engages the sexy, passionate Lucía and she moves into Lorenzo's apartment.
The film then interweaves the past and present, of the characters in the film, and the characters in Lorenzo's novel.
Lorenzo repeatedly stalls for time on his new book with his editor, while his relationship with Lucía deepens. About six years pass. Lorenzo learns he has a daughter as a result of his encounter with Elena and begins to visit the child at her school, meeting her babysitter Belén. Belén tells Lorenzo her mother is a recently retired porn actress with a new hot boyfriend, and virtually seduces Lorenzo with chatter of sexual context and banter about her fantasies. Lorenzo uses these encounters and his fantasies about Belén and her mother as content for his book, and Lucía reads about it, thinking it fiction. Meanwhile, he does not disclose his fatherhood to Lucía or the child, nor even attempt to contact Elena.
Belén flirts with Lorenzo and eventually invites him over to Elena's house while she babysits his daughter, Luna. Lorenzo tells Luna a bedtime story, and after she falls asleep, he and Belén begin to have sex. They are interrupted as Luna knocks at the bedroom door, and they watch in horror as the family dog, a large Rotweiler in 'protect mode' kills Luna. Belén is stunned. Lorenzo runs away and falls into a deep depression.
Lorenzo's writing turns dark, towards depraved sex and death. He anonymously contacts Elena, who has moved to the island to find solace and recall better days, and provides her a nice story about a beautiful child that loves to swim in the sea, to cheer her spirits. But his now guilt-ridden and uncommunicative relationship with Lucía begins to collapse.
Back in the present, Lucía meets a scuba diver on the island, Carlos, and through him, Elena, who runs an inn on the island. Lucía rents a room, and the women bond as friends, not knowing their intimate connection. But when Lucía mentions Lorenzo by name, and his past visit to the island long ago, Elena deduces the connection. Lucía sees a picture of Luna (looking remarkably like her father and remembering the name from Lorenzo's novel) and she makes the connection too.
Lorenzo's editor visits Lorenzo in the hospital, where he was taken after being in an 'accident', spending several weeks in recovery. When Lorenzo asks about Lucía, the editor tells Lorenzo he thinks Lucía thinks he is dead. Lorenzo guesses Lucía is on the island and has the editor take him there. After both women discover that Lorenzo isn't dead, the three characters cope with and finally understand the entanglements of their interwoven relationships. | psychedelic, flashback | train | wikipedia | The title, I believe, refers to Lorenzo's past (The Sex and what happened as a result of it), and his present (Lucia).
I would have given this film a 10 if it hadn't been for the fact that the most pivotal scene is shot in an incredibly vague manner, which left me confused as to what had actually happened until much later in the movie, but it is a brilliant and heartfelt experience nonetheless..
We're merely watching how a movie is structured, with the imagined story not having the usual dramatic impact.It's remarkable that so many people are offended by the sex scenes, as it's already in the title.
People who consider this film just an excuse for depicting sex scenes as the highlight of the movie are pretty much clueless.
It is movies like this one that remind us that European cinema can scale the emotional dilemmas and mountains of a story where other films look at a storyline in terms of physical developments.
That way you can try an make things turn out better ("If you give me time", says Lorenzo, Lucia's boyfriend.) A more mature and rounded work than the Director's earlier "Lovers of the Arctic Circle", Sex and Lucia combines wonderful acting, a great story, innovative cinema and spine-tingly beautiful photography.
Ik know there's a lot of sex in it and yes, there are a lot of suspicious coincidences, but I looked past that.For starters, I loved the story, it wasn't boring at all, despite what some may say.
If you watch it attentively and past merely what you see, you will notice the subtlety of the characters and story.Last of all i would like to say that the English title (Sex and Lucia) is an abomination to the original title (Lucia y el Sexo).
The sexual scenery functions not only as entrance to the story; I think Medem really wanted to depict something like 'the ultimate sex' both as experience and as ultimate, divine ideal, something like Goethes 'eternal feminine.' As something to strive for, it can deeply affect our lives by giving it the splendour we need to keep it worthwhile, even if we fail.
In that case, we might see that in the end our stories come true as well, be it by breaking in in the middle.The question I asked myself after watching the movie for the third time was: where exactly is this 'middle' of it?
Exactly that scene is not shown - it's the hole in the middle, through which the old reality passes into the new.For me, this movie is a small masterpiece, which shows how film and literature can work together, and how more powerful ideas about ourselves are then the circumstances we are put into.
I think that despite it's flaws, this film shows a great vibrancy and energy.People talk a lot about the sex scenes.
I was disappointed, as I'd enjoyed Medem's previous film Los Amantes del Circulo Polar, where the passionate love story seemed a lot more genuine and the tragic ending seemed to fit better with the theme of fate playing with people's lives than Lucia y el sexo's tragic-to-happy contortions.
Their whole love story seems artificial from the inception, it seems there was too much work on the symbolism of their relationship - the tormented writer and storyteller, the reader and savior (Lucia as a ray of sunshine) - rather than on the real intensity of feeling between two people.
Good acting, superb job of photography, optimistic way of portraying the human being, an excellent movie!Don´t be shocked with the sex scenes, there´s much more story around.
As Luna's fate in this movie both infects and cleanses Salvador, taking him through his past and present.Medem also likes to use nature to symbolize stages and feelings in his character's lives.
That was functionable in the story as the characters saturate themselves in it, leading to problems, but somehow to me it also felt unbalanced.Julio Medem has really made a beautiful film with Lucia y el sexo.
Every time I watch a film by Julio Medem, the same thing happens to me, and that is that I feel weightless and it feels like time is slower and the images have a different color.
With this film, it was no exception; the moment the credits appeared and I left the theater my feet felt like I was floating over the ground.This spanish auteur, has showed us throughout time, that he is able to wake up even the most hidden feelings from us and play with them as the pieces of the puzzles that are his movies are set together like in "vacas", "la ardilla roja" and most greatly in "los amantes del circulo polar".
What call my attention the most is that, I have the feeling that Medem tried to get away from his past with this story but ended up coming back to it, which is a great thing in the sense that the poetry and melancholy that is always present in his movies, are also part of this one.The main question regarding the film is, What does "Lucia y el sexo" mean?, what is the correlation between what happens and the actual ritual of sex?
To get an idea, you have to let yourself go along the images and surely you might find the answer at the end.One more thing, who wouldn´t fall in love with someone like Lucia?
As opposed to what some people may think, I believe that all the sex scenes, although they are pretty explicit, are totally necessary in order to tell the story and to show the characters just as they are.
If you don't mind seeing some, you may say, awkward sex scenes, and you're looking for a really great plot, with great dialogs full of symbolisms, and also excellent photography, then you're just gonna love this one..
The plot reminds of certain films by Almodovàr, but unfortunately Julio Medem is not Almodovàr.The sex disappears after one third of the story.
There are too much gratuitous sex scenes and exposure of genitals, inclusive of penises, and although Paz Vega is a delicious woman, I do not like this type of appellative exaggeration in a film.
I understand that the title of this movie mainly refer to periods of time, "Lucia" in the present days, sharing her life with Lorenzo, and "Sex" the consequences of his intercourse with an unknown woman six years ago.
Sex and Lucia (2001)A fascinating, moving, beautiful, sexy movie.
Because one of the main characters is also the writer's most devoted (and obsessed) reader, the fictional elements become true, or at least get blurred with the truth, and so what the viewer sees (poor depraved viewer at this point) is partial and suggestive and puzzling.Which is exactly why the movie is so good.
One small heads up for people who might need to know—there is a rather too-long section near the start with lots of frank and varied sex, and it drags a bit (and is too self-indulgent for the plot), but then the rest of the movie largely avoids it (not completely!).
But since you are an author and pretty good at that, hence familiar with shifting characters inside a narrative that shifts as they move, you know you have to write deeper than you can immediately make sense of: so you write your novel the ordinary way, a melodrama about love that hurts, but with one caveat: there's a hole at the end that takes you right back to some part in the middle.
Lucia falls in the hole, and comes out the other end as fragments of what we presume is a whole story, a whole life read one way through.
If I were to describe this movie in one word I would say "not good." If I were to use two words, I would say "bad." This movie has beautiful women and many sex scenes.
Granted, the movie can be hard to follow because of the vast amounts of symbolism and somewhat confusing story line, but it becomes very clear by the half-way point.
The movie twisted and turned so much that I found myself carefully paying attention to every little detail only to realize that when the film ended absolutely nothing was accomplished.
In my opinion this movie is like most of the European movies, love it or hate it, I guess some people just don't like explicit sexuality no matter how is it presented, in this case they will not be impressed bye the "sincerity" of the movie, anyway I am not supporting the standardization of the movies and I guess people from Spain can love or hate this movie as much as we can do the same, they are not obliged just because they live in Spain to love and support every Spanish movie, I loved the movie and I recommend everyone who considers the story interesting to watch it and to make themselves a personal opinion..
But it's a great film in the tradition of David Lynch, and it can be compared to "Mulholland Dr.".The action is good, but it's Julio Medems visual style that stands out, how he uses the camera and light to tell so much of the story, and the cutting of the movie is amazing.In my eyes Julio Medem is much greater than Pedro Almodovar, much because of the visual style, but also his ability to tell complex stories, like all his movies are.9/10.
I liked Julio Medem's "Vacas" and "Los amantes del círculo polar" very much (I have not seen "La ardilla roja" but I've been told it's good), but this time I found his movie so ridiculously pretentious and boring that I could not believe my ears (because my eyes were more or less fascinated by the vistas.) Maybe if I were a foreign language spectator, I would not notice the actors' mumbling as I read the subtitles, but this film even needs subtitles for a Spanish-speaking person like me.
Lorenzo the male character is very disturbed and there comes a point that you begin to feel "who cares?" when watching his story unfold.
I say this because the film was starting on tv with some scenes that i could see the movie was going to have lots of explicit sex scenes.
It is a heady film that feels like a lot of thinking has to be done by the viewer while having too much of that good wine, enjoying the sunset and reading a script upside down.
Another complex element of the film is the fine line between reality and fantasy, fact and fiction, and that's something else that draws the viewer in - what really happens in the story and what doesn't?
Firstly,poster of film and the title is so true and so misconcepting that if you willing to watch that movie because of that two,I'm sorry for you.Main actors and actresses are really good and carry the film with the most realistic and emotional way.All of them.Although script is compelling,with symbolism and flashbacks,it is obvious that it is well-written and don't lose it's affect till the end.And the most dense and strong instinct of human,sexuality is one of the most strongest,natural and witty equipment of film.It also makes film more from inside of normal life.And it symbolizes the affection of people and bonding.In short,It is one of the greatest film of Spanish Cinema with unique patterns..
This movie cannot be explained in words.It has to to be watched in order to grasp the love portrayed by the actors.Wonderful acting by each character.The story has an appealing factor which keeps you glued to your screens.The first and the last scene are incredibly matched at the end.The story line is rigid and moves in a river like flow.The sex is hot and there is are no hurdles in expressing the true love that the characters have for each other.The movies leaves you satisfied in every way.From the intensive love making to the raging crying scenes, this movie delivers in each and every way.This movie shows the honest feelings that one person has for the other.
The island on which the movie is made is a sight on its own.The lives of the characters are beautifully merged into one story.At one point the movie becomes more than sex it grows a successful story.The sex scenes are an additional perk,the sexy Spanish chicks and the intense and gratuitous sex scenes are merely to support the story.In this movie beauty is all around the way it was intended.The love in this movie is indescribable.In my opinion this movie delivers from the lust of boobs to the lust of an incredible story..
If, as writer and director Julio Medem is reported to say, sex plays a role in this film just as much as main characters Lucia or Lorenzo do, this role would be that of a stooge of sorts, always predictable in its sometimes grotesquely superlative ubiquity.
Since it is always there, as the air they breathe, sex never seems to exert any decisive influence either on the plot or on the psychological development of the characters - it just feeds lines to them.I must admit, though, that -to the best of my recollection- never so many explicit sex scenes were shown in a film without letting it slip into the realm of dull hard-core.
Enjoy -like I did- its strange beauty, the magic of the image treatment -and the incredible landscapes of Formentera's island- , a bunch of young actors in rapture -pay attention about Najwa Nimri in "Elena" role- , and be tolerant with Julio Medem, better director and visual creator than writer, and one -if not the best- of the most original Spanish filmmakers..
A major disappointment from Medem, Sex and Lucia is an overlong and annoying art house film with a plot as flimsy as cappuccino froth.
The story starts as Lucía (Paz Vega) comes home to find her boyfriend, Lorenzo (Tristán Ulloa), missing and possibly dead, due to what seems like a suicide note left for her to find.
I watched Sex and Lucia ten years ago and liked it a lot.
This movie was quite captivating and at first seems completely confusing because you think " okay what did this have to do with sex and Lucía" and they way I look at it is that the sex seems like an attention grabber.
This is such a good film with good-looking actors, beautiful actresses, good acting, splendid scenes, wonderful music, adventurous themes, creative imagination, interesting plot and many many more!!!
I watched this because I liked another Julio Medem film, Lovers of the Arctic Circle, so much.
I still prefer "Lovers," but Sex and Lucia is a good film.
Honestly, by the end of the film, I'd gotten over trying to make perfect sense of the plot (I was kind of assuming that the American release was heavily edited, but in reality only a couple of minutes of full frontal nudity were cut) and just enjoyed it for its beautiful images (shot digitally, which I think has its place) and all the hot, hot sex.
Yesterday,I rented Sex and Lucía and it was the first Julio Medem's film I saw.But,when I finished seeing his extraordinary film,I decided to look for Medem's previous films.The film is perfect and it tells a totally human and honest story,at the same time it challenges the spectator.I did not see much films with a story so well constructed like the one which tells this film.The screenplay,written by the director,is full of surprises but it does not look for big twists.The movie shows us the different pieces of a puzzle and the spectator needs to construct the puzzle.Another great thing this film has is that the conclusion is not definitive.The spectator has to take out conclusions.The emotions are very natural but they never manipulate the spectator.Sex and Lucía is an extraordinary,beautiful and complex film which challenges the spectator.I recommend this film a lot..
Once again, linking up the out-of-sequence scenes is not for those more intent on finishing off their pop-corn or wondering whether the boyfriend/girlfriend is going to hold her/his hand before the film gets too far on.Bringing together Paz Vega, Elena Anaya and Javier Cámara so that they would be ready for `Hable con Ella' (qv) and adding Najwa Nimri after her excellent results in `Los Amantes del Círculo Polar', Medem throws into the mix Tristán Ulloa and conjures up a horrifyingly painful story of glorious love and frenzied sex.
"Sex and Lucia" shifts perspective sofrequently and abruptly that, although the plot isn't difficult to follow,I felt like I was watching a whole different deal each time.
When I see this movie at Toronto Film Festival, there was a lot of concern about exhibiting to an American public not ready for such EXPLICIT SEX SCENES.
This film is not for everyone - like most foreign films - and by it's title, you can assume that there's a good chance that there's quite a bit of sexual content in it, so I'm not sure why anyone would criticize it for that.Anyway, this is by far one of the better films I've seen recently, and it's not really about sex, but about the relationship Lucia has with her boyfriend and the crisis he is going through.
Big deal; Paz is still absolutely gorgeous, and don't think I am not in love with Najwa Nimri too!Again, enough about me.The sex is the overcoating of the movie, but the storyline and plot are great as well.
Still, while most French, Italian and Spanish "foreign" films that make their way onto the American video shelves are packed with sex but with very little story.
I haven't timed it, but I guess that I'm not really exaggerating if I say that 30 to 40 % of the movie was made up by gratuitous sex scenes.The movie brings us the story of Lucía and Lorenzo.
When you look at the movie's title the Sex is just as important as the Lucia. |
tt0472181 | The Smurfs | Sophie and her brother Sam discover that the doll their father brought home from Belgium is actually a living and breathing smurf. It's not just any smurf - Its Clumsy Smurf! Sophie tries to get her mom and dad to embrace Clumsy and a family member, but ultimately she realizes what he really wants is to reunite with his fellow smurfs.
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As the Smurfs are getting ready for the Blue Moon Festival, Papa Smurf sees in his cauldron a vision of Clumsy Smurf reaching for a dragon wand and the Smurfs in cages while Gargamel laughs. Not wanting this vision to come true, Papa Smurf refuses to allow Clumsy to pick Smurf Roots, but Clumsy disobeys Papa Smurf and ends up unintentionally leading Gargamel and Azrael to the village. The Smurfs all flee for their lives while Clumsy unknowingly runs towards the Forbidden Falls, with Papa Smurf, Smurfette, Grouchy, Brainy and Gutsy running after him. They find him at the edge of a cliff, and while trying to help him up, they are sucked into a gigantic vortex that spirits them to present day New York City. To make matters worse, Gargamel and Azrael follow and the Smurfs end up in the apartment of Patrick and Grace Winslow, a married and expectant couple and their Basset Hound Elway. After clarifying things, the Winslows befriend them and allow them to stay in their apartment. The next day, needing to find a "star gazer", the Smurfs follow Patrick to his work place at Anjelou Cosmetics before he calls Grace to pick them up.
However, having extracted "Smurf essence" from a lock of Smurfette's hair, Gargamel also arrives and ends up being treated by Patrick's boss Odile upon using most of his acquired magic to turn her mother young. But Gargamel resumes his search upon recognizing Patrick and following him to the toy store where the Smurfs ran into after finding their star gazer, a telescope. The Winslows manage to save the Smurfs from both the children wanting them and Gargamel, who ends up being sent to jail before he manages to bust out with the aid of house flies. By that time, Papa Smurf manages to calculate the night he and the others can get home. But first, he must figure out the spell to do so. Patrick tells them that there is an old book store in the city near Anjelou Cosmetics as he bonds with the Smurfs after sending what he believed to be his finished advertisement to be published. However, the next day, Patrick learns that Clumsy accidentally attached a blue-moon themed side project and he loses his temper before walking out on both the Smurfs and Grace to save his job.
Forced to search on their own, the Smurfs find the store and find the book LHistoire de Schtroumpfs by researcher Peyo, containing the spell to turn the moon blue. But learning of their location, Gargamel sneaks into the book store and finds the dragon wand from Papa Smurf's vision, transferring his magic into it as he uses it to capture Papa Smurf as he sends the others to safety. Though the Smurfs promised Papa Smurf that they won't try to save him and return home, Clumsy and Patrick, having saw the error of his actions, convince them to plan a rescue. At Belvedere Castle, after increasing the dragon wand's power with bits of Papa Smurf's beard, Gargamel finds himself facing all the Smurfs that were summoned to New York by Brainy conjuring the blue moon. As the Smurf army battles Gargamel, Smurfette fights Azrael and saves Papa Smurf before they join the fray. Though Gargamel attempts to break the Smurfs by killing off Papa Smurf, Patrick save him while Gutsy knocks the dragon wand out of the wizard's hand. Clumsy tries to catch it, and to Papa Smurf's surprise, manages to catch it and send Gargamel flying into a trash can and being hit by a bus with the advertisement "Blue Moon" with it before Papa Smurf breaks it. Soon after, the Smurfs take their leave as Patrick receives a call from Odile that he still has his job. Later, while Patrick and Grace have a baby boy, whom they name Blue to honor them, the Smurfs rebuild their village in the style of New York, where the Winslows reside. Meanwhile, Gargamel and Azrael are still trapped in New York. | good versus evil | train | imdb | I've seen him get restless before in the theatre, this one he was more or less falling asleep.When we got to the scene where Gargamel peed in the restaurant i was ready to check out, but i would brave it if my son was having a good time.Wonder of wonders, at that point he turned to me and said "Dad, i have to go to the bathroom, but when we're done there can we not come back into the theatre and just go home?"Tells you all you need to know about this one.Don't waste your time or your money..
It had a good story line and was much funnier than I expected.The live characters were cast very well with Hank Azaria playing a perfect Gargamel and the smurf voices were good as well, especially Jonathan Winters as Papa Smurf and Katy Perry as Smurfette (my daughter's favorite).Bottom line, if you have small children or you were a fan of the cartoon growing up, you will enjoy this film..
Maybe I am biased, as I am a super fan of smurfs, but I still want to give my nod for this movie for three reasons: VERY GOOD 3D: At some point, both I and my friend felt that we are really in the scene.
The Smurfs 1/2 StarOf all the bad movies based on cartoon series and comic strips, this has got to be the worst I've ever seen, the story is simple, the smurfs try to get away from gargamel when all of sudden they get time traveled to what you believe New York City of all places then they meet a man played by an embarrassed Neil Patrick Harris who has so good in Clara's heart and TV shows like doogie houser m.d. and how I Met you mother and some other woman to protect the smurfs or else gargamel will turn them into gold for what reason.
Now the smurfs I Remember from the cartoon was funny, amazing and had a good heart, this one is just absolutely nasty, truly dreadful and truly, absolutely unnecessary.The Acting is in this one is either horrible, waste of talent, (what the hell is katy perry doing in this piece of junk, truly terrible), the screenplay is simply a big mess, the CGI effects are horrible, the 3D is trash, the musical score is full of crap and everything else is truly stupid and here are some things that I Truly hated about this movieThat one smurf would shake his ass, one smurf would fall into the toilet after he blew his bubble, that the smurfs would also look at a Sony electronic billboard and guess who release this movie,You guess it Columbia pictures, the makers of this film and the same ones who did two dreadfully bad films like Leonard Part 6 and Ishtar in 1987 (87 was a really bad year for Columbia pictures except for la bamba) the makers of this piece of truly dreadful trash oaught to be ashamed of themselves, shame on them and shame on this movie.and who is owned by Columbia Pictures, you guess it Sony.
The linear and simple plot follows a small group of Smurfs that get accidentally sucked into a portal to the human world while trying to escape the evil wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria).
The little blue people quickly enlist the help of married couple Patrick (Neil Patrick Harris) and Grace (Jayma Mays) to protect them from Gargamel, who plans to harvest the Smurfs' essence for magical power, and to re-create a portal that only happens once in a blue moon
The movie includes some emotional subplots with Papa Smurf and Patrick, who feels he is unready to start his own family; though it all becomes pretty unnecessary in the face of the Smurfs' main goal to return home.
On the other hand, where it is used the CGI is incredibly high-quality (i.e. the Smurfs, Gargamel's cat, etc.), and the special effects are designed more specifically for 3-D viewing than in most movies as of late.I know some people have proclaimed this film to be a bastardization of a childhood cartoon favorite, but I argue that it isn't.
An exact imitation of the cartoon series this movie is not, but it is a fun and well-intentioned take on the story.The Smurfs is mildly entertaining, at its best, but it is written with the right spirit and is in no way an injustice against the original series.
Born in the 80s and having grown up watching The Smurfs cartoon on television I was really looking forward to seeing The Smurfs on the big screen and for me it didn't disappoint.This movie has got so many awful reviews but let's be honest, it was never going to win an Oscar but it can win the hearts of people who want to enjoy a lighthearted movie with silly giggles along the way.The Smurfs stayed true to their cute and happy selves throughout, and the voices of the characters were extremely well suited, especially Jonathan Winters playing Papa Smurf and Katy Perry as Smurfette.
When I then saw the first trailers and how the characters looked much like the "new smurfs" that were made years after the original series the fear for a disaster got even bigger.I went to see it anyway because the kid wanted to see it and to my great surprise the film really wasn't half bad.
Having the story take place in a place and time that is completely unlike the one in the comics makes for a big difference and gives space for extra easy cop-outs to keep the story rolling.I guess the film isn't any good if you're not known to the original series and aren't a kid, but for my kid and me it worked.8 out of 10 cats with a piece of ear missing.
It is not Harry potter or twilight or any love or horror movie, it is just a movie that I consider it of the few films that just talk about giving, loving and simplicity The real sham is the rating, the movie was perfect: good actors, good voices, good plot and great 3D graphics, the only thing wrong is that people want "complicated movie" .People it worth to see it, it is a great movie, and I guarantee you will just get in-love with the movie and the characters, enjoy it ..
The acting wasn't the best in the world but the film overall was great and we all laughed throughout.How on earth this only has 5.2 stars is beyond me when the AWFUlLY butchered, terribly animated and boring Fantastic Mr. Fox gets 7.9 stars.If you want a good laugh for all the family then we recommend this.Jolly Fun!.
Almost gave it a 7/10, but changed my mind because we haven't seen a movie we could take our kids without being embarrassed about them seeing in a LONG time, plus I'm an old Smurf fan.
The movie is a really bad mix between live-action and animation that's sure to please kids, but not so much adults.
Also, Gargamel comes through the portal with his cat Azrael (Frank Welker) to try and catch the Smurfs to let his evil plan fall through."The Smurfs" is not a terrible film, but it is just bad.
In fact, the writers of this film actually managed to sneak in a line from one Katy Perry's songs "I Kissed a Girl" making an obvious pop culture reference that we do not need.The third problem that I had with the film is that if you look at the animation done on the Smurfs on a TV, it looks pretty good.
Back in time when the original cartoons on Smurfs aired, not all kids stayed home and watched this ( very much unlike today, where kids do almost nothing but play games and watch movies, but I'm going off-topic here ).
The plot itself could have been better, but I reckon it's not a total loss, considering that this is a movie based on a cartoon; the animations are great: one could barely see a difference between smurfs from actual humans.
Like Garfield and Alvin and the Chipmunks, Smurfs lost all his substances that made it a great show but not a good movie.The 3D is bad, don't waste your money.
We have seen that in Alvin, Garfield, Mr. Poppers penguins, etc......The voices, well it was good to hear Katy Perry like Smurfette but I don't see a movie only for that.The acting is bad...
the movie is : noisy, have a bad jokes ,made a stupid script, and some performances worthy of the Razzies, if you are a child of 10 years maybe enjoy it, actually thought I was going to be a good movie but " it's crap".when I win the ticket to the premiere yesterday thought it was a decent movie at least, but it was stupid of which I ran out of film, if you have children leave them in the room, disgusting movie.
But CGI-ed features like this easily get bogged down by immaturity, lack of imagination, and big name stars doing the roles of animated creatures.The story is The Smurfs get sucked into New York City and are being chased by some creepy magician/wizard, hunchback named Gargamel (Azaria) who wants to kidnap The Smurfs so he can create gold.
It may bring a brief smile to the children's face, but their smiles will quickly diminish when they discover the film packs a plot amusing for only a few minutes, characters that grow annoying quickly and don't act out of their names (think of a world where people are called by their stereotypes.
If you're going to make a movie about The Smurfs make it one of two ways (1) entirely CGI or (2) classically animated (recommended by me and the audience of America).If you think it can't be done, a new-age animated film done in its classic style of animation, watch Winnie the Pooh and tell me I'm wrong.Starring: Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Sofia Vergara, and Hank Azaria.
This film is about the Smurfs arriving in New York through a porthole, while escaping the persecution by an evil wizard.It has been a long time since I watched "The Smurfs" cartoon, so I have little recollection of the original stories.
As a kid I never really got into them but did occasionally catch a TV show or two so wasn't flying completely into the unknown like some of the more recent comic book characters that I have reviewed.Upon entering the world of the Smurfs we find the blue critters relaxing in their mushroom metropolis preparing for the special Blue moon festival.
And if that doesn't worm its way into your head then I challenge even the most anti Smurf amongst you to escape from this film without humming their catchy Smurf tune at least a couple of times after leaving the cinema.This is Katy Perry's (Smurfette) first major voyage onto the big screen and I was not convinced much like many of the other voices behind the blue faces.
Gosnell masterfully captures the world of cartoons and breathes "real" life into it with witty dialog, great situational comedy, dazzling color and most of all funny, endearing and brave characters.Hank Azaria performance as Gargamel, the evil wizard, is pure genius!
The film makes great use of cartoon physics and has a natural sense of comedic timing, resulting in a funny story.The Smurfs are brought to life by the voices of the great Jonathan Winters, as Papa Smurf; Katy Perry as Smurfette; George Lopez as Grouchy Smurf; Gary Basaraba as Hefty Smurf; John Oliver as Vanity Smurf; and Alan Cumming as Gutsy Smurf.It is a story that will touch you heart, through a simple tale of love, loyalty and a family who realizes what matters most in life..
it really made me feel going back to my childhood waiting for 5pm for the smurf broadcast seem all episodes and never got tired of re-runs..Is unfair to say the movie stinks when this movie is just a continuation of their adventures not like the many fail action live movies of many cartoons changing the original story...
Great voice casting that includes Katy Perry who even sang I kissed a smurf and I liked it!, funny jokes, good references to the old series.
I wasn't exactly expecting an Oscar worthy film here, and after reading all the bad reviews I was a bit nervous but actually enjoyed this movie as much as to be expected!!
Gargamel's character was all wrong and seemed to not really fit in the movie (at one point he peed inside a restaurant into what he thought was a "chamber pot"!)The Smurfs is mildly entertaining, at its best.
I have no idea what people were expecting when a cartoon about little blue creatures is turned into a live- action, family movie, but to those trashing this beautiful film, shame on you.This was not a great kids' movie; it was a great movie.
On the human side, Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays were likable enough as Patrick and Grace - the couple who take in a group of Smurfs who are transported to New York City in a strange vortex that opens during a blue moon as they sought to escape from the evil wizard Gargamel (a pretty funny performance from Hank Azaria.) While likable, it's fair to say that Harris and Mays had little of what might be called "chemistry" - but that really isn't all that important in a movie directed to kids.
On the Smurf side, everybody was fun and there were several pretty well known voices involved, including Jonathon Winters as Papa Smurf and Katy Perry as Smurfette, and it's fair to say that Anton Yelchin was successful in turning Clumsy Smurf into a truly lovable little character.I would say that the "Battle of Belvedere" which was the final conflict between the Smurfs and Gargamel (with Patrick also involved) went on perhaps a bit too long, and there were maybe a few too many scenes in which Gargamel and his cats chased the Smurfs around, but overall this is a kids movie, and to me it seemed as if it was pretty well done.
There is definitely star power playing the Smurfs themselves; Katy Perry, Jonathan Winters, George Lopez and Jeff Foxworthy to name a few.My recommendation for this movie is waiting until Red box or straight cable, not worth spending money in the theater on this film.Kid appropriate for over 10visit our site at www.twodudereview.com.
In case you have not watched the TV series before, the movie tells the story of the Smurfs coming to the big city, New York, to escape from the evil Gargamel.
The Smurfs is a fun and enjoyable family film,the animation and the humor is both terrific,it will have both kids and adults laughing,especially with the terrific acting of Neil Patrick Harris as Patrick Winslow and The Simpsons Hank Azaria as Gargamel,Gargamel was a terrific character in the film especially with his cat Azrael,unlike the cartoon series were Gargamel is nothing more than a bad guy.Six Smurfs,Papa,Clumsy,Brainy,Grouchy,Gutsy and Smurfette (voiced by Katy Perry),get lost in New York after they go through a portal that leads them to New York City while trying to escape Gargamel and his cat Azrael after Clumsy Smurf leads them to Smurf village,as the group of six are stuck,they live with a couple,Patrick Winslow (Neil Patrick Harris),who isn't one bit happy with the Smurfs living with them, and Grace Winslow (Jayma Mays) who finds the little blue creatures adorable,and the Smurfs wont be able to get back to the Village and escape Gargamel until a Blue Moon,which is very unlikely..
"The Smurfs" is an Animation - Comedy movie in which we watch the tiny blue Smurfs coming in our world and especially in the middle of Central Park after the evil wizard Gargamel chases them out of their village.
the smurfs was great why did it get bad reviews the movie was so cute and I loved the Carmella and Katy Perry Smurfette what that's on the reasons.
This trend continues with Alvin and the Chipmunks going into its third and 3D installment by year''s end, the summer action film Transformers in the previous summers and for now it's the mythical Smurfs created by Peyo, where blue creatures no larger than three apples tall live in mushroom houses and being chased by the arch- enemy Gargamel (Hank Azaria here with loads of prosthetics) and his kitty cat Azrael.And it's not that bad for nostalgic reasons save for the usual formula and one-track objective set out, with meddling humans in our world getting in the way for that feel good provision of a moral message to its target audience.
Even though I started watching the smurfs cartoon a few years ago and I haven't seen every episode I firmly believe that this movie was great.
I'm 19 years old so like I said I've seen the cartoon and whoever put a review on here about how this movie was nasty and everything is ridiculous.
So, in a nutshell, this movie had a dumb and cheesy plot, a screenplay and script that looks like it was made by a 5 year old, mediocre acting, terrible voices, jokes extremely bad, and a terrible premise.The only good thing was the CGI..
Other than this the movie had no real flaws other than the under developed plot.Little kids will enjoy watching the Smurfs over and over.
Just finished watching The Smurfs movie with my kids ( 8 year old and 4 year old) and my wife and I have to say that I really liked it.
I love the smurfs and cartoon/clean movies to watch! |
tt0114287 | Rob Roy | The story is set in early 18th Century Scotland. A group of Scots highlanders are tracking another clan who have stolen cattle from a lord. The protection of the lord's property, including his livestock, is managed by Robert Roy MacGregor, the man leading the trackers. One of his men, Alan McDonald, tells Rob and the rest of the party that they are about a day behind the thieves.The search party finally spots the thieves, camped out in a valley. Knowing that an attack at night would be unwise, Rob orders his party to get some sleep. He also says that he'll personally approach the thieves in the morning and try to negotiate with them. When Alan asks Rob why he thinks speaking to them will accomplish anything, Rob tells him "I know one of them."The next morning, Rob makes good on his word and wakes up the thieves in their camp. He tells them that the cattle belong to his lord and they'll all live if they lay down their weapons and surrender the animals. To prove his point, Rob tells his men to reveal their positions, which surround the camp. Their leader, Sibbald, mocks Rob's authority. When he tries to kill Rob, he is killed himself. Rob allows the rest of Sibbald's party to live and they leave. Rob returns home to his proud wife, Mary, and his two young boys. He spends a few days at home and he and Mary make passionate love under a tree.Rob Roy's village is under the protection of John Campbell, Duke of Argyll. While watching his best duelist, Guthrie, in a sword match, one of Campbell's vassals the Marquis of Montrose, meets with him. Montrose is accompanied by a foppish young man, Archibold Cunningham. Archie had been sent to Scotland by his mother, who had grown irritated by his promiscuous playboy behavior. Archie challenges Guthrie to a duel and Duke Campbell and his vassal Montrose wager heavily on the outcome. Campbell is surprised when Archie easily bests Guthrie, and Montrose wins a hefty sum.Rob meanwhile devises a plan to make money droving cattle: he decides he will ask Campbell to loan him 1000 guineas that he will use to buy cattle at a nearby port. He will raise the cattle and sell them back to Campbell at a profit. Campbell tells Rob to to draw up a loan agreement with Montrose. Montrose's chief banker, Killearn, is a treacherous businessman who is secretly loyal to Archie, whom Killearn believes is more ambitious than Duke Montrose. Killearn reveals to Archie that Rob will be receiving the 1000 guineas as coin and that Archie should prepare to steal it.The next day, Rob meets directly with Killearn and signs the papers to receive the credit. Rob leaves, charging his man MacDonald with collecting the credit slip. Killearn deliberately makes MacDonald wait all day while he deals with all his other clients. When Killearn finally calls MacDonald in to receive the loan, Killearn tells him that he cannot give him a credit slip and MacDonald must take coins instead, violating the agreement with Rob. MacDonald is reluctant but finally accepts the coin. On his way to deliver the money to Rob, he is pursued through the woods by Archie, who has prepared an ambush. MacDonald's horse carry's him into a rope strung across the path, and he is injured and thrown from his horse. He staggers away, hiding the money in a tree. Archie finds him and kills him, taking the money.When MacDonald doesn't show up, Rob goes back to Killearn, demanding to know what happened. Killearn tells him that he'd given MacDonald the money and he left. Killearn also suggests that MacDonald had stolen the money for himself and may have boarded a ship to America. MacDonald had earlier told Rob he wished to leave Scotland for Virginia. Rob refuses to believe that MacDonald would betray him and decides to take his case directly to Montrose. When he meets with the lord, he tries to strike a new deal for more money. Montrose will agree, provided Rob falsely testifies that Campbell is a Jacobite. Rob refuses, only knowing Campbell by reputation. When he suggests that Montrose is crooked, Montrose orders Archie to arrest Rob. Rob pulls a hidden knife and holds Archie at bay, pushing him over and running off. Montrose instructs Archie to find Rob and bring him to justice, "broken, but not dead." Archie sets out with Killearn and a small unit of soldiers.Rob returns home and tells Mary that he'll be leaving their home until he can figure out a plan to clear his name. Mary is angry, saying he'll be hiding like an animal. Rob leaves his younger brother Alasdair and a couple of other men loyal to him to guard Mary and the farm. Very soon, Archie, Killearn and the unit of soldiers sail across the lake in front of the MacGregor home and arrive early one morning. Mary gathers her boys and tells them to hide in the hills behind the house. She goes out to meet the landing party, frightened but confident. She defiantly calls Archie a fool when he demands to know where her husband is. Archie orders the soldiers to burn her house and kill the livestock. Killearn suggests that Mary step aside, but Archie grabs her hair and drags her into the house. He forces her over a table and brutally and gleefully rapes her. Her house burning around her, Mary finally walks out, shaken but proud. The noblemen and their soldiers depart on their boat as Alasdair arrives, yelling for the marauders to return and fight. They fire a warning shot at him and bleat like sheep as they sail back across the lake. Mary furiously washes her groin in the lake, and Alasdair realizes that she's been raped. Mary compells him to promise not to tell Rob, because she doesn't want him to get killed in his desire to avenger her honor. Alasdair reluctantly promises Mary he won't say anything.Mary formulates a plan of her own to prove Rob's innocence and honor. She discovers that Archie's lover, Betty, one of Montrose's servants, is pregnant with Archie's child. Spurned by Archie, Betty agrees to testify that she overheard Archie and Killearn conspiring to steal the money given to MacDonald. Mary comforts her when she admits that she's pregnant and becomes upset, saying she still loves Archie despite his evil nature. Mary tells Rob about Killearn's and Archie's dealings and Rob vows to bring them both to justice. Rob finds Killearn in a tavern. Guthrie attempts to defined him, and Rob kills him. When Rob arrives at a secret location with Killearn, he sends Alasdair to retrieve Betty, but when Mary goes to find her, she finds that Betty has hanged herself and is dead.Mary demands to meet with Killearn privately, demanding that he testify to restore Rob's honor. Killearn refuses, gaining the upper hand when he mentions that he remembers how Archie raped her and that the child Mary is now pregnant with may be Archie's and not Rob's. Enraged, Mary stabs him in the neck, bringing Rob and Alasdair. Rob tries to calm Mary down, leaving Killearn to Alasdair. Alasdair drowns Killearn in the lake. Rob and Mary's plan is foiled and Rob tells his brother to drop the body in the middle of the lake since Montrose will search for him.Alasdair joins Rob in the Highlands. They observe Archie's war party from a distance burning the house Rob & Mary had occupied after their own home was destroyed. Rob orders a retreat before Archie notices them; his own men are out-armed and outnumbered. Alasdair, angry over Archie's violation of Mary, takes a potshot at Archie, missing and killing one man. Archie orders his men to chase Rob's party into the mist covering the peaks. As he runs to catch up with Rob, Alasdair is shot, paralyzing his legs. Rob grabs him and carries him into the mist. As he dies from his wound, Alasdair tells Rob that Mary was raped by Archie.A soldier finds them and finishes Alasdair off. Rob overpowers the man and mounts his horse to escape, but it's shot out from under him and lands on his leg, trapping him. He's captured by Archie, who binds his hands and drags him behind his horse. At night, Rob is tied to a tree. He tells Archie that he a thief and rapist, and Archie tells him that Campbell's wife Mary was more enjoyable when raped than others who were willing, and that "not all of her objected." Rob lunges forward and bites at Archie ripping his coat. Archie beats him and has him gagged for the rest of the march home.When they reach the Bridge at Glen Orchy, Montrose is waiting. Rob is allowed to speak in his defense. He claims that Archie killed MacDonald and stole the money. Archie denies the charges and Montrose orders his men to hang Rob from the bridge. Rob quickly grabs the rope binding his hands, loops it around Archie's neck and jumps from the bridge. The rope pulls Archie to the edge where one of the soldiers uses a sword to cut it, freeing Rob, who plunges into the stream below - Archie is still alive. Rob washes downstream with the current, going over a small waterfall. On the bank, he finds the rotting carcass of a dead ox and quickly guts it, using the animal to hide from the search party, who won't approach because of the stench.Rob rejoins Mary at a safe house,. which Mary had earlier negotiated from Campbell himself and secured the property under his protection. Rob confronts Mary about the rape but realizes she still loves him and that the child she bears is definitely his. Rob recovers from his wounds and visits with Campbell, seeking a way to settle his dispute with Archie. Knowing Archie's skill with a sword, Campbell reluctantly agrees to sponsor Rob in a fair duel. He tells Rob that as a prudent man he ought to bet on Archie. Rob tells him to bet any way he chooses. Rob bids his family farewell, telling his sons to ask their mother about the new addition to their family. Mary asks Rob what to name their child if Rob doesn't return: he tells her to name it for himself if it's a boy and for herself if it's a girl.On the way to Montrose's court. Rob convinces Campbell to pay Mary's and his children's living expenses if he loses the match with Archie. They agree on a high sum and Campbell exclaims that he likes Rob's negotiating style.Rob arrives at Montrose's court where he and Archie will duel to the death with swords. Campbell and Montrose agree on a wager. After laying out the customary rules about backstabbing and quarter, "no quarter being given or asked." The two duel, and Archie has obviously superior skills to Campbell. He toys with Rob, slashing him superficially several times on his torso, and then on his dueling arm, disarming him.He lifts Rob's chin with his blade, and receives a nod from the moderator to end the duel and Campbell's life. Rob suddenly grasps Archie's sword blade at his own neck with his bare hand. He picks up his own sword from the floor next to him, and Archie is too surprised for a moment at Rob's sudden action to do anything. Rob swiftly cuts Campbell deeply from his shoulder to his sternum, opening a wide wound. Archie is shocked, gasps, blood spilling from his mouth, stumbles, and falls dead.Rob settles his wagers with Campbell and Montrose and leaves. Montrose tells Archie's sponsor that he will hold him to their wager, meaning that all of Campbell's debts are wiped clean. Rob returns home to Mary who is overjoyed to see him. | murder, cult, violence, atmospheric, action, romantic, suspenseful | train | imdb | null |
tt0378194 | Kill Bill: Vol. 2 | During the opening credits, we see the Bride's bloodied face again and hear her say "Bill, it's your baby." In the first scene, she drives an open Volkswagen Karmann Ghia and says there is only one left to kill (which tells us she believes that Elle is dead). She is on her way to Bill.Chapter 6: The Massacre at Two PinesBack at the beginning (a black-and-white segment), at the Two Pines Wedding Chapel in El Paso, Texas, a dress rehearsal for a wedding is taking place. Reverend Harmony (Bo Svenson) and his wife (Jeannie Epper) decide that, since the bride will have no relatives present at the wedding, the groom's relatives and friends can sit on both sides of the aisle. The Bride (Uma Thurman), irritated with the reverend's wife, leaves the chapel to get some fresh air; on the way out, she is disturbed to hear flute music. On the front porch she finds Bill (David Carradine) sitting on a bench playing his bamboo flute. Bill asks her about her fiancé, Tommy (Christopher Allen Nelson), and what she's been doing for work; she's been working in Tommy's used record store, a job she says she enjoys. She asks him to "be nice" and he replies that he does not know how to be nice but will do his best to be sweet. They enter the hall and she introduces Bill to her fiancé as her father but rejects the fiancé's idea that, as her father, he should give her away at the ceremony. Bill politely replies that it would be "asking a lot" of him to do so but he'll happily join the congregation for the ceremony. As the bride and groom are called to the front by the Reverend Harmony, no attempt is made to introduce 'father' to the rest of the fiancé's family. Bill stays at the back of the chapel.Outside the chapel, four armed assassins appear, all dressed in black. In one line they move to the door, they enter, and the shooting starts, killing everybody inside except for the Bride and Bill.Back in the present (in color), Bill visits his younger brother Budd (Michael Madsen), a.k.a. Sidewinder, at his trailer in the middle of nowhere and warns him about the Bride. She will kill Budd if Budd does not allow Bill to protect him. They had differences in the past but they should move on. Budd, drinking as they talk, replies that maybe they should get killed because the Bride deserves her revenge. He then infuriates Bill by saying that he pawned his priceless samurai sword (a gift from Bill) for $250.Chapter 7: The Lonely Grave of Paula SchulzBudd goes to work at the strip club where he's employed as a bouncer. He arrives 20 minutes late and sees that there are no customers in the club. He talks briefly with the bartender, Jay (Sid Haig), before he is called into the office by his hot-tempered, coke-snorting boss Larry Gomez (Larry Bishop). In the office, Larry argues with Budd over being late again, and Budd talks back, saying that there is nobody in the bar and there was no need for him to be there. Larry takes away Budd's scheduled hours for several days and tells him in a rude tone not to come back to work until he hears from him. In the bar, Budd agrees to clean up after a broken toilet that a stripper named Rocket says is overflowing.Budd returns to his trailer, but standing in front of it suddenly freezes. He enters the trailer but looks out the window. The Bride, who was hiding under the trailer, sticks to the wall so he does not see her. When she opens the door Budd shoots her in the chest with a shotgun loaded with rock salt. While she lies wounded on the ground, Budd, very pleased with himself, injects her with a sedative. He phones Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) and offers to sell her the Bride's Hattori Hanzo sword for a million dollars. Elle agrees to bring the money in the morning. Her condition is that the Bride must suffer to her last breath.At a cemetery, Budd and an accomplice dig a large hole in the ground in which they plan to bury the wounded Bride alive. When the grave has been dug, the Bride is given a choice: if she does not resist, she'll be given a flashlight; if she does, Budd will burn her eyes with mace and leave her buried alive in darkness. She chooses the flashlight, is put in a coffin and the lid is nailed down. "This is for breaking my brother's heart," says Budd. Budd and his accomplice lower the coffin into the ground, cover it with soil, and drive off. The Bride panics for a short time and recalls her training under Pai Mei.Chapter 8: The Cruel Tutelage of Pai MeiIn a flashback, Bill and the Bride, who is very much in love with him, sit by a campfire somewhere in China and Bill, who calls her "kiddo," plays his bamboo flute. He tells her about his kung fu teacher Pai Mei (Chia-Hui Liu, credited as Gordon Liu), who is reputed to be a 1000 years old, and his 'five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique.' The technique involves five blows administered to particular pressure points on the body with the fingertips. Thereafter, the victim's heart explodes after he or she takes five steps. Pai Mei did not teach Bill the technique because he does not show it to anyone.At the foot of the stairs leading to Pai Mei's place in another part of rural China, Bill, who has just come down, informs the Bride that Pai Mei will take her as his pupil because he is a lonely old man. Bill's bruised face shows that he was hurt but he refuses to say what happened. Bill warns her not to show any disrespect or disobedience to Pai Mei because Pai Mei will kill her -- "he hates Caucasians, despises Americans, and has nothing but contempt for women." She climbs the steps and quickly is humiliated by Pai Mei, who scorns her fighting skills and her ethnicity. He challenges her to land one blow on him while they engage in hand-to-hand combat and the Bride fails, at one point trying to use a rock which Pai Mei tosses aside after grabbing her wrist. Pai Mei threatens to chop her hand off with a single blow and declares that her hand now belongs to him and she must strengthen it. Over the next several weeks, the Bride works hard (practicing martial arts forms, carrying buckets of water up the long, steep flight of stairs, and learning to eat with chopsticks) and learns hard. She finds striking a blow with her fist to break a hole through a thick wooden plank at close range the most difficult skill.Back to the present: still in the coffin, the Bride manages to remove her boots and the belt tying her feet together. She takes out a straight razor hidden in her boot and uses it to cut her hands free. She first tests the planking of the coffin lid for a weak spot, then hits the lid with her fist repeatedly. The planks becomes smeared with her blood but finally crack. She appears to swim up through the earth, and an arm emerges from the grave. The Bride crawls out. Covered in dirt and trailing dust behind her, she walks into a diner, sits down, and calmly asks for a glass of water.Chapter 9: Elle and IThe Bride walks a great distance across the desert and through the mountains. She reaches Budd's trailer in time to see Elle arrive.Elle enters the trailer and gives Budd a red suitcase full of money. He makes margaritas in a grubby blender and serves them in dirty jelly-jar glasses while she examines the sword. He opens the suitcase, gloats over the money, and is struck in the face by a venomous black mamba snake that was hidden among the bundles of cash. Before he dies, Elle tells him that she is sorry that such a "piece of shit" as himself was the one who managed to kill the Bride -- she deserved better. She phones Bill and tells him that the Bride has killed his brother but that she, Elle, has killed the Bride. Elle also reveals the whereabouts of the final resting place of the Bride (in the grave of Paula Schulz) and mentions the Bride's real name for the first time: Beatrix Kiddo.Beatrix flies in and immediately attacks Elle, landing a blow to Elle's chest with both feet. Their long and vicious fight destroys the trailer's interior. Elle gets hold of the Bride's sword during the struggle. In a golf bag, the Bride finds another katana, inscribed "To my brother Budd, the only man I ever loved, Bill" -- apparently Budd didn't pawn it after all. Beatrix asks Elle what Elle said to Pai Mei to make him pluck out Elle's eye. Elle says she called him a "miserable, old fool." Elle also tells Beatrix that she poisoned Pai Mei's favorite meal, fish heads, out of revenge and he died. As they face off, Elle relishes the irony of killing the Bride with her own sword. However, at close range, the Bride plucks out Elle's remaining eye and steps on it. Rather than finish killing Elle, Beatrix leaves the trailer, the black mamba hissing behind her as Elle shrieks and curses and flails.Last Chapter: Face to FaceIn Mexico, the Bride visits the courtly retired pimp Esteban Vihaio (Michael Parks), one of Bill's old mentors, and asks him to tell her where Bill is. He finally agrees because he thinks Bill would surely like to see her.She enters Bill's hacienda carefully, a gun in her hand, but is shocked to the point of tears when Bill and their small daughter B.B. (Perla Haney-Jardine), who she didn't know was alive, both play-shoot at her with toy guns. The Bride is stunned but joins them for a dinner of sandwiches. Bill explains to B.B. that he shot her mother because he was saddened when Beatrix abandoned him and angry when he found her engaged to be married to another man. The Bride spends good time with her daughter, who falls asleep. The Bride goes to speak to Bill.Sensing that Beatrix might attack him, Bill fires a warning shot, freezing Beatrix in her seat, then he shoots her with a truth-serum dart and waits for it to take effect. He asks her why she left him: because she wanted to keep their child safe, not wanting her to grow up to be assassins like them. When Bill asks her when she came to that decision, the Bride tells him the story:In a flashback to a hotel room: the Bride, who's been sent on an assassination assignment to Japan, discovers that she is pregnant. Another assassin, Karen Kim (Helen Kim), who spotted Beatrix when she arrived, shoots a hole in the door with a shotgun. The Bride, pointing her gun at Karen, convinces her that she is pregnant and persuades her to walk away, promising that she will do the same. As she leaves, Karen congratulates the Bride.Back in the present, Bill is puzzled because he believes that Beatrix is a natural born killer and cannot change. He asks if she enjoyed killing the other people on her revenge list, and the truth serum forces her to admit that she did. They agree to fight with swords on the beach -- then Bill suddenly attacks her as they sit on his patio. At the climax of a brief skirmish during which both remain seated, she strikes him with the five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique. She tells Bill that she did not mention that Pai Mei taught her the technique because she is a bad person. Bill disputes that. They share an affectionate farewell before he takes five steps and falls down dead.Later, while B.B. watches cartoons in their hotel room, Beatrix lies on the bathroom floor crying for a time over Bill. "The lioness has rejoined her cub, and all is right in the jungle." Later, she leaves with B.B. to start a new life.Before the credits roll, Beatrix's death list is written on the screen; the names of those she killed outright are crossed out. A question mark is written over Elle's name. Bill's name is not crossed out. | comedy, boring, neo noir, murder, mystery, western, dramatic, cult, violence, atmospheric, flashback, psychedelic, action, philosophical, romantic, tragedy, revenge, storytelling | train | imdb | null |
tt0064949 | Scream and Scream Again | A London jogger suddenly collapses on the sidewalk and awakens in a
hospital where he finds that his right leg has been amputated. Shortly
thereafter, his left leg is amputed, followed by the amputation of both
arms. He can get no information from his zombielike nurse. Meanwhile,
somewhere in a Gestapo-like country in Eastern Europe, military agent
Konratz [Marshall Jones] lets slip to his superior, Captain Salis [Peter Sallis], that he knows about the
top-secret K-718. Because K-718 is classified information supposed to be
known only to Salis and his superior, Major Benedek [Peter Cushing], Salis tries to
contact Benedek, but Konratz kills Salis before the call goes through.
With Salis dead, Konratz moves up into his position. When Benedek decides
to dismiss Konratz from duty because his methods of interrogation are too
extreme and will not reflect nicely upon their military regime, Konratz
kills Benedek and moves into Benedek's position.London Detective Superintendent Bellaver [Alfred Marks] also has his hands full with
a series of killings that have been dubbed the "vampire murders." Girls
are being found with their throats slashed, puncture wounds on their arms,
and drained of blood. The first was Eileen Stevens, an employee of
esteemed research scientist, Doctor Browning [Vincent Price], but Browning has no idea who
would want to murder her. When another girl turns up dead and Bellaver
realizes that they were both picked up at The Busted Pot (a disco club),
policewoman Sylvia [Judy Huxtable] goes undercover (with a homing device planted in her
shoe) to see if she can get picked up by the vampire. She is successful,
and she and the vampire Keith [Michael Gothard] drive to a secluded field where he attempts
to drink her blood. Keith is interrupted by the police but manages to best
them all and get away. Fortunately, Sylvia's shoe is still in Keith's car,
so the police tail him. Keith drives to a chalk quarry where the police
are astounded to see him running up the almost sheer cliff face...until he
slips and falls back down. Because he is only stunned, the police handcuff
Keith to a car, but he tears off his hand and runs away...straight to Dr
Browning's estate where he jumps into a vat of acid.When questioned about the acid, Browning explains that his research
involves investigating strains of bacteria on animal tissue, so he uses
the acid to destroy the tissue and prevent the spread of disease. Why
Keith would have made for this acid vat, Browning has no idea but assumes
that Keith must have known Eileen Stevens and that she told him about it.
Of course, this leaves no body to autopsy. Much to Browning's dismay,
however, Bellaver still has Keith's hand. Bellaver asks the coroner,
Doctor David Sorel, [Christopher Matthews] to perform an autopsy on it. It turns out to be made
of a synthetic material with human tissue growing around it, cyborg style.British Intelligence Minister Fremont [Christopher Lee] has problems of his own, too.
One of Britain's military aircraft has been shot down while on a spy
mission over the pseudoGestapo country. Konratz has taken the pilot
prisoner and travels to London to meet with Fremont and suggest a
trade...the pilot for all the investigation files compiled on the vampire
murders. Fremont agrees, orders Bellaver to close the case, and arranges
for Konratz, posing as a University professor doing research on the
psychological aspects of crimes of violence, to view the files. Konratz
has other ideas, however, and wants to take the files with him. When
Bellaver refuses to release the files, Konratz puts the squeeze on
Bellaver's shoulder, killing him.Dr Sorel decides to continue the investigation on his own.
Accompanied by policewoman Sylvia, Sorel drives to Browning's estate,
intending to get a sample of the acid from the vat into which Keith
jumped, but the vat has been emptied. Even worse, Sylvia (who was waiting
in the car) also disappears, so Sorel goes snooping in Browning's house
where he finds an operating room and some freezer boxes containing human
body parts.Suddenly, Sorel is interrupted by Browning who explains that his real
research involves the creation of ubermenches...perfect humans. To
accomplish this, Browning has developed a method whereby he forges
together synthetic materials with human flesh into a "composite". At
first, the composites were merely robots, like the nurse. Keith was the
first autonomously-operating composite, but something went wrong and Keith
ran amok as a vampire. As he is currently preparing to transplant the
brain of a human into the cranium of a new composite, Browning invites
Sorel to watch the operation. Sorel is intrigued, but when he finds out
that Sylvia is to be the donor, he tries to stop Browning, only to find
that Browning is a composite, too.Luckily for Sorel, Konratz (who is also a composite) has picked just
this moment to pay a visit to co-conspirator Browning in order to shut
down his research, since news of the vampire murders has made headlines
all over the world. As Konratz and Browning battle each other, Sorel
releases Sylvia from the operating table. The two of them escape
outside...where Fremont has just driven up. While Sylvia and Sorel wait in
the car, Fremont goes into the operating room where Konratz has managed to
shove the nurse into another vat of acid, and Browning has done the same
to Konratz. Browning informs Fremont that they must round up the other
composites before it's too late, but Fremont informs Browning that it's
already too late and forces him into the vat of acid.As Fremont, Sorel, and Sylvia drive away, Sorel asks Fremont if it's
all over, and Fremont replies, "It's only just beginning." [Original Synopsis by
bj_kuehl.] | murder, sadist, flashback | train | imdb | Believe it or not, all these seemingly unrelated plotlines eventually come together, and it's a wacky ride all the way.The biggest disappointment for me, is the scarce screen time of headliners Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
But, by the end of the film, most everything fits together quite nicely as a story about creating a master race.Scream and Scream Again 'stars' Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing.
It is also the only one of the four films to take place in 'our' times – despite the old-fashioned trappings of the plot (taking in espionage in the form of dictatorial regimes with their Nazi-like villains, as well as the obligatory mad scientist and his vampiric 'creations'), the modern-day setting is indeed very appropriate and John Coquillon's typically elegant cinematography captures its essence quite well.SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN is virtually a black comedy which, mercifully, does not descend into camp: it is quite convoluted, relatively protracted (maybe this was because I watched it back to back with THE OBLONG BOX {1969}!), but wholly likable for all that.
David Whitaker's 'unusual' pop score is another major asset.Like the earlier film, SCREAM does not take advantage of having three great horror stars together for the first time.
Peter Cushing, graceful as always, does not share any scenes with Vincent Price or Christopher Lee, and indeed appears all too briefly.
Lee, perhaps the most progressive-thinking horror star (let's not forget he appeared in Jess Franco's EUGENIE
THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION that same year!), is perfectly authoritative as the true villain of the piece.We also get an exciting if over-extended chase sequence in which Michael Gothard finds new (and highly impractical!) means of eluding the Police - in the shape of sarcastic Superintendent Bellaver who, as played with a rather heavy British accent by Alfred Marks, manages any number of amusing scenes (designed, perhaps, to relieve the audience's frustration at the many - and apparently disjointed - strands of plot going on all at once)!The end result is patchy overall – certainly not everything in this pot-pourri of ideas works to our general satisfaction (particularly Marshall Jones' overbearing characterization of Konratz) - but the film is often ingenious and weird enough to keep one's interest at all times.
This film was released before I was born, so I don't know anything about its ad campaign, but I imagine it went something like, "Lee, Cushing, and Price: Together at Last!!" This is true: they all are in this movie, but what we have here is a movie about a bunch of pseudo-Nazis (complete with knockoff uniforms) trying to create the master race by assembling people from assorted "perfect" body parts.
With the serial killers actions of out-running and powering the police, reactions of "he's quite strong" and "Oh he's torn his hand off" seem like tongue-in-cheek, or if not a terrible script.All in all, this movie is a cross between Hawaii-Five-0, Frankenstein, and Hitchcock's Frenzy, and although it's well worth a watch, the styles don't combine well to give a scary thriller.
A mad scientist Dr. Browning, Vincent Price, working in league with the chief of intelligence of the UK Fremont, Christopher Lee, who's also in some kind of alliance with the head of the secret police Konratz, Marshall Jones, of some unknown Eastern-European communist country.Kieth is trapped in his murderous actions when the local police have a decoy police woman Sylvia, Judy Huxtable, pose as one of his potential victims.
Idiotic movie that is the only film where the top three British horror masters, Vincent Price Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing, were ever in together with Cushing only in the movie for one scene where he immediately killed off..
Price is a doctor/mad scientist introduced early on, and then forgotten until the film starts winding down, Cushing has one scene and then dies, and Lee isn't even introduced until late in the film, where he serves as a plot device to tie everything together and wrap up.Then there's the whole three-plot lines thing.
I first saw this film when it was released in 1970.At the time it was considered very shocking.Looking at it now,compared to todays horror films,I suppose it would be considered tame.I still think it is a great example of how a shocker should be made.You never know what is going to happen next!The film has everything,non-stop action, agreat cast(including the big three-Lee,Price and Cushing),and good special effects.So take my word for it-watch and enjoy!.
There is little to recommend this film.First, even though it is billed as a Vincent Price/Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee film, none of these horror icons appear in the film for more than a few scenes.
It elevates a bad film to a higher level than it deserves.Secondly, the plot is a jumbled mess, with the separate plot lines of British cops trying to catch a serial killer and a sadistic officer in a eastern block country torturing people for fun.
Meanwhile in an undefined country that lives a military dictatorship, the cruel Konratz (Marshall Jones) is climbing positions killing The Power that Be. When the Vampire Killer flees from the police, he seeks refugee at the real estate of scientist Dr. Browning (Vincent Price) and jumps into a tank of acid.
Many years ago, during the Cold War, the dictatorships in South America, James Bond, Flint and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., "Scream and Scream Again" was a cult movie supported by the names of Vincent Price, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. The story entwines mad scientist with vampire, dictatorship and spy ring with a terrible music score.
After a series of graphic murders, a London police sergeant investigating the crimes find them to be committed by assembled beings created by a mad doctor forging them for a Communist country's eventual takeover and tries to stop them from continuing.Aside from being a collection of horror legends in one movie, this is actually one of their lesser roles.
One of the main points here is that the film is mostly known for having three great horror stars of the time in it's cast, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Vincent Price.
It's the latter that holds the most screen time, and his role as a doctor that actually wants to do good with his creations instead of evil was creative and put a new spin on an idea that most were expecting where Price is the villainous creator of what goes around killing people.
Likewise, with all the scenes set in the swinging-mod London there's not a whole lot here that actually becomes a horror film until the mid-way which leaves this one somewhat boring in the first half with the lame pacing and confusion over everything.
I feel slightly cheated that Vincent Price, Chris Lee and Peter Cushing were given top billing, as their total screen time probably adds up to about fifteen minutes.
Add to this Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (in a very brief role), vats of acid, a long car chase, the police seemingly constantly getting their heads kicked in by the vampiric psycho, Yutte Stensgaard (hooray!), the title song being sung over and over by Amen Corner in the night-club scenes and the mad scientist denouement just before his icky demise because of the police pathologist who didn't back off from the investigation when ordered by the government and you have it.
Vincent Price plays Dr. Browning, a scientist who may or may not be what he seems (Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee also star, but in smaller roles).
Starring three of horror cinema's greatest icons - Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee - this rather atypical American International Pictures release consists of several seemingly disparate plot threads that director Gordon Hessler attempts to pull together in the final act, with little success, the ending almost as confusing as everything that precedes it.The film opens with a jogger collapsing and waking up in a hospital bed where he finds that he is missing a leg!
Christopher Lee appears as Fremont, a government official who is trying to secure the release of a spy, and Cushing, in what amounts to little more than a brief cameo, plays one of those who stands in the way of Konratz's climb to the top.While there are some decent scenes along the way, including a perilous car chase, and a killer ripping off his own hand to escape from the police, the choppy nature of the narrative and the disappointing ending make Scream and Scream Again a far from essential 70s horror, despite its trio of genre greats.If you want to see Price, Cushing and Lee together in a good film, I recommend The House Of The Long Shadows: it's much more fun, and you get John Carradine thrown in for good measure..
I prefer the ending in the film and this is one of the many ways the film improved things.It's great to have Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing all in one film, even if only two of the three actually share a scene.
The perplexed but determined police inspector in charge of the serial killer case is a man named Bellaver (Alfred Marks); even after the killer, Keith (Michael Gothard), is apprehended, he escapes again and leads the cops to the operation of a doctor named Browning (Vincent Price).Fans of Mr. Price, Sir Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing are likely to feel disappointed after watching this.
And it's hard to completely dislike any horror story that includes a couple of acid baths.Lee and Cushing are really rather wasted, but Price has as much fun as he can in his somewhat limited role.
In addition to Marks, other actors doing fine work are Peter Sallis as Schweitz, Christopher Matthews as the inquisitive young Dr. Sorel, Kenneth Benda as Professor Kingsmill, and Marshall Jones as Konratz.This isn't all that *good* a movie, in all honesty, but it certainly rates as a real curiosity.Six out of 10..
VERY confusing horror has three different story lines: one involves a man killing women in London and draining their blood; another has people being kidnapped and slowly have their body parts being removed one by one; the last deals with some strange Nazi-ish organization trying to take power (or something).
This could be easily dismissed if it weren't for three cast members--Price, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.OK--you have three of the best horror movie stars ever to do a movie together.
This movie is so bad that anyone who enjoys it is beyond help.What a waste of talent...The movie doesn't make sense, is badly directed, has a jazz score (For a horror film?) It's like a group of High School students with a little money made this.Usually the Brits can do no wrong in making a movie..Wow,I'm surprised.Where was Hammer when you needed them?Made in 1970, there are some surprising scenes of sexuality.It's clear Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing needed to pay their car payments, or else how would they ever agree to even appear in this mess..
All that was left in the tank after The Oblong Box. After the excellent adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Oblong Box' earlier in 1969, director Gordon Hessler would team up again, in the same year, with horror legend's Vincent Price and Christopher Lee for this second feature.
This time, fellow legend Peter Cushing joins the already impressive line up, which allows Scream and Scream Again to be one of the few films to profess starring roles from all three British legends.
There's absolutely no reason, when compared to films of the same era, can you rate this movie poorly, and I suspect that aside from their clear lack of any knowledge of film that all the people who thought this movie was "bad" were just disappointed at the fact that Price, Lee, and Cushing had comparatively minor roles.Indeed, I bought this as a Christopher Lee fan and was disappointed in that respect, but the movie was still good!
A good plot can redeem bad actors, but the reverse is never true.I don't feel I need to give a plot summary but I'll say this: don't buy this if the only reason you'd want to is to see Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing-their performances are good and their characters are interesting, but they don't have a lot of screen time.
Vincent Price does what he does best as a mad doctor, Christopher Lee is suitably British as a dodgy diplomat, but the star of the show (for me) is Alfred Marks doing a rather clichéd but nonetheless great routine as a laconic London Bobby.
Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, three major genre icons, were what drew me into seeing Scream and Scream Again.
The ending is also intriguing and actually makes sense, which unfortunately is more than I can say for the rest of the movie.The three stars themselves don't disappoint, though they deserved much more screen-time than they did(as well as he played it you do question the point of Peter Cushing's character) and the fact that they are barely together- apart from Price and Lee briefly- is something that fans will consider a cheat.
The best of the three though is Vincent Price, while in more straightforward role he still manages to bring a great deal of dignity and class to the film.Alfred Marks though was just alright, for me this said alright is not enough to carry a movie, particularly how he and his character were so abruptly written out.
Overall, redeemed by Price and Lee(Cushing is good as well but his character is pretty useless) as well as the look of the film, score and ending, but because of the nonsensical script and unfocused story Scream and Scream Again never really came together for me.4/10 Bethany Cox. A Surprising Horror Film.
The poster shows Vincent Price's face and lists the actors, including Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Alfred Marks and Uta Levka.
Three of the greatest horror icons of ALL time receive top-billing (in a different and much larger font than the rest of the opening credits), yet after approximately 45 minutes into the film, Vincent Price and Christopher Lee only just walked nonchalantly & briefly through the screen and Peter Cushing has already died!
This is a movie starring horror icons Christopher Lee, Vincent Price and Peter Cushing but yet it is still a movie only a handful of people know off and have actually seen.
Not Bad, But Too Little Screen Time For Price, Cushing And Lee. Vincent Price is my favorite actor of all-time, and, as most fans of Classic- and Gothic Horror I am also a big fan of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, and therefore my expectations for Gordon Hessler's "Scream And Scream Again" of 1970 were high, especially after two other movies directed by Hessler, the excellent "The Oblong Box" of 1969 and the vastly underrated "Cry Of The Banshee" of 1970, both with Vincet Price in the lead.
"Scream And Scream Again" is certainly not a bad movie, but the roles of its three stars, Price, Cushing and Lee, were far too little.
This movie's highlight is, of course, once again Vincent Price's performance, although his role is small."The Oblong Box" was a lot better, and I also preferred "Cry Of The Banshee" to "Scream And Scream Again", but that doesn't mean it's a bad film.
This one has Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing getting the top billing in this one.
Predictably, the marketing guys associated with this 1969 film went to great pains to highlight the teaming of the three horror film stars Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Vincent Price.Unfortunately, the three of them are given less than meaty roles and only Price and Lee actually appear on screen together at the end!
Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing.
Price has approximately three scenes in the movie (the bulk of which does not occur until the last 15 minutes), Lee has two full scenes and an appearance at the end of the movie, and Cushing has ONE measly scene in the beginning of the film and is then murdered!!
A movie combining the look, feel and plot lines from The Avengers, Mission Impossible(the TV show) and Hammers much maligned Dracula AD1972 deserves at least one viewing.A major selling point must have been the appearance in one showing of the mighty triumvirate of Price, Lee and Cushing.
You can understand that this was hyped at the time as " the movie starring Vincent Price , Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing - three legends of horror coming together in one movie " The reality is however that Cushing appears in one very short scene while Price and Lee are sidelined for most of the movie .
Most of the film centers on the police trying to track down a "vampire killer" and as such, it's not too bad, just don't expect Price, Lee and Cushing to be sharing much screen time.
If fans of this genre really want to enjoy good British horror films of this era watch Price in the 'Dr. Phibes' franchise, or catch him in 'Theatre of Blood', but by all means avoid this bomb, or YOU ARE WARNED you will ...
It has three of the most legendary horror actors to boot: Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing.
One horror book I own describes Gothard's character as a sort of "bionic Mick Jagger." which is so accurate a term I couldn't improve on it.And we also have Vincent Price, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee turning up at various points.
Cushing has one scene - not with the other masters of menace - and Price and Lee have only a couple more, sharing a brief bit at the end of the film.
The cast is great featuring horror icons Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee & Vincent Price who unfortunately never meet & Cushing has only a few minutes of screen time before he is killed by someone grabbing his shoulder. |
tt1706687 | Monumental: In Search of America's National Treasure | [Adapted from the trailer] The United States of America is the richest, freest nation the world has ever seen. But nowadays all signs point to the reality of a sickness in the soul of our country, and history tells us that we're headed for disaster if we don't change our course now.The set of ideas that is being advanced and implemented in Washington at this time is terribly frightening to those who are students of history. If you look at the superpowers of history, every single one of them has called itself "exceptional." If you look at the Roman empire, for instance, the parallels to what is going on in the U.S. are alarming. And the question is: Are we going to go down the right path ourselves, or continue blithely along the same wrong path down which so many nations in history's dustbin have trod...?In Monumental, producer/narrator Kirk Cameron retraces the footsteps of America's founders to see if they left us some kind of a map that would guide us back to the foundation of America's success. Typically when we think of the Pilgrims, we recall images from public-school history classes: pilgrims coming over the sea from England in funny black-and-white suits with big, goofy hats and belt buckles on their shoes. But in fact the Pilgrims were the radicals of their day, living outside the box that had been constructed by the British empire. The hardships they had to endure in starting a new life for themselves, in what to them was a newly discovered land, are incredible, and furnish a vital lesson for us today.Sadly, our history has not just been forgotten; it's been rewritten. Our historians and politicians no longer maintain our awareness of the founders' beliefs and values, which resulted in America's now-fading greatness. Sure, the Pilgrims emerged from a culture that retained slavery at the time--but it was the very faith and values of the Pilgrims and others like them that eventually eradicated slavery in first Britain and then the U.S.Time is flying by too quickly, and our children's futures won't wait. We've got to do something now. Sometimes the only way forward . . . is to go back. There is nothing in today's America that cannot be solved by a genuine going-back to the first principles held by the Founders. And that's good news.Our families are worth fighting for . . . aren't they? | christian film | train | imdb | Kirk Cameron, in this new attempt at Christian revisionism, tried to suggest that the founders of America (and I don't mean the puritan settlers) wanted a theocracy, which is what the the Puritan community was.
Puritans believed teenage boredom and old feuds were a part of witchcraft, our forefathers did not.Then there is the myth about the printing, financing, distribution of bibles by Congress.
Aitken was not appointed to be the official bible printer and, although Aitken wanted the bible published under the authority of Congress, the bible was not printed or paid for by Congress: Resolved: That the United States in Congress assembled, highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken, as subservient to the interest of religion as well as an instance of the progress of the arts in this country, and being satisfied from the above report, of his care and accuracy in the execution of the work they recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States and hereby authorize him to publish this recommendation in the manner he shall think proper (see page 574, Journals of Congress, September 12, 1782).Take it all with a grain of salt..
My rating of 3 stars represents an average of zero stars as a documentary, and 6 stars as propaganda.
As a documentary, the film relies largely on opinions and when it does present actual historical events, it tends to spuriously shoehorn god into those events.
I was left unconverted.While I think Kirk Cameron is well-meaning, I also think he is misguided.
Using the Puritans as an example of strong morals and religious tolerance is problematic.
The strict piety of the Puritans was borderline Taliban-esque, and they were all for religious tolerance as long as it included only their religion.
The documentary fails to mention that part of the reason the Puritans left Holland was because they felt the Dutch were too tolerant, and had difficulty co-existing with Jewish people.
The highlights are Todd "legitimate rape" Akin and David Barton, author of The Jefferson Lies, "the least credible book in print," according the the History News Network.
Note that The Jefferson Lies is no longer in print, as the publisher withdrew the book citing lack of confidence in the book's details.
As a side note, I do consider a D.Div to be a legitimate degree, but not when it comes from Cathedral Bible College as his does, which as far as I can tell is an unaccredited degree mill.The production quality of the film is competent, but not spectacular..
I use this in my classroom to set the tone for American History.
We can not hide behind a false understanding of our history and expect our children just believe whatever is said in the world.
They must be rooted in the truth and see that our founders understood the costs that may lie ahead, and that we must put faith first so that we can make good and proper decisions.
Excellent film, suggest every America watch it and learn their History.
This is one of the most enlightening movies about the American pilgrims, that has ever been filmed.
There are discoveries in this movie which will assist Americans with understanding who they are and what their country is founded upon.
The film addresses the hardships Americas forefathers endured in order to make it to America.
No other documentary about America has ever delved into this much detail concerning its forefathers and their historical past.
Those of you who want to know the foundations of America could not pick a better movie to watch and a better foundation for your further research, than this film "Monumental".
Every school child in America should be introduced to this film.
This film takes you on an exciting journey, and opens your eyes to the history of America's forefathers, what they experienced, what they had to contend with, and how they finally endured the hardships and made it successfully to the shores of what is now Massachusetts.
It winds through many countries as well as some states within America, covering some specific history and documentation and finally takes you back to Massachusetts and introduces you to one of the most historical Monuments in America, and one to which most Americans are unaware..
Warped view of America.
Boiled down to its essence Monumental: In Search Of America's National Treasure
is a blueprint for fundamentalist Christians to restore America to their view of it.
According to their view of history it was when America did such things as ban
America just lost its way.Our founding fathers true were for the most part churchgoing folks.
Deism of Jefferson, the outright atheism of Tom Paine gets nary a mention.It's a warped view of America and Cameron whose career in mainstream entertainment went south is now a star on the Christian circuit.
What really annoys me about this view of America and of life when you come right down to it works wonderfully if you accept unquestioningly their view
current president who is trying to give them the America they want should
show them up for what they are.Fundamentalist Christian propaganda that really doesn't stand up to critical
It's not a movie, and it may not be the most enjoyable thing to watch.
But it's not about entertainment, it's about teaching important items on what made our country what it is, and what we need to turn back to if we are to continue, namely the Bible.
For those of you who do not agree, you need to keep an open mind while watching it and really think about it.
Even if you do not believe in the Bible and GOD, there is no question about it that it did play an important role in making our country what it is- a fact that is quickly being covered up and forgotten.
Kirk Cameron is truly a great guy who went through a lot of work to do this.
I've never written a review before but it also seems that Mr. Cameron has never seen a documentary before.
I admittedly skipped over some points where Cameron is beyond perplexed and where he is subjected to painfully slow, rhetorical questions given in Sunday school format.
However, I will attempt to cover some of my personal high and low points without rage quitting like i did this film.The first monumental bowl movement of the film is in the opening where Cameron explains that we are all going to hell in a hand-basket and that the only thing that will set us straight is a revival to God's path and adhering to the saying "one nation under God." The term was only added to the pledge of allegiance in the late 40's or 50's and we all know how diverse and accepting of other cultures America was then.
The next three quarters of the film is dedicated to the pilgrims' arduous journey from England, to Holland, back to England, and then the new world in order to seek religious freedom from the Anglican church.
The film almost comically takes this in full stride while prescribing religious law and a conjoining of church and state.
Without even realizing it, Cameron and company come full circle back to the same environment which drove the Puritans from England.
The Puritans were also relatively a small sect in colonial America.
Can someone please talk about the Georgia penal colony for a fresh change?Moving on to our forefathers, the film tries to change their beliefs postmortem.
They do so by citing that 12 of these heathens financed a commemorative bible and that Thomas Jefferson endorsed the bible as a book to be used in school without the consideration of some simple realities.
While Bostonians such as Benjamin Franklin had access to immaculate libraries, you're average country bumpkin only had one book, the Good Book.
This made the Bible an excellent and accessible tool to cement literacy in the fledgling nation.
Why must the founding fathers be Christian anyways?
It seems to me that the point of America was that it doesn't matter what you do or do not believe in, all that matters is that you're American and wish to see this great experiment succeed.
It seems that Monumental would have the creed read, "One nation under God, but only for the white Anglo-Saxon Protestants.":For the pros- I never knew that Puritan monument in Massachusetts existed.
Cool.Also, I've spent five years in a state school and have never f*cking heard of The Godless Constitution once.
Great film every American should see.
This film went beyond what I learned in school about the pilgrims.
It gives you a sense of how desperate times were in England under a tyrannical government which had no tolerance for Christians.
Kirk Cameron talks to historians and experts to paint a picture of just how hard the Puritans fought to be free from an oppressive government.
Cameron, with the help of a historian, discovers a hidden gem of history--a little heard about monument to our founding--and gives the viewer an interpretation of the meaning of said monument.
An excellent film that every American should see..
Watch the movie 1984 in tandem with this: Watch and Learn.
Kirk Cameron has demonstrated that he is not only a committed performer, he is also a committed family advocate.
The movie is not about family but it shows how the early American settlers and the forefathers of the Declaration of Independence thought about family, morality and what it takes to be a solid society.
Unfortunately, due to Kirk Cameron's well known association with some Christian film productions, it is unlikely that this documentary appeal to a broad spectrum of the American public.
This is truly unfortunate as it is a film that should be seen and even presented in schools for discussion.Some academics who are trying to protect their revisionist perspectives on early American history are clearly exposed by undeniable evidence.
Not constructed or concocted evidence but clear historical evidence which can only be fully appreciated after seeing this documentary.
I'm with Kirk Cameron, "as for me and my family...we choose...".
Wonderful history & eye-opener regarding the future of the U.S..
It's wonderful to be able to hear the TRUTH in history.
We should all know how amazing our forefathers and founding fathers were.
There is much that can be learned from history that impacts us even today.
History does repeat itself and only fools don't learn from mistakes.
EVERY Christian should see this film at least once.
Even non-Christians should appreciate the history revealed within it and understand that morality is at the heart of survival.
It's a much needed call to action for Americans.
Best history class I've attended in 30 years.
Did you know that our U.S. Congress paid to produce Bibles and put them in homes.
HARVARD's motto was "Christ and Truth." And on and on with FACTS from historians that we've never heard before.
Remember a certain president saying "America is not a Christian nation" and idiots saying our country was found on religious freedom and not the Bible.
That the founders were against Christianity and its tenants.
Why has this movie been out for two years and gotten great reviews and is not on NETFLIX?
Watch this movie and learn.
A great movie..
Wonderfully factual documentary on our founding.
I noticed that Cameron picked the top authorities on all the subjects that he tells us about.Also this is very well done.
There were mostly 10 ratings, but almost as many gave it a 1, which tells me those people never saw the movie, just panned it because they knew what it was about.That's sad and shows how many are hostile towards any truth about our founding.
I guess the founders never expected such evil to take over our country and attempt to destroy it from within, but we all know that's what's been happening for the last 50 or more years.I hope everyone who cares becomes more educated on this subject.
There will always be those who spread lies, so it's brave of people like Kirk Cameron to dare to tell the truth.Watch this if you care what happens to the most generous and free country every founded..
Ask Yourself - What is the National Monument to the Forefathers?.
If you answered no, you should definitely watch this movie.
There are people deciding what is taught to us in this country and creating standardized curricula.
The movie also investigate forgotten inscriptions at Harvard University and some very interesting documents in Texas.
The movie is a little slow at some points in the beginning but revs up once you get to the monument and its interpretations..
The director, Kirk Cameron has come along way in his career, this film proves to be the picture of his true talent.
In an age where information has been the backbone to change, we are encouraged to research our facts given the falsehood of 9/11 and our current war in the middle east.
The truth from which a story is fabricated can only stay true until the lie is presented.
Though we are always in anticipation of the real story becoming a text in our history books, with a broadcasting of their admission of fault, this is not the case.
Our future will only be given the same ill facts, the lies will be stone and the student will believe this.
First off, kudos to Kirk Cameron for speaking truth into the culture at its time of need.
Unfortunately I found it largely a waste of time.The film is Cameron's look into America's past to answer the crises that face America today.
He goes to England, Holland, and Massachusetts to learn about the Pilgrims.
There's not much new material here for anyone that knows much about the Pilgrims.
There are a few anecdotes that are interesting, but the bulk of it is slow and plodding.Cameron speaks with a few authorities on history and Christianity, but few are given much time to say anything of any real insight.
If you're a Bible-believing, church-attending Christian, you should already know pretty much everything in this movie.
If you don't, you need to find a new church.
The content is good, but it is grade-school material.
This movie may be a good introduction to the Pilgrims and American history for an elementary-age child, but it is remedial for adults and simply put a waste of time for them.I was greatly disappointed with this film.
You're much better off reading a good book or going to bed early..
Excellent film.
Very nicely put together and it was refreshing to hear the story of the founding father's quest for religious liberty and that unlike the "politically correct" revisionist history they have taught in the last 50 years in the schools, these men had a deep faith in God and that our country indeed was founded with Judeo-Christian principles in mind.
Grounded in history the film takes you through the quest for religious freedom by the Puritans, the religious ideals of the signers of the Constitution to the writings of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
I really love how Kirk Cameron actually took tons of time to go thru history to dig up the GENUINE FACTS about our nations founding.
How fun & exciting that he got to actually go to these places & witness things for himself instead of just taking people's word on it.
He actually went across the ocean to go to the places that our ancestors came from and researched the TRUTHS to find out for himself and his family.
I don't want to give ANY spoilers, so I'm not going to talk about all the interesting facts he found on this amazing adventure.
But, boy does EVERY SINGLE American NEED TO WATCH THIS!!
Today kids are being raised with a REVISED/REWRITTEN history and this movie will PROVE with the facts how things have changed so dramatically from our founding & how we need to get back to it fast to SAVE OUR NATION and bring it back to its' original greatness.
After watching the movie, many packed theaters stood and clapped!
We bought this movie as soon as it came out on DVD and plan to give as gifts to A LOT of our family for Christmas.
People NEED to see the real truth about how our nation was really started.
God bless Kirk Cameron & team for digging up the truth in person.
Awesome Documentary.
Why so many want to deny the fact that this country was founded on Christian, Biblical principles.
The reason this nation WAS great was because they followed Christian laws.
God will judge this nation.
The proofs of how this nation without God. This nation was blessed because their were people who believed in the God of The Bible.
This is a clear, honest look into the history of America.
Iyt is clear how when God's law is followed, blessings come.
The Truth Will Set You Free!.
This movie is an eye opener and debunks the lies and mis-information being circulated today by popular media and high profile atheists and anti-deists like Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hawkins - to name a few.The film clearly cites facts about America's Christian-Judeo roots and how the anti-Christian agenda has taken shape and gained strength slowly but surely.The most surprising was about how the motto of Harvard University was changed to remove Christ and Christianity from it - leaving only the much diluted version of Veritas - which means truth while removing the fact that truth can only come through the moral code laid down by Christ and The Bible.This is a must see for atheists and historians alike - who are curious about the roots of America and its founding fathers.
It also debunks the theory of the founding fathers being atheists.I hope people in congress watch this documentary and plot a path to fix America's downward spiral. |
tt0067490 | The Night Stalker | From a tape made by reporter Carl Kolchak Darren McGavin]. "This is the story behind one of the greatest manhunts in history. Maybe you read about it--or rather what they let you read about it probably in some minor item buried somewhere on the back page. However, what happened in Las Vegas between May 16 and May 28 of this year was so incredible that, to this day, the facts have been suppressed in a massive effort to save certain political careers from disaster and law enforcement officials from embarrassment. This will be the last time I will ever discuss these events with anyone. So, when you have finished this bizarre account, judge for yourself its believability. And then try to tell yourself, wherever you may be, it couldn't happen here."LAS VEGAS
Sunday May 16
ITEM 2:30 am: Body of Cheryl Hughes found in a garbage can; cause of death officially undetermined.Tuesday May 18
ITEM: Reporter Carl Kolchak (Daily News) called back from vacation and assigned to story.
ITEM: Doctor at County General Hospital informs Kolchak that Hughes died of massive blood loss.
ITEM: Gail Foster [Carol Lynley] informs Kolchak that Hughes had brown belt in karate.Thursday May 20
ITEM 7:02 am: Body of Bonnie Reynolds, with throat wounds and large blood loss, found lying 22 feet into a ditch; no footsteps or blood visible.
ITEM: Kolchak reports that Hughes and Reynolds died of massive blood loss; concludes that a 'super powerful madman' is running around Las Vegas, killing young girl.
ITEM: Kolchak reprimanded by the managing editor, Anthony Vincenzo [Simon Oakland].Friday May 21
ITEM 8:06 am: Body of Carol Hanaschek, drained of blood and with throat wounds, found at the back door of her apartment.
ITEM: Parkway Hospital knocked over for its blood supply.
ITEM: Clark County courthouse meeting; Coroner Robert Makurji [Larry Linville] reveals that throat wounds of all victims showed traces of human saliva; reporters warned to keep 'vampire' references out of newspaper.Saturday May 22
ITEM: Daily News headline: 'Vampire Killer in Las Vegas?' written by C. Kolchak.
ITEM: Kolchak reprimanded by editor for using the word 'vampire'.Sunday May 23
ITEM: Body of Mary Brandon found drained of blood and with throat wounds; her mother provides description of assailant and car (maroon coupe).
ITEM: Shelly Forbes reported missing; her doberman pinscher is found with its neck broken.Monday May 24
ITEM: Daily News prints drawing of suspect.Tuesday May 25
ITEM 7:30 pm: Used car salesman questioned about sale of maroon coupe to one Martin Luther, name and address phony.Wednesday May 26
ITEM PM: Old Town Hospital robbed of blood; police (and Kolchak) arrive in time to shoot at suspect but bullets don't stop him.Thursday May 27
ITEM 8:20 am: Press conference at Clark county courthouse; suspect identified as Janos Skorzeny [Barry Atwater], born 1899 in Krisda, Romania; father died 1923 leaving $75-100 million. Skorzeny reported just before German Blitz in England as Dr Paul Velasco, specialist in hematology; research involved freshly-killed air raid victims, sumps, tubs and large meat locker. Reported 1948 in Canada as Dr Velasco; seen repeatedly along US/Can border. Left Canada April 19 for Las Vegas as Detective Constable Alan Hansley. Considered British fugitive. NOTE: All Skorzeny sightings accompanied also by reports of unexplained deaths due to blood loss.
ITEM PM: Skorzeny spotted in green unpaneled station wagon; pursued unsuccessfully on foot by Kolchak and police.Friday May 28
ITEM 3:17 am: Skorzeny still at large; Kolchak advises officials to carry crosses, stakes and mallets.
ITEM: Kolchak locates Skorzeny's house; search reveals refrigerator filled with blood, dirt-filled coffin, drawer of disguises, and Shelly Forbes lashed to bed as a 'private blood bank'.
ITEM: Skorzeny returns, finds Kolchak hiding in closet; Kolchak holds up cross and backs away from Skorzeny but falls downstairs; Skorzeny leaps on Kolchak as Bernie Jenks [Ralph Meeker] arrives; fight ensues.
ITEM DAWN: Kolchak pulls down curtains; sunlight weakens Skorzeny; Skorzeny staked by Kolchak as police arrive.
ITEM: Carl Kolchak arrested for murder and warned by D.A. to leave Las Vegas and to never speak of the vampire incident or be put away forever."So that's it. The book's finished, and now you'll have to judge for yourself. I must warn you, however, if you try to verify this account, you will find it quite impossible. ITEM: In Washington DC, there is no longer a file listing the suspect under his true name or any of his aliases. In Las Vegas, all of those who were involved have either left town, aren't talking, or are dead. I haven't had a decent night's sleep since all this happened, and now you might find it difficult, too, because there is still one fact that cannot be buried: after the death of Janos Skorzeny, he and all of his victims were immediately cremated. Why? Remember the legend: all those who die from the bite of a vampire will return as a vampire unless destroyed first. So, think about it and try to tell yourself, wherever you may be--in the quiet of your home, in the safety of your bed--try to tell yourself it couldn't happen here." [Full Synopsis by bj_kuehl.] | murder | train | imdb | Las Vegas is a town where the unusual is considered normal.However when former top reporter Carl Kolchak played by Darren McGavin meets with police reluctance while covering the murder of a showgirl his curiosity is aroused.Suddenly there is a series of murders apparently committed by the vampire killer.The closer Kolchak gets to the truth the less he is able to reveal and the more frightened he becomes."The Night Stalker" is a taut and suspenseful mix of vampire horror and comedy.The cast is superb with McGavin playing Kolchak like a 1940s' reporter who has emerged from a time capsule into the 1970s.The portrayal of vampire Skorzeny is positively bone-chilling.I'm not deeply into made for TV horror,but "The Night Stalker" is very good..
I have never been a great fan of Darrin McGavin.But here HE is obviously having the time of his life!As "Karl Kolchak" McGavin has the job of convincing his TV viewers that HE is convinced that a real-life Vampire killer is running loose in modern-day Las Vegas!And "the Night Stalker" is just the right mix of atmosphere and scariness and doubt to keep it's TV viewer on the edge of the seat!Maybe it even works BETTER as a TV movie!!
We the viewer are left with that final puzzling question...try to tell yourself "it couldn't happen here"!Of course,this wouldn't be possible without Darrin McGavin's performance.He took the best of an opportunity late in his career,paving the way for a future TV horror series.I don't think the series was nearly as good as the original.But only Darrin McGavin could have carried it at all!!!.
Good stuff here as modern-day vampirism gets a respectable TV-movie treatment that managed to bring something original to the mixture by having the story told from the point of view of a weary reporter.Darren McGavin is unforgettable in a telefilm that set the record for ratings shares in its day.
Kolchak uncovers the truth--the murders are the work of a "real live vampire"--and the truth is quickly covered up again by the Las Vegas police department, who don't want the news of a vampire to interfere with business (one is forced to consider that the ultimate proof of bonafide supernatural goings-on would ultimately be of more importance, but that would spoil the fun).The film is delightfully dated in its fashions and styling, but otherwise the treatment of the material is surprisingly contemporary, which goes to show just how far ahead of its time "The Night Stalker" really was.
But when you get an interesting concept (a vampire stalking Las Vegas) and a world-class writer like Richard Matheson (who wrote "The (Incredible) Shrinking Man" and numerous classic "Twilight Zone" eps) you have a formula for success.When you add producer Dan Curtis, the creator of "Dark Shadows", the possibility of a kick-ass TV horror movie becomes a reality.When a woman is murdered, reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) is called back from a vacation to cover it.
And Barry Atwater plays Skorzeny with the perfect amount of venom and snarl, not going way over the top, which would have been easy to do.Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak was also a role he was born to play.
I love this movie and that's why I gave it a 10/10.SUMMARY: Carl Kolchak, reporter in Las Vegas, investigates a series of murders that seem to be caused by a vampire.
Darren McGavin is wonderful as Kolchak, and Barry Atwater is really creepy as Janos Skorzeny, the vampire.
THE NIGHT STALKER, the telefilm adapted from the then unpublished novel THE KOLCHAK TAPES by Jeff Rice, presents viewers with a most frightening and utterly BELIEVABLE vampire, Janos Skorzeny (Barry Atwater), a creature who resembles a tormented heroin addict more so than the glamorized, two-dimensional vampire fare of Anne Rice and Buffyland.
Of all the horror films in existence, THE NIGHT STALKER is certainly at the top of this genre's list for its surrealistic, cinema verite photography, first-rate acting, top-notch directing (John Llewelyn Moxey) and for its "The Front Page Meets Dracula" screenplay by fantasy veteran Richard Matheson.
Nice little made for TV (ABC) film about Kolchak (McGavin), a washed-up reporter in exile in Las Vegas, looking for a vampire who everybody is convinced is just a psycho.
The star of the show, however, is Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak, a seedy middle-aged reporter who's looking for a big story that will get him out of Las Vegas and back to a cushy job at a major newspaper in New York or Boston.
When a number of women turn up dead, their bodies completely drained of blood, Kolchak--much to the distaste of his editor (Simon Oakland) and Vegas law enforcement officials--takes it upon himself to sensationalize the story and find out who the murderer is.
The cast is uniformly wonderful (as well as McGavin, Oakland, and Atwater, Kent Smith deserves special mention as the smarmy, rotten-to-the-bone district attorney), and Richard Matheson's script (based on a story by Jeff Rice) deftly balances scares with caustic, Raymond Chandler-style humor.
The only problem with the movie is this: it's SO good that the sequel, "The Night Strangler", and the subsequent "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" television series just couldn't live up to it.
it was the television movie with the highest amount of viewers for quite a long time.it influenced a lot of modern artists, like Chris carter (X-Files), among others.Darren Mcgavin was awesome as a world weary reporter, with a cute girl friend who inadvertently gets drawn into an unbelievable story.it was how i saw vampires in my head for years afterward.
Here, a modern-day Dracula is terrorizing Las Vegas, but instead of taking the view of the family of the victims (as probably all other vampire movie did), the story is told from the view of a reporter who is fighting his flustered boss (Simon Oakland) and the stonewalling police into believing the impossible.
The actor who played the vampire (not listed in the credits) did an excellent job at terrifying the audience, and Darren McGavin played the role of Carl Kolchak so well that the viewer cannot imagine anyone else replacing him (not even in a "Spiderman-like" theatrical movie).
The argumentative, scruffy, set in his ways but ever-determined reporter who wants to get his story and the facts out for the public to read despite the best efforts of all around him, including his editor, the police chief, the district attorney and the local sheriff, to keep him reigned in and the truth seemingly under wraps for the sake of their own necks.Aside from McGavin's terrific lead performance as a character he seemed born to play, we also have on hand here many fine character actors including Claude Akins, Kent Smith, Ralph Meeker and Charles McGraw.
The film takes place in modern day Las Vegas and stars Darren McGavin as a cynical and eccentric reporter.
Darren McGavin is the pick of the acting cast, with a performance that really makes the film worth noticing, and also paved the way for a sequel a year later, and a short lived cult TV series.
If you enjoy good TV and campy horror movies I highly recommend this show.I loved watching Kolchak: The Night Stalker when it first aired (I was in 4th grade).
The character of Kolchak, the reporter who figures out and tries to convince us all that this is a real vampire, is flawlessly portrayed by the always great Darren McGavin.
It is also a great example of how horror can conform to the standards and practices of the often-staid network TV honchos and still be effective.Darren McGavin gives us probably the best performance of his life as Carl Kolchak, a Las Vegas newspaper reporter who stumbles across a series of unexplained killings of four Vegas showgirls.
It is thus up to McGavin to confront Atwater alone at the vampire's mansion, where Atwater is holding a fifth showgirl at his mercy.THE NIGHT STALKER has a great production pedigree: it was produced by Dan Curtis, the creator of the horror soap opera "Dark Shadows"; the screenplay (based on an unpublished story by Jeff Rice) is by Richard Matheson (of "I Am Legend" and DUEL fame); and the effective direction is by British emigre John Llewellyn Moxey.
Carol Lynley contributes a good turn as McGavin's girlfriend, a Vegas showgirl who might also be on Atwater's bloodsucking hitlist.This is great horror/suspense moviemaking at its best, and is well worth seeing.
Abrasive reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) comes to realize that a vampire is roaming the streets of Las Vegas killing women.
'The Night Stalker' wonderfully mixes the style of 1940s film-noir and '70s horror.When string of odd murders where victims are drained from blood occur in Las Vegas, a has been crime reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) starts to investigate in the need for good story.
He warns the authorities, but Kolchak's discoveries are not heard, rather they want to quiet the relentless journalist, until the moment when police has to face the unstoppable killing machine in real life.As the film is made for television, it is pretty tame in the department of blood and gore, but that doesn't reduce the film's horror value a bit.
Intrepid reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) increasingly suspects that something supernatural is at foot, which his bellowing boss finds incredulous (Simon Oakland), as well as city authorities (Ralph Meeker, Claude Akins & Kent Smith).
An abrasive Las Vegas newspaper reporter (Darren McGavin) investigates a series of murders committed by a vampire.It was based on the then-unpublished novel by Jeff Rice titled "The Kolchak Papers".
But naturally the one and only true star of "The Night Stalker" is the lead character Carl Kolchak and the fantastic actor Darren McGavin who single-handedly turned him into simultaneously the most sympathetic and most irritating protagonist that ever appeared on the TV-screen.
The very best thing about Matheson's script is that "The Night Stalker" is as much a horror film as it is a detective story.
Darrin McGavin made Carl Kolchak immortal, but here he also receive stupendous support from a handful of great and shamefully underrated actors, like Claude Akins (as the loathsome Sheriff), Simon Oakland, Ralph Meeker, Charles McGraw and – last but not least - Barry Atwater as one of the spookiest vampires ever depicted..
Only in the glory days of television could you have a guy like Carl Kolchak-a middle aged reporter who's worn the same style of clothing for twenty plus years-be the main character and hero of a prime time event.
Produced by legendary TV producer Dan Curtis and written by the equally talented Richard Matheson, "The Night Stalker" introduces us to that old school newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak, played by the late great Darren McGavin from "A Christmas Story", in what has to be one of his best and most iconic roles.Our story begins in the dazzling streets of Sin City, where a young woman is stalked and murdered by a creature of the night.
Entertaining TV movie strictly for fans of horror films, and vampire films; with an unpredictable performance from McGavin and many scary, creepy scenes.
Produced by Dan Curtis, that master of 1970s genre TV, and directed by the under-rated John Llewelyn Moxey ("The City of the Dead", "Circus of Fear"), it features a sharp script by the great Richard Matheson, who adapts Jeffrey Grant Rices' unpublished story.In one of the best performances of his career, ever-lovable Darren McGavin makes the character of Carl Kolchak his own.
It quickly turns into a series of murders in which victims are drained of all their blood.Naturally, the culprit (Barry Atwater as Janos Skorzeny) is revealed to be a vampire, but in this initial Kolchak mystery, the intrepid journalist doesn't automatically leap to the most outlandish conclusion.
It was produced by genre giant Dan Curtis and written by genre god Richard Matheson, so it had a lot going for it -- not least of which veteran character actor Darren McGavin as a cynical Las Vegas newspaper reporter who finds himself battling a vampire.The movie originally aired in a 90-minute time slot, so it clocks in at a tense, terse 75 minutes without commercials.
Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) is a cynical and brusk Los Angeles newspaper reporter who comes to believe the activities of a serial killer are in fact - those of a modern day vampire!It spawned a sequel and a TV series, such was the impact of this better than average TV horror movie.
This 1972 TV film introduced audiences to Carl Kolchack, played indelibly by Darren McGavin, who here investigates a series of brutal murders he discovers to be the work of a vampire!
Great supporting cast of guest actors include Carol Lynley, Claude Akins, Kent Smith, Elisha Cook Jr. and Simon Oakland, who would become a regular with McGavin in the sequel "The Night Strangler" and subsequent series.A wonderful blend of humor and horror, this film cast Barry Atwater as an evil vampire preying on women in Las Vegas, and Carl's frustrating attempts to convince the police that the vampire is real; they do believe him, but are afraid of the bad publicity such a discovery to the public would mean for the city, so...
Taut little TV-scale shocker hits all the right notes as it tells the story of intrepid reporter Carl Kolchak (McGavin) chasing the story of a modern-day vampire (Atwater) whose lust for blood is resulting in several young women dying horrible deaths, and the local police precinct clueless to the culprit or motive.
Kent Smith plays the DA with appropriate pomp and ambivalence, Claude Akins is the disbelieving police chief whose had a gut full of Kolchak's apparent disrespect, Simon Oakland Kolchak's long-suffering editor, and Ralph Meeker has his close friend and contact, perhaps the only other person who can be convinced that Barry Atwater is a blood-sucking vampire.
***SPOILERS*** After a number of Las Vegas show girls are brutally murdered with their blood drained out of their bodies hard nosed reporter Carl Kolchak,Darrin McGavin, smells a big story in what he feels is behind those savage killings.
Kolchak is certain that it was a vampire who did the women in and he was going to prove it even he ended up becoming one the the vampire's victims himself.With the Mayor and police commissioner of Las Vegas trying to prevent a city wide panic the thought that a legendary vampire was on the loose in the city Kolchak's story is put on hold with his editor Tony Vincenzo, Simon Okland, telling him to drop the whole thing and report on an upcoming beauty contest instead.
He *knows* he's right, and he might just get himself killed to prove it.Terrifically entertaining, The Night Stalker became the highest-rated TV movie of its time, spawning a sequel and a short-lived but quite fun series with a disproportionately large footprint.
Narrated by eager-beaver newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin), "The Night Stalker" is Kolchak's account of his involvement in the murder cases of multiple young women in Las Vegas.
The very fact that The Night Stalker (the film...not the series) was able to rise so far above its meager budget to become the classic it is today, is proof that it was not just another "horror" movie.
He also brought over talented British filmmaker John Llewellyn Moxey (HORROR HOTEL) to direct.In Las Vegas, unstoppable reporter (and, as his harried boss puts it, "amateur bloodhound") Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) gets assigned to cover a story involving a young woman found dead
completely drained of blood and with puncture marks on her neck.
He ends up right in the middle of "the largest manhunt in Las Vegas history," but the district attorney (Kent Smith), county sheriff (Claude Akins), police chief (Charles McGraw) and others want to cover it all up and "don't want to cause a panic." Kolchak is just interesting in uncovering the truth and bears witness to the vampire robbing a blood bank, taking dozens of bullet hits, throwing cops around with ease and keeping a victim tied to a bed in his home for quick late-night snacks.McGavin is great fun in this role; energetic, quick-witted, no-nonsense, sardonic, pushy, courageous
and his rapid-fire sarcastic exchanges ("What do you want?
After the success of this TV movie, Curtis, followed with THE NIGHT STRANGLER, the second pilot film for the eventual television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
Darren McGavin gives a wonderfully robust and engaging performance as Carl Kolchak, an abrasive, impetuous, impulsive, and excitable down-on-his-luck newspaper reporter who uncovers the scoop of a lifetime after he finds out that Janos Skorzeny (a genuinely frightening portrayal by Barry Atwater), the man responsible for a vicious series of baffling murders in Las Vegas, is an actual vampire.
"The Night Stalker" had plenty of that.Darren McGavin plays Carl Kolchak, a reporter for a Las Vegas newspaper who has a checkered career history (fired 10 times if I remember the scene correctly) in the past who yearns to find his way back to a big city paper.
Las Vegas reporter Darren McGavin (as Carl Kolchak) becomes involved in investigating a series of ghastly murders; in each case, the lovely young victims are drained of blood.
******* The Night Stalker (1/11/72) John Llewellyn Moxey ~ Darren McGavin, Carol Lynley, Barry Atwater.
Based on a screenplay by Richard Matheson from a story by Jeff Rice, the film introduces us to Carl Kolchak(DARREN McGAVIN), a wisecracking, cynical, world-weary, middle-aged reporter working for the Las Vegas Daily News.
Darren McGavin is a natural fit for the brash Kolchak, fighting cover-ups and supernatural evil at every turn, and well supported by a fine cast of character actors including Ralph Meeker, Elisha Cook Jr., Claude Akins and Simon Oakland.
Carl Kolchak ( Darren McGavin ), an eccentric news reporter, tries to get at the truth, but is thwarted at all turns by the authorities, who are trying to cover up the presence of a vampire in the town. |
tt2614684 | '71 | Gary Hook, a new recruit to the British Army, takes leave of his much younger brother Darren. Hook's platoon is sent to Belfast in 1971 in the early years of the Troubles. Under the leadership of the inexperienced Second Lieutenant Armitage, his platoon is deployed to a volatile area where Catholic Nationalists and Protestant Loyalists live side by side. The unit provides support for the Royal Ulster Constabulary as it inspects homes for firearms, shocking Hook with their rough treatment of women and children. A crowd gathers to protest and provoke the British troops who, though heavily armed, can only respond by trying to hold the crowd back.
One soldier is hit by a rock and drops his rifle to the ground. In the confusion, a young boy seizes it and runs off through the mob. Hook and another soldier pursue him. As the crowd's protest violently escalates, the soldiers and police pull out, leaving the two soldiers behind. Hook and the other soldier are severely beaten by a mob, until a sympathetic woman manages to calm things down. However, the other soldier is suddenly shot dead at point blank range by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) gunman Paul Haggerty. With the crowd physically attacking him, Hook flees through streets and back alleys, eludes his pursuers, and hides in an outhouse until dark.
A Protestant youngster brings Hook to a local pub that serves as a front for Loyalists. There, Hook glimpses a Loyalist group in a back room, constructing a bomb under the guidance of a member of the Military Reaction Force (MRF), the British Army's covert counter-insurgency unit. Hook steps outside the pub just before an enormous explosion destroys the building, killing or injuring many of those inside, including the young boy who brought him there. Hook flees once more into the dark streets. Unaware that the Loyalist bombers have blown themselves up accidentally, the PIRA and Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA) factions accuse each other of being responsible for the bombing.
Two Catholics, Eamon and his daughter Brigid, discover Hook as he lies in a street unconscious and injured by shrapnel. They take him to their home in the Divis Flats area before discovering he is a British soldier. Eamon, a former army medic, stitches Hook's wounds.
Despite the PIRA's having recently taken control of the area from the OIRA, Eamon contacts senior OIRA official Boyle for help, expecting a more humane solution than the PIRA faction would allow. Boyle, less radical and violent than the younger PIRA members, has a working relationship with the MRF and tells MRF Captain Browning, leader of the local MRF section, of Hook's whereabouts and asks in return that Browning kill James Quinn, a key leader of the PIRA faction.
Quinn and his PIRA squad have been tailing Boyle since the pub explosion and saw him visit Eamon's flat without knowing why he was there. Sensing danger, Hook flees the flat, taking an assault knife he finds in a bag. He eludes the PIRA men but, unable to evade Haggerty, Hook stabs him. As the wounded man lies dying, Hook reaches down and grasps his shoulder, sharing strength and sympathy as they hold each other's gaze, and the PIRA man dies.
Quinn's group captures Hook and takes him to a hideout. Quinn orders Sean, a young teenager, to murder Hook. When Sean hesitates, Quinn prepares to execute Hook, only to leave when Browning's group arrives. Lewis, to Hook's horror, shoots Sean. He then attempts to strangle Hook to prevent him from informing others of the bomb.
As Lieutenant Armitage and his men enter in support of Browning, Armitage sees Lewis' attempt to kill Hook. Sean raises himself and shoots Lewis dead before being shot again, this time by Armitage. Browning finds Quinn, and rather than arresting him, tells him Boyle wants him dead, then lets him go. As Quinn leaves, Browning tells him he will be in touch soon, and he expects him to be helpful.
Hook is returned to his barracks. Later, despite a formal complaint by Armitage, the commanding officer dismisses the incident involving Hook, Lewis, and Sean as a confused situation that merits no further inquiry. Hook returns to England and reunites with Darren. | suspenseful, neo noir, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | It's about Private Hook, (a superb Jack O'Connell), a young British solider who, on his first day of active service in Belfast, is separated from his platoon and forced to go on the run in a totally alien landscape where he is seen as 'the enemy' to be hunted down and killed.
With an assured performance by rising star Jack O'Connell in the lead, he plays a young soldier Gary Hook recently deployed to Northern Ireland who finds himself out of his dept when going on his first patrol thanks to the incompetence of his CO (Sam Reid) - Separated from his unit and lost in a city he doesn't know he's forced in a fight for survival as its hard to tell who is friend and who is foe in this extremely well written piece of drama.
Two stand outs of the younger cast were Corey McKinley (Listed rather almost like an extra on here as 'Loyalist Child which seems a little unfair) and Barry Keoghan - The former is clearly a star in the making with his ballsy performance while Keoghan with almost no lines makes an amazing impact with simple looks conveying the struggles of emotion he feels inside when it comes to committing to a path of violence.
This film is living proof that we can make thrilling and exciting cinema in the UK but still leave some room for Social Commentary within the context of a great story - an excellent thriller which hints at the dark path that was to follow in Northern Ireland for many years.
So with '71 there is a certain odd feeling that uses the streets of Belfast in the early 1970's as a launching point for a thriller involving British soldiers, terrorists on both sides of the divide, the RUC, and civilians of the time.
The pacing and structure of the film is good, and mostly it does manage to present the city streets of the Belfast roadblocks and no-go areas as oppressive and ensnaring if you are on the wrong side of them.So as a thriller it mostly does work well thanks to the shifting narrative, and pace of delivery, however it is a film that senses the weight of the real story that it is using for the purposes of the thriller, and this knowledge does make a difference across the delivery..
Tracking a young British soldier who fights for his life after being stranded by his unit on the vicious streets of Belfast, this 1971-set thriller is as grubby, tense and frenetic as the Northern Ireland conflict itself.
It is brutal, thrilling and an utterly dramatic directorial debut from Yann Demange.Part of a new regiment, Jack O'Connell's lead character, Gary Hook, is deployed to Belfast, Northern Ireland to help control an emergency situation caused by IRA terrorism.
What a roller coaster of a film from beginning to end - Jack O Connell is brilliant and the supporting cast are thoroughly believable and the acting top class- my favourite star for the future Corey McKinley who plays the loyalist boy; he highlights the difference between Catholic and Loyalist which make the film a history lesson as well as a movie- its an advert for the British Film Industry - when making a film about the troubles to capture the mood of the time and to bring that to the screen depicting the different factions and hatred that came with it is difficult but whoever researched the period, got the costume and feel of the City of Belfast spot on created a Gem. The riot scene felt as if you were there in the thick of it, the building tension between the thin barricade of soldiers and the baying mob.
Set in 1971, a year before the infamous Bloody Sunday tragedy, '71 tells the story of a young British soldier Gary Hook (Jack O'Connell) sent to Northern Ireland on active service, who becomes involved in an exercise designed to protect the Royal Ulster Constabulary as they raid a Catholic house, much to the local residents' anger.
The complexity of the 'troubles' leads to confusion over who he can trust as IRA gunmen, protestant paramilitaries, and his own side, hunt him for very different reasons.Unfortunately the film cannot carry the terrific pace and tension of the first 30-45 minutes and after a dramatic scene mid film the story unravels somewhat as it searches for an ending.
This powerful performance is why i liked the first half of this movie more than the second, after the soldier gets lost in Belfast i felt that the film focused a little too much on the secondary characters.
Jack O'Connell plays Gary Hook, a private in the British Army sent to Belfast, who finds himself separated from his men during a raid that turns into a riot.
'71, Starred Up, and the forthcoming Unbroken should cement him as the new British face of brutal cinema.I'm not sure '71 is a film to be taken totally seriously – indeed, it never quite resolves its dual identity as a chase-'em-up and an issue movie – but Yann Demange is a serious new talent to watch..
'71, directed by Yann Demange, which screened at the New York Film Festival, does not concern itself with the impossibility of unraveling the politics behind violence, or implant an over-the- top action sequence, but uses the Northern Ireland conflict of the late 60's and early 70's as context, not base.The Catholic/ Protestant, or even English/ Irish conflict is not covered in great detail which allows the film to construct its own sensibility: a netherworld where an English soldier sent to Belfast, Gary Hook (Jack O'Connell), must find trust and a way back.
Although thrillers tend not to be my cup of tea, I like developed characters and layers of plot—'71 takes place in the span of 24 hours—it is still an exceptional piece mainly due to O'Connell's masterful performance, Demange's restrained direction and Tat Radcliffe's stylized cinematography.'71 is still making the festival rounds and does not yet have a U.S. release date, but will be released in the U.K. on October 10th.@MeMontgom filmnoises.com.
Budget: £8.1million Worldwide Gross: $1.7millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their intense war/drama/thrillers about a soldier who is left behind by his troops whilst fighting an intense battle against a radical and, violent group in Belfast.
Jack O'Connell was brilliant, but not given as interesting role as he was previously in Starred-UP.However 71 was let down by it quickly drifting into a thriller/action film, when Jack's character is left abandoned behind territory lines.
Well how wrong I was, this was a coming of age story set against the backdrop of the troubles with sub plots that examined the brutalisation and radicalisation of young men by the puppet masters on each side of the conflict and exposed the individuals whose only interest is to maintain the conflict because that's what they enjoy.I've read some of the other reviews & I take on board some of the criticisms, particularly those with first hand knowledge of the troubles & their view of the depiction of them in this film, however what this film did was illustrate how conflict impacts on people in many different ways.
Fine supporting work by Killian Scott, Sean Harris, Richard Dormer, Charlie Murphy, and Sam Reid add to the film's impact.Demange's images of the war-torn village and its bombed-out ruins show a powerful vision and the director expertly handles the war scenes of escalating violence, with sudden bursts of savagery that left me gasping aloud at times.
I watched this film in London Film Festival 2014 where it had a very good reception.The intense action-packed narrative follows a British soldier's behind-enemy-lines entrapment over a single night during the riots at Belfast in 71.
With breathtaking action sequences and thrilling moments in the deadly streets of Belfast, the film did a very good job in conveying the sense of isolation; being on the run for most of the film time with continuous sheer intensity.
A bit of that and more background information could have turned it into an classic that lingered in the minds long after leaving the theatre, and possibly made some of the audience reconsider their stances on what's happening around them.A compelling performance from the leading actor Jack O'Connell deserves praise, as well as the editing of the action sequences.
Gary Hook (Jack O'Connell) is a Private, a young British soldier accidentally abandoned by his unit following a terrifying riot on the streets of Belfast in 1971.
Good and bad on both sides of the encounter – the usual situation for war.Jack O'Connell is developing into a fine actor – his most recent film was the superb film Money Monster.
Everything flows in a rather flat without much emotion, if not, a couple crude scenes.It is not a bad movie, it is enough gripping for the most of the time, the plot is interesting and it definitely can worth a watch but it was not as good as I expected and as it could have been by paying more attention to some of the above parameters.6+/10.
In this story audiences follow Gary Hook (Jack O'Connell), a soldier in training who is relocated to Belfast in order to help keep order among the civil unrest.
A British soldier sent in to retain order gets detached from his troop and finds himself lost and wounded in Belfast's back alleys, at the mercy of people who have every reason to turn him over to his enemies.It's admittedly a difficult film to follow, or at least it was for me, someone with not a whole lot of understanding about the IRA conflict.
All but Gary Hook, who, disorientated and lost, is left in the streets of Belfast to fend for himself.With Jack O'connell at the helm, you are sure to witness a performance full of nuance, intensity, and incredible impulse, which he delivers in every scene.
Directed by Yann Demange, have a big cast led by English actor Jack O'Connell.A British soldier, Gary Hook, left in the streets of Belfast after separated from his unit during a riot struggle to find his way back to safety.It is a decent movie, where we can clearly see the three acts structure, simple and straight to the point and the best word I can find to describe it is "Solid".
After a fellow-soldier he tries to assist is ruthlessly shot in the face and killed by a young Nationalist, he runs for his life ending up he knows not where, only that he's lost, in great danger at every turn and must get back safely to his company or risk the same fate as his mate.The sense of realism is palpable and you almost feel like you're watching an old TV newsreel of old, so true to life do the events seem.
Demange thrusts the audience straight into his picture with a quick fire training montage of British soldiers and before long things have gone to hell for O'Connell's Gary Hook when his regiment gets attacked in the violent streets of the warring city of Belfast and his left wondering the streets trying to survive.It's a simple almost 80's like plot (calling to mind films like Rambo and Escape from New York) but while it all seems set to be a pulse pounding thriller that wizzes by time wise, '71 quickly stumbles in its middle act and with too many side characters and not enough focus on who or what drives Gary, the film eventually becomes an uninteresting one that culminates in some over the top dramatics that undo much of the films more no fuss wins.'71 has some great singular moments (an explosive bar scene in particular), it's another feather in the cap of Jack O'Connell and shows promise from young director Demange, but as a critically loved film watched now a few months after the dust has settled, one can't help but feel '71 wasn't all it was cracked up to be and upon reflection, could've been something a whole lot more memorable had its story taken the right paths.2 ½ eventful trips to the local watering hole out of 5.
The film follows a soldier named Gary Hook(Jack O'Connel) who is sent to deal with "The Troubles" in Belfast.
"'71" contains, at least, two masterful moments under the direction of new filmmaker Yann Demange: the mise-en-scène and hand-held camera of a sequence of an extremely violent riot on a Belfast street, between British soldiers and Irish civilians, followed by the evasion of the protagonist (Jack O'Connell), a soldier who is abandoned by his platoon in the middle of the riot, while members of the young faction of the Irish Catholics chase the soldier to kill him.
Expecting an uncomplicated mission, after getting caught up in a fiery riot on the streets of Belfast, he becomes separated from his platoon, and then finds himself in a desperate battle for survival as he runs through the violence ravaged streets, unsure who to trust, and unable to tell friend from foe.The intervention of the British army during 'the troubles', as the chaos in Northern Ireland was known in the early '70s, can no doubt serve as the backdrop for many filmic tales, whether fact or fiction.
Debut director Yann Demange has here dramatized a hypothetical, average young British soldier of the time, and crafted an impressive, visceral experience of a film that captures the moment of the madness, and traps the viewer, headfirst and unflinchingly, into the ensuing chase as it progresses.
This British indie thriller set in 1971 Northern Ireland during the Troubles period follows Gary Hook (played by Jack O'Connell), a young British soldier who is separated from this squad during a violent riot that breaks out in a seemingly peaceful village in Belfast.
Throughout the time, the main character struggles trying to tell who is good and who is bad which made the plot more interesting, but at the same time, made a little hard to comprehend.'71 is a good movie and definitely Jack O'Connell best role.
With this whole combination of excitement I had to check it out (at redbox currently) and give it a look.Director Yann Demange, follows the ultra intense story of Gary Hook (O'Connell), a young British soldier who during a routine house check gets separated and left by his unit.
Yet while Greengrass opted to let the true- life story tell itself and avoided making any overt political statements (though it's understandably clear where his sympathy lies), '71 makes a point of showing the many factions fighting and politicking with each other - often scheming within their own parties.New army recruit Gary Hook (Jack O'Connell) says goodbye to his younger brother, who resides in care, before his battalion is shipped off to a particularly volatile area of Belfast in 1971.
In '71 he plays Gary Hook, a young British soldier who is sent to Belfast along with his unit during the war in which Irish factions were divided between the Catholics who wanted to be liberated from British rule and the Protestants who supported British involvement.
The action takes place during the course of one day and there are several thrills and twists along the way.Jack O'Connell delivers another solid performance playing a soldier who is struggling to survive.
Sean Harris, Paul Anderson, Sam Reid, David Wilmot, Corey McKinley, and Barry Keoghan are among the supporting actors who deliver compelling performances, but it's O'Connell who stands out once again.The action sequences in '71 are the highlight of the movie thanks to the sense of immediacy captured through the lens of the hand-held camera as Hook runs through the narrow streets of Belfast.
I watched this because I was a fan of Jack's previous work (Eden Lake, Skins, Starred Up) and I wasn't disappointed.I recommend this to anybody who likes gritty action movies, and enjoys a good, shocking scene.The Belfast riots made me feel sorry for the soldiers, and in some scenes, I was scared for some of the characters.I will definitely watch this again with my father, who is a huge fan of war/army movies, and hopefully he won't be disappointed..
This movie stars the powerful but man of few words actor Jack o Connor (starred Up ) its backdrop is Northern Ireland 1971 in the dawn of the troubles , it tells the story of a naive young soldier threw in the midst of warfare and how he fights to survive through the bloody unforgiving streets of Belfast.
Just ask Private Gary Hook (Jack O'Connell, Starred Up), a raw recruit in the British Army who, contrary to his expectations of being sent to Germany, winds up on the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland in the time of "The Troubles." Written by Gary Burke and nominated for nine British Independent Film Awards, first-time feature director Yann Demange's gritty anti-war thriller, '71 is a graphic depiction of the early days of the bitter struggle in Northern Ireland between the Protestant Loyalists who want to remain in the U.K., and the Catholic Republicans whose desire is to build a united Ireland, free of British rule.The film opens with Hook playing football with his younger brother Darren (Harry Verity) outside of a children's home where apparently he also grew up.
This film tells the story of a British soldier who gets left behind on the dangerous streets of Belfast, where the enemy separatists rule.To watch "'71" and understand its plot, I guess I have to be clear about the historical and political background of Northern Ireland.
Gary Hook (Jack O'Connell) is a young British Army soldier.
Set in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1971, the film portrays the brutality of guerrilla warfare through the eyes of a single soldier; Gary Cook (played by Jack O'Connell).
Much to his surprise, a young, inexperienced British soldier, Gary Hook (Jack O'Connell), is posted to Northern Ireland (he is expecting to be sent to Germany). |
tt0118929 | Dark City | John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens in a hotel bathtub, suffering from amnesia. He receives a phone call from Dr. Daniel Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland), who urges him to flee the hotel to evade a group of men who are after him. During the phone talk, Murdoch discovers the corpse of a brutalized, ritualistically murdered woman, along with a bloody knife. He flees the scene, just as the group of men (known as the Strangers) show up to investigate the room.
Eventually, Murdoch learns his own name, and finds he has a wife named Emma (Jennifer Connelly). He is also sought by police inspector Frank Bumstead (William Hurt) as a suspect in a series of murders committed around the city, though he cannot remember killing anybody. While being pursued by the Strangers, Murdoch discovers that he has mind powers—which the Strangers also possess, and refer to as "tuning"—and he manages to use these powers to escape from them.
Murdoch explores the city, where nobody realizes that it is always nighttime. At midnight, he watches as everyone except himself falls asleep as the Strangers stop time and physically rearrange the city as well as changing people's identities and memories. Murdoch learns that he comes from a coastal town called Shell Beach, a town familiar to everyone, though nobody knows how to leave the city to travel there, and all of his attempts to do so are unsuccessful for varying reasons. Meanwhile, the Strangers inject one of their men, Mr. Hand (Richard O'Brien), with memories intended for Murdoch in an attempt to predict his movements and track him down.
Murdoch is eventually caught by inspector Bumstead, who acknowledges he is innocent, and by then has his own misgivings about the nature of the city. They confront Dr. Schreber, who explains that the Strangers are endangered extraterrestrial parasites who use corpses as their hosts. Having a hive mind, the Strangers have been experimenting with humans to analyze their individuality in the hopes that some insight might be revealed that would help their race survive.
Schreber reveals that Murdoch is an anomaly who inadvertently awoke during one midnight process, when Schreber was in the middle of imprinting his latest identity as a murderer. The three embark to find Shell Beach, but it exists only as a poster on a wall at the edge of the city. Frustrated, Murdoch and Bumstead break through the wall, revealing outer space on the other side. The men are confronted by the Strangers, including Mr. Hand, who holds Emma hostage. In the ensuing fight Bumstead and one of the Strangers fall through the hole, revealing the city as an enormous space habitat surrounded by a force field.
The Strangers bring Murdoch to their home beneath the city and force Dr. Schreber to imprint Murdoch with their collective memory, believing Murdoch to be the final result of their experiments. Schreber betrays them by inserting false memories in Murdoch which artificially reestablish his childhood as years spent training and honing his psychokinetic skills and learning about the Strangers and their machines. Murdoch awakens, fully realizing his skills, frees himself and battles with the Strangers, defeating their leader Mr. Book (Ian Richardson) in a psychokinetic fight high above the city.
After learning from Dr. Schreber that Emma's personality is gone and cannot be restored, Murdoch exercises his new-found powers, amplified by the Strangers' machine, to create an actual Shell Beach by flooding the area within the force field with water and forming mountains and beaches. On his way to Shell Beach, Murdoch encounters Mr. Hand and informs him that the Strangers have been searching in the wrong place—the mind—to understand humanity. Murdoch turns the habitat toward the star it had been turned away from, and the city experiences sunlight for the first time.
He opens the door leading out of the city, and steps out to view the sunrise. Beyond him is a pier, where he finds the woman he knew as Emma, now with new memories and a new identity as Anna. Murdoch reintroduces himself as they walk to Shell Beach, beginning their relationship anew. | comedy, dark, gothic, murder, neo noir, fantasy, thought-provoking, cult, alternate reality, violence, atmospheric, flashback, insanity, psychedelic, philosophical, claustrophobic, suspenseful, sci-fi | train | wikipedia | (People who have seen the Matrix BEFORE this movie MUST see it, it is very similar in these three respects).I gave it a 9 out of 10 ONLY because I thought the ending fight scene was a bit weak.
Great for a fight scene, but because the rest of the movie focuses on John Murdoch's quest to discover his past and the eerie, ominous happenings in the city, the climax seemed hastily thrown together, as if the crew all of a sudden remembered they had a deadline to meet and could no longer continue the plot in the previous fashion.The visuals in this movie were absolutely stunning.
Watch for the Strangers' clock, views of the city and John's memories.Proyas takes ideas and ambience from many other movies but integrates them all neatly into Dark City.
;D ) This 40's era ambience together with the sci-fi fantasy undercurrent makes for a very interesting feeling while watching.I'm happy that Kiefer Sutherland, Richard O'Brien (of Rocky Horror fame) and William Hurt agreed to do this movie, it gave Dark City just that much more validation in the USA (I wish things weren't like this, but they are).
Many critics say that William Hurt's character, the detective, and Jennifer Connelly's Emma Murdoch could have used a little more development, but I think part of the point of Dark City was that you don't really know who people are (not to mention yourself).
I had to resist the urge to talk like a Stranger after seeing the movie a few times.Trevor Jones, one of my favorite movie composers, did the score for Dark City, and I must say it's very apropo.
Some of my other favorite scores by him are the Dark Crystal and Last of the Mohicans.Altogether, I think Alex Proyas had a stroke of genius in the making of this movie.
DARK CITY is an enriching and surreal experience, full of beautiful images and powerful symbolism.John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) wakes up one night, resting inside a bathtub.
For unknown reasons, Murdoch happens to fit into their intricate schemes for conquest...This is just scratching the surface of the premise for Alex Proyas' moody and engaging film, DARK CITY.
As an eccentric psychiatrist, Dr. Daniel Paul Schreber, Kiefer Sutherland conveys a confused doctor who shares a frightening connection to these Strangers.DARK CITY is splendid viewing injected with a theme about the loss of identity and the destruction of individualism in order to create an ideal society.
He uses the Gothic and claustrophobic themes commonly and dark colors prevail during the film like "The Crow" .The story doesn't follow a certain order of rule, instead there is some mind games and puzzles in the film, that causes watchers to be active in each minute and motivate to the movie..The topic is about a man who loses his past and first finds himself in a bath tub, doesn^t know about himself and his life, but he has one ability that no one has, he can be alive when the evil forces stops the time and reshapes the world according to their own demand.
The darkness and coldness of the strangers is in contrast to the bright light of the sun created by John Murdoch in the end.This film is very philosophic, which I like.
With an execution commercial enough to bring in the box office moola and a philosophical subtext accessible enough for the general public to latch on to, the rest, as they say...is history.The philosophical under pinnings though, (of blue pills, red pills, the subreality of consciousness and all that mambo jambo etc), so successfully popularised by The Matrix, was infact neither originated by The Matrix nor as fully realised than in other more accomplished works.Which leads me to....drumroll.....As such, IMHO, the best execution on the concept of reality and perception was already explored in a much more unbelievably visual opus, one year earlier, the grossly overlooked, criminally under-rated,"Dark City".
Filmed primarily in Sydney and starring Rufus Sewell, Jennifer Connoly, William Hurt and Keifer Sutherland, Dark City is an incredible piece of work with an intricate and detailed story with an even more amazingly executed motion picture behind it.
The sets and visual effects have been so well thought out and performed that together with the impressive acting (including many Australian actors such as Colin Friels and that tall funny looking guy from Mad Max) the film simply sucks you in and you can fully believe that the word Proyas has created exists; which is something that not many film makers can achieve easily.
In an undefined time and place, a group of aliens called "Strangers" are dying in their planet and are experimenting new options of life with humans.A amnesiac man awakens in a bathtub and receives a phone call from a Dr. Daniel Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) warning him that he should leave the hotel room since he will be captured.
"Dark City" is a timeless cult sci-fi noir that has not aged and uses references from other films that perfectly works.
Genuinely disturbing, as interesting as any murder mystery and beautiful atmosphere with art deco, film noir, and night on elm street under belly.At first you will be tempted to draw comparisons with the matrix and at other times the mind wonders and the ghostly tall men enter our dreams, but as the film progresses the human heart begins to take centre stage particularly in the characters of the two police chiefs as well as the central figure of John Murdoch.
Dark City is also a visually stunning film with moody lighting, detailed sets and fantastic model work.
The performances the main actors give excellently convey that sense of cluelessness.If you're a fan of The Matrix, this is also a film you need to see because not only do they have similar plots, they also retain some of the same sets.
Essentially I think the first thirty minutes of The Matrix are the whole of Dark City.I had the privilege of seeing this in the theatre in its original 35mm print and I have to say it looked absolutely incredible.
Thats the most i can tell without giving away major plot points.The movie is set in a 1940ish looking city where detectives are hunting John, along with the mysterious strangers.
The special effects in Dark City are stunning and realistic, especially when certain characters use "tuning".Rufus Sewell gives a good performance as John Murdoch, though i could'nt help feeling he was holding back somewhat.
I could think of a few other actors who could have gave a much better performance but he was generally good.Kiefer Sunderland as Dr. Daniel Schreber was very good and seemed to have put all of his effort into his character, its quite an unusual role for Sunderland but he pulls it off pretty well.Another performance worth mentioning is Richard O'Brien as Mr Hand, he gives a genuinely creepy performance as one of the main strangers, i thought i would see him and think crystal maze through all of his scenes but he does a pretty good job of playing a convincing character.Overall the movie leaves a few unanswered questions, leaving the viewer to conduct their own theories about the outcome of events.
I've read reviews of "Dark City" in many places (and many of them here) hailing it as a modern science fiction masterpiece, so boy was I disappointed when I watched it and came to the sober conclusion that it's just not very good.
At least this had an interesting story, but as befalls so many films in this mind-bending sci-fi genre (and "The Matrix" suffers from this as well, though it's a far better movie), the writers have set up such a cerebral concept that the movie grinds to a halt when it has to trudge through all the exposition just so that the audience can keep track of what's going on.
Rufus Sewell and William Hurt do o.k. but Jennifer Connelly phones in a wan performance and Kiefer Sutherland is barely watchable in a lamentable impersonation of the creepy Nazi chasing Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." His line delivery is so eccentric and monotonous that I was cringing every time he opened his mouth by the film's end.No, I'm afraid the majority is out to sea with this one.
After reading the user comments for this film, i found it disappointing.It definitely was a new concept in its time, but the movie has aged very badly.The bad guys dressed in black look ludicrous with their hats strange jaw chattering noises.It took me a lot of patience to complete the film.As i said the concept was good but the execution was not.Some users have compared it to the Matrix.I however am of the opinion that the later is a much better executed movie and is also less taxing on the brain.
And all a year before The Matrix came along and scooped up all they credit (they even used the same sets!) The acting here - while having received some criticism - is all top notch in my book, and by the time the credits roll, you'll be amazed at the total transformation the characters and story have made since those opening shots.
More than a cult film yet still criminally ignored in certain circles, Dark City, by way of poor box office and studio interference, never got off to the best of starts.
The problems were compounded with the release of The Matrix the following year, where that film's popularity, and its sci-fi linkage to Dark City, led many to think that Proyas' movie was a Matrix rip-off; pushing it further (unjustly) back in the sci-fi noir pantheon.
Fact is is that Dark City homages much great cinema from previous years, but it has influenced much that followed, with Inception fans asked to note that Nolan himself was taking notes...Stolen Memories.Dark City is a feverish film noir dressed up in stunning sci-fi clothes.
But hell you have to say the visual look and atmosphere of the design is very much attention grabbing.I have become the monster you were intended to be.With the film noir characters in place; Hurt's dour sleuth, Sewell's amnesiac and Connelly's sultry torch singer, Proyas brings German expressionism in abundance whilst overseeing an eye splintering neo-noir colour palette.
The late Roger Ebert championed Dark City with much gusto, and he provides very good input on the DVD, much like Roger I have to say, this is a unique and fabulous sci-fi noir experience.
Sci-fi is my favorite genre, and I especially like the darker films ie, Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, Videodrome, Brazil, Alphaville, The Fly, Terminator, etc.So (if you're still reading) you can assume that I was pleased when I was able to locate a copy of Dark City.
I had heard a lot about it, as an underrated film and a dark sci-fi masterpiece (or so I had heard).I wasn't sick when I began watching it, but by the end I was really wondering why I put myself through the whole thing.
The script could have been improved, the sets made more kind of oddly beautiful in an ugly way (see Blade Runner), the combination of old and futuristic elements more fluid, and the aliens having more than sub-60's-Doctor-Who creativity and believability (ie, not just greenish humans with no hair)In summary, this was almost a good film, but it ended up as a steaming pile of Dark Sh|t..
Predating both the "Matrix" (1999) and "Inception" (2010), 1998's "Dark City" is an excellent 'shifting realities' fantasy film.
The story, which revolves around perceptions and memory, is excellent, as is the dark, 'goth' look of the film (at times somewhat reminiscent of "Hellraiser").
Now Murdoch must find a way to stop them before they take control of his mind and destroy him.Rufus Sewell and beautiful Jennifer Connelly and great in this visual sci-fi fantasy world with a hint of neo-nior action .
Set in a bleak dystopian world, Dark City, directed by Alex Poryas of 'The Crow', is a mind-bending science-fiction vehicle that aims to challenge audiences at a psychological level while pushing the boundaries of cerebral ideas.
A man named Murdoch(Rufus Sewell) struggles with memories of his past, including a spouse (Jennifer Connelly) he cannot remember, his records mostly gone, in a nightmarish world with no sun and run by aliens with telekinetic powers who seek the souls of humans .
The mystery is what makes us closely follow the main character, John Murdoch, as he tries to piece parts to unveil the past.The Story is very intriguing and keeps the viewer interested through series of events that unveil the truth about the city and the viewer is confronted with questions about the very essence of humanity, and whether our world is really as real as we think.
Dark City was one of the more ambiguous movies I have seen in a long time.
Although Dark City is a Sci-fi movie it is of the dystopian sub-genre.
Thus starts a tale of discovery and a wonderful hundred minutes.What makes sci-fi movies fun is the transportation of the viewer into its world and Dark City does this well.
For quite some time in the movie, the plot unfolds like a crime story - but slowly and creepily leading into its sci-fi elements.
If somebody saw Dark City on DVD today they might never understand why its so good a sci-fi movie..
Where THE MATRIX took a sci-fi principle and used it as a basis for a straightforward action flick, DARK CITY remains about the ideas and their implications all the way through.The film kicks off as a straightforward murder mystery, featuring the ever underrated Rufus Sewell (in a rare Hollywood good guy role) as a wronged man on the run from the authorities.
Dark City was not compelling, the plot was contrived and directed at the moody trenchcoat wearing audience who will gladly eat up anything that is served to them that they can be assured no one else will like.During a second viewing, on video, I remembered the pain I felt while sitting through this movie.
Antonioni's "Blowup" is good example for this trend.This movie is just loony, I admit it, but the plot is bad, as well as acting (Kiefer, for God's sake...!), main character is just another big flaw in this "flawless" mess.If you think that Proyas is a genius, you should go to church, and praise God for a drop of intellect..
To be honest, I feel bad not liking this movie because the design and filming was so amazingly beautiful.
Director Alex Proyas has created in `Dark City' a totally new breed of film.
A cross between sci-fi, film noir, and even German expressionism, `Dark City' fails to belong to any category.
In the traditional sci-fi atmosphere, `Dark City' deals with a man, John Murdoch, struggling to overcome a great mystery as aliens stifle his efforts.
The city is dark and gothic in a 1930's style America - Alex Proyas's direction is so dark that it adds to the mystery and tension of the film.All the performances are strong (Yes - even Connelly and Sutherland) and add to the believability of the whole thing.
It is a frightening look at humans, memories, what makes us who we are - but it is all tied up in the mysterious workings of the constantly dark city and the shadowy Mr Hand (O'Brien).Don't underestimate this film.
Fantastic visuals and a mysterious story (somehow Lovecraft, Clive Barker and Kafka mixed in a sci-fi context) make Dark City one of those movies most of the audience will just like or dislike: you get it or you don't.Last but not least: a fine cast with William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland and Jennifer Connelly make the whole experience complete..
Rufus Sewell is a competent leading man, but you get the feeling that his part could have been played by any good looking guy, the same goes for his love interest Jennifer Connolly.
In some ways, Dark City makes for a good compilation of films like The Matrix, Minority Report, Blade Runner, and even Metropolis.
Alex Proyas' "Dark City" (1998) stars Rufus Sewell as John Murdoch, a man who wakes up one night to great mysteries.
The story follows Murdoch as he tries to piece together reality and escape the perpetually dark city.You have to be in the mood for a movie like this because it takes place entirely on elaborate shadowy sets with CGI backgrounds, etc.
Of course, this is no big deal today, but at the time it was still fairly new technology.Some people compare "Dark City" to the more popular "The Matrix" and for good reason since they have similar themes and "The Matrix" was actually shot on some of the same sets, but it came out over a year later in 1999.The film runs 100 minutes and the Director's Cut 111 minutes; it was shot on sets in Sydney, Australia.GRADE: B+.
Dark City rips it's visuals off of Brazil, Blade Runner and most importantly the Hellraiser films.
I suppose I would have enjoyed this movie more had I not seen The Matrix prior to seeing DARK CITY.
I'll start with the good.Set design is very, very well done in Alex Proyas' "Dark City".
Dark City COULD have been a brilliant thought-provoking thriller in the hands of a director that understands what actually makes a film good and doesn't treat the viewer like a child.
The movie does have a really engaging mystery throughout, you do wonder what is going on with these "Stranger" people and why some of the humans memories are erased/being scrambled with and why everything is so off in this city.
Overall, I sort of get why this one is a cult classic just because it is "different" but different doesn't always mean good, I'd much rather watch a movie like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that deals with the ideas of memory and love (the love story in Dark City is fairly laughable) in a much more sophisticated nature. |
tt0120749 | Mercury Rising | A hostage situation in South Dakota: FBI Agent Art Jeffries (Bruce Willis), as the inside man, protects a teenage boy named James while trying to talk bank robber Edgar Halstrom (Richard Riehle) into surrendering. However, the FBI task force moves in, and in the ensuing firefight James and the robbers are killed. Jeffries confronts his superior, Hartley, who mentions that they must answer to Washington. An infuriated Jeffries punches Hartley in reply.
A cryptographic code called "Mercury" was created by the National Security Agency and is allegedly so complex that its creators believe no computer on Earth can decipher it. Originally it was created during the Reagan Administration as a test to keep the United States' highest priority secrets under wraps. One day, the NSA receives a message from a nine-year-old autistic savant with prodigious math abilities named Simon Lynch (Miko Hughes), who calls a telephone number written in the code which was secretly published in a puzzle magazine by two of the creators, Dean Crandell (Robert Stanton) and Leo Pedranski (Bodhi Elfman), to see if anyone could break it. Crandell and Pedranski's division chief, Lt. Colonel Nicholas Kudrow (Alec Baldwin) sees the boy's ability to decipher the code as a grave liability. He dispatches assassin Peter Burrell (Lindsey Lee Ginter) to murder the boy and his parents, Martin (John Carroll Lynch) and Jenny (Kelley Hazen).
After shooting Martin and Jenny, Burrell searches the house, fails to find Simon, and leaves at the sound of approaching sirens (Martin was able to call 911 before dying). Jeffries, who has been demoted following a diagnosis of delusional paranoia, is sent to investigate what is initially thought to be a murder-suicide. While investigating the scene, Jeffries finds Simon hiding in a cache of his bedroom closet and takes the boy under his wing. Jeffries begins to realize the difficulty of protecting, let alone questioning, Simon because of his impaired social abilities as a result of his autism, but the Chicago Police Department agree to assign a protection detail to Simon. Burrell tries to kill Simon again at the hospital, but Jeffries stops him. He is then forced to terminate an assassin named Shayes (Peter Stormare) on the Chicago 'L' train. The situation is further complicated by the fact that nobody at the FBI believes Simon is in any danger, and Jeffries is soon framed by the NSA as a kidnapper, with only his best friend and fellow agent Tommy Jordan (Chi McBride) aware that he did not commit the crime, since Jordan had been in contact with Jeffries when the incident began. Jeffries borrows Jordan's car (which Jordan later reports stolen to conceal his involvement) and takes Simon back to his house. Simon again calls the telephone number written in the code and talks to Crandell and Pedranski. When Jeffries confronts them, a conflicted Crandell arranges a meeting via encoded e-mail at the Wrigley Building. The next morning, Jeffries meets a woman named Stacey Siebring (Kim Dickens) in a coffee shop and asks her to watch Simon for him.
Jeffries meets Crandell and the two talk and stroll on a busy sidewalk. Crandell tells Jeffries about "Mercury" and Kudrow, then Burrell shoots him from behind and gets away safely. Jeffries returns to the coffee shop, but Simon and Stacey are gone. He goes outside and spots them coming across the street. Stacey says she and Simon have become friends and Simon agrees. Jeffries and Simon then abruptly leave Stacey. Later in the middle of the night, Jeffries and Simon go to Stacey's house, asking for a place to stay. Stacey reluctantly agrees and tells Jeffries that she was going on a business trip to Des Moines to make the rent the next morning.
Meanwhile, Pedranski, having learned Crandell's fate, picks up where his friend left off by writing a pair of letters via typewriter: one to Jeffries and the other to the Senate Oversights Committee, revealing Kudrow's unlawful actions. Soon after, Pendranski is murdered by Burrell, who also snatches the letters. However, the assassin neglects to grab carbon copies Pedranski tossed which his girlfriend, NSA analyst Emily Lang (Carrie Preston) takes to the FBI. Jordan discreetly arranges for her to meet with Jeffries to show them both the carbon paper used to type the letter, which, being covered in Pedranski's fingerprints, is crucial evidence in its own right. After the meeting with Emily, Jeffries tells Stacey to call anyone for an emergency except the police, who were called off at the last minute, and gives her Jordan's number in case of an emergency. While Jeffries introduces himself to Kudrow at his birthday party and demands that Kudrow leave Simon alone, Jordan, under Jeffries' suggestion, arranges for Simon to go into Witness Protection. After the meeting, Jeffries calls Jordan, who explains that the Witness Protection meeting is going to happen, though they are unaware that their conversation is being monitored by Kudrow. When Jeffries returns and finds Stacey and Simon gone, he learns from Jordan that they are not in any danger and will meet them there, just as Jordan is given an order to head to the FBI director's office.
Kudrow tries to have FBI SAC (Special Agent in Charge) Joe Lomax (Kevin Conway) help turn the tables onJeffries by using his authority and the fact that Jordan arranged the Witness Protection under false pretenses. He plans to have the NSA take over the protection for the meeting location. After Kudrow leaves, Jordan shows the evidence to Lomax and despite his initial doubts, Jordan confirms that the fingerprint markings on it were Pedranski's, now fully validating the evidence against Kudrow. Jeffries, with Jordan and a small FBI task force's help, sets a trap at the meeting spot. During the battle, Jordan protects Stacey, and the FBI team takes on Burrell, who is killed, trying to escape, when the windows blow out slashing his face open. Jeffries and Kudrow fight on the roof during which Simon walks to the edge of the roof and grabs Kudrow's gun, giving it to Jeffries and allowing him to take control as Jordan and the team come in. In a last-ditch effort to get his victim back, Kudrow grabs Simon, is shot at point blank range by Jeffries, and subsequently falls to his death over the edge of the building.
Jeffries later visits Simon (now living with foster parents) at his school. He embraces the FBI agent as a welcome friend, having finally accepted him as a person he trusts. | violence, neo noir, murder, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0410297 | The Lake House | Kate Forster is a Doctor in 2006, living alone in Chicago. She has moved into an apartment after living in a house built next to a scenic lake in a secluded countryside area. She writes a letter to the next tenant asking that they forward any mail, and that the paw prints and the box in the attic have always been there. The tenant Alex Wyler reads the letter, but finds no paw prints, no box and no sign of life within the last 5 years, so disregards the letter until a few days later when he is redoing the paint on the handrails and a stray dog, whom Alex takes in and names Jack although the dog is female, trots through the brown paint and leaves its paw prints all the way to the front door. He writes to Kate asking more about these incidents and leaves the letter in the mail box.On Valentine's Day 2006, Kate visits the Lake House after having a gentleman die in her arms after being hit by a bus, but finds the Mail Box Flag is up. She reads Alex's letter and states her current address, also stating it is 2006, not 2004 from which Alex's letter arrives from. Alex attends her 'current address' but finds a construction site that won't be finished for another 18 months, and they both slowly realize they are communicating from two years apart, with only the Mailbox to communicate from.As Kate and Alex continue to correspond through the mailbox, they find themselves falling in love. Because Kate is in the future, she can tell Alex specific places to look for her in 2004. On one occasion, she asks Alex to bring her back something important (a gift from her father; her favorite novel by Jane Austen called Persuasion), which she left two years ago during a train station meeting with her then-beau, Morgan. Alex goes to the station and finds the item and sees Kate with long hair. Even though he has the item, he does not place it in the mailbox to return it to her. Instead, he says that he will return it to her personally, "one way or the other." Alex sends her a personalized map of Chicago and takes her on a walking tour of his favorite places in the city one Saturday morning. He leaves her a loving message on a brick wall at the end written in 2004, that she sees in 2006. The message was "Kate, I am here with you. thank you for spending this Saturday together".In 2004, Mona, a young attractive assistant, is flirting with Alex but he ignores her advances. Alex's dog Jack runs off and leads Alex to a house in which Morgan and Kate are currently living. Alex talks with Morgan and eventually is invited to the birthday party Morgan is holding for Kate that evening. During the party, Alex and Kate dance together and share a romantic kiss, which is broken up by Morgan and Mona. Later, Kate and Alex discuss that night and Kate announces she liked him, and can remember what he looks like.Crisis enters Alex's life when his estranged father has a heart attack and shortly thereafter dies. Kate somehow discovers his death certificate at the time he dies. She rushes to the mailbox and as a gift to Alex, she places a book in the mailbox, which she says is a tribute to his father, a book that is not yet published in Alex's time.Determined to bridge the distance between them at last and unravel the mystery behind their extraordinary connection, they tempt fate by arranging to meet. Alex makes a reservation in 2004 for a date in 2006 at Il Mare, a fancy restaurant, but only Kate appears. Alex does not show up. The next day Kate writes Alex a letter telling Alex of this fact, but he doesn't understand. "Something must have happened" he responds. Kate retreats, believing she will never have happiness. She urges Alex to move on She tells him about Valentine's Day 2006 when a man died "in her arms", and that she needs to live her own life. She asks Alex not to contact her again. Alex leaves her a growing pile of letters in the mailbox that she never retrieves. He is brokenhearted and decides to leave the lake house. He places the box in the attic that Kate referred to in her first letter.Alex appears to Morgan and hands him the keys to the lake house and exits in his truck, leaving Jack behind and having her become Kate's dog.Almost one year passes.In December 2007 Kate and Morgan are apparently living together in a Chicago apartment and when he asks her to turn the film she is watching down, she switches it off and storms into the bedroom where a squeaky floorboard irritates her, so she rips it out and discovers her copy of Persuasion, with a pressed and faded rose marks a passage that Kate is particularly touched by. She realizes she still loves Alex, but does not contact him.On Valentine's Day 2008, Kate and Morgan go to Visionary Vanguard Associates, an upcoming architect's office, to talk about renovations to the apartment they are living in at that time, but do not realize it is run by Alex's brother Harry. Kate notices a beautiful watercolor of the Lake House and asks who did it. Harry says it was done by Alex Wyler, his brother, but tells her he passed away 2 years ago to the day. Kate realizes something and sprints to her car and races to the mailbox by the Lake House, placing a letter inside. Alex was the man that died that day, two years previously, and she tells him to wait 2 years, not to look for her or try to find her. Kate knows that Alex can't change her reality what has happened in Kate's reality has happened. In order for Kate's and Alex's reality to merge, Alex must meet Kate at the Lake House on February 14th 2008.In 2006, Alex watches as Kate has lunch with her mother, and makes to step off the curb, then watches as the bus that was going to hit him passes by instead. He smiles to himself and, instead of crossing the street, walks away from Kate.In 2008, the Mail Box Flag squeakily drops and Kate, previously sobbing on the ground, watches it in earnest, and behind her a truck pulls up. Out steps Alex. They share their second passionate embrace and after several minutes walk arm in arm into the Lake House. Alex hands to her, what appears to be, a Valentine's Day card. | romantic, mystery | train | imdb | null |
tt0759364 | America's Got Talent | Tuesday night brings a whopping three hours of "America's Got Talent," including the final hour of auditions and a two-hour run through the Vegas round.First, 8-year-old Avery and the Calico Hearts, a singing trio, pile on the saccharin with a rendition of Justin Bieber's "Baby." The judges all enjoy it, even Piers, but he doesn't want to send them through. Sharon and Howie's votes are good enough to keep the sweetness coming. They're going to Hollywood.A guy named Kevin Shelley says he's going to break 48 1-inch-thick pieces of wood with his head. He asks Nick to hand them to him one at a time, and the guy does it -- alarming fast. His head bleeds a bit, but he seems to have all his faculties. A medic stands by just in case, telling Nick, "That's not right." Piers says that whenever people ask him what it's like to work with Howie Mandel, he's going to show them the video of what Kevin just did. Howie wants Kevin to come back and do something even more dangerous. It's a yes. Sharon says she can't see it in Vegas, and it's a no. Piers agrees with Howie. Kevin's in, and leaves with an ice pack on his forehead.Here comes the montage: Dezmond Meeks, a singer and pianist, riles the crowd with an old, sweet rendition of "Georgia on My Mind"; a juggler named Thomas John plays "When the Saints Go Marching In" with a ping pong ball and... yeah, this one you had to see; and a female singing quartet called 4Play (get it?) stuns the judges and crowd with a version of Beyonce's "If I Were a Boy."J. Chris Newberg plays "short funny songs." Piers doesn't find him particularly funny. Howie thinks he's a "funny guy." Piers says he's great, except he's not funny. Howie's a yes, Piers is a no, and Sharon is a yes.King Diamond, is a 61-year-old blast from the past who looks like he just landed out of an episode of "Shaft." He wants to entertain the world. It takes everyone a moment to figure out whether he's good or terrible. But once the it's clear he's terrible, he gets three X's quickly. Nick comes on stage to dance with King Diamond to smooth it all over.CUT (Chicago's Ultimate Tumblers) is led by a man who says the group's mission is to keep kids out of trouble. One of the girls who talks about how her coach is a mentor and father figure tears up as she tells the story. The girl becomes the focal point as her teammates are supposed to do flips over her off a small trampoline, and one of them jumps right into her. She's knocked sideways and gets up to get back in position -- and goes even higher. The rest of the act is completed without incident. Piers tells her it was just about the bravest thing he's ever seen. Howie wants to see it less raw and more polished, but votes yes. Piers loves them raw and sends them to Vegas.A guy who Howie says looks like Art Garfunkel (look him up, kids), goes on stage wearing nothing but a robe. He immediately threatens to disrobe. He eventually does, after pulling off a series of boxers and briefs. The crowd watches in amazement and disgust (in equal portions). All three judges dismiss the rather cheesy act.A montage of terrible acts, including a really bad opera singer, a guy who tells stories with balloons, and an awful 55-year-old pop singer, follows.A couple of old pals, 67 and 81, who met singing karaoke take the stage promising to show something we've never seen. The show is called "Meet Me at Fairfax and Third." The 81-year-old plays piano and croons while his 67-year-old pal randomly does a headstand on a wooden chair and dances, upside down, to the music. The music is drowned out by the crowd's cheers. Piers calls it "utterly ludicrous" but that there's "something horribly good" about them. Howie loves it, saying that sometimes A and B are nothing, individually, but together "this is what you get."That's it for the Season 6 auditions.SECOND PARTThe judges are on their way to Vegas -- or at least in a fancy tour bus going from the airport to the place where the auditions are being held. They have to decide who will perform on Day 1, who will wait for Day 2, and who will go home right away. There will be 48 spots in the next round.The judges welcome all the acts to Vegas. Piers asks 10 of them to stand up. He says the judges have agreed to send them home immediately -- because they've decided to put them straight through to Hollywood.They are:Silhouettes (Minneapolis)Squawk Opera (Minneapolis)Lys Agnes (Minneapolis)Professor Splash (Houston)The Rhinestone Ropers (Houston)The Fearless Flores Family (Houston)Melissa Villasenor (Seattle)Captain Stab-Tuggo and Maybelle (Atlanta)Team ILuminate (Atlanta)Miami All Stars (Atlanta)The remaining 38 spots will be determined in Vegas. The first day will feature the judges' favorite acts. They will have the first chance to make it to the next round. The rest of the acts are considered standbys and will only get a chance to make it if the favorites don't fill up the 38 spots.The acts are grouped together and first up is the "Danger" group.Juggler Charles Peachock ups the stakes, introducing fire to his act, going so far as to light his legs on fire while he juggles torches that are also ablaze.The judges are impressed. Next is Kevin Shelley, who broke all those boards over his head in Atlanta. This time, he's breaking concrete with his elbows and standing on swords while an assistant breaks concrete blocks on his back. But the blocks don't break. The Yellow Design Stunt Team -- a group of bike performers -- try to impress the judges. Frank Miles, who juggled stun guns, puts a knife into one of four styrofoam coolers. Then, asking Sharon to choose a cooler at random, he eliminates the coolers that don't have the knife in them by doing forward flips and breaking the coolers with his weight (if he lands on the knife, he's in big trouble and, in his words, "definitely not going to Hollywood.") He nails it -- holding a fake bloody knife tip to his stomach for effect as he breaks the very last empty cooler.The next category is vocal groups. Mona Lisa give it their all, and 4Play are shocked with their own performance. They tells the judges the nerves got to them. The judges confer and send them home immediately.Next are the acrobats. Trapeze artists, tumblers and jump ropers go at it, and a couple of pole dancers -- a man and a woman -- fill out the group. Steven Retchless, the male pole dancer, wows the judges with an even better performance than he showed in the auditions. Soleil Rousseau, the woman, says she wants to prove that pole dancing is OK to do. She cries as she explains that her parents likely don't approve, but support her despite that. Howie asks her how she thought she compared to the other pole dancer. She says hers was more graceful and his was "mostly strength."Next are the magicians. They're carefully watching each other. Fantastic Fig, 76, is back and the others are watching. Another magician says Figs card tricks aren't real magic. Michael Turco, who's been watching and knocking the others, runs into trouble with his illusion when a door gets stuck.The animal acts stumble, too, when some a dog has trouble jumping rope. The talking parrots face off. But this time they both struggle. Echo doesn't want to speak -- and doesn't even wave "bye-bye." His owner quips that they aren't going to get "bye-bye," and Howie suggests otherwise. Meanwhile, Vegas Birds has a parrot that paints -- or at least they think it does. Sharon asks the bird to paint a rose and the painting looks nothing like a rose. Backstage, Echo says, "I don't like it. I'm going to fly."The classical singers are next, and Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr., is nervous because he isn't classically trained like his competitors. Cindy Chang is helping keep his nerves in check backstage. Cindy's audition doesn't go as well. She seems quite nervous and shaky. Howie says he didn't like it and Piers agrees it was a little bit off. The judges send her home immediately, and we have to listen to Coldplay, just in case we don't feel bad enough for her. Landau is devastated, but he won't try to fix her.The next group is the bands. The Fiddleheads are the first of the bands to really capture the judges' attention. Pop Lyte are the youngest band in the category. They promised to win Piers over with an electric set. The judges agree that they did step it up from the first audition.The dance acts are next, and Fatally Unique. Their human pyramid fell during rehearsal and one of the dancers was taken away in an ambulance with her neck stabilized. Another injured dancer is part of LD Dance, who has a severely twisted ankle. She goes on despite being in pain. Snap Boogie, who's been watching the other dances in awe, says he wishes he could do "all that stuff." He's a street dancer and he shows the judges what he does best. Piers and Sharon love it. Fatally Unique's injured dancer comes back with a busted lip and fractured nose. They've altered the routine just enough to take the injured dancer out of the final stunt.The female singers are next. Dani Shay, the Justin Bieber look-alike, is nervous going up against great singers. She's going to do an original song, which Piers calls "a massive risk." She stumbles halfway through her song and stops. She doesn't continue after stopping. The judges call her back, as they've done with the acts that they've sent home immediately. Sharon tells her that they need to hear her sing a well-known song. Asked if she's willing to do that, Dani says, "OK."The comedians go next and they have trouble performing to a 7,000-seat arena that's empty, but for three judge. J. Chris Newberg, the guy who sings short, funny songs, does alright. Gichi Guy does his one-liner thing.Dani Shay is ready to come back and perform "Trouble" for the judges, which she says she just learned in a couple of hours.The novelty acts, who acknowledge they're just "weirdos," include a drag queen who butchers a Tina Turner song. Those Funny Little People, the dancing gnomes, do a new routine with a female gnome in the mix. Piers seems to hate it, and so Howie has them come down to the judges table so he can get a picture with the gnomes standing around an annoyed Piers. The Kinetic King works up an elaborate domino-like set up with popsicle sticks and who knows what else, which took about six-to-eight hours to build and amazes the judges.The male singers bring their different styles, looks and sounds to the competition. Ryan Andreas wants it badly and seems to have his nerves more under control, but later says he's "not super-happy" with this performance. Dezmond Meeks, who's made a life out of random singing gigs, is hoping this one sticks.There's massive drama as the judges discuss all the acts and try to figure out who should stay and who should go.Coldplay's back, which means there's some bad news coming. People cry as they're sent home.Gichi Guy and J. Chris Newberg are in. Magician Scott Alexander is in. Charles Peachock, Frank Miles and Yellow Design Stunt Team are in. Pop Lyte and the Fiddleheads are in. Those Funny Little People and The Kinetic King are in. Echo makes it. Mona Lisa is in. Fatally Unique are in. Dezmond Meeks is in. Snap Boogie is in. Pole dancer Steven Retchless is in. Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr., is in. Zuma Zuma are in. Dani Shay is in. | non fiction | train | imdb | Americas Got Talent (AGT) has proved to be an influential show for some who seek to show off their talent on live television, what with having genuinely great acts on their show.
It feels like you're watching some beautiful cake get iced over a thousand times than necessary; the show has its cheek turned away from talent and toward view count, and it's obvious.
Most of the show revolves around back stories and really dumb stories about the judges; very little revolves around actual talent.Although AGT is, admittedly, a television show, the reason this is so frustrating is because it's a competition as well.
America casts their votes in based on who they think "did best." That means genuine talent gets booted off just because America felt that another contestants story was touching, and they wanted to support it.
The Hunger Games made fun of such television by having these over- the-top crazy dressed characters dictate the show and color the contestant stories to impress the audience; it's very sad to say that such a thought is not far from the concept of this show, where 1) As long as you have a decent act and 2) A good story, you win the heart of your audience.
The judges also need to realize this is NOT American Idol, the search is for talent, which is exactly what the bird lady was trying to say.
I do not care about the big name judges, or Regis, on the show I want to see people who can recognize talent!
Based on the fact that "American Idol" judge (and media mogul) Simon Cowell was behind this show, I watched its premiere episode.
On "America's Got Talent", David Hasselhoff clearly withholds his vote (he's third in the rotation) for a time when an act is bombing,, so as to prolong whatever unintentional comedy is going on.
Piers Morgan has Simon Cowell's flamboyantly sharp tongue without having established any credibility with audiences (I mean, who IS this guy, anyway?), and his reaching for other judges' buzzers is the most shameless exhibition of ego I've ever witnessed on entertainment television.
Regis Philbin emcees, and why NBC is paying that kind of money for a job that a lot of lesser lights could do just as well is beyond me; Philbin's presence adds nothing to the show's entertainment value.The talent is fine- at least the good acts are- and the idea is fine.
If NBC wants this show to last, I suggest they get Morgan under control, and impose time standards during auditions, requiring judges to give every contestant some guaranteed minimum of time, to avoid another misfire such as the one that occurred with the ventriloquist.
The main thing is to get the judges looking more impartial and professional; once the voting and elimination processes begin, the home audience is not going to take kindly to things that appear to skew a contestant's chances..
I love the idea of a talent show that focuses on more than just singing, especially the same old adult contemporary music that we hear over and over and over again on the likes of American Idol, Star Search, or any other popular talent competition.
The problem is that when it comes down to it it ends up being nothing more than a singing competition with some other performers thrown in for good measure, but without a shot at winning.The "judges" constantly berate people for not being diverse or "mixing it up" enough, which flies in the face of what the show is supposed to be about.
When it comes down to it the judges, and America, do not consider anything other than singing to be real talent, and that is a shame, because the variety is what could be the shows strongest feature.In defense of the show, there is much more variety than you will see on American Idol.
Simon Cowell manages to try another spin-off of "American Idol", despite of the failure with his previous attempt "American Inventor".It follows the same guidelines than "American Idol", you know, a host the three stereotypical judges, an obedient crowd for audience, and some entertaining contestants plus many more that are shown only for their humiliation on national TV, that is actually what most of the public seems to dig anyway.
Even more, giving it is an open talent contest, half of them are singers what gives Cowell a chance for a shot closer to the "Idol" success.Regis Philbin does his job, he always manages to look as a nice guy, I don't think he contributes rising the show interest but is not responsible for the poor overcome either.Moving on.
And it guarantees the show will be sold in Germany too.Piers Morgan, who I don't have any clue who he is, takes the role of the wise and balanced judge completing his stereotype with a British accent that in America seems -wrongfully- to be synonymous of a higher intellect.Finally Brandy.
And of course, that means "America's Got Talent" season two.So, if you're tired of this worthless "reality TV" crap and you want a truly funny sitcom or an intelligent, engrossing drama that addresses relevant issues of today, either get HBO or complain to the Parents Television Council and tell them to stop complaining every time something interesting happens on TV.
I feel sorry for the people who got chosen to be on this show that have great talent, I hope they are not disappointed..
He is at best.........not a good judge of talent.
The judges think people tune in to watch them.
Talent-wise -- and I confess I have seen almost every season -- the only actual "acts" I remember are the car wash guy who could imitate Sinatra (I think he won) and a 10 year old girl from Vegas who did a version of Wild Horses that gave me chills (she was booted, probably because her voice and age did not match, and that always freaks out the audience).
They never seem to know what they are talking about, they judge the acts on entertainment value rather than talent, and they are all biased and opinionated.
In fact, one of the judges' favorite acts was the "rapping granny," who was only mildly entertaining and hardly talented at all.
very idea of a talent contest which takes into consideration all and every talent is absurd from the start considering that there are no standards for the acts to be judged, just unknown judges who give there owned biased opinion on what they think should and shouldn't be considered talent.
We also here can watch your show America got talent, and it is a great show no matter of bad rating.
Created by Simon Cowell of American Idol fame, AGT is a talent search show which is similar in format to American Idol and the Gong Show.I don't normally ever watch network TV, and i'm not really big on reality shows at all, but i have been watching this because i thought it would be somewhat interesting..
a panel of 3 judges (david hasselhoff, brandy, and piers morgan) vote on the acts as they perform, and a negative vote from all the judges eliminates the contestant.
i know they are set up like "token" judges from Idol, the nice one, the straightforward one, and the in-between one, but regardless of who they are, and not to belittle their specialty (acting, music etc) they don't seem unbiased when judging competitors..
hasselhoff dosen't know if he's coming or going, and will approve just about anyone, brandy usually does a halfway decent job, and piers, while being the "token" sharp tongued, tell it like it is brit, is totally unappreciated in his time..
i'm sure no one wants to see a little girl cry because she came in front of America and got told that she sucked, but does that mean she automatically gets pushed into the finals?
the other thing is that a lot of the people who have been in the finals are actually professionals in the field of their "talent"..
He adds a nice comedic touch to the show, if you ask me.First of all, America's Got Talent is a very diverse show, and it features all kinds of talents, if you can actually call some of the acts "talents." My main gripe with this show is every single episode, except for the final few of course, are structured exactly the same way.
Then there will be a slew of horrible acts that will most likely get X'd out by the judges, but there is always a great act in between that may have a legit shot at winning the competition.
And on top of that, most of the time when someone is going to be great and get high reviews from the judges, they will show the contestant giving a pretty in-depth explanation of their past, and things of that nature.
It always gives the shows a good close, but like I said, it sometimes can feel slightly predictable.The judges are pretty much the stereotype of the trio from any show like this, but I like them, and they all have their own personality.
And by the time it comes down to the final two, there is always a talent that is unique compared to all the previous winners of the competition, and all the winners are set apart.Most people will prefer American Idol to this, but I happen to disagree.
"America's Got Cheap Novelty Acts" would be a better title.They shouldn't pretend to sincerely be about quality when a no-talent "rapping granny" is the judges' choice.P.S. Should I even mention that "America's GOT Talent" is improper English?.
I have watched this show on and off for a few years now and what I enjoy most is seeing the vast variety of talent (and occasionally the so-awful-you-can't-look-away acts).
However, it seems that this year in particular, there is so much time devoted to the judges goofing around and getting up on stage to do the act with the performers.
This year they tossed out some of the most original and outstanding talents in favor of singers.It isn't only that they ended up with a plethora of singers, it's also that the singers they had left in the top 10 were, in at least three of the cases, not as talented as some of the performers who were tossed out.While I agree that some of the best lost to the public vote, that problem exists because of the judges; they are the ones who set the standard for the audience to follow.
And, of course, there were some outstanding talents that the home audience didn't even get a chance to vote for.Finally, the focus on finding an act that can headline in Vegas is not helping the show.
This is a great show with amazing acts and talented people that is super entertaining to watch, but here's my problem, the judges suck.
I watch the end of the show and the Judge Cuts every single time and the guy\girl I like who has ACTUAL TALENT loses and the person who has so much less potential wins.
This is a no-brainer, I mean it's obviously not fair to the contestants that the British guy (the most offensive of the three), say, can hit Brandy's buzzer if HE's decided the currently-performing act is not worthy of any further consideration.
Some of the contestants have been good, and one in particular has been fantastic: the 11-year-old Bianca Ryan (I think that's her name - we'll be hearing it again, undeniably), who belted out And I'm Telling You like nobody's business.
I have no problem with the choice of acts or the trigger happy judges who buzz just because they don't like the contestant's looks.
I watched the first three seasons of the show and thought it was semi-fun watching all the contestants vie for the judges' votes performing acts ranging from magic shows to acrobats, and from acting to dancing.
However, this show also allows singers to compete and, as a result, a large number of winners (if not all) are singers.There are already multiple singing reality shows including American Idol, The Voice and the X-Factor; therefore, I think we do not need singing to dominate America's Got Talent especially when it showcases other talents BESIDES singing.This show grew old on me after the third season, as it becomes predictable after the auditions that the winner will no doubt be another singer.Grade D-.
What I do not understand is this: Why did the judges send almost everyone to Vegas and then afterone day there (it seemed to the TV audience) they told 25% ofthem they had to go home?Seems they did not do that good a job in the beginning when the judges could have eliminated many acts that "could not sustain a 1-hour Vegas Show" in my opinion.
That should be the criteria for all acts.Then the judges had mini talent shows just for them to eliminate more.
Probably a little of both.As with the Idol Show this one, too, shows too many bad acts and a lot of tears.
I understand the ratings are lower this year anyway.And, another thing, can't the judges refrain from asking all the time: Do you think you can win this competition, do you think you have a million dollar act, how will winning this change your life, what will winning mean to you?
We are not allowed to watch the whole shows (good or bad) because the judges' stupid caprices which are bizarre to a freak extent more often than not !
Therefore (America's Got Talent) is the (top of silliness) or the too dull copy of (American idol) or whatever the successful formula of TV's shows in the 2000s done by (Simon Crowell)'s lucky intelligent faculty.
Just a casual viewer's opinion: The program is somewhat disappointing this season in the fact that so many acts going thru so obviously do not represent potential "Las Vegas" show performance entertainment.
From the singers to the magicians, to the daredevils, to the things in which I have no idea what to call it, America's Got Talent is the ONLY quality show that I want to watch over and over, season after season!
I stopped liking this show a few years ago, there are to many cringy little kids "beating" actually talented adults, almost all of the kid singers make me want to jump off a hill.
I've wanted talented acts like dangerous stunts, magicians or dancers.
If I wanted to go to Las Vegas, then I would see great performers like magicians or Terry's ventriloquist act.
Piers Morgan - Judge America's got Talent.
Just like the British version of the show Britains Got Talent, only it is in America.Same sorts of talents, but as you can expect the talent competition is much more fierce as there are more people in America, therefore loads more potential talent.For some reason most of the acts seen on this programme really do seem to be of a professional standard.
Piers is some stuck up pompous idiot who likes to talk down to people, same as when he judges British acts and David Hasslehoff is just an actor.
And on that same note, the same goes for Brandy Norwood only she was much less talented and more annoying so who was she to pass judgement?Putting all that aside, I guess you could say the same for any judge really, but the judges are needed otherwise the whole thing wouldn't work, so if you can tolerate them the whole shows not really that bad..
I think the merging of contestant back stories with their auditions is a brilliant and clever stoke by the producers, making the show connect with people in a very real way, a fact most judges show great respect for..
THE BEST SHOW says Simon Cowell about America's Got Talent!!!
I can't believe Simon Cowell is saying such great stuff about America's Got talent.
The past couple years have seen a lot of competition show a la "American Idol" and America's Got Talent attempts to replicate the magic of the show, and in a way only seems to draw because of pure curiosity as opposed to actual talent.
