 "Best of the best" | 2009-10-18 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1AQQIWAGQWHU |
| The African Queen has quality from start to finish. The actors are people who can actually act and do so at a very high level. The scenes were shot on location though the scenes of the boat rushing through whitewater were clearly not up to today's level of faking. The dialogue was excellent with just the right mix of humor and drama. I had to settle for VHS instead of DVD for now but quite pleased to add such a quality movie to my personal collection. |
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| "Good, good old movie" | 2009-08-14 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2Q49DHL89R359 |
Forgot how good older movies can be? This one will take you back to when movies didn't have to have sex or cursing to be entertaining. Glad I bought it.
John |
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| "Bogie at his best" | 2009-08-05 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1I5CATDG6B7T0 |
| This is Bogie and Hepburn at their best. He's a no-account drunk with an attitude that hides his disillusionment with the world, she's a strait-laced, prim and proper dame that doesn't have a sense of humor or adventurous bone in her body. Between the two of them, they bring out the best in each other despite all the odds. Well worth it to any classic movie fan! |
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| "A brief comment" | 2009-07-04 |
| - Reviewed By nicknames_are_stupid |
There may not be much I can add to the reviews about such a perennial classic, except to say that this is possibly my favorite movie of all time. Not sure why, but part of the movie's appeal is in how two people from completely different backgrounds (the priggish daughter of a missionary and a more than a bit rough around the edges mining worker) somehow forge a working relationship and even eventually find romance. Although an unlikely pair under normal circumstances, they are thrown together by strange circumstances and basically must either survive together or die together.
These have become such iconic roles for both Bogart and Hepburn that it's hard to imagine anyone else in the parts, and could represent the most famous on-screen pairing of all time. The great Robert Morley does a fine job with an all too brief role at the beginning of the film, and it would have been nice to see more of him. I don't know who the captain of the Louisa on Lake Victoria was but although the bad guy, he carries it off with a certain stiff-upper-lip, Prussian bearing and hauteur.
The movie just has great everything: acting, drama, story, action (the running the rapids scene has to be one of the best non-special effects action sequences of all time), suspense, and a thrilling and suspense-busting climax. It just doesn't get any better than this. Modern directors who seem to rely more on special effects to carry their movies rather than anything more meaningful could learn a lesson from this movie. |
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 "Two-Person Adventure Story That Entertains" | 2009-05-08 |
| - Reviewed By ccthemovieman |
This is almost strictly a two-person movie with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn dominating the story and screen time. It's a likable classic film because of those two famous actors, a nice romance, good adventure and even some comedy thrown in to the mix.
I'm shocked a well-known film with these actors still isn't available on DVD in Region 1, as of 2009. That's just ridiculous. Hopefully, they'll produce a sharp Blu-Ray disc of this film.
The two actors squabble in the beginning but I like the fact that the film didn't go on too long in that regard as they did in many old-time battle-of-the-sexes movies. The story also a little unusual in that neither lead actor is in his/her prime, meaning it's almost a middle-age romance story.
Once they become enamored with each other, the movie mainly goes into the trials the two have in piloting this boat, "The African Queen" down river with the goal of reaching a German ship and blowing it up. Yes, it's a World War II movie, of sorts.
To be honest, the film does slow down a bit in the beginning of Bogie and Hepburn's romance but the last 30 minutes finish strong with one obstacle after another hitting the pair of adventurers, and it's interesting to watch. |
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 "Hate me today..." | 2009-04-16 |
| - Reviewed By User: ANCOMAI0I7LVG |
The title to my review (ripped from a Blue October song, since, like, I've been obsessing over them this past week) is probably how a lot of you are going to feel towards me after you read this review. I'm sure that I'll receive quite a few comments and or e-mails degrading my taste and telling me that I don't know a classic when I see one (could this rival the response I got from my `Terminator' review?) and so on and so forth.
The point being that I completely understand that my opinion is not that of the general consensus, but when has that ever prevented me from stating my case?
So, let's get right into it. I was apprehensive about this review going into it. I've been sitting on this one for months, since I saw the film for the first time, and thankfully it reaired on TCM a few weeks back and so I was able to catch it again and reconfirm my sentiments. While I understand why some like this movie, `love' is another equation, and so the response to this film and to a lesser degree the performances within it are astounding to me.
The film simply follows a riverboat captain in Africa as he offers a missionary an escape down the river from invading German armies. They hate one another, but then suddenly love one another as they bond over their decision to try and attack the enemy warship.
The film tends to drag in a lot of places. The pacing is poorly distributed at times and so the film can be a tad boring. The action sequences seem forced and even corny at moments and the overall love story between the two is far fetched and unbelievable. Sure, the chemistry between Hepburn and Bogart is there and so they make a lot of the film work even when it shouldn't, but their chemistry only takes the film so far. The script needed a little more work (I abhor the ending too, which could have really gone a long way to redeeming the film had it stuck to a more realistic and harsh reality) and thus felt almost thrown together in parts.
Sure, the film is gorgeous to look at, but pretty is only part of the equation.
This brings me to the performances. We'll start with Bogart, since he actually won the Oscar. I like him, a lot even. I consider his `Casablanca' performance one of the best of all time and find that his each and every performance is at least entertaining. I noticed though, while watching this movie, that he was resting a little too much on gimmick. I never really saw anything real with him. He reminded me a lot of Denzel Washington (even his facial expressions, voice and mannerisms; it was crazy) in one of his showier roles. He's all flash and gimmick and very little heart. I was shocked by this, because I am a fan, but that is honestly what I saw. Knowing that he beat out Marlon Brando, who was not only better (in `A Streetcar Named Desire'), he was LEAGUES better, makes this performance resonate even lower for me. Then we have Katherine Hepburn. I am not the biggest fan of hers. I think that she is serviceable always, but only great once in a while. Here she was great. I truly mean that. She wears concern so well that her face alone was acting circles around Bogart. She captured every emotion, even the corny and out of place ones. I believed her entirely.
She saved this movie, for me, from being awful.
So, that is just my feelings on the matter, but I wholly understand that I am basically alone in this. I know a few who feel as I do, but judging from the reviews posted, they are not on this site. Alas, I hope that my review doesn't offend you too much. I'm sure we agree on something else. |
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