"Talent" seems to want to showcase acts less for the merit and more for the sheer novelty.That said, it does have it's magical moments like "Idol" does.
Kenny Shelton?) over more worthy competitors and the frequent Pier Morgan channeling Simon Cowell just reduce a show that lacks a lot of charm anyway.So, in the end, I'm mixed about America's Got Talent.
After a few weeks however it seems that the people with the most talent on the show are being eliminated just because it is not the style of the judges.
This show, like "American Idol" is looking for the next big talent, and most of those who have succeeded in going on to the finals are singers.
America's Got Talent but not in the Judges.
I also feel the judges allowed some people to pass through the first round to attract viewers who want to see goofy acts, for example, the male who was dressed up as an angel.
He did this by buzzing acts within the first ten seconds, before they had a chance to get started (Actually this was a good thing).
The judges said they wanted other talent than just singers.
It's good for America because somewhere there is potential and talent for people in this world.
If the act is really good the judges don't press their buzzers.
If the act is really bad the judges press their buzzers.
For some acts one judge presses their buzzer.
This show also, like all reality shows has a British judge.
The judges from Season One were Piers Morgan, Brandy, and David Hasslehoff.
Piers can get annoying and mean to the children at times but aside from that the judges are good. |
tt0053137 | On the Beach | The year is 1964. The nuclear war that was waged in the northern hemisphere has ended. An American nuclear submarine, The Sawfish, at sea in the mid-Pacific makes its way down the coast of Australia where there appear to be survivors. Docking at the port of Melbourne, the crew, commanded by Lt. Commander Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck) live out their lives waiting for the radioactive winds from the North to slowly make their way towards them, ending all life as we know it.The Australian Government and scientific community, hopeful that life might go on in the Southern Hemisphere or in Antarctica, ask Towers and his crew to take the sub north again to check on radiation levels and a mysterious Morse code signal emanating from near San Diego, CA. Towers is assigned an Australian Ensign (Anthony Perkins) who will act as liaison officer for the mission. Feeling sorry for Towers and the loss he has experienced up North, Perkins and his wife Mary (Donna Anderson), throw a party. They bring in a friend Moira Davidson (Ava Gardner) to distract Towers so he won't become morbid and depressed. Towers slowly begins to fall in love with Moira. However, he still has the mission to think of and is still very much devoted to his wife and kids, who resided in Connecticut. He has difficulty reconciling their loss and at one point confuses Moira for his late wife, Sharon. Moira offers to become "Sharon" if it will help him deal with it and also serve the purpose of assuaging her loneliness and fear of the future, impending doom awaiting. Towers refuses. He leaves on the mission north without telling Moira. She finds out from her cousin Julian Osborne (Fred Astaire in his first dramatic role,) who will be serving as a scientist checking on the radiation levels during the mission. The Sawfish first arrives at Point Barrow in the Artic Sea, only to find that the radiation levels have not subsided. Next they visit an untouched but ghostly quiet, San Francisco. One of the crew, yeoman Swain, whose hometown is San Francisco, escapes the sub through an escape hatch and swims ashore. The Sub sits on the bottom of San Francisco bay and then the next morning surfaces to find Swain fishing from a small boat. Swain tells Captain Towers he is sorry that he deserted but he would "rather be here [sic. San Francisco] to have it" then in Australia later on. Towers understands. The Sawfish heads south to the San Diego area and puts a Radio Officer, Lt. Sunderstrom ashore in a full radiological suit with oxygen tank. Sunderstrom discovers that the mysterious morse code signal is coming from a silent radio room at a refinery, where the window pane had broken and a window shade pull cord had wrapped around a partially empty Coca-cola bottle and a morse code key thus generating the gibberish Morse code signals. Sunderstrom signals the sub as to what he has found and then shuts down the main generators at the refinery. Resigned to their fate, the Sawfish returns and Towers meets up with Moira at her father's farm. They spend time together and go to the last Australian Grand Prix, where Osborne is racing. Osborne wins which has been his dream and Towers and Moira head off to go fishing, as the fishing season has opened early. The fishing grounds are crowded with people and they spend a stormy evening together having dinner in their room in an inn. In the background one can the hear the very audible singing of drunken locals singing the tune "Waltzing Matilda" in the barroom below. Returning from the fishing trip, Towers learns that one of his crew, Seaman Ackerman, has developed radiation poisoning. The radioactive-laden winds have finally arrived and he now must consider what he is going to do about his crew and about Moira. With little time left, Towers says goodbye to Osborne and speaks to his crew. They have already taken a vote and they tell him that they would like "to head for home." He realizes his responsibility and duty is to his crew. He phones Moira who has been helping Peter deal with Mary who can't accept the reality of their present situation. Upon learning that Towers is leaving, she speeds off in her car to the Naval Base. Mary comes around and realizes that she and Peter must face their end and that their infant daughter "Jennifer" will never have the chance to experience the love and happiness that she has had. She tells Peter that she has had a good life with him and that she will "have that cup of tea now." The tea is laced with a coma-inducing sedative, provided free to the residents of Melbourne by the government to help them deal painlessly and quickly with the end. Moira finds Towers at the dock and embraces him. He tells her he loves her but has to go with his crew. She realizes that their relationship is now over but is thankful for what they had. She speeds her car along the coast so that she can catch sight of Towers as he takes the Sawfish down for one last time. Standing on a cliff she gazes off into the distance as the submarine submerges. The final scenes are of an empty and desolate Melbourne with a banner from a religious gathering at the city's center. The banner prophetically reads "There is still time...brother." The final shot is a closeup of the banner. The movie ends. | anti war | train | imdb | In retrospect, it may be that Julian was wrong: it may have indeed been the very presence of these terrible weapons that prevented a third world war.In any case, that aspect of the story never overshadows the movie's underlying theme, which is, rather, how each of us views the sum of our lives as our mortal end approaches.
A fine bit as well by John Tate as the old admiral("to a blind, blind world").A mere cold-war nuclear destruction movie would leave one merely frightened at the end.
The fact that this movie leaves you with an almost unbearable feeling of terrible sadness is a testament to the human power of Nevil Shute's book, as well as to the fine script and Kramer's superb direction.One of the most depressing movies ever made, but a truly great one..
"On The Beach", despite it's heavy subject of a nuclear holocaust wiping out all human life, succeeds because Stanley Kramer is mercifully more restrained and less pretentious than he would later be in "Inherit The Wind" and "Judgment At Nuremberg", which are memorable more for their polemics than their characters, in my opinion.
Except for one minor speech by Fred Astaire at one point (which as the previous reviewer noted is somewhat ironic in light of the fact that the very thing Astaire rails against, the idea that large nuclear stockpiles could keep the peace, turned out to be absolutely true) the film is for the most part about people and how they react to the knowledge that their world and their lives will soon come to an end.
But the real strength of the movie is Ava Gardner's touching performance as the lonely, alcoholic Moira Davidson who manages for one brief moment before the end to find true love with Peck.
As to the others, it was clear that good brains do not make good actors (though all were nice people, particularly Fred Astaire who could have made millions as a salesman if he had not made them as a dancer/actor).I have seen lots of times and think the best movie ever made (even better than "No Time for Sergeants", which I have seen even more times).Would like to hear from Jack Boyer (the submarine medical corpsman) if he happens to read this..
The French title is "le dernier rivage"(the last shore)The intellectuals dismiss this movie in France and I've always thought they were wrong.Ava Gardner had never been better with the eventual exception of Huston's "night of the iguana".My favorite part is the central one:one of the soldiers tries to find the cause for the strange Morse signals.He crosses bleak dead San Francisco harbor (the camera takes prodigious high angle shots of him,making us share his loneliness and his hope against hope)Hope that was to be short-lived!What a symbol,this equivalent of a bottle thrown into the sea!So few special effects,ans so much emotion.Stanley Kramer's peak..
In an age where sci-fi films seem to rely more on big budget special effects,and spectacular explosions,to hold an audience(usually at the expense of a decent script and plot line),On the beach is here to remind us of how it should be done.Although the plot is simple and uncomplicated, it works well on different levels,almost feeding of the paranoia that abounded at the time, concerning atomic weapons.It tells the story of a group of individuals,and their last few months of life.An atomic war has wiped out most of the earth,only Australia and parts of the southern hemisphere are left,but it is only a temporary reprieve,the cloud of dust which has destroyed mankind is heading their way.It is against this backdrop that the film opens,and we get to meet the main characters.Dwight Towers,the american submarine captain,played superbly by Gregory Peck,good time girl Moira Davidson (Ava Gardner),desperately looking for one last chance of love,young naval officer and new dad Peter Holmes played by a young Anthony Perkins,and Fred Astaire as the towns drunken scientist,proving he could act as well as dance.As these characters develop,and we start to care about them,(they are all believable and for the most part,likeable),the film starts to ask questions of the viewer.what would i do?
what about my family?how would i cope?.Director Stanley Kramer plays on the very real fears of the viewer,much the same way as Byron Haskin did in War of the worlds and Robert Wise in The day the earth stood still,albeit in a more subtle fashion.It is in the second half of the film,when the grim reality sets in,that Kramer cranks up the tension,almost scene by scene,we witness the growing despair and anguish of these poor souls,and there are some pretty unsettling scenes,non more so than when we watch people queueing up for "suicide"pills and then again when Anthony Perkins tries to explain to his young wife how to administer them to their young daughter in his absence"when the time comes".
But of course,even amidst the doom and gloom,love blossoms,and the most poignant scene in the film for me,is when Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner kiss for the first time.A first rate cast and script,together with a haunting soundtrack,(you'll be whistling waltzing matilda for days after watching this)makes this one of my favourite films.Don't just rent this classic,buy it and give it pride of place in your collection..
(There are Spoilers) Emotionally packed drama about a futuristic, for the time the movie was released in 1959, nuclear war that took place in the late fall and early winter of 1963/64.
Julian had developed a deep guilt feelings about his involvement with and testing the hydrogen bomb that he's become a suicidal mental case in both his, like Moria, drinking and driving.There's also in the film the story about a young Australian couple Navy Lt. Peter Holmes and his wife Mary, Anthony Perkins & Donna Anderson, who had everything to live for.Now with the end coming they have to choose in not only taking their lives, with cyanide pills, but their infant daughter Jenny's as well.
That's in order to avoid suffering the inevitable and horrific death resulting from deadly radiation poisoning.For the most part "On the Beach" plays like an afternoon soap opera but the fact that you, and those in the movie, know that no one in it will survive the final credits makes it a lot more personal as well as heart wrenching and involving.
Towers after saying a tearful good-by to Moira goes together with his men on the USS Sawfish out to sea and back home to the USA to die together with their already deceased families and loved ones as the movie sadly come to an end to the music of "Waltzing Matilda".Powerful and thought-provoking movie about a nuclear holocaust without a single person being killed, as a result of it, in the film.
With many people, on both sides of the battle-line, who never had to live through in the 1950's and 1960's the fears and nightmares of a nuclear Armageddon are now sadly reminded that it's a war that, like in the movie, nobody will win much less survive..
Still people like Gregory Peck can't get it into their heads that everything they knew and loved is gone.Still though he finds time for a romantic interlude with Ava Gardner as the Australians and those who made it to their shore size up the situation and it ain't good and no options for hope.Nevil Shute's apocalyptic novel was filmed in Australia and it leaves a good ring of authenticity.
Anthony Perkins gives an earnest portrayal of the young officer in the Royal Australian Navy though he does slip in and out of the Aussie accent.Besides the message of On the Beach the main publicity about the film concerned Fred Astaire in his first straight dramatic part.
Towers and his crew invite the drunkard scientist Julian Osborne (Fred Astaire) to join them in their reconnaissance voyage to the further North and to the United States, and they return hopeless and aware that Australia and the rest of the mankind has very few days until the doomsday."On the Beach" is a powerful anti-war film released in the Cold War period.
The center piece to this movie that still indelibly sticks with me is when Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck meet for their last and final farewell at the dock before the SawFish crew departs back for the U.S. where they decided to spend the remaining days of their lives .
Ava Gardner and Fred Astair show what terrific actors they really are, and Anthony Perkins, as a young sailor, makes you wish he had been in many more movies.
In denial, too, is Gregory Peck as an American captain about to command an atomic submarine north in search of life--he flirts with blowzy, tippling Ava Gardner but can't stop talking about his wife and kids back home (just like all married men, we're to assume).
This wonderful movie, though dated by the use of archaic terminology like "atomic war", succeeds because it captures the atmosphere of the atom bomb-fearing fifties.Filmed in black and white instead of color (a wise choice, since B/W allows for a more expressive, timeless look), this movie follows the crew of the USS Sawfish, a United States Navy submarine who managed to avoid being destroyed in the Big War.
Together, the men and women of Melbourne and the the crew of the Sawfish wait for the end as a cloud of fallout drifts toward Australia.Anthony Perkins gives a fantastic performer as a young Aussie naval office who fears for the future of his family.
Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins and Donna Anderson star, with music by Ernest Gold and cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno.After a global nuclear war, the inhabitants of Australia realise that the radiation clouds are heading their way.
For Melbournians there is also the added nostalgia of seeing the defunct asbestos blue trains running on the Williamstown line and the old W Class trams along Swanston Street.I suppose everyone has heard Ava Gardner's comment that Melbourne was the perfect place to shoot a film about the end of the world.
Stanley Kramer directed this nuclear holocaust drama set in the near-future and stars Gregory Peck as Lt. Commander Towers of the American submarine U.S.S. Sawfish, which has escaped the nuclear war that has devastated most of the world, and ends up in the last safe place: Australia, where Towers meets Moira Davidson(played by Ava Gardner) with whom he begins a relationship.
hello my family and I went for a quick Holiday to Phillip Island it is ,(about 100 km from Melbourne ), We stayed at hotel which they filmed the movie " on the bench " back then the hotel was called "The Sunseeker Motel " Built in 1959 as the first motel on the Island, The Sunseeker Motel (as it was known), was completed just in time for Ava Gardner, Fred Astair, Gregory Peck and Anthony Perkins, who stayed here during filming of the Hollywood classic 'On The Beach!' for more information goto (http://www.islandhotel.com.au) .......................................................................................................
The amazing ensemble cast, starring the wonderful Gregory Peck in one the best roles of his life, to a memorable and stunning Ava Gardner in the sunset of her career in a role she was born to play, and the dark horse in this remarkable drama, Fred Astaire, in a nuanced performance that should have won him the Oscar.
Just how good an actor Fred Astaire really was...In this adaptation of Nevil Shute's novel, Astaire throws off the dancing shoes, says "so long" to Ginger Rogers and plays a bewildered, aging scientist using the last days of mankind to live out his boyhood fantasies of life as a race car driver, while ruminating on the self-destructive tendency of our species that has finally driven us to extinction.
He is ably supported by Ava Gardner as a lonely alcoholic desperate to find love in what time she has left and Anthony Perkins as a committed family man, who must face up to the possibility that he will have to poison his own wife and baby in order to be a 'good father.'As you can probably guess then, On the Beach is not a cheerful film.
"On the Beach" (1959): Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins, directed by Stanley Kramer.
The new version has a U.S. Naval commander pleasing the emotions by deserting his ship and crew on it's final cruise, to stay with the lovely ingénue, who looked strikingly like Ava Gardner, and perhaps gave the best performance of the movie.
You can only view the film in this context.Admittedly, at times the pace drags and some elements are overwrought, even maudlin: the Salvation Army band, over-reliance on "Waltzing Matilda" (to remind us that we're in Australia?)--but if you can overlook these excesses, other facets are dead-on.To see San Francisco utterly deserted (along with the startling music which accompanies this sequence); the search for the source of the phantom radio transmission, and the puzzle of "waters" and "connect"; the magnificent Ava Gardner in her last luscious full bloom; subtle touches including the exploring crewman's shutdown of the generators in the power station which no longer serves any customers; the lone sailor's decision to jump ship in San Francisco; Gregory Peck's final skyward glance as his submarine leaves Australia--this film is at its very best when not telegraphing its message, but simply allowing us to see the last flickers of hope as the characters face their demise..
Still this one remains perhaps the most effective "end of the world as we know it" american films, cool-headed in frozen cold war times, with an unusually light touch by the Oliver Stone (but a tad more significant in my books) of those days.
Not in the least pedantic, never dull (though a bit stretching at 134 minutes), at times almost elegiac and decidedly pessimistic, Kramer's On the Beach boasts a typically strong cast, crowned by a fantastic playing off each other of Peck and Gardner, with the latter being nothing sort of magnificent in her vulnerable first hour in the film.
On the 'plus' side, a viewer is left with powerful images (in THE DEFIANT ONES, Sidney Poitier, his hand grasping Tony Curtis', at the film's climax, is as potent a statement about racial equality in a world of bigotry as has ever been made on film); on the 'negative' side, characters are often underdeveloped, serving more to illustrate Kramer's point of view than 'real' people.ON THE BEACH, Kramer's 1959 anti-nuke 'Message' picture, re-enforces his best and worst qualities as a director.
Full of startling, provocative imagery (the banner, 'THERE IS STILL TIME, BROTHER', the film's final image, is a chilling testament, and so effective that it would reappear in the 2000 TV-movie remake), the story is far less effective when telling the 'human' side of the tragedy, relying on Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, and Fred Astaire's long-established screen 'personas' to make up for a lack of characterization.
Only Anthony Perkins and Donna Anderson, as a young Australian couple with a baby, facing the heartbreaking decision of either killing themselves and their child or dying by radiation poisoning, come across as believable.Ultimately, the film comes down to a series of 'set' pieces, scenes which work better individually than in the whole fabric of a nuclear war statement.
The cast is interesting and dependable (accents aside), Gregory Peck turning in a fine performance as the sub skipper initially unable to accept love because of the belief his wife is still alive, and Anthony Perkins as the young Australian coming to terms with the inevitability of the situation.Be warned, it is at times very melodramatic.
(Why this happened is apparently explained in the book, though it's never clearly explained in the movie.) A lone nuclear-powered US sub shows up in Australia, the only place on earth where people are still alive.
A far superior film dealing with the subject of nuclear war from the same time period is "Fail-Safe", a movie that seems fresh, vital and exciting even today.
Would have liked to have seen more of the dissolving of order that Shute depicted towards the end and of course Kramer copped out a bit with the last scene of Moira on the headland as the sub sailed off (perhaps Ava taking suicide pills would not have been a good look in those days).My only real disappointment was the score.
Nevil Shute's dark and gloomy novel about Australians (and not a few American refugees) awaiting the end of the world in the form of fallout from a nuclear holocaust in the Northern Hemisphere certainly seems an odd choice for a Hollywood film.Kramer's film makes a few changes from the novel: Fred Astaire's character is a much younger man in the book, and his name has been changed for some reason from John to Julian.
A good thing, too, because in the one scene where Peck tries to work up emotion about his dead family, the results are almost embarrassing; it is simply beyond him.There is fine work here, too, by Astaire as a former flame of Gardner's, a scientist who joins the submarine crew for an investigative cruise that takes up a good portion of the center of the film, and Anthony Perkins and Donna Anderson as a young married couple with a new baby facing the fact that all their hopes and dreams are about to come to an end.My only other quibble is that the American actors playing Australians (Gardner, Astaire, and Perkins) have varying degrees of success with the accent.
Gregory Peck part as a Navy submarine captain seems to fit him like a glove, although his particular story interested me far less than Mr. Perkins.What makes "On the Beach" so relevant to modern times, and perhaps all time, is the banner that the religious zealots in Australia put up towards the end of the film.
I know this movie comes highly recommended, but I just found it too unbelievable to fully enjoy it.Nuclear fallout doesn't act at all as depicted in this film. |
tt0064211 | Daughter of the Mind | Professor Samuel H. Constable is shown leaving the cemetery where his ten-year-old daughter Mary is buried. She was killed in a car crash several months earlier. He was injured in the crash and spent several nights in the hospital.On the way home, Constable sees an apparition of his daughter standing in the road. He swerves to avoid her and runs off the road. Mary runs to him and opens the car door. Constable cannot believe it is her. He gets out of the car and she backs away. Before disappearing, she warns him to stop what he is doing. She also says she hates being dead.Convinced that his grief is driving him insane, Constable seeks help from Dr. Alex Lauder, a young scientist who studies ESP. Alex is thrilled to meet the well-known Professor Constable but is skeptical of his story. Constable invites Alex to his home and introduces him to his wife Lenore and the housekeeper Helga. Lenore is confined to a wheelchair due to severe arthritis. She is no longer able to do sculpture. Her treatment is provided by Dr. Paul Cryder and his daughter Tina, who is a physical therapist. The Cryders are frequent visitors.Since Mary's death, her bedroom has remained locked. Constable invites Alex to view the room. Stuffed animals and dolls are sitting around a table, just as Mary left them. But Constable recently noticed that the toys had been moved. He is positive that no one has been in the room.Alex agrees to spend the night at the Constable home in case Mary's ghost appears again. Sure enough, her voice is heard from her bedroom calling "Daddy." Armed with a recorder and camera, Alex gets it all on tape. Mary again begs her father to stop what he is doing. Constable assumes she means his work with the government, which is top-secret. As far as anyone knows, he works for a private foundation.Alex learns that the FBI is providing surveillance in an apartment across the street. Later he discovers that they have bugged Mary's bedroom. They are concerned that enemy spies might be out to harm Constable or force him to defect.The Constables are contacted by a young couple, Arnold and Devi Bessmer. He is from India but raised in London. Devi is also from India and speaks very little English. She is a medium and has a message from Mary. The Constables, Alex, and the Cryders hold a seance in Mary's room. Still skeptical, Alex ties Devi to her chair with thread which will snap if she gets up.An unfinished bust of Mary is in the room, along with Lenore's sculpting tools. She was unable to finish it due to the arthritis in her hands.Mary's head and shoulders appear and seem to rise to the ceiling. She says she cannot come again unless her father stops his work. She reminds him that he is his brother's keeper. The tooth that was loose before her death has come out and she leaves its impression in a block of wax. Then the wax heater is switched on. When the lights come on, a wax hand is floating in a bowl of water. It is apparently Mary's hand.While this might seem to indicate that Mary's ghost is real, Alex knows there has to be an explanation. Lenore agrees with him. But Constable is convinced that he needs to follow Mary's instructions. Alex takes the hand back to his lab to figure out how it was made and how Mary's fingerprints came to be on it.On the way to the lab, Alex shared a cab with Constable. The scientist explains that he is leaving early the next morning for parts unknown. He needs to be alone with his thoughts. Alex takes this to mean that he is planning to defect. The cab stops and Constable exits.Alex wonders if Mary's body has been stolen from the mausoleum but learns she was cremated. He consults an authority on ghosts who tells him that behind every ghost there is an operator. Back at his lab, he is surprised when Tina Cryder pays him a visit. It is very late and no one else is in the building. They briefly chat before Alex tells her he needs quiet if he is to concentrate. They argue and she leaves in a huff. Outside, she meets her father and another man who is wearing a custodian's uniform. Cryder orders her to take the man into the building only as far as Alex's lab.Alex asks where the regular custodian is and the man mumbles that he is out sick. After asking for the keys to the audio-visual lab, Alex suddenly realizes that the man intends to do him harm. They struggle and Alex gets away. He turns on the fire alarm and runs into the street.After returning home, Constable visits his wife and tells her of his plans to leave. He promises to send her postcards. Lenore is distressed but realizes she cannot stop her husband.The fake custodian gets away in a car. Alex has no car to follow him but FBI Agent Wiener drives up. He tells Alex that they have been trying to get enough evidence to arrest Constable so he cannot defect. They chase the car and temporarily lose it. Then they see the driver in a phone booth. Wiener gets out of the car and chases him. The telephone receiver has been left dangling. Alex picks it up and hears the Cryders talking. He realizes that they are probably the masterminds behind Mary's supposed return from the dead.The Cryders are shown in their apartment burning documents, including many pictures of Mary. Alex drives there and enters the building from the basement. He shouts "police" and Dr. Cryder commits suicide with a whiff of poison gas. Tina struggles to get away but eventually confesses.It turns out that Dr. Cryder was not Tina's father. They were able to obtain Mary's fingerprints for the wax hand by lifting them from objects in her bedroom, then etching them onto the fingers of the hand. Dr. Cryder brought the hand to the seance with him. While everyone was occupied watching Mary's image float upward, he switched on the wax heater and dropped the hand in the bowl of water. Tina made the images appear by use of a hologram laser beam. The "ghost" who opened Constable's car door was a living child made up to look like Mary. The Bessmers were in on the scheme and were arrested at the airport, but they weren't talking.The experience helped Constable begin to move on. He promises Lenore that he will have Mary's room cleared out, which was what she had wanted. As a surprise, Lenore has managed to finish the bust of Mary. | paranormal | train | imdb | Scientist Ray Milland believes he's seeing and speaking to his late young daughter in "Daughter of the Mind," also starring Gene Tierney and Don Murray.
I suspect this was a pilot for a series on psychic phenomenon that was to star Murray; hence the "guest starring" credits for Tierney and Milland.This is an intriguing drama.
Milland is a scientist involved in sensitive government work, and our side is convinced that the messages he's getting from his daughter to quit what he's doing - bringing into play the possibility of defection - are a conjurer's trick by the other side.
George MacCready, who plays Murray's boss, asks him to investigate.
He sees the girl's image, he hears her voice - and then, during a séance, a wax replica of her hand appears in water, with verifiable fingerprints yet!
John Carradine, who plays an expert in the field of séances and mediums, advises him, "You're going about it the wrong way.
Ask yourself, if you were going to do it, how would you?" Gene Tierney plays Milland's wife.
1969 was the last year she worked with the exception of one appearance in 1980.
Ray Milland is fine as the devastated father though his bad hairpiece is distracting.
Pamelyn Ferdin, a popular child actress of the day, plays the daughter.
I can't tell you a thing about this movie plot-wise, but I can tell you that this was, hands-down, the scariest thing I ever saw on TV as a child.
I remember images, like a ghostly image of the girl floating in air, and someone replicating the effect with mist and a projector, but that's about it.
(I feel like I grew up with her, because I kept seeing her in everything.)Even the odd title still haunts me, 30-something years after first I saw the movie.
Would love to see this again...but then, maybe it's better if I didn't.
Some things are best left to the (childish) imagination..
First saw this made for TV film back in the 1970s when I was about the same age as the little girl in the movie.I wasn't able to understand it properly at the time,but the ghost theme captured my imagination.I found it very appealing and intriguing when I saw it again much later on as an adult..
Like Curtis, this movie freaked me out when I was eight years old.
I always thought that it was Cathy Silvers and tonight I was watching the 30 year reunion for Happy Days and thought, Let's Google!!
Well, her filmography didn't list any TV shows (I would have never remembered Daughter of the Mind ) and found the Pamelyn Ferdin website and then ended up here.
Ray Milland has been grieving his dead daughter, Mary.
As a result, he goes to see a parapsychologist (Don Murray)--perhaps he can help Milland figure out if he's going crazy or if the child really is trying to contact him.
Along the way, they learn that a government agent (Ed Asner) is watching them--unsure if maybe, perhaps, these manifestations are the result of the work of a hostile nation.
After all, Milland is a top cybernetics scientist--maybe someone is deliberately messing with his mind.
I don't want to say more, as it might divulge where it's going next.Overall, it's a very tense and interesting made for TV film.
However, there are quite a few plot holes and the whole thing seems overly complicated and far-fetched.
Some of the film relies on technology that isn't even possible today--more than 40 years later!!
Still, it is entertaining and it's nice to see such an accomplished cast (also including Gene Tierney and John Carradine) in a TV movie that often has more light-weight actors!
By the way, Pamelyn Ferdin who plays Ray Milland's dead daughter, Mary, should be a very familiar face and voice if you grew up when I did.
She played on a bazillion TV show, such as playing Felix's daughter on "The Odd Couple" and was the voice of Lucy in three Charlie Brown movies/TV shows.
Just saw part of Daughter of the Mind after many years....
I just was channel surfing and ran across "Daugher of the Mind", which have not seen since I was a young child (I am now almost the big 50), however, much to my dismay the movie was 3/4 over and I only got to see the last 1/2 hour.
But this was enough to bring back memories of seeing it as a young girl and how haunting the movie was to me.In now seeing the credits and getting the name of Pamelyn Ferdin I was able to go online (something I was not able to do 36 years ago) and find her web-site with all of this wonderful biography information.I had no idea how many movies and TV shows she had done and I am sure that I must have seen many of them in order to have such fond and vivid memories of her.To Pamelyn, "thanks for the memories" and hopefully this movie will be on again so I can see it from the beginning or better yet, obtain a copy for my collection.
I had read the book, "The Hand of Mary Constable" in my dad's Reader's Digest Condensed Books, so I was thrilled when I saw that it was going to be a Movie of the Week.Unfortunately, it didn't live up to the book, as is frequently the case.
In particular, the technology supposedly employed by the hero (which was actually the protagonist's name in the book, Alexander Hero) was ridiculously inadequate.The book had a real downbeat Cold War mood to it and was a highly effective and timely thriller.
But, just when you think you are watching an unsung classic, just when you are scratching your head to come up with a resolution, you realize that the film makers do not have one and instead leave us with the ultimate cop-out ending.
Very Creepy Sad Movie but Hopefull ending.
I remember this movie as a young child.Pamela Ferdin and Ray Miland were great in it.It was actually kind of creepy and depressing about a young girl who had died.It actually upset me as a little kid that the characters daughter died so young.I never knew kids could die and this freaked me out as a kid.In some ways I guess it made me realize that anyone can die young and old,but the ending was hopeful and made me feel a bit less freaked out.The musical score was very well done and the acting was good also.TV movies in the late 60's and 70's,80's were SO much better than they are today.They actually had a STORY and Characters that were more realistic and original.Today,writers have no talent as they need to RE DO like every movie in a remake.Sad.I like the Originals.Wow,now that I think about it,I must have seen this in the 70's as I am still in my late 30's and this was made in 1969,the year I was born.I probably saw it at age 11 or 12 sometime in the mid to late 70's on a rerun.It really scared me..
I remember watching it (10 yrs old) and being petrified!
I think the Baby Boomer crowd appreciates this kind of stuff far more than the younger ones.
Made for TV movies are sometimes the best, but the hardest to get a copy of!.
Government officials become involved after a cybernetics professor and a parapsychologist record evidence of life beyond death: the professor's recently-deceased daughter, whose spirit has apparently come back to stop her father from proceeding with his work for the military.
Made-for-TV adaptation of Paul Gallico's novel "The Hand of Mary Constable" wants to be more complex than the usual bump-in-the-night ghost story, but the questions and answers the film does offer us are nonetheless unexciting.
The casting also seems off, with Ray Milland and Gene Tierney both far too old to be the parents of a little girl (grandparents would be more appropriate).
Young Pamelyn Ferdin, however, excels once again in a difficult part for a child, and John Carradine pops up in a colorful cameo as an illusionist expert.
This was the first television movie for 20th Century Fox, and the technical aspects (aside from Milland's heavy eye makeup and the cheapjack music score) are above-par for a TV feature..
Ray Milland and John Carradine.
1969's "Daughter of the Mind" was one of ABC's earliest Movies of the Week, and like so many from that first decade left an indelible impression on younger viewers, based on the 1964 novel "The Hand of Mary Constable" by Paul Gallico, best known for writing "The Poseidon Adventure." Ray Milland and Gene Tierney, reunited from 1951's "Close to My Heart," again portray a married couple, Professor Samuel Constable and his wheelchair-bound wife Lenore, being visited by an apparition which claims to be their late daughter Mary (Pamelyn Ferdin), who was killed in an automobile accident some two months earlier.
Enter parapsychologist Alex Lauder (Don Murray), keeping an open mind on the supernatural, while C.I.C. inspector Saul Wiener (Ed Asner) suggests that foreign agents may be involved due to Constable's private government work.
Everything is played with total conviction, keeping the audience guessing for the first two thirds, and even if there aren't any paranormal phenomena on hand it's still an enjoyable watch.
Among the many guest stars present is venerable scene stealer John Carradine, around for only two minutes but making an impression on Lauder; his character, Mr. Bosch, is a lifelong illusionist who points the way to the final answer: "don't try to figure out how it was done, that's a waste of time...just start from zero and say this is the illusion I want to create, now how will I go about it?" Though only 49, the still beautiful Gene Tierney looked much older, in what turned out to be her final feature film role..
Daughter of the Mind (1969) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Mildly entertaining made-for-TV thriller about a father (Ray Milland) who lost his daughter in a car crash thirteen-months earlier but on the way home from her grave one night she stops him and passes along a message.
The father seeks the help of his doctor friend (Don Murray) and soon the two try to figure out if this is really her ghost or if something else is going on.
The supporting cast includes Gene Tierney as Milland's wife and we get small roles with Ed Asner and John Carradine.
The film isn't a total success because it tries to be a lot smarter than it actually is with a couple plot twists that take place in the film.
The first part of the movie plays out like a horror film but then we switch gears with some espionage thrown in for good measure.
I can't say the spy and horror genre mixes too well together but the cast never let things get too boring.
Milland, at this point in his career, will certainly be love-him or hate-him because he does have the ability to go over the top and something this hampers a film.
Murray is a tad bit too laid back in his role but Tierney turns in a good performance even if it's pretty much a thankless role.
The plot twists are extremely silly and don't work too well and when the movie is over you're going to think back and catch about fifteen other plot holes but while watching the film it isn't too bad thanks to the actors.
Cold War and Ghosts?.
I saw this way back in 1969 when it first aired, and I saw it as a plain old ghost story, since I knew nothing of the Cold War when I was 12 years old.
But...seen today, I think that maybe we could have a really cool horror movie with the Ghosts of all of our American Heroes who have died while fighting in Iraq coming back to haunt and terrify George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condi Rice ...
and all of their peers and cohorts who put our American Heroes in Iraq in the first place--all because George W Bush had to prove himself to his old man since Saddam tried to kill the older Bush.
Now that's a movie I would pay to see!!!.
(POSSIBLE SPOILERS)...Tale of supernatural is taut, interesting, but ultimately unbelievable....
An exploration of the supernatural with only lukewarm success is DAUGHTER OF THE MIND from a novel by Paul Gallico and starring DON MURRAY as a parapsychologist helping RAY MILLAND discover the mystery behind the appearances of his dead daughter.
GENE TIERNEY is Milland's worried wife, wheelchair bound and not having much to do aside from showing concern for the unexplained events.Young Don Murray gives the strongest performance here, making the viewer feel the need to solve the daughter's strange appearances and he is completely convincing as he gradually becomes more and more involved in the weird circumstances.
The final explanation requires a suspension of disbelief since the details are not exactly plausible.Nice to see John Carradine, Virginia Christine and George Macready giving good support in minor roles--both men showing the ravages of age but still recognizable as the sterling character actors they always were.Tierney and Milland were clearly coming toward the end of their careers in underwritten roles and neither one is particularly well served by the script, a muddled one that offers a rather unsatisfying explanation behind the mystery.
The end result is only mildly satisfying, but still--while not a classic of suspense--the supernatural elements should intrigue many viewers.Interesting to note that the director is Walter Grauman, the man who directed LADY IN A CAGE five years earlier, and then went back to directing mainly TV movies..
I, too, saw this one afternoon on the 4 o'clock movie when I was less than 8 years old.
(My mother must have been off caring for my baby sister or cleaning to have let me watch this.) I had nightmares for years.
This movie comes to me sometimes when I think about other movies.
It's a natural tie in when I think of "Barton Fink" (Theater of the Mind!
. Daughter of the Mind).
Thank God for the internet we can remember these things.
Back then I don't think I knew how many big stars were in it.
I guess with all the outlets today, the chance of anything resembling the once great Movie of the Week formula is gone.
I remember another Movie of the Week that I think had George C Scott in it as a man who was bit by a rabid skunk and slowly went mad - wish I could remember what that was.
Anyway, you just never knew when you were going to run into something good - but with three channels, you didn't have much choice!.
**SPOILERS** devastated by the loss of his ten-year-old daughter Mary, Pamelyn Ferdin, in a car accident that he holds himself responsible for well known cybernetics professor Samuel Constable, Ray Milland, has been visiting her grave almost every day.
This was starting to worry his invalid wife Lenore, Gene Tireny, in feeling that he's going insane.
It's some three months after the accident that Prof.
Constable starts to believe that there may well be something very psychologically wrong with him when one evening driving home he runs into, and almost runs over, a live Mary Constable walking along a lonely road.Being a man of science Prof.
Constable doesn't believe in anything like ghosts or the supernatural but after seeing and talking to Mary he starts to believe in it.
At the insistence of a friend Dr. Frank Furgerson, George Macready, Prof.
Constable goes to see a man who could help him solve this dilemma Dr. Alex Lauder, Don Murray.
Dr. Lauder is one of the worlds biggest expert in the field of parapsychology.
Dr. Lauder is so impressed by what Prof.
Constable tells him and what he sees and hears himself, in Mary's sudden appearance at the Constable home.
That makes Dr. Lauder almost a true believer, like Prof.
Constable, in the supernatural.
This leaves the door open for Dr. Lauder to investigate if all these ghostly events are real or somehow manipulated by people behind the scenes.Not what you would expect at first "Daughter of the Mind" is a lot more then a ghost story it also has a lot to do with the defense of the United States that Prof.
Constable is very much involved in his top secret work for the Pentagon.
Mary in her appearances keeps telling her father, Prof.
Constable, about all the bad he's doing in helping develop weapons of war for the US military.
Constable's weird behavior also attracts the US governments intelligent agencies in the person of CIC agent Saul Wiener, Edward Asner, who's having him and now Dr. Lauder followed day and night.
The CIC and Agent Wiener feels that Prof.
Constable is being duped into defecting to the Soviet Union by these "visions" that he's been having about his dead daughter Mary.Very well made-for-TV movie that's as good as any film that was released in the theaters back in 1969.
with an intelligent script and believable ending, an ending far too believable for a movie about the world of the supernatural and dark sciences.
The supernatural is handled in a very unusual and honest way in the film by at first not trying to disprove it and then trying to make those who believe in look like gullible and mindless fanatics.
At the same time not hit the audience over the head with it, the supernatural.
By making it look like anyone who doesn't believe that such a world, beyond the proof of modern science, exist is a slave to what he, or she, was thought in school.
Which over the years brought into being some of the greatest achievements and advancements in the world of science and medicine. |
tt0102585 | Omen IV: The Awakening | Virginia congressman Gene York (Michael Woods) and his attorney wife Karen (Faye Grant), after numerous failed attempts to have children, go to a nun-owned orphanage where they adopt a child that they name Delia from a nun named Sister Yvonne (Megan Leitch). At first, other than Delia scratching Karen and the later heart attack of the preacher overseeing her baptism, all seems normal. But seven years later, after the Yorks adopt a rottweiler that they name Ryder, Delia (Asia Vieira) starts to display the traits and personality of an increasingly violent and manipulative sociopath. Furthermore, as the family doctor, Dr. Hastings (Madison Mason) reveals that she is going through puberty, strange events begin to occur around Delia, including the death of the father of a boy whom she terrorized. Jo Thueson (Ann Hearn), a New Age practitioner hired by the Yorks as a nanny to help while Gene runs for the Senate, senses something suspicious about Delia after finding her healing crystals blackened by the girl's touch.
At the advice of her friend, an aura reader named Noah (Jim Byrnes), Jo takes Delia to a fair, where all psychics present sense a feeling of unease brought on by the girl's presence. Jo manages to get Noah to take an Aura photograph of Delia before she storms off. But as Noah sees her photograph showing very dark colors, Delia causes a fire that sets the entire fairground ablaze. Though Noah warns her to leave after showing her the photo, Jo attempts to find out why her young charge is so full of negative energy. It is during this investigation that Jo learns of Delia's true identity, but before she can share this information with anyone she is sent plummeting out of a window by Ryder. Karen, who witnesses the fall, faints from shock and is taken to the hospital, where she learns that she is pregnant.
Becoming increasingly alarmed and suspicious of her adoptive daughter, Karen turns to her preacher, Father James Mattson (Duncan Fraser), for help in understanding what Jo learned of Delia, and is told of the Antichrist. Eight months later, after learning that Sister Yvonne mysteriously left the orphanage when she and Gene adopted Delia, Karen hires detective Earl Knight (Michael Lerner) to find Delia's biological parents. Knight's search takes him to Charlotte, North Carolina, where Sister Yvonne now goes by the name Felicity. He finds her taking part in a bizarre religious ceremony during which Felicity stands in a circle surrounded by rattlesnakes. Earl shows Felicity a recent photograph of Delia, and unintentionally causes her suffer an envenomation overdose during a Snake handling ritual. After speaking to her before she dies, Knight finds clippings in Felicity's trailer relating to Gene. Unable to return to Virginia, Knight sends Karen a letter of his findings in the mail prior to being killed in a bizarre construction accident.
By this time, with her paranoia worsening, Karen has given birth to her son, Alexander, and is eventually able to leave the hospital and return home to meet the new nanny, Lisa Roselli (Andrea Mann). Growing increasingly distrustful of Delia around Alexander while learning of Yvonne and Knight's deaths, Karen receives the latter's letter that details Damien Thorn and reveals that Dr. Hastings is a Satanic disciple. Confronting Hastings for answers, Karen learns that Delia is actually Damien's daughter and that she is the protector of the real Antichrist: her twin brother, Alexander, whose embryo was carried inside Delia before being implanted into Karen by Hastings. Karen kills Hastings before returning home armed with his gun, where she kills Roselli, also a Satanic disciple, only to find Delia waiting for her, holding Alexander and drawing Karen's attention to the 666 symbol, clearly displayed on the palm of her brother's hand. Be it by the children's power or by her own inability to kill the infant, Karen ends up taking her own life, with Gene, Delia and Alexander attending her funeral. | paranormal, good versus evil | train | wikipedia | Previous and much better versions are the following : The immensely superior original 'Omen'(Gregory Peck, Lee Remick)by Richard Donner; 'Damien'(William Holden, Lee Grant) by Don Taylor; 'Final conflict'(Sam Neil and Tisa Harrow) by Grahame Baker.
but, chances are, you're not going to get an auteur at the wheel of a TV-movie.)What you do with a film like this is get in the mood for old, rehashed OMEN-like "thrills." The concept is still strong...
(Reminds me of the television series "Xena" where the same conflict arose with one of the main characters.) Then you just sit back, relax, and see how the film makers went about presenting such watchable drama.Being a TV-movie, the gore quotient was low, minimizing the impact of the horrible deaths we are accustomed to in this series.
Admittedly the original (un)holy trinity was governed by the law of diminishing returns with the third, "The Final Conflict" degenerating into a ridiculous sub-plot about half-way through the film apparently merely to provide the requisite needlessly convoluted deaths that had by now become the whole raison d'etre for the "Omen" series.
It would have made a great MST3K subject!Most of the things that make a terrible movie enjoyable are here: bad dialogue, inappropriate music, contrived plot sequences, ridiculous pseudoscience.
It's not as funny as my current sci-fi schlock favorite, "They Live" featuring Rowdy Roddy Piper, but it's more fun to watch than luke-warm movies like Omen II or III.I give it 4 out of 10..
In spite of everything,Omen IV is not that bad.Considering its made-for-TV,10 years after the release of Final Conflict,AND that they changed directors in mid-stream(or was it mid-scream?) the movie turned out better than I had hoped.I had read some ghastly revues,but Omen IV is a competent,watchable and involving thriller.There were some fine performances too,especially Michael Lerner,Faye Grant,Michael Woods,and in particular Asia Viera as the diabolical Delia.Girls are the weaker sex?You'd never know it from Delia.7 out of 10..
Although Damien Thorn died years ago but his prophecy is reborn through into a mysterious little girl named Delia (Asia Vieira), who's adopted by a expectational couple Karen (Faye Grant) and Gene York (Michael Woods).
Karen decides to hire a private investigator (Michael Lerner) try to find Delia's parents but the detective finds things even more disturbing than Karen will ever know.Directed by Jorge Montesi and Dominique Othenin-Gerard (Halloween 5:The Revenge of Michael Myers) made a foolish, unnecessary but oddly watching third sequel to the "Omen" series.
Although I have given this the same rating as I did for 'Omen III: The Final Conflict' (1981), that is purely for two reasons: the use (or re- use, really) of Jerry Goldsmith's fine scores from both 'The Omen' (1976) and 'The Final Conflict', and one of the film's better death scenes, which closely recalls the runaway train of 'Damien: Omen II' (1978), reminding us that there is something left of the spirit of Damien Thorn.And that is one of the problems here.
Only one fleeting reference is made to the anti-hero of the previous 'Omen' films and the mother character, Karen York (played by Faye Grant) even dares to ask who he was!
She is a lawyer, after all, and you'd think that a lawyer would do something like read a newspaper once in a while...It is implied (although never confirmed) that the new Antichrist, a girl named Delia York (played quite well by Asia Vieira) is the daughter that Damien had with that pesky journalist, Kate Reynolds (Lisa Harrow) from the previous film, and it would, at least, have mildly improved things somewhat to have Harrow reappear or at least get something of a mention.
Other performances are very overdone, especially the nun who gives the Yorks their new baby (Megan Leitch).One good scene is an early sequence in which Karen and Delia are playing and run across a 'heroic' Rottweiler -- a more plausible introduction for man's best friend into the Yorks' household than in the original 'Omen'!
Quite simply, Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) should have fired the Baylock woman (Billie Whitelaw) on the spot for constantly dragging that demonic mutt back into the house!Die-hard fans of the 'Omen' franchise may want to give this one a go, but it literally is a film for a rainy day when there is nothing better to do!
In comparison, Bernhard's and Mann's script is godly and suspenseful, with a great look back over the 'Omen' films, and attempts to repair the damage done to the running plot of the franchise in 'The Final Conflict'.Inverted crosses galore, the aforementioned retread of Goldsmith's score (shockingly mouthed by some demonic carol singers in one scene, ewww!!!), and that one death scene make this intermittently interesting but, if 'The Final Conflict' saw the 'Omen' series run out of steam, then this one left it dead and buried, with only other remakes left to make audiences remember the glory days of the original!.
Same thing can be said with "Omen IV" except for the fact that it's even w-a-y worse than "Halloween V" and that says a lot.Is there anything good to say about this 'movie' ?
I was also very happy that there even was an Omen IV, for I didn't want to end the series with number 3 (a movie that will forever be remembered as "Religious Masturbation").Well congratulation, directors and screenwriters who have done too lousy a job for me to even bother checking their names.
You have truly managed to outdo yourselves, The Omen IV is by far worse than III, which makes it the worst part of the worst Horror film series I've ever had the dis- pleasure of watching.
On first impressions it may appear to be pointless but after watching it becomes clear how great a movie it really is.Yes, key parts of the story may appear the same as the other Omen films but look closely, it is a developed film with techniques never seen by any of the omen films.The film contains elements of fear, elements of suspension and high amounts of comedy.
Her mother starts to suspect things and , of course, starts making connections with words in the Revelations and asking priests for advice, acting all hysterical and insane.The movie script is bad, the acting is horrendous, the music is ridiculous, culminating with a scene when the chorus is made up of devilish looking dirty people and actually sing the stupid song while turning a cross upside down, the acting is horrible, there are some scenes when one can clearly see turned around crosses...
I look at Omen 4 think it a remake of the Omen (But a girl instead of a boy ) but just little different.I kinda like it and watch it all the way to the end.
After being given to a "deserving" couple the Yorks Karen & Gene, Fay Grant & Michael Woods,by the Catholic Church's St. Francis orphanage.Little Delia didn't waste any time making her peasants felt by scratching her mom at a house party.
The movie as bad as it is is also far too long, 97 minutes, for a horror flick that could well have told it's story is as little as 80 minutes.Having a private eye Earl Knight, Mchael Learner,and later a former Catholic nun sister Yvonne,Megan Lehch,and now faith healer Felichy in the film only to be killed off didn't help the plot either.
You could see the surprise ending coming almost as soon as the film "Omen IV" began with the bases being cleared for Delia's eventual takeover of the civilized as well as uncivilized world.
I was fully expecting this made for TV sequel to suck, and in that respect, I was not disappointed: this cheaply made, badly written, poorly acted piece of excrement is tantamount to blasphemy for fans of the Omen series, being devoid of the foreboding atmosphere of the other films, totally bereft of creative kills, and completely lacking in scares.
Instead, we get silly shenanigans with new age mystics, an ugly kid sorely in need of a good orthodontist, a score that sounds like it should be accompanying a troupe of circus clowns, as-subtle-as-a-brick images of inverted crosses ad nauseum, and, worst of all, Satanic carol singers.I have seen it suggested that The Awakening might be an intentionally awful film in an attempt to parody the solemnity of the original trilogy; I highly doubt this, but if this should somehow prove to be be true, then shame on everyone involved for treating the franchise and its fans with such disrespect.If there is a Hell, then the makers of this rot will certainly have a special place reserved for them somewhere between the eighth and ninth circles (where the fraudulent and treacherous are punished): a sulphuric screening room in which they will be forced to watch their own abomination for all eternity (whilst having broken copies of the DVD roughly inserted up their rectum).
I had seen the first three OMEN movies before, but I put off seeing the fourth entry for years because I heard how bad it was.
(Actually, although the story spans several years, it's ALWAYS winter in every scene.) And because this was made for TV, the horror and bloodletting never goes beyond a PG level.Even if you happen to be a big fan of the first three movies, you would be better off avoiding this clumsy recycling..
I have to say,this is a quick improvement over the third Omen entry.Two attorneys(Faye Grant and Michael Woods)adopt a beautiful baby girl named Delia.They soon find out about Delia's real past when Faye hires a detective(Michael Lerner)to find out about Delia's parents,only to find that Delia's daddy dearest is really Damien Thorn.That explains a whole lot on why Deila goes somewhere and something bad always happens.Asia Vieira was great as the tuff-as-nails Delia who took crap from no one,Faye was so believeable as Delia's adoptive mother who knew that something wasn't right with their daughter,unlike the dimwitted husband who thought everything was an "accident".Now,the only thing I didn't get was the baby brother Alexander.Is he Delia's twin or Damien re-born?If he's Delia's brother,then why does he have the number 666 on his body and she dosen't?Concern yourself with these questions and you are in for a really good movie.But do be warned:the ending isn't really good.It'll leave you wanting more..
But to every fan of "The Omen" it will be more than obvious that this is the same story, clumsily disguised in a new film, which is terribly cliché and badly made in every way.
Ho hum, too many pointless questions...The original remains an utterly badass slice of full-on 70s horror, and the first 2 sequels (although flawed) at least took it somewhere still worth watching, but Omen IV is right up there with Jaws 3 and Jason Goes To Hell on the bad sequel naughty step..
This should have been one to watch....The Final Conflict (or "Omen III") ended with Damien Thorn being killed with just one of the Daggers of Meggido - therefore whilst the Physical Body was dead, the Spiritual Body is still alive....
....but hat ever happened to the script/direction/production values is anybodies guess...it just doesn't go anywhere, and deservedly ended up on the DTV shelves of your local Potboiler Video Shop.....It has some good moments (one in particular with a Wrecking Ball!) and the storyline is sound - but this is no way to follow up 3 of the best psychological horror movies of the past 30 years.
Years later, as sinister occurrences and mysterious deaths mount in Delia's path, the Yorks become concerned that something is not right with their daughter, especially Karen, who hires a private investigator to uncover the truth, though they'll come to wish they hadn't...The epitome of the pointless, needless, unnecessary, and ineffectual sequel, this film is truly awful, even worse than Part III, which was bad enough.
The one thing I did not like was that in the first Omen the dad was finding his kid was the devils son.Now in this one its vise vera of Omen one its the mom!I wished the writers would have had a differnt storyline to it!First you have Gene and Karen York( Michael Woods and Faye Grant)who despertly would love to have a child.So they adopt a baby girl named Delia.But alot of strange deaths happen around the child,the mother(Faye Grant) gets to wondering why all of this always seems to be taking place when her daughter is around.Faye Grant done great acting in this movie.But I think the writers done a very bad job.Dont blame the actors for just reading a script.The writers made this out to be a comedy instead of horror film.I got to say in the whole movie there is not a scarry part in it.In the entire movie Karen York is the only one that knowed the truth about the kids.I really cant understand how they would make a part 5 in this.Because they left the storyline open for more sequals.And Delia is the main child in the movie ,but how would they use her in another sequal.The twin deal was a bad idea.And without Faye Grant being in the next one( and that cant happen) I think after this one its worthless..
solid and engaging sequel is suspenseful bloody and very well acted i was surprised this was a a TV movie in my opinion this is a smart stylish film is kinda a remake of the original Faye Gran gives a great performance as the mother the story is well told and the plot is excellent i think this could have gone for a theater run it had some very stylish direction shots and many disturbing scenes and a shocking final 20 minutes the film is also pretty entertaining and is never boring the daughter of Damien is a menace very creepy stuff here folks and a couple of bloody stabbings and an ending that opens for yet another sequel most of the characters are fairly amiable so i totally recommend this ***1/2 out of 5.
There's a big dog involved, and a child minder; and pretty soon, the wife starts to suspect that the child may not quite be normal; as she's menstruating at eight years old, and never suffered from any illnesses...The first two sequels to The Omen weren't bad at all, and the series really should have ended at number three.
This movie makes no sense at all to the original meaning unless these are all just a shlock of horror films.
It fails even to create a good scary atmosphere for one (except with the odd exception where the impressive choral music brings back memories of the old films).The only thing we can be thankful for is that there has not been an Omen V..
Yeah, that's what threw many people off I think, they should have just let Delia be the Antichrist, and her mother finding out that truth for real is just as scary as this useless plot twist.Delia also got a "devil nanny" at the end, who should protect her, but since she appeared so late in the movie, she's rather useless.
The reason why it makes no sense is pretty simple; for at the ending of The Omen 3: The Final Conflict, Christ RISES AND RETURNS TO EARTH AS KING OF KINGS and Damien Thorn fails to stop him, it's not just implied, it bloody well written on the screen before the credits.
if it was meant to be scary it should have kept me on edge, you know like good horror films do (either that or make me feel for the characters - but that's not important when talking about this movie).The concept of this movie, when written on paper might actually be an interesting idea.
Omen IV: The Awakening starts at the 'St. Frances Orphanage' where husband & wife Karen (Faye Grant) & Gene York (Michael Woods) are given a baby girl by Sister Yvonne (Megan Leitch) who they have adopted, they name her Delia.
Karen then finds out that she is pregnant but discovers a sinister plot to use her as a surrogate mother for th next Antichrist & gets a shock when she finds out who Delia's real father was...Originally to be directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard who either quit or was sacked & was replaced by Jorge Montesi who completed the film although why he bothered is anyone's guess as Omen IV: The Awakening is absolutely terrible & a disgrace when compared to it illustrious predecessors.
As a serious film Omen IV: The AWakening falls flat on it's face & it really does work better if you look at it as a comedy spoof, I mean the scene towards the end when the Detective comes face-to-face with a bunch of zombie carol singers who are singing an ominous Gothic song has to be seen to be believed & I thought it was absolutely hilarious & ridiculous in equal measure.
The acting is alright at best but as usual the kid annoys.Omen IV: The Awakening is rubbish, it's a totally ridiculous film that tries to be serious & just ends up coming across as stupid.
This sub-standard entry in the OMEN series is not as good as the first three films but not especially bad for a television movie, considering the horrors that followed it in the '90s.
It plays and looks just like one of the earlier films in the series except this time the strange deaths are diluted and lacking in gore and the plot events are rehashed instead of being fresh and original.
Well, by the end of the film there's a second child, a boy who turns out to be the real Antichrist, so goodness knows who the girl is supposed to be.
I couldn't even finish that, but Omen 4 I easily finished.It's nothing great, it's very typical, but it has some interesting stuff in it.The ending is pretty good and makes the movie. |
tt0261392 | Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back | The film opens in the early 1970s in front of the Quick Stop Groceries and the Record Rack stores in Leonardo, NJ. A kindly mother leaves a stroller with her toddler son, Bob, in front of the store while she goes inside to buy food. She gives the boy a baseball cap that she puts on his head with the visor turned backwards. Another mother, more foulmouthed and demeaning toward her own toddler, Jay, leaves her stroller in front of the store while she goes into the record store to score drugs. A man walks out & asks her who'll be watching the kids while their mothers are inside. The woman lets loose with a torrent of foul language, laced liberally with the F-word, attacking the man for questioning how she raises her kid. The guy walks away, disgusted The child of the foul-mouthed mother stands up in his stroller and begins to recite the F-word in rhythmic fashion and the scene dissolves to the two boys as young adults; they have grown up to become the foul-mouthed Jay and his taciturn companion, Silent Bob. The duo stand in front of the stores (the Quick Stop is still there but the record store has changed to RST Video) most days and deal drugs. When a couple of teenagers approach them, Jay launches into a rap sales pitch reminiscent of Morris Day & the Time's "Jungle Love". When the younger teen derides the song, Jay grabs him and threatens him. From the video store, Randal Graves appears and tells Jay and Bob to let the kid go and that the Time sucked anyway. Jay tells the two buyers that Randal and his coworker, Dante Hicks, are both a gay couple and that their wedding ceremony was Star Wars-themed. Randal says he'll do something that should've been done long ago: he calls the police. Jay and Bob are arrested after Jay mouths off to the cop.Jay and Bob go to the comic book store that bears their name to talk to Banky. They've been slapped with a restraining order that forbids them to go to either Quick Stop or RST. Banky tells them both that they shouldn't have to bother selling drugs anymore because of the royalties they received when the comic series they inspired, Bluntman and Chronic, was sold to a major motion picture studio. The two are stunned, saying they didn't know about the deal. Banky tells them both that they should talk to his old business partner, Holden McNeil, who brokered the deal after he'd bought Banky out of his share of the original comic.The two go to Holden's offices and confront him about the movie. Holden tells them that Banky had lied to them and had brokered the deal, leaving Holden with nothing. He also says that the buzz on the internet is that the movie will be very profitable. Jay and Bob are both clueless as to the existence of the internet and Holden shows them an example of a forum website where fans and non-fans of Bluntman and Chronic are sharing their views on the unfinished film. Jay and Bob are furious at the negative buzz and make it their mission to go to Hollywood and stop the production of the film.Without a car, the two decide to hitchhike. After receiving advice from an expert hitchhiker where he tells them to perform sexual favors for rides, the two are picked up by a nun. She throws them both out of her car when Jay suggests that the Rules of the Road require him to pay her with oral sex. Stranded in front of a Mooby's restaurant, they go inside to get something to eat. They find an internet station and launch a foul-mouthed response to their detractors on Moviepoopshoot.com. While they order their food, a beautiful woman, Justice, walks in. Jay is immediately smitten and imagines kissing her to Bon Jovi's "Bad Medicine." After they introduce themselves, they hitch a ride with Justice and her two companions, Chrissy and Sissy. Also joining them is a geeky guy with a guitar, named Brent. Justice tells them that she and her comrades are animal rights activists who travel around the USA freeing animals from medical testing laboratories. After a few minutes, Jay and Bob quickly dispose of Brent when they trick him into falsely admitting he hates animals.The team arrives at a research facility somewhere in the West. After taping Jay and Bob saying that they are the masterminds behind the liberation of the animals in the facility, Jay and Bob break into the place and start searching. Justice, Sissy and Chrissy also steal into the facility from another entrance and reveal their own plan: they will steal a fortune in diamonds while Jay and Bob are arrested as patsies. The girls are able to slip past most of the security devices, but Chrissy farts and sets off the alarm. They flee in a sports convertible, leaving Jay and Bob behind.Meanwhile, Jay and Bob have found an orangutan named Suzanne and bring her outside, only to find the local authorities waiting for them. A slew of animals also escapes. Jay and Bob escape in the confusion. One of the cops happens to be a Federal Wildlife Marshal named Willenholly. He takes up pursuit of Jay and Bob, believing that they've kidnapped the monkey.Jay and Bob make their way toward Hollywood with the inept Willenholly following them. In California, Justice and her friends have cashed in the loot they stole and are living well near the beach. Justice feels tremendous guilt about deceiving Jay and Bob and decides to find them.Jay and Bob make it to a large dam and are found by Willenholly. They evade him, Willenholly falling off the dam into the river below. Meanwhile, Suzanne is picked up by a car bearing a sign "Critters of Hollywood". Jay, frustrated, asks Bob what they can do now. Bob tries to mime a plan to chase the car that picked up Suzanne but Jay doesn't understand him. Bob finally lets loose a screaming tirade saying he'd seen the sign on the car. The two leave for Los Angeles.In LA, Jay and Boy find a couple of drug dealers who belong to the same union they do. The guys take them to the studio where Bluntman and Chronic is being filmed. They find the actors who are cast in their roles, knock them out and take their costumes. On the set, they fill in for the actors and begin shooting a scene with the film's villain, Cock Knocker, who bears a huge fist. The shoot is completely disrupted and Jay and Bob find Banky among the entourage. They confront him about selling the rights to their characters without their permission. Though Banky tries to weasel his way out of any responsibility, Bob gives a lengthy reply in proper legalese explaining that they are the obvious inspiration for the main characters and deserve a full share of the movie's profits. Banky agrees.Also on the set is Justice, who has come to find Jay. Chrissy and Sissy have also caught up with her seeking revenge. The girls battle it out with Justice the victor. However, Justice is still arrested for the theft she participated in. Jay promises to wait for her.The movie opens & is a success. Banky asks Jay and Bob what they'll do with their share of the royalties. The two realize they can travel across the country and find their detractors from the web and beat them up. | cult, humor, satire, comedy, violence | train | imdb | null |
tt0031580 | The Little Princess | Sara's army captain father must put her in boarding school because he has been ordered to the Boer war. He brings her to the "best" girls' school in England, but the owner, Miss Minchin only accepts her after he emphasizes his financial and social status. He instructs Miss Minchin that he will reimburse her for additional expenses to ensure that Sara has the best of everything in his absence.The unspoiled Sara enjoys her privileged life but misses her father. Her kindness stuns the young school servant, Becky. Sara befriends Ram Dass, a servant in the house next door, who is from her beloved India. She also makes friends with a teacher and her secret boyfriend, the riding instructor, and assists their meetings. Sara also discovers a secret dancer, Miss Minchin's brother Bertie, and they delight in impromptu performing when they won't get caught.Sara's father's letters cease when his station at Mafeking is besieged. When new troops arrive and relieve Mafeking, Sara's hopes are dashed when her father is reported missing and presumed dead. Miss Minchin is furious because she has received no reimbursements for Sara's special treatment. She confiscates all of Sara's presents and possessions, and keeps her on as a servant although her work will never repay her debts. She assigns Sara to work in the kitchen and sleep in a cold room in the attic.Sara refuses to believe her father is dead. She performs her chores but always checks new arrivals at the soldiers' hospital in hopes of finding him. Bertie enlisted in the army and works at the hospital, so he aids her search despite his misgivings. They dance and sing for the wounded men.In the servants' quarters, Sara comforts herself by furnishing her room with her imagination: a comfortable bed, a warm fire, plentiful food and books. Her friend Ram Dass observes her misery, and one night he secretly makes her room into the luxurious palace she has envisioned.In the meantime, Sara's father is brought to the hospital, but due to his amnesia is unidentified. He is scheduled to be transferred to another hospital the next day. That morning, Miss Minchin discovers Sara's new things and assumes they are stolen. She locks Sara in to await the police.Sara desperately escapes in order to check the hospital. She is stopped at every turn until she stumbles into Queen Victoria who is visiting the soldiers. The Queen allows Sara to search, and she finally finds her father. She hugs him and cries, but is devastated when he does not recognize her. Finally, she gets through to him and they are happily reunited. | melodrama | train | imdb | A small child, affectionately known as THE LITTLE PRINCESS, must endure great hardship after her father is killed in the Boer War.Shirley Temple had her last great box-office triumph in this splendid Technicolor adaptation of the Frances Hodgson Burnett childhood classic.
With wrinkled brow & tremulous lip or bouncing curls & joyous smile, she adeptly displays just the right mood or mannerism to keep the focus of the audience's attention firmly grasped in her chubby fists.The supporting players' roster is abundantly well cast: stalwart Ian Hunter appears as Shirley's soldier father - this very fine actor wisely uses his acting skills to keep from being completely upstaged by the mighty moppet; handsome Richard Greene & lovely Anita Louise play the riding master & teacher who befriend Shirley - their roles aren't terribly significant, but they fill them quite well.Mary Nash is once again cast as Shirley's tormentor, this time playing the evil-spirited headmistress of an exclusive girls' seminary.
Long-legged, adenoidal Arthur Treacher plays her henpecked brother; he is a delight during his two romps with Shirley to the music hall ditty Knocked Em In The Old Kent Road.'Cesar Romero quietly portrays an Indian servant in a small, but important, role; Miles Mander & E.
In her American film debut, Warner's LITTLE BIG SHOT (1935), she proved wonderfully winsome & winning, but the storm of attention surrounding Miss Temple (exactly 19 months older than Miss Jason) tends, at this remove, to swamp the boats of the other female child stars of the period.
But Shirley/Sarah doesn't, and that's a reason that I really like this movie - it shows someone who tries to make the best of a bad situation, and never gives up hope.I also believe that the movie is an accurate portrayal of the life and times of the turn of the century, as it was made only 40 years after the Boer War. I think that Victorian England was captured well in this movie; after all, we do a pretty good job of displaying the 1960s on film these days.Overall, though, it is Shirley Temple at her singing/dancing/acting best in this movie, and she does a wonderful job from start to finish..
While American audiences loved this and all the other Shirley Temple vehicles, across the Pond this story of a young girl refusing to accept reports of her father's death in combat must have struck a responsive chord with war-weary Brits who could easily identify with her troubles.
This Shirley Temple feature is worth seeing for a number of very nice moments in the story of "The Little Princess".
Charming film in color where Shirley Temple's dad goes off to fight in the Boer War. She is left is a fancy girl's school with a headmistress who is stern.When word is brought to the school that the father, who adored his Sarah (Temple), has been killed and the child is left penniless, poor Sarah is shut up in the attic and made to work in the kitchen.
Move over Cinderella.Sarah never gives up hope that her dad (Ian Hunter) is living and she searches feverishly for him.When a Indian mystery man (Cesar Romero) makes her room beautiful during a ballet sequence, Sarah is suspected of stealing.Mary Nash is the wicked headmistress and acts in the same way as Margaret Hamilton in "The Wizard of Oz." Richard Green and Anita Louise play lovers, who are discharged from the school, by Nash for loving each other.The ending is wonderful when Sarah finds her dad with the help no less of Queen Victoria (Beryl Mercer).Enjoyable tale for children and adults alike..
THE LITTLE PRINCESS (20th Century-Fox, 1939), directed by Walter Lang, based upon the story by Frances Hodgeson Burnett, ranks one of Shirley Temple's best known and most revived feature, as well as her first in Technicolor.
Capitalizing on her previous success with screen adaptations to literary children's novels, including HEIDI and WEE WILLIE WINKIE (both 1937), THE LITTLE PRINCESS displays Temple's talent in heavy dramatics at best, especially with her two key scenes, one in which she teary-eyed bids goodbye to her father as he goes off to war; and another where she stands firm, looking angrily straight at her evil boarding school mistress as she is about to slap her face for standing up to her.
Like a fairy tale, this production includes good characters along with a wicked one (wonderfully played by Mary Nash), along with some dialog usually found in storybooks, such as one little girl saying on how Sara Crewe (Temple) looks just like a princess, with the overly jealous girl sarcastically responding, "Princess, INDEED."Set in London in the year 1899, Sara (Shirley Temple) is the daughter of her widowed father, Captain Crewe (Ian Hunter), who leaves her in a boarding school under the care of Miss Amanda Mirchin (Mary Nash) and her brother, Bertie (Arthur Treacher), a former music hall performer, before he goes off to the Boer War. Because Crewe is a well known figure and man of wealth, Sara is given the royalty treatment, as if she were "a little princess," causing jealously amongst one of the other girls, Lavinia (Marcia Mae Jones), who doesn't want to lose her place with Miss Mirchin.
Not wanting to believe her father is dead, Sara braves the streets of London at night in hope to one day find him amongst the wounded in the military hospital.Also in support in THE LITTLE PRINCESS are Richard Greene and Anita Louise as the young romantic couple, with Louise as Miss Rose, an employee of the boarding school who loses her position for secretly meeting with Sir Geoffrey Hamilton (Greene) against the wishes of Miss Minchin; Cesar Romero as Ram Dass, an Arab servant to Lord Wickham (Miles Mander), Sir Geoffrey's grandfather; Eily Malyon as an unsympathetic boarding school cook; and Beryl Mercer as Queen Victoria, among others.
Aside from the heavy handled dramatics that resembles a dark Charles Dickens novel, THE LITTLE PRINCESS does take time for some song and dance, including "Down By the Old Kent Road" (by Arthur Chevalier and Charles Ingle) as sung and danced by Shirley Temple and Arthur Treacher; and as with Temple's earlier classic, HEIDI, there's a musical dream sequence, this one titled "Fantasy" by Walter Bullock and Samuel Pokrass.As with HEIDI, THE LITTLE PRINCESS is prestigious Temple production.
Her performance is unlike anything she has done before, but sadly, after one more film, THE BLUE BIRD (1940), which also starred Temple, Jason's career would come to an end.Unlike the other Shirley Temple movies of the 1930s, THE LITTLE PRINCESS became a public domain video title, being distributed through various video companies through the years (1980s and 1990s), and like the Christmas classic, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946), which also fell victim to public domain, THE LITTLE PRINCESS became frequently shown on numerous television stations at any given time.
One final note: the Frances Hodgeson Burnett classic included a 1917 silent film version starring Mary Pickford, and a 1995 remake with Eleanor Bron, both titled A LITTLE PRINCESS.
1899, London, irrepressible Sara(Shirley Temple) is a little girl in Victorian epoch sent to boarding school ruled by a harsh,hateful headmistress named Mischin(Mary Nash) while her widowed father(Ian Hunter) is posted in South African -Transvaal- during the Anglo-Boer war.
At 11 (though she believed herself to be 10 because her mother shaved a year off her age), Shirley was still quite a child when she made "The Little Princess." But because she was no longer as cute and cherubic as she was at 6, when "Stand Up and Cheer!" first made her a star, it was to be her last successful film in a children's role.As Sara (a Hebrew name meaning "princess"), Shirley plays her standard rags-to-riches storyline in reverse: Sara's wealthy widowed father loses everything in the Boer War, and her cruel boarding school headmistress Miss Minchin makes her an underfed, overworked servant girl to pay the tuition debt her father owed.
To the movies, where Shirley Temple, her unwavering hopefulness (as present in "The Little Princess" as in any of her movies), and her cute song-and-dance numbers -- with titles like "Laugh, You Son of a Gun" (1934), "You Gotta Smile to be Happy" (1936), "Be Optimistic" (1938), and "Come and Get Your Happiness" (1938) -- cheered up the entire nation.
The same singing and dancing cheers up Sara Crewe while she's working as a galley slave in 1899 London, as Shirley performs "The Old Kent Road" with her pal Arthur Treacher (her four-time co-star).In short, "The Little Princess" is Shirley Temple's career in a nutshell.
Her tears range from joy to hysteria as she tries to tell the shell-shocked soldier that she is his daughter.This is a lavish technicolor delight with Shirley Temple at 12 doing an expert job as Sara, the little miss who has to bear the indignities of a boarding school once her father has been declared dead in the Boer war.
One of Shirley's best performances with a wonderful cast of supporting players: Richard Greene, Anita Louise, Mary Nash, Sybil Jason, Arthur Treacher and Cesar Romero all doing expert work..
She was never too realistic with those parts of a movie, but convincing in every other way.Also, I prefer Temple's more light-hearted films, of which is not one, although Arthur Treacher was a good guy and fun to watch.
Shirley Temple, Ian Hunter, Richard Greene, Anita Louise, and Cesar Romero star in this great classic that still is outstanding even though it was released in 1939.
This is the story (written by Frances Hodgson Burnett) of Sarah Crewe who was left at a boarding school while her father leaves to fight in the Boer War. She makes few friends but all the other girls think she is a selfish child.
I awarded this film 5/10 as just about average.It has an infantile plot for children & families around in 1939.For the female teenagers there is Richard Greene (later famous in the 1950s for the British TV series "The Adventures of Robin Hood").I only watched it after searching on Youtube for Anita Louise who played another girlfriend Helen Wentworth in the film "Love Letters"(1945) & Titania in "A Midsummers Night's Dream" (1935), both in my DVD collection.The plot closely resembles a British pantomime with wicked witches, ugly spiteful sisters & handsome princes with Shirley Temple playing Cinderella in reverse.I read all the previous user reviews before writing this piece and accept most of their valid criticism of this film, they are evidently more versed in this particular Frances Hodgson Burnett's tale than I am.What film producer ever sticks slavishly to the original book since they mostly want to produce their own version on film.Their most bankable star was Shirley Temple so she naturally had to appear in most scenes, as they hopefully had to provide a dividend to the film company's shareholders.Cinema goers in 1939 who had seen ST sing & dance "The Good Ship Lollipop", would have had an expectation of seeing her in a similar act, in this case the old musical hall song, "Knocked Them in the Old Kent Road".I would have liked to have heard a fuller version of this song with more sung and danced verses.As stated the acting was in almost pantomime style, more suited to young children and their parents..
Still, this was a family movie that still thrills me as a 20 year old.This movie stars Shirley Temple as a little girl whose father goes to war.
News hits that her father may possibly be dead, and Sara goes on multiple searches to make sure that it is not true.This movie has a ton of fun moments, including a dream Sara has where she's a princess and she has Ms. Minchin imprisoned for wanting 2 people in jail for kissing.(This will make more sense when you see the movie.)There are a few other moments that I would like to mention, but I would rather have you see the movie yourself to experience them.But now I have to mention why this is a 9, and now I must spoil the end of the movie, to an extent.
The Little Princess finds Shirley Temple put in an exclusive boarding school by her father Ian Hunter who is a soldier and about to be posted to the Boer War. He's also a person of some substance and the schoolmistress Mary Nash is just glad to have her seeing all those pound note signs in front of her eyes.
The woman is a true Grinch.But as it is in Shirley Temple's world, the good grownups way outnumber the bad ones and they include young lovers Richard Greene and Anita Louise, Nash's brother Arthur Treacher who is an old music hall performer though Nash doesn't like that getting out, not respectable you know.
As for Romero this is the second time he played an Indian in a Shirley Temple picture, the first being Wee Willie Winkie where he also befriends Shirley.But you really got to hand the film to Nash who is such a mean old thing with her exaggerated ideas about propriety and etiquette as long as you can pay for it.The Little Princess holds up very well and is still fine family entertainment for a young audience..
In this children's story by Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of "The Secret Garden," little Shirley is in a private school when she is told that her father has been killed in the war and leaving his estate penniless.
Child actors Sybil Jason and Marcia Mae Jones costar and are really good (I really liked Sybil Jason a lot,) but the film showcases Shirley Temple at her best.
But, if you want to see only but the very best of her films, then see Shirley Temple as "The Little Princess," which is a heartwarming tale with America's Favorite Little Girl..
And, in some ways, the story is rather unpleasant and bizarre.The film begins with a Captain (Ian Hunter) and his daughter (Shirley Temple) going to a girls school to enroll her.
Shirley Temple was a little different because, as a child star, with each successive movie her roles had to reflect her changing age.
The Little Princess was made when Temple was ten, and as such it's a comparatively dark and dramatic story, at least in contrast to her previous appearances.And so, rather than just play the cutesy little girl with amusingly childlike emoting, we now see her reacting to things like loss and death in a story that occasionally borders upon real life, even if it's cutely saccharine in its resolution.
In "The Little Princess" a fairytale set in Victorian London, Shirley plays an army waif not believing her father died in the war.
Shirley Temple is as annoying and unlikable as ever as the "little princess" who is put in a crass orphanage after her father is believed to have been killed in the war.
Still, though, the Shirley Temple movie is an excellent movie on it's own, but don't watch it -- like I did -- expecting to see the Frances Hodgson Burnett book come-to-life..
With an eye on the regular cheques from the captain, the wicked spinster Amanda Minchin (Mary Nash) treats Sara like a little princess - until daddy is reported missing presumed dead and is discovered to have died penniless.
Of course, plucky young Sara refuses to believe that her father is dead, and the remainder of the film focuses on her search for him - with the aid of an unrecognisable Cesar Romero as a turbaned Indian servant - in the hospitals of London.There's something undeniably formulaic about this picture, even though it's clear from the accomplished cast and the use of technicolour that this is a prestige production.
Captain Crewe is off to fight the Boer War. He leave his daughter Sara (Shirley Temple) with Amanda Minchin (Mary Nash) at a private school for girls.
The script is mostly engaging, the film is beautifully directed by Walter Lang(who I remember best for the 1956 musical The King and I) and while darker in tone(I did miss some of the fascinating imagination aspects from the book admittedly) the story is still charming, with a fun song and dance interlude with Shirley Temple and Arthur Treacher and the ending is very moving.
I have not seen enough of Shirley Temple's films to judge whether The Little Princess is among her best or worst, but while a couple of the more emotional moments were a little forced her adorable appearance and charm makes for a delightful Sara overall.
Mary Nash's Miss Minchin is suitably nasty, while a young Cesar Romero is handsome and quietly composed as Ram Das, Ian Hunter in what he has is a loving father figure and as Bertie Arthur Treacher(whose scenes with Temple are among the best of the film) has an easy-going charm.
The Fox regulars, Technicolor, and material (bastardized Frances Hodgson Burnett) are top-notch.****** The Little Princess (3/10/39) Walter Lang ~ Shirley Temple, Mary Nash, Arthur Treacher, Cesar Romero.
I have nothing against Shirley Temple movies,but some of her movies that are based on books are awful and this was one of them.Shirley may know how to sing and dance,but there is a time and place for that and "A Little Princess" should not have been that place.
Directed by Walter Lang, the movie is about 12 year old, Sara Crewe (Shirley Temple) whom father, Captain Crewe (Ian Hunter) is called to fight in the Second Boer War. Sara is left behind in the care of Amanda Minchin (Mary Nash), the head of an exclusive private school for girls, where she lives in a princess like lifestyle due to her father's riches.
I know a lot of Shirley Temple's previous films had this, but this movie lacks music and songs good enough to remember.
The story here turns somewhat morose when Sara Crewe (Temple) learns her father (Ian Hunter) dies in the Boer War. That's a tough thing to put a kid through, young viewers that is, not the actress.
I thought Sybil Jason, who played Becky, the servant girl, was much more natural and believable - unlike Shirley, she didn't look like she was acting. |
tt0365514 | Moon Child | In the year 2014, Japan suffers a major economic collapse and people are forced to emigrate to mainland China. The movie introduced the story with two vampires, Kei and Luka, of whom the first was probably made a vampire by the former, and in later Kei's flashback is revealed that Luka decided to end his existence by watching the sunrise. Three orphaned boys live in a fictional Chinese city called Mallepa, a 'melting pot' of different Asian groups. They are named Shō (Gackt), Shinji (Susumu Terajima) who is Sho's brother, and Toshi (Tarô Yamamoto). All three survive through pickpocketing. During a theft gone wrong, Sho meets Kei (Hyde) - a vampire who appears to be a young man - sitting amidst a pile of debris and brings him back to the orphan's hideout. When the orphans are attacked by a man they previously robbed Kei attacks, kills, and feeds off of their attacker thereby revealing his status as a vampire to the orphans. However, Sho approaches him, unafraid.
Several years later, Sho is in his twenties, leading a band of thieves consisting of Kei and Toshi. During one of the robberies against another gang, they cross paths with a Taiwanese named Son (Leehom). Son is going after the gang because their leader raped his sister, Yi-Che (Zeny Kwok). Sho, Kei, Son and Toshi all become friends, and Sho quickly and awkwardly falls in love with Yi-Che though it is implied that she in turn harbors feelings for Kei. Toshi is murdered by the local mafia for helping Sho and Kei in their heists by using drugged pizza to sedate their targets. Soon, through this experience, Son and Yi-Che learn that Kei is a vampire.
Nine years later, Kei has left the band and Sho is head of his district in Mallepa and is married to Yi-Che. Son has joined Mr. Chan, the leader of the opposing mafia of Mallepa and is now Sho's enemy. Kei, who is revealed to be in prison for murder, makes several death sentence pleas; Sho goes to visit him in prison after seeing a news report about him on TV. During Sho's visit at the prison, he reveals to Kei that he had to propose to Yi-Che several times before she agreed because she was really in love with Kei. The couple now have a daughter together whom they named "Hana". After spending the entire conversation in silence, Kei states that he feared Sho, who had been reckless, was dead and that he is glad he is not.
Yi-Che develops a fatal cancerous brain tumor. Soon after the diagnosis, Sho's men are killed on the streets in broad daylight while Sho is away. Sho's brother, Shinji, is also killed when he points at gun at Mr. Chan while in a drug induced haze. Sho calls Kei and begs him to return. After speaking to Kei he is told that Kei had been sentenced to death, something Kei had actually requested. Kei, however, escapes his execution and returns to help his friend. Sho asks Kei to turn Yi-Che into a vampire so she will be around for the sake of Hana (their young daughter). Kei refuses angrily, but agrees to face Mr. Chan with Sho. He promises Sho that if anything happens to him, he will take care of Hana.
When they go to face Mr. Chan, Mr. Chan is shot by two of his own while Sho faces off with Son. Their battle comes down to a 'count to three and shoot' match when they are both down to only one bullet. Sho's gun misfires and he is shot in the chest by Son. Kei arrives on the scene and Son faces his own death by pointing his empty gun at Kei, who is enraged at the sight of his injured friend and fires at Son. Kei goes to Sho, who appears to die dramatically in Kei's arms.
In 2045, Hana is grown up and heading off to college. She says goodbye to Kei, who raised her in Sho's absence and it is implied that she is aware of Kei being a vampire. Before she leaves she mentions the feeling of someone watching her, and after her departure Sho appears as a vampire, thanking Kei for taking care of her all these years because he couldn't face what he had become. Together the two men drive to the beach and await the rising sun together to face death. The movie concludes with the entire gang back together at the beach in the daylight (something not possible for Kei in the past), presumably reunited in the afterlife or as reincarnations of themselves in another life. | tragedy, revenge, murder, violence, romantic | train | wikipedia | I did not expect the performances of Gackt and Hyde to be as well done as they were, nor did I expect them to be cast in such an artistic well-developed movie with enough plot to keep you interested and enough diversity to make it original.
The two stars of the movie Moon Child Gackt (ex Malice Mizer, solo artist) and Hyde (L'arc en Ciel, solo artist) are both rock idols in Japan, so it goes without saying that my expectations were fairly low for this film heading in.The plot is quite a piece of work.
But the story isn't actually about the vampire, it's about Sho (Gackt).The movie opens with Sho, his brother Shinji and Toshi as children innocently robbing a local gangster.
Sho walking into machine gun fire is so ridiculous it makes Rambo look plausible.I also had a few qualms about the performances, especially Hyde's Kei. While he was good as the stranger standing aloof, or the morbid figure smiling dully, he failed to convince me of his 'curse', and he failed to step up when it came time to be dramatic.
Moon Child is a unique experience and though it takes some getting used to, when all is said and done, you'll be glad you invested time and emotion in these characters..
The few reviews I read that WEREN'T made by squealing fangirls were not very promising.When I was given the opportunity to watch it, I was fully prepared to groan, wince, and otherwise need to close my eyes to avoid the silliness.I was more than a little surprised, and in a good way.Yes, Moon Child has its moments of cheese, camp, and general dorkiness -- I think that's kind of impossible to avoid when it involves Gackt Camui, a man not known for his sanity -- but all in all, it was wholly enjoyable.No, it is not a work of cinema genius but it is very, very heartfelt, amusing, with fun choreography, a touching score, and a fun cast.
I know little of Japanese cinema so I can't really judge the acting but considering the fact that the cast was speaking a language or extreme dialect foreign to them at one time or another and that a couple of them have almost no acting experience, I was rather impressed.If you can enjoy a good action movie, a good drama, a good comedy, see this film.
I was only expecting a cheesy movie promoting Gackt's and Hyde's image, but I'm glad to say it has much more to offer.Yes, the acting is not that great, but it doesn't suck either, all the cast's well disciplined and they bring enough strength to their characters.
The element of vampirism - which I love, but is very easy to overdo or to ruin a movie with - is subtly mixed into the storyline as to make it something merely exotic, normal to this setting, rather than a random unnecessary addition to the story.
I found this to be one of the best vampire movies I've watched in a long time..
Gackt himself has said that the story in this film ties into the stories he tells through his music and works (the Crescent, moon, mars, diabolos) albums tie together with this movie which was also written by Gackt.The ending song in this movie is totally worth it.
Moon Child's story starts with Kei - a Japanese vampire, who loathes what he has become and lives in denial.
A big praise to the editor for creating this masterpiece...A last comment on this brilliant movie, is that it stars Gackt (ex-vocalist of Malice Mizer) and Hyde (vocalist of L'Arc~en~ciel) in excellent roles as Sho and Kei. I am amazed at how Gackt can change his way of speaking and acting depending on what age he is acting out.This is a must see.
Being a huge fan of the Japanese singers Gackt and Hyde, I was terribly excited when I found out that they had made a film together and made it my mission in life to see it.
Knowing that both Gackt and Hyde are singers rather than actors, I was prepared for brave yet not really that fulfilling performances, but am delighted to say that both of them managed to keep me captivated and believing the story as it went on.
Throw a vampire into the mix to spice things up, and the film actually feels a bit more than generic, but alas its second half proves that it is, in fact, nothing more than a generic gangster movie.As an action film, the movie fails badly.
This scene states the most important breaking point of Moon Child, which bridge between the past and the destiny of Gackt's character "Sho".
Like they tried to put cool thing such as vampire, gangster, love and friendship in this film.
Moon child combines sci-fi, drama, and action with the perfect cast and talent to create the most sensationally moving movie of the time, and great for most audiences.
Moon Child is touted by its producers as a "wildly entertaining hybrid of futuristic science-fiction, John Woo-style gunplay and Gothic vampire horror." I found it to be one of the worst movies I've ever seen.
Terrible acting, writing, and direction prove that pop stars should not be allowed to write or star in movies; the characters are underdeveloped and generate absolutely no sympathy -- in fact, the viewer is hard pressed to care if they live or die; the plot is all over the place; the special effects are cheap.
Unless you are already familiar with the pop stars who star in this film, save yourself the time and stop reading this review after you've reached the end of the next sentence.FORGET YOU EVER STUMBLED UPON THIS FILM AND GO WATCH SOMETHING ELSE.But if you insist on reading, consider: Lame vehicle for Japanese teen idol pretty-boys featuring nonsensical, convoluted "plot" that drags out for an insufferable amount of time until you're ready to scream.Nothing in this film makes sense.
You'll be revolted at having spent all this time watching them smile, sneer, cry, look mysterious, be "serious," and any other pointless expression they slap on their faces.That some moron would ever go so far as to refer to this piece of insipid trash as being the "soul" of any of its "actors" should prove to you beyond the shadow of a doubt what the trailer and countless adoring comments on this site will not tell you: Only the "converted," mindless minions will like this film, the majority of them teenage girls with a pathological adoration for anything androgynous.
It's so over the top and nonsensical it's almost like a parody of supernatural action films.The movie has almost no plot here, except it's just about vampires with gangster friends.
O.k., so even if the main character reminds you of your sister, he can act.Gackt plays Sho, a juvenille who has trained with Kei, (hyde) which is a vampire.
It may be possible that the cultural difference makes me rate it lower than I would, say, an American film, but really, what a long, boring, pretentious, often ridiculous film!First you have the two protagonists, Japanese pop singers, both dyed blond, Gackt (please attempt to ignore the name sounds like something a Klingon would eat) wearing blue contact lenses, trying to look cooler than God. I could buy that.
Occasionally, they remain out of ammo and reload their guns by throwing ammo clips to one another.The thing is that if you ignore the vampire angle (which is very very easy, since not much of the lore is used in the film) and the future angle (which is also very easy: just remove the two captions showing the year), then the movie becomes a coming of age, clan gang story.
With great performance from Gackt, Hyde and other actors and a splendid sense of humor I can nothing but love this movie.
Though it is sometimes very funny Moon child is also a very tragical and sad story and if one does not think that these things mentioned are enough to make it the best movie ever, one should also listen to the masterpiece soundtrack to the film, which is more than great.
Hyde and Gackt are marvelous as Kei and Sho and the way the script just leaves you thinking about how they feel and why they do and say the things they do is typical for Japanese movies I guess, one of the things I love best about it.
Well I have to say I was surprised, The acting is phenomenal, Gackt can be completely hilarious and so serious it's almost scary and Hyde's detached mysterious manner added to the feel of the film.
Gackt and Hyde both are surprisingly good actors and compliment each other well throughout the film.When I first started watching, I was put off by the jarring pace; however, the movie smooths out fairly quickly and becomes extremely engaging.
The interaction between Sho [Gackt] and Kei [Hyde], however, is what makes the movie.
Filled with moments of happiness, sadness, light horror, and uber kawaii-ness, Moon Child, about a vampire and the group of friends he makes, is the epitome of celebrities who can act.
On the part of Gackt Camui, the role of Sho was excellently delivered, and HYDE was surprisingly good for his first film as the tortured yet humorous vampire, Kei. I also laughed and cried at the happy-go-lucky character, Toshi, who grew up with Sho. I loved each and every second of this this film, especially moments such as the funny Cigarette scene, the fighting scenes, and most of all, the heartrenching ending..
The fact that these characters are members of a street gang set in an multicultural city of the near future and that one of them is a vampire does not preclude them from having moments like any other people, and this is one of the places where this movie is different to anything else I've ever heard of.
Which, I suppose, brings me to the lead actors.Much has been made of the fact that the movie stars two of Japan's biggest rockstars, Gackt and Hyde, as well as Taiwanese superstar Lee-hom Wang, whether it is to praise them for their acting or criticise it or simply fangirl about them.
I wasn't sure if Hyde's character was supposed to be as sulky and sarcastic as he came across, but it doesn't really detract from the movie either way.There are several scenes which take rather melodramatic turns, which made it difficult for them to affect me much emotionally (Although this doesn't seem to stop a lot of people).
Nevertheless, I think Moon Child should be a movie everyone should consider watching.
Hmm, so I'll start with the bad: the wardrobe, mis-cast skinny gay boy-band main cast, and an incredibly camp older Toshi all adding up to make the opening 30 minutes a cringe-worthy attempt at a cool homo-acceptance action/drama for teenage boys unsure of their sexuality.Sitting through this said period (if it's not been turned off already), the strong homosexual over-tones become less tedious and are replaced instead by the wondering if this group of young men are even supposed to be gay, via the introduction of a female love interest.At this point I expected the two main characters to have a showdown due to the realisation of their bi-sexuality, but it never (thankfully) occurred.For those without a clue as to what this film is indeed about, well, it's kind of a drama spanning years of the lives of two men - one, an ever-lasting blood-sucker, and the other, a Scarface wannabe with a John Woo influence and Boy George hairdo.So, what we end up with is a gangster/teen flick about friendship with a vampire thrown into the mix for great justice...
When I first rented it, I didn't know that Gackt and Hyde would be the starring roles, and after watching it, I was happily surprised at how great their acting was.
It was an all around great movie, especially for those who like Gackt and Hyde, and/or Japanese culture.
Hyde and Gackt were great in the movie and you could just fall in love with their characters :) lol I think the storyline was really good too.
I almost cried when I watched it...it can be pretty violent with all the gun play featured in the movie, but it's also very sad....but then there's also some humor just seeing Gackt and Hyde acting silly and what-not :) You should really check out this movie!!
I Don't Know What To Say. For honest this movie are great movie from Japan, even the story line are almost same with what I've seen on many Japan's anime.Hyde and Gackt played well and natural, they're both not just a good singer but also good actors and so was everybody whom played in MOON CHILD, except Wang Lee Hom. Wang Lee Hom acted was so bad, even he was a good singer.
(get me right here, all of you who are his fans, I love him very much, maybe just as much as you all do, and maybe somehow a bit more))))....I do not know.....he is the one who makes me feel dizzy, because of whom DEATH seems such a wonderful and sweet fruit, though forbidden one......(I guess no one can understand this) That movie calls for waves of emotions - I could not understand it until the end of the movie - why was I speaking to the characters - I do not do that often, when I watch movies, even when I watch them on my own...for that - film must be truly sympathetic and touch you deeply - it must be very powerful in the emotive way.
The pop singers Hyde and Gackt do a good job in acting and are very believable as friends.
I'm a fan of both actors/singers especially Gackt and when I first discover this movie and watch the trailer,I just think this is a silly one.After a long waiting time,I watched it at last and here's my comment...I consider everyone knows the storyline and not going to mention about it,instead of it my first applause goes to acting,generally that Japanese movies hasn't got brilliant and acting.Yet in MoonChild's all cast is simply wonderful and got into it,especially Gackt reflects his characters emotions and changes pretty well,I like many of his scenes both dramatic and humorous ones,as for HYDE part,his acting is good but he deliberately staying in background as an actor,respectively as his character do,throughout the movie.I didn't like some cinematography especially lighting and some colors but due to small budget,it still has brilliant moments,but the real jewel of the film is story.It has some cheesy moments but it's OK for me,and the friendship theme of the movie is really well developed and touching at sometimes,on the other hand story points out a cruel world which no ones life guaranteed and with some memorable death scenes it reflects this theme to the visuals.An interesting note aside,this movie has some similarities with excellent vampire movie Interwiew with the Vampire which is also played by the most beautiful(not handsome,beautiful)actors of American cinema,actually Moon Child is somehow can be seen as brother with Interwiew,yet original on it's own.Only problem that MoonChild is it's a bit slow sometimes,I'm a Japanese movie fan and I used to that but it's not change MoonChild has some useless scenes or characters.But all in all;this movie is really good and very emotional sometimes,as for actors/singers duo I hope to see their other movies in future,and I recommend this to everyone who likes vampire-action-sci-fiction and romance films 8/10.
Instead I found myself intrigued by the good development of the characters, and the way that Sho (Gackt) develops through the movie as a person.
That Hyde's character is a vampire is almost a background fact with what's really going on in the foreground, and you guys will love the last scene.
Maybe that's a little because I'm a very big fan of Hyde, but - it was this movie who made me discover him.Well, Gackt (playing the main character - the orphan Sho) was a part of the group who wrote the script, and it was he who insisted that Hyde should play Sho's friend, the vampire Kei. At that time they didn't know each other, at least not like friends.
Moon Child, starring Japanese rockers Hyde and Gackt, was a better movie then I expected.
It is a truly touching movie that is sad yet beautiful at the same time.As for the acting, I think Gackt did a magnificent job.
The movie was surprisingly watchable, even if the filming and music did make it feel like someone was going to bust out a pair of nun-chucks every two scenes, and the acting on Gackt's part was quite good.
In a futuristic timeline, the story followed the lives of the two main characters, Kei (HYDE) and Sho (Gackt) and their friends growing up together.Despite some actions might be overly done or perhaps humorous, I strongly believed that this is a movie about friendship.
The plot was just...wow.I was very surprised by Gackt's and Hyde's performance, after growing up in the American world of the actors who can't sing and singers who can't act.In this movie, a young Sho (Gackt) comes across a vampire, Kei (Hyde).
Many people judge it as a fan service film because a lot of super star starring in this movie (Gackt, Hyde, and Wang Lee Hom is very famous singer in Japan).
But, it's comprehensibility because this is their first time to act in the movie.I think Gackt trying to show us about how someone can be so weak when they lose the most important person in their life.
Sho (Gackt) is saved by Kei(Hyde), a vampire who takes on the role of older brother/father as he brings up the orphan. |
tt0107688 | The Nightmare Before Christmas | Pumpkin king Jack Skellington (speaking voice Chris Sarandon, singing Danny Elfman), an elegantly attenuated skeleton, has delivered another scary Halloween. But he receives the adulation of Halloweentown with no enthusiasm -- something is missing from Jack's life and he's tired of doing the same old Halloween thing year after year. The missing something might well be Sally (Catherine O'Hara), an animated rag doll who yearns for Jack, but he doesn't notice. (Sally was created by Halloweentown's evil scientist (William Hickey), who keeps her locked up except when she knocks him out by slipping deadly nightshade in his soup.)After pondering his ennui in a cemetery (disturbing Sally, who's replenishing her supply of deadly nightshade), Jack takes his ghostly dog Zero for a walk in the woods. They come upon a strange circle of trees, each with a door representing a holiday. Jack opens the Christmas door and they're sucked in, landing in Christmastown. Jack is curious about everything he sees there, but finds it all delightful and wants to be part of it.Back in Halloweentown Jack calls a town meeting, where he describes what he saw in Christmastown. His people don't seem very impressed, so to draw them in, he makes some elements of Christmas -- including "Sandy Claws" (Edward Ivory) -- sound scary. Then he announces that they're taking over Christmas and starts assigning jobs. The evil scientist must whip up some reindeer, Halloweentown's top trick-or-treaters are to kidnap Sandy Claws, and Sally's task is to make Jack a red Santa suit. She tries to tell him that co-opting Christmas is a terrible idea, but he's too wrapped up in his enthusiasm to listen.The three trick-or-treaters return triumphantly with the Easter Bunny; Jack sends them back and eventually they bring him Sandy Claws (who surprises Jack by having hands rather than claws). Jack directs the trick-or-treaters to take Sandy Claws away and make him comfortable, but they give him to Oogie Boogie (Ken Page) instead.Meanwhile, Sally has produced a red suit (without a hat, so Jack steals Sandy's) and the evil scientist's skeletal reindeer are hitched to a sleigh full of creepy toys. Sally tries to sabotage his Christmas Eve delivery by adding fog juice to the town well, and it almost works. But the spectral dog Zero, who happens to have a glowing nose, comes to the rescue. Sally deduces that only Sandy Claws will be able to help Jack now, and sneaks into Oogie Boogie's lair in an effort to free him.Jack sets off in his sleigh, but he doesn't really get Christmas -- his idea of a keen gift for a small child is a shrunken head or a toy duck with sharp teeth that chases its owner -- so he spreads terror and mayhem at every house he visits. He ends up being blown up out of the sky by the terrified populace. Realizing both his mistake and his desire to be the best pumpkin king he can be, he goes back to Halloweentown to find Sandy Claws and set Christmas right.He surprises Oogie Boogie, frees Sally and Sandy Claws, and unravels Oogie Boogie in a decisive final showdown. Santa Claus scolds Jack about trying to take over a holiday that isn't his, and then sets about magically saving Christmas. Jack and Sally return to town just as Santa Claus flies over and offers the Halloweentownsfolk a bit of Christmas magic: their first snowfall. Jack and Sally share a tender moment in the cemetery, realizing they were always meant to be together. | comedy, dark, gothic, fantasy, whimsical, cult, horror, atmospheric, psychedelic, humor, romantic | train | imdb | null |
tt1258197 | Exam | Eight candidates for a top job at a mysterious company are gathered in a windowless room with two rows of desks. They have passed previous requirements not mentioned in the film. They each choose a seat and upon each desk is a piece of paper which identifies them as, "Candidate 1", "Candidate 2", etc. The invigilator, (Colin Salmon), arrives and sets forth the rules for the test.Inside the room there will be no laws other than what the company permits, as such. The candidates cannot try to communicate with the invigilator himself nor the guard. They cannot spoil the paper and they cannot leave the room for any reason. If they break any of the rules, they will be disqualified. The test consists of answering one question. The invigilator asks the candidates whether they have any questions. He sets the clock at 80 minutes and leaves the room.Once alone, the candidates turn their paper over and find nothing is written on the back. They look at each other in confusion, and the candidate "Oriental" (Gemma Chan) starts writing "I believe I deserve..." The guard (Chris Carey) puts her out because she has written on her paper, spoiling it.A young white man, (Luke Mably) starts talking, stands up and convinces everyone to work together until they find what the question is. He also gives insulting names to the candidates according to their physical appearance, like Blonde, Deaf, White, Brown, Dark...At first, they try to read a hidden message in the papers by placing them in front of tubes of ultraviolet lights that horizontally surround the room. They then break the tubes so that the emergency lights come on. When they break the emergency tubes they find infrared light. None of this helps them to see anything on the paper. They further discover that if a candidate spoils another candidate's paper, neither of the two will be disqualified.They try spilling liquids over the paper. White urinates on his but finds nothing.White takes charge of the group as a de-facto leader. Brunette (Pollyanna McIntosh) discovers they can touch the guard as long as they don't talk to him. She finds a lighter in one of his pockets. She wants to set off the fire alarms because it may produce something other than water which may reveal a photograph that shows the question. She jumps onto a table, but still cannot reach the sprinkler. White offers her a paper and after succeeding she discovers that White gave her her own paper, so she is disqualified.White picks on Deaf (John Lloyd Fillingham) who speaks only French. Deaf displays symptoms of a mental or nervous disorder. He says in French that they only have to look at the papers while he tries to re-order some small pieces of glass on top of the paper. White bullies him into tearing the paper and eating it. The guard puts Deaf out.They discover that Brown (Jimi Mistry) is a professional gambler, and he suggests that the board of directors is hidden on the other side of the wall betting on who'll win. Dark (Adar Beck) is a psychoanalyst who seems to be the only one who has some information about the company, the products it sells, its expansion etc., but none of the other candidates were able to find any information in spite of doing some research. They think she's a spy within the company and is actually working for them and they want to get the question out from her with torture. When Brown is going to torture her by cutting her with a piece of paper, they discover that she has self-hurt on one of her thighs before. Brown makes a cut. Blonde offers her a piece of plastic plaster.White deceived them by saying the group could collaborate until they guessed but after tricking Brunette into being disqualified each one begins to mistrust the others. As the tension builds to greater levels White ends up tied to a chair by Black (Chukwudi Iwuji) and Brown. White starts convulsing and is unable to find his medication, which is required every hour. While everyone else is trying to decide the best way to help, Dark turns toward the blank screen and pleads, and is thereby disqualified. Blonde (Nathalie Cox) discovers that Brown stole White's pill and stuck it under his desk with a piece of chewing-gum. Blonde forces the pill into White's mouth, they free him and he gets well almost immediately.White believes only one can win. He and Black begin arguing and race to get the guard's gun. White is allegedly shot by Black, but they discover the gun didn't actually fire. White gains possession of it and tries to shoot Black, but once again, the gun doesn't shoot. White figures out that the gun may only be shot by the guard, so he puts the gun into the guard's hand and shoots. White threatens everybody that they must leave or be killed. Brown leaves. Blonde leaves and shouts "lights out" in order to give Black the opportunity to win. In the dark, White kills Black. Blonde has not completely left the room. One of her feet remains partially in the room.White shouts to the other side of the wall that he's won, however, he loses because Deaf has adjusted the clock so that the 80-minute time slot has not yet expired. The glass wall is turned on and White can see the silhouette of the invigilator. He looks at Black on the floor and realizes that it has all been in futility, so he tries to commit suicide. He is unable to because, as recalled, the gun will only work with the guard's fingers. The guard disqualifies him by putting his arm on White's shoulder and leads him out.Blonde fully enters the room again and picks up her paper. She fumbles with the pieces of Deaf's broken glasses and reads "Question 1" written on the watermark of the paper in very small print. She offers it to the invigilator and says "no", answering the question put forth "Are there any questions?". She is offered the job. She is explained Deaf is the CEO of the company. He is a troubled but genius scientist who has discovered a pill to heal wounds really fast.Blonde says that she may not accept the job. When the invigilator points to why she went through all that trouble if she didn't want the position, she points to Black lying on the floor and says that it's unacceptable. The invigilator asks, "Who told you that he's dead?". She approaches Black and sees that the bullet wound is almost healed. The invigilator says that they put the fast-healing pill inside the bullet.They own the formula for the medicine which also healed White's illness, but it can only be manufactured in very small quantities. The new director needed to have sympathy alongside ambition, intelligence, drive and hard work.Blonde accepts the job right away.>>Summary written by KrystelClaire | violence, psychological, claustrophobic, flashback | train | imdb | null |
tt0485947 | Mr. Nobody | In 2092, humanity has conquered mortality through the endless renewal of cells. The world watches in fascination as the 118-year-old Nemo Nobody, the last mortal on Earth, edges towards death. Curious to know of life before quasi-immortality, they interview Nemo. Dr. Feldheim, a psychiatrist, uses hypnosis to help Nemo recall some of his memories, while Nemo relates other memories to a journalist. As he is prodded, Nemo makes contradictory statements. He recounts his life at three primary points: at age 9, when his parents divorced, at age 15 when he fell in love, and at age 34 as an adult. All three unfold into their many possible outcomes.
Nemo explains that before birth, children remember everything that will happen in their lives. At the moment of conception, the Angels of Oblivion erase their memory. The Angels, however, forget about Nemo, allowing him to "remember" different possible futures for himself. At age 9, at a railway station, he is forced to choose as his mother leaves on a train while his father stays on the platform. In one case, he manages to board the train while in another he stays with his father.
=== Life with mother ===
A rebellious Nemo lives with his mother and her new partner, Harry, in Montreal. He sees a new girl, Anna, in his school and is immediately smitten. One day on the beach, Anna asks if he would like to swim with her and her friends. Nemo insults her friends and they barely see each other again.
In an alternate story line, Nemo admits to Anna he cannot swim; the two spend time together and fall in love. Anna turns out to be Harry's daughter and the two step siblings begin an illicit affair. They pledge their lives to one another. When Harry and Nemo's mother break up, Anna goes to New York with her father, and they lose touch. Years later, Nemo works as a pool cleaner, hoping to run into Anna by chance. They finally see one another at the train station and immediately recognize each other in a crowd of passers-by. After a passionate reunion, Anna announces she is not ready to immediately resume the relationship. She gives him her number, asks him to call her in two days and meet at the lighthouse. However, he loses her number when a sudden downpour makes her note illegible. Nemo waits at the lighthouse every day, but Anna does not come.
In a different storyline, Anna and Nemo are married with children. Nemo works at a television studio narrating educational videos. One evening, while returning home, he hits a bird, loses control of his car, plummets into a lake and drowns.
=== Life with father ===
Nemo stays with his father, who later becomes disabled. He works in a shop and spends his free time at home at the typewriter, writing a science fiction story about a journey to Mars. At a school dance, he meets Elise and falls in love. A few days later, Nemo goes to Elise's house but sees her with her 22-year-old boyfriend. Frustrated, he speeds away on his motorcycle, has an accident and is hospitalized in a vegetative state. Though he can perceive the world through his senses, Nemo cannot move or speak. He detects his parents' reunion at his bedside. Nemo tries to remember the movement of his fingers on the typewriter keyboard and eventually manages to lift a finger as this story line comes to a close.
In yet another alternate timeline, Nemo speaks with Elise at her house, and learns that she is still in love with her boyfriend, Stefano. Nemo does not back down and keeps assuring her of his feelings. Finally, Elise gives in and a few years later, they get married. In one version of the story line, Elise dies in an accident on the return from the wedding. Nemo keeps her ashes, having promised her to spread them on Mars. In a far future, Nemo carries Elise's ash to Mars and spreads them on the planet's surface. Aboard the spacecraft traveling back to Earth, he meets Anna. Before they can say much to each other, the ship is destroyed by meteoroids. In an alternate version of events, he works at the same television studio but his assistant drowns instead. The assistant's widow is Anna, whom he recognizes. Another storyline has Nemo and Elise married with three children. However, their marriage is unhappy as Elise suffers from borderline personality disorder and chronic depression. She has attacks of hysteria and, despite Nemo's attempts to save their marriage, ultimately leaves him to pursue Stefano.
Alternatively, after being rejected by Elise, Nemo resolves to marry the first girl who will dance with him at the school prom. That night, he dances with Jeanne. While taking her home, Nemo pledges to marry her and be successful. Despite being successful and have two children, Nemo is unhappy and bored with his life. Nemo writes over all his possessions to Jeanne and leaves his family. Now making all of his decisions randomly via coin toss, he goes to the airport, and pretends to be a passenger named Daniel Jones and is taken to a hotel by a waiting chauffeur. At Jones' hotel room, Nemo is murdered while taking a bath, and his body is dumped in the woods.
Running throughout all the many paths his life could take or has taken, the adult Nemo recurringly awakens in a surrealistic world dominated by argyle patterns. This setting seems artificial, like a movie set, and often appears to bleed over into his other lives. Following clues that he finds scattered throughout this city, he ultimately arrives at a crumbling, abandoned wooden-framed house. He stumbles upon a DVD player hooked up to a television screen. In the strangely interactive video, the 118-year-old Nemo converses with the 34-year-old one. He explains that the younger man does not exist. This is a universe where Nemo Nobody was never born, and his consciousness is stuck in some sort of limbo. He states that he is experiencing the story from the end and that he must stay alive until 5:50 AM on 12 February 2092.
=== Epilogue ===
Before his death, Mr. Nobody tells the journalist that neither of them exist. They are figments in the mind of the 9-year-old Nemo at the train station, as he was forced to make an impossible choice. The young boy tries to find the correct decision, following each choice to its conclusion. Eventually, the boy takes a third option: to not make the choice at all. He leaves both parents and runs away towards an unknown future. This ambiguous choice somehow leads to him and Anna reuniting happily. The film returns to old Nemo on his death bed. The calculated time arrives and Mr. Nobody's last words are watched by the world. The expansion of the universe comes to a halt and time appears to reverse. The universe ceases to dissipate, and finally begins contracting. Consequently, Nemo's life simplifies itself. He is able to return to his childhood, watch his parents get back together and be with Anna. The 118-year-old man cackles triumphantly as he springs back into awareness with the realization that his younger self has finally found his one true love and life. | murder, cult, alternate reality, psychedelic, philosophical, romantic, storytelling | train | wikipedia | There were laugh out loud moments during a movie with themes concerning choice, destiny, and metaphysics.I was enamoured by the love story, it was feel good without being Hollywood.The visuals were amazing.
Any movie with "Mr. Sandman" and "Where is my mind?" is alright by me.The movie was extremely imaginative, original, funny, and will probably have me thinking about it and my own life for days after viewing..
I could go on and on about the things I loved about this film but there's nothing right now that I would recommend seeing more to a person of any age, sex or taste in cinema.
This is the first time I have felt the need to post a review of a film, but the experience that this movie provided was so unique and profoundly moving that I feel compelled to post something of my thoughts.I have just finished watching Mr Nobody after knowing nothing about the movie beforehand (perhaps a good thing as I may have avoided it otherwise), but was simply astonished by the originality, cinematography, acting, script, soundtrack and profoundly thought provoking ideas.I realise that this film will not be to everyones taste, certainly I think it will not be fully comprehended by the younger generation as it does require a certain lifetime of experiences to relate, such as birth, love, marriage, children, separation, divorce, death, life changing choices etc.., but nevertheless it does make you deeply consider your own past decisions and future choices, and everyone of all ages will have made and will make these decisions.The production values are very high and would not look out of place in a 'hollywood blockbuster' but it is the mix of cinematography and music mingled with the dramatic scenarios that make it truly memorable.It is a difficult film to describe as it does not follow a traditional narrative structure, but that is what makes it so unique and truly memorable.
I think people who like to analyze films would have a field day with this one although it's possible they would nitpick on the borrowed elements.
I don't think it's for everyone, mostly because of its non-linear structure, but those who appreciate unconventional films like Brazil, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Vanilla Sky or Big Fish should be quite pleased.
Like other surreal movies, Peter Jacksons "The Lovely Bones", and "Synechdohe: New York" "Dr. Parnassus", "Micmacs"- these dreamlike and "difficult" films must be terribly expensive to produce and I ask myself how can the companies go through with these productions?
Throughout the entire movie, we are shown various little science facts and theories, all making no sense in the contexts, and making impression like a late night 2 hours google search put into movie to add to the overall "credibility".There's a great love story in the movie, which resembles Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and really improves the experience, but unfortunately it's just one of many plots.
It is the cacophony of ideas that makes the movie appear philosophical, but only in a way similar to how a carnival magician shows a coin and then makes it disappear, leaving you thinking about how he pulled it off and not about the coin itself.The unnecessarily stretched plot runs into over two hours without really needing to.
a (zest) of humour (preferably irony).van Dormael produces this wonderful cocktail with such dexterity that one is left both satisfied and wanting more!As with any good cocktail, this one should appeal to many and allow for repeated consumption (viewing) due to the wide range of qualities that can be appreciated, be they cinematical or simply philosophical.I might be missing one or two ingredients, but before I give away any more and spoil your drink, if you haven't seen Mr. Nobody yet, go see it with Anybody and make sure to talk about it with Everybody, or at least with Somebody.Cheers!.
After watching it in all of its two hour and thirty minute glory, I now feel an inane displeasure, akin to what I can only assume as having my frontal lobe stabbed with an ice pick.Before I review the things I disliked about this movie, let me tell you about the things it got right.
The alternate realities that Nemo experienced, while varied, did not justify the huge expenditure of time devoted them, nor did I feel like they moved the movie along in any significant way.
The storytelling was so fragmented that I was unable to feel any connection between Nemo and his many loves and even less for his children which were so insignificant they just felt like filler and could have been left out of the movie completely.
The movie aimed high trying to captivate the viewer in parallel realities, immortality, quantum mechanics and good old fashioned space exploration, but failed at the basics of storytelling and proper editing..
In this very long, very beautifully photographed, labyrinthine semi-science fiction epic a very old person remembers his life in a very muddled way and we are presented with alternative stories of what (really?) happened.
I forget) where the hero must prove his eternal love for this woman yet again or some such desperate crap, my partner and I realised we had been well and truly had.This epic Ship Of Fail, this marvel of 'We Forgot To Write It First'ness, has:* No story* No moral* No ending* No great big reveal* No thinking beyond the depth of early high-school 'philosophy'* No ending* Nothing at all to say, really* Did we mention it never ends?
Especially irritating are the long and repetitive love story and people walking backwards to depict the reversal of time (apparently, the director thinks his audience are idiots).This movie is one of those with a pretense of being artsy and significant, and many people take the bait, as they always do.I hope this review will enable *YOU* not to..
The creators of this film must have thought "Let's make a movie for people to watch while on drugs!" Unfortunately I did not have any on hand..
In conclusion, the movie had a lot of potential in its basic premise, visuals and cinematography but wasted it all mainly on a boring unfocused love story and mixing elements which does not correlate to each other in any meaningful way..
I lost track of how many parallel lives the main character was remembering, and as far as I could tell, it was never really explained how he could be aware of so many parallel universes, but those are minor points in a film that seeks to bring up ideas to be pondered.
First off all of the music in this movie is amazing i will by the soundtrack asap and the visual styling of the movie are reminiscent of pushing daisies at times but it just all fits together so perfectly this is for sure a movie that anyone can enjoy men, women, young, and old or especially for someone who just smoked a big blunt or took a drop of acid.
It is a goddamn head confusing movie.It did hurt my brain while I'm watching it.The movie explains to us how many differences and obstacles could be in our lives.You can't predict it.You can't know unless it happens.You have to make a choice to move on.And you have to move on...But our ends will be one.Whatever we choose , we can't change it.It is worth to spend some couple of hours for think over it.
And at the space between two scenes must have some little effects or add some little more time,otherwise it can be a pain in the sweet heaven's ass.Actors and Actresses are splendid , talented and well chosen.The story is holy wicked.Absolutely blew my mind away from goddamn Milky Way.Actually it is not 'a' story..It's kind of couple of stories getting mixed up professionally.I Loved the movie.Thanks..
Every single element of this film is amazing: the sets, the sound design, the soundtrack, the cinematography, the special effects, the acting, the plot, the in-universe mythology; everything comes together to make this film AMAZING and I had to watch it twice to catch everything I had missed before.
The story the elderly Mr Nobody tells is the different choices he may have made in his lifetime showing the various scenarios or possibilities this man could have lived given the choices he made, but he ended up saying the only real choice is for love and happiness.
I don't normally like when unoriginal music is used in movies but when it's done with the precision and care that it was here it works out extremely well.Every character is cast perfectly and each give incredible performances.
I think some could relate it to "Inception" because it deals with some similar themes that question reality and just the fact that it can be so incredibly confusing!The way I perceived myself and reality changed after I watched this movie.
Their presence was mildly confusing or perhaps irritating but probably added just a little bit more of the unknown into the whirling mass of possibilities in life that 'Mr Nobody' attempts to present.I liked this film and will probably watch it again sometime.
And where did that come from?You will get confused and you will smile sometimes and that is what i like in a movie, when it gets you wondering: What's next?I am going to recommend this movie to a lot of people and i will tell them to watch it at least 2 times because i will and that is the beauty of a movie when you can see it many times and still find it interesting and fun!.
I love all kinds of movies, but only at the right time.
You gotta chose film after what you feel like watching.Mr. Nobody is fabulous filmmaking about choices and coincidences in life.
It's most certainly not of their own choice, but it ended up this way, anyway...Belgian Jaco van Dormael has been working for 13 years on this film, and this is truly amazing on all levels.
In all 3lives and in Age 118, he did a pretty fantastic job but I did feel like that Jared Leto is a Pretty man and looks gorgeous on screen with his blue eyes but if the director would have chosen some seasoned actor that movie could have gotten great recognition, actually more then its receiving.
I watch again, again and again each time i understand other thing about movie.
Mr. Nobody is a movie that really makes you think; think about life, think about love, and think about possibilities.
A beautiful movie with great message and theories on dreams, deja vus mixing it with the amazing quantum physics science and ultimately the meaning of life(s)..
The point of this movie was, without a doubt, to make yourself think about the different possibilities of this deep question about everything we know.
It felt just a little rushed for me, but definitely not a deal-breaker.The dialogue, acting, etc etc was excellent (Tony Regbo I think his name is, Juno Temple and the actress who played Elise were all fantastic), but the cinematography and just the whole concept of it is what makes this film a class above the rest.Overall, a gem.
Simply put; the story line is all over the place,trying to be clever and that makes it an awful watch.I have to say a lot of afford was put in for the production of this movie and the spacial effects are quite impressive but it fails in many other areas, especially in the plot as it has many loose ends.
I would not like to waste any more of my time with this film by going into flaws of this movie individually as it would take pages of typing.If you have 2.5 hours to waste be my guest..
This movie will truly change how you think about life, it deserves a spot in the future.
I love movies that makes me think, that make me confused and invite me to watch them again to understand more.
First watched at 4am during an emotional time, this film has changed the way I make decisions, and made me think more deeply about myself and those around me.
This film is vastly underrated, and is incredibly enjoyable to watch if you have a quick wit, a little knowledge about Quantum Physics, and a lot of time to think afterwards..
The cinematography, photography, special effects were as good as needed.The film affects the viewer in a lot of different ways with a plethora of feelings, and a lot to contemplate.Definitely recommended..
I thought this was going to be a good movie but it was not.The idea is great (120 year old last mortal looks back at his life and his choices), the scenes are beautiful in isolation, but the makers oversaw something vital.Effects like slow motion, flashbacks and scene hopping can be nice, when used sparingly, as needed.
I suppose the director was totally focused on the scenes on itself, thinking WOW this looks great, but he forgot that a movie is not just about pasting nice scenes after one another.In Mr Nobody we jump from scene A to C to B to Z and every scene is full of effects and even more jumps in time.
Virtually every scene has been meticulously reconstructed and re-interpreted from "That's So Raven," a fact easily concealed because almost no black characters inhabit the film.I am glad to bestow upon this movie my highest 10 star recommendation if for no other reason than Jaco Van Dormael's under-appreciated genius simply demands it..
Your mind is just so filled at the end of the movie ,you probably will need some time to get normal , because you have been watching so many scenes .
Recently I have watched the movie Mr. Nobody, and probably never had so many feelings and emotions after watching films.
The film made me think about many things, especially how strong a little thing can change the entire life, and how often we have to make choices.
The movie might seem to be unclear and strange, but this makes the film so great.
I recommend to spend two hours of your time and watch this great film..
you wouldn't watch inception after a long day at work though.That being said it's hands down the best film I've seen in years - It feels a little bit like everything inception could have been (in terms of the philosophical questions raised and general screwing with your mind a bit), but wasn't as Inception was designed for a much wider audience.
If you're expecting an absolute ending that's tied up with a little bow you will be disappointed.It looks at the way choices can affect your life and follows Nemos thought process at different points of the film..
While it is impossible to show all the possibilities, the movie did it best to show as much as possible in the time frame it had without getting too crammed up or rushed.Jared Leto plays the lead and gives a great performance, not surprisingly.
Jared Leto's stellar performance, the unique (and at times confusing) premise, and the stories told throughout are just some of the highlights.The film opens in the year 2092, as 118 year old Nemo Nobody is the last living mortal on earth.
At first, the contradictions can be extremely confusing to the viewers (as well as those interviewing 118 year old Nemo), but before long you learn to accept it as a part of the movie's commentary on the impact the choices we make can have on our lives, and by the end of the movie, one can make sense of the contradictions.Ultimately, Mr. Nobody is anchored by outstanding performances by Jared Leto, Toby Regbo, and Juno Temple, while the rest of the cast contributes performances that range from good to great.
I found myself thinking on the various subjects that the film touches on as the movie played out.
The acting is top notch, especially Jared is great.I won't spoil to much of the story, but I recommend that you see this movie with an open mind, and don't try to make sense of everything that happens.
In the first 20 minutes I thought about switching it off but then it got better and better.I really like Jared Leto as an actor and I think he did a great job in playing Nemo.The soundtrack is nice too.
It put me into a good mood.I highly recommend watching Mr. Nobody if you're looking for a compelling movie that will stay in your mind for some time..
A filmmaker once said "we don't go to the movies to think we go there to feel", i gotta say that's so true only in this film it makes you both feel and think at the same time.
I won't be going to say anything about the plot because if i start to talk about it i'll never finish, but this film can really make you think about a lot of things through it's themes like Love, death, destiny...in fact it makes you think of life itself.
Just like my favourite movie, Requiem For a Dream, I'll have the most people watch this as possible and I, myself, can't wait to revisit this gem.
I think somebody just made the movie of my life....
Loved It. I finally had the opportunity to watch this incredible film where Jared Leto, once again, amazed me with his great acting abilities.
The end is likely to leave you feeling flat and unrewarded for the time you have invested in the film.
I just saw this movie, and for you that might have not seen it yet i should tell and thus recommend you to fasten to your seat because the film will take you out there, on an amazing joyride of stories all mixed-up, building up a great plot about a man that has an odd and unique life experience ,and how this life might get completely changed by his own decisions ,in choosing what he wants to do with it. |
tt1323592 | Cornered | Death works in mysterious ways.Some reach their end peacefully.Others die horribly, in a frantic fight for survival. Cornered is a suspense driven thriller set in present day Los Angeles.The pace of the film is swift. The plot is drenched in tension.It is fueled by witty dialogue, and hip connotations. THE PLAYERS ALEX BRANT...is a LAPD homicide detective. He is mindful and aggressive. His assertive nature allows him to easily navigate thru the darkness of murder in Los Angeles. DAVE CARLIN...is an arson investigator, and forensics specialist. THE STRANGER...is our killer. The man is a military trained, special operative, who has gone rogue. His style and motivation are steeped is psychosis. He is a killer of both premeditation and impulse. Plain old murder is a bore to him. The Stranger is addicted to combat and violence. His favorite kill is an elaborate game where he and his prey fight to the death.JANETTE...is a music industry entrepreneur. She runs her own record label and manages many bands. She is the strangers next opponent in the game. COMMANDER BAKER...is with a special branch of Military Internal Affairs. He is investigating the theft of a highly classified explosive compound. THE RUNDOWN...Inspector Carlin is investigating a crime scene containing a dead girl, a gun, and a burnt down house. He calls Brant for a second opinion on a potential link to another case of the same definition. Carlin, and Brant agree to keep certain evidence to themselves until they can make the connection. Baker knows they're up to something, and in an attempt to cover the source of this whole mess up, tries to shake them off the case. A fist fight starts a chain reaction which brings these characters together, and plunges Janette into the game THE GAME - Janette vs. The Stranger -Location...Janettes house -All exits are rigged with explosives, there is only one safe way out. -The Stranger will give clues to the correct exit as the fight goes on -The power to the house has been cut -He has given her a gun with two rounds in it, a low powered flashlight, and a knife -The entire house will explode in 45 minutes -the stranger can only try to kill her in the last ten minutes...before that he may only defend himself. -He has only a knife To survive, Janette must kill the Stranger, but not before she decodes his clues to find the exit. Brant, Carlin and Baker will jockey for position and jurisdiction, as they race to find the Stranger, and save Jannette, | murder | train | imdb | null |
tt0162973 | Get Real | A 10/10 must see/have gay film! Meet Steve - a troubled teen coming to terms with his sexuality. Taunted & bullied, fate entwines him with John the school jock who, surprisingly, is having similar feelings. So their story unravels as they try to lead double lives as what society expects of them and how they are with one another.
Get Real has an interesting take on the gay cliches without going over the top as so many do. The token female friend and her very real problems. John's, jock friends, and their denial of his sexuality. The mistaken assumption of their female friends beliving they are wanting more then just friendship.
The realness of the parents coming to terms with sexuality is portrayed effectively well. Their inner torment of what a society percieves them as and who they truthfully are is acted to the best!! This amazing coming of age story is filmed tastefully & shot with beautiful cinematography. | queer | train | imdb | What I didn't expect was how true to life this movie really is!"Get Real" is the story about a 16-year old gay teenager named Steven Carter (played by the boyishly adorable Ben Silverstone) who has known about himself since he was 11-years old and is perfectly fine with it.
Only his best friend Linda (Charlotte Brittain, who delivers a terrific performance) knows and is worried about Steven, due to his sexual adventures at a gay men's restroom in a park.
But one day, he unexpectedly has an encounter with the "straight" high school jock John Dixon (Brad Gorton, who plays his role of someone with much sexual confusion with complete realism) and the two boys fall in love.
Being gay is not easy these days, especially for teenagers, but we all wish we were as brave as Steven, who matures as the movie goes on and we all hope the best for him as he embarks on his emotional recovery after the end of this movie.
When you're gay, you can't have both, thanks to the homophobia which still rules athletics with an iron fist.The two main characters of this film struggle to maintain a relationship, because they are in love - yet ultimately the homophobic attitudes of the world force them to part.
A Tender, Realistic and Superb Gem. Intelligently scripted, well-crafted and exceptionally acted story of a young gay man finding his way through the adolescent wilderness.
In the good ol' USA, teenage development in movies tend to be played for laughs or for mawkish sentiment, which could propel whining into an Olympic event.In a short summation, Steve Carter, the main protagonist, finds the path to love strewn with thorns.
"The Boys in the Band" made over 30 years ago still stands out as a major gay film; indeed a sorry state of affairs.European cinema has fared far more successfully with matters gay, with such fine works as "Wild Reeds" and the outstanding "Come Undone".
It comes as much of a surprise that the stodgy British cinema should have produced some of the landmark gay movies, amongst them the brave "Victim" (1961) made when homosexuality was still against the law and John Schlesinger's fiercely intelligent "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (1970).
It's not a film directed especially at gay audiences and should be seen by all, especially high school audiences for whom it should be compulsory viewing.The casting of Ben Silverstone was inspired.
It could have gone very wrong in lesser hands, but Brittain is a joy to watch and brings a lovely sense of humor to the proceedings.Ultimately it's a truly unpretentious and very moving movie, far more effective than "Beautiful Thing".
Johnny Boy's smart, but like all teenagers, he's thwarted by desires that defy his good sense.And that is a shame, because if there ever was reason to give up everything for love, Ben Silverstone would be it.
Whilst never being as confident in my sexuality as Stephen, I really connected with the story told, his relationship with his parents and the scatter-shot but inadvertently appropriate use of homophobic abuse by the bullies.Also thought the excellent flashes of dialogue uplifted the film such as "Whenever I see that badge (Head Boy) I wish it were an invitation." Priceless.
The leads are magnificent - Ben Silverstone is more than a little swoonsome, and Brad Gorton switches from smooth as silk to blubbering jelly with just a twitch - and to all of you wondering why John would fall for Steven, wouldn't you want a boyfriend who makes you laugh, forces you to take risks, and to generally put yourself at ease?
However their relationship grows into lovers and they both balance the feelings brought around by secrecy and feeling like no one understands.From the sparky opening and good sense of humour, I had expected this film would just be another in the line of Richard Curtis-lite style of British romantic comedies.
The main one being the lack of relationship between Steven and John - I never saw them together and all they had in common is their sexuality.The cast do pretty well with the characters, even if some of them are being held up by the good script.
The support cast are mixed although all do their jobs ably enough.Overall this is a great little film that will never get the same success as the Richard Curtis comedies from which it borrows a bit of it's style, however the script is really strong and it is quite unarming in how well it deals with the issues without cliché or lazy caricature of characters..
I cannot say that this is the greatest piece of cinema ever created, from dialog to production values, many parts of the movie are askew (not to mention the often indecipherable British mumbling!), but it has given me hope that as a gay teenager I will someday find the type of love I am looking for..
The dramatic elements are very reasonable; it isn`t epic Greek tragedy, but the drama is plausible and held my attention throughout.I think there is a too predictable tendency for films of this `coming-out` genre to over rely on the friendly `fag-hag` sidekick character - such as appeared in the BBC Drama "Two of Us", and subsequent films like "Beautiful Thing" , "Parting Glances", and so on.
`Get Real` is, I think, a valuable contribution to the Gay Film repertoire, which is thankfully growing like never before.
In its themes and character development, "Get Real" is somewhere between "Maurice" and "Beautiful Thing." Steven Carter is basically the Maurice/Jamie character, while John Dixon might be destined to follow the path of Clive Durham (played by Hugh Grant in "Maurice"), who like Dixon, is a bit higher up in the British class sytem.I found myself charmed by the movie, but irritated.
But his coming out speech is a product of writer fiat and not particularly realistic in terms of how the film executes it (ie, given in front of the entire school).I felt the heart lay more with the other gay character, John Dixon, and this is where the movie frankly begins to cheat.
John Dixon is a far more realistic character, and his inability to admit his homosexuality in a public manner is a much greater mirror of the times--and of gay history in its totality.
Also, this is a character who has just admitted to himself that he's gay--after that scene, the movie's timespan takes up barely, say, a few weeks worth of narration--imagine the kind of leap Steven is expecting John to make, when Steven has trouble being open and he's accepted his gayness for over 5 years.The greatest cheat comes when Kevin Grainger, one of John's friends and Steven's tormentors, finds Steven and John together in a swimming pool--in a pretty "dodgy" position (John is sitting on Steven's shoulders).
John is completely at peace with the situation--leading one to think, Ok, this character has accepted himself at last (the scene occurs after John has decided to openly allow others at their school to know he has formed a friendship with Steven, so the swimming pool scene seems like a natural progression).
I can only disagree.All in all, a good movie--vastly superior to American teen flicks, which all seem to star Drew Barrymore or Freddie Prinze Jr. One last question: if you were Steven Carter and had just spent your first night in bed naked with the love of your dreams, John Dixon, would you have gotten out of bed (with him still in it) to fix breakfast?
I don't remember seeing any real deep good teen gay male movies coming out from Hollywood.
The scenes in the school were very realistic, the cameo roles helped the 'stars' to shine.The fact that it was set in a middle class suburb gave credence to the narrative; young people living in bad conditions are not the only ones who have problems.I thought the parents came across as genuine, puzzled adults trying to come to terms with their children, or not as the case may be.
And well, the cute guy Steven (Ben Silverstone) played his role so good, so real...A fantastic movie..
It would be so easy to write a tepid or even downright bad review of "Get Real", but, for all its faults - poor acting overall and a script full of clichés including a speech that seems to spring from a desire to give the film an upbeat ending rather than one the character would probably have made, I am not going to.
What is furthermore great is Steven's tipsy "heart-to-heart" with Johnny after he sees him with his (Johny's) stereotypical model-girlfriend, showing what thing jealousy is, to anybody, no matter who they are.Though, one would like to think that he lived happily ever after, he may indeed do, but that is not what the film is about, it is about the present and wanting people to accept, like a know one for who one really is and not what one is, sometimes, forced to put out.It seems strange to some that even the simplest of question (How are you?) can make one say one thing but desperately want to say the exact opposite at the same time.Ben Silverstone acted this perfectly and with passion and conviction, which is what after all acting, to a person not "on the stage", mainly consists of.
Hart, Kate McEnery and Patrick Nielsen is also of top quality and above all believable, so much talent from ones so young!The humour in this film is subtle and one MUST see this film several times to actually get the true benefit of it, for it is often quiet and understated, though perhaps it is necessary to do so in order to avoid "dumbing down" the true intentions of the film.It is a shame that films of this quality are not made that often, "Beautiful Thing" is also a must see for this genre type, which is a great film also in its own right, and just that little bit more mushy at the end for those people who want it that way!Quite simply, "What is the problem?
For you who didn't see this movie yet, i have to tell you how the storyline goes: Steven Carter (Ben Silverstone) is a young man who has recongnized himself as homosexual, and has got the same problem that all boys at his age happen to have.
For finish, I'm gonna say that if you haven't already seen this movie, you have to, as a duty to yourself, and I hope you could agree with me, regardless of whose that excuse the character of John Dixon (Brad Gorton), because and in their words "he had more things -than Steven- to left behind him", that is so wrong, and it had been established when our hero left behind him...
The only people who know Steven's secret are his best friend Linda (played by the excellent Charlotte Britain) and his lover, head boy John Dixon (Brad Gorton).Ben Silverstone is amazing in his role as 16 year old Steven.
As I watched Get Real, memories of his emotions and problems came rushing back to me.It would have been so easy for Get Real to have been a predictable, sentimental nothing of a film, but the strong story, funny, touching script and superb cast made it one of the best british films ever made.If you want to be inspired and amazed, watch Get Real..
This is a British movie (unsurprisingly...why is it that the only good gay flicks come from there?) and the only draw-back for me was that the accent was a little difficult to understand at times..
For young gay people who believe love can never happen to them, this movie is a godsend.
This is the best movie I've seen so far this year and one of the best gay-themed films ever made.
I urge everyone, gay or straight, who is interested in movies about human beings and life itself to see this film.
Having watched "Get Real" for the first time on DVD, I am amazed that I managed to miss a film of such quality when it was showing in the cinema.
As a great fan or "Beautiful Thing" and Harvey's work in general, I can honestly say that "Get Real" is better.Based in the commuter town of Basingstoke, south of London, this film took me on a rollercoaster ride of emotions from joy to sadness.
It touched the heart strings like few films manage to do as the central character explored his sexuality for the first time, fell in love and grew in confidence.
Brilliantly acted by Ben Silverstone and Brad Gorton (who many British readers will know more recently as Dan in ITV's "London's Burning"), these two actors portrayed their characters with stunning passion and energy.The film suffered slightly from a dose of "Rose Coloured Spectacles" and lacked some of the hardness that other gay plots have shown in the past (particularly the recent screening on British Television of "Queer as Folk").
It's been a while since I first saw this movie in theaters, but I remember really liking the girl who plays the main character's 'fag-hag.' She is such a funny girl that will give everyone kicks.The story is great in that it doesn't necessarily limit itself to being just another independent film about how sad it is to be a gay person in America.
Realistic gay film of two boys who fall in love.
Ben Silverstone looking like a young version of Mr. Bean plays Steven the sixteen year old gay schoolboy.
Brad Gorton looking like a young Hugh Grant but with curlier hair plays John, the Head Boy at their school.This movie is teen angst with a few twists.
Of course, John has the much bigger problem of concealing his gay nature from everyone except Steven.Two other films come to mind with similar themes."Wild Reeds" from France also deals with gay love between two schoolboys.
Light flick about the stormy first love affair between the unwanted, unloved, intelligent gay teenager who will no doubt grow up to become a successful out and proud journalist or playwright (stereotype), and his athletic, popular, upper middle-class, good-looking 'straight' school mate who obviously has not yet had a single original thought in his life, and, by the looks of it, will have had precious few by the time he graduates from Oxford (stereotype).
True, it doesn't cover any real new territory where gay themed films are concerned (what new movies really are all that fresh?) but the thing that truly stands out is the performance by Ben Silverstone.
On the surface, "Get Real" is quite similar to the wonderful "Beautiful Thing;" both are British, and concern teenage boys falling in love with each other.
Too bad there won't be a sequel.)The performances in "Get Real" are uniformly excellent, especially Ben Silverstone as Steven, Brad Gorton as John, and Charlotte Brittain as Linda.
In that little film festival, lies some wonderful movies, one of the best being Get Real, a gay dramedy (drama-comedy) with some BRILLIANT acting and a WONDERFUL theme, it was amazing and so well done.
Memorable scenes include Steven's cruising of the park toilet as The Troggs sing "Love is All Around," John telling Steven of the time when he first responded to the touch of another boy on a school outing to Cornwall, and Steven announcement, to an assembly of classmates, teachers and parents, that he has been living a lie.There isn't a weak performance in the film, and the choice of Basingstoke, England, with its almost U.S.suburbs appearance -- complete with a red Corvette -- gives it a universal appeal.Some of the dialog passes a bit too quickly for an American ear to catch every word, but this is a minor complaint.
Some people may be put off by the gay content of the movie, which would be a pity as I found the film very rewarding - there are several very moving moments in it.
As Stephen Ben Silverstone carries the movie, he's very attractive and charming and it's easy to understand why John falls in love with him, because I also fell for him watching the movie.If you want to see a quiet, sweet, and funny film, head to the Angelika Film Center in New York City and enjoy "Get Real".
So imagine a film much better than that one, this is Get Real, by genius director Simon Shore (remember "Eton, class of '91"), with a wonderful cast (especially young Ben Silverstone - just GREAT !!!!- already seen in The Browning Version...) The screenplay is so interesting, a lot more than Beautiful Thing's, we can feel Johnny and Steve's emotion, the fear of being "discovered" because of the reactions of all those stupid people...
It's sweet, funny, sexy and thought-provoking, and one of the best gay films of late.Imagine a queer British John Hughes movie, and you'll begin to savor the charms of this little gem..
I want to believe that I am able to apprehend a good film (well, not too artistic, please, i.e. static and protracted...).Anyhow, Get Real had everything in place, emanating from my taste and wishes: smooth and logical plot, splendid performances (particularly Ben Silverstone as Steven Carter and Charlotte Brittain as Linda; Brad Gorton as John Dixon was a bit too much Ancient athlete type), scenes with twists, paving the way for a versatile ending.Moreover, I liked that the general mood was nice, there was a balance between good and bad, laughter and tears, truth and lies, and the gay topic was dealt with homage and without sensation.
This film makes me want to be a British gay school boy.
Perhaps it's the film, or just my insanity, but either way "Get Real" gives me the strange urge and unattainable goal of being a gay school boy from Great Britain.
But I know one thing for sure, if you are going to watch a movie about a gay British school boy, "Get Real" is the movie for you.. |
tt0241303 | Chocolat | Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche), an expert chocolatier, drifts across Europe with her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol), following the north wind. In the beginning of the Lenten season in 1959, "fifteen years after the War," they travel to a quiet French village that closely adheres to tradition, as led by the village mayor, the Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina). Just as the villagers begin observing the forty days of Lent, Vianne opens a chocolate shop, much to Reynaud's displeasure.
Vianne wears more colorful clothing than the village women, is an atheist, and has an illegitimate child. She does not fit in well with the townspeople, but is nevertheless optimistic about her business. Her friendly and alluring nature begins to win the villagers over one by one, causing Reynaud to openly speak against her for tempting the people during a time of abstinence and self-denial. The Comte will not admit that his wife has left him; he is romantically interested in Caroline, but he does not pursue her.
One of the first to fall under the spell of Vianne and her confections is Armande (Judi Dench), her elderly, eccentric landlady. Armande is unhappy that her cold, devoutly pious daughter Caroline (Carrie-Anne Moss) will not let Armande see her grandson Luc because Caroline thinks Armande is a "bad influence". Vianne arranges for Luc and his grandmother to see each other in the chocolaterie, where they develop a close bond. Caroline later reveals to Vianne that her mother is a diabetic, though Armande continues to eat the chocolate despite her condition. Having lost her husband, Caroline is overly protective of Luc and does not even want her son to play.
Vianne also develops a friendship with a troubled woman, Josephine (Lena Olin), who is a victim of brutal beatings by her abusive husband Serge (Peter Stormare). After a particularly violent blow to the head, Josephine leaves her husband and moves in with Vianne and Anouk. As she begins to work at the chocolate shop and Vianne teaches her her craft, Josephine becomes a self-confident, changed woman. At the same time, under the instruction of Reynaud, Serge, having seemingly changed into a better man, asks Josephine to come back to him. Finally happy and fulfilled on her own, Josephine declines his request. A drunken Serge breaks into the chocolaterie later that night and attempts to attack both women, before Josephine, in a moment of empowerment, knocks him out with a skillet.
As the rivalry between Vianne and Reynaud intensifies, a band of river gypsies camp out on the outskirts of the village. While most of the town objects to their presence, Vianne embraces them, developing a mutual attraction to the Traveller Roux (Johnny Depp). Together they hold a birthday party for Armande with other village members and gypsies on Roux's boat. When Caroline sees Luc, who sneaked out to the party, dancing with his grandmother, she begins to see how strict she has been with her son and that his grandmother's influence in his life may after all be beneficial. After the party, Josephine and Anouk fall asleep on a boat, while Roux and Vianne make love. Late that night, Serge sets the boat, where Josephine and Anouk are sleeping, on fire. Both escape unharmed, but Vianne's faith in the village is shaken.. Luc helps Armande home from the party; her death soon after devastates both him and his mother. After the fire, Roux packs up and leaves with his group, much to Vianne's sadness.
Serge later sees Reynaud in his home to confess to his causing the fire, which Reynaud initially thought as divine intervention and becomes horrified at the thought of people almost getting killed as a result. Realizing that Serge is beyond help or fearing that people would blame him as well for the arson, Reynaud demands that Serge leaves the village and never comes back.
With the return of the north wind, Vianne decides that she cannot win against Reynaud or the strict traditions of the town. She decides to move elsewhere. Anouk refuses to go, and during a scuffle, an urn containing the ashes of Vianne's mother falls and shatters. After a moment, Vianne goes into her kitchen to see a group of townspeople, who have come to love her and the way she has changed their lives, making chocolate for the festival Vianne had planned on Easter Sunday. Realizing that she has brought change to the town, she decides to stay.
Despite the shifting sentiment in the town, Reynaud remains staunch in his abstinence from pleasures such as chocolate. On the Saturday evening before Easter, he sees Caroline leave the chocolatier, which devastates him. Convinced now that chocolate will make people stray from their faith, he sneaks into Vianne's house in order to ruin Vianne's preparations for the Easter festival. After accidentally tasting a bit of chocolate that fell on his lips, he finally yields to temptation and devours much of the chocolate in the window display before collapsing into tears and eventually falling asleep. The next day, Vianne awakens the chastened mayor, and a mutual respect between them is established. Both the Easter Sunday sermon and the festival are a success. Josephine takes over running Serge's café which she renames Café Armande. Vianne throws her mother's ashes out the window and the north wind leaves.
Roux returns in the summer to be with Vianne, and despite her constant need for change, she resolves to stay, having found a home for herself and her daughter in the village. | cute, violence, magical realism, flashback, feel-good, psychedelic, romantic, historical, storytelling | train | wikipedia | I don't think it's any more predictable than an average Hollywood film; I find most action films much more predictable and shallow.The most beautiful thing about the movie (as about Hallström movies generally) is the wise, warm-hearted story about things that matter: love, sincerity, tolerance, standing up for the things you believe are righteous and good, and enjoying the simple pleasures in life, like a good dinner with friends, or like chocolate :) And Hallström tells his stories so delicately, in his very own style, with fine nuances and a twinkle of humour in his eye.
There are parts of the film that look like they could belong to a particularly delectable episode of `Martha Stewart Living', but if you can get past the pangs of hunger it will certainly inflict, you will find there is a lot more to this seemingly charming and simple story.The film plays in the style of all whimsical children's fairy tales, while at the same time blending in a series of very serious adult themes.
It chronicles the exploits of single mother Vianne Rocher, played as usual to a wonderful effect by Juliette Binoche, and her sugary but confused 6-year-old daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol), who blow in on a forceful winter wind to the small rural French town of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes.
At start it seems the Rochers are losing, but the fight soon turns as the townsfolk begin to discover the mouth-melting effects of Vianne's wonderful taste-teasing treats.Misadventure after misadventure occur as the couple come in contact with a wide array of colorful characters (just when you think he must be an extra in comes Johnny Depp), solving their problems while at the same time selling their chocolates.
Apparently the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences share my views as the film was nominated for five academy awards, Best Picture, Best Actress (Binoche), Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score.Chocolat is a mouthwatering piece of movie magic.
It's a story of the human condition and how even deep prejudices can be overcome by the simple act of kindness and the willingness to strive for individuality.I have to admit the only reason I wanted to watch this movie at first was because of Johnny Depp.
Binoche is Vianne Rocher, a woman who uses her exotic recipe for chocolate to unlock the repressed sensibilities of the predominately Catholic citizenry, heretofore kept under the rigid and righteous thumb of the Mayor, Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina), with no respite or help, even from the town's young and inexperienced priest, Pere Henri (Hugh O'Conor).
Judi Dench (Amande), meanwhile, does a terrific character turn as a mother whose daughter, Caroline (Carrie-Anne Moss), deems her an embarrassment and a bad influence on her son, Luc (Aurelien Parent-Koening), and Lena Olin (Josephine) is outstanding as well, as an unhappy woman who finds hope in Vianne's undaunted spirit.
Possibly the `sweetest' film of the year, as well as one of the best, `Chocolat' is a visual and emotional triumph that will warm your heart and make your taste buds salivate, with a story and characters as rich and satisfying as the candy they embrace.
It's a film with a human touch whose images and sensitivity will remain with you long after the screen has gone dark; an uplifting, entertaining movie that proves that the answers to the mysteries of life just may be found in that box of chocolates, after all.
Beautiful movie from master-director Lasse Hallström (The Cider House Rules, The Shipping News, What's Eating Gilbert Grape) with wonderful performances by Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, and Hallström's wife Lena Olin.
"Chocolat" is a very beautiful and touching movie about a single mother with a daughter who decides to open a "chocolaterie" in a very conservative village during Lent.
What follows almost looks like a fairytale: the characters, the story, the music, the whole idea of an old conservative French village
I liked the movie a lot.
The story has all the elements of a wonderful fairy tale yet the perfect direction and the delightfully authentic french setting makes it serious movie.
Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche) and her daughter open a chocolate shop in a small French town where the mayor has suppressed all forms of happiness.
Lasse Hollstrom's latest film, Chocolat, knows all about that person.Juliette Binoche stars as Vianne Rosher, a chocolate shop owner who not only gets people to talk about their forbidden fruits, but also has the ability to make people happily indulge in them.
The guitar-twanging Johnny Depp (reuniting with his Gilbert Grape director), with a ponytail and an Irish accent, compliments her with a rugged look and easygoing charm that makes his fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants character a perfect soulmate for Binoche.I recommend stopping by the candy counter or sneaking in some Fannie May confections before the movie starts.
Then the character Roux (Johnny Depp) is considered a "river rat" by the villagers but ends up as Vianne's own personal piece of chocolate that opens her eyes to happiness.
And it's one of the greatest movies I already saw, with such a good atmosphere and also one of the most appetizing scenes ever.(It's really hard watching this movie while you are on a diet!) (Juliette Binoche is terrific as Vianne Rocher and Johnny Depp as Roux is so sexy!)Viane Rocher is the owner of a chocolaterie in a small Town of France; She and her daughter Anouk are always traveling to different places to live,following the Maya's tradition, since Viane herself is daughter of a Mayan woman.In the small town, Viane makes new friends, and tries to help the people there with her cacao recipes and her talent to guess the deep desires and the favorite chocolates of everybody who talks to her.
Her problems start to complicate when the Comte De Reynaud tries to boycott her store, and a sexy foreigner named Roux come to the small town with his group,making Vianne attracted to him and for the first time not guessing what is his favorite chocolate and what is behind the mysterious guy..
The acting is overall very good, Alfred Molina,Julliete Binoche and Judi Dench specifically are stunning in their roles.I highly recommend this film.
But the story is good as well, without getting boring, speaking about the love that can tie family and friends together, the stereotypes that support closed communities of the countryside and how a simple ingredient like chocolate, can turn everything upside down.
Okay, the film has a first rate cast including the wonderful Oscar Winner Juliette Binoche who plays a single mother who comes to a small village in La Belle France where the rules are governed by a small-minded mayor.
The year is 1959, but it might just as well be a century or more before, for all the intrusion of modern times and technology in this story of a mysterious woman (Binoche) and her daughter who arrive in a small French town and open a chocolate shop during Lent, which angers the mayor, a devout and intolerant count (Molina) who vows to put her out of business.
Binoche is most fetching, Olin fine as a battered wife who blooms (it is magical just for a film buff to contemplate how the actresses and their roles have changed since they were together in "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"), Molina a wonderful "villain," and Judi Dench as a crusty diabetic landlady somehow made me cry nearly every time she came on screen.
Well, when the movie started up, I got the main concept right away and was immediately interested, which they were very satisfactory at material like that, by that I mean, they weren't trying so hard to get the point through of what they wanted you to understand, they just followed the expression, "go with the flow" and that definitely worked out for the unquestionable better for this movie!I immediately fell in love with Juliette Binoche's character Vianne, because they do an excellent job at establishing her character to where you really care for her and admire her, same for many of the other main and supporting characters like Josephine, Armande and Roux.
This movie had amazing character structure which in the end benefited it greatly, because that is one of the things I look for in every movie, that they are able to introduce their characters with strong, effective personalities and dispositions, you understand what they are basically like right away, and magnificently all the actors and actresses were able to do that with their characters, as I have already stated and praised a couple of times; Juliette Binoche deserved an Oscar, and Carrie-Ann Moss, Johnny Depp, Lena Olin, Judi Dench, Alfed Molina etc.
I couldn't help but be so mesmerized and entranced by how wonderfully they were able to create this strange, but lovable atmosphere of these people, not wanting to accept change to their quiet and "cardboard" little town, but then something so simple as chocolate is able to turn all their perspectives on life around all at once, which is a great and true message: The simplest things sometimes can make the biggest impact, and this movie definitely showed that and handled the idea incredibly well.I love this movie, and the whole time I was watching, I had never wanted to consume chocolate so much in my life!
I truly think it is really something special when a movie can just make the audience want to go out and do something or want to cooperate and or feel what the characters are feeling, and I mean that in a good sense of course, because the whole time I was watching this movie, I just wanted to experience these amazing experiences that the characters were experiencing and I even felt jealousy come over me as they obtained these opportunities!This film certainly is nowhere near bad and or mediocre in any way!
With the arrival of some river drifters things become harder for Rocher especially as she tries to help some of the villagers who have been trapped behind the walls of respectability.With heaps of praise for this movie and the cast featuring the promise of the always interesting Johnny Depp, I took the chance to watch this film on television recently hoping for an enjoyable time.
Chocolat is a fantasy-comedy with the owner of a gourmet chocolate shop, Vianne(Juliette Binoche) and her daughter, Anouk, who was born out of wedlock, opening the store during Lent at a small, mostly Catholic village, causing much consternation.
Folks, this was not really about "chocolate." That was just a cover-up for the cultural agenda advanced by the screen writers.Here are just some of the things in the film (facts not opinion):All the Catholics in this small French town are shown to be pious which translates to filmmakers - as portrayed in this movie - as "narrow-minded, stuffy, puritanical, nasty, almost illiterate, etc.
The crude old lady (Judy Dench) who admits her daughter won't have anything to do with her because she drinks and swears and doesn't care what others think, or the main character (Juliette Binoche) who blows into town and promptly turns her nose up at local custom and then acts surprised when some modicum of resistance presents itself to her style, both refuse to recognize other people's sensibilities.
I thought it would be good but it wasn't.A single mum who doesn't go to church arrives in a small town to open a chocolate shop on lent.
it's a good movie, and easy watch, a bit of a feel good (though it does have some down parts), pretty well acted, decent story and makes you want to travel and make chocolate.
The main difference with Chocolat is that it is set in a quaint old French town (the rustic beauty of which is the movie's only redeeming feature from this reviewer's perspective), and it throws in a buckshot load of popular Catholic bashing as something of a bonus.Bringing our comparisons up to date, this slightly surreal film is American Beauty with the town's patriarch and mayor playing the role of the ex-marine across the street.
Very fine movie about the effect one woman, her daughter and her talent for bringing out the best in people in their newest chocolate shop in France.
"The Cider House Rules" director Lasse Hallstrom sees these charms and wisely makes them the focal point of this likable film.Juliette Binoche stars as a mysterious but likable woman name Vianne who comes to a small, bland and morally rigid French town run by the Catholic church and opens a chocolate shop with her imaginative young daughter.
Cold on the outside but clearly soft on the inside, of all the Oscar nominations, somehow Molina's performance -- in my opinion the film's best -- was overlooked.Vianne's chocolate creates quite the stir, improving one couple's love life, inspiring a wife (Lena Olin) to leave her abusive husband and reuniting a old woman (Judi Dench) with her grandson.
The most wonderful thing about this movie has to be the cast, headed by the beautiful Frenchwoman Juliette Binoche as Vianne, a nomad who travels with her daughter and sets up shop in a tiny French village.
I'm not really a big fan of romantic comedies like "Chocolat" but I have to admit that I had a great time watching it on theaters back in 2000.Juliette Binoche's performance is truly tender and brave at some points.
In fact, it fits with the movie's magical tone.The idea of having chocolate as an important part of the plot makes this the perfect romantic date, plus it has Johnny Depp for the ladies.The plot, costumes, settings, and situations are very wise and sweet for almost every kind of audience.Give "Chocolat" a chance and you won't regret but only if you're in the mood..
People enjoy the chocolate, but the shop comes under fire when it stays open during lent, causing temptation among the townspeople.Chocolat has an awesome story that is kept in balance with everything going on in the town it takes place in.
The movie doesn't solely focus on the problems the woman (well played by Juliette Binoche) is having with her chocolate shop, but also with the town's mayor, an abusive husband, a woman's relationship with her mother, and a band of gypsies that come passing through.
Ever since The English patient hit the screens, the charmingly Juliette Binoche is to be enjoyed thoroughly in whatever film she appears in, but in Chocolat, where she roams around as a nomadic one child-mother in her home country France, she gets more out of here performance than just cuteness.Of course, the purpose of the film is a romantic one, with Johnny Depp easily fulfilling his character as a notable gypsy and romantic interest of Binoche, and Alfred Molina as the classic malefactor in this story of the powers of chocolate.
But the well casted Binoche steals the show with her French savoir-faire on the subtleties of yearning and seduction.Not seduction in a Sharon Stone way, A Kim Basinger or even a Jennifer Lopez way, but one that makes her a true believable girl next door, while still keeping that enigmatic secret, that every nomad seems to have.While we must not forget the nice performance of the supporting actors (of which Alfred Molina and Judi Dench stand out), it is Binoche that shows how to incorporate a romantic story with a deeper layer, without getting corny or boring, although we all know where it's gonna end.And that's where romantic films need to score: on a niche in the thematic material, or the characters of the romance, who want to be followed through their hurdles-taking.Chocolat succeeds handsomely with this, which makes it recommended not only for enamored couples of any age, but of everyone who wants a taste of what gives people their energy in struggling for a place of their own..
All the actors in this awful travesty -- Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, even the cute little dogs -- have done far better work, which "Chocolat" is obviously trying to cash in on.In short, a good date movie -- if your date just happened to have had a lobotomy.
I am not normally into human film stories and are more of an action movie person, however the storyline was surprisingly quick moving and always left you with a warm feeling and wanting to know what is going to happen next in the lives of each of the people who Binoche's character has impacted upon.
Such a beautiful story and a beautiful cast, I always feel that the mark of a good film is when you cannot think of anyone who could have played each of the roles any better.
this is the kind of movie that transport you to a different world and actually the main character which is the Chocolat has a very intelligent and creative way to show into the film .
But it was about so much more than just the amazingly delicious-looking chocolate.Juliette Binoche is amazingly charming and enchanting, playing the lead role in this fairy tale about a woman named Vianne and her daughter who move to a repressed small town in France, and throw it into turmoil by attacking the taboos of the townspeople one by one.
We are being told of a woman (Juliette Binoche) who, along with her daughter, arrive to the village square to open a chocolate shop.
Is the colorful movie in which the charming Juliet Binoche plays a lovely roll as Vianne, a single mother who came out of nowhere with a cute little daughter to set up shop in a 1950ies village in central France.
Juliette Binoche play a woman who moves to town with her young daughter and open a chocolate shop.
This gorgeous and moving film has been unfairly compared to "Like Water For Chocolate," which was a completely different movie with a very different story. |
tt0069289 | Snoopy Come Home | Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang go to the beach for the day. Once there, Snoopy promises to go back to the beach the next day to meet up with Peppermint Patty. After Charlie Brown has gone home to play Monopoly with the others, he notices Snoopy is late and remarks he is tired of Snoopy being late. The next day, Snoopy is thrown off the beach due to a new "No Dogs Allowed on this beach" rule (thus setting a running gag in the film). Then Snoopy gets thrown out of a library due to his disruptive behavior and another "No Dogs Allowed in library" rule. He then gets into a fight with Linus over his blanket, and later beats Lucy in a boxing match.
Later, Snoopy receives a letter from a girl named Lila, who has been in the hospital for three weeks for unspecified reasons and needs Snoopy to keep her company. Upon receiving the letter, Snoopy immediately sets off with Woodstock to go see her, leaving Charlie Brown completely in the dark as to who Lila is. Linus decides to do some investigating, and discovers that Lila is Snoopy's original owner; Charlie Brown faints upon hearing this.
En route to see Lila, Snoopy and Woodstock are forced to face the challenges of a world full of signs declaring "No Dogs Allowed." Each instance - on a bus, a train, and elsewhere - is musically accented by the deep tones of Thurl Ravenscroft. The pair are briefly adopted as pets by an animal-obsessed girl (identified as Clara in the theatrical poster and closed-captioning), but manage to escape. Snoopy and Woodstock camp out, and play football and music while preparing dinner.
Snoopy finally reaches the hospital, but again no dogs are allowed inside. To add further insult, the hospital does not allow birds to enter either. Snoopy is foiled in his first attempt to sneak into Lila's room, but his second attempt is successful. He then keeps Lila company for the rest of his stay. Lila tells Snoopy that his visit helped her to get better. She then asks Snoopy to go home with her, but he has doubts about this idea. Snoopy decides to go back home to Charlie Brown. However, when he sees Lila watching him tearfully from her hospital window, Snoopy finds that it's too hard to leave with her feelings hurt so badly. He runs back to her, which she takes as a sign that he wants to live with her. But first, he needs to return to "settle his affairs" and say goodbye. Snoopy writes a letter directing that certain items of his will be given away: Linus is given his croquet and chess sets, while Schroeder receives Snoopy's record collection.
The kids throw Snoopy a large, tearful going-away party, each one bringing a gift. The kids closest to Snoopy get up to say a few words in his honor. But when it is Charlie Brown's turn to speak, he is overwhelmed to the point of silence. After giving Snoopy his present, he finally cries out in pain with Snoopy doing likewise. The rest of the gang, even Lucy, eventually follows suit when Schroeder plays "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" on his piano after Snoopy opens his mountain of presents (every single gift is a dog bone).
After Snoopy leaves, Charlie Brown is unable to sleep or eat. When Snoopy arrives at Lila's apartment building the next day, he sees a sign next to the front door that says "No dogs allowed in this building". Snoopy is overjoyed that this gives him an excuse to return to Charlie Brown. Lila arrives and Snoopy is reluctantly introduced to her pet cat. Snoopy shows Lila the sign, and Lila has no choice but to allow Snoopy to leave. Snoopy leaves Lila behind and joyfully returns to Charlie Brown and the others.
Back home, the children are overjoyed to see Snoopy return, carrying him on high to his dog house. Once there, Snoopy demands that the kids return the items he had given them before he left, turning their feelings to annoyance. The gang then leaves Charlie Brown and Snoopy together, then Charlie Brown walks crossly away. The film ends with end credits being typed out by Woodstock as Snoopy dictates. | psychedelic, cute | train | wikipedia | I was crushed, especially by the scene at the farewell party for Snoopy, when Charlie Brown goes to the podium and tries to find the words to say goodbye to his dog, his friend.
I was choking up really bad, having had a collie for some years at that time, I could not fathom not having him around, so it hit home.Now when I think of it, I also enjoy the music, the trip the twosome-Snoopy and Woodstock, take, the 'No Dogs Allowed' running themes, the over all melancholy feeling that pervades the film.I think its the best of the Peanuts flix, and recommend it highly today too.*** outta ****.
I didn't remember how sad this story is, especially Charle Browns song he sings late at night losing sleep wondering where Snoopy is and if he's really gone for good.
my favorite peanuts cartoon with the best music ( me and you, two man crew) and Charlie Brown singing a melancholy tune about Snoopy being gone while putting his head against the wall.
I last saw it on Disney channel many moons ago and wonder why it is not played more often on TV or cable.Great movie and recommended for fans of snoopy and the gang everywhere.watch it with your dog or remember past dogs.
I remember this Peanuts movie-special, along with A Boy Named Charlie Brown, fondly as a kid, when they replayed these specials on Nickelodeon (or it might have been Disney's channel, can't remember which).
Note my two favorite scenes: when Sally absent-mindedly grabs Snoopy's nose through the library bookcase (and her little smile afterwards), and when Woodstock falls asleep watching the flock of birds pass gracefully overhead.And the music is on par with anything you'd hear in an old Looney Tunes cartoon.
Notice how the carnival music shares its melody with the sad song Charlie Brown sings after Snoopy leaves the second time?
I give this movie a six because although it is a favorite, it obviously isn't a masterpiece, but the music is great and it's a must see if you are a Peanuts fan.I think I saw this movie for the first time when I was about 4 or 5.
Then after Snoopy has run away, Charlie Brown does this monologue and sings a song.
Snoopy makes a cross-country journey, and is then torn between staying with his former owner, who needs him, and returning to the place he considers home.Though the animation is still fairly simple here, it's a notch above the usual Peanuts movies and specials - check out the beautiful backgrounds of the beach scenes, or the wonderful palettes displayed as Snoopy and Woodstock travel at sunset.
Others, like Snoopy and Woodstock's "Me and You" theme, are pure early 70s (think The Association) and unfortunately date the movie.The voice work is generally good, unlike the more recent Peanuts entries where sounding somewhat like the original voices doesn't seem to be a prerequisite.
The Sherman Brothers (a great songwriting team in general) score may not receive a lot of attention by all viewers of this film, but it's terrific.Especially "Me and you/A two man crew/Side by side we're united" plus the title song and Charlie Brown's solo "It Changes"..
This starts a chain reaction that begins a string of frustration within Snoopy...More snubbing comes from other members of the Peanuts gang when what started off as being a bit of fun with Linus and his security blanket soon turns sadistic and nasty, once again with Snoopy on the losing end.Snoopy then has a bit of fun with Linus' elder sister Lucy, who is using boxing gloves, and they have a bit of a light-hearted spar, but again Snoopy pushes things that little bit too far and ends up upsetting Lucy and she spits the dummy at him.Shortly afterwards, Snoopy receives a letter from a mysterious girl named Lila, who is in hospital and for some reason craves his presence.
Snoopy and his bird friend Woodstock (making his animated film debut here) suddenly set off to meet her.
Their journey is plagued by quite a few of the famous 'No dogs allowed'-type signs, which again do little to heighten the spirits of our favourite beagle!Eventually, however, Snoopy and Woodstock reach the hospital where Lila is staying, and her spirit does indeed rise when the dog suddenly appears by her bedside and enriches her enthusiasm.
However, little does Snoopy know that she will practically coax her into doing something that will really tug at his heart-strings...I first saw this film as a boy in my early tens, and even when I watch it now it has lost none of its ability to endear and -- in particular -- choke.
There is also some spot humour, much of which is caused by Woodstock's erratic flying and Snoopy's constantly being taunted by the 'No dogs allowed' signs permating his venture.Recommended, but don't expect your eyes to be anything other than moist at some point in the film!.
I never forgot the scene with Charlie Brown singing mournfully after Snoopy leaves "for good." Even now I get goosebumps thinking about him standing next to Snoopy's empty doghouse, and laying in bed knowing his World War I Flying Ace isn't outside to protect him from the Red Baron.
I was expecting it to be alot like "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" (1969) the first Peanuts feature.This film is good on its own.
I especially liked the scenes where he and Snoopy are on their way to visit Lila in the hospital.
Their "buddy" scenes are great.There is not much use of the Peanuts gang in this film Charlie Brown has a new and different voice for this film.
This is a Great Movie which I got to see in 1990 from a Laser disc we rented.This also gives us an idea about the origins of Snoopy and his original owner Leila.The soundtrack is also great.I watched this movie with my niece and nephew who enjoyed it much as I did back then.I liked the part when Charlie Brown said "It took that rock 5,000 years to come to shore, now your putting it back".This is a movie which can be enjoyed by the family.It takes me to an earlier time of innocence.I wish things were a lot simpler now as it was then..
He runs away from home to see Lila and meets this little girl who wants to keep Snoopy and Woodstock.
Snoopy goes to Lila and while leaving his Doghouse with the "For sale or to let" sign on it Woodstock runs after him crying while we can hear this really sad song in the background which later Charlie Brown is singing in his deep depression.
No wonder I always get upset when see somebody kick someone in the leg like Snoopy did to Linus,etc.I would recommend this movie to everyone because its beautiful, but warn children with weaker soul( I just cant find the right expression), because it can leave serious marks in a child's life.
Snoopy Come Home is really a sad movie with bits of humor sprinkled in here and there.
It was great to see the Peanuts gang in their first film after A Boy Named Charlie Brown but i thought it was an emotional kids movie since the mood swung from happy to sad and back to happy again.
It started happy when Snoopy went to the beach to meet Peppermint Patty than went to sad when we first saw Lila, Snoopy's original owner in the hospital, lonely and sad while we heard the song "Do You Remember Me?" one of several songs in the movie written by The Sherman Brothers.
Also memorable were several scenes where Snoopy got kicked out of various places with a bass voice (Thurl Ravenscroft) bellowing "NO DOGS ALLOWED!" I thought the scenes where everybody was in tears at Snoopy's going-away party and Charlie Brown choking up were so sad.
Two haunting songs: "No Dogs Allowed" and "Snoopy Come home." Other songs also, but not really a musical.
That's all I will say to avoid spoilers.See this movie is you love Charlie Brown...I just don't suggest that you see it every couple of days..
We learn about Snoopy's origins and wonder whether he comes home to Charlie Brown or to his first owner.
This movie was always a favorite when I was young and I still enjoy it.Snoopy is one of my favorite cartoon characters and he doesn't disappoint in this film.
I love the scenes where he fights with Linus over his blanket and also where he quarrels Lucy in a boxing match.Basically the story involves Snoopy being called back to his previous owner Lila who is sick in the hospital.
Snoopy frantically runs off along with one of his best pals Woodstock but doesn't give Charlie Brown a reason for doing so.
Finally they are both able to escape from the girl and they go back on their journey.Meanwhile Charlie Brown can't figure out why Snoopy left other than a note with the name Lila on it and even his friends start to think they had something to do with it.
This is no doubt the saddest part of the movie.Of course Snoopy goes to meet Lila but he seems like he would rather be at home with Charlie.
This time, Snoopy goes to visit his once owner, who is sick, and feels that he must stay with her, ensuing Charlie Brown behind to recover his pooch.
It wasn't until this film and 'A Boy Named Charlie Brown' before that the Peanuts Gang was in theaters, followed by two other features.
Released in 1972 - Snoopy, Come Home is an animated musical comedy-drama film directed by Bill Melendez and written by Charles M.
The film marked the on-screen debut of Woodstock, who had first appeared in the strip in 1967.As the story goes - Charlie Brown's beloved dog Snoopy receives a letter from his original owner, Lila, who has been sick in the hospital.With his bird friend Woodstock, Snoopy goes to visit Lila, making his way across the country despite seeing "no dogs allowed" signs everywhere.When Lila gets better, she asks Snoopy to live with her.
After a farewell party, he sets out to live with Lila, leaving Charlie Brown depressed..
not as good as "A Boy Named Charlie Brown", but a very delightful movie, ironically enough, because it can make you cry.
Schulz's marvelous comic strip Peanuts (which actually has evolved into so much more than that) is Charlie Brown the classic American un-success story.
"A Boy Named Charlie Brown" moved and touched me in so many ways that I went on to call it the best animated film I've ever seen.
Now "Snoopy Come Home" is not as good as the first movie, but it is memorable not because it completes the feeling of the Peanuts world as the first movie did, but because it's arguably the most saddening.In this movie, we come to discover that Snoopy was not always Charlie Brown's dog.
After rendezvousing with Lila, Snoopy them finds himself feeling he has to leave Charlie Brown and commit himself to his former owner.This is a very sad premise and "Snoopy Come Home", especially in its last half-hour, turns out to be a very sad movie.
Most of the movie focuses on Snoopy and Woodstock, but there are some moments that revolve around the other characters such as Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, and Schroeder.
The songs are also, I'm afraid, not memorable.But in the end, my few gripes aside, I very much enjoyed "Snoopy Come Home" and I've found it a lot more fun than a lot of modern day movies, animated or otherwise if, ironically enough, because it made me feel very sad.
It's not as good as "A Boy Named Charlie Brown", but it most certainly is enjoyable and a must-see for Peanuts fans..
When they find that she is in the hospital, they are happy that their presence seems to be helping her get better but when she goes to be looked after at home, Snoopy is forced to decide if he goes with her or not.I'm a reasonable fan of Peanuts but must admit that the strip is rarely enough to make me laugh out loud and is more about the melancholy than anything else.
The only one of the Peanuts specials with "Snoopy" on the title instead of "Charlie Brown".
"Snoopy Come Home" is the 2nd of the 4 Peanuts specials.
This is an improvement over the previous "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" in some ways.There is some nice score, such as the hilarious song "No dogs allowed" and the beautiful but sad songs "Do you remember me?" and "It changes".Unlike the first movie, here both Peppermint Patty and Woodstock appear, although Marcie is still missing.
I think they should have found a way to make she and Charlie Brown meet sometimes, so that she and Snoopy had the chance to visit each other occasionally.
Charlie Brown and Lila could even be friends...During good part of the movie there is a sad atmosphere: Lila's illness and loneliness, the Peanuts gang missing Snoopy a lot (mostly Charlie Brown, who is most sensitive about this).
Like Charlie Brown, I hate goodbyes and I'd rather more hellos.The journey of America's favorite Beagle and Woodstock to visit Lila at the hospital is admirable, as well as everything they go through because of all those "No dogs allowed" signs (including one that forbids both dogs and birds, which is discrimination against animals).The worst aspects concerning this film are the following ones: the sequence when Linus and Snoopy hurt each other, which is a bit disturbing considering this is a kid's movie; the boxing match sequence with Lucy and Snoopy; any sequence with "the terrorist" (there is something creepy about that girl, plus these sequences are traumatic for Snoopy and Woodstock); and, of course, most parts with Lucy.
I just don't like Lucy, she's obnoxious, unfair and mean to Snoopy, Charlie Brown and even Linus.On the other hand, some things don't fit very well.
That lovable gang of children, with Snoopy, the worry-wart Charlie Brown's pet beagle, is the center of it all.This movie, Snoopy Come Home, is a great film, for young and for old.
First of all, I have to say that I've always loved the "Peanuts" comic strip and the delightfully witty antics of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and Lucy.
And I saw "A Boy named Charlie Brown" at the theatre as a kid and still love it.
I never saw "Snoopy Come Home" at the theatre,probably because I felt that I was getting too old for the Peanuts gang.
Then there is a very dark and very sad plot line, involving Snoopy leaving Charlie and the gang to visit his original owner,Leila in the hospital.
I know this was a story line from the strip, but in the strip, Charlie Brown and the others don't seem to come off as badly as they do in this film.
That was the only time I felt any sense of the joy of the classic "Peanuts" specials, although I did get kind of a kick out of Thurl Ravenscroft singing "No Dogs Allowed" whenever Snoopy saw a sign with that on it.
Snoopy's farewell party and Charlie Brown's sad lamentation are truly heart-wrenching.
He gets into a blanket war with Linus, breaks a date on the beach with Peppermint Patty because of the "No Dogs allowed" signs and boxes with Lucy to cool off.Suddenly, he receives a letter from Lila, his first owner, who tells him she is in the hospital and wants him to visit her.
A shocked and obviously upset Snoopy packs up, calls for Woodstock (Who makes his first appearance in the animated continued here) and heads off to meet up with her, leaving a very confused Charlie Brown holding Lila's letter.After lots of traveling, including an encounter with a crazy girl who tries to adopt Snoopy and Woodstock as her own pets and more of the "No Dogs Aloowed" signs, he arrives at the hospital and his presence makes Lila better.
A farewell party is held and Snoopy receives a fond farewell and a ton of gifts before he leaves a emotionally distraught Charlie Brown and crying little Woodstock behind.
"Lila's Song" and "It Changes(Charlie Brown's sad song)" are moving, "Geting it together", "Snoopy Come Home" and "We're the best of buddies (Me and You)" are fun and up beat and "At the Beach", "Fundimetally (The weird girls' song she sings to 'Rex')" and "No Dog's Allowed" are OK, but not one of my favorites.The only part I don't like that much is the scene with the girl that "Adopts" Snoopy and Woodstock, calls Snoopy "Rex" and stats that she'll feed him table scraps, forces him to have a tea party with her, spanks him for "spilling" tea on his "Dress", chokes him with a rope leash and drags him to a vet!
As a kid,I watched "Snoopy,Come Home" on CBS every time it was on.
I wouldn't have admitted it when I was younger but the scenes between Lila & Snoopy plus Charlie & The kids saying good-bye at Snoopy's farewell party did make me sad.
I never forgot the songs from this,"Snoopy,Come Home","No Dogs Allowed","It Changes" and of course "Me and You (A Two Man Crew").
I am a huge fan of Snoopy and the Peanuts Gang, I grew up with their specials and reading their comics.I was very young when I first saw Snoopy Come Home.
I still recall all the emotions I felt when I watch it.Normally when you watch a film with Charlie Brown, Linus, Snoopy and all the Peanut gang you would expect to be given humor throughout however this time you get more.
Snoopy Come Home really pulls at your heart and your soul for it emotional story and gives you a better appreciate for all those you love.The film does a superb job at getting to your emotions.
On the plus side, the animation is charming, and you do feel for Charlie Brown with what he has to go through in the film. |
tt0072979 | Female Trouble | Dawn Davenport (Divine) is a rebellious bad-girl teenager who smokes cigarettes, uses hairspray, and doesn't care about school. Dawn and her two best friends, Chicklette (Susan Walsh) and Concetta (Cookie Mueller), discuss the upcoming Christmas holiday. All three of them intend on using Christmas simply for financial gain, but Dawn has something particular in mind; she has requested "cha cha heels", and she assures her two friends that there will be trouble if her parents let her down.Christmas morning, Dawn's very square parents wake her up to open presents, and Dawn makes a beeline for a certain package the size of a shoebox; it does contain shoes, but not cha-cha heels. "Nice girls don't wear cha-cha heels!" exclaims Dawn's father, but Dawn is furious. She stomps on the rest of the Christmas presents, hurls her mother into the Christmas tree, and curses her parents, running away from home.Outside in her nightgown, coat and slippers on Christmas morning, she is picked up by a sleazy-looking man named Earl Peterson (also played by Divine). Earl takes her to a dump and has sex with her on a dirty mattress, and Dawn steals his wallet. Nine months later, Dawn is living in a cheap hotel and very pregnant. She phones Earl at work and demands money, but he hangs up on her. Dawn stumbles back into the hotel and immediately gives birth to a baby girl she names Taffy, cutting the umbilical cord with her own teeth.Years later, Taffy is an obnoxious preteen girl, and Dawn is working in a number of jobs, including a waitress, a stripper, and a prostitute. She also is a petty thief, working together with Chicklette and Concetta. After Taffy erupts with some particularly annoying behavior, the frustrated Dawn gets Chicklette and Concetta to help chain the child to her bed in the attic. Dawn is despondent about the pressures of being a mother, and Chicklette and Concetta encourage her to pamper herself by getting her hair done at The Lipstick Beauty Salon, where patrons must audition for an appointment.Dawn is immediately favored by the snobbish owners of The Lipstick, Donald and Donna Dasher (David Lochary and Mary Vivian Pearce). She also gets her hair done by Gator Nelson (Michael Potter), who proposes marriage the same day. Gator just happens to be Dawn's next-door neighbor, where he lives with his Aunt Ida (Edith Massey), an obese, elderly woman who dresses outrageously and encourages her nephew to be gay. Aunt Ida is heartbroken when Dawn and Gator get married, and she clashes with Dawn repeatedly thereafter.Dawn and Gator are married for five years before things start to fall apart. Gator cheats on her with various women, while Ida harasses her by doing things like dumping garbage in her back yard. Taffy grows into a strange teenager who likes to play "car accident", where she re-enacts fatal car crashes using props. One day, after a bad fight with Gator (he places a carrot in Dawn's mouth during sexual climax), Dawn goes to get her hair done and is called into the private quarters of the Dashers, who inform her that they want her to be a model for them. The Dashers are obsessed with crime and feel that it is connected to beauty, and they ask that Dawn be their "crime model". In return, she gets special treatment and they immediately honor her request to fire Gator.Gator becomes enraged and decides to leave Baltimore for Detroit, so that he can become part of the auto industry. Aunt Ida, who is still trying to fix Gator up with other men, becomes insane with sadness. Before Gator leaves, he punches Dawn in the face and gives her a black eye. The Dashers join her at her home for dinner that evening and are thrilled by her black eye, photographing it. Taffy embarasses Dawn by starting an argument, and Dawn smashes a chair over her back, rendering her unconscious. The Dashers are thrilled, photographing the fight, but they are even more excited when Aunt Ida forces her way into the house and hurls acid in Dawn's face, scarring her for life.After Dawn recovers from her wounds, her face is horribly mutilated, but the Dashers convince her that her wounds are 'beauty marks', and she refuses plastic surgery. They also redecorate her home and buy her new clothes. Dawn's final treat is Ida herself, kidnapped and imprisoned in a bird cage for Dawn's amusement.Taffy enrages Dawn by insisting that Dawn tell her the whereabouts of her father, Earl, but when Taffy finds him, he makes drunken sexual advances towards her. As a result, Taffy stabs him to death and runs from the scene.The Dashers escalate their experiment with Dawn, injecting her with liquid eyeliner and telling her it is like drugs. Dawn is so influenced by them that she no longer knows what is real and what isn't. They design a stage show for her, and on opening night she is visited backstage by Taffy, who has converted to a hare krishna. Dawn strangles her to death in front of the Dashers and her friends, who cheer her on. On stage, Dawn fires a gun into the crowd, killing an audience member. A riot breaks out, with several more audience members killed in the melee. The Dashers are arrested, but Dawn escapse and hides out in the woods. She isn't a fugitive for long; she is found and brought back to Baltimore for trial.Dawn feels no remorse for her crime, considering the trial the highest reward for her 'career', but she is outraged when the Dashers turn tail and try to deny their involvement in everything. For their testimony they are granted immunity, and Dawn gets the death sentence. Her stint in jail leads her to believe she is a superstar, and her criminal celebrity will endure after she is dead. As they strap Dawn into the electric chair, she launches into a speech where she thanks everybody for this crowning moment, and they throw the switch, killing her. | comedy, murder, cult, violence, insanity, psychedelic, absurd, satire, queer | train | imdb | "Female Trouble" is one of John Water's best movies, probably the best of his pre-respectable (read: pre-"Hairspray") flicks.
Posessing a much more strong (and bizarre) plotline than the also brilliant "Pink Flamingos", "Female Trouble" documents the exploits of Dawn Davenport, a horrible juvenial delinquent turned criminal played by the unbeatable Divine.
This was Water's last film to features his entire original ensemble of actors (Divine, David Lochary, Mink Stole, Mary Vivian Pierce, and Edith Massey) and each has a memorable and hilarious role.
Stole steals the show as Dawn's "retarded" 14 year old daughter, but Edith Massey is also great as Aunt Ida, who constantly urges her nephew Gator to turn gay ("The world of the heterosexual is a sick and boring life!").
Although John Waters is best known for "Pink Flamingos", his two best films are "Female Trouble" and "Desperate Living".
Well, as far as "Female Trouble" is concerned, it is the film that invented Dawn Davenport (Divine), one of the trashiest white schoolgirl tramps ever to strut her stuff in a pair of cha-cha heels.
You will laugh, you will cry, you will vomit and you will die as you behold the deliciously disgraceful antics of the indefatigable queen of crime and sleaze.All the delightful Waters regulars (the achingly gorgeous Edith Massey, the fantastically filthy David Lochary, the marvellous Mink Stole and the putrid Ms. Mary Vivian Pearce) are paraded about like proud circus exhibits as Waters' weaves a rags to bitches story of one woman's rise from the suburbs of Baltimore to her fall in a city without pity.Certainly this was one of the first films to explore the issue of criminals becoming celebrities.
For mine, Waters lost his zing after "Desperate Living" when his movies got softer and his characters started turning up on TV shows like "Wally George", "Jerry Springer" and the earlier "Oprah" eps.
All of the great elements of John Waters' films mesh together perfectly in this hilarious romp that operates around the theme of 'crime is beauty.' All of the classic John Waters' actors are here, and most of them give their best performances.
John Waters has said that this film is the 'ultimate Divine vehicle', and he's right.
This is not the most accesible of Waters' films, and truthfully, this probably isn't the one to start with if you're not yet a fan (I would recommend Polyester or Hairspray in that case), but if you want to see an early work thats not quite as gross as the others, check it out!
John Waters obsession with serial killers and their ilk is strongly represented here.Female Trouble was shot on 16mm , in color and has been shown in several different running times.Highly recommended.A+.
The makeup was beyond belief.That was the good things about the film that featured an outrageous star in Divine, a transvestite that played Dawn Davenport.
He is definitely on the cutting edge in outrageous humor, horror, and satire.This film on the outrageous cult of celebrity is no more outrageous than the current obsession in the media with Paris Hilton.If you haven't seen a John Waters film, check out the Sundance Channel for this one..
Sure, "Desperate Living" is a great film, but Divine is just someone that goes hand-in-hand with Waters (like Joe Dallesandro with Paul Morrissey).
Even though "Female Trouble" is lesser known than "Desperate Living" or "Pink Flamingos", it is better than those two films put together!
John Waters' first film with an actual coherent script and plotline, Divine gives the performance of her career as Dawn Davenport, the juvenile delinquent turned full-time criminal.
All of the best Waters alumni are here (only missing later star Jean Hill) and are their best: David Lochary as Donald Dasher, Mary Vivian Pearce as Donna Dasher, Mink Stole as Taffy, Cookie Mueller and Susan Walsh as Dawn's sleazy cohorts, Susan Lowe as a bitchy secretary, and last but definitely not least, Edith Massey as bizarro Aunt Ida!
"Female Trouble" features Waters' best writing to date (50% of the lines are instant classics), best costume design, best set design, and best gimmick (Divine raping "himself"!).
Funnily enough, around the time that Divine sits in the crib with the pile of dead fish I started thinking about the words of the Bomb Squad's Hank Shocklee - "If they want noise, let's give them NOISE!" Yes, friends, Waters is the queer Public Enemy, tying identity to culture, cranking the most alienating elements of same to 11, and losing great chunks of his own demographic in the spectacular, chaotic process.
It's funny as hell, dirty as anything I've seen, and it makes you wonder what other gold you've missed from that time period.Female Trouble works on many levels.
Pick any line at random; you'll find it will be appropriate to use SOME time during your life....I personally like this movie best of Waters' work.
One of John Waters' very best films from his earlier years is the cult classic, "Female Trouble".
Edith Massey puts on a great performance as Aunt Ida delivering such classic lines as "I worry that you'll work in an office, have children, celebrate wedding anniversaries...the world of a heterosexual is a sick and boring life!".
Some classic scenes from this movie include Dawn toppling the Christmas Tree on top of her mother, the infamous scene where Divine gives birth to baby Taffy (she chews off the umbilical cord and spits it on the wall!) and the even more infamous scene where Divine (in drag) has sex with Divine (out of drag...complete with "skid marks" in his underwear!)...and this is just scratching the surface of the outrageous scenes in "Female Trouble"..
There are so many classic, quotable lines its almost impossible to choose favorites, although the foul mouthed and threatening school girls are particularly funny, and Edith Massey gets some of the best lines throughout the rest of the movie.
Though it's one of John Waters' less notorious films, "Female Trouble" finds him at his peak.
Where "Flamingos" had long, boring stretches between the shockingly hilarious scenes, "Female Trouble" is interesting all the way through.Divine is good, as always, but it's Mink Stole who steals the show as her hyper-active daughter Taffy (I was in stitches when she was squirting ketchup all over herself, playing "car crash").
A Must-See. Long before John Waters was turning out "mainstream"-type fair like Cry Baby and Pecker, he was creating underground masterworks such as this and Pink Flamingos and Multiple Maniacs.
Female Trouble, I think, stands out as the best of the cult movies of the '70s (with the exception, perhaps, of the Honeymoon Killers) because it is a fully realized masterwork, not just a series of "shocking" scenes strung together.
A true comedy masterpiece, from director/writer John Waters (Hairspray, Pink Flamingos), starring the very large Divine, in a tour de force performance.
The major reason why John Waters has emerged as one of the most distinctive American filmmakers with his early cheap and trashy flicks in the 70s and why people still watch them as cult classics is that they brutally expose, with amplification, the hideous reality of the U.S. suburb under its beautiful surface.
"Female Trouble" is another one of my favorite John Water's films.
Devine was certainly no stranger to trash films when John Waters assembled the cast of this Baltimore gem, and it shows.
Two years off of his Pink Flamingos fame, John Waters returns to the screen to prove he is the true filth elder of the seventies.
While that, at times, felt like it was testing the audience's capacity for shock, Female Trouble sticks to a solid story about a troubled teen or later evolves into a trouble adult.The teenager is drag-queen Divine, cementing the fact that he has an unsung talent for overacting and slapstick.
After she fails to receive the "cha-cha heels" she wants for Christmas, Dawn runs away, winds up being raped by an odious, disgusting man (also played by Divine, outside of drag), gives birth to a kid, and adapts to a fearless life of crime.Her daughter grows up to be just as outspoken and surly as she herself.
The daughter, played by Mink Stole who purposely looks as if she's thirty, is hilarious in every scene she occupies and continues the line of John Waters' secondary characters who overact and are victim to circumstance.Edith Massey makes an appearance has Dawn's lover's Aunt Ida, a morbidly obese woman who always struts her stuff in fishnets and tight costumes.
Apparently, Waters paid frequent visits to prison, where he met the Manson family and adopted the phrase "crime is beautiful" in this film.Also boasting a restoration for the 2000's decade, Female Trouble looks grainy, dirty, and washed out after only being shot on 16mm and then blown up to 32mm.
The result is very strange, and Waters' cheaply constructed editing style can be noted in the film, much like Pink Flamingos.
Female Trouble celebrates its bad, indescribable roots with hysterical characters and a message that is sure to go unseen.Starring: Divine, David Lochary, Edith Massey, Mink Stole, and Mary Vivian Pearce.
Before John Waters became mainstream, he made a whole series of art-house movies like this using grotesque characters and ridiculous story lines, but somehow they worked.
I rented pink flamingos and female trouble came with it.Both are john waters movies and i wanted to see pink flamingos first.
If you rented the pink flamingo's Dvd watch the other movie that came with it.This is one of john water's underrated classics.
This is John Waters' funniest, and most shocking movies, right up there with Pink Flamingos.
(In this case, I should say Pink Flamingos is right up there with this.) This is definitely John Waters best movie.
Though it's not as notorious as its predecessor, "Pink Flamingos," "Female Trouble" is head and shoulders above that film.
She hitchhikes & has sex on a dirty old mattress in a lot (Divine plays both roles Dawn & the guy who picks her up with poop-stained underwear) & becomes a single mom to her daughter Taffy.
It is still going through my head...."I got problems/Female Trouble..." Anyway, this film movies swiftly, and delivers many fists to the gut...Divine is 100% into this film.
And Edith Massey, well, You just have to see her in that black outfit...it almost makes me believe there is no good...what a frightening image to hold on celluloid.Get this movie, it is a true classic from the Waters vault...not as raunchy as Flamingos, but it offers much more, a bizzare story, with bizzare characters, that in many ways, works for the new millenium.9 out of 10.
In his first film after his magnum opus, "Pink Flamingos," John Waters bad-girl epic was his most fully conceived at the time.
But Waters takes the concept to its ridiculous extreme by following Dawn Davenport into adulthood, where a life a crime is complemented by motherhood and a career as a "crime model." A stand out performance is turned in by Mink Stole, as Dawn's bratty daughter, one of the few people in the film who pull off what normal folks would call "acting." Also, Waters improves on his earlier films by using the disgusting scenes as devices to move the plot forward.
While Pink Flamingos is so gross and outrageous its funny, Female Trouble is just a flat out hilarious film.
Female Trouble is John Waters' best film.
Female Trouble is John Waters' follow up to his breakthrough hit Pink Flamingos and anyone that saw that movie will know exactly what to expect.
I think a viewer's opinion on John Waters will largely depend on what exactly they want from movies and thus this is not a film for everyone...and it didn't do much for me.
Some Fun to Be Had. Female Trouble (1974) ** 1/2 (out of 4)John Waters' film takes a look at the life of Dawn Davenport (Divine), an obnoxious and spoiled brat who flips out on Christmas morning because she doesn't get what she wanted from her parents.
From here we see her downfall, which starts with her getting pregnant and this eventually leads to her meeting two weirdos who like taking pictures of violent crimes.FEMALE TROUBLE was the follow-up to PINK FLAMINGOS and I've heard several interview with Waters where he talks about why he didn't want this film to try and top that one.
It's clear that this film doesn't reach the same vulgar and shocking levels of PINK FLAMINGOS but at the same time I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed that it doesn't quite reach the same grossness.I think the greatest things going on in the film is the performance by Divine.
Several of Waters' regulars appear including Edith Massey who even gets a nude scene!The film contains some pretty "bad" moments in regards to the sleaze including one sequence where a dad tries to have sex with his daughter.
Sheri need to play the part like she did in The Devil Rejects.Marlyin Manson as Dawn Davenport, he would probably have a fat suit on,I think he would play the part excellent,Divine was way out there in real/personal life as well as Marylin Manson.
This afternoon I was watching a rerun of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood on PBS and thinking about watching some of John Waters' film Female Trouble, and it occurred to me that both shows were very wholesome, at least for me, and that I should post an explanation of why I think they are.
You expect it to be silly like most of the rest of the film, but I think Waters wanted to project a real sense of pathos there.
Now, in saying these things, I'm not implying that Waters was trying to make an "edifying" film when he made Female Trouble.
This is NOT one of those cute little John Waters films like CRY BABY or SERIAL MOM that you and your family can watch and enjoy together.
Divine is at his/her most outrageous--with the only prison movie performance MORE amateurish and over-the-top than Susan Hayward in I WANT TO LIVE--which, in many ways, this film parodies in the final segment.
John Waters certainly isn't everyone's cup of tea, but those who appreciate his sense of humor and his sense of bathos will love this film, and won't be satisfied (or fully appreciative of it) until they see it multiple times.The fabulous Divine stars as Dawn Davenport, a juvenile delinquent turned stripper/petty thief/hooker/abusive mother turned shrewish wife/model/celebrity turned mass murderer turned death row inmate, and pulls the multiple transitions off flawlessly.
(He/she also transitions into the role as the father of Dawn's daughter Taffy, the result of a Christmas day quickie - one of the most disgusting and hilarious sex scenes ever captured on film - at least for public viewing.) While Divine, Mink Stole (as teenage Taffy Davenport), and David Lochary (as Donald Dasher, the beauty salon owner) are the only actors with real ability, the rest of the oddball cast complements perfectly the oddball storyline and dialog.I saw the film as a satire of life in America (or maybe life anywhere) - its obsession with celebrity, scandal, and materialism at the expense of family, faith, and true self-fulfillment, conveyed on film as only John Waters can..
Anyway, Dawn ends up married to a guy named Gator, who works at the salon, and looks an awfully lot like Crackers from Pink Flamingos, but isn't.
Well, probably no one, but they might, if we kill people.After Pink Flamingos, John Waters probably felt that his next project would have a lot to live up to, so, making an impact would be the only option, and, an impact is what he made.
In fact, Female trouble is Waters' all-time, funniest film,, not to mention, the most mean-spirited, and my personal favorite.
John Waters made Female Trouble when he still had one foot in the crude (Multiple Maniacs, Pink Flamingos) and the other in the relatively slick (Polyester, Cry Baby, Hairspray, Serial Mom, etc.).
Female Trouble is presented in a palette of lavish colors, inspired and off-the-wall set designs, preposterously decadent costuming and generous dollops of grotesquerie.POSSIBLE SPOILER Divine plays Dawn Davenport, who progresses from high school ne'er-do- well in 1959 to hardened career criminal, ending up in the electric chair by 1974.
In 1974, John Waters created his masterpiece entitled, "Female Trouble," a film that began to show the deep and very dark Baltimore humour he uses today.
Possible minor spoilers.John Waters and Divine hit the big time with the infamous Pink Flamingos (1972).
When I watch it, I can't help but feel slightly regretful that Waters's career eventually took a more mainstream turn; granted, he still has talent, but when you can make a picture as uproarious and unforgettable as Female Trouble with $50,000 and a pack of friends, who needs big budgets and Hollywood stars?After a great credits sequence (with a title tune sung by Divine him/herself), our story begins in 1960.
Enter Donald and Donna Dasher, the flamboyant proprietors of the Lipstick Beauty Salon, who believe that crime and beauty are interrelated and begin helping Dawn become "the most beautiful woman in the world."Female Trouble is one of my favorite movies--definitely my favorite comedy.
Female Trouble (1974): Dir: John Waters / Cast: Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Edith Massey, Mink Stole: Amusingly disturbing followup to Pink Flamingos with a theme that takes mental stability to whole new lows.
I hated the incident involving the chicken, though, but oh well.I thought Female Trouble was going to go the same way as Pink Flamingos, filth-wise, but it doesn't (almost), and I think this is John Waters' best film featuring Divine & co.
The film sort of falls apart when Divine goes on a major crime spree towards the end, but it really is spoofing all of those bad girl 50's and 60's movies, so that's a necessary evil. |
tt0082334 | The Entity | The movie begins as single mother Carla Moran (Barbara Hershey) is violently raped in her home by an invisible assailant. A subsequent episode of poltergeist activity causes her to flee with her children to the home of her friend Cindy (Margaret Blye).
They return to Carla's home and the following day, Carla is nearly killed when her car mysteriously goes out of control in traffic. Urged by Cindy to see a psychiatrist, Carla meets with Dr. Sneiderman (Ron Silver) and tentatively agrees to undergo therapy. A subsequent attack in her bathroom leaves bite marks and bruises, which Carla shows to Dr. Sneiderman, who believes she has inflicted them on herself (despite the marks showing up in places impossible for her to reach). We learn that Carla suffered a variety of traumas in her childhood and adolescence, including sexual and physical abuse, teenage pregnancy and the violent death of her first husband. Dr. Sneiderman believes her apparent paranormal experiences are delusions resulting from her past psychological trauma.
Carla is attacked again, this time in front of her children. Her son tries to intervene but he is hit by electrical discharges and his wrist is broken. Dr. Sneiderman urges her to commit herself to a psychiatric hospital for observation, but she refuses.
After Cindy witnesses an attack, the two discuss possible supernatural causes. While visiting a local bookstore, Carla happens to meet two parapsychologists, whom she convinces to visit her home. Initially skeptical, they witness several paranormal events and agree to study the home. During their study, Dr. Sneiderman arrives and confronts Carla, trying to convince her that the manifestation is in her mind, but she dismisses him. Reassured that her case is being taken seriously, Carla begins to relax. Her boyfriend Jerry (Alex Rocco) visits and she suffers a particularly disturbing attack, which he witnesses. Hearing the commotion, Carla’s son enters the room and believes that Jerry is harming her, prompting him to attack Jerry. Later at the hospital, Jerry is so troubled by the experience that he ends their relationship.
Desperate for a solution to her problem, Carla agrees to participate in an elaborate experiment carried out by the parapsychologists. A full mock-up of her home is created to lure the entity into a trap. Liquid helium will be used to freeze the entity, once inside. Before the experiment can begin, Dr. Sneiderman unsuccessfully tries to convince Carla to leave.
The entity arrives but unexpectedly takes control of the liquid helium jets and uses them against Carla. She defiantly stands up to it, stating that it can never have her. Dr. Sneiderman rushes in and saves her. As they look back, they see the entity frozen for a brief period into a very large mass of ice. It eventually breaks free and vanishes, but Dr. Sneiderman realizes that Carla was telling the truth the whole time. Carla returns to her house the next day. The front door slams by itself and she is greeted by a demonic voice which says, "Welcome home, cunt". She calmly opens the door, exits the house, gets in a car with her family and leaves.
A closing disclaimer verifies that Carla and her family have moved to Texas. Carla still experiences attacks from the entity, although they have lessened in frequency and severity. | good versus evil, paranormal, cruelty, sadist | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0124298 | Blast from the Past | In 1962, Dr. Calvin Webber (Christopher Walken), an eccentric scientist who, like so many people at the time, thinks that a nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union is imminent, has built a large, fully functional fallout shelter in his backyard deep underground. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, thinking the conflict could escalate, Calvin takes his pregnant wife Helen (Sissy Spacek) into the fallout shelter as a precaution. When a fighter jet flying over loses control, the pilot bails out and the jet crashes into their house, causing a large explosion; Calvin, thinking the worst has happened, sets and activates the shelter's locks (designed not to open for 35 years). Everyone assumes the entire family was killed in the accident, as no one knew of Calvin's secret fallout shelter.
Calvin's wife Helen gives birth to a boy, whom they name Adam. Adam grows up being taught and exposed to all culture up to 1962, such as watching reruns of The Honeymooners and listening to Perry Como and Dean Martin. During their 35-year stay in the shelter, a small diner called "Mom's" is built on the site where their house stood. A young man named Melcher (Joey Slotnick) works for Mom (Dale Raoul) as a soda jerk. The diner (which later becomes a pub) is shown throughout the 1960s, 70s, and 90s, as the neighborhood deteriorates from suburban to inner city ghetto complete with abandoned graffiti-marked buildings, adult bookstores, and the homeless, prostitutes, and addicts as its residents. Eventually, Mom gives the pub to Melcher, who lives in the abandoned remains (in 1995), an alcoholic.
When the locks open in 1999, Calvin is so shocked to see how the world has changed (believing it to be a post-apocalyptic wasteland populated by irradiated mutants), he decides the family must stay underground. However, their supplies are running out, and Calvin suddenly falls ill from the stress, so Adam (Brendan Fraser) must venture onto the surface to procure more. As he leaves the shelter for the first time, he meets Melcher who had encountered Calvin in his radiation suit the previous night and mistook him for God after he burst through the floor of the abandoned pub using his elevator to the surface. Having built a shrine above the elevator shaft, Melcher now worships Calvin and the elevator, with Adam's words of encouragement to him being mistaken as affirmation of his new religion. As he marvels at the outside world, seeing many things for the first time the sky, a little girl, and "a Negro", Adam eventually realizes that while purchasing supplies in bulk, he has strayed too far from the pub containing the elevator to the fallout shelter and cannot remember his way back.
Adam meets Eve Rustikoff (Alicia Silverstone) when he tries to sell his father's classic baseball cards at a hobby shop. She stops the store owner (Bill Gratton) from trying to buy the cards for much less than their collectible value and is immediately fired. Adam asks Eve to drive him to a Holiday Inn in exchange for a rare baseball card; she takes the card and leaves, but returns the next morning to give it back out of guilt. When Eve mentions that she must find a new job, Adam asks her to help him purchase supplies and, unaware of the value of money, immediately agrees to her request for $1,000 a week. He also asks Eve to help him find a wife from Pasadena, California (per his mother's advice), who is "not a mutant"; he uses the term literally as meaning a mutant due to radiation from the nuclear war which never happened. Adam meets Eve's gay housemate and best friend, Troy (Dave Foley), who is amused by Adam's naiveté but offers advice and gives Adam a fashion makeover.
Eve and Troy take Adam to a 1940s swing-style nightclub to find him a wife. Adam immediately attracts the attention of several women, including Eve's flirtatious rival and nemesis Sophie (Carmen Moré). Eve becomes jealous and reconnects with her ex-boyfriend Cliff (Nathan Fillion), but leaves after Cliff goads Adam into an altercation ultimately backing off as Adam demonstrates his skills in boxing (having trained every day with his dad). Troy later returns home alone and explains to Eve that Adam went home with Sophie. Adam returns later, explaining that he politely rejected Sophie's advances, saying that he could only think about being with her. He and Eve kiss, but when Adam tells her the truth about his past and states that he wants to take her to be his wife "underground," she asks him to leave.
The next morning after successfully locating the pub containing the elevator (as well as a full congregation of destitute people hanging onto Melcher's every word), Adam returns to Eve's house, where she is waiting with a team of mental health professionals to have him committed. He sadly cooperates at first, but escapes as they leave the house asking that Eve and Troy collect his things for him and pay his hotel bill. Troy and Eve find toiletries and clothing manufactured in the early 1960s as well as absurdly valuable stocks in companies like IBM, and realize that Adam was telling the truth.
With Melcher and his cult helping with loading the supplies into the shelter, Calvin is prepared to seal him and his family inside once more, until Eve spots Adam standing outside of the abandoned pub, the two share an embrace as Adam takes her to meet his parents. Calvin and Helen are impressed with Eve and agree to Adam's request for the two of them to set the lock timer for two months while they stay down there.
During this time which time he and Eve use the money from selling the stocks to build his parents a new home in the country, which is a 1950s style suburban tract home identical to the home that was destroyed except it is built on a beautiful spot way out in the country. Included with the house is a restored red 1960 Cadillac convertible. They also use the money to help Melcher rebuild the old pub into a 50's themed night club after convincing him that Adam isn't God. When they are settled in, Adam lets Calvin know the truth about the jet crash. He tells his father there was never an atomic war and that the Soviet Union collapsed. Calvin takes the news stoically, thrilled to hear of the fall of the Soviet Union, but still suspecting it was a Commie trick. He tells Adam not to mention this to Helen. After Adam walks away upon being told by Helen that dinner is ready, Calvin mutters "Commies..." to himself and begins measuring the space in the backyard, beginning the development of a new fallout shelter as Eve watches from the window while playing with her engagement ring. | cult | train | wikipedia | Seeing the past come alive in the form of music, baseball cards and even the furniture makes you feel like a window has been opened and you're actually watching family life in the early 60s.
See the movie to find out why, but Brendan Fraser's crazy dad has had him underground for thirty years in an elaborate bomb shelter, so that when Brendan finally goes upstairs in the 90's to get more supplies for his parents, he's in for a bit of a shock.Christopher Walken is wonderful as the crazy, atomic-age inventor.
Terrific fun time-skipping romantic comedy buoyed by the personality of Fraser - perfect to watch with a sweetheart, or with family on a warm weekend in..
Brendan Fraser and Alicia Silverstone are on screen gems in their aptly named characters Adam and Eve. Everything about "Blast From The Past" was superb from the casting of Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek and Dave Foley to the outstanding performances by everyone made this film so enjoyable.I could not find one thing wrong with this film because it was that good.
Also, everyone seemed to enjoy each other's company as well as performing in this movie and it showed; furthermore, it also showed up in the box office and rental receipts as people couldn't get enough of this great comedy."Blast From The Past" is a worthwhile comedy that deserves everyone's attention.
It's a simple romantic comedy with a huge twist thrown in, which works to the movie's advantage.Adam (Brendan Fraser) had lived in a fallout shelter for all of his life, because his father (Christopher Walken) thought a nuclear bomb was dropped on the house.
This movie is everything romantic comedies today don't have: no crude humor, funny lines, good acting, and a fun story.
The whole premise (i.e., a man who was born and raised underground with no contact other than his parents for 30+ years, only to go "above" and find himself in today's world) is brilliant.Brendan Fraser is perfect as Adam--sweet, naive, and trusting--and reinforces my feelings that he is a very underrated actor.
right there in his house, or the "Well good for you!" about Troy being gay.Alicia Silverstone is wonderful as Eve, as are Sissy Spacek and Christopher Walken as Adam's parents, and the rest of the cast.It's hard for me to grasp why some folks don't like this movie!
Fraser plays his awkward goofy naive persona that we've seen in a few other films but he still manages to be funny and likable and Silverstone is pretty and charming as she ends up delivering a decent performance.
Well, it may never have happened, but this romantic comedy shows us what it must be like."Blast from the Past" tells the story of Adam Weber.
I liked Brendan Fraser as the naive Adam and together with Alicia Silverstone he forms a nice couple in this movie.
Even though the entire story could have used a little bit more developing, overall it looks good and offers some good laughs and plenty of fun for the people who like romantic comedies.
As his parents who spend the majority of the movie in a bomb shelter Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek are simply swell, an utterly adorable couple who react very differently to their confinement but are a joy whenever they are on screen.
dave Foley is good for when he's there.Overall the movie is a fun comedy/romance and I enjoyed it a lot.
Brendan Fraser is great, and the rest of the cast, including Sissy Spacek, Christopher Walken, Dave Foley and Alicia Silverstone, is great.
The wife (Sissy Spacek) is 9 months pregnant at the time, so she has her baby (Brendan Fraser) in the shelter.After 35 years, the father is ready to explore the world to see if it is habitable, but just as he's about to get some much-needed supplies, he has a mild heart-attack.
Heading the cast is Brendan Fraser, who's pitch-perfect as naif Adam Webber, who's spent 35 years growing up in a fallout shelter after his father mistakenly assumes nuclear war broke out back in 1962.
Brendan Fraser is Adam, a 35-year-old who's spent his entire life living in a nuclear bomb shelter after his paranoid parents (played by Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek) mistook a 1962 plane crash for the start of World War III.
Cocooned in a cosy world of cheesy 50s sitcoms and endless Perry Como, Adam is understandably frustrated and so jumps at the chance to get out and re-supply the shelter.Almost immediately he meets Eve, and from then on the comedy is meant to flow from the clash between her street-smart twenty-something and Adam's impeccably-mannered, old-school gent.The performances in Blast from the Past shine, Silverstone providing a performance that overlaps anything she has ever done, Fraser also gets the best-of-his-career' nod.
The name of this film is rubbish, the synopsis makes it sound like a really tired idea, and I'm not really a huge fan of Brendan Fraser.But, you know what, this was great fun in an eek, dare I say it, wholesome family sort of way, and the way films used to be made - something for everyone, lots of very original funny bits, some little digs at the American psyche.So, overall it's a happy, fun and thoughtful little film that deserves much better than the 6.5ish average it gets here.
Fraser is superb, Spacek is hilarious, and Christopher Walken is, well, Christopher Walken, but I can't help but love his stuff...Put your cynicism to one side and just enjoy a sweet, very classy little movie that has great heart and doesn't over-Hollywood itself..
When "Blast from the Past" came out, it looked kind of silly, especially since Brendan Fraser had just played a very good role in "Gods and Monsters".
In this case, a scientist (Christopher Walken) and his wife (Sissy Spacek) move into their fallout shelter during the Cuban Missile Crisis and lock themselves in for 35 years when they think that a bomb has fallen.
Spacek is also funny when she looks forward to getting her liquor supply restored.The final act of the movie is somewhat of a disappointment as it degenerates into standard romantic comedy formula.
The script is chock full of great, little one-liners, which are used well by Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Sissy Spacek & Chistopher Walken.
Is there no end to the cheap shots by these atheists who dominate the film world?I did enjoy the first third of this movie but when Brendan Fraser's lead character, "Adam Webber" went "up' to the existing world, the movie just fades into another "fish out of water" film, which has been used many times in many different circumstances.This was no "blast" from the past.
His (and Christopher Walken's and Dave Foley's) understanding of the subtle humor carries the film.It might be a perfect film if someone other than Alicia Silverstone was cast as the leading lady.
Brendan Fraser and Alicia Silverstone, is doing a great job in this great movie.I have seen it 5 times now, I found it amazingly good, and i'll recommend it to all who want to see a great and entertaining movie.10 out of 10 stars..
Alicia Silverstone makes for a good love interest, and Christopher Walken is entertaining as always.There's quite a few great quotes, particularly the "What's baseball?" exchange and "I think I'm being chased by a psychiatrist" - "It happens." Also, I couldn't help but notice the inclusion of the song 'Hell', which would later be used in Monkeybone (another film starring Brendan Fraser and David Foley)..
Blast from the Past is a charming fish-out-of-water story about a young man who lives the first 35 years of his life in a fallout shelter, then emerges to a modern surface world filled with things he cannot understand.Much like the film Pleasantville, BFTP nails the idiosyncrasies and cultural touchstones of a simpler time.
Back them up with Sissy Spacek and Christopher Walken (the parents) and Dave Foley (as Alicia's friend) and you have a solid base upon which to build.Kudos to the set designers, who managed to create an underground shelter that makes 35 years of isolation seem possible.BFTP is a light comedy I recommend for anyone who likes the genre.
This movie continues to impress more and more upon subsequent viewing.The first time the wife and I watched Blast From The Past we thought it was a hoot and quite funny.
It is quirky, cute and innocent with subtle layers of humour underlying the more obvious comedic moments and these layers pop up again and again throughout the movie for even more laughs.The non-typical casting is near perfect with Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek revealing a sense of comedic timing that we've rarely had a chance to see from them before.
(And thank goodness!) After spending his whole life in a bomb shelter with his "Leave it to Beaver" parents we watch as Adam (a 30+ year-old man) sees the world for the first time.
I really like Brendan Fraser as an actor, its too bad that this didn't do that well for him considering its harmless fun, and done with some heart.Silverstone as an actress is strictly average-but the camera loves her and what the hey-she's only 24 or so, she's more someone who was brought up early and became famous before knowing what she was doing before a camera.This movie sometimes plays like an extended sit-com, more or less Happy Days level in spots-but if you forgive the stereotyped cartoony characters Spacek, Schiavelli and Walken have to play, and just go with it-you will enjoy.The actors are good and its not bad.**1/2 outta ****, pretty decent time-killer, nothing great..
But Eve and Adam have to deal with other problems besides love!!This movie also co-stars Christopher Walken(Sleepy Hollow) as Adam's dad and Sissy Spacek,JFK) as Adam's mother!!If you look carefully you can see Rex Linn as a friend of the Webber's just before the house is destroyed by a missile by mistake!!!.
You have "Blast From The Past", a surprisingly funny and clever little movie starring Brendan Frasier and Alicia Silverstone.Brendan Frasier was truly the only choice for the part of Adam, a 35 year old man who has lived his entire life in a fallout shelter his parents moved into during the Cuban missile crisis.
His blank look and goofy expressions are perfect, and he plays the part with so much enthusiasm that its hard not to like it.Alicia Silverstone gives her best performance to date, as (get this) Eve, the girl Adam (see I told you it was goofy) falls in love with.
The most pleasant surprise in this movie is Dave Foley as Troy, Eve's gay roommate (yes, Adam thinks he's just happy).
Brendan Fraser plays a 35-year-old man who comes to the Earth's surface for the first time in modern day L.A., after being raised by his parents in a bomb shelter since 1962.
You need to see it a few times to be able to fully appreciate all the nuanced looks (for example, when Sissy Spacek "watches" Christopher Walken, or Alicia Silverstone watches Brendan Fraser at times.) The 50's/early 60's styling is spot on, and all the character actors add wonderful spice.
You will also laugh out loud more than once.If you enjoy romantic comedies with great "unsaid lines" (said with just a glance,) coupled with a crazy sounding premise that works (supported by excellent cast, writing, set dressing and pacing) then you will be glad that you watched this movie.
If you're looking for a nice, pleasant, funny and fun movie, you need look no further than "Blast From The Past." No, it's not a masterpiece, but all the adjectives above describe it perfectly, which means that it's thoroughly enjoyable to watch.
Then the film becomes a typical, run of the mill romance, with Brendan Frasier acting like a goofy little boy and Alicia Silverstone giving a terrible performance.The year is 1962, and Calvin Webber (Christopher Walken) has secretly been building a huge underground bomb shelter stocked with food and all the needs for his wife Helen (Sissy Spacek) and their soon to be son Adam (Brendan Frasier).
A funny and original concept is used in this romantic comedy about a boy who as lived is entire life in a fallout shelter (35 years).
Later his son is born in the shelter, and his brought up in a very protective environment with only his parents for his entire life until the doors unlock and he wanders through L.A. finding supplies for his family.Along his way he meets a girl named Eve played by Alica Silverstone and falls romantically in love.This is very overused kind of plot, where a man wanders through unknown civilization falls in love and has very funny moments learning all the things he's never seen or heard of before.
The casting is great (except for Alicia Silverstone, who makes faces like she's just been to the bathroom and thrown up, which isn't entirely impossible, and she lacks any kind of chemistry and she is whiny and has a grating voice and should shut the f**k up and just accept she is a fat has-been).The film has a nice retro feel to it, OK, the premise demands suspension of disbelief but I tend to be more forgiving of comedies than other movies.Nothing mind blowing, but I dig it and I dig George of the Jungle and I dig the Mummy, take it for what it is or don't see these movies.
Every once in a while, however, Wilson hits his stride and finds just the right touch - as in the moment where it suddenly dawns on Dave Foley's bitchy gay best friend that good manners like Fraser's are a show of respect for those in his company, not a sign of superiority.It's great to see Christopher Walken in a non-villainous role, playing the square, paranoid scientist father, and looking quite a bit like Michael Douglas' vigilante in "Falling Down".
What makes it really worth watching are two great performances by Sissy Spacek and Christopher Walken as the parents.
Brendan Fraser's performance in this movie is somewhat goofy but genuinely endearing, the parents (Walken and Spacek) are hilarious, and Alicia Silverstone also carries off her role serviceably, but not as well as the other actors in this film.
Still, it's a great movie to rent and I thoroughly recommend it to any romantic comedy fans out there, as well as to any Brendan Fraser fans..
You can feel a little nostalgia in the ways of Adam Webber and how he influences the people around him without himself turning into a bitter 90's man.This movie is watchable several times, has it's moments and is lighthearted, so I don't know what's the point finding plot-holes in it..
Brendan Fraser is a "Blast from the Past" in this 1999 film also starring Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek, Alicia Silverstone, and Dave Foley.Walken and Spacek are Calvin and Helen.
It stars Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek and Dave Foley.
Plot has Fraser as a 35 year old man who after being raised by his parents in a nuclear fallout shelter, surfaces to sample American life in the 1990s.A different spin on the fish-out-of-water premise, Blast from the Past in a gentle romantic comedy that although light and breezy, does show how society has vastly changed over a three and half decade period, happily tinting the edges with satire as the central couple, Fraser and Silverstone (yes, they be called Adam and Eve) engage in way that perfectly befits the airy nature of the story.
A very original, sweet, witty and funny romantic comedy starring the always sexy and screen charmer Alicia Silverstone and Brendan Fraser who delivers a fine performance.The plot is truly innovative and delivers genuine laughs with very funny material taken from dark situations in the history of mankind.
To be honest, when it comes about nuclear destructions and massive tragedies; it's hard to make funny situations but "Blast From The Past" takes those moments in such an original and convincing manner that you can't help but enjoy.This is what romantic comedies should be; original, funny, witty and with great characters.
It takes something special, different or unique to really make a rom-com stand out from the pack.Blast from the Past does have such a quality, in that its' plot is slightly different – Adam (Brendan Fraser) has spent his entire life in a fallout shelter (for reasons too long-winded to bother going into now) and emerges 35 years later to find a drastically changed world from that which his father (Christopher Walken) has taught him about.
I love Alicia Silverstone, I own "Excess Baggage", "The Crush", "Scorched", and soon "Batman and Robin" (not because it's good, merely for comedic value, believe me) here was my problem.The movie begins with Adam in the bomb shelter, being born, etc.
A fairly entertaining film with Fraser playing a Tom-Hanks-in-"Big" character and Silverstone proving once again that yes, she's a young 20-something from California.Walken and Spacek are thrown into the mix in a bit of odd casting but they end up proving themselves as the perfect "out of this time" couple.
A witty comedy with a brilliant cast, including Brendan Fraser--playing yet another displaced character, "Adam"--and an hilarious Christopher Walken as the father.
Dave Foley is perfect as the gay friend of Alicia Silverstone's "Eve." This film is a sweet, funny tale and good for the whole family..
Blast From the Past benefits from the presence of Brendan Fraser (playing for what seems like the umpteenth time his patented fish out of water role) and Alicia Silverstone in the primary roles, making up for lapses in the narrative action.
Where did SHE learn to dance like that?)Don't waste your time with this one unless you just think Fraser and Silverstone are too good-looking to miss.
I enjoyed watching this movie for Walken, as well as for the funny things that Brendan Fraser says and does. |
tt0366721 | Trilogia: To livadi pou dakryzei | The film opens with a plan -sequence reminiscent of the one at the beginning of The Travelling Players. A large group of people carrying suitcases and trunks walks from a sea shore to a foreground river bank. At the head of the group walks its leader and spokesman, Spyros (Vassilis Kolovos) and his wife, Danae (Thalia Argirioua). Between them are their five-year-old son and three-year-old adopted daughter. Spyros, answering the voice-over, explains to an unseen character that they are Greek refugees who have escaped from the Bolshevik-overrun Odessa. After being quarantined in Thessaloniki, the refugees have been authorized to settle in the region, and been given this piece of land. This shot is followed by the opening credits, displayed on a grainy background of old photographs.Another long take follows which shows on the same spot, some twelve to fourteen years later, a village erected by these immigrants that they named "New Odessa." On the river, a small rowboat docks and unloads a woman and a teenage girl. The young girl is Spyros' now grownup adopted daughter, Eleni (Alexandra Aidini), accompanied by her mother. Eleni has just given birth to twin boys in secret, away from her home, and has given them up for adoption. She is escorted to Spyros' house, the largest in the village. The twins' father is none other than her step-brother, Alexis, the boy who walked next to Eleni in the prologue shot.In the next scene, horseback riders are combing the area, searching for Eleni. She had just married Spyros, but at the close of the church ceremony, she ran away with Alexis. The couple escapes to Thessaloniki by hailing a passing truck that carries the group of musicians who were returning from the wedding. The group is lead by Nikos (Giorgos Armenis), the violinist, who from then on will be a father figure for Alexis, and take the runaway couple under his protection. In Thessaloniki, Nikos takes Eleni and Alexis to a large theater that has been converted into a refugee shelter, with each family living in curtained boxes and tented stalls. A vengeful Spyros appears in the theater and the fugitives have to escape once more to another shelter.In the morning, Alexis and Eleni go to a musicians' hangout and meet a group of musicians who serenade them. Nikos recognizes the great talent of Alexis as an accordionist and will do his best to promote him. Nikos forms a loose group of musicians and tries to get gigs for them, but without much success. We have just passed the great depression, and we are approaching the Popular Front of 1936. Alexis' accordionist talents get him an audition with Markos, a famous and enterprising musician who is planning to put together a band and go to the United States to play for the Greek immigrant community. Markos, also impressed by Alexis' talent, promises him that he will be part of his group going to the "promised land," but this trip will not happen in the immediate future.Eleni's twins, Yannis and Yorgis, now about twelve years old, are reunited with her. It is 1936, and the musicians have aligned themselves with the Popular Front. In one scene, they are playing in an old beer hall for Union members who have been hunted down by the police. At the dance, a tense scene takes place when Spyros re-appears. He dances with his wife, Eleni, and later collapses of a heart attack. His son Alexis says, "I killed him." What follows is one of those long takes, a beautiful plan-sequence, typical of Angelopoulos' lyrical creations: Spyros' funeral on the water.Following his father's funeral, Alexis returns to his father's house in New Odessa with Eleni and his two children. There, he finds his father's sheep, all slaughtered by the villagers, hanging from a tree by the house. As the family moves into the house, a barrage of stones breaks the windows, thrown by the unforgiving villagers. During the night, the village is flooded by the rising waters of the nearby lake, and has to be abandoned by its inhabitants. At dawn, in another striking plan-sequence, people are rowing their boats among the partly-submerged houses, toward higher ground. They are carrying their meager possessions to safety. By contrast, Alexis and his family huddle together without any belongings. There are now completely destitute. Through the night, the villagers, carrying icons, perform an exorcism dance around a bonfire. In the morning they row their boats while carrying black flags through their flooded village, past a small islet where a school once stood. The teacher is there, among the empty benches, with Yannis and Yorgis.The Popular Front has definitely been vanquished. Many of its members are being rounded up, tortured, lined up against walls to be executed by the Falangists. In a lyrical scene, there is a field of white sheets (but where are the pillowcases?) hanging to dry in the wind. Scattered among them, musicians are playing their various instruments. The musicians eventually gather by the seashore. Shots ring out, and they disperse. Alexis and Eleni take refuge in the upstairs of a nearby house. From the window they observe their friend Nikos, mortally wounded, stumbling through the field of sheets. A crowd, gathered at the foot of the habitations, looks on, as Nikos, waving goodbye, collapses on the ground.By the rainy, gray morning, a small crowd of well-wishers has assembled on a quay to send Markos and his group off to America. Alexis is to join them on the long-dreamed voyage. A large ocean liner is waiting some distance away to take them to the "promised land." Eleni and the children are also present to see him off. She has knitted him a red sweater, which she did not have time to finish. Alexis grabs a thread from it and undoes the knitting as he boards the small boat that takes him to the ocean liner. Eventually, the thread breaks off.A letter from Alexis, written on March 5, 1937 from Ellis Island, reaches Eleni. It describes Alexis' disappointment in the "promised land." Soon after, as Eleni is writing back to her husband, there are knocks on the door. She is arrested by the Fascists and taken into the night to a prison, most likely because of her association with the Leftist musicians. She is liberated as WWII commences with the Italian invasion of Greece, followed by the Nazi occupation. Eleni returns to her house in Thessaloniki only to discover that it has burned down, along with the whole neighborhood. She gets a letter from Alexis dated October 30, 1940, telling her that he has joined the US Army in order to become a citizen, which will allow him to bring Eleni and the children to America.Soon after the end of WWII, the Greek civil war begins. Eleni has again been thrown in jail for harboring a wounded partisan. We see her in 1949, leaving the jail, as the warden gives her a letter from Alexis, written four years earlier, from Okinawa, the last battle in the Pacific. The letter had been found next to "the body of a dead soldier," later identified as Alexis. Eleni is being liberated so that she can go and claim the body of her dead son, Yannis, who had joined the Government's side against the Communist partisans. Eleni collapses in the field where Yannis' body is laying, and she is taken in by some old women of her old village who are now remorseful about the way they treated Eleni's family. One of these women (Toula Stathopoulos) tells her about the death of Eleni's other son, Yorgis. She takes Eleni to a spot where she witnessed the two brothers, fighting for opposing sides, briefly reunited as Yannis brought the erroneous news of the death of their mother to his brother. The scene of the meeting between the two brothers is not recounted by the old lady, but through a shift in time, we actually the two brothers' brief, poignant meeting. The old lady tells Eleni that Yorgis's body is still where he fell in Spyros' old house, now practically swallowed up by the waters, in the middle of the lake. Eleni rows a boat to the house, and collapses on her son's body. She rises from his body, releasing several heart-wrenching screams of grief. She is now totally alone in the world. | romantic, flashback | train | imdb | Theo Angelopolous, the Greek director, undertakes the colossal task of putting in a film some thirty years of history in his country.
The director has a poetical way to present his story, which was written in collaboration with some of the best minds of the business, namely, Tonino Guerra, Giorgio Silvani and Petros Markaris, one of our own favorite Greek writers.The result is a complex canvas in which Mr. Angelopolous paints for us, the viewer, in dark colors that gives us an idea of what the country went through during that period.
In a way, the director seems to be taking an outside position in recounting the tragedy his country lived by photographing in long shots almost every frame of the film.
Of course, this being his style, it suits the poetical way in which he conceives the basic idea.There are lots of moments in the film that take the viewer's breath away by the beauty of the composition of a particular scene.
The opening scene with the returning people from the Odessa massacre being one of the most effective things in the film.
The excellent fading cinematography by Andreas Sinanos gives a rich texture to the film, as well as the music score by Eleni Karaindrou, that greatly enhances the mood of it.While this film is definitely for a general public, it shows great moments of brilliance created by Theo Angelopolous working at his best..
I had watched years ago some older films of Aggelopoulos and i was expecting a slow movie, with minimal dialogues, many symbolisms, weak plot and superb photography.
That's exactly interactive art.These are some of my interpretations of some scenes: village flooding (Climate Change and the forces of Nature), immigration/separation (departure of my girlfriend), mother crying over her soldier sons dead bodies (this is a real war scene, not the computer games style).
THE WEEPING MEADOW ('Trilogia I: To Livadi pou dakryzei') is writer/director Theodoros Angelopoulos (with influences from Tonino Guerra plus assistance from Petros Markaris and Giorgio Silvagni) creating a personal vision of the 20th century.
The incredibly gifted Greek poet of a filmmaker mirrored the life and death of his own mother whose time on earth spanned a century and elected to capture the 100 years of sadness in a trilogy of films: The Weeping Meadow is Part I and details the years 1919 through 1949.
It is a masterwork.The film opens with what will be the trademark look of the movie - vistas of lonely people in a nearly monochromatic color space that uses water, both from rain and the collected results of rain.
As time passes we find that Eleni at a very early age has just given birth to twin boys while she has been sent away for the family's appearances: the father is the young son of the family.
The cinematography by Andreas Sinanos is a long gallery of miraculously composed, beautiful images: the cortège on the river, the flapping white sheets behind which we discover musicians, the constant vistas of the ocean and the river, the village and the battlegrounds burn themselves onto our visual fields and into memory.
I think anyone familiar with Angelopoulos knows what to expect with his films: long, drawn out, meticulously planned shots that slowly scan environments, with the image composed of not only the foreground but hundreds of yards into the background.
I definitely see the man as a master of his medium, and The Weeping Meadow is as good as any of his other films every one I've seen so far is a masterpiece or close to it.
It follows a little girl, Eleni, from 1919 to the time of the Greek Civil War, at the end of WWII.
The film can skip ahead years in just a second, when the pace usually makes each second feel like years (in a good way!).
Theo Angelopoulos is one of the greatest directors working in films today.
There is a superb scene at jusr about the end of the first third, where Eleni,the film's principal character, wants to leave and walks down to the water.
I was lucky enough to meet Mr. Angelopoulos at the premier of his film and believe me for a movie buff like me it was a great honor even thought I did not realize it at the time.
History and human relationships are emphasized through the symbolic order of ancient Greek tragedy and that is what makes the film have a more "heavy" character, which makes it a little harder to follow than a usual Hollywood production- do not misjudge me, I love it too.
The film itself is the most mature of the Greek director and has all his personal characteristics bound together in an excellent work!.
Greek screenwriter, producer and director Theodoros Angelopoulos' twelfth feature film is a Germany-France-Greece-Italy co-production and the first part of a trilogy about the history of Greece, which tells a story set in Northern Greece 1919 where a group of Greek refugees from the Russian harbour Odessa arrives at a place near Thessaloniki.
Greek filmmaker Theodoros Angelopoulos' subtle filming visualizes his affection for images of people, animals and objects reflected in water.
The humane and engaging screenplay with minimal use of dialog written by Theodoros Angelopoulos and screenwriters Tonino Guerra, Petros Markaris and Giorgio Silvagni, tells a story which spans over 30 years and examines themes such as love, grief, immigration, fellowship, melancholy, music, war and hope.
The old and accurate costume design and the naturalistic milieu depictions reflects the era it portrays with great conviction in this European art film which contains hauntingly beautiful cinematography by cinematographer Andreas Sinanos, reverent acting performances by the actors who personifies the central characters and scenes of such poetic intensity that it touches one's soul.
Most of the acting is interpreted in a low-keyed and internal way which strengthens the effect of the climactic emotional scenes in this quiet and unforgettable movie experience which is filled with an elegiac and longing atmosphere which is increased by composer Eleni Karaindrou's melodic instrumental score.
Coming from a Greek background and taking my 65 year old father to see this film, as he was resorted to tears, I came to realise that this is not just a fictional film, but that reality was close to home and to the heart for many Greek refugees who were forced to flee their country.
The only thing I didn't like, was that the film was too long to fit on a tape and the movie was interrupted when the tape ran out, half way through.
Theodoros Angelopoulos presents 30 years of Greek history beginning with the return of the exiles from Odessa after WWI to the rise of the Colonels.Eleni, who witnesses the history, is played by an unknown, Alexandra Aidini.
He does not use her in the second film.She is to marry Spyros (Vassilis Kolovos), but loves his son Alexis (Nikos Poursadinis), She runs off with him.
It is not meant to be joyful as the period is not joyful, as we watch dreams shattered, and people surviving, but just barely.With music by Eleni Karaindrou and cinematography by Andreas Sinanos, you are not bored by the lack of dialog.
In fact, you are left to enjoy and experience the time and the film.Those who enjoy Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa, and other great masters, will certainly enjoy Theodoros Angelopoulos.
For some time into the film I didn't understand why the director decided to keep so much distance to the main characters.
However, in the second half of the movie, Angelopoulos moves closer on the main characters, and the movie takes a much firmer emotional grip of your heart.
I didn't start to really feel for any of these people until about an hour into the film, but at that point I suddenly found myself completely hooked.I was particularly amazed by my reaction to Eleni, played by Alexandra Aidini.
Her performance likewise became extremely powerful, and unless Angelopoulos shot this film in sequence I have to assume it was engineered that way somehow.
Perhaps it's simply that Angelopoulos spends so much time distancing the audience from the drama that when he finally goes in for a close-up (figuratively -- in literal terms there's nothing tighter than a medium shot here) the emotion just smacks you in the face.Beyond the characters, the film is amazing simply for its visual audacity, the way every long shot is planned to the minutest detail a la Bela Tarr, and they only become more staggering as time wears on.
The story also feels ancient; despite taking place (mostly) in the 1940's, you sense a profound connection to the heritage of its characters and their history, such that moments which in other cases might seem like melodramatic clichés (the unraveling of Eleni's scarf, for instance) instead feel like deeply rooted folk symbolism..
View , not means fresh picture's and extreme long shut but views full of history and feel of heavy truth of person pain .
If rely on said,s Angelo , when he want relate mother,s pains of now century and also with make a pause in front of Eleni,s name ( in Greek language it,s mean Greece) , couldn't interpret except mother,s history .
Characters performance old theater of Greece like as traditional actors .Where Spyros come to amphitheater and cry Eleni,s name .
In next place and while Spyros funeral ceremony , persons show live roles them selves in front of Angelo,s cine camera similar to actors of real theater and while dancing and special ceremonies of villages of Greek .
Howker musicians and Nikos can be refuge for think to history , music and culture even in train plan where group with empty handed come back to city .
The film was just one beautiful tragic scene after another, with no involving narrative thread and no humanity.
Beautiful story, strong characters, captivating scenery, breath taking music and ultimately of cource great production.Its a long movie and the start might be a bit boring but as the story progresses it will hold your attentionI recommend this movie if you are looking for some sensitive piece of art.
Though there is quite a lot of tragedy in it but it does give a glimpse of the life of Greek immigrants of that time and the horrors of war.Two Thumbs Up............
While the film has one redeeming feature, namely some striking shots e.g. the shot of the sheep hanging from the tree, the scene of the funeral procession on the raft, or the scene of the boats leaving the village (which seemed influenced by the scene when the warships approach in the fantastic "Fellini Satyricon"), these were more photographic than cinematographic, and would have been better appreciated hung on a wall in an art gallery than embedded in a painfully slow-paced film that comes in at a whopping 162 minutes and suffers from terrible dialogue, extremely poor character development, over-acting, uninspired symbolism and heavy stylisation.
This is the first film I have seen by Angelopoulos, and his reputation having preceded him, I expected a lot better, but can honestly say that this is one of the worst films I've ever seen, and I won't go out of my way to watch any of the director's other work in the future.
Reading the summary of the film (refugees from Odessa) I thought that perhaps I might learn something more about the forced migrations of modern Greeks.
Having seen some Theo Angelopoulos films before and bearing in mind that dialogue is minimal, meaning that there would not be much to do, I accepted albeit with a heavy heart.
This time Angelopoulos (a rich lefty who gets lots of cash from the lefties at the Greek Cinema Centre) has surpassed all limits of pretentiousness and boredom!.
Not an easy film, and some of the history may be confusing unless you happen to be up on the history of Greece in the 20th century (I'll admit I'm not), but very worth the time and effort.Re the DVD: As with most of Angelopoulos' films, the edition you want to find if you can is the Greek 'New Star' release (it has English subtitles).
In the case of the acting, he presents his characters "from the outside," his intent being to compel his audience to study and explore their identities."The Weeping Meadow" is the first film of "The Trilogy," Angelopoulos' latest and most ambitious project.
The story proceeds in a straight-forward, linear fashion, unusual for Angelopoulos' treatment of time, which is often somewhat convoluted, and covers from 1919 until the end of the Greek Civil War, in 1949.
The central character of a film, Eleni, is interpreted by Alexandra Aidini, in her screen appearance debut.
The action, as in the classic Greek theater, takes place offstage and is described not by the chorus, but by some of the different characters functioning, in turn, as the chorus.Angelopoulos' productions are always filmed on location in remote areas, using the available decor, with minimal construction.
The colors, the characters and their costumes, the usual decors of the familial tales are all represented in tableaux and plans-sequences of an Angelopoulos who has totally reverted to the aesthetics of his first films.
The music is by Angelopoulos' long time collaborator, Eleni Karaindrou.
Her music is not a background accompaniment, but a dramatic element, a living component of the story, an actor adding some words that had not been spoken.In "The Trilogy," Angelopoulos plans to recall his country's history, from the early years of the last century to the present, as seen through the eyes of a woman, Eleni, as she lives her life.
Angelopoulos tackles his themes as he would in a Greek tragedy, and as in all Greek tragedies, a single primordial mistake leads to an unstoppable chain of events, one that crushes inexorably the main character.In the present film, History is relegated to the background over which Eleni's story is told.
Eleni, whose very name evokes Greece, becomes a metaphor for the Greek nation and its people.
In "The Weeping Meadow," History is simply there, absolute, and not open to interpretations.Since we became familiar with the cinema of Angelopoulos, we know his fascination with the Greek myths, that they are eternal, and that History repeats itself.
Director Theo Angelopoulos taught me a good lesson about Greek history with elegant way.
I am looking forward to watching remaining two films though they have not been finished yet.A great Greek drama.
It often feels like Angelopoulos has eschewed narrative, and is telling a story with just two tools: images and music.The Weeping Meadow begins as a group of refugees tell the story of their expulsion from Odessa to Thessaloniki in 1919, by the shore of a river.
Often it feels like sepia historic photographs have been brought subtly to life.The film is a breathtaking antidote to much of what passes for international cinema today.
By the end, for me, it felt dis-satisfyingly schematic, and yet there are images that will haunt you for years, and a feeling that Angelopoulos has found a way to distill the fraught years of European history from the First World War to the Cold War into an extraordinary cinematic vision.The music of Eleni Karaindrou is very beautiful, and will resonate long after the film has finished.
Fate and History are not presented as flesh and blood characters in this first part of Theodoros Angelopoulos' "Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow," but the presence of each is so tangible that they could be exactly that.
The central characters, Alexis and Eleni first meet as children driven together by the destruction of the town of Odessa, Greece, during World War I.
She becomes a kind of "Everywoman" of the first half of the twentieth century, an era when countries worldwide repeatedly called men to war while women became casualties of the grief, poverty, and physical destruction left behind.From its opening scene of Greek refugees from Odessa moving toward a river, to its conclusion, "The Weeping Meadow" floods the screen with some of the most eerily surrealistic images in cinematic history.
Were it not for the progression of a precise time-line moving from one World War to another, and providing a solid structure for the overall drama, a viewer might easily get lost drifting along in such haunting images as dead sheep hanging from the branches of a tree, a funeral service conducted in row boats alongside rooftops, or a crowd of wailing women running toward a field of dead "husbands, sons, and brothers." The images take on even greater intensity framed by composer Eleni Karaindrou's brilliant soundtrack.That this first part of Theo Angelopoulos' Trilogy is an indisputable masterpiece is a fact that speaks for itself.
In some ways, this film takes the best parts of the work of Federico Fellini, Terrence Malick, and Michelangelo Antonioni, and stews them until they melt into a work only Angelopoulos could make.
This film was written by him, longtime Fellini collaborator Tonino Guerra, Petros Markaris, and Giorgio Silvagni, and even though- like the other films of his I've seen, this one is spare in dialogue, the story coheres because of the way the scenes are written to allow the actors' expressions convey what words need not.
The film's cinematography, by Andreas Sinanos, is spectacular, from the long shots that follow characters from afar, to well-composed foregrounded scenes, to the uses of color throughout.
Yet, several times in the film, there seems to be an odd noise- like jet sounds in the aural background of some scenes.
Yet, at the center of this great film is not only the ellipsis of information, but the ellipsis of self- the exile from everywhere, a theme that defines much of Angelopoulos's work, even if it does not define his art, for that is always on target, and brilliantly wrought.
It's such a beautiful film it's a shame that the director and cinematographer chose to shoot every scene the same because this just heaps on tedium, why would I want to see the same set-up over, and over. |
tt0403702 | Youth in Revolt | Nick Twisp, a 16-year-old teen, who is forced to spend a week in "cabin" in a trailer park which isn't a cabin, it's a trailer. While staying the week there, Nick meets the girl of his (wet) dreams, Sheeni. Nick, a lonely virgin, who hasn't kissed, held hands, or had sex with a girl. Sheeni and Nick suddenly become intimate and Sheeni admits her really tall, sexy, French, poet, and extremely smart boyfriend. While his mother and step-father where looking for a new trailer, Sheeni and Nick purchase a dog using a Subway coupon. The dog, Albert (pronounced Al-beare), is suddenly know as their love child. Sheeni is forced to get rid of Albert because of sins (of ripping up a bible), Nick takes Albert to live with him. Nick and Sheeni make a plan to stay together. Nick must be bad, SuperBad, to be able to live by Sheeni. When they arrive home, Jerry, Nick's Step-Father, dies of a heart attack. His mother begins to date a cop. Nick decides that he must get to Sheeni as possible. Nick causes a city-disaster by setting his mother car on fire, so that he can live with his divorced father (who happens to live by Sheeni). While talking to Sheeni on the phone, Nick tells her all the bad things he did, but while admitting all the crimes; Sheeni's mom was listening to it on the phone. When Nick arrives to Sheeni's trailer, her mother tells him that he's the devil and is going to hell and that Sheeni is getting sent to boarding school. Sheeni tells him that it is not punishment, it is helping her with her dream. Nick and his (newly) friend go on the road to get to Sheeni. When he arrives, he is invited to spend the night. Nick's bad side is convincing him to have sex. The bad side took over his good side and they begin to have intercourse, but are caught and forced to leave. Nick sends a letter to a roommate/friend of Sheeni, that tells her to drug Sheeni with a sleeping pill so that kicked out of boarding school. When Sheeni finds out that Nick got her kicked out, she gets angry and hates him for it. Sheeni's brother invites Nick over and Sheeni isn't too happy. In the end, Nick comes over dressed a woman and Sheeni forgives him and they have make-up sex. Nick is caught by an boy who also loves Sheeni, and he calls the cops on Nick. Nick is arrested for 3-months (since he is a minor) and he knows Sheeni is the right girl for him. | romantic, alternate reality, entertaining, flashback | train | imdb | That is exactly what happens to Nick Twisp (Michael Cera), but instead of meekly accepting his fate like a good little nerd he decides to fight back by creating a persona his French-loving would-be girlfriend cannot resist, Francois Dillinger.
Don't be fooled that this is movie for teens only; there is lot more here going on.Great transformation by Michael Cera, well developed main and supporting characters and very funny appearances by excellent and proved actors.
Nick is as stammery as any other Michael Cera character, and his approach to the fairer sex is, unsurprisingly, ineffective.Things look up when he meets neighbor Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday, who is both enigmatic and ebullient as Sheeni), who's gorgeous and fun to be with.
The stuff Nick does at the behest of Francois to win Sheemi's heart are hilarious yet unlikely – and yet they ring true nonetheless.It also helps that Cera is supported by some damn funny actors: Galifianakis is a hoot in a somewhat dark role; Steve Buscemi plays Nick's dad with vulgar intensity (as if he were a domesticated version of Mr. Pink); Justin Long, of all people, is Sheeni's stoner older brother; M.
Oh, and Fred Willard as a neighbor who likes to save illegal immigrants from the INS.I know the word "quirky" is overused for oddball comedies today, particularly those starring Michael Cera (who, if he plays another Nick, may as well dot his face with bloodied pieces of tissue paper), but this one outquirks most of them.
The standouts among the supporting players include Fred Willard as an immigrant-phile, Justin Long as Sheeni's stoner brother, Mary Kay Place as Sheeni's Bible-wielding mother, and the two unknowns who portray Nick's friends, Lefty and BJ.Aside from a couple of intentionally quirky animated sequences and one or two clichéd stock characters, "Youth in Revolt" plays by its own rules, and it wins marvelously..
Francois's central objective is to get Nick kicked out of his dysfunctional home in Oakland, which he shares with his emotionally fragile mother (Jean Smart), and reunited with Sheeni, with the intention of living happily ever after (while also losing his virginity).'Youth in Revolt', is another hip, quirky comedy in which Michael Cera is given centre-stage in which to showcase abilities, however, he must tread cautiously in the future as he is dangerously close to becoming typecast (Superbad, Juno) as the desolate, yet intellectual teenage boy just looking to release his sexual burden.
Cera and Doubleday carry the film along nicely, and provide some very humorous on-screen chemistry, especially during the sequences involving very awkward circumstances – i.e. when Nick is asked to place a small amount of sun cream on Sheeni's back during a trip to the beach.
She works with a particular grace, and maturity that makes her performance at times overshadow that of the experience Cera.While aside from these two characters, Arteta's film also has an extensive A-list cast on show who take a backseat to the main story and occasionally chime in during the various convoluted sub-plots on show.
Though, unfortunately we are left filling in the majority of the gaps ourselves.Miguel Arteta has created a very funny and witty film in 'Youth in Revolt,' that despite having its flaws and areas in which it could have improved upon, ultimately prevails as another competent coming-of-age teen-flick that is centred around the holiest of teenage sanctities: sexual intercourse.
'Youth in Revolt' adapts the first three volumes of C.D. Payne's six-book series about Nick Twist, a smart and, in his own opinion anyway, more-than-usually horny 14-year-old in Oakland ("a large, torpid city across from San Frandisco") who reports in daily journal form on a series of adventures encountered on the way to losing his virginity, despite the obstacles set up by his irresponsible divorced parents.
The main point was to keep the incidents coming, and Payne went on with "The Further Journals" and finally the adventures of Twist's younger brother.Young Canadian actor Michael Cera, the star of Miguel Arteta's adaptation of this movie, who's now twenty-one, was already a TV veteran before he was ten.
Now that's testament to how far the R-rated comedy sexual revolution has come over the last decade, so it's not surprising to see a film so unabashed about teenage sex let alone one whose entire plot is driven by a teenager's zealous appetite to shed his virginity.The always soft-spoken and awkwardly verbose Cera plays yet another character that fits his mold in Twisp, a teenager with divorced parents who loves Fellini films and vintage vinyl and really, really wants to get laid.
If Cera doesn't want to flame out in the near future, he'll need more parts like this.From here on out, "Youth in Revolt" sort of tumbles into a teenage daydream of all the insane things any good, normal kid would do for love and sex -- if it were all fiction.
Director Miguel Arteta picks up on some subtler ideas such as how the many side characters act as insight on or inspire rebellious behavior, but they mostly get lost in the love story and Nick's sexual coming-of-age."Youth In Revolt" is an explicit teenage Rated-R comedy, but not a raunchy one, which ultimately makes it more respectable than more than half the genre off-the-bat.
Trying and failing to win the attention of the sexually sophisticated Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday), Nick is visited by the realization that he needs to create an alter-ego, an edgy bad-boy named Francois Dillinger.
Francois has blue eyes and a moustache, he smokes, he trashes Nick's record collection and coaches him through a spree of arson, property destruction and sexual triumph.The film, like Payne's book, is slightly
off, in a very good way, three quarters heart-warming, smart character study and one quarter aggressive comic nihilism.
He's doing similar things in the very funny Youth in Revolt but what matters, what's exciting, is that Cera seems willing to modulate his image (an image that's worth literally millions of dollars) by taking roles in films like Arteta's not-exactly-totally-run-of-the-mill teen sex flick and this past summer's very neat, very brave Paper Heart.
But, the real strength in this movie is the supporting characters - Fred Willard, Steve Buscemi, Justin Long, Ray Liotta, Jean Smart, Mary Kay Place, and M.
When the movie wasn't sneaking up on you with quick and original situational comedy, Michael Cera's alter ego persona to Nick Twist kept taking Nick on unexpected adventures to get in the bed of Sheenie, the love interest.Without giving away any of the story, I will say the movie moved along at an almost, uncomfortable pace, venturing towards slow.
Portia Doubleday is cute enough playing Sheenie to where more leading roles should be coming her way.The movie was not laugh-out-loud funny throughout and deserving of only 6 out of 10..
Before i watched the movie i thought it was going to be a typical teenage comedy, the stuff Michael Cera normally acts in, which involved turning himself into the typical bad boy to get that girl the old him couldn't.About half an hour into watching it, i absolutely hated it.
Unfortunately, I think I'm in the minority.If you like Michael Cera playing his usual smarter-than-his-peers but still a virgin in the awkward teenager phase, then you will like "Youth in Revolt".
It doesn't work this time, though; Nick comes off as en egotistical, whiny hypocrite who gets no love from the audience, and when he's playing his alter ego 'Francois' - well, let's say I'm starting to doubt that the kid has as much potential as I once thought he did.
The best acting in the whole movie comes from Fred Willard, all two minutes of it, which is a shame because his character had more promise than anything else in a movie.I guess a lot of people enjoyed this movie, and there's no accounting for taste, but in my opinion Youth in Revolt was so manipulative and pathetic that a couple of funny moments and a professional production weren't nearly enough to make me glad I spent 90 minutes on it..
I was more than a little surprised with "Youth in Revolt", especially because I thought it to be just another mainstream late-teenage comedy like so many others in that genre.However, the storyline in the movie is good, spiced up with the right amount of absurdity, comedy and awkward moments.
I typically don't care to see teen comedy movies such as "Youth in Revolt", but for some reason I thought that it looked very funny from the trailers and I liked the idea of the split personality.
Cera, Doubleday Shine in Clever Comedy Aside from the usual onslaught of sappy romantic drivel, the sad milkings of former SNL cast members, and the Friedberg/Seltzer travesties, the past few years really have been golden ones for smaller, underdog comedies: Juno, Be Kind Rewind, The Wackness, Adventureland, (500) Days of Summer, and The Hangover to name a few.Youth In Revolt, a new comedy directed by Miguel Arteta, earns a well-deserved spot on that list.Michael Cera and Portia Doubleday in "Youth in Revolt." Michael Cera and Portia Doubleday in "Youth in Revolt." The film tells the story of a lonely and neglected teenage virgin named Nick Twisp (Michael Cera), who unexpectedly falls for a free-spirited trailer park girl named Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday).
Nick badly wants to be with her, so he creates an alter ego named Francois Dillinger – an evil version of himself that eventually takes over.Michael Cera is back in another movie about the struggles of losing your virginity.
Youth in revolt is a quirky, bittersweet slightly offbeat dark comedy starring Michael Cera as a 16 year old Nick Twisp.He lives with his MILF mom in a trailer with her no good trucker boyfriend Jerry (cameo by Zach Galifianakis).
To take on the boyfriend he creates a rebellious and exotic alter ego called Francois Dillinger.Francois causes trouble and before long Nick is on the run from the police and getting involved in all sorts of misadventures.The film is certainly quirky and sporadically funny thanks to Cera's dual performance and supported by supporting actors who all make glorified cameos such as Fred Willard, Justin Long, Ray Liotta and M Emmett Walsh.The trouble is it never amounts to much than a cynical quirky film featuring some horny nerdy youths, they even throw in some animation segments.
Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) is a 16 year old virgin living in Oakland with his divorced mother Estelle (Jean Smart) and her lying trucker boyfriend Jerry (Zach Galifianakis).
Emmet Walsh, Mary Kay Place) to a french boarding school to keep her away from the wild Nick.Michael Cera is getting a little too old to play the awkward 16 year old.
he in my eyes is the modern day jason biggs and definitively has an amazing future.what makes the film so excellent is the strangeness of cera's double role play between the main character nick and his darker side francois (who has a mustache btw) it follows a story about a guy trying to get a girl which everyone can relate to but it also follow a bad home life and how he deals with both of these things.
I guess I should give honourable mentions to other members of the cast
It's not all about Cera after all
So, honourable mentions go to; Portia Doubleday as Sheeni Saunders, Jean Smart as Estelle Twisp, Zach Galifianakis (I still don't think he's funny) as Jerry, Adhir Kalyan as Vijay Joshi, Steve Buscemi as George Twisp, Fred Willard as Mr. Ferguson and Ray Liotta as Lance Wescott.So, I've mentioned the good things and I've talked about Michael Cera playing Michael Cera one time too many for me.
The character in the film went through several behaviors such as rebellion, fear, and split personalities, which lead to the question as of why young people act a certain way during most parts of their lives.Youth in Revolt was comedy film and for the most part it had some good funny scenes, but the only problem was that it didn't have enough to be considered a top comedy.
The actor Michael Cera played pretty good roles in the film and was quiet funny.
I would expect a jump into more mainstream films, but it's yet to really happen, so for me every time a movie like this comes along with Michael Cera in, i'm immediately thinking here we go again.
This one involves a caravan and a french school a few hundred miles from said caravan.....Please stop treating me like an idiot.If you want a movie to waste a couple of hours, then its an OK watch, bearing in mind there is nothing to wow you, but if you want a good strong film, re-watch 'Juno', the acting is better and it feels more believable.And if you're reading 'Mr' Cera, please look at better scripts, you have the talent, you just need to step up!.
I like Michael Cera but I am thinking He is becoming the main reason that good movies like Youth in Revolt and Scott Pilgrim vs.
But this film provides an opportunity for him to play something of the exact opposite, that of an imaginary French romantic lover with that debonair flair, Francois Dillinger, made up to take over his subconscious because the girl of his dreams Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday) happens to like all things French, from the language to music.The film chronicles the desperation of Cera's Twisp in hell bent of not wanting to be a virgin any longer, but for his lack of an alpha-status, he finds this objective quite close to naught, until mom Estelle (Jean Smart) and her boyfriend of the moment Jerry (Zach Galifianakis) decide to hide out in a trailer park, and it is there that he got swept away by the girl who decided to pay him a little bit more attention than he ever got his whole life.
Cera excels in being, well, Cera, complete with his signature irrepressible adlibbing, and while some moments may have you wincing, others may cement his knack for great comedic timing.The casting's the other thing that made this film a fun one to sit through, with the supporting roles being quite random, and peppered with the likes of Steve Buscemi as Nick's dad, Fred Willard as the overly helpful neighbour, Ra Liotta as an opportunistic cop and Justin Long being the brother of Nick's loved one, who's a mushroom junkie, spreading the need for a high to folks around him.
Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) is a sex-obsessed teen who falls hopelessly in love with Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday) while on a family vacation.
The supporting cast are divine, I particularly loved Jean Smart as Nick's mother, she is very reminiscent if Kim Cattrall in this role, but she's always really good, Portia Doubleday is good in a breakout role but her character comes so close to being hatable, I kind of just wanted Nick/Francois to forget about Sheeni and go pursue an equally rebellious gal.Comedy fans rejoice, this movie is original, hilarious and extremely entertaining, fingers crossed for a sequel and fast.
And in supporting roles, we have solid works from the talented character actors Steve Buscemi, Zach Galifianakis, Ray Liotta, Fred Willard and Justin Long.In conclusion, I think Youth in Revolt deserves a slight recommendation, because despite not leaving me very satisfied, I have to admit that it did not bore me..
At one point in Youth in Revolt the character played by Michael Cera; Nick Twisp, realises that he must act in a despicable and unsociable manner for he and his dream woman to be together.
Now on the quasi-run from the police, Sheeni's parents, the cop Nick's Mum has shacked up with and the uber-Trent, Nick and his new Indian friend Vijay set off on a series of adventures, some saucy in a straight M rated way, others more of the quirky variety.The problem with Youth in Revolt is that it wants to be Francois, edgy, dangerous and a little unpredictable, but it ends up 100% Nick, nice, straightforward and mainstream, it's all a little underwhelming in the end.The film has several arty actors, including Cera, Steve Buscemi, Fred Willard, Justin Long, Ray Liotta (who is both arty and mainstream) and the currently everywhere Zach Galifianakis.
But when his mother (Jean Smart), her boyfriend (Zach Galifianakis), and Sheeni's on-again off-again boyfriend threaten his romantic plans, Nick must evoke the badass Francois on a more permanent basis.A wry and witty coming of age tale, Youth in Revolt is surprisingly entertaining: Cera shows he has some acting depth, while the music cues and comedic bits are innovative and inspired.And while teenage boys rarely create alter egos in order to bed females, there are probably tons of guys who do so after a positive pregnancy test.
"Youth in Revolt" is a fairly amusing comedy starring Michael Cera as Nick Twisp, a shy, socially inept teenager who falls in love with Sheeni, a girl he meets whilst on a camping trip.The film's narrative is a twist on your typical "nice guys finish last" tale, Twisp realising that he must literally reinvent himself as a rebellious "bad boy" in order to win Sheeni's love.
Amusing but rarely hilarious teen comedy about a geeky virgin, Nick Twisp (Michael Cera of YEAR ONE), who meets the love of his life Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday of LEGEND OF THE MUMMY), when his divorced fortysomething mom Estelle Twisp (Jean Smart of I HEART THE HUCKABEES) takes up with a hopeless liar Jerry (Zach Galifianakis of THE HANGOVER) and they leave their residence to stay in a trashy trailer.
I really wanted to like 'Youth in Revolt' since it began with a likable protagonist, Nick Twisp (in another typical Michael Cera 'insecure with woman' role) and his love interest, Sheeni Saunders (played by attractive newcomer, Portia Doubleday).
Michael Cera is Nick Twisp, a put-upon loser youth, who falls for Sheeni, who (she says) prefers bad boys. |
tt1555149 | Tropa de Elite 2: O Inimigo Agora é Outro | Captain Roberto Nascimento (Wagner Moura), top member of BOPE, narrates the film, briefly explaining how the police and the drug lords of Rio de Janeiro cooperate with each other (policemen collect periodic bribes and drug lords are left free to operate) in the 1990s.
In 1997, in medias res, officer Captain Oliveira (Marcelo Valle) and his colleagues are shown driving through Morro da Babilônia towards a baile funk. Nascimento and his other colleagues are also shown in their armored car. Meanwhile, novice police officers André Matias (André Ramiro) and Neto Gouveia (Caio Junqueira) are shown riding a motorcycle at the same favela, though not with the other officers. Once they make it to a vantage point, Neto uses the telescope of a sniper rifle to check on the police team as they talk to some drug traffickers. Neto shoots one of them and provokes a deadly gunfight between police and thugs, both sides unaware of where the bullet came from, forcing Mathias and Neto to flee the scene. Nascimento leads his colleagues from BOPE, Rio Special Police Department, heading to the shootout to interfere and save the officers.
Six months earlier, Nascimento and his wife Rosane (Maria Ribeiro) are shown during her pregnancy of their first child. Not wanting to be an absent father when his child is born, Nascimento decides to search for a worthy successor for his position as a BOPE captain, since he will be promoted to lieutenant colonel. This coincides with an operation at Morro dos Prazeres set to secure the location and clean it of drug dealers during the visit of Pope John Paul II, who will spend the night in the Archbishop's home located near the slum buildings. Because the operation requires daily trips into the favela filled with heavily armed drug lords, Nascimento strongly opposes it, but is forced to accept it as his last mission by his superiors due to the Pope's regards and requirements.
Meanwhile, Neto and Matias debut as police officers. Both hold high moral grounds and rebuff everyday payoff offers, but are soon disillusioned to realize their superiors are corrupted. While Neto begins working as a supervisor at the police auto mechanic shop, in charge of the mechanics who are fixing run-down police cars and bikes with newer parts, Matias is responsible for registering and filing every police complaint in a small archive office with fellow other officers. Both share a small apartment in Rio and are long-time friends and flatmates.
Parallel to his work as a police officer, Matias attends Law school at "Rio's best new Law University" (according to Nascimento), where his classmates are usually wealthy youngsters that tend to see the police as a repressive institution, while others are selling marijuana around the campus. He soon befriends Roberta (Fernanda de Freitas), Edu (Paulo Viela) and Maria (Fernanda Machado) (whom he later dates), who are all members of a NGO that supports poor children from a local favela. Roberta dates Rodrigues, who helps Maria run the organization and represents a Senator who sponsors the NGO. The three smoke marijuana regularly provided by Edu, who serves as a drug dealer at the university. Edu is supplied and bossed by Baiano (Fábio Lago), the local drug lord of the Comando Vermelho, who allows the NGO to operate as long as it doesn't interfere with his business or bring police attention to his area. Aware of the NGO's and Maria's connections to the illegal drug trafficking and fearing for the life of Romerito, a boy who befriends him, Matias keeps his police career as a secret from his classmates.
Neto is soon tired of working at the autoshop, but fails to be transferred to another department. During a routine patrol with Captain Fabio (Milhem Cortaz), he learns about corruption schemes adopted by police officers, such as payment of periodic bribes by small shopkeepers in exchange for police presence in front of their spots, and a common "relocation of dead bodies" to other battalion's areas (in order to artificially decrease criminal statistics of one battalion and leave less work to its officers). Upon discovering this scheme, Matias maps and charts every crime committed or investigated in every battalion, but is berated by his superiors after presenting the report. Also, due to the government's budget deficit to provide tow trucks, the police hire private tows and pay for every towed car (towing vehicles had since become a lucrative activity and corrupt officers are shown to own tow trucks).
Looking to raise enough money to fix as many police cars as possible at once, Neto comes up with a plan to steal the bribes Oliveira collects periodically from the favela drug lords and asks Matias and Fabio to help him. Fabio declines, since he will not have a share in it. The duo succeeds in stealing the money and celebrate their success, but Oliveira finds out about their involvement and punishes them by demoting both to cooks at the battalion's kitchen. However, Oliveira believes they were carrying the task under Fabio's orders, and orders him to attend a false police report at the Morro da Babilônia during a baile funk. Realizing he is going to be killed, Fabio warns Neto and Matias, who follow him and arrive at the vantage point to protect Fabio (the first scene of the film). When one of the dealers touches his gun, Neto opens fire, provoking a gunfight between police officers and dealers. Fabio takes cover behind a bar and engages in a shootout with Olivera's men while his two protectors fight some of the heavily armed dealers with only two pistols, a rifle and a sub-machine gun, but quickly run out of ammo.
Meanwhile, Nascimento is confronted by a woman trying to locate her the body of her son, who worked as a lookout for the drug lords. She believes her son was murdered after being brutally interrogated and then released by Nascimento. In guilt and thinking of his unborn child, Nascimento gathers some officers and goes into the slum to look for the boy's body. During the search, Nascimento is informed of the situation at Babilônia and ordered to intervene. After rescuing the trapped officers at Babilônia, he meets Matias and Neto for the first time and orders them to help clean up the scene, during which Matias is unwittingly photographed by the press. Soon after, the two friends, along with Fabio, apply for BOPE's training program. Matias and Neto are motivated by their desire to be good and honorable policemen, while Fabio applies due to his fear of retaliation from Oliveira. Meanwhile, Rafael, Nascimento's son, is born.
At the NGO office, Baiano confronts Maria and her friends with a newspaper showing Matias's picture and accusing them of bringing a cop into his area. He threatens the group and instructs them to get rid of Matias as soon as possible, as he is distrusting of police officers.
Soon after, BOPE's training program takes place over a few weeks in the jungle. The course proves a tough challenge, since all enrolled officers are subjected to severe physical and psychological treatment and trained under extreme pressure. Nascimento explains that this is "in order to eliminate the weak and, mainly, punish the corrupt", leaving only the honest and tough officers. Many candidates quit the program, including Fabio after he gets foot fungus, but Neto and Matias reach the final level, where they are brought into Nascimento's final operation. To celebrate his approval, Neto gets a BOPE tattoo in his arm.
At the university, Matias is rejected by Maria and her friends after his exposure as a cop. All the same, Matias confronts Edu and orders him to arrange a meeting with Romerito, to whom he has promised to deliver glasses for eyesight problems. Because of the slum's dangers, Matias tells Edu he will meet Romerito at an arcade at the base of the slum to delive his glasses. However, upon returning home, Neto informs Matias that he arranged a job interview in a prestigious law firm that will conflict with his meeting with Romerito. Hoping to see his long-time friend succeed in a law career, Neto offers to deliver the glasses to Romerito in Matias' place.
Edu reveals to Baiano that he had been threatened by Matias, and Baiano decides to take revenge on Matias for getting his friend killed, as well as interrupting his operations. When Neto meets Romerito and delivers his glasses, he is ambushed and mortally wounded by Baiano and his men, but ultimately sees Neto's arm tattoo and realizes he is a BOPE officer. Aware that killing an elite officer will "sign his death sentence" (as narrated by Nascimento), he murders Roberta and Rodrigues for revenge and goes into hiding in another favela. Severely injured, Neto dies in the hospital.
Seeking revenge for his friend's death, Matias, as well as Nascimento and fellow BOPE officers, start making daily incursions into Baiano's slum to torture dealers into telling them of his whereabouts. When one of them reveals Edu tipped Baiano about Matias's meeting with Romerito, Matias ragefully interrupts a peace walk, beats Edu up and insults Maria and the others, accusing them of being spoiled hypocritical drug users working for a drug dealer to provide for their work.
In the final act, BOPE officers discover the exact location of Baiano and raid his hideout. Baiano tries to escape, but is shot in the chest while running through the rooftops. Nascimento holds him at gunpoint, but Baiano pleads to not shoot him in the face to secure "for the wake". Nascimento grabs a shotgun, hands it to Matias and tells him to shoot Baiano in the head, as a final test to ascertain Matias's worthiness as his true successor. Matias takes the gun, points to Baiano's face and cocks the slide after a brief hesitation. The screen cuts to black as a gunshot is heard. | suspenseful, realism, murder, thought-provoking, violence, flashback, revenge | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0081505 | The Shining | Former teacher and recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) interviews for a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel in an effort to rebuild his life after his volatile temper lost him his teaching position. The hotel manager, Mr. Stuart Ullman (Barry Nelson), warns Jack that he and his family will be snowbound through most of the winter and of the potential risk for cabin fever. He drives the point home by recounting a season when the caretaker, Charles Grady, went crazy and brutaly killed his wife, his two girls (Lisa Burns and Louise Burns), and finally himself. Given his own desperation and the opportunity to pursue his true passion, writing, Jack acknowledges the warning, but accepts the job.Meanwhile, Jack's son Danny (Danny Lloyd) has a seizure while talking to his imaginary friend Tony about the Overlook Hotel. He has a vision of blood splashing out of an elevator in the hotel, an image which is revisited several times throughout the film.Upon Danny's arrival at the hotel, head chef Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) recognizes that Danny is telepathic, and speaks to him mentally to offer him some ice cream. He explains that he and his grandmother both had the gift; she referred to this communication as "shining." He also counsels Danny about the hotel, hinting that something terrible had happened there and left a trace, "as if someone burned toast," which only people who can "shine" will perceive. Danny questions Dick about what went on in the hotel, and about Room 237 in particular as Danny can sense that Dick is especially afraid of that room. Though he strives to assure Danny that the images he sees in the hotel are just "like pictures in a book" and can't hurt him, Dick sternly warns Danny to stay out of that room.Jack's mental health deteriorates rapidly once the family is alone in the hotel. He has writer's block, sleeps too little, and is irritable. Danny has visions of the two murdered Grady girls, but tells no one. He continues to wonder about Room 237.While the weather is still relatively warm, Jack's wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and Danny walk through a maze of tall hedges, making a game out of it, stopping at dead ends and fixing their mistakes.One day, a ball rolls toward Danny as he plays with his toys. It appears to have come from the open door of Room 237, which Danny enters. At that moment, Wendy comes running from the basement at the sound of Jack's screams in the lounge. He tells her that he had a nightmare in which he used an axe to chop Danny and her to pieces. As a disconcerted Wendy promises that "Everything's gonna be okay," Danny appears at the other end of the room, looking disoriented and sucking his thumb. His sweater is ripped and there are bruises on his neck. He does not answer when Wendy asks what happened. She angrily accuses Jack of hurting Danny and takes the child back to their suite.Jack is furious about the accusation. He storms around the hotel, making his way to the Gold Ballroom. Sinking defeatedly onto a stool at an empty bar, his head in his hands, Jack declares that he would sell his soul for one drink. When he looks up he discovers a bartender (Joe Turkel), who serves him a drink. Jack is nonplussed by the sudden appearance of the bartender and even addresses him by his name, Lloyd. In the course of telling his troubles to Lloyd, Jack reveals that he unintentionally dislocated Danny's shoulder, the same accident Wendy mentioned to Danny's pediatrician earlier. Notably, Jack states that the injury happened three years ago, while in explaining the same story to the pediatrician, Wendy said that Jack, who vowed to quit drinking immediately following the accident, has currently been sober for only five months.A frantic Wendy enters, finding Jack seemingly alone at the bar; she pleads with him to investigate Danny's claim that "a crazy woman" attacked him in the bathtub of Room 237. Jack, who acts a bit tipsy, grudgingly agrees to go have a look.As Jack approaches the door to Room 237, Danny appears to be having a seizure in his own room. Dick, back at his home in Florida, stares wide-eyed as he picks up on a signal Danny is sending.Jack cautiously enters Room 237. The bedroom is empty and he proceeds to the bathroom. He watches lustfully as a young, beautiful, naked woman (Lia Beldam) pulls back the shower curtain and steps slowly out of the bathtub. The two approach each other and embrace in a passionate kiss. Jack catches a glimpse of their reflection in the mirror and sees the woman is actually a rotting corpse. He recoils in horror-- the young lady standing before him has transformed into an elderly woman (Billie Gibson); a walking corpse with rotten, sagging skin. She cackles madly while reaching for him with outstretched arms. Stunned, Jack staggers out of the room, locking the door after him.When he reports back to Wendy, Jack denies anything amiss in Room 237. Wendy suggests they take Danny to a doctor. Jack becomes irate, lecturing Wendy on her thoughtlessness and blaming her for everything that's gone wrong in his life. Insisting that they can't leave the hotel because of his obligation to his employers, he storms out, returning to the Gold Room, which is now the scene of an extravagant party with guests dressed in 1920's fashion. Lloyd serves him a drink and Jack strolls through the crowd. He doesn't get far when a butler carrying a tray runs into him, spilling advocaat on his jacket. The butler convinces Jack to come into the bathroom to clean up.The butler introduces himself as Delbert Grady (Philip Stone). Jack remembers the story Mr. Ullman told him about a former caretaker named Grady murdering his family and confronts Grady with the information. Grady denies that anything of the sort took place and furthermore insists that Jack has "always been the caretaker." Jack is confused, but seems to accept Grady's story. Grady goes on to tell Jack that Danny has "a great talent" and is using it to bring an "outside party" into the situation, referring to Dick Halloran with a racial slur. Grady advises Jack on how to "correct" Danny, and how to deal with Wendy if she interferes.Back in Florida, Dick has had no luck contacting the people at the Overlook Hotel. Worried about Danny, he books the next flight to Colorado.At the Overlook, Wendy arms herself with a baseball bat and looks for Jack, intent on leaving the hotel with Danny whether or not Jack agrees to come. Entering the lounge, she spots Jack's manuscript left unattended next to the typewriter. She reads what Jack has been writing: hundreds of pages of repetitions of a single sentence: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." She realizes that Jack has gone mad.Jack approaches from behind and asks sarcastically, "How do you like it?" Wendy shrieks with alarm and wheels around to face him. A confrontation ensues as Jack demands to know her intentions regarding leaving the hotel with Danny, while Wendy retreats, brandishing the bat. She screams at Jack not to hurt her, and he swears that he will not; instead, he intends to kill her. Wendy hits Jack on the head with the bat at the top of a flight of stairs, causing him to lose his balance and tumble down the staircase, injuring his ankle in the process.Wendy drags Jack's limp body to the pantry and locks him inside, just as he regains consciousness. Jack tells her he has sabotaged the radio, as well as the snow cat, stranding them all there. She goes outside to check on the snow cat, and confirms what he told her.A few hours later, Jack is roused from a nap by the sound of Delbert Grady's voice. Grady expresses disappointment and a lack of confidence in Jack, but Jack assures him he can get the job done if given one more chance. The pantry door then suddenly unlocks.Wendy has fallen asleep in her room. Danny is in a trance, carrying a knife and muttering "redrum" repeatedly. He takes Wendy's lipstick and writes "REDRUM" on the bathroom door. He begins shouting "REDRUM," which wakes Wendy. She clutches him to her, then sees the reflection of the bathroom door in the mirror. Reversed, it reads: "MURDER." At that instant, banging sounds start coming from the door to the hallway.The sound is Jack swinging an axe at the locked door. Wendy grabs Danny and locks them in the bathroom. She opens a tiny, snow banked window and pushes Danny out; he slides safely to the ground. She tries to get out the same window, but cannot fit. She tells Danny to run and hide.Meanwhile, Jack has chopped his way through the front door and calls out "Wendy, I'm home!" Jack then knocks politely on the bathroom door. Wendy holds the knife and tries to steady herself as Jack begins chopping into the door. After chopping away one of the panels, he sticks his head through and screams "Heeeere's JOHNNY!" (a reference to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson). Jack sticks his hand through the door to turn the lock. Wendy slashes at him with a knife, cutting Jack's hand and sending him recoiling in pain. Jack continues to hack at the door with the axe until they both hear the low rumble of an approaching snow cat engine. He stalks out.The snow cat driver is Dick. Inside the hotel, he calls out, but gets no reply. Jack, hiding behind a pillar, leaps out and swings the axe into Dick's chest, killing him. Danny, hiding in a kitchen cabinet, screams, revealing his location. He clambers out of the steel cabinet and runs outside.Meanwhile, Wendy has ventured from the bathroom and begun to search for Danny. The hotel has sprung to life and now even Wendy encounters its ghosts, sights that shock and horrify her. At the same time, axe-wielding Jack turns on the outdoor lights and follows Danny into the hedge maze.Danny realizes he is leaving a trail of footprints in the snow for Jack to follow. He carefully retraces his steps, walking backwards in the same prints he'd just created in the opposite direction, then covers the rest of his tracks and hides behind a hedge. When Jack arrives, he sees that the trail of footprints ends abruptly, giving him no clue as to which direction Danny took. He chooses a path and lurches deeper into the maze. Danny comes out of his hiding spot and follows his own footprints back to the maze's entrance.Wendy makes her way out of the hotel just as Danny emerges from the maze. Relieved, she flings down the knife and embraces him. Jack bellows his frustration from within the maze. Danny and Wendy waste no time escaping in the snow cat that Dick used to get to the hotel. Jack, hopelessly lost in the maze, freezes to death.Right before the end credits, the camera slowly zooms in on a wall in the hotel full of old photographs that chronicle the hotel's history. An old recording of "Midnight, the Stars and You" echoes in the empty hallway. In the center of one picture is a young Jack. The caption reads, "Overlook Hotel, July 4th Ball, 1921." | dark, psychological, mystery, murder, paranormal, cult, horror, haunting, atmospheric, good versus evil, insanity, psychedelic, suspenseful | train | imdb | null |
tt0060438 | A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum | Set in Rome during the first century A.D. during the early years of the Roman Empire, the film opens with one of the musicals most famous songs, "Comedy Tonight," performed by Pseudolus. The lyrics tell the audience they will see some familiar things, others peculiar, some appealing, others appalling, some gaudy, and definitely others that are bawdy, in other words, something for everyone. Ultimately, Pseudolus promises a happy ending. The action, Pseudolus tells the audience, takes place in Rome around three adjacent houses: the house of Erronius (Latin for "wrong"), an old man who has been searching for his children who were stolen by pirates while they were infants; the house of Marcus Lycus, a buyer and seller of beautiful women, and the house of Senex (Latin for "old man" or "senile"), a Roman senator, his wife, Domina (Latin for "mistress"), who is loathed by her husband, their son, Hero, and his slave, Pseudolus, who is attempting to raise enough money to buy his freedom.One day when Senex and Domina leave for a trip, Hero tells Pseudolus that he's in love with a girl in the house next door. Pseudolus seizes the opportunity to bargin for his freedom. Hero agrees if Pseudolus can get the girl for him, he will free him.Pseudolus and Hero visit the house of Lycus to purchase Hero's beloved. Lycus presents several of his courtesans for their inspection: Tintinabula (Latin for "bell"), a bell-wearing beauty, dances to middle eastern music; Vibrata (Latin for "vibrant"), an energetic, lively dark-skinned lovely who is dressed in a leopard skin bikini, dances to jazz; Geminae (Latin for "twins") are a matched pair that Lycus will not separate; Panacea (Latin for "cure all") dances seductively; and Gymnasia (Latin for "nude," which she may have been in the original musical, but in the film she is portrayed as speechless) is a mute from the Island of Silent Women. Gymnasia and Pseudolus communicate in sign language and he immediately falls for her. When Hero's dream woman is not among the girls who are presented, Lycus tells them that she is a virgin who recently arrived from Crete and he has sold her to a famous Roman soldier. Being an excellent fabricator of lies, Pseudolus claims Crete has been ravaged by a plague, and since he has already had the plague, he would happily look after the girl in Senex's house until the soldier comes to claim her. Lycus gulibly agrees to Pseudolus offer.Once they return to the house of Senex, Hero and the girl get to know each other. He learns that her name is Philia (which in Greek means "love"). Philia sings "Lovely" (as "I'm Lovely"), in which she explains that "lovely is the one thing I can do." Hero then sings his reply, "You're Lovely," and they both agree they are happy to have found each other. Even though Philia has fallen in love with Hero, she insists she must honor the contract Marcus Lycus made to sell her.Pseudolus devises a plan to give Philia a sleeping potion. Once she is unconscious, he will tell Lycus that she died from the plague. When they move her body for burial, Hero can then take her away to Greece and Pseudolus will get his freedom. Pseudolus steals a potion book from Hysterium (Latin for "hysterial"), another slave in the house of Senex. The only sleeping potion ingredient he doesn't have is mare's sweat, so he and Hero head in different directions to obtain some.While they are away, Senex unexpectedly returns home and knocks three times on his door. Pseudolus had told Philia that three knocks was the signal of her purchaser, Captain Miles Gloriosus (Latin for "braggart soldier"). Hearing the knocks, Philia assumes Senex is the captain, so she offers herself to him. She tells him that he may have her body but will never have her heart. The old Senator is more than happy to take her body, with or without her heart.Pseudolus returns with the mare's sweat just in time to see Senex and Philia embracing. He tells Senex that the girl is a new maid he has hired. That leads into the hilarious song, "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid." Senex is very much in favor of maids especially those who butter up the master with sexual favors. Hysterium joins Senex and Pseudolus for a chorus of the song, and then they are joined by Lycus, who is checking on the condition of the virgin. These lecherous fellows particularly like maids who wriggle, giggle and jiggle as they putter around the house.After the song, Pseudolus convinces Senex that he needs a bath after his road trip (Senex is actually smelling the mare's sweat) and since his son could be home, he should bathe and receive the girl in Erronius' long-abandoned house next door.Just after Senex heads for his bath, Erronius returns from his exhaustive twenty year search for his two long-lost offspring. The elderly and semi-senial Erronius, who is now almost blind, reveals that each of the children is wearing a ring with a gaggle of geese engraved upon it.When Erronius heads for his house, he hears Senex singing as he bathes. Hysterium, desperate to keep Erronius out of his house, tells the old man his house is haunted. Erronius demands Hysterium find a soothsayer to banish the haunting spirit from his house. Overhearing, Psuedolus pretends to be a soothsayer and orders Erronius to run around the Seven Hills of Rome seven times to banish the spirit.Meanwhile, two Roman Army emissaries of Captain Miles Gloriosus arrive at Lycus' house to make certain everything is in order for their commander to receive his purchased courtesan. They threaten to turn Lycus' women over to the soldiers and burn his house if anything is amiss.Fearing the Captain's wrath, Lycus talks Pseudolus into substituting for him for an hour. Pseudolus is more than happy to oblige since he gets to see Gymnasia again. Pseudolus convinces Lycus that it would be best to move all the girls into Senex's house. Meanwhile, Senex has finished his bath, but orders Hysterium to bring him an energy (love) potion prior to his rendezvous with Philia.When Captain Gloriosus and his troops march into the city, the captain sings "Bring Me My Bride." This conceited soldier claims to be a man among men but is also admired and desired by all women. He is impatient to receive his bride because he has towns to plunder, temples to burn and women to abuse.Pseudolus, pretending to be Lycus, tires to delay delivering Philia. The Captain gives him half an hour to deliver the girl or else. While Gloriosus waits, he dictates his memoirs and his men enjoy Lycus' courtesans.
Meanwhile, Lycus, who is drinking in a nearby bar, learns from a fellow patron there is no plague in Crete. When he tries to return to reveal the lie, he isn't admitted into his own house because everyone, as he had instructed, swears Pseudolus is Lycus.Domina returns from her trip early because she had a premonition that Senex was up to something. She goes to the market to purchase a breeder slave and picks a robust, stocky female specimen. Once they return home, the breeder takes a liking to Pseudolus. He puts her in a room and tells her he will knock on the door three times when he returns. He sends one of the Captain's soldiers to the room and tells him to knock three times (the soldier thinks he's getting one of Lycus' women). Later, Pseudolus sends Senex to the breeder's room (Senex assumes Philia is there), but escapes the breeder slave through the window.When Domina is introduced to the Captain, she is smitten. Then when Hysterium brings the energy potion to Senex, Domina stops him and thirstly consumes the liquid. Pseudolus tells Domina to wait in the Green Room and he will send the Captain to her. About the same time, Senex climbs in the window of the Green Room, where he expects to be joined by Philia. He and his wife are both unpleasantly surprised to end up in the same room.
When Philia hears the voice of the Captain, she recognizes it as the brute who raped her country, "Thrace." She claims he did it three times. Pseudolus questions, "He raped Thrace thrice?"Pseudolus decides to tell the Captain the virgin has died, but in order to make it convincing, he needs a body. After a lot of convincing, Hysterium agrees to dress in drag and pretend to be the dead Philia. Pseudolus sings a reprise of "Lovely" (as "You're Lovely"; a hilarious self-spoof of the musical number sung by Hero earlier in the film) to convince Hysterium he can pull off the ruse. Once convinced, Hysterium sings "I'm Lovely." To complete Hysterium's outfit, Pseudolus gives him the old man's ring - the one with the gaggle of geese.As the funeral procession begins, Hero returns with a cup of mare's sweat. He is so distraught when he learns that Philia is dead that he plans to throw himself to the lions. Before he leaves, however, Senex mistakes the mare's sweat for the energy potion, drinks it and immediately passes out.Pseudolus tells the Captain the virgin died because the sight of his glorious physique was too much of a shock. The conceited Gloriosus competely understands and is saddened that the girl would have died before she experienced him. Gloriosus insists on a proper funeral including cremation of the body. He also composes and sings a funeral dirge ("The Dirge"). When the Captain starts to give the dead virgin a farewell kiss, Pseudolus tells him she actually died of the plague she contracted in Crete. Unfortunately, the Captain had been stationed in Crete and knew there was no plague there. When the Captain says he is going to cut the girl's heart out and take it with him, Hysterium jumps up and runs away. Gymnasia communicates to Philia that Hero thinks she is dead, so he is going to throw himself to the lions. Distraught, Philia decides to sacrifice herself to the gods. Gymnasia then tells Pseudolus that Philia and Hero are both planning to kill themselves.Hero sneaks into a nearby arena during a gladiator training session. Pseudolus finds him there just before the gladitor knocks Hero in the head. He manages to save Hero and tells him that Philia is alive and has gone to the Temple of the Virgins to sacrifice herself. The gladitor then fights Pseudolus and captures him, but Gymnasia saves Pseudolus and they get away in a chariot.Hero climbs to the roof of the Temple and from a hole in the top saves Philia. They ride away in a chariot. A madcap, comic chase ensues with the Captain chasing Hero and Philia and Pseudolus and Gymnasia. Once the Captain captures them, they return to Rome for a quick wedding and a slow execution.Back in the city, Erronius, who has made several circles around the hills of the city, recognizes the gaggle-of-geese ring worn by Philia. Miles also has a gaggle-of-geese ring, which means they are brother and sister - the long-lost siblings of Erronius. That means Philia is a free-born citizen of Rome and cannot be sold as a courtesan. It also means that the Captain cannot marry his sister, so Hero and Philia can marry.A happy ending just as the lyrics of "Comedy Tonight" had promised (a reprise of the song is heard). Hero and Philia get each other, Senex and Domina get each other (whether they like it or not), Miles gets the twins, Erronius gets his family back, the soldiers get Lycus' women, Lycus must get a new supply of girls, and Pseudolus gets his freedom. And the moral? The cast sings, "Morals tomorrow! Comedy tonight!" | historical fiction | train | imdb | Some people complain that Lester altered the original show too much, cutting songs and dialogue alike, but this is the only way people can see Zero Mostel's fantastic -- and frenetic -- performance, so count your blessings.
And the fond look at slapstick (speeded up film, drag, pratfalls, etc.) is especially apt here considering the great Buster Keaton is in the cast.Mostel reprises here as the wily slave who drives the manic action.
Mostel is just wonderful and gets to use his full bag of tricks as a comedian as well as sing "Comedy Tonight." Equally good is Phil Silvers, who sells slave girls next door to the snooty matron (Patricia Jessel) her husband (Michael Hordern), and their innocent son Hero (Michael Crawford---yes THAT Michael Crawford).
"Funny Thing" is just as funny as I remembered it to be -- a marvelous opportunity to see the brilliant and hilarious Zero Mostel, plus a dream cast that includes Jack Guilford, Phil Silvers, Michael Crawford (very young), Roy Kinnear, etc.Zero Mostel was an incredible Broadway comedic genius, but his most famous work was probably in "Fiddler on the Roof", where it only exits as the wonderful Broadway cast album.
No one can really approach Mostel for his comic timing, ability to not only sing but sing FUNNY and the expressiveness of his face.Directed by Richard Lester (Hard Days' Night, Three Musketeers), the film is particularly beautiful in its period setting -- Lester had a spectacular eye for detail - and I honestly believe that this is the most realistic film ever done VISUALLY about Ancient Rome.
Crazy, dynamic and modern spirit of Lester's direction fits more or less well into "A funny thing happened on the way to the forum"(not as well as it did in "The Knack" or "A Hard Day's Night, but very well anyway).
On the half-full side we get to see Zero Mostel and Jack Gilford reprising their Broadway roles, and they're joined by a fine supporting cast including Phil Silvers as Lycus (ironically, he would star as Pseudolus in the 1972 Broadway revival) and Buster Keaton in his last film.
And it's too bad this wasn't a roadshow movie with an intermission because Mostel's funny Act One closer would have worked great there as well.All in all it's worth having, but be prepared for your mood to shift from seeing the film as a half-full glass or a half-empty one..
Bad: -Cutting so many songs, specifically "Free" and Hysterium's number (I must say, Jack Gilford was highly underused in this film).-The direction of most remaining musical numbers and some scenes.-Changing the character of Dominia.
For great music, great laughs, and great-looking women, rent "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.".
As such, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM is a useful film - it is one of the few movies that are based on ancient drama.
So A FUNNY THING HAPPENED is actually a comedy of daily regular life in Rome - it is not a realistic view of Roman society, but it is a type of distorted mirror of that society.It is also important for another reason: Zero Mostel.
He (like his friend, and fellow FUNNY THING performer, Jack Gilford) was blacklisted in the McCarthy period, so that Mostel turned to working in nightclubs and developed his interest in painting (his painting always showed great promise).
For that reason alone A FUNNY THING HAPPENED is worth watching and enjoying.The supporting cast is great too, including Buster Keaton in one of his last roles as a befuddled old man, Gilford as Hysterium (Mostel's foil in the household where they are both slaves), Phil Silvers as Lycus the procurer (one of Silver's best performances on screen), and the two Michaels (Hordern and Crawford) as Senex and Hero - father and son (and rivals for the same girl).
Slapstick farce based on a Broadway comedy/musical about some crazy complications when a slave (Zero Mostel) tries to win his freedom in ancient Rome.The script is OK with some funny lines and sight gags, the girls are all very beautiful (and horribly objectified--but this was done in the 1960s) and the comedians (Mostel, Phil Silvers, Jack Guilford, Buster Keaton) are at their peak...but I didn't really enjoy this.For one thing it's WAY too fast and frentic with director Lester spinning the camera all over the place.
Also this movie relies way too much on slapstick--there's a closing chase sequence that goes on forever and has TONS of it.Still, I'm giving it a 7 just for the cast alone (what a pleasure it is to see Keaton not doing a beach party movie and Silvers is hysterical) and some very funny parts.
The music in this film by Steven Sondheim is excellent and I enjoyed most of the songs despite the fact that most of the actors couldn't sing if their lives depended on it.
The filming of these numbers is similarly filled with jumbles of burlesque imagery that in trying too hard to be funny undermine the witty humor those pieces should have emitted.As a commentator before me has pointed out, the failure of this movie (in my opinion) is probably due to the "open-up" cinematography that has adulterated many other Hollywood versions of Broadway shows.
What I can see is only a collage of vibrant colors surrounding slapsticks that are rather on the banal side (the final chariot chase, for instance) --- no complexity or even cleverness.Having limited opportunities for seeing this musical on stage, I could only wish that there would be a remake more faithful to the Broadway original in the future---probably specifically for home video rather than for movie theaters, as (again, in my opinion) how the 2000 film version of Jesus Christ Superstar, which is basically a taped stage play, compensates for the regrets left from the 1973 adaptation, which also has distorted and fragmented the original play with a desert setting, excessive editing, and idiosyncratic gimmicks..
Director Richard Lester lends his frenetic style of direction in this film version of the Broadway musical comedy.
Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford, Buster Keaton, and many other comedy greats drum up some good laughs in their supporting roles.
I didn't like the way they presented "Comedy Tonight" though, over much of the song they showed a montage of scenes from the film that we haven't seen yet.
The same seems to be true here, and it doesn't work in either film.) The physical business that runs throughout the movie is so far over the top that you end up wondering when the funny bits will start.The pluses are obvious: Zero Mostel and Jack Gilford, two old pros trying to make it all work.
On the other hand, it looks like it was shot in someone's backyard by a peyote-dosing epileptic.Maybe "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" is the best badly-directed film in the world, a shame because it's not only a terrific show and cast, but a fantastic director, Richard Lester, who just was given the wrong project."Forum" is the story of one Pseudolus, a scheming house slave in ancient Rome who offers to help his master's son hook up with the courtesan next door in exchange for his freedom.
But she is promised to a Roman general, and so Pseudolus must figure out a way to break off this engagement without the vain general breaking off Pseudolus's head.Zero Mostel is Pseudolus, and does the best work I've seen from him on film, better than "The Producers" because in that film he didn't have to fight his director to deliver laughs.
He wastes time on a pointless chariot chase and scenes in a temple and coliseum, and leaves off a terrific Richard Williams titles sequence for the end instead of the beginning, where it would have been more effective.Marry all that to a production design that looks like hastily thrown-together leftovers from "Sparticus," a muddy print, awful sound recording, and hasty editing, and you have a film you have to fight with in order to enjoy.
Maybe the pan-and-scan version I saw does it no justice, but sequences like "My Bride" are so rough-hewn and out-of-joint one wonders if Lester was saving money by getting his coverage from the cutting-room floor.One sees what Lester is trying to do, capture the same success he has had with the Beatle films "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!" and transfer it to this similarly merry-spirited work.
In this film, "A Funny Thing Happened To Me On the Way To The Forum " Pseudolus is a conniving Roman slave out to win his freedom at any cost.
Many character along the way include, Jack Gilford, great acting as Hysterium, Phil Silvers as Marcus Lycus, Michael Hordern as Senex and the great Buster Keaton as Erronius.
The acting is great, it's nicely directed (with some creative visual effects during the musical numbers), and while the score has been abbreviated what there is is very witty, classic Sondheim.I absolutely cannot believe that some people can complain about this film because of its "misogynic overtones." It's set in ancient Rome, for God's sake!
Every moment counts, nothing is wasted, and every performance - - from the stars to the bit players -- finely tuned to perfection.A special treat is the final cinematic appearance of the great Buster Keaton, at his understated best, with his deadpan delivery of lines it took the entire film to set up for him.
A cut down version to be sure in terms of songs, but still a tribute to Sondheim in a fashion.The accent is more on comedy however and you cannot give enough praise to both Zero Mostel and Jack Gilford who were the only two from the Broadway cast to repeat their roles.
It's a great sequence even if the idea originated in the Eddie Cantor film, Roman Scandals.This movie was also the return of Zero Mostel to the screen after the blacklist.
One of the many Tony Awards A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum won was for Zero Mostel as Best Actor.On Broadway the show ran for 964 performances from 1962-1964 and also won a Tony for Best Musical.
It revolves essentially around young Hiero, played by Michael Crawford to get the woman he loves who happens to work over at Phil Silvers's pleasure house and his family slave Zero Mostel to obtain his freedom.
It is veryfunny but as the only film version of a stage musical, it's a big Zero.(Zero was excellent when he was given a chance and I didn'tmean to put him down but who can refuse a bad pun?)Besides many songs being cut (Yes "Free" is also a favorite ofmine.), I also found Crawford's voice at this stage to be rather"blatty" as it was also in "Hello Dolly!" and this is strange as he,like the late David Hemmings, worked with Benjamin Britten (Hedid admit that David was better.).
Zero Mostel reprises his leading role on Broadway as a Roman slave who tries to earn his freedom by playing matchmaker with Michael Crawford and Annette Andre, all while trying not to get caught, since Annette is promised to another.
Phil Silvers as a procurer and Leon Greene as a bombastic Roman conqueror are standouts -- the latter's narcissistic introductory aria is, I think, a high point.The film has gotten mixed reviews: some don't like that many songs from the musical were left out of the movie; others have considered Lester's slapstick comic style, while vigorous, to lack depth.
He said the two songs which ended up "working" were "Comedy Tonight" and "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid" - because they were closest to the style of the show.I don't know what the movie execs were thinking in terms of bringing this to the screen (the very essence of this show is the notion that it's live theater) - but, at the very least, it does capture Zero Mostel - of which there are too few recorded performances..
Having directed a very successful amateur production of this piece and just about to don the guise of Senex I feel that stage wise it's one of the best, however the film is somewhat of a let down - alright cut some of the songs but cut the bad ones (if there are any - this is Sondheim)The casting of the film is as near perfect as it should be, Mostel and Gilford are exceptional, Crawford does well with what he has got.
Keaton just makes me roar with laughter and Hordern puts in a performance nearly as great as the one he gave in 'The Slipper and The Rose'Just can't help feeling the film could have been a straight adaptation of the stage play and with the assembled cast it would have been brill.Why wasn't forum mentioned in CH4 (British TV) 100 greatest musicals?.
The story is set in the ancient Rome.Pseudolys, a lazy slave wants nothing more than to be free.He gets that chance when he finds out that the young master has fell in love.The girl is Philia, a virgin in the house of Lycus, a slave dealer who sells beautiful women.If Pseudolys gets the two lovebirds together, he's free.A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a very funny musical comedy.Zero Mostel is brilliant in the lead.There's also the silent comedy legend Buster Keaton there.It's most hilarious when Senex meets the goddess Philia at the door.And they tell him she's the new maid.Or Lycus doing acrobatics.The chariot race is really something.The song heard in this movie is really catchy.Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone: a comedy tonight..
Boasting a priceless cast, a catchy score, and frenetic direction, Richard Lester's film adaptation of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" is solidly entertaining and should not be judged for what could have been.
Crammed with sight gags and slapstick, many drawn from silent comedies, the movie was appropriately Buster Keaton's last film, and he left us laughing.
In addition to Keaton, the irreplaceable trio of Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, and Jack Gilford are hysterical, and each member of the talented supporting cast, which includes Michael Hordern, Patricia Jessel, and Michael Crawford, has their moment.The art direction by Tony Walton is a beautiful and sometimes humorous evocation of a fanciful Ancient Rome, and Richard Williams's closing title sequence is worth waiting for.
Average musical slapstick comedy that had a good cast and budget but suffered from bad directing style and bad screenplay.The soundtrack was very good due to the great play this film was based on and the opening sequences was very promising.Although the sebsequent scenes continued to degrade with every minute.There is one hilarious scene though when someone gets thrown out a window!Worth a look for big fans of slapstick comedy......
As such, while it may not have been one of the most well known stage musicals, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum had proved a sufficient hit to make an intelligent transfer to the big screen.
Reprising his starring role from the Broadway production, Zero Mostel is nothing less than a scream as cunning slave Pseudolus, a bundle of comedic energy and hysterical mannerisms whose mere presence lights up the screen and makes the movie immediately more enjoyable.
While lacking the profundity of some of Sondheim's later musical efforts and the vivacious splendour of other such musical adaptations, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum offers unapologetic entertainment to a nearly unprecedented degree, excelling as a comedy if not as a movie musical.
The great Buster Keaton was also in the movie playing the role that became a trademark for him at this late stage in his career.
As far as I know, the movie is based on a play with about the same name "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum".
Great to get a chance to see some of the original Broadway cast (Mostel and Gilford) but it's just not the same as seeing it on stage.
Whenever I feel down, whenever the world is getting on top of me, whenever I just need some light-hearted fun, I turn to 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'.The cast is superb: Zero Mostel ("Was 1 a good year?"); Jack Gilford ("I live to grovel"); Phil Silvers ("I know that sound - and I love it!"); even classical actor Michael Hordern enters into the spirit of things ("All that flesh...
Mixed Bag. Comedy legends Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers and Buster Keaton headline a show by Stephen Sondheim, joined by British actor Michael Hordern, American Jack Gilford and Michael Crawford, a fine light actor and later Broadway's Phantom of the Opera.
While his material typically transfers uneasily to film, this is his most accessible score, with songs like "Lovely", "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid", "Bring Me My Bride", and the great "Comedy Tonight" lifting a movie that might otherwise have gone down without a trace -- even carried on the shoulders of its superb cast.Anyone who doesn't like musicals might want to see it once for its famous stars (particularly Buster Keaton, who has one more trick up his seventy-year old sleeve near the end; and Phil Silvers, for once exposed without his trademark glasses)..
The cast is filled with funny people, including Mostel repeating his Tony winning role (which he wouldn't get to do for "Fiddler on the Roof"), Phil Silvers (who later won a Tony for playing Pseudelous in the first revival), Jack Gilford and Buster Keaton in his last film role.
A Roman slave who can win his freedom if he pairs up his innocent young master with the virgin courtesan next door.*Special Stars- Zero Mostel, Buster Keaton, Phil silvers, MIchael Crawford, Jask Gilford, Leon Greene, Annette Andre.*Theme- Love always finds a way.*Trivia/location/goofs- British, Musical.
Zero Mostel performs the role of Pseudolus very perfectly(I mean, who else can play Pseudolus) and features a few great musical numbers(Comedy Tonight was my personal favorite). |
tt0140352 | The Insider | In Lebanon, Hezbollah militants escort producer Lowell Bergman (Pacino) to Hezbollah founder Sheikh Fadlallah, where Lowell convinces him to be interviewed by Mike Wallace (Plummer) for CBS show 60 Minutes. In Louisville, Kentucky, Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe) packs his belongings and leaves his Brown and Williamson office, returning home to his wife Liane (Venora) and two children, one of whom suffers from acute asthma. When Liane asks about the boxes in Wigand's car, he reveals that he was fired from his job that morning.Returning home to Berkeley, California, Bergman receives an anonymous package containing documents relating to tobacco company Philip Morris, and approaches a friend at the FDA for the name of a translator. Bergman is referred to Wigand, and calls him at his home only to be steadfastly rebuffed. Curious with Wigand's refusal to even speak to him, Bergman eventually convinces him to meet at the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville. In the privacy of their hotel room, agrees to translate the tobacco documents, but stresses that he cannot talk about anything else because of his confidentiality agreement. After leaving with the documents, Wigand appears at a meeting with Brown and Williamson CEO Thomas Sandefur (Gambon), who orders him to sign an expanded confidentiality agreement, under threat of revoking his severance pay, medical coverage and initiating legal proceedings. Wigand, enraged at the threats and believing that Bergman notified Sandefur about their confidential meeting, calls and accuses Bergman of treachery.Bergman visits Wigand's house the next day and maintains that he did not reveal anything to Brown and Williamson. Reassured, Wigand talks to Bergman about the seven CEOs of 'Big Tobacco' perjuring themselves to the United States Congress about their awareness of nicotine's addictiveness, and that the CEOs should fear Wigand. Bergman says Wigand has to decide himself whether to blow the whistle on big tobacco. Bergman returns to CBS Headquarters in New York City, where he and Wallace discuss Wigand's situation and the potential damage he could do to Big Tobacco. A lawyer at the meeting claims that Wigand's confidentiality agreement, combined with Big Tobacco's unlimited checkbook, would effectively silence Wigand under mountains of litigation and court costs. Bergman proposes that Wigand could be compelled to speak through a court of law which could give him some protection against Brown and Williamson should he do an interview for 60 Minutes.The Wigand family move into a newer, more affordable house, and Wigand begins teaching chemistry and Japanese at a Louisville high school. One night while asleep, he's alerted by his daughter to sounds outside the house. Upon investigation, he discovers a fresh shoe print in his newly planted garden, and begins to become paranoid. The next night, Wigand and Bergman have dinner together, where Bergman asks Wigand about incidents from his past that Big Tobacco might use against him. Wigand reveals several incriminating incidents before declaring he can't see how they would affect his testimony. Bergman assures him they will.Bergman contacts Richard Scruggs (Feore) and Ron Motley (McGill), who with Mississippi's attorney general Mike Moore are suing Big Tobacco to reimburse the state for Medicaid funds used to treat people with smoking-related illnesses. The trio express an interest in Bergman's idea and tell him to have Wigand call them. Meanwhile, Wigand receives death threats via email and finds a bullet in his mailbox, prompting him to contact the FBI, who after subtly accusing him of emotional imbalance confiscate his computer for evidence. Enraged over the threats to his family, Wigand phones Bergman and demands that to fly to New York and tape his testimony immediately. During Wigand's interview with Wallace, Wigand states that Brown and Williamson manipulated nicotine through ammonia chemistry to allow nicotine to be more rapidly absorbed in the lungs and therefore affect the brain and central nervous system through impact boosting. He continues by saying Brown and Williamson have consciously ignored public health considerations in the name of profit.In Louisville, Wigand begins his new teaching job and talks to Richard Scruggs. Upon returning home, Wigand discovers that Bergman has given him some security personnel. Wigand's wife is struggling under the pressure and tells him so. Days later, Wigand travels to Mississippi, where he receives a restraining order issued by the State of Kentucky to prevent him from testifying. Though the restraining order, issued by Brown and Williamson's lawyers, was thrown out in Mississippi, Wigand is told that if he testifies and returns to Kentucky he could be imprisoned. After a lengthy period of introspection, Wigand goes to court and gives his deposition, during which he says nicotine acts as a drug. Following his testimony, Wigand returns to Louisville, where he discovers that his wife and children have left him.At this point the film shifts its emphasis from Wigand to Bergman. Bergman and Wallace go to a meeting with CBS Corporate about the Wigand interview. A legal concept has emerged, known as Tortious interference. If two parties have an agreement, such as a confidentiality agreement, and one of those parties is induced by a third party to break that agreement, the party can be sued by the other party for any damages. It is revealed that the more truth Wigand tells, the greater the damage, and a greater likelihood that CBS will be faced by a multi-billion dollar lawsuit from Brown and Williamson. It is later suggested that an edited interview take the place of the original. Bergman vehemently disagrees, and claims that the reason CBS Corporate is leaning on CBS News to edit the interview is because they fear that the prospect of a multi-billion dollar lawsuit could jeopardize the sale of CBS to Westinghouse. Wallace and Don Hewitt agree to edit the interview, leaving Bergman alone in the stance of airing it uncensored.A PR firm hired by Big Tobacco initiates a smear campaign against Wigand, dredging up details about his life and publishing a 500-page dossier. Through Wigand, Bergman discovers that Big Tobacco has distorted and exaggerated numerous claims, and convinces a reporter from the Wall Street Journal to delay the story until it can be disproven. Bergman contacts several private investigators who do begin their own investigation. Bergman releases his findings to the Wall Street Journal reporter and tells him to push the deadline. Meanwhile, due to his constant fights with CBS management, Bergman is ordered to go on vacation.Soon after, the edited interview is broadcast. Bergman attempts to call Wigand at his hotel but receives no answer. He instead calls the hotel manager, who opens Wigand's door but is stopped by the deadbolt. Peering into Wigand's room, the hotel manager spies Wigand sitting alone, lost in a daydream about the idyllic life he could have led without his testimony. Per Bergman's commands, the hotel manager convinces Wigand to accept Bergman's phone call. Wigand screams at Bergman, accusing him of manipulating him into his position. Bergman tells Wigand that he is important to a lot of people and that heroes like him are in short supply. After hanging up, Bergman contacts the The New York Times and reveals the scandal that occurred at 60 Minutes, causing the New York Times to release a scathing article. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal exonerates Wigand and reveals his deposition in Mississippi, while condemning Big Tobacco's 500-page smear as 'the lowest form of character assassination'. 60 Minutes finally broadcasts the full interview with Wigand.In the final scene Bergman talks to Wallace and he tells him that he's quitting saying, 'What got broken here doesn't go back together again'. The final shot is of him leaving the building. A series of title cards appear stating the $246 billion settlement that big tobacco made with Mississippi and other States in their lawsuit, that Wigand lives in South Carolina. In 1996, Dr. Wigand won the Sallie Mae First Class Teacher of the Year award, receiving national recognition for his teaching skills. Lowell Bergman works for the PBS show Frontline and teaches at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. | mystery, dramatic, suspenseful, intrigue | train | imdb | null |
tt0075651 | Schock | Dora (Daria Nicolodi), is a woman who has suffered a nervous breakdown following the death of her husband Carlo, a drug addict who abused her. Carlo died under mysterious circumstances; he apparently committed suicide by throwing himself off a boat while at sea. After an year-long extended stay in a sanatorium, Dora is released into the care of her new husband Bruno (John Steiner).Despite the bad memories connected to her old house, Bruno insists that they, together with Dora and Carlo's young son Marco (David Colin Jr.), settle down there until a more convenient location can be found. Dora reluctantly agrees, and soon after resettling down into their home, mysterious events begin to happen. Marco strikes up a conversation with a unnamed, imaginary friend possible the spirit of his dead father. Later that night, Marco spies on his parents having sex on a couch in the living room. This voyeuristic scene unhinges the boy as he hisses "Pigs! Pigs!"When Bruno, a commercial airline pilot, goes away on business with the TWA Airline, Dora is left alone for a whole week. One evening, Marco asks if he could sleep in the bed next to her and she agrees. As she sleeps, Marco crouches over her body, and begins caressing her. Hallucinated, his hand takes on a putrid, rotting appearance.The next morning, Dora finds a pair of her panties, ripped to shreds, in Marco's dresser, and later catches him spying on her as she showers. The boy's behavior becomes more and more aggressive when he starts jumping out at her from the shadows, further unsettling his already nervous mother. Another day later, Dora notices a photo of her and Bruno is missing. Marco is shown with the photo, playfully cutting their images out of the photo with scissors and decapitating them.When Bruno returns, a fearful Dora tells him about whats going on. Bruno insists that shes only imagining things, and begs her to calm down. When this fails, he administers her sleeping pills to help her sleep. Dora begins to suffer from terrible nightmares which includes ghastly visions of her dead husband.In an effort to clear things up, Dora takes Marco to a psychiatrist (Ivan Rassimov). The doctor tells Dora that, based on his conversations with the boy, she has been neglecting her son and he is simply seeking attention. Dora insists that Marco is lying. A little later at home, when Marco accuses her mother of murdering Carlo, she comes to believe that the child is possessed by the dead mans spirit. Dora confides her fears to Bruno, who promises to take her away from the house as soon as possible.That night, Dora is awakened by sounds coming form the basement. She goes to investigate and finds Bruno tearing down a brick wall in the basement with a pickaxe. When Bruno notices her, he tells her to return to bed, but she demands to know the truth about what's going on. Finally, Bruno tells her that she did indeed murder Carlo after he beat and raped her. But she defended herself by gapping a utility razor and slashing him to death, before lapsing into some kind of coma. As he is in love with her, Bruno covered up the crime by pushing the dead man's boat out to sea to make it appear that he committed suicide by drowning, and then walled up the mutilated body in a false basement wall. It is for this reason that Bruno insisted that they return to the house for rather than someone discovering the body, he planed to use the time to dispose of it.But Bruno fails to realize that, by this point, Dora is completely out of her mind. She goes berserk and axes him to death, pushing his body into the same niche that hides the remains of her first husband. Soon after, Dora is assailed by a series of macabre hallucinations throughout the house by Marco who is using the power of the vengeful spirit of Carlos to use against her. In one of them, Marco runs towards his mother, only to transform into the ghastly corpse of Carlos. Dora retreats back to the basement where after seeing all the furniture in the house move toward her, she slashes her own neck with the same utility razor, imagining that Carlo's hands are controlling the blade.The next morning, Marco enters the basement where he moves his dead mother into the niche in the basement wall where his dead father and stepfather are, and walls it up himself. Marco then goes outside where he enjoys a cup of tea on the front lawn of the house with his unseen friend. | revenge, psychedelic, violence, romantic | train | imdb | I suppose it's because Mario Bava's direction was not flashy and concentrated more on telling his story and keeping us guessing.Finally, my enjoyment of this film has encouraged me to seek out Bava's other films and that can only be a good thing..
In Shock, we do know for certain that a mother, Dora, her cute little son Marco, and her second husband Bruno, are at a new house they just bought.
But what we don't know for certain, perhaps not fully even until the very end, what is really taking the shape of the horror, and that's the key to Mario Bava's success here (actually his last film, quite a feat for any time in his career).
It seems straightforward enough: the boy keeps getting weird, sneaking on his mother (even stealing her underwear) and acts generally creepy, and soon get some supernatural mojo with a doll made up of his mom and a swing that can control his stepfather's flight plan as he pilots a plane.There is that aspect, and Bava does get some good mileage out of the mannerisms and kind eyes of the child actor Colin Jr (his voice on the other hand leaves much more to be desired).
Again, could still all be the ghost going on - who we also learn soon after could allegedly be her first husband, who died from suicide as a junkie.But the fact that Dora was a former mental patient, and spent some time in an asylum and got some shock treatments, calls into question her reliability as a character.
The final film from Italian horror director Mario Bava was this chilling tale.Upon returning to the home where her former husband died, a woman begins to believe that her young son is possessed and is attempting to kill her.Plot-wise Schock is slim on sense, but those of us that love the films of Bava (or most any Italian horror period) know that the entertainment is all in the style and Bava's direction flourishes with style in this film as well.
The film's scenic locations, creepy music score, and its female star add all the more to the elegance that is this twisted spooker.The cast is good over all, but it is Daria Nicolodi that really shines as a wife/mother who begins to question her sanity.Granted, Schock may not be the greatest of Bava's films, but it certainly was a great last work.
Dora Baldini (Daria Nicolodi), her husband Bruno Baldini (John Steiner) and her son Marco (David Colin Jr.) move to a huge house that belongs to her.
The final completed film for Italian horror master Mario Bava is a decent one.
It lacks the atmosphere of his very best work, but Bava still proves himself an expert at establishing a mood and putting macabre imagery on film.Although sold in North America as "Beyond the Door II", this bears little relation to the earlier Italian "Exorcist" imitation "Beyond the Door".
- and features a similar possession theme - but otherwise, that's it.The beautiful Daria Nicolodi stars as Dora Baldini, a young woman who moves with her son Marco (Colin Jr.) and second husband, Bruno (John Steiner), into her former home.
Now Marco is behaving strangely, and Dora begins to be tormented by various visions, to the point that she believes she may be losing her mind.Bavas' son Lamberto was assistant to his father on this show, co-wrote the screenplay, and also plays a minor, uncredited role.
Mario Bava's final movie 'Schock' may be far from his finest work, and will never gain the cult following of his classics 'Black Sunday' or 'Planet Of The Vampires', but it is still a very strong and effective thriller.
With her young son Marco (David Colin, Jr the only tenuous link to 'Beyond The Door' which this movie was sold as a sequel to in the US), and her new husband airline pilot Bruno (Euro-horror regular John Steiner) she returns to live in her old house.
Mario Bava's final film proved that his one true strength was surreal, nightmarish imagery (when that kid runs up to Daria Nicolodi...), and though I've found most of his body of work to be overrated and dull, I was able to tolerate, even enjoy "Shock" (though it does become talky and drawn-out); the presence of Nicolodi ("Deep Red," "Tenebre") as a mentally unbalanced mother adjusting to her family's new (and haunted) house, offers up enough paranoia and sex appeal to make the final act as suspenseful as the workings of a bad dream.
Scriptwise, it does a good job at being a 'regular ghost story' with an Oedipal twist, but overall, it is anything but original and, as a matter of fact, Bava already used a strikingly similar premise in the obviously superior "The Whip and the Body", and the endings of both films are almost exactly the same.
Mario Bava's "Schock"(1977)is an exceptional film.It's not only suspenseful and stylish,but its impact on the later Italian horror movies is clearly visible.The acting is pretty good-Daria Nicolodi gives a sympathetic performance as Dora Baldini,a victimized woman on the brink of lunacy.Some of the nightmares that Dora has are sort of psychedelically strange and disturbing.The film was co-written by Mario's son Lamberto,who also served as the assistant director."Schock" isn't as good as "Bay of Blood" or "Blood and Black Lace",but it provides some genuine chills.Highly recommended..
Fairly well directed and very effectively photographed, this Italian horror film works so well on a visual level that it can still rate as above average stuff overall, despite having some definite weaknesses.
It deals with a woman named Dora (Daria Nicolodi, who does an awesome job), her new husband Bruno, and their son Marco moving into a creepy new house that has a mysterious past, involving Dora and her druggie husband, who committed suicide.
Soon weird things start happening and Dora suspects that sweet little Marco is possessed by her dead husbands.
After moving into an old house with her family, a mentally unhinged woman begins to increasingly suspect her former husband still haunts the property and tries to save her son from his presence.Overall this was an incredibly enjoyable and exciting effort with a lot to like.
Since she is a female protagonist in an Italian horror movie, you know Dora has some past mental problems and they surface right away as she has crazy dreams and her son begins acting very peculiar ("I have to kill you mommy" being the greeting that really unnerves Dora).
This final film of Bava shows his directorial talent and the script is really good also.It is a perfect Halloween film full of suspenseful music and creepy sounds, a great set, and just three main characters.Here, Bava has Argento's former partner, Daria Nicolodi, in the main role.
Dora Baldini (Daria Nicolodia) returns back to her old place with her new pilot husband Bruno (John Steiner) and her son Marco (David Colin Jr.) to start a new happy life, but the place brings back bad memories of her dead ex-husband who committed suicide at sea.
(Though I personally prefer the workmanlike films of Antonio Margheriti and Riccardo Freda.) There is no denying that Mario Bava knew how to construct a shot, from the camera angle to the lighting to the color schemes to having the characters do bizarre, unexpected things that are riveting to witness, and then turn 90 minutes of such shots into what usually end up being amazing little movies.
Expecting a twisted, nauseating, Freudian EXORCIST/OMEN ripoff about a creepy kid possessed by the spirit of his murdered father in a haunted house, instead I found myself waiting with growing impatience through a nonstop parade of every low-budget Italian horror shortcut ever conjured up, including a fake near disaster on an airplane staged just like they did it on "Star Trek": shaking the camera and having people gyrate in their chairs like Sulu recoiling to a photon torpedo blast.Another reviewer here gets it right when he says not to bother with the plot and just concentrate on the images.
The second point is more problematic and this might annoy others, but I think a lot fans are overcome by the very human sentiment of SCHOCK literally being Mario Bava's final movie (though much of it us alleged to have been directed by his son, Lamberto Bava, credited here as assistant director), and their sincere wish that it was a better movie than it finally turned out to be.
Mario Bava, the cinematographer turned director, will always be fondly remembered by fans of Italian cinema.Throughout his long career he always displayed gusto and flair with miss-en-scene, colour and an individual style that would influence another genius, Dario Argento.
Dora, (Daria Nicolodi, Argento's onetime partner, in what a lot of people consider to be her greatest acting role) moves back into her old country villa with her son and new, hunky husband, Bruno (played by Steiner, who appeared as Christiano Berti in Tenebrae', where Lamberto acted as assistant director).
One feels extreme pity for Dora on one hand, but there's also something terrifying about her, we might like Bruno, but we know he's too good to be true
etc.Bava worked on two more projects after Shock.
This is the first Mario Bava film that I have seen and I'm sure this won't be the last.Though "Shock" has all the elements of a B-movie, it doesn't pretend to be otherwise.
"Shock" has Dario Argento muse Daria Nicolodi playing Dora, a housewife who returns to the home she shared with her deceased husband with her second husband and young son from the former marriage.
On edge as it is, things become increasingly unsettling in the home when she is plagued by visions, apparitions, and strange behavior from her child—behavior that is reminiscent of her ex-husband.Technically Bava's final film, "Shock" seems to be one of the famed director's least-praised and most criticized works.
Bava's last feature film is an incoherent but sporadically effective psychological study which lifts the back story of the haunted villa from Profondo Rosso (along with that movie's lead actress) and throws creepy, if random, manifestations of a malevolent force living in the house at its increasingly hysterical protagonist.
Shock (1977) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Dora Baldini (Daria Nicolodi) moves her new husband (John Steiner) and her son (David Colin, Jr.) from a previous marriage into the house that she once lived with the kid's father who committed suicide.
I thought Bava did a pretty good job at covering the psychological elements of the film as we really do seem to get into the mind of Nicolodi as she starts to crack under all the pressure she's under.
Mario Bava decides to frighten the crap out of us one last time with this one, a good old haunted house story, where John Steiner thinks it's a great idea to move his wife (Daria Nicolodi) and his step-son back into the house where his wife suffered at the hands of her now-dead junky husband.
Now it was around this time, when Marco starts winding his mother up by running around screaming, jumping out at her, wrecking the place and telling her that he's going to kill her that I realised that I hadn't watched this film since my son was born.
He spies on his mum in the shower, steals her knickers and tears them up, and even tries to dry hump her Daria goes from a loving mother to absolutely demented rather quickly, but then again, as psychiatrist Ivan Rassimov puts it: "It's as if all those years of suffering, your husband's suicide, your nervous breakdown, those six months you spent in a Sanitorium and that electric shock therapy are having some sort of effect on your relationship with your son." Gee Ivan, do ya think?John Steiner for the most part acts like Marco is just being annoying but also takes to looking guilty while hanging around that basement and drugging Daria when she's not looking, leading to some nifty hallucinations by Daria including seeing her dead husband's rotting hand grabbing at her, a wall bleeding and a Stanley blade floating about the place while Marco goes from 'annoying kid' to 'weird eyed possessed scareball'.This all sounds like a cheesy laughable mess but it's Mario Bava behind the camera, and he does a very good job at making reality itself unravel as whatever is possibly possessing Marco grinds away at Daria's sanity, leading to a couple of gory deaths and one creepy ass ending.
Dora (Daria Nicolodi, who should be canonized for giving birth to both Suspiria and Asia Argento, as well as roles in Deep Red, Inferno, Opera and so much more) and Bruno (Yor, Hunter from the Future's Overlord) are a newly married couple who have just moved back into her old home — the home where her drug addicted husband killed himself — with her son, Marco.Dora's had some real issues dealing with her husband's death.
Starting to watch this however I really couldn't understand why.I am no stranger to a good Italian movie and some of those can be very slow and lacking substance, so I was expecting big things knowing this was a cult classic, however I almost fell asleep in the beginning of this.It was just so slow to go anywhere, it felt like almost nothing was happening.
Considered one of the Best Italian Horror Directors, Bava Never Failed to be an Auteur, always bringing an Artistic Flair with His "on the move" Camera Work, Color Schemes, and a Fertile Imaging of the Genre (Horror/Giallo).This, His Final Film, was done during Failing Health, like Hitchcock, the Talent Remained and His Vision is Incorporated here even though much of the Movie was Relegated to His Son, Lamberto.It's a Creepfest of Considerable SHOCKS and the Strong B-Acting working with one of the Masters manages to Help in the Delivery.
When I began to watch "Schock" ,I was expecting the worst.Although it was directed by Mario Bava ,the most talented horror movies (along with Dario Argento) in Italy,the maleficent little boys and girls were very trendy at the time in the wake of "the Exorcist" and "the omen" and I was afraid "Schock" might be another story of the nice kid who....But I was surprised!
Dario Argento mainstay, Daria Nicolodi is a woman who goes back to a house she once lived in, this time with her son, Marco (David Collins Jr., who all but steals the film), and her second husband in tow.
Their son becomes possessed at random and the wife suffers from ghastly, violent images.Mario Bava's final outing as director is extremely disappointing (Plus people who want to become familiar with Bava's work should avoid this one for a while, as this is a bad place to start).
Very slow and very dull film from director Mario Bava--his final one.
Some of the visual FX (the "flying razor" scene comes readily to mind) are a bit dated and goofy - but overall this one holds up pretty well...Dora, Bruno, and Dora's son, Marco, all move back to a house that Dora lived in with her previous husband.
Bruno is a pilot and is gone most of the time, so he writes the strange happenings off as Dora's over-active imagination - but we find through the course of the film, that the history of the house is a lot more sordid than is initially let-on to - and Dora may or may not be as crazy as she seems...SHOCK is a solid film that Italian-horror lovers are sure to dig.
It's not the best of Bava's films but it ain't no dud, either.Bruno & Dora Baldini and her son, Marco, move back into a house where Dora and her late husband Carlo used to live.
Fellow Horror genius Dario Argento directed "Suspira", one of the most brilliant horror films of all-time, in that very year, and Mario Bava ended his career with "Shock", mainly in order to boost the career of his son Lamberto (Dèmoni), who is an OK director himself, but never came near his father's brilliance.
This last Mario Bava picture is an Italian-style Haunted House film, and while "Shock" is not as memorable as most other films by this brilliant director, it is definitely a creepy, genuinely scary and downright great film that Italian Horror fans can not afford to miss.Dora Baldini (Daria Nicolodi) moves into a house with her husband Bruno (John Steiner) and her son Marco (David Colin Jr.).
Especially the strange behavior of her little son begins to frighten her...Daria Niccolodi, the long-time girlfriend of Dario Argento who starred in many of his films, is a very good actress and she once again delivers a great performance, and while I didn't find her attractive in every movie she was in, she is very beautiful here.
Dora has returned to this house with her small son Marco and her second husband, Bruno.
Sadly, another crucial shock involving Marco is given away in the film's trailer, which I would advise that you avoid before watching the movie.I can't forget to mention the score by Goblin, working under the name Libra here.
Even though "Schock" isn't Bava's best moment, it still delivers an effective haunted house thriller, with the disjointed atmosphere of classic Italian horror..
Dora(Daria Nicolodi)returns with her new husband, pilot Bruno(John Steiner) and son Marco(David Colin Jr)to the home she once shared with her former husband.
Probably the nightmare sequences have the style we often are accustomed to when watching a Mario Bava film as he implements visual techniques that make Dora's visions so bizarre, surreal, & disturbing.
It more and more starts to look like the house is still possessed by the restless spirit of the dead husband
The tension in Shock is built up very slowly and almost bloodless
Through dazzling camera-viewpoints and creepy gothic music, Bava knows how to create a claustrophobic atmosphere before exploding into a disturbing and adrenalin-filled finale!
Most Italian movies have at least one character that the dubbing didn't quite work out for, and Marco is Shock's. |
tt0251031 | Series 7: The Contenders | Lampooning the tendencies of 'reality television' to become ever more shocking, 'Series 7: The Contenders' is a movie of an imagined reality show in which the contestants, tracked by cameramen, must kill to win.Selected at random and seemingly with government approval, the contestants are real people, dropped into a real town, and given weapons with which to wipe each other out. The winner is the last one left alive, and the 'game' is not over until all but one of the contestants are dead.Heavily pregnant Dawn is the current champion, and she is only a few kills awaw from being allowed retire from the show. Pregnancy and the will to get out of the game have made her pragmatic about her modus operandi: kill everybody in her way.Those fighting against her are an elderly gentleman, a female teenage high school student, a cold-hearted middle-aged nurse, and a man recovering from testicular cancer.Dawn's mission is complicated however, by virtue of the fact that cancer-sufferer Jeff is an old flame from high school. Ironically at the start of the contest, Jeff is ready to die, but suicide is against the rules, so he wants Dawn to be the one to bump him off. However, as the game progresses, Jeff's motives change, and this confuses Dawn's situation.The movie builds towards a showdown between the two high-school sweethearts. In this crazy situation, who will be the last one standing?-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The movie opens with Dawn walking into a convenience store, coming up behind a man who's buying something at the counter, jamming a 9mm into his back and killing him.Dawn, who is eight months pregnant, is the reigning champion of The Contenders, a reality show where five people are selected at random by government issued ID numbers to face each other and the reigning champion in a no-holds-barred fight to the finish. Contestants are issued firearms and placed into a selected town for their manhunt. Viewers watch the show in episodes like regular reality TV.The town selected for this battle is the sleepy little town of Newton, CT.Dawn and her cameraman, Pat, arrive by plane and drive into town. Facing off against her are Tony, an unemployed, struggling, but still well-to-do family man; Connie, a middle-aged nurse with a heart of ice but who is deeply religious and opposed to killing; Franklin, an elderly retiree who uses a crutch; Lindsey, a teenage girl who's just graduated high school; and Jeff, a married thirtysomething man who's dying of testicular cancer. All five challenger Contenders are residents of the town.Actions scenes are interspersed with continues "interview promos" with each contestant that are meant to build up drama and storyline for each contestant. Breaks for commercial and end-of-episodes are shown with "coming soon" scenes.Tony is in good physical shape and skilled in boxing. Lindsey's parents and boyfriend have supplied her with a generous cache of weapons and a bulletproof vest. Jeff's wife, Doria, dutifully takes care of him as his condition worsens and frets at what is to come. Dawn calls both Tony and Connie to taunt them. Dawn tells Connie that a bomb is in her apartment. Connie runs out screaming, and Dawn fires at her, but misses, and Connie retreats back into her home.Dawn visits her family, who don't want to see her but she confronts her mother and sister in the garage. Although Dawn tries to maintain composure, the bitter argument she wanted to avoid, slams into her head-on. It's shown that the family threw Dawn out after she became pregnant as a teenager and had an abortion. Finally Dawn steals her sister's SUV-- at gunpoint, no less- but as she's settling into the driver's seat, Dawn's little niece runs to her and hugs her proudly, supporting Dawn as champion contender.Dawn is driven to Tony's house and calls him out to fight her. But, rebelling against all the show stands for, Tony takes his baby daughter hostage and drives off. This being a serious violation of the show's rules, show promoters and police cooperate to track Tony's vehicle as it drives down a highway and disable it. There is a tense standoff between Tony and a SWAT officer before the officer manages to take the baby girl from Tony. Tony runs, but several SWAT officers grab them. In the struggle, Tony deals himself a critical wound to his back with his own knife and is paralyzed.Tony is in the hospital when Connie comes into his room and administers a lethal injection. Tony tries to plead with Connie regarding his being helpless to resist, to no avail. Dawn finds her way to Tony's room to find him already dead. Tony's wife, Michelle, lashes out at Dawn, who pleads for understanding, pointing out her own pregnancy-- Dawn is nearly ready to give birth to her baby. An amusing scene shows Dawn getting a checkup with a local physician, and a nurse aide asks Dawn to sign an autograph. The aide gives a big grin as she's presented with the autograph.LIndsey's parents drive her to Franklin's house and get her psyched up to make the kill. She runs to take Franklin down. She chases him into high brush grass and a shot rings out. Lindsey comes stumbling back to her parents' car, wounded but alive, and without her handgun.Dawn calls Jeff and asks to see him. As she arrives at Jeff's house, Dawn promises Doria that she will not harm Jeff; she's just there to talk. The interview promos, complete with re-created re-enactments, show that Dawn and Jeff are old high school flames who did a Gothic video art project together. They still feel close to one another. Jeff tells Dawn that he'd rather die at her hand than one of the other contenders. Still, he's afraid of being killed, and so he tells Dawn how she can acquire some barbiturates; Jeff has needles that she can use to administer a lethal injection.As Lindsey is convalescing, her parents find her making love to her boyfriend, Nathan. Lindsey's father has a letter for her. It's shown that Franklin and Dawn have received similar letters. An unknown benefactor is offering to take them to safety. The contenders accepting the offer should go to a particular concession stand at a nearby mall and wait.Dawn arrives first, concerned about the message being some sort of trap. Franklin goes there hoping to score a kill against one or more of the other contenders. Lindsey arrives, taking the offer at face value and looking to escape, though she still has a 9mm handgun with her. As Dawn hides out of sight but able to see the concession stand, now closed for the night, Franklin arrives. Franklin spots Lindsey coming up a mall escalator and approaching the stand. He hides behind the stand and waits. Dawn spots the intended ambush and shouts a warning, but it's too late. Franklin clobbers the teenage girl with his crutch and begins to beat her savagely in front of her horrified family and onlookers. Lindsey manages to pull her gun, and fires at Franklin, but the gun's safety jams. Franklin knocks the gun out of Lindsey's hand and beats her to death as people must stand by and watch. Franklin begins to make a hateful speech toward everyone, including those who would be watching on TV, when he's killed by a shot from a high-powered rifle. The shooter is Connie, who sent the letters as a trap, just as Dawn had feared. Dawn chases Connie all the way back to her apartment and corners her in the bathroom, but just as Dawn is ready to shoot Connie, her water breaks and she goes into labor.An amusing scene plays out where Dawn must beg for a truce with Connie, and for Connie's help in delivering the baby, who Dawn protests is an innocent life. Connie reluctantly agrees and calls for an ambulance before administering aid. Complications arise as the baby's feet start to come out first; a breech birth that can lead to severe birth injury or even the baby's death. ER workers on the phone manage to talk Connie through a procedure that keeps the baby unharmed until paramedics arrive to complete the delivery.In the meantime, Jeff and Doria have a tender last night over dinner and drinks, holding each other, as Jeff waits for Dawn to return.The next scenes show Dawn at the hospital with her baby, and Jeff waking up from unconsciousness at the same hospital, Doria watching over him. Promo interviews show that in violation of show rules, Jeff prepared his own suicide with Doria assisting him. However, Jeff's cameraman called paramedics who saved Jeff's life. Jeff becomes angry, knowing Doria let them into the house. They fall into an emotional argument where Doria accuses Jeff of still being in love with Dawn-- and yet, at the same time, a closet bisexual, before walking out on him. Doria gives Jeff his gun back and dares him to kill himself.Connie stealthily walks through the hospital to deliver another lethal injection. It's Jeff's room she goes into, but Jeff is ready for her. They wrestle over Jeff's gun, and a shot rings out. Dawn hears the shot and goes to investigate. Jeff has killed Connie, and he stuns Dawn with the announcement that he feels a new lease on life and doesn't want to die anymore. He manages to rush out of the hospital while Dawn struggles with her feelings over him versus her need to kill him as he's the only other contender left. The scene also implies that Jeff is the father of Dawn's first baby, which she had to abort, which in turn got her thrown out of her family's house.After promo interviews, and end-of-show coming attractions, Dawn and Jeff are seen meeting at a local football field to finish the conflict. If Dawn kills Jeff, she'll be able to retire from the show a free woman and reunited with her baby. If Jeff kills Dawn, he'll become the new reigning champion contender to face off against five challengers next season.The two face each other, guns drawn, and suddenly announce their love for each other. They beat their respective cameramen unconscious and escape together. Viewers help police and shot promoters track the two, now wanted fugitives.Dawn and Jeff stage a desperate gambit, taking the audience of a movie theater hostage. Dawn's demands are simple: return of her baby and safe passage out of the country.Show announcers say that all the remaining footage ended up deleted due to technical error but has been painstakingly re-created and re-enacted through actors. A show announcer arrives at the theater to turn Dawn and Jeff against each other. The crying of Dawn's baby is played through the theater's speakers as the announcer says that Dawn can have her baby if she kills Jeff here and now.Jeff suddenly reverts to wanting Dawn to win and to be with her baby. He chooses to give up his life for the sake of the woman he loves. Jeff closes his eyes, and tears roll down Dawn's eyes as she starts to squeeze the trigger.But it's Dawn who falls dead before the movie screen. Jeff wasn't the one who killed her.Doria is seen at the back of the theater holding a smoking gun. She tells Jeff that she still loves him. Jeff looks coldly back at his wife and says it's too late. He puts his gun to his temple and takes his own life, putting himself beyond the reach of the law.End of season finale promos show Dawn's baby in the care of Dawn's sister, and Doria in prison, facing execution for murder without being a registered Contender. She boldly and bitterly accuses the public of being the true killers.The final promo announcement is that five new challengers will soon be selected to face off... against the new reigning champion Contender.The camera pans in on Jeff in the hospital, his head bandaged. He opens his eyes, understands he's still alive, and disgustedly says, "Shit." | murder, cult, absurd, satire, melodrama, romantic, home movie | train | imdb | Like `Survivor,' the name of the game here is, well...survival; but with one significant difference from any of the shows you've seen on television: The winner in `Series 7, The Contenders,' written and directed by Daniel Minahan, will be the only one from among the contestants still standing at the end of the show, meaning `alive.' Yes, that's right, the object of the game here is to eliminate the opposition, as in `kill' them-- by whatever method available.
Or, more notably, be the `one' who is able to do so.It was inevitable that this film-- or one like it-- would be made, given the way television has been saturated with `reality,' the past few years.
And since it had to happen, at least it was born of, evolved and guided by the artistic capabilities of Minahan, who has crafted and delivered a gripping, thought provoking satire that reaches it's apex of effectiveness hours, or even days, after the film has ended; because for anyone with any scruples at all, this film will linger in the memory like a phosphene caused by rubbing the eye, and it'll take that long to even begin to sort out the myriad implications of it all.
A film cannot seem this true-to-life and entirely natural without a lot of hard work that includes technical knowledge, an eye for detail and an impressive grasp of human nature; Minahan didn't just walk onto the set one day and crank out such an accurate duplication of a `reality' show.
Watching this film is something akin to watching Jim Carrey early in his career doing Henry Fonda, or Kevin Spacey doing Christopher Walken or Pacino; it's the kind of professional impersonation/interpretation that just doesn't get any better.What makes it so enthralling is that Minahan so succinctly captures that documentary look and feel of what has become a `genre' of television, and like the best of them, he lets you get to know the contestants-- through interviews and `mini-bios'-- before the bloodbath begins, so that you can pick your favorites and put your money on the one you think has what it takes to win.
These days it is difficult to satirize reality TV and reality video because material like THE LITTLEST GROOM, THE AMAZING RACE, BOOT CAMP, SURVIVOR and BUMFIGHTS already exist.SERIES 7: THE CONTENDERS is an ultra-efficient rendering of the imagined next step in reality programming in which "contenders" must kill in order to survive.To their credit, the filmmakers never step outside the game itself.Clever graphics, voice-overs and reality-style camera-work achieve a high level of illusion.
Set in the near future, SERIES 7 is cleverly constructed as a marathon of seventh-season episodes of "The Contenders," a hit reality show in which contestants are selected via state lotteries and given guns with which they're expected to hunt down and kill their fellow contestants (although they're free to use their own weapons and be inventive).
Her fellow contestants/adversaries include prim but ruthless ER nurse Connie (Marylouise Burke of MUST LOVE DOGS and A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION); teenage Lindsay, whose well-meaning but overbearing parents (Mom is played by Donna Hanover, TV personality and Rudy Giuliani's ex!) coach her for the show as if she were trying out for an athletic competition; unemployed asbestos-removal worker Tony, who's trying to use this cruel TV twist of fate to unite his family; crazed conspiracy theorist Franklin; and Jeff, an artist who's dying of testicular cancer -- and who also happens to be Dawn's high school sweetheart.
SERIES 7's authentically television-like feel is augmented by its story being told entirely through such TV conventions as bumpers, interviews, voiceovers, cutaway footage, dramatic re-enactments of events by doubles, and exciting tag lines ("Real people...in real danger...in a fight for their lives!").
But the film's brilliant craftsmanship wouldn't be nearly as effective without the power of the fine cast's performances, particularly Brooke Smith; her riveting performance makes Dawn the emotional center of SERIES 7: THE CONTENDERS.
Surpassed My Expectations in Every Way. This movie is for people who like their comedies so black that the light from the screen can barely escape the film's gravitational pull.Fortunately, I'm one of those people, and I found the film to be hilarious beyond my wildest dreams.
Most importantly, the movie is presented exactly like a reality show which eventually draws the viewer into suspending their disbelief and accepting the ludicrous world these characters inhabit.
Finally, the icing on the cake is that as ridiculous as everything is, you realize that American society isn't too far off from this extreme today, and that gives the film the added bite of seriousness that propels it above being simply entertaining and makes it a true satire, This film is even more impressive considering the fact that the idea was conceived 5 years ago before the reality craze began.I encourage people to watch Series 7 once, it's destined to become a cult classic.
That's what makes reality television such a joke, and so in a roundabout way of saying things the performances here are good because the actors are good at capturing the melodramatic mannerisms of the contestants at large.
Merritt Wever and Glenn Fitzgerald do an equally good job as the teenage girl and the cancer patient, the former being the most likable person in the cast and the latter having all of the best lines and being the most interesting of all the characters.My favorite thing about this film, however, has to be the momentum of it.
There are films out there that are sick and that you never really WANT to watch again, but at the same time you feel you should and can't help but feel the need to sit through it, but Series 7: The Contenders plays all of it's cards in one sitting and as a result you really don't feel any desire to absorb any of it.
This film is many things - an insight into the future of Reality TV - a very funny black comedy - and a touching story of people forced beyond the edge of reason.Recommended if you love or hate Reality TV shows, the film is set as back to back episodes of series 7 of The Contenders, an American show where the current champion and five randomly selected challengers have to kill or be killed - and the winner gets to appear in the next series.Proof, if proof were needed, that a good film with a good script does not need well-known actors to be a success..
Unfortunately, the plot is hugely flawed and fails to make a definitive statement.The director fails to decide if the movie should be satirical or a series look at reality t.v taken to the nth degree.
`Reality TV' is founded on P T Barnum's famous dictum `Nobody went broke underestimating public taste.' `Series 7 The Contenders' simply takes the idea to its extreme a program where contestants hunt each other down, not in the wild, but in suburbia, the survivor being declared the winner (oddly, the only prize seems to be survival).
It will sound like a strange criticism but I do think that by hitting the genre spot on throughout the film, the result is that it is almost too "straight" to act as an attack at the same time.
The movie dragged on for what seemed like an eternity, whether this was an intentional ploy by the makers to encourage audience participation in wanting to see the 'contenders' killed I do not know.Filmed in the style of Blair Witch meets The Running Man (the actors trying to act like they're not acting and killing each other) and using what looked like hi-8 as a medium, this movie did have a promising start.In between the scenes of tension or action were several bio's of each of the contenders.
Series 7: The Contenders The best part of watching people kill each other on TV is betting on who the winner will be.By the way, the returning champ in this dark comedy is not a sure bet.If Dawn (Brooke Smith) survives the next round of the kill-or-be-killed reality show The Contenders, her and her unborn baby will go free.However, included in the other 5 random contestants is Dawn's ailing ex-boyfriend (Glenn Fitzgerald) who wants her to be the one who terminates him.Meanwhile, the other contestants accumulate weapons and begin stalking the title-holder.Things get worse when Dawn goes into labor.Narrated by Will Arnett, this 2001 satire of the-then fledgling genre is told entirely through reality camera lens - a method that can be comical and constrictive on the narrative.Fortunately, the violence and soundtrack help round the edges.Incidentally, if contestants sang while killing, this show would be even bigger.Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca.
Up until the end, it felt a bit similar to Battle Royale (2000), though both movies have their own style and methodology.In the end, with the people cheering on the killing, and looking on not in shock, but in awe that the camera is on them, this may be targeted more against the culture that creates such reality programming, rather than the program itself.
Last one left alive wins.The characterizations and plotting of this satire may leave a lot to be desired, but the extremely contrived plot (though I hesitate to use the term) twists and Jerry Springer-ish performances by the contenders and their families hit the bulls eye in mocking and parodying what we see every day on talk and reality shows.
There have been many films about a killing game but this one takes the premise to new heights of preposterousness with contestants running around town, calling people out, shooting at each other in public, etc.
While no mention is made of time one can only assume that this is the America of some terrible future where television companies have acquired the power to force randomly selected individuals to compete on the show.The film is well made and therein lies the rub; it is EXACTLY like a reality TV show and I personally have never managed to sit through more than ten minutes of shows like "Survivor" or "Boot camp"..
The basic plot is that you have 1 raining champ and 6 more people chosen at random to take part in a kill or be killed shown, This movie really takes the mickey out of the current trend of 'Real Life' shown like Big Brother, The contestants do not all want to be in the show, the are picked at random and have no say in the matter, If they don't play one of the others will kill them.
While watching the movie I got flash backs of things like the blair witch project in the way it was filmed and because of this it is unlikley that we will see the actors that where in this in anything else for quite a while, even though they all did very well..
With all the current furore over shows like "Big Brother 2" and "Survivor", et al, it was interesting to see a film tackle the topic of just how far is too far to push the reality-show genre.Simply put, you'll either love or hate this film.
With the glut of these "reality" shows on T.V. lately, it was only a matter of time before a movie like this came out.
The primary error with the film is that despite trying to look like a reality TV show, you never get the convincing feeling you're watching one.
Brilliant idea, you think but when characters such as Tony (Kaycheck) are stupid enough to remain in their homes despite knowing they're in the game, only leaving when they come under fire from other competitors, you know you're watching something that has something to say on a certain subject (reality TV) but is not putting in enough effort to make it a subjective experience.There is a distinct lack of empathy (perhaps deliberately so) towards Dawn (Smith) when she tells us her father is 'buried around here, somewhere' before insulting him.
So we are to believe the government is promoting the use of firearms as a means of entertainment instead as a means of protection which is also in bad taste.I know it sounds like a contradiction but the most disturbing things amongst all this low budget but high realism violence are actually the scenes with Jeff (Fitzgerald) and his wife and how certain elements within his life affect the overall situation of the game.
These elements help create a briskly told, interesting character study of why we as people enjoy watching reality shows.Brooke Smith is really good as Dawn.
I hereby decree that the gal known as "The Chick In The Hole in 'Silence of the Lambs'" shall now be known as "The Chick In The Hole in 'Silence of the Lambs'" AND "The Kick-Ass Pregnant Chick in 'Series 7: The Contenders"!Anyway, as for the rest of the movie: I really hated the nurse character (that's a good thing), and I liked the crazy old man (who they forgot to give a back story), as well as the goofy high school video project segment.
I couldn't stop myself from truly believing in the reality of these fictional characters.The director mentions that he re-edited the movie to give it more Fox Sports like editing and lots of loud sound effects in between scenes during the swishpans.
I was actually annoyed by the violence, by the need to show me the whole real tv broadcast, by the absence of a good plot, only to tell me things about TV I already knew.DO NOT WATCH this movie take your time to drink a beer with your friends, read a book, listen a song, kiss your girl/boyfriend, stay home, work, wash your toilet, do anything you like more or less!.
I just got back from the Wisconsin Film Fest screening of Series 7 and I can't get to sleep because I am still laughing.This movie, savage and at times brutal, is a hilarious take on the "reality" series of today.
It stayed true to form like a reality series by giving us personal interviews, life changes, family issues, background stories, "live" events, and even the "cheesy" touching music during those "very special episodes."The cast and crew nailed it with what they set out to do.
Halfway through the film I turned around to see if the rest of the audience were as thrilled to have stumbled upon such a gem and discovered that Kevin and myself were the only people who had sat it through.Series 7 is certainly dark and maybe it has a very particular taste of comedy, but I really find it difficult to believe that anyone would not find it wonderfully funny and masterfully acted by a great ensemble of unknowns.
What this film has going for it (opposed to most low budget movies)is the people involved seemed to actually give a damn about it.The cast is superb, the camera work and lighting is way above what I expected, the writing superb and the sick parody of existing realty shows is outstanding.
In short: totally watchable A large portion of the movie is made up interviews from the contestants (the bits I normally fast forward on real reality shows) but they are well acted, superbly scripted and totally engaging.The production team hasn't tried to over-extend itself and makes skillful use of pre-shot footage and the cut sequence graphics are simple but clean.It reminds me of the UK Office in that a lot of the acting is very subtle, characters faces are calm masks but their hands (just visible edge of shot) tremble with anxiety.Don't expect slow motion, explosions, CGI or bullet-time.
A reality TV series (The Contenders) randomly selects people to attempt to kill each other; only one will survive.
It forces the viewer to observe himself and his own act of viewing; as I watched, I became caught up in the television series, and had to stop myself and say 'waitaminnit, this is a movie.' The parody of reality TV is vicious, and actually much more complicated than at first it appears.
Of course this won't ever happen (I hope) but this film (shot on high-definition video) shows how it might look.The acting is just great...especially Smith and Glenn Fitzgerald as another contestant.
however, an exception is to made with this film 'series 7 the contenders.' i despise reality shows in any format and feel myself lessoned whenever i watch one.
I thought the film was going to be like a real movie, just the same old stuff, but SERIES 7 is much different.The whole segment where they were telling the people that they were picked for this show or whatever was pretty fake looking, because they're chasing some guy and he's all scared and stuff, but as soon as they slap a gun in his hand...this look comes over his face and it just kinda says "yeah, I understand now".
This is a great film about a hypothetical reality TV series where randomly selected members of the public have to try and kill each other.
Who's going to win?The movie is of course a satire of all of the (increasingly extreme) reality shows on TV.
At no point does the film deviate from pretending to be a TV series, which allows the viewer to get the intended feeling of a show rather than a movie.The characters in this TV `show' are small parodies of the real ones you see.
This movie is amazing in how much like MTV's Real World or CBS's Survivor, it shows that people will do allmost anything when they have a camera thrust in their lives.
Turns out it has all the elements of a great movie, awesome believable and compassionate characters that you can actually care about, a really cool, moving story line, and a few rather unpredictable twists (course having read The Running Man i kinda had a feeling how it was going to end.) This is a must see people!
In an obvious attempt of a satire on the reality phenomenon of television, this movie failed big time. |
tt0399327 | The Man | A man named Andy Fiddler (Eugene Levy) is in his bathroom, preparing a speech. He works for a dental supply company, and lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He will soon be giving a speech to investors in Detroit, and is very nervous.In Detroit, ATF agent Derrick Vann (Samuel L. Jackson), whose partner was recently murdered, is trying to retrieve some guns that were stolen from a federal armory, and are soon to be sold. After a visit to his informant Booty (Anthony Mackie) (who is later gunned down), he sets up a buy. He is to go to a diner and be reading a USA Today. Unfortunately, Andy is in the diner, and his favorite newspaper is USA Today. A menacing Englishman (Luke Goss) sits next to him and hands him a paper bag with his taste in it then leaves. Andy pulls a cell phone out of it, then a gun, which the waitress sees and thinks Andy's holding the place up. That's when Vann walks into the diner and cuffs him. Soon, Vann realizes that the gun traffickers mistook Andy for him, and drags Andy along with him. The cell phone that Fiddler receives rings, with the menacing Brit, whose name we later find out is Joey, is on the other end of the line. He wants Turk (the pseudonym that Vann used when setting up the buy) to drop $20,000 dollars in a certain trash can. Vann reveals that he has the money, and needs Fiddler to drop it.Andy tries to perform the drop plain and simple. Unfortunately, a homeless guy screws this up, and the traffickers just drive by. Andy gets another call asking him what happened. He tells them that there were complications. Joey says he will call back in about an hour. Meanwhile, Andy tries to get away, only to have Vann graze him with a gunshot to the rear. Before Vann picks him up, Andy gets word to 9-1-1 via the cellphone, running a make on Vann's license plate numbers. Vann then suggests Andy use the taco sauce in his glove compartment to ease the pain of the bullet wound. Andy's 9-1-1 call proves effective and a group of squad cars pull them over, much to Vann's dismay, and he is furious at Andy for running a make on his plate. The police discover that Vann is ATF and move aside.Vann tells Andy that he is going to make a stop at a friends house. The friend is a gun dealer that Vann knows named Manny Cortez. He finds Manny shot dead on his toilet seat. The killer was Joey. At the same time, Andy, who is handcuffed to the passenger door, attempts to drive the car with one hand. Vann chases after him in a car he borrows and eventually pulls him over.When back in the car, Andy complains that he is hungry. Vann takes him to a burger joint, where Fiddler complains that red meat doesn't agree with him, but he eats the burger anyway. Back in the car, Fiddler gets extremely gaseous. After quickly exiting the car, Vann gets a call from his ex-wife Dara (Rachael Crawford), who reminds him about his daughter Kate's (Tomorrow Baldwin Montgomery) dance recital in a few hours. Vann takes a quick break from the gun busts for this brief visit. On the way there, Andy teaches him how to curb his use of the word "fuck".When they arrive, Vann explains to Kate that he's on assignment, and can't come. She is dismayed. Then Andy shows Kate some pictures of his family. Vann gets distracted when the phone that Joey gave to Fiddler rings.Joey says he wants to meet Turk in a restaurant, where they will make the exchange. However, Joey says he wants $500,000 for the whole batch. Vann goes to his confiscated items buddy Santos (Horatio Sanz), who eventually gives into his requests. They head to the restaurant, and Andy enters. Fiddler sits down with Joey and discusses the deal. After some questions from Joey about how he got the money so fast he throws Joey the money saying it means nothing to a powerful trafficker like him. He also gives Joey back the cell and tells him that he makes the calls now. When Andy tells Vann what he did, he is furious, but Andy explains that they now get to decide where the meeting takes place, and get backup there. He also tells Vann that they should let Joey simmer for a bit before calling him. Fiddler suggests that they go to Vann's daughter's dance recital, which they do.After that, they leave and call Joey. They arrange for a meeting which they attend with no backup. Upon meeting Joey and his cronies, Joey asks who Vann is. Andy tells him that Vann will do anything that is told. After an embarrassing confession to this by Vann, they are taken to Joey's residence, where, for some reason, they are put in the pool. Joey tells them that he still thinks Vann is a cop. Vann admits this, and tells them that he is betraying the service to make some money. Joey is convinced, and Vann takes Andy to his hotel, and they say goodbye.The next day, Andy gives his speech, and it goes well. When he exits the building, Internal Affairs agent Peters (Miguel Ferrer) grabs him and throws him in a surveillance truck. They tell him that Vann was lying to both him and them, and that he is actually trying to buy the guns and killed Booty, Cortez, and Vann's partner himself. They need him to wear a wire and get a confession out of Vann.Meanwhile, back at ATF offices, Vann is suspended for his actions of the past day, and his boss (Susie Essman), distrustful of Andy from the start, tells him that Andy was setting him up. At the same time, Andy, now wired, enters Vann's office and says they need to talk. Vann says that they should talk in his car. Vann starts driving to the exchange with Andy in tow. Recognizing Andy's nervousness, Vann asks him straight out if he's wired. Andy admits he is but doesn't reveal whose wire it is.They enter the barn where the exchange is going to go down. After Joey asks where the money is, Vann tells him he'll show the money when Joey shows him the guns. Joey is skeptical and pulls a gun on Vann. That's when the police enter, after hearing everything through Andy's wire. Joey and most of his goons get mowed down, and Vann gets shot in the buttocks. Andy says he will get the taco sauce. Both men are (presumably) cleared of all charges. | comedy, action | train | imdb | null |
tt0075148 | Rocky | Philadelphia Pennsylvania, home to the number one underdog fighter, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stalone). The date is November 25, 1975, Rocky is fighting Spider Rico in a prize fight at a local church arena. The fight goes smooth through the first couple of rounds. Before beginning the next round, Rocky and Spider get up from their corners after receiving advice from their corner-men and the fight continues. After a couple of punches, Spider grabs a hold of Rocky and headbutts him in the face. The crowd goes restless on Spider. Rocky, after recovering from the hit, goes after Spider and finishes him off. The bell rings signalling the end of the fight and Rocky is pronounced the winner. Rocky and Spider both leave the ring and head back to the locker room. One woman loser in the arena audience shouts at Rocky "you're a bum!" as he leaves the ring. In the locker room, Rocky and Spider get their prize money for the fight in which Spider Rico gets $17.80 after taxes and gym expenses, Rocky's winning prize is $40.50 after taxes and expenses. Rocky approaches and finds Spider lying on a bed where he tells Rocky that he was "lucky".Rocky walks home in the cold seedy night through the trash-strewn streets of Frankford Avenue in the crime-ridden Kensington neighborhood after the fight and arrives home to a small one-room apartment on a side street to feed his pet turtles, Cuff and Link. He grabs a can of the turtle food and recites himself a line regarding the item into the mirror. He then looks at a picture of himself from his youth and then grabs some ice from the freezer and puts it on the cut that Spider gave him and lies down on his bed.The next morning, Rocky visits the local pet shop where Adrian (Talia Shire) works and talks about the turtle food that he bought. Adrian, being shy and quiet, doesn't respond to Rocky even after he tells her a joke about the food. Her boss commands her to clean out the cat cages and she walks away not paying attention to Rocky.Rocky is walking down at the docks with a stick in his hand whistling, and out to collect money for his boss, Tony Gazzo, a local loan shark. He finds a man riding a forklift and when the man sees Rocky, he drives away. Rocky chases him on foot and breaks his stick off the forklift. The man runs from the forklift and Rocky catches up to him demanding Gazzo's money totaling $200. He tells Rocky that he doesn't have enough money but offers him his coat and around $130. Rocky takes the money, but refuses to hit the deadbeat guy and instead gives him a warning.A little later, Gazzo (Joe Spinell) and his driver/bodyguard Buddy, pick up Rocky on a bridge near the docks and Rocky tells him about the man and gives Gazzo what money the deadbeat had on him. Gazzo gives Rocky $20 for his collection assignment and tells him about more collection jobs in the coming days for Gazzo's other clients. The thug, Buddy, lets out a comment about Rocky's face as he and Gazzo get out of the car to talk in private. On the street, an angry and upset Gazzo asks Rocky why he didn't break the man's thumbs like he asked and Rocky tries to defend himself but Gazzo doesn't believe him. Gazzo sternly reprimands Rocky to do what he tells him to do from now on because it is bad for Gazzo's reputation in the neighborhood. Gazzo leaves Rocky by the side of the road and gets back in his car. Buddy further insults Rocky by calling him a "meat-bag" before driving away and Rocky angrily shouts: "I shoulda broke YOUR thumbs!."Later that day, Rocky goes to Mickey's Gym only to find out that his locker has been rented out to new-comer Dipper Brown, and that his stuff is now hanging on skid-row. Mike the janitor tells Rocky about it and tells him where Mickey is. Rocky sees Mick (Burgess Meredith), an elderly former lightweight boxer, now a trainer, working with Dipper. Rocky goes to ask about the locker and Mick admits that Dipper is an up-and-comer and Rocky is nothing. Echoing what the woman heckler told Rocky the previous night, Mickey calls Rocky a "bum". Angry and dejected, Rocky leaves the gym.Rocky goes back to see Adrian at the pet store which is about to close for the night. Rocky asks her if she wants to go to see a basketball game, but she refuses the invitation. He then asks to walk her home and she again turns him down. He warns her about the people walking the streets at night and suggests that she takes a taxi home.Rocky then goes to the Lucky 7 Tavern for a beer or two where he sees his best friend and Adrian's older brother, Paulie (Burt Young), cursing up a storm in the restroom after the mirror has been broken. Rocky tells him about Adrian and he shouts at Rocky that she's a loser and can't take care of herself. They leave the restroom and go to get a beer. Paulie asks Rocky if he would like to take Adrian out on a date since she seldom leaves his house, and Rocky agrees. Paulie takes his beer and leaves. Rocky remains sitting at the bar drinking his own beer and watches TV and sees that the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) is on TV. Rocky and the bartender talk about him until Rocky leaves.On his way home, Rocky notices a group of teenage kids standing on the corner drinking and smoking cigarettes and sees that one of them is Marie, an underage teen girl he knows. He pulls her out of the group and walks her home. On the way, he tells her about respect and the kind of people that she should be hanging out with. After reaching her house, She calls Rocky a "creep-o" and he heads back home.The next day in New York City, Apollo Creed and his trainer Tony are meeting with Jergens, the fight promoter, and they are discussing the possible fighters for him to match in the biggest fighting event set to take place on New Year's Day. When it looks like there are no possible fighters. Apollo lets out his ideas about fighting a small time underdog fighter, giving him a shot at the title. Everyone agrees with the idea and the plan begins is set in motion.Meanwhile, Rocky is dropped off at his house by Gazzo and Buddy after his latest collection job, and they talk about Adrian. Rocky wonders how they knew about him and Adrian. Gazzo replies: "I hear things". Buddy further insults Rocky by calling Adrian a retard and how retards like the zoo and Rocky attempts to lunge at him, but Gazzo separates them. He gives Rocky $50 for his date with Adrian. Before leaving, Buddy tells Rocky to take Adrian to the zoo and speeds off.At Apollo's office, he and Tony are looking through a book of local club fighters of Philadelphia and they come across Rocky who seems to be the perfect fighter. Apollo takes a liking to his nickname, "The Italian Stallion."That same evening, on the night of Thanksgiving, Rocky and Paulie are walking home and Paulie keeps imploring Rocky to get him a job with Gazzo as a collector, because he hates his current job at a meat packing factory. They reach Paulie's house where Adrian is making Thanksgiving dinner. She comes out of the kitchen to greet Paulie but doesn't realize Rocky is with him. Rocky says 'hello' and she walks back into the kitchen. Paulie goes to talk to her and she runs into her bedroom embarrassed. Paulie gets her out and tells to go out with Rocky for the night, but Adrian claims that it's Thanksgiving and she's cooking a turkey. Paulie goes to the kitchen and grabs the turkey out of the oven and throws it out the back door. Adriana begins to cry and Paulie yells at her to go out. Rocky tells him to forget the date but Paulie instructs him to go talk to her. Rocky walks over to her door and talks to her through the door but doesn't get any feedback. He asks her if she wants to go out with him and have a good time and she opens the door all dressed up ready to go.On Paulie's advice, Rocky and Adrian head for the local ice rink. They look around and see that it's empty and the maintenance man tells them that the rink is closed for the night. Rocky bribes him $10 and they have the rink for themselves for 10 minutes. Adrian's skating as Rocky is running along side her telling her about the fights he's been in and how it's special to him.After their date, Rocky and Adrian go back to his apartment where she is hesitant about going inside. Rocky implores her that its okay and she follows behind him. Inside his apartment, Adrian feels uncomfortable admitting that she's never been in a man's apartment before. Rocky admits he doesn't feel comfortable neither and he's kind of nervous too. She wants to leave but Rocky stops her, trying to cheer her up giving her compliments. He tells her that she wants to kiss her and he does and the two end up kissing in his corner by the door.The next day, Rocky heads for Mickey's Gym and Mick tells him that Jergens' office called asking for sparring partners. Rocky says the same thing to himself and a frustrated Mick yells at him. Rocky asks why after all this time Mick's been giving him the cold shoulder, but Mick refuses to reply. Rocky demands to know and Mick yells at him across the gym that Rocky had the talent and the heart to be a great fighter but instead became a "leg-breaker" for the local loan shark and bookie Tony Gazzo. Rocky defends his occupation and that it's a living, but Mick retorts that it's a waste of life and he again calls Rocky "a bum".Rocky goes to see Jergens and tells him that he is willing to help out with the sparring training with Creed and tells him that he'd give it his all. Jergens then offers Rocky a proposition into fighting with Creed on the night of the event but Rocky declines. Jergens tells Rocky that it was him that Creed chose to fight and that its a once in a lifetime shot to win the heavyweight boxing title. Rocky takes a minute to consider it.Back at Paulie's house, Rocky, Adrian, and Paulie watch a TV interview with Apollo and Rocky about the upcoming fight and they see that Apollo's been taunting Rocky through the whole session. Paulie tells Rocky that he should break his legs and that he should be able to win the fight. Rocky says that the taunts don't bother him. Adrian tells Paulie has a good chance of winning after Paulie's request to becoming a trainer for Rocky was declined by him. Paulie gets up and storms out of the room cursing loudly. Rocky gets ready to leave and Adrian follows him outside. Before leaving, Rocky admits to Adrian that the stuff said on TV actually hurt him inside.The following evening, Rocky meets with Gazzo outside Pat's Steakhouse grill where they get some steak sandwiches to eat and to talk about Rocky being chosen to fight Apollo. Gazzo gives Rocky $500 for training expenses and wishes him the best.A few hours later, Mick goes to see Rocky at his apartment and he begins telling him about his old days as a featherweight fighter during the 1930s and all the injuries he endured. He tells Rocky that he wants to become a manager for him. Rocky tells him that he asked for help years ago but Mick never wanted to help him. Mick, upset, gets ready to leave as Rocky is sitting in his bathroom. After Mick leaves, Rocky starts shouting to Mick about his asking to help him. Mick is half-way up the street and Rocky runs up to him and apologizes to him and they now become partners.Early the next morning, Rocky gets up at 4:00 a.m. and prepares for a morning run. He drinks a half-dozen raw eggs. Rocky starts his run and at the end, attempts to run up the stairs of the Philadelphia Art Museum but can't reach it all the way because he's out of shape and out of breath.Later, Rocky goes to see Paulie at the meat factory where they talk about Adrian. Paulie, talking "dirty" about Adrian, sets Rocky to the point where he admits the truth about why he can't talk to Gazzo about giving Paulie a job working for him because Paulie talks to much. Rocky, ready to leave because of the cold and the smell of the meat factory, a frustrated Paulie begins hitting a huge side of beef hanging from the ceiling, taunting Rock in the process. Rocky steps over and beings throwing punches into the meat, breaking the ribs. Paulie jokes at Rocky saying if he did that to Apollo Creed he'd be put in jail for murder. Rocky takes the meat that Paulie's prepared him for the week and leaves.At Paulie's apartment, Adrian cares to Rocky's cut up hands from hitting the meat. She begins to get intimate with him but he keeps backing her off, telling her that there's no "foolin' around" during training. Adrian near upset gets up and goes to the kitchen, Rocky gets up and follows her and apologizes and they embrace.Rocky begins training with Mick and Mike the janitor at the gym. Two girls walk in and ask for Rocky's autograph, Mick shoos them away and tells Rock that "women weaken legs" and to lay off "the pet shop dame": Adrian. Rocky tells him that he really likes her, and Mick shouts back at Rocky telling him to let her train him for women are a distraction to his training. Rocky takes a second and agrees with Mick and will not fool around anymore.A few days later, Rocky is jogging back to his apartment building where Adrian is waiting on the steps with a surprise for him. She has purchased and given Rocky Butkus, the big Bulldog Mastiff from the pet shop that Rocky liked so much. Rocky begins jogging around with Butkus days later. One day, Rocky and Butkus run to Paulie's workplace to find a TV news van in the back. Rocky finds Paulie and he tells Rocky that he needs publicity but Rocky, now mad, wanted privacy. Rocky and Paulie go inside and meet with the news reporter and they ask Rocky for a demonstration on how he trains with the meat. He begins to jab at the meat as the news camera looks onto him. Tony, Apollo's trainer, is watching the interview and sees that Rocky means business.On Christmas Eve, Paulie is walking home, clearly drunk. Rocky and Adrian are already there watching a Christmas movie on TV. They start talking about Paulie about what he did with the publicity stint back at the slaughterhouse. A drunken Paulie, overhearing the conversation, enters the room and threatens the both of them to leave his house. When they refuse to leave, Paulie grabs a baseball bat and threatens Rocky that he'll break both his arms. He begins swinging at a lamp and then breaks the end table next to Rocky and Adrian. Paulie begins ranting that he never done anything wrong to Rocky and he even let him go out with his sister. Paulie then admits the truth about why he hates Adrian so much and then begins smashing more things with the bat. Paulie shouts at Adrian that she owes him, but Adrian yells back saying that it is she who takes care of Paulie. Another insulting remark by Paulie about Adrian sends her running to her room crying. Rocky angrily grabs Paulie ready to punch him, but Rocky quickly realizes that Paulie is too drunk and weak. Rocky drops Paulie to the floor and walks into Adrian's room to comfort her. She asks Rocky if he'd like a roommate and that she is moving out of Paulie's house.A couple of days later, Rocky is at the gym training again with Mick and Mike. After the session, Mick introduces Rocky to their cut-man Al Silvani. Rocky gets out of the ring as Mick and Al talk, and he begins hitting a heavy bag. Paulie walks in and offers Rocky an advertising job for him. Rocky tells him if he can make money off his name, do it.The famous montage of the movie starts with Rocky running around Philadelphia, then in the gym, hitting a speed-bag, doing push-ups and sit-ups. Then in the meat factory as Rocky hits the meat once more. Rocky then runs up the stairs of the Art Museum and this time, he is able to make it all the way to the top.The next night, Rocky and Adrian are in bed at his apartment but Rocky can't sleep, he gets out of bed, puts his coat on and walks to the Spectrum arena. Rocky stands in the center of the ring and looks around to see that the place is well decorated and ready for the fight. Rocky goes back home as Adrian slowly awakes as Rocky lays down on the bed upset. He tells her that he won't be able to beat Apollo and how no one has ever gone the distance with him before.New Years Day, 1976. On the night of the fight, Rocky and Apollo are both getting prepared. When Rocky gets the cue that it's time. He leaves Adrian down at the locker room as she wishes him good luck. Rocky starts making his way towards the ring as some of the crowd cheers for him. Among the court-side crowd is Paulie with a call-girl, as well as Gazzo with another woman at his side. When he reaches the ring. Rocky, Mick and Mike watch as Apollo comes out in an Uncle Sam outfit in dedication to the new year. He reaches the ring and both of them receive instructions and rules for the fight. They turn to their corners and wait for the bell. The fight begins and Apollo begins throwing punches at Rocky but most of them miss. Apollo apparently isn't taking the fight seriously as he begins to throw a haymaker at Rocky but he dodges it and swings at Apollo knocking him down. The crowd goes wild and Apollo gets back up and the fight continues with the two of them throwing punches at each other and dodging most of them.As the rounds progress, both Rocky and Apollo are getting cut-up and bruised. Rocky's right eye is damaged and can't open it. Apollo is getting tired and hurt badly. At Round 14, Apollo finally knocks Rocky down and Mick instructs him to stay down until the count is up. Adrian comes out of the locker room and watches the ring and believes in Rocky and hopes he'll get up. Rocky gets back up and Apollo, dancing around the ring, sees with distress that Rocky is standing and wants more. Apollo, now exhausted, throws a punch a Rocky, but Rocky ducks and jabs him twice in his right chest breaking his ribs. The bell rings signalling the end of the round and the fighters are brought back to their corners. Rocky claims he can't see anything and tells Mick to cut him in order to open his eye.The bell for the 15th and final round rings, and Rocky and Apollo take their time until Apollo tags Rocky in the face. Rocky moves in as Apollo is now protecting the right side of his ribs. More punches to the faces occur on both of them until Rocky gets the last 10 seconds of the round and beats Apollo senseless and pinning him to the ropes. By this time, the whole crowd is cheering Rocky on by chanting his name over and over. The bell rings signalling the end of the fight. Apollo tell Rocky that there won't be a rematch and Rocky responds that he doesn't want one. The ring is stormed by reporters and both the fighters managers. A reporter asks Rocky questions about the fight as Rocky shouts for Adrian. While Adrian makes her way to the ring, Jergens announces that the fight came out to be a draw and it was a split decision on who won. Apollo is allowed to retain his status at the heavyweight champion and technically wins by default. A blinded Rocky doesn't seem to hear, or be bothered by, the result of the fight as he continues to shout for Adrian.Adrian makes it to ringside to see Paulie being restrained from entering the ring. Adrian sneaks in and runs to Rocky, the two embrace and declare their love for each other. | dramatic, cult, violence, melodrama, inspiring, romantic, entertaining | train | imdb | null |
tt3643216 | Batman Beyond | Terry fly's into the Batcave to find Bruce Wayne on the floor, and the computer screen damaged. Terry says that Bruce is hurt which Bruce reply's that he is just groggy. Terry then asks Bruce who caused the damage. Bruce says it was him. A Batman clone beats up Terry. Terry eventually gets a hit on the Batman clone, revealing a Terminator-like face. Bruce tells Terry that it isn't human and to destroy it. Terry say's that he was way ahead of him and puts a zapper on the Batman clone. Bruce gets the Batmobile to start trough vocal commands. The Batmobile starts it's engine, blasting the Batman clone into nothingness. The only thing remaining evidence of him was his belt. Later, Terry asks Bruce who sent it. And Bruce says that it didn't say, and that Bruce also adds that they didn't stop at just one Batman clone. Terry and Bruce then team up to fight the rest of the Batman clones. | sci-fi | train | imdb | null |
tt0469111 | I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer | In a small Colorado town, Amber Williams (Brooke Nevin), her friends Zoe (Torrey DeVitto) and Roger (Seth Packard), and her boyfriend Colby Patterson (David Paetkau) stage a prank at the town carnival, with Roger faking the return of the "Fisherman" killer. However, their friend P.J. Davis (Clay Taylor) is accidentally killed during the stunt, and to cover up what happened they burn the evidence and make a pact that the secret will die with them.One year passes after the group separates, and Amber returns to town to discover that Colby never left to pursue his college scholarship. She leaves the party angry, and goes up to the mountains where she encounters one of the officers who witnessed the accident, Deputy Haffner (K.C. Clyde).Later that night, Amber awakens to a sound, and receives 50 text messages reading "I know what you did last summer". She drives to Zoe's shack to find her band rehearsing for a concert, and after Amber apologizes for not contacting her, Zoe allows her to sleep there for the night.The next day they find Roger fixing ski-lifts gondolas; he angrily sends them away when they inform him someone knows what happened. Zoe goes to find Colby working as a lifeguard at a public pool; he dismisses her then returns to his post to find "I know what you did last summer" written in the ground. Amber is attacked on a ski-lift by someone wielding the hook, but Colby doesn't believe her.Later that night, a drunken Roger contemplates suicide while pulling out the hook from the prank, which he had salvaged from the fire. He investigates a noise when he is attacked by the Fisherman, who slits his throat after a chase. Colby goes to Lance and Zoe telling them that he believes them, so they go to warn Roger again but find him dead along with a suicide note and the hook. Deputy Haffner strangely shows up wielding his gun at them, accusing them of the murder, until he reads the suicide note.After their statements, they return to Amber's house to find pictures of them from the high school yearbook sliced up and stuck to the wall reading "SOON". They all stay at Zoe's place again and find Lance (Ben Easter) outside, who shows them a message engraved on his motorbike, and they agree to stay together for safety. Colby goes to the pool to do some laps after his shift, and is hooked in the ankle by the Fisherman, who disappears.The night of Zoe's concert, Amber and Lance stick together while Colby, who is now on crutches, sneaks off to get drunk. The Fisherman swings his hook at Colby but misses; Colby grabs a large butcher knife and stabs the Fisherman in the back, but he appears to be completely unharmed. The Fisherman eventually breaks through a window and hooks Colby in the mouth. Amber and Lance go back to congratulate Zoe but are attacked. Zoe breaks away and is stabbed in the stomach and then thrown over a balcony. As Amber and Lance make their way up to the balcony to find Zoe's corpse, P.J's father, the sheriff, comes in and finds Amber covered in blood. He assumes they committed the murders, but he gets pulled into the darkness and hooked to death.Outside, Deputy Haffner arrests Amber and Lance and escorts them to the back of his jeep; in the back lies Zoe's body. The Fisherman appears and makes his way towards Haffner, who fires several times, but the Fisherman doesn't budge and impales Haffner on a forklift.Amber and Lance get into the car and run the Fisherman down, but he immediately gets up and takes his mask off, revealing the decomposed face of Ben Willis, the undead man who brutally committed the original murders 10 years ago. He then immediately disappears into thin air. Amber and Lance go to get help but are again attacked by Willis and are chased into a warehouse. They make it out and lure Willis into a thresher, which appears to kill him.A year later, Amber is driving across the desert, talking to Lance as a tire blows out. She stops in the middle of nowhere and waits while she talks to Lance. She stands in the middle of the road, and looses reception. Which ultimately interupts her conversation with Lance; Amber then begins looking around as the camera cycles around her, a flash of Ben Willis is seen behind Amber, and then the film cuts to black as Amber's scream is cut off by the sling of the hook. | violence, murder | train | imdb | Our lead girl gets 52 text messages which say *shock* "I know what you did last summer." She decides to group up again and investigate and then one by one they are all killed off.I'm not going to spoil the revelation of who the killer is, but let me tell you now, it is without a doubt the stupidest twist you will ever see.
After accidentally causing their friend to fall to his death, a group of teenagers is stalked one year later by a fisherman with a hook who knows what they did last summer.
On July 4th, in the small Broken Ridge, Colorado, the teenagers Colby (David Paetkau), his girlfriend Amber (Brooke Nevin) and their friends Zoe (Torrey DeVitto), Roger (Seth Packard) and PJ (Clay Taylor) play a prank with the legend of the Fisherman that kills teenagers with dirty little secrets with his hook in an entertaining park.
one year later, in the days leading up to the tragedy's anniversary, the four receive ominous 'I Know...' messages before being picked off one by one by a hooded character in the 'Fisherman' outfit from the first two movies.
Four or five minutes into the movie, you can see why Sony decided to bypass a cinema release in favour of a straight-to-video one.That said, if taken as a low budget teen slasher in the vein of 'The Pool' and 'Lover's Lane', it actually works quite well.
The special effects appear to have consumed a large chunk of the budget, too - one gutting, akin to the 'hook in the throat' from the first 'I Know...' movie, is particularly gruesome.Ultimately, I felt let down by the ending - but I would imagine everyone's opinion would really depend on their reaction to the killer's identity.
Unfortunately, it was not as good as I expected...the way many people talked about it on here made it sound like a masterpiece.I found the movie, however, somewhat enjoyable.
Not to mention, most of Roger's chase scene was crap...Also, I hated how they had put together Zoe's quick dream, I found it quite unprofessional and I did not like how she looked when she was screaming, which sucked, being that Torrey DeVitto is a very good looking girl.Also, the deaths were obviously rushed too quickly, unlike how they were in the first two films.
It wasn't the actress, it was how they had made her perform for her character, which didn't work out well in my opinion.The rest of the movie was great; the acting, violence, dialogue, settings, etc.I expected much more of it, but it was one of the best teen-flasher flicks I have seen in years, which I admire.I hope that they do not make a sequel, because it might mess up what they already have created, which is a good franchise..
The directing was also great but the quick flashes got on my nerves a little (mainly when it took away from a really cool death scene).So if you're in the mood for a typical teen slasher and like the sounds of this one, rent it or buy it.
So, I guess when the old player like these series need a breath of life, they must goes back to a home video.I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (ILAKWYDLS) is a throwback to it origins.
Just not raise your expectation from this little movie, and you will get entertains.ILAKWYDLS is telling story a bout a prank of a small group of teens that goes wrong and kept it as secret.
It had suspense, the directing was excellent and the acting wasn't second rate as is often associated with this type of horror.Watch it, I promise you it is so much better than you think its going to be..
A lot of people were eager to see this movie, BUT: It's not an "I Know..."-film.Okay, it's got the fisherman.
We'll just take the title and let the fisherman kill some other kids, who are not from South Port and who didn't throw Ben Willis into the ocean." Producer 1: "But why would he do that?" Producer 2: "Doesn't matter, they'll have to watch the movie before they can realize that it's crap!" Producer 1: "Cool!".
The movie opens at a carnival on the 4th of July, where the new group of teens discuss the legend of the fisherman with the hook who kills people on the 4th of July.
"I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer" is an okay conclusion to the series.**SPOILERS**Living in a Colorado town, friends Amber Williams, (Brooke Nevin) Colby Patterson, (David Paetkau) Zoe, (Torrey DeVitto) Roger, (Seth Packard) and Kim, (Britt Leary) feel good about a prank, only to be shocked when it takes a turn for the worse.
I loved the first one and I Still Know was pretty good as well although it wasn't written by teen slasher God Kevin Williamson.I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer is a let down on several fronts, not only bad acting or a weak script but they also fool around with the legend of the fisherman giving the guy immortal powers.
The Fisherman was a great killer image in city, which is near fishing port.The first sequel of this movie was a huge disappointment to the fans, because it doesn't have that "something".
And the script was kinda dump.So, the real "I Know What You Did Last Summer" fans will definitely buy this movie and watch it not just one time.
However, tempted viewers should be warned that "I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer" (aside from being a mouthful) is near to being a carbon copy of the original film in terms of characters and situation.Interestingly, the film starts out similarly to "Final Destination 3", with a group of friends at a carnival (not as flash as FD3's amusement park though), and things take a turn for the worse when they play a practical joke regarding the legend of the Fisherman, that results in one of their friends getting killed.
I can't believe I wasted 45 minutes of my life watching this ,although the movie last an hour and a half.Urban Legends was a masterpiece compared to this, and man I'm actually being polite.Iwould rate no stars if I could but I'll give it the standard minimum of 1*.No story,no thrill,and the actors actually look like they're reading cue cards.My girlfriend actually begged me to put and end to this torture.But actually it's what it is...
OK so the 3rd installement of the I KNOW WHAT YOU DID FRANCHISE This is DTV release so there's a smaller budget but I'm a fan of smaller budgets.but this just didn't do it for me the acting wasn't up to much but that doesn't always matter in cheap and cheerful slasher movies what really gets me about a lot of the DTV sequels is the lack of humour.
humour doesn't cost anything.it's seems like the writer and director cared more about making the film looking ultra modern and stylish and to be honest it really let the whole thing down.there's some really awful shots the director must have thought o it looks cool to shoot this at a funny angle.the script was also really dull.the only thing i liked about this movie was the last 15 mins the action does pick up a bit..
i'll always know what you did last is a very underrated sequel i love the plot and you actually feel sorry for the characters especially amber she is very likable ill always know what you did last summer is a good movie even though it doesn't have anything to do with the previous two movies its still a very solid sequel and i love the ending you will love this movie if your a fan of the first two and the fisherman has a lot of cool kills in this movie and i like that he is a zombie in this movie it makes the fisherman more creepy and there are a lot of eerie moments as well and you don't have to watch the first two movies to enjoy watching this one ill always know what you did last summer is a solid sequel i like this one better than i still know what you did last summer..
One by one the friends are killed off to a terrible ending that just ridiculed the other two movies.It's an alright horror movie, it has it's cliché moments of course, but I think most horror movie fans could have fun, but this was beyond silly and couldn't compare really to the first I Know What You Did Last Summer movie, it just isn't anything without the original cast.
Another re-watch not seen the first time I saw it, this movie not good at all, the whole movie was just really wearied.This movie did not start of too bad, i did enjoy prank at the start but after the movie goes down hill fast.I found this very strange with flashing and fasting moving parts of the movie, took any tension that this try to have, it just felt really odd and it just did fit in with last two movies of the series,I did not the fact they went supernal way for 3rd which remind ME of how urban legends Series went also went supernatural way on their 3rd entry as well year early.
The acting was really bad from most of the cast, some scenes were so bad that is laughable , they saw a death body and i didn't even look that shocked at all and after they have poor poorly pointing dream scream to waste time and seem get killed until last 20 mins of the movie, Was think about this movie that almost everyone knew what they did last summer,Really poorly made sequel with a very descent last scene.
It's not that the original "I Know What You Did Last Summer" (or its sequel, for that matter) was all that good or even original, but one would think that with seven years in between films that time would have produced a sequel that was at least decent, watchable or even passable.Nope, not even close."I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer," the third entry in the franchise with overly-long titles, isn't so much of a sequel as it is a virtual remake of the 1997 film starring Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. In this version, a group of friends play a July 4th prank that ends in tragedy.
Then a year later they start getting the message "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and are being killed off one by one.By the numbers sequel which is basically a complete rehash of the original.
I don't know what those Filmmakers got into them but they made an awful movie, an abomination to sequels and a dreadful third part in a series that was quite good, not perfect though but better than this one!
I further appreciate how the writers actually tied this film to the previous two, which you wouldn't think they'd be able to do since it's an entirely different cast of characters in a completely different environment, not to mention it being almost ten years after the first movie.
This film is a rewrite of the movie "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and the story is similar: a group of teenagers commits an accident that generates death and, to avoid being accused, they decide to make a pact of silence.
This movie was supposed to be made as a direct sequel to "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer," with a group of teenagers played by some obscure actors who in Colorado find themselves being menaced by the mysterious man with the hook, which is supposed to be the ghost of Ben Willis.The events of the first two movies were never elaborated or explained in this supposed sequel, which made this just another typical teen horror flick, but with a low budget, boring story and pretty bad acting.
Okay I normally stay well clear of the recent straight to video or DVD slasher movies, cause they are poorly made, terrible acting and well the list goes on, but through the years there have been some rather decent ones, but unfortunately this isn't one of them.Well it's been 9 years since the previous sequel, and well it does seem rather pointless bringing another one after all this time and plus I was a big fan of the first two, which were both fun and I did hope that they would have some fresh ideas for the third instalment but nope it's basically the same thing just with less production values and no star power whatsoever.
This is just plods along with seemingly no effort and even the characters are carbon copies from the first movie (and not very good ones either), okay it does actually work on the so bad it's good scale in some places like when a character is about to commit suicide and then gets spooked by a coat and then gets killed, a classically cheesy moment I must say and the big reveal at the end of the killer was just priceless and stupid.All in all stick to "I Know" and "I Still Know" they're a million times better, this one brings nothing new or interesting to the story..
The only notable thing about the film is the ending, which comes out of left field and turns the movie into JEEPERS CREEPERS instead of the slasher it started out as.
**SPOILERS** The latest of the "I Know What You Did Last Summer" slasher flicks this time having the Fisherman come out of hiding and do his thing, in both slashing and filleting his victims, because he was framed for a murder that he didn't commit.This usual obnoxious bunch of teenagers get this bright idea to scare the hell out of those attending a July 4th caravel in Broken Ridge Colorado that goes terribly wrong.
Again like Sheriff Davis Deputy Hefner was totally innocent of P.J's death but by then, in having such a good time chopping people up, the out of control Fisherman didn't seem to care whom he was filleting.The movie had the Fisherman commit his ghastly acts of murder is such a surreal manner that you didn't seem to realize if they were in fact real of or part of a dream by those whom he was murdering.**SPOILERS** The film ends as you would expect with the Fisherman finally getting done in, and turned into a package of Gorton or Mrs. Paul's Fish Sticks, by the terrified and surviving teenagers lead by the plucky Amber Williams, Brooks Nevin.
It barely links itself to the other films (only to dig up dirt about the fisherman's legend and activities that occurred in the first two), but noticeably it shares a lot of similarities in scenes and plot mechanisms (well there's a slight difference as the times have changed as now instead of getting a threatening letter, you get a text msg on your mobile) to the original (as it treads the same ground of more teens hiding a secret) when it's not concentrating on it's beautiful young looking cast (of what's your names) and sped up visuals of the clouds and sky.
This STV, way-too-late second sequel to the 1997 original has several "kids" in a small Colorado town causing the accidental death of one of their own, while using the "urban legend" of the killer fisherman from the first movie to stir up a little fun in their boring town.
And of course the deputy policeman who you suspect from the beginning as being a bad guy as he always turns up just after stuff goes down, but you never quite know.All the characters, despite knowing for some time that the killer is definitely after them, continue to do mind blowingly ludicrous things like wander off on their own time and time again and sit in total darkness with a bottle of liqueur.
I don't know where to begin where this movie went wrong, first of all it makes no sense, it never even explains why the killer is killing these people, at first you think its a different killer, but no it apparently is the killer from the last two.
The whole thing really makes no sense at all, and what makes this film stand out for being so bad is the horrible and i mean dreadful acting, i really didn't care if any of the characters live or die and that is what interest me in horror films, but this movie failed to captivate me, the best feature of this film is the end, sadly..
One year later, a fisherman with a hook starts stalking and killing.Yes, there are times when the script is contrived and dull, but for the most part, the action is decent and keeps a good steady pace.
Sure it look like the 1st movie a lot but with the time, you can see some differences.The killer is a deadman.
It was actually better than I had thought.***Spoilers lie ahead*** The movie begins with a group of friends pulling a prank on July 4th after they hear a story about Ben Willis.
OK OK I know I might get some BS on this but this film is not all that bad it's really good.When I was walk through Blockbuster and first saw this movie in the new releases like a year ago I read it.
They all of-course drift apart and all come back together one year later, and start getting text messages saying "i know what you did last summer" This movie repeats way to many scenes (and lines) from the first installment.
If you liked the first and second films, i would definitely not recommend renting this movie, it will just ruin the whole "i know what you did" series. |
tt0108188 | Sonatine | Kitano plays Murakawa, a Tokyo-based yakuza enforcer who has grown tired of gangster life. He is sent by his boss to Okinawa, supposedly to mediate a dispute between their allies, the Nakamatsu and Anan clans. Murakawa openly suspects the assignment is an attempt to have him removed and even beats up one of his colleagues, Takahashi, whom he distrusts, but ends up going with his men. He finds that the dispute is insignificant, and while wondering why he was sent to Okinawa at all, the group's temporary headquarters are bombed and they are then ambushed in a bar, leaving several of his men dead.
Fleeing to the seaside, the survivors take refuge in a remote beach house belonging to a brother of one of the Nakamatsu members and decide to wait for the trouble to blow over. Whilst spending time at the beach, the group engages in childish games and pranks and begins to enjoy themselves. However, the games frequently have a violent undertone. When two of his men alternate shooting at a beer can on each other's head, Murakawa turns it into a game of Russian roulette. Putting the seemingly loaded gun to his head, he pulls the trigger on the last chamber. The chamber is revealed to be empty and Murakawa is unharmed.
Murakawa later dreams of the Russian roulette game, although in his dream, the revolver is loaded and he is killed. When he wakes up, he walks down to the shore. He sees a car pull up, and a man drags a woman into the sand and attempts to rape her. Murakawa stoically watches for a while and then walks past them. When the man realizes Murakawa has been there the whole time and shouts at him, Murakawa headbutts him. The man pulls out a knife and threatens Murakawa. Murakawa then shoots the man, but to his companions, he claims the woman shot him. She then joins Murakawa and the gang at the beach house, and comes frequently to visit, spending time with Murakawa.
Later, an assassin disguised as a fisherman appears. He kills several people, including the boss of the Nakamatsu clan and one of Murakawa's men, in the middle of a frisbee match. Learning that Takahashi is arriving in Okinawa, Murakawa and two of his surviving men visit his hotel. Unable to find him at first, they unexpectedly run into Takahashi and the assassin in the elevator, which results in a shootout, killing the assassin and Murakawa's men. Murakawa learns from interrogating Takahashi that their boss had intended all along to partner with the Anan clan and had sent Murakawa on a suicide mission to take over his turf. He also learns that the boss will be meeting with the Anan that night in a hotel. Takahashi is killed and Murakawa sets off with the only survivor of the group, a member of the Nakamatsu clan, who helps him by rigging the electricity in the hotel to go off at a certain time. Murakawa tells the woman that he may come back, and the woman promises to wait for him.
Later that night, while waiting for all the yakuza to arrive, the Nakamatsu member asks Murakawa to take him with him, but admits that he has had enough when Murakawa asks. When the electricity goes off, Murakawa goes into the hotel and slaughters both clans with an assault rifle. The next morning, while the woman continues to wait for him, Murakawa drives to a spot near the beach and commits suicide by shooting himself in the head. The scene then switches to the car and the horizon and slowly fades. | violence, murder | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0758786 | Stuck | Thomas Bardo (Stephen Rea) has been down on his luck ever since the company he worked for had closed. He has been without a job, his unemployment had run out, and he seems to be lost in the system as he tries finding a new job. He is forced out of his ghetto apartment by a heartless landlord (Wayne Robson), and he takes the small lot of possessions and heads for a public park bench to spend the night.Brandi Boski (Mena Suvari) is an attractive young female, she is a nurses aide at a retirement home who seems to be very caring for the residents there. At night when work is out, Brandi likes to party and the company she keeps is shady to say the least. She scores some ecstasy at a bar one night, and then makes plans to go back to her house and sleep with her drug dealer.As Brandi is on her way home, she is talking on her cell to her boyfriend/drug dealer Rashid (Russell Hornsby). At the same time, a policeman (Wally MacKinnon) rudely awakes Thomas and tells him to head for the shelter across town because its illegal to be in the park after dusk. As Thomas makes his way across town, Brandi, who isn't paying attention to the road, hits Thomas with her car with great force. Thomas is now literally stuck half way through her front windshield, with his legs hanging out of the window on the hood of the car.Brandi is freaked out and confused about what to do. She tries dropping him off at a hospital, but the idea of getting caught scares her off to hide her car with Thomas stuck in her windshield in her garage. When she learns that he is still alive, she promises to get him help. Since she is still high on drugs and alcohol, she instead goes into her house and makes love to her drug dealer, Rashid. She drags Rashid into this whole fiasco the next day, as she figures he has done this sort of thing before, as far as getting rid of bodies.Rashid finds it hard to do the deed, and instead is betsed by Thomas who had hid a bic pen in his sleeve and revealed it at the right time, right through Rashid's eye. Then he took Rashid's gun and shot him. Brandi comes out of her house and sees Thomas escaping and smashes him in the head with a hammer. She drags him into the garage and decides to spill gasoline all over the car, Thomas and Rashid. Thomas somehow bests her, and she burns alive in her own garage. | cult, violence | train | imdb | Is fear an acceptable reason for selfishness, brutality and a headlong flight from responsibility?Gordon deals admirably with this dilemma using a crafty balance of horror and humor in a bloody film about a hit & run driver who becomes inhuman while the victim remains human and humane through relentless pain, shock, & bad luck.
Both Stephen Rea and Mena Suvari offer up fine performances as a middle class guy down on his luck and a hard working and hard playing young woman in a tough and demanding job..
You can believe that this actually happened, (based loosely on a true story) though this takes events to the extreme.Stephen Rea gives a constrained performance, (pun intended) as the proverbial bug.
The story is based on the bizarre true life tale of a woman who hit a homeless man with her car and let him slowly bleed to death while stuck in her windshield.
Gordon calls this "the way the story should have turned out." The homeless man in this case is played by the reliable Steven Rea, whose sad eyes give him a head start on eliciting sympathy.
Instead of taking the man to a hospital, she drives home, leaving the man to bleed to death in her garage while she goes inside and has sex with her boyfriend.Gordon's take on the story follows the real world events quite loosely, changing most everything after the initial crash.
STUCK is one of those films that creeps up on you, teases you into thinking a comedy is in the making, then slowly reveals itself as what seems to be an exposé of our current manner of getting through life, of competing in the workplace, and of self absorption to the point of endangering those around us.
The fact that the film is based on a true story as adapted by director Stuart Gordon and transformed into a bitingly satirical screenplay by John Strysik increases the impact of this well-crafted little low budget film.
Brandi cum altered thought processes drives home, hits Thomas who comes sailing through her windshield badly injured, and out of fear and distress Brandi merely takes the 'stuck' Thomas home to park him in her garage, knowing that her boyfriend Rashid will help her.
One of the strengths of the movie was, that despite the lead character's horrid actions, she felt very real; a young, unintelligent woman, who completely lacked any understanding of true values, but who still was convincingly portrayed as a person with a warm heart and an appreciated colleague.
An hard working nurse (Mena Suvari) life's turns upside down, when she accidentally a down on his luck homeless man (Stephen Rea) late night in the streets.
But the man is actually tougher than he looks and she tries to convinces her drug-dealer boyfriend (Russell Hurnsby) to kill this bum.Directed by Stuart Gordon (Fortress, From Beyond, The Pit and the Pendulum "1991") made an entertaining darkly comedic thriller that is loosely based on a true fact.
At least as far as I'm concerned, "Stuck" easily overpowers the other two films because here Gordon has the opportunity to work with really current issues (hit-and-run accidents) and the type of agony everyone dreads (helplessly being left to die like a dog).
The basic plot is inspired by a true story (which makes everything all the more depressing), but Stuart Gordon masterfully turns the whole event into an extraordinary non-stop spitfire of social criticism.
None of what was portrayed was believable.The story is about a girl who works as a Care Assistant and is involved in an accident and what follows is a load of unbelievable tripe with enough plot holes to fly a jumbo jet through it.From about 10 minutes in to the film I just wanted it to be over.
(like, "ok, I'll go, but...whatever." You don't come to complete halt to make that statement unless you're some simple organism).**Another hit against Pedro's mom- As she's peering in the garage window and sees the man stuck in the car window, why did she bang on the window so damn long to tell him that she's going to get help?
COME OPEN THE DOOR?**Mena Suvari looked...very unappealing the entire movie.What could've been a decent thriller is absolutely killed by the terrible acting and bad writing..
Mena Suvari plays Brandi,the overworked nurse's aid who,on the verge of a promotion,crosses the line when driving drunk and drugged after a night out partying she hits a homeless man(Stephen Rea)and ends up more concerned about her promotion than his life.Stuck in the windshield of her car badly injured homeless man is along for the ride as she drives home and parks the car in the garage with the hope that he will finally succumb to his injuries.Fantastic horror film from always reliable Stuart Gordon.The gore is quite disturbing with the emphasis on broken bones and physical pain.The story is well-constructed,the acting by Rea and Suvari is strong and there are several moments of black humour to relieve the tension.Very erotic sex scene with Mena Suvari too!.
Mena Suvari plays nurse Brandi Boski who, on the eve of her promotion, strikes a homeless man who gets stuck (hence the title) in her windshield.
A problem arises soon thereafter when it is revealed that the man is not actually dead.When word came my way that a movie was coming out based on the Chante Mallard story, I was pretty pumped.
I may never have thought of Stuart Gordon as a dialogue-driven director, but this film really showcases his ability to bring normal characters to life without gimmicks.By the time you read this, "Stuck" should be available in stores.
but many aspects of "Stuck" hint that no matter how big, Gordon knows his roots.) Those who never heard of Stuart Gordon and are confused by all my ranting and raving will enjoy the film as well, because it's a story that real, with real people and real emotions.
The only reason I went beyond the 30 minute mark was to see how they were going to end this monstrosity.A chain of absolutely unbelievable, 'oh come on, you just wouldn't' events that wouldn't even work as a slapstick comedy.Really, make better use of an hour and a bit of your life.I don't want to waste any more time on this, but there's a minimum of 10 lines per comment.Nina hasn't aged well.That's just my opinion.Oh, terrible soundtrack..
What "Stuck" makes is incredibly larger than life, ten times twisted and a little bit funny, but it does also involve a situation with a car and lots of blood.
Here, Mena Suvari plays an nurse having the best day of her life until she accidentally hit and run a man (Stephen Rea) who was having the worst day of his life after being evicted from his house.
Yes, it can and it doesn't get better after one bad decision after another made by this woman who simply doesn't help this injured man, who tries in the best possible way (considerally being stuck on a windshield, with a broken leg and losing more and more blood) to get out of there.
We can put ourselves in the character's shoes, specially on Suvari's character (we would act and think better than her, our moral would be nicer than hers).A good study on how acting without thinking can get you in lot of trouble becoming an unforgettable thing in your conscience, "Stuck", just like the situation it presents, it's a point of no return.
As typical for a Gordon film, it looks visually behind the times by about 15 years, but he gets a quality performance from Suvari, who carries her scenes very well.
I have not yet seen this movie...but I was reading where some think this movie is supposed to be an unrealistic thing happening...think again.It did happen, in Ft. Worth Texas...Actually 2001, a twenty-something nurse's aide named Chante Mallard partied at a club, drank, took Ecstasy, smoked weed, left the club with her friend where she then picked up her Chevrolet Cavalier.A few minutes later, she hit a man on a dimly-lit highway.
The real-life events in this case are that a woman called Chante Mallard took drugs, ran over a guy who smashed through her windshield, but instead of stopping or getting help, she drove home with him in the windshield, and tried to get her friends to get rid of the evidence.With this movie, Stuart Gordon deviates a little from this and asks the question: What if he hadn't died as fast?
While driving back home, Brandi accidentally hits the unemployed project manager Thomas Bardo (Stephen Rea) and the man gets stuck in the windshield of her car.
Instead of taking him to the emergency of a hospital, Brandi brings Thomas to her garage and leaves the wounded man stuck in the windshield without any medical care.
The film is based on the true story of Chante Mallard; a Texan woman that hit a tramp while drunk driving and left the unfortunate fellow to die while stuck in her windshield.
Of course, it's the central plot that is the most horrifying and the idea of a man stuck halfway through a car windshield while the only person that knows about it refuses help leaves a real nasty taste.
A lot of the film takes place inside of a small garage, and the claustrophobia and isolation of this setting comes through well and Stuart Gordon makes it clear how desperate the central character's situation is at all times.
The way that things are turned on their head at the end is good and overall this is an excellent little film that is well worth a look!.
If I did not know the story of Stuck was based on true events,I would have laughed of its premise.However,although the events shown on this film really happened,a lot of elements were changed for making the story more fluid.But the problem is that the story does not result too satisfactory.Stuck is not a bad film,but I think it is mediocre.On its most basic level,Stuck is a thriller which has impulse for the stupidities of its characters and all the bad decisions they take.I think that on some sense,it pretends to show the insensibility of the humanity and the difficult situation of North American society (or,thinking about it better,from the whole world) in which it is much more easy ignoring other people's tragedies.I also found on this movie,some touches of black humor director Stuart Gordon frequently puts to his movies (for example,King of the Ants) for making lighter the intense violence and drama.I appreciated that elements but the screenplay from this film lacks of personality and style.Plus,this movie lacks of any deep levels and,as a final result,Stuck is a hollow thriller.I am maybe being unfair because I should analyze the movie for what it offers and not for what it could have offered.And,also on that level,the movie is not too satisfactory.As I said,the screenplay lacks of personality and style and it is full of irrelevant elements which add nothing to the story.Mena Suvari does not completely fit on her character.She lacks of the intensity and dramatic weight her character needed.After winning fame for his excellent work on the horror genre,Gordon backed to the theatrical drama which made him start with his career and his most recent films have that style : small stories with very few locations and a group of characters facing unusual situations.But King of the Ants,Edmond and now Stuck,did not result too satisfactory,so I hope Gordon leaves a little bit aside this style from his most recent films.Stuck is not a bad movie and it kept me moderately entertained but it was a mediocre experience in my case and,as the previously mentioned King of the Ants and Edmond,it disappointed me after Gordon's excellent works on films like Re-Animator and From Beyond..
I know that Stuck is supposedly based on a true story, but I prefer to keep thinking that these kinds of things can only happen in fiction.If you're in the mood for a short, gory thriller, then there aren't many recent movies that are more entertaining than Stuck..
Mena "American Pie" Suvari and Stephen Rea star in this remarkable little thriller that manages to deliver despite it's glaring and obvious flaws.It tells the story of a woman drunk at the wheel looking at her phone who runs into a homeless man with her car.
In fact I haven't cared as much about a character since The Pursuit of Happyness (2006).Essentially a thriller it has moments of black comedy, mostly due to Russell Hornsby who was really good here.The films main flaw is that it's essentially following the antagonist, the lead is the bad guy (Or girl in this case) and that comes across odd especially as it's as if you're watching her plight when she's blatantly the antagonist.
Watching Rea struggle against the odds is very enjoyable and builds to a decent finale that really underlines the movies quality.Despite it's flaws this is a great film helped by a solid premise and decent cast.The Good:Stephen ReaSome great ideasThe Bad:Having the antagonist as the lead is just oddI still don't like Suvari, no idea why.
I loved the scenes of the crash, the loved how they made the slow motion effects as the Car hits the Homeless man, it kinds of made it look believable,I thought homeless man acting this movie was outstanding and I don't think the female lead was not that good.At times of the movie it seem that she bored with the movie and sometimes wooded I liked how the movied ended, 7 out of 10.
It's hard to categorise the film - it has elements of thriller, horror, comedy and drama and as a result it does feel a little uneven at times.
Stephen Rea and Mena Suvari are in top form in this over the top delightfully deranged thriller about a woman who hits a bum on the day she heard that she is up for a promotion and instead of doing the right thing she slides down the path of self destruction.
Mena Suvari is a young easygoing nurse who bumps into an out of job and newly homeless Stephen Rea and gets stuck in a situation she wasn't expecting herself to wind up in.
And Stephen Rea played destitute like few can.I hope Gordon does more non-horror films.
Sadly, it did happen in 2001 when a woman hit a homeless man with her car and he ended up stuck in her windshield.
Man hit by car seems to have both feet broken somehow managed to keep right up to the end of the movie.Why Brandi did not help, especially after he said he would take all the blame on him and it will not be held answered in any way.
It's a good, somewhat gross, movie to kick back and relax to with some friends for a casual experience at its best.I'd also like to note the odd casting choice of Mena Suvari as Brandi.
And it delivers the goods: it's suspenseful and believable throughout, with great work by both Stephen Rea and Mena Suvari, surprising plot twists, some REALLY painful stuff to watch (including a wicked girlfight scene and an oh-my-God scene involving a Pekinese dog), and the combination of bloody visuals and dark humor for which director Stuart Gordon is renowned.
This is actually a sad, tragic, story; but mostly a psychological thriller, or a psychological study, about people put in unexpected, dramatic, even tragic, dilemmas and how they react to it.An overworked, X-gulping nurse and party girl hits with her car an OOW Project Manager and takes him home, stuck in her windshield.
A young woman (Mena Suvari), who is slightly high, hits a down-on-his-luck man (Stephen Rea) who wasn't looking where he was going.
The best thing about watching this film was thinking the whole time it was a true story that happened to this woman where she hit someone and panics so much that she didn't help that person.
First it starts out a bit like Crash with diverging story lines, then it's a drama, then about an hour in it's played for black humor, and finally it becomes a horror movie with a preposterous climax straight out of Fatal Attraction.
After that there's little to no action, just a pretty retarded blonde who doesn't seem to care that there's a man stuck in her car in the garage.For some reason I just expected way more action from this, I cant really place it in the horror-box.
You might even come to think it is an important film about the social status of the world today, but please remember, you only think this because you're a half-wit.If you don't want to be treated like a village idiot, don't spend your time watching this movie.
Tom(Stephen Rea) has lost his job, been thrown out of his apartment and is minding his business, walking along his merry way, and bam, a woman, Brandi(Mena Suvari), drivers her car into him, and as a result he gets stuck in her windshield.
Mena Suvari stars as Brandi, a woman who is involved in a hit & run with a down-on-his-luck man (Stephen Rea), who gets stuck in her windshield and is left to die after she drives home and parks in her garage.in this pitch black comedy (very) loosely based on the sad case of Chante Jawan Mallard, a black druggie who gloated and laughed about the whitey she had hit with her car and was handed a 50 year sentence.Ignoring the real-life incident and instead choosing to take this film on it's own merits, I found it to be a fairly tense film.
Stuck is based on the true story of Chante Jawan Mallard, a 27 year old nurse's assistant who, after a night of drinking, smoking pot and popping ecstasy, hit a homeless man with her car and then drove home with his mangled body jammed in the windshield. |
tt0046264 | Sadko | Sinbad the sailor, known for sailing the world and seeing many wondrous and magic things, returns to the city of Kovasahn, with nary a piece of gold to his name. Sinbad soon sees that many of the people of the city are poor and hungry, while the city's merchants are still quite rich. Sinbad proposes that the merchants should fund a journey for him and a crew to find 'the Bird of Happiness,' figuring that it will cure the ailment of the city. The merchants (naturally) deride Sinbad's words and send him away.Having returned, Sinbad is charmed by two women. The first is one named Lubiria, but while Sinbad is charmed by her, she claims she has not known him long enough. The next woman is the young daughter of King Neptune, who finds Sinbad singing near the waters. Sinbad explains his problems trying to convince the merchants, and the young woman formulates a plan: take a boat into the waters, and she will provide him with golden fish.Sinbad then awakens the city, and makes a proposal: if he can catch golden fish in the nearby waters, the merchants must surrender all their goods to the people. If he fails, they can have his head. The merchants balk at such a gesture, but figure there's no way Sinbad can win, and agree.Thanks to Neptune's daughter, Sinbad catches the golden fish, and the merchants relinquish their goods to the people. However, one of the men notes to Sinbad that not everyone has been able to partake in the distribution of goods, and now that everything has been given away, there is no money left for Sinbad to make his journey with.Dejected, Sinbad is at a loss for what to do, until Neptune's daughter causes the golden fish to become actual gold! With his newfound riches, Sinbad has the money to build his boats and prepares for his journey. Lubiria sees him off, promising to send a bird to find him every year until he returns.Sinbad's journey leads him to several lands. Their first encounter is with a group of barbarians along a rocky cliff. The group attempts to make peaceful talk, but the barbarians intend to kill them outright. The group holds them off, and takes the leader's horse. Much later, they arrive in ancient arabia.It is here that one of the men hears of a magic bird that the King has. Sinbad wishes to trade for the bird, but the King wants Sinbad's horse (which actually can talk!). Sinbad then accepts the King's wish to play a chess game. If the King wins, he gets the horse. If Sinbad wins, he can have the bird.Sinbad wins the game, but upon seeing the bird, he and his crew note that it is not the bird they are looking for. It does not bring happiness, but has the power to put people asleep. The group still takes it anyways, and manages to escape from the Kingdom by using the bird's powers.Deciding to go home, the group run into rough waters. In order to dispel the the waters, Sinbad sacrifices himself to Neptune.He arrives in the King's court, and offers to play a song for the royal | fantasy | train | imdb | The original Russian version with subtitles is one you should consider watching than the English dubbed version of Sadko called the ''magic voyage of Sinbad''.
The result can be devastating if you've already seen the original (Sadko 1952).There are good and bad comments about this film, thanks to the re-dubbed version.
I'm sure everyone that has seen the original version (sadko) will give it at least an 8 out of 10.Someone made a comment that the film is goofy because Sinbad wasn't wet when he visited the great kingdom at the bottom of the sea and how did he manage to hold his breath that long.
And I think ''the magic voyage of sinbad'' should not be credited with ''SADKO''.
Little is known about sadko while magic voyage of sinbad was well advertised 10 years later.
That explains the reason why sadko suffers the bitterness of its good for nothing sequel, magic voyage of sinbad 1962.
Seldom do I have goosebumps from watching a fun fantasy film as I did with this wonderfully restored Russian FAMILY VIEWING film.
I have not watched the other version with the English language dubbing (The Magic Voyage of Sinbad), but I can gather from another user's comments that it had to have been pretty bad.
I prefer original language in such films anyway and don't mind reading the movie.Considering the film was done in 1953 without our cgi stuff and other advanced technology of today, the visuals are absolute gems (well done).
However, due to the nature of that fishy prop, it was rather unique and funny, and added more to the fantasy theme of the movie.Even though the acting was somewhat stiffly hokey by mollywood viewers of the Americas, Russians have a certain flair akin only to their culture.
The original Russian version is finally on DVD!.
This is an update to my comment which I wrote on April 28, 2005: This film (the original Russian film) has been completely restored by Mosfilm and is available on DVD in North-America from the Ruscico label, in most major outlets.
It's just too bad the release of the original did not receive one fifth the publicity of the Coppola atrocity ("The Magic Voyage of Sinbad").
By the way, the illustration on the IMDb "Sadko" page is not of this Russian film but of the opera version of the same name.This is my original comment of a year ago: I first saw 'Sadko' on television in French-speaking Quebec barely four years after it had been honoured at the Venice Film Festival.
In those days of the Cold War, the French had no compunction about distributing Russian films and translating them into French and Canadian television had no compunction about showing this one to the very impressionable children it was meant to be shown to.
'Sadko' is based on a Russian fairy-tale that also inspired the opera of the same name by Rimsky-Korsakoff and it incorporates the opera's ballets and melodies in its action.
The only way Americans have ever seen this film, for the most part, is through the emasculated version called 'The Magic Voyage of Sinbad' which, for purely exploitative reasons, turned this art film intended as a goodwill gesture for the world's children into a commercial adventure film by robbing it of its context (Sinbad was substituted for Sadko and Arabia for Russia), of its moral (all political speeches were mollified), of its characters (the love story was truncated), of its poetry (through a very bad translation) and of most of its glorious establishing shots.
The original runs for 85 minutes and the Russian songs, music and acting make even the 'octopus's garden' scene palatable for adults.
It took me months just to find out what the film's Russian title was and years to get my hands on two very bad VHS copies of 'The Magic Voyage of Sinbad' which have been bootlegged from television and which are offered by quite a few American distributors of offbeat cinema.
The strangeness of watching a Russian film without subtitles is also very liable to recreate in the viewer the very sense of wonder which children were supposed to experience when they first see this film.
But it also shows that this film can boast great direction, magnificent composition, photography and lighting, elaborate art direction, impressive handling of crowd scenes, great costumes, evocative special effects (the bird of forgetfulness is a particularly powerful and memorable image) and a general poetic tone that is its reason for being and the first casualty of its American 'adaptation'.
This is a visually splendid film version of an old Russian legend, which was the basis of an opera by Rimsky-Korsakov.
The plot has been altered somewhat to enhance its appeal as a film, and , in the English version, the names of the characters and even locations have been completely changed, giving a most bizarre effect!
It's interesting that whether people liked or disliked this film seems to vary depending on whether it was seen in the original Russian, or the English version.
Clearly the thing to do is get out of town quick, so Sadko trades 3 goldfish for 3 boats (they were magic goldfish) and sets sail to find the Bird of Happiness.
I'd originally seen the Sinbad version and I had to turn the sound down.
I'm glad I saw the restored Russian version because the visuals are much clearer and the original soundtrack is pleasant with strong music and the deep serious voices of the men.
_Sadko_ is a masterpiece of cinematic fantasy - there doesn't seem to be one frame that doesn't enthral, and the recreations of medieval Ukraine and India are unsurpassed by any other historical/fantasy film.
The dubbed American version, _The Magic Voyage of Sinbad_, is a bit of a travesty, but I recently saw the complete Russian version with subtitles at a Ptushko retrospective which was going around the country, so it may soon be possible to finally get the real thing on video..
Charming and naive, Alexandr Ptushko's version of Sadko maintains the ingenuity of the fairy tale through the golden touch of imaginative coloring and splendid characters ingrained in the Russian folklore, which at the same time are part of the universal lore.
Sadko concedes to the nationalistic trend in tyrannies proclaiming, in this case, the 'proud of been a Russian", heard as an echo of fascistic hypes on 'selected people or race"; but it is done with such an obvious declarative tone that the imposition of dialogs and lines comes clear to the viewer.
I gave 10 points to the original Russian version....
I gave 10 points to the original Russian version which I saw with Spanish subtitles.
It is worth pointing out that the link provided for those who want to buy this film takes you to where the American-International version is being sold, with the title of The Magic Voyage of Sinbad.
My Betamax copy of this has not been watched in years, but I am certain lacked half of the interesting scenes, and certainly lacks the wonderful music.The original version, as Sadko, can be rented from Netflix, and presumably is rented and sold elsewhere.
I've been inspired so much by this film that I've decided to learn the Russian lyrics to a Song of India, accompany myself on the Er-Hu and my music Teacher will accompany me on the piano for a recital.
See the Russian original, avoid the English dubbed version.
For the past month or so Russian fantasy films have really captivated me.
Sadly the dubbed version(named The Magic Voyage of Sinbad) is one that should never have happened, it is absurdest rather than magical and replaces any thrills or wonder with unintentional humour and dullness.
The Russian original(Sadko) has that sense of fun and magic, there is a little too much talk and the acting did seem a little stiff at times.
The story has the fun, thrill and wonder you'd hope for in a fantasy film and done in a way to captivate children and adults alike.
In conclusion, I liked it very much but I do absolutely agree with those who say the original Russian version is the one to see.
This is a Russian film that is titled Sadko and was repackaged as a Sinbad film for its release in the United States.
Which means a whole lot of people are going to profess their love for it despite the fact the film is not really all that good.
It is kind of like how they repackaged a few of the Italian hero Maciste as Hercules, but those two had way more in common than this guy and Sinbad.
As I stated I do not find this film all that good, but as with many Russian films from the communist era, people are going to claim it is golden and rave about it.
It is no better than films made here from this era and at times it is much worse, but hey, it's Russian it has to be good!
After more stuff like this, they finally launch they expedition and the movie finally takes off as they battle vikings and then make their way to India all to find the bird of happiness.
Sadko even ends up in Neptune's crazy undersea kingdom.This film was featured on the riff show Mystery Science Theater 3000 and it made for a funny episode.
My favorite part though was when the pigeon somehow made it to Sadko while he was underwater and Joel asked, "How does that happen?" So, no, this film is not really all that good.
Perhaps it is better in its native language, but I do not think restoring the original Russian version is going to make those speeches any more exciting or make the effects during some of those later scenes any better.
Seriously, if it is Russian, it does not mean the film is automatically good.
"Sadko" is a bizarre film--at least in the version I saw.
Originally a Russian film, it was purchased, chopped to pieces and dubbed and it instantly became the English language film "The Magic Voyage of Sinbad"!
Such strange practices were not unheard of during this era, as American-International did this with several Russian films during the 1960s.
My review is based only on the Westernized version--perhaps the original film was very good or the plot was totally different.Sinbad ('Sadko') lives in a land where the people are enslaved and everything looks yellowed...no, wait--that's just because of the bad print.
"Sadko" would likely be the outcome.This film in it's original Russian format was overly talky - even for a Russian film...The dubbed version just goes on and on and on....Yakkety yak.......Some of the most inept rewrites I've ever heard/seen.....Lotsa' boring goody goody Soviet propaganda messages here....Especially in the opening part of the film with the nasty guys with all the goodies are keepin' it from all the deserving poor....Awwwwww!
The nasty types head for the hills and Sadco/Sinbad sees to it that all the goods are properly distributed among the poor.......How quaintly soviet!Sadco sets off on a quest that takes him 'round the world in search of goodies to bring back to all those deserving peasants .......He meets the "uber budgie" in the form of a half bird/half woman.......Rather creepy looking.....Kind of like sitting through the end of Tod Browning's "Freaks" for the first time, but not as satisfying.The highlight (if you can call it that!) of the film is when Sadko comes up against a couple of totally twisted Hindu cats that look like a pair of New York drag queens - oh pleeeeeezzzzze!
These clowns wear enough makeup to make Tammy Faye Baker Blush, in addition, their dialog is an absolute riot......It's as if the voice/over guys thought the same about their appearance and actions and played them to the campy hilt.Overall the film seems to meander in such a way that screams: "lookit all the money we spent on this gem, praise Lenin!" Big scenes, sprawling vistas would make a nice travelogue if it weren't for the plodding script and banal dialog....I can't imagine those drones with MST3K even wasting their so-called "talent" on this one, it doesn't need any embellishment.
the seed can be, like many others Soviet film, this poor , charming and seductive movie.
I know this is a dubbed movie version, but the bad voice acting and hilarious Sinbad "solo" to Neptune's daughter really up the kampiness factor!Watch this one MST style.
Besides, anything I could write about the plot would hardly matter as the American bastardization of Sadko that I watched appears to bear only a passing resemblance to either the original Russian movie or the classic Russian folktale on which it was based.
First off, I wonder whose bright idea it was to turn the character named Sadko into Sinbad.
Let's see, Sadko is a poor Russian musician Sinbad is an adventurous Middle-Eastern sailor.
Secondly, I really have to wonder if the Russian version of the movie included anything about a quest for a bird of happiness.
It's almost as if the idea of the bird was added to the American version to give some sort of justification for "Sinbad" going to sea.Beyond the problems of Americanizing this Russian movie, I have problems with the bits of the original Sadko that seep through.
As I stated in my recent review of The Sword and the Dragon (aka Ilya Muromets), I'm not a fan of this style of Russian movie or acting.
But none of that means I have to actually like the movie." If you change the title of the movie, this quote accurately reflects my feelings on The Magic Voyage of Sinbad.
And even though I realize that my appreciation of the movie might be improved if I were to have the opportunity to see the original film, I doubt the change would be drastic.Like many others, I saw The Magic Voyage of Sinbad through Mystery Science Theater 3000.
I've only seen the dubbed version so I'm relying on that alone to write my review.The Magic Voyage Of Sinbad (Sadko to the purists) is a mildly interesting relic of Soviet propaganda film-making, mixing Marxist philosophies with children's fairy stories.Sinbad returns home, having gave away a fortune, looking a bit like Lenin in a blonde wig and finding the merchants rich and fat while the rest of the city remains poor and hungry, deviating from the west in that usually the poor people in these types of movies are being subjected to harsh taxation by the state.Nowhere is it stated how these fat cat merchants got so rich selling to people with no money nor does it matter.
Man, Russian films just don't translate into English, do they?
This is another one of those cases, like Humanoid Woman, where translating a foreign film into American English robbed it of its punch and turned it into a turkey.
Called the Magic Voyage of Sinbad in English isn't as bad.It concerns an attempt of Sadko, aka Sinbad, to get the bird of happiness and bring it home to his city.
(Ptushko specialized in fantasy films that were grand spectacles that were, in their original forms, very much love letters to mother Russia.
Let me count the ways: a pigeon that can fly underwater, goldfish that turn into gold, a bird of happiness that puts people to sleep by sounding like Marlene Dietrich, and a voyage reminiscent of the great movie (sarcasm noted) Erik the Viking.
I am a fan of Sinbad films, but the ones I like are Ray Harryhausen made.
In fact I only learned afterward that it was originally a Russian film called 'Sadko' and had no connection to Sinbad.
The American distributors obviously tried to cash in on The Sinbad films.
This 'Sinbad' is a bearded, singing and harp playing guy who is totally disrespected by the rich merchants of his home village.
In India they learn about a magic bird that sings of happiness.
Sinbad decides to give up the search for this bird and return to his true love.
I saw this movie under the title THE MAGIC VOYAGE OF SINBAD but thankfully it was the Russian version of the story, complete with the original character name of Sadko and English subtitles.
This is a Soviet slice of fantasy about a roaming adventurer hero based on classic Russian folklore.
The film is quite episodic and involves Sadko getting involved in various heroic deeds, including some Robin Hood-style redistribution of wealth and alms to the poor and some more fantastic adventures later on.When watching Russian epics from the 1950s, the thing that you most notice about them is just how much they've dated over the years.
*Spoiler/plot- 1953, Magic Voyages of Sinbad, Sinbad returns home from an adventure, but finds things in his home town badly run and the peasants unhappy.
He tries several magic tricks working with Neptunes daughter to catch some magic gold fishes to buy off the rich merchants to build for Sinbad sailing ships to find the Magic Bird of Happiness.
*Emotion- A visually opulent Technicolor film of the Russian Soviet Communistic regime cinema with an operatic flavor and a lesson to viewers.
The dubbed American version is a total unintentional laugh riot.
When he discovers out that giving folks money and material goods doesn't do the trick, Sinbad decides to go on a perilous journey to find the fabled Blue Bird of Happiness.
Boy, does this radically doctored American version of a popular Russian fantasy film possess all the right wrong stuff to qualify as an amusingly inane yukfest: we've got stiff acting, cruddy dubbing, ripe narration, an agonizingly poky pace, a drawn-out and meandering narrative (it takes over thirty minutes for Sinbad to finally embark on his quest!), infrequent and ineptly staged action scenes, a few inspired goofy touches (you gotta love Sinbad's laughing horse and the creepy singing bird lady), laughably lousy (not so) special effects, and a groan-inducing cornball climactic message. |
tt0090264 | A View to a Kill | James Bond (Roger Moore) is sent to Siberia to locate the body of 003 and to recover a microchip. Upon doing so, he is ambushed by Soviet troops but flees in a submarine built to resemble an iceberg.After Bond returns to England a week later, Q (Desmond Llewelyn) has the microchip analysed and informs M (Robert Brown), Bond and the Minister of Defense that its design is an exact match of a microchip made by Zorin Industries. The retrieved microchip is also designed to withstand the damage caused to other chips by the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear explosion.Bond and his superiors visit the Ascot Racecourse to observe the company's founder and CEO, Max Zorin (Christopher Walken). While at the track, Zorin's horse Pegasus miraculously pulls ahead to win the race. Later, Pegasus throws a fit and it takes some effort to get him under control.Sir Godfrey Tibbett (Patrick Macnee), an MI6 agent who works as a horse trainer, believes Zorin's horse was given drugs, although when screened by officials prior to the race, it did not show any drugs in its bloodstream. Through Tibbett, Bond meets a French private detective named Achille Aubergine (Jean Rougerie) at the restaurant on the Eiffel Tower to discuss how the horse may have won. Aubergine informs Bond that Zorin is holding an annual horse sale later in the month. Moments later, Aubergine is assassinated by Zorin's mysterious bodyguard, May Day (Grace Jones). Bond chases her to an upper level of the tower but she parachutes off before he can catch her. Bond steals a Renault taxi and chases her through the city but is unable to apprehend her. A boat driven by Zorin later picks her up on the Seine.Bond and Tibbett travel to Chantilly, France where Bond poses as James St. John Smythe (pronounced "sin-jin-smythe"), a rich dilettante who recently inherited horses, with Tibbett posing as his valet. During a reception party, they meet Zorin's head of security, Scarpine (Patrick Bauchau), and an American named Stacey Sutton (Tanya Roberts). Bond thinks the woman "bares closer inspection," but Tibbett reminds him of their primary mission. Bond uses polarizing sunglasses provided by Q to discreetly survey Zorin's mansion, discovering Zorin's secret lab. Bond and Tibbett break into the lab and discover the secret: Zorin plants microchips in his horses, programmed to release a steroid when prompted by a hidden radio transmitter snuck into the tip of the jockey's whip. Bond eludes Scarpine and retreats to May Day's room. He asks May Day to join him in bed and she does so with Zorin's amused permission.Their intrusion is discovered and Zorin asks Bond to report to his study, where he'll aid St. John Smythe in selecting a stud horse for the stables he supposedly inherited. During their meeting, Zorin uses a database to find a match for pictures he takes of Bond; Zorin discovers Bond's real identity. He invites Bond to race with him steeplechase-style. In an effort to get rid of Bond, he provides Bond with an ill-tempered horse; when Bond overtakes Zorin, Zorin activates a device that causes the horse to go wild. Bond escapes the track and sees his limousine, boarding it. However, Tibbett has been killed by May Day, who is driving the car. She and Zorin attempt to drown Bond in a nearby pond but the plan fails. Later, General Gogol (Walter Gotell) from the Soviet Union visits Zorin's estate with several other KGB agents. Zorin, it is revealed, has been in the employ of the KGB and is admonished by Gogol for his public image and attention-garnering business ventures. Zorin replies by saying he no longer sees the need to continue doing business with the KGB. When Gogol's assistant chides Zorin for being a "physiological freak" Mayday grabs the man and throws him. Gogol gravelly warns Zorin "no one leaves the KGB," but grudgingly leaves when Zorin's men pull guns on him.Later, in an airship over San Francisco, Zorin unveils to a group of investors his new criminal scheme to destroy Silicon Valley in an operation he dubs "Main Strike", which if implemented will gain them a monopoly in the microchip market. For involvement in the plan, Zorin demands $100 million from each participant in addition to a contract promising half of their net income through marketing deals. One man refuses and is dropped out of the airship by May Day, landing in San Francisco Bay.Meeting in San Francisco with his CIA contact, Bond learns that Zorin is a psychopath, the product of Nazi medical experimentation during World War II by Zorin's mentor, Dr. Carl Mortner (Willoughby Gray), who is revealed to be a former Nazi doctor named Dr. Hans Glaub. Bond assumes the identity of a reporter for the London Financial Times to continue his investigation. Bond learns from a local crab fisherman that a prolific crab patch has vanished near one of Zorin's oil pumping stations. Bond also learns from the mayor that Zorin has been testing his oil lines for leaks with seawater, an explanation for the disappearing crab stock.007 spies on an oil rig owned by Zorin. He catches KGB agent Pola Ivanova trying to blow up the rig, while recording Zorin announcing his plans. Bond meets Stacey again, and he learns that her grandfather's oil company had been taken over by Zorin. The two team up to steal documents about his plan from the San Francisco City Hall. Zorin arrives, holding them hostage, and then forces a city official to call the police. He kills the official with Bond's Walther PPK pistol and sets the building on fire in order to frame Bond for the murder. Bond and Sutton escape from the fire but when the police try to arrest Bond, they escape in a fire engine. A chase ensues, during which multiple SFPD cruisers are wrecked. Bond and Sutton then manage to shake the police off completely when the police captain leading the chase orders a bridge operator to open the Third Street Drawbridge. Bond and Sutton's fire truck makes it across just as the bridge gates close to stop traffic and the bridge begins to rise. The police cars are unable to stop in time and pile up at the bottom of the bridge. The senior officer is berating his underlings when his own car is crushed by the bridge's counterweight.The next day, Bond and Sutton infiltrate Zorin's mine near Silicon Valley, discovering his plot to detonate explosives beneath the lakes along the Hayward Fault and the San Andreas Fault causing them to flood, submerging Silicon Valley. The resulting disaster will make Zorin the sole manufacturer of microchips in the world. A larger bomb is also on site in the mine to destroy a "geological lock" that is in place to prevent the two faults from moving at the same time. Once destroyed, it would supposedly cause a double earthquake. Zorin and Scarpine flood the mines, nearly killing Bond and May Day and murder all of the mine workers as they attempt to flee. Stacey manages to escape. Because she was betrayed, May Day helps Bond remove the larger bomb that would destroy the lock. They put the bomb on a handcar and push it out of the mine along a railroad line. May Day stays on the car to hold the faulty brake lever, sacrificing her own life as the bomb explodes outside, away from the lock.Sutton is quickly captured by a devastated Zorin, who is escaping via airship with Scarpine and Mortner. Bond grabs hold of the mooring rope and clings on as the airship ascends. Zorin tries to kill Bond by flying him into the Golden Gate Bridge, but Bond manages to moor the airship to the bridge framework, stopping it from moving. Stacey attacks Zorin and in the ensuing fracas, Mortner and Scarpine are temporarily knocked out. Stacey flees onto the bridge and joins with Bond, but Zorin comes after them with an axe and engages in a fierce battle with Bond. Bond gains the upper hand and sends Zorin plummeting off the bridge to his death. An enraged Mortner attempts to kill Bond with a bundle of dynamite, but Bond slashes the mooring rope, causing Mortner to drop the dynamite into the cabin. Seconds later, the dynamite explodes and destroys the airship, killing Mortner and Scarpine.In the aftermath, Bond is ironically awarded the Order of Lenin by General Gogol. Q, inside a special van in California, uses his fake-dog surveillance camera to locate 007. He safely finds him making love to Stacey in her shower. | violence, cult, murder, sadist | train | imdb | It is very underrated and I know that Roger Moore him self has stated that A View to a Kill is his at least favorite James Bond film because Christopher Walken was machine gunning everyone.
He did 100% off him and he is acting was decent it wasn't so much goofy or terrible in my opinion.A View to a Kill is the 14th entry in the official James Bond series and the final film to star Roger Moore in the role of Agent 007.
I will say I have simply enjoy this flick more then I did The Man With The Golden Gun, Octopussy, From Russia With Love, Skyfall, Spectre, Quantum of Solace, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day and of course the worst Bond ever On Her Majesty's Secret Service.The cast: Tanya Roberts as Stacey Sutton was in my opinion good Bond girl.
Along with some of the best music scoring of all the films in the series, including the fantastic Duran Duran song which epitomizes the 80's, the final showdown between Zorin and Bond on top of the golden gate bridge is breathtakingly exciting.
Personally, I don't even rate it as the poorest of Roger Moore's Bond outings, with Moonraker and The Man With the Golden Gun standing out in my memeory as less memorable escapades than this one.It's Moore's final appearance as 007, and he is trying to prevent a psychotic business magnate, Max Zorin (Walken) from destroying Silicon Valley and cornering the world electronic market all for himself.
With A View To a Kill, the cutain falls on one of the greatest era's in action/adventure movies, as we, EON and the rest of the world bid a fond farewell to Roger Moore's James Bond.
This trend is continued to the full with A View To A Kill, and in his goodbye performance Roger Moore manages to remarkably combine all the best elements of his previous Bond movies, and comes up with a perfect way to leave behind Bond and Her Majestys Secret Service.Cubby Broccoli could hardly have awarded Roger a better acolade in wich to leave the series, than to give him the opportunity to act alongside one of America's all time best character/villain actors : Christopher Walken.
Not perfect, mind you, as Timothy Dalton's 'The Living Daylights' would be better, this one is still is a good Bond film that probably did represent the 80's more so than did any other Bond film from its opening featuring a Duran Duran song and lots of neon to the inclusion of Grace Jones as villainous sidekick Mayday.The story has Bond recovering a microchip from a Russian facility that mirrors one at a plant run by Max Zorin.
Christopher Walken with a machine gun, Duran Duran while they were still popular, James Bond while he was still Roger Moore, steroid-enhanced horses, evil Grace Jones, a zeppelin: it's really tough to find something in this movie that's not cool.
James Bond-Roger Moore- in his last appearance,the first was ¨Live and let Die¨ .This new mission takes him to the France and USA ,where he must fight the stylish villainous Max Zorin(Christopher Walken).
After an impressive adventure in the Arctic,extravagant OO7 is assigned by MI6: M(Bernard Lee),Minister of Defence(Geoffrey Keen),Q(Desmond LLewelyn) a dangerous mission concerning to microchips: It's a silicon integrate circuit essential to all modern computers,until recently ,all microchips were susceptible to damage from the intense magnetic pulse of a nuclear explosion.One burst in outer space over UK and everything with a microchip in it,from the modern toaster to sophisticated computers and the defence systems would be rendered absolutely useless.UK would be paralysed at the Russians mercy,that's why one of the private defence contractor,came up with this : a chip totally impervious to magnetic pulse damage.Placed on the micro-comparator and compared with the chip Bond recovered from the body of 003 in Siberia,bringing the two images together resulted are identical,six months ago a company was acquired by an Anglo-French combine,Zorin industries.Max Zorin is a perfect baddie,here is his biography(the film warns neither the name nor any other character is meant to portray a real company or actual person): Born in Dresden,fled from East Germany in the sixties,ex-KGB agent,nowadays is immensely rich,he actually is a product of a genetic Nazi experiment,French passport,he's a leading French industrialist,a staunch anti-communist with influential friends in the government,speak at least five-languages ,no accent ,now he deals the Bourse and the City,made his first fortune in oil and gas and second in electric and hi-tech.Zorin celebrates a reunion with magnates,he explain them ¨the project main strike¨aboard a private blimp,they pay 100 million dollars,except one,who will be rewarded with unfortunate finale.Another characters are : Stacey Sutton( a beauty Tanya Roberts),a geologist in charge supervision oil refineries,she discovers the Zorin plan: a bomb explosion and originate an earthquake destroying California's Silicon Valley.
The film contains action packed ,apocalyptic and overwhelming scenarios along with the typically glossy ingredients series but Roger Moore looks a little boring ,in fact is his Bond last film.Colorful,spectacular cinematography by Alan Hume and appropriate-as usual-musical score by John Barry.Main title song is catching and is performed by Duran Duran.The motion picture is professionally directed by John Glen..
For me the movie has all the essential bond elements a sexy bond girl, a great theme song, terrific bad guy (Christopher Walken) and Roger on top form.
It's strange, I didn't realize until now that I've seen all of Roger Moore's Bond movies.Anyway, I might lose all of my nonexistent credibility but A View to a Kill is my second favorite of the Bond series (The Spy Who Loved Me is first).
It's been said that A View to a Kill has a few similarities to Goldfinger but I didn't (and don't) really mind since I saw it first.Oh yeah, and Duran Duran's title song for AVtaK is my favorite of the series (GoldenEye and Live and Let Die would be a close second and third, respectively) and John Barry's score is also great..
So far the only film I haven't enjoyed in the series has been Roger Moore's Moonraker, just because of the over the top silliness and the obvious sell-out to appeal to moviegoers who had just seen Star Wars.Upon seeing 'A View to a Kill' I instantly was prepared for the worst, and let me tell you this certainly is a bad Bond film.
You'd think a super-strong female henchwoman would make for a memorable moment in the franchise, but this is so poorly handled that she winds up as one of the most forgettable characters in the series, as opposed to one of the best.Roger Moore, unfortunately, ends his career on Bond in perhaps his own worst performance, which is undeniably sad.
"A View to a Kill" marked Roger Moore's last film as 007 (a forced exercise to him, since he was hoping that "For Your Eyes Only" would be his final), not much of a great exit but still a fun thing to watch.
Fine, the oldest ones like "A View to a Kill" were ridiculously in its editing, you can clearly see the stunt double changing places with Moore or Connery, or whoever is playing Bond, and it's very funny and a little bit over-the-top but they were fun, amazing, pleasant to watch.
This is so much fun, highly entertaining, it's always a pleasure to see Moore as Bond (the funniest and in a good way!) and there's the best theme song ever in a Bond movie, Duran Duran's title song (the video clip is even better, with the band members at the Eiffel tower, mixing scenes with 007 chasing the mysterious killer).You can't miss this!
Despite the lousy treatment that this movie has received on this site, I think that this is easily one of the best of the Roger Moore 007 films and ranks among my all-time favorite Bond films.
The Best 007 soundtrack of them all!Roger Moore get his hats off to me as being the great James Bond next to Connery.Christopher Walken is totally suave and cool as the blonde villain with that snickering sneer and relaxed motive of taking over the world in high style.
It has one of the better looking Bond girls in the series, memorable villains (Zorin and Mayday), great action sequences (The opening ski chase scene, the fight on the Eiphal Tower, the fire engine chase, and the dual on the Golden gate Bridge), great plot (Zoring trying to destroy Silicon Valley so he can take over the microchip market) and a great original song.
Roger Moore still puts out a good performance as Bond, but I feel this time around that Christopher Walken was even better as the villain.
Anyone who likes this film has no idea about what is necessary to make a decent film, let alone a good Bond.Nothing to recommend it except an o.k.(not great) Duran Duran theme song which sounds much better later in the film arranged by John Barry for a (dreadful) love scene.I don't blame the actors - their task was impossible.I DO blame the scriptwriter and the director.
Zorin also has something far more sinister planned in San Francisco.Like "Octopussy", "A View to a Kill" is a highly underrated Bond movie.
The movie also has a great theme song by Duran Duran and John Barry's best score since "On Her Majesty's Secret Service".Moore definitely is showing his age here and it was obviously time for him to quit.
Just watching him laugh while he shoots people with a machine gun shows how crazy he is."A View to a Kill" is not amongst the best Bond films made, but it's definitely above average and a fun movie to watch.
It stars Roger Moore, Tanya Roberts, Christopher Walken, Patrick Macnee, Grace Jones and David Yip. Music is scored by John Barry and cinematography by Alan Hume.Bond 14 and 007 is assigned to investigate millionaire industrialist and race horse owner Max Zorin, who MI6 suspect is selling critical microchip information to the Soviets.It was touch and go if Roger Moore would carry out his intention to quit the franchise, as it happened he slotted into the tux for one last time.
Basically the plot is about a psychotic billionaire named Max Zorin who wants to destroy Silicon Valley in California so his corporation gains a monopoly in the computer and IT industry.However, while a decent film to round off Moore's 12 years as Bond and vastly better than Connery's sign off with the ghastly Diamonds Are Forever, what really stands out for me is Grace Jones as Mayday.
The settings are great, the action is awesome, the theme song (despite the horrible pre-movie credits) is one of the best, Christopher Walken plays one of the greatest villains ever, and Roger Moore is just fine.
Roger Moore Last bond and one of the great baddie's in my view Max Zorin And Christopher Lee are my two favourite's Christopher of cause in The Man With The Golden Gun. The film does not portray so many stunts maybe due to sir Roger age.
A View To A Kill was to be Roger Moore's last James Bond movie and not his best either, but very enjoyable though.Highlights of this movie include the sequence in Paris with Bond using a Renault 11 taxi which breaks into several bits and is still driving after this!.
Also, the quarry sequence at the end and the final scene aboard the airship above the Golden Gate Bridge.Joining Roger Morre in the cast are Christopher Walken who plays a great part as baddie Max Zorin who likes killing people, Patrick Macnee (The Avengers) and David Yip. The girls are played by Tanya Roberts, Grace Jones and Fiona Fullerton.
Stacey Sutton is an out of the norm Bond girl, she's far more of a damsel-in-distress, and while this is exactly what most people dislike about her, I think it's an interesting change of pace, though I'm glad they didn't overuse the damsel-in-distress character throughout the series, as it definitely would've gotten tiring.The always-entertaining Christopher Walken is of course great as villain Max Zorin (he would again play a villain named Max in Batman Returns), and there's a lot of good action throughout.
Gotell always provides a note of levity in the Bond films, but never more so when he tells Robert Brown as M as to why he's happy that Walken gets foiled in his plot which we all know James Bond will do in the end.So as Roger Moore rode off in his Astin-Martin car into the sunset we can thank 007 and the rest of the gang at British Intelligence that San Jose, California is not now an underwater city.
A View To A Kill was Roger Moore's last time as the suave secret agent 007 James Bond before being replaced by Timothy Doltan in the James Bond film The Living Daylights released in 1987.
A View to a Kill is a great James Bond film, Christopher Walken did a great job as the Bond Villain, Grace Jones did a great job as May Day, Roger Moore still does a great job as James Bond.
James Bond is sent to investigate Max Zorin, a leading businessman in the microchip market, who unknowingly to him not only has a shady past with the KGB and the Nazis but also intends to destroy the Silicon Valley.The last of Roger Moore's 007 films, and frankly his worst.
It tries to be slightly 'gritty' yet keeps the silliness of an action-fantasy (for example, the car chase); this ends up only making it lose the flash and style that makes 007's films so fun to watch.Roger Moore looks far too old, and his Bond feels tired; not only are his stunts even less believable to the point of ridiculousness, but he lacks the wit and charm he was known for.
The opening ski scene, the later dirigible confront, and above all one of the best Bond villains in the form of Christopher Walken's Max Zorin (even in his better outings Moore would be hard-pressed to match him).
Roger Moore's much-maligned final outing as Bond is often cited by fans as the worst in the franchise, yet I've always had a soft spot for it and consider it one of the best despite its flaws.It's not a perfect film, but it has a great deal more going for it than many give it credit for.
A View to a Kill is a good Bond film that suffers from one thing, Moore was to old to be playing James Bond by 1985, because Bond has to look like he can handle himself in a fight and perform all manner of stunts plus look like a woman as young as Tanya Roberts would be attracted to him, Moore couldn't pull off either of those things.
There are hardly any similarities and this film is simply no match for the 1964-classic.The best thing about "A view to a kill" is Christopher Walken's fantastic performance as the villain Max Zorin.
.........as far as I,m concerned; 'A View To A Kill' is the second best Roger Moore 007 adventure and one of the best of the series.What more could you want in a Bond Movie - Christopher Walken; Grace Jones; Tanya Roberts; great locations; superb action set pieces and stunts.
Possibly the most underrated Bond film ever, and it comes right at the lowest point in the franchise.Christopher Walken, Grace Jones, Dolph Lundgren, Tawnya Roberts...almost enough to make you forget about Roger Moore!
Max Zorin is one of my favorite Bond villains, Christopher Walken is a great actor, and I think its nice that he contributed to this film series.
Being almost of bus pass age, however, Roger's stamina wasn't quite what it used to be, and there are a fair few lifeless moments where the film threatens to stall while he seemingly catches his breath.Fortunately, Moore makes sure he is well rested for the film's most elaborate set pieces—an exciting scene in a fiery lift shaft, a chase involving a San Francisco fire truck, and the excellent finale, a real showstopper that sees Bond battle with Grace Jones in a flooded mine, go up against Christopher Walken atop the Golden Gate Bridge, and take a shower with Tanya Roberts—and it is these moments that make this a more respectable way for Moore to end his stint as 007.6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb..
I can sum up what I disliked about this film in a few statements:Roger Moore was far too old to be convincing in the role of 007; Grace Jones (who I actually like) was very stiff in this role; Tanya Roberts' incessant screeching gave me a splitting headache; and the combination of the poor writing for Christopher Walken's character (Max Zorin) combined with the unnecessary platinum blond hair made him laughable in his role ...
One of the weakest of the Bond films, A VIEW TO A KILL still has some good things going for it.Though Roger Moore is clearly long in the tooth for the role of James Bond, he actually looked younger and "perkier" than he did in his previous Bond outing OCTOPUSSY.
Roger Moore, Moneypenny, M, and Q are all pensionable here, and the screenplay has little to do with the short-story From A View To A Kill (besides its French location) but I still think this is an improvement over the previous Bond film, with a more serious tone to some scenes, better action and a sexier leading lady (even though her character in annoying) Sequences at the stables are good, and seem like they are loosely based on a similar section of the book Diamonds Are Forever, but don't really go anywhere.
I think it is one of the most "fun" movies of the seriesOver all.Also it is one of the very best Roger Moore performances during .his long run as James Bond.
I've seen this movie multiple times and it's still a great Bond movie that features a good plot and one of my favorite villains, Max Zorin that is played by the fantastic actor Christopher Walken.
During the filming of A view to a Kill, Roger Moore had turned 57 years old. |
tt0083254 | Under the Rainbow | It is 1938, and the USA is still gripped by the great economic depression. A corrugated iron barn surrounded by mud and puddles, in the middle of a fallow field somewhere in Kansas, is serving as a refuge and hostel for a community of the destitute, homeless and unemployed, as well as a post office and bus station.Diminutive Rollo Sweet (Cork Hubbert) enters the barn, goes to the post office grille and asks the Mail Clerk (Bill Lytle) whether anything came for him. Nothing. The man pours cold water on his hopes and dreams of an offer of a job from the Hollywood movie studios. He says if he doesn't get an offer with bus fare to California, he'll mail himself there if he has to. A crowd of other residents crowds around a skeletal wireless receiver, which has its metal chassis with the glowing vacuum tubes naked on the shelf where it sits. It needs a long wire strung all the way up onto the barn roof as an antenna if it is to receive the broadcast from the radio station. Just then, the announcer introduces a broadcast by the President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but suddenly the sound degrades into noise, and Rollo volunteers to go outside and fix the aerial which he says will have been knocked by the sign falling in the wind. Outside, the little man clambers up on a pile of rubbish to the porch and is stretching up to lash the aerial wire back onto the edge of the corrugated iron roof when the bus arrives and in his excitement he looks round, loses his footing, and tumbles down off the roof landing on the teetering pile of old furniture, motor tyres, and dusty junk.The voice on the radio, however, has been restored. It speaks of Hitler's invasion of Germany's neighbours and just then we are shown the Führer (Theodore Lehmann) who is instructing his diminutive but aggressive secret agent Otto Kriegling (Billy Barty, doing a theatrically strong German accent) on his latest mission. Otto is to go to California, to a certain hotel, to meet up with an agent of the Emperor from Tokyo, whom he will recognize because he will be Japanese and wearing a white suit. The latter will recognize Otto because of his height --- he is 3 feet 9 inches tall (1.14 metres). In addition, the Japanese agent will utter to Otto as a secret password the unusual statement "The pearl is in the river", which will prove he is the man to whom Otto must hand over a secret map of America's military defense system. Otto departs, confident that nothing can go wrong with these arrangements.The scene switches to the movie studios right across the street from that very hotel, where Annie Clark (Carrie Fisher) is being shown a matt painting of a huge mansion, a money saving photographic effect supposedly being used in Gone With The Wind which is close to completion, by her boss Louie (Jack Kruschen). Louie then tells her she has to look after 150 diminutive actors and extras who are about to arrive in town on Sunday from all over the world, to play the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz, of which scenes involving them are about to start shooting the following day (the Monday). She is also instructed to make use of the services as her assistant of the boss's very tall nephew Homer (Peter Isacksen), an evidently slightly slow-witted young man who thereafter follows her about for a while. She must also find "a funny dog" (to play Dorothy's dog Toto) ...The scene changes again to the New York city quayside, where a passenger liner from Europe has just docked. Bruce Thorpe (Chevy Chase) is there to meet an Austrian royal duke (Joseph Maher) who has, since the ship sailed from England, enjoyed the protection of Inspector Collins (Anthony Gordon) of Scotland Yard. Thorpe is with the US government Secret Service and is to continue personal protection for the Duke and Duchess (Eve Arden). He shows his badge to the ship's officer on the gangplank and gets aboard to meet his charges. A sinister looking man following him is turned back. A considerable number of very small people are going ashore from the liner and heading for the same transcontinental railway station.Typical for an American, Thorpe has no idea of the correct form of address for European aristocracy, and ranges through a variety of forms without ever lighting upon "Your Grace", the correct way to address a Duke. He quickly discovers that the Duke lives in permanent dread of assassination, although Thorpe tries to assure him that the likelihood of this being attempted in America is slight. To forestall this, the Duke continually dons a series of childish disguises such as spectacles attached to a false nose and moustache. His other preoccupation in life is preserving his wife's companion, a dog which she calls Strudl. But Strudl is forever coming to grief in one way or another. Fortunately the Duchess has extremely poor eyesight, but refuses to wear her spectacles, so that she believes that almost any dog of roughly the right size and colouring is her beloved pet. The Duke tells Thorpe that a dozen of these animals have already died in one way or another without her noticing, the first by assassination: the Duke's father fell on the dog and killed it when he was assassinated.On the train across America, we catch sight of the sinister man, the Assassin (Robert Donner), but he never gets a shot at the Duke. However the dog Strudl is accidentally shot by the Duke when he shows Thorpe his own pistol, and Thorpe has to help the Duke find a replacement. They achieve this by bribing the conductor to leave them alone in the baggage car, where they find an unattended item of live canine cargo and rush back to the Duchess with the poor pooch, to assure her that her pet is still alive and well. As they leave the baggage car, Rollo cuts his way out of a mail bag with a pocket knife ready to escape from the train at its destination. All make it across the continent and duly alight in Los Angeles.Annie Clark is at the station to meet some of her diminutive charges as they get off the train. She bumps into Bruce Thorpe in the huge shady station building and her good looks get his attention --- for a moment.Rollo runs from the Los Angeles railway terminus with a ticket collector in pursuit, but hides himself among other small people, and gladly joins them when invited to get his first job in movies playing a Munchkin with them.Thorpe has booked the entire top floor of the Culver Hotel, which he thinks will be quiet and thus a safe retreat for his aristocratic charges. We are now taken inside the foyer of the Hotel, where the Telephone Operator Miss Enwright (Louisa Moritz) is taking a call from Homer across the street at the movie studios. Homer wants to book accommodation for 150 small people at the hotel. The girl writes this down, but then has her head turned by her boss, Lester Hudson (Richard Stahl), who invites her away for a trip with him to a hotel managers' convention (a likely story). This trip has the double effect first, of turning her head so much that she completely forgets to book the 150 small guests, and second, of leaving the hotel in the hands of the boss's nephew Henry Hudson (Adam Arkin) to whom he makes cleared he will be not only fired but disinherited if he screws up the job of minding the hotel while he is away. Henry, thinking he has an almost empty hotel to manage and that he must impress his uncle by filling it with guests, now has a banner strung across the front of the building renaming it The Hotel Rainbow. He has a very limited staff at his disposal: a very elderly man dressed as a bell boy, a lift operator called Otis (Freeman King), and a very tall house detective called Tiny (the 6ft 7in Pat McCormick) who has a brown bowler hat and a drink problem.Agent Bruce Thorpe arrives with the Duke and Duchess, and the dog, and they move into the top floor. Meanwhile an entire busload of Japanese gentlemen tourists arrive, all wearing white suits, and temporary manager Henry Hudson welcomes them to the hotel, still unaware of the imminent Munchkin contingent. (The bus has on its side the legend "JAPS -- the Japanese Amateur Photography Society".)Agent Otto Kriegling now arrives and strides into the hotel. He immediately realizes he has a problem: he is apalled to see twenty Japanese men in white suits, has no idea which of them is his oriental contact, and says at once, very loudly, "The pearl is in the river". However, after glancing round at him the tourists ignore this and return to taking photos of everything in sight in the hotel foyer, including the mail box and the postcards in the rack at the desk.At this moment the Munchkin contingent arrives outside, heads in through the doors, along with Annie Clark and Homer, so that it dawns on Henry that he doesn't have enough room for all these small people as well as for the two dozen Japanese men in white suits so long as the top floor is taken by just three people. Now Annie begs Bruce to let some of her little people use top floor rooms; but he declines, trying to be both suave and authoritative, chivalrous but firm, believing that the Duke's safety depends on isolation.Otto is quickly caught up among the little people in the hotel foyer. The real Japanese secret agent Nakomuri (Mako) now arrives and immediately realizes that he has a problem: he has no idea which of the many dozen little people in and around the hotel is his Nazi contact.Day moves to night, and the hotel restaurant is full of oriental men in white suits, and little people, all having dinner. One tourist who speaks English has made friends with Annie and borrowed a Wizard of Oz script, which is on his table in front of him to read while he has his dinner. At the next table sit the Duke and Duchess, and the dog Strudl, which is enjoying a plate of paté de foie gras -- in plain American, goose liver. The assassin lurks in a corner. Otto scans the room for a clue as to which Japanese is his contact. Something startles the Duchess and a large pearl comes loose from her antique necklace and, thrown through the air, lands in the dog's food. The helpful tourist looks up from Annie's script, notices the Duchess in distress at losing her pearl, and says loudly "The pearl is in the liver" ... except that, with the stereotypical Japanese phonetic error, he says not "Liver" but "River" and this is clearly heard not only by the Duchess (who retrieves her pearl) but by Otto who assumes he has found his contact and, going over to the tourist's table, slips the military map between the pages of the Wizard of Oz script, which is then given back to Annie. Upon this error hinges the rest of the plot!After dinner, all hell breaks loose for most of the rest of the picture.Still in the dining room, the assassin attempts to shoot the Duke but instead kills the tourist who read Annie's script. During the evening, a couple more of the Duchess's dogs are killed by one means or another and the Duke and Bruce Thorpe replace them at the local pet store. Bruce comments that the latest one had better not be killed because the store only has sheep left --- the Duchess's eyesight is evidently not quite that bad.The little people go off across the road to get Munchkin costumes and makeup done overnight, ready for an early start shooting Wizard of Oz scenes, but when they return all ready, of course they cannot go to bed in costume and makeup, so they stay up, get drunk, and then run riot in the hotel. There are many sight gags of what the little people are getting up to in the kitchens, in the hotel foyer, around its staircase, balcony, chandelier, and tormenting the already distraught Henry Hudson.Otto and Nakomuri meet, and realize the map is in unaware Annie's possession so they go after her. Then Homer sees Otto and carries him bodily off to the studio costume & makeup shop from where he returns dressed and bewigged like the other small people. He takes up his pursuit of Annie, searches her room without finding the map, then corners her in the hotel kitchens but is taken on by Rollo, all in his own Munchkin costume which just happens to be identical to Otto's.Annie gets shut in the walk-in freezer room. Bruce comes to rescue her but lets the door shut so they are both trapped, and they cuddle up to keep warm -- the beginning of romance. Bruce sees two dead Japanese in white suits hanging with the meat. Rollo lets Bruce and Annie out, and the fight goes on as Rollo rouses all the Minchkins to help pursue Otto.Finally Otto and Nakomuri corner Annie, Bruce, the Duke and the Duchess in a hotel room, but then the Assassin has also caught up with the Duke at last. He explains that his father tried to assassinate the Duke's father at the outbreak of the First World War, but that he missed the bus, so it has been his own life's destiny to avenge his father's failure and assassinate the present Duke instead. However, as he produces his gun, Nakomuri points his own special lethal camera at the Assassin and the two shoot each other dead.Otto is now alone. He throws the dog out as a distraction, and points his sword at Annie's throat demanding to have the map, whereupon Bruce tells Otto that the map is hidden in a locket on the Duchess's dog's collar. As day breaks, Otto runs out of the hotel front door after the dog, which runs across the sunny street onto the movie studio lot where it, Otto, and the pursuing crowd of Munchkin actors disrupt sound stages shooting scenes for a western, Gone With The Wind (Otto joins the dog under Scarlett's crinoline and an off-camera Clark Gable tells the director he should keep it in the picture), then Otto gets the locket and tries to get away in a vintage bus, and Rollo chases him with a horse-drawn carriage.It looks as though all will be well. Then Rollo wakes up. We get a proper look at the other people in the corrugated iron barn hostel in Kansas, and notice that among them are the faces of Bruce and Annie (who are engaged to be married), the Duke and Duchess, and the Assassin. We are led to realize that the whole story has been Rollo's dream, rather as the adventure of the Yellow Brick Road and Oz was Dorothy's dream, with its characters wearing the faces of people she knew. And it seems an offer of work in movies has finally arrived for Rollo, and all his friends at the hostel wish him well, as they put him on yet another bus that pulls up then and is headed west for Hollywood. It is full of little people and, when the door opens, a bald little man welcomes Rollo aboard and introduces himself as an actors' agent for little people who will look after him. Rollo recognizes his face; it's that of Otto Kriegling... but the voice is All American, not German. | dark | train | imdb | Chevy Chase, Carrie Fisher, Pat McCormack, Billy Barty, Eve Arden, Joseph Maher, Adam Arkin, Cork Hubbard, Robert Donner how could it not be good.
The temporary manager (Arkin) of the Culver Hotel, across from MGM in 1939, changes its name to Hotel Rainbow to take advantage of the publicity surrounding the soon-to-be shot Wizard of Oz. It works as the studio's talent agent (Fisher) books rooms for all of their wouldbe munchkins.
So, we start with hundreds of partying little people who make a Shriners convention look like a religious retreat.
Throw in an FBI agent (Chase) protecting a traveling Duke (Maher) and Duchess (Arden) from a crazed assassin (Donner), and then a couple of dozen photo- snapping Japanese tourists whose bus breaks down in front of the hotel.
Finally, sift in a Japanese agent (Mako) and a dwarf Nazi spy (Barty) who are looking for each other in a hotel full of Japanese and dwarfs.
The plot is decent without getting in the way of the comedy, the acting is great, and the dialogue is often superb (What floor do you want?
This is one film that truly has it all...drunken midgets, nazi spies, princess leia, and a host of off-colour jokes sure to offend ALL.
Seriously, if your a member of the PC thought police this film will give you reason to write your congressman (or is it congressperson?) but if you are intelligent enough to realize that when everyone is being poked fun at no one is stigmatized then you might just enjoy this comedic spoof which is as frantic and disjointed as the plot.One last point regarding the "munchkins": although it might be easy to see this film as taking liberty with the rumors (and some were true) that the midgets who acted in the Wizard of Oz were wild drinking partiers, it should be noted that this notion goes just as far to show how normal this population is; just as interested in getting drunk, laid, and having a good time as the rest of society.
Everywhere I look it gets awful reviews, but they don't seem to take into account the campiness of the movie.
Wholesome fun for anyone who enjoys spoofs of spy movies or comedies in general.Chevy Chase is at his prime and best in this movie, sure the script isn't great, but what movie in this genre is?
I have several friends that happen to be little people, and they all enjoyed the movie, and didn't find it offensive in the least.
A Japanese friend of mine, personally not known for his tremendous sense of humor, thought the film was hilarious, and has watched it several times, laughing hardest at the Japanese caricatures.I highly recommend this overlooked gem.
That's right...this movie is as campy and goofy as you can get and one almost wonders why the stars that were in it (at the time) decided that THIS was a film that they wanted to be in...but...to watch it again...it's almost like a precursor to a Seinfeld episode whereas the many plots all come together at the end to make a very funny and often overlooked film...come on...if Rocky Horror is regarded as a classic, why can't this film?...it has a plethora of midgets, Japanese tourists and spies...Chevy Chase in his prime...and is a takeoff of the Wizard of Oz?...how much more odd can you get...a definite rental that grows on you!.
While no jewel of the cinema, it will always hold a spot in my psychological toy chest, with Fletch, Foul Play, Time Bandits, and other movies too busy entertaining than to think about oversensativities..
This is a great movie that satirizes Hollywood stereotypes in a fun filled slapstick romp.
They will not enjoy the movie, but then why do people with no sense of humor even pick up a comedy??The main character is led through an unbelievable sequence of events while staying at a hotel awaiting a tryout for "The Wizard of Oz".
The hotel is filled with hopefuls for the Munchkin parts, and has been chosen as a supposedly quiet meeting place for a Japanese and German spy to exchange info.The German is a midget, and the addition of a Japanese tour bus stopping at the hotel makes the meeting of these two spies quite a mess.toss in lots of slapstick, satire, and chase fun, and you have a comedy romp that the whole family can belly laugh to..
or little broad humor, to be accurate because most of the actors are little people.The Culver Hotel played host to all of the actors who played munchkins during the filming of The Wizard of Oz. Apparently, it was a debacle.
The actors partied, drank, and wreaked havoc on the hotel during a stay that has become legendary in Los Angeles.While the specific events of this film are fictional, most of the movie is indeed based on a true event.
Now, of course a great story doesn't always make for a good movie.
Chevy Chase is at his best,Carrie Fisher is amusing, gutsy and quite fetching.
Joseph Maher and eve Arden almost steal the film as the Duke and Dutchess and A pre-Chicago Hope Adam ARKIN shines as the hotel manager.
(OH, and did I mention that this film gave the great Billy Barty his best role in years?
I would not recommend it for theater view but if you have never seen the movie I would say its worth watching as a rental as the cost of it is so little now.
I recently left a message for MGM, regarding a release of "Under The Rainbow" on DVD, & sent them a link to the IMDb comments about this movie.If you would like your comments heard, please visit the following MGM web page, http://www.mgm.com/help.do, and instantly let your request be known.With any luck, our comments will be forwarded to the appropriate department, & they will finally get the ball rolling on a DVD release of this cult classic.Thanks!
This film is based on the myth that the "Little People" who were in "The Wizard of Oz" became party animals when they were all staying at the same hotel when the film was in production.
Chevy Chase and Carrie Fisher star.
Funny movie about little people.
I really enjoyed the funny movie.
It is about these people who are staying in the same hotel as the midgets are from the wizard of oz.
As for a Chevy Chase vehicle (and I remember this being my first encounter of his work in films and still a favourite), it's not much of one, but I still don't get the negativity towards this extravagantly wacky period comedy enterprise.
I love Chevy Chase (and most of his films), but here he goes about things in kind of a laid back manner with everything else soon rising head over heels with its madcap humor and zany visuals.
It looks cheap (but from my understanding it wasn't), but has a grand feel to it.The story sets up the events of 1938, when a major studio with plans to make a fantasy film called 'Wizard Of Oz', assembles 150 midgets to play munchkins and book them into the Culver Hotel
only to find that there reservations were lost and leaves their talent coordinator Annie Clark (a completely delightful Carrie Fisher) with a headache.
Also at the hotel is an American secret Agent Bruce Thorpe (smoothly played by Chase) looking after two international guests the Duke (a terrific Joseph Maher) and Duchess (a perfectly airy Eve Arden) with an assassin (A fidgety Robert Donner) close behind.
Chevy Chase and Carrie Fisher made for a likable pairing.
I am sorry that everyone did not see the humor in this movie like I did.
How can anybody not love a movie with all of those little people?!!!
They knew what kind of movie they were making at the time and, I think, hit the mark.
Chevy Chase plays a pre-Fletch CIA guy whose job is protect a dopey ambassador and his wife while being chased by Nazis in the same hotel where the Munchkin cast of "The Wizard of Oz" are staying.
I thought this movie was hilarious because I love corny stuff.
Only a spoof would include a Nazi plot, inept secret agents, a quirky romance, a dimwitted assassin, lots of little people and, of course, the making of a movie within the movie.
The big chase scene is too funny and the movie ends as it should.
Yes there are lots of things in this film that one can no longer do today, like say midget, and make jokes about Asians taking tons of pictures, but remember this was the 1980's, and the film takes place in the 1930's and plays on old stereotypes.
Chevy Chase is OK in this, but it is the "little people" that steal the show, and Pat McCormick.
Not even the real Wizard Of Oz movie had so many midgets and dwarfs in its cast as Under The Rainbow.
This nicely paced comedy starring Chevy Chase and Carrie Fisher has Chase as a secret service agent and Fisher as an agent and handler for the various little people hired to play the Munchkins in The Wizard Of Oz. They're staying at Adam Arkin's hotel or I should say Richard Stahl's hotel where Stahl has left Arkin in charge.Chase is staying at the hotel with Joseph Maher and Eve Arden a pair of displaced nobility from Europe who are in fear of an assassin who keeps trying for them, Chase is their security.
In the meantime a German and a Japanese agent are trying to connect with Mako and Billy Barty playing those roles respectively.
Hard especially for Mako to find Barty in that situation.While all the cloak and dagger intrigue is going on, the would be Munchkins have taken over the hotel and have turned it into party central.
I was just thinking about this movie the other day and started looking for it online.
A gloriously promising idea: 1930s movie-studio executives have a difficult time controlling all the "little people" they've hired to play Munchkins for the movie "The Wizard Of Oz".
Director Steve Rash opens the film with the right amount of edgy whimsy and queasy sentimentality, hinting this may have been a twisted, funny fracas with a little bit of heart amongst its grosser gags.
Unfortunately, the script seems half-completed, and stars Chevy Chase and Carrie Fisher (a likable screen-duo) are lost along the way.
I am surprised this film is rated so poorly, it is one of my top 10 movies.
A zany farce that takes place in a absolutely crazy party that I would so want to be at, with the glamor of the old Hollywood movies and a spy thriller thrown in.This film has been attacked for being discriminatory to Japanese and Dwarfs, I feel the film's Japanese character is shown to be sympathetic and and the dwarfs are shown to be doing fun athletic things, while the two stars of the film that happen to be dwarfs, needn't necessarily have been dwarfs to make the film work.If you don't take this film seriously, if you realize this is a wacky fun time, then you should love this film..
Meandering comedy that deals with the problems caused by the scores of midgets hired as Munchkins in the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie.
This was a movie which had potential to be at least as good as an Austin Powers film in subversive sex comments and spoofs of classic movies.
I thought they did away with movies like this."Under the Rainbow" purports to tell the story of how hundreds of midgets apply for parts as Munchkins in "The Wizard of Oz" being filmed in the 1930s, and then proceed to trash one unfortunate hotel during their stay.
It also horns in details such as how an assassination plot is foiled, a nefarious Nazi plot is thwarted as one certain midget (Hubbert) learns self-esteem.All this while the movie makes demeaning caricatures out of midgets, Japanese, women, blacks, Italians and if there's any race, creed or color that was left out, they must have been running out of film stock by that time.They even kill off a lot of dogs, all for the sake of laughs.
I've heard that Under the rainbow" is a cult movie for some people.
After all Chevy Chase plays here a private detective , Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia from "Star wars" trilogy) appears in underwear and there are midgets .
There is also some Nazi spy here and a bit of "Wizard of Oz" there.I don't think that this movie shows midgets in bad light.
After all , I doubt that any of those midgets that starred in this movie was ashamed .It's a rather forgettable comedy , or maybe it was too campy for my taste .
Not Chevy Chase's best film, but I enjoyed it..
Though this film has a rather low score here at the internet movie database, I thought this film was a funny light comedy.
Basically, a story of crime and intrigue and the little people who would go on to star in the famous movie "The Wizard of Oz".
I enjoyed Chevy Chase in this role as I usually do.
Carrie Fisher is also in this one, one of her few movies outside the "Star Wars" universe.
Billy Barty is in this one too and I usually enjoy seeing him in a movie too.
so i will continue to ramble on about nonsense until i have enough lines of text to be able to post this comment.As i said i would love this movie on DVD and like to know how i could get some type of petition going or who to contact as to get the ball rolling on a DVD release..
A lighthearted look at one of the best movies ever made.
During an interview she was asked what the midget actors were like to work with.
Her reply "They were drunks!" (she was joking, of course.)Take that rumor, ad a little espionage, Chevy Chase in his SNL days, Carrie Fisher in her Star Wars days, throw in the incomparable Billy Barty...And you'll have plenty of laughs.
The Singer Midgets return to Hollywood and face the many legends which have filled movie books for years.
Chevy Chase is a government agent guarding the Duke and Duchess and Carrie Fisher guarding the residents of Munchkinland and the winged monkeys.
This leads to chases all over the Rainbow Hotel and MGM studios, visiting the "Gone With the Wind" set, pretty remarkable considering it was filmed at Selznick.
The actual surviving "Wizard of Oz" munchkins appear as themselves, many ageless considering that Oz was made 40 years before.Sounds promising, yes?
Also, part of the fun is star-watching, it has a lot of our favorite character actors, including Billy Barty, Mako, Eve Arden!
I have to disagree with Carrie Fisher's description of this movie as the worst she ever made.
If you're a fan of the Wizard of Oz, you will never think about the munchkins the same way again.Trivia: Pat McCormack, a writer on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, appears as Tiny.
No, a big studio wouldn't be dumb enough to fund a spy comedy caper set against the backdrop of the filming of THE WIZARD OF OZ with 150 drunken midgets.
Unbeknownst to Barty, his rendezvous is a hotel (run by Adam Arkin) across the street from a movie lot where 150 Munchkin extras are staying.
Also at the hotel are a Duke and Dutchess (Joseph Maher and Eve Arden) who are being guarded by Secret Service man Bruce Thorpe (Chevy Chase) who also has his eye on OZ midget wrangler Annie Clark (Carrie Fisher).
To the film's credit, there is one funny gag involving Tony Cox, who has since gone on to become Hollywood's leading little funnyman.
The nephew changes the name to the Hotel Rainbow and overbooks with royalty, assassins, secret agents, Japanese tourists, and munchkins from the cast of 'Wizard of Oz'.
Secret Service agent Bruce Thorpe and casting director Annie Clark find romance amidst the intrigue and confusion........So,e films can be very hard to find because the makers of the film had a little disagreement with the studio, so it can be very hard to get a proper release, so it just pops up on TV every now and again (think Michael Mann's The Keep).Others just remain hidden because they are so bad, that everybody involved wants to forget that it ever existed.And this has to be the prime example of such a film.What Chase and Fisher are doing in this film is anyone's guess, maybe the studio had something on them, photographic evidence of some sort of major crime, because they do nothing, absolutely nothing, to add a little depth to the proceedings.But then they must have seen the dailies and realised that whatever they would try, would not add any coherence to the film.Because the film is just an exercise in the offensive, being abhorrent to almost every single character on screen.
Under the Rainbow was such an underwhelming mess for Chevy Chase, Carrie Fisher, and cast.
After a little more than thirty years, I once again watched Under the Rainbow, another of Chevy Chase's early starring features after leaving "Saturday Night Live".
This time he's a secret service agent guarding a duke and duchess on a trip to America during a pre-production of "The Wizard of Oz" of which Carrie Fisher is in charge of handling the little people cast who are also staying at the Hotel Rainbow.
The fact that, like the classic movie that starred Judy Garland, it all turned out to be a dream by one of those "Munchkins" doesn't excuse any of it.
Such familiar comic players like Eve Arden and Billy Barty are mostly wasted here though Barty made a pretty good villain here. |
tt0018455 | Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans | In the summertime, described as vacation time, a Woman from the city (Margaret Livingston) travels to the country to sight see.She lingers in one particular town for weeks. One day she dresses up, asking the wife of her landlord to shine her high heeled shoes, and wanders through town. She arrives at the house of a farmer, The Man (George O'Brien) and his Wife (Janet Gaynor). The Man is about to sit down to dinner with his wife and notices the woman waiting for him. He seems guilty and nervous but he waves the City Woman to an area beyond the house, changes his coat, and leaves his house. His wife comes out from the kitchen, carrying dinner, and sadly notices that her husband has left. Two townswomen discuss how the young married couple used to be as happy as children. A flashback shows a happy farmer, wife, and child. The two old townswomen discuss how things have changed since the city woman arrived. They discuss how money lenders are stripping the farm while the wife sits alone. Another flashback shows two men leading a cow away as the Man watches. The wife leaves the empty dinner table to cry on her childs pillow.
The farmer walks under the moon. He travels deeper into wooded brush, crossing fences and shadows, to meet the Woman from the City. She waits under the moon, fixing her makeup. They meet and kiss. The wife cries alone with her child as the Man embraces the Woman from the City. The Woman from the City says, "Tell me you are all mine." He nods assent. She says, "Sell your farm and come with me to the city." The Man asks, "And my wife?" The Woman from the City says, "Couldn't she get drowned?" The Man recoils at the thought, and nearly chokes the woman in anger. She kisses his anger away and he calms down. The Woman from the City insists that he come to the city. Images of the city, brass bands and skyscrapers, flash above them. The Woman from the City dances under the moonlight. She concocts a plan to kill the wife in a boat accident. She instructs the Man to use a bundle of reeds to save himself, and the Man slinks home. He slinks into his bedroom, lays on his bed and looks at his sleeping wife. He thinks of the dark water and falls asleep.
The Wife watches the Man as he sleeps. She covers him in a blanket and stares at him adoringly. He wakes, sees his bundle of weeds, and remembers his dark purpose. He sees his wife and feels deep remorse. A ghostly image of the Woman from the City caresses him, urging him to commit the murder. He goes to his wife and asks her to accompany him. She responds happily. She leaves her child with a friend, saying that she and her husband are going on a trip across the water. She says goodbye to the child and the family dog. They go to the boat and the farmer stows his bundle of reeds. The dog, tied up at the house, begins to bark wildly, and the Man is disturbed. The dog breaks free and follows them out into the water. It climbs aboard but the Man returns to the shore and takes it back to the house. They disembark again. The Man refuses to look his wife in the eye as he rows. The Wife becomes worried by the crazed look in her eye. The man stops rowing, he looks at his wife, he rises and shuffles ominously toward her. She cowers in fear and raises her hands prayerfully toward him. He loses his urge to kill, falls back to the oars, and rows furiously toward the shore. The boat lands and the Wife immediately runs away. The Man chases her, telling her not to be afraid. The Wife runs to a trolley car and climbs aboard. The man catches the car at the last moment. The car travels through the woods and goes into the city. When the car stops, the Wife bolts into traffic. The Man follows, saying again "Don't be afraid of me" The Man catches his wife and leads her into a restaurant. He gets her a plate of cakes and they sit in silence. Neither can look the other in the eye. She takes a cake and breaks down, weeping bitterly. She leaves the restaurant and the Man follows. He buys her flowers and holds her until her fear and sadness pass. They hear church bells and wander into a wedding ceremony. While watching the exchange of vows the Man breaks down. He cries in terrible shame and guilt, realizing how horrible a husband he has been. He cries in his wife's lap, she leads him away from the ceremony. He begs her for forgiveness. The bells sound and they kiss, their vows renewed. They leave the church and wander into the street oblivious to the busy traffic around them. The city scene around them dissolves into a wooded meadow. When the city returns they wake up in the middle of the street with the traffic stopped around them. They move to the sidewalk and embrace in wedded bliss. They look at wedding photos in a shop window. The Wife urges the Man to get a shave. They enter a barber shop. The Man sits for a shave while the Wife waits and watches. She is annoyed to see a manicurist showing her husband attention. The Man shoos her away. He is annoyed to see a waiting male customer showing her attention. After his shave the Man approaches the customer and frightens him with a pocket knife. The couple go to the photographers shop to have their picture taken. While they try to look austere they become humorous with love and teasing. They kiss deeply and the photographer takes the picture. As they wait for their photo they knock over a statue. When the photographer returns they pay for the picture and leave quickly. The Man replaces the statue head with a rubber duck ball, which amuses the photographer when he sees it.
Meanwhile, the Woman from the City plots selling the farm through a newspaper ad.
The couple go to a large pleasure fair/entertainment district. They play carnival games. At one game a baby pig escapes and everyone in the crowd tries to catch it. There are comic antics involved in catching the pig. The Man succeeds in catching the pig and the crowd cheers him. The crowd urges the couple to dance, and a band plays a country song. The man and Wife do a country dance and the crowd cheer. After the dance, the couple are ushered to a table and drink wine in celebration. They are in a bliss of love and wedded union, they visualize angels drifting above their heads. The waiter arrives to give them their bill. They each pay a part of the bill and leave the carnival as fireworks light up the sky. They board the trolley for home. Soon, they are sailing back to the farm under the moonlight. They drift peacefully. They pass a skiff filled with festive people. The Wife falls asleep. A storm begins to rise. The storm blows through the city and the pleasure district. The storm rocks the boat of the Man and Wife. The Man tries desperately to control the boat. Losing hope, the Man straps the reeds to his wife. They cling together as the boat capsizes.
The storm passes and the man awakes on the rocks. The Man climbs ashore and calls for his wife.
The Woman from the City wakes to the frantic mobilization of the townsfolk. She leaves to witness the search.
The Man is maddened in his search for his wife. Boats search the water, calling her name. The Man follows a trail of floating weeds till he is convinced she has drowned. The man goes home in desolated sadness. The Woman from the City goes to his house. She calls him out. He goes to her in a murderous rage for all he has lost. As he begins to choke her he hears the call that his wife has been found alive. He runs home and arrives as she wakes up. They embrace. A fisherman describes how he found her and the townsfolk share their happiness.
As the sun rises, the Woman from the City leaves on a cart.
As the sun rises, the Man sits by the bed where his wife smiles radiantly at him. They embrace.
They dissolve into the sunrise itself.FINIS | murder, atmospheric, sentimental | train | imdb | Margaret Livingston (who she?) is also quite realistic as a believably enticing city girl vamp (of modest means) who tries to lure the hero away from his deserving wife.The DVD has more extras than a Criterion issue, including a tentative reconstruction of Murnau's missing American masterpiece 'The Four Devils' (a circus love story) and the entire shooting scripts of both 'Sunrise' and 'The Four Devils'.'Sunrise' is presented with two soundtracks: the original (mono) Movietone (i.e. optical track) anonymous composite soundtrack cobbled together from several sources (think Wagner's Siegfried Idyll) and a newly written and recorded (stereo) score with all-original themes, that closely follows the original in spirit but not in melody.Both soundtracks try to add an intimate, poetic dimension to the film, which is subtitled 'A Song of Two Humans'.
The music is an integral part of the experience as the film is conceived as a tone poem and, as such (my theory) is a kind of transcription for the masses of Schoenberg's 1900 string ensemble tone poem 'Verklärte Nacht' (Transfigured Night), a late-Romantic/early expressionist attempt to describe musically the 'truly profound and authentic' relationship between a man and a woman who have problems (the music follows a poem of the era).Both soundtracks succeed admirably, my preference going to the new one, despite the original's polish, historical value and magnificent preservation.
And that would be because, although in the silent era there was no stigma attached to accompanying silent movies with a score made up of public domain and rather recognizable pieces, as long as they fit the mood, times have changed ('2001, A Space Odyssey' notwithstanding) and this practice is more distracting than anything for a contemporary, moderately educated spectator.Murnau had very highbrow ambitions but his film is totally clear and populist and made to reach the widest popular audience thanks to the incredible sums of money and artistry that Fox poured in the project.
While it does not have the social implications of his films such as "Nosferatu" or "Faust," the cinematography, acting, and Murnau's unabashed belief in the power of love helps this film to rise above the rest.The acting is sterling, with a 21-year-old Janet Gaynor looking incredibly similar to Drew Barrymore, and delivering a layered performance that reveals her character's strong but tenuous emotional state.
"Sunrise" is a nearly perfect movie that is impressive in every detail, and it is also a joy to watch, offering moments of suspense and tension and other moments of humor and humanity.The story provides a very thoughtful look at the importance and the fragile nature of human relationships.
Murnau's story (or filmed poem, according to the credits) is about a troubled farmer (George O'Brien) and his secret girlfriend (Margaret Livingston) plotting to murder his wife (Janet Gaynor, possibly the sweetest, most likable adult character in film history!) The storyline, the dark, moody photography, the creepy sets (especially that swamp!) makes you think this will be a thriller with an unhappy ending, much like AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY.
Sunrise is a groundbreaking film, some of the techniques used by Murnau to tell his story are amazing, especially for the time.
George O' Brien and Janet Gaynor do not speak,and however,we can hear them,with all our heart ,with all our soul.Their faces reflect what they endure,suffer and enjoy.Because this is not only a drama.Sometimes it turns to a true comedy.For me the scene in the church climaxes the work:the husband,desperate to a fault,and his wife ,who saw her sincere love atrociously betrayed ,"get marry" again and the priest's words will drive you to tears.Unlike "Nosferatu",which took place in dark places ,and before "tabu" which would be an hymn to the nature -in every sense of the word,and probably the key to WF Murnau's entire canon"-,"Sunrise" is a diurnal movie,beginning with a meeting with the husband and his mistress at the break of dawn,and ending in the deep of the night,but the very last picture brings back sunrise,which epitomizes a new beginning, a new christening,a redemption.And the man ,crying and begging for pardon,it might be Murnau who thought his homosexuality was a crime -Nosferatu might be a metaphor as well,as the hero who abducts a priestess he's in love with in "tabu" -A true auteur opens up in his movies,if we can read between the lines.Murnau was,along with Fritz Lang,one of the two most influential forces of the expressionism ..
In the famous wedding scene, O'Brien breaks down in tears in front of his wife when he remembers back to the vow he took with his wife.Sunrise is one of the last great silent films that is filled with so many wonderful moments which helped it win the first and only Academy Award for Best Silent Film..
The loving look on her face, slowly melting away as she began to sense something was very wrong during the scene in which her husband rows away from shore was a powerful one for me, and an example of the acting skill that won her the Best Actress Oscar.George O'Brian's performance was good as well, especially when he was overcome with guilt.
Sunrise is a perfect example of what silent movies did so often and talkies seem to have to work like crazy to squeeze out: The illusion that one is entering a wonderful dream world.
I had just finished watching a beautifully restored print of "White Mane", Lamorisse's masterpiece, and tuned in TCM's Silent Sunday feature, Murnau's "Sunrise".First, I must agree that his imagery is superb, a cinematic Atget.The downside was the plot.
This is the third F.W. Murnau film I've seen, and with Sunrise I'm absolutely convinced that he was one of the all-time masters of cinema, and deserves to be ranked among the greats.
Sound had nothing to do with film in general.As the viewer can see in this picture there aren't a lot of textual phrases between the silent clips - Murnau must have mostly relied on simple expressions and montage footage (as Sergei Eisenstein researched on a different continent at the same time).
Also the director uses effects with pictures on pictures, what would be called special effects at the time.For instance when George O Brien (playing the man) sits on the bed wondering about if he really should kill his wife and the other women suddenly appears as a ghost, holding him from behind.Also animated texture makes this one of the last and remembered moving picture from the silent era..
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is an incredibly close-to-life, touching, tender love story, where an attractive woman (Margaret Livingston) comes from the city and sets her eyes on a local farmer (George O'Brien), who, might I add, is married with a baby.
"Sunrise" is essential viewing for anyone who wants to understand how emotionally resonant silent cinema can be when directed by a master of the form.Adapted by Carl Mayer from a German short story, the story is really a fable revolving around three characters a farmer, his wife and a woman from the city.
Just twenty years old, Janet Gaynor uses her innocent manner and porcelain look to strong advantage as the wife, but it is the little-remembered George O'Brien who turns in the film's most powerful performance as the farmer, especially in his guilt-ridden plea for forgiveness outside the church where they witnessed a wedding.
Released in the same week as 'The Jazz Singer', F.W. Murnau's masterpiece 'Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans' represents the pinnacle of silent film art.
The contrast between tranquil country and maurauding city, darkness and light, sunrise and sunset - even sound and silence - are all explored with expert subtlety.It's a shame that Murnau is best known for `Nosferatu', a much lesser and rather derivative horror story, rather than this, the Citizen Kane of silent cinema.
His film is about the rebirth of a love and of a fresh start to an old life.Murnau does a masterful job, of course, in telling the story of the husband and wife rekindling their love after years of mental separation.
Murnau's direction orders an emotional chaos making the best use out of the rudiments of the craft, so a title card can be not only mere text but a dramatic element (the word `drowned' literally drowns), and the music score supply a voice for the characters (the desperate husband looking for her wife in the lake).
It's almost impossible to describe it without talking exclusively in superlatives – that's how sublime piece of filmmaking it is – but I try to stay in my pants through this rant, that is also a sincerest kind of a love song to a film that a man can absolutely adore.When I first saw this late in the night I was kinda tired and not so sober, but once the film started rolling I must have looked like Malcom McDowell in Clockwork Orange's famous scene with his eyes forced open to visual images.
There's much more to it than that, as told through the camera focusing on its visual darkness to simplistic visuals of another world, montage effects, inter-titles of spoken words that slowly slide downwards on the screen, and most important, its haunting musical score composed by Hugo Risenfeld setting the tone, mood and pattern to what's to be shown.The opening title reads as follows: "This is the story of the man and his wife, no place and every place; you might hear it anywhere at any time, for wherever the sun rises and sets in the city's turmoil or under the open sky on the farm, life is, much the same, sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet." In a setting that could be somewhere in Europe or the Florida everglades, the main focus is on a farmer (George O'Brien) with a trusting wife (Janet Gaynor) and a baby.
This could very much had been a long dream sequence, but in reality, a story set in two worlds apart.An Academy Award winner in the category of "artistic quality of production," SUNRISE remains an perfect example of silent film study.
Germany, at that time, was known for making the most important, serious films and so a German director was brought in and given a blank check to make a statement film (its final total expenses pained the studio).But the result is a powerful, timeless film on themes of betrayal, seduction, adultery, murder, and reconciliation.For today's taste, the actors somewhat overly-dramatize their actions (as typical in the silent era) BUT, just as most of us adapt quickly to reading subtitles in a foreign film, most of us also adapt to this convention to convey the message between those intermittent written screens that give dialog or explanations.My understanding is that the very first year the Academy Awards were introduced, THIS film -- made a couple years earlier -- was the VERY FIRST chosen to be honored as "Best Picture" (together with "Wings").
The film's subtitle, "A Song of Two Humans," is an apt description, as "Sunrise" feels more like a song or a poem -- where images and tone are more important than logic.The initial scenes of this film are reminiscent of Dreiser's "An American Tragedy" -- indeed, the style in which Murnau shoots these segments, using dissolve editing to superimpose one image over another to ghostly effect, made me wonder if George Stevens was perhaps influenced by this film when he made his own screen adaptation of Dreiser's novel, "A Place in the Sun." Poor farmer George O'Brien, bored with dowdy country wife Janet Gaynor, is lured into an ill-advised love affair with a siren from the big city.
At the last minute, he can't do it, and the film changes directions drastically, as O'Brien and Gaynor, who overcomes the newly founded terror of her own husband, spend a day in the city, falling in love all over again.On paper, and even thinking about it in retrospect, "Sunrise" doesn't make a lot of sense.
O'Brien becomes enamoured with Livingston, who persuades him that his wife should be got out of the way to ensure they can build a new life, without interruption, in the city.There are numerous examples of Murnau's artistic flair within this movie, whether it be shots with many different things going on within them, close-ups, overlaid shots, and many more.
This simple story of country fold who go off to the sinful city achieves greatness because of its amazing cinematography and sets, special effects, and smooth acting of Janet Gaynor, George O'Brien & Margaret Livingston.
It saw the premiere of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, the most expensive movie ever made at that point, Douglas Firbanks founding the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Abel Gance's Napoleon becoming the first film to experiment with widescreen processes, and FOX Films acquiring the first sound-on-film technology, which would lead to the release of The Jazz Singer; considered the first ever "talking picture".Out of FOX's deal and amongst this all also came F.W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) a fable-like story of The Man (George O'Brien) who intends to murder The Wife (Janet Gaynor) in order to follow The Woman from the City (Margaret Livingston) into the dazzling world of city life.
Many polls rank it as the greatest silent film ever made and many rank it very high on the all time list of great movies.The plot is melodramatic, the acting in places heavy handed, and the action seemingly non-existent, at least in the eyes of the "Terminator 3" generation,yet "Sunrise" is so captivating a film that it can be watched over and over again and deliver the same punch every time.
Many polls rank it as the greatest silent film ever made and many rank it very high on the all time list of great movies.The plot is melodramatic, the acting in places heavy handed, and the action seemingly non-existent, at least in the eyes of the "Terminator 3" generation,yet "Sunrise" is so captivating a film that it can be watched over and over again and deliver the same punch every time.
In fact, like the other greats,including "Citizen Kane," you can probably get something new out of "Sunrise" every time you watch it, no matter how many times you watch.Murnau takes barren sets and dark, hallow rooms and turns them into treasure troves of lighting and nuance.
In fact, like the other greats,including "Citizen Kane," you can probably get something new out of "Sunrise" every time you watch it, no matter how many times you watch.Murnau takes barren sets and dark, hallow rooms and turns them into treasure troves of lighting and nuance.
Her face expresses her inner emotions so perfectly that some of her scenes are achingly beautiful.And the film itself received an academy award for "Most unique and artistic production," an award never given out again, maybe because no picture could live up to the standard set by "Sunrise." The new DVD version being marketed on the quiet by Fox is marvelous, with a wonderfully restored print that seems just as bright today as it must have in late 1927 when the film was released.
Her face expresses her inner emotions so perfectly that some of her scenes are achingly beautiful.And the film itself received an academy award for "Most unique and artistic production," an award never given out again, maybe because no picture could live up to the standard set by "Sunrise." The new DVD version being marketed on the quiet by Fox is marvelous, with a wonderfully restored print that seems just as bright today as it must have in late 1927 when the film was released.
The DVD includes an interesting commentary option by cinematographer John Baily and no film is better suited for this, since it tells its story brilliantly with pictures alone, so the commentary option is not a distraction.One of the great tragedies of the cinema in my view is that few people alive today have seen "Sunrise." They have no idea what they are missing..
The DVD includes an interesting commentary option by cinematographer John Baily and no film is better suited for this, since it tells its story brilliantly with pictures alone, so the commentary option is not a distraction.One of the great tragedies of the cinema in my view is that few people alive today have seen "Sunrise." They have no idea what they are missing..
Excellently done and fine performances by George O' Brien and Janet Gaynor....I usually don't like the silents but I can watch this one over and over again...(and I have)....First rate film....
Sunrise: A song of Two Humans (1927) is the first film of F.W.Murnau shot in America.It tells a story where the husband Anses (George O'Brien) falls for the city girl (Margaret Livingston).She asks her to drown his wife Indre (Janet Gaynor).He almost does so before coming to his senses.The husband and his wife fall in love again and spend an unforgettable night in the city.This movie did very well at the first ever Academy Awards.It got Oscars for best picture, unique and artistic production, best cinematography and best actress in a leading role.Janet Gaynor certainly deserved her award.She fits perfectly for the role of the wife with those innocent eyes.George O'Brien is perfect as the man who starts out bad but turns good.Also Gibson Gowland of Greed is seen in the picture as Angry Driver.This movie is beautiful to say the least.The camera work is something unique and everything else works too.A lot of good came from the silent era..
The story of temptation is simple and stripped down to the point of not even having character names for the principals (The Man, The Wife, and The Woman From the City), but the theme is timeless, and Murnau wastes no time getting to the tension.
I really enjoyed watching this movie, I thought it was very beautifully and it was a great story and told very brilliantly with it being a silent a film.
Now after 87 years I feel like no film has touched me as deeply.Sunrise is builds around a simple love triangle: a woman from the city seduces a married farmer. |
tt1228987 | Let Me In | March 1983. Los Alamos, New Mexico. A group of police cars, with sirens wailing, escort an ambulance to Los Alamos Memorial Hospital. They are carrying an unidentified 50-year old man with acid burns to the face. He is placed on a respirator because the toxic fumes from the acid have seared his lungs and thus compromised his ability to breathe. A Detective (Elias Koteas) attempts to speak with him, asking him to identify himself and wondering whether he is a part of a Satanic cult. He gets no reply. A nurse calls him to the front desk to take a telephone call from the receptionist in the lobby who reports that the man's daughter is asking about him. Hearing a sudden change in the beeping of his respirator, the nurse returns to the man's room and screams. The man has jumped out of his tenth floor window to his death, leaving only a note that reads: "I'm sory [sic] Abby".Two weeks earlier. Twelve-year-old Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is sitting alone in the snow-covered courtyard of his apartment building, singing to himself, until his mother (Cara Buono) calls him for dinner. Owen's parents are in the process of a nasty divorce, and Owen is often left to eat alone and amuse himself by playing alone in his room. One evening, he notices a girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) about his age and her father (Richard Jenkins) moving into the apartment next door to his. Oddly, she is wearing no shoes.The next day at school, Owen is picked on as usual by three older boys -- Kenny (Dylan Minnette) and his friends Mark (Jimmy 'Jax' Pinchak) and Donald (Nicolai Dorian). Out of fear, wimpy Owen doesn't fight back, even though they give him a wedgie, causing him to urinate on himself. That evening, as he sits in the courtyard rehearsing knife attacks on his tormentors, he notices the new girl, Abby, watching him. She's not very friendly and tells him right off that they can't be friends. Not long afterwards, her father walks through the courtyard. It is revealed to the viewers, and what Owen doesn't know, is that he is not Abby's father...he is her 'renfield' and Abby is a vampire. It is his job to bring Abby fresh blood, which he gets by killing other humans. First he stalks them, then renders them unconscious, then he strings them up by the feet, slits their jugular veins, and catches the blood in a jug.Unfortunately, 'Father' is having problems securing blood for her. On his first kill after moving into the new apartment, he stalks a local all-night supermarket where he breaks into the car of a local woman. At a railroad crossing, he knocks her out, takes her to the woods, strings her up by her ankles, slices her throat wide open and drains her of her blood. But afterwards, he trips in the snow, spilling the blood on the ground. Consequently, Abby is beginning to get hungry and annoyed.The next evening, Abby and Owen run into each other again in the courtyard. Once again, he notices that Abby is not wearing shoes. What's more, her stomach is growling fiercely, and she smells bad. Still, Owen shares with her his Rubik's cube and shows her how to work it. After Owen has gone inside, Abby goes hunting. She waits in the shadows under a bridge. When a man walks by, she feigns falling and asks him to help her. The man picks her up, intending to carry her to her home. Suddenly Abby latches onto him and bites his neck. Father is livid when Abby tells him what she has done, but he dutifully cleans it up by dumping the victim's body into a small lake.The next morning as he leaves for school, Owen finds his Rubik's Cube in the courtyard, completely solved. That evening, Abby is waiting for him in the courtyard. This time, she is more friendly and takes the time to explain to Owen how she went about solving the puzzle. She also smells better, but it's odd that she cannot remember her birth date when Owen asks. Since Abby doesn't know her birth date, she doesn't celebrate her birthdays and gets no presents, so Owen offers her the Rubik's cube.The next day, while the class is supposed to be watching Romeo and Juliet, Owen is busy copying the symbols for Morse code. He is later confronted in the lavatory by Kenny, Mark, and Donald. Kenny asks what he was working on during class. When Owen refuses to show him, Kenny hits Owen with a metal antenna, raising a gash on his left cheek. Owen later tells his distant and non-attentive mother at dinner that he fell during recess.After dinner, Owen meets with Abby as usual in the apartment courtyard. When she sees the bandaid on Owen's cheek, he tells her the truth about what happened. She warns him that he must hit them back hard and then they'll stop. If they don't stop, Abby promises to help him. Owen shares with Abby the Morse code that he copied. That night, they practice tapping on the wall that separates their apartments. The next day at school, Owen signs up for the weight-lifting program. Later, he takes Abby to an arcade and to play Ms. Pacman. He offers her a Now & Later ("Have one now, save one for later") candy bar. At first, she refuses; then she tries one. When Owen finds her heaving on the sidewalk, he hugs her. Abby asks him whether or not he would still like her if she wasn't a girl. "I guess so," Owen replies, not quite understanding what Abby is asking.As the friendship between Owen and Abby deepens, Father starts feeling jealous. He tries again to obtain blood for Abby. This time he chooses to hide in the back seat of a student's car and attack him on the road. His plan is foiled, however, when Jett's friend Greg asks for a lift. When Jett stops for gas, Father attacks Greg and drives off. The struggling boy causes them to go over an embankment and turn upside down, pinning Father under the car and killing Greg. Knowing that he is trapped and about to be discovered by the police, Father pours acid on his face so that he can't be identified. When Abby learns that he has been taken to a hospital, she shows up at the reception desk asking for her father. The receptionist tells her that he is on the 10th floor, so she climbs/flies up the outside of the building until she gets to his window. Father lets her in and offers her his neck. After Abby drinks his blood, he jumps out of the window and falls to his death. At the nurse's station outside Father's room, the Detective taking a call from the receptionist in the lobby hears the nurse scream. By the time the detective gets to Father's room, he has jumped out of his tenth floor window to his death, leaving only a note that reads: "I'm sory Abby".Abby returns to the apartment building and taps on Owen's bedroom window, asking to be let in. Owen is almost asleep but he tells her to come in. Abby removes her bloody clothes and crawls into bed with him. Owen asks her whether she'd like to go steady with him, and Abby replies "I'm not a girl." That doesn't seem to bother Owen, so they decide to go steady. The next morning, Abby returns to her own apartment, but she leaves a note for Owen that reads, I must be gone and live or stay and die .One afternoon on a school outing to a local pond for some ice skating, Kenny, Mark, and Donald again confront Owen with a warning that they are going to push him into an ice hole. This time, however, Owen stands up for himself and takes a swipe at Kenny's head with a big stick, causing his ear to bleed. At the same time, some other students have noticed a body frozen in the ice. The police are called, and the body is cut free.Later that afternoon, after school is out, Owen brings Abby to a secret room in the basement of the apartment building. When Abby asks why they're there, Owen pulls out a knife and cuts his finger, offering to mix bloods with her. Watching Owen's blood drip on the floor, Abby can no longer stand the hunger that she's experiencing now that Father is no longer providing her with blood. She falls to the floor and begins to lap up Owen's blood. She finally transforms into her true vampire image with white cataract eyes, unappealing facial warts, and sharp teeth. Abby hisses at Owen to go away; when he doesn't, she runs off herself. Overcome with bloodlust, Abby jumps on the next person who walks by... Virginia (Sasha Barrese). Fortunately, Virginia's boyfriend Larry (Dylan Kenin) is able to kick Abby off before she kills Virginia. Unfortunately for Virginia, Larry's save only means that Virginia is doomed to become a vampire herself. She notices the change the next morning, after being transfused with six pints of blood. She wakes up, starts to drink her own blood from her arm, and bursts into flames when the nurse opens the curtains.A wimp he might be, but Owen is not a dummy. He has figured out that Abby is a vampire and confronts her at her apartment that evening. When he asks her if she is a vampire, she does not seem to understand the word and she only replies: "I need blood to live". He asks her how old she really is. Like before, she admits to being 12 but says that she's been 12 for a long time. He asks the whereabouts of her dad, and she says that he wasn't really her father. Owen finds an old photo of Abby and Father, taken when Father was about 12 years old. Abby looks just the same as she does now. Concerned about what she might do to him, Owen goes home. Later, as he's about to sit down to the pot pie left for him by his mother, Abby knocks on the door. She requests to be invited in, but Owen stalls. He asks her what would happen if he didn't invite her. Silently, Abby walks in uninvited. Almost immediately, her skin begins to bleed. Owen quickly invites her in and gives her a hug. After showering, Abby changes into one of his mother's old dresses. When Owen's mom unexpectedly comes home, Abby immediately scampers across the window from Owen's apartment to hers, even though it's two stories up.The next morning, Owen finds a note from Abby asking him whether he would like to hang out with her that evening. Meanwhile, based on Larry's description of Virginia's attacker, the Detective has traced Abby to her apartment. He breaks in and finds her asleep in the bathtub. Because he can't see in the dark, he rips open the foil covering the windows. Immediately, Abby's skin begins to crack when it is exposed to the sunlight. Owen, who was in the apartment waiting for Abby to wake up, screams "NO!" giving Abby sufficient time to jump on the Detective and drink his blood. As he lays dying, the Detective reaches out to Owen for help, but Owen closes the bathroom door and leaves him to his fate. After feeding, Abby informs him that she must go away before the rest of the police show up looking for the detective. That night, Owen looks out the window to see Abby getting into a taxi to move away.After Abby is gone, Owen returns to his normal boring routine of going to school and going home. One evening, he is about to start swimming lessons with Mr. Zoric (Ritchie Coster). As he gets into his swimsuit and begins his lesson, Kenny, Mark, and Donald start a fire in the dumpster behind the gym, forcing Mr. Zoric to leave the pool area unattended. When Mr. Zoric goes to put out the fire, they lock him out of the gym and go back into the pool where Kenny's older brother Jimmy (Brett DelBuono) has kicked everyone out of the pool and made Owen get back in. Jimmy gives Owen an ultimatum: either stay under water for three minutes or have one of his eyes poked out... Owen's eye for Kenny's ear. Then Jimmy pushes Owen under. A minute passes. Suddenly, pandemonium breaks out in the gym. From his underwater point of view, Owen hears bullies screaming, then Jimmy's severed head falls into the water, followed by more body parts. An almost drowned Owen surfaces and crawls out of the water. He looks up to see Abby's bloody feet standing beside him. She had apparently crashed into the pool area through a skylight window and in a matter of seconds bit, torn, beheaded, dismembered and disemboweled all four bullies to save Owen.Epilogue. Owen sits on a train traveling towards an unknown destination. Snow is falling outside. A large trunk sits in front of him. From inside the basket comes a rapping. Owen raps back in Morse Code and then takes a bite from a Now & Later. It is clear at this point that Owen has become Abby's new protector and handler, and they are traveling to find a new life for themselves. | tragedy, dark, horror, atmospheric | train | imdb | null |
tt0096149 | Space Mutiny | Set sometime in the distant future the intra-galactic space-colony-ship Southern Sun (which bears a strong resemblance to the Battlestar Galactica) is on a multi-generational trip to a new settlement. Tired of his fate to live and die on the ship, Kalgan (John Philip Law), the head of the Enforcers who are tasked with the ship's security, causes an explosion in the Southern Sun's docking bay just as a fighter is landing there. The decorated fighter pilot, Dave Ryder (Reb Brown) survives the crash via an emergency teleportation system, but his passenger, Professor Spooner is killed in the the crash, which causes serious damage that puts the docking bay out of commission. Ryder is taken to see the Southern Sun's commander, Alex Jansen (Cameron Mitchell), who accepts Ryder's account of events, though his daughter Lea (Cisse Cameron) flies into a rage at Ryder and accuses him of abandoning the Professor to die. Despite this less than harmonious introduction, the two quickly become friends, and it becomes clear that Lea is strongly attracted to Ryder.Just before the docking bay accident, a group of witchcraft-practising female aliens named Bellerians are brought on-board. While they never interact with the main characters during the course of the film (aside from a brief scene in which their leader Jennera consults with Commander Jansen), it is implied that they influence the actions of the lead protagonists, and also covertly help them by seducing Enforcers, which causes Kalgan to execute them for their seeming incompetence, thinning out his own forces.Meanwhile, Kalgan meets with his main co-conspirator MacPhearson (James Ryan), the ship's chief engineer who feels unappreciated for his part in an incident in which he prevented a major disaster, but was severely injured and left unable to walk without aid. MacPhearson informs Kalgan that it will be several weeks before any ship can land or take off from the Southern Sun, which will give Kalgan and his forces time to take over the Southern Sun and force her to land; to that end Kalgan has also enlisted the aid of space pirates from the nearby Corona Borealis system. MacPhearson then consults with his engineering crew, and all bar one of them agree to join the mutiny. The sole dissenting engineer, Parsons, accuses them of treason and threatens to report them to Commander Jansen, which results in the other engineers quickly turning on and killing Parsons.Shortly thereafter, a maintenance engineer named Codell discovers evidence that Kalgan caused the explosion in the docking bay, and after informing a bridge officer, Lt. Lamont of this, begins making his journey to the bridge to inform Jansen. Kalgan intercepts him on the way however, and offers him a choice - join the mutiny, or be put in the "deep freeze." Codell instead chooses to commit suicide.That night, Lea is flirting with Ryder in the ship's disco, when a pair of Enforcers arrive and ask for Lamont, who is also at the disco. She leaves the disco and is immediately shot dead by Kalgan, who leaves the scene in an electric kart. Ryder and Lea both overhear the whole thing and chase Kalgan down in another kart, eventually arriving at the "deep freeze." This turns out to be a room in which troublesome officers are stored in cryogenic suspension; when Kalgan takes over the Southern Sun they will be thawed out and given one further chance to join Kalgan's forces, or be ejected into space. Kalgan and more Enforcers then arrive, and Ryder and Lea are heavily outnumbered and forced to flee, but now have solid evidence that there is a conspiracy and that Kalgan is the ringleader.Ryder is thusly promoted to being the ship's new security chief, just before the Southern Sun encounters the space pirates. Thanks to Ryder's leadership, the Southern Sun easily defeats the pirate ships (which look uncannily like Cylon Basestars) without taking any serious damage. Knowing that he cannot now rely on outside help, Kalgan abducts Lea and threatens to kill her if Commander Jansen does not voluntarily give up control of the Southern Sun. Not wanting to rely on Jansen giving into his demands though, Kalgan begins torturing Lea for information by using a laser-like device on her teeth. During this MacPhearson arrives and gives Kalgan a progress report, causing Lea to realise that he too is a part of the conspiracy.Acting on his own authority, Ryder goes into the bowels of the Southern Sun and knocks out an Enforcer, taking his uniform. Lea, meanwhile, has been left under the supervision of a single security guard who she pretends to seduce, then she knocks him out and steals his uniform just as Ryder arrives. After a few more encounters with Enforcers, Ryder and Lea escape and return to the bridge. An infuriated Kalgan realises that with his main bargaining chip lost and the command crew now aware that MacPhearson is involved in the conspiracy, he has no option but to take control of the ship by force.The mutiny begins in full, with both sides taking heavy losses - in particular, many officers fall to their deaths over the various railings dotted throughout the ship. Eventually Ryder sets off an explosion that traps most of the mutineers in that section of the Southern Sun, but both Kalgan and MacPhearson escape. MacPhearson isn't able to get very far and resorts to hiding in a gas expulsion sump. Ryder (implied to be under the influence of the Bellerians) fills the sump with methane gas which he then ignites, causing a fire which burns MacPhearson to death.With Kalgan the only mutineer still at large, Ryder and Lea pursue him into the ship's bowels in an electric kart. Lea gets knocked out of Ryder's kart, which she then accidentally disables by shooting it in an effort to take out Kalgan, who in turn rams Lea with his own kart, causing her a slight injury. After getting his kart working again, Ryder aims it at Kalgan's kart and drives toward it at full speed, diving out of it at the last second. Kalgan is unable to dodge it, and is apparently consumed in a massive explosion.The mutiny seemingly thwarted, Ryder and Lea apparently make preparations to get married. Later however, it turns out that Kalgan survived the explosion, ending the film on a cliffhanger. | cult, murder | train | imdb | null |
tt0352314 | Ek Hasina Thi | Karan is a rich, suave businessman. But he can also be very possessive of Sarika. His temper can flare at slightest pretext. After Karan involves Sarika in looking after a suitcase full of illegal firearms belonging to his friend, a hitman, she is arrested for having links with the underworld and is remanded to judicial custody. Karan claims innocence to her and sends her a defense attorney to fight her case. The attorney advises her to confess the crime, arguing that there is no proof exonerating her.
After being convinced that the judge will give her a light sentence and might even set her free for co-operation, Sarika complies. But, the judge sentences her to seven years hard labour without parole. Sarika then realizes that Karan is an associate to the underworld and that he had her framed to keep police eyes away from him. This realization is soon followed by the death of her father, the ongoing ordeal of prison life and hatred towards Karan. She beats up an abusive inmate Gomati who constantly bullies her. An elder inmate Pramila (Pratima Kazmi), who has contacts outside the prison, decides to help her. Sarika undergoes a complete change of appearance.
Sarika changes from inside and outside which begins with her getting rid of her fear of rats. ACP Malti Vaidya (Seema Biswas) sets out to find Sarika after she escapes from prison. She first confronts Mathur, killing him after learning Karan's whereabouts. She is angered to see Karan enjoying his life with a new girl. With the news of Mathur's mysterious death, Karan becomes a suspect. Karan soon learns that Sarika has escaped but is not able to put two and two together. Sarika learns that Karan is working for a businessman (Abhay Bhargava) who has many illegal operations under his garb.
After she kills the businessman's brother, Karan gets trapped as he was the last man to see the person alive. Karan is shocked at the development but chalks it to the work of rival gang. Meanwhile, Sarika pretends to run into him. She pretends to have sympathy for him. Seeing that she still has not seen through his game, Karan decides to play with her for some time. Karan confronts a man whom he suspects to be a traitor, but he believes that somebody else could have sneaked in after Karan went out. Before the man can say anything, Karan kills him, too.
Sarika is amused as Karan gets entangled in a cat-and-mouse game. She steals money from Karan's boss, for which Karan is again made a patsy. However, Karan soon realizes the plot. After he confronts and assaults her, she shocks him by telling him that she has burnt the money. Karan takes her to his boss and makes her confess at gunpoint. But she feigns ignorance and claims that Karan made her say so. As Karan is attacked by his boss's goons, he breaks into a fight. Just then, the ACP enters with the police.
In a shootout, the ACP succeeds in killing Karan's boss. The gang is either killed or apprehended. While the ACP herself gets shot, Karan succeeds in escaping. His success is short-lived: suddenly, Sarika emerges from his back and holds him at gunpoint and makes him drive to a secluded spot. After knocking him out, she chains him in a cavern infested with rats. As Karan regains consciousness, Sarika tells him how she used to be scared of rats and she chose this spot because she wanted him to go through the pain and suffering that she went through while she was in prison. Karan is baffled at her talk, but she leaves him in the cavern, with light from a flashlight pointing towards him.
Karan screams, but nobody hears as he is in a secluded place. Soon the flashlight goes out and Karan loses strength. The rats attack and kill him brutally (shown by dimming of lights and screams). Karan dies a long and painful death. With her mission of exacting revenge from Karan accomplished, Sarika eventually surrenders to the police, turning in the bag of money that she stole from Karan's boss to the ACP. The film ends showing Sarika spending the rest of her life in prison. | revenge, murder, violence, romantic | train | wikipedia | It is gritty, realistic, gripping, and it successfully adopts the style of Ram Gopal Varma's film-making.
It is about a young independent woman, Sarika (Urmila Matondkar), who falls for a young suave man, Karan (Saif Ali Khan) who is actually not the one he appears to be.
The film does not have any unnecessary subplots, it avoids melodrama, it is relatively short, it has no songs, and all these elements contribute to its authenticity and suspenseful mood, also aided by its fantastic background score, brilliant dialogues, and superb cast.Urmila Matondkar is one of the finest and most versatile actresses in India.
In Ek Hasina Thi, Urmila stars as Sarika Vartak, but although she plays one character, she actually plays two different women.
From the production house of Ram Gopal Varma comes another powerful film about love, hatred, passion and revenge.
"Ek Hasina Thi" is director Sriram Raghavan's debut film but you wouldn't be able to tell that after viewing this film.
He even surprasses Ram Gopal Varma at his own game."Ek Hasina Thi" tells a story of Sarika - a simple, working-class woman who seems to be content with her life until her chance encounter with a suave, ultra-cool individual - Karan.
Saying any more would ruin the premise of the film, not to mention, the experience of watching it, but I highly doubt any Bollywood film this year will make an impact on me the way "Ek Hasina Thi" did.One of the major aspects that makes "Ek Hasina Thi" so powerful are the performances by the lead actors.
Saif Ali Khan, who is suddenly on a white-hot streak with films like "Dil Chahta Hai", "Darna Mana Hai", and the recent "Kal Ho Naa Ho" easily gives the finest performance of his career.
Usually, in hindi films, villainous characters are shown to be mere caricatures - a snarl here, a facial contortion there, etc., but Saif Ali Khan plays Karan Rathod in such a subtle, cool, and horrifying real manner that the viewer almost sympathizes with him.
Urmila, who is getting much praise for her films in 2003, actually gives her career-best performance as well in "Ek Hasina Thi".
Also, the initial scenes where Saif and Urmila meet are some of the best scenes in the film.
Bravo to both actors for portraying their characters so effectively.As mentioned, director Sriram Raghavan gives the best debut film I've seen in years.
There are no songs in the film, thankfully, which makes "Ek Hasina Thi" a much better viewing experience.
C.K. Muralidharan's cinematography is fantastic - probably better than any film Ram Gopal Varma has been associated with.
In fact, "Ek Hasina Thi" is even better than Varma's own film - "Company".
"Ek Hasina Thi" is a film that should not be missed by anyone who appreciates intelligent, different, and profound cinema..
From producer Ram Gopal Varma and director Sriram Raghavan comes a pretty good revenge thriller, which is definitely one of the better Indian movies this year.Cast against his usual roles, Saif Ali Khan plays a slick criminal whose dealings with terrorists and the Delhi underworld get his girlfriend Sarika (Urmila Matondkar) into prison.
However, toughened by prison life, Sarika manages to escape and takes revenge.Progressing somewhat slowly during the first 15 minutes, but then gaining momentum at an increasing pace, this movie never slows down and manages to keep your interest for the full duration, which at only 120 minutes is significantly less than most Bollywood movies.
There are also no disruptive song or dance sequences that would distract you from the plot.In fact, one of the problems that I have with this movie is that it is a bit too short -- in particular the prison sequence seems rushed: Sarika's character development from the innocent, naive girl to the tough, cold-blooded killer is not fully developed and feels a bit sudden as a result.My second problem is with the ending, which, while not inappropriate, feels a bit out of line with her previous revenge strategy.
It still works fine, but one feels that it could have been built up better.Other than that, however, there are no obvious problems with the plot, and acting is good from most main and supporting actors.
Seema Biswas in particularly stands out in her role as the determined female police officer in pursuit of Sarika.Definitely worth watching, and much better than anything Hollywood, USA has produced in this genre in a long time..
There are no ridiculous song and dance sequences, no melodramatic dialogue delivery and even the gory action sequences are underplayed.The movie is about a single girl living alone in Mumbai away from her family ("on her own terms" is what the reviews say) and how she deals with extraordinary circumstances that surround her meeting the man of her dreams (on the lines of Pacific Heights, or Sleeping with the Enemy).
From the cast, Saif Ali Khan, Urmila and Seema Biswas are outstanding.
This has to be one of the finest performances by both Saif and Urmila in main roles.
Her times in the jail are almost like the role of Stallone in Lock-Up. One never expects hardcore stuff from hindi films, yet this one has some of the most intense time-scale scenes in it.
I wonder how this Urmila who gyrated her way with Rangeela could ever get into the skin of the role that she plays in this film which requires her to bring in physical encounters with jailmates and so on!
She was better than Saif, although he did a really good job playing the cold selfish man.
The acting is superb and there are many western elements such as storyline and direction that make this piece fabulous and a piece for people that are not familiar with Bollywood films to watch.It does get a bit cheesy when Saif Ali Khan breaks out the martial arts moves but Urmilla's acting is wonderful.
I would definitely recommend this movie to everybody, especially those that have not seen an Indian film before and who are curious..
Though EK HASINA THI will never be considered a great classic I was pleasantly surprised that this Bollywood thriller was better than expected.
Very few films today are entertaining, per se, so you can imagine how unexpected it was to see an entertaining thriller from Bollywood.EK HASINA THI is not your typical Bollywood movie: there's no musical numbers, the violence is realistic and it looks modern enough.
What's amazing is EK HASINA THI succeeds were many Hollywood produced films fail.
Films like KILLING ME SOFTLY, which made me laugh nonstop, looks like a complete joke compared to EK HASINA THI.Saif Ali Khan gives a good performance but the movie belongs to Urmila Matondkar, who is over-the-top and yet believable, which is amazing.
Kudos to Urmila for giving such a memorable performance and basically making the film for what it is.
This is exactly what we want from a thriller movie, director Sriram Raghavan has done tremendous job on it and the two main characters, especially Urmilla is exceptional, this is her finest performance.
even bhoot looks pale in front of it i think Saif should be ranked as the most outstanding khan of bollywood !
this movie is only 2 hrs long which is a complete surprise for bollywood i think makers like yash chopra karan johar should incorporate such techniques in their movies and try to bring such talents in front of viewers instead of being stereotypes best this movie which guarantees you wont be disappointed ...
Urmila Matondkar who is a discovery of Ram Gopal Varma has given an impeccable performance in a movie that the other actresses would shun away from.
This movie is testament to the belief that good actors invariably end up with good directors or the other way around as in this case, Sriram Raghavan.
I'm very keen in revenge thrillers and Ek Hasina Thi was quite different & interesting about Sarika, a happy, independent, single girl working in Mumbai.
That is why the film is called Ek Hasina Thi and she really was looking beautiful with her long hair but when she cut it in jail then she was looking like a different person.
Ek Haseena Thi is a Great Prison Movie with a tale for revenge.
From Innocent to Rough is a major part of this film's character Urmila.
Urmila gives a Brilliant performance and i cant think of any other actress, that could of made it better.
Although most of Ram Gopal Verma's movies are not officially directed by him still they carry the Verma stamp all over.Ek Hasina Thi fortunately falls in the really good movies section.
It is different and good.Sarika(Urmila) is an independent working girl in Bombay.
Had there been a little more attention in the second half Ek Hasina Thi would have been a much better film.
Although we have seen 3 Deewarein (read my review) which was based on jail but Ek Hasina Thi provides insight in a female prison like never before.
Although female prisons have been shown in a good manner in Gumraah and in a horrible way in the disastrous Anjaam,Ek Hasina Thi really thrills you in the realism of jail life.
Even in the most filmy scene where Urmila fights the jail bully-ya even I was reminded of Kaalia-the fight looks real and well enacted.Shahrukh Khan has eaten his words many times.
Still Shahrukh Khan had never imagined in his life that someone as good looking and charming like Saif Ali Khan can play a negative role and that too in style.
I guess that sums up what Saif has done in this movie.His character really catches u when he plays the wicked question and answer game with Urmila.However after that the focus shifts to Urmila and Saif seems to play yet another play-boy role.But towards the end, in the scene where he discovers the truth about Urmila and questions her Saif looks menacing and gets into the skin of the character.
I canno say that Saif has given the best negative performance in recent times but I can definitely say that the way he has portrayed a mean man,it is really very very different from any negative role in recent time.
Urmila delivers yet another ace performance after Bhoot.Although in some scenes towards the end she tries and act the way she did in Kaun and Pyaar Tune Kiya Kya-much to my irritation,But otherwise she shows her acting talent once gain.Her expression and dailogue delivery in the prison scenes shows that Urmila is capable of delivering the goods if she has Verma by her side.Seema Biswas is brilliant as the lady police officer.
My Rating : 7/10A bit long-ish but if you're familiar with Bollywood movies then it's nothing.Overall, a good watch and well-acted.
Rare to find darker stories in Bollywood cinema so it's great to actually have something like this to have even been made.Well-paced, well-directed and no unnecessary melodrama, no songs either which is rare.
The screenplay is marvelous.Now, this is one Bollywood film which you got to watch before you die.
I personally don't watch many hindi movies bcause normally they are dumb n stupid and treat their viewers on same line!!but this is one of the best movie coming from Bollywood!!only seeing is believing!........Direction,Camera Work,Back ground score, editing(superb),acting from all lead cast and one n only song(which is played in background during a chase sequence)are all top notch!!...........can put some of best hollywood flicks to shame!!Actually, we can always trust a movie coming from Ram Gopal Verma, Rajkumar Santoshi, Mani Ratnam!!...always offering something different and original and above all they respect the viewers IQ!!Kudos to Sriram Raghvan on his wonderful debut and thanks to all of the team for creating this viewer's delight!!Amber..
Revenge stories are done to death in bollywood but this is different, never wrong a girl who loves you from heart .
Movie charter a different chart with crisp editing and impactful dialogues urmila plays it's part in amazing way Saif once again proves he is underrated Direction is superb.
The sole reason I like this movie is the revenge main lead (Urmila Matondkar) takes against another main lead (Saif Ali Khan) who ruined her life.No one should take any women for granted with their lies or force.
Urmila takes a break from her psycho / possessed roles she had played in earlier films.
And, because of this, the film is a nice change of pace and well worth your time.This movie begins with a beautiful lady (Sarika) being stalked, somewhat, by a handsome young man (Karan).
She soon comes to realize that she's been set up to be the fall girl for a very bad man...and the quiet and sweet girl evolves into a very angry lady--one who is able to kill, if need be, to get revenge.While I would normally say no more (as it might spoil the film), I noticed that IMDb's summary gives a LOT of information.
Sriram Raghavan's dark thriller Ek Hasina Thi has all the ingredients of a winner.
Outstanding acting by Urmila Matondkar, who I consider to be the best actress in Bollywood.
Good supporting acting by veteran actor Saif Ali Khan and veteran actress Seema Biswas.Karan Singh Rathod (Saif Ali Khan) who secretly works in the for the underworld, strikes up an acquaintance with Sarika Vartak (Urmila Matondkar) which inventually leads to a romance between them.One day Karan who is away on business tells Sarika that some friend of his would be staying a while at her flat.
Events unfold in the film, which paces on relentlessly, which later come to a terrifying climax towards the end.Excellent casting, acting, dialogue, score, editing and photography.
Not in the performance of Saif Ali Khan, nor Urmila, but Varma, for once again proving that any good Bollywood movie must be 'inspired' from somewhere or another.
Everyone swears they exits, but in reality, they just don't.The entire sequence with the double crossing lawyer, supposedly 'in our pocket' judge, betrayal from the man the protagonist thinks she loves, right down to the antagonistic dyke and the protective opponent of the evil dyke with connections of her own outside the prison as well, it's all taken from a book called Tomorrow Never Comes by Sidney Sheldon.Of ocurse, the book doesn't end on the revenge plot, it goes on to show the female lead makes use of the cunning she never thought she had to entrap all the men who used her and threw her into jail, and then realise she can never fit into normal society and a regular nine to five job again, mostly because of her police record.
The film looks believable and shines as a masterpiece in thriller genre.Urmila(Sarika) works in a travel agency, and arrives at Mumbai to live alone.
Urmila, a middle class working girl in Mumbai is entrapped by a smooth gangster (Saif Ali Khan) and you get a frightening look of her ordeal in a harsh and unforgiving penal system.
The one good thing I can say about this movie was that Urmila's character was well-developed.
After giving strings of hits, looks like Saif and Urmila didn't have any luck this time.
Saif Ali Khan is very good as the caddish, smoothtalker who finally manages to charm the innocent Sarika.
Yet, where performances are concerned, 'Ek Hasina Thi' belongs to Urmila Matondkar.
Moments like these elevate the film from being mere revenge play.EHT is not perfect it has pacing issues and even comes close to imploding in the third act with a hastily assembled climax, but it's assured sense of direction and strong performances by the lead and supporting cast save it from self-destructing.But my main complaint has little to do with plot machinations.
It feels like the film is holding back for some reason.Although EHT's subversive potential is largely untapped, Sriram Raghavan is clearly a talent to watch out for.
It's rare to see a woman do this in a Bollywood film so, here's a standing ovation for Urmila and the Ram Gopal Varma team..
In one word this movie was AMAZING.Karan Rathod (Saif Ali khan) is a smooth, Handsome, smart, cunning, clever Gangster.
He is on the lookout for his next trap...Enter Sarika (Urmila Matondkar)...a decent but innocent middle class girl living entirely alone with nobody to take care of her.
Saif Ali khan as a smooth, clever gangster is brilliant and Urmila too is good.All in all a must see..
She leads a very normal life until she meets Karan (Saif).
The protagonist using the opportunity of meeting a well connected prisoner was good for a plot, but her going and getting her way all the time; like killing a goon with no one around were just instances of luck that took away from her power.
The film starts off quite well though it's bit hard to digest the way Urmila suddenly gets close to Saif without knowing much of him, but then the story shifts gears and the way things are handled is superb, The jail scenes are simply superb, her escape(hardly anything filmy, thankfully no disguises).
There is only 1 song which is in the background and thankfully no naach gaana Camera-work is superb, Background music is awesomeUrmila Matondkar who proved her talent with Bhoot, Pinjar does a superb job, conveying all emotions, revenge perfectly, She is perfectly cast only quibee is her make up in jail portions, it would be better if she was shown without make up and also her dress change, but that doesn't take anything from her performance.
Saif Ali Khan too turned a new leaf since DCH and started experimenting, He plays a villain perfectly and shows his versatility, he never overacts or makes faces, giving a true natural performance He had done a negative role in Kya Kehna but this one is different and does a superb job, after this he played a villain in Omkara again and rest is history. |
tt0058262 | The Killers | Two professional hit men, Charlie (Lee Marvin) and Lee (Clu Gulager), enter a school for the blind and terrorize the principal until she reveals the whereabouts of a teacher, Johnny North (John Cassavetes). As the hitmen walk toward North's upstairs classroom, the teacher receives a phone call from the blind principal's aide, warning him of their arrival. However, a saddened Johnny responds, "It's okay. I know them." He calmly waits at his desk as Charlie and Lee enter the classroom and shoot him to death in a fusilade of bullets.As they depart town by train, Charlie admits that he is bothered that North refused to flee, aware that he was warned prior to their arrival. Lee also notes that from the look on Johnny's face when they entered the classroom is that he wanted them to kill him. It is revealed here that both Charlie and Lee were annoymously sub-contracted by an unseen party to kill Johnny North. It is apparent that the hitmen's business is not to make any direct contact with their paying clients, or know their names, just the name of their hit. Charlie and Lee run through a file they were given of what they knew about the man they have just killed. Johnny was once a champion race car driver whose career ended in a violent crash. Four years before his death, he was involved in a one million dollar mail truck robbery. Tempted by the thought of a $1 million payday, Charlie and Lee travel to Miami in order to interview Johnny's former mechanic, Earl Sylvester (Claude Atkins).Earl, who considers himself Johnny's only friend, is devastated to learn of his death. In between sobs and gulps of whiskey, he tells the story to Charlie and Lee as he remembers it:Four years earlier. Johnny North was at the top of his profession when he met the beautiful Sheila Farr (Angie Dickinson) who asked him out to dinner. Despite Earl's suspicions, Johnny fell deeply in love and planned to propose marriage after winning his next big race. However, Johnny's late night days with Sheila had left him disoriented from lack of sleep. As a result, his racing career ended with a fiery crash.At the hospital, Earl told Johnny the truth about Sheila, who was in reality the mistress of mob boss Jack Browning (Ronald Reagan). Known for her extravagent taste for "adrenellen junkies", Sheila had already cheated on Browning with several other sports figures, all of whom met bad ends (usually violent deaths or "accidents"). Enraged and heartbroken, Johnny rebuffed Sheila's attempts to explain and he cut his ties to her.Flashing forward back to the present, the intrigued Charlie and Lee approach a former member of Browning's crew, named Mickey (Norman Fell), who also reveals his memories:One year after the crash, Sheila found Johnny working as a pit mechanic during another race. Although Johnny bitterly attempted to drive her away, Sheila insisted on telling him that a much better job might soon be his for the taking.Meanwhile, Browning was in the process of planning the robbery of a U.S. postal truck. On Sheila's recommendation, he agreed to take Johnny on as his getaway driver.After Johnny refused to return her phone calls, Sheila called at his dilapidated tenement. Although Johnny still felt betrayed, Sheila said that she had always regretted losing him and could not live without him. Deeply moved, Johnny agreed to forgive her. He also helped Browning by souping up the getaway car.However, Browning was deeply enraged when he learned that Sheila had returned to Johnny. In a deliberate provocation, Browning brutally slapped Sheila in front of Johnny. Enraged, Johnny instantly punched Browning in the face and threatened to kill him if he ever hurt Sheila again. However, they both agreed to "settle this," after the job, and went back to planning the robbery.Ultimately, the mail truck was forced onto an isolated mountain road by a detour sign planted by Browning and Johnny. When the truck later stopped at an apparent accident, Browning, Johnny, and the other conspirators robbed the truck at gunpoint, stole more than $1 million, aned loaded it into the getaway car. However, Johnny punched Browning, threw him out of the moving car, and drove off with the money for himself.Flashing back to the present, after listening to this story, Charlie and Lee decide to pay a visit to Jack Browning, who is now a real estate developer in Los Angeles. After arriving in L.A., Charlie and Lee pay a visit to Browning who denies knowing who they are when they ask about the mail truck robbery or if he knew Johnny North. Browning, however, insists that he is now an honest businessman and has no idea what happened to the money. He does, however, reveal that Sheila is staying at a downtown hotel and agrees to arrange a meeting with her.Determined not to give Browning time to plan an ambush, Charlie and Lee arrive at Sheila's hotel room several hours earlier than agreed. At first Sheila denies knowing Johnny or anything about the money. However, Charlie and Lee brutally beat her and dangle her by the ankles out of her seventh story window. Terrified, she agrees to tell them the truth:Flashing back to the night before the robbery, Sheila entered Johnny's room and told him that his life was in danger. Browning, she said, was planning to kill him and pocket his share of the robbery. Enraged, Johnny wanted to leave and kill Browning on the spot. Sheila, however, insisted that she had a much better idea. On her advice, Johnny threw Browning out of the car and drove off with the money. Later that night, he met with Sheila.As the two lovers departed with the money to a nearby hotel room, they were confronted by Browning. Sheila ordered Browning to, "do it quickly," and the gangster shot Johnny in the stomach. Although severely wounded, Johnny fled into the night with Browning and Sheila in hot pursuit. Unable to find him, Sheila expressed fear that Johnny would cause as much trouble as his predecessors whom she duped into helping them with their plans. Therefore, it was Browning who annoymously hired Charlie and Lee to murder him.As Sheila comes to the end of her story, Charlie realizes at last why Johnny refused to flee when they went to kill him. The only man who refuses to run is a man who considers himself to be already dead. Sheila's betrayal had already emtionally killed Johnny long before the bullets ever touched him. Johnny wanted to die (though it is unclear if he knew that Browning was behind the hit). Deciding that Browning deserves to be punished, Charlie and Lee decide to hold Sheila, his wife, for ransom.However, as the three depart the hotel, Browning opens fire on them with a sniper rifle. Lee is killed instantly, while a wounded Charlie flees back into the hotel.Meanwhile, at their suburban mansion, Browning and Sheila frantically prepare to escape with the money which they have hidden in their safe. Then, a dying Charlie storms through their front door.At last revealing her sociopathic nature, Sheila frantically denies any role in Johnny's death, insisting that her husband alone was responsible. Browning maintains that it was not him who hired Charlie and Lee to kill Johnny, but it was Sheila. Charlie calmly shoots Browning dead and turns his revolver toward Sheila. When she again pleads for her life, Charlie snarls, "Lady, I don't have the time!" He kills Sheila with a single bullet and hobbles out the door. He falls dead on the lawn while still gripping the money. | violence, neo noir, murder, sadist, flashback | train | imdb | null |
tt1483013 | Oblivion | In the year 2077, Jack Harper (Tom Cruise), is a drone technician living in a tower high above the clouds, with his assigned partner Victoria/Vika (Andrea Riseborough). They are the last people left on Earth after it was destroyed by aliens known as the Scavengers/'Scavs', who wanted Earth's resources. The Scavs destroyed Earth's moon for material resources, which caused a series of natural disasters and global devastation, then they invaded. In the ensuing war, humans were forced to use nuclear weapons. In the end humans won the war, but lost the Earth by turning most of it into a radioactive wasteland. The entire remaining human population moved to Titan, one of the moons of Saturn, with a select number inhabiting a large spaceship in orbit around Earth called the Tet. Giant machines are drawing up seawater to extract energy for humanity's new home.Jack's job is to journey to the surface during the day to repair the drones. These are spherical, flying robots designed to detect and terminate remaining Scavs on Earth. Vika's job is to stay inside the Tower to keep an eye on him, as his co-ordinator and to correspond with and get their mission objectives from Sally (Melissa Leo), the mission commander on the Tet.Jack repairs drones within a gridded area containing what looks like the remains of New York/Manhattan. He repairs drone #166 one day in the Superbowl Stadium, and reminds Vika that he would love to have watched the last game in 2017. He encounters a dog, and is able to send it away before Drone #166 fully recovers and kills it. He then goes on to find another lost drone, inside the New York Public Library, but it is revealed to be a trap set up by the Scavs. Luckily, the drone from earlier, #166, saves Jack from this encounter. The drones have incredible fire-power and maneuverability. Jack finds a book and decides to take it home. He remembers a verse inside it about Horatius.Jack returns to the Tower for the night again and has dinner with Vika. She is excited that they are only two weeks away from completing their mission and will soon be on their way to join the rest of humanity on Titan. Jack, however, is unsure - he doesn't want to leave yet. He has been getting flashbacks and dreams of a time before 'the war' though he knows these can't be real as he was given an obligatory memory wipe before starting his mission as 'the mop-up crew'. Jack gifts Vika some flowers he has been tending, but she discards them by dropping them from the Tower as it goes against regulations and they could contain "thousands of toxins". They later go for a swim, and during a kiss, Jack has another flashback of a woman. In the morning the two awake to a mushroom cloud explosion in the distance, one of the water processing machines has exploded.The next day, Jack goes back to work and is instructed to investigate a beacon signal from the bombed-out Empire State building. They discover the signal is coded coordinates. Believing it to be the work of the Scavs, he cuts the wire. He then tells Vika that he'll perform a perimeter check around the border where the 'radiation zone' meets the safe area, but really he is visiting his secret house by a lake, in a lush green valley hidden away from view. He falls asleep on the grass and awakes to see objects being parachuted down from the sky. They crash land right on the co-ordinates from the transmission. He flies to investigate and finds humans in delta-sleep pods scattered about the wreck. Drones arrive and begin destroying all of the pods. He discovers one of the pods contains the woman from his flashback dreams, and is able to save it by using himself as a shield (the drones are programmed to not terminate Jack). He takes the pod back up to the Tower, where Vika manages to wake the woman from deep sleep. We find out her name is Julia (Olga Kurylenko) and Vika is not happy at having her stay with them. Against Jack's wishes, Vika reports Julia's presence to Sally, who requests Jack take Julia up to the Tet.At sunrise Julia encourages Jack to go with her to collect the data recorder from her crashed spaceship; she needs to know what happened. He takes her, without Vika knowing. After they retrieve it, Jack realizes they are surrounded by Scavs. He sends the aircraft back on autopilot emergency return just before being knocked unconscious by a Scav and transported to their lair.Jack awakens to find himself captured and tied to a chair. The Scavs reveal themselves to be human, not the alien species that invaded Earth. They tell Jack the real aliens are inside the Tet, and the drones are actually programmed to kill any remaining humans. The leader of the Scav/Human resistance, Beech (Morgan Freeman) asks Jack for his help. They have a stolen Drone along with ten power cells from other drones they have brought down, and also have scavenged the weapons-grade plutonium power core from the wrecked ship Julia was on. This has allowed them to turn the stolen drone into a nuclear bomb they hope to program to destroy the Tet. As a skilled Drone technician they hope Jack will help them reprogram the drone. He refuses, still believing there are humans on board the Tet. Beech releases them and tells Jack if he is looking for the truth, he will find it in the forbidden 'radiation zone.'The two ride Jack's motorbike until it runs out of fuel, then hike to the Empire State building where Jack manages to send a signal to Vika. She sends the aircraft to pick them up. On the balcony viewing area, Julia reminds Jack of who she really is. They were both from the spacecraft Odyssey, and she is his real wife, before he had his memory erased. He remembers, and they share an embrace just as the aircraft arrives. Vika sees this. Jack and Julia go back to the Tower, where an upset and jealous Vika sends a message to Sally saying she and Jack are no longer an "effective team." A damaged drone Jack has stored for repairs on a lower floor of the Tower activates to terminate the failed maintenance team. Vika is vaporized, but just before it kills Jack Julia shoots it with the aircraft gun.Jack and Julia fly away and are soon being chased by three other Drones. In an attempt to destroy them, they fly into a lightning storm, and into a canyon. Jack manages to destroy two but the third, #166, rams them and they crash into a sandy desert in the radiation zone. Jack realises that he is not boiling alive as he was led to believe would happen if he ventured into the radiation zone. He also hears the familiar distress beep of a broken drone just over the next sand dune. Upon investigating, Jack witnesses another technician in an identical aircraft land to fix the drone, despite his being told there were no others.Jack confronts the technician only to find it is a clone known as Jack Harper 52. They get into a fight and in the brawl, Julia is shot in the abdomen. Jack uses 52's plane to go to 52's Tower to collect a med-kit for Julia, and there he sees another Vika. He is stunned by the elaborate unraveling of everything he knew to be true but manages to trick this Vika into believing he is her Jack.After saving Julia, they take refuge in the lake-house, and re-connect. Jack decides to help the human resistance and returns to assist in programming the Drone. However, during this time, Sally has sent another three drones after Jack. Tracing his DNA trail, the drones arrive and attack all of the humans, leaving few survivors. Beech is mortally wounded, and the captured drone is no longer functional. The fuel cells remain intact though, and they decide the only way they can still transport the bomb into the Tet is by hiding it in a delta-sleep pod with Julia, bringing her to the Tet as Sally had requested (to make a "more effective team").Jack flies to the Tet with the delta-sleep pod. On the way, he listens to the data recorder recovered from the Odyssey. Jack hears himself as the Odyssey pilot approaching the Tet in the 2017 first contact, the day after the Superbowl. Vika is co-pilot and Julia is one of the crew members in hibernation. They were being guided by the real Sally, a NASA cap com. The Odyssey began to accelerate uncontrollably towards the Tet and in order to save the crew and Julia, Jack released the back shuttle with the delta-sleep pods, leaving only him and Vika heading towards the Tet.Jack (Tech 49), now at the Tet, is allowed entry. The alien (Sally) is suspicious and questions Jack's motives for coming. It nearly destroys him after physiological signs of lying are detected, but he tricks it by truthfully stating he wants the human race to survive, and this (being willing servants, ostensibly - but really he means the Tet's destruction) is the only way. He is allowed to proceed further inside to deliver Julia. Along the way he sees a multitude of clones of himself and Vika growing in pods. In the alien's presence (revealed to be a large floating pyramidal object with a red laser eye in the center), Jack opens the delta-sleep pod. Inside is not Julia, but the wounded Beech. Realizing the deception, the alien summons drones to destroy them, and pleads "I created you, Jack, I am your God" - but together Jack and Beech detonate the fuel cells.Julia wakes up by the lake house. Sitting up in the sleeper pod, she witnesses the Tet explode spectacularly in the sky and weeps.Three years later, Julia has given birth to a daughter, and is living in the lake-house. She and the daughter then see members of the human resistance. A figure then walks out of the crowd, Jack Harper 52. The movie ends before we know more about Jack 52 or what his relationship is or will become with Julia. | murder, sentimental, violence, atmospheric, flashback, plot twist, psychedelic, action, melodrama, suspenseful, sci-fi | train | imdb | null |
tt0051631 | Frankenstein's Daughter | The movie opens on a scene at night with a man kissing a woman on a sidewalk. Suzie Lawler (Tally Todd) rebuffs her lothario, so he storms off in his car. As Suzie turns to walk home she sees the visage of a cavewoman in a nightgown. She screams, not recognizing her girlfriend, Trudy Morton (Sandra Knight). Trudy is dazed and confused. She has black bushy eyebrows and thick dark teeth. We zoom in on her face as the title is shown. Credits roll in white font over a black background.Trudy wakes up in her bed. She thought she had a nightmare and is relieved it is over. Her uncle, Carter Morton (Felix Locher) enters and reminds her, "It's late dear. I thought you had a date for tennis." She confesses she didn't sleep well, "It seems so real, as though it actually happened." Carter dismisses himself and Trudy gets ready for her tennis date. Oliver Frank (Donald Murphy) waits downstairs for his collaborator to start work. Carter unlocks the door to the lab. An impatient Oliver reminds Carter again, "If you'd let me have a key I could have begun work an hour ago." Carter argues with Oliver over their approach. Finally Carter asks point-blank, "Oliver, do you want to quit? Say so. Just say you quit and go." They don their lab coats, Carter resigned to be stuck with Oliver Frank until this line of research is completed. His goal is a formula that wipes out all disease in mankind, "Man will be ageless." Oliver throws cold water on Carter's dream, "I'm afraid you're on the wrong track. Your formula may work on internal cells, but it causes violent disfigurement to sensitive exposed skin areas."At the tennis courts, Suzie tells her boyfriend, Don (Harold Lloyd, Jr.) and Trudy's boyfriend, Johnny Bruder (John Ashley) about the monster woman she saw the evening before. Trudy arrives and is told about Suzie's horror story. Trudy warns, "Nightmares are nothing to laugh about. I had one myself, last night." The story intrigues Trudy and she asks for more details. Trudy begs off playing tennis, obviously upset. Johnny asks Trudy what's the matter. She tells Johnny, "It's as though Suzie and I had the exact same dream." She recounts the evening's events. She stayed home, had some fruit punch with Oliver Frank, felt tired, and then went to bed.Carter pronounces his latest test as no good. Of course, Oliver tells him, "Well, I could have told you that. Even if it did work it would have only been temporary." Carter has to remind him of their working relationship. Elsu (Wolfe Barzell), the gardener, interrupts to tell Carter he has completed some household chore. Carter suspects Elsu is a spy. Oliver suggests throwing out the latest test formula, but Carter overrules him, "I'm sure if I could get some Digenerol as a catalyst, it would work." He promises to get some from the Rockwell Labs, but Oliver cautions him not to do anything that brings police scrutiny. Trudy is in the living room reading Screen Stars magazine. Elsu comes in and presents her a flower. She is uneasy and repelled by the unwanted attention from the gardener. Uncle Carter throws him out. Elsu encounters Oliver on his way out. Oliver asks, "Tonight?" Elsu quietly replies, "There will be an automobile accident." He chuckles and promises to get it. Carter leaves to get his Digenerol, leaving the unctuous Oliver to paw at Trudy. She rebuffs his attentions with a cute remark about her plans for the evening, "In the pool for a swim. And I'd suggest you take a cold shower." Oliver returns to the lab door, and using a key he had made, starts work on a body. Elsu arrives, letting himself in through a secret entrance behind a bookcase. He is carrying a bundle wrapped in a towel. Oliver tells him he needed an entire head, not the part he secured. It is revealed that Oliver's real last name is actually Frankenstein. He instructs Elsu to return the body to the storage room. Judy swims in the pool as Oliver mixes up a potion. He offers her some "fruit punch" as a peace offering. He convinces her to drain her glass. She immediately gets woozy and heads for her bedroom. She starts to transform before she falls into bed. Transformation complete she gets up and sees her reflection in her makeup mirror. She lunges at Oliver in the doorway. By now her eyes are bugged out and her skin wrinkled and leathery. Oliver used too much of the formula.Police Lt. Boyle (John Zaremba) is on the phone in his office. He is taking a report from a man reporting a monster woman wearing a bathing suit. Boyle tells Police Detective Bill Dillon (Robert Dix) about the call. Boyle gets another call from a woman reporting the same monster in a bathing suit. The pair go to investigate. Oliver and Elsu prepare an antidote to give Trudy. Boyle and Dillon check on the woman (Charlotte Portney) who reported the creature. Her face is scratched and bloody. After she finishes her story, Boyle pulls his gun and searches for the creature. They spot Trudy and fire their weapons at her. She runs and topples some trash cans. The commotion draws Oliver with his antidote. Oliver captures Trudy. The next morning the local newspaper headline screams, "Woman Monster Menaces City!" Carter asks Oliver about the story. He is incredulous, telling Oliver, "Rubbish. Like the myths and the legends of the Dark Ages. These are headlines to sell newspapers my boy." The mention of Frankenstein gets a rise out of Oliver. Carter shows Oliver his new acquisition, a bottle of Digenerol. Trudy wakes, now back to normal, but still wearing her one piece bathing suit.Mr. Rockwell (Voltaire Perkins) is in Boyle's office to report a robbery at Rockwell Labs. He explains that, "That drug is very dangerous. It degenerates tissues and cells. In the wrong hands it could seriously disfigure anyone who might take it internally." He intimates it may be the cause of the monster. Carter and Oliver are working when Elsu enters the lab via the bookcase entrance. To distract attention, Oliver bumps Carter, who drops the bottle of Digenerol, breaking it. Carter is furious. Suzie rings the doorbell at the Morton residence. Oliver answers the door. Suzie inquires about Trudy. She walks around back where Trudy is on the chaise by the pool. She shows Trudy the paper and monster story. Suzie gets mad when Trudy claims to be the monster. Jealous, Suzie figures to even the score by getting involved with Oliver Frank. Little does she know how dangerous this will be for her. Johnny arrives as Suzie departs. Suzie starts her seduction of Oliver by making a date for 8:00 that evening. Trudy begs Johnny to believe her story.Suzie meets with Oliver that evening. He comes on too strongly for her and gets his face slapped for his efforts. He is furious and threatens to kill her. She decides to call the date off, but Oliver won't take no for an answer. She reveals she wasn't supposed to go out and no one knows she's with Oliver. His demeanor changes from angry to maniacal. "Where can we get the brain," he asks himself, "I need a brain. I need a brain." Suzie runs down the road. Oliver follows in his car. He strikes and kills his victim. Oliver and Elsu carry her body into the lab. She is wrapped in a blanket. He tells Elsu he intends to graft Suzie's head on the other body. He tells the corpse, "Tonight you'll be alive again, you vixen." As he and Elsu finish their work, Johnny and Trudy arrive home from their date. Judy thinks she hears someone in the lab and checks. They finish up and Elsu proclaims the creation, "Frankenstein's Daughter." Trudy tries to sleep but hears electrical equipment downstairs. She calls to her uncle Carter. She phones Johnny at home to report noises. She locks her bedroom door and goes to sleep.Boyle and Dillon meet on another report of a burglary at the Rockwell Labs. More Digenerol was stolen by an elderly man. Carter arrives home in a sorry state. He is winded and calls weakly for his niece while clutching his chest in pain. He calls again, then collapses on the stairs. Oliver and Trudy both respond to the old man's cries for help. Oliver's creation (Harry Wilson) wakes and moves its' hands and arms. It gets up off the gurney and wanders around the lab. We zoom in on creatures face and bandage covered head. Half the face resembles ground meat, the "good half" a very ugly man in lipstick. The neck bolts glint in the dim light from the lab equipment. It wanders out of the lab into the entry of the house. We can clearly see the rubber suit, and black rubber gloves on its hands. Coiled electrical wires run from the neck to the wrists. It tears off the curtain on the front door, breaks a window and pulls the door open to escape. Oliver and Trudy respond to the commotion. They enter the lab and Oliver mumbles, "Then she's alive."Two workmen at the Associated Storage Company are loading crates. Mack (George Barrows) is working late and complains about his burnt dinner. His supervisor (Bill Coontz) hears a noise and investigates. He is carrying a crowbar for protection. The monster approaches him. He backs up and strikes the monster with his crowbar. It strikes back sending the warehouseman running for the door. The monster catches him and crushes his body in the closing door. Mack finds his coworker dead, and immediately calls the police.Before Bill Dillon can leave for the evening, Lt. Boyle gets a phone call and tells him to stick around. The warehouseman reports the crime. The pair go to investigate. Carter and Trudy sit and talk in the living room. Oliver and Elsu return after looking for their creation. There is a knock at the door and Trudy, expecting Johnny, answers it. Oliver's creation returns home. Trudy screams and faints. Elsu explains, "I told you she'd come back. She needs to be revitalized." Oliver helps Trudy to her feet just as Johnny arrives. They help Trudy to the living room. Oliver tries to convince Trudy, then Johnny, she saw nothing. Johnny tells Trudy that Suzie has disappeared. Elsu sits, with now now chained creature, in it's room. Oliver gives his creation an injection.Trudy has the gang over for a barbeque, Page Cavanaugh and his trio perform "A Special Date" musical number. Trudy and Johnny prepare dinner for the gang. Don scares Trudy with a rubber monster mask. His punishment is to sing. Oliver plans Carter's demise. He taunts Carter, then starts to strangle him when the police conveniently arrive at the house. Boyle questions Carter and Oliver about the Lab break-in. Oliver tells Boyle that Carter broke in to the lab and stole the Digenerol. Boyle leaves with Carter, not under arrest, but wanted for more questioning. Oliver and Elsu continue to work on their monster, but Elsu is starting to get cold feet. He feels the experiment was successful and is now over. Johnny and Trudy set the date for their wedding. Oliver gleefully tells Trudy her uncle was arrested. After Johnny departs to get his father, a lawyer, to see Carter and the police, Oliver makes his move on Trudy. He proudly reveals his real identity as Oliver Frankenstein, and boasts, "And while your uncle was wasting his time on a trivial experiment, I was completing a masterful one." She rebuffs him and he drags her to the lab to see his creation. She faints and Oliver and Elsu place her on the gurney. "You've always treated me as a monster, Trudy. Now you're going to be one," he tells her. Elsu objects to his plans for Trudy, and threatens to go to the police. Oliver orders his monster to kill Elsu. Trudy wakes and exits the lab as Elsu meets his fate.Johnny meets with Boyle. Boyle tells him that Carter had a relapse and is in the police ward of the hospital. The doctor will only let him meet with his lawyer. Trudy arrives at Boyle's office and reports the monster and Oliver's true identity and Elsu's death. A phone call reveals that Carter has died. Boyle and Dillon pay a visit to the Morton home. They question Oliver and ask for his identification. Boyle knows Oliver is lying, so Dillon stays and waits for the gardener to return to question him. Boyle returns to headquarters. Dillon walks upstairs when he hears a noise, then back down to see Oliver secret himself into the lab. He follows Oliver to the back room behind the bookcase. He pulls his gun and enters the monster's room. Oliver and the creature are waiting. Oliver proudly tells Dillon that he's looking at Suzie Lawler, then laughs explaining that, "She's not as pretty as she was." He releases the monster and orders it to kill the detective, which it does. Trudy and Johnny drive to the Morton residence. Trudy answers the phone. Boyle asks about Dillon. Trudy sees the lab door open, and the pair investigate. They spot the secret entrance and explore. The monster struggles to escape its' shackles and succeeds. It walks downstairs and chases Johnny and Trudy into the lab. Oliver is waiting for them. He tells them that Dillon and Elsu are dead at the hands of his creation. He threatens, "You know Trudy, you escaped me once, but I don't think you can do it again." He orders the monster to kill the pair. Oliver tries to escape but the arrival of Boyle thwarts his attempt. While Johnny fends off the monster using the gurney, Boyle shoots it from the window. A flask of acid thrown by Johnny at the monster misses its intended target, but hits Oliver. His melted face is shown before he hits the floor screaming in agony. The monster goes to check on its master. Johnny and Trudy embrace as they watch the monster accidently set itself on fire. It screams as it tries to extinguish the flames. Johnny and Trudy meet Boyle in the foyer and tell him the monster is on fire in the lab. Boyle witnesses the death throes of the creature now fully engulfed in flames. It burns like a tire fire. Boyle tells the pair, "It's all over now. I'll call the department." They exit the house.Johnny and Trudy are by the pool. Trudy towels off her fiancé. Don stops by with the newspaper, anxious to have them read the story. Johnny it not interested and tells him to leave. Don falls into the pool. We close with Johnny and Trudy kissing and telling Don once again, "You can leave anytime." | insanity, murder | train | imdb | As much fun as I knew the family and neighbors were having outside, I couldn't have cared less; I was riveted to an old-fashioned television set watching FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER and adding this night to my memory banks.
A backyard barbecue scene again struck a chord, and was particularly appropriate on this festive evening where a noisy shindig was actually occurring a few feet away, just outside my own screen door.The movie starts with a pre-credits sequence: Sandra Knight is prowling the neighborhood in cheap (but effective) monster make-up, with bushy eyebrows and decaying buck teeth.
The next morning, Knight awakens as a normal-looking girl with no memory of what went on the previous evening, though when she meets Sally for tennis, her friend insists that she saw some sort of monster last night.
This strange revelation triggers memories of bad dreams for Knight, and she soon thinks that she could have been the creature in question.Meanwhile, Knight's elderly Uncle (played with hilarious ineptitude by the always-funny Felix Locher) is experimenting with a formula to render man ageless.
He has acquired a young assistant named Oliver Frank (short for Frankenstein, of course) who is supposedly aiding him, but who would rather see the old man dead so he can gain full use of the laboratory to concentrate on his own masterful experiment.
When the automation comes to life, it's actually a male actor (Harry Wilson) who portrays her with a toasty-looking face (reportedly, nobody bothered to tell makeup artist Harry Thomas that the monster was to be female, so he solved the dilemma by smearing some lipstick on its kisser!) Amidst the rampages of Frankenstein's Daughter, we are treated to the aforementioned evening backyard barbecue.
What a cast, Felix Locher, real life father of actor Jon Hall, as a dedicated but misguided scientist; Donald Murphy as yet another "last of the Frankenstein's" (the third one the movies offered us in the space of a single year!); Harold Lloyd Jr as the comedy relief, Sandra Knight (future Mrs. Jack Nicholson) as both the girl in distress AND the fill-in monster; and last but not least John Ashley as the hero.
This 1958 movie stars Donald Murphy as Oliver Frank (short for Frankenstein), grandson of the original monster maker.
Unbeknownst to Dr. Morton, Oliver is using the lab for not just legitimate experiments, but to try to carry on the "family business", creating a human being from body parts.Sandra Knight portrays Trudy Morton, Dr. Morton's teenage niece.
To make a long story short, Oliver creates a woman monster using the head of Trudy's va va voom friend Suzy (played by 1957 Playmate of the Year, Sally Todd) who was killed by Oliver in a jealous rage, and various other body parts, mostly male.
Campy Fun. Frankenstein's Daughter (1958) * 1/2 (out of 4) Dr. Frankenstein's grandson (Donald Murphy) moves to L.A. where he becomes an assistant but in his off time he is creating another brutish monster.
As it stands, this is a mildly entertaining film that has a few 'so bad it's good' laughs but in the end there's just not enough going for it to be rewarding in its running time.
What does work are the monsters, which includes the one the doctor is making but we also have a second one involving a young woman (Sandra Knight) who is being drugged by the bad doctor, which transforms her into a beast.
The make up effects are rather silly looking but they do create a couple interesting monsters, although it's very hard to believe that actress Sally Todd is behind the main one.
Now, what really kills the film is that the two monsters get very limited screen time as most of it focuses on the doctor, the young woman and her boyfriend.
The creature he ultimately creates looks like a wrinkled mass of toadstools, while the monster's female brain "is conditioned to a man's world; therefore takes orders where [19th century ones] didn't." (This line always brings the house down in theatres!) Fifties stalwart John Ashley provides his usual sturdy support to the befuddled Trudy, director Richard Cunha remarkably brings in his fourth awesome film of 1958 ("She Demons," "Giant From the Unknown" and "Missile to the Moon" being the others), and the Page Cavanaugh Trio performs two swinging rock 'n' roll numbers.
Donald Murphy is excellent as the descendant of Frankenstein and cheap movie regular John Ashley does his best Ricky Nelson imitation as the boyfriend of the girl Frankenstein experiments on.
If you enjoy bad movies, then Frankenstein's Daughter is a film that you should see.
But the franchise of Frankenstein got away from Universal and when Frankenstein got a daughter she was just the subject of a horribly bad movie, not a good horror picture.Sandra Knight's uncle Felix Locher is a scientist doing some home experiments with a new lab assistant Donald Murphy aiding him.
Murphy thinks why not try a female brain and the brain he gets is a friend Locher's niece Sandra Knight, Playboy centerfold Sally Todd.This one ranks right down there among the worst films ever made.
But she does kill on command and the end confrontation between Murphy and his creation and Knight and boyfriend John Ashley will have you rolling up the aisles.It occurred to me that since he only got the idea for a female brain and the original monster was a male, Frankenstein may have created the first deliberately made transgender individual.
as a kid in Paterson new jersey i loved channel 11's chiller theater,the claymation hand coming out of the grave grabbing the letters that spell chiller,anyway Frankensteins daughter is a wonderfully cheesy b-movie that scared me as a kid,but now its one of my favorite cheesy monster films.the monster is supposed to be a woman but looks like a man monster with lipstick.the spooky music was used in missile to the moon the same year which was a remake of the 3d movie cat-women of the moon.harold Lloyd Jr plays a descendant of Dr Frankenstein,so he decides to create a monster in the basement of his doctor employer,whose niece(Sandra knight)is unknowingly used as a guinea pig for Dr franks experiments.she turns into a bug eyed big toothed monster that looks amazingly like one of the she demons.no surprise it was made at the same studio as she demons,Astor films.
john Ashley the king of b-movies from the 50's and later star of the Filipino monster movies plays the girls boyfriend.i actually thought this was better then the usual b-movies.Sandra knight went on to star in the terror with her future husband jack Nicholson,and the legendary Boris karloff.7 out of 10.a good bad movie..
Now, as an adult, it's fun to pop these movies in and have a good laugh at the sometimes over-the-top performances cheesy sets and 'special' effects.Watching the movie this time, I was aware of its incredibly slow pacing, which seemed to be exacerbated by the incredible awful performance of Felix Locher as Carter Morton.
He's so bad that he makes everyone else look brilliant!This film has several 'horrors' on offer - the two 'monsters,' Locher's performance, and two dreadful teenage musical numbers.
Who is the person behind the ugly mask??One thing I like about these type of monster and horror movies is that the good guys always somehow defeat the monsters.
****SPOILERS**** Reviving the timeless adventures of the Frankenstein boys grandson Oliver Frank , Donald Murphy, who shortened his name from the famous Frankenstein, tries to succeed where his old man and grandpa failed, to create life, this time with the help of a female brain.Getting a job as an assistant to Dr. Carter Morton, Felix Locher, Oliver with the aid of his helper the Morton's creepy gardener Elsu, Wolf Barzell, who Oliver brought with him collect body parts, plans to finish what grandpa started; create life out of the dead.
A moment later the police knock on the door looking for a old man, Dr. Morton, who was seen in the neighborhood running from the Rockwell Labs with a bottle of Digeneral that he just stole, what a stroke of luck for Oliver.
Elsu just about had enough with the insane Oliver when he wanted to turn Trudy into another dead girl walking This has crazy Oliver turns the monster, who looks like a cross between a 1950's spaceman and Santa Clause, on Elsu who ends up killing him.
John Ashley was his usual good-guy lady-killer, not in the criminal sense of the word, self and Donald Murphy did over do it a bit as the crazed Oliver Frank, Frankenstein, with his insane actions as well his groping, Ollie just couldn't keep his hands off both Suzie and Trudy, of the girls in the movie.
Interestingly, Frankenstein has a secret workspace within where he is assembling yet another creature from dead body parts: missing only the head, he mows down the heroine's sluttish friend (who, in the very first scene, comes face to face with the one Knight herself had inadvertently become!) with his car
but no sooner has the monster been revived that it runs out of control and out of the house!
The rock'n'roll element comes into play here during a barbecue given at Knight's house (even if her uncle had just suffered a near-fatal heart attack!) and incorporates a couple of tunes sung by, of all people, Harold Lloyd Jr.(!) who, naturally, also handles the intentional comedy-relief angle throughout the film (but, as I said, the lab antics provide the real giggles here!).Also on hand are a couple of cops who have their hands full trying to cope with the many misdeeds (not to mention, egos and anxieties).
Donald Murphy's psychotic and mad-raving character Oliver Frank(enstein) is sheer opposite to the bone-headed and typically 50's teenagers, who like to play tennis and dance to atrocious song.
Well old Ollie has been working on a secret of his own.I noticed that the Frankenstein family not only put bodies together, they bred like rabbits.Ya' keep tripping over them everywhere.Ollie has been experimenting with a drug that changes Susie(the old man's niece) into a buck toothed, bushy eyed monster.Hmmm sounds like my Prom date.Also Ollie has been putting together, you guessed it, a body.
Damn if I know.Maybe Frankenstein's Looney Grandson was too long to fit on the marquee.The best way to watch this is if it has a horror host that breaks into the movie and makes fun of it.Better yet, watch it with your eyes closed.Or with the television off..
Frankensteins Daughter is one of the greatest b horror movies of all time.It has two of the ugliest, scariest monsters ever.The murder scenes are great.
If you want horror, laughs and an absolutely fun ending to your saturday night check out Frankensteins Daughter..
This is one of those pretty bad, but campy fun films from the 50's that filled double bills and entertained many of us as kids on t.v. chiller theater type shows.Oliver Frankenstein is the mad descendant, who is treading in forbidden territory.
By the way the monster creatures are obviously played by men in make-up.It's a very low budget, cardboard set kind of film that is lots of fun if you're in the right frame of mind..
Professor Carter Morton (Felix Locher) is trying to perfect a formula that will cure all known diseases (might as well go for broke); meanwhile, his assistant Oliver Frank (real surname: Frankenstein) is conducting his own experiments, testing the unfinished formula on Carter's unsuspecting niece Trudy (Sandra Knight), and fulfilling his family's legacy by building a monster.For a highly entertaining dose of '50s drive-in schlock, look no further than teen horror Frankenstein's Daughter, an unintentionally hilarious film with not one, but two monsters; the first is pretty teen Trudy, who is transformed into a hideous beast by the experimental formula slipped in her drink by Frank (Donald Murphy); the second is the grotesque creature assembled by Frank and HIS assistant Elsu (Wolfe Barzell).The Trudy monster has really bushy eyebrows, bug eyes, manky Austin Powers teeth, and really bad skin, but still has a rocking body; Frankenstein's monster has the body of a Russian shot putter and the head of Trudy's sexy blonde friend Suzy (1957 Playmate Sally Todd), but it looks as though, in being transplanted, her noggin took a bit of a bashing (to say the least).
The DVD cover of 1958's "Frankenstein's Daughter" makes it look like it's a goofy, campy horror/comedy, but that's not the case at all.
No matter, those first 55 minutes make "Frankenstein's Daughter" worth catching and the final act isn't all that bad; it's just not good, like the first two acts.They do a pretty good job on the female front, starting with Knight, who – interestingly – was the only woman to marry Jack Nicholson, which lasted from 1962-1968.
They could've AT LEAST given it breasts or made the mask look more female-ish.Still, in light of the goofy DVD cover, I was actually impressed by "Frankenstein's Daughter," the first two-thirds anyway.The movie runs 85 minutes and was presumably shot in the L.A. area.GRADE: C+.
It's better than 'Teenages From Outer Space,' but that's not saying much.The eponymous monster, Frankenstein's Daughter, does not appear even vaguely female, instead looking like one of the lunch ladies from my grade school cafeteria, or perhaps the great thespian William Frawley.I suspect the producers of this film must have figured out that they had Fred Mertz Monster on their hands, because there is a really strange and tangential subplot which involves making a temporary monster out of a cute young bathing-suit clad ingénue.
This time the monster make up is good (by schlock-horror standards) and there is some interesting footage of a nice-looking bathing suit clad female body with a horrible monster face.The other interesting thing in this film is the creepy, murderous and sexually predatory Dr. Frankenstein.
There is also some obligatory teenage music and scenes by the swimming pool.As an adult connoisseur of schlock horror and bad movies, this film is mildly enjoyable.
FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER is my Top Fifties Fave Horror Film because it has fun but believable performances, Harry Thomas make-up, a monster that isn't male or female, and gave me nightmares as a kid when I saw it on a local Danville, Illinois television station (WDAN).
What "Frankenstein's Daughter" does have, however, are quite a few converging or otherwise tangential plotlines.In keeping with the spirit of Mary Shelley's parthenogenic myth of creating life without a mother, the film's only two main female characters are each turned into monsters by the grandson of Frankenstein.
All in all, "Frankenstein's Daughter" is worth a look for those who enjoy so-bad-it's-good schlock..
When he isn't hitting hard on Morton's granddaughter, Trudy (played by Sandra Knight, who can also be seen in "The Terror"), he's dosing her with a drug that makes her horrible looking.
As per formula (Teens to the rescue!), Trudy's boyfriend (played by John Ashley, who costarred in the equally funny "The Eye Creatures") destroys the monster, and Frank dies in the hilarious climatic scene in the laboratory.I downloaded a copy from The Internet Archive.
Drive in classic about a decedent of Frankenstein turning a woman into a monster.Painful bad movie used to be a staple on late night TV and in the drive ins across the country.
Don't get me wrong its great fun in a bad movie sort of a way, but at the same time there is no way to get around the fact that the film is a stinker.
Not good at taking constructive criticism, Dr. Frank tells his henchman, "From here on in, I decide what's evil."While the mad scientist works hard to spark life in his creature, old man Morton picks that inconvenient moment to have a heart seizure.
Working with him is his assistant "Oliver Frank" (Donald Murphy) who has very little regard for either Professor Morton or the experiment he is working on.
It's one of those bad movies which are good.The grandson of the original Dr Frankenstein continues the usual experiments and he creates a hideous she monster (though it looks more like a man).
As usual, it goes on the rampage and murders several people before being burned to death in Frankensteins lab at the end.The cast includes John Ashley, Sandra Knight (The Terror), Harold Lloyd Jr (son of the comedy star) and Sally Todd.This is a must for all bad movie fans.
Knight's beautiful teenage character, Trudy, lives with her Uncle who is assisted by Oliver Frank.
Frank gives Trudy a potion turning her into a monster but Knight's good looks still come through the makeup.
Frank eventually first dates, then kills a mutual lady friend of Trudy's and turns her brain into that of a Frankenstein monster.
FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER is a hammy horror B-movie that fits right in at the tail-end of the 1950s.
The film sees a descendant of the original Frankenstein now holed up in small town America, where his nefarious experiments transform a young woman into a snarling, scowling, and very ugly creature (played by a man, oddly enough).
The younger Dr. Frank is busy using the lab for his own experiments with dead female body parts and getting his love life satisfied with several young attractive women.*Special Stars- John Ashley, Sadra Knight, Donald Murphy, Sally Todd, Felix Locher *Theme- Tampering with nature will always be a mistake.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W.
Frankenstein's evil and determined grandson Oliver Frank (a spirited and sinister performance by Donald Murphy) works with the kindly Prof.
The story flashes back to a laboratory with the abominable, undaunted, scheming Doctor Oliver Frank (Donald Murphy) and his assistant, the weathered foreign helper Elsu (Wolfe Barzell) who spends his days and nights searching for body parts to satisfy Dr. Frank's experiments to create a modern Frankenstein monster. |
tt0242527 | The Hole | 17-year-old Dane Thompson, his 10-year-old brother Lucas, and their mother, Susan, move from Brooklyn to the quiet town of Bensenville where Dane and Lucas befriend their next door neighbor, Julie. While exploring their new home, Dane and Lucas discover a trapdoor with several locks along each side in the basement. Opening the trapdoor reveals a hole which appears to be bottomless.
Over the next few days, each child experiences strange events. Lucas, having a fear of clowns, discovers a jester puppet on his bed, as well as other locations, as if it is following him. Julie begins to see an injured girl who bleeds from her eyes. Dane starts to see shadowy figures of a large man. Eventually, all three witness the injured girl together at the boys' home where they follow her to the basement and watch as she crawls into the hole.
Julie suggests they seek help from the previous owner of the house, Creepy Carl, who now lives in an abandoned glove factory surrounded by hundreds of lights and lamps. When the kids tell him that they have opened the hole, he berates them for releasing the evil inside stating that it will come for them and kill Dane. Later that night, Carl is seen scribbling in a sketchbook, almost blacking out entire pages. Carl screams, "I'm not done yet!" as the light bulbs around him pop.
The sketchbook turns out to belong to Dane, who returns to the factory to retrieve it. He finds his sketchbook in the darkness; Creepy Carl is gone. Julie decides to get the group relaxed and throws a pool party. While under the water, Dane sees a shadowy figure of a giant man standing above. Once out of the pool, he notices a trail of muddy footprints which he and Julie follow, leaving Lucas alone in the pool. They hear Julie's pet dog, Charlie, barking and return to see Lucas drowning. Lucas tells them that the jester puppet had pulled him under.
Later that night, while Lucas is asleep, Dane sees a hand-shaped bruise on Lucas' leg. He discovers that it is identical to a hand that Creepy Carl had drawn in the sketchbook. As he flips through the sketchbook, he realizes that each page is a puzzle piece. While working on the puzzle, Dane hears someone whistling. When he walks into the kitchen, he sees an envelope addressed to him from the New Jersey State Penitentiary. A note inside reads 'HELLO BOY'. He rushes upstairs to Lucas and tells him that someone is in the house. While Dane investigates, Lucas meets a police officer standing at the bottom of the stairs. The officer shows Lucas a picture of two little girls and asks if he has seen one of them and points to the girl whom Julie first encountered. The police officer leaves the picture with Lucas and turns to leave revealing the back of his head is missing. Lucas fetches Dane and the pair watch the cop return to the basement and climb into the hole.
Next door, the girl then appears in Julie's room. Julie climbs out of her window and meets the boys where she reveals to Dane that she and her best friend Annie were playing on the tracks of an old roller coaster which resulted in an accident where Annie fell to her death. In an attempt to help Julie, a police officer had also fallen and was killed. She decides to return to the amusement park where the accident occurred stating "I know what I need to do now." Dane goes after her telling Lucas to stay at home.
Julie finds her friend sitting on the same spot from which she fell. After Julie helps Annie understand that she had tried to save her, Annie disappears and is pleased that Julie is no longer scared. Meanwhile, Lucas hears Dane calling him to the basement. Confused, he follows the voice to discover the jester puppet mimicking Dane's voice. The puppet attacks Lucas but is outwitted and eventually destroyed. Dane and Julie return and Lucas announces that he is no longer afraid of clowns. Dane then tells them of a theory that once you look into the hole it somehow knows you and creates whatever you are afraid of. When asked what he's afraid of, Dane replies that he is not afraid of anything.
Julie then invites Dane and Lucas to stay at her place for the night. As Lucas is gathering his things, Dane shows Julie the puzzle he had been working on. They solve the puzzle together and see a boy being grabbed by a giant man. Dane rushes upstairs to find that Lucas is gone. Dane finally reveals that he is afraid of his father, who had abused the entire family and is now in prison. Realizing that his father has taken Lucas into the hole, Dane jumps into the hole as well.
Dane finds Lucas hiding in the closet of a twisted version of a home. Their father, who has become a giant, discovers them and starts to break through the door. They turn around and discover the shelving seems to be a ladder. Dane tells Lucas to start climbing. Dane starts to follow, when his father drags him back down. As Dane fights him off, the giant father slowly returns to his actual size as Dane starts to confront his fear, seeing him for what he really is. Their surroundings begin to crumble and the floor falls away leaving Dane and his father trapped on an island under a ceiling fan. Having taken his father's belt, Dane pulls himself onto the fan and gives the crumbling floor one final blow with the belt buckle causing the floor to break apart and the father to fall.
Dane emerges from the hole where Julie and Lucas are waiting. They close the hole, just as their mother comes down to the basement. She sees the trapdoor and opens it, revealing a shallow crawl space below. As the group heads upstairs, Lucas asks his mom if she is afraid of anything. She replies that she was afraid of a monster under her bed when she was a little girl. Lucas says, "Uh oh," as the trapdoor blows opens again revealing the darkness has returned. | insanity, prank, flashback | train | wikipedia | I am assuming that it wanted to be a psychological horror, but the film is so lightweight that it appears to have been written with twelve-year-olds in mind which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
I assume that Ms. Birch was brought in to add international appeal' but she stifles and flounders around with her leading role, unable to rise to the challenge of her co-stars.Before you all assume that I'm bashing her because she's American think again because young American actor Desmond Harrington who plays Mike Steel, is the best thing about this movie..
The movie concerns a bunch of adolescents formed by Thora Birch , Desmond Harrington , Kiera Knightley and others who stake to shelter in a bunker .They're closed up and then terrible events originate .Although the happening develops itself in locked place the film is not tiring .The yarn mingles emotions , violence , shocks , thriller , the suspense doesn't fail and that's why it's bemusing and isn't boring .Acting by Thora Birch is awesome , she was paid a high salary due to her recent acclaimed role in American Beauty (1998) .
And Desmond Harrington (Ghost ship) is cool .The film has relation to last group of English movies developed in shut and strange stages as the Bunkers or trenches , for example : ¨Deathwatch¨ and ¨the Bunker¨.The movie has a pretty twisted plot and the final storyline has extraordinary and fascinating surprises.
If you have seen the trailers (or read some of the reviews), you would be forgiven of thinking of this film as a dark and disturbing thriller, unfortunately, this is not the case.The acting is first rate from the leading five, though Embeth Davidtz, an experienced actress, is confined to a character with little scope for the talents she has displayed in previous films, and I find it disappointing that her acting skills were curtailed by such a restrictive screenplay.And herein lies the main problem for this film.
This film has none of the twists and turns you would expect from a thriller, an ending that is at once unconvincing, predictable, and weak, and plot holes you could drive a bus through.Director, Nick Hamm, shows great promise as this film is very well put together, and he certainly gets the best from the main four actors.
The Hole isn't that bad a film, its just that it lacks the components which a good thriller/suspence/mystery should have.The Hole, starring Thora Birch, is a suspence/mystery and is about a group of high-school teenagers who become stuck in an old, World War 2 tunnel, called 'the hole'.
However, different flashbacks occur at different stages of the film, which leaves the viewer never really knowing the exact truth until the end.If you've watched your fare share of suspence type mystery thrillers, then you should be able to sum this movie up pretty quickly and be able to guess basically what's going on.
This is probably the best teen horror movie I've ever seen; it is really well made, and the screen play really gives the young actors (among others Keira Knightley who is very good) something to work with.
The worst thing is that you simply cannot bring yourself to care about what's going on, and it's you and the other viewers who are stuck in a hole until this ends, hoping it will get better and make up for the time you've already spent.
[Not that I'm knocking her talent, but a few more days with the accent coach would have improved her chances of passing off as an English schoolgirl.] Next time hire a script editor -- someone who can tell you "Hey, you know, if you go to all the trouble of having the bad girl successfully pin the crime on the school geek, it doesn't really make sense for her to make a full confession immediately after." As for the hole, it's what this movie needs: six down and three across, with the earth firmly stamped down on top of it..
The Hole is a film that takes me back to many years ago when i was a child sitting up late at night and watching the Hammer house Of Horror movies which used to scare the hell out of me but as an adult found rather tame.
Like Cube, the Hole fails in making the characters fascinating or deep, making it difficult for this reviewer to care what happens to them (not that we didn't have a pretty good idea of who not to get attached to after the opening sequence).
All in all, it is tempting to say that this film had the look and feel of a production for British TV, but with shows like Cracker (or even UltraViolet), that would hardly seem fair.On a less serious note, rather than to discuss some plot-holes that cannot be discussed without spoiling, I'll just seize the chance to say that how Invisible Eyebrow Girl found the Oasis Clone that much more attractive than the Morrissey Clone is beyond me -- he had less of a hairdo going into the hole than the others did on their way out.
And there are moments in the film that are genuinely disturbing, for example when we see Liz beside her vomiting best friend, ignoring her totally, preferring to obsess about Mike - her teenage fantasy incarnate.Technically, the film is superb, and fragmented fast shots of the bodies and effective lighting and mise-en-scene in the Hole itself are brilliant, but everything set in the present is fairly terrible, mostly due to dubious acting and underdeveloped script work.
The contrived atmosphere of the first fifty minutes is representative of Liz's tale itself - false, and when we do see the account as it happened, it is shocking and tense (although the cheesy funeral scene is fairly diabolical).The biggest problem around the film is the fact that the characters, even Liz, are underdeveloped and the script and issues (eg that of identity, ie belonging - "The be popular at (name of high school), you have to be either..." said by both Martin and Liz) are too.
Her obession is a fantastic premise for a film and its context in the hole is excellent but then it is damaged by a throw away attitude to making decent psychological thrillers - in this case, the teen horror genre was too much of an influence (although the grissly death scenes were very effective).An excellent idea, but seriously underdeveloped, especially when placed in a market with peers such as Cube, with a lower budget and totally unknown actors (I'm sorry, Thora, I'm sorry!!)which manages to be shocking, timeless and tense.Watch it, it's good.
The claustrophobia of being trapped in an underground bunker rarely comes across and the impression I got from the trailer turned out to be false.I didn't expect a huge amount from this movie..It was one of those, much like "The Gift", where I thought it might be good and it might be bad, hopefully interesting..
These are probably the 2 main weaknesses of this movie.Nevertheless, I thought it wasn't a bad film, though they could've done a better job on building the suspense....
To my discredit, I didn't think that much of it, but still kept flicking back to it from something else I was also half-watching, BUT my views are still valid despite missing out on all the plot developments, as they are much more fundamental.Firstly, I didn't really know who Thora Birch was, but guessed very quickly that she is American.
Gwyneth Paltrow as Queen Elizabeth yes; Renee Zellwigger as Bridget Jones sort of; Thora Birch as an English public school girl no.Secondly, as a suspense thriller where you are supposed to be shocked at whodunit, how then did I, watching only episodic sections, manage to guess within minutes who was almost certainly the guilty party?
Thora Birch is a fantastic actress, but here she plays the troubled schoolgirl with very little originality, unlike her brilliant performance in Ghost World, and her accent always reverts to American at the really intense moments (which does add some humour to keep interest levels up).The behaviour of the characters is irritating and stereotypical to say the least and the idea that four people would want to spend a few days down a (very dull) hole is almost laughable..
I tried to enjoy the movie like the psychological thriller it was, but unfortunately I found myself being totally careless to it's plot, it's actors and so on.
Do directors honestly think that teenagers really act in such a way?It's not fair to level the films failure at something as trivial as bad accents but while, on paper, the plot is great, Nick Hamm simply fails to achieve the success that the novel does.
To recap: terrible acting (- especially on Ms. Birch's behalf), annoying 'middle-class' teen characterisation (- it tended to get under my skin), unstimulating plot (- it runs more like an extended TV thriller than anything else), thin horror/suspense, and a weak ending.
It comes, it goes, it makes no impact on you whatsoever, just a slight numbing misery and a brief burst of annoyance at how it all turns out.In the end, though The Hole was seen at the time of its release as being a brilliant example of low-budget filmmaking, it suffers from the same problem as most high-concept Hollywood output: it is nothing more than its pitch, and when the film gets past dramatising its pitch (that is, once the setting and characters and McGuffin have been established) the writer and director seem intent on wrapping it all up as quickly as possible..
But, then again, it's not really horror, just like it's not really a teen drama, or slasher film, but something that's a bit of a hybrid of all those genres.It's set in a well-to-do English boarding school where four pupils decide not to go home for half term, but instead to party on down in an abandoned, er, hole - w ell, it's some sort of underground bunker-type-thing where they can lock themselves away from the rest of the world and do all those naughty things that teenagers do.All of this is orchestrated by Liz (Thora Birch, sporting a just about passable English accent).
Four teenagers at a British private school secretly uncover and explore the depths of a sealed underground hole created decades ago as a possible bomb shelter.The film stars Thora Birch, whose headlining credit and highly publicized seven figure salary was attributed to her appearance in "American Beauty".
A teenager with usual hen issues, a boy of every girl's dream, a girl with fiber tablet diet and her boyfriend plan to escape a field-trip by double crossing the parents and school authorities by staking out in an unused war bunker.When the door doesn't budge after three days, they are stuck in "the hole".Narrated by one of the four in a psychological session, the film juggles between reality and lies, at one point the movie goes "usual suspects" on you but that is only the half way and there are other loops to untied.Thora Birch gives a strong performance.
Others have given a decent act but the plot loses its charm towards the end and hence plays coy on the whole movie.One time watch..
Basically, a few students want to ditch a school trip to Wales, and they choose to do so by hiding out in the abandoned bomb shelter that one student already knew of.Now that that's out of the way, I almost with the original plot outline had been true because I think it would have made for a more interesting film.I thought the main characters were well-played, but there really wasn't much attention paid to, or effort required of the obviously supporting ones, who were basically clichés and throwaway.And while there was some suspense in the initial one-third of the picture, and a bit of questioning what actually happened, it's fairly easy to figure out by minute 40.
It's moderately interesting to see what time in the shelter does to a couple of the characters, and what lengths a person might go to to capture the object of his/her affection, but you really have to pay attention to figure out how long they've been in there when certain scenes play out because the film jumps back and forth.In the DVD version, if you go through the deleted scenes, one of them is the lopped-off, "one year later" scene that is basically stolen from the end of "Urban Legend." Ultimately, this is a good time and entertaining for awhile, but fails to surprise, and you're left waiting for it to just wrap itself up.Take care..
The supporting cast performs well and one feels sorry for their victimization.While visually the film is fun to look at, but where plot, story and character development are concerned this gives us almost zip.
The heroine of the story is played by Thora Birch, whose story is told in flashback after she winds up in a hospital and everyone wants to know what has happened.To be frank the only reason I recognized this film is because I had heard on the IMDb Pirates of the Caribbean message board that Keira Knightley appeared naked at the age of 15.
All in all this is nothing special but the performances are actually (surprisingly) pretty good - Birch has a good (fake) British accent and the rest of the cast is at least acceptable.This will probably be more famous years from now because it will be recognized as one of Keira's first movies, but to be honest it really is a pretty worthwhile film..
Knightly is also pretty good as popular good time girl Frankie, and fans of hers will be delighted to know that she gets 'em out for the lads in this one (I couldn't care lessthey're not that impressive!).As the story unfolds, we gradually learn the terrible truth behind the foursome's predicament, and are treated to some quite nasty scenes as food begins to run out, people get ill and tempers start to flare.Not a classic by any stretch of the imagination, The Hole is nevertheless a solidly entertaining film that passes the time quite nicely.
This movie does the same thing, though it admittedly comes to it a different way.We begin Thora Birch climbing out of a hole, and then finding a telephone to scream in.
While this is only my opinion, I think The Hole is a great film.Indeed, like "Cry Wolf", "The Hole" is more of a psychological Thriller than Horror.
The cast give it a good go, Fox, Knightley & Harrington convince as posh kids forced into a life or death situation, while Birch, in spite of dubious accent shifts, carries the movie with ease as the shifty teenager with a potentially dangerous crush on Harrington.Sadly the plotting is very so-so and it's more likely to induce cries of "no, really?" and "well how did that happen?" than any sort of creepy involvement.
The Hole isn't a bad little thriller, but by the time it ends it's hard not to think of how much better it could have been.
I thought the girl looked like Keira Knightley, I had no idea though.It was playing on one of the movie channels and I got bored so I decided to watch it.
This movie was a nice surprise,the cast did a great job and Thora Birch showed she can be a very diverse actress.I will buy this DVD very soon,so I can share it with my friends and get their thought on it.I don't agree that this qualify's as a true horror movie, but the directer does a great job!With the script,and the actors earned their money.Great movie with a lot of good guessing and some on the edge of your seat moments.The American audience has a different view on most English made movies .I think not enough of them make it to the states to be seen!This should have had advertising and a lot of promotion along with a movie premier,with the cast on hand opening night the studio would have made a great deal more money with this one..
While it isn't groundbreaking or a great film, "The Hole" is better than most contemporary teen horror/thrillers.
The acting was quite good unlike most teen flicks and Thora Birch (the little girl from `Patriot Games') was excellent, she succeeds in carrying the movie alone.
The story more or less revolves around her version of events, and after the first 30 minutes, you get the feeling that everything is not what it appears to be.I won't give anything away, but this film isn't essential viewing, but I'd recommend that you do at some time watch it.The main cast of five do well, in what could have been a disaster, but they all hold their roles well.
Liz Dunn (playing Thora Birch) gives as a great performance if you ignore her terrible accent, from her great scream at the beginning to her "evil" look in the final scene.If you ignore "some" of the flaws in the script it still comes out a pretty good psychological horror movie..
'The Hole' looked like an interesting and different thriller, featuring a young and relatively unknown Keira Knightley.
If you are looking for some jump scare, psychological horror stuff or story that a bunch of teenagers get slaughtered during their adventure which is what I thought before watching this film, the hole is likely to disappoint you as it is much more of a drama.
This is a thriller about teenagers with some disturbing scenes and the story revolves around the character starred by Thora Birch.
As a film, 'The Hole' has some good music and a clever final twist (that follows the telegraphed "expected" twist); it also uses (like many other films) actors too old for their characters' years, and the beautiful Thora Birch (whose actually quite good playing English) as the supposedly plain girl. |
tt0120751 | Mighty Joe Young | As a child, Jill Young witnesses the death of her mother, Ruth Young and the mother of Joe, an infant mountain gorilla, at the hands of poachers led by Andrei Strasser, who loses his right thumb and trigger finger to Joe, swearing revenge.
Twelve years later, Jill has raised Joe, now grown to a height of 15 feet (4.6 m) and weighing 2,000 pounds (910 kg). As a result, other gorillas will not accept him and they are both now living in relative peace until a wildlife refuge director, Gregg O'Hara, convinces Jill they would be safer from poachers if they relocated to the United States.
The trio goes to Los Angeles, and win the hearts of the refuge staff at the conservancy, who put Jill in charge of Joe. Jill is approached by Strasser, who is now running a fraudulent animal preserve in Botswana, while actually selling animal organs on the black market. After seeing a news report about Joe, he is eager for revenge. At first Jill does not recognize Strasser, since Strasser's right hand is concealed in his coat pocket. He attempts to convince Jill that Joe would be better off in his wildlife refuge back in Africa. During a gala, Strasser's henchman, Garth, uses a poacher's noisemaker to scare Joe into a frenzy. Joe trashes the gala, with the intention of attacking Strasser, but is captured, and imprisoned in a concrete bunker.
When Jill discovers that Joe may be euthanized, she accepts Strasser's offer. She and the refuge staff smuggle Joe out in a truck. Before their departure, Gregg has fallen in love with Jill and kisses her goodbye. On the way to the airport, Jill notices the half-glove covering Strasser's missing fingers and recognizes him. She fights Strasser and Garth, then jumps from the truck onto Hollywood Boulevard, leading to several automobile accidents. Joe sees her and tilts the truck over onto its side and flees.
Gregg discovers that Strasser is a poacher and goes after Jill and Joe. He finds Jill, who reveals to Gregg that Strasser killed her mother and now plans to kill Joe. They track Joe to a carnival where he is playfully wreaking havoc. Strasser arrives as well and attempts to shoot Jill, but Garth, appalled at Strasser's ruthlessness, turns against him and saves Jill, causing Strasser to misfire at a spotlight, starting a fire and causing the Ferris wheel to break down. After knocking Garth unconscious, Strasser attempts to kill Jill in person, but Joe sneaks up behind them and throws Strasser onto a power line over a transformer. Short two fingers on the hand holding the wire, Strasser loses his grip and falls onto the transformer, where he is electrocuted to death.
Later, at the Santa Monica Pier, Joe attempts to save a child from atop the burning wheel, but the fire burns it down and Joe and the child fall to the ground, where Joe jumps off of the burning wheel, protecting the boy and knocking himself unconscious. Joe survives the fall and awakens and Jill mentions that they need to raise money to open a preserve for him. The young boy named Jason donates some change to Jill after hearing this, prompting the rest of the crowd to contribute.
Joe is returned to Uganda where Jill and Gregg open the "Joe Young Preserve." Finally free, Joe runs off into the jungle. | romantic, murder, melodrama | train | wikipedia | Mighty Joe Young is a big, big gorilla who gets time in L.A. escaping poachers who are after him in his home hill in Africa.
This is a remake of a remake of King Kong (1933), which was made in 1949 as the original Mighty Joe Young.This latest version is a remarkable computer and animatronic invention, justly nominated for this year's Academy Awards.
He really is whiz bang and totally believable as a creature on the screen.His best friends are Jill played by the very attractive Charlize Theron and Gregg played by Bill Paxton in a pretty light weight film for him considering some of his previous films (One False Move, A Simple Plan).But take note too of Naveen Andrews who plays the screwball jungle tour guide.
She worked better with Paxton than the contrived relationship he had with Helen Hunt in "Twister".I watched this movie with my kids and they loved it too.
Mighty Joe You is one of the better films out there suitable for both children and adults to enjoy and I highly recommended it.10/10.
But there is a good runner up: Joe. Once before filmed in 1956 also as `Mighty Joe Young', this story of a gorilla with a defect in his genes which causes him to grow out of proportions into a 2000 lbs primate, is a great one.The story begins with little Jill Young and her mother as they are in the jungle observing a group of gorilla's.
But danger is not gone, even in California old enemies come to hunt him down, and Joe ultimately has to undertake a very brave action...This is the outline of a very well crafted piece of cinema, family entertainment at its best.
Mighty Joe Young is terrific family fare, and one of the better movies of 1998.
It is based on the immortal classic from 1947 of the same name about a young woman and her faithful 20-foot tall, 2,000-pound gorilla named Joe.Great special effects featuring Joe are the real highlight of the film, especially the animatronics and CGI which truly bring Joe to life.There are also good performances, especially from Charlize Theron as the young woman, Jill, and Bill Paxton, fresh from Titanic, as the scientist who loves her.But, the real star is the title character, the Mighty Joe, who brings a wonderfully gentle screen presence, and is the true hero of the film.Highly recommended for children of all ages..
The special effects which place the giant gorilla among people, or chasing trucks, is very realistic, as is the sound track.The story starts in the jungle where gorilla hunter "Strasser" shoots and kills the baby gorilla's mom, and Jill Young's (Carlize Theron) mom is also killed.
In a stroke of good casting for a very small part, Linda Purl, who plays the mother, looks a lot like Theron.Many years later, when Paxton's character shows up, hunting wild species for blood samples, the capture of a big cat enrages "Joe" and he jumps out of the trees.
In the sweet climax, he climbs a tall ferris wheel to rescue a small child, survives, and eventually is put in a proper place for his safety.Most of the charm of this film is during the first half, in the jungle, with Joe and Jill growing up, then the discovery of the adult Joe. In a small part as the hunting organizer Paxton hires, Nuveen Andrews is just terrific, his delivery, his body language.
A toned-down remake of the 1949 monster movie (not that the original was violent or so) by Disney, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG is enjoyably pleasant nonetheless.
The special effects by Rick Baker, who actually started doing apes in a somewhat cheesy outcome during the 70's remake of KING KONG, are fine here in the film.
I really like that movie, the way that they brought Mighty Joe Young into another place.
Heck, even Disney needs to give this a proper DVD and Blu Ray release with actual special features like a documentary with interviews for the cast and crew (Bill Paxton, Charlize Theron, Ron Underwood, Rick Baker, James Horner, etc.) as they take a look back on how the movie went as there were problems, working on the special effects, when it first came out to mixed reviews, and maybe why the movie will always be a great movie as it has fans that remembers it.
The movie does have its sad moments like both Joe and Jill loosing their mothers, and most of all the ending; the ending really did make me cry as Joe risks his life to save a boy as the Ferris wheel was coming down.
With that said, "Mighty Joe Young" is a very moving and powerful film by Disney, and I give this a 10 out of 10..
When I was a kid back in the late '50s or early '60s, sometime around the Christmas season, I shed a few tears at the end of my first viewing of the original Mighty Joe Young, and as a middle aged adult back in '98 I shed a few tears again.
The new Joe Young looks and feels and sounds real, and Charlize Theron is a great replacement for Terry Moore though Terry was endearingly naive.
If the new King Kong teaches anything, it shows that telling the same great story in the same time period, with greater detail and better effects will bring an audience in and pay homage to an old classic.
It was like Zorro in just being an entertaining, fun movie for everyone.They've done a great job of creating Joe-- he seems very real and interacts very well with the environments.
Kids will fall in LOVE with him-- and the charming notion, presented in the movie, of being best friends with a 15-foot Gorilla.The first trailers I saw for this made it look like an action movie, but the current trailers make it look like a heartwarming, Free Willy-Type of film.
MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, in my opinion, is a very touching movie about a special friendship for all ages.
Me and my cousin weren't that really excited about the idea of going to watch Mighty Joe Young, as there weren't any other good films to go watch.The film started quietly and then about 5 minutes into the film there was action.
The worst is when the CGI ape arrives in California and the demographically balanced staff of the preserve come out to meet the truck (like a bunch of kids hearing the Good Humor chimes -- I guess they've never seen a truck before) and the monkey gets out.
12 years later, Jill (Charlize Theron) have to find safe haven for her ape friend Joe, whose day out attacking explorer/researcher Gregg O'Hara (Bill Paxton) brought unwanted attention to itself.Jill and Gregg form an uneasy alliance as they transport Joe to a man-made habitat in Los Angeles, and the habitat and Joe come under attack from the same poachers 12 years ago, this time wanting revenge.It's a simpler tale compared to King Kong, but somehow I find the storyline a poor cousin to that of Kong's.
Along the lines of Kong, only a beauty can tame the primal beast.Mighty Joe Young is a remake of its 1949 debut, which featured a stop-motion animated Joe. And oh, did I mentioned I watched this also because of Charlize Theron?
I think that perhaps this movie would have been a lot better had Disney not produced it...because I think the movie needed some sort of edge to it to compare it favorably with the original 1949 classic with Terry Moore.That said, the movie still is fairly enjoyable...the ape effects are something to watch for, as they are executed fairly flawlessly.
The new version of Mighty Joe Young is a special effects fan's dream.
Got a little intense at times for my seven year old, but all in all, a great movie to take the family to see..
My all time favourite film is the original King Kong, so I'm afraid I was sold on this from the beginning, Bill Paxton and Charlize Theron played their parts well enough, but Joe gets my vote for actor of the film.
Watch out for cameos by Ray Harryhausen, whose work in stop motion animation is legendary, he did the animation in the original Joe Young, and by Terry Moore, she played Jill in the original as well, they play the old couple in the tent at the reception for Joe. Effects aside the film was good fun, maybe a bit of an old storyline, poachers after a valuable creature, but well worth a watch.The music was good also, not usually my style some of the music in this, but the song that Charlize Theron, sings to Joe to get him to sleep is just beautiful.
Mighty Joe Young is a special effects wonder!.
I just recently took my little cousin to Mighty Joe Young and I was enchanted by this movie.
They loved every minute of it - particularly when Joe played hide-and-seek - and want me to take them again.On a more adult note, I thought the effects were stunning, and although I've never seen Charlize Theron before she turned in an excellent performance.So "two thumbs up" from my family!.
And like Lost World, the best thing about Joe Young is the Special Effects, I couldn't imagine that 2000 pound gorilla is a man in a suit.
The Ray Harryhausen effects are stunning (watch Joe's rampage in a jungle-themed nightclub, where lions are tossed to their deaths--PETA'd have a BIRD with that one today!) The 1998 repeat is dull, stupid, manipulative, loud, and even has a feel-good ending tacked on that made me want to put my fist through the screen.I realize this movie wasn't made for me--a 36 year old male with an affinity toward classic Hollywood.
Disney has remade the 1949 "Mighty Joe Young", capitalizing on the elaborate digital effects available to make the fantastic giant ape seem real.
What the film is missing is a spectacular central action sequence such as in the original where Joe escapes in the Rainforest-like nightclub releasing real wild animals into the audience.
I don't know if it's me, but it seems that since "Jurassic Park" came out in 1993, everyone is tring to make a spactaculur special effects movie; Godzilla, Jumunji, Independence day, Might Joe young....
They weren't interested in Life is Beautiful, it wasn't even in English.Mighty Joe Young is a TERRIBLE movie.
Now, before I begin this review, I would like to say that I never saw the original Mighty Joe Young this remake was based on because I guess there weren't any 1940s movies for me to watch, but looking back at this as a child when it was first released at the late 90s, I simply loved it as much as anyone else.
Sure, it's not a masterpiece due to it's formulaic storyline and cartoony characters, but I think it's an underrated childhood favorite of mine and I still love it ever since.The story, although formulaic, is actually faithful to the original storyline of the original Mighty Joe Young, but made some changes to the present time while being helped by the extraordinary special effects.
Charlize Theron did great as Jill Young and Bill Paxton did a good job as Professor Gregg O' Hara (I also liked the relationship between them), but the rest of the actors ranged from decent to so-so.
It also has a lovely music score from James Horner and it's his best solid music score as a composer.The film did become a box office bomb when it first came out in 1998, but that doesn't mean it could not be recommended to others because this is an underrated tear-jerking movie that I loved as a kid and I still love it as a young adult now.
I haven't seen the original, but this one is certainly a lovely and heartwarming story of friendship and unconditional love.I thought Mighty Joe Young was very well executed.
A young woman (Charlize Theron) who has raised a giant gorilla named Joe from infancy brings him to an animal sanctuary in Southern California with the aid of a zoologist (Bill Paxton).
Meanwhile, a poacher from the past seeks vengeance on the creature (Rade Serbedzija), which breaks free to cause havoc."Mighty Joe Young" (1998) was loosely based on the 1949 movie of the same name.
I can watch it and enjoy it for what it is, a more kid-friendly version of King Kong with essentially Kong Jr. But, despite a good cast, great F/X and lots of action & adventure, the movie's somehow shallow with cardboard thin characters.
I watched the original MIGHTY JOE YOUNG recently and really enjoyed as a lesser variant of KING KONG.
"Mighty Joe Young" is updated with personality and the film builds to an exciting climax as the big guy goes ape in Hollywood.****** Mighty Joe Young (12/25/98) Ron Underwood ~ Charlize Theron, Bill Paxton, Rade Serbedzija, John Alexander.
I liked the music, Joe looks so real in the movie.
I recommend this to anyone who likes a good family movie.
I was surprised at myself for not liking "Mighty Joe Young." I really thought I was going to enjoy it.
Sweet, and faithful to the 1949 original Mighty Joe Young, this is one of the better remakes I have seen.
The two movies complement each other almost perfectly!A fairly faithful, straightforward update of the original plot (which itself is something of an upbeat remake of King Kong), someone definitely did their homework in re-creating Mighty Joe. The computer effects and animatronics are believable, but the facial expressions and primate mannerisms are what make him so absolutely convincing.(spoilers):While the "giant-gorilla-on-the-loose-in-the-big-city" scenes don't compare to their truly outrageous counterparts in the original MJY (real, live African lions being catapulted about the Coconut Grove!), they're entertaining enough for audiences of all ages.The remake also felt some politically-correct need to add bad guys that weren't necessary in the original, but by introducing poachers that leave the girl and Joe orphaned, they also seem to offer an ironic apology for what almost certainly happened in acquiring the baby gorilla for the original movie..
Mighty Joe Young starts in Africa where conservationist Professor Gregory O'Hara (Bill Paxton) discovers the existence of Joe Young, a huge 2000 pound giant Ape that has been looked after & cared for by Jill Young (Charlize Theron) ever since their mother's were killed on the same night by poachers twelve years ago.
At first Joe seems happy enough but once again he comes under threat from poachers & when he runs amok at a dinner party he is considered a threat to the public, it's up to Jill & O'Hara to save Joe before he is either killed by poachers or the authorities...Directed by Ron Underwood this big budget Disney production was a remake of the same titled Mighty Joe Young (1949), while not terrible I suppose this remake is nowhere near as good as the original & at times I found it a bit of an overly sentimental bore with far too many annoying Disney-esquire touches.
The acting is bland & I usually quite like Bill Paxton but not in a family film such as this.Mighty Joe Young is a remake that isn't as good as the original & comes across as a second rate King Kong, hell even the ridiculous King Kong Lives (1986) is better than this.
Basically a King Kong wannabe that doesn't cut the mustard & isn't as good as the original Mighty Joe Young either but is still watchable on a corny level..
Later, Jill's mother has to try to protect the gorillas from poachers.12 years later, Joe is (very) full-grown, and this time he is threatened by Gregg O'Hara and his men, who want to take animals into captivity.
Good stuff by the CGI guys, guys in suits and puppets.Bill Paxton-plays Bill Paxton.Charlize Theron-pretty young and nothing great here, but okay.
Hard to see the poaching run in the opening scenes on my DVD.Rather formulaic, right to the Zoo-guys helping Mighty Joe escape.(Paymer, King) we have seen this 1000 times.Overall nothing great but a worthy family type movie, the orig.
And watched it and this is what I think and remember.*SPOILERS BELOW*Mighty Joe young is made by Disney and I think they did a wonderful job with the story and the meaning of the story.
This remake of Mighty Joe Young updates the story to present day but keeps the same plot beats, and dresses it in state of the art special effects.The story - misunderstood ape in the city, hunted, but redeems himself by heroic action during calamity - works as well as it did in the original, and is augmented by wicked hunters.Charlize Theron and Bill Paxton are attractive leads, but the film belongs to Joe. He is achieved by a mix of animatronics and CGI (and, I suspect, the occasional bloke in an ape suit), but he succeeds as a character who displays emotion and engages audience sympathetic.This bright, colourful film is a charming and exciting family movie..
Twelve years later, eco-minded Professor Gregory 'Gregg' O'Hara (Bill Paxton) is in the same jungle, and stumbles upon the grown up Jill Young (Charlize Theron) and genetically abnormally large Joe the gorilla living relatively peacefully.
(plot spoilers)I have long been a fan of the original 1949 version of Mighty Joe Young.
It had great for it's time special effects, a charming story, lots of humor, action, and adventure.
Practically everything the original was, this movie isn't.Given the subject matter of Mighty Joe Young, one would expect something a little more lighthearted in tone.
There is an exciting chase sequence at the end, with some good special effects, and a daring rescue by Joe.
Mighty Joe Young (1998): Dir: Ron Underwood / Cast: Charlize Theron, Bill Paxton, Rade Serbedzija, Peter Firth, Regina King: Ray Harryhausen created the giant gorilla in the 1949 classic.
And there's the predictable arc of Mighty Joe Young's sympathetic actions throughout the course of the film. |
tt0106664 | The Dark Half | Castle Rock, Maine. 1968. 13-year-old Thad Beaumont is a junior high school student who wants to become a writer and spends many hours in his bedroom writing violent-themed stories. His mother buys him a typewriter to use and soon, Thad starts having violent headaches and hearing strange noises... like hundreds of small birds screeching. One day while waiting for the school bus, he collapses and is taken to the hospital where X-rays show "mass" in his brain that is thought to be a tumor which requires sugery. The exploratory operation reveals that the growth in his brain is actually a fetus complete with an eye, teeth, and fingernails. The doctor summaries that it is Thad's twin embryo which never developed and which Thad's foetus absorbed. The growth is removed, while at the same time, thousands of screeching birds fly around the hospital.23 years later. A grown-up Thad Beaumont is a fairly successful writer who teaches an intermediate writing class at the local university. He is married to Liz and they have two twin children, a 10-month old boy and girl. One day after class, a strange man named Fred Clawson whom is a reporter from New York City approaches him and addresses Thad as "George Stark". In his office, Fred reveals that he knows that Thad has been using a pseudonym to write violent best-selling thriller novels, and demands blackmail money once a month to keep his mouth shut. After Thad confides in Liz about his predicament, he decides to "come clean" about Thad's dual idenity to the public to get rid of the blackmailer. Thad and Liz bring together a group of reporters and photographers where he publicy reveals his pseudonym as well as shows them the remote lake house where he writes his novels as George Stark. As a gag, Thad and Liz "bury" George Stark in the local cemetery.A few days later, the local gravedigger Holt, calls the police when he discovers a large hole at the gravesite where the fake grave used to be; something has dug itself out. Soon, one by one, all the people who knew about Thad's alias are savagely murdered by an unseen assailant. First when the photographer, Homer Gamache, is attacked by a hitchhiker and beaten to death with his prostetic leg. When Sheriff Alan Pangborn calls upon Thad the next day, he suspects him to be the killer because of a witness who described the killer being simlar looking, and Thad's fingerprints are found at the crime scene.Soon after, Thad's old headaches begin to return. When Thad learns that Fred Clawson has been found dead in his New York apartment and the words "the sparrows are flying again" are painted in the murder victim's blood at the scene of the crime, Thad becomes convinced that George Stark, his so-called "dark half", has somehow become embodied and is taking revenge against all those around Thad for being "killed off."Next, 'George Stark' breaks into the New York apartment of Miriam, Thad's publicist, whom he forces her to call Thad and leave a message on his answering machine before he kills her. Back in Castle Rock, Sheriff Pangborn pays Thad another visit to inform him about the latest murder, but despite strong evidence which included Thad's fingerprints found at the scene, does not arrest him because of Thad's strong alibi.Next, George Stark goes after Mike Donaldson, the alcoholic reporter by ambushing him in the hallway outside his apartment and beats him to death. After each killing, Stark phones Thad to infrom him about each killing. Stark then sneaks into Thad's publisher, Rick Cowley's apartment and slashes him to death as well, killing two building window washers who witness the killing. Stark calls Thad again and threatens to kill every he knows unless he begins writing novels as George Stark again. However, Stark begins to slowly decompose as his embodiemen is fading away. He realizes that he will decompose completely unless Thad begins writing under his name again.Investigating George Stark's origins, Thad goes to see the former doctor who treated his "brain tumor" who confides in him about the undeveloped fetus. Stark arrives and kills the doctor and leaves Thad behind to discover the body... and make it appear that Thad is responsible for the murder. Thad flees from the police where Stark contacts him again and tells him that he has abducted his wife and twin daughter and son and threatens to kill them unless he meets him at the summer lake house and begins writing as George Stark again.Thad confides in a old professor colleague, named Reggie, whom tells him that Stark's embodiment was the result of Thad encouraging his Stark to write and that in order for Thad to defeat Stark without killing himself, he must confront his "dark half". Reggie tells Thad that the appearance of the sparrows are the condutits of the bringers of life and death whom can either help Thad or kill him.Thad drives out to the summer lake house where he finally confronts George Stark face-to-face (whom has now decomposed so badly that he is using bandages and dressing to keep his decomposing face intact). Taking him to his office, Stark forces Thad to start writing a new book so he can become powerful again. Thad tries to stall for time, instead discussing the violent nature of the thriller book. As Thad begins writing, he tells Stark to take over the writing as Thad takes advantage of Stark's weakened state to begin a fistfight with him. While the tied up Liz is outside the office, MILLIONS of sparrows decend upon the house to collect one of the two writers. Just when Stark seems to have the upper hand, Thad reveals that he allowed Stark to take over the writing so the sparrows will collect him instead. The small birds swarm into the house and literally consume Stark who screams in agony as the birds carry his remains away and dissapear into the moonlit night, while Thad and Liz and their twins are saved. | murder | train | imdb | null |
tt0251114 | Hart's War | During World War II, U.S. Army intelligence officer First Lieutenant Thomas Hart (Farrell) is captured by German forces. While interrogating Hart, the Germans coerce him to divulge intelligence by taking away his boots, causing his feet to become frostbitten and badly injured, and leaving him, naked, in a very cold cell. He is then transferred by train to Stalag VI-A prisoner of war camp at Hemer, Germany. While en route, a P-51 Mustang attacks (the letters POW were painted on the top of the train, but got covered by thick snow). To save themselves, the POWs leave the train and spell P-O-W with their bodies and prevent further strafing.
After arriving at the new POW camp, Lt. Hart is interviewed by the ranking American officer, Colonel William McNamara (Willis). When McNamara asks if he cooperated with the Germans after he was captured, Hart denies it. McNamara knows this to be a lie when Hart says he only endured three days of interrogation. McNamara does not reveal this to Hart, but sends him to bunk in a barracks for enlisted men, rather than allow him to bunk with the other officers.
Two black pilots are brought to the camp and assigned to Hart's barracks. They are the only blacks in the camp, and their situation is compounded by their status as officers. Staff Sgt. Vic W. Bedford (Hauser), a racist, is their primary antagonist. One of the pilots, Lt. Lamar Archer, is executed when accused of keeping a weapon that Bedford had planted in his bunk. When Bedford himself subsequently turns up dead, the surviving pilot, Lt. Lincoln A. Scott (Howard) is accused of killing Bedford in retaliation. A law student before the war, Hart is appointed by McNamara to defend the accused pilot at his court-martial, a trial to which the camp commandant, Oberst Werner Visser (Iureş) agrees.
Much later, McNamara reveals to Hart that the "defense," like the trial itself, is a sham, an elaborate distraction to hide a planned attack on a nearby ammunition plant (the U.S. Army mistakenly believes it to be a shoe factory) by McNamara and his men, in aid of the war effort. It is revealed that Bedford planted the weapon in Archer's bunk, knowing the guards would kill him for it. In return, he gave them the location of a secret radio. It is also revealed he planned to escape with money and clothes, likely in return for telling the Nazis about McNamara's plan. McNamara realized this, and killed Bedford to prevent it. Hart is shocked that McNamara as a senior officer would sacrifice a fellow American (Scott) to protect the planned attack on the ammunition plant. McNamara reminds Hart that in war, sometimes one man must be sacrificed to save the lives of many. Hart acknowledges this, but retorts that it is McNamara's duty to ensure that he (McNamara), not Lincoln Scott, is the sacrifice. Disgusted, McNamara says that Hart does not know anything about duty, in reference to how Hart gave in to a "Level 1" interrogator after three days, whereas McNamara was tortured for a month.
McNamara's ploy nearly succeeds. The escaped soldiers destroy the nearby ammunition plant. However, at the end of the court-martial, Hart falsely confesses to Bedford's murder in order to save Lt. Scott. McNamara overhears Hart's confession; McNamara has a change of heart and voluntarily returns to the camp to accept responsibility. Visser holds McNamara accountable and personally executes him on the spot, but spares the remaining prisoners. Three months later, the German army surrenders to the Allies. The prison camp is liberated and all of the surviving prisoners, including Hart, are sent home. Hart's final comments are that he learned about honor, duty, and sacrifice. | murder, flashback | train | wikipedia | The stellar performances by Bruce Willis and Marcel Lures stole the show away from the title character, Lt. Hart (played well by Colin Farrel).
Other Kommandants during this time may not have been as "humane," but, because of his background, Visser's lack of brutality (again, with exceptions) is understandable.Bruce Willis is clearly a supporting actor in this film, but I felt he had a strong and important role and was, arguably, the CENTRAL character while Colin Farrell is the LEADING character.
But if you don't mind an interesting drama about prejudice among Americans in a German POW camp, which although slow at times, leads to an interesting pay-off with a twist that (kinda) makes the whole thing worth it, then check it out.
I especially enjoyed the subdued though "grizzled" looking Bruce Willis as Colonel McNamara and Marcel Iures as the camps' German commander..
The movie's thorough lack of character development hinders the best efforts of the actors (Bruce Willis, Collin Farrell, and Terrance Howard all do comendable work with the restrictive material they are given) to make the audience identify with them - resulting in an emotional climax that is supposed to evoke sympathy and respect but instead falls flat on its face.
We see Willis' McNamara's treatment with Farrell's Hart more evidently, but for McNamara himself, say the quiet scene where he visited the flyer in isolation waiting for trial - more imminent of death, we simply see him giving Lt. Scott a book; when Scott opens it, it's the New Testament.
They all require some mind stimulating thinking: 1996's "Primal Fear," the crime and lawyers film with Richard Gere, Laura Linney, and the fascinating debut 'hell' of a performance from Edward Norton; 1998's "Fallen", one devil of an intriguing storyline where Denzel Washington, along with Embeth Davidtz, tackling the many faces (Elias Koteas included) of the elusive Lucifer (music was by Tan Dun of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"; 2000's "Frequency" was the mind-twisting time-bending drama of son and father team, Jim Caviezel and Dennis Quaid.
I did see "Stalag 17" and "The Great Escape" again, but my sense is "Hart's War" stands on its own, it's not really a humor filled "17" not an action packed "Escape" movie, it's more of a humane story at its core, offering an aspect of life's outlook, military or not..
The action focuses on Willis as the brooding leading officer in a POW camp, Colin Farrell is the law student pressed into becoming a defender for a Black Pilot wrongly accused of murder.
Viewers who like Willis will not be disappointed and Colin Farrell is sure to delight the ladies with his Irish good looks, dark "little boy" eyes and expressions.
This film deals with the prejudice that existed amongst POW soldiers within the Nazi camps and takes you through an emotional-moral-roller-coaster ride when Farrell is asked to represent a soldier accused of "murdering' another solider who was vehemently racist.
I won't spoil it by giving away too much.As a student of history, particularly World War Two, I have to say that I really enjoyed this movie, not just for the original story line but the mood cast by the photography and the music score.I highly recommend Hart's War as an intelligent, entertaining movie.8.5 out of 10.
My grampa, being a war vet, loved it and said it was Bruce Willis's best dramatic role...this movie is a story of honor, no matter what color your skin is.
"Hart's War" is a stalag flick which tells of events among the American soldiers suffering hardship in a WWII prison camp.
I suspect that poor test audience reviews pushed the studio to create a trailer that publicized Hart's War as an action film, but after the first 15 minutes you'll realize you're watching more of a courtroom drama than a WWII film with the same pace as "Saving Private Ryan" or "The Dirty Dozen."The drama unfolds painfully slow and is handicapped by 2002 racial commentary awkwardly forced upon characters set in the 1940's.
Sappy diatribes about honor, racial tolerance and American patriotism detract from the film rather than enhance it because they exist as the story, not as a subtext to it.Willis' performance is, as you would expect if you knew this was a dramatic role and not an action one, at its best, vapid.The fact that Hart's War takes the departure from action to drama is a real shame, because the first twenty minutes or so had the makings of an awesome prison escape movie.
Willis is well-cast as the American ranking officer, Farrell equally impressive in the central role as a reluctant lawyer, but the real highlights are Howard as the beleaguered Lieutenant Scott, and Iures as the suave Nazi commandant.
If you liked "STALAG 17" with William Holden, this film is quite similar and gives you some idea what POW's went through during the BIG WAR.
It's a wasted opportunity, as the film looks quite good and clearly cost quite a lot to make.It has a lot of politically correct stuff that really wasn't an issue back then and it's not very realistic to come up with it in this film - its very like A Few Good Men, which I also thought was boring and stupid.As someone else pointed out, it was nearly the end of the war anyway so I can't really see why they were so bothered about escaping - as for the 'Shoe factory' next door, well who gives really?
this is quite a good film, although u have to take the movie as it comes and ignore the cliches.the acting is superb colin farrel and bruce willis are superb, its not gonna blow u away buts its a very good film.the suspence of the film is enough to enjoy it and its well worth a look.
Typically Bruce Willis brings a bunch to any movie part and this is no exception, however from the director that brought NYPD Blue (1994-2005), 'Fallen'(1998) w/Denzel Washington and 'Frequency'(2000) w/Dennis Quaid two well set movies and a 'Hit' T.V. series, that are great additions to any entertainment library, I felt that this director, had one or two things missing from "Hart's War".
Please don't take me wrong, I love and I mean love a good drama any day, but Hart's was just one of those maybe fall by the wayside in the movie arena type films.
Hart's War, was almost there for me but I remember walking out, thinking about the story and the scenes therein, but not fully making that real connection that I have come to expect in a well done Willis Drama.
Colin Farrell and Bruce Willis's best movie..
This movie is proof that when given good material, Bruce Willis and Colin Farrell will come through with flying colors.
I usually am not interested in war movies, but this was more of a courtroom drama/racial-type movie (if that makes any sense.)I thought the acting was very good and I though the story line was very good as well.
People keep on saying that it's not historically accurate, but alot of the German officers did do the POW's favors for bribes.I thought this movie was very touching and it was definetly worth the time to watch it..
The story has a lot of cool aspects to it though, like another reviewer mentioned, it's got racial issues, courtroom drama, a prison camp setting, and war overtones.
Terrence Howard was another great addition to the cast and Cole Hauser also deserves a some credit.Well, if you're a fan of Bruce Willis or if you kind of like what you've seen in the trailers, then you should definitely check this film out.
But it is of major importance to read how Mr Ebert would have improved(?) the plot ending:"I would have liked it better if the far-off bugle had been playing under a black character at the end and not a white one."So, it looks like Mr Ebert would have preferred the continuation of the racist message the film has portrayed up to that point rather than let a white man be the hero.
In Hart's War he plays the American commander in a German concentration camp near the end of WW2, but Willis seems to be holding back, reserved, muted.
He's not even the central character.Compared to say The Great Escape which would have to be the benchmark in the movie realm, Hart's War lacks dramatic punch.
I wouldn't have been surprised if there was hot running water.Colin Farrell's character Hart, the center of the film in spite of Willis's top billing, handles his material well but it seemed he should have been back in The States at his posh law school, of that he really had never left.We get glimpses of Jewish detainees on death trains, but it doesn't quite register as awful.
It's about character building or disintegrating in times of hardship, offering aspects or the wisdom of life's outlook, military or otherwise.Colin Farrell, who delivered an intense performance in Joel Schumacher's "Tigerland" 2000 (and looking forward to his appearance in this summer's "Minority Report" with Spielberg directing and Tom Cruise leading), once again demonstrated his keen acting portraying Lt. Hart, the central character opposite Bruce Willis' Col. McNamara in "Hart's War." For young Hart who has an affluent family background and was educated as a lawyer, he is fighting the 'war' -- yes, his war at hand, inside the POW camp vs.
"Hart's War" is a well delivered film, with no simple answers to the reasons why, of things happening, people reacting, circumstances changing
Like his "Primal Fear" 1996, "Fallen" 1998, and "Frequency" 2000, director Gregory Hoblit's films can be thought provoking.
When I first saw the trailer to Hart's War I was expecting two things: It was gonna be a shoot-em-up kill the Nazis war movie and that Bruce Willis was going to play the role of Hart.
In 1944 Belgium, during World War II, handsome American lieutenant Colin Farrell (as Thomas "Tom" Hart) is captured by the Nazis and sent to a German Prisoner of War (POW) camp.
But we should not guess the big revelation before Farrell, who seems like a fairly smart guy, and the ending is most unsatisfactory.****** Hart's War (2/15/02) Gregory Hoblit ~ Colin Farrell, Bruce Willis, Marcel Iures, Terrence Howard.
Other than that, the two are very similar, except that I think Stalag 17 is much better done, deeper, more interesting than Hart's War.Honestly, this story just worked too hard to get from A to B, because B was in no way the logical conclusion of A, no matter what turns were inserted into the script.
Also, Hart's heroic act was actually among the most foolish things he could possibly do, speeding up what he should have wanted to slow down.About the race issue here, some of the things that the pilots (both African-Americans) said were very interesting and worth listening too, but it really seemed like they were an otherwise superfluous wrinkle in the puzzle, as though a studio exec watched Stalag 17 and said, "You know what ?I don't want to redo this movie, but I bet if we made the pilots black instead of white we could call this original." To me that cheapens the film, if the crux of your film is "heroism in light of a trial fraught with racism" then racism should be an integral part of the film, instead if you took it out and changed a few words here and there it would be the exact same movie ?which disappoints me even futher.I like war movies, and though I gave this a 6 I cannot say that it is a bad war movie I've seen.
It has good moments and it is interesting at times, but if you want to see a WWII film about prison camps and conflict among soldiers see Stalag 17.
It works not only as a war movie (with harrowing sequences, and not forgetting that Russian POWs were treated even worse than Americans) but as a first-rate mystery complete with courtroom sequence and hugely satisfying denouement, layered with dramatic surprises.
There are dozens of truly great war pictures, but I can't think of another character, not even a real one like Patton, as fully explored as Col. McNamara (a solid Bruce Willis).
If you liked Hart's War you should see `The Great Escape' because I am very certain of the fact that you will dislike this movie before it finishes.
There are so many war movies,and mostly of them are talking about the World War II.Germany in these films always are described as the evil side - in fact some of them definitely were.And all the stories about war might have a noble person,in HART's WAR,which would be two or more,but Bruce Willis is the only reason for me to watch this long,a little boring and slow movie.He came up lately,but his name is the first of the cast list--that's the super star's place.I think Bruno want to give us a tough but brave and noble captain's figure,did he?Maybe,not.I can find the way he talks is similar to KORBEN in THE FIFTH ELEMENT,or let me say in this way:he might play a role of a captain,but he gives me the feeling that he is still the cab driver.Another hand,he is old.From the face,to the figure,and the voice.Bruno is 47 when he acted this movie.Let's see Colin,how about his performance?En...not so bad.I always regarded he as a playboy.BUT,In this film,he looks just like a college student who knew nothing about the war.The final decision he made might be bad,for the captain's death.Might be right,for he began to know what the real meaning of a SOLDIER.I cried in the end of the movie,and the background music is good.The whole film gives me the sad feeling,a little same as THE PIANIST.But why many people don't like HART's WAR?Maybe,just maybe,because of Bruno.Sorry Bruno but you don't suit these kind of characters.I'm waiting for your DIE HARD 4.0,Bruno..
But it fairly uses the conventions of the WWII & prison camp films in the service of the story it means to tell, and it tells a good story.As story, Hart's War amounts to a complex, but in no way overly complicated, study of images of American ethical ideal, of American heroism.
As such it's a story that demands deft character construction, the portrayal of individuals as fully formed -- not caricature -- in motivation, action, & interaction; and the script obviously makes its characters its heart.As film, Hart's War is carefully composed: tightly paced, woven together with great streamlining camera & production work, unfolded with the inevitability of good storytelling and little of either the audio or the visual that could be called unnecessary or indulgent.
Employing every WWII stereotype in the book, this movie's drudging march takes us to a German POW camp (reminiscent of "Hogan's Heros") where the Nazi commandant is less in control than an imprisoned US colonel (Bruce Willis).
In the POW camp, the CO Col. William McNamara (Bruce Willis) doesn't trust Hart.
After getting off to a little bit of a slow start, this turns into a pretty good courtroom drama style of movie, set in - of all places - a German POW camp during World War II, when Allied prisoners are given permission to set up a court martial to hold a trial for one of their officers accused of killing an enlisted man.
McNamara orders Hart (who's a law student in civilian life) to defend Scott in a court martial.Until close to the end of the movie, what you think you're seeing is a POW version of a lynching.
Marcel Iures plays the humane German commandant while Bruce Willis plays the tough-as-nails American colonel of the POWs. Cole Hauser is on hand as a racist soldier.
The film isn't really about survival in the POW camp, but rather the tensions of the prisoners and the criminal drama.Some have complained that no fascist camp colonel in his right mind would allow such a trial as depicted in the movie.
I'm sure entertainment was a huge factor since POW camp life is just as boring for the captors as it is for the captives over time.The climax telegraphs that this is a war MOVIE and not real life, but it's packed with action and gripping drama.
Although it failed at the box office, "Hart's War" is a very good WWII POW camp movie and, in some ways, great.THE FILM RUNS 125 minutes and was shot in the Czech Republic.GRADE: B+/A-.
Hart's War seems like another Bruce Willis movie.
This film is less a war movie than a courtroom drama set in a POW camp.
Poor acting, too many plot points, and an unresolved ending makes me give "Hart's War" a(wait for it
) BLAH!.
Okay movies like that might have been made with tons during the 50's and the 60's but these days they are rare and that's the biggest merit of the film plus a brilliant (as always) performance from the most underrated actor ever : Bruce Willis....
Any sign of insolence from anybody, would be instant death.There is a whole number of these plot/action points which happen throughout the movie, like the Willis character being insolent to the camp commandant.
Not content to stay there, HART'S WAR then turns into a murder mystery (with added racial commentary) before finally setting on its path as a courtroom drama for the rest of the running time.The veering from genre to genre gives the film a bit of a disjointed feel, but for the most part I could forgive that because I found this to be an entertaining movie.
"Hart's War" proves Bruce Willis is much more than just an action-movie-actor.
I just ordered it on pay-per-view and was very impressed with the performances of Colin Farrell and Bruce Willis in this drama about a POW in World War II.
This movie is great, on of its kind of a war film. |
tt0093605 | Near Dark | One night, Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar), a young man in a small town, meets an attractive young drifter named Mae (Jenny Wright). Just before sunrise, she bites him on the neck and runs off. The rising sun causes Caleb's flesh to smoke and burn. Mae arrives with a group of roaming vampires in an RV and takes him away. The most psychotic of all the vampires, Severen (Bill Paxton), wants to kill Caleb, but Mae reveals that she has already turned him. Their charismatic leader Jesse Hooker (Lance Henriksen) reluctantly agrees to allow Caleb to remain with them for a week to see if he can learn to hunt and gain the group's trust. Caleb is unwilling to kill to feed, which alienates him from the others. To protect him, Mae kills for him and then has him drink from her wrist.
Jesse's group enters a bar and kills or injures the occupants. They set the bar on fire and flee the scene. After Caleb endangers himself to help them escape their motel room during a daylight police raid, Jesse and the others are temporarily mollified. Meanwhile, Caleb's father (Tim Thomerson) searches for Jesse's group. A child vampire in the group, Homer (Joshua John Miller) meets Caleb's sister Sarah (Marcie Leeds) and wants to turn her into his companion, but Caleb objects. While the group argues, Caleb's father arrives and holds them at gunpoint, demanding that Sarah be released. Jesse taunts him into shooting, but regurgitates the bullet before wrestling the gun away. In the confusion, Sarah opens a door, letting in the sunlight and forcing the vampires back. Burning, Caleb escapes with his family.
Caleb suggests they try giving him a blood transfusion to attempt to cure him. The transfusion successfully reverses Caleb's transformation. That night, the vampires search for Caleb and Sarah. Mae distracts Caleb by trying to persuade him to return to her while the others kidnap his sister. Caleb discovers the kidnapping and his tires slashed, but gives chase on horseback. When the horse shies and throws him, he is confronted by Severen. Caleb commandeers a tractor-trailer and runs Severen over. The injured vampire suddenly appears on the hood of the truck, manages to rip apart the wiring in the engine. Caleb jackknifes the vehicle and jumps out as the truck explodes, killing Severen. Seeking revenge, Jesse and his girlfriend Diamondback (Jenette Goldstein) pursue him, but are forced to flee in their car as dawn breaks.
Not wanting Sarah to become another childlike monster, Mae breaks out of the back of the car with Sarah. Mae's flesh begins to smoke as she's burned by the sun but carries Sarah into Caleb's arms, taking refuge under his jacket. Homer attempts to follow, but as he runs he dies from exposure to the sun. Jesse and Diamondback, their sun-proofing ruined, also begin to burn. They attempt to run Caleb and Sarah over but fail, dying as the car blows up. Mae awakens later, her burns now healed. She too has been given a transfusion and is cured. She and Caleb comfort each other in a reassuring hug as the film ends. | comedy, dark, gothic, murder, neo noir, cult, revenge, violence, atmospheric, good versus evil, insanity, romantic, claustrophobic, suspenseful, sadist | train | wikipedia | One of the best modern vampire flicks around is this stylish, funny, and all around adventurous cult classic.Young cowboy is literally bitten by a beautiful stranger and ends up joining a band of blood-suckers who roam the American heartland.Although Near Dark is often over-shadowed by the ultra-hip vampire movie The Lost Boys (1987), Near Dark is a far more juicier treat for horror fans.
However it's young Bill Paxton who does most of the scene stealing (and the comic relief) as a scary, yet cheeky vampire thug.A modern vamp classic that delivers on all levels, Near Dark firmly remains a favorite of the genre and one of the most entertaining horror films of the 80's.**** out of ****.
I think that anyone who hasn't seen this film should give it a look, because it cleverly combines comedy, drama, horror and gore, but for people who are slightly sickened by the site of blood and horrific killings, be wary of Severens' spur to the neck slaughter..
Near Dark is my favourite vampire film and I am proud to be part of the cult following this film has gathered years since its release.The camera work is great, Bigelow does a really great job in the director's chair and always does her best to make a film look as visually impressive as possible; it's hard to believe this was a low budget movie.
I can see why Kathryn Bigelow and James Cameron ended up married briefly as they both have similar integrity when it comes to film making.The casting of the movie is its best point.
Kathryn Bigelow's dusty, ambient vampire western is a timeless classic for me, and a lived in genre entry with stellar performances, razor sharp writing (Eric Red power), and confident direction from Bigelow, at her very best when working in the pulpy realm of action, crime and horror.
That's not to say that Near Dark is only Paxton's movie, as Adrian Pasdar and the incredible Jenny Wright do well in the lead roles, as do the rest of the support players.
The music by Tangerine Dream is right on cue as well, and it brings a surreal, trippy sensation to the proceedings, which emphasises the dream-like state that our hero has been put into.Near Dark is a vampire movie free of the usual clichés and one that makes it's own rules, which makes it must see for the vampire fan.
Meanwhile Loy and Sarah are looking for Caleb; when they meet each other in a motel, Caleb has to choose between his beloved family and his love for Mae."Near Dark" is earlier work of the Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow, an original and gore road-movie and one of my favorite cult-movies.
As to those who have placed this as the best vampire movie of all time, I can only truly hope and pray that you have a very very obtuse sense of humor and indeed are making a satirical joke.My advice, don't go anywhere near this DVD if you value a coherent story with even mildly intelectual characters..
Will Caleb pay the ultimate price for love and eternal life - or, will he find a way to defeat the evil growing inside him each night...?" Here is a "vampire" film which is a little disarming because it operates outside the range of (once upon a time) accepted, recognizable vampire rules.
And, Civil War veteran Lance Henriksen (as Jesse), bosomy girlfriend Jenette Goldstein (as Diamondback), sadistic pal Bill Paxton (as Severen), plus adolescent punk Joshua Miller (as Homer) set the screen on fire.******** Near Dark (10/2/87) Kathryn Bigelow ~ Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton.
As if the killing weren't senseless enough - more often than not - the gang fails to drink any of the blood they spill, making me wonder if they are really vampires or it's just an excuse.Bottomline: Near Dark is a good choice for a night of MST3K-style fun, but steer clear of those who take this movie seriously and like it..
I for one, however, believe that the best bloodsucker film to spring forth from the era of big hair and big money is Kathryn Bigelow's criminally underrated cinematic crown jewel, Near Dark.This compelling , overlooked vampire flick where the word vampire is cleverly not mentioned is my favorite vampire movie of all time!
Mucho praise should be showered upon Bigelow and co-screenwriter Eric Red for shunning some overused vampire movie clichés and injecting fresh blood into the often anemic genre.And praise to Tangerine Dream for providing a lush and moody, surreal Southwestern score that will capture your auditory senses.It's a shame that nearly twenty years later most people are still in the dark about Near Dark.
They are actually a band of vampire outlaws who has been on murder sprees for a long time as Caleb unwillingly becomes one of them once he craves for blood from the humans they murder but wants to find a way to be normal again, his father Loy (Tom Thomerson) searches for him as he is the only one that can be his cure.A brilliant, ultra-violent and original modern supernatural western horror movie from co-writer and director Kathryn Bigelow.
Also recommended: "Vamp", "The Lost Boys", "Vampire Hunter D", "Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust", "Fright Night 1 & 2", "Night of the Living Dead (1968 and 1990)", "The Devil's Rejects", "House of 1000 Corpses", "Interview with the Vampire", "The Hunger", "Lifeforce", "Dracula (1931, 1979, Jesse Franco and 1992 Bram Stoker)", "Let The Right One In", "Twilight Saga", "The Addiction", "Habit", "Immortality (a.k.a. Wisdom of Crocodiles)", "Bordello of Blood", "From Dusk Till Dawn", "The Forsaken", "Underworld Trilogy", "Blade Trilogy", "Cronos", "Horror of Dracula plus sequels", "Perfect Creature", "Daybreakers", "Embrace of the Vampire", "Thirst (2009)", "Def By Temptation", "Cat People (1982)", "The Howling", "Van Helsing", "An American Werewolf in London", "Dawn of the Dead (1978 and 2004)", "Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter", "The Vampire Lovers", "Countess Dracula", "John Carpenter's Vampires", "Vampyros Lesbos", "Innocent Blood", "Lair of the White Worm", "The Hitcher (1986)", "Scarecrows", "Vampire Circus", "Vampire's Kiss", "Central Park Drifter a.k.a. Graveyard Shift", "Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat", "Children of the Night", "Blood and Donuts", "Skinwalkers", "The Return of the Living Dead", "Embrace of the Vampire", "30 Days of Night", "The Monster Squad", "The Night Flier", "Queen of the Damned", "Zoltan: Hound-Dog of Dracula", "Once Bitten", "Love At First Bite" and "Sleepwalkers"..
"Near Dark" begins with young man named Caleb,who wants more than anything to leave Texas-until he meets beautiful yet mysterious Mae.Predictably,Mae is a vampire-and after Caleb attempts to score with her,she accidentally brings him across into the world of the undead.Now,while being hunted by his worried father and young sister,Caleb is forced to join a band of evil vampires,of which Mae travels with.Here it is-possibly the best modern vampire film ever made.I absolutely loved it!This film is amazing in every aspect-it has brilliant acting,truly mesmerizing score by Tangerine Dream and lots of gore.Bill Paxton is amazing as a sadistic vampire Severen.I love the scene in the bar-a total killing spree."Near Dark" is an excellent horror and I can safely say that Kathryn Bigelow never made a better film.Highly recommended.10 out of 10..
Another moment that just grinded my nerves like nails against chalkboard.-- Let's face it, there is only a couple of good vamp movies, Dracula, The Lost Boys, and Interview with a Vampire.
A great ensemble cast of actors if I've ever seen one: Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Tim Thomerson, James LeGros, Jenette Goldstein and especially Jenny Wright and Adrian Pasdar, who make a great young couple.
Adrian Pasdar's character's ambivalence in killing people in order to live, which is the central theme to the film's narrative, is completely nullified because of director Kathryn Bigelow's love for violence, killing and gore.
Just because it was made in the 80s and it has Lance "The Man" Henriksen, doesn't make it any type of a classic flick.Near Dark is about a dude who by chance hits on a vampire, and again by chance, successfully swoons the lovely vamp.
There is a cheesy 1980's feel to the film and some of the scenes with Bill Paxton trying to act like a crazy vampire are downright laughable.
Put simply, this is the most sensual portrayal of the vampire myth in recent cinematic history, and it does a neat turnaround of the roles, since most renditions have a sweet, innocent young woman seduced by a dark, handsome bloodsucker.Instead, Jenny Wright is the ethereally beautiful, seductive, mysterious stranger who initiates Adrian Pasdar (as farm boy Caleb Colton, whose openly displayed lust is kind of amusing for a minute there) into the mysteries of her night-focused world.
Her performance as Mae in "Near Dark" was chilling -- and admirable.Caleb is on a sort of probationary vampire status, and he finds it impossible to kill (which is a requirement, since according to Mae, "The night has its price.") And yes, the end is probably not what the readers of Fangoria would have preferred, although they probably would've bailed on this anyway once they learned the only real gore was in the bar room scene.Terrific supporting cast, especially Bill Paxton, who stole every scene he was in.
But it grips you and holds you till the end, which actually against all odds manages to be a "happy" one...Some of the scenes are really impressively violent and raw and have some kind of dark attraction.If you add to these ,the existential dilemma of the desperate and seemingly hopeless hero of the film and his romantic relationship with the beautiful enigmatic girl vampire who tries to save him, then you understand why the viewer is hooked.
What you have are these vampires who travel from town to town looking for pray (although the word vampire is never used in the film) they come across like outlaw gypsies, the whole film has a western feel to it, Kathrene Bigelow along with cinematographer Adam Greenberg has created a dark moody, modern day vampire road movie.
The wild flamboyancy of Paxton's character, the understated malice of Henriksens, an awesome story, and the chemistry between Caleb and Mae, all make this film one of, if not THE, BEST vampire movie ever made.
From the great score, to the superb bar scene, to the thrilling ending, and everything in between, I just plain love this film.My Grade: A 2 Disc DVD Extras: Disc 1) Commentary by Kathryn BigelowDisc 2) The 47 minute documentary "Living in Darkness"; a deleted scene with commentary by Bigelow; poster & stills galleries; Cast & crew bios; storyboards; and 2 Theatrical trailers DVD-ROM: 2 Screeensavers and the Screenplay.
It's low budget enough although it's shot on 35mm film and does have some decent pyrotechnics and stunt work that elevate it beyond the usual dreck that came out in the 80s.Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) takes a Mae (Jenny Wright) home from a bar one night and get more than he bargained for.
He get's bitten by Mae and becomes one of "them", a band of roving vampires led by the evil, twisted Jesse (Lance Henriksen) and with Bill Paxton and little Joshua Miller added to the mix, you have a first-class trio of demented sickos, ready to spread more bloodthirsty mayhem throughout the Southwest.Anchor Bay gave this one the star treatment with a re-mastered, wide-screen THX version that will probably become the definitive record of this film.
Ask most teens about their favourite vampire film and they will answer with the latter.Although the two are similar, it's unfair to compare them, mostly due to the fact Near Dark is, well, darker, much more violent, much more intelligent and generally of a higher standard.We are introduced to a young man, and he is soon introduced to a group of bloodsuckers, the most dysfunctional family unit one could imagine.
Lance Henriksson and Bill Paxton are extremely menacing and I have rarely seen them this good/insane.The film plays as kind of a cross between a western and a horror film, and as Kathryn Bigelow likes to play with postmodern imagery and form, it's well worth your time if you're a film nut or simply after a little action..
Adrian Pasdar and Jenny Wright do a passable job as the more "humane" vampires who cling to their humanity, but it's really their contrast with the cruelty of Paxton, Henriksen, and the other vamps that makes me feel for their characters.Not sure how I never saw this film until 2018 but I can say I will be revisiting it, and am curious to know how my appreciation for it will change with multiple viewings.
Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark is one of the best Horror and Vampire films ever made that greatly mixes Horror,Western,Vampires and Action.
Filled great direction,excellent cast and a wonderful score,Near Dark is not only one of the great Horror classics of the 80s,but one of the great Horror classics of all time.Near Dark tells the story of a young farm boy named Caleb(Adrian Pasdar)who sees and falls for a beautiful,but mysterious girl named Mae(Jenny Wright).
Where would other excellent and very memorable Horror/Vampire Action films with Western styles like John Carpenter's Vampires and From Dusk Till Dawn be without Near Dark's influence.
The screenplay by Kathryn Bigelow and Eric Red is truly amazing,giving the film small but brilliant dialog and making the characters,including the Vampires great and very memorable.
Joshua Miller is excellent as Homer an old man trapped in a little boy's body.(Ironically,Miller's older brother is Jason Patric who starred in The Lost Boys the same year.)Tim Thomerson and Marcie Leeds give great performances as Loy and Sarah,Caleb's Father and Sister.Kathryn Bigelow's direction for the film is masterful with Bigelow giving a unique visual style and tone which is at times beautiful and gritty.
All of the songs which were used in the classic Bar scene.In final word,if you love Horror films,Vampire films,Action films,Western films or films in general I suggest you see Near Dark a Horror classic that will stay with you watch and a film that will live on forever.
The vampires use other people for food.But the fundamental difference between the typical Western and "Near Dark" is the way the film shows us the lifestyles of both the good and the bad.
The amazing thing about this film is that it manages to portray both of these families sympathetically, but without over-romanticizing the vampire lifestyle (which virtually every vampire movie does).People who criticize "Near Dark" for it's seemingly simple-minded cure for "vampirism" (a blood transfusion) are missing a much larger point.
The screenplay by Eric Red and Bigelow is imaginative in its use of the vampire genre, giving us a new perspective to a widely rehearsed subject.Like the more popular 'The Lost Boys', which shares the same themes and oddly enough came out the same year, it is a stylish piece of film-making.QUOTE: Jesse: "Let's just say I fought for the South.
The bad vampires burn up in the sun after only a few seconds, the good vampires last for weeks, Caleb blows up a truck but pulling a handbrake, a simple blood transfusion administered by a farmer cures our hero of his carnivorous tendencies and the once powerful uber-vamps cannot seem to kill a little girl and her teenage brother no matter how hard they try.Overall Near Dark deserves praise; the evocative atmosphere is second to none, the action is brutal and stylish.
Near Dark lost at the box office to another vampire movie released at the same time, The Lost Boys.
No, this is not some western, but a tale of drifters in the west that just happen to be children of the night.Kathryn Bigelow directed a winner her with familiar stars such as Adrian Pasdar from Heroes, who falls in love with a vampire played by Jenny Wright.
When asked what my favourite vampire movies of the 80s are, I usually answer The Lost Boys, Fright Night and Vamp; I guess I just prefer my 80s bloodsuckers to obey the recognised rules of the genre and deliver a touch of fun along with the horror.
However, if it is a more sober and unconventional approach to vampirism that is desired, I suggest giving Near Dark a try: it ain't perfect, despite what the film's more ardent fans would have us believe, but it does score highly on originality, style, and brutality.The directorial debut of Kathryn Bigelow, Near Dark mixes road movie, western and horror, the action taking place on the same long, dusty, desolate stretches of sun-baked highway that made screenwriter Eric Red's earlier effort The Hitcher such an impressively atmospheric picture; this bleak location perfectly complements the harsh, emotionless, and seemingly endless existence of its antagonists, with the sense of desolation further enhanced by a brooding synthesiser score from Tangerine Dream.
The film also benefits from an excellent cast that includes a trio of actors from Aliens (Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Jenette Goldstein), cult child actor Joshua Miller, Tim Thomerson, and the pretty little package that was Jenny Wright.Red's script largely ignores the expected clichés: the likes of crosses, garlic, stakes, and holy water certainly play no part in proceedings, the killers do not have fangs and lack many of the supernatural abilities usually associated with vampires, and towards the end of the film, it is even revealed that their condition can be reversed by a blood transfusion.
A first-rate vampire picture!Whereas a movie like "Bram Stoker's Dracula" is all costumes and sets, "Near Dark" is closer to "Road Warrior" and "The Terminator".The director was Kathryn Bigelow, who has yet to disappoint me, with work behind her such as "Point Break", "Strange Days", and "Blue Steel".
"Near Dark" is one of the greatest vampire movies ever made it ranks right up there with "The Lost Boys" and "Fright Night".
The rural setting and realness of the characters gives it that quality.I think "Near Dark" is the coolest vampire movie out there.
Near Dark is an unusual approach to a vampire movie, but a good one at that. |
tt0337697 | The Prince & Me | The movie opens with med-student bound Paige Morgan receiving a birthday cake from her teachers and colleagues. She suddenly realizes she is late for something and hurries out of the school and drives home. She has no time to talk to her mother as she goes to her room, grabs a dress from her closet, and hops in her truck. Meanwhile, in the country of Denmark we see the young & rebellious Prince Edvard and his servant, Soren, meeting up with a young man for what seems to be a race of some sort. Back in America, Paige is driving to a friend's wedding; she arrives in her father's pick up and nearly runs over half of the wedding party. At the reception, she and a friend discuss the subject of romance and marriage, neither of which Paige has time for because of her focus on her career. The bouquet is tossed, and by some twist of fate, it lands right in Paige's lap. Back in Denmark, the race is about to start; the cars speed down the open road and Edvard wins the race, where he is greeted with a threesome involving two teenage girls. He then realizes that, like Paige, he is also late for something very important. At the castle, 12-year-old Princess Arabella is playing a Gameboy as Edvard's parents, King Haraald and Queen Rosalind, wait anxiously for their eldest child to arrive before they are shown in public. Edvard arrives and is greeted with a hug by Arabella, though his parents don't seem so happy. He takes Arabella's arm and they step out onto the balcony. Later, Edvard and King Haraald are to meet with some members of the board; Haraald warns his son to behave himself, and Edvard glumly agrees. As they enter the room to sit down Haraald gets a bit dizzy, but when asked if he is all right he insists that he is fine. The meeting goes on. Edvard could care less about business and politics and he intentionally flirts with one of the women present. Soren and Edvard leave the meeting and Edvard, after doing a bit of fencing to release his stress and watching a show about college girls gone wild, is told that his parents are ready to see him. King Haraald and Queen Rosalind are disgusted by their son's recent behavior. Edvard blames Rosalind for keeping him on a tight leash and tells them he wants to go to college in Wisconsin without his parents' help. After Edvard storms out, Haraald agrees that his son should go off to college, with Soren there to protect him from harm.Paige is at a bar with her friends, discussing how she is failing miserably at Shakespeare and needs a good grade to get into medical school. Later in the day, Paige is crossing the street when she is nearly run over by Edvard's limo. Unable to get a good glimpse of him, she ignores him and continues on her way; but Edvard can see her clearly and has an instant attraction to Paige. Soren is not pleased with the college life that Edvard desires, but Edvard orders him to enjoy himself and to call him Eddie instead of Edvard. They get up to their dorm, which is not exactly clean and rather small. When their roommate, heavyweight Xbox geek Steven, comes in and tells them to keep their hands off his stuff, Edvard shrugs his shoulders and climbs onto the top bunk. Later that night, Soren and Eddie go to the bar and meet Paige, who teases Eddie a bit; after a few beers, Eddie musters up the courage to talk to Paige. After introducing himself, he asks her out for a drink, and then asks her to take off her shirt, which angers her and gets him squirted with water. A tough at the bar picks a fight with Eddie, who is miraculously saved by Soren, and the two are escorted out of the bar. In chemistry class later, Eddie asks Soren to leave and enjoy himself; after and argument, Soren gives in and leaves. Eddie and Paige are teamed up for chemistry, much to Paige's dismay. After class, she tells him that she needs to do well in this class to get into medical school, and that he had better not mess up. As Paige is walking away, Eddie randomly quotes Shakespeare; Paige lashes out and calls him a phony and leaves. Later, Eddie wakes up to reality when he realizes he cut himself off from his parent's money, so he gets a job at the bar where Paige works. Paige comes in and asks Eddie instantly how he, of all people, managed to get a job at the bar, and Eddie says that he just used her name and he had a job. However, Eddie is working at the deli and not doing a very good job at slicing the meat; Paige is forced to help him out on his first day. He promises Paige that if he is really bad then he will quit.After a busy night at the bar, Soren is drunk and passed out as Eddie cleans up. He can't help but watch Paige groove to the sounds of the jukebox. As Eddie stacks boxes outside at night, he sees Paige at her window and asks her to go a party with him; Paige rejects him, and Soren offers him some advice. A few days later, Eddie doesn't show up to chemistry class, which angers Paige to whole new level. She storms up to his dorm as Soren is making lunch for Eddie, who is laying in bed. Paige blows her top at him, Eddie apologizes, and she leaves. Paige then discovers that her grade in her Shakespeare class is a bit below average, which is simply not enough to get into medical school. Later in class, Paige remembers that Eddie quoted Shakespeare and asks for his help. He agrees, only if she will help him with laundry. As they do laundry together, Paige mocks Prince Hamlet; although Eddie can relate to him, he jokes right alongside her. Eddie asks her about a sonnet in Romeo & Juliet which Paige doesn't understand at all and Eddie explains the meaning of the passionate dialogue. Back in Denmark, Arabella is walking down the hall when she sees nurses; growing worried, she listens in on a conversation between King Haraald and the doctor. She rushes in and asks "Are you feeling ill, Daddy?" and crawls into his lap, and her parents assure her that it's nothing. A maid convinces Arabella go ride horses, and she leaves her parents, who continue with their regular business. The paparazzi who enjoy pestering the royal family say they promise to find Edvard and find out his secret.Paige is ecstatic when she receives an A on her Shakespeare paper and goes to thank Eddie, who is repairing an oil fixture. They apologize to each other at the end of the conversation and oil spills all over the floor. Paige's friend says she wants to ask Eddie to come home with her for Thanksgiving, but Paige beats her to it and asks him first, and he accepts. Soren is scared to be left alone in the dorm by himself, but Eddie says he has everything he needs and that he'll be fine. Eddie is dragged to a Wisconsin country farm, where he meets Paige's mother, father, and two younger brothers. Paige shows Eddie her room. He is curious about the giant map on her wall; she tells him that the places marked with red pins are where she wants to visit someday. At lunch, Paige's brothers pick on Eddie about how their aren't any good people from Denmark; Paige is about to make a retort, but she can't think of anyone herself. Eddie names off people like Kierkegaard, Niels Bohr, and Hans Christian Andersen. Paige is surprised to learn that Andersen came from Denmark; her brothers are still not amused, but when he goes on to say that Lars Ulrich from Metallica is from Denmark as well, they are enthralled and Paige nods at him in approval. The family loves him. Mr. Morgan says he needs help with some of the farm chores, and Eddie says he will be happy to help. Little does he know that farm chores are not easy; by the end of the day, Eddie is both tired and bored, until he spots the lawn mowers, which Paige's brothers tell him they race every year. The big race is coming up, and they agree to let Eddie take their place in it. At the race, Mrs. Morgan notices that Paige's behavior changes around Eddie. The race starts and all is going well until the boys' ultimate rival gets angry. He tries to push Eddie off the road, but fails and goes off instead. Eddie wins the race and is congratulated by the boys, but when he tries to make peace with their rival, he ends up in a fist fight.Back at the barn, Paige is cleaning up Eddie, who is bragging about their relationship. Paige tells him that they don't have a relationship, which ends with a long goodnight kiss. When they go back to the university, Eddie finds Soren in a pitiful state; unshaven, unshowered, and his eye glued to a video game screen. Steven says that he has been like this since he got back and tries to take the Xbox away only to have his head nearly bitten off by a power-crazed Soren. In the library, Eddie and Paige begin making suggestive movements, much to the notice of Paige's friend. Wanting to go somewhere private, they go off to the back of the library and begin to have a sexual encounter when they are discovered by the paparazzi from Denmark. Still recovering from the shock of the moment, Paige asks Eddie what was going on and why they were calling him "Prince Edvard." When Eddie explains to her that he is the Prince of Denmark, she is upset. Eddie tries to convince her that his feeling were genuine, but Paige walks away in tears. The next morning, Eddie splashes Soren with cold water and brings him out of his trance; Paige isn't so happy either. Soon the papers reach Denmark and King Haraald and Queen Rosalind are upset to see Paige and Edvard's faces all over the tabloids. Back in chemistry class later in the week, Soren and Edvard have to fight past photographers to get into the classroom. Edvard is dismayed to find that Paige is no longer his chemistry partner and is still angry with him.After a long day, Soren receives a phone call and recognizes it as Rosalind's voice; he hands the phone to Edvard, who can hear strong concern in his mother's voice as she tells him that he must return home because his father is ill. Though Edvard would not do anything for his mother, he is very concerned for his father and rushes back to Denmark to be with him. Meanwhile, Paige is giving a speech in her Shakespeare class when she realizes that like Romeo & Juliet, she and Edvard were meant to be together. Paige goes up to his dorm and is told by Steven that he and Soren left in the morning. Paige can't believe this and her fears are confirmed when she finds a note left by Edvard. She goes to her dorm and knocks a letter of acceptance to a medical college, and immediately packs her bags and is on the first plane to Denmark. As she takes a cab ride around the country, she is excited to see the historical landmarks that the cab driver points out, but she is more concerned with finding Edvard. They discover that the royal family is out in public moving through the city, but due to traffic it is difficult to get through. Paige jumps out of the cab and tries to spot Edvard, and after a bit of searching, she finds him on his horse, riding alongside his family's carriage. Paige tries to call out to him, but he can't hear her. When the people of Denmark recognize Paige and start shouting her name, Edvard turns and sees her. He parades his horse up to her and helps her up, and they ride off towards the castle together, much to his parent's dismay and the crowd's pleasure. Paige and Edvard arrive at the castle and Soren meets them. Paige hops off the horse and embraces Soren, whom Edvard orders to show Paige around while he talks with his parents.Queen Rosalind feels that Edvard has betrayed his country by being seen with a common girl like Paige, but King Haraald is silent. Edvard tells his mother that he will still accept the crown when his father dies, on the condition that he be allowed to marry Paige, but Rosalind disagrees. Edvard lists off the people who are next in line for the throne, trying to make a point that they need him. Rosalind tells him not to threaten them; Edvard ignores her, but stops when Haraald demands for him to be quiet. Haraald tells him that no matter what happens he WILL be the next king of Denmark, and Edvard says he understands. Haraald then gives Edvard permission to marry Paige (ignoring his wife's protestations). Edvard finds Paige with Soren on a tour of the gardens. He shoos Soren away, and takes the opportunity to propose to Paige, who almost instantly accepts it. Paige awakes the next morning and receives a warm embrace from her future sister-in-law Arabella. When Soren comes in and tells Paige about her schedule, Paige finally realizes that she is about to become royalty. Arabella introduces Paige to Marguerite, who will be doing Paige's gown for Edvard's coronation ball. Marguerite examines Paige's figure and tells her that she doesn't work with hunchbacks. A small montage ensues showing Paige meeting in public places with Rosalind and Edvard and getting her dress prepared for the ball. At the hospital, the paparazzi are curious as to where Paige is; they find her playing with sick children in the playroom, where she poses with them for a picture. Queen Rosalind is less than amused and tells Paige how dangerous this could be to her reputation. Soren and Paige leave Rosalind to find Edvard; they find him sitting at Haraald's bedside and Soren whispers that it's time for him to leave for a meeting. Edvard thanks him and kisses his father's forehead before leaving. At the meeting, Edvard points out to the members of the board that he has learned a thing or two about negotiation on the Morgan farm, and also says that the new Denmark will be about negotiations.Paige is trying her dress on when Soren tells her that Queen Rosalind wishes to see her, and they leave to meet her together. Soren tells Paige that he won't leave her side, but Rosalind sends him away and he obeys. Rosalind tells Paige straight out that she has always stayed close to tradition, but that maybe it is indeed time for change. She leads Paige down into a vault where all her jewels are stored and lets Paige have her pick of the finest. Later that week during the ball, Edvard asks Paige to dance; it takes her a few minutes to realize that the song that is being played is the song that they heard on the jukebox back in Wisconsin. They dance for awhile, then go off into the study. After only a few minutes of privacy, Soren comes to tell Edvard that the prime minister is here to see him. Edvard sighs and tells Paige that he will come back with a surprise. Paige watches as Edvard helps Haraald sit down, only to be surprised when Soren closes and locks the door. Paige walks around the dark study and notices a globe which reminds her of all the places she wanted to see before she fell in love with Edvard. He returns again with a meat slicer; though Paige is happy, she tells Edvard that she can't be queen. She explains to him that she can't give up her dreams and stop being herself, but that Edvard has to stay, for his father and for his country. They hug, knowing that their relationship is over for good. Edvard is crowned king and Paige returns to Wisconsin and graduates from college. One day, she suddenly hears Edvard quoting Shakespeare. She runs up to him and kisses him, but warns him that Denmark is not ready for a queen like her; he says that they will have to be because has always been. They kiss and the movie ends. | romantic, melodrama | train | imdb | I not only found it entertaining, but by the end, as corny is it may sound for a film like this, it did leave me guessing a little as to what would happen.Although I don't usually care for Julia Stiles, I found her to be delightful in this piece, and the right person to play the part.
The two actors worked very well together, and I very much enjoyed the film, finding it sweet, romantic and just enough of light and heavy to balance it out nicely.Ovearll it's a film that certainly wouldn't have been nominated for any big awards, but it's cute, and in the end a pretty predictable film.
This film is a rather light and enjoyable trifle and it does have a very fine performance from Julia Stiles, some very pretty scenery (Prague standing in for Copenhagen), and Miranda Richardson (as the Prince's mom).There is a certain irony to the whole film given that the real Crown Prince of Denmark, HKH Kronprins Frederik, married a commoner from a far flung place...in fact my home country Australia in 2004.
Paige's girlfriends are a great collection and the the Prince's valet is very funny.By no means a great film but enjoyable way to waste two hours.But just don't expect to learn anything about modern monarchy in Denmark!!!.
"The Prince & Me" is one rare example of such a film, and I admired the careful development of the main relationship, as performed by the likable Julia Stiles and Luke Mably.
In fact, I cannot recall a film where there was so little emphasis on sex and so many carefully developed scenes where we see emotional chemistry building between the main characters, Paige Morgan, a young pre-med student in Wisconsin, and the Danish prince Edward who calls himself Eddie."The Prince & Me" brings back the old-style Hollywood romances.
The scenes shot in Denmark were splendid and added an aura of magic to the main love relationship.According to her IMDb biography, Julia Stiles has been an English major at Columbia in addition to juggling an impressive acting career.
Meanwhile, her life couldn't be much more different than the life of the young Danish Prince Edward (who is fictional, by the way; this movie doesn't pretend to be a documentary).
The story unfolds from here, as Paige learns that chemistry isn't just something that you learn in a classroom, and as Prince Edward learns the meaning of hard work, responsibility, and how to be an ordinary college student with a personal egg poacher.
I hope that one day even teen-movies from U.S.A. can be a little sophisticated and subtle.I really like Julia Stiles as an actress and I admire her talent but I simply doesn't get why she's able to participate in such a simplified film.
The old-fashioned love story is kind of great, but when you have some knowledge of how Danish society actually functions you can't really appreciate this movie as you're supposed to.Facts about Denmark: The Royal Family doesn't take part in politics and none of the members are allowed to vote at elections.
The actual Danish Crown Prince, Frederik 10th, has been studying Political Science at Harvard University (92-93) without any undercover servant/nanny, can you believe that!(just kidding)To sum up the plot itself is okay, but the superficial way of portraying Europeans is a bad habit a lot of Americans has, sorry but true.
Sorry, that was besides the point......Anyway this movie does have some quite funny moments that makes it worth watching, and I kinda liked the scene at the table with Edward telling Paige's brothers a few things about Denmark.
Once the story moves to Copenhagen it gets better as they do a good job of presenting the entire experience from the point of view of Paige Morgan (Stiles).
Definitely a politically correct fairytale, although I don't mean it as derogatory as it may sound.A playboy prince is lured to Wisconsin by an ad he sees on TV where some small time producer has gotten girls to lift up their shirts and other sordid activities by (apparently) pleading and asking nicely.
In this teen romance, a Wisconsin student studying to be a doctor (Stiles) falls in love with the crown prince of Denmark (Luke Mably), putting her career plans into question and forcing her to decide between being a doctor and having a life as royalty.I didn't have any desire to see this but my girlfriend wanted to watch it so we did.
Well, we're both in our 20's, so in some ways the film missed for us, I think it was more aimed at a teen audience, not to sound sexist(I'm a girl too), but more precisely, at teenage girls.It's about a college girl, Paige, who is working so hard to get into med school and can't afford any distractions.
Edvard is the Prince of Denmark and sees a commercial of "college girls gone wild in Wisconsin", he thinks that it's true and decides to take a trip to Wisconsin and meets Paige.
But since "Eddie" doesn't want anyone to know he's a prince, Paige finds out the hard way through the paparazzi, but she gets back with him in Denmark, where Eddie proposes and she is to be the future queen of the Denmark, but it may be too much to handle for a simple farm girl.The Prince and Me is very predictable and very unrealistic, but I think that it was a sweet little comedy for teens.
But thanks to the charms of the established young actress, Julia Stiles, and the new up and coming Brit, Luke Mably, mixed with the somehow amusing screenplay by the writers of the soon to come Kate Hudson picture "Raising Helen", "The Prince and Me," succeeds in its genre.Set in Wisconsin, Paige Morgan (Julia Stiles) is a driven pre-med student who is determined not to be weighed down by a careless romance, and Prince Edward (Luke Mably) of Denmark is the restless king to be who is avoiding royal responsibility to be a rebellious college kid in the States.
There is a LOT of other mistakes, but I won't get into them here.The coolest thing about the movie is all the famous Danish Edward mentions, when he is at Paige's house, because they are actually Danish.If you watch this movie think about it as a fairytale story and that Denmark is a made up country, because then it is a good movie.
If you want to know stuff about Denmark the you will NOT learn it from this movie, because that chance are that the thing you think is true actually isn't..
Ms. Coolidge is in the right track presenting this story about the romance of a young American girl with a Danish prince that has all the makings of a crowd pleaser.
While this is a story targeted for a certain age group, people of all ages will probably enjoy this delightful comedy.The casting of Julia Stiles as Paige Morgan, the Wisconsin co-ed that meets a young prince at the university, proves its best asset.
This movie about a Danish prince Edward (NEVER a royal name in this country!) who falls in love with an American college student not only plays like it was made in some sort of parallel universe (take for instance the scene where the young lady interrupts Edward on a parade through the streets of Copenhagen.
There's a moment that I think is supposed to be cute where the "Prince of Denmark" starts talking in ghetto language, along with a scene that makes "Eddie" fall in love with "Paige" while she's going silly dances that make her look like she's just done acid or smoked pot or something.
I think they are just cardboard cut-outs of good looking actors.The plot has a Danish prince Edvard leaving his royal life to attend an American University in Wisconsin.
The story is predictable, a ripoff of Coming to America, which was a good film This one only screams to everyone who knows the slightest thing about Denmark, that it is all wrong.
We were predicting lines before they were spoken, which is never the mark of a decent movie.Julia Stiles, you always tease me with possible goodness, only to disappoint.
I suppose people who dislike romantic comedies (or bad films at general) won't go to see it anyway, but I must warn all the ones who feel like watching it - just don't do it.
If you are in the mood for a romantic comedy (but a good one) - go and see "4 weddings and a funeral" or "love actually" :) The movie "Prince & me" is one of the poorest films I've ever seen and I wish I hadn't seen it at all :).
Paige makes her decisions intelligently, and while it's not the happy ending some might expect, it is satisfying.This movie is intelligently written both in presenting the life of real people who do real work, and in showing what it is like to run a country where royalty, not elected officials, continue to live in style.
First off, if one turns off their analytical side and simply watch the movie, they might be surprised.Every female, regardless of age, secretly wants to be loved like the classic 'princess' stories.
Oh, and can I say, it's about time they cast a hot guy in one of these "Prince Charming" roles.The on-screen chemistry in this movie was amazing as well.
It's way better than "Princess Diaries." I also think it's just as good as "What A Girl Wants," maybe a little bit better, just because the characters are older.
I'm not sure but I know where the character has been, I have felt the same things she has felt, and this movie puts all those views into one great film.
I fell in love with 'Eddie' slowly throughout the movie, along with Julia Stiles' character.
If you enjoy romantic comedies, need an uplifting movie experience, or just want to fall in love, then "The Prince and Me" is the perfect movie for you!.
Paige Morgan (Julia Stiles)is the dedicated pre-med student, so involved in heracademic desires that time for a man is oh-so-unlikely.Unfortunately, this movie aims only to reach the status of "typical" and fails to accomplish even this.
It was fun watching them work out the whole love hate thing.The comedy was solid and consistent, with a lot of good supporting characters along the way.
love how that woman does disdain.What made this movie work is the chemistry between Paige and Eddie.
As a teenage girl myself, I can totally relate to that and since I'm not exactly 'immune' to romance in movies I thoroughly enjoyed Paige's (Julia Stiles) adventure and I watched how her fairytale became reality with a big smile plastered on my face.The first ten minutes of the movie are slow and boring and promise a 110 minute torture.
It was a good way to spend 110 minutes though and as a teenage girl the whole 'fairytale is about to get real'-thing really appealed to me and also definitely worked in the movie.
Julia Stiles, though miscast, for her country character, has a good script that promotes the intelligent female meets narcissistic royal prince.
In some ways, The Prince & Me presents an even more subtle and less dramatic presentation which actually promotes as sense of authentic wit than the more mainstream feel good Diaries movie offers a more lavish fantasy fairy tale..
It's really like having those fairy tale in books and toons come to life.Luke and Julia are both just perfect for their parts in this movie!Luke may not be the best looking or hottest guy out there, but he is the best looking prince charming, to my discriminating taste, so far.
At college Paige meets Eddie, a fellow student from Denmark, whom she first dislikes but later accepts, likes, and loves; he proves to be Crown Prince Edvard.
I always enjoy Julia Stilles and she does a good job here.The story is an opposites attract, modern day fairytale following a bookish, farm girl senior who falls for a cocky exchange student at a Wisconsin college, unaware that he is really the prince of Denmark.Luke Mably plays prince Edvard and I hated him in the beginning but genuinely came to like the character he became.
I often think some people who make hit movies in Hollywood have a revenge plan in mind for their fans who wonder why a sequel or new film hasn't come out in a few years.
this is an incredible film , i enjoyed watching it.this movie shows that love can be between anyone if one of them is royal and the other is not at the end of film i was gonna cry when they want to break up because they couldn't help it, prince can't leave palace and Paige can't leave her parent's farm and medical school and live on that situation that everything was in a schedule and has a dignity has a special behavior and so on,then after graduation it was a little surprise (but you can predict) saying that Denmark must be ready for queen like you.
Julia Stiles is what makes this a good movie..
Overall, The Movie Is Worth To Watch Especially By People Who Like Mellow Films!
The movie altogether is very sweet and while the ending is predictable, the plot adds some obstacles that make you occasionally wonder the outcome.Julia Stiles is wonderful as the ambitious, hard-working Paige Morgan, a typical Wisconsin farm girl with big dreams.
Me & The Prince is a remarkable romantic comedy romance starring Julia Styles and Luke Mably who take a timeless love story that has never been told before and present it for the first time in a way that you will believe you've known all your life.
The girls at the college in Wisconsin lament about their lot in life, until a young man who just so happens to be the son of the king of a certain little country you may have heard of called Denmark (people, hello?) decides he wants to visit the United States after seeing a Girls Gone Wild video exploiting hot, inebriated girls, with low self esteem who pull their shirts off and flash the camera.
Danish history is covered extensively as well, and if someone says you don't know a think about Denmark, just tell them you saw a film called the Prince who Loved Me, and they can sit and spin..
As I'm neither an expert in films nor in Denmark, I won't go into details about which is right and which is wrong.I do believe that as movies have such a strong impact on so many people, the director/producer/scriptwriter/people involved have a responsibility to at least include as much facts as possible so that viewers have an accurate picture of the real world.BUT, having said that - as far as entertainment is concerned, The Prince & Me has done a great job..
That aside, I found it to be well executed and I'm sure I'll watch it again.I went to see it purely because I love Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark (like so many women do after seeing him cry at his wedding to Australian Mary Donaldson *swoon*) and I wasn't disappointed.
Although it's very predictable (it would be failing its genre if it weren't) it's still different from other such romantic comedies because, although at first glance it might be unbelievable, it actually happened in real life, which lends a lot more credence to the characters and their actions.Overall, while in no means a ground breaking movie, fans of the genre, and maybe even those who aren't, will find it enjoyable because there are some very cute moments and it's well acted, despite the strange lack of Danish accents from almost all of the Danish characters..
(Even as I write, girls with Princess fantasies are making lists of bachelor principalities.) The movie begins in parallel: we follow Paige (Julia Stiles), a college girl who wants very badly to get into medical school, and Prince Edward (Luke Mably), an idle rich boy whose favoured hobby is wearing bald spots on the tyres of luxury cars.
Paige and Prince Eddie had a great chemistry and the movie was quite good, except it fell short on details that the director didn't quite get.
Then at the end of the movie, when Paige graduates and Prince Eddie shows up at her graduation, the feeling that a whole term had just passed wasn't there.
It was called "Coming to America." It was a great comedy about a prince who came to America, found a girl, and fell in love.
The story was about a girl who discovered she was a princess, learned to be like a princess, found a boy, fell in love.Now, over the past couple years, a million movies with this synopsis have come out!
If I could take a role in this movie I would probably want to be the Princess (Eddie's little sister) or I would like to be Paige.
When I was little my parents always read me fairy tale stories before bed and now I got to see a movie of one, and I loved it!
i wanted to watch a love story, romantic and light hearted, so i decided to watch this movie the prince and me.
the guy, luke mably, i thought was kinda cute and the fairy tale love stories always gets to me.
I love Julia Stiles and thought that both she and Luke Mably did a good job.
My best friend and I loved the story line and found ourselves with tears in our eyes by the end of the movie.
Stiles is a farm girl away at college who meets an exchange student who is actually Denmark's crown prince. |
tt0077745 | Invasion of the Body Snatchers | On an unidentified planet, a strange lifeform in the shape of gel-like spores drifts up into the atmosphere, where it moves slowly through space, drifting until it reaches Earth. The spores enter the atmosphere and are swept downward, emerging in a rainstorm in San Francisco. On the ground, the spores begin to develop, growing on leaves of earthly plants and taking the shape of small pods with a pink flower in the middle.Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams) notices one of the pods, taking it back to the home she shares with her boyfriend, Geoffrey (Art Hindle). Unable to find the flowering pod in any of her botany books, she hesitantly identifies her new find as a cross-breeding of two different species, a "grex."Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland) is an inspector for the health department who uncovers unsanitary conditions at a French restaurant. As he threatens the owner with indictment over finding rat droppings in the food, the other employees quietly slip out to the parking lot and smash Matthew's windshield with a bottle of wine. Matthew is cold and calculating, refusing to let them see his frustration at finding his car vandalized, but when he gets home he calls Elizabeth. They work together at the health department, and Matthew jokes with her about what happened to him at the restaurant. As Elizabeth goes to bed, she forgets about the weird pod, which has suddenly sprouted roots in the glass of water she keeps it in next to their bed.When Elizabeth wakes the next morning, Geoffrey is already awake and dressed, cleaning up the remains of the glass of water next to the bed, as well as some other, unidentifiable mess (resembling some kind of dust). His behavior is strange, and she follows him downstairs as he takes a plastic garbage bag out to a waiting dump truck. At work, she confides to Matthew that Geoffrey is acting strange. Later that night, Elizabeth tries to talk it over with Geoffrey but he ignores her, instead telling her that he's going out and giving her no explanation. Elizabeth touches him intimately and recoils from his emotionless response. Elizabeth rushes over to Matthew's house and insists that Geoffrey is no longer Geoffrey. On the outside he looks the same, but inside he is different. Matthew hears her out but calms her by cooking a good meal and letting her vent.The next day, Matthew hears a strange story from the owner of the Chinese laundry he patronizes: his wife is not his wife. Later he finds Elizabeth at the health department offices, shaken and obviously distraught. She reveals that she has been following Geoffrey during that day and has seen him having brief meetings with strangers, all of them passing unidentifiable parcels among themselves. She is convinced that there is some sort of conspiracy afoot and that Geoffrey is a part of it. Matthew wants to take her to meet his friend, a renowned psychologist named David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy). Kibner has written a number of popular books, the latest of which has just been published, and Matthew takes Elizabeth to a book signing party at a local bookstore so she can meet Kibner personally. While stopped at a traffic light, a strange man (Kevin McCarthy, the star of the original movie) suddenly falls onto Matthew's car, screaming and pounding at the windows, warning "They're coming! Something terrible! You're in danger!" Before they can react, another vehicle comes along and strikes the man dead. Strangely, the crowd of people around him seem to not be affected by what has happened at all, not even the motorcycle policeman who arrives on the scene. (Unnoticed by Matthew and Elizabeth, there are one or two others down the streets and sidewalks running from groups of other people chasing them.)At the book party that evening, Matthew and Elizabeth meet up with Jack Bellicec (Jeff Goldblum), a friend of Matthew's. Matthew tries to phone in a report to the police about the accident, but he meets with strange resistance. Elizabeth becomes entranced by an extremely upset woman who is insisting to Kibner that her husband is an impostor. Kibner calms the woman somewhat before sending her on her way with her husband, but Elizabeth urges the woman to contact her at the health department because she knows what she is trying to say.Finally, Matthew is able to introduce Elizabeth to Kibner, who admits that over the past few days, other people have been coming to him with the same story that Elizabeth is telling. The patients tell him that someone close to them is acting strange and seems like an impostor; the patients seem to get over it quickly and change their story. Kibner suggests that it is a result of the emotional isolation people feel in modern relationships, but even Matthew notices that Kibner doesn't seem to be listening to what Elizabeth is really saying. Matthew takes Elizabeth home and she finds a plant waiting for her; a card indicates it's a gift from Geoffrey.Jack returns to his wife, Nancy (Veronica Cartwright), who runs a mud bath facility. Jack is frustrated over not getting a chance to read his poetry at Kibner's book party, and he goes into the baths to relax. Nancy interacts with a strange patron name Mr. Gianni, who has given her a plant just like the one Geoffrey left for Elizabeth. When Nancy begins closing up for the evening, she notices someone lying under a sheet and thinks it is Jack. Removing the sheet, she is startled to find a strange form underneath. It resembles a man, but lacks distinctive features, and is covered with white tendrils. Jack, who was sleeping nearby, suddenly appears and Nancy strikes him accidentally, giving him a nosebleed, and the shape on the table begins to bleed, too. They call Matthew and urge him to come over to examine the phenomenon, and when he realizes something terribly strange is happening, he remembers Elizabeth. Unable to reach her by phone, Matthew goes over to her house, and while Geoffrey sits listening to headphones, Matthew breaks into the house and retrieves a sleeping Elizabeth from the house. Before taking her from her bed, Matthew is shocked to see a duplicate of her body lying nearby, covered in the same fibers as the body at the baths. Back at the baths, Jack falls asleep again and the body begins to take on his features, until Nancy wakes him up again.Matthew and Elizabeth return to the baths and summon Kibner, but the body has apparently vanished. Likewise, Matthew reports Elizabeth's "other body" to the police, but when they return to the house she shares wtih Geoffrey, nobody is able to find a body. Kibner quiets the police and Geoffrey seems unconcerned that his girlfriend refuses to come home and is spending the night with Matthew. Converging at Matthew's house, the small group forms their hypothesis: somehow, people are being duplicated, and these alternate bodies are appearing to take their places. Kibner is skeptical and tries to talk them out of their ideas, but finally leaves; unseen by the others, he gets into a car with two other "conspirators," including Geoffrey.All day, Matthew tries to get others to listen to him about what's going on. He makes phone calls, has meetings, and tries to find anybody who will take him seriously. Similarly, the woman who was so upset at the bookstore turns up at the health department and tells Elizabeth that she's alright now. That night, the Bellicecs stay at Matthew's. Kibner gives Elizabeth a mild sedative to help her sleep, and leaves.The entire group falls asleep except for Nancy. As they sleep, four pods in Matthew's garden release white tendrils that attach to the sleeping people, and they soon burst forth with embryonic life, somehow duplicating their victims. Before the transformation is complete, Nancy revives Matthew. Together they wake the others, and Matthew tries to call for help. The telephone operators already know who he is, addressing him by name. The power goes out, and they see a horde of pod people rushing up the hill to Matthew's house. As the others escape out the back, Matthew leaves the yard, smashing in the head of his own duplicate with a hoe.Near the docks, the group appears to be cornered behind a group of shipping crates, but Jack sacrifices himself, rushing out along the dock and getting the pod people clones to give chase. Nancy runs off after him, and Matthew and Elizabeth are on their own. They attempt to take a taxi out of town, but the sinister looking cab driver (Don Siegel, the director of the original movie) drives them to a police roadblock that is arresting people attempting to leave the city. Matthew and Elizabeth find that they cannot escape San Francisco; the pod people are everywhere, even spreading pods right out in the open as they now apparently outnumber humans.Taking refuge in the dark offices of the health department, they find speed pills in someone's desk and take as much as they can in order to keep themselves awake. However, they are found out by none other than Jack, who has returned with Kibner, both of them pod people. Kibner gives them a sedative. He explains that they will be reborn into a new world without emotions or complications, thanks to the alien life form that has taken root on Earth, but Matthew and Elizabeth manage to overpower both of them, killing Jack and locking Kibner in a freezer.On the way out of the building, they encounter Nancy in a stairwell; she is still human. Nancy reveals that she and Jack were separated, but she has discovered a way to move among the pod people: by refusing to show emotion. The three of them leave the health department right out in the open, but Elizabeth is startled by a bizarre pod hybrid that has mutated into a dog with a human head. An elderly pod lady notices it and makes a high-pitched scream, which seems to be a way by the pod people to call out to others of a human in their mist. Nancy once again gets separated from Elizabeth and Matthew, who are identified as human (Type-H as referred by the pod people) and chased throughout the city.Making their way to the docks, Matthew and Elizabeth discover a a greenhouse where thousands of pods are being cultivated. Elizabeth, hindered by a twisted ankle and lack of sleep, feels as if she can't go on much further without sleep. Matthew goes to investigate the sounds of "Amazing Grace" coming from one of the ships, leaving Elizabeth hidden among some tall grass. Matthew is horrified to see huge palettes of pods being loaded onto the ships; the spiritual is simply a random radio broadcast, as the station is changed, the ship helmed by pod people ready to take the alien presence to other areas of the world.When Matthew returns to Elizabeth, he finds her asleep, and he is unable to wake her. As he holds her in his arms, Elizabeth's body crumbles into a husk, and her nude clone appears in the grass. The pod Elizabeth tells Matthew that everything is alright; the conversion is painless, and good. She encourages him to sleep, but her voice is hard and cold. Matthew runs, slipping into the greenhouse facility. He makes his way to the steep scaffolding and after taking a fire axe, beings wreaking havoc among the pods, dropping electrical lighting rigs onto them until the entire place is in flames and the unborn pods are burned. But the fire alarm is sounded, and the pod people pursue him, including the newly converted Elizabeth. Matthew slips away from them, hiding under a dock. He hears them talking amongst themselves and one of them says: "He can't get far, he has to sleep sometime." Matthew knows that they are right.The next day, Matthew goes through the motions of his job, staring blankly at his co-workers. He sees Elizabeth in the hallways of the building but they do not acknowledge one another. Outside, Matthew sees schoolbuses of children from Santa Barbara, L.A. and other areas of California being taken to a theater for their conversion. A while later, Matthew is walking along a deserted street towards the City Hall building and hears a voice calling to him. Turning around, he sees the still-human Nancy across the street. As she crosses the street to meet him, Matthew's face twists into a grimace and he points at her, screaming an alien scream to alert the other pod clones to her presence. Nancy screams realizing, too late, that Matthew is now a pod person as the camera zooms into his mouth and the screen fades to black...(By the time the end credits finish rolling, it is strongly implied that Nancy will be captured and become a pod clone too. Apparently there are no more humans alive in San Francisco. The inevitable has happened: the pods have won... and the rest of Earth is apparently doomed.) | horror, violence, humor, murder, flashback | train | imdb | I'm always sceptical about remakes of classic horror and SF films, but this version by Philip Kaufman is much better than one would expect, and ALMOST as good as the original.
Scripter W.D. Richter and director Philip Kaufman give away the "twist" immediately, and there are a number of statements from characters in this film (such as the first time we hear the advice to not fall asleep) that only make sense if one already knows from Don Siegel's original just why they shouldn't fall asleep.
For this reason, I strongly recommend that anyone interested in this film who hasn't seen it yet should make sure they watch the original first.The opening shots, which firmly set this remake into sci-fi territory, are a great idea, even if the execution is somewhat questionable.
There are a lot of subtle lighting effects to set mood, and a just as many subtle instances of symbolism for the horrors to come.The cast, featuring Adams, Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Nimoy and Veronica Cartwright, is an interesting combination of stars who tend to give idiosyncratic performances.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is the remake of 1956 movie by the same title and considered to be, by many fans, to be the definitive and the best version of the story.The movie begins with images of plasmas from an alien world floating out into space towards planet earth.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is also notable for featuring a great cast, which not only includes the excellent Donald Sutherland and the beautiful Brooke Adams, but also Jeff Goldblum (in his first of two successfully good remakes) and Leonard Nimoy, a.k.a. Captain Spock from Star Trek.
An eerie and creepy horror sci-fi movie of space aliens who invade Earth, particularly San Francisco, to make duplicate of humans' bodies and develop their new race in human form - with no emotions.
When you watch it, you'll notice that the clones and the progression of the alien take over is vastly different from the original and has a flavor to it that makes this movie raw, so to speak.Like the first movie, the central theme of this film is paranoia; however there is not allegory for real live events that would have caused this theme to work.
The motion picture is professionally directed by Philip Kauffman , with great originality in spite of being a remake .Other versions about this known story are the following : the classic adaptation which emerged as a cinema classic directed by Donald Siegel(1956) with Kevin McCarthy , Carolyn Jones and Dana Wynter, concerning about mysterious seeds duplicating people , it has emerged as a cinema classic that brings astonishing nightmares ; and inferior rendition in which the horror is diminished by Abel Ferrara(1994) that takes place in a military base with Forrest Whitaker , Meg Tilly, Terry Kenney and Gabriella Anwar.
This Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978 film has some technical flaws here and there but overall it is a very good horror film and it has one of the best movie endings I have ever seen, right up there with Keyser Soze from The Usual Suspects and The Sixth Sense.
Philip Kaufman's remake of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers is an excellent film in its own right that improves upon the original.
Where as the 1950s version was a standard B-movie, the remake features an excellent cast and film direction that raises it above the level of a typical sci-fi horror movie.In particular, the film owes a heavy debt to the paranoia thrillers of the early to mid 1970s, such as Klute and All the President's Men. The use of camera angles and music to create an atmosphere of genuine dread is extremely skillful.
..then It would be a very original movie.The main concept is very interesting,with a plot as rich as you can imagine in sci-fi:it could be a metaphor on totalitarianism,but ,in a more universal way,it is our world,in which we are more and more asked not to show our emotions."Big boys don't cry" mama tells her sensitive boy.Supposing that this is the case,and because this is a remake,and a remake of a one of the strongest sci-fi movies in history (Don Siegel,1956),we 've got to expect a new approach,some further developments,in a nutshell,we want to be deeply surprised.Whether Kaufman succeeds in such a difficult task,the answer is unfortunately no.Yes,there are special effects.Yes,there are good actors:Donald Sutherland,excellent as always,Jeff Godblum,who will score high in the eighties.Yes there are a good use of shadows and light,and of short focal distance,a la Polanski.The last picture is strongly reminiscent of that of "the tenant" (Polanski,1976)But,on the minus side,there are "updates " that are hard to swallow.Best/worst example:in Siegel 's version,there's a terrifying revealing scene which consists in ..a kiss.It becomes an overtly erotic scene,here,complete with nudity,losing all its emotional power.
All the ideas were already in Siegel's version,which renders the new one predictable,really that crowns it for a movie which focuses on suspense.SPOILER * SPOILER* SPOILER IN THIS PART: A good trick is to be credited to the script writers.At the end of the movie,Sutherland becomes like "them".The director did not use the cinematographic codes:he did not show Sutherland's surrender,and as he leaves his office ,we think he's always "normal".That kind of ellipsis ,which will rarefy as the cinema makes its way across the eighties,shows that he assimilated at least one of the Master Alfred's lessons.END OF SPOILER.There will be a third version(Body snatchers,Ferrara,1994).I agree with M.Maltin when he writes:"Setting the story in a military base when everybody's is supposed to act alike...not a good idea " Stick up with Don Siegel's version,without color,scope,stars,but with a genius going for it..
Leonard Nimoy also makes an appearance as a a psychiatrist, as does Art Hindle as Adams's invaded boyfriend.While I do feel that the film's final act does somewhat decelerate the masterful sense of paranoia to its own detriment, it is an explosive conclusion that is bookended with a chilling end-note scene that has gone down in the annals of the horror film.
Superior to the Nicole Kidman remake, this taut thriller remains a little less convincing than its 1956 predecessor of which that film's star (Kevin McCarthy) has a memorable cameo in this revision, picking up where his character left off in the original running frantically on the streets, warning motorists of the imminent invasionThe story revolves around Sutherland playing a health inspector who is inadvertently alerted to the possibility of humans being replaced by alien lookalikes.
In the chaos that ensues, Sutherland teams with Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright, while Leonard Nimoy makes his most significant acting contribution outside of "Star Trek" as the offbeat psychiatrist with all answers.Some memorable scenes and dialogue delivers suspenseful moments (the laundromat husband concerned about the changes in his wife's demeanour is pretty chilling) and overall it's a terrific sci-fi thriller.
I do not have the original available, but Kevin McCarthy does have a small role in this remake.This film features Donald Sutherland (MASH, Ordinary People, and my favorite, Eye of the Needle), Brooke Adams (Gas, Food Lodging), Jeff Goldblum (Independence Day, Jurassic Park, The Fly), Veronica Cartwright (Alien, The Witches of Eastwick), and Leonard Nimoy ("Star Trek") as the main characters.Oscar nominated writer/director Phillip Kaufman (The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Right Stuff, Quills) was honored for this film by Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.Composer Denny Zeutlin produced an outstanding score for this film, but it so wore him out that never accepted another assignment.Invasion of the Body Snatchers is not a cheap horror film, but a thoughtful, provocative piece of paranoia about how Americans are being turned into a society of emotionless robots.
The darkness was obviously on purpose, as it contrasted sharply with the brightness of the scary ending, but if I can't see, I can't give a darn.But Donald Sutherland's performance is good and Jeff Goldblum is uncharacteristically understated.Things to watch for: the un-sexiest nude scene ever.
Don Siegel's '50s sci-fi classic gets the '70s remake treatment, with Donald Sutherland starring as Matthew, a San Francisco health department inspector whose close friend Elizabeth (Brooke Adams) believes that her boyfriend Geoffrey (Art Hindle) has somehow been replaced by a duplicate devoid of emotion, and that others in the city are also not what they seem to be.
As more and more people are replaced by unfeeling doppelgangers, Matthew and his pals correctly surmise that the planet is under attack by aliens.Invasion of the Bodysnatchers is a lesson in how to do a remake properly: the film takes the basic premise of the original, but smart changes here and there keep things fresh and interesting (the most notable being the switch of location from a sleepy town to a major city).
The charismatic Donald Sutherland and the stunningly beautiful Brooke Adams make a great film couple and they receive excellent feedback from top-actors and actresses like Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright and Leonard `Spock' Nimoy!
The cast was well chosen; so well chosen, in fact, as to assist this now-dated remake in besting the original film.This film has become an icon of popular culture, prompting millions of married individuals to state the intent to "go look for pods" whenever their spouse behaves abnormally.Besides the vast popularity of this work, it also features phenomenal performances, and some of our favorite stars: Jeff Goldblum, Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, Brooke Adams, and Veronica Cartwright, with cameos by Robert Duvall and director Philip Kaufman (The Outlaw Josey Wales, and writer of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark).I love this film, and watch it often!
The 1956 B-movie classic is given the big-budget Hollywood treatment--which means more money and bigger names--and would you know it, they actually managed to improve on the original.Communist infiltration and Cold War paranoia is SO 1950s, so this time around the story about pods from outer space replacing earthlings with mindless automatons is set in the urban atmosphere of San Francisco and feeds off of the conspiracy theorist paranoia of a post-Watergate America.
On the short list of truly great horror/sci-fi remakes, one that often gets left out is the 1978 version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Pre-dating John Carpenter's "The Thing" and David Cronenberg's "The Fly" (two films that set an extremely high bar for all other remakes), Director Philip Kaufman's take is the second adaptation of Jack Finney's novel, "The Body Snatchers" and is a real head-spinner, even forty years after its release.
It's influence -- while not widely reflected on -- can be heavily felt in the sci-fi leaning pop culture landscape that would sprawl out in its wake.Boasting eye-popping special effects that still look amazing (and, at times, repulsive) even today, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is no doubt a cut above the average studio horror fare of the time, carrying an air of weight and sophistication that puts it in line with a film like Ridley Scott's "Alien." Kaufman slowly but surely raises the tension and paranoia with a steady hand, effortlessly engaging the viewer from beginning to end with characters that look and feel real, caught up in a surreal experience that looks and feels like a waking nightmare.
Perhaps a less viewed horror - yet with a well-known title - is 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' (1978 remake), a profoundly disturbing tale of alien possession that knows how to scare its audience without trying too hard.The plot: spores from outer space begin duplicating the human race one by one, perfectly copying every detail except for being entirely devoid of emotion.
Making a collating between the original and this fabulous remake, the basic divergence are on the enviroment, the original set place in a small city in the middle of the desert, instead the remake all happenings in a large city as San Francisco, under this two differents approach the original is more believable due the small place is more easy to control the replacement of human beings to stablish a successful phase one and after that moving slowly to another until to reach a large place, the early version was a B-movie on a low budge, the remake had a improvement on special effects, had a great casting including Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, Brooke Adams, the young Goldblum and Kevin Macarthy on an uncredited appareance and mainly supported by big budge, the results are plenty satisfatory, but don't match with the original yet!!Resume:First watch: 1984 How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 8.25.
RELEASED IN 1978 and directed by Philip Kaufman, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" stars Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams as friends, Matthew and Elizabeth, who work at the Health Department in San Francisco.
Well, aside from the dog, which looked atrocious.The cast is impressive in this 1978 remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" as there are some very talented people on the cast list, which include Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, Leonard Nimoy and Kevin McCarthy.If you haven't seen this remake already then it is about high time that you do so.And let's just be honest, whom amongst us haven't imitated the last scene of this movie at least once?
The 1978 version of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a great film that has an excellent cast which includes Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, Leonard Nimoy, Art Hindle, Don Siegel, and Robert Duvall!
If you like Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, Leonard Nimoy, the rest of the cast in the film, Horror, Thrillers, Sci-Fi, and interesting Action films then I strongly recommend you to see this film today!Movie Nuttball's NOTE:If you like alien movies and/or the subject of aliens I also recommend the following films: The Thing from another World, The War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Horror Express, The UFO Incident, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, John Carpenter's The Thing, Krull, Time Walker, My Science Project, Howard the Duck, John Carpenter's Starman, John Carpenter's They Live, Mac and Me, Explorers, Invaders from Mars, Alien Seed, Total Recall, The Abyss, Communion, Suburban Commando, Fire in the Sky, The Arrival, Mars Attacks!
It makes us feel the way we want to feel before watching a movie like Forbidden Planet or The Day the Earth Stood Still or The Invisible Man or, actually, like the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
However, Brooke Adams, whose performance is fine if not a highlight like Sutherland's or Goldblum's, looks quite remarkably like Karen Allen.To me, this version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is atmospherically, stylistically, and tonally the ideal traditional American sci-fi film..
Yeah, there are some scenes that dragged the movie (it was a bit too long, I thought) but there are some really suspenseful and tense scenes.The performances are great from the cast, including Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams and the score is really creepy.
Also Don Siegel, the director of the original film, has a cameo as a cab driver.Veronica Cartwright seemed to have a knack for appearing in doomed roles.Leonard Nimoy gets to play a rare villain, Jeff Goldblum has an early role and Donald Sutherland has an afro!The sight of Brooke Adams naked is also a welcome sight..
This longer, more in-depth remake also expands on the terror of the first, creating a more modern visual exploration of what scares us the most: a worldwide conspiracy, in which we are the ones everyone's out to get.Kaufman's film, similar to Siegel's, focuses on a health inspector named Matthew Bennell (Dr. Miles Bennell in the original), played by Donald Sutherland, who, along with co-worker Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams) and friends Jack and Nancy Bellicec (Jeff Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright), realizes that citizens of the San Francisco area, where he lives, are being duplicated by alien pods, which copy their human victims while they sleep, then discard their bodies.
(The '56 Version is good in its own right...It has the nucleus of the story right but is somewhat dated, in B & W, takes place in a small town and dosen't have the budget or enough time to flesh out the story)...This version "Fleshes Out" the story completly...The movie gives lots of details that were not mentioned in the '56 version...Alien Life Forms, Suspense, Paronia, the city of San Francisco, Horror, a great appropriate Musical Score...You got it all...Nothing is rushed...Close to a Perfect Movie, if you like this type of Movie...A 10+++.
Brooke Adams Jeff Goldblum Veronica Cartwright Leonard Nimoy Kevin McCarthy They all had roles in one of the most underrated sci-fi/horror films of all time.
The idea of aliens imitating humans work better for the times that this was released.With the film being in San Francisco compared to the small town of the original shows how disconnected from each other people really are.It is able to relate to the idea of communism which was at the time seen as a very big threat by the general public and because of this is able to create a very real story about free will..
As more and more people begin to get affected by this disease, they feel alone, and the suspense tightens, and the first appearance of a pod really puts things "out there".All the performances are good, and I thought the two lead roles with Brooke Adams and Donald Sutherland were fantastic.
In this remake of the 50s horror movie, a health inspector witnesses the invasion of alien 'body snatchers', who capture human beings.Despite being a remake, the film is well-adapted to a 70s public.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) *** (out of 4)Remake of the 1956 classic has Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams trying to figure out why so many people seem to believe that their loved ones aren't who they're supposed to be.
They attack the story from different eras and different directions.Donald Sutherland leads an interesting cast, including Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, Veronica Cartwright and Jeff Goldblum.
Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, and Jeff Goldblum are all good. |
tt0120347 | Tomorrow Never Dies | On the border region of Russia, a large bazaar of illegally obtained weapons are being sold to international terrorists. Far away, in an observation room, M, her assistant, Charles Robinson and a British admiral, Roebuck, are watching the operation through cameras placed by an agent they've sent into the area. They identify many of the weapons and several of the buyers.Over M's protests, the officers agree to launch a guided missile into the area believing that they will eliminate half of the world's most dangerous criminals. The missile is launched from a British frigate and speeds toward the target just as the command center receives a radio call from their agent on the scene. Among the camera images is a plane holding two powerful soviet nuclear weapons which may be triggered by the guided missile. An attempt to abort the missile attack fails and the agent, who is revealed to be James Bond, rushes into the area to steal the plane and the bombs. The attack causes most of the terrorists to flee the area.Bond reaches the plane and knocks the pilot in it unconscious. He successfully escapes the valley before the missile hits but is pursued by another of the surviving terrorists in a plane identical to his. He evades the 2nd plane, however, the pilot he knocked out awakes and throws a heavy cord around Bond's neck. Bond keeps control of the plane, flying under the second one and activates the rear ejection seat of his own plane, throwing the man up into the other plane, causing it to explode. Bond contacts the command center and tells them he is flying home with the nukes, asking the admiral where he wants his bombs delivered.In the South China sea, a British missile frigate, the HMS Devonshire, is on patrol and is being threatened by Chinese MIGs. They are supposedly far off their course and in Chinese territorial waters, despite what their satellite position tells them. Nearby, an odd-looking boat, equipped with stealth technology, launches a sea drill into the water and punctures the hull of the British ship. It continues into the ship causing much damage and the ship sinks. The boat's commanding officer, Richard Stamper, contacts his boss, Elliot Carver, a British media mogul, to tell him the 1st part of the operation is complete. Carver approves and gives Stamper the go-ahead for the 2nd part: many of the sailors aboard escape and are swimming towards the stealth ship. Stamper proceeds to machine gun the survivors with special ammunition that would've been used by the Chinese. Back at his own command center, Carver is writing the headline for his international newspaper, Tomorrow, trying to decide if the words "British Soldiers Murdered" will generate the proper outrage.In London, Bond is called back to duty during a romantic tryst. He is ordered to investigate Carver's involvement in the Devonshire incident. Besides the critical details of the incident being released hours before they became known in the Tomorrow newspaper, MI6 has traced the mysterious signal that interfered with the communications with the Devonshire to one of Carver's satellites. Bond's lead-in to get to Carver will be a past relationship with Carver's wife Paris. Bond travels to Hamburg, Germany where Carver is scheduled to hold a big unveiling of his new media center. At the airport, he meets Q who provides him with a cellular phone and his car, a BMW 750 that can be remotely driven by the phone.Bond attends Carver's gala party and reconnects with Paris Carver and meets a new woman, Wai Lin, who claims to be from the new China news agency. During the gala party, Bond is apprehended by a few of Carver's thugs who take him to a sound proof room to beat him senseless. He overpowers them and shuts down Carver's broadcast. He returns to his hotel room to find Paris Carver waiting for him. The two sleep together and she tells him a way to infiltrate Carver's Hamburg media headquarters.The next day, Bond breaks into the headquarters of Carver's media company and finds the office occupied by Henry Gupta, Carver's communications specialist and known techno-terrorist. In Gupta's safe, Bond finds a CIA decoder device, the same one Gupta took from the arms bazaar Bond infiltrated earlier. It is believed that the device may have been used by Gupta to guide the Devonshire off course. Bond takes the decoder and is leaving the building when he is discovered by the guards. While escaping the factory, Bond spots Lin leaving as well.Bond is able to leave the factory in his car, which he drives to the parking garage of his hotel. On the way, he gets a call from Carver, who has been tipped off about his wife's involvement with Bond thanks to Gupta enhancing surveillance footage, and the theft of the decoder, and has had an assassin named Dr. Kaufman kill her in Bond's hotel room. Bond activates the security system and goes to his room. There he finds Paris, dead on the bed. A videotape playing nearby shows a completed Carver broadcast saying Paris will be discovered murdered with an unidentified man, who will be found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Dr. Kaufman promptly appears and takes Bond hostage at gunpoint. He is going to shoot Bond and make it look like a murder-suicide. He is about to shoot Bond when he suddenly is informed over his earpiece by Stamper that the BMW's security system makes it impossible for Carver's men to get the decoder. Dr. Kaufman is told to torture Bond to find out how to get into the car. Bond hands over his cell phone and gives a code to punch in which will unlock the car. The phone sends a powerful electric shock into Dr. Kaufman and Bond turns the doctor's gun on the man and shoots him, completing the Carver media image of Paris' death.Bond returns to the parking garage and activates his car with his phone. He jumps into a rear window and pilots the car from the back seat. Carver's men have set up several traps for him but the car's defenses and weapons allow Bond to escape them. He pilots the car to the top level of the garage, jumps out and allows it to drive off the edge and plummet to the street where it lands directly in the Avis Car Rentals office he got the car from.Bond reports to the South China Sea where he meets with American and British military officials and his CIA contact, Jack Wade. Bond shows the group how the decoder works and was used to change the location of the Devonshire. Now that they know were to find the sunken ship, Bond will explore it to prove that the ship was deliberately set off-course. Armed with a parachute and scuba gear, Bond must "HALO" jump into the wreck site, opening his chute a short distance above the water to avoid radar detection.The military officials discover that the site of the Devonshire is not actually in Chinese waters but those of Vietnam, making Bond's HALO jump more dangerous. Bond reaches the wreck and finds Wai Lin there already. The two discover that two of the Devonshire's guided missiles have been stolen. They surface before the ship sinks deeper into the sea and are promptly captured by Stamper on a Vietnamese fishing boat. They are taken to Carver HQ in Saigon, where they reveal they've been working together on the case for months. Carver orders Stamper to torture them both.Bond and Lin, though handcuffed together, start a gunfight and escape the building. They steal a motorcycle and are chased through the streets until cornered by Carver's helicopter. They grab a cable and are able to throw it into the tail rotor of the chopper, which crashes. Shortly after, while cleaning up, Lin unfastens her handcuff and refastens it to a pipe and leaves Bond behind. He quickly frees himself and tails her to her hideout. She's attacked by several thugs but Bond intervenes and they beat them. They decide to search for Carver's stealth boat together and re-arm themselves.The two search several areas large enough for Carver to hide his stealth craft and get lucky on the last cove. The board the boat and plan to plant explosive charges to disrupt it's radar cover and make it visible to the British fleet. Lin is captured and Bond sneaks inside. Carver reveals his ultimate plan; he will launch one of the stolen British missiles into China, provoking a war. The new conflict will be covered by his media group and he will bid for exclusive rights to media coverage in China when his secret partner General Chang takes control of the Chinese government and miraculously ends the conflict. Bond is able to take Gupta hostage; Carver kills Gupta openly after the tech-expert tells his boss that the preparations are complete. However, a grenade planted by Bond with a small triggering device goes off, causing a huge explosion.The boat, now visible to radar, is attacked by the British navy. Carver orders Stamper to go ahead with the missile launch. With the boat disintegrating around them, Bond fights through several of Carver's henchmen and corners the villain. Bond activates the sea drill hanging nearby and forces Carver into its path, killing him.Stamper has chained Lin and dangles her over the indoor pool; when she passes Bond some detonation fuses to sabotage the missile, Stamper drops her in the water. Bond and Stamper fight briefly and Bond traps the thug's ankle under the missile. With Stamper holding him in front of the missile's engines, he hopes that Bond will burn and die with him. Bond is able to cut the straps on his pack and he plunges into the water just as the missile launches and the detonators destroy it and Stamper. Under water, he rescues Lin, breathing air into her lungs with a kiss. The two surface just as the stealth boat sinks. They are later picked up by the British Navy while sharing a romantic moment in a lifeboat. | murder, violence, cult, humor, action, revenge | train | imdb | The original title of the film was "Tomorrow Never Lies", which makes sense when you consider media mogul Elliot Carver was creating the next day's headlines in advance, then causing those events to happen , but a typo on an early script draft was adopted by the producers, and ¨Tomorrow never dies¨ was used instead .
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) is my seventh favorite James Bond 007 movie and Pierce Brosnan second best movie he did in my opinion.
Tomorrow Never Dies is the 18th entry in the official James Bond film series.Pierce Brosnan makes his second appearance as Agent 007, James Bond heads to stop a media mogul's plan to induce war between China and the UK in order to obtain exclusive global media coverage.
I never mind that scene it was great action sequence in which Bond eluded his attackers and he drove his car off the wall ha ha.James Bond and Wai Lin in Saigon, Vietnam jumped off the building in Carver's HQ.
Samantha Bond, Joe Don Baker and Desmond Llewellyn - all reprise their "GoldenEye" roles.Michelle Yeoh did a good job as Wai Lin the new Bond girl she was awarded for the role of Wai Lin. A martial artist of considerable skills, she preferred to work alone - until she begins to trust 007.Carver's wife Paris was played by the great beauty, Teri Hatcher was excellent as Paris Carver's wife.
After an assassin kill's Carver's wife here we seen Bond's remorse and feelings, not a stone killer like Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace.Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) is the eighteenth spy film in the James Bond series to be produced by Eon Productions, and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond.
This film isn't quite as good as "Goldeneye", but it still another fun addition to the series.Pierce Brosnan once again shines as James Bond, and Wai Lin, played by Michelle Yeoh, is quite possibly the toughest Bond girl ever.
Q demonstrated how to drive the BMW by remote control by moving his finger around a pad inside a special mobile phone
None of Bond's cars can compare for hi-tech gadgetry with the BMW 750 Sedan he drove on this film mission
"Tomorrow Never Dies" opens with H.M.S Devonshire on a routine patrol from the Philippines to Hong Kong when it was overflown by two Chinese MiGs, whose pilots claimed the ships had veered into Chinese territorial waters
While the captain and the pilots argued the point, the Devonshire shuddered from stern to stern
Something had holed her below the waterline and she was sinking quickly
Virtually undetectable by radar, the stealth ship (invisible to radar) was Elliot Carver's secret weapon in his plan to cause international conflicts
The schemes of Carver had brought Britain and China to the edge of war
And the British will think it's a Chinese aerial torpedo
Bond needed to find the wreck of H.M.S Devonshire and discover how and why it had sunk
However a problem remained: how to get to the wreck, and which lay between the Chinese and the British fleets, undetected by the Chinese radar?
Carver's daring bid for communication supremacy involves nothing less than achieving World War III and offering subscribers a ringside seat
In his attempts to situate and stop Carver, Bond becomes implicated with his former lover Paris now Carver's wife and collaborates with resourceful Chinese agent Wai Lin
In "Tomorrow Never Dies," Pierce Brosnan was seen more confident as Bond
The actors playing Bond's back-up Judi Dench, Samantha Bond, Joe Don Baker and Desmond Llewellyn all reprise their "GoldenEye" roles
Former Miss Malaysia Michelle Yeoh was awarded the role of Wai Lin
MI6 was not the only agency interested in Carver
The Chinese government sent one of its top security agents to uncover the secrets of his organization
After initial distrust, she and Bond form an almost telepathic understanding
A martial artist of considerable skills, she preferred to work alone until she begins to trust 007
Carver's wife Paris was played by the great beauty, Teri Hatcher
"I always wondered how I'd feel if I ever saw you again," said Bond
He soon had his answer a stinging slap in the face...
He had broken Paris' heart years before, and she had consoled herself by marrying a jealous husband
Yet she still carries an ex-flame for 007
Paris, like Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton) in "Goldfinger," has only few minutes on-screen in the film
Jonathan Pryce plays the villain, 'the emperor of the air,' Elliot Carver who was prepared to go to any length to increase the power of his media empire
Ricky Jay plays Henry Gupta the eccentric quietly spoken man to Carver's plans
He's the most dangerous of the magnate's followers
Götz Otto plays Stamper, the loyal psychopath henchman who follows Carver's orders murdering a group of shipwrecked British sailors
Vincent Schiavelli plays the menacing Dr. Kaufman, a professional hit-man, and a priest of pain
The 18th Bond movie has it all: Too much action (including an exciting chase through the streets of Saigon on a stylish BMW R1200); an effective girl; and a super car.
'Tomorrow Never Dies' is a superb Bond film, and if you're not looking for anything else, it provides some great entertainment.The story: Bond (Pierce Brosnan) has the save the world from a megalomaniac again, but this time, the threat is Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce, clearly having the time of his life), a worldwide media baron who wants to start a war in order to get higher ratings.
questionable tactics; and Miss Moneypenny, who gets one of the best lines in the film.The Bond girl this time around is Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh), a Chinese agent who has also been sent to find out what Carver's up to.
So, we can say the plot is quite good and original as well, nobody can say no.And this movie was a great follow up to the blockbuster mega hit that was Goldeneye, Pierce Brosnan shining as the British agent, as he always did in his 007 period.
This movie has made up for all the recent bad Bond movies made.Brosnan changed his look for this one and leared from his mistakes in Goldeneye.Very well done with regards to action and special effects.The direction and cinematography was also splendid.The producers have also finally found a proper 90's atmosphere for Bond.This film has set the standard for the new Bond formula.Complaints about the unrealistic storyline is unfounded.Wake up nay sayers.How realistic can DR.
No and Goldfinger be?Both mentioned films being considered model Bond movies.The unrealism must be eclipsed by great entertainment and innovative fim making.The Bond movies are a great vehicle for innovative action film making and given this,Tomorrow Never Dies delivers.Another annoying complaint by others is that the villain here was not menacing.Once again,in other Bond classics,the big boss is not required to be a physical specimen.Many versions of Blofeld and even Goldfinger himself were menacing in other ways.One more comlaint I did not like was that there was too much Rambo like shooting.In other classic Bond films,there are a lot of shootings galore.The difference is that in this film,the shooting scenes were more graphic and there is nothing wrong with that becouse it is time the Bond films took it to the next level in these scenes.Why should the Bond films get left behind in this area when it is the pinnacle of all action films?Yup!Brosnan was lighting it up with that rapid fire weapon and it was done the right way!James was never handled this way when he was given a weapon like that before and it was about time he was portrayed with little compromise this way.This film is not better than the best of Connery and Moore but this one rates among the best Bond films all time.I'm so happy Brosnan grew into it.I hated his weak portrayal in Goldeneye but I still knew adjustments here and there would fix it.Tomorrow Never Dies realised my desire for Brosnan's Bond.I knew he could do it this way ever since I saw him in the old Remington Steele TV series back in 1983.I knew he had to toughen up physically and get a haircut.He did both and became Bond.
It stars Pierce Brosnan, Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Price, Gortz Otto, Teri Hatcher, Ricky Jay, Judi Dench, Colin Salmon, Desmond Llewelyn and Geoffrey Palmer.Music is scored by David Arnold and cinematography by Robert Elswit.Bond 18 and 007 is called in to investigate media magnate Elliot Carver who appears to be instigating disasters to cause a war between the UK and China.After GoldenEye had broke records and Pierce Brosnan was firmly accepted as the new Bond to usher in the approaching millennium, Eon wasted no time in getting Tomorrow Never Dies into production.
Dench continues the good work in Golden Eye as M, Llewelyn as Q gets another round of sparring joyously with 007 and Samantha Bond gets some well written lines as Moneypenny.It failed to live up to the Bondian standards set by GoldenEye, but it is still a great action movie full of vim and vigour and dotted along the way are some truly great scenes.
It's the one with the evil news media empire, the motorcycle chase through Saigon, Teri Hatcher, the printing press, the secret Vietnamese headquarters, Michelle Yeoh, the stealth boat base, and the hi-tech remote-control "talking" BMW.Pierce Brosnan is back with all of his MI6 buddies from GOLDENEYE (1995).
Mr. Brosnan at the top of his game, so smooth, active and funny, returns as Bond with plenty of style in one of Bond's most down to earth missions: to stop a possible conflict between England and China about to emerge from the dephts of a creative and destructive mind, the egocentric Elliot Carver (the priceless Jonathan Pryce), a media mogul à la Citizen Kane/Rupert Murdoch with his own declaration of principals which is to provide the news before they happen.
But after waiting 6 years and being served a reasonably good film, and thinking that all Bond's troubles were over (off-screen, obviously), then came along Tomorrow Never Dies.Um, well, what can I say?PLOT - mad business tycoon wants to start World War III for personal gain: (Come on!
We've seen this at least 3 times before, and I think James Bond must think there's a conspiracy theory against him or something.)CHARACTERS - James Bond, the suave, sexy secret agent (immortal by the looks of it too); Wai Lin, his tough, PC sidekick (has a pretty good pair too); Elliot Carver, mad, ruthless, delusional, low IQ (thinks he can kill Bond); M, James Bond's commanding officer, always finds James Bond annoying; Stamper, a cut-down Hans (remember Hans - he's the big, blonde, muscular, silent, Nordic bloke who James Bond had a little tiff with near the end of You Only Live Twice).PRE-CREDIT SEQUENCE - James Bond rudely interrupts a terrorist bring-and-buy sale.
Tomorrow Never Dies is a good movie with a good cast,good storyline and plenty of action and suspense to keep this movie alive.Its not the best James Bond movie,but its not the worst either,but it certainly isn't Pierce Brosnans best Bond movie,who would currently be my favourite actor who's played Bond,although there's no Bond I don't like,Sean Connery,Roger Moore and Daniel Craig are also all great.When I saw the opening credits and saw Teri Hatcher came up,I was happy to see she was in it,because I've always liked her and find her very attractive.I was disappointed that she wasn't as main in it as I thought shed be,I thought shed be the main Bond girl in this movie,but that role actually went to Michelle Yeoh,I thought Teri Hatcher was much better,as an actress,her character and looks.James Bond returns and must stop a man named Elliot Carver,who is trying to cause war between the Uk and China just so he can obtain exclusive global news coverage..
Bond teams up with Chinese agent Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) to stop Carver, but things are complicated by Carver's wife Paris (Teri Hatcher), Bond's former lover.There are plenty of nice action sequences and thrilling stunt scenes, as Brosnan and Yeoh make a spectacular duo playing two agents working together to catch the bad guys.
That being said, Tomorrow Never Dies passes the time, despite containing some of the worst dialogue and/or puns the franchise put out pre-Die Another Day.After a rather badass opening sequence and a top-tier theme song by Sheryl Crow, this is basically the average bond fare, although the plot, where an unusually megalomaniacal media mogul, played by the ludicrously cartoonish Jonathan Pryce, aided by his unusually bland henchman Mr. Stamper (Götz Otto) is trying to start a new world war so that he can get exclusive TV rights in China, or something, makes me longing for the old Spectre days.If the plot and the sometimes poor writing drag the film down, the excellent set pieces keep it at a reasonable high level.
Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh), who is one of the coolest female characters in a Bond film, provides a really good martial arts fight scene, and there is an exhilarating motorcycle sequence that belongs to the top chases in the series.
* A good one liner delivered by Bond after one henchman's Chakra spiel.* For those who remember the British sit-com "Mind your language", there is a scene in this movie where Wai Lin pretty much does an impression of the Chinese woman's usual spiels in that sit-com...but tongue in cheek.* Elliot Carver quoting US media mogul William Randolph Hearst: "You provide the pictures, I'll provide the war" when speaking to a photographer in his employ.
"Tomorrow Never Dies" continues in the well-established James Bond tongue-in-cheek tradition of absurd heroics, over-the-edge technology, over-the-top action, villains you love to hate, women you'd love to love (sorry ladies; you're probably not interested in these 'guy flicks' anyway), explosions that are just short of nuclear, state-of-the-art chase scenes, exotic locales, world-threatening crises, ribald double-entendres, and self-lampooning dialogue that have made the 007 films of Albert R.
I can't say I've watched that many James Bond films but I saw this one recently and enjoyed it.Pierce Brosnan does a good job in the central role, and seems more comfortable dishing out the one liners than he did in his previous outing as 007.The plot is as difficult to follow as ever but the central theme of being able to control the media for your own ends is a good one.It's all a good romp and at under two hours too.
Of course Bond must stop Carver before he starts World War III.Tomorrow Never Dies is a weaker film than Goldeneye.
Yet Tomorrow Never Dies' problems stop here.Pierce Brosnan is firmly set in the role of James Bond by his second instalment as the title character.
Pierce Brosnan's second Bond movie is not quite as good as "GoldenEye", mainly because it's so derivative of previous Bond flicks and brings little that's new to the table: the "play two superpowers against each other" plot comes straight out of "You Only Live Twice", the antagonism-turned-to-attraction relationship between Bond and his leading lady follows the pattern of "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker" (complete with a scene where Bond plays around with his counterpart's gadgets), the chase in narrow and overcrowded exotic streets is reminiscent of "Octopussy", etc.
Movie Review: "007: Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997)Actor Pierce Brosnan, reprising his elegantly portrayal in the role as James Bond in a much darker received "007" picture directed by Roger Spottiswoode, who together with magnificient atmospheric coverage by cinematographer Robert Elswit, deliver an future-establishing action movie for a more adult target audience.Producers Barbara Broccoli, first time presenting without her recently deceased father Albert R.
Together they must speed through Saigon city on a highlighted motorcycle chase, followed by vicious henchmen of the Carver Media Group, led by the character of Elliot Carver, playfully and outgoing portrayed by actor Jonathan Pryce, who did his homework by sharing one of the most memorable beats in "007" nemesis history in fabricating the News of the World for personal benefits.Composer David Arnold creates an epic score, which comes along with striking visuals, but then again are not given justice by an inbalanced editorial of 115 minutes that misses out in decisive beat work and leaves the audience at times completely lost, especially in the Hamburg Carver News launching occasion, within an unless initially-intriguing screenplay by Bruce Feirstein, which only partially succeeds to be full-bodied quality motion picture entertainment as to say a unique hyper-suspenseful thriller, which "Tomorrow Never Dies" could have been under a different direction by putting further focus on the relationship between the character of Paris Carver and James Bond and its World War 3 menacing consequences.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend
Pierce Brosnan is at his best and I personally prefer the way he portrays Bond to Daniel Craig who looks more like a builder than a Spy.007 is on a mission to avert war between china and the West that Elliot Carver is manipulating to sell more news on his global media empire.
Tomorrow Never Dies is the second outing for Pierce Brosnan as 007.This time around Bond has to prevent a Media Mogul from starting a war between Britain and China for ratings.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) *** (out of 4) Pierce Brosnan's second attempt at James Bond has him going up against an evil media mogul (Jonathan Pryce) who plans to make China and the U.K. go to war so that he can get exclusive global coverage.
The chinese girl is great in her role, Brosnan is better than ever (definitely the best his film), good chase scenes, good villains, etc etc.Far better than The World is Not Enough, or any other recent Bond flick..
Tomorrow Never Dies is one of the best James Bond films, certainly the best one starring Pierce Brosnan in my opinion. |
tt0078841 | Being There | Chance (Peter Sellers) is a middle-aged man who lives in the townhouse of an old, wealthy man in Washington, D.C. He is simple-minded and has lived there his whole life, tending the garden. Other than gardening, his knowledge is derived entirely from what he sees on television. When his benefactor dies, Chance naively says he has no claim against the estate, and is ordered to move out. Thus he discovers the outside world for the first time.
Chance wanders aimlessly. He passes by a TV shop and sees himself captured by a camera in the shop window. Entranced, he steps backward off the sidewalk and is struck by a chauffeured car owned by Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas), an elderly business mogul. In the car is Rand's much younger wife, Eve (Shirley MacLaine).
Eve brings Chance to their home to recover. She mishears "Chance, the gardener" as "Chauncey Gardiner." Chance is wearing expensive tailored clothes from the 1920s and '30s, which his benefactor had allowed him to take from the attic, and his manners are old-fashioned and courtly. When Ben Rand meets him, he takes "Chauncey" for an upper-class, highly educated businessman. Chance often misunderstands people and states the obvious, particularly about gardening, but his simple words are repeatedly misunderstood as profound, allegorical statements about life, business and the economy. Rand admires him, finding him direct, wise and insightful.
Rand is also a confidant and adviser to the President of the United States (Jack Warden), whom he introduces to "Chauncey." The President, who is concerned about the economy, asks Chance his opinion about "temporary incentives." Chance hears the words "stimulate growth" and following a pause goes on a short speech about the changing seasons of the garden. Chance goes on to say "there will be growth in the spring." The President completely misinterprets this as optimistic political and economic advice. Chance, as Chauncey Gardiner, quickly rises to national public prominence. He remains an adviser to Rand, attends important dinners, meets with the Soviet ambassador and appears on a television talk show. During the show, Chance again goes into detail about the importance of gardening and what a serious gardener he is, the host and public misunderstand this to be Chance talking about running the country and being a serious President should he get the chance. Though he has now risen to the top of Washington society, he remains very mysterious. The Secret Service is unable to find any background information about him. Public opinion polls start to reflect just how much his "simple brand of wisdom" resonates with the jaded American public. The President even begins to fear Chance's popularity with the public. During this time Rand's physician, Dr. Allenby (Richard Dysart), becomes increasingly suspicious of Chance, and seems to be able to see what everyone else cannot that Chance is not a wise political expert and that the mystery of his identity may have a more mundane explanation. Dr. Allenby considers confiding his suspicions to Rand but when he realizes how happy Chance is making him during his final days he decides not to.
Rand, who is dying, encourages Eve to become close to "Chauncey." She is already attracted to him and makes a sexual advance. Chance has no interest in or knowledge of sex, but mimics a kissing scene from the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair, which happens to be on the TV. When the scene ends, Chauncey stops suddenly and Eve is confused. She asks what he likes, meaning sexually; he replies "I like to watch," meaning television. She is momentarily taken aback, but decides she is willing to masturbate for his voyeuristic pleasure. As she becomes involved in the act, she does not notice that he has turned back to the TV and is watching it, not her.
Chance is present at Rand's death and shows genuine sadness at his passing by crying. Chance then talks briefly with Rand's physician, Allenby finally asks what he has been wanting to and has his thoughts confirmed that "Chauncey" is merely a simpleminded gardener who knows nothing of finance or politics, Allenby does not appear bothered by this and it is left ambiguous what he will do about the knowledge. At Rand's funeral, while the President delivers a speech, the pall-bearers hold a whispered discussion over potential replacements for the President in the next term of office. They unanimously agree on "Chauncey Gardiner."
Oblivious to all this, "Chauncey" wanders through Rand's wintry estate. He straightens out a pine sapling, touches some flowers and then walks off across the surface of a small lake. He pauses, dips his umbrella into the deep water under his feet as if testing its depth, turns, and then continues to walk on the water as the President quotes Rand: "Life is a state of mind." | psychedelic, satire, entertaining | train | wikipedia | null |
tt1262416 | Scream 4 | Sherrie and Trudie (Lucy Hale and Shenae Grimes), two high schools girls, are stalked and then brutally killed by Ghostface, but this is the opening scene to "Stab 6", which Rachel and Chloe (Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell) are watching. Rachel nags on about horror movie cliches, then Chloe gets out a knife and stabs her, twice. This is the opening to "Stab 7", which Jenny and Marnie (Aimee Teegarden and Britt Robertson) are watching. After Jenny pranks Marnie, she is killed. Jenny is threatened over the phone by a voice, and then chased through the house by Ghostface himself, leading to her demise in the garage.Ten years since the events known as "The Woodsboro Massacre," Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) returns to her hometown as one of the stops on her book-signing tour. However, things do not go well when Dewey Riley (David Arquette, who is now the town's Sheriff) interrupts the signing, claiming that the murder of Jenny and Marnie are linked to a cellular phone somewhere in the bookstore's vicinity. Everyone is surprised when the phone is found in the trunk of Sidney's rental car, along with bloody handprints.While Dewey intends to find out what is going on, the incident quickly spreads across the town like wildfire. Gale Weathers-Riley (Courteney Cox, who is Dewey's wife), gets her old spark back and in an effort to be in the spotlight again, intends to investigate what happened.Dewey assigns a police detail to patrol the place where Sidney will be staying, which happens to be the residence of her aunt Kate (Mary McDonnell), and cousin Jill (Emma Roberts). It is here that Sidney has a deja vu moment, in going to her cousin's room, only to see her cousin's ex-boyfriend Trevor (Nico Tortorella) sneaking out a nearby window after Jill has asked him to leave.Later on that evening, Jill and her friend Kirby (Hayden Panettiere) are watching a movie, when Kirby gets a call from someone sounding like 'Ghostface.' The voice claims he's hiding in the closet, which Kirby checks, but finds no one. The voice then claims that he isn't standing in Jill's closet. In the house next door, their friend Olivia (Marielle Jaffe) is shocked when the killer bursts from HER closet and gruesomely kills her. Sidney hears what's going on, and breaks into Olivia's place, attempting to stop the killer. However, he escapes just as the police arrive.Sidney is taken to the local hospital to be checked over, but is upset when her book-signing's publicist Rebecca (Alison Brie) claims that these new killings can help the sales of Sidney's self-help book. Sidney fires Rebecca on the spot, who heads to the facility's parking garage, only to be menaced and then killed, before her body is thrown off the top of the garage onto the roof of a nearby news van.Gale is still trying to get to the bottom of the mystery, and convinces Sidney to come with her to the local 'Cinema Club' at the high school, run by Charlie Walker (Rory Culkin) and Robbie Mercer (Erik Knudsen). The two claim that if the killer is attempting to kill people in a 'remake' fashion. While some things may be similar, the killer's style is not going to be exactly like the first time, and that to make the situation even more intense, they may even be recording the murders to post them on the internet.When someone brings up that the end of the murder-spree the first time was at a house party, Charlie and Robbie immediately assume that the killer may strike at their upcoming 'Stab-a-Thon,' where they'll run all the movies in the 'Stab' series (based on the original murders). Some question why hold the 'Stab-a-Thon' in the first place, but the guys assume that they aren't the only party in town, as teenagers on a Friday night have plenty of other party options.Gale manages to find the party, and disguising herself, sets up cameras to view what's going on in the party. However, as she watches from her car, the cameras start to get covered up. Gale places a call to Dewey, before sneaking back into the party. While attempting to fix the camera in the rafters, she comes across a remote webcam, before being stabbed by the killer. Dewey shows up just as Gale collapses to the ground floor, but the killer has once again eluded capture. She survives and it taken to the local hospital.Meanwhile, two police officiers, Ross and Perkins, (Adam Brody and Anthony Anderson) who are on watch outside Kate's house, are both killed by Ghostface. Sidney finds out the Jill snuck out and went to Kirby's. When Kate gets back from shopping Sidney tells her that Jill went to Kirby's. Kate attempts to call her, she does not answer. As the two attempt to go over and get her, the killer appears and kills Kate. Sidney manages to escape, and rushes over to Kirby's place. The killer manages to get to Kirby's house before she arrives.Jill, Kirby, Charlie, and Robbie are relaxing at Kirby's place when Trevor shows up. Jill claims he wasn't invited, but Trevor claims he got a message from Jill's phone. Jill explains this to be impossible, as her phone has been missing recently. Kirby suggests that Jill should go to her room to look for it, and Trevor follows her.Robbie indulges in some alcohol, and ends up going outside, where he is killed. Back inside, Kirby reveals to Charlie her penchant for horror movies, and that she finds him attractive. However, the moment is interrupted when Trevor reappears. Charlie and Trevor leave the living room, leaving Kirby alone. Jill comes from downstairs, and Sidney comes into the house, telling Jill and Kirby of Kate's death. Ghostface appears, and chases them through the house, where Jill hides under a bed and Kirby hides in the basement.When Sidney comes down to the basement to find Kirby, they both find Charlie on the porch, covered in blood. Ghostface appears and ties him to a chair. Kirby's phone rings, and the killer claims he wants to play a game with her, testing her horror movie knowledge. With the killer busy, Sidney runs up the stairs to try to find Jill, to find her missing. When the voice on the phone stops, Kirby rushes out, and attempts to untie Charlie...only to have him stab her, upset that it took til' now for her to find him attractive, which leaves her for dead.Sidney is then attacked by Charlie with the knife, but manages to escape and she starts running to the front door and is then stabbed by Ghostface, confirming that there is a second killer. Ghostface removes his mask...and it is revealed that Jill is also in on it! Jill then lets loose a torrid of hatred at Sidney, claiming that her cousin's fame was always rubbed in her face, and how sick she was of it. Jill now claims that soon, Sidney will die, and in the wake of the killer's spree, she'll become famous instead. Charlie also assumes he's going to be part of the plan, but is shocked when Jill kills him as well. She then kills Trevor with a gun, and supposedly kills Sidney.Jill then sets up the situation as if her ex-boyfriend Trevor was the true killer, planting the knife, mutilating herself, leaving bits of her hair in his hand, and smashing and breaking things around the room. Dewey and the other officers eventually reach Kirby's place, and immediately, when it seems that Jill is still alive, the press descend and peg her as a 'survivor.'In the hospital, Dewey visits with Jill, who claims that maybe one day she can write a book with Gale, since they have the same injuries. Dewey also explains to Jill that Sidney will recover,revealing that she is still alive, and everything will be fine.However, once he leaves, Jill gets out of her bed, and rushes to Sidney's room, intending to kill her cousin once and for all. Dewey manages to show up (having realized that Jill slipped up mentioning similar injuries to Gale...something she shouldn't have been able to know!), but is knocked out by Jill's use of a bedpan. Gale and Deputy Officer Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton) are right behind him, but Jill manages to take Dewey's gun, and corner them behind a bed. Jill demands Judy's gun, and gets it, before shooting the her. Jill then threatens Gale, only to have Gale buy time before Sidney manages to charge up a defibrillator and use the paddles to 'shock' her cousin into submission. Everything seems to be OK, until Jill rises for 'one last scare,' and Sidney kills her cousin with a bullet to the chest. | comedy, mystery, murder, cult, revenge, violence, satire, romantic, suspenseful | train | imdb | No matter how mordantly self-aware the movies are (and believe me, Scream 4 gets a little tediously indulgent in its postmodern cleverness), there's an inevitable predictability to some of the proceedings but anybody who's a genre-savvy horror fan will appreciate how brilliantly everything is executed.
The opening sequences, for example, are one of the best parts of the movie and are a perfect reintroduction to the franchise and while the bulk of the story lags a little, it's redeemed by the ballsy ending.The acting is great with the core trio (Campbell, Arquette and Cox) delivering their usual, strong performances and the rest of the cast, however limited their respective roles, are just as entertaining.
Just when you start to roll your eyes, they roll their eyes.But it also stands as a good slasher flick - perhaps the LEAST slasher-y of the lot so far (it can't be everything after all) but there are plenty of jump-in-your-seat moments.The combination of old generation cast and new generation is actually seamless, again lots of self-referencing about that too.The highlights are too many to name - but the opening of the movie will have you laughing far harder than you'd have expected to.Overall, Scream 4 is excellent..
Never before have I seen a horror franchise spawn 4 movies and still be taken seriously, usually when a franchise follows this path it means that the producers are making annual cash-ins trying to milk the franchise as much as possible while it is still popular and relevant (see Saw, Final Destination), well for Scream 4 (or Scre4m)that's not the case, this movie makes an effort to continue a saga which was put to sleep for more than a decade, without it being a re-imagining, re-make or re-boot like the hideous Rob Zombie attempt at a Halloween remake(although the movie makes fun of this in a brilliant way).
Scream 4 is more than that, while a sequel, it feels like a complete new beginning, it carried the bad stigma that the failed Scream 3 left behind, yet it proved that the series is still relevant, and with the adequate script it takes off on a delightful new killing spree.10 years have passed since Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) last encountered the Ghostface killer, she has moved on with her life and now dedicates to writing her most intimate memoirs and book touring the country with her publicist, making her last stop at her hometown of Woodsboro, the place where it all started.
Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Dewey Riley (David Arquette) are living their peaceful lives in that town, the same as Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts) Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) and their friends, which, begin being stalked by a new masked killer.When at it's best, Scream 4 manages to make you laugh hysterically but at the same time, in the same scene, give you heart-stopping scares, other reviewers think that the only characters you care about are the main threesome (Sidney, Gale and Dewey) but in my opinion, it is precisely the "new rules" factor that make you doubt whether they'll make it or not, meanwhile, you start caring about the other characters (specially Kirby Reed, played by "Heroes" cheerleader Hayden Panettiere) who shares her love for horror films with an unusual crush.While some of the decisions made by characters really fall into the "dumb-blonde-who-goes-upstairs" category, it is precisely the killer that takes credit for this decision making, since you don't know where he'll pop up next, thus making going outside an even scarier choice.Scream 4 is really better thought out than it's predecessor, there's no doubt about that, this time, the gore is even more gruesome, the body count is larger and the truth is that you'll never guess who the killer is, it really could be anyone, and director Wes Craven really makes this a possibility.In the end, Scream 4 perfectly combines comedy, horror, action and drama to create a new formula, while not a perfect movie, it's shortcomings become less important by one aspect, it really doesn't take itself too seriously but at the same time it makes a homage of the saga and utilizes itself as a tool to further immortalize the Ghostface killer as one of the most popular icons in the horror genre..
The fear for their lives was as real as the first time we met Sidney, Gale and Dewey.The entire films was and stayed tongue in cheek and for a sequel, it was just as refreshing as the original.Hands down to directors like Sam Raimi, Robert Rodriquez and Wes Craven, for making horror movies fun!.
"Scream 3", in particular, lacked Kevin Williamson behind the script, and not even Wes Craven could turn what Ehren Kruger wrote into gold (meaning, a good flick; it did make a lot of money, though, and Parker Posey made it hilarious at moments).So, eleven years later, a new SCREAM movie comes out, reuniting the original director, writer and the three survivors of the franchise, heroine Sidney Prescott (my first movie crush, Neve Campbell, still naturally beautiful and always a competent actress), Dewey (David Arquette) and Gale (Courteney Cox).
The tongue-in-cheek humor works for the most part, and Williamson knows how to parody a trend that he (re)created himself, including the ridiculousness of torture porn from the likes of SAW and its annual sequels - "movies with no character development, in which you don't care who lives or dies".
That is the strongest link in this franchise: we've come to care about Sidney, Dewey and Gale, making the SCREAM movies work equally as slashers and satires.
It attempted to mock the majority of horror movies, including its own predecessors, far too hard, making it difficult to take seriously or even watch at all.The character development of "the new generation" was poor, meaning that it was hard to feel sorry for any of them given the circumstances that surrounded them.
There are still problems in this movie like how the end drags a little the dialogue could have been better at some points and right after the amazing opening seen it tries it inter dose all the characters again which takes awhile also the kills are all stabs not like saw where bones and blood are flying everywhere.
With all the rubbish horror/slasher films out there, it's nice to see one with decent characters and that's well written.All the principal/surviving characters return for number 4, which gives it a familiar feel, plus they're all decent actors, meaning you don't have to put up with a gaggle of teenage nobodies for an hour and a half.Basically, if you liked the previous three Scream movies and you don't mind that this is simply more of the same, then give it a go.
Being the "angel of death" that she is, the bodies begin to pile up as a new killer sets his sights on "remaking" the original events, recasting Sidney with her cousin Jill (Emma Roberts).From the opening sequence to final shot, Scream 4 definitely lives up to its tagline New Decade New Rules, and is even more brutal than before, of course we get the usual death then credits start, but this time we get 5 deaths before the title actually comes on, but with a twist, a pretty awesome one.
We get 14 deaths in this one, definitely the most out of any of the Screamquels.The returning cast were again as I already said eased back into they're roles with pure ease, especially Courtney Cox who quickly became the fame hungry bitchy Gale Weathers, and the new cast were also enjoyable Emma Roberts (Jill) did seem a bit of Sidney No2 at first but she really became more and more enjoyable by the end and really came out on her own, Hayden Panetierre (Kirby) was easily the stand-out out of the new cast, she was fun sexy and quick witted, I loved the part when she was naming all the remakes in scene that bears resembles part 1.
But other than that the cast were top notch.In my opinion Wes Craven has always been a bit of a bit and miss for me with greats like (Scream Trilogy, Last House On The Left, The Hills Have Eyes) and misses like (Deadly Friend, Cursed & Hills Have Eyes 2) but here he delivers his best film in many recent years and has a way of timing out scenes that build up the tension and suspense that goes beyond a simple jump scare.
Even after an eleven year absence, Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson prove that they are still at the top of their game, and intelligent and original horror can still exist, even in these dark times full of repetitive sequels and remakes, something that the film comments on heavily.The basic premise of the film is that Sidney Prescott returns to Woodsboro after ten years to publicize her new book on her experience with the killer.
The three veteran actors from the trilogy, Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courtney Cox reprising their roles as Sidney, Dewey, and Gale Weathers respectively, play their roles very well, even amongst all the younger stars who more often then not, are in the spotlight, and it feels like they've definitely changed since the events in Scream 3.
However at the same time, there wasn't much they could really do, since a lot of the focus had to be on the younger cast members, who actually put up some pretty good performances, though cannot be compared the cast of the original, but still fare a mile better than the characters introduced in the previous sequels.I really liked how the actors from the two generations interacted, adding to the commentary on how not just horror movies have changed over the years, but our culture as well.
The years since the slightly underwhelming "Scream 3" have given the original creators- director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson- fresh fodder for another distinctive entry in the franchise, and it shows amply right from the film's diabolically funny beginning.Besides being an intriguing whodunit, part of the fun of the "Scream" series was its self-referential cleverness, and "Scream 4" is no different.
Both are acutely aware of how quickly things have changed within the last decade, especially how social media and technology would have since changed the rules of the stalking game that they had once so cleverly turned on its head in the original "Scream" (remember that Drew Barrymore opening?).And so amidst countless other slasher sequels that have come along since the last "Scream", Williamson and Craven ensure that each one of the killings here remain as sharp, fresh and thrilling as ever in this era of iPhones, caller IDs, weblogs and live streaming.
Indeed, two of the most suspenseful moments in the film are thanks to the latter- first, when our favourite goofily charming sheriff Dewey watches a live feed of Ghostface appearing right behind his wife Gale; and second, when one of a pair of high school nerds (Rory Culkin and Erik Knudsen) gets his strapped-on camera turned 180-degrees to film what's behind him.These last two characters are part of a new group of young nubile teens which Williamson introduces as fresh blood to spill, including Sidney's cousin Jill (Emma Roberts) and her two BFFs, Olivia (Marielle Jaffe) and Kirby (Hayden Panettiere)- of course, no "Scream" is complete with the original survivors, Dewey, Gale and Sidney Prescott who returns to Woodsboro to promote her new self-help book a decade after the last Ghostface murders.
Each one of the new characters is a suspect until they get killed, and let us reassure you that the final reveal at the end of Williamson's teasing packs a wallop by not only taking the "Scream" series in a whole new direction (moving away from the connections to Sidney's mother which formed the backbone of the first three movies), but also by doing so in an intelligently vicious manner.Nevertheless, the challenge of balancing screen time between the new and the old characters means that there are less opportunities for the previous generation of "Scream" fans to catch up with Dewey, Gale and even Sidney, whose roles are much less defined than in the earlier films.
I won't tell you who the killer is but in recent Scream movies they are usually twisted and full of rage but the revealed Ghostface here is kinda low key.Overall, it's fun to watch because of the characters and it's more violent but the version I saw here in the Philippines has cuts which kinda ruined the film.
"What's your favorite scary movie?" whispered a faceless killer in the opening line Wes Craven's original Scream.
This is one of the cleverest, funniest, scariest horror films to come out since the original movie in 1996!This isn't a reboot, it is a direct sequel but with a very modern and current feel to it that makes it accessible to a new audience while also delighting the fans of the original.We have a fantastic returning cast of Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette and also the re-teaming of Craven and Williamson who made the originals (let's forget Scooby Doo Scream 3)!
The way that Scream 4 is constructed is so smart- they subvert expectations but also satisfy and play with structure so you really don't know what's going to happen next.The killer/or ers reveal is masterly done- Craven throwing red herrings at the audience right from the get go, so when you do learn who has been donning the Ghostface mask and hacking and slashing there is a genuine gasp of surprise.What makes this film possibly the best sequel since the original is that where the first film benefited from the teens being aware of the classic slashers of the 70s and 80s, these teens are completely aware of the 'Stab' series and live in the same world that we do- we know who Ghostface is and so do they and the fact that they have become flippant about it just adds to the realism.I am a massive fan of the original and was very prepared to be disappointed with this instalment but I have to say I loved every minute- from the clever (and very funny) opening right until the end credits- this is a must see for anyone who enjoyed the original and just wants a roller-coaster ride of a film.Try and see it in the cinema with a packed audience - that's how these films should be seen and prepare to cheer at the end- cos it's a SCREAM BABY!.
RELEASED IN 2011, Wes Craven's "Scream 4" chronicles events 10 years after the previous film (from 2000) when author Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) returns home to Woodsboro wherein she reacquaints with Sheriff Dewey (David Arquette) and Gale (Courteney Cox), who are now married, as well as her cousin Jill (Emma Roberts) and her Aunt Kate (Mary McDonnell).
So the remakes can try to ruin the original's as much as they like, because there's nothing stopping the master of horror from making a damn good movie.Sidney Prescott, the Laurie Strode of the 'Halloween' movies, is now finally concluding her book tour in her home town of Woodsboro - which only triggers another series of grizzly murders by the alias killer 'Ghostface'.
This film is a great example of what can be achieved within the horror genre, and it shows up the ridiculous remakes that studios are currently churning out thinking that they will be good enough to satisfy horror-fans.WOW it's already be 10 years since the last Scream movie was released how crazy is that?
Naturally, it doesn't take long before she and her old friends, Sheriff Dewey Riley (David Arquette) and former reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), end up on the killer's radar, and with the new trends in horror cinema, there are some new rules to pay attention to...The big risk with Scream 4 was that it could all too easily turn into a bad joke, given the genre's lackluster form of late (a phenomenon Craven is well aware of, having even produced two remakes of his own films, although it must be said those were slightly better than most of their peers) and the fact that the first movie was itself made fun of in the inaugural Scary Movie (funnily enough, one of the new characters is played by funny-man Anthony Anderson, who had a prominent role in Scary Movie 3).
Throughout the most part of the movie the atmospheric shots and music score definitely created a classic horror movie feel to Scre4am making it scary and enjoyable to watch All in all I felt Wes craven did a great job on this movie and it really has given a new lease of life into the slasher genre..
I also liked it because of the interpretation of Neve Campbell who I think that she was outstanding and David Arquette who played as Dewey Riley.Finally I have to say that if you want to see a horror movie with suspense, nice plot and good cast then you just have to watch this movie..
All you can do is watch.¨ Wes Craven is back again for yet another Scream installment 15 years after the first film of the franchise, and he has brought back with him all the stars including Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, and of course Ghostface, who have all stared in the four Scream movies.
From the opening scenes with all the Stab sequels we are reminded that this franchise is not just a horror film, but a satire on scary movies as well.Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is back at Woodsboro after ten years and is promoting a self-help book she has written. |
tt0145531 | Stigmata | A man walks into a church that is filled with worshipers, all holding candles and staring at a sculpture at the front altar. He steps forward and observes a white statue of the Virgin Mary, with two streams of red tears flowing out of its eyes. As another priest greets him, you learn that the man is Father Andrew Kiernan, an investigator sent from the Vatican to determine the validity of divine occurrences. The priest explains to Father Kiernan that the tears began flowing when Father Almedia died; his body still on display in a coffin to the side of the statue. While Father Kiernan takes pictures and samples of the liquid, a small young boy steals the rosary wrapped around Father Almedia's hands in the coffin.In a local market, the boy sells the rosary to an older white woman, while a local stall vendor warns them that it isn't right to steal from the dead.In Pittsburg, Frankie Paige (Patricia Arquette) lives a fast and free lifestyle, working at a hair salon and partying with her friends at clubs. After a long night of partying, she wakes up to a phone call from her mother. Her mom was the lady at the Brazilian market, and had sent Frankie a package of trinkets and gifts from her travels - the rosary among the presents. Frankie gives the gifts a cursory look, and stares at the rosary after she hangs up the phone. While examining the rosary, she suddenly feels extremely nauseous and vomits.Meeting up with her friend before they head to work, they both consider the possibility that Frankie is pregnant. After a day at the salon, Frankie relaxes at home in a hot bath. Suddenly, a dove flies frantically around her apartment, and Frankie is suddenly thrown under the water in the bath, struggling with an unseen force. Flashes between nails being driving into a man's wrist, and wounds developing on Frankie's fill the screen.Her friend finds her at home in the bath with blood everywhere, and rushes her to the hospital. While a surgeon attempts to sew up the two wounds, she explains that they look like they were done by a single sharp object driven through her wrists. The staff believes they are self-inflicted, though Frankie denies it.Back in Rome, Father Kiernan comes back to give in his report about a Virgin Mary sighting in a wall in Brazil. He mentions the statue that he discovered, but is quickly directed to drop the subject by the head priest. Frustrated, the Father accepts the church's decision.Frankie and her friend are riding the subway home, when Frankie suddenly stands up from her seat to confront a priest at the end of the car. She asks the man if he is Andrew, and when he replies no, she swears, and suddenly the train runs wild. Passengers are thrown around the car, while Frankie is now being whipped on the back by an unseen force. Finding herself again at the hospital enduring rigorous tests, the doctors finally conclude that she may have a case of epilepsy. While leaving the hospital, the priest from the subway meets her in the waiting room, hands her his card, and says that when she is up to talking to him, he wants to ask her about "stigmata."News of Frankie's "attacks" have made the papers, and the Vatican has decided to send Father Andrew Kiernan to Pittsburg, and investigate the occurrences. He is told to quiet the situation, and defuse any rumors of stigmata. Upon arrival, there is an instant connection between himself and Frankie. They have a coffee at the diner, while Father Andrew starts the interview. After Frankie explains that she isn't religious, and doesn't even believe in God, Father Andrew explains that what is happening cannot be stigmata, as it only afflicts the extremely devout. After showing the wounds on her wrist that still haven't healed, he looks confused, but still does not relent. Frankie storms out, frustrated that this glimmer of explanation and hope did not amount to anything.That night, Frankie meets her friend at their usual club. She is clearly distressed - feeling that God is doing this to her, and that she just wants everything to stop. After her friend tells her that she is losing it, Frankie storms off only to be halted by another attack - this time scratches and slashes on her forehead. Bloody and hurt, she runs from the club in the rain. She reaches her apartment door, and sees Father Andrew ringing her bell. He sees her, but Frankie runs. Father Andrew discovers her crouching on a car in an alleyway, scratching symbols into the paint with a broken bottle. He walks towards her, and Frankie stands up bellowing something in a foreign language in a man's voice. She collapses, and Father Andrew carries her into her apartment. Father Andrew calls his friend in Rome and replays the phrase Frankie yelled - the friend explains that it is an ancient dialect of Aramaic - the language of Jesus. | comedy, mystery, gothic, violence, cult, insanity, psychedelic | train | imdb | There's nothing conventionally religious in the experience portrayed here -- in fact, the victim is an athiest.But, having bypassed the conventional, the movie is only partially successful in bringing the experience of the stigmata to the screen.
It was suprisingly "non-hollywood" in many respects and very understated if you look beyond the gore of the mutilation and stigmata scenes.My only major gripe with the movie was the sometimes ludicrous way that characters close to Frankie (Patricia Arquette) seemed unwilling to take her seriously or believe her affliction despite the fact that they witnessed amazing supernatural events first hand.
Surely all the doctors, clergy and news reporters in the world would have been at her bedside after seeing the train video camera of this event?Anyway, this aside, many other aspects of the film were first rate and I was pleased the DVD version had the alternate and, in my opinion, better ending (subtle though the difference is).
Certainly I wouldn't say the film was anti-religious, in fact in many respects it adds weight to religious belief as the concept introduces the stigmata phenomenom to the audience.Overall, very good, 7 out of 10..
The film is about a young girl with no faith in god who begins to recieve the wounds of the crucified Christ, the Stigmata.I must say that I was very disappointed in the ending.
STIGMATA: Well, this one is certain to be somewhat controversial with hardcore fundamentalist Christians and the equally dedicated Catholic, but I personally found the movie to be far from irreverent, and actually rather faithful in parts.
Though the film balances psychological terror and armchair Christian mythology, the movie manages to present a thought-provoking dramatic episode by clashing the faithful and the faithless, the true spirituality and hypocrisy, the sincere and the mundane.The film centers on the experiences of a young woman who is a self-professed athiest who manages to somehow be afflicted with The Stigmata, a paranormal experience wherein the "victim" or the "gifted" (dependant upon one's point of view) is afflicted/touched by God and with manifestations of the wounds Christ suffered at His Crucifixion.
These include the wounds through the wrists, the feet, the crown of thorns, the scourging of the back and finally the spear through the side.Into the mix is tossed a mildly agnostic Catholic priest/scientist assigned by Rome to investigate supposed "miracles." Also blended into the story is a sub plot full of political goings on inside the Vatican and the attraction between the priest and the young woman afflicted.
So not only does the movie examine The Stigmata, spirituality, Christian myth, and the Catholic tradition, but it explores the inner workings of the Church (to a very critical degree) and the meeting of man, woman and God.
The integration of Catholic mysticism with MTV-era music video filmography at times seems nearly as visually attractive as Madonna's "Just Like a Prayer" video, though not quite as sublime.I'll give the movie 3 stars, mostly solidified by strong dialogue and exceptional performances from both Patricia Arquette and Gabriel Byrne as the woman and the priest.
On it's own merits, the film manages to create a foundation from which the viewer is challenged to fill in the blanks re: the spiritual goings-on, but it loses points where it attempts to find cheap thrills and reinvent the spiritual-psychological horror portrayed in The Exorcist by turning an interesting and engaging look at mystic spirituality's interaction with the 20th Century's narcissistic cynicism into something more akin to the later OMEN movies..
While the hospital calls it a suicide attempt, the Vatican thinks she may be showing signs of stigmata and sends a priest (Gabriel Byrne) to investigate.This is one of the more clever "religious horror" films that I've seen.
Patricia Arquette is one of my favorite actresses, and I love her in this movie, or any else.Director is unknown to me, I must confess it, but, from what I have seen in this movie, it has some interesting views on filming, and I would really like to see his other works, or future ones.
It's a loss.Film has some frightful scenes, but in major, it's very good movie which gives us some new perspective on Jesus words that the God is in us.People who has no idea, or been religious fanatics should avoid this film.
The people who made the movie are not saying that it did or didn't happen but it is possible that these onlookers might have made a mistake on how Jesus and God want us to be.
If you can swallow that, then you should have no problem with the film's supernatural storyline, which sees Frankie displaying signs of the stigmata after becoming possessed by the spirit of a dead priest who is determined to reveal the secrets of a 5th gospel written by Jesus himself immediately before his crucifixion.Stigmata is a reasonably entertaining piece of religious horror nonsense thanks to fine performances from its excellent lead cast, which also includes Gabriel Byrne as miracle debunking priest Father Andrew Kiernan, and Jonathan Pryce as a Vatican Cardinal trying to protect the Catholic church at all costs.
Yes, the visuals are aesthetically impressive, with stunning lighting and some flashy editing, but they don't suit the material and prove very distracting.After much thrashing around by Arquette as she suffers the stigmata wounds amidst dripping water, flapping doves and shafts of blue light, and some weak Exorcist-style possession scenes, the film wraps things up nicely with the message that you don't need churches to worship God, for he is everywhere.
People who like to THINK at movies and perhaps even try to understand underlying or symbolic meanings should find this to be incredibly interesting.
(Or is this yet another movie cliché where the clue that might reveal all is only found when the story finds it appropriate to be discovered?)All this is quite pitiful because 'Stigmata' had a lot of possibilities and quality in it (and not to forget a very good Patricia Arquette).
In case you've never heard of the stigmata, they're the wounds that Jesus apparently had when he got crucified.In the movie itself, Vatican representative Andrew Kiernan (Gabriel Byrne) gets sent to the United States, where punk Frankie Paige (Patricia Arquette) has been experiencing the stigmata.
The movie mostly appears to be looking at Catholic Church cover-ups - and this is before "The Da Vinci Code" - but the graphic scenes of Frankie getting the stigmata sort of overshadow that.
The film also stars Gabriel Byrne-a catholic preist who is sent from the vatican to investigate Frankies wounds.
The story doesn't even have any surprises-- I don't need to reveal the ending because the film does that for you.The visual storytelling is another thing entirely-- the surprises fly fast and furious, and all of them are unpleasant ones.
There may, at one time, have been a good idea buried under these layers of 'look at me' directing and post-production experiments, but it's long gone.As for the anti-Vatican press this film is flirting with, the Church would be wise to let it run it's course because this movie is just not worth it.Besides, too much attention might resurrect it from it's inevitable (and hopefully agonizing) death.
Who ever wrote this must have just learned what Stigmata meant, so they felt like making a movie based on what they learned.
In this the summer where the legend of a witch scared audiences to the tune of $150 million, along comes another Hollywood dud...This movie TRIES to scare us the way The Exorcist truly did, 25 yrs ago...it fails miserably...I have to give the movie just 1 star because unoriginality needs a great story to merit more stars....With Stigmata we get a bad ripoff of a great horror movie, done with no style...and of course LOTS of great computer effects!
The supervisor is doing whatever it takes to protect the Catholic church by preventing the lost Gospel of Jesus to come to light.The movie tries to scare us at times, but it's stereotypical fright.
Stigmata is directed by Rupert Wainwright and stars Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne, Jonathan Price & Nia Long.
To be fair there's a good core story in there somewhere, the whole basis of stigmata (someone suffering the five wounds suffered by Christ at his Crucifixion) is very interesting, and frightening.
While both Arquette (non believing hairdresser receiving the stigmata) and Byrne (uber cool catholic celibate investigative priest) give it a good go as their characters are unbelievably brought together emotionally.
At the box office the film made a decent profit, helped no end by a huge opening weekend when the public went in intrigued by the premise of this latest horror movie ( it was released halfway thru The Sixth Sense's successful run).
It's later in the movie that Father Andrew is assigned to this case of "Stigmata" in of all places Pittsburgh Pa. involving this 23 year old hair dresser Frankie Paige, Patricia Arguette, who's not Catholic or even religious!
Related by a string of rosary beads!The movie "Stigmata" slowly builds up to its shocking and fiery climax when Father Andrews begins to question the actions of his superior Cardinal Houseman, Jonathan Pryce, who first authorized the investigation of Frankie Paige.
By Frankie getting possession of the beads, through a gift from her mother, she has become as much as a threat to the Cardinal and the church he represents as Father Alameida was!Despite a number of wild and gory scenes of Frankie's hands and legs bursting out into streams of blood signifying Jesus' suffering on the cross we, and Father Andrew, never really quite get what's going on in the movie!
It took a very realistic possibility (the church trying to save itself, damn the truth), and made it a thriller with the most scary scenes, beautiful photography, and good acting.
Strengthened by a career best performance from Patricia Arquette, and good efforts from both Gabriel Byrne and Jonathan Pryce, 'Stigmata' manages to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.
Incredibly well performed by Gabriel Byrne, as the Catholic priest torn between science and faith, and Patricia Arquette, as the atheist hairdresser who doesn't know what's happening to her and doesn't accept it.
What is more, it's not a case of the usual "evil possession", actually Frankie Paige is possessed by a holy man, considered a saint, excommunicated by the church in an attempt to prevent him from making the scroll believed to be St. Thomas Gospel in Aramaic (containing the actual words pronounced by Jesus Christ in the Last Supper ...the kingdom of God is inside you and all around you...) known to the general public.
they are more interested in reviewing the flaws of the "science" of their views...this is just fiction, why compare it to the religious beliefs?the one thing i did get out this movie was that it enforces my belief that christian (and more specifically catholics) have the "creepiest" religion.
I'll refrain from that, because it doesn't matter whether you are atheist, agnostic, Catholic, Christian, or reformed orthodox Buddhist; Stigmata simply commits the unpardonable sin, not of heresy or blasphemy, but of being a film that is neither very engaging or entertaining.From this point on, words like "style", "content", "storyline", and "logic" will be used very loosely.
But somewhere, Stigmata's story, which should by all rights be almost captivating, becomes a tale devoid of logic (the "final confrontation" scene had some members of the audience laughing, so obvious was the lack of consistency) and its content is nothing short of a testament from the film-makers that they are, indeed, cutting edge with their religious beliefs.
And there is at least one scene that is simply visually striking (the subway encounter).But after all is said and done, Stigmata's poor direction over most of the film, it's lack of any coherent or even slightly better than shallow storyline, and the absense of any suspense hurts this film far more than anything else in it that could raise it from its own mediocrity.
Even if you are not Catholic (or perhaps anti-Catholic) and have seen the movie you can easily deduce that they were more interested in turning reverent religious individuals with no desire to suppress the truth and love of God into one giant conspiracy with corruption in every corner.
I am assuming this was simply just some poor attempt and giving the movie an "Exorcist-like" feel.
But I must say if you are a religious person I would really recommend that you pass this one up (hehe especially if you are Catholic :) ) I actually kind of would have sit through the whole thing if it wasn't for my sister with me here in college becoming ill at the sacreligious bombardment from this sorry excuse for a horror/suspense movie (and I don't think we were the only ones!) What morals and values would you compromise for a two-hour piece of entertainment?If you wanna discuss this post or the movie I would be happy to [email protected].
Basically, this movie is a wretched 2-hour music video, with no plot or acting, but good looks.
The movie still has a pretty good cast with Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne and Jonathan Pryce.
Modern-day hairdresser Patricia Arquette wonders what in God's name is happening to her, and with pretty good reason: after receiving a crucifix which was stolen from the deathbed of a revered priest, Arquette has begun to exhibit the wounds Jesus Christ suffered at the time of his crucifixion!
This film brings together three qualities: a thought provoking nature with a "truth" behind it, actors/actresses that may not be the best but collectively all have some of there best performances, and a satisfactory delivery that allows it to be entertaining.My rating of 9/10 may seem high if you look at this movie from just one aspect but the fact that it entertains one from so many angles elevates its value..
I'm not religious, but this film gets you to think about life in a deeper way.
This is a great scare for people who like their horror films original and free of teeny-boppers.
In fact, now that I think of it, this has a lot in common with "The Exorcist II: The Heretic", now THAT was a bad movie--may "Stigmata" find it's way into the same landfill where they belong..
This is called, "giving the plot away," and if you have half a brain you could predict what happens in this movie from there.After this we see poor Frankie undergo all sorts of horrors as, one by one, she gains the wounds of Christ, and of course there's blood everywhere, and lots of whining about "Why me." Then comes Gabriel Byrne as a skeptical priest, and of course he's won over by her story and by her.
(As another reviewer stated, Gabriel Byrne does resemble the Father in Exorcist) Let's jump past all of that cliche nonsense and look at the "serious underlying message" of this movie, which seems to be that the Catholic (and probably every other) Church is so bent on controlling the flow of people's spirituality, that they'll stoop even as low as murder.
If you would like to see a music video about a "good" Catholic Priest possessing a woman (and deliberately causing her physical harm) to fight the evils within the Catholic church, then by God, this movie is for you..
STIGMATA takes the basic elements from this classic occult horror movie and turns it into a more of an adult, religious mystery fusing the ambiance of DARK WATER (2005), suggestions of CONSTANTINE (2005) and incorporating important concepts from the action thriller ANGELS AND DEMONS (2009).
I'm not really keen on catholic movies, but I watched "Stigmata" and I have to admit, I really enjoyed it.It tells us the story of Frankie, a common American young woman who loves going out, hanging around with her boyfriend and having a good fun.
But it is, as well, one of those films that once you've watched it, you want to see it again and again and it certainly gets you thinking...How is your faith these days?
The bottom line for me is it tells how its not a sin to believe in God and NOT go to church.The film tells the story in a sort of Exorcist vs Ghost style.
Stigmata is a horror movie not even scary enough to be classified as a thriller.
The terrible divine in a modern setting.Good movie to think about What-If, even if you're, like me, an atheist (albeit raised a Catholic).
This was refreshing and helped a lot in making the movie worth watching.All in all, builds the suspense well and provokes more thought than the usual Exorcist style rip-off..
I was very disappointed, the movie had more like a suspense/drama/church/religion plot.
If you want a good horror/church/religion movie, I recommend "The Unholy"..
That is, where some movies lose an audience because the story, or key plot points, are too fanciful, too outrageous to even be considered, Stigmata was built around a metaphysical set of events that was far too tame, to juvenile, too much like actual life to be amazing, scary, or even surprising.
It was kind of slow, and I think most of the people in the movies with me wanted just to see Patricia Arquette get possessed, well...they did, but they also got a pretty good story with it.Gabriel Byrne was good in it, and so was Arquette.
The ending was pretty cool, and it had a good story to it also that I think a lot of people would be interested in.
"Stigmata" is NOT an "all-time classic." But, judging by the "stigmata" on my arm (ie, "tense-moment bruises" from Darlene), and considering I didn't look at my watch once during the film, I'd say it was pretty good.I don't profess to know all of the Catholic hierarchy and theology discussed in the movie, but I'll say two things based on other reviews I've read here. |
tt0089092 | Enemy Mine | Enemy Mine opens to a panorama of outer space along with an opening monologue by Willis Davidge (Dennis Quaid). In this monologue he says that all of Earth's nations had achieved peace by the end of the 21st century, and had begun working together to explore and colonize outer space. Unfortunately, Earth wasn't alone out there. Earth colonists encountered a race of alien nonhumanoids known as the Dracs, were laying claim to some of the richest star systems in the galaxy. Dispute over who was where, first, and who had 'legal right' to where, led to battle and finally war between Earth and the drac people.The scene shifts to an Earth space station out in space, far from the Solar System. Four Drac fighter ships approach to begin a raid. Earth's fighter pilots scramble to defend the station; among them are Davidge and his co-pilot, Joey Wooster (Lance Kerwin). The dogfight appears to be going well for the Earth defenders until six Drac fighter ships arrive to join the battle. One of the Drac fighters destroys an Earth fighter, Echo Six, killing its two pilots. Infuriated, Davidge recklessly pursues this Drac ship away from the rest of the battle, but this Drac pilot proves to be an ace flier, deftly dodging several laser volleys. Wooster tries to warn Davidge that their ship's engines are overheating and they are closing over the planet Fyrine IV, which is unexplored territory. But David is obsessed with destroying the Drac ship and its pilot. Finally he scores a hit to the Drac ship's wing, damaging it but not destroying it. Completely single-minded now, Davidge continues pursuing the Drac ship into the upper atmosphere of Fyrine IV. He sees the Drac pilot eject from its ship, and then loses sight of both pilot and ship in the thick fog of the upper atmosphere. Finally the fog cloud breaks to show the abandoned Drac fighter ship directly in front of Davidge's ship. With no time to move, he collides with the Drac ship, damaging his own ship to where he must make a crash landing of his own on Fyrine IV's surface. Davidge is able to pull Wooster free from the wreck, but his ship explodes, leaving him unable to salvage any of its supplies... and Wooster is too gravely injured to save.Davidge builds a barrow of stones over Wooster's body and sets Wooster's broken helmet on it as a grave marker. He's spotted where the Drac ship's wreckage went down and is sure the escape pod with the Drac pilot is near it. As he sets off to kill the Drac, Davidge gives a voiceover where he says he's never seen one of their race before, knowing very little about their physiology-- only that they are reptilian and scaly, and that they are hermaphroditic-- they have both male and female body parts.A strange turtle-like creature emerges from some rocks as Davidge passes them, and makes its way across the ground. It falls into a shallow sinkhole of loose sand; still deep enough that it cannot make its way out. A long tendril snakes out of the bottom of the sinkhole, feeling the air for vibrations and smells. It draws back and latches onto the creature's shell, pulling it down below the sand. Some horrible noises are heard as the sand at the bottom of the sinkhole continues to churn. Suddenly the turtle-creature's shell is spat out of the sinkhole where it joins many other similar shells around the sinkhole's edges, and a monstrous belching sound is heard.Davidge makes his way to a lake where he finds the Drac pilot (Louis Gossett Jr.) swimming in the lake. It emerges from the water to squat by a campfire. Davidge moves closer to make the kill, but as he aims his pistol, a small rock outcropping under his boot gives way. He barely holds onto the rocks, but his gun falls from his hand to drop into the lake below, and the noise alerts the Drac pilot. Although reptilian and clearly non-human, the Drac still appears to have the same basic body structure, with two arms and two legs, standing erect, and its hands have opposable thumbs, although only two other fingers for a total of three on each hand.Davidge remains stone still and waits until nightfall. The Drac puts its rifle on the bulkhead of its wrecked spacecraft and dives into the lake to swim again. Pulling a utility knife, Davidge hurries to the ship's wreckage. Finding a container of what is apparently a combustible fuel, he pours it onto the lake's surface and ignites it with a flare. Laughing maniacally at the thought that the Drac must be burning, he reaches for its rifle. Suddenly his own body is gripped in convulsions; the Drac had placed the weapon in direct contact with the ship's exposed circuitry as a precaution. Kicking Davidge away from the ship and the weapon, the Drac stands over him and gives a gloating greeting.The Drac ties Davidge's hands and feet together and seats him near the ship while it eats. Seeing that the Drac has chosen not to kill him for now, but still full of hate and anger toward it, Davidge demands that the Drac give him something to eat. It mockingly copies a lip-smacking motion that Davidge makes in an attempt to communicate. Even though they speak different languages, when Davidge yells the insult 'toadface' at the Drac, it suddenly stands up and walks over to Davidge, squatting over him. It asks a question in its native tongue, jabbing Davidge with a finger. When the Drac speaks the phrase, 'kos va son Jeriba Shigan-- Shiiigaaaann!,' Davidge reaizes that the Drac has just told him its name: Jeriba Shigan. He understands the Drac wants to know his name in return and gives the Drac his name as Willis Davidge. He again demands some food, and the Drac skewers a disgusting-looking slug like creature on a stick. As horrible as the slug looks and, Davidge imagines, must taste, he is so ravenous with hunger that he suddenly leans forward, bites off a piece of the slug, and forces himself to chew and swallow, much to the Drac's disgust.Later still, the Drac is sleeping while Davidge tries to in his uncomfortable position. A meteorite strikes the ground near him, and suddenly the sky is alight with a meteor shower. Davidge's frightened shouts awaken the Drac, who utters the word 'zeerki' in its native tongue. It starts to run for the cave, pauses, and cuts Davidge's feet free so he can follow it into a nearby cave for shelter. The Drac falls asleep again, and Davidge manages to free his hands on some of the rocks in the cave. He takes the knife and appears ready to kill the Drac, but as he looks on its face while it sleeps, he cannot bring himself to do the deed. He goes to the Drac's ship and finds several containers of emergency food supplies. The food pellets look, smell, and taste absolutely horrendous to Davidge's human sense of taste, but he forces one of the pellets down. Suddenly he is knocked down from behind and the Drac makes a menacing noise, holding its rifle on Davidge. Using gestures and body language in an attempt to make his human language intelligible, Davidge manages to convey that the two of them need to gather up whatever supplies they can from the wreckage and find a place to build a suitable shelter, or else they will most likely die in the next meteor shower.The Drac makes Davidge carry most of the salvagable supplies so it can keep its rifle at the ready. They find a clearing where Davidge builds a hut as best he can. During this time, both he and the Drac manage to learn a little of each other's languages: the Drac tells him the shelter isn't solid. Davidge lightly kicks the inside doorframe and laughs-- but it's the Drac that has the last laugh when the shelter suddenly collapses.The two are at a campfire where the Drac is learning more of the human tongue. Davidge has begun calling the Drac 'Jerry,' a contraction of Jeriba, even though Drac names are spoken surname-first and Jerry's given first name is Shigan. During the conversation, Davidge mentions an Earth saying that Jerry seems somewhat familiar with, and Jerry asks if he learned it from the great drac teacher, Shismar. Davidge sarcastically says he learned it from Mickey Mouse, but Jerry takes him seriously, deciding that Mickey Mouse must be a great human teacher.Davidge is carrying more supplies from the wreckage to the campfire when he happens to spot one of the turtle-like creatures. He grabs at it, but it scuttles away very quickly; although this creature has a turtle-like shell, the rest of its body is decidedly different and it moves quite rapidly when it chooses.At the camp, Davidge cooks another of the slug like creatures while Jerry appears to be praying and meditating; a small tome attached to a chain which Jerry often wears around his neck, open before him. The book is called the Talman, and it is the drac people's sacred book, much like the human bible. Davidge has constructed a bow and arrows with which he hopes to procure better food sources, but Jerry feels that they will be rescued soon. An argument soon arises over their respective people's sacred teachers and which race started the war, ending when Davidge insults Shismar in a grievous way. Jerry retaliates by calling Mickey Mouse a 'great big stupid dope,' and it is all Davidge can do to stop himself from busting out laughing.Davidge is hunting the next day and looses an arrow right into the head of one of the turtle like creatures. Though badly wounded, it is still able to move. Davidge chases it-- and falls into the pit of loose sand. He watches in horror as the long pink tendril emerges and feels the air for scents and air vibrations. It looms very close, unfamiliar with Davidge's scent. But finally it rears back and coils around his leg. Davidge screams in horror, gripping a broken piece of a tree that sticks over the edge of the pit. Jerry hears his screams and comes running. The tendril constricts Davidge's leg, and the rough edges of the tip of it lacerates his flesh. His grip breaks and he's about to be dragged into the bottom of the pit when Jerry catches his hand and fires his rifle, severing the tendril. There is a great churning from the sand at the bottom of the pit and great roaring noises before the terrible head of the creature to whom the tendril (its tongue) belonged emerges, spreading a gaping maw full of sharp teeth. Jerry fires again, sending several blasts into the creature's head and destroying it.Back at camp, Jerry cauterizes and wraps up Davidge's wound. Davidge asks why Jerry saved his life, and Jerry says he needed to look at another face, even if it was Davidge's. Jerry naturally finds humans as ugly (in comparison to dracs) as Davidge must consider dracs to be in comparison to humans. But, the terrible creature in the sand pit was worse, to both of them.Davidge's hand happens to fall on one of the discarded shells. He realizes that the sand-pit creature couldn't bite through them, and the shells might even be able to repel meteors, and their light weight makes them perfect for a shelter. He sets about collecting discarded shells from around the pit and from other turtle=like creatures he's killed for food, and builds a secure shelter.Jerry is reading his Talman again. Davidge decides, to pass the time, if he could learn the Drac language from Jerry so he can learn some of Shismar's philosophies. Jerry feels that the insult Davidge rendered to Shismar makes him beneath such an understaking. Davidge promptly calls Jerry out on being a hypocrite, as it had promptly insulted Mickey Mouse in return. But Jerry quickly apologizes for this, saying it was wrong and didn't mean it. Davidge offers the same apology in return, and Jerry hangs the Talman on the chain around Davidge's neck-- on becoming a tutor, the book, according to his people, must be given to the student.Davidge gives a voiceover among a short montage of scenes showing how time passes, and he and Jerry continue to eke out an existence on the hostile world. They eat, they sleep, they study the Talman, and at night Davidge sometimes dreams of a rescue-- he's awakened one night thinking he's heard the sound of a ship's engines and barely catches a glimpse of ship lights. But on looking outside the shelter, he cannot find anything.Davidge is reading a passage of the Talman aloud as Jerry listens. Jerry is not at all surprised when Davidge says the passage is something he's read in the human version of the book (the Bible), saying simply, 'truth is truth.' It says, however, that Shismar's words take on new meaning when sung. Jerry begins to sing another passage, when suddenly another meteor shower strikes, and the two of them must hurry to their shelter.Jerry moves noticeably slower and even seems to stumble once or twice as they hurry to the shelter. Worry over how Jerry could have been hurt leads Davidge to carelessly make a remark referring to the human vs. drac war. Jerry quickly becomes defensive, and a heated argument erupts that escalates into a physical altercation. Afterward, they both lay exhausted on the ground inside the hut, and Davidge realizes that he and Jerry are starting to go crazy from the isolation and struggle to survive.Davidge finally decides to set out and explore more of the planet in hopes of locating the source of the sounds and lights he still believes he's heard and seen. Jerry, believing they are alone on the planet, declines to go along. Davidge can tell something is amiss with Jerry, but the drac doesn't discuss it. Davidge promises to return when he's satisfied his need to investigate. If he cannot return, he and Jerry will probably both die.Davidge heads out toward the glow of a lake of molten lava. He's originally elated and whoops in pure delight at the site of a temporary core sampling camp and two empty bottles of Pepsi-cola. He finds a large pile of junk metal, proof of a mining operation on the planet. But Davidge's joy is short lived as he finds a dire and terrible discovery among this junk heap: the skull of a drac, with a human bullet hole in the front... proving the drac to whom the skull belonged, was killed by a gunshot to its brain.Davidge gives a voiceover amid scenes where he grimly confirms what he now knows: the planet is being used by scavengers, outlaw human miners and pirates living at the darkest underbelly of human society. They strip and rape entire planets bare of their resources looking for precious ores and metals. Earth's military tolerates them-- barely-- because they kidnap dracs for slave labor for their mining operations. It was a scavenger ship he had heard and seen. These scavengers would kill Davidge as soon as look at him, both for his being part of Earth's defense militia as well as engaging in any kind of cooperation with a drac.Davidge returns to Jerry at the shelter. Winter has fallen on Fyrine IV. Jerry is pleased to see Davidge, and finally reveals what has been amiss with it, and the true reason it couldn't go with Davidge. Jerry is pregnant, preparing to give birth to a baby drac. Jerry reminds Davidge that unlike humans, the drac people are hermaphroditic, and they reproduce automatically 'when it is time--' procreation among the dracs is not something that only happens through deliberate choice, as it is with humans.Jerry asks Davidge if he found what he was looking for. Davidge had been wrestling throughout the trip back on what to tell Jerry. Finally deciding he can't share his findings about the scavengers and the danger they represent, Davidge finally tells Jerry that he found nothing-- as Jerry believed, the two of them are alone on Fyrine IV.More time passes, and Jerry is sewing a garment for its child. When asked by Davidge if it's picked a name out for the drac baby, Jerry says the baby's name will be Zammis.Davidge and Jerry are asleep in their shelter. Suddenly the ground beside them begins to shift, and a small sinkhole begins to appear-- another of the sand-pit creatures has been moving underground and found them. The creature's long tongue slithers out from the sand and tastes the air. The tongue wraps around Jerry's neck, choking him so he cannot yell, and begins to drag it toward the creature's gaping jaws. Jerry thrashes and kicks about in desperation. Slowly Davidge begins to awaken and suddenly snaps to full alertness. Without hesitating or thinking, he turns to the smoldering remains of the campfire, scoops up a large double handful of the white-hot coals in his bare hands and tosses them down the sand-pit creature's throat. The creature lets go of Jerry and thrashes about in agony, wrecking the shelter. Hurrying away from the terrible monster before it can recover, Davidge and Jerry hurry to find a new, more natural shelter from both the creature and the bitter cold and driving snow and wind.In an effort to keep both of them focused, Davidge asks Jerry to tell him about the name it chose for its baby. Jerry explains that unlike humans, each Drac family cycles through five names continuously; the names themselves mean nothing, but it is the deeds each drac achieves throughout its lifetime that matter and must be remembered. Jerry's clan, the Jeriba family, cycles through the names Ty, Islane, Gothig, Shigan, and Zammis. As Jerry's given name is Shigan, its baby is to be called Zammis, and then the cycle would begin again with another Jeriba Ty.Jerry and Davidge manage to find a natural rock cave leading deep into the ground that will provide them warmth and shelter. As they collapse on the ground to sleep again, Jerry says that a drac child does not completely join its family or the society of drac people until it is brought by its parent before the holy council of dracs on their home planet of Dracon, and the family lineage recited. Jerry will need to do this for Zammis, or the great lineage of Jeriba will end. Jerry asks Davidge to tell it about his own family and ancestors and their deeds. Davidge, as a human, remembers only as far back as two of his grandparents, and only a little about what they did for a living. When it is Jerry's turn to teach its lineage to Davidge, it explains how the Jeriba line is 170 generations long since its founding by Jeriba Ty, going back to the founding of the very drac homeworld. The lineage song tells of what accomplishments each family member has made and achieved in its lifetime, ending with the latest member bringing its child before the holy council. Understanding the great honor involved, Davidge learns the Jeriba lineage song and commits its every verse to memory.More time passes, and suddenly Jerry realizes it is time to deliver Zammis... but it can tell that something is dreadfully wrong, although it doesn't know what. Still, it realizes that these birthing complications are very serious. Davidge quickly goes into a panic at the thought of losing Jerry, who by now has become his dearest-- and on Fyrine, his only-- friend. Davidge's fears only intensify as Jerry suddenly calms down and begs Davidge to take its place as a parent for Zammis, and that one day, Davidge must fulfill the role that Jerry itself was destined for: to bring Zammis before the holy council on the drac homeworld and recite its lineage, that the Jeriba clan will not be ended. Jerry is only satisfied when Davidge vows to do this. Jerry tells Davidge that he must pull open the birthing sac along Jerry's abdomen to deliver Zammis. Davidge can only watch helplessly as Jerry slowly passes on and dies. Stricken in horror, Davidge sits numbly, but then notices the birthing sac moving. He pulls it open and extracts the newborn drac baby, Zammis, looking it over in wonder.A despondent Davidge buries Jerry in a grave of rocks, realizing that with all Jerry taught him about the task he's undertaken, it taught Davidge nothing about properly taking care of a baby drac. Davidge finds himself struggling but manages to successfully feed baby Zammis, gently holding the baby close against him within the bundle of heavy skin garments that keep him warm.Zammis grows faster than a human child, quickly growing to about the size of a human youth just transitioning into adolescence, and able to think, reason, and communicate. Davidge teaches young Zammis (now played by Bumper Robinson) how to play football, using puffballs-- an edible fungus native to the planet-- as the ball.One day Zammis begins to question why it is different from Davidge. It knows what it looks like by having seen its reflection in a pool of water within their cave, and that it looks different from Davidge. Zammis understands that it is of a different race than Davidge (who has taught Zammis to call him, 'Uncle'), and that Davidge isn't its parent... but as there are no other dracs available to help Zammis appreciate its race and people, it desperately wishes it were human like Davidge.The day eventually comes when Zammis is able to explore. It learns about the scavenger mine and, despite Davidge's desperate attempts to teach the child never to go near it, Zammis finally one day goes there in hopes of seeing other Dracs. Bewildered and horrified at the site of human scavengers beating drac slaves, Zammis turns away only to find two of the scavengers standing right before him-- Stubbs (Brion James), one of the scavenger leaders, and his young brother, Johnny. The two of them grab Zammis, when suddenly an arrow pierces through the back of Johnny's neck and out through his throat, killing him. Davidge stands there, bow at the ready. Unfortunately, after breaking free, Zammis runs between Davidge and Stubbs, distracting Davidge and throwing off his aim. Stubbs whips out his pistol and fires a shot, severely wounding Davidge. Zammis screams in horror as he watches his 'uncle' tumble down the hill, before Stubbs grabs him and drags him off to the mine as a new slave.Two searchlights sweep the vicinity and converge on Davidge.Back on the Earth space station, deceased military are being given 'burials' in space-- placed into capsules and jettisoned to float among the stars. They find a John Doe with a curious necklace with a small book on it... it's Davidge. Figuring that this John Doe won't need the booklet anymore, one worker tries to remove the necklace-- and Davidge's hand suddenly seizes the worker by the throat. He's still alive.Davidge is placed in a medical capsule and rushed to sickbay where his peers and superiors confirm his identity. They're completely amazed to see that he is still alive after having disappeared three years ago over Fyrine IV... and that he speaks the drac language fluently; he'd been speaking it in a state of delirium while being brought to sickbay.No sooner is Davidge healed and well again when he is determined to return to Fyrine IV to rescue Zammis. The fighter squadron leader, Arnold (Richard Marcus) cannot stop him. When Station ops refuses to open the docking bay doors for him, Davidge uses his ship's cannons to blast them open and flies down to Fyrine.Davidge infiltrates the scavenger camp, sneaking his way to where a group of dracs are working. He tries to speak to the dracs, asking them about Zammis, even showing them his Talmon. The dracs only stare until a scavenger overseer arrives and starts beating the dracs to make them return to work. Davidge kills the overseer, and the eldest of the drac slaves finally answers Davidge, realizing who he is. He alone among the dracs in the mine knows how to speak English. He tells Davidge that Zammis is somewhere in the ship proper.Davidge kills another scavenger overseer and takes his clothing. He finds his way to where Zammis is locked in a cramped cage. Seeing Zammis is alive, albeit barely, he pries open the cage door. At that moment Stubbs arrives with two scavenger miners. They've found the severed ear of the overseer Davidge killed and dropped into the gears of an ore processor. Stubbs gets a close look at Davidge's face and recognizes him. He grabs Zammis and orders the worker to bring Davidge along.Davidge fights back and takes out the two miners. He grabs a pistol and kills a number of other scavengers. The drac slaves are alerted to the noise, begin to understand what is going on, and prepare an uprising.Arnold lands on Fyrine with pilot Morse (Carolyn McCormick) and her ship's co-pilot. They land beside Davidge's ship and make their way to the camp.Stubbs yells out to Davidge, saying he's going to drop Zammis into a mining cart that's on a conveyor system which will drop Zammis into molten lava. Davidge fights Stubbs, but is constantly forced to divert his attention to rescuing Zammis, giving Stubbs an advantage. Stubbs finally knocks Davidge out and pushes both him and Zammis into the mining cart. As he yells and gloats, he is suddenly killed by a shotgun blast by the elder drac. Arnold shuts down the conveyor system and pulls Davidge and Zammis out of the cart. Everyone watches grimly as Davidge tearfully frets over Zammis, until Zammis slowly reaches for Davidge's hand and weakly says, "Zammis get four, five?" Davidge begins to laugh in relief at seeing that Zammis is alive and will recover.A closing narration tells that Davidge brought Zammis and all of the dracs home to the drac home world of Dracon, and fulfilled his promise, presenting Zammis to the drac holy council and reciting the Jeriba lineage so that Zammis could officially join the drac people... and that when Zammis eventually reached adulthood and presented its own child, Jeriba Ty, before the council, the name Willis Davidge was added to the line of Jeriba. | revenge | train | imdb | I hate being nostalgic about movies, but I do remember a time when imagination was evident in every part of a production, when film posters were dynamic, visceral and iconic, when films looked like they were shot on film and not an HD camera with a sunset tint, when scores were done by orchestras instead of synthesizers and death metal guitars and, most important of all, when the lack of CGI technology forced the filmmakers into achieving visual effects through more practical means.
Children now are exposed to altogether soulless movies.Set in the late 21st Century, Enemy Mine has humans reaching out into the depths of space after achieving world peace.
A human pilot (Dennis Quaid) and a lone Drac (Louis Gossett Jnr.) crash land on a remote desert planet and learn, the hard way, to stick together if they want to survive.
One which was released into cinemas that has become a classic in its own right and another that only exists in the vaults of Twentieth Century Fox. I would love to see this alternate cut.The fantastic photography and production design look very, very good for a film from 1985.
This isn't like an episode of the original Star Trek series in which the cast simply take a half hour drive to a bit of desert outside of LA, the desert locations with the matte painting backgrounds look utterly authentic.If you like the look and feel of films like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth then you'll appreciate the fantasy of Enemy Mine.
A funny thing happened to me on the way to the video store...I ran across a sci-fi film that didn't rely on space battles, incredible special effects, or magnificent sets and costumes.
Instead, it relies on a touching and compelling human story of survival, hate and conflict - and of bitter enemies becoming unlikely allies and, eventually, close friends."Enemy Mine" is one of the ten best "forgotten" sci-fi classics - those rare little gems that got overlooked on their initial release, but live on in video release.Practically abandoned at the box office, "Enemy Mine" found new life on video among fans of the kind of science fiction we only read about as kids - stories that expanded our horizons and made use look at the world in a whole new way, not just wowing us with their dazzling effects.It is the story of hotshot starfighter pilot Willis Davidge (Dennis Quaid) who, after a dogfight with the reptilian, alien Drac, is stranded on a hostile planet with one of the enemy.
My dad (Who raised me on a steady diet of scifi) and I probably watched this movie eight times together before I turned nine, and so part of my love for it stems from the memory of those times together.But "Enemy Mine" has a lot more going for it than just fond memories.
Sure, the effects are pretty bad by *today's* standards (it was the 80's, 95% of Americans didn't even *have* personal computers yet, and by the standards of the day those effects were pretty darn impressive!) But the story of two people who were trained to be enemies slowly becoming not just friends, but brothers, rings true despite the passage of time.
if you want to get an idea of his tremendous range, just watch "Innerspace", "Frequency" and "Far From Heaven", which are completely different movies.Furthermore, Louis Gosset Jr. is just plain awesome in this one, possibly giving THE performance of his career.BTW: this is one of the movie's director's (Wolfgang Petersen) first major hits in the U.S. He also did the very impressive (make that: frightening / claustrophobic) movie "Das Boot", the very successful Harrison Ford vehicle "Airforce One", and the somewhat "macho-heavy" flick "The Perfect Storm" (though I have to admit that the "high sea" visuals / special effects were pretty awesome).The bottom line for me about THIS movie is: it doesn't matter whether your "holy book" is The Bible, The Koran, The Talmud, or some other sacred scripture from this planet or beyond - the underlying message from every truly "holy" book is essentially the same: it's a message of caring about and loving those you don't necessarily understand when you start out, but come to appreciate over time when you get to know them better..
Even when I think it is a great sci-fi movie that makes the viewer to reconsider about human condition and prevalence to violence, it is not an original subject.
The pot for both films are very similar: two enemy soldiers lost in an abandoned island or planet, where they start to fight each other, one is taken prisoner, manages to escape and roles are changed, until they learn to be friends in order to survive.
In "Enemy Mine",on the other hand,the acting by Louis Gosset Jr, is somehow lost because of the heavy make up for his characterizations as a lizard-like alien.Although finals are different, Boorman's final maybe defined as cruel while Petersen looks for a somehow "happy" ending, It can be explained by the kind of emotions that the directors are trying to cause in the viewers.
Two futuristic contenders a Draconian(Louis Gossett Jr) and a human(Dennis Quaid) dogfighting over the skies in their aircrafts .When the mortal space enemies are gunned down, they are stranded together into a faraway barren planet.
The enemies, earthman and reptilian alien survive on hostile world facing enslavers foes(usual nasty Brion James).This warmhearted Sci-Fi story packs noisy action, intrigue, space battles and good feeling .
It is also a film about friendship and understanding (or cultural exchange) between two different species.Full Plot: In the late 21st century, an interstellar war between humans (associated as the Bilateral Terran Alliance, or BTA) and Dracs (a reptilian humanoid race) is being fought.
Davidge (Dennis Quaid) and Drac pilot Jeriba Shigan (Louis Gossett, Jr.) engage in a spacecraft battle which results in both crash-landing on Fyrine IV, a strange, dark alien world with two moons a breathable atmosphere, water, and bizarre animal life.After initial hostilities, the two eventually learn to cooperate in order to survive.
After one dogfight, a human and Drac land on the same planet and aren't sure whether to help or destroy each other.The casting of this film was by far the best part.
Ebert, in his review, actually goes on about this concern for some time, referencing other science fiction stories (which I will not do here).Ebert also ponders, "As the slavers stood over their captives with whips, I found myself wondering how cost-effective it would be to transport manual laborers millions of light years.
It's not just a sci-fi masterpiece, nor a special effects ground breaker (the legendary Wolfgang Peterson sound stage was built for this movie!), nor is it one of the most poignant commentaries on the human condition ever written (touching on subjects like prejudice, the universal truths that govern all great religions, friendship, etc.).
It did have its plus-points - the matte backdrops were wonderful and such a pleasant change from the CGI tosh we've all grown accustomed to, and Dennis Quaid is actually a good actor - but the script was appalling, with a mix of bad jokes and the pretentious over-seriousness that generally hampers the sci-fi genre (including all the STAR WARS films and the STAR TREK series bar the originals).The racism metaphors were both obvious and unambiguous; the death scene interminable; the acting, for the most part, abysmal.
I love the object lesson that was designed to teach beyond race, the themes and messages within still hold just as true today as they did back then, the movie for it's time was forward thinking, and I'm glad I watched it again..
With hazy recollection, I pictured two enemies, one a human and the other an alien, forced into getting along while stranded on a treacherous planet; the result of a Star Wars-type space battle.
I can't see how Enemy mine could have been written without stealing the premise and characters from these two other sources and the Drac creature of the film which looks kind of similar to the Draconians of Frontier in space.
This is a good but not great film with Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett Jr. as the principal characters.
This film falls a little short overall but it's a good movie that I've seen a few times.
Not so.At first, Davidge, played by Dennis Quaid, comes off like Rambo in the first 20 minutes of the film, killing the Drac aliens while uttering really bad lines.
and who's Friday?A pean to universal fraternity?Or most likely,in the last third,some kind of Rambo fighting alone against his own race to save an alien's offspring?Well it could be of that but it amounts to almost nothing.It would have done a very funny parody,had Petersen focused his movie on Dennis Quaid's undeniable deadpan sense of humor.Alas ,the director wants to be taken seriously.And he accumulates unlikelihoods ,clichés and involuntary comic sequences.It takes hardly one day to the Drak to speak fluent English,complete with nuances .Shame on Quaid who speaks only broken dracon language!Another flaw,one of the most frequent in sci-fi is the "humanity" of the E.T.:the eyes ,the look,the swagger,even the language.Stanley Kubrik did know that danger,he who refused to show the e.t.,in his masterful 2001.(Like it or not,2001,remains the reference for grand art in sci-fi) The baddies seem to come from the lousiest comic strip you can think of.
Wolfgang Petersen's Enemy Mine is a fantastic Sci fi that hearkens back to the days when practical effects, story and character development ruled the scene.
It does the best with the resources it had at the time, and for me, growing up with stuff like The Thing and Alien, the imaginative special effects hold up wonderfully even today.
Dennis Quaid is the lead character, as Willis Davidge - he's a space fighter pilot who crash lands on a strange world after a battle and finds himself stranded with one of his opponents - a lizard-like Drac named Jeriba, played by Lou Gossett, Jr. Humans and Dracs have been at war with each other ever since humans started exploring the galaxy, and discovered the Dracs already there.
Dennis Quaid is Davidge, a fighter pilot who crashes on a remote planet while engaged in battle with a Drac (Louis Gossett, Jr.).
Yes, the film does have a light touch at times, especially when the Drac (whom Davidge nicknames "Jerry") is led to believe that Mickey Mouse is some great mind back on Earth!Wolfgang Petersen does a commendable job with the direction, as he follows up his smashing North American debut feature, "The NeverEnding Story".
Just like a lot of people seemed to have forgotten about 'Enemy Mine.' I know that a sci-fi film without wall-to-wall light-sabre action doesn't always appeal to the masses, but I'm hoping there are enough people out there who still appreciate this - quite uplifting - character-driven piece.In the far future us humans are having one hell of a war with an alien species about who owns what in the cosmos.
Casualties run deep on both sides and our plucky young space pilot, played by Quaid, ends up shooting down a rival alien on an uninhabited planet, only to find himself stranded there, too.What follows is effectively a two-man show, Quaid portraying the 'good guy' and Louis Gossett Jr heavily made-up in full reptilian garb as the alien.
You'll get to know the two people and learn that our enemies aren't always the bad guys.Besides the delight in seeing great (alien) make-up and practical effects, there's a decent enough amount of humour which comes in the form of 'banter' between our two culturally-opposed leads.
Wolfgang Petersen directed this science fiction story, a remake of "Hell In The Pacific", starring Dennis Quaid as an Earth astronaut/pilot in the future where humans are at war with a lizard species nicknamed "Dracs".
In particular, (Star Trek)"Enterprise," Season two, Episode thirteen titled "Dawn" seems to have been more than heavily influenced by the story line and themes of "Enemy Mine." Similarities can be drawn right down to the costume of the alien that crash landed on the uninhabited moon along with "Trip".
It is sad, but it appears to me that too many movies concentrate on "more bang for the buck"; most filmmakers feel that the best way to draw an audience is to try to cram as many special effects into one film as they can.
Although Enemy Mine has plenty of special effects, the movie has a great story and a great theme.
Our first contact with an alien race may be troublesome, but we've gotten great practice (for good and ill) on each other.Dennis Quaid puts on quite a show here, transforming from willing agent of the government to a man with his own mind about his situation (you know, that war thingy) in dealing with probably one of the most believable alien performances by Lou Gossett Jr. who've I have always respected for his acting.Sci-Fi shoot-em-ups have thier place, but Asimov, Bradbury, and Clarke didn't write alot about us blowing things up.
I just wish he would speak normally without that trilling.This film is about two mortal enemies who are at war with each other but they both crash-land on a planet and there they must realize in order to survive, they must rely on each other and become friends.The two main leads by Dennis Quaid and Louis Gosset Jr hold their own in this movie.
"Enemy Mine" was the first US film of Wolfgang Petersen, whose "Never Ending Story" was another childhood favorite of mine.
I think it's an okay sort of run-in-the-mill movie that was striving for more, and probably hit a few chords with die-hard "watch anything" science fiction fanatics.It's reasonably shot, but has that 1980's Hollywood gloss to it that's somewhat reminiscent of the look for Spielberg's films; lots of light and colors.
It's interesting enough for what it is, but it's not a film I have in my collection.Quaid and Gosset make for an interesting duo, but Star Wars this movie isn't.
Initially the two try to kill each other but soon they discover that they need each other to survive...An interesting story of friendship and tolerance, with a good message regarding race relations, and the stupidity of war.
Yes, I know this was made in 1985 but the special effects in Star Trek (series and movie) and Battlestar Galactica (the original series), all made well before this, are much better.Overall, worth watching, especially if you haven't seen Hell in the Pacific yet.
After a space dogfight, a human (Dennis Quaid) and a Drac (Louis Gossett Jr.) crashland on a barren alien planet.
Quaid's intentions are originally hostile toward the reptile man but a friendship slowly develops as they work together to survive.I read some good reviews about this film, some even giving it a stellar 5-Star rating, so I thought I'd better check it out.
Don't get me wrong, it's an okay sci-fi film and the message is a good one, but it's certainly not a 5-Star classic (or even 4-Star).What piqued my interest was that it was described as a "character study" more so than a juvenile space dogfight flick.
The movie takes place in the future where human is at war vs aliens about who controls the planets nearby in our star system.
To measure by todays standard this movie might not seem like anything special but it has good acting and a really nice story about how war can be seen different from different sides and how people can change an enemy relationship to something better "Friends".
Dennis Quaid delivers a fantastic performance and Louis Gosset Jnr is just as good along side him in a film about how people can overcome their hatred for one another when the situation calls for it..
I saw this film 20 years ago and was much impressed by both Dennis Quaid and Louis Gosset, Jr.'s performances at the time.
Even if the special effects are not very sophisticated, the simple story of friendship between human and the creature from the depths of space is so breathtaking that you will have to think about the shared ideas of this movie for a long time.
So watch this movie if you're a truly sc-fi fan, not if you're looking for hot action or fx.Nevertheless, keep in mind that if it's a good film, underrated - may even you feel proud to have discovered it somewhere on your dusty video store or in a late telecast, it's not a gem neither.
Enemy Mine was one of the best Dennis Quaid movies I ever saw.
Fair film from the usually dependable Wolfgang Petersen has Dennis Quaid crash-landing on an alien planet and encountering a man from the species that he is supposed to be fighting (an unrecognizable Louis Gossett, Jr.).
Dennis Quaid plays the human and Louis Gossett, Jr. plays the alien in the film.
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, this sci-fi take on John Boorman's Hell in the Pacific is a visually arresting, touching and exciting tale with a heartfelt message about accepting someone (or thing) regardless of their race or creed.I understand fully that the film isn't perfect, with arguably lacklustre space dogfights (especially in comparison to those in Star Wars), and an ending that feels way too rushed (the final scenes were drastically cut to shorten the overall running time), but the wonderful cinematography, a poignant yet often amusing script, and superb central performances still make this a thoroughly absorbing movie that never fails to impress me.
This film features two characters, a human and a drac, whose people have been at war with each other for years, who crash on a barren planet.
First of all I regarded the movie "Enemy mine" as one of the Great Sci-fi Productions put out in the 1980s especially with "Lou Gossett Jr." in his Portrayal of a "Lizard-Being from the Planet Dracon"! |
tt0073707 | Sholay | The Thakur recruits Veeru and JaiFormer police chief Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev kumar) summons an old colleague and requests him to track down a pair of small-time thieves he once apprehended in the line of duty.
The two petty criminals, Veeru (Dharmendra) and Jai (Amitabh Bachchan), are close pals who work together and share everything. They had encountered the Thakur in the past (as seen in a flashback), when after being caught by him trying to rob a train, he let them free temporarily to help him fight off bandits. The three succeeded in doing so, but as the Thakur lay unconscious after sustaining a wound, Veeru and Jai disputed over leaving him for dead and escaping (Veeru) or letting him live but facing jail themselves (Jai). The call was decided over a coin toss, which Jai won.
Recollecting that experience, the Thakur explains that Veeru and Jai would be the ideal men to help him end the tyranny of Gabbar Singh(Amzad khan) - an infamous dacoit (bandit) wanted by the authorities for a Rs 50,000 reward. But money is not what the Thakur is after.
Veeru and Jai are found and brought to Ramgarh. They are told by the Thakur that they are to bring Gabbar to him alive for Rs 20,000 plus the Rs 50,000 reward.
After some difficulty in trusting each other, the Thakur demands Veeru and Jai's word and eventually Jai promises that they will do the job and he and Veeru decide to stay in Ramgarh to repel attacks from Gabbar's large gang.The tyranny of GabbarThree of Gabbar's enforcers arrive in Ramgarh to collect supplies from the defenceless villagers. This time, however, they go back empty-handed, due to Veeru and Jai's intervention. The villagers show their gratitude by hailing their new heroes.
In Gabbar's camp, the tyrant interrogates the three men he sent to Ramgarh about why they were defeated by only two men. His psychotic nature is shown when he subjects his men to a twisted version of Russian Roulette where all three survive against the odds. This event amuses Gabbar who begins to laugh uncontrollably at the bizarre occurrence and the unlikelyhood of it happening. His cackles get louder and louder, as his henchmen join in. The three men who have survived this ordeal are bemused but then relieved and slowly begin to laugh as well. As the sounds of all of Gabbar's army laughing like fools reverberate around the rocky camp, Gabbar suddenly stops laughing and uses the three remaining bullets to shoot the three men dead.
Gabbar's plan to attack Ramgarh on Holi is put into action and in a much tougher battle this time, Veeru and Jai meet their match and are held at gunpoint. With his two recruits facing death, the Thakur has a chance to throw a gun to Veeru. But instead of helping, he simply stands stationary. With quick thinking, Veeru and Jai manage to save their lives but at the end state their intentions to walk away from Ramgarh, leaving the villagers to defend themselves, due to the Thakur's cowardice.
But before they can, the Thakur tells them the real reason of why he wants Gabbar and why he couldnt help them.
Some time ago, the Thakur had caught Gabbar and had him imprisoned only for the dacoit to escape and plot an evil revenge against him. Gabbar made his way to the Thakur's home and cold-bloodedly, killed his two sons, daughter, daughter-in-law and his only grandson. The only person in the family to survive this massacre was the Thakur's younger daughter-in-law, Radha(Jaya Bhaduri).
The Thakur tracked down Gabbar but this time, the tyrant held the upper hand thanks to his gang and tortured him. Gabbar reminded the Thakur of his promise to come back and haunt him once he escaped and this was the day. Grabbing two swords, Gabbar maniacally approached the Thakur and ruthlessly amputated both his arms, although the Thakur survives it. The Thakur had shrouded this disability from Veeru and Jai, but now it was clear why he could not physically help them.Village lifeLiving in Ramgarh, the cynical young Jai and lively Veeru find themselves growing fond of the villagers, taking pity on their sufferings under dacoit tyranny. Some of the villagers evoke more than fondness. Veeru is attracted to Basanti(Hema Malini), a feisty, talkative young woman who makes her living driving a horse-cart. However, Basanti's aunt, who, thanks to Jai's meddling, is reluctant to let Veeru marry her niece and only after Veeru takes drastic measures does she finally agree.
Jai is drawn to Radha, the Thakur's reclusive widowed daughter-in-law, who very subtly returns his affections. The Thakur's servant, Ramlaal, tells of when Radha used to be full of life and colour until the day Gabbar killed her husband. After discussing it with Radha's father, the Thakur agrees that she can marry Jai.
The duo also befriend other villagers and instill a belief of freedom from Gabbar's villainous regime. Among these are the blind imam and his son, Ahmed, who has been offered a job in the city, but refuses to leave his father all alone. He is eventually talked into going and sets off on his horse. On the way, he has the bad luck of running into Gabbar's henchmen. Ahmed is killed and returned with a message for Ramgarh: Hand over Veeru and Jai or suffer the same fate as the dead boy.
As the villagers stand over Ahmed's body, they tell Veeru and Jai, that they can give away whatever wealth they have, but they cannot give away their children's lives. The Thakur, Veeru and Jai argue against ceding to Gabbar's threats, but only the imam, who has lost his son, convinces the villagers that they cannot simply give in to evil.The climaxVeeru and Jai fight back and send a message back to Gabbar: For every villager killed by Gabbar, Veeru and Jai will avenge them by killing four of his men in return. Gabbar, angered by this, swears death on Jai, Veeru, the Thakur, and all of Ramgarh.
The battle approaches its climax when Basanti and Veeru are captured and Jai follows. As Basanti is forced to dance by Gabbar to keep Veeru alive, Jai steadily gets through Gabbar's defences. Soon Jai is able to get into a position to shoot Gabbar and demands the release of his friends. Veeru and Basanti escape while Jai holds back the dacoits from a distance with a rifle. Once Veeru and Basanti are safe, Jai slowly draws back and heads for his friends, only to be wounded grievously by a bullet as he is running away.
Jai is reunited with Veeru and Basanti where they realise they are running out of ammunition. As Veeru is unaware of Jai's wound, Jai orders him to go back to the village where he can take Basanti and then return with ammo. Veeru does not want Jai to face the bandits alone, so he suggests that Jai should go. The two dispute once more and resort to what has been their only method of resolution over the years - the coin. As it was earlier in the film, Veeru loses the toss and goes back to the village.
Jai, slowly dying and with only a few bullets, manages to fend off advances by the bandits, who have hidden under a small bridge and have thrown a stick of dynamite that has failed to explode. Jai manages to get close enough to the dynamite and uses his last bullet to detonate it, taking out the bridge and most of Gabbar's men.
Veeru returns to find Jai dying and sadly talks with him before he dies in his arms. Some of the villagers rush to the scene, including Radha, who once again must endure the anguish of losing someone. As Veeru wipes a tear, he notices Jai's old coin in his hand and then it dawns on him that he had been tricked by Jai all along. The coin was double-headed and Jai had managed to manipulate every situation that they disagreed on to his favour. Angry at his friend for sacrificing his life to save him, Veeru becomes hell-bent on revenge and goes after Gabbar.
Veeru catches Gabbar and beats him up badly, about to finish him off. But before he can kill him, the Thakur appears and reminds him of the promise to bring Gabbar to him - alive. Veeru is ready to break his word to avenge Jai when he is told that it was Jai who made the promise. Unwilling to break Jai's promise, Veeru hands Gabbar over to the Thakur who reveals his spike-soled shoes, made to make Gabbar beg for a quick death.AftermathGabbar is kicked around by the Thakur but is saved in the nick of time by the police, who tell the Thakur that Gabbar must be arrested and dealt with by the law. As Gabbar is taken away, the Thakur is denied vengeance, but knows that Ramgarh is free once again.
Jai's funeral takes place as Veeru stands all alone in front of the pyre. In the distance, Radha watches on through a window.
With nothing more for him in Ramgarh, Veeru leaves on a train. But as he looks up, he sees that he is not alone. Basanti has also boarded the train and both she and Veeru leave Ramgarh together. | tragedy, revenge, cult, violence, flashback | train | imdb | null |
tt2872732 | Lucy | In the opening shot, we see a cell split up into multiple other cells. Then we see a proto-human in prehistoric times drinking from a lake. Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) narrates by saying that life began billions of years ago, and ponders just what we have done with it since then.In the present, Lucy is a young American woman outside a hotel in Taiwan with her week-long boyfriend Richard (Pilou Asbæk). He is asking her to take a briefcase up to the room of a Mr. Jang (Min-sik Choi). Even though offered $500, she refuses to do anything for Richard without knowing what it is that he wants her to deliver, so he handcuffs Lucy's wrist to the handle of the briefcase, leaving her with no choice. She enters the lobby and tells the clerk that Richard is sending her up to Jang, and then nervously gives her name to the clerk. Lucy looks out the window to see Richard smiling and trying to be encouraging, until he is shot and killed. A group of thugs come out of the elevator and force Lucy to go up with them. This scene is juxtaposed with footage of a cheetah chasing a gazelle, mauling it and then carrying the gazelle's corpse in its teeth.They take Lucy to Jang's apartment. There are bloodied corpses on the floor, causing Lucy to vomit. Jang comes out with his hands soaked in blood. He rings up a man on the phone to translate for Lucy. She cries, not knowing what is going on or why any of this is happening. Jang writes down number '140' on a piece of paper, which is the code to open the briefcase. Jang steps into the next room while his men arm themselves with guns and shields. Lucy opens the briefcase, which contains four 1 kg bags of blue powdered crystals. Jang brings in a drugged-up man to snort some of the blue powder. The man briefly convulses and then starts laughing maniacally until Jang shoots him in the head. Lucy is then ordered to do a job, which she refuses to do until she gets smacked.Lucy wakes up in a hotel room. There is a bandage on her stomach. Jang's men come in and throw her some clothes. She is taken to Jang, along with three other men. A British man known as "The Limey" (Julian Rhind-Tutt) comes in to explain to Lucy that she and the other men have had a drug called CPH4 stuffed into their lower intestines. The drug is supposed to be the next big thing on the market, and they intend to smuggle it across the world. Afterwards, Lucy is taken to a room and chained up, where one of the thugs, tries to get into her jeans, then starts kicking her in the stomach, right where they cut into her. This causes a tear in the drug bag, leaking the powder into Lucy's system. She begins to writhe and thrash all across the room, even reaching up to the ceiling until she falls back down to the floor.As all of this happens, we meet Professor Samuel Norman (Morgan Freeman) giving a lecture to a classroom on his research of the brain's capacity. He essentially explains what could happen if humans could exceed beyond the suggested 10% brain capacity that they use, as well as its responses to certain environments that would allow the brain to submit to immortality or reproduction. Basically, if the subject doesn't like their environment, they would choose immortality and move elsewhere, but if they were happy with their setting, they would be inclined to reproduce (complete with images of every species engaging in intercourse). If, say, humans could reach up to 40%, they could manipulate matter (footage of a magic show is juxtaposed here as an example). One student asks Norman what would happen if humans reached 100%. He says he has no idea.Lucy reawakens, with her eyes glowing bright blue. She sits upright, calmer than before. A thug comes into the room, and Lucy spreads her legs to tempt him. The thug smiles and lays down his gun on the table. As he walks over to her, Lucy grabs his belt and flips him over, then pulls the table over to take the gun. After she frees herself, she shoots the other thugs as they're eating. She gets shot in the shoulder, but is able to dig the bullet out without feeling pain. She then eats all the thugs' food before leaving. She finds two taxi drivers outside, kills one and gets one of them to take her to the hospital.On her way to the hospital, Lucy has heightened senses and is able to hear peoples' voices from outside the car. When she gets to the hospital, she is able to clearly read the signs as if they were in English to her. She gets to an operating room where doctors are working on a man. Lucy looks at the patient's X-ray scans and then shoots the man, stating to the doctors that they wouldn't have been able to save him because the tumor in his brain had already spread far enough. She forces the doctors to take the bag out of her stomach. She then calls her mother to tell her that she feels everything - the air, the blood in her veins, the heat leaving her body, and is even able to access the deepest parts of her memories, like when she was sick as a child or even petting a cat when she was barely a year old. She tells her mother that she loves her before hanging up. The doctor pulls the bag of drugs out of Lucy's stomach, and after she tells him that it's CPH4, he tells her that this is something that pregnant women produce six weeks into their pregnancy as nutrients for the fetus, and that the doctor is surprised Lucy has survived this long with it in her body.Lucy makes one more stop back to the hotel to find Jang as he is in the middle of getting a tattoo and a facial. She kills his guards and then shoos the tattoo artist away before sticking knives in both of Jang's hands. With her newfound powers, she does a Vulcan mind meld into his brain and sees where the other three drug mules are going based on images of their plane tickets. She leaves, and Jang lets out a pained scream.Lucy goes to the apartment of her friend Caroline (Analeigh Tipton) to use her laptop. She reads all of Norman's research in a matter of seconds, then contacts him to tell him what she's read. He is astonished to hear that she read everything, even as she continues to explain what she is feeling and experiencing, now that she has reached up to 20% brain capacity. She is able to manipulate electronics, making her appearance on the TV in Norman's hotel room, as well as his phone and the radio. She plans to meet with him in 12 hours. Before leaving, she prints out a prescription for Caroline, telling her that her liver and kidneys are failing and that she needs to make new lifestyle choices and she'll be okay.The news about Lucy shooting the patient has spread, so as she makes her way through the airport, she changes her hair color and style. She calls a French policeman, Captain Pierre Del Rio (Amr Waked), to inform him of the other drug mules. She then boards the plane and continues her research on the brain, typing on her laptop at rapid-fire pace. The flight attendants ask her to turn off her computer, and Lucy asks for a glass of champagne, while also telling one flight attendant to wipe her nose without looking, and the lady's nose bleeds after. Lucy is given the champagne glass and toasts "To knowledge." She sips, and then "40%" flashes onscreen. She discovers a tooth in her glass, and then she spits up three more teeth. Then her skin starts to disintegrate, in plain sight of the passengers and flight attendants. Lucy runs to the bathroom, where her fingers start to disappear, and her face begins to sort of melt. She pulls out the rest of the CPH4 and snorts it, restoring herself to normal, but she passes out.Lucy wakes up in a hospital room, with Del Rio and a few other officers and doctors waiting, right after they have apprehended the other mules. She sits up instantly, to the alarm of a nurse. Meanwhile, one of Jang's henchmen, Jii (Nicolas Phongpheth), comes in with more armed men to find the other mules. They take them into a room and cut the drugs out of them after killing them. Lucy leaves the room and is surrounded by armed men. With a wave of her fingers, she is able to put them all to sleep, except for Del Rio. Together, they find Jang's men, and, with her brain function now at 60%, she moves them around the hall and prevents Jii from escaping with the briefcase full of drugs by creating a sort of invisible wall. She swipes the drugs from Jii and starts to leave, but orders Del Rio to go with her. He thinks he is of no use to her, but she walks over to him and kisses him, asking him to come "as a reminder."Lucy uses her powers to find a new location, taking over Del Rio's car and driving manically through the streets, admitting she's never driven before. Jang and Jii follow her.Lucy and Del Rio find Norman and his colleagues in a university, where she begins to divulge all she has come to realize with her brain power now exceeding that of a normal human being. While this happens, Jang and his men infiltrate the place and start shooting. Lucy gives the rest of the CPH4 to the professors for them to synthesize into a liquid material that goes into her bloodstream. Her brain function goes to 70% and her hands start to turn into a black wormy sort of goo that attaches itself to the computers in the room, giving Lucy more energy from matter, and thereby supplying her with an insane amount of power. As her brain function continues to increase, she manipulates matter in such a way that she seems to erase everything in the room, leaving the professors standing in white space before creating some kind of new age super computer before their eyes. From outside, as Jang's men are shot down by the police, he orders Jii to do something. Jii takes a rocket launcher and blasts through the room, sending Lucy thousands of miles to Times Square. She manages to move time with a wave of her hand. She travels backwards, from early 20th century New York, to colonial times, even all the way to prehistoric times to come face-to-face with the proto - human from the opening scene. They touch fingers, sending Lucy through the cosmos and all of space and time, giving her unlimited and infinite power.Jang enters the room and slowly raises his gun to Lucy's head. And then she reaches 100%. Her body disappears, leaving her clothes behind. Jang fires his gun at nothing. Del Rio comes in and shoots Jang to death. The black matter in the room disappears and morphs into a flash drive that lands in Norman's hands, thus expanding and completing his research. Del Rio asks where Lucy is. A message appears on his phone saying, "I AM EVERYWHERE."The film concludes with an overhead shot of Jang's corpse while Lucy's voice says this is what can be done with life. | comedy, murder, violence, psychedelic, absurd, revenge, sadist | train | imdb | I am able to watch a fiction movie, am I not?Some people review this film negatively for its scientific value, ignoring the fact that this isn't a documentary.
If you're a Luc Besson fan, you won't be disappointed.Bad-*** car chase, science-fiction, sex appeal my goodness, Morgan "the man" Freeman, Chow Yun-Fat worthy shootout, visuals that will blow your-effing-mind, and it didn't even take 2 sequels and a prequel to do it.
Lucy is a sci-fi, action movie written and directed by Luc Besson.
The movie feels like it's split in two with the first half starting out fairly plausible and by the end of the movie grows into heavy CGI and sci-fi.Luc Besson is famous for Taken, Leon, The Fifth Element and The Transporter.
This film leans more towards The Fifth Element in its levels of sci-fi and plausibility but I personally believe Leon and Taken are his masterpieces.The acting in the movie is good for an action movie, never likely to receive Oscar nods.
Scarlet Johansson had some memorable scenes in the movie and she pulled off the change in her character superbly.The way the film shows the origins of humanity and the development of time, particularly in the end sequence is very impressive and well done.I was a little disappointed with the Soundtrack.
Lucy is a spectacularly ridiculous but very entertaining film which is the best one Luc Besson has directed in a long time...
For better or for worse, Lucy employs Besson's habitual style, combining abundant action, a creative visual style and an accelerated rhythm which, in this case, distract us from the parade of nonsense and inconsistencies from the screenplay (Hasn't the "we only use 10% of our brain" myth already been discarded?).
Besides, with only 89 minutes of running time, Lucy ends as quickly as it began, it never gets boring at all and it leaves us with some philosophical reflections I found interesting.
Lucy is not a great film, but it entertained me very much, and I recommend it as a pleasant distraction which doesn't require us to pay too much attention.
I generally like movies which manage to introduce new ideas or differ from the same old boring patterns (Iron Man 12, Final Destination 14, Transformers 8).
If I watched every sci-fi movie expecting it to correlate with real life physics then there would be no point of the genre.
Fair enough, this film starts from the premise that humans only use 10% of their brains and Lucy can break this barrier and reach a whole new level in human evolution.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I personally enjoyed every bit of the movie and, as it took me to a journey into the far far future, where humans can overcome their humanity and become real Gods.Enjoy this film and let your mind explore the impossible..
I feel like this movie may be too much for some people to wrap their brains around but it has such great effects and fight scenes it could probably keep a teenager occupied for the full hour and a half (if their parents let them watch it).
Though, if you don't like action, Scarlett Johansson, surreal ideas or Morgan Freeman, you might not like this movie..
is one of the best movies about evolution that I've seen but to understand it you have to pay attention from the beginning as always Scarlet did an amazing role also Morgan did as always amazing, I recommend it for those who like to talk about where we came from, how the planet Earth was created..
I usually don't like the typical shoot- them-up or speculative-futuristic or robotic movies, they turn me off because they are predictable and way over the deep-end of ridiculousness in their violence, special effects, contradictions and same-old-same-old tin spaceships, weaponry galore, and silly story; like the script and story were just thrown together for the sake of selling something at the box office or TV.
but I cannot really complain because the overall brilliance of this film outshone any negatives I could detect.Scarlett Johansson was incredible as Lucy and it was astonishing to observe how her character changed so dramatically within just a few moments.
Perhaps that's just me bring too picky - I just feel that Lucy could have been better portrayed by someone slightly more masculine and cold.This film is one that will genuinely inspire you to think deeply about evolution, human nature, and life.
Lucy starring Scarlett Johansson in tail-kicking action-hero mode, is an appealing sci-fi thriller that posits interesting arguments about the human capacity for thought, fight, and flight.
The first movie in which I like Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman (I'm not the fan of anyone).
I went into watching this thinking "6.6; average but good enough for a night in" considering 22 jump street (which I stopped after the _painful_ first half hour) gets a 7.6 it makes me wonder about what the people rating movies on this site prefer.This film is quick, intelligent and has a number of good actors in it; if you watch it to the end you'll appreciate it, because (in my mind) it does everything right.
(good job on your censorship IMDb, words are just words and they have their place); stop reading.The whole 10% premise is false, I'll give it that along with the 'fact' that you somehow develop supernatural powers at higher than 10%; it's almost like someone saw the matrix, a supernatural film, an action film and thought "why not compress all of this into one film" as I've said in the title, if you're prepared to suspend disbelief, it works.
Unwitting protagonist, pressure of time put on said protagonist, some scifi in between and the mind control powers of Morgan Freeman's voice (seriously, they should get some real scientists on that; it would accelerate brainwashing research tenfold).From reading other reviews this film seems to be movie Marmite; you'll either love it or hate it..
I hear that a lot of people didn't like the movie, but I think it's definitely worth watching!
In fact, I find promoting blatant falsehoods that promote anti-evolutionary thinking a bit irresponsible, even for the sake of art and entertainment!Science education set aside, how does LUCY work as a movie?
And as far as movies go in which people develop godlike powers, LUCY doesn't beat the likes of THE MATRIX or SYMBOL (shimboru,2009).All in all an interesting but ultimately mediocre movie based on an utterly ridiculous (and intellectually dangerous) idea..
Color me tickled - two of the most talented actors out there - Morgan Freeman and Scarlett Johansson in one movie, and Sci-Fi to boot!
Much of the beauty is found intellectually, with a good mix of black comedy.I enjoyed this movie so much that I would pay to see it again!Besson is evolving just as much as Lucy evolves in this movie and you may even find it thought provoking.
The movie probably require an audiences with certain level of scientific education or open mindedness in order to understand or appreciate what's going on In the story line Besson manages to successfully transform a drug heist movie onto a very good sci-fi thriller.Not for those who can't see outside the box, or are guided by a puritanical or religious culture.
I came into this film thinking it would be a visually pleasing, silly little scifi dependent on cool special effects and Scarlet Johansson's acting skills, but very soon I found that I was wrong.
For a while, it even segues between Lucy's story and that of Professor Norman (played by Morgan Freeman), who's trying to theorize what could happen if humans could use more parts of their brain.
The movie's also very inventively told, with intercutting shots of things like animals used to thematic effect, especially as we realize in what danger Lucy is, and the interstitial indicators of the percentage level of her brain function.I'm not surprised that Lucy already has a below-7 score, because it's a science-fiction thriller that asks questions.
Not only that but it was done well, clear and thought enough for you to atlas entertain the idea that "what if this were true"The drug concept was a very good twist on some movies that would have Used no creativity and just had a person born that could use 100% of their brain.I truly have no complaints about this movie but it takes a lot to give my movies a 10 and so I rare it a solid 9.
Originality isn't the point - taking good ideas (sometimes even actual footage) from lots of places and pushing them even further is.Before going on, let me directly address the premise that "we only use 10% of our brains".
This review may have some humor, yes, but still, my point remains: This is an absolutely terrible movie and the only good thing is that it came out in a very busy summer, because if this had a blockbuster amount of attention, I would be worried for Scarlett Johansens acting career.
Luc Besson is well known for directing Leon, however I told myself I am not going to watch another Leon or The Fifth Element from the director who made amazing movies 20 years ago.
Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman are amazing actors but I am shocked that they accepted to take part in this movie.
Lucy could easily be the best film of the year and should attract a lot more cinephiles to the movie theatres than it already does.
Just as Scarlett Johansson's character in the beginning, the viewer doesn't always understand what is going on when the Korean characters are talking and this adds even more tension to the plot and is a great element that is more and more employed in commercial movies as well.Lucy may not reinvent a whole genre but this science-fiction movie focuses on the best elements of science and a really gripping fiction.
Johansson looks good, but she never really makes the story come to life - this would take a bigger injection of whacky drugs than this movie can muster..
The movie mixes in some science with action and the two big stars, Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman, are great.
Like some fun loving reviewers note, it's not at all trying to be scientifically correct - it's heavy on the fiction and demands of the viewer that you let go, sit back and enjoy the ride.I'll quote fellow reviewer thuffman-219-557602 who said it in simple and clear terms: "Bad-*** car chase, science-fiction, sex appeal my goodness, Morgan 'the man' Freeman, Chow Yun-Fat worthy shootout, visuals that will blow your-effing-mind, and it didn't even take 2 sequels and a prequel to do it." I reckon it's natural that this is by the creator of Leon - don't actually expect another Leon though, this is Luc Besson doing something different.
Neither should you expect deep character development or carefully pondering concepts in this express train of a movie.In summary, the action is good and unrelenting, the sci is perhaps more fantasy than science, but still entertaining if you let it be, and the fi ranges from gritty to moments of almost Olaf Stapledon wondrous..
As Morgan Freeman clearly stated in the film "we really do not know how a person would act if they accessed 100% of their brain." I applaud Luc Besson for showing us what the possibilities could be.
From the start I had a feeling that it is one of the bad karate movies from the early 80's you can't understand how she ended up where she was and Scarlet Johansons attempts to come across as highly evolved human being just laughable.
The only reason we went to see it is because of Morgan Freeman but even after watching it I still have a hard time believing that he would sign up for such a movie...
what i do know is whoever made this tripe doesn't know anything about the human brain or science or how to make a fuc5king movie.The acting is bad i doubt the actors where anymore interested in this movie then i was.the plot is terrible an annoying woman and her shady looking boyfriend are arguing outside of a building inter-cut with shots of random sh5it making this the most annoying conversation i have ever witnessed in my 26 years on this planet.
DRUGS what a shock are inside, and next thing you know there inside her and then a rapy guy kicks her in the stomach and she gets superpowers boredom and stupidity ensue.her plan is to get more of the drug she needs this drug to keep from becoming dust and blowing away (i do hope she didn't get her hands on anymore)"They explained in the movie that the drug was created by mothers when they were pregnant, and since she had complete control of her body, she should have been able to create it for herself" snagswolf.i only ended up at the cinema because i wanted to watch guardians of the galaxy imagine my disappointment when i found out that it was going to be released on the 7th in Australia like it's not bad enough i have to leave the house and watch a movie on someone eases terms no pausing no rewinding etc but you sons of bi5ches are going to make me wait another week then the rest of the world WTF??!!
I like the plot a lot as well, as it's very imaginative about what happens when people can use their brain completely.
Thumbs up to Scarlett Johansson for a great job.Even though Lucy had different twist and turns that you may not necessarily associate with the message of the movie, I enjoyed that I can take something from a movie that made me think beyond the entertainment aspect..
Review: The movie Lucy is an exhilarating, action packed thriller that will have you on edge every step of the way.
My first persuasion that she was a good actress came in The Prestige (2006) and Woody Allen's 'Match Point (2005)' and 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)' and even the bizarre noire 'Under the Skin (2013)'.In terms of completely capturing my imagination, it'll be hard for her to top her role as Lucy, in Luc Besson's current science fiction masterpiece of the same name.
I watch this movie twice it was fast paced and Entertaining action sci-fi flick!
I like Lucy and I think of Luc Besson there are three movies that I like: Léon: The Professional (1994), The Fifth Element (1997) which everyone know I am crazy about that Sci-Fi action movie and this one Lucy (2014).
Those three movies I just counted are really good movies and I love them so much.Lucy is one of those high-octane films from writer/director Luc Besson that gives the audience a fun entertaining action extravaganza set piece but with a plot that is so far out there that its not so fun and entertaining to relate to, unless of course you happen to be tripping' along with the films characters.
I am giving this movie a 10 because of Luc Besson, Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman as a science professor he did an outstanding perfect acting performance, he is awesome as always!!!
Lucy is a 2014 English-language French science fiction action film written and directed by Luc Besson and produced by his wife Virginie Silla for his company Europacorp.
The Movie starts with a very good mix of music, the comparisons with the reality (in the movie) and the different scene with the animals, the parallel Morgan Freeman storyteller, of course the actors, and one of the most important things, that I was so fascinated of the whole movie, all the time, that I didn't think of anything else.
If you don't think about the racist parts for a while - and I know a lot of people won't - this movie is pretty good.
"Lucy" is an action thriller movie in which we watch a woman who accidentally caught in a strange deal and now she has to fight her way back.
These powers cannot be understood by the people since they are very evolved and beyond the human logic.I liked this movie because of its interesting and new plot with a well-written script.
It was the first time I watched a movie with this kind of plot and it was a good surprise for me.
The interpretations of Scarlett Johansson who played Lucy and Morgan Freeman who played Professor Norman were simply amazing.To sum up, I have to say that "Lucy" is a good and interesting movie with which you are going to have a great time.
That didn't really bother me as it seemed to work but the transition could have been smoother.It was quite an emotionless film led by Scarlett Johansson but I did enjoy Morgan Freeman's role...as always.
The film in certain ways is a lot like Limitless, but at the same time it takes a very different overall approach and look on the subject of human evolution.
"Lucy" is the best of these and is, in fact, one of my all-time favorite movies.
On top of this, "Lucy" is stylish and "hip," whatever that means; in other words, it's got pizazz.Some complain that the film is flawed because it's based on the notion that we only use 10% of our brain power, but this is only a plot device to illustrate that most people are functioning way under their potential and are obsessed with usually worthless things and blowing precious time accordingly.
The beginning of the movie shows that Lucy was just like her roommate but something happened and...
They're all things that get in her way of reaching 100% brain capacity.However, this is still a Luc Besson movie, and Luc Besson likes his action scenes.
Don't forget that this is still a science fiction, and '10% of brain capacity' is just a vehicle to present some more complex concepts.The movie is fast paced, lot of action, beautiful cinematography and good performance of leading actress - Scarlett Johansson.. |
tt1355630 | If I Stay | Mia Hall (Chloe Grace Moretz) begins by saying that Beethoven was deaf at the age of 26, but that didn't stop him from pursuing his dream of being a composer. This is what has driven Mia to pursue her dream of being a skilled cellist. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her parents, Denny (Joshua Leonard) and Kat (Mireille Enos), and little brother Teddy (Jakob Davies). Denny used to be in a band called Nasty Bruises, while Kat was a punk rock girl who became a travel agent. Mia reads a newspaper with her ex-boyfriend Adam (Jamie Blackley) on it. Adam's touring with his band, even getting to open for The Shins.Flashback to high school when Mia first met Adam. He saw her playing the cello in her classroom long after everybody has left. Her best friend Kim (Liana Liberato) tells Adam who Mia is. Kim pulls Mia out of class and walks with her, snapping a picture of Adam on the way out. All the girls are gaga over Adam, but he ignores them to go introduce himself to Mia. He notices her locker has a sticker that says "I Love Yo Yo Ma", prompting him to invite her to see a cello player. She is surprised that Adam is asking her out, though she accepts.Mia waits at home for an acceptance letter to Julliard. As it is snowing heavily outside, schools are closed. Denny suggests they take a drive together. Kat offers to let Mia pick the music on the trip. They drive and she plays Beethoven. She reminisces over watching her dad play in his band when she was a kid. In second grade, she saw a cello for the first time and wanted to play it. Since cellos are expensive, she had to borrow one from school. She would play for hours, to the point where it drove her parents nuts, but they were still proud over what their daughter could do. Denny even went and bought Mia her own cello as a gift. As Mia thinks to herself how funny it is that life is one thing and then it becomes something else, a car swerves on the road and collides head on with the family's car.Mia has an out-of-body experience and sees herself lying in the snow as paramedics are on the scene trying to save her and bring her family into the ambulance. She calls for her family and then climbs in the ambulance to be near her body.In another flashback, we see Mia getting ready for her first date with Adam. Kat helps her pick out her outfit. Adam comes over and meets Denny, flattering him by mentioning his love for Nasty Bruises. Adam takes Mia to see the cello player, and afterwards, they take a walk and share their first kiss. He later takes her to see his own band, Willamette Stone, perform. Mia feels awkward and uncomfortable around the people there. She even notices Adam's bandmate Liz (Ali Milner) getting close to Adam. Mia brings this up when he takes her home. Adam says Liz is a lesbian, and she is seen making out with her girlfriend. Adam invites Mia to a party with them, even though it's past her curfew. Kat is watching from the window and encourages Mia to go. Mia fakes having come down with something and stays in. Kat steps out and invites Adam to come over for a Sunday meal before he leaves. Mia tells Kat that wasn't cool and she goes inside. Kat doesn't think it's bad that Mia would hang out with Adam and his friends because they're just like her and Denny. Denny replies, "Exactly."At the hospital, Mia undergoes surgery while her OOB (Out-Of-Body) self frantically searches for her family. The nurse whispers in Mia's ear that it's up to her to decide whether or not she wakes up. Her grandparents (Stacy Keach Jr. and Gabrielle Rose) arrive to check on the status of the family.In more flashbacks, we see the progression of Mia and Adam's relationship. He goes over to her house for the Sunday dinner, welcomed by Mia's parents and their friends. While they sit down for their meal, a bee stings Mia. Adam sucks the stinger out of her hand, to the amusement of everybody watching (especially Kat). Mia later wants to be closer to Adam's world, so Kat helps her dress up like Deborah Harry for a Halloween party, while Adam is fittingly dressed as Beethoven. However, Adam thinks Mia is perfect as she is and doesn't need to change for him. They make love for the first time in a shed.Kim and Adam both rush to the hospital to see Mia, but as she is in the ICU, the head nurse tells them that they are not allowed to see her since they are not part of her immediate family. Mia continues to find out what happened to her parents. She sees Denny in a room with a patch over his eye. She overhears the doctors say that both Kat and Denny are dead, and that if Mia wakes up at all, she is going to be an orphan. Fearing for Teddy, Mia runs to his room to check on him and promises to never leave his side.Mia and Adam had begun to think about after high school. They had hoped to live together as Mia goes to Lewis and Clark College while Adam continues with his music. Mia still continued trying to improve her music, even when she thought she wasn't good enough. With the encouragement of her family, she applies to Julliard. She is later invited for an audition in San Francisco. She goes to find Adam while he plays with his band to tell him about this. He is visibly unhappy that Mia has told him about her decision after already having made it. The next time she sees him play in a band, they have a fight over her choice to go as well as his choice to go off and continue his music with the band.In the present, Kim creates a distraction at the hospital so that Adam can sneak into the ICU and see Mia. The mean nurse calls security on him and he is pulled out forcefully. Before he and Kim are taken away, Mia's parents' friend Willow (Lauren Lee Smith) comes in to vouch for the two. Then she breaks down in Kim's arms. Mia runs downstairs and sees Teddy's room empty. The doctors talk to her grandparents and inform them that Teddy had an epidural hemorrhage and they couldn't save him. Mia breaks down and realizes Teddy will never get to grow up and live a full life. This sudden shock physically disturbs Mia, and the doctors take her out of the ICU for further medical attention.Mia had her audition at Julliard with her grandfather taking her. She plays an incredible composition, which Gramps watches from a TV backstage. He drives her home and tells her that the judges are fools if they don't accept her.Mia and Adam later reconciled, though there was an obvious strain on the relationship. Eventually, they broke up, which hurt Mia as she was really in love with Adam. Kat tells her that life is messed up but that's also the beauty of it.Many people visit Mia at the hospital, from her grandparents and Willow to Kim and even Adam's bandmates. Gramps tells Mia that Denny quit his band for her, and the whole family was right behind her for her musical career. Kim later sits by her friend's bed and promises her that she has a family if she wakes up. She takes out her phone and shows a picture of Mia smiling and looking happy. Mia remembers this from a Labor Day party, which she says was the happiest day of her life. Denny and Adam convinced her to play the cello with them for a performance. They play "Today" by Smashing Pumpkins, and everybody has fun.Adam is finally able to see Mia and sit by her side. He pulls out a letter from Julliard, as he admits he stole her mail. He opens it and weeps as he reads it, because Mia has been accepted. He vows to go with her if she chooses to go to New York. Then he takes out his guitar, having written a song for Mia. It's a beautiful piece, and it causes Mia's life to flash before her very eyes until...a flash of white. And then, after a brief moment of silence, Mia's eyes finally open. The first thing she sees is Adam standing over her, calling her name. | flashback | train | imdb | Chloe does a wonderful job portraying everything she's going through and she moved me to tears many times.This film makes me think about my own family and everything I would do for them.
Anyone interested in this film already knows the premise by now if they have read this far, so I won't rehash it.All I will say is that this film could have easily been contrived and cheesy and hokey and clichéd but rather, the end is result is truly one of the finest, most real representations of youth and love I have seen in a long time.
And the fact that it seemed so genuine is exactly why I have not cried in a film so much since...."The Perks of Being a Wallflower." Chloe Grace Moretz has already proved she is a force to be reckoned with, but by an accomplishment like playing the key character in a film that was made to be a tearjerker without coming across as completely laughable shows what a strong actress this young woman truly is.Excellent, relatable script, wonderful direction and perfectly edited, the fact the a bunch of tween girls went "Huh?
The movie has a good balance between family tragedy of a horrific car accident and teen romance of young love.
In fact although the tale is a sad one, it's the best of the recent teen based romance movies far better than "The Giver".Chloe Grace Moretz proves she can do anything from horror (Carrie) to action (Kick Ass) to moving romantic drama.
'If I Stay' is a tearjerker film about a teenage-girl who experiences an out-of-body experience whilst in a coma.The teenage-girl is played well by Chloe Grace Moretz.
'If I Stay' does however share one thing with both of those other films, a love story.Flashbacks tell us that the teenage schoolgirl Mia Hall, has fallen in love with older boy Adam, played by Jamie Buckley.
Here, in 'If I Stay', we once again see Miss Moretz play a somewhat shy girl, that sometimes seems dreamily unaware, but that at other times capture perfectly the utmost depths of the rawest of emotions.Shauna Cross wrote the screenplay of the Gayle Forman novel.
However, after having finally seen it this weekend, I am sad to report that If I Stay is nothing like that at all, and is instead probably my most disappointing movie of the summer.If I Stay follows Mia, played by Chloe Grace Moretz, an 18 year old girl who likes classical music and cello, and who's still not quite over her ex, Adam (Jamie Blackley).
In this coma, she has an out of body experience in which she needs to decides either to die and go up to heaven or live with the physical and emotional repercussions, all while flashing back to the relationship she and Adam had.The movie is primarily made up of flashbacks to the relationship that Mia and Adam had, and the chemistry that the two of them share isn't very strong and can be described as okay at best.
Chloe Grace Moretz is a talented young actress who really gives it her best in this film, whereas her costar Jamie Blackley ranges from decent to mediocre.
The one exception to all this would be Mia's grandfather, played by Stacy Keach, and he had one scene in particular that I did really like (those who have seen the movie can probably guess what scene it was).
The trailer makes the movie seem like a tear-jerking drama that takes place all in her mind about her decision to live or die, when in reality, it's a high school love story consisting of 70% flashbacks that only spends a small portion with her out of body experience.
Everybody's a good guy.Based on Gayle Forman's 2009 young adult novel of the same name, 'If I Stay' chronicles the emotional experience of a buttoned-up 17-year-old cello prodigy Mia Hall, played here by actress Chloe Grace Moretz, and her worlds-colliding romance with an up-and-coming young rock-and-roll guitarist named Adam.
That both Mia and Adam are on the cusp of professional breakthroughs in their musical pursuits accounts for most the of the ups and downs in their relationship.Unfortunately, their romance is in the middle of one of its downs when Mia and her family are involved in a catastrophic auto accident, casting Mia into an out-of-body experience in which she can observe the people she loves, but not communicate with them or interfere with their actions.'If I Stay' is a picture that gives you the kind of satisfaction you get from being on time for an appointment, following your doctor's orders, eating the right cereal, taking your medicine as prescribed, or getting a flu shot: You might rather be watching 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' a 'Fast and Furious' movie or 'The Expendibles,' but you just know that a movie with this much cello music in it has got to be good for you.And it is fairly good.
Leonard especially, late of 'The Blair Witch Project' hysteria of 1999, has matured into a solid character actor and possesses a sort of good-natured, loopy appeal which in 'If I Stay' contrasts nicely with the buttoned-up performance of Moretz as his daughter.In the film, it's shown in flashbacks that Mia's folks grew up and embraced responsibility when it became apparent to them that the late nights and party lights did not blend well with parenthood
an epiphany which makes even more perplexing their almost pushing young Mia out the door to be with her rocker boyfriend.As Mia's rock guitarist boyfriend, Jamie Blackley is somehow manages to be sullen without actually pouting, and is simultaneously withdrawn and inarticulate about romance yet strong-willed and verbose about music.
You can see why Mia's attracted to Adam, but if you're like me you might be more than a little conflicted about their falling into bed quite so quickly, especially if, like me, you view the picture with your girlfriend's adolescent daughter present.Unfortunately, at some point—I'm not exactly not sure when, but I think it's about an hour into the picture—the narrative becomes sticky and manipulative, and the picture begins to rely on broad characterizations, familiar stereotypes, and the familiarity of plot devices from movies past, to sort of swindle the tears from the audience.And that's too bad, because by that point I'd already decided I enjoyed the picture, and was unprepared to modify my opinion.
One of my favorite movies of all time is the Japanese Oscar Best Foreign Language film winner "Departures" and a cello played a prominent part in that one.
Though I appreciate that it wasn't as lovey-dovey as most young romances (or high-school relationships) tend to be, I would've liked if there was more to the story other than that.The music element was pretty cool, and I wonder if she really plays the cello herself, because it looked really authentic.
In my review of KickAss2, I pointed out that Chloë Grace Moretz was not merely good in the film, she was the ONLY good thing in it, showing a knack for saucy dialog and delivery, and generally (given her age) being willing to go further with her character than other members of the cast twice or three times her age.And I have always had a weak spot for these tales of life between life, Enter the Void, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Stairway to Heaven, these are some of the films that spring to mind.So, how can you not have a great film here?
Here it seems the budget can't even afford an editor NAMED Oscar.Chloë Grace Moretz, who verily stole KickAss2, and had the best lines in KickAss1, seems here lost and completely unconnected with her character or the hapless audience.In fact, it is veteran Stacy Keech who actually steals the few scenes that he has, and for mere moments in an otherwise forgettable exercise makes the viewer CARE about what happens next.Fans of Ms. Moretz (and there are many, including, don't forget, this scribe) need not feel compelled to shoot the messenger (reviewer) here, a quick glance at her bio shows her to be a very hot property now, with multiple projects underway, and many chances in her long career ahead to make up for this travesty..
It is about a girl called Mia Hall (Chloe Grace Moretz) and how her life changes after her whole family is in a car accident, leaving her in a coma.
It's a true love story on so many levels.I like this film because it has stayed true to the book and oh my it just made me feel all emotions all at once.
I start my review off this evening with the latest popular drama entitled If I Stay
Why we have yet another somber, emotion engorged screenplay when we just had one, I will never know, but Hollywood is eating up the profits from movies like this.
I found this movie to be pretty boring, and excessively cheesy as well.Moretz plays Mia Hall; a teenager that's in love with classical music, and playing cello, despite the fact that her parents, Kat (Enos) and Denny (Leonard), are really into rock music; and her dad was in a mildly successful alternative rock band (when he was younger).
Just when she's deep into making really tough and dramatic teenage decisions, about her new love life, her family is involved in a horrific car accident; and Mia falls into a coma.
What i find funny is that I had a great time watching this movie and i love it, but i just cant seem to figure out what to write in my review.
This movie, directed by R.J. Cutler, is based on a novel by Gayle Foreman about a teenage girl named Mia, played by Chloë Grace Moretz, who has an out of body experience after a massive car wreck that leaves her comatose.
There are a few redeeming plot elements and it will definitely tug at the heartstrings, but movies like this are better suited to the Hallmark Channel.In the end, it's nothing more than a tear-jerking Chloe Moretz vehicle trying to be the Fault in our Stars (which is a much better film)..
But they didn't really have the whole, deeply-in-love-for-the-first- time-chemistry.Got the impression they were just going through the motions And the characters are kind of shallowMy biggest problem with the movie was,actually the whole stereotype clichés recipe they have used.Just to make it teen bait.= The boyfriends are always the one who starts an argument, the girls is always the victim.
Huge fan of Chloë Grace Moretz who plays Mia. Mostly because of her role as Hit girl in the Kick Ass movies, but it was cool to see her do other things.
And it get's cheesy to a certain degree, you can even argue if Chloe Grace Moretz was the right choice for the part playing the shy misfit (altough I think she did a terrific job).But I have to admit, that movie got to me, I just couldn't hold back my tears in many scenes, that said being a married man in my 30s.I don't know why, but I just felt the pain and sadness in it, especially when seeing the flashbacks that are beautifully build up.The end is a little abrupt, maybe more than you'd expect and are comfortable with, but it makes sense in itself when you see the whole movie.So, I guess this movie is not for everyone, but if you let go and feel with the characters it will touch you, and that's the most important part to me..
The story follows Mia Hall (Chloe Grace Moretz) bred from a rock and roll family who ends up with a love for playing the cello.
Based on the novel by Gayle Forman, If I Stay follows 17-year old Mia Hall (played by Chloe Grace Moretz), a violin prodigy who falls for a handsome guy named Adam (played by Jamie Blackely).
This is the kind of movie that money minded studio executives dream up and from their success at the box office, they got what they wanted.The thematically heavier material like death, out of body experience and the bereavement of losing all of one's family is strangely only incidental and treated as an appendage to the teenage love story.
Actresses were great especially Mian's grandfather playing player was very good.love, sadness, happiness you feel each emotion separately.only some visual effects were bad because, was a low budget movie but i liked it very muchthe most beautiful side of the film was the songs used very well,
The story of Mia's family is also warm, I feel the unconditional love of them.P.S This is not worth to spend your free time on this movie..
Other than the fact that she fought a lot with her boyfriend, the though of just us knowing that her life can change just like that is something that is great and should definitely be in a movie!
After loving the roles that Chloe Grace Moretz played in "Carrie" & "The Equalizer", I decided to give this one a shot after recently having watched (and enjoyed more than I thought) a similar teen drama in "The Fault In Our Stars".
Unfortunately, I felt that this one was kind of based on a gimmick.For a basic plot summary, "If I Stay" tells the story of Mia (Moretz), a high school girl who plays a beautiful cello.
Has this been done before because I feel like I've seen a similar movie but with less interesting main character?One of the things I hate about this film is the dialogue.
The movie is just perfectly written if you give it a chance and really makes you feel with all the people involved in it, especially Mia Hall who is a wonderful character.
Mia ends up in a coma, but ends up experiencing some sort of afterlife and is in a position to see the aftermath of the accident which ultimately makes her re-examine her whole life where she realises that she has some tough choices to make.Although If I Stay initially feels like it's ripping Ghost off I have to admit that this is a relatively interesting and involving film.
The second strand of the story is a little more interesting where we get to see what would have happened if Mia would have stayed and gone on her date with Adam rather than go out in the car with her family.
The ending of the film is also a little cheesy.I can't really fault the performances and I can see that If I Stay is a film that's full of good intentions as well as offering some interesting insights into the afterlife and life verses death, but the story is unbearably slow, repetitive and a little tedious at times.
Mia Hall (Moretz) has a decision to make: attend Julliard for music (cello) or stay with boyfriend Adam (Blackley) an almost successful rocker for life.
This film items the story of a teenage girl who is very good at playing the cello.
I like Chloe Grace Moretz, and I think she's really good in this film.
"Isn't it amazing how life is one thing and then, in an instant it becomes something else."If I stay is the latest film adapted from a YA novel, and even though this movie is in no way aimed towards an adult audience, it does have some moments that aren't as superficial as one would expect coming from this genre.
The fact that both these characters are in to music helps out the film because the soundtrack stands out, but at times the romance feels like it's part of a music video clip with beautiful scenery and good looking people.
If I Stay hovers uncomfortably in the middle, a first-rate tearjerker with some third-rate narrative twists.Mia Hall (Chloe Moretz) is the oddball in her family: obsessed with her cello and classical music, she can't imagine how her super-chill, hard-rockin' parents - dad Denny (Joshua Leonard) and mom Kat (Mireille Enos) - could ever have produced someone like her.
Teetering quite literally between life and death, she revisits her romance with budding rock-star Adam (Jamie Blackley), and watches as her grandparents (Stacy Keach and Gabrielle Rose) and best friend Kim (Liana Liberato) wait in breathless, heartbreaking anticipation for her to wake up from her coma.There's a tantalising question in the film's title - what is there left for Mia if she chooses to stay, to live?
The movie starts out with Mia (Chloe Grace Moretz) eating breakfast with her family.
And I am happy that she chose to wake up.The scene that impressed me the most was on the last part of the movie when Mia looked back to the party she had with her family, her parents' friends and Adam's friends.
Chloë Grace Moretz does a great job at playing the part of Mia and really makes you empathise with the character, as the story line is one of which could happen to everyone (depending on your beliefs of course).
I was crying throughout most of this film as it makes your heart race, but also you cant help but fall in love with Adam and Mia's relationship, its just such a strong story line and keeps you entertained throughout.
Does she leave with her family or does she stay and continue fighting through life with Adam by her side?I honestly really enjoyed this movie and thought multiple times during it that this movie is really good.
there was nothing new in the story line, the same clichéd issues about high school teenagers fell in love, a girl was interested in music and has a full support of her family, all characters were good people everything was perfect in their life.
He loves music, he loves life, and most importantly, he loves her.Most of the film is spent in the hospital, as Mia watches everyone's reaction to her family accident. |
tt0381392 | Ma mère | The story revolves around pious, young Pierre (Louis Garrel) who has just left a Catholic boarding school to live with his wealthy parents at their villa on the island of Gran Canaria. Pierre's father (Philipe Duclos) dies early in the movie, leaving his mother, Hélène (Isabelle Huppert) to care for him. Pierre soon learns, however, of the depraved nature of his parents.
While in a restaurant, his mother reveals to him that she has been unfaithful to her husband many times with his knowledge and feels no shame about it. She then insists that her son accepts her promiscuous ways.
Soon after this, Pierre finds a closet full of his father's pornography. His reaction is to furiously masturbate and then to urinate on the magazine pages. However, there are several far more shocking surprises in store for Pierre.
Hélène encourages her uninhibited sex buddy, Réa (Joana Preiss), to take her son's virginity. She does so but in public and on a concrete floor at Gran Canaria's Yumbo Centrum, a popular shopping and nightlife complex. Hélène looks on longingly as the partially clothed couple copulates with passersby raising no objections.
Afterwards, Hélène includes her son in an orgy with her friends, including Hansi (Emma de Caunes), a sweet-faced young woman who later becomes Pierre's girlfriend. After the orgy, Hélène decides that she must leave her son to travel. While saying goodbye to Pierre, she implies that something taboo has happened between them and that she must leave to prevent it from happening again.
Upon Hélène's departure, Hansi enters Pierre's life as a friend. She admits befriending Pierre at Hélène's encouragement but denies receiving a fee from her. Their friendship blossoms into a tender romance and they both fall in love. During their relationship, Hansi reveals that she has participated in sado-masochistic sex many times as a dominatrix with her friend Loulou (Jean-Baptiste Montagut) as the willing masochist. She adds Hélène arranged these encounters as sexual exhibitions for tourists.
After an extended absence from the movie, Hélène returns home with Réa in tow because Hélène has finally tired of her sexual adventures. Upon arriving, she finds her son and Hansi socializing at a bar near the villa. Hélène and Pierre greet each other by chatting and gazing into each other's eyes like lovers while Hansi looks on jealously. Finally, Hélène invites her son to sleep with her. He agrees.
Hélène and Pierre go into the wine cellar of the house. They begin to act out their desires physically. Hélène asks her son to cut her abdomen with a razor while he masturbates and as he climaxes she slits her own throat.
The next scene is the paramedics carting away Hélène's body. The son is allowed to say his good-bye before the cremation. He enters the room where she lies in state and masturbates exclaiming that he does not want to die as he is carried out. | murder, storytelling | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0134619 | Disturbing Behavior | Steve Clark (James Marsden) is a high school senior whose family moves to Cradle Bay, a picturesque island community in Washington state's Puget Sound. It has been nearly one year since Steve's older brother, Allen (Ethan Embry), committed suicide, which traumatized the family.
During Steve's first day at his new high school, he meets and befriends three outcast students, Gavin Strick (Nick Stahl), U.V. (Chad E. Donella), and Rachel "Rae" Wagner (Katie Holmes). Gavin tries to tell Steve that he believes there is something evil about the "Blue Ribbons"—a clique of students taking part in a "special program" led by the school psychologist, Dr. Caldicott (Bruce Greenwood). Later that day Steve witnesses a fight in class between a rebellious student, Dickey, and one of the Blue Ribbons. Dickey is later accosted at a secluded marina by the Blue Ribbons. He reappears at school as a clean-cut Blue Ribbon and assists in smashing his once-prized muscle car up in front of the students.
Steve goes to a local yogurt shoppe to meet Gavin, but the Blue Ribbons, keen to befriend him, invite him to sit with them. Gavin arrives to meet Steve, and takes him outside after a tense exchange with the group. Gavin shows a photograph of himself and several Blue Ribbons, who were until recently outcast/misfit types like him. The two eavesdrop on a parents meeting, where Gavin learns his parents have signed him up for Caldicott's program. Steve remains skeptical of Gavin's fears of the Blue Ribbons and the program, and wrestles a gun Gavin produces, which he planned to use against his expected abductors. Steve heads home.
The following day at lunch, Gavin walks in looking like a Blue Ribbon. When Steve tries to confront Gavin, he gets punched in the stomach for his impertinence. Later, after being chased home, Steve finds Blue Ribbon member Lorna Longley in his living room, ostensibly waiting up after tutoring Steve's younger sister Lindsay. She goes to use the bathroom, then emerges, partially undressed, and forcefully kisses Steve. Her heightened arousal causes her eye to glow red, startling Steve. Lorna starts saying "wrong, bad" then smashes her head into a mirror, attacks Steve with a mirror shard, then obliviously leaves the house. She is later seen undergoing treatment at a medical facility under Dr. Caldicott's direction.
During this time, Steve also befriends Dorian (William Sadler), the school janitor, who appears to be mentally disabled and hunts rats for the city for some extra cash. Dorian demonstrates a device called an E-Rat-icator which emits a soft, high pitched whine that is supposed to be innocuous but annoying to rats. Dorian tells Steve that he suspects that the entire community of Cradle Bay is part of a massive conspiracy made up of nearly all of the parents, the local police chief, the school principal and entire school faculty, who hired Dr. Caldicott to "re-program" their own children to become the perfect people that they want them to be and not free-thinkers. Rachel finds a CD-R disc that Gavin hid in the school's boiler room, containing a video he made of himself before his "transformation", telling about the history of the club and Caldicott's background. A Blue Ribbon known as "Chug" (A.J. Buckley) assaults Rachel in the basement, when Dorian's E-Rat-icator goes off, and immediately sends Chug into an agonized frenzy, during which Rachel slips away. Chug smashes the E-Rat-cator and walks out, apparently oblivious to what has just occurred.
During their personal investigation, Steve and Rachel try to find out what exactly has been happening to the Blue Ribbon kids, which leads them to a mental hospital called Bishop Flats following a lead on the disc. They find out that mind control is being used to make depressed, awkward and unruly teens become perfect so they can function properly in life, but the programming has some glitches that lead to momentary relapses and violent fits. Also at Bishop Flats, they find Caldicott's daughter, Betty (Julie Patzwald), a failed project who appears to have been lobotomized by her father's experiment.
After escaping from the hospital, Steve and Rachel return to Cradle Bay to plan to rescue Lindsay before fleeing town. They have a run-in with the town's police chief Cox (Steve Railsback) who is also involved in the conspiracy. He tries to arrest them for being out after curfew, but Dorian shows up under the pretense that he is disposing of dead rats, then knocks out the police chief and frees Steve and Rachel, telling them to leave town and go public with what they know. When Rachel and Steve return to Steve's home to get Lindsay, Steve's parents reveal that they have signed him up for the program. A group of Blue Ribbons ambush them and drag Steve and Rachel to the programming center. Steve grabs a scalpel before being strapped into a chair. Before the reprogramming can start, Steve uses the scalpel to cut his bonds and escape to rescue Rachel, killing the medical techs. On the way out, they fight and kill Chug, who has been left behind to guard them.
Exiting what turns out to be the town hospital's basement, Steve and Rachel are met by Lindsay and U.V. in Rachel's truck. Rushing to catch the early ferry, they meet with a roadblock made of Blue Ribbons and Caldicott on the road. When hope seems lost, Dorian drives up, striking Caldicott, and activating multiple E-Rat-icators that scramble the mind control tech inside the Blue Ribbons' heads. They chase after Dorian and try to destroy the E-Rat-icators. Dorian, having been fatally wounded by a gunshot from Caldicott, and believing the Blue Ribbons to be beyond help, drives his car off a cliff with most of the Blue Ribbons hanging onto it. A final battle ensues between Steve and Caldicott, which Steve wins by kicking Caldicott off the cliff. Steve and Rachel then leave town on the ferry with Lindsay and U.V. to begin a new life elsewhere without their parents.
The final scene shows a classroom in an urban high school with kids playing loud music, cursing, and acting up. They are informed that they have a new student teacher. The well-groomed teacher turns around after writing on the board and is revealed to be Gavin, with the Blue Ribbon "red twinkle" still active in his eye. | insanity, violence, cult, brainwashing, murder | train | wikipedia | The reverse theme of bad kids turning good was fascinating, and the paranoid performance by Nick Stahl was worth watching and intrigued me.
The first half of the film, which by itself I would have given an 8 or 9 out of 10, was more of a grown-up horror movie, where the situation and plot rather than actions dictated the fear of the audience.
When the new kid in town (Jason Marsden) stumbles upon a dark secret, it's up to him and a few other mistfits (Nick Stahl, Katie Holmes) to shut down the powers that be.There's loads of potential in this film that is, unfortunately, never capitalized upon.
Its 84 minute running time, in turn, is a redeeming feature.The director, David Nutter, spends much of the film building up ample amounts of atmosphere and is aided wonderfully by a brilliant score by fellow "X-Files" alumnus Mark Snow as well as some striking scenery thanks to it's Vancouver location.
The movie at least aims high, and even when it doesn't quite reach, it never bores.A passable sci-fi teen romp, "Disturbing Behavior" is entertaining late-night fodder that, surprisingly, will inspire repeat viewings.
The organization had its beginning with a deadly car wreck, and Dr. Edgar Caldicott played a large role in getting it started.This film reminds me of an episode of 'Smallville', except only the villains (who appear to be the good kids) have the super powers.
I really liked the music in Roscoe's Yogurt Shoppe and in the asylum (I'm referring to Barry Manilow).I actually found the bad kids appealing in this movie--Gavin, Rachel, and Dickie in particular.
Another good though brief performance came from Julie Patzwald as Betty Caldicott.This was a little on the violent side, but I guess for the type of movie it wasn't too bad.
When Steve joins the local high-school, the outcast Gavin Strick (Nick Stahl) befriends Steve and introduces his also rejected friend Rachel Wagner (Katie Holmes) to the newcomer.
Gavin exposes to Steve in the refectory the punks, the nerds and the different tribes of the school and he defends the weird theory that a sinister force changes the behavior of the annoyingly perfect "Blue Ribbons", a group of good students that wear identical jackets and gather in the Yogurt Shoppe.
Steve does not believe on Gavin words, but when his friend is submitted to the treatment of Dr. Edgar Caldicott (Bruce Greenwood) and immediately changes his behavior, joining the Blue Ribbons, Steve and Rachel decides to investigate the mystery discovering the dark secret of the perfect behavior."Disturbing Behavior" has an intriguing beginning, with a murder and a group of former troublemakers and potheads transformed in perfect students, like in the classic "Invasion of Body Snatchers".
Since it was an evening of surprisingly watchable movies up until then (Michael Chrictons 'Runaway' & Clint Eastwoods 'White hunter, black heart') this mix of teeny horror and x-files type paranoia sci-fi was just the kind of icing on the cake I needed before finally calling it a night.Even though it obviously suffers from some plot holes and studio interference, I must say that I still found it much better than other late 90's 'Scream' influenced (and included) teen horror revival stuff.
Disturbing Behavior is a difficult film for a serious movie critic to defend, primarily because of a long-standing prejudice to both the teen and horror genres.
With the help of friends Rachel (Katie Holmes) and Gavin (Nick Stahl), Steve discovers that a local doctor, Caldicott (Bruce Greenwood), is conspiring with parents to lobotomize their teens in order to create "good boys and girls", all of whom become members of the school's Blue Ribbon elitist clique.
Unfortunately, the experiments don't always work and trouble is at hand, especially when Steve's parents sign him up.Scott Rosenberg, the screenwriter of the film, later expressed great disappointment with Nutter's handling of the material.
If Disturbing Behavior should be criticized, it certainly loses points in its third act, one that falls dangerously close to cliché, with Steve becoming more the archetypal hero figure in a predictable and unimaginative showdown with Caldicott and the Blue Ribbons.
Since the third act of any story is largely plot (character development is usually pretty well wrapped-up by then), I imagine Nutter had little to work with from Rosenberg's original screenplay.
It's too bad that MGM freaked out after a test screening in Texas and thought they could improve their numbers by shortening the film and forcing it into the cookie-cutter shape of the average, low-achieving horror flick.
The cast did well but William sadler, as the janitor, did especially well and James Marsden and Katie Holmes show good chemistry.
This film is not in my top ten fave movies but good for an hour and a half of escapism.
Every actor is perfect for their roles (although William Sadler's accent is ridiculous), every location looks like it was created to be in this movie (several locations are in "The 6th Day") and the story was great.Although basically just a rehash of the Stepford Wives, this movie is set for for teen audiences and director David Nutter makes the story seem completely original.The story is this: A boy and his family move to Cradle Bay to try and escape the memories of his brother, who committed suicide.
When the boy, Steve (played by X-Men star James Marsden) starts school he quickly makes friends with outcast Gavin (Nick Stahl of T3), who explains to Steve that something fishy is going on as his friends have traded in their sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyles to join the Blue Ribbons, the straight-A good boy jocks and cheerleaders.
This movie was rushed into cinemas and not properly done so it becomes a standard teen flick.My advice, rent or watch this movie on TV and if you enjoy it slightly, go purchase the DVD to broaden and expand you're enjoyment of this film.
A good underrated sci-fi favorite film i'm in love with Katie Holmes.
The film is fast paced mostly those three actors James Marsden, Katie Holmes, and Nick Stahl are really good and they are giving best of their performances I miss that.
The movie is more a sci-fi mystery thriller a group of students Blue Ribbon are completely upstanding citizens but they also kill people.
William Sadler from Die Hard 2 is in this movie and he plays the good guy a janitor and a bad-ass on the end of the film I loved it.
Steve (James Marsden) and Rachel (Katie Holmes) are together on a boat they have each other and Steve saved his sister Lindsay (Katharine Isabelle,) the acting from everyone was good and everyone did a good job on this movie, peace.
Disturbing Behavior is a 1998 American science fiction horror film starring James Marsden, Katie Holmes, and Nick Stahl.
The screenplay, written by Scott Rosenberg and was compared unfavorably by most critics to the 1975 thriller, The Stepford Wives.7/10 Grade: B Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Starring: James Marsden, Katie Holmes, Nick Stahl, Bruce Greenwood, William Sadler Director: David Nutter Producer: Armyan Bernstein Writter: Scott Rosenberg Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hrs. 24 Mins.
James Marsden and Katie Holmes star in this teen thriller involving teenage kids getting brainwashed!
'Disturbing Behavior' is a solid 'Stepford Wives' like thriller directed by David Nutter who cut his teeth on episodes of 'The X-Files' and 'Millennium' does a good job with the material.
The acting by the core (James Marsden, Katie Holmes and Nick Stahl) cast is very good, also keep and eye out for Bill Sadler and Steve Railsback in scene-chewing supporting rolls.
Better than your average teen thriller / horror 'Disturbing Behavior' is also a solid retelling of 'The Stepford Wives'..
This tight little horror film tells a very simple story in 84 minutes, with remarkable narrative economy, relying on information that the viewer already knows (from many genres: horror movies, science-fiction, thrillers, teen flicks) to fill the gaps.
With all those references and its clever satire on patriotism, it is plausible that the movie does not take itself too serious and does not have the ridiculous grave tone of bad films like "The Craft".
I wanted to see this movie just because I think Katie Holmes is hot, and I like mind control.
I enjoyed it, not as a good movie, but just as fun, throwaway entertainment.That being said, when I watched the 'Deleted Scenes' portion of the DVD, every single clip should have been included.
I can´t see why most people think it´s bad, me and my two friends I saw it with thought it was a great movie.
After being `sold out' by his parents Gavin is forced into the Blue Ribbon program and it is up to Steve and Rachel (teen poster queen Katie Holms who, at her best is one of today's most promising teen actors and at her worse is, well, better than this), to team up and uncover the secret behind the Blue Ribbons.
I assume that he is referring to the powers of the studio that want to make the movie into a cookie cutter image of the standard fare.Even with the deleted scenes restored, the presentation of the means of transformation from regular kid to blue ribbon kid was quite thin and hard to believe.
(As opposed to Gavin becoming a student teacher at another school and starting the "perfect kids" all over again.)The tension begins when Steve (James Marsden, "X-Men") and his family, after the tragic suicide of his brother (Ethan Embry, "Empire Records"), move to the small town of Cradle Bay. Steve tries to find a place in his new school and ends up making friends with two pot heads, one of which is a paranoid named Gavin (Nick Stahl, "In the Bedroom") that's certain the perfect jocks and cheerleaders are lobotomized, and the other is an albino nicknamed UV.
Fresh from directing TV's X-FILES, Nutter coaxes stellar performances from his three leads: Katie Holmes (DAWSON'S CREEK), hunk with heart James Marsden (BELLA MAFIA), and real find Nick Stahl (THE THIN RED LINE) as the misfit in the know.
Only in a slightly over the top turn by Bill Sadler as Newberry (as a janitor turned Pied Piper) and an indulgent madhouse scene that feels like it was meant for another movie, does Nutter's well-thought-out film threaten to derail.
The acting - If this film was designed as a Katie Holmes vehicle, it doesn't do anything to make her seem like a real actress.
Whoever wrote this film deserves to be slapped for their complete disregard for an ending.Two other quick points I must discuss are the all-of-a-sudden love interest between the Holmes character and Steve.
Who thinks these groups up, Dan Quayle?Don't waste your time with this film like I did.4/10 stars..
It had a clever premise, good characters, and for the most part good acting The Score is really great and if i could find that soundtrack i would buy it.Katie Holmes is good in the film.
James Marsden was bad in the first half, but proved he had some talent towards the end of the movie.
Good Concept Gone Bad. Before watching this movie, I was very much excited to see it as the commercials made it seem like a good suspense/thriller of a flick.
But, after watching it, I was incredibly let down.The premise of the film, kids that are eerily too good and perfect, is a great concept.
Scott Rosenberg has written some great stuff (adapting High Fidelity and Beautiful Girls) but you get the sense that Disturbing Behavior was something he wrote whilst bored in High School.The story starts off well, if not subtle or original, by introducing the characters, but they fall by the wayside and get lost amongst the conspiracy theories that aren't even explained properly at the climax.
I saw this movie because it seemed like a good plot, I'm a horror fan, and I always take time to watch the movies of Dawson's Creek stars.
It was a good idea to make a film about teens being brain-washed but I guess the producers assumed that since Katie Holmes was in the movie there was no need to actually put some work into the script.The actors, leaving out Nick Stahl, were lacking.
Katie Holmes' bad girl act made her just seem like a bratty little tag-along.And of course they had to add some nudity to the flick just to make it "perfect".
Probably the only reason why I seen this film was because of its co-star Katie Holmes (of the popular Dawson's Creek show).
The film does have some good moments, but I still think that they should've made it a whole lot better, which I know they could've.
The story is an interesting twist on an old plot and the cast, for the most part, does a good job (especially Nick Stahl).Also, this movie does not deserved to be compared to SCREAM because they are totally different and DISTURBING BEHAVIOR does not poke fun at itself like the superior SCREAM does.Check this one out.*** of ****.
I wasn't expecting a lot from this movie because I normally don't like horror/thriller movies but I decided to watch it anyway because I like Katie Holmes.
With the tremendous success of teen horror movies like Scream, the inevitable is bound to happen, that is studios copy, copy copy, hoping they can steal another hit.
Actually this movie is not as bad as all those sequels to the great horror flicks of the 80's, but it falls way short of Scream and even I Know What you did last Summer.
It definitely has its moments, Nick Stahl pretty much walks off with the movie, while James Marsden comes across as a very bland.
Leave those kids alone!" from the very skillful, conspiracy theory exposer janitor who appears to be the only one "breaking all the rules!" If you sat through this movie trying to make connections to "Scream," "Village of The Damned," or you thought Hollywood was once again picking on teens, you lost a lot in the translation.
The film has a largeish cast, so there will always be some good and some bad, but on the whole, the acting is above average and quite believable.
However, while a couple of scenes are good, the overall movie makes one feel disturbed that it was ever even made that way..
Titanic sounded preferable at times.Anyway, I'm calling out to all of you now who want to know if Disturbing Behavior spills the honest truth about high school cliques and preppy crimes: the preppies aren't out to get you, my black-clad, boot-wearing, spikey-haired brothers and sisters, it's the big corporate producers of Hollywood teenage movies..
The sad thing is that except for Gavin, very few characters manage to do so effectively.Incidentally, for an interesting comparison, see the 1-hour film The Wave, a TV movie loosely based on a social studies teacher's experiment creating a conformist organization within his class; and experiment which got a bit out of control..
This would have been a perfect movie if they had left the film alone at its original running time of 110 minutes.
Katie Holmes, James Marsden & Jason Stahl did a great job.
Disturbing Behavior could have been a reasonably good thriller in the vein of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but instead plays like an empty-headed high school theater production trying to look and sound and feel all grown-up.
I thought the acting was very good, and we should expect to see a lot more of the young actors/actresses in this film, especially Katie Holmes.
"Disturbing Behavior" actually exhibits an iota of imagination; so maybe--just maybe--there is a ray of hope for the horror/thriller movie genre after all!.
I'm a big fan of Nick Stahl and Steve Railsback, thought Jimmy Marsden did a good job and was fairly fascinated during the film by Katie Holmes and seeing more of her body piercings, but this film just doesn't go anywhere.
By the time the film got to the absurd mental hospital scenes, I was ready to walk out, except for the hope of seeing a little more of Katie Holmes.
The only thing that made the movie worth watching: Katie Holmes.
Great to watch if you love Katie Holmes and horror films..
James Marsden, Katie Holmes, and Nick Stahl did a wonderful job of acting.
I think the film-makers did a great job by not making this a "teen" movie.
I found the film actually to be disturbing to me since I went through a lot of abuse and name calling by people like the blue ribbons.
It provides at least 20 minutes of deleted scenes and when you watch them along with the rest of the movie everything begins to make sense and it makes me grow a new-found appreciation for the film.
The blue ribbons appear to be perfect with their good grades and bake sales but beneath the surface lies a mal-function that makes them act violently.What I Liked:The character of Gavin in both versions of this film remains intact.
Someone trying to make teenagers perfect because we know not we do was pretty interesting to me.I liked th entire Dvd version of the film.
Katie Holmes, who is actually good on Dawson's Creek and in The Gift, and Wonder Boys, doesn't really fit as the rebel gothic girl.i suggest that everyone that bashed this movie, like me when i firt saw it, go see the DVD version.
This is a movie that I for a long time did not want to see because of the fact that there had been so many teen-horror-films in a row.
The story by the way, is very similar to films like THE FACULTY, so I can't say that it is that original, but it's thrilling and at times even funny.
Good movie, bad editing!.
There were too many scenes to mention them all, but if you liked this movie even a little the first time, watching the uncut version is a must!.
Katie Holmes and Nick Stahl were great in it. |
tt1172203 | Sita Sings the Blues | === The Ramayana ===
The film uses a pared-down adaptation of the legend that retains many of its finer details while adopting a perspective sympathetic towards Sita; in the director's words, the film is "a tale of truth, justice and a woman’s cry for equal treatment."
The plot joins the legend at the exile of prince Rama from his father's court, at the behest of his father's favorite queen, Kaikeyi. Having earned the right to any single favor by saving the king's life, Kaikeyi attempts to secure her own son's inheritance over the eldest and favorite, Rama, by ordering him banished from the court. Sita, Rama's wife, determines to accompany her beloved husband, although the woods are dangerous and overrun with demons and evil spirits. The demon king Ravana, encouraged by his spiteful ogress sister, hears of Sita's beauty and determines to kidnap her. He sends a golden hind past their dwelling to distract Rama, who tries to impress Sita by hunting the hind into the woods. In his absence, Ravana abducts Sita and demands that she submit to him on pain of death. Sita remains staunchly devoted to Rama and refuses to entertain the idea; Ravana sets a deadline for the ultimatum and Sita waits faithfully for Rama to rescue her.
Aided by the monkey prince Hanuman, Rama eventually discovers Sita's location and brings the monkey army to assist in her rescue. Ravana is slain and Sita restored to her husband, although he expresses serious doubts concerning her fidelity during her confinement. She submits to a trial by fire, a test of her purity; upon throwing herself into the flames, she is immediately rescued by the gods, who all proclaim her devotion and fidelity.
She accompanies Rama back to the palace, and soon falls pregnant. Lingering doubts still play on Rama's mind, however, and after overhearing one of his subjects beating and ejecting an unfaithful consort (claiming he is no Rama to accept and forgive her unfaithfulness), he orders his reluctant brother Lakshman to abandon Sita in the forest. In the company of ascetics she gives birth to her sons and raises them to love and praise their absent father. Years later, Rama overhears their hymns of adoration to their father and locates their dwelling. Distressed and disappointed by Rama's continuing doubt on her purity during her reunion with Rama, Sita prays to the earth to swallow her as final proof of her purity and devotion and the prayer is duly answered, despite the pleas of Rama and Lakshman.
=== Contemporary parallel ===
In an episode taken from the director's own life, animator Nina Paley starts the film living happily in a San Francisco apartment with her husband and cat. Her husband then accepts the offer of a six-month contract working in Trivandrum, India, and moves there alone to take up the position. After a month of no contact, he calls to inform his wife that the contract has been extended another year.
Bewildered by his callous indifference to their separation, Nina sublets their apartment, leaves their beloved cat behind and joins her husband in India. Upon her arrival he appears deeply unenthusiastic to be reunited and demonstrates neither affection nor sexual interest. A while later, Nina flies to a meeting in New York, where she receives a brief e-mail from her husband telling her that their relationship is over. Sad and alone, she stays in New York, finding comfort in a new cat and her study of the Ramayana. | tragedy, psychedelic, fantasy, murder | train | wikipedia | "Sita Sings the Blues" shows how one person with a laptop computer and something to say can make a far more satisfying work than 90% of the garbage that gets cranked out by people with a thousand times the money but one-thousandth the inspiration.
It isn't simply "background" to the telling of a story from the Ramayana; the piece is a meshing of Sita/Nina.
If the "point" of the work were simply to present the Ramayana on film the way "The Ten Commandments" is a filmed presentation of the Book of Exodus, it would be kind of silly to have Sita break into Blues songs in the first place, wouldn't it?
There are some movies that cannot be viewed separately from the story of their making - 'Citizen Kane', 'Apocalypse Now', virtually anything directed by Werner Herzog - and I feel that 'Sita Sings the Blues' is one of them.
To put it mildly, Nina Paley has completed a Herculean task by making this film: 82 minutes of animation, fluid and beautiful, in four different styles, all on her own, on her own personal computer.
This is readily apparent even in the basic idea of it - the Ramayana of Valmiki, with songs by '20s jazz singer Annette Hanshaw as the singing voice of Sita, intercut with the India-related breakdown of the creator's own marriage, which paralleled Sita's, narrated by three 'Desi' English-speaking Indians that can't agree on the details or the motivations of the characters and analyze the story constantly and hilariously as they tell it.
Also, laying down these ground rules pays off toward the end of the movie, when Paley starts to break them: this grabs the viewers' attention and sets the audience on alert when voices that we've been conditioned to expect while looking at cutouts intrude upon Flash animation.
In short, Paley makes sure transitions aren't jarring so she can jar us with them later, to good effect.For example: at one point in the movie, the three Indian narrators tell us of a trick by an evil king to lure Rama away from his wife Sita so that the king can kidnap her while he is gone.
The glamour of India, the glamour of the 1920s, the depth-sounding drumbeat of the ancient mythic world, and the woman who loves the wrong kind of man – Nina Paley gets them all together, along with a relevant chunk of autobiography about a disappointing husband of her own, in her dazzling first full-length animated feature.In the ancient Indian story, the Ramayana, Sita is the wife of the man-god Rama, and the embodiment of the Virtuous Wife.
In Paley's movie, Sita steps forward from time to time to sing a torch-y Jazz Era song ("Mean to Me," and the like) in the voice of Annette Hanshaw, a stylistically elegant and not-well-enough-known voice of the '20s.Sita's story (kidnapping by 9-headed king, rescue by Rama, rejection by Rama, monkey-god help) alternates with modern-day episodes about Nina's own real-life inexplicably disintegrating marriage, and also with the occasional very funny and illuminating conversation about the Ramayana and its meanings among several of the filmmaker's witty and well-educated Indian friends ("The king had four wives .
For myself, I also came away with the best grasp I've had yet on the Rama-Sita story, more than worth knowing both on the archetypal front (Some Things Never Change) and as background to the hundreds of Indian movie stories that take it up from one angle or another.July 28, 2009 NOTE - now on DVD!!.
And yet, if you have a chance (as I had) to see it on the big screen, it's one of the events of the year if you love animation and daring in film-making.It's a personal story of Paley's break-up with her boyfriend (who did it, savagely, over email), and put into a context of the story of the Ramayana, an ancient Indian story about a woman, Sita, and her bond with the blue-skinned Rama over a lifetime.
And the musical numbers are just about the best one has seen all decade (which goes without saying the lack of competition, but still), as we see Sita sing her feelings and thoughts, sometimes in happiness and sometimes totally down in the dumps (re: her pregnancy and abandonment after being rescued).There's a complex web of emotions that Paley navigates through, and she does it so confidently that it's hard not to marvel at her achievements here.
For me, this is a landmark film in dissolving my resistance to animation.The other elements so well integrated are the personal history of Nina Paley's broken marriage, the analogous situation of Sita's rejection by Rama in the Indian epic, Ramayana, and animated (in both senses) conversation about that epic.I first enjoyed this in a press screening for the 2008 Seattle International Film Festival.
'Sita sings the Blues' is an independent animated movie that re-tells the Ramayana using mainly 2D animation and some immensely refreshing screenplay.
The premise unfolds in three parallel tracks – one, with an American couple living in New York with the husband getting a project in Trivandrum in India; two, three Indians (yes yes, actual Indians!) voicing three shadow like caricatures bickering and debating about the events that Ramayana is popular for and a third, sort of, platonic/musical track is the animation piece where Sita breaks into one of Hanshaw's classics every time a relevant situation presents itself.
Be it the drawings that are set to a very 'Rajasthan painting' like motif or the 2D animated waist wiggle that Sita gets into whenever she thinks of her beloved Rama and voices out classics from Hanshaw's collection.
The way these various types of art pieces blend into one another with such finesse without taking away from the main plot is an effort that can only be described as – genius.But then 'Sita sings the Blues' is more than just eye catchy drawings, a narrative that holds you in place and a much contemporary way to retell the epic with the most unlikely Jazz legend for the songs!
A thought that throws more light on Ravana's much ignored and definitely much clichéd personality in our modern history.I strongly urge everyone to see this beautiful masterpiece of a movie not just to appreciate the artistic value it so boldly embodies but to also understand the subtleties with which it tells us how to get our priorities straight without being preachy.The only 'drawback', if I really had to pick, would be the slightly feminist seeming climax.
Featured in last year's edition of Animation Nation, I finally got a chance to watch this masterpiece by filmmaker Nina Paley when she released it on the Internet under the Creative Commons License.
And it is without a doubt that this piece of animation is well worth every minute of your time, especially when the visuals just arrests your attention from the get go, and has some wonderful music and songs by 1920s jazz singer Annette Hanshaw, who provides the titular Sita with her singing voice.Based on the epic Indian tale of Ramayana, focusing on the love triangle between Rama (voiced by Debargo Sanyal), his virtuous wife Sita (Nina Paley herself), and the adversary in the form of Ravana (Sanjiv Jhaveri) who lusts after Sita and kidnaps her, I have gotten a glimpse of this storyline when it got featured in films such as Swades and the more recent Delhi-6.
Essentially the extracts in those film featured how Ravana kidnaps Sita for her beauty, and wanted to make her his wife, only for her to hold out enough for Rama to find them, and to kill Ravana in an ensuing war.The story here expands that tale a lot more, starting with how Rama got banished from his kingdom by his father the King, and together with Sita, roams a forest until her kidnap, their reunion, and how Rama decided to banish her given his incessant suspicion that she may not have been pure, and got violated.
It's a sad love story in a way, and this film provided just enough to pique your interest in wanting to read up more.It's quite amazing how Paley herself directed this piece of magic, and adopted various animation styles to tell a story, and a musical, and has a separate tale set in the modern day to parallel that of the epic tale.
Her choice of the Annette Hanshaw tunes were a wonderful touch that fit the story to a T, and this can only be attributed to some astonishing creativity and innovation that Paley had demonstrated, and I can't help but to want more.The shadow puppet narrators (Aseem Chhabra, Bhavana Nagulapally and Manish Acharya) stole the show each time they're on, as they sound just like your good pals who can't wait to give you the lowdown on what they know about this tragic love triangle.
They're hilarious and never at any point felt deliberately so, with that very natural feel about the way they want to tell a story.I would have loved to experience this in a big screen theatre setting, but I guess that would not come anytime soon.
Paley uses great technique (including four diverse styles of animation) to tell a poignant story that every woman who has ever been in love will certainly understand.This is a great artistic accomplishment: creatively distilling intense personal pain into great art!
This movie combines all the wonderful elements of mythology with the winsome voice of Annette Henshaw and her own life experience as her marriage dissolves.This movie combines the absolute best of animation, music and myth.
For Nina Paley has made a masterpiece of animation that has it all: clear, beautiful, vibrant, witty,ironic tragic that equates Dave with Rama and herself with Sita.
Unlike much American animation which has lots of money behind it but little inspiration, this one is refreshingly mature,worthy of its subject, and yet can appeal to children: nothing false, cloying, ..just real feeling...Interestingly, Paley uses simple line drawings making her own story the more cartoonish, as if it was too painful to treat dramatically, and seems to sublimate it into Sitas story.When she learns dave has dumped her, her cry is cartoonish,...cockroaches replace the cat as her companions, as her life crumbles,,,.her life has gone dark, and so its fitting that at Ninas lowest point a dark figure dances amidst the flames.Throughout the beautiful voice of Annette Hanshaw, speaks for Sita, Nina and others dumped and unwanted: whose spouses have been mean to them..
While Sita Sings the Blues at least equals those in intelligence and wonder, it surpasses them in imagination considering the parallel stories of wives unfairly abandoned by their husbands are set in modern and ancient times, based on the well-know Ramayana story in India.Although the animation seems a primitive 2-D next to Pixar's successfully realistic product, director and almost everything-else-in-the-picture Nina Paley suffuses the frames with brilliant colors and variable landscapes.
Paley's success at entertaining with a wildly imaginative palette and lovable characters and cats contradicts, however, the generalization that all women suffer degradations centuries old—she is an artist and entrepreneur, who, faced with a restrictive copyright law that doesn't let her market the film because of Jazz singer Annette Hanshaw' 1920's performance (the music is in the public domain, but not the publishing) distributes her film free (find it in 10 installments on YouTube).Hanshaw's Betty-Boop like singing is the apex of pleasure in this multi layered story, whose intricacy is richly rewarding, sometimes difficult even for Indians to decipher, such as the three Indian voice-overs who wittily try to figure out the details of the Ramayana legend.
There is a musical version of it in which Sita -the main character- sings some classic blues that convey what is happening in the story, expressing Sita's feelings and mood.
Something completely different of what you are used to see.The music is great, not just because of the blues.The film has been controversial because the director did not know that the songs were still under copyright, despite the singer being dead for many years.
The family sued the director for an astronomical sum, but they ended reaching an agreement in which she still has to pay $50,000, which is a tremendous amount of money for a starving artist who made a film almost entirely on her own, with Indian musicians and actors contributing to the music and voices for free, and her own money and donations.There are not many independent animation movies being made by women.
"Sita sings the Blues" it's a clever, funny and original revision of the epic poem "Ramayana", from a satirical point of view; however, it still manages to be very faithful to the original story, combining many different animation styles (All of them very good) in order to create parallels of the poem with a break-up story that takes place in the modern times.The musical sequences, with the songs of Annette Hanshaw, strangely enough fit very well with the tone and style of the movie.
But the moment the movie Sita sings the blues got its way through mocking it lost something that is so important yet very difficult to gain.
The best animation style was probably the one where Sita was actually singing.This may be the shortest movie I've ever seen that had an intermission.
Being Indian I of course know the story of ramayana..it was glorified for all of us in our childhood as Rama is considered an incarnation of God. Being a woman, I have come to realize over the years what a terrible husband and man figure he was..something this movie highlights beautifully.
Sita Sings the Blues is probably one of the strangest movies I have ever seen.
During this viewing experience I learned about the Ramayana, learned about the story of Sita and Rama, and listened to some 1920's jazz music, and for the most part, it was very enjoyable.In the film, three narrators tell the story of Rama and his beautiful wife Sita as they are banished into the woods for 14 years.
A flash animation used to tell the story of Sita, a more generic 2D animation used for the three narrators, and a very crude animation used for the long distance lovers that greatly reminded me of It's Such a Beautiful Day. In my opinion the best part of the film was the conversations between the narrators.
Director Nina Paley is an American animator who was inspired by a reading of the Ramayana in 2002.
In this hilarious semi-modern adaptation of the classic Indian epic Sita looks like a Sanskritic Betty Boop, and does indeed sing the blues at various stages of this rip-roaring 82 minute piece of work.
The movie tells parallel stories, one an ancient Indian legend of Rama and his wife Sita, the other of the animator's relationship.
Animated (in various ways) story from an Indian book dealing with gods, demons, a beautiful wife, her husband and an evil king (or something).
She helped me to understand what was happening when it got confusing and I really think she should have done the DVD commentary.The story is the "Ramayana" as told from Sita's point of view.
However, since it is from her point of view, a lot of Rama's cool adventures are omitted from the story, so it's not really meant to be a complete retelling of this classic tale.Again, according to my super-cool daughter, practically none of the "Ramayana" is there, just the bits about Sita.
For example, the random, somewhat trippy music video in the middle of the movie was distracting and sometimes the modern day segments spliced in had little to do with the part of Sita's story being told.
However, like my wonderful daughter, I really liked the 1920s style musical interludes with Sita but think that perhaps one or two could have been omitted to tighten up the story.Overall, it's a weird but fascinating story told with really unusual artistry--especially because there must have been a half dozen or so completely different styles used throughout the film.
if you really wanna know this story about Ramayan then you should watch (1992) Movie "Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama".
A very aptly titled movie, Sita sings the blues tells the story of Rama and Sita as found in the Ramayana with some 1920s blues, sung by Annette Hanshaw thrown in.
The story of Rama and Sita is most clearly played out in a Mughal miniature style which is interspersed with the Hanshaw songs.
There are various parallels with the story of Rama and Sita, such as separation, and these are drawn out through the simultaneous development of the two stories.The songs are wonderful and the movie is a fair introduction to the Ramayana, although not entirely factually correct..
Nina Paley's animated musical that combines her collapsing marriage with the tale of Sita and Rama.The exception to the rule that flash animation really isn't the way to go for feature animation.
The problem is that the duel structure of the film, the tale of Sita and that of Nina Paley doesn't work.
Meanwhile, in another parallel story, Paley tells her own autobiographical journey of how her husband dumped her and left her with a broken heart that ultimately resulted in her creating Sita Sings the Blues.
Paley allows the film's visual palette to compliment what is happening to Sita during these musical interludes: When she sings "Am I Blue?" she literally turns blue.
Sita Sings the Blues represents all the reasons that I love the movies.
First the good parts of the movie were the music sung beautifully and the animation done in a pastiche of styles.The bad parts were the story itself which was a projection of the authors' sense of victimhood onto the story of Rama.
Rather than try to take the best or most important parts of the "Ramayana" and put it all together in a linear story, Nina Paley's inventively animated piece chooses to layer all viewpoints together, giving each world ample time to present their version of events. |
tt0898367 | The Road | The movie opens in a flashback where we see the Man (Viggo Mortensen) in bed with his wife (Charlize Theron). The man wakes up to a sound and a glow coming from outside the window of their room. He walks to the window and looks out. In a hurry, he then runs into the bathroom where he begins to fill the sink and bathtub. His wife wakes up and comes into the bathroom. She asks him why he is taking a shower, but answers that this is not what the water is for. She then looks outside to see what he saw. The scene then cuts to the present where the man is walking with his son down a snow-covered road.As the Man and his son are walking, we hear a narration by the Man explaining that he no longer keeps track of time. He further explains (in a very vague way) that a few years ago at 1:17, there was a bright flash in the sky followed by rumbling sounds and that was when time stopped. As the Man and his son walk and search abandoned cars, the narration continues. He then says that the sun has not come out for a long time; the weather is getting colder and greyer every day. He then says the things he fears the most are cannibals and hunger. They are walking to the coast and heading south to see if things are warmer and better there.The Man and his son stop at a car in the road and make camp. While they sit in the car talking, we see that the Man has a pistol with 2 rounds remaining and a shopping cart full of things they have collected. The two talk about the boy's mother, making it clear that she has been dead for a significant time. The Man also explains to the son how to kill himself the right way with the gun, and that the remaining 2 bullets are for themselves. As they continue their journey, we see several flashbacks to the Man and his wife. We witness her giving birth to their son and that she reluctantly did so, apparently aware that the life they would give him would be hopeless. Right then the flashback ends as the man wakes up suddenly to the sound of a truck in the distance. He wakes his son and they run out of the truck they were sleeping in into the nearby woods, leaving the cart. They jump and hide in a ditch. From the tunnel emerges a large truck carrying several armed men. One stranger walks very close to the hiding Man and his son, and stops to urinate on a tree. He notice the father and son and tries to lure them to the truck, stating that they eat "Whatever we can find". The Man points the gun at the stranger and tells him to not look back at the men he came with or that he will shoot. He refuses and calls the Man's bluff. As the noise of the truck startles the Man, the stranger jumps and grabs the son, holding him at knifepoint. The Man shoots the stranger in the head, grabs his son and runs into the woods hiding over night avoiding the group who were looking for them.The next morning, the Man and his son go back for the cart. The contents of their cart have been pillaged. While the Man gathers the remainer of his things, he notices a pile of intenstines, as well as the clothing and severed head of the man that was killed the day before. It is evident that the men in the truck would have eaten our protagonists had they came out into the open. In a flashback, we see the Man and his wife talking about killing themselves like the other families in the area. She says that eventually they will be caught, that she and their son be raped, that all three will be murdered and eaten. He says that she needs to be strong and stop talking about this bleak scenario. She says that they only have 2 bullets left and that they should use them now. Unable to deal with her bleak outlook on the future, he leaves the room. Returning to the main story, the Man and rest by their campfire. The son asks if they are still the good guys. The Man explains that they are always going to be the good guys, and they are carrying the fire inside themselves.Back on the road, the man and his son rest in an abandonned truck. The son mentions that he sometimes wishes that he was dead, partially so he could be with his mother. Telling his son that he shouldn't be thinking or talking about her too much, the man contemplates some of the last memories of his wife. In the morning, the Man wakes up and walks to the edge of the bridge where he takes a wallet out of his jacket with a picture of his wife in it. He throws it over the bridge and leaves his wedding ring behind. We get another flashback of the Man and his wife talking. She has given up all hope and has decided to comitt suicide. He begs her to stay another night. She blames the man for not letting her die earlier and walks outside without saying goodbye to the son. She takes off her jacket and outer clothing and walks off into the dark to die.The two walk on and see a large house in the distance. After looking at it through binoculars, they decide to go into the home. In the main room, they notice a large pile of shoes. The Man is very confused and goes into the kitchen where he sees a large door in the floor, closed via padlock. They break in and go down into the cellar. They hear something in the darkness and when they get close, a naked man comes into the light. As they attempt to leave, they see that the naked man is not alone. An entire group of malnourished people, some missing limbs beg them for help. They fight off the desperate captives and block the door with a heavy table. As they are about to leave, the owners of the house return. The Man and his son run upstairs and hide in a bathroom. As one of the captors approaches, the father points the gun at his son's head to protect him from the cannibals. Luckily for them, the cannibals are distracted by the captives attempting to make an escape. In the commotion, the Man and his son run out and quickly hide while the people in the home try to find them. As night falls, they hear the screams of someone being butchered.As they are walking, they find the neighborhood where the Man grew up and he takes a moment to visit his boyhood home. While waiting outside, the son briefly sees a boy across the street. He runs to see him, but is caught by his father. They leave, once again heading south, the boy lamenting the fact that he is probably the only boy left alive.Having run out of food, the two come across another home on the road. They rummage through the house and find the remains of a man who died in bed. Having lost hope, they stumble upon an unlooted bomb shelter in the back yard. Finding ample food and supplies inside, they eat, clean themselves up and make home in the new shelter. One night, they hear noises above. The noise sounds like a dog, meaning that the area is no longer safe. They stock up food in a pull cart and head out the next morning.As they are walking, they see an old man (Robert Duvall) walking. They approach him very carefully and see that he is no threat. The boy wants to bring him along and the Man says no, but he allows the old man to eat dinner with them. As they eat and talk, the old man says that he thought the boy was an angel and he never thought he would see a child again. They continue to talk and then go to sleep. The next day the Man and the son are on their way alone again.While the Man and the son continue, they go into the woods and leave the cart because they see a series of wooden huts. As they walk closer, the Man sees a row of spears with human skulls and other human remains on the ground. Quickly turning the other way, they see a fresh pile of blood-soaked snow.In the distance, a woman and a child are being chased by a band of cannibals. The Man and the son get away while we hear the dying screams of the woman. This frightful sight is followed by a small earthquake. Multiple trees almost hit them and they take cover and hide. After the dust has settled, they get back to the road once again.After they Man and son wake up from camp, we see that the Man is growing sicker. They talk about how they are close to the ocean. Arriving, they are both disappointed at the receding beach, which is littered with garbage and debris. The ocean, which the boy had hoped would be blue, is a muddy brown. They walk to the water and look at a crashed boat about 200 yards into the surf. Hoping to find something useful inside the wreck, the man leaves his son with the revolver in their makeshift tent. The son falls asleep and we see a stranger with a knife walk up to the tent. The next shot is of the Man swimming back to shore with a flare gun from the boat. He puts on his clothes and goes running to his son. All of their supplies are gone, but the son is not harmed. The thief took everything including the Mans shoes. Cursing, the man is determined to retrieve their belongings.As the Man carries his son, they see the thief with their cart in the distance. The Man takes the pistol and runs after the thief. The Man proceeds to take back his belongings and rob the thief, taking his knife, his clothes and his shoes. The son begs his father to have mercy on the man, but he refuses. Back on the beach, the boy is very upset and sulks, eventually convincing his father to return the stolen belongings to their owner. They go back and try to find the thief, but he is nowhere to be seen. They leave his clothes in apile, along with a can of food.The Man and his son continue walking.They start walking through a street lined with homes. It is quiet and they find a tin with a live bug inside. While it flies away, they both stare at it in amazement. Distracted, the Man does not notice an archer across the street and gets hit in the leg. They jump to take cover and the Man retaliates with his flare gun. We hear screaming from the room and the wounded Man goes running to see who is inside. He gets in the room where he sees a woman who is sitting over the stranger who shot him. The archer is dead and the woman accompanying him weeps. Our heroes bandage up the man's leg as best they can, leaving the woman.The Man and his son go walking back to the ocean and the man stops. He says he can no longer pull the cart. They take a bag full of the food and they head to a sandy spot of the beach. They make camp and the man, realizing that he is dying dreams of his wife. We see what life was like prior to the world ending. He wakes up to his son talking to him. The Man knows he is going to die soon, and he tells his son to continue on south. He says to remember the things he has taught him and to keep going like they have been. The son says he wants to die with his father, but the Man says that he cannot. He says that his whole heart is in his son and he has to go on. He then falls asleep and dies.After a period of mourning, the son looks at his father, reaches into his jacket and takes his binoculars. He then covers the Man with a blanket, puts the pistol with single round into his belt and begins walking along the shoreline. In the distance, we see a stranger (Guy Pierce) walking toward the son. The son points his gun towards the stranger, but amazingly, the man does not reciprocate. He tells the boy that he is not a cannibal and that he is "one of the good guys". The stranger asks the son who the man on the beach is and the son explains that it was his father. The stranger explains to the boy that he now has 2 choices. Either go on his own, avoiding the roads or joining him and the others that he is travelling with.The son asks if he has any children, to which the answer says "a boy and a girl". Asking if he is carrying the fire inside, to which the stranger does not know how to answer, the boy decides to join them. Saying goodbye to his father one last time, the son walks to the stranger. We see that he is with a woman (Molly Parker) and 2 children, a boy and a girl. The boy was the one the Son spotted earlier by his father's childhood home. We learn that this family has been following the boy for some time, and that the dog they heard earlier at the bomb shelter was their companion. He is assured that he no longer has anything to worry about. | dark, boring, depressing, murder, suspenseful, bleak, suicidal, violence, flashback, romantic, sentimental | train | imdb | The wonderful thing about the Road is that it will more than likely please the two camps: the one that has not read Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer prize-winning book, and the one that has.
There's the nervous feeling one gets when watching the theatrical trailer, though - will it be this super action-packed spectacle, will those images that open the trailer with "THE END OF THE WORLD IS NEAR!" stick around, and will Charlize Theron actually be in the movie that much?
it still works as a movie, as a simple-but-not story of a father and son survival drama- and clinging on to their humanity- first, and then a post-apocalypse thriller far second.To describe the plot is not impossible but sort of unnecessary.
All you need to know going in (if you're part of not-read-book camp) is that a father and son, after becoming on their own after the mother of the house exits, are traveling together across a true post-apocalypse landscape to a coast.
I still, having read it two years ago (which sadly seems like long ago in usually remembering specific images of a book), can't get the descriptions of scenes out of my head, or the stark manner of how characters talked and dread and existential horror was relayed.
Dialog scenes in the movie- save for a couple of the flashback scenes with Charlize Theron's Mother character- are never obtrusive to the storytelling, which is a rightful concern to have with an adaptation of the book.
Yet it's also crucial to see how good the kid Smit-McPhee is too, especially when it comes time for scenes where the boy has to deal with his father's growing desperation or the electrifying showdown with a thief.To be sure, a couple of walk-on roles by Guy Pearce as another fellow traveler and especially Robert Duvall as a "90 year old man" as his character says provide some needed space, and Hillcoat has a couple of very wise flashback/dream bits with The Man and his wife (namely a very small, brilliant moment at a piano), but it's the all on the two main character to lead the film, and it's on them that it delivers so strongly.
As long as you know that this is a film centered not on big action sequences (though there are a couple), and not on big special effects (though there's that too), and it's more akin to a life-or-death-and-what-else story not unlike Grave of the Fireflies, you'll know what you're getting with the Road.
Thru it trudge The Man (Viggo Mortenson) and The Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee), slowly and painfully making their way to "the coast", where maybe things will be marginally better.
It's unlikely that anyone else will ever make another movie that treats the end of the world so realistically, so if you want to see the standard against which all others will be compared, this is your chance.Stay away if you're depressed or prone to it, and avoid razor blades for 12 hours afterward..
Not only does the story accurately exhibit the polar opposite aspects of a post apocalyptic existence, but the cinematography used during the flashbacks of a life full of color and hope many take for granted, is excellently positioned with the dark, dismal, and often terrifying reality that is the Road.
I read Cormac McCarthy's novel a few years ago & figured it would be made into a movie (this was when "No Country for Old Men" was playing) but I wondered how they could make this extremely grim tale into something that people would want to see.This film was every bit as grim as the novel and it seemed to be a faithful adaptation of it.
And they've never been more important.The Road, directed by John Hillcoat (The Proposition) and based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy (No Country For Old Men), is a dark, poignant story of a father and son journeying through a post-apocalyptic wasteland, withstanding harsh weather, malnutrition, and under the constant threat of marauders, thieves and cannibals.
The Road is a smaller, more penetrating film that draws strength from its intimacy and its ability to do so much with so little.Viggo Mortensen gives an emotional tour de force as the embattled father; look for him on the red carpet come March.
Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, and Guy Pearce give small but highly memorable performances, Duvall in particular, whose portrayal of a withered old man journeying all alone will haunt you.The desolate environment in which the story takes place is itself a character, foreign yet eerily familiar, and so perfectly conceptualized that it matches – heck, surpasses the standard of realism set by films such as 28 Days Later and Children of Men. Shot throughout four states, including at the site of the Mount St. Helens eruption, Hillcoat and cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe (The Others, The Sea Inside) paint a backdrop that is altogether beautiful and devastating.They say that every generation since the dawn of man has feared the End, and while this may be true, not every generation has seen what our modern technology is capable of.
The Road is a dark looking glass into our future, and what it is likely to become if our primal nature is left unchecked.Early in the film, the son looks at his father and asks him, "We're the good guys, right?" The father's response is in the affirmative, but as their situation become increasingly desperate, that sense of morality we think to be ingrained is put to the test.
He holds up a mirror to the world and hypnotizes you with it.As far as post-apocalyptic movies go, The Road is hands-down one of the best ever made.
Then again, the film's failure is being even bleaker than the source, a testimony to the power of the imagination.Except for a father (Viggo Mortensen) and young son (Kodi Smit-Mcphee), who represents the hope of the human race as the story assumes the trappings of allegorical, post-apocalyptic literature and film where the desolate outside mirrors the lonely inside of the humans, not all of whom are willing to carry on the good fight.
Not the least of which could be nuclear or cannibal; the former does not make an appearance while the latter is omnipresent.Director John Hillcoat has emphasized more than McCarthy the role, by flashback, of the wife/mother (Charlize Theron), but overall he has taken dialogue directly from the novel and stayed true to the bleak landscape where the sun doesn't shine and the trees fall intermittently like humans giving up the ghost.The gray tones and beat up humans are like those in most post- apocalyptic films; however, as in Children of Men to a lesser extent, the focus is on how to survive, not even how to avoid death.
The Road - Viggo Mortensen stars in the role of "Man" who contends with cannibals and earthquakes all for the safety of "Boy" (Kodi Smit-McPhee).
By the end of the film the actors had me in the palms of their hands, even making me shed a tear, and i don't usually cry at films!!Personally, there isn't a single thing I would change about this movie so I would feel unjust in giving it any less than a 10/10..
aren't getting you down enough, and you're one of those people who are perhaps more content and optimistic than important filmmakers know you deserve to be, there's hope in sight because this movie could be just your kind of escapist fare, with the potential to take you down that critically-acclaimed road to long-lasting depression.Yes, was there ever such a downbeat masterpiece in cinematic history?
The way it would work is like this: the patient would be required to sit through this film without interruption, and then at the end, the psychiatrist turns to the patient and says "See, things could always be worse!"However, one could argue that this film is about the perseverance to survive in spite of enormous odds against, the dedicated love between father and son amidst very difficult circumstances.
He's like oblivious vampire stages circumstances to suck out his son's unconditional love, effectively leaving him no alternative person to interact with but himself, as the only man alive, who does not want to kill him.If you read horrifying "Child of God", the naive cowboy retro "All The Pretty Horses" or "No Country for Old Men" you may feel that the "The Road" is a logical progression.
vm's character in this film really cheesed me off.instead of teaching his son how to survive in this environment, at every turn he shielded him from the harshest lessons he would need to stay alive--like reading the signs cannibals leave, or letting him see what would happen if he was caught, and teaching how to commit suicide instead of learning to kill.
but he and his boy received both.i think the story would have been far better if the boy had gone native, and vm had been appalled at what this dying world had made of his son, and he longing for the old time to come back to heal the boy.
Do not waste your time and money to watch this Movie .Hollywood has officially gone stupid and brainwashed .The only movies they release nowadays are either Animations , Iraq war propaganda or End of the world scenarios .Scaremongering and brainwashing .Unless you've read the book that the movie is based on , good luck trying to figure what the director is trying to convey.To all the people who smell Oscar nominations for this movie , please stop taking medications , they mess up your mind .I don't know what's going on with IMDb but lately all of the bad Movies get high ratings .
In a post-apocalyptic world in a near future, a man (Viggo Mortensen) and his young son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) wander heading to South seeking good people through destroyed roads.
The man recalls the good moments of his life with his wife (Charlize Theron) and begins to lose his humanity while his son pushes him to help and old man (Robert Duvall) and a thief (Michael Kenneth Williams).
Unfortunately many fans of blockbuster movies have written unfair bad reviews in IMDb, probably expecting to see a fast-paced popcorn film with lots of explosions and special effects.
However, the sad story is supported by a solid screenplay with a dark cinematography; great direction; and magnificent performances of Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee, followed by Robert Duvall, Charlize Theron and a magnificent cast.
Sadly, this movie came no where near my expectations and I am surprised at the score this has somehow managed to achieve.Whilst the acting and the photography were okay- the story and lack of substance in this picture left me feeling like I'd wasted an hour-and-a-half of my life on a film that was pretty much devoid of plot, thrills, twists or any follow-though on any of the scenes.
Each scene felt less relevant than the last and I was less than gripped throughout still waiting for something of worth to happen as the credits started rolling.The setting for the movie had such potential, and generally would be my cup of tea, other films that have tackled similar issues such as "I am Legend", "The Postman" or even, to some extent, "Carriers" have all portrayed a dystopic view of the future, but have also made the story entertaining and relevant.
I was expecting a 28 days later style film but instead got a movie that felt like it's was 7hrs long yet nothing really happened.
However, the film was very slow, very depressing, and watching it I was waiting through the movie for something to happen and make it interesting, and nothing happens.The film is set in the future where all plant and animal life has died, and only a handful of people are left alive.
Did they run out of money and just decided to stop the movie half way?The story is about a man and his son traveling through America on foot after some big thing happened (nuclear...
A good father and his son attempting to survive by any means possible in a perilous post-apocalyptic world.
The father travels along with a young boy seeking goods in destroyed places and articles in markets as water and supplies , they undergo a dangerous journey towards the coast .The clothes they are wearing are dirty and carrying a rusting shopping cart of scavenged food .This stirring movie is packed with emotive drama ,thrills , chills with two starring who have been wandering westward across America for encounter the sea .
This post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America against the lawless cannibalistic bands that stalk the road and in order to protect his lovely son .
A post-apocalyptic , depressing tale of a man and his son trying to survive by any means possible .
While Viggo Mortensen's and the kid's acting may have been good, and while the book may have garnered a Pulizer, this is just another in a long series movies of post Apocalypse world (Waterworld, Soylent Green to name two), inescapable plot, boring and preposterous.
Before it premiered, The Road was a film project people discussed with equal doses of trepidation and fear: on the one hand, it's based on a Pulitzer-winning novel by Cormac McCarthy, whose minimalist prose had already been successfully adapted by the Coen brothers (see No Country for Old Men), stars one of the best actors in recent American cinema (Viggo Mortensen) and is directed by John Hillcoat, the man who gave us the acclaimed The Proposition; on the other, the decision to postpone the film's release (the excessively bleak tone being cited as the reason) for a year triggered inevitable rumors of a "troubled" production.
And not entirely without a good reason.In fairness to the producers and distributors, the plot is a bit of a downer: a father and son, credited only as Man (Mortensen) and Boy (Kodi Smit McPhee), are constantly on the move, searching for a safe place in a post-apocalyptic, devastated world where people have resorted to murder and cannibalism in order to survive.
Their journey is inter-cut with flashbacks depicting Man's life with the boy's mother (Charlize Theron) right before the situation went down the drain.The Road is certainly an ambitious project, and the book's stark description of a dark future translates very well on the screen: Hillcoat's use of landscape and lighting is impeccable, and the combination of cut-to-the-bone dialogue and raw, desperate acting (at least on Mortensen's part) ensures that Man and Boy's harrowing quest for survival doesn't pass by unnoticed.
The Road is possibly one of the most disturbing movies I have ever watched, probably at the top of the list, thinking about my child.
It was the most slow paced useless depressing piece I have ever seen if there was a message or moral to the tale I did not notice it.It seemed to go on forever without much happening the whole story and everything in it could have been told in 15 minutes.I am a big fan of Robert Duvall, Viggo Mortenson, and Charlize Theron their performances were as good as ever though they did not have much to work with, the script was chronically bad it could have been written on a napkin in a bar and probably was.If you are considering watching this film I would suggest that instead you pay some one to slap you in the face for a solid 2 hours, trust me you would find that to be a much nicer experience..
The best apocalyptic themed film that I've seen is Children of Men. The Road is not anywhere near as good.
Won't go into too much detail, you'll either think it's OK, or won't like it at all.But I guarantee you one thing - by the end of the movie you will hate Kodi Smit-McPhee.
Aside from the kid, the acting is good, but you don't expect less from a movie with Vigo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, and Robert Duvall in it.
In the post-apocalyptic wasteland of America, a Man (Viggo Mortensen) and his Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) travel the road hoping to avoid the 'bad' people, and ultimately stay alive as along as humanly possible.
Based on Cormac McCarthy's (Blood Meridian, No Country For Old Men) 2006 acclaimed novel 'The Road', the film is more about how we and our loved ones cope after a devastating event as much as it is about survival in the harshest environments left on Earth.
There is so much wrong with film, and so much of it has been covered by other reviewers that instead of piling on I'm just going to cover what I think is worst thing about this movie, and that is the lead characters.
A heartbreaking journey of a father and son desperate to survive in the harshest post-apocalyptic world ever imagined!
The kid was great and the cameos by Duvall and Pearce are fantastic.Set in a world which is imaginable, but hopefully not coming our way EVER, "The Road" is a scary, thrilling romp but ultimately a little too nihilistic in it's approach to the human spirit.Now that I've pointed out some good things, here comes the bad.
The reason for the earth being in this post apocalyptic state is never given, I guess it is seen as being irrelevant, which I though was a nice touch, you don't need to know why this has happened just that it has.The film follows a father and son on their way south where they believe the weather to be warmer and the food to be more plentiful.
Based on the 2006 novel of the same name by American author Cormac McCarthy (No Country For Old Men), the film stars Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee as a father and his son trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.How do you sell such a sombre piece to the film loving public? |
tt0245429 | Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi | Ten-year-old Chihiro (voice: Daveigh Chase in the 2002 English dub) and her parents (voices: Lauren Holly and Michael Chiklis) drive to their new home. Chihiro is whiny and unhappy about the move, especially when she notices that the bouquet her friend gave her as a good-bye gift is wilting. In sight of their new house, they take a wrong turn and follow a bumpy, decayed old road through the woods; Chihiro sees an odd old statue through the trees as they drive by. The road ends at a tunnel leading to an abandoned theme park. It gives Chihiro the creeps, but her parents persuade her to go in with them and look around.After wandering across a grassy landscape and a dry riverbed, they climb a stone staircase and come to a street lined with restaurants and shops. Most are deserted, but the aroma of cooking leads them to the one restaurant that's well stocked with food -- though it's mysteriously deserted. Mom and Dad are hungry and start eating, despite Chihiro's objections. The food is delicious, and Chihiro wanders away to explore while they eat. She finds a towering, ornate building that she recognizes as a bathhouse (a spa resort); there's a train track running under it. She meets a boy (voice: Jason Marsden) in traditional dress who is alarmed to see her; he tells her to leave and get back across the river before it gets dark. Chihiro runs back to her parents, but they're still eating -- and they've turned into pigs. Strange, dark, ghostly figures appear in all the shops and streets, frightening Chihiro and separating her from the pigs that were her parents. Chihiro runs back to the river, which was nearly dry when they came over but is now full and large, and she doesn't even recognize the buildings on the far side. As a riverboat approaches, she notices that her body has become transparent.The riverboat lands a big crowd of people in costume -- or maybe they're not people; at first they're only visible as paper masks. Chihiro thinks shes dreaming, but can't wake up. The boy who warned her away finds her and tells her she must eat some food from his world or she'll fade away. He assures her that she won't turn into a pig. She swallows the morsel he gives her and becomes solid, but finds that she's stuck to the ground until he recites an incantation to release her. A bird with a woman's head flies above them and he hides her, saying the bird is looking for her. They run through alleys and the pig barn to the big bathhouse, which is accessed by a bridge; the boy says she has to hold her breath as they cross the bridge or the spell that makes her invisible will be broken. Customers -- fantastically varied gods and spirits -- are crossing the bridge and being greeted by bathhouse staff. Chihiro makes it almost all the way across, but a frog (voice: Bob Bergen) that speaks to her companion (calling him Haku) startles her and she takes a breath. Luckily only the frog seems to see her, and Haku uses magic to encase it in a bubble to shut it up.Haku tells her to find Kamajii (voice: David Ogden Stiers), the boiler man, and make him give her a job; she must have a job to stay at the bathhouse, or else Yubaba (voice: Suzanne Pleshette), the old witch who rules the bathhouse, will turn her into an animal. And Haku says she has to stay if she wants to find and help her parents, who are still pigs, wherever they are. He knows her name and says he's known her since she was very small.Chihiro descends a steep, winding, rail-less wooden stairway in search of Kamajii and the boiler room. When she finds them, she sees a weird set-up in which the boiler is fed by creatures like spiders (delivering coal one lump at a time) and the machinery is controlled by a bearded, bald man with six arms and dark glasses -- Kamajii. She asks for a job, but he says -- after grumbling about four bath tokens at once, as four red plaques on purple ribbons descend from the ceiling -- that he's cast a spell on sootballs (the spider-things) so he has all the workers he needs. Chihiro has to keep moving to stay out the way of Kamajii and the sootballs. She picks up a lump of coal that's too heavy for the sootball carrying it -- and almost too heavy for her -- and Kamajii tells her to finish what she started, so she hauls it over to the furnace and tosses it in. All the sootballs pretend to collapse under the weight of their coal so they won't have to work, but Kamajii scolds them and Chihiro, saying that if they don't keep working, the spell will wear off. A young woman comes in with food for Kamajii and the sootballs. The woman is shocked to see Chihiro -- "you're the human everyone is looking for!" -- but Kamajii says she's his granddaughter and asks the woman to take Chihiro to Yubaba, who will give her something to do. The woman, whose name is Lin (voice: Susan Egan), only agrees when Kamajii offers her a roasted newt; she brusquely tells Chihiro to leave her shoes and socks behind and to thank the boiler man -- "he's really sticking his neck out for you."They take three elevators to Yubaba's rooms on the top floor, seeing many of the bathhouse's clients -- Lin calls one a radish spirit -- between elevators. An elevator operator who hasn't spotted Chihiro tells Lin she smells just like a human. Lin distracts him with the roasted newt that Kamajii gave her while Chihiro escapes in the last elevator with the radish spirit. They arrive at a courtyard-like room with a mosaic floor and two big front doors; Chihiro tries to open one. The door knocker says, "aren't you even going to knock? You're the most pathetic little girl I've ever seen!" The doors open and the same voice (Suzanne Pleshette) -- it's Yubaba -- tells her to come in; she's pulled through the house into a fire-lit room in which several disembodied green heads bounce around, and Yubaba, an old woman with a huge head, works at a desk. Chihiro asks for a job, but Yubaba calls it foolishness, makes disparaging remarks about Chihiro, and silences her with magic. She smokes a cigarette as she considers what to do with Chihiro. She lifts the silencing spell to ask Chihiro who helped her, but Chihiro only continues to ask for work, which makes Yubaba angry. When Chihiro persists, Yubaba offers, "maybe I'll give you the most difficult job I've got and work you until you breathe your very last breath." They're interrupted when Yubaba's enormous baby, Bôh (voice: Tara Strong) wakes up, which Yubaba blames on Chihiro. Chihiro keeps asking for work and Yubaba finally agrees to give her a job if she'll be quiet. Chihiro signs a contract while Yubaba grouses, "I can't believe I took that oath to give a job to anyone who asks." Yubaba, observing that Chihiro is a pretty name, magically lifts all but one of the characters of Chihiro's name from the contract and says that the name belongs to her now. Reading the one character that remains of Chihiro's name, Yubaba says "from now on, your name is Sen." Haku (pretending not to know her) comes to show her what to do. He says she must address him as Master Haku.None of the workers want to take Chihiro/Sen into their department, complaining that she smells bad, but Haku says her smell will be gone after three days of eating their food. Haku assigns Chihiro/Sen to work with Lin because Lin had been asking for an assistant. Lin takes Sen to their room, which they share with several others, and gives her clothing (a blue apron and pink shirt and pants). Sen asks if there are two Hakus. Lin says no, and that Sen must be careful what she says to Haku because he's Yubaba's henchman. Sen doesn't feel well.Yubaba turns into a bird with a human head and flies off her balcony with a smaller but otherwise identical human-headed bird.As Sen lies sleeping among her new coworkers, a voice (Haku's) says "meet me at the bridge; I'll take you to your parents." She wakes up, dresses in her new clothes, and goes down to the boiler room where she left her shoes. When she observes "my shoes are gone," the sootballs bring them out of the tunnels where they live.Sen makes her way out to the bridge, where a semitransparent spirit is standing. It wears a white mask and a black robe. Silently, it watches her cross; it was standing in the same spot in the middle of the bridge when she crossed the night before. Haku finds her at the other side and leads her through flowering shrubs to the huge piggery. He says she must never come there without him. She identifies a couple of sleeping pigs -- there are hundreds -- as her parents, and promises to help them. Haku says she must remember which pigs are her parents. He gives her back her old clothes, which she'll need to escape, and a card with her real name, Chihiro, which Sen has almost forgotten already. (She called herself Sen when she spoke to her parents.) Haku says Yubaba exerts power over people by stealing their names; she must not forget hers as he has forgotten his. He gives her something to eat. She cries as she eats and he tries to comfort her. Then Haku has to go; he leaves her at the bridge. When she turns back to look for him, she sees a dragon flying away and realizes that it's Haku. Later, Kamajii finds Sen asleep on the floor of the boiler room; he covers her up.Yubaba-bird and her smaller companion fly home through heavy rain. Inside the bathhouse, Lin asks Sen where she was; Sen apologizes but doesn't explain. Sen, Lin, and other girls wash a floor until a man comes to say they get the big tub today, though the women don't usually get that kind of work -- "that's frog work," as Lin says. As Sen dumps her pail out the garden door, she sees the silent spirit from the bridge standing outside in the rain looking in. She asks if he's getting wet and leaves the door open for him; he follows her in.They discover that the big tub is encrusted with crud and will need to be soaked before they can clean it properly, so Lin sends Sen to the foreman (voice: John Ratzenberger) for an herbal soap token. Far above in her apartment, Yubaba senses something approaching. She looks out and wonders who is slinking around in the rain. A spirit that looks like a pile of mud is making its way toward the bathhouse.The foreman refuses to give Sen a soap token, but the silent spirit liberates one for her. As they fill the big tub to soak it clean, Lin says the water contains salts that are supposed to be good for you. The silent spirit (voice: Bob Bergen again) approaches Sen and offers a handful of soap tokens. (He's not completely silent; in this scene he makes little "ah ah" sounds, as if he's trying to talk.) When she politely turns them down, he seems disappointed and lets the tokens fall to the floor. She's distracted when the big tub overflows.Meanwhile, Yubaba has identified the walking mudpile as a stink spirit, though she's suspicious that he isn't really. The staff fails to fend him off, so Yubaba assigns Sen to take him to the big tub and bathe him. Sen can hardly speak because he smells so bad. He's surrounded by a pool of purple stinkiness. He gets in the big tub, which overflows with his brownish slime.Yubaba and the foreman watch as Sen tries to clean the stink spirit. She uses the silent spirit's herbal soap tokens to order up some good, cleansing hot water. As Lin arrives to help, Sen feels something like a thorn in the stink spirit's side. Yubaba decides this is important and gives Sen rope to tie to the thorn (which has a handle); with help from all the staff, they pull a bicycle out of the spirit's body, followed by an entire junkyard. (Hayao Miyazaki has said that this part of the story is autobiographical -- he once pulled a bicycle out of a polluted, litter-clogged river.) When the slime clears, an ancient-looking brown face with shaggy eyebrows appears and says "well done" to Sen. He seems to disappear, leaving her with a handful of something greenish. Then he explodes out of the tub like a giant white snake -- or perhaps a dragon (he resembles Haku's dragon form) -- and flies away, leaving lots of gold behind. Yubaba is delighted. The guest was a river spirit in distress, not a stink spirit. Sen sees the silent spirit sitting in the corner, apart from all the excitement.At bedtime, Lin and Sen sit on their balcony eating dumplings. When Sen asks about Haku, Lin says the word is he does Yubaba's dirty work. They watch a train go by on the water. (Or so it seems; with all the rain, the water has risen so it just covers the tracks.) Lin says she has to get out of that place -- "someday I'm getting on that train." Sen tastes the green stuff the river spirit gave her, but finds it very unpleasant.That night, the frog who first saw Chihiro on the bridge goes into the room with the big tub and meets the silent spirit, who lures him closer with little gold nuggets. The spirit eats the frog, and thereafter uses his voice. He asks another employee for food and pays with more gold, which seems to grow in his hands as needed.Sen takes the river spirit's gift to the piggery, thinking it might turn her porky parents human, but she can't tell which pigs are her parents.Back at the bathhouse, Lin shows Sen a lump of gold from "a new guest here who's loaded." The formerly silent spirit is eating everything the staff can bring him, growing larger and uglier, and dispensing gold. Sen goes to look for Haku.A white dragon that Sen recognizes as Haku flies across the water, lands with a splash, and then seems to be attacked by white birds. Sen opens her balcony doors so the dragon can fly into her room and closes the doors on the birds, which turn out to be made of paper.The dragon is bleeding, but flies out and up to a higher window. Sen, worried, goes after him; one of the paper birds attaches itself to her back. She runs into the formerly silent spirit, who is glad to see her and offers her gold; she declines and the spirit, disappointed again, drops the gold, which is eagerly snatched up by the other employees. The spirit eats the staffer who was conducting him through the halls and another employee. Has Sen's rejection of his gifts turned him evil?Sen finds herself climbing up the outside of the towering bathhouse. She notices that she has some of Haku's blood on her hand. The paper bird moves from her back to her hair; Sen turns to see the Yubaba-bird flying back into her rooms at the top of the bathhouse. Sen tries to get in through a window; the paper bird slips through and unlocks it for her. She goes through a bathroom down a hall to a playroom, where the paper bird enables her to hear Yubaba, who complains into the phone that the problem guest is a no-face spirit who's eating people and that Haku is bleeding all over the carpet. She callously tells someone to "get him out of here -- he'll be dead soon anyway." Yubaba comes to the playroom (where Sen is still hiding) and digs through the cushions to find the big baby. When Yubaba leaves, the baby, Bôh, grabs Sen and accuses her of being a germ from outside, come to make him sick. (He never leaves his room so he won't get sick.) He threatens to break her arm if she won't play with him, so she shows him Haku's blood on her hand -- "germs!" -- and he lets go.Sen goes out to the main room, where Haku lies bleeding in dragon form. Bôh follows and again demands that Sen play with him. The paper bird turns into a woman who looks just like Yubaba. She turns the baby into a mouse when he mistakes her for his mother. She also turns the smaller Yubaba-bird into a tiny, bug-like bird and turns the three green heads into a facsimile of the big baby.The woman explains she's Zeniba (voice: Suzanne Pleshette again), Yubaba's twin sister. She says Haku stole her magical golden seal, and she wants it back. The seal carries a curse that Zeniba says will kill anyone who steals it. She says he's a thief -- he not only took Zeniba's seal, but plans to steal Yubaba's magic as well. Haku snaps his tail and shreds the paper bird, which is lying on the rug; this action slices Zeniba in half from top to bottom. "Oh ho, a paper cut," she remarks as she falls apart.Haku and Sen fall through a hole in the hearth down a long shaft, almost landing among some evil-looking spirits before Haku, still in dragon form, revives enough to fly them to the boiler room. Once there, Haku collapses; he's still bleeding. Kamajii says it looks serious -- he seems to be bleeding from the inside. Sen makes him eat part of the river spirit's gift. He thrashes and struggles and spits up Zeniba's gold seal and a black slug, which Sen steps on and kills. Haku changes back to human form, but he's still ill and unconscious. Sen takes the seal.Kamajii says Haku, like Chihiro, appeared at the bathhouse out of nowhere and became pale-faced and steely-eyed once Yubaba took him as her apprentice and got control of him. He thinks Zeniba might be able to help if Sen asks, though Zeniba is very dangerous; Sen agrees. She says Haku helped her, and now she wants to help him. "I guess my parents will have to wait," she says a little glumly.Lin comes to say that the silent spirit is a monster called No-face who has swallowed three people; Sen admits that she let him in, though Lin implies she'll get in big trouble for it. Kamajii gives Sen train tickets -- a rare treasure -- to go to Zeniba's house at Swamp Bottom. He says the train only runs one way now, though it used to go in both directions; Sen will have to walk back along the tracks. When Lin wonders what's going on with Sen and Haku, Kamajii says "Something you wouldn't recognize. It's called love." Meanwhile, No-face is calling for Sen. Yubaba tells Sen to get every last bit of gold out of No-face, who has grown huge and bloated, before evicting him from the bathhouse. Before Sen goes in to see No-face, Yubaba asks "what's that dirty mouse doing here?" -- she doesn't recognize the mouse as her baby.No-face offers Sen gold again, confiding, "I'm not giving it to anybody else." She tells him she wants to leave because she has somewhere important to go, and that he should leave too because Yubaba doesn't want him in the bathhouse. She asks if he has somewhere to go. He doesn't; he complains that he's lonely. No-face says he wants Sen -- meaning he wants to eat her. She makes him eat the remainder of the river spirit's gift instead, and it causes him to vomit uncontrollably (on Yubaba, at one point). Sen runs away and gets him to follow her down many flights of stairs.At the foot of the stairs, No-face coughs up a couple of the people he ate (who seem fine), and says "I'll get you for this, Sen." He shrinks down to his original size. Lin turns up in a tub-like boat to take Sen to the train station. Sen calls No-face to follow her to the train, saying he needs to get out of the bathhouse because it's making him crazy. She's sure he won't hurt them. No-face coughs up the frog, who swims away.The train comes; Sen and No-face go aboard, Sen presents their tickets to the conductor, and they ride to Swamp Bottom, where Zeniba lives. Many of the passengers are transparent, and No-face has reverted to transparency as well. The mouse (formerly the baby) and the bug-bird are with them. The train travels over a landscape that's nearly all water.In the boiler room, Haku wakes up and wakes Kamajii, who explains that Sen has gone to Zeniba's and that she broke Zeniba's spell and cured him with the power of pure love.In Yubaba's room, the faux big baby (actually the three green heads) is eating while Yubaba sits nearby with some of No-face's gold. Haku comes in and says that something precious to her has been replaced; when Yubaba looks closely, the baby turns back to the three heads and the gold turns to dirt.Haku says, "the baby is with your sister." Yubaba asks what he wants to get the baby back. Yubaba must tear up Sen's contract and return her with both parents to the human world, Haku replies. Yubaba agrees, but only if Sen can pass a final test. "If she fails, she's mine!"Sen and No-face get off the train and go looking for Zeniba. There's a dry path to walk on. The bug-bird and the mouse take turns carrying each other but get tired, so Sen lets them ride on her shoulder. A hopping lamppost leads them through the dark to Zeniba's house. The door opens and Zeniba brusquely invites them in. Zeniba still looks just like Yubaba. She invites them to sit while she makes tea. Sen gives back the golden seal and apologizes for Haku. Zeniba says "he sliced me in two, you know, and I'm still angry." Sen thinks she's talking about the slug, which she admits to having squashed, but Zeniba says the slug was how Yubaba controlled Haku. Only love could have broken Zeniba's spell.Zeniba says the spell on the mouse and the bug-bird wore off long ago and they can change back whenever they want. They're busy with a spinning wheel, however, and show no interest in changing.Zeniba says Sen must help her parents on her own; to do that, she must remember where she first met Haku.
She asks Sen to call her Granny. (Zeniba has become quite kindly.) No-face spins and the mouse and bug-bird knit a hair-tie for Sen; Zeniba says it will protect her because her friends made it for her.The door rattles and Zeniba tells Sen to let in another guest: it's Haku in dragon form. Zeniba says she'll forgive Haku if he takes care of Sen. Zeniba asks No-face to stay with her -- "I need a good helper" -- and No-face agrees. Sen tells Granny her real name, climbs on Haku's back with the mouse and bug-bird, and they fly off. As they fly, she remembers dropping her shoe in a river when she was very small, going in after it and fearing she would drown, but the river carried her to shore. It was the Kohaku River. Haku is the Kohaku River spirit, and can't find his way home because the river has been filled in. Haku changes from dragon to human, and for a while they enjoy free fall.Sen and Haku fly in human form, landing at the bathhouse bridge. The mouse turns back to a baby, who speaks up on Sen's behalf. Yubaba wants to give Sen the final test, though the baby objects, but Sen agrees that "a deal's a deal."The test: Sen must pick out her parents from a crowd of pigs. "You get one try; if you get it right you can all go home." Sen says none of the pigs are her parents; she passes the test and her contract evaporates out of Yubaba's hand. Saying "thanks for everything, Granny" (which surprises Yubaba, because she never asked to be called Granny), Sen runs off with Haku, who tells her her parents are on the other side of the river. She has to cross the riverbed and not look back until she's through the tunnel. He'll go back to Yubaba, though no longer in her thrall because he knows his name again. He promises that he and Sen will meet again. Sen -- now Chihiro -- hears her parents calling and rejoins them near the tunnel mouth; they're fine and don't remember any of what happened. They scold her mildly for running off.When they get back to their car, it's dusty and covered with leaves, as though it had been there for a long time. As they drive away, Dad says "a new home and new school -- it is a bit scary." Chihiro, much matured since her last car ride, replies, "I think I can handle it." | fantasy, whimsical, cult, alternate reality, magical realism, atmospheric, psychedelic, entertaining, sci-fi | train | imdb | null |
tt0357182 | Rx | Andrew and Melissa are a young couple coping with college and, in Andrew's case, finances. Jonny is a friend to botyh and also the local drug dealer. In a desperate attempt to get enough money to get through another semester Andrew steals money from his job as a valet and arranges with Jonny to travel to Mexico and invest it in drugs to bring back across the border. Melissa, thinking the trip is for the purpose of attending a desert party, talks them into letting her come. The trip to Mexico, in Melissa's classic convertible, with the wind in their hair and the world at their feet, iwill be the last time the three are truly happy. Upon meeting with Jonny's supplier, Pepe,played by Alan Tudyk , Andrew suddenly changes the plan and reveals that he wants to make big time money. The only way to do this is with a new drug similar to steroids. And the only way to get this amount of drugs across the border is to eat them. Jonny, at first feeling betrayed by his friend, sympathizes with him , knowing that only desperation would have led him to this place, and shows his true loyalty by helping Andrew swallow the pills. Things are okay until they are in line to cross the Mexican/US border, where it becomes obvious that something is terribly wrong with Jonny. The truth comes out about the drugs but not beforre Jonny pays the ultimate price for friendship and loyalty. Andrew and Melissa, in shock over Jonny's death and the seriousness of the situation, try to return the drugs and get out of Mexico. Then the scenario goes truly wrong and all that Andrew can do is to try to get Melissa safely home and out of the mess that he has caused. | murder | train | imdb | I'm not sure what "Rx" stands for, but in New Zealand, the film is released as "Simple Lies" which is an appropriate title, as lies are plentiful in this slick thriller in which three early-20 year-olds venture to Mexico with various intentions, mainly which involve getting drugs to take back to the States and sell for a profit.Eric Balfour stars as Andrew, who has come into financial issues, and plans to buy drugs in Mexico to take back to the States and sell, which is unknown to his girlfriend, Melissa, played by Lauren German, who goes to Mexico with him, along with their friend Jonny (Colin Hanks) who knows the two drug dealers they are going to meet, while Melissa thinks they are going to Mexico just for a big party.Without giving too much away, something goes horribly wrong on the way back to the States, so before they reach the border, they turn back into Mexico, where they return to the drug dealers, Pepe (Alan Tudyk) and Raul (Ori Pfeffer), which puts strain on the relationship between Andrew and Melissa.
Our protagonists are forced to fight for their lives, resulting in a dramatic and tragic ending.I say dramatic and tragic, because even though what Andrew does is morally wrong, he is still a very good person, as he does what he does for what he thinks are the right reasons.
Balfour does a great job of conveying Andrew's plight, German and Hanks are both good in their roles, but Balfour is without a doubt the star of the film.
The characters of the drug dealers Pepe and Raul are so incredibly annoying that I was practically cheering when they got their cometh-upeth.
Although headlined by a talented cast and set in the backdrop of the beautiful Mexican countryside, this film falls short of its goal.
Although the director obviously holds high hopes of his film becoming a dark, gritty, drug-smuggling drama, he is too quick to protect a reputation he does not yet have, and instead "Rx" becomes a mediocre, unfeeling, eye-rolling soap opera.
From the opening frames of our main characters dancing and laughing together on a ridge overlooking a sunrise to the rolling titles, this film is filled with one let down after another.
Just when you think things are getting interesting, you are forced to sigh, roll your eyes, and check the timer on your DVD player to see when this agony will be over.
The only redeemable quality within this film is the performance that comes from Mr.Eric Balfour, whose portrayal of Andrew, the kid who's smuggling drugs from Mexico to try an help out his parents, is emotional, believable, and quite frankly, the only thing that keeps this film afloat, at least until its disappointing and abrupt ending.
vacuous hipster road movie.
Nothing is more tiresome than wasting ninety minutes viewing a predictably vacuous hipster road flick.
This unimaginative film seems as though it was computer-programmed to appeal to a demographic weaned on stylish music videos and suburban dreams of transgression.
The movie has a predictable look, a predictable sound track, a predictable bunch of characters and a predictable plot-line.
Utterly forgettable, this product has a half-life of six months and is destined for the dustbin of the spent diversions of the global youth culture..
Andrew is a college student in California (though he looks a little old to be a traditional student) who works in a hotel and is apparently some distance away from his parents, who have financial problems.
With their friend Jonny, they decide to take a trip in a blue Corvair to Mexico, with the apparent intent of partying, but there is one additional stop to make.Pepe is a drug dealer who is quite a character.
Pepe can sell them $2000 worth of a certain drug which they can take back to the States and sell for a profit, solving Andrew's problems.
But to get the drugs past the border guards, Andrew and Jonny have to do something very unpleasant.
Actually, Jonny didn't have to do anything but he felt bad for his friend.So the road trip resumes, and the friends get to party, but there are problems, and a return to Pepe's place is required.
Pepe is having his own party--a costume party--so the friends have to put on costumes.
It's not as funny as it sounds, but anyway ...Carlos is a mechanic the friends meet on one of their first stops, and they encounter him later.
The Corvair has some minor damage the first time, and Carlos would be happy to fix it, but Andrew says no.
The friends really need Carlos on their second trip through his town, which has turned into quite an adventure.So will the group succeed in their mission?
This movie is an adventure, but not really a fun one.
Most of the time it can be quite depressing, at least when the friends aren't on the run toward or away from something.
There is humor, most of it provided by Pepe and his obviously gay friend (Pepe also seems gay but it's not as obvious).
The friend seems German but the only name in the cast list that would seem to fit is Raul.
These two would seem to be the most obvious reason to watch.I know Colin Hanks from two TV roles: an uptight cop with a rebellious partner, and a fairly normal husband and father with a quirky wife, parents and siblings.
It took me a while to recognize him (in his other roles he looks and talks just like his father), but he definitely shows signs of his father's talent here.Lauren German also shows talent.
Her character is the voice of reason but can't seem to get through to the others.
She cares about them but the terrible situations they get themselves into upset her a lot.
Still, she does her best to remain strong.I'm not familiar with Eric Balfour but he does a good job as well.
Andrew is one dangerous character and he's lucky to have Melissa.I want to single out a cute little girl trying to raise money at the U.S.-Mexico border as well.There was so much cursing sometimes I couldn't tell what was going on for all the interruptions in the sound, which of course were accompanied by obscured faces when it happened.
But with the drug references we already knew this was not fit for family viewing.
I liked a lot of the Spanish language music and judging from the number of times I saw the word Mariachi in the credits, that must have been the style.
Some of the other music I didn't care for.If you like desert scenery with some green, there's plenty of that.
I prefer lots more trees myself.If you like adventure and can stand not to laugh too much, this might be for you..
The three main characters were especially irritating.
I only continued watching in the hope that I would get some enjoyment out of watching them suffer once things started going wrong.
Unfortunately,the level of suffering they endured did not match the poverty of their acting ability or the superficiality of the characters they played.
The plot, although not highly original, did have some potential for suspense and interest, however this was never realised in this film.
No one involved in this film deserves ever to work in the movie industry again..
Mediocre independent film.
I know the big struggles independent filmmakers often have trying to make movies, so I don't want to come across as a grouch concerning this movie.
But quite frankly, I just don't think this movie succeeds.
The main problem with the movie is the script.
The second half of the movie is a little more successful, with big problems coming up for the protagonists and a few scenes of (mild) suspense.
But ultimately, this half of the movie does not succeed because of another problem with the screenplay - the protagonists are annoying.
I will admit that the movie even during its first (slow) half is not boring, and it looks good for what was a rock bottom budget.
But ultimately, there seems to be no point to this movie.
An okay movie..
I liked the movie, I have seen better ones and I've seen worse ones, overall it was okay.
I'm a big Colin Hanks fan and I loved seeing him not play a geek or shy guy for once.
His character was funny and I loved his performance (but then again, I'm biased).
Eric Balfour didn't really impress me, I didn't really get into his character or could care for what he went through.
Lauren German was okay - I liked her chemistry with both guys and her acting was believable.
The two gay drug dealers are the best - at first you have to laugh at their antics but then later, they prove that it is not good to try and mess with dealers or steal their money.I'd say this movie is a possible choice for a fun Friday with friends, popcorn and coke..
This is a very nice looking film where a couple of supporting characters are far more interesting than the stars of the show and the filmmakers apparently didn't realize who was the real villain of their story.
It's got a quintet of winning performances, a worthwhile moral and creates engaging relationships that draw you into the movie.
A little too sparse on details, too dependent on mood and with an ending that falls fairly flat, Rx is nonetheless swift and direct enough to grab your interest and hold onto it.Andrew (Eric Balfour) is a poor college student in Southern California with a hipster chin beard and a job as a valet.
With Melissa (Lauren German), his high school girlfriend from an upper middle class family, and their drug dealing, third wheel buddy Johnny (Colin Hanks), Eric sets out for Mexico.
They tell Melissa it's for a party but Andrew and Johnny are also going to do a drug deal.
It's a run-of-the-mill trip for Johnny until Andrew pulls out a wad of bills and asks for a lot more pills than Johnny expected.
Andrew needs the drugs to sell in order to save his mom and dad from financial ruin.
But things go wrong as they try and smuggle the pills back across the boarder and Andrew makes one horribly bad decision after another until there's no way all three friends are getting out of Mexico alive.It's usually not a good sign when the best things about a film are a couple of supporting characters and that's somewhat true of Rx. Alan Tudyk and Ori Pfeffer play Pepe and Raul, a couple of gay, expatriate, Eurotrash drug dealers pushing prescription pills and holding costume parties in a Mexican village so small it's not even listed on the maps.
I don't know if it's the script or the performers, but there's so much more energy and depth and nuance to Pepe and Raul than there is to Andrew, Melissa and Johnny.
This drug dealing duo feel like real people unique to this story, while the main characters feel like they could have been cut and pasted out of a dozen other films.
Eric Balfour, Lauren German and Colin Hanks do an admirable job and building up the friendship and love between their characters, but this film tells you next to nothing about them characters nor gives you a reason to want to know more.
On the other hand, I bet anyone who watches this comes away wishing they could have seen more of Pepe and Raul.I also don't think that co-writer/director Ariel Vromen appreciated that Andrew eventually reveals himself as the movie's true villain.
Not only are almost all of the terrible things that happen Rx the fault of Andrew, but there's a moment when he engages in deliberate betrayal for his own ends.
At that point, I realized that Andrew was a bad guy who deserved to have bad things happen to him.
This film never quite figured that out, which results in an ending where Andrew is supposed to play the hero not making any moral, ethical or dramatic sense.
When the audience doesn't care if the character under threat lives or dies, it's impossible to generate any tension or suspense.But while the ending of Rx doesn't work out, the beginning is a minor joy to behold.
This isn't a horror movie but anyone looking to make one would do well to study the first half of this film.
You get the sense something bad is going to happen, yet you're not sure and that lends an edge of excitement to everything on screen.Additionally, Rx is very well shot, directed and even edited.
It's not necessarily all that flashy or eye catching, but the way the images are framed and the way the story is goosed along at just the right moment with humor or drama or violence is very skillful.If its main characters had been at all intriguing and there'd been a lot more meat on the bones of this plot, Rx would have been an exceptional low budget flick.
***could contain unintentional but possibly or, sooner, probably inconsequential spoilers***.It is almost unbelievable to consider that the director of this movie would go on to make a movie as compelling as The Iceman, but I guess that Ariel Vroman deserves a lot of points for not having given up after Rx.Having spent 90 minutes of my life watching Rx, based on the great impression created by The Iceman, I'm led to wonder whether Vroman learned by his mistakes, or if it is possible that the investors hacked Rx into the boring unsatisfactory mess of a story that it ends up being.
While Eric Balfour isn't well known as a box office inspiration, he is a capable and likable actor who showed particular thespian skill during his run on Six Feet Under.
Colin Hanks was born with not only the gene but also the will to be an exceptionally capable actor.
Lauren German is, likewise, a competent skilled performer--who delivers the most humanly real performance of all in Rx, despite being starved of substantial lines.For anyone who feels the need, as I did, to check out Vroman's work before The Iceman, you can skip Rx. In fact, if the plot had focused on Melissa's (German) trip to Mexico, it might even seem like a better class of Lifetime movie; and that, right there, is the problem with Rx--it lacks focus, while pretending, through all of its 90 minutes, to eventually come to a conclusive point.I could go into more detail about Rx's failings--and they are many--but it has already robbed me of too much precious time.
A gritty indie flick that is not terrible, but far from being anything good either.
I saw this movie at the San Diego Film Festival, and am not sure it has been officially released in the US, despite this being a couple of years ago.
This movie is not terrible, and starts off fairly strong, actually.
It also unfolds in a pretty realistic manner, however, it does not really tell its viewer anything new (involving yourself with drugs or crime or both is especially dangerous when in a foreign country), and also is not just tragic, but depressing.
The story centers around three friends: Andrew, his friend Jonny, and girlfriend Melissa.
At the beginning of the story, Andrew is having money problems, and decides he can make a little extra money by buying drugs in Mexico and smuggling them back into the US (ala Maria Full of Grace, a far better movie which dealt with similar material).
The three were planning to go into Mexico anyways for a party, and he feels that such a thing will not be a big deal, nor very difficult.
Of course things go very wrong for the three friends and then go from bad to worse.
Please skip the rest of this paragraph if you don't want to ruin the plot** Jonny gets sick very suddenly just as the trio are nearing the border.
Some of the drugs he swallowed burst inside him and he dies of an overdose.
Andrew and Melissa are forced to return to the drug dealers (two bizarre, gay, German characters) who are extremely angry Andrew has returned after things went wrong and refuse him a refund because he already swallowed the drugs.
At this point, Andrew makes another dangerous decision by trying to steal from the drug dealers and run away with Melissa.
The two are chased by both the dealers and police, separated and cross paths a final time for a conclusion at the border.While I did end up personally caring about the characters a little, this movie simply cannot be watched without thinking that these characters have made very bad choices and gotten in way over their own heads.
As mentioned before, the results are not simply plausible, but to a good degree predictable.
Were the story more compelling, or simply told in a more interesting way we might care more what happens to these characters, but given the choices they've made, the viewer simply cannot help but just watch and think to themselves that whatever happens, these people deserve it.
The movie simply is not very exciting, despite its story of danger and pursuit, and so depressing is the tone and message, that one has to wonder who this movie was made for.
What audience can a movie like this really have?
All things aside, the performances are all quite solid, Eric Balfour is convincing as Andrew, the story's protagonist who makes some very poor decisions and is forced to pay for them heavily.
Colin Hanks is also good as Jonny, though he actually has very little screen time and exits the story quite early.
Finally, Lauren German as Melissa provides the movie's heart, and is the only character who really does nothing bad.
Andrew's only redemption comes as a result of her. |
tt0119223 | Great Expectations | The movie begins with young Finnegan "Finn" Bell (Ethan Hawke) exploring the beaches of the Gulf Coast of Florida. An escaped convict (Robert De Niro) suddenly pops out of the water and overpowers him, making Finn promise to bring back food and medicine and a bolt cutter to get the iron shanks off his leg next day. Finn does, and the convict unexpectedly tries to make Finn take him by boat to Mexico. The police seize the small boat heading out to sea. The convict hides on a buoy, and Finn's boat is towed back to shore. The next day, Finn sees on the news that the convict has been caught, and that he was Arthur Lustig, a former mobster and his sentence is the death penalty.Uncle Joe (Chris Cooper) gets called to Paradiso Perduto ("lost paradise"), home of the richest lady in Florida, Ms. Nora Dinsmoor (Anne Bancroft). Ms Dinsmoor had gone crazy several years before after being left standing at the altar by her fiancee. Ostensibly he was called there for a gardening job, but he does no gardening. Instead, she slips him a large sum of money under the door, calling it "gas money." Meanwhile, Finn, who he brought along, meets young Estella (Gweneth Paltrow) in the overgrown garden. Ms Dinsmoor sees them interacting and calls Maggie (Kim Dickens), Finn's sister, to ask her to let Finn be a playmate for Estella, even though Estella apparently dislikes Finn. Maggie pushes Finn into this for the money.On Finn's first visit to Ms Dinsmoor, she is disappointed when Finn cannot dance for her, but is intrigued when he says he can draw. She forces Estella to sit for a portrait, which Finn draws with make up on an old piece of wallpaper. While he draws, Ms Dinsmoor warns Finn that he will fall in love with Estella and have his heart broken. After the portrait session, Ms. Dinsmoor calls it a day and asks Estella to help Finn find the door. On the way out, she pauses to take a drink from a water fountain and politely offers him a drink from it as well. While Finn is drinking, Estella, who was playing a trick on him, manages to give him a tongue kiss.Several years pass. Maggie runs away from home and Joe raises Finn alone, despite there being no blood relation. Finn goes to Paradiso Perduto every Saturday, where he learns to dance with Estella. One day, Estella (now played by Gwyneth Paltrow) mentions that she has a party to attend. Ms Dinsmoor is shocked that she does not have an escort to take her, to her dismay ("It's the '80s!"), so Finn (now played by Ethan Hawke) volunteers to escort. Estella quickly agrees (though rather annoyed at Ms. Dinsmoor's over-protectiveness). When Finn shows up at the party, he is not allowed in because he is not on the guest list. Estella shows up beside his pick-up truck and asks him playfully if he will take her to his house. Finn agrees. Once they get there, Estella starts to seduce Finn, getting him to put his hands up her dress, and they make out heavily. Then she suddenly leaves, claiming that she is very busy that night. The mention of the party was merely another trick to seduce Finn, showing Estella still makes advances on him, which are also implied to be increasingly sexual.The next day, Finn goes to Paradiso Perduto, only to be told by Ms Dinsmoor that Estella had left to study abroad in Europe. Finn is considerably upset. For the next seven years he resolutely puts Estella and Ms Dinsmoor out of his mind, along with other high class things like his art. He helps Joe out with his fishing business.One day, a lawyer comes to Finn and tells him that he will have a gallery show in New York City. Finn and Uncle Joe are astonished at this stroke of luck, not the less because Finn has not drawn ever since Estella left. In the end, Finn is convinced to go to New York, which Estella had once claimed was the art capital of the world. When he arrives, he immediately gets to work drawing again, since he has no pieces to put on exhibit. He sits down in the East Village's Tompkins Square Park, drawing everything he sees and revealing that he has not lost his skill. He takes a break to get a drink from a water fountain - the park's historic Temperance Fountain - and while he is drinking, Estella appears and kisses him. She then invites him to afternoon tea with her at a high class club.Finn arrives to tea with Estella and some of her high class friends. He only has eyes for Estella, but is rudely brought back to earth when Estella introduces her fiancé, Walter Plane (Hank Azaria). Walter teases him by asking how much he would charge to draw a portrait of Estella. He then leaves in a hurry amidst the laughter of Estella's friends.One day, Finn wakes up in his hotel room to see Estella standing next to him. When he expresses surprise, Estella reminds him that he had wanted to draw a portrait of her. While he prepares his sketch pad and charcoal, Estella removes her clothes. Finn draws many sketches of her naked in different positions. Estella suddenly puts her clothes back on and leaves, saying that she is very busy. Growing sick of Estella's games, Finn chases her out to a cab and asks why she keeps doing this to him. Estella looks sad while explaining through a metaphor that she was trained to act this way by her Aunt Dinsmoor.Walter shows up at Finn's hotel room one day, wanting to see the result of the portrait session, and is blown away at the nudity. He then confesses to Finn that he thinks Estella is using Finn to push Walter into asking her to marry him and asks him how to please her, as she was a childhood friend of his. Finn has no idea how to respond and Walter soon leaves.The lawyer who had found Finn in Florida shows up again, moving Finn to a big studio where he can work on his art more comfortably. Finn quickly fills up the studio with his artwork as the opening date of his gallery draws nearer. He makes Estella say that she will be there.One night, at an important event, Finn becomes frustrated when Walter draws Estella away when he barely even got to talk to her. He follows them to their dinner at a Chinese restaurant. As the bemused dinner guests look on, Finn asks Estella to dance. They dance for a few seconds and then leave the restaurant. Once on the sidewalk, they run for Finn's art studio where they engage in passionate sex.Finally, the opening night of Finn's gallery show arrives. He looks everywhere for Estella but she is nowhere to be seen. Instead, Uncle Joe shows up, to Finn's surprise and, to some degree, embarrassment. When Joe accidentally knocks a tray of wine glasses over and tries to clean up the mess, Finn repeatedly tells him with increasing volume to "just leave it." Joe feels that he and his homely manners are an embarrassment to Finn and decides to leave early, despite Finn's attempts to get him to stay. Finn then goes to Estella's abode in New York, hoping to find her there, but instead he finds Ms Dinsmoor there, who had come up to New York for the "special event." When Finn asks if she means his gallery opening, she tells him, no, she came up for Estella's wedding. When Finn becomes upset at this news, she says icily that she warned him when he was a child. At this, Finn tells Ms Dinsmoor that she has broken his heart, the way her fiance did all those years ago in the same way she had revealed her heart was broken. At this comparison, Ms Dinsmoor breaks down and apologizes remorsefully. Finn returns to his studio to find a strange bearded man wanting to see him.The strange man turns out to be Arthur Lustig. He reveals his identity to Finn in a roundabout way. Finn is at first incredulous, but then he becomes uncomfortable with the old man's presence and implies that he should leave. As Lustig is walking out the door, he hints to Finn that he has knowledge of what Finn wants. Finn thus accompanies Lustig to the subway station, since Lustig has a plane to catch from the John F. Kennedy International Airport for Paris.While they are waiting for a train, Lustig sees some unsavory and muscular acquaintances on the opposite platform. Finn and Lustig outmaneuver them and get on a train. They think they are safe, but as the train is in motion one of the old acquaintances comes through the car and brutally stabs Lustig in the side, stepping off the train at the next stop. As Lustig bleeds to death in Finn's arms, he reveals that he has been Finn's benefactor, paying for the lawyer, the gallery, the studio, the plane ticket, and even buying every single piece that Finn had up at the gallery. This was in return for the kindness that Finn showed to him as a child.This news, along with Estella's wedding, is too much for Finn. He detaches himself from everything and goes to Paris to study art. He becomes successful in his own right, and eventually he goes back to Florida for a visit. There he visits his Uncle Joe and reconciles with him. Ms Dinsmoor has long since died and Paradiso Perduto is decrepit and falling down, and scheduled for demolition, but he decides to visit her house anyway. As he is sitting in the garden, he thinks he sees the apparition of Estella as a child (though this one is laughing and smiling, a contrast to the haughty, grim-faced child he once knew). He follows the little girl through to the back dock where he finds the child's mother, who turns out to be Estella. Estella had since gotten divorced. She admits that she has often thought of him, and asks for his forgiveness for all the cruel ways that she had toyed with him in the past. Finn forgives her completely, and the movie ends with them holding hands and looking out over the sea. | revenge, murder, romantic | train | imdb | I have never read Dickens' "Great Expectations," but I can tell you that this is one of the best movies I have ever seen.
It is my understanding that this movie is loosely based on the Dickens' book, but that it does follow the themes, just not the exact story.
It is always going to be a challenge to take a classic novel and turn it into be a movie that will satisfy everyone, especially when the story is being changed and adapted to fit a modern setting.
If what you want to find from this movie is an exact translation of the book you will be unimpressed.I personally loved this movie, it is completely stylish thanks to a brilliant soundtrack and the gorgeous leads Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow (who is cast perfectly as the beautiful ice queen).
The problem, however, is that in trying to fit a story as long and complicated as Great expectations' into a 90 minute movie you loose a lot of the development of the characters necessary to identify and have an emotional reaction to them.Rather than linger on these issues Alfonso Cuaron concentrated on the visual aspect of the movie and the result is a movie that is great to watch!.
For beginning, Alfonso Cuarón is one of my favourite directors; and this work of him puts together a great cast of actors: Gwyneth Paltrow, Ethan Hawke, Robert De Niro, Chris Cooper and Anne Bancroft.
Besides, Alfonso Cuarón used his materials perfectly through matching the relations of these materials between each other: 1- Ms.Dinsmoor and her oath of revenge against mankind, that composes feminism 2- Estella and her enchanting beauty, falling the trap of pride 3- Finn and his pure emotions, falling the trap of loving an insensitive beauty 4- The mysterious benefactor of Finn who bears compunction of his past actions in his life and thus is laying down all of his possessions to Finn, whom he knows as a good-hearted little kidThe screenplay is so powerful that solidifies the plot with new original features including surrealist drawings of Finn, that turns the movie a real work of art.
Great Expectations is one of the few films that can incorporate stunning visuals, one of the best soundtracks to ever grace a film and simply characters that you truly care about by the end of the film.It's true that the character development on the character of Finn is a little weak, but the characters of Estella and the over flamboyant and heartbroken Miss Dinnsmore certainly make up for Finn's minor flaws.
Great Expectations is certainly worth a rental (or even purchase) for anyone that enjoys simply a good, immersive movie with some absolutely beautiful imagery..
Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow are great and Chris Cooper turns in a very subtle but powerful performance as Finn's guardian.
It cannot be said to be a total loss, the basic elements are intact, it is only the embellishments Charles Dickens developed in the novel to make the story more realistic that are missing.One success, I must admit that I observed while watching the film was the rich visual setting.
Great Expectations (1998) ***1/2 Starring: Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Bancroft, Chris Cooper, Robert DeNiro and Kim Dickens Director: Alfonso Cuaron 111 minutes Rated RBy Blake French: The only thing keeping "Great Expectations" from being one of the best films of the year is the dialogue, which is too proper.
It has so many levels of beauty ; storyline, acting, cinematography, music, casting...Like any great form of art it evokes passion.
Thanks in part to this "bomb," it took me awhile to get around to looking at the good film presentation of this famous Charles Dickens story, the one directed by David Lean in the late 194-0s, the one that is actually on the book and not some blasphemous "modernization." Regardless, the 1946 film was good movie-making; this is crap.
That's putting it nicely.Just listen to the profanity in the first 15 minutes of this movie and tell me you feel like your into a Dickens novel.
Since the female interest of "Pip" is not someone to admire or root for, it was better to have her as a minor character as in the '46 film, instead a major one here.Also, this rich-is-evil story that Hollywood loves is so hypocritical it's laughable.
I did not have any expectations before I saw this film, no pun intended, I had not read the book but am a fan of Hawke and Paltrow, and De Niro.I enjoyed this movie, it had a style that I found compelling and Paltrow was simply dripping with sensuality.
2 scenes stick in my head from the film, the scene of Finn and Estella at Finn's house and of them under the bridge.This is not a Meg Ryan love story, this is a story of a girl raised by a tormented Aunt and a young man who thinks he has nothing to offer.7 out of 10..
I read the book "Great Expectations" By Charles Dickens my senior year of high school but I was not very intrigued by it.
Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert De Niro, and Anne Brancroft all portray their characters very well.
Great Expectations is definitely my new favorite movie of all time.
Although Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow are as romantic a pair of lovers as you will find on the current cinema scene, Great Expectations is like all Charles Dickens novels, a plea for social justice in the setting of the time and place they were written.
After that good things just keep coming his way and Pip develops some Great Expectations about his prospects.In the novel our protagonist Pip goes into business, but in this case young Finn now grown up Ethan Hawke becomes a painter and he gets a few unseen boosts up the ladder of success.
The ending for Hawke and Paltrow could have been kept within the spirit of the original novel.Robert DeNiro has now put his own interpretation on three classic movie portrayals of the past, Robert Mitchum in Cape Fear, Richard Widmark in Night And The City, and now Finlay Currie as the escaped convict Magwitch.
His part is completely updated to 20th Century America and still it's in the spirit of what Dickens wrote for Magwitch.This version of Great Expectations is a nice romantic film, but it's not in any way what Charles Dickens was writing about..
If it helps, compare it to Wonder Dog. This movie is beautiful to look at, acted brilliantly, and, oh, let's not forget, written by the 2nd best writer, Charles Dickens, who ever lived (I'm afraid Shakespeare gets first place...)?
don't be so picky about what movies get the "great" label...Or, if you are going to be picky, do so in a SANE way.Yes, this is a "modern" version of the story, but let's not forget that that merely means unimportant details like the time period have changed, but the core themes of love and obsession and class mobility are portrayed in a way that deserves to be remembered for all time as a classic of human art..
As a love story the film holds its own - Hawke and Paltrow seem to have a chemistry that does not come off as forced as in some of their other respective works.
See David Lean's superb 1946 version if you want to see the best screen adaptation of any Dickens work, and see this movie for what it is, a beautifully realized and visually arresting film.
The secret to approaching this version is contained right at the beginning of the film, where the older Finn, as narrator, informs us that the story is not to be told as it actually happened, but as it's remembered.
Everything was great, although slow at times, it was great.Gwyneth Paltrow was amazing as Estella, she played the cold-hearted character excellently.
They have said that this film reads like a badly abridged version of the original, and that several characters-mainly Finn/Pip-are cast in a different light.
This movie promised to be quite a provocative experience, as I was quite impressed with the soundtrack and the videos that were based around the love story theme.
Because this aspect was underplayed to the point of non-existence, there was no real impact upon learning about Robert De Nero's true role in Finn's life.Despite the lovely cinematography (it had a very stylish feel), overall, this movie was weak--weak in its adaptation, its feeling, its depth.
The main character's name is Pip and not Finn, and there is no connection to art or exhibitions, but it talks about poverty and the gap between the poor and rich, and not about a shallow love story.To call this movie an "An American update" or "Modernization of Charles Dickens classic story " is not true, they just raped the story, and made it as shallow as possible.
they did not keep the spirit of the novel, or any of the symbolism.And even if I want to forget the connection to Charles Dickens's novel, still this movie is not worth seeing, week characters, week acting (Ethan Hawke has no Idea how one should act.
I love the way the director uses the colour green all the time (at the end of the day, green is the color of hopes and expectations)I think we all can see ourselves somehow pictured in the character of Finn lost in this world, just trying to find happiness..
It ONLY makes sense as a cinematic translation of a novel by Charles Dickens - and on those terms, it's not very good.On any terms, I can't help thinking that the central character Finn (the fuzzy shadow of Pip) is a failure.
It all evolves to New York City where the chain of events throws the plot topsy turvy with characters reversing roles and the movies central figure, the boy-man-artist, discovering the truth about his long, lost love and the escaped-con he helped so many years ago.
The novel is my all time favorite, and although many movies don't follow the novel, Great Expectations has numerous similarities making it very close.
Estella (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a well rounded character who leads Finn (Ethan Hawke) on an assumption that they are a couple.It is a story of love, adventure,and comedy.
Modernization of Charles Dickens' classic story finds the hapless Finn as a painter in New York pursuing his unrequited and haughty childhood love..
Excellent performances by Ethan Hawke,Robert de Niro and Gwyneth Paltrow and a great director make this movie one of the best surprises of 1998..
While the novel is of course a classic, the film has so much more resonance.Ethan Hawke is properly cast and Gwyneth Paltrow provides one of her best(and most different) performances.
I saw this film last night with no history of the story, I actually didn't know it was a Dickens novel until I went looking for more info online.
I've not read the novel by Charles Dickens, and didn't know anything about the film's plot.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Anne Bancroft did a great playing, Ethan Hawke not too bad.
This film has some atmospheric moments and good set designs but is ruined by hammy acting and gross pretentiousness, due possibly to a poor attempt to give a Dickens' story a modern interpretation.In any event a talented painter falls in love with a snobby "princess" and it is only later in his life can he apparently fulfill some of his desires.
The scene where young (and old) Finn drinks from the fountain and Estella leans over and tongues him is highly (read -sooooooooooo) erotic it's bound to give any man a hardon because Gwyneth Paltrow (although she probably has a bulimic thing going on) is sooooooooooo sexy and attractive in this movie.
Hey man, i've not read the original charles dickens novel by the same name, though its been recommended to me, but i gotta say this was a daamn good film.
As for the plot, I must admit that it talks about another love story but anyway I would recommend everyone to watch the film and if they have the possibility, to read the Dickens' book too..
ethan hawke is excellent,suffering for love.the same goes to robert deniro,anne bancroft and chris cooper.
and even who doest liked great expectations,you have to agree its not a bad movie..
great story , and that was expected , we all know dickens's great expectations, it makes u live in a real big dream , but any ways i have 2 put a useful comment here, so lets start Finn, the young boy , who shows at the very beginning of the movie, as a young boy , in his small fishing boat , from some kind of a poor socioeconomic status , ends to be the famous , rich painter , and through out the movie , u think that , old lady , dinsmore, helped him to reach his success, to get surprised at the end , that , it was a good thing he did(thats what De Nero said) helping a man escaping prison , who knows why he did so ?
that thing , was paid back to him , in the for of a lawyer , came out of no where 2 make his dreams come true , and so , he became equal 2 Estella, the rich girl that he knew when he was young , but the problem was that , this girl was raised by her aunt densmore, who taught her nothing but how 2 break men hearts and movie goes on Finn , was a real nice actor ( thts what i think ) miss densmore , the weird rich woman , was great if we excluded some scenes of over acting .
i think the movie does a much better job of telling the story, even though it wasn't exactly the story that dickens told.i found that the use of symbolism was very present throughout the film.
he is jealous of anything and everything that is around estella, a point that i think the book made better than the movie did.paradiso perduto is the most beautiful thing i have ever seen.
The central theme of the film is based on the forbidden love between Finn (Ethan Hawke) and Estella (Paltrow) and how they can never achieve it.
Eventually Estella leaves and breaks Finn's heart accomplishing her aunt's goal.Both Hawke and Paltrow give good performances to this film, but are both overshined by the shorter performances by Anne Bancroft (Estella's aunt) and Robert DeNiro (a convict who supports Finn's art career).
Big mistake: I should have trusted my 'usually' more than his.And it started off so well, too as the young Pip's encounter with the convict - particularly in that magical nocturnal scene - had promised so much, as had the Everglades location and that faded elegance of Miss Havisham's mansion.But then, gradually - perhaps in the director's wish to have his film less of a remake/update - it became less about how best to use that rich cast of supporting Dickens/Lean characters, and more about how best to use failsafe Hollywood tropes - such as the fish-out-of-water New York arty-world - of 'Crocodile Dundee' - and the stirring 'running-up-the- steps' soundtrack music from the first 'Rocky'; and the notion that the poor and downtrodden could succeed against all the odds - if given just one chance.And that wasn't the half of it: Robert de Niro's interpretation of his character was an amalgam of past glories: of his 'Cape Fear' and 'Angel Heart' characterisations; even his great revelation speech was delivered in the monotone of his 'Raging Bull' stand-up dressing-room monologue.
it has a magic aura - the kiss scene, De Niro performance, Gwyneth Paltrow as impressive ice Estella and Ethan Hawke as Pip, the inspired music and New York as fascinating scene are the ingredients of an adaptation who has high chance to be memorable.
As a high school student, I had to read Charles Dicken's Great Expectations and I thought it was a good book, with many themes on love and wealthiness.
Ethan Hawke does a great job as Finn and likewise for Gwyneth Paltrow as Estella.
Based on an eponymous book of Charles Dickens, the movie directed by Mexican Alfonso Cuarón is a new version of the story.A little boy, Finnegan Bell, lives in the country with his sister.
Unlike many of the others that have commented, I liked the portrayal of Estella and Fin by the two leads, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke, but not the artificial over-acting of Anne Bancroft as the twisted Ms. Dinsmoor.
I think that this movie was completely insulting to Charles Dickens' original novel.
Great Expectations is an excellent movie : 10/10+++.
The Great Expectations is by far the best movie, that i ever seen.
I saw this movie for the first time on TV, by accident, and wasn´t expecting anything great until the scene where Finn and Estella kissed each other by the water fountain.
I think the movie is worth seeing because of the vibrant play between Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke and the photography, despite the fact, that the story is quite anachronistic to modern life..
I think Great Expectations is one of the best films I've seen.
This film shows me that Ethan Hawke is a good actor and that he should take better roles.
I like Gwyneth Paltrow because she is not afraid of taking roles like these - cold, heartless, naked.Great Expectations is one of the best films of 1998.
Anyway, I fell in love with the movie.Ethan Hawke is absolutely right for the role and so is Gwyneth Paltrow.
The core of the book by Charles Dickens is in there too (I read it after I saw this movie, just had to!!).
The background music with the people talking is great.You know, there is nothing in this movie which tells me why I fell in love with it. |
tt1227537 | The Simpsons Ride | You show up at the old "Back to the Future... The Ride" building, to find the building painted blue, a giant Krusty the Clown head at the entrance, and KRUSTYLAND lit up in big letters. It can only be one thing- The Simpsons Ride!Visitors show up and get in line, prepared to ride Krusty's new rollercoaster at Krustyland- the upsy-downsy, spins-aroundsey, teen-operated thrilltacular! TVs show that all of Springfield is lined up for the ride too, including the Simpson family. However, Chief Wiggum warns that Sideshow Bob has broken out of prison and was spotted near Krustyland.Once inside the building inside the carnival midway, Krusty begins to choose a family to be the first to ride the new rollercoaster. He picks the Simpsons family, and you enter the waiting room to see the Simpsons about to get in the ride vehicle, when Sideshow Bob shows up and locks the Simpsons in, revealing he took over the whole park, and he will destroy the Simpsons and us. We then go to our ride vehicle- a creepy-looking Krusty Kar.Then the ride begins. Our car is lifted up on to a rollercoaster track by Sideshow Bob, who stands on the left on a platform, with the Simpsons car on the track in front of us. We hit their car, and go down the coaster, when Sideshow Bob unleashes his wrecking ball, hitting Homer and sending him flying, and breaking the track. We go flying off the track and land on another part of the track with Homer and the ball. The ball rolls down and hits Homer again, when Sideshow Bob blows up the coaster. Our car and the Simpson family go flying around the park.
We crash into the "Happy Little Elves in Panda Land", a kiddie ride, with Bart and Lisa. We think we're safe when Sideshow Bob breaks in controlling a giant animatronic panda, and he smashes our car with Bart and Lisa, kidnapping them, and sending us flying backwards.
We land in "Captain Dinosaur's Pirate Rip-Off", a parody of Pirates of the Caribbean, with Homer and Marge in a boat. We go down a waterfall with them and go into a complete parody of the village scene, only filled with animatronic pirate dinosaurs drinking beer. Sideshow Bob appears on a waterfall and tells Homer to avoid temptation. Homer ignores this and tries to grab the beer being held by the animatronics, which backfires, and the whole attraction falls apart and goes on fire. We speed through the rest of the breaking ride with Homer and Marge and crash into the large tank of "Krusty's Wet and Smokey Stunt Show."
Sideshow Bob is at the tank strangling Bart when Homer and Marge rush over via boat and save him. Lisa jumps up out of the water riding a whale, and she lassos our car. Our car, Lisa on the whale, and Homer, Marge, and Bart in their boat rush to the exit of the giant tank, which Sideshow Bob blows up. We all go sent flying backwards through the stadium, going upside-down and all crashing into the bleachers.
Sideshow Bob corners us with his giant panda robot, when a giant nuclear-radiated Maggie breaks in and grabs Sideshow Bob and breaks his robot. Sideshow Bob hits us, and our car falls down a large hole into Hell, complete with Satan and fire. Professor Frink flies down in his flying machine and lassos us, and pulls us out.
We're pulled by Frink back into Springfield, where Sideshow Bob has taken giant-Maggie's pacifier, telling her he'll give it back if she destroys the city. We end up flying on a wild ride through Springfield, with the Simpsons below us on firetruck. We fly past the Kwik-E-Mart, Lard Lad's Donuts, the giant SPRINGFIELD sign, and into townsquare, where giant Maggie pulls us into her mouth and sucks on us. She spits us out and we land inbetween two telephone wires, which shoot us forward and into the Simpsons house, where we see the family sitting on their couch, finally. However, Kang and Kodos appear flying next to them, revealing they are actually strapped to Krusty's Death Drop ride. We drop from space through the skies, past multiple characters, back to the entrance of Krustyland.
Sideshow Bob appears again, cornering us again, when giant Maggie appears yet again, crushing Bob with the giant Krusty head at the entrance.Our cars lower down into the room, which appears on fire. Krusty appears on the small car TV screen, confused to as what happened, ending the ride. | revenge, humor | train | imdb | An entertaining ride. I miss the old Back to the Future ride at Universal Studios Hollywood, but this ride is an enjoyable one. You take on the role of tourists at Krustyland, which is under attack by the evil Sideshow Bob, who has sworn to kill the Simpsons. The ride is full of plenty of classic Simpsons humor and features the voice cast from the show. This also happens to be the only ride I've ever been on in which I wish I'd spent more time waiting in line, because there's plenty of funny new Simpsons clips to watch in line and I didn't get to see them all. Overall a pretty enjoyable experience that pokes fun at Universal Studios itself and at theme parks and rides in general. A good time!. The Simpsons suck these days? It's true judging by this attraction.. I cannot really comment on the general perception that the Simpsons of the 21st century just don't have any magic anymore as I have not see too many newer episodes recently, but this 4.5-minute short movie was definitely not a revelation. There are some solid moments and the presence of Sideshow Bob as a villain is always appreciated, but in terms of the story I must say it is almost non-existent. Many spectacular scene cannot replace a good story, not even in a theme park attraction. I recommend this one only to the very biggest Simpsons fan. Everybody else is not missing much and may be better off watching the movie or a couple old episodes. Not recommended, not even with the "real" voice actors. |
tt0274117 | Sur mes lèvres | The film is set partially in the business offices and partially in the underworld of Paris. Carla, a lonely woman burdened by lack of respect from her co-workers and her only friend, Annie, begins to change after a younger man enters her life.
Carla is introduced immediately with a shot of her putting in her hearing aids. She is an overworked and under-appreciated secretary for a construction company, ridiculed behind her back by her co-workers who do not know she is deaf but despise her homely appearance and subservient position. After she faints from exhaustion she accepts the boss's offer to hire an intern to lighten her load.
The first applicant to be her assistant, Paul, is an ex-convict who is not technically qualified to be Carla's assistant, but she hires him. Paul's affable nature and "bad boy" spirit relieve Carla's loneliness and open up new possibilities for her. She rebuffs his initial clumsy sexual advances, but gradually they become a team, using creative but questionable methods to improve Carla's position at work.
Paul convinces her to help him – by using her lip-reading skills – to rob Marchand, a nightclub owner to whom he owes a lot of money and for whom he is working at night to pay off the debt. Reluctant at first, Carla becomes more intrigued as problems arise. After Paul fails to find the money, Carla finds it in Marchand's freezer and takes it to the car where she waits for Paul.
Marchand discovers the theft, thinks Paul stole the money, catches and beats him. Carla and Paul engineer his escape and the robbery's total success. As the movie ends, she instigates their making out for the first time in the car. | revenge, intrigue, violence | train | wikipedia | You won't regret it.What French director Jacques Audiard has done is create a taunt noir thriller with a romantic subplot intricately woven into the fabric of the main plot, told in the realistic and nonglamorous manner usually seen in films that win international awards.
The romance is of the counter-cultural sort seen in films like, say, Kalifornia (1993) or Natural Born Killer (1994) or the Aussie Kiss or Kill (1997), a genre I call "grunge love on the lam" except that the principles here are not on the road (yet) and still have most of their moral compasses intact.Vincent Cessel and Emmanuelle Devos play the nonglamorous leads, Paul and Carla.
Note that Carla is unconsciously getting Paul to "prove" his love for her (and his virility) by doing what she wants, working for her, appearing in front of her girl friends as her beau, etc.The camera work features tense, off-center closeups so that we see a lot of the action not in the center of our field of vision but to the periphery as in things partially hidden or overheard or seen out of the corner of our eyes.
This works especially well for those who do not speak French since the distraction of having to follow the subtitles is kept to a minimum.Powering the film is a script that reveals and explores the unconscious psychological mechanisms of the main characters while dramatizing both their growing attraction to each other and their shared criminal enterprise.
It is pleasing to note that the usual thriller plot contrivances are kept to a minimum here, and the surprises really are surprises.See this for Emmanuelle Devos whose skill and offbeat charisma more than make up for a lack of glamor, and for Vincent Cessel for a testosterone-filled performance so intense one can almost smell the leather jacket.(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!).
'Sur mes Lèvres' (`Read My Lips') is so focused on its two main characters it's claustrophobic, but the payoff is that we get inside their lives and stay inside for a very concentrated and interesting 115 minutes.Jacques Audiard has crafted a unique character-driven crime movie with a fresh visual style and a compulsively watchable story.
Emmanuelle Devos won the César for her performance as Carla the deaf office worker, and she dominates the movie along with the sexy, sleazy Paul (Vincent Cassel), a recently paroled petty thief.
The movie is about their odd relationship -- mutual exploitation, let's call it -- and about the successful caper that results as well as Carla's newfound power at the busy property development company where she hires Paul, despite his complete lack of office skills, as her assistant.
We're expected to pay close attention and do some thinking.We also often feel we're spying on people from Carla's point of view, as she does when she reads the lips of gossiping coworkers for herself (and later for Paul) at the office canteen, or when at Paul's prompting she uses binoculars to read lips in a gangland nightclub owner's apartment that Paul starts casing out after he's forced because of a debt to moonlight at the club.
(There's a parallelism between iris-ed images in the movie and Carla's limited hearing.) This is an intrusive, expressionistic camera, but the editing makes us maintain an alert distance as the plot moves from Carla's initially limited existence to its transformation by the explosive personality of Paul and the more and more dangerous embroilments that happen when the two become a mutually exploitive team.We keep seeing the characters enter into yet one more new scene that we sense is risky without quite knowing why.
There's a growing unease that turns into increasing excitement and danger, and finally there's Hitchcockian suspense effectively augmented by forceful cross-cutting between Carla watching the gangsters through the apartment windows after a heist and Paul manning the noisy nightclub bar, which now also has become a threatening place.The movie has flaws.
Given that so much effective use is made of varying sound levels to convey Carla's hearing with and without her two hearing aids -- turned up, turned down, or removed -- the musical background score in non-nightclub scenes is obtrusive.But what's strong about this movie is that it has two actors with the power to dominate the screen, and a director who works with a lot of authority and freshness in presenting his vision.Emmanuelle Devos' characterization as the mousy but smart and persistent Carla is so rich and assured we may just take it for granted -- but the French film industry didn't, since they not only gave her the César, but did so in a year when the other contenders were Charlotte Rampling in `Sur la Sable,' Audrey Tautou in `Amélie,' and Isabelle Huppert in `La Pianiste." Vincent Cassel, who's said he's an instinctive actor, simply embodies his part: it's his prison tattoo, his sleazy mustache, his oily hair, and his tall, wiry, threatening physicality that make him both repulsive and sexy as Paul.
All the Hollywood stars in the world won't take the place of Audiard's handheld camera and mercurial editing style, or a unique talent that combines sensitivity to the indignities of office workers and parolees with the ability to reinvent film noir tradition.Also unique -- and unlikely to survive an American remake -- is the repression of sexuality between Paul and Carla, which makes the sexual tension between them seem all the more powerful throughout this tightly constructed, economical movie..
Read My Lips is a wonderfully nasty little gift to the faithful from director Jacques Audiard, featuring sharp storytelling and fine performances from Emmanuelle Devos and Vincent Cassel.The basic plot could have been written in the 40's: dumb but appealing ex-con and a smart but dowdy femme fatale (who turns out to be ruthlessly ambitious) discover each other while living lives of bleak desperation and longing, manipulate each other to meet their own ends, develop complex love/hate relationship, cook up criminal scheme involving heist, double crosses, close calls and lots of money.
As is the penchant of French filmmakers , many scenes were shot on real streets and in public places, giving a cinema verite feel to the story , yet L'Emploi du temps also possessed an elegant look thanks to excellent camera work and some stunning location footage ( most notably a Swiss mountain retreat ).
Running fairly on the heels of that masterful movie comes another impressive French production, Jacques Audiard's gritty crime caper, Sur mes levres ( Read My Lips ).
When her boss calls her into the office to suggest that she hire a secretarial assistant to help her with the work load, Carla fears she may lose her job.
That being said, what one carries away from this movie isn't so much the similarities to classic Hitchcock thrillers, although those elements are definitely there, but the pervasive view a of a modern day city (in this case Paris) where life runs the gamut from mundane workdays to a boozy, garish nightlife where sex, drugs and laundered money infiltrate the lives of several characters.
That's why I decided to give this movie a try and I must say that I'm glad that I did."Sur mes lèvres" or "Read my Lips" as it is called in English, tells the story of a young secretary named Carla.
She hopes to teach him what a regular life should look like, but at the same time he drags her with him in his old life...Since I still believe that the name Hitchcock is used too often to describe a very good thriller - which this movie definitely is - I will not make any comparisons between Hitchcock and Jacques Audiard's directing.
Paul could have been the average tough guy right out of jail and Carla the typically helpless woman, but thanks to their performances, you really believe that these are two strong people who both have had some bad luck in life but who will make the best out of it together.All in all this is a powerful movie with a very fine script and some excellent acting.
The food was quickly forgotten as I became engrossed by director and co-writer Jacques Audiard's original and superb thriller.Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) is a secretary at a firm that develops major building projects.
There's a side story, by the way, of Paul's relationship with his parole officer which neatly complements the main plot and has its own big surprise ending."Read My Lips?" Ingenious Paul recognizes that Carla's ability to read lips, even from a considerable distance, is more than the amusing parlor trick it first seems to be.From there a caper develops.
Together Cassel and Devos are strong actors carrying an unusual crime tale to its end very convincingly.Rent it or buy it but if you enjoy a good crime story you'll go for "Read My Lips." And you may well want to watch it several times: I do.9/10.
Without sound, the world is left open to any possibility, and that is frightening.As we watch this difficult and unsettling woman setting into her life, we are then uprooted and given the opportunity to meet Paul (played exquisitely by Vincent Cassel), a slicked-back hair, mustache-wearing lanky man who was just released from prison, homeless, jobless, and forced by his parole officer to get a job.
And who cares about Hollywood standards when films like Kangaroo Jack and Old School come out of it?I am sick of movies playing with the intelligence of the viewer.
Read My Lips, directed by Jacques Audiard from a screenplay by Mr. Audiard and Tonino Benacquista, is a film that works on many levels: as a black comedy, a heart-pounding thriller, a psychological drama, and simply as a thoroughly engaging movie.
Emmanuelle Devos (winner of last years Cesar Award for Best Actress) turns in a brilliant performance as Carla, a hearing impaired, emotionally reserved office assistant for a property development company.
Carla's deafness, however, is just one facet of her character and Audiard does not use it to pluck our heartstrings.Paul soon learns that he owes a debt to a violent nightclub owner, Marchand (Olivier Gourmet) and makes a deal with him where, in lieu of payment, he will work behind the bar in his sleazy nightclub.
Paul, in turn, plans to rob Marchand (who is planning a major heist) and uses Carla's skill at lip reading to spy on him from a rooftop across the street.
But Paul sees a grander opportunity with Carla's skill in lip reading and draws her even further into a world of intrigue.This is a brutal film noir unrated and probably suitable for older teens.
Surely one the French films of the decade so far, a taut, atmospheric thriller making full use of the lead characters hearing impediment to use sound in a way rarely explored in cinema.
wonderful French film noir, whose perhaps greatest idea is to set a Noir-ish tale in a world of dreary offices and daily misdemeanours.Add to the mix: a wonderful female lead (a deaf, underappreciated secretary) whose life takes an unexpected turn after hiring an assistant; a good male lead (a former thief freshly released from prison who becomes her office assistant - and then something more dangerous); two good actors (Emmanuelle Devos and Vincent Cassel in absolute "no glamour" mode); a well-crafted screenplay; fresh, edgy dialogue; simple and effective direction...French people are so lucky to still have good genre movies that manage to make strong statements about society..
Vincent Cassel plays the part of Paul, an ex-con assigned to an office job where he meets Carla, a secretary who is quite deaf', when she has her hearing aids in very deaf when not (played by Emmanuelle Devos).
The co-writer and director managed to play with the codes (film noir, office movie, romantic comedy, thriller) without falling prey to stereotypes.
You can divide the movie in two parts namely the first hour at where we see how Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) meets Paul (Vincent Cassel) and then the second hour which is developing itself in a real film noir that apart from some brutal scenes can be best described as an intimate arty film noir.
This small French film centers on put upon office secretary Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) who spends her days doing other men's jobs, uncredited, and being the source of their scorn and lunchtime conversation which is all too clear to her as, being partially deaf, she reads lips.
Throughout the whole film, no matter what other characters are on screen, you can feel this amazing bond between Carla and Paul.
Finally, giving free thinking to the watcher.In this very movie, we are first getting acquainted with the job's situation in France : quite open when it comes to communication (we've got a deaf and an ex-convict in the firm )but sclerosed when it comes to the issue of real equality.The psychologic part begins when these two people are meeting : apart from their mutual attractiveness, something else is going on ; what ?
Emmanuelle Devos is excellent in the lead role, subtly conveying the change in her character as the story progresses; Vincent Cassel, meanwhile, as the criminal, appears to be auditioning for the job of the next Gerard Depardieu, playing the shaggy old Frenchman in a role that seems light years away from his fresh-faced student in 'L'Appartament'.
To say too much more about the story, which has many twists, would be a mistake.The most interesting thing about this film for me is how sound is used to indicate when Carla can hear and when she can't -- a sort of "point of hear" (like point of view).
The early scenes that set this up, as well as the early character development of Carla and Paul, was more interesting to me than the twists and turns later on, some of which were hard to follow and/or stretched credibility a bit.
Not too much ambition, right: Sur mes lèvres is only an entertaining French film with good characterization.For all the clever noir points in the screenplay the end is by far too easy.
Characters'description is profund, goes into details...both start to help each other; for she can read on lips, which reveals itself to be very useful for him...She will progressively evolve, far from what she was at first.It's beautifully filmed; the whole is very convincing, even if it turns into a film noir at the end.
Director Jacques Audiard with and co-writer Tonino Benacquista have created a tense, tight, completely entertaining little thriller that makes some significant statements about out of the norm individuals and their plights.Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) is a plain Jane, mostly deaf, thirty something unnoticed secretary for a company whose life is one of social and sexual isolation and whose view of the future is rather bleak.
"Read My Lips (Sur mes lèvres)" (which probably has different idiomatic resonance in its French title) is a nifty, twisty contemporary tale of office politics that unexpectedly becomes a crime caper as the unusually matched characters slide up and down an ethical and sensual slippery slope.The two leads are magnetic, Emmanuelle Devos (who I've never seen before despite her lengthy resume in French movies) and an even more disheveled than usual Vincent Cassel (who has brought a sexy and/or threatening look and voice to some US movies).The first half of the movie is on her turf in a competitive real estate office and he's the neophyte.
The second half is on his turf as an ex-con and her wrenching adaptation to that milieu.Writer/director Jacques Audiard very cleverly uses the woman's isolating hearing disability as an entrée for us into her perceptions, turning the sound up and down for us to hear as she does (so it's even more annoying than usual when audience members talk), using visuals as sensory reactors as well.None of the characters act as anticipated (she is not like that pliable victim from "In the Company of Men," not in individual interactions, not in scenes, and not in the overall arc of the unpredictable story line (well, until the last shot, but heck the audience was waiting for that fulfillment) as we move from a hectic modern office, to a hectic disco to romantic and criminal stake-outs.
The real beauty in this film comes from the way the director takes advantage of the leading character's disability.
With the World Cup upon us, it's perhaps a little schematic to view 'Read My Lips' as a film of two halves, but I felt the promise & characterisation of the early scenes (the tentative relationship between Carla & Paul) gave way to a violent finale & melodramatic ending which detracted from the rest of the film.It's an interesting & original scenario and Emmanuelle Devos as Carla is wonderful in her role as the repressed, put-upon secretary with hearing problems, whose fateful meeting with Paul, the ex-con, leads to danger and a Hitchcockian 'Rear Window' scenario.I felt the plot definitely lost direction towards the end; it might have been a more crueller scenario, but I think it would have been more believeable if Paul & Carla had become lovers first, and then the film ended with her being betrayed by him.
In 'Read my Lips', however, Audiard's 'Carla and Paul' have become the French version of 'Bonnie and Clyde'.Carla finally casts off her sexual aversions and gets down with the bad boy at film's end.
For Director Audiard, Paul's Parole Officer is the key to explaining the film's theme.
Each film directed by the man has rewarded my expectations.Carla, played by Emmanuelle Devos, is a near totally deaf employee at a major construction and development firm where only her supervisor appears to have noticed her talent and dedication, whereas her co-workers see her with a different and biased eye. |
tt0289879 | The Butterfly Effect | Growing up, Evan Treborn and his friends, Lenny and siblings Kayleigh and Tommy Miller, suffered many severe psychological traumas that frequently caused Evan to black out. These traumas include being coerced to take part in child pornography by Kayleigh and Tommy's father, George Miller (Eric Stoltz), being nearly strangled to death by his institutionalized father, Jason Treborn (Callum Keith Rennie), who is then killed in front of him by guards; accidentally killing a mother and her infant daughter while playing with dynamite with his friends; and seeing his dog being burned alive by Tommy.
Seven years later, while entertaining a girl in his dorm room, Evan discovers that when he reads from his adolescent journals, he can travel back in time and redo parts of his past. His time traveling episodes account for the frequent blackouts he experienced as a child, since those are the moments that his adult self occupied his conscious, such as the moment his father strangled him when he realizes that Evan shares his time-traveling affliction. However, there are consequences to his revised choices that dramatically alter his present life. For example, his personal time-line leads to alternative futures in which he finds himself, variously, as a college student in a fraternity, an inmate imprisoned for murdering Tommy, and a double amputee. Eventually, he realizes that, even though his intentions to fix the past are good, his actions have unforeseen consequences, in which either he or at least one of his friends does not benefit. Moreover, the assimilation of dozens of years' worth of new memories from the alternative timelines causes him brain damage and severe nosebleeds. He ultimately reaches the conclusion that he and his friends might not have good futures as long as he keeps altering the past, and he realizes that he is hurting them rather than helping.
Evan travels back one final time to the day he first met Kayleigh as a child. He intentionally upsets her so that she and Tommy will choose to live with their mother, in a different neighborhood, instead of with their father when they divorce. As a result, they aren't subjected to a destructive upbringing, don't grow up with Evan, and go on to have happy, successful lives. Evan awakens in a college dorm room, where Lenny is his roommate. As a test, he asks where Kayleigh is, to which Lenny responds "Who's Kayleigh?". Knowing that everything is all right this time, Evan burns his journals and videos to avoid altering the timeline ever again.
Eight years later in New York City, an adult Evan exits an office building and passes by Kayleigh on the street. Though a brief look of recognition passes over both of their faces, they both decide to keep walking. | dark, psychological, suspenseful, murder, mystery, stupid, dramatic, cult, alternate reality, violence, thought-provoking, flashback, insanity, psychedelic, romantic, revenge, sadist, home movie | train | wikipedia | In any case, this discussion just the other day led to a friend recommending The Butterfly Effect, a film that puts both a stylistic and sinister spin on the idea that even the mere flapping of a butterfly's wings can result in drastic changes in another place or time.
Being initially sceptical because of the generally negative reaction from critics, I was certainly not disappointed by film's end.Ashton Kutcher couldn't be more different that his concurrent role as the dimwitted Kelso from That '70s Show in his lead performance as Evan Treborn, a man who has suffered blackouts since his childhood, and realises that he can access and relive vital gaps in his memory through the help of other sources like journals or images.
What he doesn't realise is that the changes he thinks are made for the better actually result in a severely changed future that threatens his own life.Without trying to sound like a sadist, The Butterfly Effect excels in presenting a consistently dark, melancholy atmosphere.
Certainly, some thrillers benefit from slow-moving scenes to draw suspense (the superb Eyes Wide Shut, for example) but Butterfly manages to combine compounding urgency with engaging character development in constructing a fast-moving film that requires both thought and stamina to decipher, without being needlessly confusing.Oddly, the film possesses four different final scenes, and so the lasting message of the movie may differ depending on the copy viewed.
There was plenty of visual stimuli as well as mental stimuli as you waited to see the outcome of each alteration made by the main character, Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher).The movie kept me guessing and kept me at the edge of my seat, and the writers outdid themselves by making sure the movie didn't peter out with some lame ending.
On the flip-side - what if, at the end of the day, you really can't achieve a solid grip on these things, no matter how hard you try?A great deal of science fiction works of art have tried to approach these meaningful questions throughout the years, all presenting many philosophical ideas and notions as to how one man can change his own fate, for better or for worse.
But when a blast from his past comes back into his life only to leave it ever so tragically (Kayleigh Miller, portrayed by the lovely Amy Smart who we've since seen in films such as Just Friends and Crank), Evan learns that he can return to those important lost moments in his life and re-inhabit his younger body, thus changing the present and future.
However, with every shift in the past comes an alternate present that may seem better at first, but is in fact a far harsher reality than the original one Evan has left.What truly touched me about this film was the essence in which it captured the troublesome youth of my generation, that was born in the 1980's, grew up in the 1990's, and is ever since trying to adapt to the ever changing reality in which we all live in.
When you see the young actors and actress fall in love, fight, and grow up real fast, it all happens amidst references to films of the period (Se7en, etc.), outfits, 1980's technology and other devices that fill you up with an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia and sentiment, as if you were there yourself, living these events and going through all these horrible/wonderful events.Above all things, the makers of The Butterfly Effect do the unbelievable and turn Ashton Kutcher into a good actor a feat I thought was unachievable at best.
The Butterfly Effect.I think Ashton Kutcher did a good job on this film, along with Andrea Treborn.
I saw this intriguing film last night & was quite amaze at how much I enjoyed it.The lead actor Ashton Kutcher, has made a name or himself on a Television show & a few films in comedic roles.In THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT, he gives a superb dramatic turn, I can foresee a big future for this young actor.
I have heard her name but cant place her in any film, Mark my word,We will see much more of her,The rest of the cast are actors I did not recognize excerpt fort Eric Stolz, who plays Amy's father, The all are excellent.The entire production is first rate all the way through.This is a very complicated story of imagination, some real events & pure fantasy.The last film of this type that impressed me this much was DONNIE DARKO.
With over 1000 reviews, chances are not many are going to read this, but I just have to say how much I love this film, which I just discovered about a month ago, and have now watched 7 times, once the theatrical version and six times, the directors version, which I greatly prefer, as it fits the overall script better and what was intended originally.
I am 70, and hardly expected this or any new movie to make it to my top 10, especially since I am not a fan of fantasy or time travel movies generally, but "The Butterfly Effect" has become my 4th favorite of the nearly 3000 films I have viewed in my life.
The movie has many disturbing scenes, but the pace is amazingly fast, the acting excellent for the most part, and the characters physical continuity from childhood through adolescence to adult was the best I have ever seen in a film with 3 separate periods.
There are some resolutions, things or parts I thought about many times, that are not totally perfect; but it happens with any film of any type, and we tend to forgive.I tried hard (although it wasn't difficult) to find the reasons that could make this movie unlikable for some viewers.
When the scenario finally goes wrong, it happens because of the way Kutcher's character acts in the altered present, not because of the altered time-line itself.The film's first forty-five minutes are somewhat more promising.
I hope that the next time they decide to do such a film, they'll leave cool metaphors like butterfly effects to a script that is truly willing to deal with such concepts instead of simply pretending to..
In the movie this is represented by a gimpy bloke making a series of rather large changes to his past, each time leaving him in the same university with the same people (who randomly switch between a grab bag of zero-dimensional stereotypes): "Oh,look, now she's a crack-whore." "Ha, now he's a cripple!"Thus, actors who struggle to convince in just one role are impossibly tasked with playing many.If brutalising general logical consistency and weren't enough, the film manages to include just about everything you'd expect to find in a crap short story by a 14 year-old Evanescence fan.
The idea of the movie is anything but new - we all read Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder," an unforgettable short story about a time-traveler who steps on a prehistoric butterfly and causes the horrible changes in the fate of the whole humanity.
This is the hallmark of a masterpiece of art and film making.It has taken me 14 years to work up the courage to watch it again and it had the same affect on me.This is an engaging, immersive, thought provoking and loving movie with incredible pacing, lovable characters (some not so lovable) and the ending will crush you.I don´t want to spoil this for you by telling you what happens but trust me, I usually watch sci fi or horror movies and I enjoyed this...basically a love story with some fantasy / sci fi under tones.I will probably watch this again in another 14 years and I fully expect it to tear my heart open again..
There is a "Lost Highway" feel to it and the themes are closely related but...The Butterfly effect is in fact more complex.It is a really disturbing movie, not so much for what it shows, but for what it keeps you guessing - like all true thriller masterpieces - , about events that take or might take place, and above all, about human sanity and the subtle twist there is between the average Joe's walk of life and outright perversion.
It was very astonishing watching Ashton Kutcher's great performance, since i thought he was a 'trash entertainment' actor, suddenly I realize I was wrong.It's a kind of a mid-budget movie with a lot of contents.A 'must see' movie for those who want to experience the effects of the chaos theory (or the butterfly effect)..
Butterfly Effect from the past, change one thing and your life would be totally different, positive or negative.The movie keeps me wondering what my life would be if something really bad didn't happen, or something fantastic missed out from my life.
Sometimes we just wanted everything to be "good" in our lives, we forgot how the goods would be emerged from the bads, perhaps it is exactly what makes life so beautiful.The movie is cleverly directed, though lots of jumping through times, the story is still clearly and brilliantly told.
this movie has a good premise.going back in time to change your present or future and the ramifications this could have.it's not an original premise,but it's 1 that hasn't been done to death yet.at least i don't think so.the movie has some good dramatic moments and some suspense ,but i didn't really find it all that compelling.it is quite disturbing in some scenes.i think this is Ashton Kutcher"s first big starring dramatic role,and i didn't quite buy him in the role.he has improved since then,though,most notably in "The Guardian" also starring Kevin Costner.in the "The Butterfly Effect" he seems a bit over his head.Amy Smart is also in this movie,and is good as always.my vote for "The Butterfly Effect":6/10.
I was never really sure what exactly, but what I was sure of in the end is that this definitely is none of the more complex dimensions above, instead it's just more like a really long practice in human misery, and cruelty than anything else.As I stated in the aforementioned paragraph above, this tries to be two movies, firstly like "Donnie Darko" a film about a troubled boy attempting to seek a purpose in a world he's not sure he's supposed to be in and seeks to stop tragedy to strings of events even including the usual Christ references, and then there's the concept on which the events in the future, with the help of a special ability, can change the past and tragic events, but somehow, the slightest change only makes things worse."Frequency" was a very good study of the Chaos theory and while creating a very engrossing thriller also managed to demonstrate the complexities and sheer fascinating results by it, while "The Butterfly Effect" uses it more as a mere plot device rather than a concept to revolve around.
The butterfly effect or The Chaos Theory discovered by Edward Lorenz is the theory that the slightest alteration in a current environment can alter the people, the situation, the time period, and environment with humongous and many times disastrous repercussions, and regardless of how much the environment has been repaired, the results can continue to remain disastrous regardless of the length of repairs, thus was examined by Lorenz after he mistakenly altered a series of numbers during an experiment and no matter what he did couldn't go back to the original series of numbers.Now, if "The Butterfly Effect" revolved around the concept of the actual theory for the purposes of the story, examining it further, dealing with the mass complexities, and at least practicing in originality, this may have been such a good movie, but instead it never deals with the actual theory, and instead just proceeds in dealing out themes and contexts that reminded me a lot of snuff film, and most of which I felt were just shown for shock value on the writers part to keep the audience cringing, most of the time it left me cringing but not for the reasons you'd think.
It's a scene that I'm sure was intended for people to gasp in shock and cover their eyes, but from where I sat, it was just so darn ridiculous."The Butterfly Effect" is not an intelligent film thought it deals with fascinating themes, it's still just a really one-dimensional quasi-thriller with nothing going for it except a script that copies "Donnie Darko" page for page, but there was a difference, "Donnie Darko" was a very good, thought provoking thriller that never went to extremes for the purpose of shocking the audience, while this deals with a grab bag of "taboo" plot devices that wants to be daring, but is just manipulative.Dabbling in suggestive but very uncomfortable themes of incest, pedophilia, child abuse, animal cruelty and extreme violence that, again, borders on snuff for the sheer purposes of making the audience gasp, this will be a very uncomfortable experience as it was for me.
The story is ultimately very skewed in its approach taking a more routine approach that we've seen before in "The Twilight Zone" and the short lived and hardly remembered "That was Then" but they were done a lot better though they never acknowledge the concept."The Butterfly Effect" has the ability to observe what their story is working with but is just filled with constant miserable sequences including a lot of violent content, a lot of sexual references, and delves into the incredibly campy by the climax, with one ridiculous result from the main character's attempt to alter life, and then, as if the writers have given up, the concept is thrown out the window and the whole plot is stretched and changed becoming very insulting towards the audiences intelligence with an attempted surprise ending, but by then we realize we've just wasted a lot of our own time we can never get back..
And if you're trying to simply send the message that messing around with time can change the future in ways you don't want, the body of the movie did that in spades, making the failed ending unnecessary.
Apparently the changes only effect major events, as Evan can still go back to his blackouts after things have already been changed.The film is an interesting science-fiction trip, but the story just fails to make sense sometimes.
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsEvan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher) is a young man who suffered a troubled childhood.He was sexually abused,nearly killed by his psychotic father and was constantly menaced by a psychotic childhood chum.However,he's grown up into a relatively normal and focused fraternity brother and appears to have accepted all the hands that fate has dealt him.Until,that is,he discovers a way of altering his past to make his present better.However,it is from here that he discovers that maybe it is better to just let memories be memories.This is the latest in a long line of movies to deal with the concept of reverse plotting,perfected to style with 2000's Memento and dallied with up to this point.There are,admittently,a number of interesting ideas swimming around here,but even if you pay close attention to it,the plot feels totally disjointed and hard to make out,not to mention follow.It's senseless,is what I'm trying to say.As a result,it all winds up as one big emotionally uninvolving affair.And that's a big complaint to bear in mind for two hours.On the performances front,Kutcher is pretty much impossible to take seriously in the lead role.He is a comedic actor and his transition to serious acting puts him in the forefront of bad acting in a year of bad leading male performances.In the supporting role,Amy Smart is easily the best thing in it,but,well,there you go...The Butterfly Effect ultimately emerges as a wasted opportunity on all fronts.It coulda been worse,that's for sure.But it could also have been one hell of a lot better.**.
The idea was good but the movie was so disappointing.Ashton Kutcher plays Evan, a young man that has had blackouts all throughout his childhood.
I had never previously watched any of his movies, and you would hope that "Dude, Where's my Car?" was at least as good as "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure", but I have my doubts.In this, however, Ashton Kutcher displayed for us his ability to both act in a serious role, and act in a serious role with excellence.More importantly, this was not at all the bloody teen horror film that I expected, but an intricately sewn together thriller that was based (although loosely) on the theory after which it was named- The Butterfly Effect.
It is, however, a bad movie plain and simple from beginning to end; piling on so much ridiculousness and poor writing and stupid clichés one after the other that it makes you wish that you, like the movie's star, could go back a few hours and tell yourself not to watch this dribble.The whole movie revolves around Even Trebon, played by Kutchor, who finds out he can relive memories and even change things in the past by reading a journal of his he kept as a child.
The child actors in this film generally look like stars in the making, putting the likes of Ashton Kutcher to shame.Overall this is a good story that really made me think, but I was left with a empty feeling.
Much of the film works simply because protagonist Evan finds himself stuck between a rock and a hard place and despite the criticisms of casting Ashton Kutcher by some people you really can believe that a good looking pretty boy would find them self popular in prison for the wrong reasons The screenplay by Gruber and Bress does raise an interesting point that destiny will always win out in changing the past .
I chose to watch this movie, because I missed it in theaters, like Ashton Kutcher in comedic films, and wanted to see his acting range in this. |
tt0829150 | Dracula Untold | Before the Renaissance, Vlad Țepeș is the Prince of Wallachia and Transylvania. As a child, he was a royal hostage in the palace of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and was trained to be a soldier in the Sultan's elite Janissary corps, where he became their most feared warrior. He was called Vlad the Impaler after slaughtering thousands by impaling them on spears.
Now ruling his domains in peace, Vlad and his soldiers discover a helmet in a stream and fear that an Ottoman scouting party is preparing the way for invasion. The stream leads to Broken Tooth Mountain, the top of which has a cave carpeted in crushed bone. Within the cave they are attacked in the dark by an inhumanly strong and fast humanoid creature, killing Vlad's retinue. Returning to his castle, Vlad learns from a local monk that the creature is a vampire. Vlad celebrates an Easter feast with his wife Mirena and son Îngeraș, when an Ottoman contingent arrives at the castle. Vlad offers them the usual tribute payment of silver coins, but the emissary wants an additional tribute of 1,000 boys to be trained as Janissaries. Vlad refuses. Mirena believes Vlad can convince Sultan Mehmed II to show mercy. Vlad offers himself in place of the boys; but the Sultan refuses and demands Vlad's son in addition.
Knowing war is coming, Vlad returns to the Broken Tooth Mountain cave to seek help from the vampire. The vampire tells him there are consequences and offers him some of his blood, which will temporarily give Vlad the powers of a vampire. If he resists the intense urge to drink human blood for three days, he will turn back into a human. Otherwise, he will remain a vampire forever. Vlad accepts the offer. He discovers that he has the ability to transform into a flock of bats. When he returns to Castle Dracula, the Ottoman army attacks, but Vlad single-handedly kills them all. He then sends most of the castle's subjects to Cozia Monastery for safety.
Mirena learns of Vlad's curse, as she sees him holding silver to keep himself weak when near his people to avoid revealing his condition to them or attacking them for blood. Vlad's sudden increased strength also arouses suspicion among his subjects.
That night, the Ottoman army marches on the monastery. Vlad commands an enormous swarm of bats to repel them; however, the soldiers are actually a decoy force, allowing a handful of Turks to infiltrate the monastery, kill many of the inhabitants and kidnap Ingeras. Mirena tries to defend her son, and falls from the edge of the monastery wall. Dying, Mirena pleads with Vlad to drink her blood before the sun rises to give him the strength to save their son. Vlad reluctantly drinks her blood, triggering his final transformation into a full-blooded vampire and granting him even greater powers. As he does so, he summons black storm clouds to block out the sun. Vlad returns to the monastery and turns a small group of survivors and mortally wounded into vampires as well.
At the Ottoman army's camp, Mehmed prepares for a massive invasion of Europe. Vlad and his vampires arrive, hidden by a large lightning storm, and easily massacre the terrified Ottoman soldiers, while Vlad himself goes after Mehmed, who is holding Îngeraș captive. Aware that vampires are weakened by silver, Mehmed has lined the floor of his tent with silver coins, making Vlad's strength and speed that of a human - and impairing his vision - as Mehmed fights him with a silver sword. He overpowers Vlad and prepares to impale his heart with a wooden stake, but Vlad turns into a flock of bats and evades him. Taking the name "Dracula, Son of the Devil", he kills Mehmed with the stake and drinks his blood. With Vlad presumed dead and Europe saved from the Ottoman invasion, Îngeraș is crowned the new Prince of Wallachia.
In the present day, Vlad meets a woman named Mina, who strikingly resembles Mirena, in the streets of a modern city (London), while the vampire who cursed Vlad watches them from afar. As they walk away, he follows, saying "Let the games begin". | gothic, murder, violence, flashback, good versus evil, psychedelic, romantic, tragedy, revenge | train | wikipedia | For all who says that this movie is bad because it doesn't follow the Dracula story we all know from the past I say, it's not suppose to.
That reviewer wrote in his comment : "The film might captivate some audiences who are looking for a fun time, but there is nothing memorable or legendary about it." isn't that all a movie should be about?
So, for those who care about the chronicles of Dracula and close their mind to a different story don't watch this movie.
The movie does show this in a few scenes but in a interesting if somewhat brief way.Good action scenes, battles and some gory images, but then as it's Dracula, what do you expect.If your looking for a movie to just sit back and have fun watching, Dracula Untold is an enjoyable romp with good actors, Charles Dance is impeccable as always and Luke Evans is good as the main character..
Being a Dracula movie there are things you have to expect, yes he receives his power by drinking blood, having all the vulnerabilities as every vampire (which they do very good in this movie) but the way this movie makes you root for Vlad(Dracula) you actually find yourself engulfed in the movie wanting him to overcome the darkness and win.
He learns that the creature is a vampire.On the next day, a Turkish group of soldiers come to the Castle Dracula to collect the taxes but the emissary tells to Vlad that the Turkish Sultan Mehmed (Dominic Cooper) is demanding one thousand boys to be trained for the Turkish army.
This movie has a dramatic and full of action story, disclosed through great screenplay, special effects and music score.
This version from 2014 does come close to it in some ways but let's be honest and say no one is going to watch any movie with Dracula in the title unless it features a vampire in the title role and one wonders how many people might have been disappointed by the marketing if not the title alone ?
It's not really an actors type of character driven cinema but Luke Evans is suitably brooding while best performance is Dominic Cooper as Mehmed who doesn't appear on screen often enough here and is probably the film's trump card DU isn't a masterpiece and again it's very important that you go in to this film with the knowledge it's more of a dark sword and sorcery type tale rather than a horror movie .
Settings are good, special effects were really nice, acting was very solid for this material - Luke Evans is perfectly cast as our main hero, and Charles Dance is always someone to look at and to hear to.
There was more suspense towards the very end, but it did not culminate in a fight, promptly ending the movie in it's rather short running time.As an untold story, it's good to see the reasons and the set up as to how this man had to become the monster, yet it was not properly explored.
Several other details like this were not properly explored, which made it a rather straightforward story, enough to make the plot move, but not to make it a dramatic experience.VERDICT:Good: Great action sequences, Decent visual effects, Excellent castBad: Many minor flaws in the plot, Little suspenseSCORE: 6.5(blockbusted9.blogspot.com).
First and foremost I know it's appalling that I am giving this a 10 but because I went to watch this movie knowing fully that I ought to disregard the true history of it and the classic Dracula novel from 1897 Gothic horror by Irish author Bram Stoker.
I know there are a lot of bad criticism out there for this movie because it's not gore enough or there isn't enough bloody mess and also some that say that the special effect was a joke but I think it's definitely worth the watch and I think this movie is worthy of being in the "good movie " category.
I'm a huge fan of all these type of movies and I feel that they did an amazing job bringing Dracula to life and a character that actually makes you fear him.
If you are looking for a thriller/horror, this is not the movie for you.Actor casting was superb, the acting was fantastic, the story didn't delve too far into fantasy to put it out of beliefs grasp.
There was not one moment of this movie I didn't enjoy, it was action meets story telling done absolutely right in every way.
Been waiting so long for a good movie with a vampire in it, especially Dracula.
Not too shabby, so it can't be that bad.The Turk reviewers are up in flames, just as the Iranians (they still consider themselves Persians) were, when "300" came out.As if Vlad was a real vampire, Xerxes was really 9 foot tall, and Abraham Lincoln was really killing vampires.Be serious people, look at the movie for its entertainment value.
Dracula Untold is an intense love story that changes everything we know about the world's most famous vampire.
This movie tries to stay true to some of the history behind the classic story of Dracula which is interesting, but also confusing.
I was expecting a cool vampire film with great action and a good intro to Universal's planned cinematic monster shared universe.
I will admit however that I wish the movie had better music and was 30 min longer just to get a little more character development and emotional appeal but hey I got what I was intending which was a fun, cool, vampire flick..
The movie is great and it's quite short hour and half Full of action so you wont be wasting your time it tell how he got his power and a little truth about his life as you have seen in the trailer he try to save his family and his people from the Turks an army of a thousands men who is attacking his castle to kill everyone on there way for revenge or just to act strongit doesn't have a really disturbing scene like too many blood and sex, but you will see dead body and people burn, guess I'm just used on seeing worse like in The Walking Dead .
As his kingdom is being threatened by the Turks, young prince Vlad Tepes must become a monster feared by his own people in order to obtain the power needed to protect his own family, and the families of his kingdom.Any time a Dracula film is made, it has a stigma put upon it.
Watching the movie didn't even felt like that this part is overdone by the director or the acting is not sufficiently done or over sufficiently done it was perfect with no room to spare.The dialogues and the quotations used were excellent and not to mention the computer graphics used for action scenes was amazing.
In this one, the acting was actually pretty good, very visual scenes and overall a fun movie to watch..
Luke Evans was so well placed in the lead role that I am even more surprised that we don't see him in some of the Marvel movies, he would be make a superb super hero or bad guy!Gary Shore should have won an oscar for the directing, if there is one thing that will fail an entire movie it is the directing, again excellent performances from all involved can only be credited to good direction.
So two thumbs up there.In conclusion, watch this movie as if you have no idea about any of the Dracula stories that you may have seen, I guarantee that you will be as thrilled, riveted and fulfilled as was I..
I watched this film yesterday.I saw lots of unreal blaming against to turks and also they used real names in film.First of all Hollywood should research more historical documents.Because Vlad isn't prince of Transylvania.He was the ruler of the Wallache.He never ruled Transylvania.Vlad (dracula the devil) , his own people gave his this name because of while killing people he sits and eats his bread with the real human body dying in front of him.His own people afraid him.He tortured soldiers and innocent people.He rebelled against Ottoman.Ottoman army killed him..
I did like the concept behind "Dracula: untold" and I was expecting an action packed movie, with may be a bit of horror.
This movie was impressive, I liked, it it delivered a good story, good values and high quality effects; overall great entertainment value.
This movie was great, actually made vampires out to be dangerous and scary.I have read the original Dracula book and several biographies on Vlad The Impaler.
Dracula Untold is not a bad tale, with some well-designed action, a unique twist to the plot, and a good variety of elements to keep things interesting.
So I believe the movie is just misusing such concepts in order to gain popularity by hiding them after couple of action scenes.I tried to watch it for the action but just couldn't....Leaving aside such bullshit in the movie and concentrating on the "untold" part of the Dracula story which we learned from this movie is that how affectioned and good family father Dracula was, even if he was a blood drinking monster who sold his soul.
There is some intrigue in its storyline, but Dracula Untold ends up following the cheaper type of suspense.The film starts out promising, there might be some complexity beneath the arc of Prince Vlad: a desperate prince sacrifices himself to be a monster in order to defeat his stronger enemy.
The only actor who brings a real flavor to the film is Charles Dance, who perfectly delivers the classic vampire camp to its dreary looking world.Dracula Untold may as well be similar to another film that came out this year, Maleficent: a villain origin story that turns its character into a misjudged hero.
Vlad here is generally a cold blooded monster, but the film glosses the negative view of it with cool action scenes that makes him look more like a hero.
it's a new story dhaaaa....Good movie with a new idea (i think it's the first medieval superhero ever made) good script, stunning effects and for sure the director or someone else has actually came to Transilvania (that is in Romania not Hungary like the Brawn Stoker said).I can't wait for the sequel!.
But sometimes the world doesn't need another hero, sometimes what it needs is a monster."If you are going to make a film about the origins of one of Hollywood's most fearful monsters then you better have a solid script that focuses on the character development of Dracula rather than over-stuff the film with special effects and action scenes.
Director Gary Shore may have tried to give us an origin story, and he even gave it the title Dracula Untold, but what he really does is deliver another clichéd and familiar action film.
We really don't learn anything new about this classic character in the film other than the fact that he was a good fighter and a loving family man who sacrificed himself to protect the people he cared for.
This film was great,really felt empathy for Dracula,brilliant effects and none stop,acting was good,a nice change to the usual boring vampire flicks Felt more like a superhero movie than a vampire movie, Hope they make a second big thumbs up from me.
But Luke Evans did a fine job playing Dracula and the sets in the movie was pretty spot on, the fights scenes where pretty fun to watch and it was well shot.
The story of Dracula is told in the interesting way, but nevertheless retained the charm.The film has a historical aspect because it shows the horrors of the Turkish conquest of European countries.
But, he has only three days to either use the power and watch it fade away, or become a vampire for eternity if he gives in to the thirst.Dracula Untold was and is a surprisingly sleek and fast-paced tale of love and courage, but because of its pace, it seems like the big themes and moments of the film rush by all too quickly.
But alas, it's simply good at best.Boasting its visual prowess and grit over story-telling, Dracula Untold is neither bad nor great.
Dracula Untold is a fictional take on the story of Vlad the Impaler, as he defended his people from the Turkish invasion.
His power comes at great cost, as he struggles to hide what he has become from his people and his family, as well as resisting the thirst for blood (he is told that if he resists feeding for three days, he will revert back to being human), and therefore must defeat the Turks within that time.Luke Evans has a very commanding presence on screen, and it really shows in this film.
So the bad reviews this movie gets are not substantiated enough.I did not expect much just as the first seconds of the movie started rolling, but with every moment that was passing in the intro part, one can feel this is going to be a great devilish ride in the vampire world.The movie delivers a very fresh look on a subject that has been narrated from all possible artistic angles, and it does so successfully.The story is based only on historical facts that actually happened.
Using real names is a way of saying, "this is how it ACTUALLY happened," at least as much as ANY horror movie has ever been "inspired by true events." Nobody is going to watch this film and take it as a history lesson, if anything it's an "alternate history" (which mind you IS A GENRE) lesson, and if they do take it seriously and fail a test because of it, then they're an idiot.Yes, the script is a bit bland, but this movie is also pretty short.
It isn't so much about WHAT they say, it's about how they say it, and the acting from the main cast is EXCEPTIONAL.Realistically, this movie is about special effects, action, and Luke Evans shirtless, which it all does very well, but not in a "shut your brain off" sort of way.
This movie had it all: history, love, fiction, legend, mystery, thirst, a good cast, great lead actor, powerful delivery, great story telling and emotional charge at several points in the film that would not let you relax, but get you involve in the story, great execution from costumes and make up to the CGI bats and the use of them.I don't know what I can say more.
Straight from the start, this film has the feel of a low budget and yet it had a budget of $70,000,000!Thinking over it now, I actually don't think there was anything I liked about this movie.Even though it has Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper and Charles Dance, it's poorly acted with a terrible script.
There are scenes where the castle is being bombed and yet Vlad (Evans) and Mirena (Sarah Gadon) are standing their macking on each other and posing for glamour shots!Oh don't mind the bombs bombing your castle and your people, I'm sure they don't mind watching you try to eat each others faces off!Aside from having probably the worst version of a vampire I've seen on screen, I think Vlad accepted it too easily and seemed to know what and how to do things very quickly.It has some good special effects – there's one good thing about it.I hate to think that this is (or was) supposed to the beginning of the new cinematic universe for the Universal Monsters.CHAPPY THINKS this story should have stayed untold!.
The original story claims that Dracula became a vampire during his battles with the Turks and this movie picks up on that and tells the story of how that happened.
the story of Dracula origin represents an inspired balance between vampires movie and fantasy.
So I was able to see "Dracula Untold" in theatres today thanks to a contest from Universal Canada, and I'm here to tell you that the movie was honestly much better then I expected.The plot concerns Luke Evans as Vlad Tepes, who was taken from his home in Wallachia as a young lad along with 999 boys to be brutally trained as a Turkish Janissary.
I would also say this is one of my favorite vampire movies i have ever seen.I cannot express enough this does NOT follow the traditional story book tale of Dracula.
Dracula Untold(2014) Starring:Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon, Diarmaid Murtagh, Dominic Cooper, Noah Huntley, and Art Parkinson Written By:Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless Directed By:Gary Shore Review I believe that if you come in to this movie expecting something else besides fun you won't like it, but if you want to have a good time with some vampires and medieval sword fights and battle then you've come to the right Dracula movie.
The story here in Dracula Untold though is effective to it's points that sometimes to do good we must do bad and unleash the monster within us.
Dracula Untold is a fun effective film with better cg and a story with a good origin in the legend of darkness and blood known as Dracula.
This movie was a major disappointment, especially if you like the story of Dracula.
It was just a shallow movie experience presented in an array of spectacular special effects.I guess director Gary Shore wanted to tell the Dracula story from the warlord's point of view, that being Vlad Tepes.
Being that it is prequel to a great movie like Dracula.
If you look for a historical movie that tells a true story you will not enjoy this.
Luke Evans was a great Dracula and all the supporting cast were also very good. |
tt0068327 | Cabaret | Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) is an American-singer and dancer who lives in Germany in the between-wars period. She dreams of becoming rich and famous, but has a clear drinking problem. She works at the Kit-Kat cabaret, a seedy place with suggestive musical numbers. The Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey), introduces and participates in the risque acts at the cabaret.We see Nazis asking for donations from the club patrons, but the owner throws them out.Sally meets Brian Roberts (Michael York) when he takes a room in a flat she shares with some older people. He is in Berlin to finish his PhD and teach English, but is currently penniless. They become friends, but fairly quickly Sally discovers that Brian has been "unsuccessful" with women, and it is implied that he is gay. The two become friends, with Sally doing much of the talking. She is loud, brash, an alcoholic always bumming cigarettes and dreaming of stardom (though her talent is apparent, she sells herself short and assumes a destructive lifestyle). We learn her father is a diplomat, but he misses a meeting with her, and has apparently been absent (if apologetic, but efficient to the point of counting words on telegrams) for much of her life.Through the other tenant's conversations, street shots, musical numbers and and a few seemingly random scenes or inserts in conversations, the growing influence of racist ideas and Nazism is foreshadowed.Brian is fascinated by Sally (she is edgy and outspoken and almost out of control, while he is composed and rational) and their friendship ends up as a sexual affair. However, Sally doesn't want to fall in love with him because she wants to marry big money. One day, while complaining at the laundrette because of problems with the timing of the cleaning of some garments, she bumps into Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem). He helps Sally by translating the attendant's German into English. Sally flirts with him, and he offers her a ride in his limousine. Sally falls dazzled when she notices the luxurious car. They go out (Brian, invited, refuses) and Max buys Sally perfume, a fur coat and treats her to a life of luxury.Meanwhile, Sally and Brian have been setting up one student of Brian's, a wanna-be gigolo who plans on meeting and wedding an ugly but rich woman, Fritz Wendel (Fritz Wepper), with a wealthy heiress, Natalia Landauer (Marisa Berenson). While Fritz was originally after Natalia's money, he finds he has really fallen for her - and she is in love with him. Ironically, it is Sally's bluntly sexual advice (that both seek) that bring them together.Max also buys Brian gifts and finally wins him over--Brian and Sally visit Max at his castle. Max gives them a first-class treatment, and Sally gets completely starry-eyed. However, there, they learn the truth: Max is married, but he and his wife have decided to lead separate lives with many different lovers and sexual adventures on either side, but never breaking up their marriage, as financially that would be an end to their flamboyant living. The three enjoy an evening of decadence.Later, Sally confesses to Brian that she has slept with Max. Brian confesses that he has too.The Nazis are gaining public acceptance and power. Max, Sally and Brian go to a beer garden and a Nazi youth starts singing a "patriotic" song; most of the people join in. On the way home, Brian suggests that the growing Nazi threat may not be contained (by people like Max, even). A Nazi gang beats up the club owner in revenge of their previous treatment. One of the acts in the club is a poignant and ironic "ode" to anti-Jew sentiment.Natalia finds her beloved dog dead on her door-step. Brian encourages Fritz to propose to her, as he knows she really does love him, and Fritz loves her as a person - not just for her fortune. Fritz says that it won't happen, because he's penniless. Because of the increasingly hostile atmosphere, Natalia rejects Fritz when he finally proposes. She tells him that the marriage can't take place because she is Jewish. Fritz confesses to Natalia that he is Jewish as well, and they get married in a traditional ceremony immediately.Max sends a note to Sally and Brian, saying that he has to leave the country on "family business". He includes money for each of them. Soon, she feels gloomy, and tells Brian that she is pregnant, but doesn't know who the father is. It could be Max or Brian's... She considers an abortion, but Brian asks her to marry him. He asks her to have the baby and tries to convince her that they could be happy together in spite of not being millionaires. His demeanor and expression, however, suggests that he is not pleased with this prospect, as Sally says that she'll think about it. It's implied through scenes of their past decadence, that, if she has a baby, she'll give up the only life she knows, nor ever never be able to become a star or marry a rich man.The next thing Brian notices is that Sally hasn't got the fur coat anymore. Brian realizes that she's given it to the doctor as payment for the abortion. Their relationship is over. Returning to his rational self and seeing Sally for who she is, and the rise of Nazism, he decides to return home.Brian and Sally head to the train station so Brian can return to England. Sally stays behind to keep up her performances at the club. She sings her final ode to fatalism and decadence, "Cabaret", and the MC closes the show. The atmosphere is not joyous anymore and Nazis are seen among the patrons in the warped mirror of the sax. | romantic, depressing, historical, queer | train | imdb | The musical number "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" is so effective an illustration of the appeal this new Nazi hope held for impoverished suffering Germans, and yet we have The Master Of Ceremonies' evil nodding grin to remind us, in retrospect, what it really led to.Just as every musical number (aside from being so beautifully choreographed and presented) reminds us of the desperation in Sally Bowles' life and in most of Germany.
He won an Emmy for directing and choreographing the television special LIZA WITH A Z, he won a Tony for directing the Broadway musical PIPPIN, and blindsided Francis Ford Copolla by winning an Oscar for Best Director for CABARET, the dazzling 1972 film version, which is Fosse's re-thinking of the 1966 Broadway musical.
Liza Minnelli turns in a dazzling Oscar-winning performance as Sally, a gutsy, self-absorbed party girl who shows signs of vulnerability and a desperate need to be loved.
My very first Bob Fosse's film, certainly the film gained its classic fame as the biggest winner of the Oscar in 1973, with 8 wins (including BEST DIRECTOR, LEADING ACTRESS and SUPPORTING ACTOR) and nearly usurped the BEST PICTURE trophy from THE GODFATHER (1972, 9/10), if it had been so, it would be inflicted with much notorious backfire in the film history, but the film itself is an unerring gem among the undying musical genre, my first viewing is a thoroughly exultant experience, and cut and dried, it's on my guilty-pleasure list.
It is my first Liza Minnelli's film as well, the cabaret's "international sensation" Sally Bowles, an innocuous vamp, Liza grants her role a disarming vitality and quaintly resembles a bobbed Anne Hathaway doppelgänger, not only radiates her grandeur in rendering her doughty-yet-alluring show tunes (she is born to do it), her portrayal of Sally personal life is equally (if not more) affecting, her doe-eyed naivety and unrestrained zest for life, for love, for fame elevate her character as the master of her own fate, her sacrifice may not gain concurrence from motley views of life, but a full obeisance to her independence and pluck is duly earned.
Michael York, behind his gawky effeminacy, plunges himself into a more contentious venture, Brian Roberts, his character's bookish bi-sexual temperament is a provocative taboo on big screen (like since ever) and the implicit ménage à trois temptation (with Sally and the suave Helmut Griem, whose gentrified debonair is utterly irresistible) has been simmering to the perfect temperature, under-girds a manifestation of initiating a sex-liberation wave (germane to the 70s era while against the Nazi-rising milieu in the film).
Joel Grey, as the so called "Master of Ceremonies" and won an Oscar (against three fellows from THE GODFATHER), serves only as the performer in the film, no clear attachment with the plot, his musical set pieces are burlesque, risqué but entertaining to the bone, with a strenuous mimicry of German accent, it is a hard-earned honor, although I don't understand how Al Pacino could lose at any rate.
A young English man named Brian(Michael York, in a character based on Christopher Isherwood's experiences) develops a relationship with a reckless young American girl named Sally(Liza Minnelli at a wonderful performance to the edge of tragedy) in Berlin during the 30s in which Hitler is rising to power and racism, anti-Semitism and determinedly amoral behavior are growing.
All the roles are linked by the Kit-Kat club where perform Sally and an androgynous master of ceremonies(Joel Grey , he deservedly won Oscar to best support cast).It's a magnificent musical-drama well set on Germany where are increasing horrors of Nazism taking place on its grim moments.
This story was formerly brought to life by Henry Cornelius (1959) with Laurence Harvey(Brian role) and Julie Harris(Sally role) in a good drama no musicalized.¨Cabaret¨ is an impressive picture splendidly directed by Bob Fosse(1927-1987) and winning three Oscars.
Shot entirely on the location in Berlin with the Kit Kat Club cabaret of the title as a real centerpiece of the movie, "Cabaret" is a marvel of directing, editing, color settings, that in combination with brilliantly clever and catchy songs, creates the doomed ambiguous atmosphere of uncertainty, hanging onto the present moment, and not daring to imagine to whom tomorrow belongs and what tomorrow will bring.
Under her rather intimidating makeup - her eyes that took up the good half of her face, the eyelashes so long that they can reach the opposite wall of the room, the impossible garish colors of her eyelids that probably glow in darkness unmistakably announcing her presence and colored in dark green finger nails that can be considered the dangerous weapon, Sally is vulgar but vulnerable, corrupted but lovable, oblivious but lonely, talented but stuck in the cabaret Kit Kat Club where the music never stops and life is always beautiful ...In 1973, Cabaret competed for the Best Picture of the Year award with number one of 250 Best Movies as per IMDb users, Francis Coppola's Godfather.
Not only it was the equal contender, it won 8 of ten Oscars it was nominated for, including Best Director for Bob Fosse, Best Actress for Liza Minnelli, Best Supporting Actor for Joel Grey (who was against three heavy weights from Godfather - Al Pacino, James Caan and Robert Duvall), and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Cinematography.
Fosse's delegacy lives on...on film, and on stage right now in London, Berlin, and New York where the CABARET revival, did I mention CHICAGO?, and FOSSE, the musical- based on his life- including a piece from the movie of Cabaret continue to dazzle new generations.
Movie-fans still discuss whether Liza was actually acting the role of Sally Bowles or just being herself (her Oscar-win still draws debates--Diana Ross in "Lady Sings The Blues" is oft-times described as 'robbed' for the Best Actress statue).
Meanwhile, revellers come to the Kit Kat Klub, the cabaret where Sally performs, to join the sinister Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey, recreating his Broadway performance) in laughing away the dark cloud of Nazism building on the German horizon.Fosse sharpened his directorial teeth on "Sweet Charity" three years earlier, and while I greatly admire that film, I can admit how uneven it is as a movie.
It's no coincidence that the film's most disturbing moment comes not in the nightmare, feverish world of the cabaret's stage, but rather in the realistically depicted world of a German beer garden, where the angelic voice of a Nazi youth raised in song becomes a rallying cry and call to arms for the German people.
The 1966 hit, a song-filled version of John Van Druten's 1952 play I AM A CAMERA, itself an adaptation of British novelist Christopher Isherwood's BERLIN STORIES, CABARET incorporated both the traditional conventions of the American Musical Theater (boy meets girl , love songs sung by the main protagonists) coupled with the more daring plot device of a ghoulishly painted Master of Ceremonies who comments on the main story's proceedings through song and dance.
British Sally Bowles, the singer in the notorious Kit Kat Club Cabaret, was now an American played by Liza Minnelli.
There were a couple things I did enjoy (one not so minor), but you'll have to read on to discover what they were (I need to create _some_ suspense here).Cabaret is the story of Sally Bowles (Minnelli) and Brian Roberts (York).
The look of the film, especially the cabaret scenes, including the garishly painted faces and bizarre costumes and overall appearance of the performers, is based on the visual art of George Grosz and Otto Dix--even going so far as recreating characters from Dix paintings down to small details.
In 1931, in Berlin, the English professor from Cambridge Brian Roberts (Michael York) comes to the boarding house where the promiscuous American performer and singer of the Cabaret Kit-Kat Club Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) lives.
As relevant now as it was then, carrying a tune and warning of creeping fascism, it's staying power is not only in its message but the bite of the music and two of the most memorable musical performances in film history with Liza Minelli as Sally Bowles and Joel Grey as the "Emcee."University student Brian Roberts ( Michael York) freshly arrived in Berlin (Weimar Germany 1931) to complete his studies makes the acquaintance of Kit Kat Club performer Sally Bowles who shows him the ropes.
Together they encounter and share new friends but Brian comes to the realization that Sally is not about to give up a life of "divine decadence." Meanwhile in the streets, the parks, the clubs the Nazi Party and its brand of thuggery is becoming more prevalent.Outside of a pace slowing subplot regarding two older students Robert is tutoring Cabaret is flawless film making in nearly every area with Minelli excelling in three (acting, singing, dancing) requirements and Grey's mischievously haunting master of ceremonies delivering a character for the ages.
All of the songs comment on the social situation in Germany at the time and because they are all performed in the cabaret they can be explained in a real context, cleverly allowing those who do not even like musicals to enjoy them as they do not break the illusion of reality.
Hosted by the enigmatic, almost supernatural, Master of Ceremonies, it's a decadent place that exists apart from the realities of Hitlerism, a place that we all know must be ultimately doomed when the Nazis fully rise to power.Performances are universally great with Michael York and Liza Minnelli both putting in very fine work.
Liza Minelli plays a singer working at a cabaret club, and the music is set within this context, with her performances juxtaposed against and enhancing plot developments.
As the Nazi movement was gaining power, Berlin residents like Sally Bowles played by the one and only Liza Minnelli had relationships with men and lived on her singing at nightclubs until she meets Michael York (When will he be knighted?) anyway he plays the writer.
Of course, the fact that Bob Fosse directed this gem and changed the musical films forever from light and happy to dark and sad like in Cabaret.
Liza Minelli and Michael York are perfect for their roles, and this is a rare musical where the characters and story comes first.
But, as a musical, this movie appealed to me since the musical numbers are integrated into the fabric of the movie by being part of the cabaret where the main female character, Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) performs.
A love story set in a Berlin night-club during the rise of Nazism.Musicals, more than any other form of film, are the most dangerous to make: It only takes one or two bad songs, an ill-chosen star or an ill-judged theme for the whole affair to collapse, not just in to failure, but in to an object of public ridicule.
Think about the film version of A Chorus Line for a minute.However when they fire on all cylinders - as it does here - you have something that will live and play forever.Director Bob Fosse's name will, indeed, live forever with Cabaret which not only works as a great musical, it also operates as a fairly good love story and imparts (without too much depth) a sense of time and place drama.
For these combined reasons I think it is the best musical ever made.Liza Minnelli was born to play Sally Bowles the brash and breezy night-club performer.
Joel Grey was good (and deserved his Oscar) as the spooky compare, but having said that plenty of actors could have played the role just as well.The best thing about this movie is that really does look like a Berlin night-club.
Roberts takes adjoining lodgings in an inexpensive apartment with Bowles and meets a variety of friends like Maximilian Von Heune (Helmut Griem) At her place of employment, the Kit-Kat club, Sally joins the Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey, superior performance) on the small stage.
The film is rich with dancing routines and wonderful Musical numbers, like 'Money' 'Two For One' and 'If you could see her through my eyes.' The happiness of the movie is punctuated with background scenes of the growing and menacing brutality of the Nazis.
(Joel Grey) lords over a mishmash of performers, one of whom is Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), singer/dancer and actress wannabe.But like vultures, uniformed Nazis hover in the plot's background, an ominous harbinger of encroaching evil.
Cabaret is a brilliant film with kudos to all involved especially Director Bob Fosse and star Liza Minnelli who hit a grand slam home run and won the Oscar in the role of Sally.
As well as Minnelli, the musical and showy strength of the film comes from Joel Grey, transported from the stage version in his bizarre make-up to continue as reflector and commentator on troubled times.
Liza Minnelli is Sally Bowles, a dancer/singer at the Kit Kat Club who has dreams of becoming a famous actress; and Michael York is Brian Jordan, an English philosophy student who is in Germany for cultural enrichment and to make some money.
A female girlie club entertainer (Liza Minnelli) in Weimar Republic era Berlin romances two men while the Nazi Party rises to power around them.Michael York has such a distinct look, it is both mesmerizing and frightening.
Aside from the rather annoying "Money Makes the World Go Around" and "Cabaret", most people would have a hard time remembering the songs that play such a prominent role in the film.Also, while I do agree that Minelli deserved the Oscar for her demanding performance, I was very surprised to see Joel Grey get one as well.
Overall Cabaret works for those expecting the pleasures of a movie musical and film buffs looking for something more: turbulent love and relationships done to some imaginative direction that keeps things surprisingly grounded in reality.
Certainly legendary choreographer Bob Fosse was the ideal choice to stage the dance scenes in this jazzy 1972 feature film version of "Cabaret", based on the same-titled 1966 Broadway musical smash, based on the John Van Druten novel, "I Am a Camera" (also filmed in 1955), based on a single chapter of Christopher Isherwood's "Berlin Stories" memoirs.
John Kander and Fred Ebb tailored new songs ("Maybe This Time", "Mein Herr", "The Money Song") especially for the talents of Minnelli and Grey, both Oscar winners here, and its to the credit of both writers and performers that these new songs have been incorporated into stage revivals ever since.While Bob Fosse's film direction of "Sweet Charity" left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth, his Oscar-winning work in "Cabaret" left me hungry for more.
"Life is a cabaret, old chum" shouts Liza Minelli at the end, Indeed, all the previous acts showed a parallel between the story and the songs, whether they're about love, money, marriage, sexual plurality
the trademark will be used by Bob Fosse in his next successful film "Lenny", when Lenny's sketches are illustrated by his own experiences.
Most unusual for the time, director/choreographer Bob Fosse made the ingenious decision to isolate the songs from the dramatic scenes, and keep all of the musical numbers on the stage where they belong.
British man Brian Roberts (Michael York) comes to Berlin to teach English in the 1930's, at the time the Nazi party is rising.There he meets an interesting singer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli).The bi-sexual teacher becomes very fond of her.In between there's the handsome and rich Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem).In Berlin he also meets people as Fritz Wendel (Fritz Wepper) and (Natalia Landauer).They're both Jewish and attracted to each other.Joel Grey is the eccentric Master of Ceremonies.The cast is absolutely fantastic in this Bob Fosse's musical drama.I read about two years ago Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin, which this movie is based on.This week I saw the movie and they're both great.In the movie you can hear the songs being sang and they're all marvelous.I truly recommend this movie to a whole bunch of people..
They gave the top Oscars that year to a violent grandiose gangster thriller and the first X Rated musical.Cabaret adapts the stories of Christopher Isherwood with a heavy dose of the late 1960s counterculturalism and Bob Fosse's unique dancing choreography.It is set in a Hedonistic part of Germany of the 1930s.
The film deals with antisemitism and the vicious thugs who beat up those who stand in their way.Micheal York plays Brian the young English middle class man who has come to Berlin to teach and meets the decadent Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), a decadent, free spirited American would be actress whose father is a diplomat.
She is somewhat needy for attention, especially if the men are wealthy.She befriends who we discover is gay and later both have an affair with a wealthy German Baron.There is also another side plot of one of Brian's student, a gigolo falling for a rich heiress who is Jewish.The central plank of the film is the cabaret numbers at the Kit Kat Club itself introduced by the Emcee (Joel Grey) who also performs the gaudy, bawdy numbers and sketches including women wrestling in mud.
Liza Minnelli shines as Sally Bowles in the Cabaret musical film adaptation.
Widled considered one of the greatest films ever made, it follows the young, wild and sensitive American Sally Bowles, who lives in Berlin and work in cabaret "Kit Kat Club".
Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) is a flamboyant bohemian American singer performing at the Kit Kat Klub with MC (Joel Grey).
Michael York took the role of the rather naive young man who while renting a room, falls in with Liza Minnelli and her hedonistic lifestyle.Repeating his role as the Cabaret emcee is Joel Grey who was the Best Supporting Actor for 1972.
Life is very much so a Cabaret for Liza Minnelli in this musical.She gives the performance of her life as Sally Bowles.Her mother,the great Judy Garland would be proud of her. |
tt0073768 | Supervixens | Gas station attendant Clint Ramsey, who works at Martin Bormann's Super Service in the desert, finds himself too irresistible to a series of girls, all of whom have the word "Super" in their given names. In the beginning, he is married to the hypersexual, demanding, and jealous SuperAngel (Shari Eubank), who constantly harasses him at work. She orders him home at once when she calls Clint and overhears a female customer, SuperLorna (Christy Hartburg), hitting on him at work. Clint finds SuperAngel's constant accusations and arguing a turn-off and, back at home, they fight after he rejects her aggressive advances. A neighbor calls the police as Clint leaves for a local bar, where the bartender is the very scantily clad SuperHaji (Haji).
Meanwhile, SuperAngel seduces Harry Sledge (Charles Napier), the cop who responded to the police call. He is impotent and unable to perform. She repeatedly taunts and insults him over this, which finally results in him killing her by stomping her brutally in a bathtub, then throwing a radio in the water which was plugged into the wall socket. Sledge burns down the house, then tries to pin the murder on Clint. Clint claims being in the pub all night, but SuperHaji has her revenge on him (for insulting her breast size earlier) by refusing to confirm his alibi. Clint is then forced to flee.
In his rush to escape, Clint hitchhikes a ride from a boy (John LaZar) and his girlfriend SuperCherry (Colleen Brennan). During the drive, SuperCherry comes on to him and puts his hand over her breast, but then pulls it back. She then tries to give him a handjob over his pants, but he continues to resist her advances. The driver takes offense to Clint rejecting his girlfriend, but she says he probably just wants a closer contact. She again attempts and fails to seduce him and he asks the driver to let him get out. The driver follows him out and beats and robs him. Clint is found by an old farmer who takes him to his farm to heal from his injuries and Clint agrees to work for the farmer for a week to repay him.
The farmer has a younger Austrian mail-order bride, SuperSoul (Uschi Digard), who is hypersexual. After energetically satisfying her husband, she comes knocking on Clint's door at night. She immediately pushes him into his bed where she proceeds to mount and rape him, until he manages to overpower her. However, she does the same the following day and this time overpowering him after jumping him from behind in the barn. Looking for SuperSoul, the farmer finds them in the barn, then chases Clint away and punches SuperSoul.
Fleeing from the farm, Clint meets a motel owner and his deaf daughter, SuperEula (Deborah McGuire), who convinces him to take a ride with her in her dune buggy to have sex in the desert. They are caught by her father and chased out of town.
Clint eventually meets up with SuperVixen (also played by Shari Eubank) at Supervixen's Oasis, a roadside diner. SuperVixen is (inexplicably) a friendly and giving reincarnation of SuperAngel, whose ghost now appears nude between scenes to comment on the plot from atop a bedspring balanced on a mesa. Clint and SuperVixen fall in love and are inseparable, although their common nemesis, Harry Sledge, arrives on the scene and plots ending the lives of the now happy couple. | pornographic, dark, cruelty, murder, cult, violence, psychedelic, satire, comic, sadist | train | wikipedia | After the brutal murder of his promiscuous wife, Clint (Charles Pitts) is forced to flee a small town
Harry (Charles Napier), a wicked look-alike who committed the killing, had little trouble to put the blame for the murder on Clint
Clint falls into a number of adventures, getting caught in the act with the mail-order wife of a farmer, having a brief affair with a chesty black mute girl, and finally coming across a diner/gas station run by a lonely but beautiful woman who turns out to be a copy of his former wife
Clint stays on at the diner to help out the woman, and falls in love
The assassin, however, passes through, discovers Clint, kidnaps his new girlfriend, and tries to kill them both
The women in "Supervixens" are buxom, attractive, and very intelligent, whereas the men are generally sex-crazed, vicious, and uncoordinated...
Meyer usually bombards his audience with erotic imagesbig breasts, strong desire women, and simulated lovemakingbut here he gets carried away with several sadistic scenes that are real turn-offs....
The movie follows the hilarious odyssey of a nice young fellow, on the run for one man and an army of very very voluptuous bigbreasted women.
Russ Meyer, like David Lynch or Alejandro Jodorowsky, creates his own world in his movies and invites you to visit.
This movie is like no other ever made, with it's surreal mix of buxom babes, humour, violence, car chases and dynamite that has to be seen to be believed!
Charles Napier fans note that this is his definitive performance playing psycho cop Harry Sledge, which may or may not be a reprise of his role in Cherry, Harry and Raquel!
Russ Meyer often reuses stuff that also featured in his earlier movies.
Part of the fun of watching a Russ Meyer movie is sitting in mind-boggling disbelief at just how sexist & deranged it is, then going with the flow as you escape into his voluptuous pre-silicone dreamworld.
Misogyny isn't really the word, as you can imagine the old sleazeball worshipping these women & doing anything for them while he's filming them bouncing around.Supervixens, however, is just plain nasty, due to the one scene in which Super-Angel (the running joke is that all the women have the Super- prefix to their names) is kicked to death & electrocuted in a bathtub by Charles Napier's impotent cop.
Doesn't help that Super-Angel's character is set up as being somehow deserving of it.No, not funny at all, even if you're used to the Russ Meyer school of sensitivity.
It belongs in a 1980's splatter film, & leaves a nasty taste in the mouth for the rest of the film, which is pretty ordinary until Charles Napier turns up again & torments Super-Angel's later re-incarnation, Supervixen, in a way that would be amusing if you could only forget his earlier scene.See Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls instead..
His films are filled with lightning-speed edits, larger-than-life characters, delicious women, and over-the-top acting.
Myer masterfully puts his unique vision on the screen in all of his films, and 'SuperVixens' is a shinning example of this...This film starts off wonderfully, for it is incredibly entertaining and highly humorous (filled with VERY sexy women, large breasts, and lots of violence of course).
He is more concerned with amusing characters, gorgeous women, and sweet violence, and this movie has plenty of that.
Charles Napier gives one of his best performances ever here, as a psychotic, impotent, woman-killing cop.
If you are into Russ Meyer you have undoubtedly seen this film- if you haven't, you must!
If you have never seen any of Meyer's films, this as good a place to start as any....
SUPERVIXENS may be the ultimate Russ Meyer film!
Overdosing on breasts, sex, and violence, Meyer delivers the goods to his fans and then some.
In this movie, all women with huge breasts have Super stated before their name, like they are a totally different race of women.
In Meyer's world, they are.Shari Eubanks is amazing as SuperAngel, a slutty bitch who tortures her boyfriend Clint to the point of insanity.
When Angel has an affair with psycho sheriff Harry Sledge (the ever-sneering Charles Napier) who ends up killing her (a sequence that will make even the most jaded viewer cringe), Clint is blamed.
On the run, he encounters more Superwomen (including Haji as SuperHaji and Uschi Digart as SuperSoul) and actors and situations from Meyers' earlier films (including FASTER PUSSYCAT!
Stuart Lancaster plays a farmer who has LOTS of exaggerated, hilarious sex with his German mail-order bride SuperSoul (Uschi Digart).
But Harry shows up in time to provide trouble for Vixen and Clint.SUPERVIXENS has possibly the widest array of sexy women in Meyer's films.
Hallelujah!), all the women here will provide eye candy for ten more Meyer movies!
One thing is noted about Russ Meyer's women and that is they can all at least act a bit.
Regular Meyer fans may be turned off by the multiple violent scenes that seem more gruesome and tasteless than his other films.SUPERVIXENS may be hard to find because of Meyer's strict rental video policy, but is well worth tracking down!
SUPERVIXENS probably stands as Meyer's best 70s film.
Without a doubt, the first 10 minutes of Supervixens is one of the best pieces of comic film editing I've ever seen.
Most of Meyer's movies are pretty bad, but there are three that are great and this is one of them.
Meyer creates a surreal American landscape, where people are all endowed with unreal sex parts, all the woman bare the title "super", and ex-nazi's are gas station owners.
The movie is filled with in-your-face phallic symbols and the scene with Super Angel and the cop is absolutely hysterical.
Women from heaven, a police man from hell, and a hero from God knows where in this orgy of violence, action, comedy, drama and true love and passion, re-born in a Roadrunner movie from the brain of Russ Meyer.
No wonder all the girls are "Super-" in this film, and Charles Napier have never ever been better than the super evil impotent Harry Sledge.-Credits to Uschi Dighart as well.
Russ Meyer does an incredible job of casting and editing that is up to par with his movies, the plot is a lot more elaborate and serious that some of earlier work ("Faster pussycat, kill, kill" comes to mind).
The women are amazing; the sexy Haji playing ball-buster barkeep, Shari Eubanks, impressive as the neglected wife, and sexy seductress, and who can't help to fall in love with the wondrous Swedish beauty Uschi Digart who plays a mail order bride.
"Supervixens" rocks...classic Meyer, and less silly than a lot of his stuff.
Charles Napier actually delivers a credible performance, and the film itself has much more of a plot than most other Meyer movies...worth seeing as soon as possible..
Russ Meyer is just a filmmaker with a quirky sense of humor and a fetish for big breasts, right?
It is, however, definitely obscene.In interviews Meyer has put down hardcore pornography but I've seen scores of porn flicks and not a ONE of them has anything in them as disgusting (and disturbing) as the brutal stomping and electrocution a young woman receives in this movie.
Russ Meyer loves breasts, and he's a filmmaker, but it's mostly the breast thing.
That doesn't mean that he's not good at what he does, which is making raucous comedies where there's a dumb, well-hung klutz (Charles Pitts, in thankfully his only significant point in his career as Clint Ramsey), the dual role of the schizo-girlfriend (SuperAngel) and later her re-incarnation as a gas station attendant (SuperVixen), and the enemy of the film, the diabolical, totally evil Harry Sledge (Charles Napier, a classic part in a long character actor career).
But looking past the fact that there are a lot of naked women who continually throw themselves at Clint, there is something more to Meyer's psychology here.
It would probably be something of a big point had the film been used in Zizek's The Pervert's Guide to Cinema: it's like a classic farce- yet still a somewhat truthful farce- about male desire.Take the fact that while Clint is on his 'journey'- running from the scene of a crime he didn't commit, which was the murder and burning down of the dig that SuperAngel was living in- he continually gets into situations where the women present want to desperately ride him till Tuesday...but then there's always another man.
Until Clint agrees to stay with SuperVixen and take care of the gas station does he finally seem to relax, as before with the guy in the car, the farmer, the motel owner, all had women as their next of kin or significant others that were persona non grata.
By the time Clint gets to SuperVixen, and finds out her man ran out on her weeks ago, it's like they're suddenly whisked away to the Garden of Eden (rather, in Arizona, as is one of the funniest sections of the flick), as they run around naked in ecstasy.
Harry can't get it up, the truth of it, and it becomes a sudden turn to see Harry suddenly stomp SuperAngel (albeit, in one of the most illogical scenes I've ever seen in any movie, taunts him for five minutes while locked in a bathroom following a bad sexual experience) and burn the place down as a means of compensation, an inherent lack of drive leading to the demise of anyone around him.
While this seems to go overboard in the last twenty minutes of the film, when he returns in and becomes an ultimate terror upon Clint and SuperVixen, there's probably more one could read into in terms of symbolism than your average Bunuel movie: the dynamite shooting out of a chute, the one stick next to SuperVixen's most private of private spots, and all raised to the level of delirium.The more I thought about it after the movie ended, the more it seemed to make sense, the idea of the ID blown-up in, of all things, a Russ Meyer movie.
But this will be moot to most viewers who are just looking for what it there in a Meyer movie- sex and craziness, usually at the same time.
As the first of his films I've seen, it's already apparent how equally proficient and tacky he can be: he's a master at editing, and casts his actors like it's a slight step above Z-grade porn.
though loads of comedy sex and silly story lines keep the film rather funny and exciting.
Referring back to the previous comment - I sure have a sense of humor, and a quirky one at that, (love monty python, super troopers, shaun of the dead, etc) but this has to be the worst movie ever!
Hilarious and great fun - a masterpiece from Russ Meyer!.
Russ Meyer sure did know how to deliver an amazingly good time, and Supervixens is without doubt one of his very finest hours!
Like all Russ Meyer films, this one is completely over the top and every bit an epic, as Meyer crams in a ton of sex, violence and ample chested girls into the sprawling and often hilarious plot line.
The film is completely wayward and since the base of the plot is solely focused on one guy travelling without aim, it means that Russ Meyer can pretty much do whatever he likes - and that's clearly what he did do!
He then sets out on an aimless odyssey, and meets numerous characters along the way, many of which happen to be big breasted ladies...Supervixens really is a dream film for anyone who loves over the top gratuity.
The film is pure comic genius from start to finish and Meyer provides the audience with a constant stream of ridiculous goings on, and it's always great fun to watch.
The lead ample chested vixen is Shari Eubank; she only made two films in her career, and that's a shame as she has real charisma and, like the rest of the girls in this film, looks great too!
This is my second Russ Meyer movie (the first being 'Up!') and I am beginning to see a pattern -- tell a non-nonsensical story full of the naked women.
The screen time given to both is about equal this time whereas in the past, Meyer seemed to tilt more toward violence than sex with a couple of notable exceptions like Vixen.
Our hero works as a gas pump jockey for Martin Borman's Super Service with a wife who alternates between super horn dog and bitch extraordinaire and unfortunately does the transformation with the greatest of ease until a psycho cop, played by Charles Napier, ends her bitchery for good by stomping her to death in her overflowing bathtub and then dropping a plugged in toaster into it, electrocuting her to death and causing a full out blaze that completely destroys the house.
Our hero is blamed for it and is hunted by the policeman responsible for doing the deed so our hero must take it on the lam and in doing so runs into a whole array of huge breasted females on the make for him including in the funniest scenes of the picture, Uschi Digard as a mail order Austrian bride of Stuart Lancaster's farmer.
You just can't go wrong with a film chock full of gigantic breasts and violence towards women.
I'm only a fan of it when it's just simulated violence and Russ Meyer happens to be the guy simulating it.
Russ combines sex and violence like no one else can and Supervixens is a prime example of that.
Boobs galore in Russ Meyers's "Super Vixens", including quite a lot of misogynistic violence, a horsely hung Charles Napier playing a psycho cop, some utterly demented humor and maybe even some extremely weird and incomprehensible supernatural goings-on with that Witch of the Phallus Mountain there.
No need to mention the luscious women portraying their goods & having sex in this film, right?
If you don't like it, turn it off, or make your own goddamned movie.There's love in every frame of SUPERVIXENS as Charles Pitts skips town to avoid the cuffs of lawman Napier.
Nevertheless, Meyer features a movie that is not entirely cheesy trash and cheap 70s soft-porn.
While the women (with big breasts) are clearly depicted as agents of their sexual likings, the male characters do not seem to recognize these clear-cut own will and agency.
When he is raped by Supersoul, he screams, "Let go of my cock!" In the end Harry plans to blow up Clint's girlfriend Supervixen...?
The ultimate trash classic from cult director Russ Meyer, the man known for his obsession with large-breasted woman and an eye for absurdist humour and bizarre situations.
SUPERVIXENS mixes in some rough thrills and spills with its serious storyline of an innocent man and the deranged cop he encounters in his life, and of course the many beautiful women also involved with the pair come foremost.
But along with the conventional format of the thriller picture, there also comes plenty of sexploitation in the bountiful forms of Meyer's favourite stars (Shari Eubank, Uschi Digard, Christy Hartburg, Sharon Kelly, Deborah McGuire, Haji) and a weird helping of offbeat humour which you just can't see anywhere else these days.
In fact the film has plenty of diverse elements, with something for every male viewer watching.Utilising the scorched desert as a backdrop for his strictly adult tale, Meyer fills the screen at every opportunity with barely-clothed and unclothed women, who give various over-the-top performances as typically sex-mad nymphos hungry for our young hero's loins.
The most notable performer in the film is Shari Eubank, who excels in two different roles as firstly the abusive, bitchy wife, and secondly the altogether sweeter Supervixen who runs a café out in the middle of nowhere.
Charles Pitts proves to be a handsome if unmemorable leading figure, whilst the rest of the cast offer up some distinctive - if not brilliant - portrayals of weird characters, my favourite being the sex-mad farmer and his young Austrian wife, who are literally addicted to having sex.A nasty edge of violence comes in the form of the burly Charles Napier, giving here what is perhaps his definitive performance as a sick, psychopathic and murderous policeman, whose scene with Shari Eubank in the bathroom is sadistic and cruel viewing, guaranteed to make any viewer wince with the on-screen brutality.
Russ Meyer fills the film to bursting with bust-lines and wacky comedy.The plot is almost nonexistent.
Reading the comments posted almost makes me feel as if I do not understand cinema.The storyline is implausible, the humor crass, satire entirely lost; I wonder what was Meyer thinking when he made the movie!
Will never venture for another weird world of Russ Meyers!.
my least favorite of all the Meyer films, and although I do like Napier, Supervixens and also Cherry, Harry, And Raquel are the 2 Meyer films I've seen that I really don't like much.
And granted, a bad Meyer film still has a lot going for it.
The reason why Faster Pussycat remains Meyer's best-known film is because the females are the main characters.
A lot of the music is goofy, too, a common thing in Meyer films that often give it a cheap dated feel in 2007.
This isn't one of those thriller type films filled with mainly sex and nudity scenes, it is a pretty amusing comedy filled with it.
It kind of a mix of Carry On and Confessions comedy, but with more sex and nudity and directed by the quite obsessed (with big breasts) director Russ Meyer.
I think there is some kind of super girl with some powers called Super Vixen, but it's more likely that all girls in the film are Supervixens.
Filled with loads of scenes with big breasts, some good arses and plenty of comedy like sex, this is probably better than Carry On or Confessions combined (in terms of nudity). |
tt0147612 | Happiness | Happiness is an ensemble drama that skips around between multiple storylines. The protagonist, Joy, is the youngest of three sisters. The film opens with her breaking up with a man. He responds with unreasonably malicious vitriol and ultimately takes his own life a few days later. In an attempt to contribute more to society she decides to work at a refugee education center, where she is despised by her students for being a scab during the teachers strike. The only student who is kind to her seduces her only to rob her and then request $1,000 (to which she complies).Joys middle sister, Trish, is a housewife who claims to be happily married, and casually remarks to Joy how their entire family assumes that Joy will be a terrible failure. Trishs husband, Bill is a therapist and, in addition to instructing their son how to masturbate and having fantasies about going on shooting sprees, is also a pedophile. He develops a fixation on Johnny, a friend of their son and eventually sodomizes him after drugging his entire family when Johnny is sleeping over. Bill later rapes another of his sons friends and is eventually accused and indicted.Joys eldest sister, Helen is a conceited author who writes fiction that she herself recognizes as empty and exploitative. She desires to know what it is like to be raped and abused. Coincidentally, her neighbor Allens hobby is making obscene phone calls to women (including Joy) while masturbating. Allen eventually calls Helen and she unexpectedly demands that he meet her. He agrees and when she discovers that he is her homely, shy neighbor she rejects his advances and demands that he leave. Allens feelings of loneliness and isolation, which he expounds upon in great detail to Bill, his therapist, are eventually quelled when he finally pays attention to Kristina, another tenant who lives down the hall. While on a date with her, Kristina confides in Allen that she was raped by the doorman of their building. Subsequently she broke his neck, chopped his body into pieces, placed the pieces into Ziploc bags and stored them in her freezer. She has been smuggling them out of the building piece by piece for the last week.Joy's parents are also unhappy. Her dad separates from her mother but upon trying to have sex with another woman, discovers that he simply cannot feel any emotion for anyone or anything. The end of the movie finds the three sisters sitting at dinner with the parents, everyone condescending to Joy. Meanwhile Trishs son is out on the balcony and finally, at long last, successfully masturbates. The dog races over to lick up the ejaculate only to return to the dinner table and lick Trish on the mouth. The boy races into the kitchen and proudly declares, I came! | pornographic, comedy, dark, cult, flashback, humor, satire | train | imdb | I wasn't going to write a comment for this one, but after reading all the nasty things said about it, and considering that _Happiness_ was the basis for one of my final undergraduate philosophy papers, I feel a duty to defend it.First of all, what you've heard is true: this movie is very graphic and almost impossible to sit through without covering your eyes at least once.
There are moments of great hope in this movie, when you think misery may finally give way to happiness.
There are only a handful of films that have a distinct polarizing affect on the audience--A Clockwork Orange, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, and I would even lump in American Beauty--these are movies you either get, or you don't.
The subject matter is truly unsettling--a parental figure, respected in his community, does some horrible things, and this is the main reason why so many people have a hard time with this movie.
Involving a lonely sister, a sister with a good family life, a paedophile, a telephone sex pest and an elderly couple breaking up, the film follows their short stories through whatever it takes them.I remember hearing this film reviewed as being pretty good, but it was pointed out by the critic that it was far from a movie to take a first date to!
Special mention should go to Lovitz for a great little cameo that opens the film in 4 minutes he gives a better performance than I have seen him give anywhere else.Overall this film is not an easy, fun film to watch but it is very well written even if some of the threads do not engage as much as the others.
It's tough to admit that we may have something in common with a Suburban pedophile, a pathetic dreamer, a pretentious literary snob or a obscene telephone sex stalker and one of the most frightening ideas ever put on film is here: Solondz makes plausible the people we view as being "sick" or generally look down upon aren't that much different than us.
"Happiness" was written and directed by Todd Solondz, the mind behind the film "Welcome to the Dollhouse", a film that was fantastic but really hard to watch if the viewer has any kind of heart.
"Happiness" follows in the same vein, though this time, instead of centering around one character, Solondz puts a New Jersey family at the center of the film and develops new characters through their relationship with the family.Overseeing the family is Mona Jordan (Lasser), the matriarch of the family who has just been told by her husband that he no longer loves her.
Another neighbor, Kristina (Manheim) is an insecure, quiet woman who is constantly trying to befriend Allen, possibly as a love interest.There is quite a cast of characters to this ensemble picture, and the story lines become intricate and increasingly more complicated as the film progresses.
Baker was the clear star of the film in my opinion, but the performances of every person in the cast were fantastic as well, particularly the young boy who played Baker's oldest son.As I stated earlier, "Happiness" is rife with irony because on the surface, everyone is miserable.
It's not an easy film to watch, and it's not an entirely pleasant one to watch at times, but it is truly a piece of genius with the way it is intricately put together; envision trying to glue tiny shards of crystal into place with a tweezers the characters in "Happiness" are as fragile and ready to shatter at any moment, whether they can see it for themselves or not.
Happiness acknowledges this fact, in the character of family man/psychiatrist Bill Maplewood.Loneliness, rage, sexual repression/obsession, disintegrating marriages, sadly sophisticated children, relationships built upon artifice, this film has it all.
It's Prozac Cinema at its best: try to be on an even keel when pressing 'play'.Spouses, parents and children seem to be communicating across a void.After viewing Happiness for the second time, I realized that the entire soundtrack intentionally consisted of melodramatic, and/or ultra perky canned music: a perfectly ironical compliment and contrast in style with the strong, harsh, quirky film scenes.Presentation: director Solondz sets up the viewer for traditional father/son talk scenes, via mood and pseudo canned music: giving the subject matter and dialogue all the more impact.
Happiness - which centres around the lives of three sisters - Joy who's permanently unlucky in love, Helen a successful poet whose next door neighbour is obsessed with her and phones to explain this in graphic detail and finally there's Trish who has it all, a big house, a couple of kids and a successful psychiatrist husband who himself harbours uncontrollable urges.The sisters are all somewhat fractured of mind - for example Lara Flyn Boyle's character plays an author suffering writers block bemoaning the fact that she wasn't abused as a child that could lend her work some authenticity - so she's delighted when she gets an obscene phone from a one of the many fat ugly sex obsessed dysfunctioning American neurotics that seem to be this seasons slim sexy movie star successes.
Open and willing for some perverted notion to crawl right in...Directed by Todd Solondz Happiness is a slice of American life that isn't normally dealt with this honesty, making it a compelling watch, which will both amuse and seriously disturb for its two hours and fifteen minutes running time.
American Beauty is a Hollywood mainstream cop out of what Happiness had the real guts to say about life.Anyone who doesn't like this movie is living with their head in the sand and has forgotten all the little "sordid" details from their own lives.
It's so hard for them to view because it throws their own lives right up at them on the screen.I think this movie is incredible, and one of the best films ever made.
It says something that the movie's most human, sympathetic character is a child molester.And, yes, it's a comedy - often a very, very funny one.
Joy (Jane Adams) is a born loser who drifts through a series of menial jobs and drives her boyfriend to suicide; her sister Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle) is so self-absorbed that she thinks her biggest problem is that everyone loves her too much; her neighbor Allen (Philip Seymour Hoffman) can only connect to people by making obscene phone calls; and Bill (Dylan Baker), his therapist and Joy and Helen's brother-in-law, is a pedophile who rapes two of his 11-year-old son's friends.
It's hard to watch, but it's an acting master class and absolutely fearless film-making.This is a real actor's movie; the cast gives career-best performances.
Adams is sad and sweet as the luckless Helen, the closest thing the movie has to a moral center, while Boyle is priceless as the contemptible Helen, swanning around as if waiting for the world to thank her for being born."Happiness" is the epitome of "acquired taste" - its humor is bitter, acidic and often cruel, and it takes real joy in offending the audience.
Happiness is a gruesome and uncomfortable drama about sexual dysfunction, focusing mainly on three characters: a 30-something woman who lives with her parents and attracts romantic disaster; a schlubby office drone who can't speak to his sexy neighbor so he masturbates while making obscene phone calls; and a seemingly normal therapist who lusts after his son's pre-pubescent friends.
Happiness is an interesting movie but it wasn't funny or entertaining in the traditional sense of the word and it's nothing I'd ever want to see again.At times, the film felt like a hollow exercise in wallowing in the misery of the characters; I imagined the main protagonists as ants and the writer/director sitting there with a magnifying glass, making them burn.
Really, Happiness reminded me of The Ice Storm, except that movie addressed similar themes in an intelligent way with real characters and asked us to take the situation seriously.
Everyone has had these moments at one point or another in their lives and now here's the hot-faced shame and moral nausea experienced vicariously through a parade of terrible, terrible people, not parsed out by blessed months or years between horrifying events as one would hopefully find in real life, but non-stop for however many minutes this film lasts.
The whole film is like an awkward date with a complete stranger where neither says anything beyond the most placid of banalities and you're both happy to leave after the main course.The worst thing is that I cannot deny this film the right to exist.
I stumbled upon this gem during one of my numerous internet research extravaganzas and boy was I pleased.Happiness is a dark comedy, and for most it's brutal to sit through, but if you enjoy crude humor this movie is perfect.The plot is pretty basic, three sisters and their encounters in New Jersey.When I look at a movie critically, I usually weed out all the propaganda and controversy.
The Lovitz character is one of many who are disappointed with their current life situation, but he is the only one who can conjure up any sort of sympathy.Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays the nebbish Allen, a lonely man who gets off on thoughts of his sultry neighbor, Helen (Lara Flynn Boyle), and making prank phone calls.
Allen confides his secrets to Dr. Mapplewood, but Bill has a secret of his own: an insatiable lust for young boys.Happiness wants to be an ironic comedy about life, but the film is too heavy handed to be found funny.
But just the fact that the film feels the need to place her in such a situation proves how miserable the movie really wants to be.
You won't be bored but you certainly will not be enlightened.On another note, I very strongly recommend the director's prior film, "Welcome to the Dollhouse" which is quite easily one of the greatest and most perceptive movies about teenagers..
In "Happiness", director Todd Solondz manages to craft a true masterpiece that will definitely make some people a bit too uncomfortable to really like or enjoy.
This movie, "Happiness", provides an excellent example of why no one should ever believe that the Academy Awards actually represent an honest view of the best films made in any given year.
This means that films that tackle gritty subjects like molestation must never be considered as award worthy lest these self appointed groups get offended.If you enjoy incredibly great script writing, direction and acting, this is a movie for you.
All the characters in the film apart from two little boys who are raped are obsessed by sex like maniacs, including the eleven year-old.
I kept saying "no way, that isn't what would happen" If it had be done to the humorous extreme - it would have be funny but instead I came away feeling a bit ill and frustrated for having wasted my time..
It depicts several people causing and experiencing suffering, and then eventually the credits roll.I've seen other films that had no storyline, some of which I think were very good, so when I say that Happiness has no plot, I don't mean it as a criticism.
It is this revealing of the sad and beautiful complexity beneath our common human suffering that makes these films great.In Happiness, I saw none of this revelation.
Even when supposedly deeper motives were revealed, these too proved to be equally shallow and equally deformed.The question that immediately rose to mind upon watching Happiness was "why?" Why did Todd Solondz make this movie?
The first is that he thinks that watching people suffer in the way presented in this film is funny.
If so, I would like to say to Solondz, and to those people who have described Happiness as a comedy, "please seek out the help of a good counsellor or caring friend, because right now you are very, very lost".
Such scenes can be laughed only in the absence of empathy, and without empathy, we're less than human and life is little more than a confused nightmare.The second possibility is that Solondz wanted to inflict the disturbing content of this movie on audiences as a form of violence.
Doomed relationships, broken dreams, Paedophilia, adolescence, family/sibling relationships, frustration, desperation, sexual frustration, murder, Rape, emptiness & loneliness are just some of the themes dealt with here but little in the way of happiness.Its hard to descibe the film, you just need to watch it really to make up your own mind.
The second sister, Helen Jordan(Lara Flynn Boyle) is a successful writer who is attractive and has good ideas, but her neighbor, Allen(Philip Seymour Hoffman) makes obscene phone calls to her and she happens to be turned on by the disturbing threats due to a recent urge to be dominated.
Like Todd Solondz's WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE, his following film is about a person or persons who want things that they can't have.
But this film has a clever and original style with its horrifying characters, its shocking dialog, its utter bleakness, rounding up with one of the most disgusting and heartbreaking endings of movie history..
It is very funny and yes at times serious and hard to watch but if the cinema were filled with more of these kind of movies it would be better for it.
If you like dramas with black humour and are tired of watching bad actors overact in predictable movies, see this film..
And he wasn't even sure about the Universe..) Besides there are a lot of films that deal with similar (disturbing) subjects (sex, human behaviour) with much more style (and a good story), such as: Dr. Strangelove, Clockwork Orange, Twelve monkeys, Tokyo fist, Thesis, Braindead (this one at least made me laugh), 8mm, Audition and so on...
His character is aware of the depraved nature of his being yet he functions as a good parent, a respected member of society yet underneath he admits he's sick meanwhile his wife ironically thinks they have a perfect life and while Trish lives a life of constant comparison to one sister who is a success story and another who is a failure.
She would love me back." Is this line full of deep despair but more importantly irony as Allen gratifies his sexual desires by cold calling random women speaking to them in degrading ways to satisfy his sexual needs yet he can't even say more than a hello in person.Even Joy's character, one of sadness and melancholy where nothing seems to go right for her seems to have been doomed right from the beginning for just having the name Joy. Happiness is a great movie overall, a great cast and it serves as unique work of cinema as there aren't many films like it.How do you feel at the end?, well unlike Bill's character after his dream, you don't wake up happy, feeling good.you get very depressed, because you're back living in reality..
It looks at the lives in and out of different characters, mostly it examines what makes them happy when it comes life, relationships, and intimate pleasure.
Happiness is a story of three sisters; Joy, Trish and Helen, and weaves in characters who are a part their life.
Happiness makes thick-skinned audiences squeamish, but it resonates with you for days like many films don't and is a must see if you can handle the subject matter..
Happiness (1998)A slightly surreal and unhappy movie, a dark comedy, and overall intriguing.Imagine a mixture of really believable, everyday people, a doctor and his family doing things like eating supper and talking about sweet things before bedtime, or a man working at his desk who talks casually to a neighbor across the hall..
If you ignore that stupid detail the movie is a number of different stories tied to together by one dinner table/family in search of "Happiness" in relationships, but since they are so very very messed up in the head, they tend to attract what they are.Some of the thematic elements are going to sicken or disturb sensitive viewers, so don't watch it if you are easily offended..
however, after that it just turned into every other self indulgent sex comedy I've ever seen, drawing upon such great laughs as pedophilia (ha!) and gay rape (haha!) the characters were paper thin, the jokes were raunchy, the conclusion was laughable (in the bad way) all in all a very very poor film.
Solondz does a fabulous job of releasing information about the main characters, a little at a time, until, by the end of the movie, each layer of the onion has been completely removed.
Happiness isn't an easy movie to watch; but, it's a film of profound psychological insight and depth.
Films like There's Something About Mary, American Pie and even one hilarious scene in 1994's Serial Mom was just laugh out loud funny.Unfortuanately, I cannot say the same for this movie.
If I had to say something positive about Happiness, it would be that it's different from most other movies I've ever seen and that it had a few surreal moments that were quite funny and yet disturbing at the same time.
However, it is far from consistent and in general, being different doesn't constitute a good movie in my eyes.Happiness is more like a series of unrelated sketches than an attempt at a cohesive, meaningful film.
(Remember this future directors, less is more.)In short, if you think you want to see this movie, watch American Beauty instead..
I was expecting a painful movie to watch, but in the good way: where you can really relate to the pain that the characters go through.
It's extremely rare for me not to see a movie through to the end, but it was simply torture to watch the very long (10+ minute) scenes where not all that much happened and I started forgetting about all of the other characters.Things happened, but with no insight into why they happened. |
tt0947798 | Black Swan | The movie opens as Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), a young ballerina in her mid twenties, is dancing the prologue to Swan Lake. Swan Lake is a ballet in which a princess is turned into the White Swan and can only be turned back if a man swears eternal fidelity to her. In the ballet, she is betrayed by the Black Swan, the evil magician's daughter whom the magician has transformed to look exactly like the princess in order to trick the prince who has fallen in love with her. In the end, the princess commits suicide because the Prince's infidelity has doomed her to remain a swan forever. As Nina dances in the role of the Princess, the magician appears and places the curse on the Princess. Nina then wakes up in her apartment, the dance sequence having been a dream. She begins her daily ballet stretching; telling her mother about her dream as her mother unintentionally ignores her. Nina mentions that the director, Thomas Leroy (pronounced Tomahs; the name is French), of her ballet company has promised to feature her more this season and her mother agrees that she's been there long enough.Nina goes to the ballet studio only to learn that Beth (Winona Ryder), the lead principal dancer, is being put out to pasture due to her age as she is over 40. As a result, Thomas (Vincent Cassel) is looking for a new face to be the lead. Thomas announces to the company that the first performance of the season will be a reworking of Swan Lake. He casually walks among the dancers as they're practising nonchalantly, tapping several girls on the shoulder as he talks. He then tells those he tapped to attend their regular rehearsals; those he didn't tap are to meet with him later in the principal studio.Nina sees Beth having an emotional meltdown in her private dressing room, throwing things and breaking the full length mirror. After Beth leaves, Nina decides to take a peek inside. She sits down in Beth's chair and stares at herself in a mirror surrounded by globe lights. She begins to go through Beth's things and stashes several items in her pocket, specifically perfume, diamond earrings, a nail file and tube of lipstick. She sneaks out of Beth's dressing room.Later, in the principal studio, auditions are being held to find Beth's replacement as the Swan Princess. Nina dances the White Swan impeccably, and then Thomas tells Nina to dance as the Black Swan. As Nina begins the dance her audition is interrupted by the late arrival of new dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis). Already fearing imperfection and disappointing Thomas, she loses focus as Lily noisily closes the door and stops. Despite her flawless performance as the White Swan, Thomas is not impressed by Nina's performance, stating she failed to capture the sensuality of the Black Swan. Nina goes home to her mother and bursts into tears and practices her dance moves until she cracks her big toe nail. Later, when her mother tucks her in, Nina tells her she can go to Thomas the next day and tell him she finished the Black Swan dance, but her mother tells her there is no need to lie and Nina nods in defeated agreement.The next day, Nina visits Thomas in his office and tells him she finished the Black Swan dance at home and wants the role. He tells her that he's decided to give it to another dancer, Veronica (Ksenia Soto). She says 'okay' and begins to leave but he slams the door and asks her why she's giving up. He grabs her face and kisses her passionately. Angered by this unwanted advance, Nina bites him on the lip and runs out of his office which both shocks and impresses Thomas.The girls begin running down the hall to find out who has been chosen as the new Swan Queen. Feeling certain she didn't get the role, Nina congratulates Veronica for getting it. The girl runs to see the posting but walks back to Nina and berates her for the cruel joke before walking off down the hall. Stunned and confused, Nina goes to look at the posting. As she approaches, several girls gather around her shouting congratulations at her. Overjoyed, and nauseous, she runs to the bathroom where she calls her mother from one of the stalls and tells her that she won the part. When she leaves the stall she sees the word "whore" written on the mirror in red lipstick and frantically struggles to wipe it off. When Nina gets home, her mother has ordered her a beautiful pink and white frosted cake -- strawberries and cream, their favorite from the local bakery -- that she presents to Nina when she walks in the door to celebrate Nina acquiring the role in the ballet. Her mother starts to cut her a slice but Nina refuses, telling her she can't eat something like that and when her mother gives her a look, Nina continues, saying that her stomach is still in knots. Becoming angry, her mother begins to throw the cake out which leaves Nina feeling guilty. She accepts a slice and takes a small bite.Over the next several days, the stress of the role and her inability to perform get to Nina. She begins seeing a darker version of herself in random passers-by.Thomas holds a gala to officially announce Beth's "retirement" and Nina's rise as the Swan Queen. Nina goes to the bathroom and on her way out encounters Lily coming in. In front of Nina, Lily takes off her panties and puts them in her purse, then sits down on vanity. She congratulates Nina on her role, but Nina is uncomfortable and attempts to excuse herself. Lily playfully asks her to stay, but Nina leaves.As Nina and Thomas leave the party, Thomas is briefly called back inside. Intoxicated, with her eyes dripping with black mascara from crying, Beth confronts Nina and asks her if she had to suck Thomas' cock to get the role. Nina is offended, and tells Beth that not everyone has to. Beth continues to rant until Thomas appears and diffuses the situation, soothing Beth by calling her "My little princess." Beth shouts after them as Thomas leads Nina out. He takes Nina back to his place. When they sit on the couch, he brusquely asks her if she she's a virgin. She looks away and smiles uncomfortably. He asks if she likes making love and when she won't answer, he gives her a homework assignment: she must touch herself and find her sexuality so that she may better inhabit the role.Later, when Nina's mother is helping her dress for bed she sees scratches on Nina's back, and asks what they are from. Nina says they're nothing but a rash and her mother becomes angry and hints that Nina hasn't scratched herself like this since she was younger, and she thought Nina was over this. Nina tries to brush her off but her mother grabs her hand and takes her to the bathroom to cut her fingernails with scissors. She accidentally cuts Nina's finger and apologizes profusely but continues to trim Nina's nails.Nina wakes up the next morning and begins touching herself as Thomas asked. When she becomes aroused, she goes faster and turns over. As she gets closer, she turns her head to the left and is startled to realize her mother is asleep in the chair next to her bed.The next day the company is practising and a girl runs in, crying hysterically. She runs to the teacher who comforts her and asks what happened. She says Beth is in the hospital after an accident when she got hit by a passing car. Later, Nina is sitting at the edge of a fountain with Thomas and he tells her he believes that Beth threw herself into oncoming traffic. She visits Beth in the hospital where she finds her room filled with beautiful flowers and cards wishing her a quick recovery. As Beth lays comatose in the bed, Nina lifts up the sheet draped over Beth and sees metal bars sticking out of her leg and a huge, infected gash on her calf. Horrified, she quickly turns to leave and bumps into Beth's nurse (Leslie Lyles) who asks what she is doing there.She goes to practice and still cannot get the passion of the Black Swan into her performance. Suddenly the lights go out and Thomas calls for someone to turn them back on, that there are still people rehearsing. The lights come back on, but a clearly disappointed Thomas sends the other dancers home and steps in to dance as Nina's partner. As they dance together, he slowly moves his hands under her thighs and begins touching her. After a deep kiss, he lets go of her and walks away, calling over his shoulder that he just seduced her and that it should be her doing the seducing with her dancing. Nina calls after, pleading, but he does not turn back.Nina, feeling defeated in her attempt to be perfect, sits alone and cries in the studio. Lily arrives, sees Nina crying, and lights a cigarette as she walks up. Lily chats casually, implying that Thomas has a tendency of sleeping with the troupe and Nina tries to defend him. Lily realizes that Nina has a crush on Thomas and jokes about it. Infuriated by such a thought, Nina gets upset and leaves.The next day, Thomas angrily asks Nina if she needs time off after a comment from Lily that he should take it easy on her. He says she has no business whining and she fervently defends herself saying she didn't. Angered, Nina tracks Lily down in the troupe dressing room where she is greeted with banter from the other dancers who say that "the queen" is gracing them with her presence on their turf. Lily tells them to shut up and gets up to talk to Nina. Nina berates Lily for telling Thomas that she'd been crying. Lily looks abashed and says she was just trying to help. Nina tells her she doesn't need the help and Lily walks away irritated.That night, Nina and her mother are working on Nina's toe shoes. Erica (Nina's mother) is making small talk that sounds condescending to Nina so she starts answering with slight hostility without looking up at Erica. Her mother asks Nina if she's been scratching and Nina unintentionally pauses just long enough for Erica to not believe Nina when she says "no". Erica tells her to take off her shirt and Nina refuses so Erica stands over Nina and demands it but Nina says no in a biting tone. Before Erica can get her confirmation there is a knock at the door. She answers the door and talks quickly to someone before closing it again. Nina asks who it was but Erica says it was no one, so Nina demands to know again and when Erica still won't tell her she runs to the door and opens it. She sees Lily waiting for the elevator. Nina walks out into the hallway and asks Lily how she knew where she lived and Lily responds with sarcasm. But Nina looks angry so Lily laughingly says she asked Thomas' secretary. Erica opens the door and says Nina needs to come in and rest. Nina tells her to shut the door, which Erica slams. Lily invites her out and Nina says she can't, but after Erica opens the door and tells her once more and tells Nina to come back inside and also asks Lily to leave, Nina pushes the door open to grab her stuff and leaves with Lily, despite her mother's protests shouted down the hall that it's the night before a long day of work and she should stay home.Nina and Lily go out to a local bar for drinks and some food, but Nina is so uptight that Lily offers her a pill to relax, saying it would only last a few hours. Nina turns it down. She goes to the bathroom and returns to see Lily slip the content of the pill into a drink, as she flirts with two guys she is calling Tom (Toby Hemingway) and "Jerry" though he tells her his real name is Andrew. Nina is reassured by Lily that the pills will only last a few hours and downs her glass. The two have a crazy, drugged night of clubbing with two guys. When Nina is next lucid, she finds herself hooking up with a man in a bathroom. She quickly leaves to find a cab and Lily runs to catch up with her. They take the taxi back to Nina's apartment and Lily comes onto Nina and begins gently rubbing Nina's crotch until Nina stops her and just holds Lily's hand.When they get back to the apartment, Nina's mother is waiting for them and asks Nina what she was doing out late. Nina is somewhat belligerent but finally says, "I was with two guys named Tom and Jerry and I fucked them both," and laughs. Nina's mother is horrified and slaps her across the face. Nina grabs Lily and runs into her room, barricading the door with a wood cleat, yelling at her mother to leave her alone. She turns around and looks at Lily, then walks to her and starts passionately kissing her. They move to the bed where Lily undresses Nina and then rips her panties off. Lily begins to orally pleasure Nina and she sees Lily morph into herself and then back to Lily, which scares her. Lily doesn't stop and the two continue to have sex before Lily says, "Sweet girl" before morphing back into dark Nina, who raises a pillow to smother her.Nina wakes up the next morning with a hangover-like headache to find Lily gone and realizes she is late for rehearsal. As her mother sits quietly in the living room, Nina yells at her and asks why she didn't wake her up. Erica says this role is destroying her and as Nina rushes out the door, she tells Erica that she is moving out.When Nina arrives at the ballet studio, she finds Lily in her costume, practising her routine with the rest of the troupe. When Lily walks up to Nina, she says she was only filling in because Thomas had asked her to. Nina then questions Lily about why she left her house the night before, and Lily claims she went home to her place with Tom where they spent the night, and that last time she saw Nina was at the club. When Nina brings up what happened in her bedroom, Lily is flattered that Nina had a lesbian wet dream about her. She playfully asks Nina if she was any good but Nina gets embarrassed and leaves, looking uncomfortable and frustrated, wondering if her lovemaking with Lily had really happened or not.A little later, Nina is being fitted for her Swan costume. When she's done, Lily walks in and says Thomas made Lily Nina's alternate. Enraged and afraid, Nina finds Thomas and begs him not to make Lily her alternate, convinced that Lily is trying to steal the role from her. As Nina begins to cry, Thomas soothes her before telling her she is being paranoid. He tells her that the only person trying to sabotage Nina is "Nina".That night, Nina is practising when the piano player suddenly stops playing and gets up to leave, telling Nina he has a life. He tells her not to practice too long and leaves her alone in the studio. As she begins dancing again the lights shut off just as they had when shed been practising with Thomas. She calls out for someone to turn the lights back on, and sees a cloaked figure darting around in the shadows (the Sorcerer from the dream). She hears laughter and follows the noise to find Thomas having sex with Lily (which morphs into Nina) on a work table behind a curtain. Lily smiles at Thomas and laughs. This brings tears to Nina's eyes and she runs back to her dressing room where she grabs the items she took from Beth when the room was still hers.In a fit of hysteria, Nina goes to the hospital to find Beth sitting motionless in a wheelchair, now a mere shadow of the woman she used to be. Nina quietly places a note and the items she stole on the table next to Beth, when Beth suddenly stirs and grabs Nina's arm. Beth is angry and asks what Nina is doing, then she looks down and sees the items on the table. She asks Nina in an amused but irritated voice why she stole from her. Nina says she just wanted to be perfect like Beth. As Beth looks at the items, she says she's nothing and then notices the nail file. She continues to say she's nothing as she suddenly stabs herself in the face with the file repeatedly. Nina finally grabs the nail file from Beth's hand and runs fearfully from the room to the elevator. As she gets in the elevator, she drops the bloody nail file.Nina returns home, dashing hysterically into the kitchen to wash her hands which are covered in Beth's blood. When she turns the kitchen light off, she hears someone whisper "sweet girl", at which she turns the light back on to see Beth standing there with her face covered in blood. She runs to the bathroom and vomits into the toilet. She then calls down the hall for her mother, walking toward her mother's art studio, hearing voices coming from the studio. As she peers in, she imagines her mother's paintings moving and talking to her. She runs in and starts tearing everything down, and imagines Beth coming towards her with a bloody face, until her mother walks in and, astonished, asks Nina what she's doing. Nina runs past her mother to her bedroom, with Erica close behind. As she tries to reach Nina, Nina slams the door on her hand, breaking it. Nina barricades herself inside with the pipe again. As Nina stands there, her skin begins to shift and take on a bird like texture, her eyes start to turn red, and her knee joints violently invert to the same shape as a bird. The hallucination disorients Nina and she falls and hits her head on a bed post which knocks her out.Nina wakes up the next day as in a normal day, but with socks rubber-banded on her hands and a headache. She looks to her mother, who is sitting next to the bed with a bandage on her hand. Nina asks her mother why her hands are covered and Erica says it is to prevent scratching, that she'd been doing it all night. Nina suddenly realizes it must be late and says she needs to get to the ballet company because its opening day. Her mother says she called and let them know Nina wasn't feeling well and wouldn't be able to perform that night. Nina is furious and gets out of bed. She goes for the door but her mother has locked the door and removed the door knob. Nina turns around and yells at her mother to let her out. Erica tells her she isn't well and the role has taken her over. Nina grabs her mother's broken hand and pulls her out of the chair. As her mother cries and holds her injured hand, Nina takes the door knob out from under the cushion and walks toward the door. Her mother reaches out for her and asks what happened to her sweet girl, and Nina says in a harsh, evil tone, "she's gone", and walks out of the room.Nina arrives at the ballet and ignores whispers from the troupe as she passes them (with the camera following her from behind). She finds Lily in costume talking to Thomas in the hall, prepared to take the stage as the lead. Nina confidently tells Thomas that she is ready to perform and goes to sit down in her dressing room, with Lily asking what's going on behind her. Thomas follows her into the room and says that he's already told Lily she'll be performing. Nina says if she doesn't take the stage then the company will be marred with controversy, after Beth's incident. Thomas looks slightly amused and impressed at her audacity and tells her to get ready.Nina goes on and is just as timid and rigid in her performance as she was during rehearsals. While in the wings she sees Lily flirting with one of the male dancers and also becomes distracted by Lily while they're dancing on stage; subsequently, during a lift, she loses concentration which causes the lead male to drop her. She recovers herself but during an interval, Thomas is enraged and asks what the hell that was all about. Nina blames it on her dance partner but Thomas walks away from her. When she enters her dressing room, Lily is sitting at her dressing table putting on make-up. Nina yells at her to get out of her room. Lily taunts Nina, saying perhaps she should dance the Black Swan's dance as Nina is not fit to dance it, and they begin to fight. Lily morphs into Nina off and on as Nina struggles against her. Nina pushes Lily into the same full-length mirror Beth destroyed and it shatters. As the fight escalates further, Nina grabs a piece of the mirror and stabs Lily in the stomach. Unsure of what to do, Nina hides the bleeding body in her bathroom and then puts on the Black Swan's make-up. She takes the stage and begins to dance with passionate abandon. As she dances with everything Thomas has been asking for, she begins to physically transform into a large Black Swan on stage, growing feathers and wings. She dances the part better than ever and the crowd gives her a standing ovation as the piece ends.Nina runs off stage toward Thomas and, in front of everyone, kisses him passionately after finally seducing him with her movements. He smiles and tells her to go back out for a second bow. After leaving the stage again, Nina goes into her dressing room to change for the next act and realizes the blood is starting to pour out from under the bathroom door. Nina places a towel over the growing pool of blood and then hears a knock at the door. When she opens the door... Lily is standing there. She apologizes for how things turned out between them and congratulates Nina on her amazing performance as the Black Swan. Nina is shocked and bewildered as Lily smiles and walks away. Nina turns around and removes the towel to find there is no blood. She turns to look at the broken mirror pieces from the smashed mirror still on the floor then suddenly moves her hand to her abdomen. She's bleeding, and she reaches into the wound and pulls out a broken shard of glass. (In her unhinged and delusional mind, Nina had stabbed herself before the Black Swan dance, imagining it was Lily). Despite her wound, she dresses for her final act as the White Swan. Nina dances the second act beautifully, which entrances the audience so that they don't see the small stain of blood growing in the mid-section of her white costume.In the final scene of the last act, the White Swan goes to the top of a large structure to commit suicide. Nina does this with grace, looks down at the suitors below, and then turns and falls in slow motion onto the mattress below as her mother sits in the audience, smiling and crying. When the curtain falls, Thomas is overjoyed and newly infatuated with Nina. He is smiling in adoration as he kneels to congratulate her, a crowd of ballerinas gathering around the star. Nina doesn't speak, but instead just smiles and listens to the praise. Lily suddenly gasps - the first to notice the immense blood stain forming on Nina's costume. Someone calls for help, and Thomas frantically asks her, "What did you do?!" Nina calmly and quietly utters, "I was perfect". The crowd continues to roar with applause as the screen slowly fades to white... | dark, psychological, mystery, murder, dramatic, cult, horror, atmospheric, insanity, psychedelic, suspenseful, sentimental | train | imdb | null |
tt0095655 | Moonwalker | The movie starts with Michael Jackson singing his hit song "Man in the Mirror." After that song is over a montage starts of Michael as a kid and works it's way up to present day. After the montage is over, the music video for "Bad" is being remade by various child performers with the name "Badder." After the video is over, the young Michael is walking out of the builiding he is in. Outside, a claymation tourbus pulls up to the builiding. A large cloud of mist is seen on both sides of the builiding and when young Michael walks through, he turns back into present day Michael. The people in the tourbus spots him and begin to chase him.After awhile of chasing, Michael accidently runs into an area where they are filming a movie. The director yells at him and the two actors decide to chase him as well. Michael manages to hide in a wardrobe room and sneak out dressed as a bunny, riding away on a bicycle. The paparazzi soon realize what happened and begin to chase Michael again. Michael's bike shifts into a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and the music video for "Speed Demon" begins. After Michael is sure he has lost his fans he stops in the desert and take off his bunny suit and sets in on a rock. He starts to walk away when something taps him on the shoulder. The bunny suit has come alive and it seems to challenge Michael to a dance contest. After a little dancing, a police officer taps Michael on the shoulder and gives him a ticket, Michael also noticed that the bunny has vanished. Michael gets on his motercycle and just before he rides away, the mountain in front of him takes shape of the bunny and winks at him. Michael smiles back and drives away. Then the music video for "Leave Me Alone" starts.Once the "Leave Me Alone" segment is over, the quite rare, very long "Smooth Criminal" video begins. We see a full moon and three little kids on a rooftop looking at a builiding. Sean (Sean Lennon), Katie (Kellie Parker), and Zeke (Brandon Quintin Adams). Michael steps out of the builiding they are looking at and looks up at the sky. Then we see someone cracking a peanut in his hands, and Michael looks over to them and dodges quickly as henchmen start shooting at him. The two boys in fright, run away, and Katie stays behind frozen. She starts shouting Michael's name and then we go to a flashback.We see Katie, Sean, and Zeke playing in a field with a soccer ball and along with Katie's dog Skipper. Someone kicks the ball and Skipper runs over, picks it up with his mouth and runs into the woods. Michael goes to look for him and Katie comes along with him. They call out to Skipper who is no where to be seen. They soon find a section of the woods covered with nothing but spiderwebs and locate a secret tunnel inside a rock. They both follow it trying to be as quiet as possible. When they see people, they stop on a staircase and look to see what they are talking about. They overhear someone who plans to get every child in the world hooked on drugs. The villan identifies himself as Franky LiDeo (Joe Pesci). Named Mr. Big for short. Katie sees a spider about to crawl on her arm and starts to scream. Mr. Big sees them and sends his gunmen after them.We go back to the building where Michael is trying to dodge the bullets being shot at him. After the gunmen stop shooting, we see that Michael has gotten away and is running for his life. Katie notices this and runs off the building to find her two friends. After a while of running, Michael is cornered in a dead end and Mr. Big and his guards go to kill him when Michael's lucky star goes by. His lucky star can make him do anything or turn into anything. Michael turns himself into a super fast car and speeds past his enemies, escaping.We now see Katie entering an abandoned club, and Sean and Zeke are both hiding there and greet her. They all claim Michael told them to meet him there earlier. They leave the club to make sure they are at the right place, and they run behind a fence when they hear someone coming. Katie looks over and sees Michael transforming back into human form. She is in shock and after she gets better, they all look up and see him entering the club. A burst of white light flashes and Michael enters. It turns out to be a lively, crowded, gangster-infested 1930s American nightclub. Michael is surprised by this, and everyone in there is surprised to see him. Michael feels it is his job to entertain them, and so, he performs his hit song, "Smooth Criminal". Despite the fact that the song "Smooth Criminal" is four minutes and seventeen seconds, this scene is dragged out to be about ten minutes long. Towards the end of Michael's exciting performance, Katie is kidnapped by Mr. Big while Sean and Zeke are still hiding behind the fence. Michael runs out to find what happened and they all go looking for her.They find Mr. Big's lair and enter trying to be as quiet as possible. Sean and Zeke stop while Michael goes ahead. Then a metal door closes behind him, separating them. Michael runs to the center of the room and the boys go to the roof. A spotlight hits Michael and follows him until he is cornered. Then all the gunmen come out and point their guns at him, and two guards go infront of him. We hear Katie screaming as she is coming up an elevator. Mr. Big has a hold of her and is hitting her several times. Michael tries to go to her but the guards hold him back. Mr. Big reveals that he "just wants to get everybod high, " and is about to inject Katie with a drug when she scratches his face and runs to Michael. At the same time, the guard takes the back of his gun, hits Michael once in the stomach and once in the face. Giving him a concussion. Mr. Big catches Katie and pulls her back, turns Michael over and kicks him once in the chest. Michael is on the floor in pain and Katie tries to crawl away but is stoppped, Mr. Big orders the men to kill her first. Michael screams at him to leave her alone when his lucky star flies by and he transforms into a giant robot! Mr. Big manages to escape after Michael has killed all of the guards. Including the guard that was keeping Sean and Zeke on the roof. Michael then turns himself into a space ship and kills Mr. Big when he tries to kill him with a cannon. The kids are confused as to why they were left behind and say goodbye to Michael as he flies away thinking they would never see him again.We then see the kids sitting on a bench in the street saying how much they miss him. Katie gets up to sit in a corner and she says to herself that she wishes he would come back. Just then we see mist and Michael appears out of nowhere. They all see him and run to him in happiness. He tells them to follow him and he leads them to the club, informing them that there is a surprise in store. Once again, a burst of white light flashes when they enter. It is at this point, when the quite rare, very long "Smooth Criminal" video ends, and the "Come Together" sequence begins. This is where the kids get Skipper back, and Michael performs his closing song "Come Together." | neo noir, cult, psychedelic | train | imdb | Michael Jackson may be considered a freak these days, but, after all, this was the man who gave us Thriller (considered by many to be the greatest music video of all time) and set trends with Billie Jean and Beat It.
With Moonwalker, he and the filmmakers and artists who collaborated with him once again took his music and dance moves to create some vividly entertaining stuff, incorporating claymation, special effects, live performance footage, and even self-parody (the "Badder" sequence).
Not because of Michael Jackson but of the good old times I remembered back than when I went to his concerts, enjoying music and dancing.
He likes Michael Jackson as well and I know he will love this movie just as I did when I was a kid.
Some of it has subtle messages about MJ's feeling towards the press and also the obvious message of drugs are bad m'kay.Visually impressive but of course this is all about Michael Jackson so unless you remotely like MJ in anyway then you are going to hate this and find it boring.
Some may call MJ an egotist for consenting to the making of this movie BUT MJ and most of his fans would say that he made it for the fans which if true is really nice of him.The actual feature film bit when it finally starts is only on for 20 minutes or so excluding the Smooth Criminal sequence and Joe Pesci is convincing as a psychopathic all powerful drug lord.
Nah, Joe Pesci's character ranted that he wanted people to know it is he who is supplying drugs etc so i dunno, maybe he just hates MJ's music.Lots of cool things in this like MJ turning into a car and a robot and the whole Speed Demon sequence.
Also, the director must have had the patience of a saint when it came to filming the kiddy Bad sequence as usually directors hate working with one kid let alone a whole bunch of them performing a complex dance scene.Bottom line, this movie is for people who like MJ on one level or another (which i think is most people).
Besides from the seeing the new "This Is It" and saying Im a huge Michael Jackson fan, I thought I would prove it and see a movie he actually did back in his time.
It's a kind of strange combination of a bio of Michael Jackson, a collection of musical vignettes, and a story about a super hero fighting to save some little kids.
The vignettes are good (especially Speed Demon), but the best part of this movie is the super hero segment, in which Michael Jackson turns into a car, a robot, and finally a spaceship (and it's just as weird as it sounds).
Joe Pesci is hilarious, and has enough cool imagery and great music to entertain throughout!The real gem however is the incredible "Smooth Criminal" video, which makes the movie worth owning for that part alone!.
This movie is exciting,daring and the music is very good.The movie Moonwalker was meant to coincide with the album Bad(1987).I have Bad.It is excellent(*****).The movie begins with Michael Jackson performing"Man In The Mirror"on stage.then,it shows a history of Michael,from his early days in the Jackson 5 right up to the Bad era.
Oh,and Badder is good too(Badder is a music video parody of the music video for Bad the single).It then shows the Speed Demon video.The song and the video are very,very good indeed.Same for leave me alone,which appears after.Then it shows the movie Moonwalker.after a few minutes,he plays smooth criminal in a club called club 30s.like it when he does the lean.anyway,nice to see you.bye bye..
Moonwalker by Michael Jackson is a real adventure film for the whole family!Before the real story of the movie starts, we get a performance of the Bad Tour (Man In The Mirror), and it kicks off a great movie.
After a few Music Videos also (Speed Demon, Leave Me Alone, etc.) the story starts.The plot is basically that Michael and his 3 friends (who are kids) are being chased by the bad guy of the story "Mr. Big", because they discovered his evil plans of getting children all over the world hocked on drugs.
But then one of the kids get kidnapped by Mr. Big, and Michael will haft to save her before she gets a drug addict.During the movie we see special effects not only amazing for those days standards, but also impressive today.
The second is a retrospective on Michael Jackson's career, with clips from his music videos and performances from his early career to his "Bad" days (which is the era when the movie was made, and it shows).
The fourth part is a mini-movie which features Michael Jackson escaping from maniacal fans and press by racing a motorcycle as a rabbit-man and eventually doing a dance duel with him (you really need to see it to believe it).
The fifth is a video for "Leave Me Alone", and the sixth and final part is a noir/sci-fi film where Michael and three young kids on the streets who have befriended him try to escape a drug lord (Joe Pesci) who wants Michael's head after the latter discovers his plans to get all kids addicted to drugs."Moonwalker" never made it to theatres in the US (it did, however, in Europe and South America), but that didn't stop the VHS release to be sold in over 800,000 copies within a year of the movie's release.
I won't spoil the rest of the movie for you, but these are my favourite parts.If you are a Michael Jackson fan then this belongs in your collection for sure.
The music in this movie is probably the best Michael Jackson has ever done.
Like another poster pointed out, it was basically a really long music video for the album "Bad" as just about all the songs from the movie appear on that album.
The bits dealing with Michael's younger years are truly fun, and so are some of the special effects throughout (like Will Vinton's work in "Speed Demon"), but the centrepiece of the short film "Smooth Criminal" (pint-sized villain Joe Pesci, as "Lideo" [get it?], wants to get all the children in the world hooked on drugs, and guess who has to stop him?
Clue: His name appears 45 times in the credits) doesn't work, in part because the story stops dead to allow for the "Smooth Criminal" video to be shown in its entirety.The movie's unending and unquestioning adoration of Michael Jackson gets its fullest flower there, although the video for "Leave Me Alone" (in which he basically exploits his life in song while at the same time telling us to go away, something he would later take even further in "Stop Questioning Me" and "Black or White," which set new standards for self-serving BS topped only by Geri Halliwell and Jennifer Lopez) comes close.
If you are a Michael Jackson fan, this is a MUST!!But for those of you who are not big fans, (LIKE THE REVIEWER BEFORE ME) you will not appreciate it.It has no real story, except for the main chunk in the middle which has a bit of a plot, but it's pretty ridiculous.I'll use this example: When you watch an old school Kung-Fu movie from Asia....do you watch it for the acting, style and plot??Normally NO!!
I would like to find better songs of Michael Jackson as I literary hated all of his other videos-clips.
Great Movie For All You Michael Jackson Fans!.
I am a big fan of Michael Jackson and I would like to say this movie is good and exciting to watch.
Great movie for all you Michael Jackson fans!Final Rating: 9 out of 10.
Although I'm fairly sure that if I was a bad gangsta' type and some 10 year old started giving me attitude and asking me `who's bad?' I'd probably get quite angry and shoot him, or at least complain to his parents.It was also quite hard to follow the story, but here's what I could understand: The Michael Jackson character is a nice guy who is wanted by the police, (he's a smooth criminal you see, probably like Keyser Soze), but there's an even badder (or should that be gooder, if bad means good) villain called Mr Big, who tries to get some kids hooked on drugs.
If you've enjoyed either of those experiences or are a fan of Michael Jackson then I recommend Moonwalker.This film is good!.
The 30-minute movie in the middle - with Joe Pesci as the evil drug dealer- is a great chunk of celluloid, and probably has some of the best music Bruce Broughton has written for a film, next to "The Rescuers Down Under.".
But I can't really complain about this seeing as it is Michaels Jacksons songs, many of which coming from his prime in the 80's.Also the music videos that accompany the songs are usually pretty cool.
While I like this movie a lot, I cringe every time I see Michael Jackson doing egotistical or strange things like the actions featured in this film.
I was a kid!To watch it now, it looks cheesy, bad special effects, acting etc, and I'm much older now, so it doesn't appeal anymore.But I still give this movie a high rating because of how it made me feel when I was a kid, Michael Jackson was my hero before I saw this move, and he was my hero after I saw it.The special effects, although bad by todays standards, were totally original, I also loved the lead in with all the history before the music starts, the great scene done with claymation figures chasing Michael, and the great song "Speed Demon" that it leads into.I think this movie has been misinterpreted, personally I think it is a classic, a great movie for kids (in my day it was anyway) because for a child, it is far more spectacular.8 out of 10.
If you like Michael Jackson, this is the movie for you.
If not - then don't bother...Moonwalker is full of cringe worthy "Michael - get away from those children" moments - but in its defence - the "Smooth Criminal" is awesome - cool choreography, cool song and some violence (what more could you ask for!); the action scenes where Michael transforms into a rocket ship shoots stuff makes you feel on acid and the "Leave Me Alone" clip makes Jacko look more bizarre.Joe Pesci is a horrible stereotype of a drug baron - wanting to get kids addicted to crack (of course!).
OK,well what can i say.If i had joined this site a few years ago i would have given this a higher rating.Ill talk about the good points of the film first.Its a wonderful piece of fantasy,the story is to be honest not great,but the film unravels like a dream,which is basically what it is,one long dream sequence,broken with some amazing musical pieces.The whole(random) sequence with Jacko going through the film studios is great.The special effects overall are pretty amazing and still look fairly convincing today(much more convincing than Jacko's defence case).This brings me to the films downfall though.It has nothing to do with the making of it,the production,the ideas,the script,nothing.It is all because it IS a Michael Jackson film that i feel i can only score this four now.I mean really,Michael Jackson coming to Earth to save the kids of the world......seems a bit raw now to say the least.I mean most of the characters are young kids.Michael allies with the young kids.HMMMM,seems a bit seedy now.Just hope the young actors and actresses had separate trailers on set,get me?I mean perhaps if people had known what they know now then,this film would never have been made.
When you look back it does seem the young kids thing has always been there with Michael Jackson,and present events mean this once classic film now leaves a bad taste in your mouth..
Michael Jackson delivered us an glorified an 1hr 45min long compilation of various clips of his work and it bares no significance to the title and within it self didn't live up to the narrative that supposed to be the origin of his iconic dance instead of this slap dash mess of an movie where the main action doesn't heat up until the 45 min mark before then you would have fallen asleep due to the boredom of the first 2 acts of the movie where as his short movie thriller was pure magic that reduced to an mini clip but the montage sequence had armature photo shop FX and kids trying to be bad was awful with worst choreography but I couldn't watch the entire movie but skip to the 45 min mark there is no real redeemed quality what so ever If I want to see a film about moonwalking I'd rather watch Neil Armstrong actually doing it I can't rate it higher but giving it an 4 out of 10.frankie croft smales.
"Moonwalker" is often called as a motion picture but in reality is a mix between a nonsense movie with a collection of Michael Jackson's video clips.
As a video collection with all the best clips of MJ it goes very admirably; but as a film it gets trapped in a never ending and confusing story where things happen for no reason specifically.The montage with excerpts of Jackson's clips is very good to watch leaving the audience expecting for more.
Towards the end of the movie Jackson will be transformed (out of the blue) into a robot just like the Power Rangers.Jackson's fans will love the whole material but the movie aficionados will not enjoy that much specially if they think that this is not a musical film (which is supposed to be and it could have been a great one if it have a plot).
I'm not a big Michael Jackson fan, and some of his music is cheesy, but when does a good one, it's cool, and a lot of the songs in the movie is cool, such as smooth criminal, and speed demon.Quite a few scenes suck big time, like a bunch of children doing the song 'Bad', and nearly all the scenes which involve the three child actors/ress, oh and when he turns in to a space ship (go figure), but there are scenes which are really good, such as when he's dancing to smooth criminal, and when he turns into a car (it's not a cheesy as the space ship thing), and Leave me alone (apart from the elephant man scene, which I think was dis-tasteful,).It maybe an excuse to sell more records, but hey 99% of kids films, is an excuse to sell products related to the film.It's not a classic, but it's okay to watch when there's nothing else on..
Watch the movie.Moonwalker is fun for the first half hour, seeing Michael's success and all his hard work really makes his fans appreciate him once again.
I loved Moonwalker as a kid, I still watch it for fun to this day, but it's not the best movie by any means, it's pretty silly, but it's all good if you're a Michael Jackson fan as well.7/10.
Moonwalker is probably not the film to watch if you're not a Michael Jackson fan.
Songs used in Moonwalker include Man in the Mirror (Opening Live Performance), Bad (Badder Segment), Speed Demon (Claymation and Live Action Segment), Smooth Criminal (Live Action Short Film), and Come Together ("Live" Performance).Plot Overview: Michael receives unexplainable (but very useful) powers from a recurring shooting star.
I mean the bit in the middle with Joe Pesci as the bad guy, and Michael Jackson as the hero, is so absurd.But the collection of video clips, live performances, and montages is great !
I mean the bit in the middle with Joe Pesci as the bad guy, and Michael Jackson as the hero, is so absurd.But the collection of video clips, live performances, and montages is great !
Yeah.But besides the bizarre robot scene, it's a very good movie, and any Michael Jackson fan will enjoy both the Smooth Criminal music video and the movie..
What I like here too is that it never shows any shameful material and can be watched by kids easily.Without Mr Michael Jackson the universe of music videos would be rather poor.
"HIStory I", "HIStory II", and "Moonwalker" are all great, though only "Moonwalker" is more like one movie (with a solid "Smooth Criminal" theme, "paparazzi" topic, and a few weird spoofs and twists).Being no fan of MJ I can still give this "film...
Michael Jackson Moonwalker A Movie Like No Other..
They only said such bad things cause they dont like Michael jackson or his music!!
So at the end of the video, I found out that there was a movie that existed and I was dying to check it out since I love Michael Jackson!Anyways I thought the movie was quite good, I love dancing and embarrassingly singing the words out loud to his songs.
So please go." Now the movie where Michael Jackson fights the drug-dealers, was the most talked-about part of the film.
Overall: Michael Jackson is a smooth criminal, but his movie was nowhere near that.
As a not-particularly Michael Jackson fan, but as someone who nonetheless quick likes a moderate amount of the music and some of the dancing here, a fair amount of Moonwalker holds my attention.
I first saw this when they showed this around easter time 1993/4 and didn't think much of it then, I bought this on DVD last summer when I started getting into Michael Jackson (I liked his music before) and enjoyed it more now I am older.
I am a big fan of Michael Jackson and have watched Moonwalker multiple times through my life since about the age of 10. |
tt0065761 | Il gatto a nove code | Franco Arno (Karl Malden) a middle-aged blind man is walking down a street at night with his niece Lori (Cinzia De Carolis) when they pass by a man in a car. Franco overhears him mention blackmail. Franco bends over, feigning tying his shoes and asks Lori to describe the man in the parked car. Lori does, but says that she cannot see the other man clearly. They walk back to Franco's apartment nearby and while Lori sleeps, Franco works on a puzzle when he hears a noise. Outside, the unseen man in the parked car gets out and knocks out a night watchman by the gate of a large medical complex that stands right next to the apartment building where Franco lives. The unseen man uses a screwdriver to get inside the building, goes to Dr. Calabresi's office, unlocks it and gets inside. A doctor preparing to leave for the night sees the nightwatchman unconsicious and sees a dark figure running away.The next day, the police arrive at the Terzi Institute investigating the break-in. Carlo Giordani (James Franciscus) arrives and bumps into Franco outside the institute and helps the blind man up. Carlo introduces himself and says that he's a reporter investigating the break-in. Inside, Carlo learns that nothing was stolen from the institute. Professor Terzi (Tino Carraro) tells the officers that since nothing is missing, he would rather not reveal the institutes research. Dr. Casoni (Aldo Reggiani) suggests that pictures may have been taken, but Dr. Braun (Horst Frank) says to let the cops handle the matter. Meanwhile, Dr. Calabresi (Carlo Alighiero), (the same man from the car who Franco overheard) looks at his files in his office and phones someone and agrees to meet with him. Calabresi tells his fiancee Bianca Merusi (Rada Rassimov) that he knows who broke into the institute and what was taken, but he does not wish to tell anyone yet, saying it could mean a "big step forward". At a local train station, while a group of reporters are waiting for an celebrity starlet to arrive from an arriving train, the unseen man approaches Calabresi and pushes him as the train arrives.The next day, Frano and Lori are at home when Lori reads the newspaper for Frano about the "accidental death" of Dr. Calabresi and she tells Franco that the man in the newspaper is the same man she saw in the car the night before. She describes the picture and says that Carlo Giordani wrote the article. The two of them go to see the reporter at the newspaper office and Franco asks if the picture has been cropped. Carlo calls Righetto (Vittorio Congia) the paparazzi photographer who snapped the picture at the last second and he goes back to the orginal and sees a moving hand-arm in the far left of the frame. As Righetto prepares to print the photograph, he is strangled to death with a cord. The unseen killer takes the photo and all the negatives and leaves just seconds before Carlo, Franco, and Lori arrive. Carlo goes inside the apartment and finds the body. Carlo sends Franco and Lori away and calls the police. The investigating officer, Spimi (Pier Paolo Capponi), asks questions to Carlo about the "maniac". Later, Carlo looks through a pair of binoculars at the people leaving the Terzi Institute and describes the doctors to Franco as they leave whom are Mombell, Esson, Casoni, and Braun, as well as Terzi and his daughter Anna (Catherine Spaak).Carlo goes to the Terzi home and he expresses his desire to talk about Calabresi's "accident". Afterwards, Carlo speaks with Anna, and he evades her questions of what he and her father spoke about. The two of them drive away together and Anna drives in full speed to evade a car with two detectives following them. Meanwhile, Franco and Lori go to talk with Bianca, and she says apologetically that she could not find anything in the house relating to her fiancées death. After they leave, Franco asks Lori what he kept hearing while they were talking, and Lori says it was a chain and locket around her neck and that Bianca was fidgeting with it.Elsewhere, Carlo and Anna talk over drinks at a local restaurant where she tells them about the institute's research of "chromosome alteration" and "XYY", the extra Y producing a "criminal tendency" in a person. Carlo then goes to see Dr. Braun at the St Peter's Club and he talks to the doctor about someone being after the institute's secret drug. Braun does not seem vexed.Bianca takes a taxi to Calabresi's parked car in a lot. Inside, she finds a tiny note with an appointment time at the station (and an unseen name) written down. She tapes the note to the inside of her locket. Bianca then calls Franco and says she knows who killed Calabresi, but she will only tell him in person. As Bianca walks down the hallway of her apartment building to return to her apartment, the unseen killer attacks and strangles her with a cord. The killer rummages through her purse, but does not find anything.Franco shows Carlo a note he received in which the killer threatens the "puzzle solver" and the "journalist" or more people will die. Carlo talks to Franco that he found out that two of the doctors, Casoni, being fired from his last job, and Braun having received a lot of money. Carlo goes to see Casoni and the doctor talks about the institute's "wonder drug" and the "XYY pattern". Carlo then asks Dr. Mombell about XYY, and the doctor says that everyone in the institute was tested, but their results are confidential.The unseen killer approaches Carlo's front door and injects two milk cartons, dropped off by the local milkman, with a syringe. A little later, Carlo arrives home and brings the milk cartons inside. Anna arrives shortly thereafter and they talk about more about the research and of her results of the XYY test. Their talk leads to a kiss and they end up having sex. Afterwards, Carlo pours himself and Anna a glass of milk from one of the cartons when Franco phones saying that someone tampered with the gas line on his stove, flooding his apartment with methane gas and also may try to kill Carlo. Carlo notices the milk that had bled from the cartons from the hypodermic needle holes and knocks the glass away from Anna before she can drink it. Carlo smells and tastes the milk and deduces that it has been poisoned.The following day, Carlo meets with one of his old friends and informants, named Gigi the Loser (Ugo Fangareggi) (so-named since he spent time in prison), for help in investigating the Terzi break-in which may have been an inside job. Carlo and Gigi break into Terzi's house and discover that Anna is adopted and (via a diary) that Terzi apparently "adored" the woman. Carlo then goes to the police station and learns from Spimi that Bianca often met with Braun and that the cops cannot find the doctor. Carlo then runs a story in the newspaper about Braun being a suspect in the break-in, and a former gay lover of Manuel approaches Carlo and tells him where Braun is hiding. Carlo goes over to the apartment where he is attacked by Manuel (Braun's new lover). Carlo wins the fight, and sees Braun lying dead on the couch. But the police conclude that Manuel had nothing to do with the break-in and that he murdered Braun out of a jealous rage.A few days later, Franco contacts Carlo where he recalls Bianca's locket and suggests that the note that she found of the killer's name might still be there. Franco and Carlo head to the cemetery and open Bianca's family crypt. Carlo gets her coffin open while Franco waits by the door. Carlo finds the locket that was buried with Bianca, opens it, and discovers the note behind a metal plate and hands it to Franco. As Carlo closes the coffin, Franco shuts the crypt door, locking Carlo in. After spending a few minutes in the dark crypt, Franco opens the door again and walks inside without his dark sunglasses with a bruise on his face, and a large blade protruding from his walking cane that's speared with blood. Franco tells the reporter that he was attacked outside by the killer who told him that he has Lori as a captive, and was forced to give him the note. But Franco tells him that he managed to stab the killer with his cane. Meanwhile, Lori is hit on the head and put in the back of a car. Franco and Carlo find the taxi (which the killer and Lori rode in) and discover blood in the back seat. The unseen killer then calls Franco and tells him that he will hold Lori for a while and to stop investigating the break in, and the murders.Carlo goes to the police to report the kidnapping and they go to the Terzi house, and Anna comes down the stairs with cloth wrapped around her hand. Carlo tells her about the father-daughter "relationship" that he knows about and expresses suspicion about the milk incident (Anna had the glass of poisoned milk for some time without drinking it). But Anna claims that she only cut her hand on a broken vase and was nowhere near the cemetery which was just a few hours ago. She is irate that Carlo suspects her of being the killer. But with little evidence to arrest her, Carlo and the others leave.Carlo and the police arrive at the Terzi Institute and search the place for Lori whom Carlo suspects that the killer is one of the doctors, but they find nothing. As Carlo walks on a stairwell, he finds blood on his collar, and he thinks back to the room he just came from. He returns to the room and sees blood dripping from the ceiling. He climbs up to the roof and chases an unseen person. Then the unseen person turns around and it is Casoni who hits him in the face and kicks Carlo to the ground. Casoni, with a stab wound to his stomach, goes to a back room where a gagged Lori is and prepares to stab her. Carlo runs in and tackles the killer, but gets stabbed in the chest. Just then the police arrive on the roof and chase Casoni, but he gets caught by Franco who stops him with his cane blade. Franco asks about Lori, and Casoni (deranged to the last) tells Franco that he killed her. Enraged, Franco swings his cane at Casoni who tries to run and pushes the deranged doctor through a sky window and he falls down an elevator shaft to his death, just as Lori calls out for Franco. | avant garde, cruelty, murder, neo noir, cult, horror, sadist, violence, insanity, psychedelic, humor, romantic, suspenseful, storytelling | train | imdb | null |
tt0093974 | Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 | On Christmas Eve, Ricky Caldwell (Eric Freeman) is sitting in a interrogation room and smoking a cigarette when an orderly enters and places a tape recorder on a table. Dr. Henry Bloom (James L. Newman) enters, puts a reel of tape in the machine, sets up a microphone and tells the orderly to leave. The doctor introduces himself and tells Ricky that he is his court-appointed therapist and is Ricky's last chance. Ricky is very hostile and belligerent, but Henry tells him to sit down and tell him how he came to be here for his crimes. Henry begins by asking Ricky a series of questions beginning with who killed his parents. Ricky tells him that it was Santa Claus. Ricky then tells Henry the story about his parents murders. In a flashback to 1971 (from the first 'Silent Night, Deadly Night' movie), Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell along with their children, five-year-old Billy and one-year-old Ricky are driving along a snowy highway and stopped by a hitchhiker dressed as Santa whose car has broken down. The man in the Santa costume shoots the father and drags the mother from the car where he stabs her while Billy watches from a distance.Ricky then talks about his stay at the orphanage (another lengthy flashback to the first movie), where he and Bill where "taught" by the abusive and sadistic Mother Superior about naughtiness and punishment. Billy was afflicted with nightmares about his parents murder, but Mother Superior only abused him more, believing that because he witnessed evil, Billy would turn out evil.As Henry switches the tape for a new one, Ricky then starts talking about 18-year-old Billy's job at a toy store and all about how Billy snapped on Christmas Eve in 1984 and went on a killing spree, murdering four store employees, two teenagers, as well as one teenage bully sledding before killing a policeman and going to the orphanage where he tried to ax Mother Superior but was shot and killed the police before he could do so. The young Ricky witnesses the whole thing with the other orphans.Henry switches another tape again before Ricky then says that they closed down the orphanage afterwords, but that one of the more friendly nuns, Sister Mary, sent him to live with the Rosenburgs, a friendly Jewish couple that did not celebrate Christmas. While on the street with his foster mother shopping, young Ricky is frightened by two approaching nuns, which remind him of the abuse he and all of the other orphans suffered at the hands of Mother Superior and most of the other nuns. Ricky is also afraid of the color red, which reminds him of the Santa murders and of seeing his brother gunned down. Martha Rosenburg sees Ricky react to a car backfiring which reminds him of the gunshots that killed his brother and leads him away. Despite the incident, Sister Mary convinces Mr. and Mrs. Rosenburgs that they have to keep watching Ricky.Some years later, Ricky's foster father, Morty, dies. One summer day, 15-year-old Ricky (Darrel Guilbeau) is out for a walk along a rural road in a park. He sees a young couple, Eddie and Paula, lying in the grass on a blanket. Eddie is too forward with Paula and forces himself on her. While Eddie is attempting to rape Paula, he hits her. Ricky sees this and says "Naughty!" to himself. Paula stops Eddie from raping her by hitting him in his crouch. He gets up and goes to his Jeep which is the color red. Ricky gets in the vehicle first, starts it up with the keys still in the ignition and hits Eddie and roles over him back and forth. Paula witnesses the murder and actually thanks Ricky for killing her abusive boyfriend. Ricky walks away having secured his first kill. Dr. Henry Bloom writes down "red car" in his notes.Ricky then talks that when he graduated from high school three years later, he got a job as a dishwasher in a local restaurant. One evening, while taking out the trash, the grown-up Ricky witnessed a loan shark trying to collect from a deadbeat and beating the man in the alley behind the restaurant. The loan shark wipes the sweat from his forehead with a red handkerchief, and Ricky then attacked. The super-strong Ricky picked up the loan shark and shoved an umbrella through his stomach and opened it, leaving the dead thug behind as it started to rain.In the present, the increasingly worried Henry, wipes his face with his own handkerchief, but notices a red 'B' on it and puts it away before Ricky can see it. Henry realizes that Ricky has described two previous unsolved murders and finally figures out that the color red makes Ricky go violent. Henry suddenly angers Ricky when he asks him about a woman named Jennifer. Henry shows a photo of Jennifer, and Ricky calms down and says that Jennifer was the only person and thing he ever cared about.In another contemporary flashback, set a few years after the loan shark murder, Ricky first met Jennifer (Elizabeth Clayton) in a parking lot at a local grocery store when she accidentally bumps into his motorcycle with her car and knocked him over. She offered to pay for the damage and soon, it was love at first sight for both Ricky and Jennifer. They later ride on Ricky's motorcycle, and kiss and spend some personal time together. Ricky tells Henry that his intimate moments with Jennifer were the happiest times he had in his life.Later, Ricky and Jennifer go out to see a movie. Ricky is annoyed by an idiot seated several rows behind him making noise. As Ricky and Jennifer prepare to kiss, the idiot makes kissing sounds. Jennifer tells Ricky that the movie they are about see is about a guy who dresses up as Santa and kills people. Ricky, apparently inspired, stands and leaves. When Ricky is gone, another guy named Chip (Kenneth Bryan James) sits next to Jennifer and talks about their old relationship. She is mad because Chip cheated on her, but Chip mocks the muscular Ricky. In the back row, the idiot is still talking constantly, but finally shuts up when Ricky attacks and knocks him out. Chip tells Jennifer that he will be home all summer and to call him, but she refuses. Chip then goes back and sits down in his own seat with his latest girlfriend Roxanne. Ricky returns to Jennifer and she wants to leave, but he says that he is enjoying the film.A few days later, Ricky and Jennifer are walking down a sidewalk in a residential neighborhood, hand in hand, happy to be together. They pass Chip's house where Chip is working on his red car outside on the street. He approaches them and makes fun of both of them. He holds onto Jennifer until Ricky confronts him and orders Chip to leave him and Jennifer alone. Chip mentions having sex with Jennifer while they were together, and an enraged Ricky grabs him and shoves jumper cables into Chip's mouth and electrocutes him. Jennifer yells at Ricky that she hates him for killing her ex-boyfriend. But Ricky, jealous that Jennifer had sex with Chip before they did, rips off the car's antennae and chokes her to death. A local rent-a-cop arrives and points a gun at Ricky, but he turns the weapon on the rookie cop and shoots him. Ricky takes the gun and goes out on a shooting spree, killing a neighbor who comes outside asking about the gunshot. Having finally been driven to the point beyond insanity, Ricky then walks down the street and shoots and kills another neighbor who is taking out the trash. (Ricky yells "garbage day!" before shooting him.) A little girl riding a bicycle bumps into Ricky, and says "excuse me, mister!" in a polite tone. Ricky tells the little girl that it's okay and lets her ride off. He moves on down the street and shoots at a moving red car, which crashes and explodes. Another few minutes later, the police arrive and order him to put down his gun. With nowhere left to go, Ricky points the gun at his head, and gets a click. He is all out of bullets, thus allowing the police to arrest him.Ricky finishes his story to Henry and says that it was a shame that he was stopped before was finished, and says that he intends to continue his killing spree to end it where his older brother Billy failed. Ricky passes by the doctor, who is lying dead at his desk having been strangled with a reel of tape (apparently while Ricky was describing his murder of Jennifer). Ricky walks out of the room and attacks people outside.Sister Mary (Nadya Wynd) arrives at the hospital after Ricky's escape and tells a police lieutenant investigating Dr. Henry Bloom's murder that Ricky intends to kill Mother Superior. She explains that several years earlier, Mother Superior had a stroke and is retired having been confided to a wheelchair and having been suffering from cancer for the past year and also lives alone.On a street, Ricky kills a Salvation Army Santa and takes his uniform, as well as arms himself with a two-bladed ax, intent on killing Mother Superior for all the abuse and to finish what Billy was going to. Ricky then calls the wheelchair-bound Mother Superior from a pay phone and says "Santa's Back!"Mother Superior manages to call the police to come over to her house just as Ricky arrives. He axes his way through the front door and calls out for Mother Superior to get what is coming to her. She rolls her wheelchair into a room and slides a dresser in front of the door. As Ricky axes things around the house, she rolls out of the room and to the stairs where Ricky attacks her from behind and causes her to fall down the stairs. She gets to another wheelchair at the bottom and tells "Richard" to come out and face her. When Ricky finally shows himself, she says that she is no longer afraid and that Ricky is being naughty and needs to be punished. Ricky lifts the ax.The police and Sister Mary arrive at the house where they find Mother Superior sitting at a table. Her head falls off as Sister Mary touches her shoulder. Ricky appears with the ax in his hands and is about to strike Sister Mary but gets shot by several policemen and flies back out a glass back door. Sister Mary awakens from her faint where the police lieutenant tells her "it's over". She turns and sees Mother Superior's severed head lying next to her. Sister Mary screams. Outside on the back porch, the police surround Ricky who is probably dead. But in the final shot, Ricky weakly opens his eyes... still alive. | cruelty, murder, violence, revenge, entertaining, sadist | train | imdb | Half of the movie a recap of the original SNDN (I had never seen SNDN @ this time so it didn't bother me and still doesn't) The new footage is 100% camp gold.
Eric Freeman's eyebrows and nostrils chew up every frame they're in and his over the top delivery makes brilliant catch phrases out of something as simple as 'RED CAR' and 'GARABAGE DAY' (I still imitate him when putting out my trash.) W/ this one viewing this movie became a personal favourite and take it in just about every Xmas since (and occasionally throughout the year / I did originally see it in July).
This is why while the original Silent Night Deadly Night is a personal favorite of mine, this film is possibly one of the worst sequels of all time.Silent Night Deadly Night 2 focuses on Ricky, the younger brother of Billy who was the original "Santa Claus" killer from the original.
All you have to do is put on a red t-shirt and he will probably wet himself (although by the end he has inexplicably gotten over this fear and dons a Santa suit).In one mind-boggling sequence, Ricky takes his girlfriend to the movie theatre to watch the original Silent Night Deadly Night.
Eric Freeman's ridiculously over-the-top acting as Ricky, accompanied by eyebrows that seem to bounce around his face like they've been injected with acid, turn his "Garbage Day" rampage into a laugh riot as he blows up cars with his pistol and shoots at people taking out the trash.
By the end of the film the director seems to be trying to turn Ricky into some sort of classic horror movie villain, as he is practically unfazed as he is remedially shot in the chest.
However, over half of the running time consists of boring, recycled footage from the original Silent Night Deadly Night, which makes it not worth the time to get to the "good" stuff.
It told the story of a young man who snapped and went on a killing spree while wearing a santa costume.Part 2 tells the story of his brother who is basically doing the same thing but is a tad brighter.Sadly the first third of the film is heavily flashbacks so it feels like you're watching the first film all over again.
When the new material kicks in it's essentially more of the same.The original film despite it's fame remains to me as a distinctly average feature and this sequel is about on par.A couple of fairly original deaths, a competent lead playing the manic Ricky Caldwell and the usual tropes and cliches of the sub-genre.It's astounding that this managed 5 movies total, hopefully they haven't peaked already with this one as I'm part 3 bound shortly.The Good:Eric FreemanFollows on from the first film well enoughThe Bad:FAR too much footage from the first filmThings I Learnt From This Movie:A nun would have no problem moving into house no.666Nuns are trained in the art of wheelchair ninjutsuThe church provides a spare wheelchair in case of acts of god.
Little Ricky(Eric Freeman),the brother of our killer Billy from "Silent Night,Deadly Night",is grown up now and has inherited his brother's dislike for naughtiness.In the office of his 13th psychiatrist,he tells his family's background,including events following the first movie,where Ricky kills random people."Silent Night,Deadly Night Part 2" offers nothing new in comparison to the original.In fact the first 35 minutes or so are just flashbacks from the first film.The acting of Eric Freeman is incredibly lousy,however the killing spree in a yuppie neighborhood is slightly amusing to say the least."Silent Night,Deadly Night Part 2" is mildly entertaining in its intentional awfulness-that's why I'd give it 5 out of 10.Stick with the original..
Firstly, yeah half the movie is clips from the first one, but at the time Silent Night, Deadly Night 1 was pretty much banned, so the powers that be originally wanted the director to just re-cut part 1 and call it part 2.
There are great films, there are run-of-the-mill films, there are bad films and then there films just so unique that they have to be seen, this is one of those movies.The movie starts off with Ricky, the brother of the killer from the first film (who didn't actually witness most of the stuff in the movie) telling the story of the first movie to a psychologist in a mental institution through a series of flashbacks of footage from the first film.
This leads to plenty of killing, all gloriously over-acted especially when he gets into the suburbs.During this segment they even manage to cram more footage from the first movie in by having them go see the film at the cinema in a scene that is as funny as it is stupid.If you've recently seen the first film then the first half hour could be a bit of a bore but this is certainly one of those films that's so bad that it's really good fun.And when you find out that what they were originally asked to do was to just edit the first film differently and call it a sequel.
You get 35 minutes of flashbacks from the original movie in this one (including seemingly endless scenes of unnecessary dialogue), and to make it even more ridiculous they replaced two of the main characters (Mother Superior and Young Ricky), so that these parts, given the length of the flashbacks, are actually played by two different actors in the same movie!
In case of Young Ricky it may not seem that important, as he is only seen for a few minutes, but the Mother Superior is a leading role both in flashbacks and sequel, and even the inspired disfigured-face-make-up can't hide the fact that there is no resemblance whatsoever between Mother Superior #1 and #2.After you survived the flashbacks from the first movie you get another 30 minutes of new ones showing Ricky's childhood, his first love affair and also dozens of killings.
Needless to say, there is no suspense involved here.For the rather short showdown with Mother Superior #2, Ricky finally dresses up as Santa Claus, but without the beard, so even now it's not the real thing.This is definitely one of the worst movies I have ever seen, and I still can't believe that it actually made it to the cinemas and video stores..
SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT PART 2 would have been subtitled FLASHBACK because the first hour or so Ricky (Brother of Billy in the first film discusses his life) Past life that is!
There are bad movies, and then there's "Silent Night Deadly Night 2." Made up of nearly thirty minutes of footage from the original film, followed by one of the cheapest, least effective continuations imaginable, resulting in the worst slasher sequel of the 1980s.
Before Troll 2 and Tommy Wiseau's The Room, there was Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2 featuring Eric Freeman as Ricky Caldwell with his epic eyebrows and his infamous 'Garbage Day' line.The first half of the movie is just cut scenes from the original with Ricky talking about it to Dr. Henry Bloom, the 13th Doctor to interview Ricky and try to diagnose him.
After escaping from the asylum and donning a Santa Claus suit (in the last 10 minutes of the movie) Ricky's final target is Mother Superior, the demented nun who traumatized and abused Billy in the original film.
If you love Christmas, garbage day, and awesomely cheesy bad horror flicks from the 80's, I highly recommend SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT PART 2!!!.
With the first film being nothing short of a masterpiece of slasher cinema, this film is a complete and utter disappointment.So much potential...wasted.The entire first half is a cheap rehashing of the first film...making the entire thing come off as a lazy cash grab (though I can't imagine word of mouth did it any good).What is most frustrating, is that they set themselves up so perfectly for a sequel at the end of the first film.
It's boring, drawn out, uninspired, poorly acted, and chock full of some of the most patently ridiculous kills you'll ever have the displeasure of watching.The whole story is retold here, from the perspective of Billy's (the antagonist from the first film) now institutionalized little brother- in flashbacks- despite the fact that he couldn't possibly have been privy to many details (as all parties involved would end up deceased).Far too much time is dedicated to the attempted development of our antagonists psychological character...and what follows simply doesn't make up for it.In the end, this film fails in every regard, where the original managed to succeed...and is simply a waste of time.2 out of 10..
Do yourself a favor and skip the first hour of the movie, it is a literal recap of the first movie, I don't mind it when movies decide to make a different pov of an interesting story but this is literally shot for shot footage of the original movie.I basically think the director wanted make a second film, but ran out of time and just put this sloppy mess together.Other than that the main characters overacting is worth to watch it a least once just for a laugh.
Remember the end of Silent Night Deadly Night (1984) when Billy was shot, you could see the open ending when his younger brother Ricky was seen at the end, his face said enough, let's look out for part 2.
Ricky (Eric Freeman), the brother of the killer in the first film, talks to a psychiatrist (James Newman) about how he became a brutal killer after his brother died, leading back to Mother Superior (Jean Miller).I can say with confidence that this movie ranks among the worst in the horror genre.
Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987) This must be the cheapest sequel ever, 75 % of the movie, was just flashback to the first movie, They even go to cinema to watch first movie, are you kidding me!Now Ricky the ones who's controls.
we all know why we are here ,the overacting of garbage day and Eric freeman are the only good things in the movie.To begin we have to sit threw 40 minutes of the first film which was actually watchable.But who wants to sit threw 40 minutes of the first movie.Watching 40 minutes is a really stupid way to pass time by.That only adds to this movies stupidness.
With worse acting than Troll 2, a plot so derivative that half its run time is footage from the original, a series of gratuitous rape scenes and buckets of bloodshed, this is precisely the kind of movie I'd have been looking for at 3AM on Cinemax during my adolescence.
The plot, and I use that term loosely, is about the little brother from the first movie (played by a distractingly horrible Eric Freeman) sitting in a room telling his life story through flashbacks.
Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 continues the story of Ricky, brother of killer in a Santa suit Billy from the first SNDN film.
Logic flies out of the door in this movie, with bullets flipping cars and Ricky escaping a hospital by merely walking out, so just sit back, relax and enjoy a campy late 80's semi-sequel to the controversial slasher Silent Night, Deadly Night.1½/5.
This one, with almost no budget, attempts to outdoor Boogeyman II with it's flashback footage to make up for the under-written story.The story is like this: it opens in a mental hospital for the criminally insane where we see a brooding, chain-smoking Ricky (Eric Freeman) the younger brother of the killer Billy (from the first SNDN movie) being interogated by a court psychiatrist, named Dr. Bloom, to determine if he's sane to stand trial for a series of murders Ricky commited.
The flashback footage, (the first SNDN film), has the infant Ricky and his five-year-old brother Billy witnessing their parents murder on Christmas Eve by a highwayman in a Santa Claus suit.
Billy is then shot by a detective before he can ax Mother Superior, who deserved it more than any of Billy's victms.Then there are the 'contemporary flashbacks' with young Ricky raised by his adoptive parents, and killing a total of eight people, (five in the last part with some far-fetched, but enjoyable shootings.) Ricky finally escapes and goes on another rampage dressed as Santa to finish what his brother Billy failed to do: kill Mother Superior.Despite the low-budget qualities, this picture moves right along and includes a quite entertaining performance by Eric Freeman who seems to be modeled after Jack Nicholson's character in The Shinning.
So much footage is shown from part one, that when the end credits are shown, they list the full cast and crew of this movie and part one also.In the second half, we get to see short vignettes, only of about 5 or 10 minutes each, involving the killer form the first movie's younger brother (mostly played by Eric Freeman, who is over acting so much it looks like his eyebrows are going to fly off of his face) relating to his shrink about growing up and killing several people along the way: running over one guy with a jeep, strangling an obnoxious prick in a movie theatre, strangling gorgeous 'Liz Kaitan/ Cayton with a car radio antennae, stealing a cop's gun and shooting people at random on the streets with it.
Without the flashbacks and slow end credits, this film would only run about 45 minutes long.Like the first one, this bizarre little pseudo comedy is kind of funny in a "so bad it's good" type of way..
If this is the case, then they failedthe film is just tedious garbage.The first half of the film rehashes footage from the so-so original, adding a terrible voice-over from the abysmal Eric Freeman, who plays Ricky, the equally demented brother of Billy, the Santa-suit wearing maniac from 'Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 1'.
The second half follows Ricky after he escapes from his loony-bin, and goes on a murderous rampage.The film seems to have quite a cult following from fans of bad movies, but I'm afraid I can't make that leapit just bored the hell out of me..
This much-maligned sequel to the 1984 cult horror film focuses on the original serial killer's younger brother who recounts his own version of events (from Part 1) to a psychiatrist before describing a recent killing spree.
The biggest drawback of the movie though is the over-reliance on archive footage with over 35 minutes (!) of the original film played out in flashback.
The first 40 minutes (almost half the movie) is just clips from part one, which makes this a terrible viewing if you try and watch the films back to back.
By throwing flashback after flashback of the first film within the first 45 minutes (were half-way there) and having Ricky, the brother of the original Santa killer provide the voice-over.
It was so cheesy, it didn't even look like a theater, the walls were all white and the lights were never turned off during the movie that was being showed (which was incidentally clips from the original "Silent Night, Deadly Night").
There are few killings in the film at all, which one would expect from an '80s slasher film, and when they do happen, the special effects are also laughable and very cheap.Overall, "Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2" is just one big cheap, badly acted, badly scripted, all around bad sequel to a decent horror movie.
This movie LITERALLY lifts 40 minutes of footage from the original "Silent Night, Deadly Night" and uses it to fill the whole first half!
Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 (1987) 1/2 (out of 4) Ricky (Eric Freeman), the younger brother of the first film's killer, is now in a psycho ward where he tells a shrink (James Newman) why he turned into a killer.
So, the first forty-plus minutes of the movie are nothing but flashbacks from the original film but since Ricky never saw what happened how in the hell could he actually flashback to them?
This movie truly sucked.Half of the movie is footage from the first movie,and the acting stinks.This movie picks up where the first one left off,with Billy's young brother,Ricky(Eric Freeman) in a mental institution discussing his brother's death on a recording tape to a doctor.Silent Night,Deadly Night was a good movie,but they really ruined it with the sequel.Watching part 2 is just like watching part 1 again.Why did they waste money on this horrible movie?The movie has no plot,and it has no purpose of being made.One thing I hated is they replaced young Ricky with a different actor,why did'nt they use the same actor?Avoid seeing this movie if you have'nt seen it,don't let the cover fool you.Jacob Young.
This sequel uses a good 40+ minutes of flashbacks from that original film.
Grab a couple of friends, a few brews, and sit down for a good time.If you have seen the first movie watch a couple minutes of the beginning and then just go right ahead and skip the next 45 min or so because it is just footage from the previous film (except a couple parts where it cuts to Ricky being interviewed).Now, at this point you will be thinking this is just a waste of time and you'll want to shut it off....
Question for all you lovers of bad movies: Which film has a run-time filled with mostly flashbacks, a good amount of footage from its predecessor which features a killer Santa Claus, and has a famous scene involving garbage cans?
One really stupid thing in this is that prior to his rampage, Ricky and a girlfriend go to a movie, which just so happens to be about a killer Santa Claus and it's all footage from the beginning of the first film in 84. |
tt3622592 | Paper Towns | Quentin's life changed the day Margo Roth Spiegelman moved next door. He considered her his one true love. They were both close in age, they became close friends and did everything together, until one day they discovered a dead body. Apparently, the man couldn't cope with his impending divorce. Quentin didn't flinch, but Margo took it badly. She showed up one day at his window, saying she discovered that the dead man's wife worked at Sea World, and wanted to go out with him to Sea World to solve the mystery. Quentin refused to go as it was 11:00 pm, and they were kids, so she rode her bike there without him. Quentin comments that Margo loved mysteries so much she became one. Her life was a series of epic adventures.We cut to them as teenagers. Margo (Cara Delevingne) was one of the popular kids at high school who did whatever she wanted, Quentin (Nat Wolff) is not, and they aren't really friends after that night in childhood. She went as a groupie for three months with a band among other things.One night, Margo crawls through Quentin's window and asks to borrow his car. Her parents keep their car keys in a safe under their bed every night, with a dog nearby who hates Margo (the dog will bark and wake them up). Since Quentin doesn't have a car, they use his mom's.They head to Costco and buy lots of plastic Saran Wrap, a raw catfish for cooking, Petroleum Jelly, spray paint, a steering wheel lock and Nair. Margo plans to exact revenge on all who have wronged her. Her boyfriend Jase (Griffin Freeman) is cheating with one of her best friends Becca (Caitlin Carver), so they first head to her house. Waiting outside, Margo sees Jase's car, and places the lock on his steering wheel as she knows he never locks the car. She then calls Becca's house and informs her dad that Becca is having sex in his basement. Her dad storms downstairs to discover the two of them in her room. Margo hands Quentin the camera before Jase runs out, and instructs Quentin to take a picture of Jase running naked across the lawn. Jase sees him but continues running. Quentin is scared, as Jase is on the football team and can beat him up, so Margo points out Jase's microscopic penis and says Jase won't beat him up if he threatens to release the photo. They both then run into Becca's room, while Becca is elsewhere, quarreling with her dad. Margo throws a fish in her closet and sprays an M on the wall.The next house they head to is Lacey's (Halston Sage), Margo's best friend. Margo is upset because Lacey knew Jase and Becca were cheating but said nothing. Margo saran-wraps her car, and sprays an M on it.The next house they head to is a guy who told all the girls in 6th grade not to dance with Quentin; this one is for him. She tells him to spray Nair on one of his eyebrows while she locks the door and puts Petroleum Jelly on the handle. As Quentin wipes off the nair and his eyebrow, the guy wakes up. They run out of his house, pulling the door behind them and he is unable to open it as the Jelly on the door makes it hard to unlock.The next place they head to is a business building. Quentin is hesitant to enter as he doesn't want to be caught trespassing because he has his whole life ahead of him; Duke University, med school, kids at age 30 and he looks forward to being happy. She is confused that he will wait until he's 30 until he's happy. She also lets him know that the guards name is Gus. They walk in, and Gus lets them in saying, "Mi casa is su casa". He and Margo appear to know each other well (the night guard appears to be very young.) They go to a conference room over-looking the city. She point at all the buildings and calls it a paper town with paper people, complaining that no one seems to care about the right things. Quentin is quite smitten with her, and they dance to some music before heading back home. After parking the car, Quentin asks Margo if tomorrow things will change between then. She appears to think they will, but the next day she is absent from school.A few days later, a police officer, Margo's parents and his parents all greet him in the dining room asking when was the last time he saw Margo. He tells them Wednesday night, but leaves out specifics, just saying that she climbed through his window to say hi. Margo's parents decline to file a missing persons report because she has run away five times before, and is now 18, free to do whatever she wants. Quentin also comments that every time she leaves, she leaves clues for her loved ones to come find her (mainly her sister.)Quentin is deeply in love with Margo, and longs to solve the mystery. His two friends, Ben and Radar (Austin Abrams and Justice Smith) help him mourn. One day, he notices her shades are down, showing a band on the blinds, which is weird, as all these years her blinds have never been down. The three guys go to Margo's house (her parents aren't home) and bribe her sister with $20 to let them look around. Her room is filled with records. He searches the records for the band on her blinds. He finds the record he is looking for and sees and writing circled Walt Whitman's niece. Then he sees the Walt Whitman book on her desk and takes it home.He spends the next few days reading the book and comes across a line circled- Unscrew the door themselves from their jams. He proceeds to Margo's house and again bribes her sister with $20 and uses a screwdriver to unhinge her doors to find nothing.Later that night, still reading Walt Whitman's book, he notices a small piece of paper in his door hinge with an address written on it. He calls Radar to join him, but Radar tells him no, they can go the next day as he has plans with Angela, his girlfriend.The next day, all three guys head to a shady part of town, going to the address, to find an abandoned building. Quentin hopes Margo is inside. They enter to see a hole in the wall leading to an abandoned store: still no Margo.The next day in school, Jase approaches Quentin with his friends and tries to beat him up, but he shows him the picture and threatens to release it, and Jase and his friends leave him alone. Lacey approaches Quentin and friends, to find out what happened to Margo, as he was with her on her last night in town. He tells Lacey they're trying to find out, but also lets her know Margo is angry that she didn't let her know about Jase and Becca's affair. Lacey claims she had no idea, but that her boyfriend knew, she really seems concerned for Margo and broke up with her boyfriend when she found out. She also lets him know that now she is without prom date and Ben immediately begins flirting with her, she says she'll be at Jase's party later. The boys seem excited and decide to attend a popular party, now that they have dirt on Jase. Quentin is obsessed with Margo's disappearance and decides not to attend.He goes back to the abandoned room and sees Margo has written on the wall "We live in Paper Towns". Confused, he falls asleep and sees Margo approaching him in a red dress begging him to come find her. Quentin is awoken when Radar calls at the party and lets him know that Ben is drunk, and that they need help to get him home. He arrives, hoping to search Jase's room for clues, but Becca and Jase are banging upstairs. He then heads to the bathroom, and mid pee is interrupted by Lacey, who is hiding in the tub. He joins her (platonically) in the tub, and they discuss life. He lets her know that he and his friends are searching for Margo. Lacey says everyone thinks she's just a pretty face, but she is actually going to Dartmouth in the fall. When Jase interrupts, Quentin knows he can now go search his room. He finds an atlas like one in the abandoned store with a page missing.After one friend pukes in the house, they head to the abandoned building. They look through the other atlases and are startled to find that Lacey has followed them, she wants to know what happened to Margo. He finds the missing page and holds it against the light, to see that Margo has made holes in the map, pointing to where she is headed. He hangs up the map and discovers she is headed to New York, and the one friend says that there are so many towns there that they'll never find her. Quentin then instructs him to look for a Paper Town, made up towns on maps that people place to see if anyone infringes their copyright by copying their map without permission. They find one Agloe, New York.MRS (Margo's initials) edits the Wikipedia page and gives it a population of 1. The four agree to leave immediately in order to make it back to prom, but Radar wants to stop to tell his girlfriend Angela goodbye, and she joins them. The five head on a road trip to New York, and one friend, who needs to pee half hour in, is given bottles to pee in and spills it in the car. So they make a six minute stop to buy food, drinks, new clothes and plan out their trip stops in order to make it home in time for prom.At night, Quentin nearly hits a cow, but Ben spins the wheel and averts is, so they skid and decide to stop for the night. Angela has sex with her boyfriend. Ben and Lacey agree to go to prom together.They arrive in Agloe, New York the next day and find the barn, but it's empty. The rest give up and decide to head back for prom, but Quentin doesn't want to go and is angry they don't want to find her. Lacey loves Margo but says Margo would never do the same for her, Ben and Radar just did it to have one last memory and a fun road trip before they graduate. He gives them the keys and tells them hell find another way home.Quentin hitch hikes to town and buys a bus ticket home, but sees Margo walk by. He runs after her and calls her name. She is surprised to see him there; she left clues for him to find to let him know she is okay, not to join her. He says he loves her, and she is surprised, saying everyone likes the idea of her, but no one really likes her. She buys him a drink and explains she wasn't made for town life, and this is the perfect place to lose, and then find herself, in solitude. She planned to disappear after graduation, but Jase, and Becca's cheating speeded it up. She relents, offering to let him join her, but he decides against it. He wants to go to Duke. They hug, and he tells her that her sister misses her. She says they talk everyday on the phone.Quentin heads back in time to join all of his friends at prom, and the five of them dance and enjoy themselves.The film ends with him saying that someone says they saw Margo doing a play on Broadway, another claiming to see her giving surf lessons in Malibu. | revenge, romantic | train | imdb | She is defined by her absent gazes into the world, her love for "random capitalization" in her writing because "the rules are so unfair to the letters in the middle of words," and her statements about her town, Orlando, Florida, being a paper town with "paper houses and paper people." She also happens to be the apple of Quentin's (the former "Naked Brothers Band" lead singer Nat Wolff) eye since she moved in his subdivision when they were young; he considers living next to her his sole miracle in life.
Stunned that the love of his life has waltzed through his window for the first time in years, Quentin takes Margo and peels off in his minivan to exact revenge on Margo's cheating boyfriend and her friends who didn't help her in her time of need.Upon having the greatest night of his life, Quentin wakes up the next morning and sees Margo isn't at school that day, and eventually, notices she's missing the entire week.
With that, the three teens, including Margo's best friend Lacey (Halston Sage) and Radar's girlfriend Angela (Jaz Sinclair), try to track down her whereabouts."Paper Towns"'s immediate problem is it's nowhere as intelligent or witty as it thinks it is.
Its themes are all rehashed to the point of breeding contempt and its characters, particularly Margo, are so broadly drawn that they work against the film, which is clearly trying to breathe that fabled freshness into the teen film genre (it always feels like Quentin's going to stop the film with his narration saying the dreaded "this isn't your average teen movie" line).Strangely, though, the most contemptible character throughout this whole film is Margo for more reasons than her empty personality.
Nat Wolff, an actor I've consistently admired for his good-natured, everyboy appearance and personality, does strong work here in that realm and is assisted by capable performers like Smith and Sage (Delevingne would likely be better if she had a character to play)."Paper Towns" is cut from the same cloth as "The Fault in Our Stars" (author John Green, who wrote the book on which this film is based, also wrote that one and Neustadter and Weber also penned that screenplay) in that it tries to take a different direction for its adolescent characters but crumbles under the lackluster deviations from reality it so often takes.
But the story begins in Orlando, Florida.Quentin "Q" Jacobsen (Nat Wolff) fell in love with Margo Roth Spiegelman (model-singer-actress Cara Delevingne) when her family moved in across the street from his.
Q is socially awkward and the opposite of adventurous and hangs out with his two best friends and fellow band students, Ben Starling (Austin Abrams) and Marcus "Radar" Lincoln (Justice Smith).The action really starts one night when Margo crawls in through Q's bedroom window and asks to borrow his car to pull revenge pranks on her cheating boyfriend and others whom she feels have betrayed her.
Both Q and Lacey Pemberton (Halston Sage), Margo's best friend, want to know what happened to Margo, but they haven't a clue
yet."Margo always loved mysteries," Q tells us in his brief narration at the beginning of the film.
Through all this, the film omits some of the episodes in the book (as almost all film adaptations have to do), but keeps all the most important plot points (including the ending), as well as the "moral of the story"."Paper Towns" has a worthwhile message, but takes as long to get there as driving from Florida to New York.
Coming on the heels of its commercially-successful predecessor, 'The Fault in Our Stars', PAPER TOWNS is no heavy tearjerker, but it echoes more affectionate and piercing sentiments, with its lighter, minimalist take of its recognizable subjects.The film follows Quentin (Nat Wolff) , or "Q" as he is more popularly called, a highschool boy who has been nursing an unrequited love for the girl living next door, Margo (Cara Delevigne) since childhood.
But the levitating moment would only last overnight, because the next day, the ever mystifying Margo, disappears.Mining on the same overly familiar material that dwells on both coming-of-age and teenage romance territories, PAPER TOWNS pulls off two easily-recognizable efforts: maintaining 'The Fault's charm, while toning down its tragic notions.
It will also sound unforgivable to never pay regard to the film's brilliant screenwriters who manage to cleverly highlight this extremely familiar highschool tale's stronger and more relatable sentiments, genuinely and sincerely enough, to bend fragile emotions with crippling capacity."Q"'s road trip in finding Margo represents a bigger journey with far wider scope and meaning, and it comes across as a process of personal exploration that unknowingly liberates one self, toward finding the deeper sense of their existence.
The movie version feels like it is rushing and plodding at different times to reach its end, not knowing what to use from the more than enough material from the book to tell a tale.The first movie based on a John Green's novel 'The fault in our stars' had a little fantasy about its plot, which made suspension of disbelief happen naturally for the audience to enjoy the story.
I believe once you put your phone away and any distractions and focus on the emotions of the characters in depth you will feel many feelings you have hopefully felt in your lifetime.The movie seems like something teenagers would flock to in high school with their sweethearts on a first date trying to find a romantic movie but someone for an example 25 years of age having experienced all those feelings can hopefully watch the movie and recall memories of love and trying to find your place in life.*(THE GOOD) Casting great, movie pace well kept, no major "now how in the hell would that happen", and ending realistic and honest.*(THE BAD) Nothing, go watch it..
Paper Towns is another coming-of-age story about Quentin and his neighbour Margo and how here mysterious disappearance sends Quentin on a journey to find her through clues she left behind for him.
There's really nothing happening in the movie that makes you really interested in the character's,nor their boring life's.A girl in the bathroom pouting,complaining over people seeing her only for her outer beauty,and thinking all there's to her is she's beautiful.(That's why you are popular honey.Hello Claire from breakfast club)They can't see that she's got a brain.To sum it up.
The high school journey of Quentin (Nat Wolff) and his mysterious neighbour Margo (Cara Delevingne) is an adaptation of the Green novel.
Paper Towns follows Quentin Jacobson (played by Nat Wolff), a high school senior who's had a crush on his beautiful neighbor Margo (played by Cara Develigne) since childhood.
John Green's adaptation of Paper Towns is a really good film that I'm sure that teenage girls will definitely love to watch.
Teaming up with the same screenwriters, Michael Weber and Scott Neustadter, casting Nat Wolff again (although this time as the lead), and hiring a new director, Jake Schreier (Robot and Frank), they had everything in place and ready to adapt Green's 2008 novel, Paper Towns, with the hopes of banking on the author's current fanbase.
Paper Towns is a really good film.Nat Wolff and Cara Delevingne star in the book adaptation of a story of childhood best friends, Margo & Quentin who grew apart as they got older, but unusual circumstances gave them one epic night together parading through Florida only to find that the very next day, Margo disappeared.
Radar and Ben get a lot of screen-time and it can take away from the Quentin-Margo relationship a bit, but honestly that's nitpicking, because the way the film ends kind of puts that argument to rest.So whether it was just how funny this film turned out to be or what it represented as a coming of age high school film, Paper Towns is a great film, and one of my favorites of the year so far.
If we talk about the film in general, has nice teachings, characters that become your favorites, but, lacks a good dose of romance *cough* like in the book.
I don t think They had enough time to let things unravel like they did in the book, I mean, of course they couldn't have included every little detail or else the Movie would be way too long.
In a YouTube video which John was in he said 'no one was anxious to pay Sea World for the chance to give them good publicity." We do get some scenes from the book but some charterers were left out of a few scenes.I loved the music that was used and the voice over at the start, I think that younger Quentin and Margo were cute and they acted well.
The guilt and the stars is a successful book in sales worldwide, with the story of Hazel Grace, a girl with cancer who struggled to live because of your cancer and get to know the great love of your life, "Augustus Waters" beautiful and charming Story Read more here in your books John always treats the young love and once again he hits in full in "paper towns".We know Quentin Jacobsen (Nat Wolff), a child who soon begins a love for your Margo Roth Spiegelman (Cara Delevingne) Jacob as it is called by your friends and acquaintances grow next to Margo and lives the antics and crazy things, on a good day he refusing to take her to their "investigations" that for your sadness she doesn't call you more in the future.
After all we are talking about the beauty of Man Delevingne, Jacob's love by Margo distance every day over the years and he ends up living your little world with their friends focusing on studies.He ends up accepting your normal life and routine that lives to spend time trying to forget once and your beloved, until one day, Margo appears in your window and takes you to do nine missions in one night getting even if your ex-boyfriend He spends his best moments throughout your life beside your beloved where he admires the each moment, the next day, Margo and unknown vanishes leaving clues, that Jacob had tried to uncover where your loved one was.Film demonstrates that appearances can be deceiving and a platonic passion and vicious may be surprised, and the maturation of a young if sets of their decisions, and that friends is the source of new energies, which surprises even though with a slight quick passage where proves that J Ohn Green can surprise and even bring more beautiful stories..
The book takes too long trying to figure out the clues and the timing of the road trip and Radar's girlfriend Angela wasn't on the trip which I liked a lot more in the movie when she was.
Paper Towns is a much more enjoyable romp and in many ways a more proficiently made movie than 2014's first big screen John Green adaptation, the highly successful and unworthily praised The Fault in Our Stars.
Perhaps more successfully come to life in book form rather than big screen movie, Green's tale of love, growing up and a mystery that makes very little sense in its solving is enjoyable to a level but the whole thing (at least in Jake Schreier movie) feels a little to self-assured for its own good and despite a winning non-formulaic finale the film doesn't pack an emotional wallop like it so clearly feels as though its bringing.Green also seems to suck people in with dialogue and scenarios that just feel unrealistic, Fault in Our Stars did it in spades and so does Paper Towns, so much so that many aspects of Nat Wolff's Quinten and his quest to find Cara Delevingne's Margo feel utterly fanciful.Wolff and Delevingne (who can hopefully go on with her promise shown here in this year's Suicide Squad) share an interesting chemistry and while their actual screen time together is limited the film's opening half hour or so with them front and centre comes across in an engaging fashion but once Margo does a seemingly planned disappearing act, the films half boiled mystery and musings on growing up yada yada yada start to wear thin and by the time a fairly uninspired road trip happens, the brightness that shone in Paper Towns early quickly peters out into nothing but left over smoke.Winning extra points for trying something different and remaining not entirely predictable, Paper Towns has moments of genuine wit, heart and intrigue but its half-cooked mystery, unrealistic dialogue and inability to say much of true merit mark it down as a teen romance/coming of age adventure that's above average but also far below genre classics.3 Pokémon theme songs out of 5.
The film was outfitted with hilarious and relatable moments from our current or past senior in high school years, the trio itself of Quentin, Ben, and Radar have a certain friendship that the three actors transfer so well to the screen where the cast chemistry is certainly prevalent, and the film ultimately leaves the audience in a feel- good mood, having them want to call up their best friends for a good hangout session.
Overall the cast is very good but there is a weakest link in this for sure, and that is supermodel Cara Delevingne who looks a bit like a evil Emma Watson in this.Now appearances is not that important but it wouldn't have helped if she at least smiled a couple times in the movie or something, she just comes across as a arrogant self-absorbed girl and even a bit narcissistic.That's not exactly the ideal woman you want for a romantic comedy, although I guess this is not your typical rom-com either which is good but I definitely think that tweaking Margo's character and having someone else play her instead would benefited this movie substantially.It's still good, like I said the rest of the cast is good and likable (the ones that are supposed to be) and it's rather hilarious at times but it falls a bit short because of what I just mentioned.Still well worth seeing and the music choices are ace..
Margo sneaked to Quentin's window and asked him to come help her plot her revenge against some people (im not telling, you better watch the movie man!).
What will he find?Paper Towns is from the mind of John Green, who previously gave us The Fault in Our Stars - the movie and the book (both were quite good, though the book far eclipses it as one of those essential books for teenagers and beyond) - and here, from the same writers as the TFiOS and Spectacular Now and other young-love stories, and the quirks and dialog show.
The story was really three-dimensional but the characters slightly more interesting than the usual stereotypes.It was a cool story about a that typical white guy in all the teen comedies who falls for the girl next store who he use to know well as kids but lost track of her as puberty hit and just before high school comes to an end, they reconnect.The twist to this formula is that just when they're starting the re- connection that would lead them down the same road as all the other teen romances, she disappears before that happens, which sends the white guy on a wild goose chase to find her as she left clues to were she is.
With help from a few buddies and some cryptic clues that she left behind, Quentin embarks on an obsessive mission to find the girl who stole his heart and made him feel truly alive.Jake Schreier (Robot & Frank) has taken this next book adaptation from the highly talented writer John Green and even if it may not be as similar as its predecessor, it surely comes off as a mild coming of age drama with a very strong and promising premise that nonetheless pulses with moving and melancholy moments with its compelling cast and chemistry.The way this film gets itself into a carefree manner, rendered so vividly into its furnished characters, lighthearted humor and a strapping chemistry towards each character.
Granted, some of my favorite things in the book are omitted, like Quentin and Margo's SeaWorld detour and Radar's love for Wikipedia parody Omnictionary, but I can live with it, especially considering the ending the film provides is much more satisfying than the novel's abrupt conclusion.
So, let's see if the film lives up to the hype.Paper Towns follows Quentin "Q" Jacobsen as his childhood friend, Margo Roth Spiegelman invites him out for a night of revenge and searching for a meaning to life.
As she says in the movie, she's a paper girl trying to be more than that, and I think it comes through fantastically in her acting.Inevitably, since it is a book to film adaptation, there will be comparisons between the two.
Now this is the kind of romance I truly enjoy watching.Never tiring, with a lot of funny moments and a lot of mystery, this story really gets to make the difference from all those classic happy-ending romances.Cara Delevingne was an excellent choice for Margo, delivering a very good performance, and so was Nat Wolff and the rest of the cast.A genuine film, with unique realism and a tone of sadness that changed the way I see things.I hope we get to see more movies like this coming out in the future.Highly recommended!.
And so, for fans of Cara, they may feel a little short-changed by her sudden lack of screen time, as the rest of the movie is taken up with the rest of the cast's road-trip as they try to solve the mystery of where she went to and why.I think I've probably said enough about the plot, so I won't spoil what happens, only to say that - despite the lack of the 'other half' on the love interest part of the story - there are a few things even a hardened cynic such as myself didn't see coming. |
tt0105410 | Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker | Late one night in December, a young boy named Derek Quinn (William Thorne) hears the doorbell ringing and goes downstairs and finds a Christmas present that has been addressed to him on the porch. His father Tom (Van Quattro) reprimands him for being up so late and opening the door, sending him off to bed. Instead Derek watches from the stairs as his curious father opens the gift. Finding a musical orb shaped like Santa Claus in the box he activates it, causing it to strangle him with retractable cords; as Tom struggles he slips and falls onto a fireplace poker, his impaled body being found by his wife Sarah (Jane Higginson) a few moments later.
Two weeks later Sarah takes Derek, who hasn't spoken since his father's death, to a toy store owned by the elderly Joe Petto (Mickey Rooney) and his odd son Pino (Brian Bremer) not realizing they have been followed by Noah Adams (Tracy Fraim). After Derek rejects all the toys Joe shows him (and one called Larry the Larvae that Pino tries to give him) he and his mother leave, prompting Joe to begin angrily yelling at Pino, belittling him and blaming him for all the store's recent failures. While running from his father Pino bumps into Noah and drops the larvae toy, which Noah picks up and buys along with some other toys. At his home Noah begins taking apart the toys he bought from Joe when he is confronted by his angry landlord Harold (Gerry Black). Late paying rent, Noah, to smooth things over, gives Harold the Larry the Larvae toy in exchange for a one-day extension. While driving home Harold is killed when Larry the Larvae crawls into his mouth and bursts out his eye, causing his car to crash and explode.
The next day, Sarah takes Derek to see Santa (portrayed by Noah, who takes his friend's shift) at the mall, finding another gift on the porch on the way out. While Sarah and Derek are gone Pino sneaks into their house, using a key he had hidden years earlier when he and his father lived there. When Sarah and Derek get home early (due to Noah's odd behavior towards Derek) Pino flees from the house. After confronting Joe about Pino's intrusion (and stating that she will call the police the next time it happens) Sarah decides to let Derek open the present dropped off earlier, but Derek refuses to touch it. Leaving Derek alone, Sarah is visited by her friend Kim Levitt (Neith Hunter) and while the two talk Derek sneaks outside and throws the present in a garbage can, where Kim's adopted son Lonnie (Conan Yuzna) finds it. Lonnie unwraps the gift and finds roller skates in it. Joe, in a drunken rage, begins beating Pino, accidentally killing him by knocking him down some stairs. While using the skates, Lonnie is hit by a car and left hospitalized when rockets hidden within the skates cause him to lose control.
While Sarah visits Lonnie and Kim at the hospital, Derek is visited by Noah, who is shooed away by the babysitter Meridith (Amy L. Taylor), who tells Noah where to find Sarah when Noah keeps badgering her from outside. In the parking garage of Sarah's workplace, Noah, who is revealed to be Sarah's old boyfriend and Derek's real father, confronts her and the two reconcile. At the Quinn house Meridith and her boyfriend Buck (Eric Welch) engage in sex, involving a toy hand on his butt, a toy that is left by Joe who is dressed as Santa. Joe, who had broken into the home, has a horde of toys attack them while he abducts Derek, taking him to the toy store. Shortly before taking Sarah home Noah tells her about Joe's past, saying he was arrested years earlier for booby trapping toys he gave to children after his pregnant wife died in a car crash; pulling into the driveway Sarah and Noah find the hysterical and bloody Meridith, who tells them Buck is dead (having his head cut off by a circular saw attached to a toy car) and that Joe took Derek.
Sarah rushes to the toy store (followed by Noah) and starts looking around upstairs, arming herself with a knife. In the basement Noah is attacked by Joe with a remote control plane and an acid squirting water pistol and is knocked out. Hearing the noise Sarah goes downstairs, finds the real Joe's dead body and tries to run, only to be stopped by the Joe dressed as Santa. The imposter Joe removes his face (showing robotic components underneath) and puts on another, revealing himself to be Pino. Pino explains to Sarah that Joe created him to replace his own dead son, but he could never live up to his father's expectations (as he was not "a real son") and was continually broken and rebuilt by Joe in his drunken rages. Pino goes on to say that he wants Sarah to be his mother (sending killer toys to try to kill Derek) before beginning to dry hump her while frantically screaming "I love you mommy!"
Sarah manages to stab Pino in the head with a screwdriver, causing him to begin malfunctioning. Grabbing the knife Sarah dropped earlier, Pino begins trying to stab Derek, whom he had placed in a large sack. Derek is saved when Noah breaks into the room and starts fighting Pino, distracting him long enough for Sarah to halve him at the waist with a double-bit axe. Barely functioning, Pino cries for his father before grabbing Sarah's leg, causing her to stomp his head into pieces.
As Sarah, Derek, and Noah leave, the eyes of one of Joe's partially assembled robots spark ominously, like Pino and his creations. | cult, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0087065 | Cloak & Dagger | Davey Osborne (Henry Thomas) is an 11-year-old who lives in San Antonio, Texas with his father, Hal Osborne (Dabney Coleman). His mother has recently died, leaving just him and his father, a military air traffic controller who has problems relating to his child. Davey is a lonely child and is still grieving over his mother, so he immerses himself in the fantasy world of Cloak & Dagger, an espionage game which exists in both role playing and video forms. Davey has one friend, Kim, (Christina Nigra) a girl who lives nearby with her single mother. Davey is interested in the world of espionage and his hero is the character Jack Flack from the game. He wants to live an action-packed life like Jack Flack and he carries around a water pistol as his "gun" and a softball as his "grenade". Davey spends much of his free time playing Cloak & Dagger and spinning elaborate fantasies involving Jack Flack, an imaginary friend who takes the form of a more dashing version of his father (the role of Flack is also played by Coleman). Only the audience and Davey can ever see Jack Flack, because the only character that believes in Jack Flack is Davey.
One day Davey's friend Morris (William Forsythe), who owns a game shop in the local mall, sends Davey and Kim on an errand, where Davey witnesses a murder. Right before the victim dies, he gives Davey a Cloak & Dagger video-game cartridge and says that the cartridge contains important military secrets, that he must get it to the FBI. Davey seeks help from the authorities but they simply believe him to be engaging in fantasy play.
Heavily armed but inattentive spies, led by Dr. Rice (Michael Murphy), chase Davey relentlessly as he flees across the city. The action moves from Davey's house, to a series of tour boats, to the Alamo. Along the way Davey manages to continually evade his pursuers with the aid and advice of the imaginary Jack Flack. However, along the way Davey's relationship with Jack becomes more strained as his own sense of morality and concern for his friend Kim collide with Jack's harsh methods and cavalier attitude. This comes to a head when Davey is cornered by Rice along the River Walk.
During the fight, Jack urges Davey to set up the two spies into the "Crossfire Gambit", causing one to kill the other. Jack convinces Davey to pick up the gun of the dead spy, but rather than shoot Rice, Davey panics and runs away down a dead-end path. Rice arrives and corners Davey. Assuming the gun Davey holds is the same red ink-filled water pistol from earlier, Rice taunts him by threatening to shoot both his kneecaps and stomach and allowing him to die in agony. When Davey proves unwilling to shoot first, Jack tries to get Rice's attention. Standing in front of a blank wall (and holding his Agent-X bulletproof beret in front of him for protection), Jack dares Rice to shoot him. Davey looks to Jack, warning him not to do anything, and Rice instinctively turns and fires a burst at the wall, thinking "Jack" is a hidden ally. An enraged Davey fires his pistol, killing Rice and causing his lifeless body to fall into the river.
Realizing that Jack had tricked him into shooting the spy, Davey throws away the pistol, pulls the miniature of Jack out of his pocket and, with a shout of "I don't want to play anymore!" breaks the miniature in two, stomping it into the concrete. Jack tells Davey his father behaved the same way at his age, growing tired of playing "Cowboys and Indians". As he speaks, blood begins to pour from the bullet holes that now riddle his body, and Jack abruptly collapses. While expressing regret about the rule, "...leaving when they stop believing," Jack confesses Davey was always his favorite playmate. Distracting Davey by asking for a smoke, Jack fades away into nothing. When Davey calls to Jack, saying he can't do it alone, Jack's voice reassures him that he always could, and tells him to go save Kim.
Earlier in a scene at the Alamo, Davey had been befriended by a kind elderly couple. Seemingly the only adults to believe him, or at least the only ones who are willing to humor his adventures, the couple turn out to be enforcers working for the spies. Davey manages to escape their clutches, but without the game cartridge, and he chases the couple to the airport where they are attempting to flee the country. At the airport, Davey forces the couple's hand by pretending that they are his parents and that they are abandoning him. When security attempts to intervene, Davey tells the guard the proof is the game cartridge he knows they have. Cornered, the couple kidnaps Davey at gunpoint and commandeers a plane, unaware that Davey has brought with him a bomb which the spies had meant to use to kill Kim. Unwilling to listen to Davey about the bomb, the couple requests a pilot. Meanwhile, Hal has arrived at the airport with Kim's mother, and after hearing about the hostage situation, he volunteers to be the pilot. As the plane moves to the runway, Davey tries to summon Jack for help; his father hears him and identifies himself as "Jack Flack" and calls Davey to the cockpit. When the female enforcer shows up to bring him, she discovers the bomb and panics, calling for her husband. As the two enforcers try to disable the bomb, Hal succeeds in getting Davey out of the plane through the cockpit window. Davey runs after the plane as it continues to taxi down the runway, calling for his father, until the bomb explodes, killing the enforcers, incinerating the cartridge, and leaving the wreckage in flames. As Davey stares at the flames a figure appears and approaches him, looking at first like the silhouette of Jack Flack before revealing that it is in fact his father. As the two embrace Davey asks how he was able to escape, to which Hal replies with the Cloak & Dagger catchphrase, "Jack Flack always escapes." The film ends with the two reunited and Davey insisting he no longer needs Jack Flack because he has his father. | psychedelic, murder | train | wikipedia | Its amazing how, as kids, we saw this movie in the 80s where a child is being chased, shot at, almost stabbed, threaten to have his knee caps blown off and shot in the gut, kill 3 guys (2 not by him but caused by him)and be held hostage...and it was a family film rated PG!
A movie made like this today would make the kid a genius and the bad guys clumsy and stupid.
When my kids get old enough I do want them to watch these 80s film and learned to appreciate good film-making, something lacking in the 21st century, and by box-office results, the audience notices it too..
Henry Thomas ("E.T.") plays Davey Osborne, a lonely boy who has escaped into the fantasy world of his favorite video game hero - Jack Flack.
Dabney Coleman gives the greatest performance of his career in the dual roles of Jack Flack and Davey's father.
Davey must keep an ATARI game cartridge containing plans for an invisible bomber plane encoded inside of it out of traitorous spies' hands, but no adult believes him, and he gets little help from the only person who does - his even younger friend Kim.
And Louis Anderson also has a short cameo towards the end."Cloak & Dagger" is an excellent movie about a boy who must face the dangers of the world all by himself following the death of his mother and his father's preoccupation with work.
Dabney Coleman's character of Jack Flack is the best imaginary mentor ever featured in a film, preceding the likes of Tyler Durden and Frank the Bunny by over 15 years.
"Cloak & Dagger" is a film suitable for the whole family whose time has finally come to get the recognition it deserves.
A Little Seen Gem. CLOAK & DAGGER is a wonderful film from the '80s, a touching story about a boy who has an overdeveloped imagination, largely due to his mother being dead and his father being a career military man who often seems too busy for his son.
The boy, Davey, has an imaginary friend by the name of Jack Flack who looks just like his dad.
When Davey actually does witness a horrible murder and is given a video game cartridge with top secret plans encoded inside, he tells his father about it and of course he doesn't believe him.
That's one of the techniques that make for good children's movies, the recognition that a child's fantasy life can feel as real as anything else happening around him.
And movies in which the child's fantasies literally come true seem like vindication to young viewers.Henry Thomas of "E.T." fame plays a youngster mourning his mother's death by escaping into a fantasy world of adventure games.
He has an imaginary friend called Jack Flack, a suave super-spy with a passing resemblance to the boy's father (Dabney Coleman, in a wonderful dual role).
So when he witnesses the actual murder of an FBI agent, who slips him a video game cartridge right before dying, the boy is the last person anyone will believe.
He knows the murderers will be after him next, but how will he get his dad to believe him soon enough to stay home from work the next day?What's nice about the film is the seamless way it combines the conventions of adult thrillers and children's adventures.
I'm sure the filmmakers realized the connection, for there are many nods to Hitchcock, including a visual allusion to "Vertigo" as the murder victim plummets down a long stairway, and a plot that combines elements of "Rear Window" and "North by Northwest." Like the latter, the movie greatly exploits its locale.
Viewers who have been to San Antonio will recognize many of the places, including the River Walk, the setting for a unique chase scene.Then there is the MacGuffin of the "Cloak & Dagger" cartridge itself, a special copy containing information important to the bad guys (whom the kid perceives to be spies, but who may simply be mobsters).
The Atari game looks quite primitive today, and the scenes in which the boy calls upon his geek friend (William Forsythe) to crack the code will probably not impress those who take interest in computer espionage.
While it doesn't pretend to be realistic, it does grow out of the basic truth that adults don't take kids as seriously as they should.The movie also confirms, once again, that Henry Thomas was one of the best child actors of all time.
Thomas never feels like he's acting, and as a result we almost can believe in the absurd events even when we watch the movie as adults, long having set aside our own childhood fantasies..
The movie is evenly paced and builds up to an exciting climax the way an adult thriller would say in the form of a James Bond movie but while doing this the film doesn't insult the intelligence of children --- a lot of whom are more intelligent than we give them credit for..
Cloak and Dagger was one of my favorite films as a child and continues to hold up well as time passes by.
Henry Thomas remains in many ways one of a scant few child actors to make their mark in multiple films (something Disney has struggled with in recent years, even with the attempts to market mediocre talents like Hilary Duff and Lindsey Lohan).
And in an era where role playing games of any nature were looked down on, this portrayed them in a heroic light-"Jack Flack always escapes".There are a number of skilled character actors who make up the supporting cast for this film, and the script continues to hold up to today's standards.
In many ways, this film should act as a template for movie studios looking to craft a story for young audiences, as opposed to "Shark Boy and Lava Girl"..
ANYWAY, this is a good movie, your kids will probably like it (if only to see what video games were like in the dark ages) and you'll like it, too..
It was the coolest movie I'd ever seen because it was an action movie about kids who solve a mystery and save the day.Henry Thomas is Davey Osbourne.
And to aid in his games of eluding spies and dodging secret plans of assasination, Davey defers to his wartime hero, Jack Flack, an action hero that he has turned into an imaginary playmate as well as a father figure guidance to make up for an absentee father.
But, before the victim draws his last breath, he hands Davey a Cloak & Dagger video cartridge that contains top secret plans.
And, while the adults think he is just playing another game, Davey and his sassy friend Kim and Jack Flack all try to solve the crime.
It is a great movie in part because you get a peak at the imagination of a twelve-year-old-boy and, once again, because a few clever kids get to save the day.
This started off very strong with a fun spoof of James Bond-type spy movies with Dabney Coleman playing a secret agent using funny gimmicks in a short action scene.After that it settled down into a story of a young boy, "Davey Osborne," (Henry Thomas) who accidentally stumbles onto real-life spies and with the help of his imaginary super-hero, eludes them as they chase him down.The familiar storyline of nobody believing the young boy got tiresome quickly and the cloak- and-dagger scenes were too juvenile for adults to enjoy.
The kids might like as the focus is entirely on "Davey" and his little friend "Kim," who, by the way, is very annoying and a poor actress.
Coleman, meanwhile, plays a double role: the "invisible" hero and "Davey's" real-life father..
The truth is when I think of Henry Thomas, I don't immediately think of E.T., but of CLOAK & DAGGER, which was one of my favorite films as a kid and will forever be one of my favorites.
CLOAK & DAGGER was a video game I believe (well, it is in the movie).
Henry Thomas stars as Davy Osbourne, an imaginitive 11-year-old who loves his favorite superhero Jack Flack, who he likes to view as his make-believe hero.
Set in San Antonio during the summer, the film has Thomas going to run an errand for a friend, and owner of a computer store, and gets involved in something he never dreamed of: a real-life game involving spies and a video game.
No one will believe him after he reports of a man being shot and murdered in front of his own eyes, including his own father an Air Force sergeant, played just wonderfully by Dabney Coleman, who I've enjoyed in everything from 9 to 5 to Tootsie.
This movie is kind of a more realistic version of Spy Kids even though this one is a bit hard to believe in its own right.
The story revolves around a boy who has an imaginary friend called Jack Flack a character from this spy game the kid loves (kind of a dungeons and dragons game).
The kid gets his hands on a video game that has some sort of secret as this killers are on his tail to get the game back and they do kill people along the way.
Starting a good premisse and walking an unusual ground the picture for some reasons never take off,a mix of juvenile action with a parallel word won't convince anyone,besides Dabney Coleman was maked by previous works as a crook is totally miscasting for this role,the high point are two old characters who stolen the show easily Jeanette Nolan and John McIntire and the rare opportunity to visit the legendary "The Alamo"at least on a brief time on TV.,and for those who loves Land of the Giants like me pay attention on Airport security chief.....Linden Chiles...Joe/Logar in the episode The Flight Plan,a bit too old...so good memories!!Resume:First watch: 1986 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 6.5.
Henry Thomas was much better in E.T., and even he seems to realize there just isn't much to work with in this tired story of the boy with a penchant for fantasy who isn't believed when something rather fantastic actually happens.
Just like in E.T., Henry Thomas did a great job, but, unfortunately, that didn't really make the story any better.The story did have some hidden potential, but they could have found a better, not so violent (or just change the rating), way to carry it out, and they could have found better actors to do it with.I did think at the beginning of that garage scene where Davey has to drive with one of the bad guys' cars was pretty darn funny.
It is really horrible with bad adult acting, bad child acting, bad bit-part acting, bad wardrobe, bad directing, bad plot development and a horrible film score that would be more appropriate for one of those ABC Afterschool Specials.Obsolete Atari 8-bit computers and games are prominently featured, which might make it slightly interesting in a retro way.
It's also a very good cleverly crafted suspense thriller.The premise is great and something a bit different because this time instead of a singular adult inadvertently getting into danger it's a kid which is something at the time I never saw much in suspense thrillers.Henry Thomas is great in this film it's a shame he didn't become a bigger star in the 80's.
One favorite moment is seeing him play a bit of a copy of the "Cloak and Dagger" game for the "Atari 5800"; for the record that's actually a real video game that I played in the arcade, I was so disappointed that the cartridges never got released due to the video game crash.He's got charisma, smart, imaginative.
I really like that one speech he gives to Davey about heroism which I thought was great because it's true, heroes don't always save the day but do even the smallest tasks to make life better for everyone, heck even when "Superman" has to go home and does some chores or run arrons to make his life with Lois and his son Johnathan better.
However once the dad begins to believe his son and does what he has to do to help him, in a way it cements that Jack and the Dad became one and the same a hero to Davey.The film in a way is a bit of a wishforfillment fantasy, though same can be said about most other suspense thrillers as most of them always feature a protagonist whom is an everyday person living a rather uneventful existence being thrust into action without asking in a way represents the subconscious desire to escape it or simply get more out of life.
It makes sense that he wouldn't drive too smoothly after all Davey hasn't gone to drivers ed, the only thing close to it would be playing the video game "Pole Position".
As the adventure goes on Davey actually starts to grow up a little when he becomes a little disillusioned he realizes the hard way that the predicament he's in isn't a game, he's in real mortal danger so there are no second chances.The films messages are about learning to take on life on your own.
This movie takes place in San Antonio, Tex., which was the nearest city to Henry Thomas's real-life home.
Another film that my friend lent me, man, it's like she lent me the Brady Bunch variety pack of family friendly movies.
That it was so adorable and a great family film, so she lent it to me and here is my review.It's about this boy, Davey, and his imaginary friend, Jack Flack.
Together they go on an adventure when Davey is in a hospital and sees a scientist who has just been shot and gives him a "Cloak and Dagger" game cover and tells him it's top secret.
Henry Thomas (of E.T. fame) is a young boy who would rather live in the fantasy world with imaginary friend Jack Flack (a character from various spy games played brilliantly by Dabney Coleman) than the real world with his Air Force father (also played by Coleman).
But when some bad guys led by Michael Murphy kill a man and Thomas is the only witness, he gets involved in a high stakes game that appears to be another fantasy to everyone else.
Henry Thomas's character does act disturbed by some of them, which may lend empathy to the viewer.Like any movie where there is some violence, I would view this along with your children, rather than allow them to see it alone..
Kids thriller in the tradition of Hardy Boys with Thomas on the run from killers.
The whole thing is rather gimmicky and silly, but you'll be entertained by the always durable Coleman in two roles, as a figment of Thomas' video game playing imagination and as his father.
Davey Osborne (Henry Thomas) lives in an imaginary world playing a game with superspy Jack Flack (Dabney Coleman).
He witnesses a murder and the victim gives Davey a Cloak & Dagger video game cartridge.
When the bad guys come after him, he turns to his friend Morris (William Forsythe) who runs the video game store at the mall.
The bad guys kidnap his friend Kim and offers up a trade.Video game movies do have a bad reputation.
This is a good kids movie with or without the video game tie-in.
It is always great for a kids movie to have the adults not believe in the kid hero.
'Cloak and Dagger' is the best American movie, I have ever watched.
At the end of this movie is a great explosion, and the boy thinks, his hero is dead, but he is alive.
I will keep this videotape as strong as the boy did keep his computer-game 'Cloak and Dagger'.
I like seeing a young kid outwitting older people and this movie delivers that.I recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of ET,children's movies,or any adult that wants to try a different type of action flick.
I remembered seeing this movie as a kid, that iconic opening scene where Jack fights off three guys and a beautiful woman gets shot in the breast.
Anyway, after witnessing a murder, a mortally wounded guy in a white lab-coat gives him a Cloak & Dagger cartridge, with the whole "it's too late for me, take it and run!" bit we've seen a thousand times.
What interests me is how powerful Jack is for an imaginary friend, who shares the same actor as the boy's father.
Which implies the boy secretly wants his father to play with him instead of Jack.
The question I want to raise is how "real" is the little boy Davey's imaginary friend Jack Flack.
Then, toward the end, a couple of incidents occur that make you believe that Jack Flack may have a certain level of reality beyond the boy's imagination.
Jack stands up but Davey is angry that he has been forced to kill a man and tells him he doesn't want to play any more.
I couldn't disagree more on this...While I agree that 'Cloak & Dagger' has minor plot similarities with 'The Window' (a little boy with a vivid imagination who witnesses a crime but isn't believed by anybody), the rest is completely different.
There are no video-games or 'Cloaks and Daggers'.
The runtime is also far shorter and the movie is noir.In 'Cloak & Dagger', the kid is more grown-up and is not a teller of tall tales.
It takes place in the 80's and there are typically 80's video-games (like 'Cloak & Dagger').
Plus, as Davey says shortly before, he doesn't want to "play" anymore.Henry Thomas (best known as "Elliott" from 'E.T.') is the star of this film.
This man, before dying, gives Davey a 'Cloak & Dagger' video-game cartridge and reveals what it contains.
Davey has one make-believe friend (Jack Flack) who doesn't always give good advices. |
tt0057591 | Les tontons flingueurs | A Public Works Plant in Montauban, in the South-East of France. Late in the evening, the boss, Fernand Naudin (Lino Ventura), takes his car to go to Paris on some urgent matter. Which bothers his assistant because of the annual Fair on the next week-end.Early in the morning, Fernand arrives in Paris on the Champs-Elysées, to meet his old friend, Louis (Jacques Dumesnil), who just came back from Mexico, where he had gone fifteen years before, to get away from French justice. They remained very close friends, even after Fernand change to legal business. The meeting place is a bowling alley, where Fernand is met by another friend of Louis, Henri (Paul Mercey), the manager of the place.In an apartment above the bowling alley, Louis is lying in bed, where a doctor is giving him a shot. After the doctor is gone, Louis explains Fernand that he is very ill, and that he came back to France do die and be buried next to his parents. He also tells Fernand about his 18-year old daughter, Patricia, whose mother was a hooker friend of him, and whom he would like Fernand to take care of after his death. Money is no problem, since Louis has several not quite legal business, but which work very smoothly, and which get enough money for Patricia's needs. Nevertheless Fernand is not very happy about the idea.Their heated conversation is stopped by the arrival of Louis' assistants, Raoul (Bertrand Blier) and Paul (Jean Lefebvre) Volfoni, who run a clandestine and illegal roulette on a barge, and Théo (Horst Frank), who runs an illegal distillery. Théo, who is homosexual, has come with his boyfriend, Vincent (Georges Nojaroff), whom Louis doesn't want to be present. Louis tells the three remaining men that Fernand is now in charge of his business, which doesn't seem to please Raoul Volfoni. But Pascal (Valentino Venantini), Louis' gunman, being around, neither the Volfoni brothers nor Théo don't say much about it.After they're gone, Fernand remains alone with Louis. When Louis has an attack, Fernand calls Pascal to help him and Louis dies in both men's arms.After Louis' death, Fernand goes back in the bowling alley, where Henri gets him something to eat. The Volfoni brothers try to talk Fernand out of taking over Louis' business, but Fernand refuses not to keep a promise made to a dying friend. Their conversation is interrupted by a phone call from Tomate, who runs a illegal roulette in a farm. Tomate seems to have some problem with nervous patrons. Pascal wants to have a look and Fernand asks him to go with him. After their departure, Théo, who, unlike the Volfoni, didn't say a word to Fernand, tells Vincent, his boyfriend, that he has just taken care of Fernand as a problem.Pascal and Fernand reach the farm, but they've just left their car when they get machine-gunned from a gunman in a big American car. Pascal kills both the gunman and the driver, and then goes inside the farm, followed by a slightly disturbed Fernand, who wonders if the Volfoni are not the sponsors of the dead gunman. Pascal agrees with him.Tomate (Charles Régnier), alone in the roulette room, seems very surprised by what Pascal and Fernand tell him. He sends his henchman, Freddy (Henri Cogan), to clean the mess made by the gun fight, and then he explains to Fernand that he had no problem that evening in the roulette room, and consequently that he never phoned the bowling alley. But when Fernand phones the bowling alley, he learns that Henri has been shot and killed, and that the police is already there.Pascal drives Fernand to the 18th century manor that Louis had bought for his daughter, who lives there with her two «uncles», Folace (Francis Blanche), who is a shady attorney in charge of Louis' business, and Jean (Robert Dalban), who is a former burglar, adopted by Louis, and converted into a butler. Pascal goes back home and Folace explains to Fernand that Patricia is a bit of a problem, because she consistently gets kicked out of every private school she goes to. Fernand, who wants to get back to Montauban as soon as possible, tells Folace that he is going to make Patricia understand how she must behave. Folace also tells Jean and Fernand that Patricia must never know that her father, whom she knows only through his letters, is dead.Next morning, Fernand is shaving when Patricia (Sabine Sinjen) enters the bathroom. She teases Fernand, whom her father, in his letters, describes as some sort of modern knight. When Fernand tells her they must have a serious conversation, she gets away.A bit later, Folace tells Fernand that Louis' business is not running as smoothly as he thought, and even less since Louis' «assistants» learned about his death.Fernand then meets Patricia's fiancé, Antoine Delafoy (Claude Rich), a musical genius or so he pretends himself to be ! Actually he is a very smart young man, a bit eccentric, and who keeps on talking all the time, to Fernand's obvious annoyance.Pascal discreetly interrupts Fernand's conversation with Antoine, to tell him that Louis' «assistants» are holding a secret meeting on the Volfoni's barge. Fernand feels like going to see what it's all about, along with the very efficient Pascal. Antoine doesn't believe in Fernand's unexpected board meeting, and thinks Fernand is going to meet some girl !Around the roulette table inside the barge, are gathered the Volfoni brothers, Théo, Vincent, Tomate, Freddy, and Madame Mado (Dominique Davray) who runs an illegal brothel. Raoul is trying to get them to do something about the situation, but Théo objects that, since Louis' death, there have been too many murders around.On the barge deck, Fernand, Pascal and Folace are met by Léo, who is the barge «official» skipper. When Léo says he wants to ask the Volfoni before letting his visitors inside the barge, Fernand punches him and sends him into the river.In the roulette room, the meeting is very heated, when someone knocks at the door. Freddy opens the door and gets Fernand's fist in his face. Pascal walks in behind Fernand with a gun in each hand. Bastien (Marc Ronay), Volfoni's gunman, wants to react, but Raoul stops him.Fernand sits down, and, with the help of Folace, goes on with important matters. He asks Mado about the irregular management of her brothel. She defends her business with quite a sense of humor. Fernand turns to Théo, who talks about his problems with illegal alcohol.Meanwhile, in a small room near the entrance of the roulette room, the two gunmen, Pascal and Bastien, are talking shop and showing each other's guns.After Théo's, Fernand opens the Volfoni's file. He explains he has decided to make their bookkeeping much easier : he will just ask them to pay this year what they paid the year before. He then asks Pascal to come and get their money during the coming week.Fernand and friends leave the room with Bastien. After they've gone, Mado makes fun of Raoul, whom she finds a bit of a coward. Raoul gets very angry when she says that. Then someone knocks at the door and he crosses the room to open it. He gets Fernand's fist in his face. Fernand tells him that he gives him an extra ten percent on his debt because of the delay.Back to the manor, Fernand finds Patricia and Antoine seated close to each other on a sofa, listening to Corelli in the dark. He sends Patricia to her room and Antoine out of the house.Later in the evening, Fernand is listening to the Corelli record while eating some chicken, when Pascal and Bastien enter discreetly through a French window. The two gunmen explain to Fernand that they've found they are related, and the dispute between Fernand and the Volfoni is giving them a moral dilemma. They are afraid that, one day, they will have to face each other, guns in hand. So Bastien has just resigned his job with the Volfoni and Pascal is doing the same with Fernand.A few days later, Fernand is reading a dissertation Patricia wrote about Corneille, Racine, Bossuet and Pascal. He finds it so good that he thinks that the teacher could have given her a higher grade. He is interrupted by a call from one of his assistants in Montauban.A few moments later, Folace explains to Fernand that the expected money didn't come in when he gets interrupted by a call from Raoul, who tells him there are some problem at the distillery.At the distillery, Tomate asks Théo if he thinks Fernand believed what they suggested the too naïve Raoul to tell him. The answer is the noise made by Fernand's car arriving at the distillery. Théo explains to Tomate and Freddy that, after they get rid of Fernand, they will just have to get also rid of the Volfoni brothers, and then they will be the only bosses of the late Louis' business.After he has sent his assistants on their duties, Théo greets Fernand with a feigned surprise. He explains to Fernand that his problem is that he just lost the driver who was supposed to drive a truck full of moonshine (illegal alcohol), and because he, Théo, doesn't have a driver's license anymore, he asked Raoul to get him a new driver. Fernand tells him he is going to drive the truck himself.To reach the «meeting place», Fernand has to cross the Fontainebleau forest. This is where Théo and Tomate are waiting for him with a machine-gun. They shoot the truck, which gets off the road, and then starts burning. Fernand succeeds in leaving the truck, and with a burned and torn suit, he reaches the Volfoni barge.There, he knocks Raoul out, and then empty the open safe. Paul Volfoni, who does not understand a word of what Fernand tells him about trucks and moonshine, nevertheless lets the very angry Fernand takes the money out of the safe.When Fernand gets back at the manor with his bag full of money, it is to find that his «niece» Patricia is having a party where she invited a lot of young idle «bourgeois». Many sport cars are parked in front of the manor. When one of the owners of one of these sport cars says something quite inappropriate about the relationship between Patricia and Antoine, Fernand feels he has to give the young guy a good thrashing.He then enters the manor, where all the young guests are dancing while Jean is moving around them with a tray full of drinks. Fernand has a little chat with Patricia, and then goes to the kitchen.In the kitchen, Folace is buttering toasts for the guests. Fernand shows him the money inside the bag. When Jean sees Fernand torn suit, and when Fernand tells him it is the work of the Volfoni, Jean puts a gun in his pocket.A quite useful decision when, a few minutes later, the Volfoni brothers enter the manor. Jean guide them to the kitchen, where they get in, gun in hand. Jean comes in behind them, pointing his own gun in their backs, and he asks them to give him their guns. Paul, to calm the situation down, start buttering the toasts. A very drunk girl enters the kitchen, because she is looking for a drink. When she takes some money in the bag to buy drinks, Folace is so aggressive with her that she goes out very quickly.Raoul says he would like very much to share a drink with his friends, but Folace tells him that the kid have drunk everything in the house, and that the only bottle left is an old bottle of moonshine whisky. Even those tough men find it a bit strange to drink, and get drunk very quickly.Meanwhile, Antoine is telling Patricia he feels like telling «uncle Fernand» about their love.Back in the kitchen, all the men are completely drunk. Raoul feels like visiting the bathroom very urgently, and rushes out of the kitchen.When Raoul goes out of the bathroom, he feels better, even though he is still drunk, and he starts flirting with Patricia, offering to give her a «job» in Egypt. Patricia knows very well what kind of a job he means, but Antoine doesn't find it very funny.Back in the kitchen, Raoul tells Fernand about the «inappropriate» jealousy of Antoine, and Fernand decides it is time to close the shop.Helped by the Volfoni brothers and Folace, Fernand kicks all the guests out of the house. The men are so excited by their job that they even kick Paul Volfoni out, which makes them laugh a lot. But they stop laughing when they see Patricia crying on the staircase.Next morning, Folace wakes up Fernand to tell him that Patricia has gone away during the night with her suitcase. Fortunately, Jean wrote down the license plate of the taxicab who took her away.The cab driver brings Fernand to Antoine's apartment. When Fernand walks in the living-room, Antoine is experimenting «musique concrète» (concrete music). He doesn't seem to appreciate Fernand interrupting him. But Patricia calms Fernand down when she walks in from the kitchen. She tells her «uncle» she is going to marry Antoine. Fernand likes the idea better when she tells him that Antoine's father is vice-president of the International Monetary Fund.Two or three days later, it is Fernand's birthday. Early in the morning, Patricia, Jean and Folace give him a present each. Patricia adds a present brought in very early from the Volfoni brothers. When Fernand hears a threatening tick-tock coming from the parcel, he throws it through the open window, and the parcel explodes in the garden. We can see Théo and Vincent walking discreetly away.Fernand goes to the Volfoni's barge, and, when Raoul opens the door, Fernand sings «Happy Birthday» and then punches Raoul violently on the nose. After his departure, Raoul fixes a small bomb to get his own back on Fernand.During the night, Fernand hears a strange noise and puts a gun in his night-robe pocket.Meanwhile in the garage, Raoul is putting his bomb inside Fernand's car. He sends his brother away to check on the surroundings, and after Paul's departure, Fernand walks discreetly in the garage.After Fernand has «taken care» of Raoul, we find the latter in an hospital room, covered with bandages and plaster casts.Fernand's «accident» with the truck full of moonshine is in the newspapers' front page. But Pascal and Bastien tells Fernand it was wrong of him to think it was the Volfoni's fault. They explain that, if the Volfoni had decided to kill Fernand or Henri, the first person they would have asked to do it would have been Bastien, their official gunman. Pascal thinks the whole business comes from Théo. Fernand asks Pascal and Bastien to go and have a friendly chat with Théo.In the distlllery, Pascal and Bastien do not find Théo, but only Tomate. They make him talk and then kill him. When he finds Tomate's body, Théo understands he is next on their list, and he decides to take care of Fernand before Fernand takes care of him.Théo, Vincent and Freddy try to storm the manor, but Folace, Jean and Fernand don't let them do it and fight back. In the middle of a gunfight that looks like something out of a Western movie, Amédée Delafoy (Pierre Bertin), Antoine's father, crosses the park to ask «Uncle Fernand» the hand of his «niece» Patricia for his son. The gunfight goes on, but, because Amédée is deaf as a doorpost, he doesn't hear a thing ! He begins to have a feeling that something may be wrong when a bullet hits the ceiling above him and he gets covered with plaster ! The gunfight stops with the arrival of Pascal and Bastien. Théo thinks that, with two marksmen on the other side, the fight is not fair anymore.To take his own back for his defeat, Théo waits for Raoul coming out of the hospital along with his brother, and shoots them. Both Raoul and Paul Volfoni are back in an hospital room, both covered with bandages and plaster casts !A few days later, Fernand is getting his «niece» married. He is wearing a frock coat and has a quiet chat with the bridegroom, Antoine, when Pascal comes in discreetly to warn him that Théo is leaving the distillery with his friends. Fernand asks Jean and Folace to take care of the guests while he is going to take care of Théo with Pascal and Bastien, who is waiting for them at the distillery.At the distillery, Théo and Freddy are sorting out important or incriminating documents, which Théo puts inside a bag. When Vincent comes in to tell them about Fernand's arrival, they take their weapons to give Fernand a warm welcome.The first to die is Vincent, burned to death by a jerry can full of gasoline, set on fire by Bastien. Next comes Freddy, who, after a long fistfight with Fernand, breaks through a brick wall on the first floor of the building down to the ground.Théo succeeds in escaping with his car. But Pascal prevents Fernand from running after him, because it is almost wedding time. Pascal and Bastien help Fernand to fix his frock coat, a bit torn during the fight, and bring him in front of the church just when Folace was starting to think he would never see him.While the service is going on inside the church, Théo parks in front of the church, and gets his machine-gun ready for Fernand and guests when they walk out of the church.Inside the church, every one is listening to the organ and choral music, when they hear a loud blast coming from outside the church. They all turn their heads toward the door, through which Pascal and Bastien walk in very quietly, and make a respectful sign of the cross.The last scene of the film shows Théo's car burning in front of the church with Théo inside the car ! | cult | train | imdb | It seems like everyone makes a big deal about having to speak french, understand older french slang, etc.
in order to enjoy this movie.
I know about ten words of French, and still found this movie hilarious.
To assert that the dialogue is the central virtue of the film does the actors a HUGE disservice, in addition to limiting comedy to merely spoken jokes and gags.
Lino Ventura is a great comedic presence, which may strike many as odd, taking into account his more well-known "serious" roles in films like Francesco Rosi's "Cadaveri eccellenti," and Jean-Pierre Melville's "Army of Shadows." He is a very underrated, and often over-looked actor who could play comedy just as well as he could play seldom-speaking leaders of the French resistance.
Although I could understand a knowledge of French culture and language enhancing some of the nuances of the dialogue, do not be swayed away from this great film by the words of others declaring it is "too French." It is a classic comedy that transcends language barriers, and certainly serves as a great light-hearted companion piece to the many distinctive French gangster films of the era.
For a number of years now they have fed us movies about the adventures of mutant superheroes (o.k., I admit I have seen and enjoyed one or two of them).
This was preceded by the surreal Schwarzenegger-Stallone-Van Damme-decade (also called the eighties), with action-flick actors whose muscle mass far exceeded their acting skills.
The event that caused the extinction of such dinosaurs as Lino Ventura, Jean Gabin, Lee Marvin, Humphrey Bogart and the like must have been the counter-culture of the sixties.
We had movie-stars who were real, gentlemanly (sometimes), cool, human and funny as well as ugly but sexy and we went and replaced them with a bunch of guys in a mask and cape (and I don't mean Zorro).Luckily we all have our VCRs and DVD players and blockbuster and amazon and are able to enjoy movies like Les Tontons Flinguers, one of the funniest, coolest and yet silliest movies of all time.
Every actor a character, every dialogue a gem, every scene a revelation about how to make it look easy.
Go see this film before you even contemplate to watch Spiderman III!.
Now that French cinema surrendered to metro-sexual archetypes, a movie like "Monsieur Gangster" is one breath of masculine air to refresh those among us who stuck to the old-fashioned ways, when men listened to other men twice their weight, where a good face-punch was the most eloquent authority assessment, when roles-wise, the leader was the dealer, when guns gunned, silencers silenced and men shot first and asked the questions later.If you're a fan of classic Warner-era gangster movies, of Tarantino before he imitated Scorsese imitating Spielberg, if you adore Jean-Pierre Melville and abhor the so-called New-Wave -this celebration of existential boredom committed by a privileged group of elitist onanists, defined as the new standard of the silver screen- "Monsieur Gangster" and his gang of buffers to please all the movie buffs, is tailor-made for you.
(Yes, that sounds like elitism but it's a reverse one, one that takes its stuff seriously enough not to take it seriously, even through the lousiest comical devices and comedic vices, just for the sake of a male-bonding good time)."Fatheads dare everything, that's even how we recognize them" the line exceeded the film and became a real-life proverb, proved right all throughout the film, with this joyful gang of fatheads, questioning the authority of their new leader: Fernand Naudin, played by Lino Ventura in his comical break-through role.
The film starts when Naudin leaves his provincial tractor's shops to meet an old friend, known as the "Mexican".
He finds "The Mexican" in a deathbed and one last request: the poisoned gift that will give the film its irresistible spice: Naudin must take care of his business, including his daughter.
Naudin soon starts wondering which of the racket, not-so legal, or the girl, not-so angelic, is the most insufferable.However, we know Naudin is a man of his word not to the former lieutenants' pleasure, "you didn't take that seriously" asked one of them, "let's say I was wrong" dryly retorts Naudin.
The cards are set, the antagonists are the Volfoni brothers Raoul and Paul, played by Bernard Blier, one of the most defining faces of French popular cinema, an actor whose presence enhanced every type of personality, and the droopy-eyed Jean Lefebvre, a sure value in the lovable losers' department.
But he's the one who frontally threatens Naudin : "you prepare yourself for sleepless nights, migraines, nervous breakdowns as they say", the last one is said in English with a delightful French accent, only rivaled by Naudin's butler played by the Jean Gabin (literally) of characters actors: Robert Dalban.To complete this irresistible ensemble, there is Maitre Folace, a meek and polite lawyer played by Francis Blanche, eager to protect his master's interest no matter what.
His "don't touch the money, you bitch" outburst, with tickling eyes betraying a menacing nervousness, followed by a shot on Blier and Ventura, staring at the "bitch" as if their eyes pointed guns is one of the film's most hilarious moments, proving that none is to be underestimated.
Yet Raoul spends half the time being punched in the face by Naudin (the film's trademark, always followed by catchy banjo music) and the other half stating that he won't take it anymore.
The villains are so laughable that the film needed a German killer to keep a cloud of danger floating on Naudin's solidly-built shoulders, but it never distracts from the comedy.The film was directed by George Lautner, who signed one of the most memorable French gangster films (including "The Professional") but it's mostly praised for its writing by Michel Audiard, the street-wise dialog-expert who gave an indelible magic poetry to Parisian slang, making him the Rimbaud of Vulgarity.
Audiard is probably the most likely writer to be lost into translation, hence my fear that subtitles might kill the experience of "Monsieur Gangster", if only for the little bits in English uttered by the scene-stealing butler.
Still, it's impossible to resist the dialogues, whose charm transcended generations and became catchphrases in French Pop-Culture.
In one of Audiard's other written films, a woman wants to go to Rio with her boyfriend, "We don't bring sausages when we go to Frankfurt" is his laconic reply.That's the Audiard touch; it's a man's world, made of acid dialogues and muscular confrontations.
The film does lose its pace at parts, the girl, the German gangster, the soon-to-be son-in-law, played by Claude Rich, suffer by comparison with the glorious cast, but the film is redeemed by some brilliant pieces of acting and writing, immortalized in the mythical kitchen scene when the four men challenge themselves to drink one tough liquor.
Lino Ventura feared that scene because he would challenge other actors used to comedy...
Watching these four giants, speaking of alcohol, money and women is indeed the highlight of the film.
And I learned that after the shooting, Ventura came back home and told his wife "we finally made it!" and from his relief, it didn't feel as they've been drinking chamomile.Surprisingly, the film met with poor reception, abandoned by a youth, brainwashed by the Cinema's Cahiers and the Nouvelle Vague, before they realized the Emperor was as naked as Brigitte Bardot in any film she did.
And if "Monsieur Gangster" was loathed by the critics, today, it's an indisputable classic of French cinema, all it took was Audiard's writing and French actors with talent as huge as their noses.
A breed of men that can only invite for a sorrowed observation : "they don't make like this anymore" So, if subtleties in subtitles, 'bang bang' in slang and Frenchy frenzy give you allergy, "Monsieur Gangster" might not be the wisest choice, no sir.
What is so special about this movie ?
It lasts about two hours, and you don't have any time to breathe, because of the intelligence, and the spirit of every quote.
Under the appearance of a classic dark detective movie, it is one of the funniest comedy ever made.
The only thing is that, to keep the atmosfear, you ought to see it in original version (french).
But, for Audiard and his humor, for Launtner and his inspired direction, and, most of all, for the actors (especially Bernard Blier) everybody in the whole world must see it at least once.
One of the greatest french movies ever made (and God knows the quality of the french cinema) !.
Les Tontons flingueurs is a real master piece!
Audiard was a genius writing in "green language" (la langue verte, slang from 50's/60's full of sharp metaphor) its really irresistible....
Unfortunately this movie cannot be translated, too bad it deserve at least 10 oscars!
Un film "cult".
It was one of the greatest french comedies.Dialogs were from Michel AUDIARD, but you must listen them in French.It's theses dialogs which have made the notoriety of this movie.
Five great actors are these "Monsieur GANGSTER" (Lino Ventura, Francis Blanche, Robert Dalban, Bernard Blier and Jean Lefebvre).The greatest scene is when these five gangsters are drinking alcohol in the kitchen.
It's one of the funniest movies I've seen.
If you don't speak french, it's more difficult to understand dialogs because translation is often different that original language.
Forty year later, I love always this film "cult".
After the Killer Tomatoes we now have the Killer Uncles (a more or less literal translation of an untranslatable movie).
The level of word-play may be guessed at even by non-French speakers when the credits announce it is based on the novel 'To grisbi or not grisbi', which is, in itself, a nod to another novel and classic French movie 'Touchez-pas aux grisbi', with 'grisbi' in both cases being underworld slang for 'loot' in the sense of 'hot' money.
Although it has all the trappings of a 'gangster' entry this is actually a comedy of bad manners involving two factions led respectively by Lino Ventura and Bernard Blier.
While ex-wrestler Ventura has no problem acting tough Blier, arguably the best actor in the piece by light years and equally at home across the acting spectrum, plays it for laffs so that what we wind up with is a melange.
Another French classic.
This French film is a marvel for its dialogues, they are, unfortunately, and like most French comedies, completely untranslatable into another language.
Not only is it humorous expressions, but in addition, a number of expressions are comical in their employment against, by transforming nouns into adjectives or the reverse, by the use of expressions that do not match social milieu of the characters through the use of games typically french words without equivalence in another language.
Most situations can be understood only if we know the French life, so it is normal that this cinematic gem have only limited success outside the French public..
I agree with all reviewers of this film, though they don't seem to agree one with the other.
The other point is most of the reviewers, if not all of them, are French.
You have to be French, otherwise, you'll pass over what makes this film so brilliant.
In other words, what would be the point watching "gone with the wind" being deaf and blind?
Still, if you are able to catch the delicious subtleness and unbelievable richness of Parisian argot (slang spoken for over 500 years makes it vintage.
10 because it's worth it, minus 1 because it's French..
Probably one of the most poorly directed classics of French cinema, but valued for Audiard's dialogue and the acting of the whole ensemble: you will still find French people able to quote huge chunks of the dialogue, and to remember the detail of performances by Ventura, Blier et al.In mid New Wave, with its many refinements of mise-en-scene and montage, Lautner's film is a crude mix of zooms, inapposite close-ups and ugly compositions.
Lautner does not pretend to rival Chabrol or Godard, though in the last sequence he includes a New Wave type allusion to his 'Monocle' films with Paul Meurisse.
Without the linguistic knowledge to appreciate the subtlety of the vulgar French, or the cinematic knowledge to appreciate the nuances in the performance of the actors, I doubt if this film is accessible to an international audience, which is as it should be.
There is a part of all national film cultures that is precious because it is particular.
Personally, I would find it impossible to teach this film in the French Cinema courses I run, because it is too French..
For performances, humor, lovely portrait of a small world and Lino Ventura in a role who seems be one of his admirable works.
Using, as basic trait, great science to do the right comedy.
A lovely film.
In fact, a film about appearences and truth.
Having , as great good point, the best actors and the perfect plot..
This is a great comedy where everyone knows his work and do it perfectly.
It's interesting that's this movie of 1963 is still funny today.
George Lautner created with Michel Audiard a perfect melancholy remedy..
Killer movie, can bore you to death.
I watched this movie in two sittings.
That is usually OK for comedies but silly do not always means funny.
And this movie is not funny at all.
I like intelligent comedies but this was not the case either.
Until about half the movie I was quite puzzled because it seemed to me simple like a bad gangster movie, nothing funny happened.
I don't get why it was funny to see the same smacking scene again and again.
Some have commented about the use of French language.
I guess it all went over my head as I watched it subtitled.
I can speak some French but probably not to the level needed to appreciate those subtleties.
I would not recommend this movie to anyone..
super cult french film noir spoof.
A gem, a gem, and again : a gem!The most "cult" film of the french production, this film never gets old thanks to the fantastic dialogs of the genius Michel Audiard...The only drawback?
to understand fully this film's incredible wit, one has to be able to recognize in full the subtle nuances of french language, from the rudest expressions of gangster speech to the most upscale diplomatic language, with so many intermediate stops that it's impossible to tell!"Morons dare anything...That's how one identifies them!""Hey did ya see that?
OK, is not an easy movie to understand, if your not familiar to old french slang, the real argot if you see what I mean...
yet, this is an easy movie to understand, since you don't need to be familiar to argot : les tontons flingueurs is a classic OK ?
No need of big arguments, no need to summarize the movie to non-frenchspeakers, simply see it in original version (with subtitles or with a french friend) and you'll agree with me !!!
Lino Ventura shines in sharp-witted and cynical comedy.
On his dying bed, a middle-aged gangster entrusts both his fortune and his daughter to a childhood friend.
A movie which, to put it mildly, does not live and breathe an all-embracing love for humanity.
"Les tontons" is notable mainly for its excellent cast and performances - Ventura is outstanding - and for its sharp-witted dialogues, which are as cool and bracing as a vodka martini.
Many of these "bons mots" and aphorisms have entered French culture.
And rightly so : what about the psychological accuracy of a gem like "Morons will try anything, in fact that's how you recognize them" ?Serves as a useful reminder of the fact that many a golden-haired beauty owes her finishing school poise to an ancestral fortune rooted in violence, crime and exploitation..
Tastes a bit like Beet Juice.
All right, it was fun, I'll admit it...Lino Ventura doing his thing, a Simonin adaptation (like Touchez Pas au Grisbi, one of my favorite films), lots of Culture Clash between "high" and "low" language - illustrated brilliantly in Michel Audiard's script.
A classic "modern composer" scene (I collect those), some funny music cues (especially the church organ playing the movie's theme as the wedding processional).
But it ain't a great movie.
Another reviewer here called it something like "the worst - directed French classic", and that sounds about right.
It's a movie of bits and moments.
The more serious and sustained the action scene is supposed to be, the more unsuccessful the movie is.
The intrigue hits hard, the dialog and scenes are dense with an opaque atmosphere, there's tough guy talk and demeanor all over in each scene...and then, it switches right into all-out comedy.
It appears the earlier bulk of the film was merely serving as an introduction then to a sort of ode to friendship and lightheartedness...
but then the film towards the end goes back to its initial intrigue which seemed lost in the mix and made unimportant.
There are good scenes to be enjoyed, sure, but - what is this film really, as a whole ?
It would be difficult to summarize to someone as a plot as the film delves into various totally separate units, like it's some kind of collection of sketches and fun ideas to act out.
One of the last scenes with the half-deaf Delafoy father and all the shooting occurring in the house is hilarious, and the wacky sound samples used to mimic the shots in itself are a funny concept.
Ventura's brutal uncompromising character is fun to watch, but all in all there's not enough in the plot for the actors to be more than comic book rubber-quality characters and for the viewer to care at all for them, making the plot irrelevant and all the attention drawn to the purely entertaining fiber of the comedy.
Even a comedy should have something to sensitize the viewer, and some kind of message towards the end. |
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